She drew breath, very nicely filling out her bed sheet, Freetrick couldn't help but notice, "I am the owner of a kitten, and I admit to loving it. Loving her."
Mr. Skree, who had not batted an eyelid at seeing thirteen virgins murdered, nearly fell off the ceiling.
"Her name is Princess Fluff," Bloodbyrn addressed the revolutionary council, "and if you should find her, do bring her back." It wasn't until Bloodbyrn's expression hardened again that Freetrick could see how soft it had been before," I shall confirm my affection for this creature before any who ask me, and, unless we succeed in this scheme, thereby ruin my reputation."
Freetrick watched for the monsters' reaction. They, after all, stood to lose more than their standing in the community if their plans were exposed. Still, Bloodbyrn had given these four power over herself, and that fact alone might be enough to buy their trust.
The monsters glanced at each other. Presently, Grimp snorted, and his hands began to sign.
Most of the next hour was spent with Bloodbyrn and the monsters dancing threatening circles around each other. Eventually though, enlightened self-interest overcame Skrean acculturated insanity, and each party agreed that its best hopes for the future lay with the other.
"Good," Freetrick eventually said, "so I'll depend on you four to get the word out about word-magic." He indicated Mr. Skree, Grimp, and Grimp's translator. "Skystarke," he turned to his chief of guard as the other monsters filed out, "I want you to accompany Bloodbyrn and me to rescue my friend." The monster cocked an eyebrow, and Freetrick continued. "Now, we'll have to move fast because the moment anyone finds out who Istain is, they'll try to grab him themselves," he smiled, "except the person who already has him, of course. So Bloodbyrn and I have narrowed the list of possible kidnappers down to three. The problem is how do we find out which one has Istain without alerting the other two." Freetrick paused for effect, and was surprised when Skystarke opened his horrible mouth.
"Malevolence, Dark Lady," the monster said, "I won-dah if I may?"
"Go ahead, if you have any real suggestions," said Freetrick.
"Dark Lady, Malevolence," Skystarke cleared his throat again, "I am nevah averse to damage or injury, but if we simply attack Da-hk Lord Teirchoke first, we might avoid ow-ah oth-ah enemies."
"Thank you Skystarke, but Teirchoke isn't even on our list," said Freetrick as Bloodbyrn, quicker on the uptake, demanded, "What do you know, Monster?"
Skystarke's too-flexible lips writhed in confusion. "I know only what you told the Kaimeera to tell me, Dark Lady, Malevo—"
"What?!" Freetrick found himself out of his chair and half-way across the table, as if his body was trying to seize his captain of guard by the throat.
Skystarke looked as if he had the same impression. "Malevolence, mercy!"
Freetrick sat back into his chair, "Sorry. Skystarke, the Kaimeera hasn't told me anything."
"It will, however," promised Bloodbyrn. "Bring the monster to us."
Ever efficient Skystarke had the Kaimeera, in chains, on Freetrick's transformed office floor, in less than five minutes.
"I'm going on a dangerous outing today, Kaimeera, and I need death energy." Freetrick planted his hands on his desk and leaned forward. "Convince me why it shouldn't be yours."
The Kaimeera crouched low against the white floor, ears flattened and eyes nearly shut. "My only wish is to serve the Ultimate Fiend." It's voice was female again, young and Maidenspeak-accented. Apparently there were still some of those rebel women running around the castle. Or there had been.
"What exactly did you tell DeMacabre and Feerix?" Freetrick demanded.
"My lord's spies have not told him?"
"Don't get cute, Kaimeera. If I think you're putting my life in danger, I'll striking kill you."
"Shall I pull the choke chain, Fiend?" Skystarke snarled, hands grasping the ends of the chains that bound the larger monster.
The Kaimeera bowed its head "Fiend, I can explain."
"You'd striking well better." Freetrick waved a hand to stop Skystarke from cutting off the Kaimeera's air, but did not resume his seat, "What the hell did you think you were doing?"
The beast looked cautiously up at him through one enormous eye. "Keeping you safe, Fiend."
"The audacity of it!" Bloodbyrn exploded, "My lord, when you are done with this reprobate I shall take pleasure in carrying out its execution myself."
Freetrick cocked and eyebrow at Bloodbyrn. Well, if she was going to be the bad cop, "Just tell me what you mean, Kaimeera," he said, much more gently than he wanted.
The monster's cocked eye went from Bloodbyrn to Freetrick. "As long as the Duke DeMacabre thinks you can give him a son, you have his protection, Fiend. But he was getting impatient, wondering if you were worth keeping around. I sent you to see Bloodbyrn and told him about it so he would know you two are…making progress, as it were." At a nod from Freetrick, it lifted itself off the floor and opened its mouth in a dolphin's smile. The face within the mouth was also smiling. "I see you have done so."
Bloodbyrn stepped forward, but did not, as Freetrick expected, threaten the monster. Instead her eyes were wide as she asked, "And Princess… my cat, monster, did you see where she…it…ran as you were skulking outside my secret hideaway?"
The Kaimeera bowed its furry head amid the loops of its bindings, "This servant has kept her safe for you, Dark Lady."
"Where? I mean, how did you know about her?" Bloodbyrn's tone went from relief to suspicion mid-sentence.
"Your father told me, of course," the Kaimeera answered.
"He knows?" The question was equal parts desperation, rage, and hope. How long had DeMacabre known his daughter's tenderness fetish? How long had he avoided mentioning it? Deceptions within deceptions. Freetrick could see how Skrea could drive a person insane.
"Yes—" Skystarke's grip tightened, and the Kaimeera's answer choked off. The monster was forced to stretch upward until it could open its killing mouth again. "Yes. My instructions were to see your father remained the only one who knew."
"Then by telling the Ultimate Fiend," Bloodbyrn raked Freetrick with a glance that was not entirely trusting, "you betrayed my father. How do we know you will not do the same again?"
"I was DeMacabre's spy, it was true, from the moment he arranged for me to accompany then betray the Dark Princess Ashwing." The bullet-shaped head came up and swung around on its leash to face Freetrick, "but then you taught us magic, Fiend. Now I know who must sit the Skull Throne, and I will do everything in my power to keep you there."
"A nice speech, Kaimeera," said Freetrick, "but what about Feerix? What did you tell him about us?"
"Feerix?" The Kaimeera's voice sounded confused, "I didn't say anything to Feerix."
"He said you told him I was up to something."
"I didn't, Fiend."
"Lies!" Bloodbyrn hissed.
"Well, how did he find out about the prisoners?" Freetrick pressed.
"Maybe DeMacabre told him?" The Kaimeera reared up and opened its mouth wider. Within that jagged maw, sitting atop the wide, pink, tongue, the face of the woman the monster had most recently devoured looked at Freetrick with a speculative expression. "I wonder, Fiend, if the Sangboise isn't playing the two of you against each other."
Freetrick looked at Bloodbyrn. The decision behind her amber eyes was so clear it made an almost audible click.
"It is true." She looked back up at him. "My father holds Feerix as a shaved knuckle bone, a backup in case you are found wanting."
An ace in the hole, Freetrick mentally translated. "At which point," he said, "you kill me. I'm guessing that's what he was talking to you about while I was with Feerix."
"I supported you, my lord," said Bloodbyrn, "even before Feerix had proven himself a traitor to my father's cause, I supported you."
"Yeah, I guessed that when you didn't let him kill me."
Her clear eyes were unreadable. "You do not appear surprised."
"I'm not," Freet
rick left his chair and went to her, "I'm…happy, Bloodbyrn."
Then she was nestling in his arms, and she felt very good.
"I mean, should I have been surprised you picked me over Feerix?"
Bloodbyrn giggled.
The Kaimeera coughed politely.
"What do you plan, monster?" Bloodbyrn demanded, twisting her head around. "You claim to support my lord, yet you keep from him vital information."
"At the risk of incurring the Dark Lady's wrath, to what information does she refer?"
"What about Istain?" Freetrick said. "Why did you tell Skystarke that Teirchoke had him?"
The voice coming from that horrible maw was all innocence, "I assumed, Fiend, you already knew."
"How did you know?" Freetrick demanded.
The Kaimeera sighed, and settled onto its haunches, "I don't know for certain that Dark Lord Teirchoke holds your friend captive, Fiend, but I do know that he arrived by choggorenyth two nights ago. Then he tripled his guard and ordered a full complement of sacrificial victims from the main larder." The mouth behind the Kaimeera's shark teeth smiled. "He has also been bribing his staff heavily not to tell me anything." There was crusted blood between those teeth.
Freetrick held Bloodbyrn tighter. "I thought Teirchoke's despotate was all the other way on the other side of Skrea. What did Istain do, go into Allmen country and ride a striking horse across the border?"
"That we must ask him," said Bloodbyrn. "I assume, Kaimeera, that the Dark Lords North Ftagn, South Ftagn, and DeSangaise have done nothing so suspicious?"
Skystarke cleared his fanged maw."My repah-ts indicate that the Duke DeSangaise did bite his mistress on the left elbow, which I understand is outside his use-you-al habits, but none of those Dark Lords have traveled or received any prison-ahs from outside the Necropolis for the past three sleeps. Of this I am sa-tain!"
"Teirchoke," Freetrick mused. "Teirchoke, the one with the son? No, the grandson. O…kay."
"Do not think this service compels the Ultimate Fiend's renewed trust, Kaimeera." Bloodbyrn said. "My lord, what shall the punishment do you plan to enact on this audacious—my lord, why are you grinning so?"
"Because I know exactly what I want to do," said Freetrick, "and I know exactly how to get past Teirchoke."
***
A hot wind rose from a pool of lava, stirring the hair that fell across Kendrick's brow. The new Paladin stood on the Bleaklands, looking eastward toward the looming bulk of Castle Clouds-Gather.
Kendrick's fingers tightened on the grip of his axe as he thought about the Evil that lurked there, then tightened more as his thoughts turned to the witch who might even now be rejoining that Evil.
There was simply no way his larger party of men could catch up to her smaller one. And even if he had had runners to spare to chase the necromancer, her goblins ran faster, even loaded, than could any man. Saving Zathara would mean storming Castle Clouds-Gather. That, Kendrick had known for some time.
The still men followed gladly enough. Although Kendrick had never considered himself a good leader, the week's march across the dark desert had taught him otherwise. It was simply that Kendrick could not master the lying and manipulation that most leaders used to bend others to their will. But when Kendrick marched after truth, after Good, men followed.
Besides, over half of his force were now converted monsters. They very literally owed their lives to Kendrick and his mission.
No, the dissention, the chaos, the Evil, in his ranks came not from those who had once been monsters, but from those who had always been men.
"I'm sorry," Kendrick turned to stare at Phinneas. "What were you saying?"
He was gratified to see the Rationalist's normally composed face wrinkle in a an aggravated snarl. "A frontal assault." Phinneas repeated, "is impossible, Kendrick. We'll all be killed."
Kendrick turned and looked coldly up at his one-time superior. "Well? What do you suggest?"
Phinneas's face smoothed over again, but his eyes still burned with intensity as he spoke his blasphemy: "I suggest we go home."
"I will kill you, Phinneas," said Kendrick, "before I allow that."
Phinneas looked at him. His beard had grown in around his mustache in the past weeks, and the Colonel-Professor looked tired and very old. "Attacking that city," his eyes flicked at the terraced cone of Castle Clouds-Gather, and the Necropolis that squatted at its base, "will be like walking into a meat grinder, Kendrick."
Kendrick would have liked nothing better than to kill this man, to kill him slowly and relish every second of the stuck-up Bookworm's agony. Unfortunately, the Covenant was clear on this point: we cause no anguish. Not to humans. But a human who turned from Good and worked to further Evil? On the rights and protections due to such a traitor, the holy document was silent.
Still, it would be reasonable to give the man a chance to redeem himself. "The Necropolis will have more monsters," Kendrick explained. "We can convert them to our cause and make our army large enough to stand a chance."
The old fool shook his head. "We would have to convert the whole striking city. And we both know that even if every monster converted cleanly into a healthy human soldier who agreed to fight for us, we would never have the time to say the prayers to get the magic to make the conversions before the necromancers swoop down on us."
"We'll hide in the city," said Kendrick. "Convert it little by little. Build temples to Naobel."
Phinneas snorted. "You can't be serious," then, at Kendrick's stony expression, "Do you honestly think the men will stand for it?"
"The men will have no choice," said Kendrick. "We don't have the supplies to make it back to the border."
"Maybe not, but possible starvation in the desert is still better than guaranteed destruction at your hands." Phinneas stared sourly out at the laboring camp around them. "Your men will desert. I, Kendrick, will desert."
"You will not!"
Kendrick noticed a group of soldiers staring at him. He lowered his hands, forced his voice lower. Since he had started killing monsters, his temper had begun to grow short. It was a problem he would have to correct. "I am as serious as the True Words of the Covenant. The Covenant that binds us, Phinneas, to this mission!"
"And what is this mission, exactly?" Phinneas said, "I supported the pursuit and capture of Tinesmurk, but then you kept stopping to rout monsters on the way. Obviously holding the queen hostage wasn't your intent. Obviously rescuing your friend Zathara wasn't your intent. So why are we here?"
"What do you mean, why are we here? To kill Evil! We're heroes, Phinneas!"
"Don't insult my intelligence."
Kendrick controlled the impulse to reach up and wring that wrinkled neck.
"Look." Phinneas sighed, then leaned closer, obviously unaware of how close he was coming to death. "Kendrick, I think I have been very patient up to now. But now you need to tell me."
Kendrick backed away, unnerved by the man's closeness. "Tell you what?"
Phinneas glanced around them, as if to check for eavesdroppers. "Tell me why I should trust your plans any more, Paladin."
What a weird question. "Of course you can trust my plans, Phinneas. They are supported by the Covenant."
"That's as may be," said Phinneas, "but what other authority are they supported by?"
"What higher authority is there?"
Phinneas blew air through his mustache. "Common sense, perhaps?"
Kendrick reflected that his common sense would have him insert his thumbs into the Rationalist's eyes and push, just to hear the screaming.
"Phinneas," he attempted to explain, again, "the world is huge and cruel." Kendrick spoke as if to a raw convert, but if the Professor-Colonel felt patronized, he made no sign of it. "We can't hope to understand it well enough to trust our own judgment. All we can trust," he held up his talisman, "is this. Naobel."
The men had prayed enough that the name of the god sparked a reaction. The wheel-stone spun up, then burst into light and fle
w upward and eastward, humming at the end of its chain. It pointed like the needle of compass at the menacing bulk of Castle Clouds-Gather. "It commands us to fight against Evil. To destroy Evil is our sacred duty, Phinneas." The talisman dimmed and sank back to the vertical. Kendrick let it fall back against his chest. "The quotation is: 'We shall fight your evil wherever we may find it.'"
The Colonel-Professor looked sour. 'Wherever we find it in our nation.' Is I believe the complete text."
"Is this not our nation?" Kendrick swept a hand out to indicate the camp around them. "We are the nation of Between, no matter where we may find ourselves. Does our god not hear us when we pray to Him? Does He not reward us in our quest against Evil?"
"Kendrick." Phinneas pressed his fingers over the bridge of his nose as if afflicted with headache. "We are five hundred miles from Byblos. I don't care what secret orders you might have, but I would be grateful if you stopped trying to lead me on with your idiot cover story. I know why you came here."
Kendrick frowned. "What are you talking about?"
Phinneas wiped a hand over his face. "Alright. Just stop me if I get something wrong. The academic government sent you into Skrea to act as a spy and agent provocateur. Communicate the Rationalist government's orders to Freetrick, coach him in organizing the surrender from the Skrean side. They sent one spy up through Virgin Soil. And you're the second."
"I am?" Kendrick said, momentarily at a loss, hand still halfway to the handle of his axe. "I was never told any of that."
"Stop playing dumb, boy," Phinneas growled. "That's why you got yourself up the mountain so fast. That's why you didn't go back down the mountain when the enemy captured you, but instead organized this insane raid down the…slopes…" His voice trailed off as Phinneas took in Kendrick's uncomprehending expression, "…sweet Truth," the Rationalist whispered, "that's why I've been following you all this time. I thought you had…secret orders."
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