The Blood Blade

by Whiskey Flowers

  Ezra had started hiding in plain sight, he had joined the Knights of Justice and was able to walk around without attracting notice. Ezra always kept his helm on except around his new confidant, Renford Fallow who he had come clean to about Telrin’s death. Renford Fallow had left Ramy and was now in the Courier trying to rebuild the order, Ezra was his second in command and they now had ten members. How much longer they would have ten members Ezra did not know, men were on their way to the Temple of Justice. Jerold probably figured out the killer of his various men had to be a Knight.

  “Go inside and tell the rest to put on their armor” Ezra said as he looked over at Knight Yelsin who he was on duty with. “The Unarmored are coming this way and may want trouble”.

  “The Unarmored?” Yelsin said shocked. “Coming here? How do you know?”

  “Just get the rest ready” Ezra replied.

  Ezra and Renford had discussed how to kill Unarmored, the bow seemed to be the best weapon although it was against everything the Knights stood for. The Knights wanted melee combat, fortunately Ezra had hired his own men. They were Unarmored that one of Celeste’s men had made, they were the lowest of the low but decent shots with the bow. Ezra waved to one of them across the street and watched the man disappear into the building. The four men he had would have their weapons ready by the time the fight came.

  “Halt citizen” Ezra began. “Traveling after dark is unauthorized by the Triumverate”.

  “We are here for you knights” a man barked. Ezra could not believe his luck, in front of him was a Fale. He was an older man who had the power of someone who either Tenkay or Celeste had turned.

  “I do not understand” Ezra replied. “Depart our temple now or we will defend ourselves”.

  “There are twenty of us and you only have ten Knights” the old man said.

  Ezra had his tendrils everywhere, he saw the moment all four of his men released their arrows. It was done simultaneously and four men dropped around the speaker. Ezra charged as Knights poured out of the Temple, the Unarmored got into position but this fight had been planned. The Knights hid behind their shields as Ezra’s archers took out even more people. They were in regular clothes with no defense against the archers. The older man struck out at Ezra who moved then backhanded the man unconscious with his gauntlet. Ezra took the gauntlet off and touched the man’s forehead, the information he got made him laugh.

  Tenkay was in the city, he was hiding out along with some former Fale senator. Ezra would pay him a visit tonight and kill him. Most of the Unarmored in the city were created by the two Fale, the one with Tenkay and the man Ezra had down. When Tenkay died then there would be a bunch of Unarmored without any real allegiances except to the two Fale. Celeste and Tenkay had started infighting, Celeste believed Tenkay was behind the deaths of her men and forbid any of Tenkay’s people around any of her facilities. The man Ezra was reading, Gerald Gladius knew a lot about these facilities and even had knowledge about Tenkay’s own. Jerold had given Gladius the idea the knights were involved in the killing. Ezra had also found out that age had caught up with Jerold and the old man was dying. Once he passed there would be a scramble for power, the beginnings of it was already happening and Ezra would push the war forward.

  “Do we kill him?” Renford asked.

  “No” Ezra replied. “Lock him up until I am done. We can make use of all of his men in the city”.

  “We need to leave this temple” Renford replied. “Someone knows about your hobby, more of them will be here before long”.

  “Right now we have a decent opportunity to take the city” Ezra replied. “We only have one man to kill and he is so stupid that he is here and has no guards. I am going to take him out, after that happens the Triumverate will be a duo”.

  Ezra took off his armor and grabbed a hold of his sword, Trum’s dual blades were great but Ezra wanted something with a bit more power in case he got into a sword fight. Ezra hoped however he would only have to use his daggers and knives. Ezra used his power to avoid detection as he came upon the Feather and Ale inn, Tenkay was on the top floor and was entertaining his favorite prostitute. Ezra scaled the side of the building, it was a four story but had a permanent ladder attached to the outside in case there was ever a fire. Ezra climbed into the balcony on the fourth floor nearest the ladder, the window was open and Ezra entered it. The occupant woke up but Ezra had grabbed control of her mind, she was an old woman and was easily overpowered. Two people were in the next room, Ezra knew one of them was Tenkay and handed the old woman a dagger. His unwilling minion stumbled next door in her nightgown and banged on the door. Ezra made her knock louder and louder until Tenkay angrily got up. Tenkay threw open the door as Ezra made the old woman lash out, Tenkay was surprised at the move but managed to get out of the way of the strike. Tenkay was not armed though and the old woman was, Ezra made her chase Tenkay across the room swinging wildly. Ezra wished he could mask the movements of those he controlled but it was impossible. Eventually Tenkay would find something to fight the slow old woman and kill her. Ezra walked into Tenkay’s room and made eye contact, Tenkay had just grabbed a lamp and was in shock as two throwing knives thudded into his chest. Ezra held up a third just in case as he walked over to a dying Tenkay and hurriedly read his mind. Tenkay knew about Jerold’s decline in health and had sent word for his assassins to kill the old man. Hemlock was Tenkay’s poison of choice and he was trying to kill Celeste as well. Tenkay had killed plenty of Celeste’s men and only went after the Knights to keep up pretenses. Jerold must have not saw that betrayal coming but the way his power worked was by making plans, he couldn’t really see into the future, only knew probabilities. Ezra doubted Tenkay’s plan would work, if Jerold had tricked him then this fool would be easy. Ezra killed the man and felt the pain take him, the prostitute would have cried out if Ezra didn’t have her under his control. The pain was over quickly and much less intense than Mary’s death had been. Ezra climbed out of the window and released the women, he would talk to Gladius and convince him to go to war with Celeste. If the woman thought she had won, she was mistaken.

  END

  Thank you for reading, I also like to thank all of you who have been with me and have read most of my books. I know I absolutely suck when it comes to editing or even proofreading, if anyone wants to volunteer please reach me at Flowersnovels@gmail.com. I want to give a special thanks to everyone who bothers leaving me a review, I do read them, good or bad. I know most of you are waiting for a sequel to any of my books, I am not sure which one is in the most demand. If at least twenty of you request a certain book by email then I will work on it right away. Although this book has ended, I have been working on many others and I am not sure which one to finish. Have a great day and I hope you enjoyed reading about Ezra.