Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth)

by Matthew Medina

  “How are they?” Catelyn didn’t specify more than that, on the off chance that some other ears were listening, but she didn’t need to be more specific than that, as she knew Silena would not need to guess what she meant.

  “They’re fine. A little ill, but nothing out of the ordinary. They’re well cared for.”

  Catelyn felt that she needed to explain herself, and began to try to come up with a simple enough reason, but all she could manage to say was “I’m...sorry I had to leave them with you so abruptly...I just had to…”

  Silena raised a finger and tsked at her.

  “No, I don’t want to hear it. You did this old woman a favor. You’ve made me happy in a way I don’t think you could understand. Not yet. Maybe, if you ever had children of your own…” Silena’s voice croaked and she took a moment to collect herself, then continued.

  “Everyone in the Seat knows what happened that night. I know what you did for them. They both do too.”

  Catelyn felt her own emotions welling up at the thought of the girls, and the potential of seeing them again. She still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do in the long-term, but at least for the moment, she thought that she really would love nothing more than to see them again.

  Before she had the opportunity to ask about that, her senses once more sent her a warning, like a spider whose web was being plucked by the presence of new prey. She pulsed her bubble and turned around, listening, smelling, sensing. There was something...familiar.

  And as she trained her bubble on the spot where her senses had detected the strange but familiar presence, her heart leapt into her throat and she felt like grabbing Silena and running.

  She had sensed this before. The night of the Purge, when she had detected the strange Imperial officer watching her from behind the estate’s bars. He was here, standing three paces away, and looking directly at her.

  Ortis had managed to get as close as he could using cover, and now he had to make a decision about how to proceed, and really, it hadn’t been a choice at all. He stepped out from behind the stall obscuring him and took two strides towards his thief, his palms sweating. He had clearly identified her as soon as she and the stall owner Silena had clasped hands and greeted each other. He could see her mouth now, could clearly make out the soft lips of a young girl, and her dirty bare feet standing in the dusty road, a single metal ring looped around the middle toe of her left foot.

  As soon as he had taken those steps towards her, she sensed him as he thought she might, and turned to face him. He hoped more than anything that she wouldn’t run, but he was genuinely worried about that possibility.

  Have I overplayed my hand? he thought in a panic, his mind racing.

  He had thought about this moment for spans. He couldn’t lose her, not again.

  He spread his arms to his sides, knelt on the ground and bowed his head.

  Ortis didn’t understand any of the feelings he experienced when he fell into her presence, and never once planned the words he would say when he finally managed to catch up to her, but they fell from his mouth, without bidding.

  “I am yours. Command me.”

  He looked up then, at the face swathed in rags, and hoped that he would be deemed worthy.

  Catelyn stood, transfixed, and she could sense the people around her stopping to stare at the scene playing out right in front of them. She was completely taken aback and rendered speechless by what was happening, and she knew that she must look a fool standing there motionless with her mouth hanging open at the sight of this immense man prostrating himself before her, and with no idea of what to do or say.

  What in the Void is this man doing? she thought. Silena was right behind her now, at her elbow, and she whispered to her sharply.

  “Tell him to get up. He’s causing a scene, and we can’t afford the attention.”

  Catelyn hesitated, and Silena pushed on her arm again, finally jarring her enough to say the words “Please, get up.”

  The man did as she commanded, just as he had said he would do. As he stood motionless, apparently waiting silently and patiently for her next command, the cluster of people who had stopped to gape moved on, no longer interested now that he was no longer acting a fool. Catelyn focused all of her senses on the man standing before her. It was indeed the man who had watched her escaping with Sera and Elexia the night of the fire, but there was something different about him too, and not just because of what he had just done. She could sense some sort of physical change, as though he wore a disguise or had changed some part of his appearance, but she had only dimly gleaned anything about his appearance that night, and couldn’t tell what it was.

  All of that was not important right now though. She needed to know exactly what was going on.

  “Who are you?” she asked him.

  “My name is Ortis,” he answered directly.

  At the name, Silena inhaled sharply and almost cried out. Catelyn turned to her, while keeping one ear on Ortis, and reached out to offer her support. Silena gripped her arm hard, and Catelyn winced at the strength of her. Catelyn had underestimated just how strong Silena actually was. She asked “Are you alright, Silena?”

  Silena said nothing at first, then she let out a long, low breath.

  “I didn’t recognize...I...Catelyn, this man is the Emperor’s personal enforcer. Most know him as the Butcher. He’s the one that they sent, those many sojourns ago. He killed my entire family.” When Silena said the word family, Catelyn could hear her pain interwoven with an unfathomable rage, and something more visceral, and she genuinely feared what she might do.

  Catelyn turned her bubble back on Ortis.

  “Is this true? Answer me!” she barked.

  “Yes. My crimes are innumerable,” was all he said in reply. She heard no hint of deception, no hint of anxiety. He was calm, devoid of any remorse or regret. Indeed, what she sensed from him was excitement.

  Catelyn felt herself tense involuntarily, ready to flee, and considering how she and Silena were going to get away from this monster. She was still unbelievably confused by everything that was happening.

  What is he doing here?

  She asked the obvious question next. “Why on Ereas did you just ask me to command you?”

  Silena interrupted, stepping close and whispering into her right ear.

  “Catelyn, enough. The Emperor is probably right behind him. We have to go. You cannot trust a word this...butcher says!” Silena muttered, her words as venomous as any had ever heard from anyone.

  Ortis ignored the exchange, and answered Catelyn instead.

  “You have returned my life to me, and because of that gift, my life is now yours.”

  Catelyn tried to understand what he was talking about, but Silena was becoming insistent, and tugging on her to be gone, before the Imperial trap she was convinced was about to be sprung on them snapped shut.

  She had to admit that Silena was making a very good argument for fleeing, but she was also more and more intrigued by this strange man’s seeming honor, such as it was. But Silena had called him a butcher, and he himself admitted to innumerable crimes.

  Can I trust this man? He seems so genuine in his answers. Catelyn decided that she trusted Silena more. But she needed to have the man answer at least one question before she made up her mind.

  “Ortis, you spoke of innumerable crimes...how many men have you killed?”

  “At least four thousand,” he announced nonchalantly.

  Catelyn felt her knees go weak.

  Silena gasped, and brought her hand to her mouth.

  Whatever fancy she might have entertained about this man or his answers, Catelyn was now convinced that Silena was right. This monster could never be trusted. Could never be forgiven. She was cold when she uttered her next words to him.

  “Ortis, you say your life is mine. I don’t want it. You wish me to command you? I command you to go, and forget everything about me. I command you to turn around, walk away, and never show your face to me ag
ain.” Catelyn could sense his

  disappointment mounting with each word, and he remained silent for several breaths, until finally, he answered.

  “I will do as you ask,” Ortis said, then turned and strode away, surprising Catelyn and Silena both. But they didn’t stop to think about it, and as soon as the back of Ortis was no longer visible through the crowd, Catelyn helped Silena pack up her stall quickly, and they prepared to leave for Silena’s home.

  They were both eager to go, and Catelyn was holding some of Silena’s sacks of goods when the commotion first reached her ears. She became instantly alert and reached out with her bubble, and what she sensed was not good. She heard Imperial soldiers, barking orders, and they were at distance and closing in. She listened to them issuing commands and threatening people trying to leave the marketplace. They were locking down the entire central plaza.

  Catelyn dropped the sacks, grabbed Silena who tried to protest, and ran.

  Silena was strong, but she was not spry on her feet, and she was reluctant to simply abandon her stall. Catelyn rushed through the crowd, pushing strangers aside with one arm, while pulling on Silena with the other. She pulsed her bubble to all sides, trying to find a gap in the Imperial lines, but she could detect none, and the Imperials were closing the perimeter, slowly moving inward and clustering everyone together into the center of the market. Catelyn felt her forehead sweating and her heart racing.

  She cursed herself for letting herself get distracted by Ortis and his mysterious appearance. She should have grabbed Silena and ran then, or shoved Silena aside and ran in the other direction. She thought that she might have been able to outrun Ortis, especially if she managed to get up to the rooftops at the edge of the plaza, but it was too late for any of that now.

  Each way Catelyn tried to run, she could hear and smell Imperial soldiers. Dozens of them. And so Catelyn stopped to assess their options, and she and Silena paused to catch their breath. Silena quietly muttered prayers to the Divines under her breath.

  The Imperial soldiers had surrounded the plaza, and Catelyn could tell that there was no escape. Were they searching for Ortis? She assumed that had to be the case and maybe that would allow her and Silena to simply lay low and get out of this after all. If he had indeed betrayed his Emperor to search her out for his own agenda, she imagined that would not have sat well with a man the likes of Uriel III. It all made sense now. That was what had drawn the man out of his Citadel after all these sojourns. His long-time general and enforcer, his Butcher, had betrayed his trust and broken his vow to serve the Empire.

  And to the Emperor, Catelyn could imagine, that had to have been more than just a crime. That would be personal.

  Catelyn groaned inwardly at being caught, literally, in the middle of these events, wondering again what she had done to deserve being so embroiled in things that were none of her concern. She nearly felt the urge to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. She was just some stupid blind girl, and here she was, having become trapped in a battle of wills between the Emperor and his former man-at-arms Ortis.

  The Imperial soldiers had finally stopped moving, forming a ring around the main plaza, with about thirty or so civilians caught inside the perimeter in addition to Catelyn and Silena. She tried to appear nonchalant, and took Silena’s arm, like a daughter helping her mother along. Silena continued to pray and place her hand on Catelyn’s arm, stroking it warmly as a gesture of support.

  They waited for only a few whispers, and that is when Catelyn heard the distinctive clopping of hooves on stone approaching from the east. Catelyn felt her face turn numb at the realization. The Emperor was just a few breaths away from her and Silena now. Silena could hear it too now, and she ceased her praying. No one in the plaza moved a muscle or said a word.

  She heard the horse carrying the Emperor burst forth from a nearby side street, and canter up to the edge of the circle of Imperial soldiers. She focused her bubble on the man, and was somewhat surprised, at least on her initial inspection, to sense nothing unusual about the man named Uriel the Third of his Name, Emperor of the nation of Exeter.

  She smelled his scent, a combination of sweat and light perfume from his robes, and could hear his strong heartbeat and the clear, powerful lungs of a man in prime physical condition. That was somewhat surprising, as she had expected the Emperor to be in poor physical condition, representative of his age. She heard hushed whispers and gasping from those around her as well. Silena squeezed her hand tightly.

  “Silena, what is it?” she asked.

  “By the Divines...he...he’s as at least as old as I am, but he hasn’t aged a day.”

  “What?” Catelyn asked, shocked. She scanned Silena and detected no trace of lying, even though she knew that her friend was telling the truth.

  Catelyn could hear the disbelief plainly in Silena’s voice, but she was being forthright in her astonishment and Catelyn could also hear the underlying terror behind her voice as well as the implications of what that truth meant. For if the Emperor didn’t age, then his Empire could go on indefinitely. Could go on forever.

  She returned her focus to the man named Uriel, and listened as he dismounted from his horse, dusted off his robes and removed his leather riding gloves. He raised one arm up and patted the top of his bald head, and she could hear the amusement in his voice when he called out, loud enough for the entire plaza to hear.

  “My people. I am here for a very simple reason. One of you...has something of mine. Something priceless beyond compare. And to put it as simply as I can, I wish to have it back.”

  Silena inhaled sharply and Catelyn felt as if the floor were going to open up and sink beneath her into the Void. This was not about Ortis. This was about the artifact.

  How on Ereas does he know? she thought.

  Catelyn thought quickly through her options, as the Emperor continued.

  “I am led to understand that, at least within the past few prayers, it was within the possession of a young girl.”

  With that, she could feel the Emperor beginning to move through the crowd now, looking at each of the citizens trapped within their perimeter, and it would only be a few more whispers until he got close enough to see her there with Silena, shouldering her pack which still contained the artifact in its case.

  “I would very much like to meet this young girl, and discuss a transaction with her.”

  Catelyn knew that to be a bald-faced lie, as did everyone in the plaza. The Emperor would simply take what he wanted.

  Catelyn knew then, with a sense of dread, that she was going to die for her crime, and that death was imminent. The only question was, how? Would the Emperor himself do the deed? Or would he have one of his men do it?

  Suddenly Catelyn wondered if she shouldn’t have kept Ortis around just a little longer. Maybe he could have cut a path through the perimeter and gotten them away. Things would still have ended horribly, she suspected, but she decided in hindsight that she would have happily taken the chance over the fate that now awaited her. But whatever lay in her future, however long that was, she knew one thing. No one else would die because of her. It was time for her to accept the consequences of the choices that she’d made. She scanned the citizens around her, gathered in the square; sensed their fear, smelled their anger. And then she turned her bubble on Silena, her dear friend. The woman was full of sadness and despair, and although Catelyn had not been around at the time, she knew precisely how the older woman had felt, standing before Ortis as he had butchered almost her entire family for the actions that she had committed.

  What Catelyn had done was coming back to haunt her. And she realized that she would need to stop running, and stand up and take responsibility to save lives, the way that Silena had done.

  Catelyn made a decision then, and she found peace in it, oddly enough.

  She reached over, squeezed Silena’s hand, then gently pushed her away to create a visible distance between them, and called out “I have what you’re looking for!”
/>
  She could sense the Emperor turn toward the sound of her voice and stalk through the crowd between the two of them, citizens moving out of his way as fast as they were able.

  The people around her gasped and stepped back, clearing a lane between her and the approaching Emperor. Silena started to cry, and Catelyn knew she wouldn’t have much time before the Emperor would still be able to see them both clearly.

  She waved Silena to remain silent, and whispered “No. You need to take care of them. They need you now.”

  Silena gasped, and Catelyn could sense her mounting frustration, and the woman’s sense of panic, but she could see what Catelyn was doing and remained silent. Catelyn could hear the Emperor approaching unobstructed now, the last of the other patrons in the marketplace now standing and watching as the Emperor strode toward her with purpose.

  As he approached she could feel his excitement.

  “Ah, look at this, look at this.” The Emperor stopped right in front of her, and she got the full sense of his tall the man was, towering almost half a pace above her. He reached out and moved his hand in front of her face.

  “It’s true. You’re blind, are you not?” he asked, though even his questions came out sounding like commands.

  “Yes,” she replied tersely. She wanted this business over and done with. The faster she complied, the faster Silena and the rest of the citizens could get away. “It’s in my pack.”

  The Emperor tsked and said “Hush, child, there’s plenty of time for that. How is it that you’ve survived? How long since you lost...this?” and she felt his hand wave in front her face once more.

  She hesitated. She didn’t wish to tell this man a thing about her life. This man, who was ultimately responsible for everything that happened in this horrible place. This man, who had fostered the kind of cruelty which had led to her parent’s deaths, who had ordered his man Ortis to kill Silena’s entire family, who had built a world where a soldier could abandon a child to a life of hell in the name of an Empire.

  And all of it, for what? she wanted to shout in his face.

  She could feel his tension building. He was not used to being made to wait for answers to his questions, she was sure. She thought about letting him squirm some more, but finally she remembered that she wanted to be done with it all.