Eternal Knight

by Matt Heppe

  She got out of bed and crouched by the chest, glancing over her shoulder at the curtain door. She ran her hand over her bow. It was undamaged. Opening the chest, she found a white dress, a linen chemise, and tall, soft boots inside. Her pack and hunting knife were there as well. Her cloak was there, but her other clothes were missing.

  Hadde pulled the tunic and dress over her head. The fabric was as fine as any Maret had shared with her but much more plain. She stared at her knife as she slipped on the boots. She reached for it and then, glancing over her shoulder, pulled her hand back. She shook off the fear that someone was watching her. They wouldn’t have left the knife if they didn’t intend her to have it. She belted it around her waist.

  “Pardon. May I enter?” A girl’s voice asked from beyond the tapestry-covered entry.

  Startled by the voice, Hadde’s hand went to her knife. But what danger was there here? Whoever held her had left her armed. “Come in,” Hadde replied. She rose and faced the door.

  A fair-haired, light-skinned girl entered the room, carrying a tray of food. She wore a plain white dress and felt boots like Hadde’s. Pastries and a cup of steaming liquid sat on the tray. “I am called Nadas. I serve to you. You are hungry?” the girl asked. She spoke in a heavily accented singsong voice.

  Hadde glanced at the food. She was hungry, but shook her head, no. “Where am I? Where is Prince Morin?”

  “You are with Akinos—in his tent.” The girl smiled and placed the food on the table. “Eat now. More with prince, later.”

  “Akinos? It's true? He is alive after all this time?”

  “Yes-yes. He lives a long life. The Orb brings him long life.”

  Impossible, Hadde thought. The Orb had been stolen five hundred years ago. But then there were many things she had seen that just a few weeks ago she would have thought impossible. "May I leave? Go out and see Prince Morin?”

  “No. He is very occupied.” The girl smiled as if hoping to soften the refusal.

  “What about my horse? Can I see Lightfoot?”

  “Horse? I do not know. I will ask. You eat.” She smiled again as turned for the entrance.

  "Wait," Hadde said, "Can you stay and talk? I want to know more. I want to know what is happening."

  "I am sorry, but I go. Another visitor comes to see you soon."

  "Who?"

  "Commander Seremar comes. I must go. Eat. He comes soon." The girl gave Hadde another smile and departed.

  Hadde watched her go, more curious than ever. She wished she had asked about her wound. How any of it was possible. Unable to resist her hunger, Hadde ate one of the pastries. It was light and sweet, filled with some berry filling. The mug of tea was hot, if a little bitter. She paused and chuckled as she stared at a half-eaten morsel. Akinos the Betrayer serves sweet tarts and herb tea to his prisoners.

  “Hadde of Landomere, may I come in?” a man’s voice asked from beyond the curtained entrance.

  Hadde gulped some tea to wash down the tart filling her mouth. “Who are you?” she asked as she brushed flakes from her mouth.

  “Brother Seremar.”

  Brother. Dread swept over her. An Eternal Knight. She put down the pastry. Could she flee? The walls were only hanging tapestries. She could slash the ties that connected them at the corners and be gone in a moment.

  “Hadde?" he called again.

  She pushed back against her fear. Even if she escaped the room, where would she go? “Come in,” she said. The curtain rose and the eternal entered. Save for his bare head, he wore a full suit of armor. Unlike the other eternals he wasn’t accoutered in white and gold. He wore a yellow tabard decorated with a black dragon rampant. The knight had a sword at his waist and carried his helm in the crook of his right arm.

  He bowed his head in greeting. It was disconcerting meeting his silver gaze. The liquid silver of his skin flowed and swirled as she stared at him. It made his face impossible to read.

  “You don’t look… I mean dress… like the other eternals,” Hadde said, pulling her gaze from his face.

  “Not only am I a Brother of the Eternal Order, but I am an East Teren earl as well. I command Akinos’s Saladoran knights. He permits me to wear my family coat-of-arms.” Chuckling, he removed a gauntlet and held his silver hand in front of his face. He worked his fingers as he turned his hand over. “There are some, even those who have known me long, who have trouble distinguishing between me and the other brethren. My colors set me apart so that they might better recognize me. They let the knights of the East Teren know that I am still one of them."

  “I see," Hadde said. Something about the earl’s tabard looked familiar, as if she had seen it before. But there were so many knights in Sal-Oras, she couldn’t be certain of it.

  “You are well?” Seremar asked.

  “I am. Although confused by what has happened to me. I don't even know how I am still alive. I was dead—I felt the javelin strike me."

  “I understand, and maybe I can bring you some answers. As for your healing, that will wait for another to answer." He paused. "I was told you wish to see your horses.”

  “I do. And Prince Morin as well.”

  “He will come to you later. But I can take you to your horse.” He motioned toward the entrance. “I have some time. And wish to speak to you in any case.”

  She grabbed her cloak and followed him out of the room and down a short corridor bordered by rooms created by fabric partitions. Brightly clothed guards in scale armor saluted them as they departed the massive tent.

  Sunlight momentarily blinded Hadde. Shading her eyes, she stared up at a fortress jutting from a steep hill. A sea of tents rested between Akinos’s pavilion and the walls. “Is that Ost-Oras?” Hadde asked.

  “It is,” he said. "A great city." The fortress stood on a hill north of a shallow stream. Walls, greater than those of Sal-Oras, ringed the city. A huge keep protected the western end of the city, where the hill was the least steep and the approaches easier.

  “Why do you wish to speak with me?” Hadde asked as Seremar led her toward the city gates. Near the gates she spied a corral. She searched for Lightfoot and Windwalker amongst the many warhorses gathered there.

  “Because I know that you were in Sal-Oras and might have word of my daughter.”

  “Your daughter? How would I know of her?”

  “You might. She’s a Maiden in Waiting in Sal-Oras. Her name is Maret.”

  Hadde gasped. “Your daughter? But you’re—”

  “Eternal. I only recently accepted Akinos’s touch. Maret does not yet know of my transformation.” He smiled. “She will join me soon enough. Tell me of her. Is she well?”

  Hadde opened her mouth to reply and stopped. What should she say to him? What would Maret say if she knew what had become of her father?

  “I see by your expression that all isn’t well. Tell me.”

  “She was attacked.”

  “Attacked?” He grabbed her arm.

  She tried to pull away, but his grip was vice-like. “She’s alive, but she’s badly hurt.”

  “Who did this?” he demanded.

  “Earl Waltas. From—”

  “I know of him. Is he still in Sal-Oras?”

  “It happened only days ago. Please let go, you’re hurting my arm.”

  The eternal's vice-like grip tightened. “She’s badly injured? In danger of dying?”

  Hadde grimaced in pain. “Orlos the Spiridus was summoned to help heal her. Morin told me that Maret was still alive.”

  He released her. “Orlos’s presence gives me some comfort. What happened to Waltas?”

  “He's dead,” Hadde said. She rubbed her arm where he had gripped it. The man's hold on her had been impossibly strong.

  “Who killed him? Champion Nidon?”

  “I did it.” Hadde glared at the eternal. “Maret is very dear to me. After Waltas attacked her he fled. I couldn’t let him escape.”

  For a time Seremar stood silently. Hadde thought she saw a tear o
n his gleaming face, but it was difficult to tell against his silver skin. “How severe were her injuries?” Seremar asked.

  “Prince Morin had hope for her.” Hadde wouldn't say more. How would Seremar react if he knew the full nature of her wounds?

  The eternal wiped a hand across his face and stood taller. “As long as she survives until the Orb arrives in Sal-Oras, all harm will be cured then. Come, let us find your horse.” They walked silently to the corral. Hadde smiled as she spotted her two horses. She whistled; Lightfoot snorted and trotted to her. Windwalker followed loyally.

  Hadde jumped the fence and hugged her horse. “She’s well. I was worried about her.”

  “Akinos’s Rigarians don’t know horses, but there are enough Saladorans in the host to watch over our few mounts.”

  “Rigaria?” Hadde asked as she petted her horse’s neck. “That’s the place of legend where the veden lived.”

  “The veden are long gone. Humans live there now.”

  “And varcolac.”

  “And all are good,” he said, his tone softer. “All serve Akinos.”

  “I…” Hadde paused and scanned the encampment below Ost-Oras’s walls. “You are saying the varcolac are good? And look at this army. I don’t like it. I don’t see the good in it.”

  “You will meet Akinos and then you will understand. It’s hard to overcome a lifetime of false teaching. But Akinos isn’t evil.”

  “But how can I believe you? You’re one of his Eternal Knights.”

  “I may be eternal, but I still have free will. And you don’t have to trust me. I’ll show you Akinos’s goodness. Come with me.”

  Hadde patted Lightfoot goodbye and followed Seremar to Ost-Oras’s great gate. They walked past a slow-moving train of wagons entering the city. The guards bowed to Seremar as he passed.

  “The city fell quickly,” Seremar said as they passed a second defensive wall. “The Returnists within opened the gates to us. But, unfortunately, others resisted.”

  Hadde froze. “A giant!” The man crossing their path was nine feet tall and massively built. He carried a huge wooden beam on his shoulder. And then she remembered the giants moving through the fog when the Tyskmen had ambushed them on the road east of the town of Egoras. "There are giants in Akinos’s army?"

  “Do not fear them. The capcaun, the urias, and the varcolac are all children of Akinos." He nodded toward the giant. "The capcaun, and their children, the urias, are giant in stature. But they are all Children of the Orb and serve a just cause.”

  "What just cause?"

  "The cause of salvation."

  They exited a second gate-tunnel into a large square. Everywhere Hadde looked she saw activity. Directly across from her, crowds of Saladorans watched as giants and Rigarians swarmed over a partially destroyed building. The sounds of their hammers and saws echoed across the square as they rebuilt the structure.

  To her left she spied long lines of Saladorans waiting in front of six large wagons. As they reached the front of the line, measures of grain were poured into sacks and given to them. Steam rose from a dozen cauldrons next to the wagons. Rigarians ladled bowls of food to those waiting for their rations.

  “The people were starving,” Seremar said. “Akinos made his army’s stores available to them. There isn’t much to spare, but he saw the people’s need.”

  “What is happening over there?” Hadde asked. To her right a shorter line of people waited in front of a large white tent. A man walked hunched over, covered by tattered blankets and cloaks. Others leaned upon crutches or another’s arm for support.

  “Follow me.”

  As they approached, Hadde watched white-robed men and women wander up the line sorting the city’s residents into two groups. Surgeons and their apprentices attended to the larger group. The smaller group awaited entry to the tent.

  “They’re healers?” Hadde asked.

  “Rigarian surgeons are unmatched in their skill. But they’re limited to mortal means.” Seremar led her into the white tent. “Eternals, however, are limited only by the Orb of Creation.”

  Two Eternal Knights attended those permitted entry into the tent. Both wore robes of white and gold. Their bared silver arms and heads shone brilliantly in the shelter of the tent.

  A boy, thin and pale, and coughing violently, was led before one of the eternals. The child weakly resisted the elderly man pulling him forward.

  “I’m scared,” the boy whimpered before another fit doubled him over.

  The eternal strode forward and placed his hands upon the child’s head. Silver veins shot through the boy’s skin, and almost instantly the coughing ended, and the boy stood upright.

  He paused a moment, staring up at the eternal, and then lunged forward and embraced the knight.

  The second eternal healed a man whose arm was covered with a bloody bandage. He exclaimed in surprise as he unwrapped the coverings to find his arm healed.

  “I am your servant,” the man said, kneeling before the Eternal Knight.

  “Give your thanks to Akinos. It’s he who will save us all.”

  "Is this what happened to me?" Hadde asked.

  "This and more." Seremar took Hadde’s elbow and guided her from the tent. His touch was cold—metallic.

  She looked at the line of sick and injured waiting to get into the tent. “Why are some turned away? Can't the eternals... can't you heal everyone?” she asked.

  “Akinos does as much as he can. But his power isn’t limitless. Each healing takes a bit of Akinos’s life... it ages him and he is old already. We heal only the most needy. For the time being, the others will have to make do with human care. But their wait won’t be long. Soon all will be healed. ”

  Seremar led her back to Akinos’s tent. She said nothing as they walked, lost deep in thought. Nothing she had seen was as she had expected. In fact, it appeared the opposite. Akinos, a creature of legendary evil was healing the sick and rebuilding ruined buildings.

  But the behavior of his varcolac nagged at her. Their brutality was at odds with all else she had seen. "Why use war and terror as your means to spread peace?" Hadde asked. "Why use an army to demonstrate goodness?"

  "All will be explained. I have to leave you now,” Seremar said as they neared Hadde’s room. “And… thank you for dealing with Sir Waltas. I’m glad that it was a woman who killed him.”

  “It doesn’t matter who did it. He had to pay for what he did to Maret.”

  “As you will,” he said. “I have matters I must attend to. I will see you again.” He gave her a short bow and departed.

  The curtain to Hadde’s chamber opened behind her. Nadas appeared and motioned Hadde in. “I go to fetch your dinner,” the young attendant said. “Akinos comes soon.”

  “What do you mean? Akinos is coming here?”

  “He does,” she beamed at Hadde. “He grants you great courtesy.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “He comes,” Nadas said.

  Hadde stood from her barely-touched meal and backed from the chamber’s entrance. Her heart pounded a heavy beat in her chest.

  “No, do not be afraid.” The attendant rushed to her side and held her hand. “It is good. He comes.”

  The curtain parted and two blond giants strode in. Both were half again as tall, and more massively built, than any man Hadde had ever seen. They wore white tunics with golden-rayed Orbs displayed upon them. The first giant carried a stout wooden chair that he placed upon the floor. The second carried a frail man. Gently, the giant eased the elderly man into the chair. With graceful bows they backed from the room.

  Nadas gave Hadde’s hand a squeeze. “I go as well,” she said.

  Hadde clasped her hands in front of her to stop their shaking. Akinos was ancient. More so than even Orlos. Gaunt, almost skeletal, no part of his skin was untouched by deep crevasses of age. He wore robes of the purest white trimmed in gold. Hadde wondered that she didn’t fear him, this legendary evil. But there was a kindliness to his larg
e, brown eyes that set her mind at ease. His eyes were untouched by age, bright and clear and happy.

  “Be seated,” Akinos said as he motioned to the bed beside her. She obeyed without thought.

  “How is it—” Hadde started and caught her breath. In his right hand he held a crystal sphere. It fit easily in the palm of his hand. At its center burned a gold and silver flame that pulsed like a heartbeat.

  The Orb of Creation.

  Hadde took a deep breath. “I was dead. Did you save me with… it?"

  “Death held thine spirit in her dark shroud. Thou dreamest the nightmares of regret before the final darkness. Thou wert as close as one might come to that final end and still return.”

  Hadde had no difficulty following his speech. Although strange, it was easier to comprehend than that of the commoners. He didn’t sound foreign, just different.

  “But a spear struck me,” she said.

  “Thou wert fortunate a full score Brothers of the Eternal Order surrounded thee. Through their hands flowed the healing grace of the Orb of Creation. They held thine death at bay until thou wert borne here.”

  “But why? Why did they save me?”

  “Thou wouldst prefer death?” He chuckled.

  “But I'm just... I'm nobody special.”

  He laughed again. “King Boradin does not agree. Nor does Orlos. And what does thou wearest around thine neck but a Spiridus Token? The Great Spirit of Landomere loves thee. Who is Akinos to let thee perish?”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “Akinos knows.” He nodded and raised his brows. “Akinos knows.”

  Hadde looked into his eyes. They seemed like deep wells—wells of knowledge. Again, he smiled and nodded, as if he knew her thoughts. “And Morin?” Hadde asked. “How is he?”

  “Safe and unharmed. Thou shalt see him forthwith.”

  She stared at the Orb for a moment, and then at the old man’s face. His accent wasn’t strange, nor foreign. It was old. “How are you… how can you be Akinos?” she whispered.

  He smiled. “Akinos sits before thee.”