Paladin's Oath

by M. H. Johnson

  Karine gasped, her anxiety rekindled. “By all that is holy, Jess, what can we do to protect our people?”

  Jess took a deep breath, centering herself. Speaking formally. “Karine Turnsby. Are you the chosen heir of these estates, to run as you see fit, to swear fealty to my father’s household as your liege lord on the day of your inheritance?”

  Karine paused, looking uncertain, tremulous. “Jess, what are you saying? Mother, Father, are they…”

  “Answer!” Jess commanded, her tone brooking no hesitation.

  “Yes!” Karine cried out, stumbling back. “Oh gods, did something happen to my parents?”

  Jess’s gaze was solemn. “Your father is not here to head these lands by your mother’s own admission. Off on trade, I suppose. Your mother? Your mother has shown herself unfit to rule these lands in his absence.” Jess gazed around quickly. “By Justice, am I too late?”

  “What’s wrong?” Karine’s voice was panicked.

  Jess felt her heart surge with sudden anxiety. “Karine. Where is Onnika? Have you seen her this morning?”

  At that Karine started to shake. "He took her." Karine's voice was low, filled with terrible guilt. "Uncle Lessel. I saw him. Angels' mercy, I saw him holding Onnika. She looked drugged or asleep. You have to understand, Jess, this was only a few moments before! He said that she was dying of poison, that someone in the house had tried to kill her, and he had to get her to his lab right away!" Karine's eyes started to tear. "I, I didn't know what to do! I've known Lessel for years, Mother allows him a laboratory by the greenhouse, and he, and he, and I didn't know what to do so I just let him leave. He said he'd take care of her. I then thought to have some of the housemen follow, just, just to be sure everything was okay, and that's when it all started. The screaming. Saints above, Jessica, I recognized their screams!" Karine shuddered and started to sob, curling up in a ball by Jess's feet. "How could I have been so stupid?"

  “Stop it!” Jess curtly demanded. “Stand up, Karine. How were you to know, how could you possibly fathom, that your uncle was somehow in league with dark forces? It would sound absurd, were the evidence not directly in our faces!” Blade sheathed, Jess bent down and gently tilted Karine’s head up, eyes level with her own. “Karine. I need you to be strong. It's more important than ever before. You are now the head of this household. From now until the end of your days.”

  Karine blinked. “Jess, no. Mother is the caretaker of these lands in father’s absence.”

  "Your father is not here! He trades only, he has no connection to this land!" Jess declared, knowing in her very bones, even as she said it, that it was true. "And your mother," Jess sighed, speaking softly, so only Karine could here. "Your mother is enslaved to poppy juice. Poppy juice Lessel fed her even as he seduced her, wheedling a promise from her that granted him permission to take your sister's blood, and whatever else he desired from these lands."

  Karine gazed at Jess in horrified disbelief, stumbling back. “No. That couldn’t possibly be true. No!”

  “Karine Turnsby, look at me!” Jess commanded. Karine shuddered but couldn’t help but to meet Jess’s eyes, so captivating was her gaze. “I, Jessica de Calenbry, Knight Protector, do swear that my words are true! Granted Claimance upon these lands by Agda de Calenbry, I do assert my right and privilege to deny all those unworthy of claims upon these holdings!” Jess shouted, the very manor seeming to tremble with the sound of her voice.

  Lightning began to flash, cutting through the darkness of the ill green sky.

  “I declare your father unfit, lacking the virtue to attend the land that cries for tending, and I declare your mother unfit, having by her very weakness betrayed the well-being of her daughter and the land under her care, defying the most sacred of Nature’s commandments, sundering all ties of Claimance to these lands!”

  The wind seemed to pick up and howl through the shattered windows, dark brooding clouds rupturing at once, drenching the lands in a torrential downpour, and everything in the distance appearing a mere silhouette. Unfazed, Jess continued.

  “And thus I declare that the one eligible heir to these lands, the one heir fit to protect, nurture, and stabilize them, to guide the Turnsby estates free of darkest Shadow, to forge a connection to Dawn once more is you, Karine Turnsby.” Jess gazed at the shaking young woman solemnly, gently lifting her up, capturing Karine’s frightened eyes with her own. Willing Karine to understand. “Karine Turnsby. Do you accept your role as heir to these lands? Your blood, one with this soil. The cycle of your life, its death and rebirth, echoed forevermore within this land. Will you, Karine Turnsby, agree to serve as caretaker of this demesne? To look after its inhabitants, to nurture this land with your heart and soul, the duty of any true queen to her Domain?”

  “By the gods, she’s uttering the sacred oaths of our ancestors. That practice hasn’t been used in centuries!” one lord whispered to another in horrified shock.

  “She just slayed two minotaurs, you damn fool. Don’t you recognize a divine messenger when you see one?” castigated his companion.

  Yet these words and the other restless chatter had faded to nothingness in the sea of understanding, of knowledge and power, flowing unspeaking between the two women gazing so raptly into each other’s eyes. One pair the serene blue of woodland pools, the other the deep, fiery red of swollen suns. Yet both women were connected by a tidal force far greater than themselves, a force that washed through them, connected as they both were by a mutual love for their land.

  “Yes,” Karine said at last, with a shuttering breath. “I, Karine Turnsby do accept Claimance upon these lands. To serve as its guardian. To serve as its queen. My blood, one with the soil. My life, death, and rebirth, echoed in the seasons of life, death, and rebirth of this land and all its people.” Karine shuddered, overwhelmed, even as the words continued to pour forth from her shaking lips. “May I serve this land honorably and well, with love and care, all my days.”

  Jess nodded formally, the sunlight breaking through the storm clouds striking her armor, causing it to sparkle and gleam brilliantly, flashing like a dozen rainbows to the delighted awe of all who gazed upon the pair, even as the sky lightened with the first gentle rays of a new dawn, ill green light long since faded to a troubled remembrance, as if it had never been.

  “Rise, Karine Turnsby, queen of Turnsby!” Jess roared. “I, Jessica de Calenbry, Knight Protector of these lands, do accept and acknowledge your Claimance! Rise, heir of Turnsby and all her estates. May your blood and offspring nurture this land, now and forever more!”

  Karine did rise then, trembling smile and face filled with awe. Gently, Jess kissed her forehead and the crowd of noble onlookers gasped in awe, for Karine's reverent face seemed to glow and sparkle, as if she had been blessed by the angels themselves, the sight of the kiss slowly fading to a shimmering blue mark in the shape of a six-pointed star.

  “Truly, she has been blessed,” One lord muttered in awe, to many rapt nods of agreement, for all recognized the Star of David, glowing upon Karine's forehead for some moments before at last fading away.

  Karine took a deep breath, her smile euphoric, as if she truly felt her soul reaching deep into the earth like the roots of a great tree. “Never, Jess, never have I felt so connected to the land,” she said in awe, before her face suddenly crumpled, and she cried out. “Oh by the gods, Jess! There are more of those beasts, and they are killing. They are killing my people!”

  Karine's voice turned to a sharp ragged scream, and the onlooker’s gazes of reverential awe morphed once again to sickly terror. Many began to weep, too exhausted to deal with yet another scene out of nightmare.

  “Focus,” Jess soothed. “Take a deep breath and feel your connection to the land. Can you do that for me?”

  Karine took a deep shuddering breath and nodded.

  "Excellent. Karine? If you trust me, if you are comfortable doing so, I can help defend your home. But you will need to concede your authority over this realm to me, a
n heir of Calenbry, your liege lord, in order for me to do so."

  The young queen gazed into Jess's eyes, hope and fear warring within her gaze. “And what does this make you, Jessica? How are you so easily able to grant me Claimance, the province of angels and legends?” Her words a breathless whisper, Jess smiling and speaking on, paying them no head.

  “And Karine? I promise you. I will revoke that authority you give me, once the danger is passed, or death claims me once more.”

  For a moment Karine’s expression was one of sheer revulsion, and it was as if Jess could read her mind. That one would dare assume Primacy upon Karine's sworn lands. Then Karine smiled, shaking her head ruefully, understanding, to some small degree, the hungers and temptations that had led to so many of the bitter wars in their history, but one reason that Rites of Claimance had been allowed to fade to the realm of legend, so very long ago.

  Jess stared breathless into Karine's eyes, having never felt such a connection to another soul, peering into another's mind, save her union with her shieldbrother, when they fought as one in the depths of Shadow.

  Karine nodded her head ruefully. “Of course, dear Jess. I, Karine Turnsby do grant Primacy to Jessica de Calenbry, Knight Protector of these lands!” She shuddered then, and curled up upon herself, as if suddenly aching for a lack of something she could not name, but felt the terrible absence of, nonetheless.

  Jess stood up tall, her bearing majestic, fearless. Her eyes all but sparkled with potency and regal might.

  Even as she did so, the monstrous horrors Karine had felt coming made their presence known. Glaring with savage, hate-filled gazes, their thick matted hides smoking as they approached the manor, their body’s very flesh beginning to sizzle and burn in the gentle morning sunlight, but this seemed only to enrage them. Three of them there were, all holding massive bone clubs, and as one they charged for the broken patio doors, hell bent on causing as much chaos and destruction as they could, Jess sensed, before they too fell apart to their destruction, their bodies doomed to dissolve as Jess and Karine’s powerful ritual pulled the lands out of the brink of the Shadowrealms, back into the living world entire.

  All this Jess immediately understood, all the secrets of these creatures which stepped upon her lands revealed to her in that moment, alien and unnatural as those beasts were. She snapped her gaze up to meet their own, locking their eyes with her terrible smile.

  As one, the creatures roared and charged towards the patio doors, preparing to smash doors and the very wall to kindling. Charging forward, even as Jess placed the bare skin of her palm upon the oak paneling, closing her eyes and concentrating. And in that moment, she was one with the wood, the building, the land. As never before.

  "Beasts of the Abyss! Monstrosities engineered of madness and discord. I renounce you! I abjure you from these lands! I rend free the souls, wrongfully bound to mortal vessels unlawfully constrained. I break those bonds and grant freedom to any soul that wishes to be free from the clutches of Hades and all its darkness! Rejoice in freedom! Return to the Garden of Life, and relinquish these monstrosities of death!"

  And with that powerful abjuration, Jess felt herself overwhelmed and subsumed by a beautiful golden light that enveloped her. She smiled, feeling like she was floating on majestic clouds, dancing, playful as a child in a wondrous dream.

  Peripherally, she heard faint screams, but she held no regret. It was the sound of the abominations dissolving in the majestic golden light that had enveloped her, dissolving to dirt, feces and maggots,until tattered bull hides and ancient brittle horns was all that was left of the monstrosities. The souls bound to the enchanted constructs joyfully tore free of their sundered bonds, racing with headless abandon through the ether in directions Jess could conceive of only in that instant as she too suddenly faced the sacred garden of souls, the destination of so many tormented spirits, ready to begin their existence anew.

  And even in the midst of that wondrous joy, Jess could feel the sweet temptation to let it all go. To put her burdens to rest, and once more launch deep into the cloudy ether, eager to commune with angels and the souls of laughing children. To rejoin her sisters dancing among the rainbows between the stars once more. She could almost see them waving at her, six beautiful girls, all looking somewhat like her, all filled with terrible knowledge and potential, all of them craving love and life in the end, just like she had. She knew she could, with but a single push, step free of this life; all its cares, woes, and pain left behind, and be welcome to dance among the stars once again. To play, happy and free, until she chose to embrace life's dream once more, where she knew she would be well cared for, in the tender arms of the great Tree of Life that loved her so.

  "The choice is yours, my dear Jezabelle," Twilight assured, at that moment sitting comfortably on the rainbow bridge, being gently petted by Jess's sisters. "You are free to leave the cares of this world, this era, far behind, and dance with your sisters through endless realms of dream and fantasy, until you choose to embrace life once more."

  Twilight yawned, allowing one of the sweetly attentive girls to scratch his chin ever so gently. He purred, opening his eyes once more. "Karine will regain full Primacy with the passing of your life. Into the light as well, I might add. The bards would remember you as an angel come to life to save the Turnsbys, before fading once more back to Heaven. Not a bad way to go, really," Twilight sighed. "Of course, your parents and siblings will miss you terribly, but they will get on with their lives after a period of bitter mourning for your passing, understanding that your fate was a heavy burden, heavier than most.”

  Her cat paused then, as if considering. "Of course, there is poor Onnika. You recall Onnika, yes? The sweet, golden-haired girl who was so infatuated with you, so delighted to be in your arms, so hoping to see you again with her love-struck smile. I do believe her uncle is in the process of attempting to join her soul to poor lost Josiah's, after having rather viciously used her himself. It is an agony that will, in all likelihood, send her pour soul straight into the Abyss, innocent food for a thousand demons." Twilight's eyes became unfathomable. "You know that death in the Shadowlands is a terrible thing as well as anyone, my dear Jezabelle. Great power and great terror go hand in hand in that realm."

  Her cat blinked, letting Jess's gaze fall. "But it is up to you, of course. You have fought long and hard, already saved many lives during this turn about the great wheel, and resisted the most horrific of temptations that would have doomed us all to a dark, utterly fishless existence."

  Her familiar shuddered. Sickened, Jess realized, at the very thought of a fishless existence. “You have every right to a time of peace. Of rest. A happy life as an innocent girl with no craving for adventure and danger, simply handsome boys and, of course, making delicious meals for your exceptionally brilliant and loyal familiar.” Her cat grinned, rolling on the rainbow bridge. “And quite frankly, the Great Tree is just happy you haven’t gone as bat crazy as your first mother, who has always wanted to grind all the universes under her heel, using you as her mad little tool of utter destruction.”

  Twilight yawned, the picture of bemused indulgence, for all that Jess felt helplessly trapped once more by her familiar's gaze, lost within ancient sapphire orbs shimmering with the final flickering cries of a universe long since burned to ash, endless ages ago. “In any case, time is ticking, my queen. If you would save the soul of that one girl who needs you so desperately, you must choose to embrace the pain of this mortal life once more, and you must do so now.”

  Jess nodded, knowing what she must do, for all that she felt all the burdens of her life weigh upon her with a painful clarity as she never had before, smiling sadly at her sisters. "I think you already know the choice I must make, Twilight. To allow a poor child to suffer endlessly in the Hells below, all because I was too tired of life to fight for her? Not a choice the daughter of my first father would have made."

  Her wise and terrible familiar gave an approving nod. “I had no doubt, my queen
. But the choice must always be your own.”

  Jess gave a sad final wave to the small group of girls gazing at her with solemn eyes and gentle smiles. "Goodbye, dear ones, I will play with you when this adventure ends, I promise." Her little siblings, both ancient and innocent, nodded and waved farewell, giving their shared cat a final pet before he too jumped off the rainbow bridge.

  8

  “Jess, Jess?” A voice, far off. Jess blinked, gasped, vomited upon the tiled ground, and coughed a ragged breath.

  “By the gods, Jess, what did you do?” This from her mother, squeezing Jess tight in a fierce hug, no small feat since Jess, though presently helmetless, still wore her armor.

  Jess blinked, confused. “Mom? How are you out? I thought I had you and Apple sealed safe.”

  "It's okay, Knight Protector. I was able to get them out." This from a smiling Karine, looking resplendent and majestic as ever Jess had seen her. It took Jess some moments to understand before she nodded, smiling.

  “I think, I think maybe I almost crossed over. So of course, your rightful mantle returned.”

  Karine grinned. “I think you are right, my dear Jessica de Calenbry. And let me be the first to say, thank you. Thank you with all my heart for saving my realm, and my people.”

  Jess nodded, smiling, still feeling shaky as she tried to stand up, and stumbled. “Oh, honey!” her mother cried out. “Please don’t force yourself, you were near death! I knew you were playing a dangerous game! Don’t you understand, Jessica? The magic of Primacy is no wizard’s bauble. It is the true power of the land, and he who wields it is lord and master over all! Yet he who is found to be unworthy is instantly consumed by the very land he sought to master!”

  Her mother sighed. “Or so the legends say. So many battles, so much war and intrigue. For centuries! All for the very arts now lost in ancient formula and codices no one remembers or understands anymore, and most, including the king himself, think we are the better for it!” She gave a sad little laugh. “And who else save my all too talented daughter would have the mad gift to bring it back?”