by Ulysses Troy
“What?” Ser Evrard was surprised and furious at the same time. It must not be easy for him to learn that you lived with a lie for all those years. “What the hell are you talking about? This shit makes no sense! Try to fool us one more time, and I will cut your throat.”
Terebaum laughed in pain. “Believe it or not, Evrard, this shit is real, every fucking part of it.” He spat out blood to the ground. “And she used it to resurrect Jacquard.”
“Resurrection?” The Knight with the winged helm said, like a child listening to a fairytale.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but I have seen enough to know the magic is . . . rather real. “Conrad spoke to the Knight. At least enough for a nineteen-year-old Baron.
“Are you serious?” Evrard was even more surprised. “This blood magic and all the things related to witchery are tales made up by the Holy Church, to frighten the smallfolk and gain control over them.”
“Not all of them are,” Conrad spoke again. “Trust me.”
“Tell us,” Evrard turned to Quenton and said. “Everything.”
“If I can last that long,” Terebaum said, and then began his story.
“I still remember the first time they ever met. It was in a feast that was organized in the LaPellás castle. Jacquard was the honored guest to Baron LaPellás and saw Lady Claudia for the first time sharing the Baron’s wine at his table. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, with her shining blonde hair, and bright blue eyes.” Terebaum’s voice was soft and emotional. He is telling the truth.
“I knew Jacquard fell in love with her at first sight.” He continued. “He was a hard man to impress and had many admirers among noble ladies, yet I had never seen him like that before. Lady Claudia de LaPellás was engaged to Baron Geoffrey de Gannát, and it would be impossible for them to be together. Jacquard was an honorable man, too honorable to love an engaged lady.”
“So, what had persuaded him to pursue it?” Evrard asked.
“He learned that Lady Claudia loved him too,” Terebaum said. “In that feast, they had only minutes to talk together, yet at the end of the feast, the Lady sent her servant to Jacquard with a letter that said she would wait for him under her window. Despite all of his concerns, Jacquard went there and found the lady waiting for him. Thus, their affair started. With the help of her servant, the Lady would escape from her window, and go to town with her lover. Together, they would ride, talk, and kiss for hours. It lasted a few weeks and Jacquard moved to the tavern in town. It was beautiful for them until . . .”
“Until?” Conrad asked.
“ . . . until one day Claudia mentioned a plan,” Terebaum said. “She said she had access to some kind of . . . magic and showed a book to Jacquard. She insisted that they could use it on her father, Baron LaPellás, to convince him to break off the engagement between her and Geoffrey, so she and Jacquard could marry.”
“And what answer did Jacquard give?” Evrard was still having a hard time believing this magic part. It was evident in his ironic voice.
“At first, he didn’t believe her, but when the Lady insisted . . . he accepted.”
“It was agreed that the Lady would use it on her father, and they would meet under her window on Monday, as usual. On Monday night, Jacquard and I went to the place to wait for the lady, but she never showed up. Jacquard waited for her until the dawn, only to return without her.”
“What happened?” Conrad asked.
“Her servant” Terebaum’s eyes were sad. “ . . . she finked on our plans to the Baron after finding out that her lady practiced blood magic. LaPellás was a religious man. A firm believer of the Holy Apostle’s teachings, the Baron was shaken with the news. He could not allow his daughter to spread her wickedness through the land of men. So, he made a sacrifice and imprisoned his own daughter in the castle of Unac’h Dorn, where she would spend her entire life in isolated captivity.
“After learning about the Lady’s fate, Jacquard decided to rescue her. He rode to the Castle Wellon and spoke with his brother Baron Albert, and requested his support to storm Unac’h Dorn. However, the Baron did not give him support, as it could end up with a war between two houses. He ordered his brother to forget about LaPellás, but Jacquard did not listen to him. Felt betrayed, he rode to the castle to rescue his eternal love, only with one companion: me.”
“Jacquard went to Unac’h Dorn, to rescue his Claudia. I was just a kid back then, but I was also his squire and would follow him to death, even though he did not want me to. Jacquard thought that he could rescue the lady on his own, but he was wrong. It was an ominous day, even the weather was full of anger. I still remember the dark clouds of the gathering storm above us . . .” Terebaum stopped for a moment, then continued. “Together, we sneaked into the Unac’h Dorn to rescue the lady in silence. Yet, someone had informed Baron LaPellás about our pathetic attempt of a rescue, and he was prepared for our arrival. They . . . were all over us in a glance, the men of LaPellás. They surrounded us as soon as we entered the castle, and the Baron wanted Jacquard to surrender and pay for his crime of violating his rights and insulting him in his estate, but Jacquard rejected him, saying he would not go without the Baron’s daughter and his love.”
“LaPellás . . . He cursed his own daughter; said he was a witch, a tool of the devil’s evil sent upon the world and the faithful. He said she had possessed Jacquard’s mind and heart with magic, to turn him into her minion. Yet Jacquard denied the Baron’s claims and threatened him against spreading malicious lies about Claudia.”
“Then?”
“Then, they killed him. A man-at-arms pierced a spear into his back before he could even see him. He died there, instantly. I was lucky; they spared me for being only a child. At least, old LaPellás had some pity.”
“After finding out what happened to her true and only love, Claudia grieved. She blamed herself for his tragic death and thought there was only one way to return from her mistake. A way darkened by evil.” He coughed again. “She escaped from her room with my help and found Jacquard’s lifeless body. She cut herself and spilled her blood on Jacquard. She said words she shouldn’t have said or even known. Words of evil and great darkness. I saw it with my own eyes. She fell to the ground dead, but her love arose alive. He returned from the blank darkness called ‘death’. Jacquard was alive again, but the woman he died for was not anymore.
“The Dark Rider is no one but Jacquard de Wellon. The red lips of his lover’s kiss awakened him from a sleep he was never supposed to have woken from. I was too young to understand at first, but now I know what she did there. She used blood magic to give him life, but in return, she gave up her own.”
“A sacrifice.” Evrard’s voice sounded sad.
“She felt responsible for all the trouble she had caused and her lover’s death. But . . .”
“Jacquard just couldn’t let it go.” Conrad finished the man’s sentence.
“Yes. He pledged to have revenge on the ones who ruined his and his Claudia’s lives. The Houses of LaPellás, Gannát, and even Wellon.”
“Why would Jacquard want to destroy his own house?” Evrard asked.
“Because he thought his brother, Baron Albert de Wellon, betrayed him.”
“But why?”
“Because he thought Albert was the one to betray him,” Terebaum said. “And the rest of his House.” Then continued to tell his story. “Baron LaPellás died a year later from a disease, but that was not enough for Jacquard. He wanted them to suffer, all of those who he thought related to his dear Claudia’s death. He promised himself to destroy them all, one by one. The House of LaPellás, for sealing the fate of Claudia. The House of Gannát, for causing such a conflict. And his own house, for betraying him. He cursed them all with words and lived only for the day he would finally have his revenge. As his squire, I was loyal to him. He was my mentor and friend. Perhaps the father I never had. But my eyes were too blind to see, to see the darkness in him, to see its corruption and sin.”
<
br /> Terebaum coughed again. “That ominous night, when Jacquard was returned from the dead only to meet a much more painful fate, I swore to him to support his cause with my life. I made a mistake. At the end of the day, he became a dark rider under the moonless night.”
“But how did he manage to turn an entire band of men into pawns to be used in his petty vengeance?” The Black Knight asked.
“He told them lies, Evrard. Right to their faces, one by one. He cheated them with noble and just promises. He said he would give gold coins to them, precious silk for their wives, and silver toys for their children. He said he would give them the life that had been taken from them by the nobles, through a web of cruelty and lies. Many of the smallfolk were already crushed under heavy taxes and nobility’s never-ending greed. They did not have a hard time believing him. With the ones who wanted to join our ranks, we could even build a small army, but Jacquard wanted to keep the scale small for the sake of secrecy and quality. We picked our core men by men; we were no bandits, much better than any of them.”
“Then what about the ones at Unac’h Dorn?” Evrard asked. “I did not have a hard time slaying them. They were not like the ones here.”
Terebaum smiled in pain. “They were only baits for you, just like their god-damned commander, Retlaff. Jacquard wanted to deceive the local authorities into thinking that the small force of recruits and pathetic peasants were the real Brotherhood. He was the one who revealed their location to your golden lady.” So, it wasn’t Merlon at all. Conrad thought as the rogue knight continued to speak. “He put Retlaff, a bloody malefactor, in the charge of this meagre force to attract attention to them and Unac’h Dorn. He wanted them to get killed by you so that you would think you had destroyed the Brotherhood and its evil leader for good and put your guard down, while its real force would be here to destroy you.”
“Retlaff, he was strange enough. You did not like him, did you?” Conrad asked.
“No.” Terebaum answered. “He had joined our forces on special request by Jacquard’s supporters from the North. He was a cutthroat without a sense of dignity. If it were up to me, I would have hanged the fucker on a tree.”
“Why are you revealing everything?” Conrad asked. “To give us the information to catch the Rider?”
“This . . .” He took a quick look at all the lifeless bodies around “ . . . was the last straw. “The Jacquard I knew would never abandon his men.” Terebaum smiled. “The Jacquard I knew would rather die here with me. Heck, the Jacquard I knew would not even attempt something like this. This man you saw was no Jacquard.” He said. “He was a rider of the dark. And you . . . you must stop him. The man he became. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Terebaum spoke. “Lady LaPellás knew. She made a deal with us in the past, to use our services to eliminate someone.”
“What?” Evrard’s voice sounded furious. “Don’t dare to lie to me, Terebaum!” He touched his steel. But that only made Terebaum laugh.
“Haha haha. Do you think I would lie to you right now, Evrard? Yes, your precious golden lady made a deal with dirty outlaws.” He said. “When you were a child, you were smarter than this.” Terebaum hesitated for a moment before continuing to speak. “At first, the Brotherhood really fought against cruelty, to gain the sympathy of smallfolk. We were the ones to kill the merciless Barons and Knights, and hang them on the trees of the Jade Forest. We were the ones to fight against the unjust and the right of the first night . . .”
“The right of the first night has been banned in Baltaire for more than a hundred years,” Evrard said. “And King Philippe executes the law with fierce response, ensuring the right will never be used again. I have not encountered a single noble daring to claim the right.”
“I know, Evrard.” Terebaum coughed. “But don’t you know there are places that even a king can’t see?”
“Evrard, he used the smallfolk’s hatred against the nobility. No one knew he was of noble blood. At first, he made them promises about equality and glory, but once he became a legend among them, he didn’t have to move a finger to draw them. The men came to join him one by one. And also, someone . . . someone I don’t know was supporting him with the vinnachs.”
“The men who died today, under our command . . . they were no evil, Evrard. Jacquard . . . we made them believe the nobility was the sole cause of the misery in their lives. Among their ranks, there were men who had lost their families in the pointless wars of nobles. Fathers that buried their sons and sons that buried their mothers. Brothers whose sisters had been raped by the noble Knights. The people whose villages had been pillaged and burned, left behind to rot. They were right to take up arms, yet we used them as a simple and valuable tool. Jacquard lied to their faces and lured them to fight in a battle that only existed for his very own selfish act of revenge.”
“The men of The Brotherhood.” Conrad spoke, looking at Terebaum’s wound, now even bloodier. I hope he can last for a few more minutes. “Didn’t they hesitate to fight under a man returning from death?”
“Do you think they knew?” Terebaum said with a weak voice. “I led the men most of the time. Giving orders, recruiting new members, training them. Jacquard would only appear to them when his presence was needed, yet it was very impactful. A dark shadow that no one knew . . . And a formidable symbol, for the cause of The Brotherhood. A symbol that could not be broken, destroyed, or lightened.”
“The men who fought here . . . were they all your men?” The Knight with velvet clothes asked.
“No,” Terebaum said. “We have more men, the best of our best. A unit, made of able killers instead of trained and armed peasants like the ones there. They are the ones who joined the Brotherhood’s cause not for avenging their kin but to make a fortune. We did not even have to train some of them; they were already good at . . . killing. Among them, there are professional mercenaries, men-at-arms that went rouge after violating laws, landless knights that grew sick of wandering for a noble to enter his service, just to be treated like a pawn. They all know how to hold a sword, how to breach the walls of a castle and form a line of men. Today, the men that fought here might be the bulk of our forces, but they were not the best ones.”
“The ones in the North, they are even more dangerous than these. And they will follow Jacquard to death, as now they have no other choice to survive. But they are not his only weapon.” Terebaum’s voice sounded tired.” “There is a valley . . . the ‘Sacred Valley’ . . . he must be riding for it. In the North, Jacquard has very powerful allies, allies that are willing to support him not only with coins but with men too.”
“Who are they? You must tell us if we are about to face Jacquard.” Conrad said.
“As I said before, I don’t know.” Terebaum said. “Jacquard was carefully concealing these connections, even from me. I just know they were eager to support him for reason and were the primary source of the Brotherhood’s resources, but as they were the ones who provided us with Retlaff, they shouldn’t augur well.”
“Today what happened here . . . too many innocents died in our hands. I tried to convince him . . . to change his mind . . . but . . .” Terebaum was speaking with difficulty. “ . . . he did not listen. He is no more the man I admired and looked up to. The death . . . and the resurrection . . . they changed him. He became a dark rider under the moonless night. I . . . I made a mistake.”
Quenton de Terebaum’s bleeding was continuing, and the blood had now spread to his legs. “We need someone to heal him,” Conrad said.
“I don’t want to be healed.” Terebaum looked at their faces. “Hell awaits me. After the things I have seen, I think sometimes second chances are not good. No, do it. Here.” He looked at The Black Knight. “Evrard, I ask you for one favor. I and my family served your house for a very long time with loyalty. My father was a soldier under your house’s command. He was even Knighted by your grandfather after fighting for him at the battle of Saltygrass. I gladly served your house and your uncle for many year
s. I remember you when you were a toddler, running in the yards of your castle with the other children . . .”
“Say what you mean to say, Terebaum.” Evrard’s voice was icy, yet Conrad was able to understand that he was trying to sound that way, purposely.
“I say . . .” He coughed again. “ . . . please, take my life with the blade. I don’t want to rot in a prison, just to see my father’s name will stained when they learn who I was.” He begged Evrard. “Please, just kill me, and preserve my honor. It’s the only thing I have got.”
“Honor?” The Knight in the blue velvet said. “After all the things that you have done? All the men you have killed, and villages you burned? You are an outlaw. A man without honor.”
“No,” Conrad said to the Knight. “Back at the fight, he could easily have finished us, yet he decided to fight us with honor,” Then he looked at Evrard. “Do it, or I will. He deserves that much.”
The Black Knight paused, and then spoke sadly. “I . . . have to be alone with him.”
Chapter Eight
Parting the Ways
“That fucking contest nearly cost me my life!” Robert de Lothiré was red with fury. “A fucking arrow went just past me and pierced into a man’s arm sitting just next to me!” He looked at Conrad’s face then, and his rage turned into mischief. “You know that when I first saw the bandits, I thought they were hired by my dear mother-in-law to assassinate me!” Then, he burst into laughter as if it were not him speaking so angrily just a moment before. “Hahaha! Ah, it is hard to be married to a woman who has Lady Paquin as her mom. You must always be aware of the possible dangers to keep your head on your goddamned shoulders. Even the Devil himself would be a better alternative under these terms.” He smiled again. “Anyway, my friend, I need to return to my shitty castle because, with every passing moment, my dear mother-in-law may be arranging a coup from inside to seize my lands and shit over my head. Who knows, maybe she has already bought all my men by now and they will thrust a bloody spear into my ass as soon as I appear at the gates of my castle.” He looked at Conrad’s face with grief. “Perhaps it would be better if that arrow just hit me in the eye.”