Oathbound: The Emperor's Conscience, Book 2

by Michael Combs

  “Language, Ladies,” I said. “There is no need for that. I just have a few questions.”

  “And then you’ll let us go?” asked the redhead.

  “Not likely. You’ll understand why in a moment.”

  She rolled her eyes and gave me an even more sour look.

  “Why did you try to kill me?”

  “Apparently you’ve been hunting us,” Merey said. “Since you found us, it was prudent to strike first, when you were vulnerable.”

  “How did that work for you, Merey?” I asked.

  “I told you, it’s Tessa,” she spat. “Like I said, I knew you were dangerous from the moment I laid eyes on you. We will not underestimate you again. When we get free—”

  “Yes, apologies for the mixup with your name,” I said. “And save the threats. I will let you in on a brief lesson I had to learn the hard way: ‘Fight, then gloat.’”

  I pulled a chair from the side of the room and sat, arms folded across the back, as I surveyed the girls. They seemed so young. I knew that Merey—or Tessa now, I supposed—was about sixteen. But their eyes…their eyes told a different story. It reminded me of Shani when she told me what little she had of her past.

  “I told you I was here to help you, and you try to kill me? That trick with leaving the knife in my back, by the way, that was well done,” I said to the redhead. “So, what did you learn?” I asked before I could catch myself. Uncle Tamil would have been proud.

  “I should have twisted it,” she said, sullenly.

  “Very good,” I said. “It’s the small things.”

  “Is the lesson over?” Tessa asked in disgust. “Why didn’t you just kill us? You know we won’t tell you anything.”

  “About what?” I asked.

  “About...anything.”

  “Have you not heard a word I have said? I am not here to hurt you. I am not here to question you. I am here to take you home.”

  “We are home,” the brunette spat. She had been silent since the cursing stopped. “Prince Papa will look for us.”

  “Even if he does, he won’t find you here.”

  “Brother Evan! What is going on here?” Balinar cried from the hallway door that led to the sanctuary. He looked upset, and I couldn’t say that I blamed him. He had learned a little about me and had trusted me so far. Providing him with a temple might get him to listen to me, but it would not purchase devotion. If he were the man of conscience that I believed him to be, I would expect distress from what he walked in on.

  “Brother,” I said, rising to face him, “a word, please. I owe you an explanation.” He took a long look at the girls that lay bound on the floor of the temple and gave me an angry glare. He turned and left the way he came.

  I checked the Sisters’ bindings, ensuring they were still secure, and followed him through the halls to the sanctuary. The long corridors were more than sufficient to keep our conversation private.

  “I am uncomfortable with this.” He shook his head and fell onto a pew at the edge of the sanctuary. “Kidnapping children…” he whispered.

  I handed him my Magister’s Talent and began my tale: “Several months ago, I made a promise…” I told him nearly everything. I told him about Atroscine and his ring of pedophiles. I told him of Acting Celate Borus, who used corrupted bloodbonds to control the children who served him. I told him of the Duchess and my oath to her. Then I told him about my captives.

  “I don’t know who the other two are, aside from ten-year-old descriptions, but the blonde is Merey Atroscine.”

  “The Duke’s relation?” Cedric asked in horror.

  “His daughter. She was the first child sold, along with the other two in there. It was apparently to ensure that the Duke would help Prince Kaden take his father’s throne.”

  Cedric Balinar sat staring at the Magister’s Talent. The stone embedded in the coin, held between the two struggling serpents, flashed in the lantern light as he spun it in his fingers.

  “This is beyond me,” he said, finally. There was a note of helplessness in his voice. “I don’t know what to do, Evan. I only wanted to help people. I wanted to share the gifts of the Queen, to bring aid to the living and peace to the dying as is our calling. I am all but overwhelmed with the new temple, and now you bring news of civil war here in Trular? I believe in you, and you have helped me, but you are telling me you kidnapped three women sold as slaves to the Prince to secure allies for a war. I hope you can see how insane this sounds.”

  “I do,” I said as I took back my Magister’s Talent. “It is also the truth.”

  He sat there for a long time. He shook his head and paced about the room as he tried to wrap his mind around what I was telling him.

  “Who are they?” he asked. “I mean beyond this Atroscine girl.”

  “Have you ever heard of ‘The Sisters?’”

  “Who hasn’t?” he cried. “Terrifying assassins who steal the lives of any who oppose Prince. You aren’t suggesting…”

  “The same.” I nodded. “They are very good, and deadly. They nearly killed me tonight, so stay clear of them no matter what they say.”

  “I will.” He shook his head again. “I hope I am not wrong about you, Brother. It is Brother, right? Are you even a Priest?”

  “I am. It seems I collect titles, but that one, at least, is true.”

  “I have to say, I believe you. But if you have deceived me, may the Great Queen curse your soul for eternity.”

  “I’m not sure she hasn’t already, Brother,” I said. “And I would dearly like to ask her why.”

  “What are your plans for them?” he asked.

  “I’m going to take them back to the Empire. That has always been my aim.”

  “It seems they do not want to go,” he said. “Have you considered they might not want to be rescued? From what you tell me, they are adults. Can they not make their own decisions?”

  I had not considered that, in fact. I couldn’t understand why someone who, taken from their home in such a manner, would not wish to return. The Brother had a point, however. If they didn’t want to leave, whose conscience was I fulfilling by forcing them? Mine? No. I was acting on a promise. Was it the Emperor’s? I didn’t believe so. His only concern was to see justice served, and I was the ultimate judge of what that would look like. Something slithered against my soul. It was an uncomfortable sensation. I felt my Aspect tense, but it passed, and I had other worries.

  “You have a point, Brother,” I said. “ I will just deal with the impending war and leave them here according to their wishes.”

  My breath caught as a searing pain erupted within me. I collapsed to the floor, writhing, and pinpricks grew to barbs of agony as though my soul was being shredded. I could almost hear my Aspect screaming in my mind as it struggled against what felt like a thorny vine that dug into his wrists, arms, legs, chest, and head. They tortured his very being, my very being.

  My back arched until I thought it would break, and I let out a silent scream. I could hear Brother Balinar as though from far away. He shook me and called my name, but I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t resist the anguish that was being inflicted on me, and I couldn’t stop it. My mind was blank. All that existed was pain, and it drove every other thought from my head. I tried to push back, reassert some order, evaluate myself, or try to discern what had caused such a violent reaction. But thoughts would not come. Reason fled in the face of such overwhelming torture. The only thing that existed was a crushing sense of duty.

  Duty? I thought. The torment eased a fraction, allowing a thought to creep into my addled brain. My oath. As understanding bloomed, I solemnly resolved that I would see my oath fulfilled at all costs. A shuddering spasm of agony flared once more, as in warning, then retreated as quickly as it had appeared. The thorny manacles withdrew from my Aspect, and we sagged in blessed relief.

  I lay on the floor, covered in sweat and panting. My entire body ached. Brother Balinar was in a panic, shaking me and calling out my name. I groa
ned, and the shaking stopped.

  “Brother!” Cedric cried. “What happened?” I groaned again as he tried to help me sit up.

  I raised a weak hand and placed it against his chest as he knelt over me.

  “I’m alive,” I croaked. “Give me a moment.”

  I just laid there and breathed. I hurt all over, but I was regaining my strength. In a few minutes I could move enough for him to help me onto a pew. I sat with my head in my hands as the sanctuary spun about me.

  “What in Hessa’s name happened, Brother?” Balinar asked. “Should I fetch a Bloodmage?” I shook my head.

  “I think I pissed off our Queen.”

  “How so?” he asked.

  “I believe this was the result of deciding to forsake my oath,” I said.

  “Why did it stop?”

  “I reversed that decision. I said I would take her home no matter the cost to me or anyone else.”

  “And whatever ailed you ceased when you made that promise?” he asked. He considered that for a moment. “What were the terms of the oath you forsook? The exact words?”

  I recalled that night in vivid detail, standing in the duchess’s bedroom when she extracted my promise.

  “That if her child lived, and I could find her, I would return her,” I said. Balinar shook his head.

  “No,” he said, “the rest. By what did you swear your oath?”

  “By Hessa and my own soul,” I said. The Priest leaned back in shock.

  “You swore upon a goddess, by name, and pledged your own soul as collateral?”

  I hadn’t thought of it like that. The duchess had asked for my oath, sworn on that which I held most dear. I couldn’t think of anything I valued more than my faith and my truest self.

  When I’d discovered that there were three girls that I could save, I promised myself that I would do it. I didn’t swear an oath because I didn’t need to. But when I stood before Lillian Atroscine as she wept and vowed that I would return her daughter to her if I could, I meant it. It seemed now I was bound to do it, and the consequence of forsaking that oath was pain, if not death.

  What did you learn, boy? Tamil’s voice rang in my head. To keep my damned mouth shut.

  I regained my faculties in short order. The effects of my binding having subsided, we returned to the warehouse wing, as we had taken to calling it. I had more questions for the Sisters. When I entered, I saw the brunette rubbing at her wrists while Tessa tore at the bindings holding the red-haired girl. They saw me and the brunette leaped.

  “Run, I will keep him busy,” she said.

  She jumped, and her leg snapped forward with a kick aimed at my head. I called to the shadows, and they obeyed readily. It was as though the souls that dwelt within me and this place were eager to be at work rather than lie about in dusky corners without purpose.

  The girl halted in mid-strike as bands of gray power wrapped about her. The other two, free and running full tilt, had made it halfway to the door of the enormous room when my shadows overtook them.

  “No,” I said. “You are going nowhere.”

  I dragged them back, and they flailed uselessly against my power. They each screamed and cried and demanded I return them to their ‘Prince Papa.’ I bound them again, this time with ropes I’d procured along with other supplies and tools. The obscenities faded to muffled cries after I tied the gags back in their mouths. I kept them separated this time, each secured to a sturdy storage shelf, to keep them from untying one another again.

  Thank you, Kaeda, I thought, recalling her knot-tying lessons.

  “Now what will you do, Brother?” Balinar asked.

  “Now, I am going to get some sleep.”

  “What do I do with them?” he asked.

  “Nothing. Stay away from them and let them stew. Perhaps they will be more compliant when I return.”

  It was just past noon and I was finishing my breakfast when Nan and Shani came in. The pitiful amount of sleep that I had been able to get would have to suffice, for I had much yet to do.

  “How was your big night with the Mata?” Shani asked.

  “Exhausting,” I said.

  “Now you’re just bragging,” she said with a smile.

  “I found the girls. They accompanied the Prince last night.”

  “Excellent,” Nan said. “Were you able to make contact?”

  I nodded, my mouth full with the last of my food.

  “Well, boy, what happened?”

  “They tried to kill me in the Mata’s rooms last night. Almost succeeded, too. Turns out they are the ones known as the Sisters.”

  “The Sisters?” Nan gasped.

  “Did you hurt them? What happened?” Shani asked eagerly.

  “I only got stabbed a little bit.” I gave her a sour look. “I am fine, thanks for asking.”

  “I can see you’re fine, moron. What did you do to the girls?”

  “They’re tied up at the temple right now. They are a bit disgruntled.”

  “Did you hurt them?” she asked, then quickly added, “I know how you are when someone attacks you.”

  “I turned them over my knee,” I said. “They are fine.”

  “What kind of man has Tamil sent me that he can turn The Sisters over his knee?” Nan mused as she made her morning tea.

  Shani accompanied me back to the temple. We still had a great deal of work to do in preparing the sanctuary for the dedication on top of trying to convince three murderous women that I was here to save them and not kill them. A necessity, it turned out, if I wanted to avoid the sheer agony of breaking my oath again.

  I had a lot of questions regarding these young ladies. For instance, how did they end up the personal bodyguards—and more, if you believed the rumors—of the Jerean Prince? Even in what little interaction I’d had with them, they seemed dedicated to their ‘Prince Papa.’ I hoped I would get some answers regarding that.

  I entered the warehouse wing and spied the women in roughly the same positions as I had left them. They didn’t seem as hostile toward me today. Lying bound in the same position for hours tends to take the fight out of you. I removed their gags, and they spent a few minutes trying to get the saliva flowing back into their dry mouths. I offered them cool water.

  I approached the brunette and untied her. She looked at me through narrowed eyes. I readied my shadows just in case she tried to escape.

  “Come on,” I said, beckoning her to follow me. “What’s your name?”

  “Litha. Where are we going?”

  “A privy. You haven’t soiled yourself, from what I can tell. You likely have to go, though.”

  She rose and moved in the direction I indicated.

  “And don’t bother trying to escape. It will just make things more difficult than they need to be.”

  “For whom?” she asked.

  “Look, go for it if you’re feeling lucky. I will warn you, though, there is no sewer under this building to escape through.”

  “Don’t give her any ideas,” called the redhead. “She's not the smart one.”

  “Shut it, Marjory,” Litha said.

  When I brought Litha back, I retied her bonds and repeated the process with the other two. But I adjusted the ropes to allow them to remain in a sitting position this time.

  “Thank you,” Tessa said, once I had secured her again. “I thought I was going to burst.”

  “You’re welcome,” I replied. “Look, I don’t know what you think you know about me, but I would wager it is, at least mostly, wrong. I am here to help you, not hurt you. Make no mistake, though, I have an agenda, and I will see it done, regardless.”

  “What would that be?” Tessa asked.

  “I told you. I am here to take you home.”

  “We are home,” said Marjory.

  “No, you are not. I don’t know what you remember, but you were sold to the Prince by her father.” I pointed to Tessa. “Isn’t that right, Merey?”

  “The Prince is Papa!” Tessa hissed and trie
d to kick me again. I deflected it easily.

  I sighed. Why was this so difficult? What was it that made them resist returning to their homes, their families so fervently? They were property bought and paid for. I had never expected the very children I was there to rescue to resist me, even try to kill me in order to return to their owner.

  “I apologize,” I said. “I was insensitive.”

  They were all agitated now. I could understand devotion and loyalty, but this was excessive. Being in the custody of the Prince for ten years would have a significant effect on them, however, and I couldn’t imagine what they went through to inspire such obsession. That settled it. The Prince had forever changed these girls. My mind was settled. He had to die.

  I felt another at the edge of the room. I knew who had come, but I wasn’t yet certain why. I pressed on.

  “I am going to take you home,” I said.

  “Why would I want to go back there?” she spat.

  “Because you were born to a different name, a different family, and they miss you.”

  “They threw me away!” she screamed.

  “Your father sold you,” I said. She drew in a breath to berate me again, but I continued. “You can argue until you are blue for all I care. These are the facts as I know them. Your father, the Archduke of the Arulean Empire, sold you to the Prince for capital to start a child flesh trade, and the Prince held you as collateral to secure the Duke’s support for his own efforts against the King of Trular. Now deny that.”

  She was silent. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

  “What of us?” Litha said.

  “I could not learn your names before I came here,” I said, softening my voice. “All I had to go on were basic physical descriptions written ten years ago. I vowed I would bring you home. I will do just that.”

  “We won’t go,” said Marjory.

  “That is where you are wrong, young lady,” I said. “You will return if I have to carry you in a box to see it through.”

  “To her so-called ‘mother,’” Litha said.

  “And where was she?” Tessa asked. “Why has it taken ten years for her to send you after me?”