Arc 4: Chapter 5: Sleuth

Arc 4: Chapter 5: Sleuth

As I descended a switchbacking series of stairs cut into the outer face of the keep, heading to meet Emma at one of the gates, a shadow slipped from behind a corner to stop me.

I halted, immediately going on guard at the glint of armor under the noonday sun. Facing me from a lower step, blocking my path forward, stood the Empress’s First Sword. She stood tall as me, perhaps even a bit taller, her broad shoulders dramatized by pauldrons shaped into the semblance of spiraling sea shells. She had her clamshell helm tucked under one arm, her scarred, bronzed face on display.

“Off to chase more shadows?” Ser Kaia Gore asked, raising a thick eyebrow. She had a slight accent I’d never been able to place. The perpetual wind spiraling around the Fulgurkeep made her ash-colored hair dance, revealing the shaved sides of her skull.

I glanced past her down the steps. I saw no one else — the nearest sentry stood well more than a good shout away. We were alone.

“I’m on another errand,” I confirmed, on guard. Of all the members of Rosanna’s household, I trusted this former adventurer the least. I’d never fought with her, and didn’t know how deep her loyalties to her liege were. We had interacted very little since I'd arrived at the castle.

A lazy smile formed across Kaia’s lips. She had predator eyes, ones that reminded me of some huge cat — disinterested, so long as she wasn’t hungry for blood. “The Empress has a lot of trust in you,” she noted conversationally.

“Sure,” I agreed. The steps were quite narrow. They were siege stairs, not built for safety, and it wouldn’t take much to get knocked off and fall far down to the wave-soaked rocks below. Good chance none of the sentries on the nearby towers would even notice over the sound of crashing water and wind.

“I know you,” the royal champion said, watching me.

I narrowed my eyes. “We’ve seen one another regularly for weeks, Ser Knight. Are you saying we’re friends, now?”

Ser Kaia snorted. “I’ve met you before this city.” She lifted a steel-clad hand, pointing a finger covered in small, intricately jointed bits of metal at me. “You were at Rhan Harrower’s execution. You held the axe that separated the old bear’s head from his shoulders.”

I felt my hackles go up. No way she’d seen my face — the glamour of that place had been on me, and I’d worn my faerie cloak at the time.

“I recognize that weapon,” she said, nodding to the long tail of my coat where it covered the axe, which I’d shaved down again to better carry. “I recognize your build, the way you move. I don’t forget these things.” She shrugged.

“What’s your point?” I demanded.

“I asked Her Grace about ye,” she said, her odd accent spiking on the last few words — a nervous habit, perhaps — “and got quite a story. I hear you used to serve her as one of her knights. That you were once her First Sword.”

I braced one foot on the stair beneath me, trying to make the motion casual. “That was a very long time ago,” I said.

Kaia shrugged again, making her elaborate armor clink. “Sure. And nowadays, you’re some scary Headsman, boogeyman to the aristos and all that. But you used to be a royal champion, like I am now.”

She studied me appraisingly. “I’ve got your old job, right at your old queen’s side. You good with that?”

I blinked. That was what this was about? I let the tension in my limbs relax.

“As I said, it was a long time ago.” I let some of the hostility in my voice slip away too. “I have no hard feelings toward you, Ser Kaia, and I’m glad Rose has someone guarding her.”

Kaia’s winged eyebrows climbed very high. “Rose, is it?”

I bit back a curse. I’d let the nickname slip out, forgetting that most wouldn’t take kindly to such an informal moniker for the Empress.

“That’s another thing,” Kaia said, once again aiming a finger at my chest. “I’ve been talking to some of the men-at-arms from Karledale. They’ve been telling me stories too.” She let a grin perfectly matched to her lazy eyes spread across her face. “They say you and Her Grace were close. Very close.”

I scowled. “And?”

“You fucking the Empress?” The knight asked me. The question came out like a whip crack, bouncing off the side of the enormous castle in a barking echo.

I glared at the knight, and spoke very clearly even through my teeth. “No. I’m not sleeping with Her Grace.”

Kaia sniffed, clearly not believing me. “She always sends me away when she’s talking to you. Sends her handmaids away, too. She doesn’t show anyone else that kind of trust, and this city is full of her enemies. You’ve known her since she was a child. And...” She waved a hand at me, almost as though casting a spell. “You’re not bad to look at, with that glaring face, those shiny eyes.”

“I don’t have time for this,” I snapped, and began to walk down the steps. She’d move, or I’d move her. Instead, she pressed a hand to my chest and stopped me cold. She was shockingly strong — even when I pushed against her arm, it didn’t budge.

“What Her Grace does in private is her business,” Kaia said flatly. “She’s a beauty, and has a lot on her shoulders. She has ye bounce her to let off some steam, that’s all well and good. But I want you and I to have an accord, understand? You do anything to bring harm on her, and I’ll pull out your ribs and hang you by them.”

I studied her a moment, still with her hand on my chest. Then, letting my own lazy smile touch my lips I said, “Is this jealousy?”

Kaia’s amused eyes became cold. “I was a mercenary before all this. Now I’m at the top of the world.” She waved her hand across the foggy expanse of Garihelm below us. “I’m not going to let some old flame fuck me over. You make me look bad, and I will rip you apart.”

She let those words hang, jabbing her finger into the center of my chest, then shrugged nonchalantly. “Just for the principle of the thing, see?”

I sighed. I really didn’t need any more enemies. Calming myself I said, “I am not Queen Rosanna’s lover.” I used her native title, halfway between familiarity and formality. “We were never... Like that. There were rumors in Karles, it’s true, but she’s like a sister to me.”

Kaia squinted at me, canting her head to one side so her loose mohawk fell down one half of her face. “You’re a liar. You have feelings for her, and they’re not brotherly. I see it in the way you look at her. I hear it in the way you talk to her, and hang on her words.”

I found I couldn’t meet the knight’s eyes then. Glancing out over the waters I said, “We’ve been through a lot together.”

Kaia waited, still not budging.

“Maybe there was a time,” I admitted. “When we were young. But neither of us ever acted on it.”

After a minute of silence, Kaia nodded. “Good. Keep it that way, and you and I won’t have a problem. Also, most of her guard assume you’re her lover. I won’t spread it from my lips, but you should know. Step light, eh?”

She clapped a hand on my shoulder, then stepped past me to ascend the steps. Her seafoam-colored cloak brushed past my legs, rippling in the wind, and soon enough the light song of her armor faded.

***

It rained again that day. A slow, lethargic drizzle, like the sky quietly wept.

“What’s got you sour?” Emma asked me as we navigated the crowded sprawl of Garihelm.

I sighed, feeling very tired. “The royal bodyguard thinks I’m cuckolding the Emperor.”

Emma considered that a moment. “Are you?” She asked.

When I glared at her, she held up her hands defensively. “Just asking. I did get a certain sense about you and the Empress.”

“You thought that about me and Catrin too,” I groused, annoyed.

“Yes!” Emma agreed brightly. “And Catrin very much wants you.” She shrugged, and adjusted the sword belted at her hip. “It was obvious enough.”

She wants my blood maybe, I thought darkly. “Why is everyone so interested in my love life all of the sudden?” I complained aloud, shifting out of the way of a porter ploughing through the crowds.

“It’s more that I’m worried about the lack of it,” Emma said with infuriating casualness. “Your dedication to duty is very admirable and all, but you’re still human, Alken. Mostly, anyway.” She shrugged one shoulder. “You need to loosen up every once in a while, keep yourself sane. Or did you go and do something foolish like swear a vow of celibacy? I hear some knights do.”

“Starting to wish I had,” I muttered under my breath. We passed by a clericon in a red robe proselytizing to a crowd. I caught the barbed trident of iron dangling from his neck, and adjusted the brim of my hat to better hide my face.

“Have you considered Ser Kaia was trying to help you?” Emma asked, her tone more curious than lecturing. “Markham Forger is not a good man to cross, and if even the rumor that you’re in a relationship with his wife gets out...”

I did, still bemused by this unexpected development. Emma let a good amount of her blood drip onto the grass, then drew her ornate sword. The blade glinted in a beam of sunlight breaking through the canopy, the bright steel burning above the sigil of House Carreon — a horned cairnhawk.

Emma sliced the blade across the ground, forming a perfect circle with practiced precision. I felt a sudden pressure in the air — she’d used Aura in that ritual motion. Then, lightly stepping out of the circle bounding her blood, the young noblewoman began to mutter under her breath.

I caught the word she repeated in a chanting mantra, and immediately understood.

“Qoth,” Emma Orley, once Carreon, whispered into the wind. “Child of Briar, Son of Bane, hear mine words and serve me again. Qoth of the Briar, heed mine call, thy mistress beckons thee from thy hall. By oaths sworn, by word, by blood, by flesh, by deed, by vassalage traded, by secrets known.”

Emma’s slitted eyes suddenly opened wide. Usually amber, they suddenly glinted with an almost crystalline red light. “My godmother granted me your service, Briar Elf. Come! I am Nath’s disciple, and you will obey.”

A shadow began to form inside the circle. The sea breeze died, and a coldness which had nothing to do with the peace of the dead fell over the grove.

And a chief servant of Bloody Nath, the Angel of the Briar, answered Emma’s summons.

Within the summoning circle, an ungainly shape formed. Shadow and wind congealed into solid phantasm, forming the body of the elf until it became real enough to see properly.

He had a head too large for his long, thin neck, long arms with many-jointed fingers, and glassy red eyes. His teeth were sharp and tinted green in a wide mouth, peeking from within the folds of a very slightly elongated skull not unlike a short muzzle. His gray hair hung lank around a rash-blotched pate, and he wore a long, thin robe woven of green-and-red thread, too big for him, its threadbare hem trailing across the ground. Wolf fur crawled across his pallid flesh in uneven patches, particularly on his forearms and knuckles.

The Briar faerie blinked at us, his eyes moving first to me, and then to Emma. He grinned, revealing his fully array of crooked teeth, and dipped into a courtly bow.

“My lady Carreon!” Qoth said, delight and malice in the rasping music of his voice. “And Ser Headsman. It has been some time.”

Emma sniffed, sheathing her sword in a single smooth motion. “It’s Orley now, Qoth. Do try to remember it.”

Again, the elf blinked. The motion had a starkly reptilian quality. “How delightful,” he murmured. “And how can I be of service to you this day, mistress?”

Emma had a satisfied expression on her face, and an excited glint in her eye. I could tell she was pleased her ritual had worked — I guessed it to be the first time she’d tried since leaving Venturmoor. But she caught the look on my face then, and her smugness wilted into chagrin.

Coughing, she addressed the wicked elf. “We are searching for a dyghoul. You know what that is?”

Qoth’s demeanor took on an edge of deliberate patience. “Indeed I do, mistress. A mortal shade trapped within a corpse. A revenant.”

“...Yes.” Emma shuffled on her feet. “Well, this one in particular must be found, and quickly. Can you do it?”

“Hm.” Qoth squatted down on his haunches, very much like a skinny toad, causing his robe to pool around him. “Perhaps. I must have the shade’s scent.”

Emma and I traded dubious glances. Neither of us had anything like that.

Thinking it over I said, “Kieran spent time here, in this cemetery.” For inspiration, Laessa had said. “He was a painter, and did work here. Can you use that?”

Qoth considered, running his ruby-eyed gaze across the grave markers. “Perhaps. I shall have a look around. If it is as you say, then this place will remember him. Remain here a while.”

He scurried off then, moving on all fours like a spider, long robe sliding behind him. Creepy bastard, I thought.

Emma shifted again, and kept very pointedly quiet.

“You didn’t tell me you could still call the familiar Nath gave you,” I said, without looking at her. Even still, I caught her wince out of the corner of my eye.

“I wasn’t certain I could.” Emma hedged, her voice taking on an uncharacteristically wheedling quality.

“What else can you still do?” I asked her, speaking low so the scurrying creature in the trees couldn’t hear me. Then, narrowing my eyes I said, “do you still see Nath?”

“No!” Emma spoke hastily. “I haven’t seen her since Venturmoor, I promise.”

Seen her, maybe, but heard her voice in your thoughts? In your dreams? Nath was Onsolain, and the Lady of the Briarfae. Creatures like Qoth were infamous for their ability to wield poison, even in words and thoughts.

I’d neglected this for too long. Maybe Vicar’s words beneath Rose Malin, that Nath hadn’t forgotten or given up on Emma, had also poisoned me. Even still, I’d taken the warning to heart. It was my job to guide my ward away from the darkness, from the tainted legacy of House Carreon and the supernatural forces seeking to use her.

“Do you know who the Brothers of the Briar are?” I asked quietly, speaking in a calm voice.

Emma remained quiet a minute before answering. “I’ve heard the name. I don’t know much, other than that they served Lady Nath.”

“They serve the Briar,” I corrected. “Nath is just a patron to the Briarfae, and she wasn’t always that. The Brothers of the Briar were heroes once, Em. Wizards and rangers, clerics, and especially knights. They took treacherous gifts from Qoth’s brethren, and it turned them into monsters.”

I let those words hang a while before continuing. Emma did not interrupt with any acerbic commentary or pointed cynicism, which I took as a good sign. “Briarland was once a mortal kingdom, did you know that? It was guarded by an order very much like the Knights of the Alder Table. Now it’s choked with qliphoth and ruled by creatures like Qoth. I’ve seen it before. It’s an evil place.”

I turned to face her then, and put a hand on her shoulder. She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Qoth isn’t a pet, or a convenient resource. Nath and her allies cannot be trusted. Talk to me next time before you play the warlock, alright?”

Emma’s lips pressed tightly together, and she wouldn’t look at me. I thought perhaps she might shrug me off. But she only nodded.

I couldn’t tell how genuine her agreement was, and before I could say anything else Qoth scurried back. The elf propped one long arm behind his back and the other in front of him, a courtier’s pose. His impish grin widened into something ghastly.

“I have a scent. The poor child was here, and recently.”

I turned toward the faerie. “How long ago?”

“Some time before dawn,” Qoth said. “Then he left quite suddenly. The trees saw it — there are dryads in some of them, placed here long ago to guard the dead.”

I folded may arms. The elf was holding something back. “Explain,” I growled, impatient.

But Qoth only grinned, and kept silent.

“I order you to answer him,” Emma said, her voice hardening.

Qoth stiffened, then bowed his head. “He was taken from this place by another.”

“Another?” Emma asked, tilting her head to one side. “Who? Did the spirits see them?”

“A man,” Qoth murmured, the white spheres in the middle of his ruby eyes drifting lazily toward the girl. “A man dressed all in black, with one eye and a staff.”

Then, very deliberately, he looked at me and grinned wider. “A staff with a nail embedded into its head.”

Despite the pleasant spring day, I felt very cold then.

“Lias.”