Only Stones Remain (Ballad of Frindoth Book 4)

by Rob Donovan

  Jensen looked at Brenna who shook her head from side to side; she could not quite process what was happening. "You're the one with the sword. Do we have a choice?"

  Again, Mertyn looked at the sword as if he was surprised to see it in his hand.

  "Mertyn no. We started this together, we will end it together," Tyra said. The colour had drained from her cheeks; all confidence had vanished and she looked as scared as the daughter she held.

  "Yes," Mertyn raised his voice. "I want you far away from here. I might not have been able to protect you from the Knights of Justice, but I will protect you now. Take Brenna and leave. Now Tyra!" he shouted when neither of them moved.

  Tyra sobbed and hugged her husband, and between them they scooped the blubbering Brenna into a tight embrace. Jensen looked at his sister and offered a wan smile. He expected Janna to look petrified, but she looked strange, as if she were at peace with what was happening, as though all that had happened had led to this point and whatever the resolution might be she would welcome it. He lent down and kissed her forehead. It was warm against his lips.

  They stood awkwardly, as Mertyn and his family whispered goodbyes. Jensen thought he heard Mertyn issue some instructions as to where they should meet but he did not catch what was said. He did realise what that meant in terms of his and Janna's fate however. He looked at the ground around him for a makeshift weapon. A small log lay half embedded in the river. It looked greyer than brown however, and he reckoned it would break before it caused any real damage to Mertyn. Beyond that there was a small rock which he could use to bludgeon his father's friend. The idea would have seemed sacrilege only months before; the thought would never have entered his head. It upset him that it was a very real possibility now.

  The trio parted and Tyra turned to face Jensen and Janna. Her cheeks were blotchy where she had been crying. Her face contorted with a mass of emotions ranging from anger to despair and regret. She opened her mouth to speak but then thought better of it. She turned on her heel and pulled Brenna with her. Brenna looked over at Janna first and then her eyes found Jensen, her expression blank as if she were in a trance and shielding her mind behind a protective barrier. Was this to be the last impression of her? No goodbye, no declaration of love? Anger coursed through him once again, he looked down at the rock which seemed further away than it had moments before.

  When Tyra and Brenna were out of sight, Mertyn seemed to relax a little. "Do you want to bind us?" Jensen asked. His words were bitter as he intended.

  "That won't be necessary."

  "Well thank the Glooms for small mercies," Jensen replied. Janna squeezed his arm lightly indicating he should hush his words. "What happened to my parents?"

  Mertyn sighed and with that the tension and energy seemed to leave the man, his shoulders sagging. The stern stare disappeared and was replaced by a face wrought with grief. "Before I tell you, I want you to promise that you will let me speak without interruption. After that, we will see what we'll see."

  "Another promise?" Jensen said. Mertyn looked at him as if he were a child who was being deliberately obtuse and Jensen felt exactly like that. He wasn't sure if he wanted to charge at his father's best friend and pummel his face to oblivion or if he wanted to run away. "Just get on with it."

  "Your father was my best friend; we were inseparable for so many years. You've heard the stories, you know the bond we shared," Mertyn began. He touched the scar on his brow which his father had accidently given him with the slingshot when they were young. Jensen again noted the use of past tense when Mertyn spoke of his father. There was no doubt of their fate now. "I would have done anything for him, for Kiana and especially for you two. His family were like an extension of my own. I am not telling you anything you don't know but I just want to remind you of that. Did I ever tell you of the time Rhact and me tricked the stablemaster at..." Mertyn stopped. He stared at Jensen and Janna and then seemed to think better of telling the story. The time for those stories had gone. There was no going back now. "When Brody found the stone, I was devastated, I felt as if someone had ripped my heart out. As much as I tried to convince myself he had a one in twelve chance of surviving the Ritual of the Stones, I could not shake the feeling that he was certain to die. My first thought was to seek out my best friend. I needed his calm reassurance, I needed his comfort. I couldn't get that from Tyra, she was too hysterical, and I needed Rhact.

  When Rhact stated that he would accompany us to the Ritual it was the least I expected. It might sound unreasonable, it might sound greedy, but I would have been surprised had he not been by my side. If the roles were reversed I would have stood by him every step of the way and stayed by his side whatever came afterwards. It was just the way it was between us and I thought he felt the same. When Rhact announced you lot were leaving us so close to Lilyon I was too stunned to digest the information. I couldn't comprehend his decision and I thought in my anxiety I was perhaps being unreasonable and not seeing things clearly. It is not what I would have done, but I had my family to think of and that was what mattered.

  I never envisaged seeing my son die but if I had, I could never imagine that my best friend would not be by my side. The Ritual was horrendous, seeing Brody murdered in that fashion, the stool kicked out from under him as if he were a common criminal. And not being able to get through the crowd to him; it was a nightmare, your worst fears are happening and no matter how hard you try to prevent it, you can’t and you feel so helpless."

  Mertyn broke off to try and compose himself as tears overwhelmed him. Jensen tried to imagine the scene and felt his own tears begin to form. For a second he forgot why they were by the river and his instinct was to console the man he once thought of as a second father. But he resisted and stood where he was and let Mertyn deal with his grief. They were reaching the point where the truth would come out about his parent's fate. The wind suddenly picked up causing the leaves to rustle and making Jensen look up towards the sky and as he did so he saw the outline of the red moon fading.

  Mertyn continued.

  "When it was all over, we cut him down and attempted to bring him back to Longcombe. We wanted to bury him in the field behind the Green Stag. He always told us he didn't want to be buried in the graveyard with everyone else," Mertyn said and laughed bitterly, "I always replied, what are you telling me for? I won't be around to do it."

  Next to Jensen, Janna sobbed. His sister rubbed her face against his arm. As guilty as Jensen felt about abandoning his parents and for not forcing them to do their duty and make sure Janna went to the Ritual, his sister must have felt worse. It was her responsibility to get there herself. She had allowed her father to steer her away against her wishes.

  "We didn't get very far before our baby boy's body began to decompose. The smell was overwhelming and try as we might to preserve it we just couldn't handle it any longer. I was forced to stop by the side of the road and dig a grave for him." Mertyn closed his eyes as he spoke. Jensen knew his father's friend was petrified of small spaces. He could imagine how awful it would have been for him to climb into the hole with his son and perform the ceremony. Janna let go of his Jensen and moved to comfort Mertyn but he took a step forward and raised his sword pointing it directly at her. He nodded for her to move back as his face once again became hard. He angrily brushed a tear away and wiped his nose with his sleeve. He only partially removed the snot, the rest smearing across his cheek as if a slug had crawled across it.

  "It was then we learned that Janna had been given a stone as well and what Rhact had done to me."

  "How?" Jensen asked.

  "Maxhunt, who else? The bastard had followed us to the Ritual to get his cheap thrills in the death of my son probably. As usual he knew everything and he told me all about Rhact's encounter with the witch and their plan to run away."

  Jensen shook his head in disbelief. Maxhunt once again. The man who had an irrational hatred of his father after his mother had spurned him. The man who in his darkest hour, had got him d
runk and tried to convince him that he was really his father. Jensen felt the shame return at how easily he had been convinced by the manipulative bastard. He wished he was here now so he could tear him to pieces. Mertyn continued.

  "At first I didn't believe him. Why would I? It was an outlandish story; what were the chances of three stones being found in the same village, let alone being allocated to two best friend's families? On top of those impossible odds, what were the chances that your father would betray me in such a manner? Not only did he not confide in me but he also knowingly sentenced my son to death. It was inconceivable. It was unfathomable yet at the same time I knew it was true. It all suddenly clicked. The strange behaviour of Rhact when he told me you would not be accompanying us all the way. The unexplained distance between us in those last days. It hit me as sure as the slingshot he fired all those years ago. And once it hit me, I'd never known such rage. I'd never known such hatred."

  Jensen had. It might have been manufactured by Cordane but he had experienced hatred so visceral he could barely control it. If Mertyn had experienced that much hatred, could Jensen really accuse him of what he dreaded Mertyn was about to say? He also recalled the anger he felt towards Maxhunt when he realised the ditch digger had tried to deceive him. The humiliation had stoked a fire in him that he thought only violence could quell.

  "I found your father in a forest," Mertyn continued. He stared passed Jensen and Janna now as if he could somehow see his memories. Janna squeezed Jensen’s arm so tightly that he thought he might have to pull it away. "He and your mother had been captured by bandits who were torturing them. No matter how angry I felt towards him my instinct was to rescue him. Can you believe that? After all he had done in destroying my family, not to mention the destruction of Frindoth, and my first thought was to save him. And that is what I did. I killed the bandits, unleashing my rage on them, but even as I ended those lives a small part of me wondered why I was saving your father. Why did he deserve salvation? He had sentenced my boy to death.

  As Rhact knelt before me expecting to be untied, I could not allow it."

  Mertyn paused and his eyes focused again on the two siblings. He blinked tears from his eyes as he searched their faces for some semblance of understanding.

  "He was defenceless?" Jensen asked. Janna gasped and turned her face into his chest, stifling a sob.

  "Yes, I did not give him the chance to fight back. As unbelievable as it sounds I don't think he wanted to. He gave me a look which seemed to suggest he understood. I could be wrong but I don't think so. When I stabbed him, he looked at peace."

  Every muscle in Jensen's body tensed at the matter of fact way Mertyn described his father's death.

  "And my mother?"

  Mertyn hesitated but eventually nodded. "Kiana too."

  Something in the way Mertyn admitted killing them both did not ring true to Jensen but before he could question Mertyn further, his sister spoke.

  "Is that it? Is that what happened?" Janna suddenly rounded on Mertyn, he flinched at the ferocity of her words. "Whilst I fled from those men, more scared then I have been in my life, you were killing my parents?"

  "Yes. I'm afraid so. I am not going to hide from the fact any longer. I don't expect you to understand. But that is what happened"

  "So, what about me?" Janna shouted. "Why not kill me the minute you found me? I was the one who possessed the stone after all. I am the one who had the responsibility to get to the Ritual of the Stones. I should have been the first one you should have killed. You shouldn’t have killed my parents for wanting to protect me and then let me survive. We were all in on it. We all deceived you. Jensen might have been against the idea but he still went along with it."

  Jensen felt the urge to defend himself and the part he had played but he was more worried about the sword in Mertyn's hand.

  "Or is that what you intend to do?" Jensen said the realisation suddenly dawning on him. "You couldn't kill us in Lilyon as there were too many witnesses, so you waited until we were in the middle of nowhere to do it. No one can stop you now. That's what you intend to do isn't it you bastard? What's the matter? Couldn't you do it in front of your wife and Brenna?"

  Anger consumed Jensen now. Anger at his parent's death, anger that Brenna knew what was about to happen but had simply walked off. Anger that he had left his parents alone to be killed and anger for everything that had happened to him since. The people he had killed and the ones he had seen killed, such as Hemmel Thane.

  "No one would have cared if I had killed you in Lilyon," Mertyn snorted.

  "So you just wanted to take your time and give your little speech then?" Jensen said. Janna fell to her knees and gripped tufts of grass between clenched fingers. Jensen joined her; he clenched his teeth and hissed as he breathed. He was too angry to do anything else. Mertyn stood over the pair of them frowning. "Well go on then. What are you waiting for? Do we need to be bound like my mother and father were? Does that make it easier? I'm sorry I didn't bring any rope, but I can give you my word that we will not fight back."

  Janna lowered her head, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. How could Mertyn put them through this? Why couldn’t he just get on with it?

  "I don't think you understand," Mertyn said.

  "We don't need to understand. It will make no difference to us if we comprehend or not. Don't you get it? I am not my father and I will never will be. You will not get understanding in my eyes before you slaughter me. All you will get is anger and defiance."

  A gust of wind whipped through the trees; whistling in the leaves. It blew Mertyn's hair all over the place so that he looked positively feral. Jensen wondered how a man he had loved like a father suddenly seem so alien to him.

  Through the trees Jensen spied a swifttail perched on a branch. It was brown with a speckled purple breast appearing iridescent in the late morning sun. It cocked its head to one side as if straining to hear the conversation.

  "No, I mean you don't understand my intention. I am not going to kill either of you. I never was," Mertyn said. They both looked up and saw the hurt on Mertyn's face. "I ordered Tyra and Brenna away to give them a head start. I know what I did was reprehensible and I would never try to justify it. I just wanted you to know the truth of what happened. And now you do..." Mertyn looked at the sword and then laid it on the ground before Jensen and Janna. He then took a step back and raised his arms either side of his body to expose his chest. "You must do as you must. I know how I reacted when I saw your father. To this day I don't know if what I did was right or wrong. I miss him terribly but he betrayed me in the worst possible way."

  The tears fell freely down Mertyn's cheeks, but they were not tears of self-pity but of sorrow.

  Jensen stood and scooped up the sword. "You killed my father because you perceived he was the cause of Brody getting executed," Jensen said.

  Mertyn nodded and then croaked out a "yes" in case Jensen had not seen him move his head.

  "I've killed people in the last few months for a lot less,"

  "I know. You must do what you feel is right. I only ask that you let Tyra and Brenna live. They do not deserve to die."

  At the mention of Brenna's name Jensen felt his heart skip a beat. He had thought of little else but finding her and being with her once again. If he killed her father then there would be no future for them. He glanced at Janna and saw that she was watching him intently. She gave him a slight, almost imperceptible nod and he knew then that whatever he decided she would support him.

  "Rhact was your best friend. You murdered him without giving him a chance to explain himself."

  Mertyn nodded again and this time closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply and waited. Jensen raised the sword, adrenaline and fury coursing through his veins. He had not hesitated in ending a life once in the battle at Lilyon, but never before had he faced someone he knew so well; someone whom he loved deeply.

  He gripped the sword in two hands and pointed the blade at Mertyn's heart. In one thrust it woul
d all be over. He would obtain redemption for his father's death. This was the moment he could finally expel his guilt at having abandoned his family. He visualised the blade penetrating Mertyn's chest, the eruption of blood spurting through sliced flesh; the surprised look on his father's friend's face, quickly followed by acceptance before the life faded from his eyes. He saw it and he wanted it. The man deserved it. He took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally to deliver the killing blow.

  Mertyn had not moved. He had accepted his fate.

  With a shout Jensen thrust the blade forward but instead of ripping through Mertyn's chest, he aimed the blade to the left and sliced through the man's bicep. Mertyn howled in agony and gripped his arm. Blood spurted through his fingers as he tried to stifle the flow. A look of incomprehension spread across his face as he realised Jensen had spared him. "Why?" he managed to utter.

  "I couldn't let you go without punishing you, but nor could I end your life. This whole business began with betrayal, revenge and sacrifice. If I killed you it would have ended with the same, it would have meant everything we have been through had been for nothing."

  "Thank you," Mertyn said, although his cheeks were already losing colour. The cut was far deeper than Jensen had intended.

  "I have given you a scar now as my father did before me," Jensen said and half laughed. He cast the sword aside and then knelt to embrace Mertyn. He hugged the man until he groaned and then held him lightly. He felt Janna join them and hugging them both. Before they could let each other go, Tyra and Brenna had sprinted through the trees and joined them.

  "You never did listen to me," Mertyn whispered to his wife.

  "No, you should know that by now."

  The five of them stayed like that for a while until Janna suggested they really should think about seeing to Mertyn's wound. Jensen watched as she tore a piece of her shirt away and began to fasten it tightly to the man's arm. He did not know what the future would bring; he was not even sure if he could ever fully forgive the man who had killed his parents, but one thing he was sure of was that he was done with killing and trying to be a hero. He wanted to be surrounded by loved ones and now he had given himself the chance of a better future.