by C S Vass
“We’re really going to fight for this place.” Robert said. Godwin knew it wasn’t a question, but an attempt to muster resolve.
“I see no other choice. You’re welcome to flee if you want. But the West is my home, regardless of what Rolph or anyone else thinks of me. I’ll not think less of you if you don’t join me.”
“Nonsense,” Robert said. “There’s no place safer on this continent than with you. I’ve learned enough in my time here to realize that.”
The Shigata merely shook his head in amazement.
Before long they arrived. The door to the house was a massive cedar circle with a gold handle. Godwin slammed his fist into it and roared, “Awake! Enemies! Sun Warriors! You must flee!”
Silence answered them.
“They must already have left,” Robert said.
Just then they heard a piercing shriek, then some muffled yelling.
“What mischief is that?” Robert asked.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out,” Godwin replied. Without waiting, he slammed the heel of his boot into the door. It groaned under his weight, but didn’t budge.
“Damnit all,” Godwin grumbled. “Help me!”
Together, they attacked the door over and over. Godwin could feel the lock slowly loosening as the hinges protested. With one final blast, they were through.
Inside was a bloody mess.
Samwell stood in the middle of a living room that looked as though a bomb had exploded in it. His hands were covered in blood. Bookcases were overturned. Glass was shattered. Sara, the mayor’s wife, was on the floor, her stomach soaked in blood.
Godwin drew the Darksword without thinking.
“No, no, wait!” Samwell, pleaded, falling back.
“What the hell is going on?” Godwin demanded.
“It’s not him!” Sara cried. She was ghost white. Her own hands were blood-stained from holding on to the vicious wound that extended across her stomach weeping red all over her blue dress.
“Demon!” Robert shouted.
Godwin turned just as he heard a vicious snarling. The demon he encountered by the river earlier was standing at the end of the hallway. Godwin instinctively raised his blade when he felt Samwell crash into him from behind.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the Shigata roared.
“No!” Samwell replied. “It’s safe! She’s chained!”
“What?”
Confusion and chaos. Godwin was torn between striking the demon’s head off and helping the wounded Sara. Looking, he saw that Samwell spoke true. The demon was standing in place, an iron chain firmly around her ankle. There was a series of runes painted in a circle around her with black ink.
“Leave her be,” Samwell said. “It’s fine. We need to help Sara.”
Godwin stared the demon down, but it made no attempt to get near him.
“Come on,” Samwell urged.
Godwin turned his attention away from the creature, but ordered Robert to keep an eye on it. The Tarsurian did so, but from within a foot of where Godwin was.
Shaking his head the Shigata cursed. “How did this happen?”
“I’ll answer your questions in time, but please, Sara’s been hurt. She got too close… got slashed by the claws.”
Sara was whimpering on the ground, ghost white and shaking. “It’s all right,” the Shigata said. But it wasn’t. Godwin didn’t know how long the woman had been bleeding, but some of the blood had already hardened. She was barely conscious, probably couldn’t hear him.
“Help her, please,” Samwell pleaded. “This was all a terrible accident. Don’t let her die.”
“Why haven’t you bandaged her?” Godwin asked.
“I was helping Ja—”
His eyes widened with horror.
“That’s Jane?” Godwin demanded. “You knew this whole time?”
“No! Well, yes. Please. Don’t let her die!”
But it was too late.
Godwin rose, shaking his head.
“No,” Samwell muttered. “No, it can’t be.”
Samwell ran to the body and desperately tried to apply pressure to the wound. “You can’t be dead, Sara! You can’t be. Wake up!”
“You have bigger problems right now,” Godwin said with disgust. “Sun warriors are on their way. Within a day’s ride.”
“Then you have to help me with Jane,” Samwell pled. “Please, Godwin, I’ll do anything. Anything at all. Haven’t you had anyone that you would do anything for? She didn’t mean to kill Sara. She can’t help it.”
“Stop babbling,” Godwin snapped. Sighing, he looked at Robert, but the Tarsurian’s face held no answers. “We need to figure this out immediately and get out of here. How did all of this come to pass?”
Samwell slumped to his knees. “If I tell you,” he said, his chubby face quivering, “do you promise to help?”
“I’ll do what I can, Samwell, but we have to move quickly.”
Samwell nodded. He pulled himself up and said, “It all began when the Tarsurians came.”
“What?” Godwin asked. “You mean to tell me that they were here before?”
“Yes. Oh gods, they’ll kill me for this. But what does it matter, anyway? Everything has gone to shit.”
“For the last time, quit your rambling,” the Shigata said. “Tell me exactly what happened, or we’re marching out of here this instant.”
“Very well.” A dark shadow passed over Samwell’s face. “The Tarsurians came to the village before the curse befell Jane. You see, they knew all about the mine. They were accompanied by a shadow woman.”
“A shadow woman?” Godwin asked. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know how else to describe her,” Samwell said. “Her body was cloaked in black and what you could see of her face was as pale as death. To look at her would give you chills all over. She came to the village with a Tarsurian entourage. I wasn’t supposed to see. I was sleeping under the stars, and I happened across the meeting on accident. Rolph was there with just a few men. The Tarsurians wanted silver… good silver, from deep within the mine. They promised riches to our village. Rolph agreed.”
“Despite already having fabulous wealth from the mine?”
“What can I say? When have you met a rich man who had made enough money? The point is, we started supplying the Tarsurians with silver in secret. Rolph had just a few men involved. The shadow woman didn’t come back… not until this all happened.”
“Tell me.”
“Apparently Rolph had found something of value in the mine. A special kind of silver. I only heard whispers from Rickon, who was with the men that discovered it. Rickon was in Rolph’s confidence. Rolph kept it quiet and took the silver for himself. The shadow woman didn’t like that. She came here and placed this curse on Jane as vengeance. The thing is, Rolph didn’t know about the curse. He thought she was satisfied because he gave her the silver when threatened. Nobody knew about Jane except for me up until yesterday when I told Rolph that it was the shadow woman’s doing.”
Godwin frowned. “Why would the shadow woman cast her spell in secret?”
“That’s how she is,” Samwell said. “She keeps you in fear. You never know what she’s going to do. Never know if she’s already done something. It makes people easier to control when they’re in a constant state of paranoia.”
“And this curse… what exactly does it do?”
“Only the obvious,” Samwell said. “Jane transforms like that at night. Most nights it’s okay. I can sit by her at the river, far from the village, and we wait it out. She transforms back into herself in the day.”
Godwin huffed. More mysteries. “We’ll get to why she’s in demon form during the daylight in a moment. First, I want to know something. Why did you let this go on for so long?”
“Why do you think?” Samwell snapped at once. “This is the love of my life we’re talking about. I tried to keep it under control, you don’t know the things I did.
Things I’ll never forget. In the end, I realized I had to act to not just hide this but cure her. For the good of the village.”
“Liar,” Godwin fumed. “She had killed before, and you didn’t lift a finger. The difference is that now there’s a Shigata in the village who might actually harm Jane. Don’t pretend this is about saving other lives, not while Sara’s corpse is still bleeding in front of you. This was about saving Jane.”
“And what if it was?” Samwell screamed. “What if that’s all I wanted? Is that so wrong? To protect the one I love, I would do anything. What would you know about any of that, Shigata?”
Godwin eyed the man angrily. The village was a den of vipers. Rolph betrayed them. Samwell betrayed them. Jane was cursed and killing people. They all deserved each other as far as Godwin could tell.
“So then,” Godwin said. “Are the Tarsurians coming to kill everyone, or are they coming to collect their silver?”
“Both, I think,” Samwell said. “Rolph must not have realized that hiring you would anger them. They have a spy. Jane told me. She knows, because she can sense the presence of the shadow woman. Harold is under her influence.”
“That’s just great,” Godwin spat. Who knew how often the simpleton had been hiding in the brush, listening closely to whatever was said. “I’ve heard of witches who can use the eyes and ears of their servants as if they were their own. The subject needs to have all of his own spirit wiped out first, except for the basics required for life’s necessities.”
“Then Harold must have seen something along the way that angered her,” Samwell said. “Maybe it was his hiring of you, maybe it was something else.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Godwin said. “What the Tarsurians ultimately want is to rule this land. It was only a matter of time before something happened.”
“Godwin, please. This has all been a nightmare that won’t stop. I know I’ve made mistakes. But please, just help her. Do what you can to lift the curse. I tried… and I fear I’ve made it so much worse.”
“Godwin turned his attention back to Jane, who was standing as still as stone with her terrible, unblinking eyes watching them from across the room. Robert was staring back at her, and it looked like he hadn’t blinked in some time either.
“What did you do?” Godwin asked Samwell. “Why is she like this in the daylight?”
“I found a book of old runes,” Samwell said. “It was partially destroyed. But it led me to believe I might be able to slow down the intensity of her transformations. I used the rune magic, and she turned this way. Sara came in right as she transformed. She knew about Jane and wanted to help. She was always kind to me. I was able to use the book’s runes to keep her within that circle and get her constrained, but not before the accident happened.”
“Utter foolishness,” Godwin said. He took a step towards Jane, careful not to get too close. Memory of their last encounter was still etched deeply in his mind. “I’ve seen curses like this before. Had you done nothing, I might have been able to help with a potion. But now you’ve gone and involved Old Magic. My guess is the curse has natural counters that deepen its grip when most efforts are made to remove it.”
“Will you be able to help her?” Robert asked.
Godwin shook his head. “I don’t know. Certainly not before the sun warriors arrive.”
“You can’t leave her,” Samwell said. “You have to. Please, I’ll do anything.”
“It’s not about what you can do,” Godwin shouted. “The sun warriors coming may end up being a blessing. The best thing we can hope for is that we are able to kill this shadow woman, though I don’t think that will be an easy task.”
“If you kill her, will the curse reverse itself?” Samwell asked.
“I don’t know,” Godwin replied. “Curses need something that will sustain their dark magic. If the shadow woman is using some kind of artifact, then I doubt it. But if the magic is coming from her directly… perhaps.”
“Well let’s—”
Samwell was cut off by the blaring of trumpets coming from outside.
“What’s that?” Robert asked.
“Nothing good,” Godwin replied. “Come on. All of you. We’re going to have to worry about the most pressing problems first. If the sun warriors kill us all, then none of this will matter.”
“But… we can’t just leave Sara, can we?” Robert asked.
“I won’t leave either of them,” Samwell said at once. “I won’t leave Jane here to be killed by savages. I’m begging you Godwin, if the shadow woman is down there, then please finish her. I’ll be eternally in your debt.”
“No doubt that will be a priceless treasure,” Godwin replied. “Robert, come on. We need to get back.”
Without further delay, the two headed out of the house. Godwin’s mind was racing. They were moving towards certain calamity. It wasn’t just that he was far from fully healed, and might not even be able to use his sword. It wasn’t just that the prospect of getting sucked into another war with the Tarsurians was the last thing he wanted to do. It was something Samwell had said.
The shadow woman seemed all too familiar. He couldn’t be sure, not yet, but it reminded him of that conversation he had had with the Kirishelliwan…
“She walks amongst the sun warriors, though they fear to go near her. She’s here, in the West. Her powers are terrible. She commands great sorceries. Drives men to madness. The beasts of the field recoil and shriek when she comes by…
“I fear she’s near. I can tell you she comes from Tjeri Province. She flew to the West in a terrible storm, and now blood soaks the earth wherever she walks. Be warned, Shigata. If you cross her, you will die!”
Hm, Godwin thought drearily as they raced towards the village. I should have known back then that sooner or later my path would cross with this Witch Queen. I only wonder what she was doing poking around in a mine close to Iryllium. No matter. I know what the Sages would have me do, and it’s a Shigata’s destiny to fulfill that wish. Or die trying.
Chapter 18
Back in the village soldiers had arrived. Godwin didn’t have a clue which of the gods had smiled upon them so that they were the friendly kind, from Iryllium, and not a deadly horde of Tarsurian guerrilla fighters.
“I never would have imagined that the wolves would actually come,” Robert said as they moved towards the center of town. The houses farther away had been abandoned out of necessity, but around the main cluster of buildings trenches were being dug and barricades were being erected as quickly as possible.
“Hail the good King of Iryllium!” Rolph shouted from atop a cart that women and children were being piled into. “As soon as our wives and little ones are on their way to the safety of the capital, we’ll show these swine exactly what it means to invade western lands!”
Gods-be-damned liar, Godwin thought bitterly. But now was not the time to interrogate the mayor. Whatever Rolph’s arrangement with the Tarsurians might have been, the presence of King Boldfrost’s soldiers made it irrelevant.
“Godwin, will you be able to fight?” Robert asked. “Your arm.”
The Shigata rotated his right shoulder slowly. The skin burned and peeled as he did so, but the pain, annoying as it was, seemed to be only superficial. “I won’t be at my best,” Godwin said. “But I can swing a sword.” He grinned darkly. “Especially this sword.”
“Very well,” Robert said. “But this will not be like other times. I won’t cower back while the rest of you take on the serious fighting. Not against my own people. This is one battle I don’t intend to run away from.”
“How very noble of you. I’ll remind you of those words the moment you have an arrow sticking out of your arse.”
“It is I who will be sticking their arses!” Robert shouted, flamboyantly drawing the two short swords from his back.
As King Boldfrost’s wolves continued their work, storm clouds pushed by a strong eastern wind appeared. “Excellent,” a captain with a wolf headdress said, grinning dev
ilishly. “Should the rains come, the mud will slow them down, making our defenses all the stronger.”
Godwin nodded in agreement. The captain saw him, and his mouth dropped. “You,” he said, quickly approaching the Shigata. “I know you.”
Godwin looked at the man. He looked exactly like what he was—a hardened captain in King Boldfrost’s army. But other than that, Godwin could not place him.
“Forgive me,” the Shigata said. “I’m at a loss.”
“Forgive me, he says,” the captain said, shaking his head. “I should put my head to the ground and kiss your boots. You saved my life and the life of my brother all those years ago during the Second Bloodwater War. You gave saved us from the Tarsurians while Saebyl burned. My name is Gregory.”
Godwin nodded. “I’m happy that your memories of me are positive ones.”
“Look what you’ve grown to be,” the captain said, still amazed. “You were just a boy back then. Just a boy, but already a legend. And now the Odruri comes back to us as the sun warriors descend upon the West once more. I can’t tell you how much safer I feel with you here.”
Again, Godwin could do nothing but nod. “Please, don’t call me that,” the Shigata said. “I’m Godwin of Brentos. Nothing else.”
The captain chuckled, apparently bubbling with emotion. “I really can’t believe it. Nothing else, you say. Well, Godwin of Brentos, it is an honor. My family would be nonexistent if it wasn’t for you. Please, may I shake your hand?”
The words were meant to be kind, but they stirred up nothing but evil thoughts and resentment in Godwin. Your family wouldn’t exist, but if I had never picked up a sword, if I had listened all those years ago to my master, how many would have never been destroyed?
Still, the Shigata took the captain’s hand and said polite words. He could not have been happier when it was over.
Meanwhile, Robert was staring with an open mouth. “What was that about?” the Tarsurian asked.
Godwin met his eyes. “Nothing,” he said, and from the tone of his voice Robert knew not to say another word on the subject.