Crusader s-4

by Robert J. Crane

  Cyrus felt a weight on his shoulder, the Guildmaster’s gauntlet resting on him. “Are you afraid to do it? Afraid to end him?”

  Cyrus thought about it for a minute, looked again at the boy, and realized with utter clarity that he was not afraid at all, for once, that he really just felt sorry for him-

  The dagger came around and plunged into the Guildmaster’s belly without Cyrus even being truly aware of what he was doing. There was a sharp grunt from the man and his gauntlet squeezed Cyrus’s unarmored shoulder tighter for a moment before he broke away, falling to his back, his hands clutching his midsection. There was a stunned, continued silence in the arena, and before the Guildmaster could speak, could proclaim, could say anything, Cyrus was off, running, dodging past the men at the gate, and his feet were slapping against the cobblestone street, stirring the wet snow and mud. He heard one of his pursuers slip and fall behind him as he dodged into an alleyway and past an open door where the smell of eggs wafted into the cold evening air.

  The streets were twisted, and there were shouts behind him, a great clamor, but he ran, and when he came to the markets the noise was all but gone, buried in the sound of Reikonos by evening. There was still noise, in the distance, but Cyrus kept to the shadows. He saw guards in their armaments, patrolling, he saw men in heavy cloaks, and a few women wearing little enough beneath their robes, talking to every man who passed. He went unnoticed by them all, following the signs, the monuments, the things he knew and was familiar with. The stall in the corner of the market where the big man with bad teeth always gave him an apple. The house on the corner where the boy his age watched from the high window, never allowed to play in the street with the other lads. The spot where the man stood and called the news of the day, made announcements and proclamations from the Council of Twelve. He went slowly, carefully, but the streets were quiet and he had little to worry about. The evening shadows grew stronger as he went, and he could hear the torchlighters making their rounds in the distance. They had already passed here and the lamps shed a little light for him, enough to see as the snow came down harder, clumps of white that covered his shirt and turned it wet. He had no cloak, no coat, and his soft footcovers were soaked through.

  The smell of the frigid air caused his nose to run, and he felt it freeze on his upper lip as he clasped his hands over his chest, rubbing them against the skin, trying to find warmth. His belly growled, roaring at him like the feisty cat that had lived in the alley behind his house but with more verve, more feeling. He shivered and felt the shake of his limbs, the chill that crept through the skin and went bone-deep. Only a little farther, he thought, and then he saw it.

  It was a little house, to be sure, only a one story, but stone, good and strong. The roof was thatched, but he could see from here it had already begun to fail, caved in on one side. The corner where Mother and Father sleep. It’ll be all wet by now, then … The stones were still there, though, still strong.

  He slipped from the shadows across the street and came to the door, his feet now slushing in the low places on the road. He could hardly avoid them all, his legs only so long, after all. He didn’t knock at the door, which was slightly cracked, he just pushed his way in. Warmth. A fire, sitting beside the hearth with mother like I used to-

  The house was quiet, a dread silence hanging in the air. The corner where the roof had failed was wet indeed, snow piling up in the place where Mother and Father’s bed had been. The hearth was not warm, there was no fire, and it was chill inside. The only change was that the light wind was no longer present, though he could hear it stirring the roof now and again. The place was dark too, shadow consuming the entirety of it, only a little light coming in through the windows from the street and in the corner where the snow was gathering.

  Cyrus let the silence hold, let his lips stick together, even as he felt the chatter of his teeth. When he spoke it was quiet, the last ounce of hope running out. “Mother?”

  There was a quiet that lasted only one second.

  “She is not here,” came the voice from the darkness behind him, and he felt the fear again, the horror of it, and recoiled, backing toward the corner where the snow fell, even as a figure made its way out of the shadows. “Don’t be afraid,” the man said, and Cyrus could see the light catch his face. One of his eyes was squinted completely closed, and he wore a heavy cloak that extended from his neck to below his knees. “Don’t be afraid, Cyrus.”

  “Who are you?” Cyrus asked, and shivered.

  “A friend,” the man said simply, and he took off his cloak with a simple flourish. He took tentative steps toward Cyrus, who could see now that the man wore armor, though of a different look than Cyrus had seen in the Society; this was older, he thought, more scuffed, and all metal, like his Father’s. He offered the cloak, and Cyrus looked at it for only a half second before snatching it and draping it around his own shoulders, shivering into it, feeling the moisture from his skin absorbed into the cloth, but he also felt the chill reduce a little.

  “I don’t know you,” Cyrus said, and looked away, to the hearth again. There was only darkness in it. The pot his mother had used to cook was gone, and the hearth seemed to leer at him, taunting. “Where’s my mother?” He asked it plaintively, though he knew almost certainly what he’d hear.

  “Surely you must know that she is gone.” The voice was quiet, subtle, and the drifting sound the snow made as it landed in the corner was almost louder than the stranger’s words. “Belkan told you, did he not?”

  “He told me.” Cyrus wanted to keep his distance, recoil, but he didn’t. “I want to see her.”

  “I’m afraid that …” the man hesitated, “is quite impossible, now. She is dead.”

  Cyrus heard but didn’t hear, listened but didn’t absorb. He shut his eyes tightly, and tried to remember the house when it was warm, when the smell of meat pies cooking over the fire filled the air, when he could feel her arms wrapped around him, and when he would tussle with his father on the bearskin rug-

  “Cyrus,” the voice came again, and Cyrus opened his eyes. “I know this must be difficult for you, this … horrible change. But you must … endure. Do you know what that word means? Endure?”

  “I know what it means.” His voice didn’t sound like his own. It was huskier, like one of the boys who was sobbing in the arena.

  “You must endure … what is to come.” The man went on, and Cyrus listened-but did not hear, the older Cyrus thought, watching it all, watching this man, this familiar man, give him instruction. “There will come a better day, when you are out of this storm. You must believe in that, hold tight to that conviction, because what will happen between now and then will not be easy on you.”

  “I don’t wish to go back to the Society of Arms,” Cyrus said, and the emotion flowed out of him. “I don’t want to be there.”

  “You have no choice,” the man said quietly. “If there were any other way, I would find it, but-they-are watching you closely, and there is no avoiding their gaze. You must follow this path, do this, stay within the bounds of the Society, to be safe. Do you understand?”

  “But I don’t wish to-”

  There was a draft then, but the man’s words overcame it and interrupted Cyrus in the gentlest way. “The mark of a man is his willingness to do things that he must do but doesn’t wish to. You were a boy only months ago, yet now you are forced into the role of a man, forced to look out for yourself because no one else watches out for you, because all who did so are now gone.” The man’s hand landed on Cyrus’s shoulder, but it was different than the Guildmaster of the Society’s, lighter somehow. “If you are to endure, you must do the things you don’t wish to. You are afraid. I know this. Were I in your place, I would be afraid too, to feel so alone. But I tell you now, be not afraid, Cyrus Davidon, because you are not alone, however it might appear. Don’t fear.” The man’s hand came across Cyrus’s cheek and the soft touch of his thumb, even in the gauntlet, smeared away the wet droplet that had fallen.r />
  He felt the world wrench, then the man’s armor against his face, and he cried the tears he thought he had no more of, felt the strength and unyielding of the armor against his skin, even as the cloak wrapped around him. The wetness of his tears ran slick against the man’s breastplate, and Cyrus felt himself lifted, cradled, carried along, as he quietly wept. There were reassuring words, he could hear them, but the ones that stuck out was the constant admonishment: “Don’t be afraid.”

  They were outside the gates of the Society when next he looked up. The stranger’s eye was puckered shut, as though it were too cold for him to open it. “Be brave,” the man told him, and Cyrus saw another man just inside the gates, the dwarf from the arena. “Erkhardt,” the man said to the dwarf and gently handed Cyrus over.

  The dwarf gripped him firm under the armpits and laid his feet back on the ground as Cyrus took up his own weight again. He was tall, already up to the dwarf’s chin. “Made quite an impression earlier, this one did,” the dwarf said with a sort of grim amusement. “Wouldn’t play along with the test. Stabbed the Guildmaster in the belly.” He lowered his voice but Cyrus heard it nonetheless. “They’ll not go easy on him for that, you know. Not that they were going to before, but …”

  “He will endure,” came the stony voice from the man in armor. “And you will ensure that no harm comes to him.”

  “As ordered,” the dwarf said. “Come on then, lad,” he said to Cyrus, “let’s get you in and see about making amends where we can.” The dwarf saluted the man. “Safe journey to you.”

  “You are not alone, Cyrus,” the man said as Cyrus walked the stone path through the gates and toward the old, darkened building of the Society of Arms. “Never alone. You are strong, show them that. And be not afraid.”

  Cyrus watched him, looking over his shoulder with regret, longing, really, even as the dwarf named Erkhardt was at his side. After all, the older Cyrus thought, as he watched it all play before his eyes like theater, how could a child forget the last time he felt like he had a friend?

  Or a father.

  Chapter 53

  There was a rough bump, and the darkness swirled around Cyrus, lit now by daylight somewhere in the distance. It was above him at an angle, but it washed through the air and shone in beams that rested all over the space around him. His eyes were bleary, and no matter how many times he blinked, they did not clear quickly. He began to wonder if they would clear at all.

  The smell of horses permeated his consciousness, filled his nose, and he heard the sounds of them, of people talking somewhere outside his field of vision. There was a pain around his neck as he turned his head, but the pain was only a dull ache, a long-ago reminder of some agony, he supposed.

  “Would you care for some water?” The voice was soft, feminine, and cut over the clack-clack he heard every few seconds.

  Cyrus coughed then cleared his throat. “Yes,” he said, but his voice was hoarse, and his throat scratchy. A skin of water was thrust to his lips and tilted, just so a little ran out on his tongue and down his mouth, as though he had forgotten how to capture the liquid that was coming to him. It felt cool as it fell over his cheeks, and he realized the air was hot, and he had a blanket weighing him down.

  He swiveled his head and saw the face that went with the voice that had spoken to him. “You,” he said. “I … I don’t remember …”

  “If the next words out of your mouth are ‘your name,’ then you’d best prepare yourself for a thrashing.” She sounded serious.

  “Calm yourself, Aisling,” he said with a wicked grin, and saw the flash of irritation crest her tanned, elven features. “Kidding, Martaina,” he said, laboring to get her name out. “Your name is Martaina Proelius.”

  “Good to know you still recall the important things,” she said, and pulled back the skin, capping it. “You gave us quite a stir, you know.”

  “Didn’t intend to,” he said with a cough. “As I recall, I was just going along, minding my business, when someone shot me with an arrow and proceeded to lop my head off.” His hand came to his throat, felt the slight ridge along the middle of it, a scar that seemed unlikely to ever heal. “Hoygraf said he’d take it in order to keep me dead. His revenge.”

  “Yes, well,” Martaina said and shifted, sitting against the canvas backing of the wagon, looking over him, “it didn’t happen, obviously.”

  “Obviously. What did happen?”

  “We managed to retrieve that empty gourd you used to think-you know, before you switched to using your groin-and reunited it with your body,” Martaina said.

  He ignored her jibe. “We’re at war with Actaluere?” He felt the tautness in his muscles, surprising given how out of sorts he felt.

  “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “In fact, Milos Tiernan has brought his army north with us.”

  Cyrus felt himself stop, as though everything ceased moving all at once around him. “Tiernan did? He’s not attacking Galbadien?”

  “No,” Martaina said, and Cyrus could see her face go masklike. The ranger was good, no doubt experienced at hiding herself; but he had known her long enough to see through it.

  “What happened?” Cyrus asked and put enough of a commanding voice into the question that it cut through the rasp. Martaina’s eyes turned rearward over Cyrus’s head. “How long was I out?”

  “Over a week,” she said at last, and her hand disturbed the flap of canvas enough to let some light in, which caused Cyrus to blanch and close his eyes. “Curatio kept you well-medicated with opiates from the local poppy fields during your … ailment. He had some difficulty reattaching your head because of the time that elapsed between when it was severed and when we received it. It was a very near thing, and your arrow wound and other injuries had to heal naturally because they missed the window to be cured through magical means.”

  “What happened while I was recovering?” Cyrus asked and tried to sit up. Martaina’s boot landed upon his chest, keeping him down. His armor was absent, and he felt no desire to fight her attempt to keep him flat, letting his head sink back to the padded, moving floor of the wagon.

  “Actaluere joined with Syloreas and sent the forces they had on hand at Enrant Monge north with us.” She kept a canny eye on him, but her reaction was still closely guarded, he knew. “They mean to help fight against the scourge and have sent for more forces to come north while the first army moves up with us.”

  “Are we close to battle?” Cyrus asked. “If we’re only a week out of Enrant Monge? Have the scourge reached this far south already?”

  “It would be best if you didn’t concern yourself overmuch,” she said calmly. “We’re holding at a line south of the mountains, here in Syloreas’s southern flatlands, waiting for one of Actaluere’s northern armies to meet up with us. After that, we’ve a week’s march north to the rallying place where we’ll be fighting them.”

  “Flat plains,” Cyrus said, pondering. “Let them come at us?”

  “That seems to be the consensus,” Martaina said, looking down at him once more. “With Actaluere joining the remainder of Syloreas’s armies, we have as many troops as we’ll be able to muster and can fight them on as near to even footing as possible. Besides, remember these creatures thrive on broken ground. They took Scylax without much effort, after all.”

  “I haven’t forgotten that, either,” Cyrus said, “and apparently they scaled a mountain to do it. No, flat ground does work best for us, for our mounted cavalry. I find it a bit mystifying that Actaluere would choose to join with us, seeing as the Baroness was such a sticking point for them-” He stopped, having caught the waver in Martaina’s expression, the subtle move of the muscles around her right eye. “She was returned to them, wasn’t she? Back to the Grand Duke?”

  “She went back to Actaluere, yes,” Martaina said carefully.

  “They took her?” Cyrus asked, and started to sit up again, only to feel the strength of Martaina’s foot hold him down once more. “Took her back to him?”
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  “She went back to him voluntarily,” Martaina said.

  There was a silence that filled Cyrus’s ears, as though the sounds of the horses and men outside had ceased. All talk and chatter and the smell of infirmity that filled the wagon was gone. “To save her people, then. To free the army of Actaluere to action against the scourge.” He felt himself relax, his body limp against the padding that separated him from the wood floor of the wagon, and the deep dissatisfaction grew within even as he tried to shut it up. “And they let her.” He said it with such casual disdain that it lit a fire in Martaina’s eyes.

  “Let her? No,” the ranger said. “She argued forcefully to be allowed to. Forcefully enough that Curatio did not oppose it nor did any of the other officers.”

  Cyrus was quiet for minutes, the wheels bumping him along every few seconds as the wagon hit ruts in the road it traveled. “I can’t decide whether I deem her incredibly brave or deeply stupid. Perhaps some combination of both.”

  “She went into it knowing what she was doing to herself,” Martaina said, and he saw the restraint again, the mask, keeping her emotions in check. It was a mask made of thousands of years of experience at keeping others from her thoughts. “I don’t believe you could ascribe stupidity to any part of her judgment process save one, perhaps.” Her eyes narrowed at the last.

  “And that part would be?”

  “I decline to say.” Martaina’s head swiveled again to the back of the wagon, to the flap, and remained fixed there as they bumped along in silence.

  Chapter 54

  Vara

  The horn sounded in the early morning hours as Vara lay in her quarters, the fire going low across from the foot of her bed, the crackle not disturbing the sleep she wasn’t getting anyway. Her thoughts were far away, as usual, which was why she wasn’t sleeping. The soft pops from the fire were soothing in their way, and when the horn reached her ears it took a moment to realize that it wasn’t that far off-from the wall, it seemed, though she was dazed enough that she believed at first that it came from over the plains.