Squire of War

by M. H. Johnson

  Jess grimaced, gazing at her feet, unable to bear her shieldbrother’s pitying gaze. “When he looked at me, I sensed his malice, how much he despised me. How he reveled in the thought of my pain. It’s like I caught a glimpse of his foul, festering soul. It sounds like madness, I know. Who could guess the thoughts of another? And I play the fool so often, so well. But in his eyes… so filled with malevolent hostility, somehow, I heard the echo of all the girls who had screamed in his arms before. Even as his eyes burned with the need to torment my flesh, to make me writhe and buck with pain, as he had so many before, in his horrid career as a henchman for this inquisitor turned head proctor.”

  Her eyes met his own. “After Hatsk left her in an agonized, broken heap, Gruntig used her, delighting in her screams, forcing her to suffer inside and out.”

  Malek frowned. “I don’t doubt you, Jess. It’s just, I never heard of such a gift.”

  Jess’s bitter chuckle turned to a sob. “Most of the time, I’m just like you. I don’t know what people are thinking, how would I? I can just sense, well, if someone is lying to me. Not to help me or butter up the truth, but to hurt me, to swindle me, to set me up for horror. Any trace of malice, and their words just fester in the air, and I know that whatever they said was to cause me grief.

  “But Malek, it doesn’t normally go any further than that. I just know if someone is being a right bastard and bears me ill will, after whispering such fork tongued words. But other than that? You know how often I get things wrong, especially in class, especially if my friends play a trick. If you or Raphael tell me the wrong answer to a question, and you don’t know it’s wrong, or you say it with love, or you speak of any issue that does not involve me personally… how would I have any idea if you spoke the truth or not?”

  Jess shuddered. “If that monster hadn’t been struck with the mad urge to whip and rape me if he could, thinking his rank and my chastisement gave him such awful power over me, pinning my gaze as he whispered such dark things, I wouldn’t have been forced to see the hideous blackness of his soul.”

  Malek frowned. “What if you came across a savage killer who didn’t see you as a target? Who could care less about you?”

  Jess shook her head. “As long as he wasn’t lying to my face with malice in his heart, I wouldn’t suspect a thing. I wouldn’t have the faintest clue as to the darkness in his soul. No more than any of us Squires are trained to sense a person’s motives, I mean.”

  She gazed at her still shaking hands. “And I felt such a fury...”

  “Like with Billy,” Malek softly said.

  “Yes. Like with Billy.”

  “Of course, Billy’s still alive.”

  Jess closed her eyes. “Billy’s was a twisted hunger. But he was still a boy. And he wasn’t intending to rape me. Just betray you, me, everyone in our circle. And I caught a glimpse of the hunger he had for Josie, tied to the malice he had for me. For all of us. Bitter, envious, hungry. And it was close, Malek. Gods, was it close.” She shuddered with regret. “Had I all Eloquin’s skills then? He would surely have perished in a heartbeat…” She gazed mournfully at a solemn-eyed Twilight. “Before my cat could talk some sense into me.”

  Malek held her close, kissing her forehead, saying nothing as she sobbed on his shoulder. “Gruntig was the name of that bastard?”

  Jess trembled and nodded.

  “How do you know his name?”

  Jess blinked back a tear. “I just know.”

  Malek shook his head. “What’s done is done. And if he had forced himself upon not just one, but multiple women, it was the king’s justice, bringing him down.” He chuckled ruefully. “Had he actually managed to hurt you himself, Jess, I would have cleaved his head from his shoulders without a lick of regret, and off for the hills for us both, and done with this school.”

  Jess nodded. “I still feel like a savage killer.”

  Malek flashed the bleakest of smiles. “That we are, Jess. Eloquin’s blackened daggers, let us never forget.”

  Jess sighed. “You know how fiercely I love him. I will fight against all odds when it is time for us to ride once more. But just the same, wouldn’t you love to escape this bittersweet savage life, to lose yourself in realms of dream and wonder?”

  Malek chuckled softly. “It is a sweet dream, and even if it turns out to be naught more than fantasy, a distraction from life’s bitter lessons, I have every intention of being there when Rens and his coterie ward us from this mysterious rift when it appears, the same as you.”

  Jess hugged him tight. “Good. The thought of you being by my side brings me comfort. I could barely hang on as a Squire who was given free leave to act the playful fool whenever we were not called to duty. Escaping in constant distraction, doing all I could to push awful memory away. Now though, showered with contempt, expected to bear the weight of every class, every ire-filled professor’s gaze, focus on every boring shred of drivel even as my ears begin to play back the clash of steel, the screams of dying men such that I feel that I am drowning in it, desperate to dart out of those classes and retreat to the rooftop garden that is my sanctuary...”

  Jess shuddered. “I know I am an utter disappointment to my professors. And I no longer care. I am at my limit, and I pray something changes soon, or I shall pack my bags, mount my mare, and just let Mercy take me wherever she will.”

  “That is always an option, my Jess,” Twilight soothed, rubbing against her, butting away her tears. “Should these wild games Eloquin plays cease to entertain you, should the foolish idiocy so infecting the professors of this school ever become too much to bear, a world of adventure and delight awaits us, and we need never look back, not even once.”

  “Thank you, Twilight,” Jess whispered, stroking her purring cat, even as Malek gazed sadly on.

  Jess forced a smile. “Come on, shieldbrother, enough moping from me. What’s done is done, as you said, and we are just lucky that Gruntig didn’t recognize your face, for all that your name must have gotten around, after what you did to the head proctor today.”

  Malek grinned. “Lucky indeed. If that fool had bothered to watch Eloquin disciplining me, who knows what would have happened?”

  Jess shrugged. “At least that serpent is dead, with many more still slithering about our home. We still have missing children to save and a bastard of a brewer to stop, no matter the stains upon our souls.”

  Malek nodded. “So, what’s the plan?”

  Jess gazed at Twilight.

  “Of course, mistress. I will let you know the moment he moves to strike.”

  Jess flashed a grateful smile. “Thank you, beloved one.”

  Malek frowned. “What was that, Jess?”

  “My cat has just agreed to keep a hawk’s eye on Glist. The moment our brewer does anything out of the ordinary, Twilight will race to inform us.”

  Malek nodded. “Good. Then assuming our luck holds and no professor or proctor thinks to strike, we will wait for his signal. I’m heading back to quarters for my gambeson and mail. No one thinks much of gloves, being a fashion statement as much as practicality, but some mail lined gloves will give us hand protection and anonymity both.”

  Jess grinned, raising her calf-skin gloves lined with links of steel. “Great minds think alike, brother. And padding is well and good, but not if it gives the game away. A thin gambeson only, and a dark tunic over the mail.”

  Her shieldbrother winked, heading out the door. “Of course. And glad I am that those fools didn’t completely defang you. You have weapons enough for both of us.”

  Jess smiled at that, settling down to stretch and meditate, preparing herself for what was to come, if indeed, anything was to come of it at all.

  And quite unexpectedly, she fell asleep.

  “Jess, wake up, we have trouble!”

  39

  Jess groaned, torn out of softest dream, breath hitching as she caught sight of her familiar’s sapphire eyes. “Glist has made his move, we have no time!”

 
; Jess jolted fully awake, heart racing with a furious sort of vindication even as her stomach churned with dread.

  So, this was it, then. It was really happening.

  “Hurry, Jess! No time!”

  Jess shivered, calming her racing thoughts, forcing herself to focus methodically, just as if she were preparing to ride under Eloquin's banner once more, and not acting independently under threat of expulsion.

  Eyes upon the quilted gambeson she had laid out, slipping it on in a heartbeat, her hauberk of mail donned but seconds later, then buckling on her swordbelt, saber in its special sheath, slipping on her mailed gloves and white robe last of all, glad that her full-length robe of shame covered all trace of her armaments, the hole she had slit into it allowing for easy draw of her saber, folds carefully prepped so her hand could effortlessly yank the blade free. Gloves hooked to mail shirt and any slash could be parried, even at the cost of bruises and perhaps cracked bone.

  “You look fine, Jess, let’s go!”

  A final moment to slip a wooden baton up the arm of one of her robes, and she was at the door, frowning at that last moment. “But Twilight, what about Malek?”

  His gaze narrowed. “I thought he was coming back to meet with you, after donning his gear. You are now saying you made no change of plan, that he was expected.”

  Jess swallowed, her stomach twisting in an anxious knot. “Yes, Twilight, that is exactly what I’m saying.”

  Twilight shook his head. “I find this troubling. But unless you’d have another child fall to this monster’s wiles, we need to intercept Glist now! To Malek we will race immediately after, assure the fool isn’t abed, for all I sense is stupor from him.”

  Jess frowned, knowing there was no time for distraction, instead racing out the door, feeling the slightest tug to her ankle, adroitly rolling into a tumble and leaping back to her feet in an instant, as if dodging unseen ambush, even as the clatter of glassware and crockery echoed behind her. She darted back only a moment to see that a plate piled high with foodstuffs and drinks left by her door had been scattered in such a mess as to assure a long night for whoever came to clean it.

  Twilight frowned. “Odd. Keep alert, Jess. The corridors should be near empty at this hour.”

  Jess nodded, racing for the turn before lurching back, ducking her head with desperate urgency as a wide-bladed dueling knife slashed for her throat.

  “Bloody whore! Let’s see how skilled you are now, when live steel is in play!” Hissed none other than Duggin, stinking of sweat and ale, thin sandy hair plastered to his head, eyes blazing with fanatic, drugged hate. “It’s your fault all this happened to me. Your fault I am trapped in this body, in this life, mocked by everyone, when I could have been something better! Something beyond the harping fools filling this college! Forever young, savoring the High Hunt by the side of a living god! But you wrecked it, you goddamned whore! You wrecked it, and I will claim your life!”

  A bolt of terror, disbelief at the madness of the claim turning instantly to coldest calculation, time instantly slowing as she embraced battle madness once more.

  Noting his shift in stance, eyeing Duggin’s foot and a half long sharpened blade; four inches wide at the hilt tapering to an abrupt point with multiple fullers running its length. It was as much a short sword as dueling dagger, and deadly at close range.

  Duggin’s grin was pure madness. He roared as he thrust and slashed.

  He was a fellow student, and he was trying to kill her.

  So be it.

  Step slide and pivot as Duggin slashed high, wrist grabbing at forearm, pulled free with a snarl.

  Jess dove in.

  Mail lined glove catching furious thrust, palm strike to elbow. Duggin howled, pulling back, slipping free.

  Jess stepped inside his guard as injured arm was pulled back, pivoting left, palm slamming into face, nose a pulverized mass of cartilage and gore.

  Duggin stumbled back with a cry, blood shooting out of his shattered nose, eyes squeezed shut with shock and pain.

  Snap kick to wrist, Duggin’s deadly blade sent flying as he hissed and lurched back.

  Jess roared and lashed out, boot slamming into knee.

  Crack of bone, horrified shriek, Duggin crashing down.

  Lurch up and finish!

  Jess, glaring into her foe’s dazed eyes, boot heel above solar plexus, ready to deliver furious death.

  “Please, please, don’t kill me!”

  Sobbing, desperate eyes. A ruined face. His pleading stare so like Gruntig’s.

  This boy a fool, drugged gaze only now clearing, no rapist.

  Bitter and desperate.

  Pleading with her soul.

  Jess shuddered and stepped away, head spinning, time crashing back to normal in an instant.

  Twilight’s gaze locked upon her own. “Well done, mistress. You could have finished him off, well within your rights, yet you chose not to. Showing mercy only when he is utterly vanquished, a threat this night no more.”

  Her familiar’s gaze hardened. “But remember General Eloquin’s words. Never, ever leave an enemy at your back. At a later time, you know what you must do.”

  Jess nodded, shaking at the thought. “I must question him. If he is sincere in his regret, his fear of me, well and good. If not...”

  Twilight nodded. “He is done, and there is no further time. Let’s be off!”

  Jess spared one last glance at his killing weapon, Duggin having no sheath for it, a dark suspicion creeping up her spine even as she gazed at the blade, shimmering in the moonlight.

  And Malek was still unaccounted for.

  Jess hissed. “Damn, let’s move, Twilight. Something doesn’t feel right here!”

  Twilight nodded, the pair loping down the corridor as one, Jess eager to make the stairs as Twilight led the way.

  “Halt, Penitent! Your crime has been witnessed! Assault, attempted murder with a bladed weapon. Halt, or we will be authorized to use lethal force!”

  Jess gazed back at a wild-eyed Hatsk, noting the hooded gazes of several other proctors as well. The latter came forward with a grim sense of purpose, men who had been a part of this school’s ebb and flow for as long as Jess could remember.

  Yet Hatsk’s cruel eyes gleamed with excitement, his lips curling into an ugly smile.

  “That’s right, Calenbry, I caught you red-handed! Assaulting, nay, attempting to murder a student. You will be lucky to escape imprisonment, wench. I look forward to dishing out just punishments for all your crimes, taking my pound of flesh before letting you hobble out of this school, a pariah forever after!”

  Twilight’s gaze locked with her own. “Jess, we have to move, now!”

  Jess grimaced, catching the gaze of the hard-eyed men just behind Hatsk. “You mean like poor Sella? Who you had whipped to within an inch of her life without informing dean or seneschal, without committee decision or trial? Expelled her penniless and broken, ripped open and bleeding, easy prey for any predator on the road, with no home to go to? She was drugged, you fool! And instead of bringing her to the healers, you tortured her and left her to die! You don’t believe in justice, you’re a sadist! No doubt sent here to spy for your masters and destroy this school!” Jess roared her accusation for all to hear, Hatsk stumbling back, lips curled in a hostile snarl, the men behind him frowning at those words.

  “That is the monster you are working for. Poor Walter did not fall from the battlements in a drunken stupor. He was drugged and murdered by Hatsk’s mole here in Highrock, so his master could force the dean to take Hatsk in his place! Our enemies are many, and even now they align to strike, destroying anyone who dares stand up to them!”

  So many blind shots she had taken, a spray of arrow fire at facts still concealed by uncertainty, but the way her foe flinched back made it all too clear Jess had scored more than one blow against him.

  And the other proctors were no fools. They saw it too.

  “Join me if you dare!” Jess shouted. “I’m going a
fter the man responsible for the poisoning, who is kidnapping another child as we speak!”

  And Jess turned on her boot heels, dashing off, a fierce satisfaction at sowing dissension in her enemies’ ranks, chilled by how close she feared she was to the truth of it all.

  Jess caught Twilight’s gaze. He nodded. “Yes, Jess. You have it in one. Regarding Glist. Playing the friend, slipping one of the laborer’s a flask of potent brandy. Glist followed them, lounging about, just in sight of their quarters with the darkest of smiles. I checked inside. The entire family was lost in a stupor.”

  Jess nodded. Hot rum toddys a treat many families shared together in the evening. No more than once in a while and no harm done, but in this case, the entire family drugged into a deadly stupor.

  Jess felt her heart race in anxious panic, redoubling her speed as her familiar loped just ahead, desperate to get there in time.

  Shouts off in the distance.

  Screams and panicked roars.

  Jess felt a sickening lurch in her stomach.

  “That was Malek!”

  Twilight nodded. “Faster, mistress. Your fool of a Hound is in trouble once more.”

  Jess grimaced, turning the corridor, then another and another, winding down passageways she had explored infrequently at best, then not at all, desperately keeping Twilight in sight, seeing at last figures struggling at the very end of this final hall. As deep within the bowels of Highrock as she had ever been.

  The panicked features of a tow-headed boy locked upon her own, hands and feet bound by Glist himself, and for all that the movements were drugged, still he pummeled the sobbing boy, who cried out, crumpling into a ball.

  “Behave, worm, lest you’d have me smash open all your pretty teeth!” Glist cursed before pivoting around, locking gazes with Jess.

  His eyes widened, backing towards the massive door at the very rear of the abandoned corridor. Jess swallowed, a shiver running down her soul. She did not recall ever having explored this far before, did not think there were any corridors this deep, plunging straight into Highrock mountain.