Of course the Emperor would keep his own hair, she thought. What better way to tell his people that he’s above his own laws?
The Imperial soldiers to either side of her stopped her several paces away from the man, and she stood her ground and scanned with her bubble to try and determine where her friends were, but she was so overwhelmed by the massive press of humanity all around her that it was difficult, perhaps even impossible, to distinguish specific people, one from another. She decided to press for the direct approach.
“Where are they?” she asked bluntly.
The Emperor smiled, and Catelyn could see the madness dancing at the corner of those eyes; that mouth. Silently, he raised his arm and waved some of his men forward from the guard house against the Wall. Catelyn tried to see who was there, but the men of the Imperial Army were all taller than she was, and she wasn’t able to see through the massive crowd.
She didn’t have to wait long however, and as the cluster of Imperial soldiers moved aside, she felt everything she was, all of her hope, go out of her in an instant.
The group being led forward comprised everyone she had come into contact with in the past sojourn whom she cared about. At the front were Silena, Erich and the two girls. Silena looked a mess, and the girls were sobbing hysterically. Catelyn saw Erich’s condition and knew why. He was barely standing, having been beaten nearly to death by the Imperial soldiers. They dropped him like a sack at the Emperor’s feet, and Silena and the two girls rushed over to grab onto him, to shield him from further barbarism. Catelyn felt herself wanting to rush over to them as well, but her instincts told her to remain where she was, so she did.
Following behind was Marko, his dark skin shining with sweat and blood. He appeared to have been made a prisoner some time ago, as he looked malnourished and was wearing nothing but filth-stained pants.
Another duo of Imperial soldiers brought forward a young man covered in bruises and blood, and Catelyn struggled to identify him at first, and then she caught the scent of him underneath the strong smell of blood and death and her heart sank. Duncan. She looked at his face to try and see if he looked as she had imagined him in her mind, but his face was swollen and covered in welts, and blood ran from his scalp in several places. He looked disoriented, as though he was not even aware of where he was or what he was doing there.
Finally, the Imperials shoved their last prisoner forward. Ortis, untouched, but bound hand and foot in heavy iron manacles. He wore an expression of utter defeat. This, more than anything, signified the end to Catelyn. He had been their plan, their hope of escape. He had been prepared to cut through the Imperial army itself, to give his life in service to this goal to see them outside the Grand Gate and beyond the reach of the Empire.
All of that was just a senseless dream now. A flight of fancy never to be realized.
The grim truth was apparent now. They would all die, in the most horrible way possible. There was nothing left to be done. No more words to say. Everything was over.
She felt like dying, seeing the suffering of her friends before her, and realizing that none of it would be happening if it wasn’t for her. She considered the possibility of throwing herself at the Emperor’s feet, begging for mercy and offering her life for theirs, but immediately she knew that it would be a futile gesture. She looked at Silena, who was on her knees and holding Erich to her, tears streaming down her face as she wailed, and she replayed a part of their earlier conversation over in her head.
“Catelyn, we’ve given up only the shell of an empty life. A lie, designed and perpetuated by this place. We’ve gained so much more, and that is all because of you. The saddest part is that I was actually very much more like you are now. I was outspoken, I was headstrong. And that brashness cost me my family. Oh, Ortis may have been the one to do the deed, but I was partially responsible, and I let that guilt change me, and I lost who I was. And I have carried my own share of that burden for too long.
“You’ve done nothing but remind me that life, and freedom, are worth fighting, and yes, maybe even dying for.”
Silena had inspired her with those words; had convinced her that risking this attempt at escape would be worth it. But standing here, looking at the bloody and beaten men before her, she questioned the price of fighting for such a life.
The Emperor had allowed her to take in this tableau he had created for her, but he was growing impatient, for he cleared his throat and began to speak.
“Catelyn, do you see now, the futility in opposing me? Do you see the power which I now possess? In truth I have you to thank for this, which is why I haven’t yet killed any of
these...beings.”
Catelyn looked up into his eyes and glared at him with all of the hatred she felt in her heart.
“Well, that is...unsettling,” he said. He showed Catelyn his hands, which had been folded behind his back, and she saw now that he was holding both artifacts; the sickle in one hand, and the rod in the other.
“You probably have many questions. Many questions indeed, but we do not have time to answer them all. I will allow you to ask me three questions, and I will answer each honestly. And then, I will give you my final gift. I will allow you to choose one of these...people. Whoever you choose will live...the rest will die. You will die as well. So, think of the most important questions you wish to have answered before the end.”
Catelyn’s heart raced, and she felt overwhelmed with fear, and she wished to throw herself at this terrible man, and damn the consequences.
Three questions? she raged. The man is clearly insane if this is what he thinks of, in the midst of his own victory!
But she realized that if she played his game, it could buy them more time. Maybe only whispers, and she could not see yet how that extra time would benefit her or any of her beaten friends, but it was something. Maybe Ortis or her could find an opportunity in those whispers. And so she thought.
From the moment she had lost her parents to the terrors of this place, she had wanted desperately to know why. Why men like the Emperor had encouraged and fostered an environment that seemed designed to grind people down into their most horrible aspects. She considered asking this question of the Emperor, but she believed she already knew his answer. Control. Power. It was easier to rule a people who were so consumed with their own despair that they would set aside their freedoms just to survive.
But ultimately, Catelyn believed that the human spirit would not allow this forever. Eventually, people would rise up against such brutality, as Silena had done, as she had done, as her parents had silently done by smuggling books to her, defying the Emperor’s Will to have an educated population. What she had never understood though, was how the Emperor had ruled for so long without a concerted resistance effort.
It wasn’t just about the citizens being cowed by fear of the Imperial Army. She knew of the few pockets of resistance, each one put down with excess force, but in Catelyn’s mind, she was surprised that those responses from the Emperor had not in fact created more opposition. What had prevented all of the citizens from organizing, from rising up en masse to take back their freedom?
There had to be more to it than simply fear. And Catelyn remembered what Ortis had told her of the artifact, and of Uriel’s Will. This led to her asking the first of her questions.
“How is it that you’ve been able to keep your people from rising up as one united force against you?” As she asked the question, Catelyn expanded her bubble and took in her immediate surroundings. At the center of her world was the Emperor, and the people in her life arrayed on the ground at his feet, with the exception of Ortis who stood with legs spread as wide as his constraints would allow, and holding his hands before him, pulling the chains binding his wrists tight. When she looked at his face, she saw his intense glare meet hers, then his eyes shifted to look down towards his manacled wrists.
She felt a flush of guilt and shame and wondered if that look was some kind of an accusation from him. She was interrupted by the
Emperor however, who began to answer and she looked over at him. The Emperor was sweating, which Catelyn thought unusual, but gave no more thought to it.
“You are...a surprising subject. In truth I do not know what I expected you to ask, but that was not one of the questions. But I am honor bound to answer.”
The Emperor held up his hand, the one with the crook, and turned it over in his hand, examining it.
“This symbol of my family’s power is more than simply an affectation. It is a conduit through which I can extend my Will to my subjects, but I suspect that you already know this.”
Catelyn inhaled sharply. He knows I’m aware of the artifact and its power? she thought. Had Ortis told him? She looked at Ortis again, and again, she saw the same intense stare, followed by a sharp look down at his bound wrists.
“But alone, this is no more than a metal rod,” the Emperor continued, and then let the crook fall to bounce against his thigh, suspended by a coiled loop of leather around his waist. With one hand, he shrugged out of his robes to reveal his bare chest. Catelyn gasped when she saw what he had hidden beneath his clothes.
His chest was criss-crossed with a web of light scarring from the line of his nipples down to his belly and up under his arms. Although she had never seen her own scarring with her eyes, she had lived with them long enough to be intimately familiar with the distinctive geometric patterns left behind by bloodfire. The Emperor’s entire upper body was covered in evidence of the substance. She didn’t know if he had been tortured with it, or if such marks had been self-inflicted.
“I told you once that we were of a kind, you and I,” the Emperor said, spreading his arms wide, causing his robes to fall away to his waist, and he stood proudly displaying his scars. Catelyn could sense the surprise and the discomfort of the Imperial soldiers around them, witnessing this sight. Uriel ignored their reaction, and strode forward and approached Catelyn. She shied back, but two Imperial soldiers still flanked her and prevented her from getting more than a finger-width away.
The Emperor came to stand beside her, and she had to crane her neck somewhat to look up at his face.
“Leave us,” he ordered the two men, and they instantly obeyed. The Emperor leaned down and whispered in her ear. “What do you smell?”
Catelyn was taken aback by the strangeness of this question, in the middle of this tense situation. She gathered her thoughts and then sniffed. She smelled sweat of course, and she could detect the barest hint of a perfume on his clothing. But she knew that wasn’t what he was asking, and so she delved deeper. When she did so, the answer to her own question became clear. She smelled the Emperor’s intensity, and it was powerful.
She finally smelled what he and Ortis had referred to as his Will. It was, as she could tell now, not simply a combination of his personality and charisma. It was actually physiological excretions from his skin and body, which were present in his sweat, in his breath, steaming off of his body. And she understood.
A latent ability she had seemed to possess had been awakened by the bloodfire, magnified and amplified. He had done this to himself for the same reason. To focus his Will, the same way that it allowed her to focus her bubble. Others would be oblivious to the effect that such radiating emissions would have on them, but Catelyn saw it now, almost like an aura floating around his body.
Uriel smiled when he saw that she understood.
“Good, good. Now we both know each other’s little secrets. It really is too bad that you chose to oppose me. I could have opened your eyes even further.”
And with that, he turned and strode a pace away again, leaving Catelyn standing alone with no one near. In her mind, she began to plot out escape routes, and distances away from the nearest Imperial soldiers. She pulsed her bubble and she watched as the Emperor flinched momentarily, and again Catelyn thought his behavior strange.
Perhaps his insanity is asserting itself? she wondered.
He marshaled his Will and gathered himself as he turned to look back in her direction.
“Now, although we spoke little enough, I believe I’ve answered your first question. Let us move on to the second.”
Catelyn felt chills run down her spine, and her body began to tremble slightly from fear, and she tried to will herself to breathe deeply and calm down, but she was mere whispers away from her life ending, and the only control she had in this moment was what question to ask next.
She thought it over in her mind, and realized that there was something that she needed to know before the end, and so she asked her question.
“How did you know we would be here? Did Ortis betray us?” she asked, her anger rising at the last words.
Uriel smiled widely. He looked like a cold-blooded predator about to devour its prey.
“But that is two questions, is it not?”
Catelyn panicked, realizing that indeed she had framed the question as two separate questions, and silently kicked herself for her own stupidity.
The Emperor laughed.
It was an inhuman, grating sound, and Catelyn felt the urge to cover her ears.
“Fear not, my little dove. I will not punish you for such enthusiasm. I grant you this boon, but no other. I will answer both, but only count them as though they were one question.”
Catelyn sighed in relief, even though she knew that such pathetic generosity was nothing to celebrate. At least her life would last a few whispers longer.
Uriel strode over to stand beside Ortis, and raised the blade of the sickle to his throat. Catelyn felt her heart pound in her chest. She knew that Ortis deserved death, and had even promised to do the act herself, but right now, she still clung to an irrational hope that he was going to save them. That this was all part of some brilliant military strategy of his. And, she had to admit that deep down, she didn’t want to see him die at the hands of this madman. The realization of that was as confusing an emotion as she had ever had.
But Catelyn knew part of her answer without even a word, as Uriel was looking at Ortis with unabashed hatred. Rather than address her, Uriel spoke directly to Ortis.
“Ortis...Ortis...how could you have chosen her over me? After everything...” Catelyn could see the veins at the side of the Emperor’s neck throb, and the blade slid across the exposed flesh of Ortis’ throat and Catelyn felt her knees go weak when she saw a line of blood begin to flow from the polished metal blade.
“Please!” she wailed, and the Emperor turned on her, raging.
“PLEASE? This man betrayed me after a lifetime of service. A LIFETIME! He deserves nothing more than to be quartered and gelded right here in front of every one of these men he once commanded. He deserves to have his insides strung from the posts of my bed.”
Ortis remained silent as the blade slowly cut into his flesh, unwilling to give the Emperor even a word of explanation.
The Emperor calmed himself and removed the curved blade from Ortis’ throat and stepped away, turning from him to look at Catelyn squarely.
“No, he did not betray you. You are the betrayer.”
Catelyn dropped to her knees at the accusation. His words made no sense.
How could I have been the betrayer? I’ve done nothing! she thought, her mind racing.
She looked to Silena, and Silena was now watching her, an intense look of anger on her face.
“What does he mean?” she growled.
Catelyn looked at her, pleading.
“Silena, I swear, I don’t know!”
“If you’ve turned us in, if you let this happen to Erich for your own freedom…” Silena got up from her knees and lunged for Catelyn, but one of the Imperial soldiers stepped between them and thrust the butt of his sword into her stomach, doubling her over. The girls, who had stopped wailing and had been silently waiting by Silena’s side until now, probably in shock, screamed and raced over to where she lay slumped onto the ground. The Imperials soldiers near them grabbed each of the girls by their hair and held knives to each of their throats.
“STOP!” Catelyn yelled desperately.
She felt herself fading into hopelessness, and she was overcome with sobbing. She collapsed forward, overtaken by the knowledge that soon, much sooner than she had thought, all but one of them would be dead. Only one of them would be spared, and Catelyn was supposed to choose which one.
How on Ereas am I supposed to choose?
The low rumble of Uriel’s voice interrupted her thoughts, and she raised her head, blinking away the tears from her eyes.
“As much as it amuses me to watch such pathetic displays of emotion, I did agree to answer you honestly, and so it shall be,” he said, and then raised the sickle in his hand, the tip of it still glistening with Ortis’ blood.
“Just as with my family’s heirloom, this too is part of the same powerful set of artifacts from ancient times. And like my crook, by itself it is nothing more than a finely crafted bit of metal. But for those who have...gifts, it is much, much more. But as with your other question, words themselves will not suffice.”
With that, the Emperor closed his eyes tightly, and spread his arms wide, the sickle held upright in his left hand.
“Now, look at something,” he commanded her.
Again, Catelyn was at first confused by the instruction. But then Catelyn quickly realized that this was another demonstration. And so she looked around her, and settled on, of all things, the kneeling form of Duncan, dazed and bloody and two paces behind where the Emperor now stood. She looked at his face, swollen and caked in sweat, dirt and blood, and her heart went out to him. He, like Sera and Elexia, was truly an innocent in all of this. He had done nothing more than extend a kindness to her when she had needed it. She didn’t even know how the Emperor had discovered him, or their brief and tenuous connection in the first place.
Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) Page 47
