Unlike most victims of the battle, Kratok-Chal died happy.
Travis Crowe poked forlornly at the remnants of a wine jug with the toe of his boot. Unless he was willing to get down on his knees and lap up the damp sawdust from the church floor, he wasn't going to taste any of it. He looked out at the sky. Andon wasn't more than a couple of days' ride north of here. It'd be easy enough to disappear.
He went out into the square, wondering how much of a lead he would get before anyone noticed his absence. He also wondered how far he would get before running into more goblin warbands, because he couldn't believe this would be the only one. They would be avoiding the bigger cities, but the savannah was ideal territory for them.
All around, men and women, even children, were helping to repair the nearest buildings Crowe couldn't tell whether they were rebuilding in the belief that the danger was past or reinforcing the defences. A little of both, probably, he decided. In the plaza, the bodies of goblins were smouldering in a pyramid of leathery flesh. Crows circled around the smoke column. The dead among the defenders had been laid out along one wall of the church, covered by sheets that were weighted down with stones to keep the carrion creatures off them until they could be decently buried in a proper Faith ceremony.
Crowe saw Gabriella and Erak emerge from the church.
"So, did you get much intelligent conversation out of your pet gobbo?" he asked.
"Not much," Gabriella said dryly.
"Now there's a shocker." Crowe snorted. "Let me guess: he snarled a lot, talked about killing everybody in town and eating your mum and dad, that kind of thing?"
"That's about the size of it. He said… He said humans had stolen their home, at a… a Glass Mountain."
To Gabriella's surprise, Crowe blanched. She had never seen him display anything so resembling a weakness. His mouth moved silently for a moment, then he managed to say: "A glass mountain?"
"Yes. It sounds ridiculous, but he seemed to believe it."
"Gobboes will believe anything…" He sounded distant. He added an "a bit like you God-botherers," but it was obvious that his heart wasn't in it. "Protect," he murmured to himself.
"Crowe?"
It felt as if something very small and very heavy had sunk from his stomach into some bottomless pit and he could feel himself teetering on the edge of it. The scarring on his shoulders, left arm and neck tingled and ached more than they had since… Well, since he rowed into Vosburg's coastal suburb of Dellendorf two years ago.
A mountain of glass…
Crowe heard a voice, distant but clear. It was a voice he hadn't heard in a long time, but he recognised its sibilant clarity. "Protect," it said. "Protect."
A flash of pain exploded in Crowe's cheek and he looked up at Gabriella. She had her hand raised to slap him again. "You all right?"
"Yes. Why did you hit me?"
"You didn't respond the first five times I asked if you were all right. You just stared."
He forced a grin. "Well, you are a pretty girl."
"No…" She looked at him curiously "You weren't staring at me. I can tell the difference."
"Then what was I staring at?"
"Nothing. Nothing I could see, anyway." She gave him that curious look again. "Does 'Freedom' mean anything to you?"
He shrugged. "My freedom means everything to me, why?"
"Never mind, it's nothing."
Another day passed and there was, thankfully, no second goblin attack. The arrival of twenty Knights of the Swords, and a hundred mercenaries of various companies, summoned by Kannis' messengers, had eased the burden of rebuilding the town and the last few goblins nested at the foot of the escarpment were being hunted down.
For all that, Erak Brand couldn't shake the goblin's words from his head. He and Gabriella still had their bed in the cloister cell and when the pair had finally been relieved by the arriving Knights, they had made love. The past few days' events were hardly arousing, but it was somehow natural to counter the nearness of death with the ultimate expression of life.
Afterwards, they had slept as if dead to the world. Erak's dreams had been filled with goblins and fire and he had woken rested, but sweating. Gabriella rested beside him, totally at peace. If she was dreaming of death and destruction, it didn't show.
When she woke, she let out a long breath, as if having to get used to the idea of being in the world again. As they rose and dressed, Erak couldn't help but speak his mind. "If things are coming out of World's Ridge then what else could be behind them? What else might have been driven out?"
"Things like goblins are just animals, Erak. They die under the sword, just like anything else."
"If you say so."
"I do say so. What I want to do is go to the archive at Andon to research this further. I'm sure I've heard the phrase 'glass mountain' before, in an old story that my mother used to tell me."
"So you want to go and ask her at the archive?"
"If the story is a historical one and the goblin was right, then that Glass Mountain of storytime is a real place, and is the same place Kell refers to as Freedom. And if we can find it, we can find him."
"And the archive?"
"May have maps, or at least a description of a route to the place."
Erak looked at her, admiring her beauty, but also troubled by a further thought. "If the story's historical and the goblin was right, then we're going to be seeing a lot more of them soon as well."
Preceptor DeBarres arrived a few hours later, by which time the Knights who had already arrived had taken over a floor of the market square inn as headquarters. A large marquee had been erected across half the square as well, as quarters and mess hall for the mercenaries.
Gabriella saw DeBarres greet Kannis warmly and was faintly surprised; it was obvious that the pair knew each other already. After talking for a few minutes, the Preceptor of the Order came into the church in search of Gabriella and Erak.
The vestry served as a private meeting room, where they could sit and discuss matters.
"I'm glad to see you're both well," DeBarres began. "When I heard about the goblins…"
"They're dealt with. At least I hope they are. There's been some suggestion from one — a deathbed confession — that others are coming."
"Others?"
"It implied that this is some kind of mass migration," Erak said.
"They're going around Fayence. It has a large army…"
"The largest in Pontaine at the moment," DeBarres agreed. "Lord Aristide won't be sparing any effort to keep his city out of the line of fire. You can bet he'll have the strongest magical defences as well. Now, about Enlightened One Stoll…"
"He disappeared a prisoner from under our noses and betrayed our plans to the man who ran the Golden Huntress." Gabriella took a deep breath, unsure how she would feel about this. Scarra had been one thing — an apostate, a heretic, a conspirator to assassination. Kurt Stoll was none of those things. He was just a parish priest. Apostasy, or weakness and mistake? She wasn't sure and sadly conceded that it didn't matter. The laws were clear and the people of this town deserved a real Enlightened One who would really lift them. "He has fallen, Preceptor. Fallen from the Faith. That's why we asked for a Confessor."
"Hasn't one arrived?"
Erak nodded. "I saw him an hour ago. He will begin Stoll's cleansing in the morning
"Which leaves this parish without an Enlightened One in the meantime." DeBarres drew a vellum envelope from inside his robes. "This is an authorisation from Urbicarian Cabbert to invest one of you as Enlightened One for Solnos."
"One of us?" Gabriella exclaimed.
"I'll take it," Erak said quietly.
She looked at him, astonished. "You? You never wanted to be a parish priest before!"
"Neither do you," he said. The lines at the corners of his eyes crinkled. "And if I take it, you won't have to." Gabriella couldn't think of a single thing to say. Her heart, tired as it was, swelled with love and pride in him. "Besides, we'
ve taken the Pledge. Perhaps at least one of us should have a permanent home to which we can both return."
She couldn't disagree with that part of it. "Thank you."
"Truth to tell, I've served the Lord in every other way; perhaps it's time I brought good news to people. Punishing sins is fine, but rewarding faith must have its moments."
"It does," DeBarres said, handing Erak the envelope. Gabriella rose and hurried out into the plaza. She looked up and saw Kerberos looming above her. She drew strength from the symbol of it, appealing to the Lord of All for the strength to at least decide whether she should cry, celebrate, or be furious with someone.
Erak followed her out quickly. "Gabe!" He took her hands in his. "I always wanted to serve the Lord of All, just like you. But bringing the word of truth to new people, not just dealing with those who didn't listen to it, that has its attractions." Gabriella felt the tension ease from her. Maybe it was his explanation, or maybe it was just his touch. She didn't mind either way. "I was thinking…"
"Now that's what I call breaking the habit of a lifetime."
Erak laughed, and then lowered his head, a little embarrassed. "It happens sometimes. Proves I'm not a perfect soldier."
"Nobody's perfect." He opened his mouth to try speaking two or three times, but without success. Gabriella sighed. "There are few Enlightened Ones as enlightened as you, and I don't mean that to denigrate any of the Enlightened Ones. You'll do a lot of good in Solnos, and undo a lot of whatever harm that this Kurt Stoll has allowed to come to pass."
"I'm sure I will."
"Thank you, again."
He grinned. "My life is yours, you know that."
She let out a long breath, shaking her head. "Stoll… I wish we didn't have to do this."
"Me too. It feels strange punishing one of our own like this. Especially after what he did the other night. Without his directions the archers would never have taken down so many goblins and we'd have had a far worse time of it."
"At least the Brotherhood have the guts to separate themselves from the Faith," she said. "He made his own choice when he started going against our basic vows and principles."
"Well, if he wanted to meet the Lord of All, he went the right way about it."
Gabriella thought for a moment and shivered. "No. No, he didn't, really." She gestured towards the door back into the church. "We'd better make sure the equipment still works."
"We can check the naphtha system too," Erak muttered as he followed her.
They descended into the bowels of the church, casting an eye over the naphtha reservoir and the pipes and pump that would move it. There were no torches down here, lest they ignite the naphtha, so all light down here had to be either cast by magic, or, as now, by a system of mirrors and lenses that reflected light down from outside.
Erak ran a hand across a turnwheel and his palm came up covered in dirt. "I doubt there have been many cleansings or offerings made here in a long time. How does it look?"
Gabriella laid her hand on a small table and knelt to check the undersides of the wooden frame of the see-saw pump and the monstrous amphorae that held the naphtha. The wood was solid and well-carpentered, with no sign of rot, while the amphorae were sound with no cracks. "Looks fine."
"I bet Stoll wishes he'd let it rot."
"Probably," Gabriella agreed
It was a very nice dream. He was in the Golden Huntress, preaching to the townspeople from a lectern made of a girl doing a handstand on another girl's back. For some reason there were horses in the congregation too. He was enjoying himself, giving his favourite sermon, about why the spirit of a law was more important than the letter of it, when suddenly the roof caved in.
Stoll rolled to his feet, dizzy and staggering, wondering if he was concussed. Then he remembered he was locked in his cell. The smile froze on Stoll's florid face. The redness in his cheeks changed hue and he licked his suddenly dry lips. A bearded man in the white robes of a Confessor was looking at him through a barred opening in the door.
"Let's have a little chat," the Confessor said and bared rotten teeth.
Gabriella was engaged in a contest with some of the local children, skipping flat stones across the surface of the fountain pool. The object seemed to be to get the stone all the way across and onto the ground opposite. Gabriella had just succeeded, and was now congratulating a girl who had matched her feat, when Erak emerged from the church.
He was wearing the blue robes of an Enlightened One, though she could hear mail rattling under the robes.
"It's time," he said. "Apparently the confession didn't take long. He was happy to talk. It seems Warrigan was blackmailing him over his Brotherhood tattoo."
"Stoll is Brotherhood?"
"He says not; that they gave him the tattoo while he was unconscious so they could blackmail him. I believe him. Doesn't matter, though; he still had a choice. He could have reported them, confessed and had a good enough Healer remove the tattoo by magic."
She rose and accompanied him round to the front of the church. A gibbet was being hoisted onto its pole and ten Knights of the Swords were singing the Hymn of Contrition, as two knights dragged Stoll out.
The cleansing wasn't pretty, or pleasant; not for anyone. As with so many things, an act intended to help and to make things right in the long run was uncomfortable in the short term. Gabriella briefly thought of the foul-tasting medicines her parents had made her take when she was a child and had the ague. They healed her body, but they made her cry with the vileness of the taste.
The cleansing would heal Kurt Stoll's soul, but it would make him cry too. He sobbed as the Knights who surrounded the square stripped him naked; the vestments of the Faith were too sacred to be burned.
As they did this, Preceptor DeBarres read out the proclamation from Scholten condemning Stoll to be cleansed by fire. Then they put him in the gibbet, which had already been attached to the lead piping from below the church.
In the end, Kurt Stoll was screaming his life away even before the liquid fire poured down on him and he fell silent bare moments after it started.
Justice had been done, Gabriella considered. People needed to know that the Final Faith was even-handed, and dealt with its own transgressors as fairly as it did anyone else.
For all that this was a good thing, one matter chewed away at Gabriella's heart. Stoll had signed as witness to her and Erak's pledge. She felt tainted by that.
CHAPTER 12
With the Cleansing over, DeBarres had led his Knights out to search the surrounding area for signs of further goblin incursions. Kannis had formed the hundred or so mercenaries into squads to be dispersed around the entrances to Solnos. They were determined that no goblins would invade this town again
People were steering clear of the church. Whether it was the battle that had put them off or the stink of the burnt Enlightened One that still pervaded the plaza, or just general Pontaine disinterest in the Final Faith, Dai Batsen couldn't tell.
He walked into Solnos for the first time in a few days, his topknot and shaven scalp replaced by a very short but even covering of hair. He had left for his secure hiding place when the goblins attacked, having no interest in a pitched battle.
Now he needed to know whether either DeZantez or Brand had survived their little overnight siege. If they had not, he would collect the fee for the hard work the goblins had done. If they had survived, he now knew what they both looked like, and would carry out the task for which he had been employed.
He walked up the plaza steps, and into the church.
Gabriella had gone across to the Swords' new headquarters at the inn, to make a few requests for supplies and equipment. Kannis was passing through, and Gabriella halted her for a moment.
"I didn't get the chance to thank you for your help with the goblins."
"You paid up," the scar-faced woman said blandly. "That's all the thanks I need." Her eyes twinkled.
"The Lord helps those — "
"So I heard. Rau
l used to say that a lot. I see he still does."
"Raul? Preceptor DeBarres?"
"He wasn't a Preceptor in those days," she said wistfully.
"I thought when you greeted him that you must know him…"
"Haven't seen him for years, but it's nice to see him again."
"So, how do you know him? Did you meet in the war, or…?"
"It's a long story," Kannis said. "And Raul probably tells it more entertainingly than I would." She glanced at the sky for a moment. "I'd better get going. I've got to help with the pits being dug near the east bridge."
"Be seeing you, then," Gabriella said, stepping aside.
Kannis hurried on and Gabriella finished writing out her supply requests. Then she headed up to the market to buy a loaf and some cheese, before finally returning to the church.
The main doors were ajar and Gabriella knew she had closed them when she left. She didn't touch them as she squeezed between them, in case they squeaked and alerted anyone within. Gabriella set her purchases on a pew and padded as quietly as she could towards the transept, keeping close to the wall. Stepping into the nave would invite an arrow if someone was lurking above.
She risked a look back to the doors and saw that Erak had followed her in and was edging along the aisle on the other side. He flashed her a quick grin.
"What happened?" he whispered.
"I think we have a visitor."
Above, Dai Batsen crept along the narrow ledge separating the ceiling of the nave from the inside of the bell tower. Below, two people walked right into his field of vision, though he had cloaked himself in shadows. They were his targets.
Pulling two short daggers from his belt, Batsen leapt.
Gabriella shoved Erak aside as a black clad man landed between them. She recognised him instantly as the man who had attacked her before. On any other day, Gabriella might have been afraid as well as wary, but not today. Today she was simply relieved, because the assassin was indeed a man and not an inhuman monster.
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