Spirit of the Sword: Faith and Virtue (The First Sword Chronicles Book 2)

Home > Other > Spirit of the Sword: Faith and Virtue (The First Sword Chronicles Book 2) > Page 40
Spirit of the Sword: Faith and Virtue (The First Sword Chronicles Book 2) Page 40

by Frances Smith


  "Gideon Commenae loved this country. The Divine Empire of All Pelarius was dearer to him than life, than honour, than anything which he possessed. All his life he gave over into the Empire's service, all he had was at the disposal of the Empire, even his very soul. From his earliest youth my father worked night and day towards the betterment of this nation, towards the fulfilment of Aegea's dream, towards making this nation the greatest that has ever been or ever will be in Pelarius, Lavissar or Triazica, in all the world! And how did the Empire, this land that seems to have forgotten its own name, its own history, repay the faithful service of one who loved it more than any other man alive or dead? With scorn and mockery, with ill-use and unjust deserts, with coldness and disfavour. Because he believed in putting the greatness of the state before his own interests, because he believed in the Divine Empress who watches over us, because he believed that this country could become more than it is, better than it is, he was despised by those who could not see beyond their own pockets, their own reputations, their own advancement. He courted the Empire as a gentle lady fair and lovely, with roses and kind words, little imagining that the lady had become a bloated pimp, selling her beautiful daughters and her valiant sons to be used and abused by unworthy men in exchange for sinful but alluring gold.

  "My father was a great man, great not in his accomplishments, for he was denied such by the jealousy of his rivals, but in his character and in his vision. Valour unfailing, devotion unceasing, faith unyielding. Virtue upon virtue piled that nature might cry out 'Here was a man whose like shall not be seen again while this age lasts!'

  "My father is dead. I do not claim to be the man he was, or even half so great, yet I here swear upon my honour as a Coronim, upon my father's memory which I hold to my heart, by Turo almighty and Aegea the Empress divine, I shall not let his noble aims, his dear ambitions, his cherished dreams pass away with him. I here take up his cause, take up the tattered flag of Aegea's vision. In Gideon's name I shall defeat Quirian and save the Empire from her foe. In his name I shall become First Sword of the Empire if no better man can be found to assume the rank, and whether the Empress anoint me or no I will defend this country from any who might rise up to challenge her. In his name I shall see the Empire set back upon the road to its destiny, and once again the world shall tremble to the advance of our legions even as the hearts of sore 'pressed folk everywhere are lifted by the approach of our standard and the justice which trails behind our coming. In his name I shall renew the Empire, restore its ancient spirit and the values of days past which once so animated and illuminated it, though I must wade into the river of progress and do battle with all the monsters that dwell within, standing in the midst of the onward rush toward depravity and turn aside its course with my own two hands. In my father's name I shall make this land a land of honour, of nobility, of fairness and charity towards both friend and foe. I shall do these things because my father wished them done, and I will honour his desires though it take until my dying breath. Whether there will be hands to aid me, whether I must do these things alone I cannot say, but I will do it nonetheless. This I swear.

  "My father is dead. But his work shall not lie unfinished while I draw breath."

  Silence. Michael closed his eyes and bowed his head, letting out a deep sight.

  What happens now?

  Quirian's footsteps were soft upon the ground. "You spoke well," he said softly. "Of course, it is all palaces amongst clouds. I will not allow you to defeat me, not even for Gideon's sake."

  "Perhaps I will not give you a choice," Michael said.

  Quirian chuckled.

  "I cannot allow you to live," Michael said quietly. "I know what you plan to do Miranda, and Filia Tullia and Princess Fiannuala cry out to be avenged."

  "You have your cause for anger, I have mine," Quirian said. "We have both gone too far to turn back; therefore nothing remains but to place our fortunes in the hands of fate." He was silent for a moment, and then said, "You are no Gideon, we both know that. But I will say that I admire your resolve. Very few people would be so selfless as to commit their entire lives to the service of another man's cause."

  "Thank you," Michael hesitated briefly. "And truth to tell I admire your devotion. If everyone I cared about perished in battle, I would like to think that I could keep faith with them for five hundred years as you have done."

  "I think you would," Quirian said. He looked down at Michael for a moment, "But now I must go." He touched the hilt of the sword in the grave, "Farewell old friend. Pater Callistus, until we meet again."

  "Aye, until then," Michael said. Quirian walked away, down the slope and away from the city, becoming smaller and smaller to Michael's eyes until he was lost from sight.

  We shall meet once more I think, and never again after.

  "I can't believe that was him. Showing his face took nerve." Amy said as she came to stand beside him.

  "Whatever else he is, Quirian's courage cannot be denied," Michael replied. He knelt down by the grave, closed his eyes, and began to pray for Gideon's soul.

  When he opened his eyes he was somewhere else completely.

  Grass wet with mildew lay beneath his knees. Around him the air was shrouded in the morning mist. In the distance he could see the fires of a fortified camp.

  "Is this the field of Eudora?" Michael murmured.

  "Indeed it is," Aegea declared, striding from where she had stood - behind him it seemed - to stand before him, looking down. "Though I am glad you are not so worthy of odium on this occasion, Michael, I wish that we could meet in more glad circumstances."

  "As do I, your majesty," Michael replied. "But how did I...did Your Majesty bring me here?"

  "How else do you think you arrived?" Aegea said. “I have brought you here in the flesh, in body as well as soul. No doubt your comrades are wondering what has become of you after they saw you miraculously disappeared before their eyes."

  "In the flesh," Michael murmured. That would explain why the colours seemed different than his last visit, less grey, more vivid. That would also explain why everything felt more vivid too. "Begging Your Majesty's pardon, why have you brought me here?"

  "To serve me," Aegea replied. She stared at Michael, who looked down rather than meet her imperious gaze.

  "My First Sword has fallen, by his own hand," Aegea said quietly, sorrowfully. "He was, save for one indiscretion, a servant most brave and faithful. The first man in four hundred years who was devoted enough to my service to assume the office. Now he is dead, and I must have a new First Sword. Gideon chose you and I deem that he chose well. Will you, Michael Callistus, serve me now in his stead?"

  Michael got down upon one knee, eyes down, looking at Aegea's booted feet. "I will, Your Majesty."

  "You understand what you are agreeing to?" Aegea demanded. "Once you make your oath to me as First Sword then there is no turning back. You are mine, given to me blood, body and soul, now and evermore. In becoming First Sword of the Empire you will wed the Empire, wed me and become my slave. You will never be discharged; you cannot leave because you have grown weary of obedience. Your life will come second to the duty that you owe to me until the day that you die in my service, do you understand?"

  Michael licked his lips. "In the past, ma'am, I wasted my life in dreams and frivolities. Later, I wasted it in selfish self-destruction. What you offer is a hard life, but a life rich in meaning also. I have no doubts it will be hard, but a better path than any I could imagine with my life, and when I die the Empire itself shall stand as monument to my achievements. A hard life, majesty, but an honourable one and a road paved with glory. I think I have been seeking such ever since I was a child."

  "Well spoken," Aegea murmured. "But before you may swear yourself into my service there is something you must see. The spirit world where we dwell is not only the domain of the dead, but of dreams, and if one has the power to see it the ghosts of all our futures that could have been but where not may be seen. With my power I will open up
your sight to all those futures that you may look upon all that you give up before you sacrifice your life entire to me."

  She pressed a hand, warm, soft and gentle, to his forehead and murmured, "Let all roads be revealed."

  Michael gasped as a jolt like lightning speared his mind, his eyes bulging widely as he saw...

  He became a priest of Turo, the priest responsible for Lover's Rock. No tragedy ever befell the town; no attentions from the Crimson Rose were paid to the little settlement. He completed his theological apprenticeship in peace, and presided over a peaceful, more or less prosperous little hamlet. Every summer he welcomed the pilgrims, come to look over the place where Simon and Miranda had met, and married many of them at the water's edge. Each year he blessed the games held to mark the Feast of the Covenant, and when he watched the gladiators battle on the sand he felt his heart thrill at the sight of them, and a twinge of regret that he had not taken the glory road, where he would not have to fight ever with the darkness in his soul to retain the image he wished to show the world, the peaceful priest, the learned man, the civilised and faithful servant of God. But, for all of his regrets, for all the effort which went into the charade, he lived a full, contented life. He joined the hands of Felix and Amy and pronounced them man and wife in the eyes of God and man. He spoke the sacred words over his mother when she died, white haired and surrounded by grandchildren. He kept the stories of Old Corona alive, passed them on to his nieces and nephews, to his great nephews, and when he died a toothless, hairless, stoop-backed man he was mourned and remembered as a kind, compassionate, generous soul who had been remade for the better by God's grace, and had put aside the wildness of his youth to become the model of everything a priest should be.

  He saw...

  Quirian chose him instead of Felix, and when he ran outside in response to Amy's screams it was him they seized, while Felix looked on powerlessly. It was his arm they cut off, and Michael howled in pain as they thrust his stump into the fire to sear the wound, and wept as he was given a lifeless arm of cold metal, inscribed with the sorceries of strange gods not his own.

  He became Captain of Lord Quirian's Lost, a man of black moods and dark tempers whom even the wildest and most ferocious of that company feared to cross. He forgot Felix, he forgot Amy, he forgot Miranda, and that forgetting only made him more savage, more angry, until they called him Quirian's wolfhound and looked at him as more beast than human.

  When Miranda arrived she looked on him with disgust, and he felt mingled shame and remembrance at the sight of her and so stayed away. And then Lord Quirian took him to the wars, where he saw Felix wearing the uniform of the Divine Empire and remembered everything. And, so remembering, he cut down his little brother in a blind rage and all his companions too, and then he stood aside while they held a screaming Miranda down so that Quirian could cut out her heart with the cruel blade Semper Fidelis.

  And then Quirian, having no further need of his brutish captain, killed him, and Michael smiled as the power of the Aurelians burnt him into dust.

  He saw...

  When Gideon and the others departed from Davidheyr Michael stayed behind, to defend the people in case the Crimson Rose should come again, to help cleanse his province of the rebel stain. He bid them all farewell, made promises to Amy that they would meet again soon, and turned away lest they should see the sorrow on his face.

  The Crimson Rose did not come to Davidheyr, but a messenger came from Deucalia province, a dryad to hear her tell of it, with green skin and golden hair, who bore with her Gideon's sword Duty, Amy's helm and Jason's staff along with the news that his four friends had fallen in battle at some place called the Forest of Eena. And Michael wept and tore his clothes and cursed all gods for inspiring him to leave them.

  He saw...

  Michael won his freedom in the arena, and spent his days teaching the sword to eager young men and reminiscing about the fights he had fought and the foes he had overthrown outside the local tavern to any who would listen.

  He died in the arena and not even Miranda mourned his passing.

  He joined the Crimson Rose and proclaimed himself the Prince of Corona, and the whole province rallied to his banner. He led the rebels into battle mounted upon a white horse, as Gabriel reborn, fighting under the banner of the black bull, garlanded in roses, clad in bronze armour and bearing a shining blade. "Corona!" was their cry. "Corona! The bull! The bull!" And they drove the Empire before them, shattered the legions of the wolves and trampled their standards in the dust. And when he looked at those tattered banners, at the winged unicorn ground into the mud, looking at him with one sad eye, he felt as though he had committed a terrible wrong, but could not say why. He ruled as prince, justly and well, for many years in peace while the Empire shattered into a score of feuding kingdoms, until at last he died abed and left the throne to his second-born son.

  He joined the Crimson Rose and spent his whole life battling against an Empire desperate to retake their lost province.

  He joined the Crimson Rose and drove out the Empire for a summer, only to go down to bloody defeat when the legions returned in strength the next year. He died in battle, his guards and comrades dead around him, standing under the black bull standard and bellowing for his men to rally as an officer with red hair and burning blue eyes cut him down.

  He proclaimed himself Corona's prince and was hanged by the Empire as a rebel and a traitor just three months later.

  He married Amy. He died in Lover's Rock defending the people from the Crimson Rose. He ran away with Miranda and spent his whole life defending her from Quirian, who always found them no matter how well they hid.

  He killed Miranda to save the world, and she thanked him as he drove a dagger through her heart, and then slew himself in turn with tears in his eyes.

  A hundred hundred lives all lived themselves before his eyes, each one falling by the wayside until only one remained: to spend his life in service to the Empire, died for its sake, and be remembered more for the office he had held than for the man he was.

  Michael took a deep, gasping breath as the visions ceased.

  "Where any..." Michael paused to take another breath, his breast heaving. "Where any of those futures true?"

  "At one point they were all true," Aegea said. "Each one might have happened, had you or someone else not decided otherwise. This is the last time I will offer you the opportunity to turn back. After this, you are mine, till death places his icy hands around you."

  Michael closed is eyes and thought of Gideon, of all he had sacrificed and all he had dreamed of. He could not turn his back on that. He said, "I will become First Sword of the Empire, if Your Majesty will accept me as your servant."

  A host of shadows appeared around him, his predecessors in that august office come to observe him as he joined their ranks. The great silver wolf and the white winged unicorn who graced the banners of the Empire appeared on either side of the Empress, as her herald handed her a jug of oil.

  "Do you pledge yourself to me, Aegea, by the grace of heaven and the strength of my soldiers Empress of All Pelarius, Lavissar, Triazica and all the lands that lie between and may be found beyond?"

  "With all my heart I pledge myself unto thy service," Michael could not have said how he knew the right words, but he did, and in so knowing he spoke them unfalteringly.

  "Do you swear to serve me and obey me in all things, to answer my summons whenever I call, to do as I bid without disobedience or hesitation, to follow my orders at all times to the utmost limits of your strength?"

  "My strength is the strength of the Empire so long as I draw breath."

  "Do you swear to protect the Empire which we have founded, to defend it from all enemies within and without, to guide it along the path to the fulfilment of my vision, to see that no harm comes to it on the battlefields or from the conspiracies of false friends and hidden enemies?"

  "The Empire's greatness shall be my legacy."

  "And do you also swear to gua
rd our descendants, the princes and princesses Imperial who rule the Empire under us, to serve and defend the throne and by your actions bring it honour and heap upon it further glories?"

  "I shall hold each drop of their blood more precious than a gallon of mine own."

  "Do you swear to serve the Empire in all things great and small from now until the ending of your life?"

  "I am the Empire's slave, and yours."

  "Do you swear to love the Empire above kin, above self, above all things on earth or heaven?"

  "The Empire is my first love, and my greatest."

  "Do you swear to guard the Empire with unceasing vigilance, to watch for all enemies within and without and deal with them as they deserve?"

  "My watch shall not end till I am dead."

  "Do you give yourself to me, body and soul, to do my bidding for the good and glory of the Empire?"

  "Body and soul, I am at your command."

  "And lastly do you swear to love the Empire, and us, with all of your heart, to hold the Empire in your soul and love it as mother, wife, sister, and daughter all at once. To never betray her or our trust. To never forsake or abandon her. To be her tower of strength in times both good and bad. To be the sword which guards the Empire in times of peril, the staff on which she leans in time of doubt, the armour which she wears in time of discord. Do you swear, Michael Sebastian Callistus Dolabella Commenae ban Ezekiel, to be the Empire's man, to take her to wife, and love, honour and obey her from this day on?"

  "With all my heart," Michael felt a lump forming in his throat. "I do so swear."

  "Then kiss the blade," Aegea drew her sword from its scabbard with a ringing sound, and held it down, point first, towards Michael.

 

‹ Prev