Death Flag

by Richard Haygood

  “Someone is still trying to kill him to escalate a war,” Alyanna finished for him “I get it. Either way, you can’t risk him leaking info about K’yer Utane.”

  Burke nodded. “I see you understand.”

  “What I understand is that I’m getting the feeling that you’re about to send us after him,” Madison observed. “Right? You said that we were going to need a tracker, so we have Warren, and that’s just about the only reason this conversation would steer in this direction.”

  “Right again,” Burke agreed. “I think we’re better off sending someone after him and escorting him home. Once we know he’s out of the danger zone, so to speak, he should be fine on his own. He lost a majority of his guard on the trip down, so he’ll be even more vulnerable to attack now than he was before. Once he’s back within his own lands, his personal guard should be able to fortify his party, and he can make it on his own from then on. Until then, I want you guys to escort him there.” Burke glanced around the table once again as he finished speaking and asked, “Any objections?”

  Madison snorted. “As if anyone here would bother arguing with a Guardian. But I’ll go ahead and ask anyway: Why aren’t you taking care of this yourself? It wouldn’t be unseemly for a Guardian to escort a visitor home. It probably wouldn’t even draw very much attention since I doubt anyone expects you to even be here. I know you said you wanted to give the Sworn a chance to take a break and rest, but wouldn’t they be better? We’re just a motley crew with no experience working together, and neither I nor Alyanna has any actual training worth mentioning.”

  “You should give yourself more credit, Madison,” Burke said. “I’ve heard the stories, and I know enough to know that if you managed to escape the slavers on your own and make it here, and you’re good enough with a sword. Even if that wasn’t enough, you have to have some modicum of skill or you wouldn’t have been able to hold out against Ryder as long as you did. No matter how good of a swordsman he might be, you had to be good enough to at least hold up your own end of the show. Otherwise, it would have been obvious that he was holding back and dumbing down his fighting skill. He couldn’t make a cat wear boots and sword fight no matter how much he tried. It would just be a farce from the beginning.

  “And, you’re right: It really wouldn’t look suspicious, and I really do want to let the Sworn have a break. Unfortunately, I have another small pressing matter to attend to. The only reason we’re even able to have this conversation uninterrupted is because a certain Guardian has left K’yer Utane and headed east. Given that I haven’t been informed about his destination or the reason for his departure, I’m going to do a little reconnaissance of my own. I’m afraid that he’s going to stir up even more trouble back there, and I can’t have that. The last thing I want to have to worry about is trying to cover what’s happening here and out there at the same time.”

  Madison remained silent at that. There was some truth to what Burke was saying, and he didn’t want to call too much attention to the fact that he was able to wield a sword without any real formal training. It would have been obvious if he had ever attended any of the classes that he didn’t know the first thing about what he was supposed to do other than swing it pointy-end first at his opponent, but he had never made it to any of those. It also would have raised a lot of questions if anyone paid too much attention to what he was doing. He had an uncanny knack for wielding that great sword, something that his doppelganger within the training room had promised to teach him more of. Madison remembered all too well how his double had been able to produce a sword coated with black flames, and while he wasn’t a fan of magic, his twin had implied that it was something he should already be able to do as well—that it was just a skill that Madison had to realize he knew how to do.

  He also realized that the best and probably only person who could deal with a Guardian was another Guardian.

  “Alright,” he said instead. Trying to sound as magnanimous as possible, he said, “Last chance for anyone to back out. No judgment if you don’t want to get involved. Thanks for coming. No one owes us any favors, so you aren’t obligated to help if you don’t want to. After this, I’m going to assume that everyone here is committed.”

  “Aly?” he asked, starting with her. She shrugged by way of an answer as it was already a foregone conclusion that she would go after her father.

  He moved on to the next person, the one who was most likely to put up an objection. “Warren?”

  “Are we really pointing fingers at other Guardians?” he asked with a small groan. “Has it really come to this?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Madison said. “I know I haven’t been indoctrinated in everything around here and this way of life like everyone else has, so maybe it’s easier for me to accept. But, I really do think this is the only thing we can do for now.”

  Warren heaved a heavy sigh and slid down in his chair until he was halfway into the floor and staring up at the ceiling. “There’s no way I’m getting out of this, is there? This is one of those moments where you have to choose whether its fight or flight, right? And if you chose wrong, you’d end up dead?”

  “Actually, you’re likely to end up dead either way,” Madison joked with a laugh. “There’s no right or wrong answer, Warren. Just go with your gut. But I can tell you this: If you’re as good a tracker as Burke said you were, then we need you.” Burke had never said that or anything close to it. But Warren didn’t know that. The only thing Burke had said was that he had worked with Warren before and that he felt like he could trust him. It was probably a form of praise in its own right, but it was a far cry from the praise he made it out to be. Still, his little lie seemed to work.

  Warren pushed himself up in the chair until he was sitting upright and seemed to perk up a bit. He turned slightly red and studied his empty plate—which was a good thing as far as Madison was concerned as long as he didn’t challenge Burke to repeat the praise.

  “Alright,” Warren agreed with a nod of his head. “I’m in.”

  “Great,” Madison said happily, knowing that he had secured a tracker. He didn’t know whether or not Warren was any good, but he knew that that the younger man was proficient enough that the Guardian’s relied on him to roam around in the woods outside K’yer Utane on his own and that they used him to keep an eye on things that were going on in the area. After all, that was how he had found Madison. There was also the fact that Madison didn’t really know anyone else outside this small group, and working with a complete stranger in a high-stress situation wasn’t the most appealing option ever.

  “Hmph,” Shayna said finally making noise. She had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time, which might have been a lingering effect from all the medication and healing she had received. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at them smugly. “You’re all just lucky that I’m here to help you,” she declared. “By the time we’re finished with this, you’re all going to be joining Madison in my service, and you’ll never get free.”

  “Okay, so that means you’re in?” Madison asked.

  “And you,” she continued, “are going to owe me so big you’ll never be able to repay me. You’re probably going to try and run off on your own, aren’t you? Well, I’ll say it now: No getting yourself killed to try and escape paying off the debt you owe me!”

  “Uhh . . . So, that’s a yes?” Madison snickered, suppressing a laugh.

  “Yes,” she said, snobbishly turning her nose up in the air.

  “How did you actually manage to eat anything?” Madison asked. He just couldn’t take it anymore. He had given her a free pass because she was injured, but it was just too easy to pick on her, and he had gone far too long without doing it. It was like an itch he needed to scratch.

  “What?” she asked, her head snapping back down and into position. “What are you— Don’t you know it’s impolite to ask a lady about what she eats? H-H-How could you? I-I mean . . .?”

  “No, seriously,” Madison continued, figh
ting back the urge to grin mischievously. “I know firsthand how much of an appetite healing gives you, but wow! I’d never be able to eat anything if I was as full of myself as you are!”

  “What?!” She slammed the palms of her hands on the table and stood up, turning beet red. “What are you talking about?! How dare you—”

  “Oh god, be careful!” Madison said, jumping up and holding out his hand as if she would topple over at any minute. “Don’t fall!”

  “I’m not so injured that I cannot stand up!” she cried. “I might have done you a favor of letting you escort me to the table, but—”

  “No, not that,” Madison said. “I was afraid that the booster seat you were using would fall out of the chair if you stood up that quickly!”

  Everyone else at the table finally gave up the fight, and a chorus of snickers and giggles broke out. Even Burke looked like he enjoyed the joke, which only caused Shayna to turn even redder than she already was.

  “I’m not that small!” she half-wailed, half-cried, which only prompted another chorus of laughter.

  “Alright,” Madison said when things had died down. “You’re the last one, Erin. Feel like tagging along and playing healer for us?”

  The room turned completely quiet as Erin turned and looked at him. For such a small, quiet girl, Madison suddenly became acutely aware of the fact that she had a piercing gaze as she peered into his eyes. He felt as if layers of his being were stripped away in a moment’s time, and he was reminded of Alyanna when she had peered into his future and read him. In the end, she didn’t even respond. She broke eye contact with him and then reached up and removed the strange hat she was wearing and set it on the table in front of her. She smoothed down her hair when she was finished and nodded once, as if that was confirmation enough.

  “Alright,” Burke said. “You should all get a few hours of sleep while you can. Shayna needs to heal up and eat another meal, and a few hours of rest would do you all some good. You can make up the time in the morning, and I don’t want to send you out into the field unprepared. I’ll have the cooks prepare an early breakfast, and you’ll have travel packs and rations waiting on you in the morning when you’re ready to leave.”

  They set about cleaning as quickly as they could, mostly stuffing everything back into the large baskets that had been used to carry everything in with originally. Warren excused himself, saying that he needed to gather a few things together, and Burke left behind him, presumably to get started on the litany of things he probably had to take care of before he could leave as well. Erin and Shayna disappeared into one of the back bedrooms as soon as everything was put away and the other two left, leaving Madison and Alyanna alone together.

  Despite the erratic schedule he had kept since arriving in K’yer Utane, Madison didn’t actually feel tired. He knew that he’d be able to sleep if he went to bed and tried, but there was so much on his mind at the moment that he wanted to take a little time to himself so that he could sort it out in his head. Everything had been fairly well spelled out for him over dinner, with Burke confirming a number of his suspicions, but the Guardian had also left him with a great deal of new information as well, mostly in the form of ancient history. All in all, it really wasn’t that different from the world he was used to. Politics, intrigue, murder, and war: they were all the hallmarks of a good medieval history lesson.

  Thus, he excused himself out onto a small private balcony that was just off of the main room, plopped himself down in a wicker chair, and propped his feet up on the railing. He was still there half an hour later, enjoying the cool night air and staring out at a dark tree line when Alyanna came out and joined him.

  “Having trouble sleeping?” she asked as she stepped outside. He glanced up at her out of the corner of his eye and saw that she had changed into something resembling a nightdress. She was also carrying two stemmed glasses, one of which she passed to him.

  Madison took the glass, tentatively smelled of it, and was greeted by the strong aroma of alcohol, something similar to a red wine. He tried to hold it up so that he could see what was in it, but there wasn’t nearly enough light to illuminate the dark liquid. “Don’t tell me you’re trying to poison me now since stabbing me didn’t work?” he joked, taking a small sip. He had been right about the red wine. It was sweet and light and warmed him all the way down into his stomach.

  “No,” she said quietly, stepping in front of him and then sitting down in the chair next to him. “You’re off the hook for now.”

  “Well, thanks. This is actually pretty good,” he remarked. “I haven’t had a decent glass of wine in ages.”

  “I figured it might help you sleep a bit if you were struggling to rest. My mother used to give us small amounts, even as a young child—though it was more water than wine back then, of course—and it always put me right to sleep after dinner. There’s just something so comforting about a good meal and a glass of wine. It reminds me of cold winter evenings back home.”

  “You’re not wrong,” Madison agreed. Then, candidly, he said, “But this is so far removed from my home that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to settle in and feel comfortable. No matter how much I drink.”

  He expected her to ask about his home, since that was the natural flow that conversation would normally take, but she surprised him by saying something else instead.

  “I’m sorry, Madison,” she said softly. She paused to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and then curled her feet up underneath her in the chair and took a sip of her wine before continuing. “I’m sorry for trying to kill you. It’s . . . It’s not proper for me to apologize. It’s not our way to apologize in this circumstance, but I feel I owe it to you. After learning how you protected me . . . that my father could have . . .” She trailed off and took another sip of her wine and then fell silent.

  Madison waited for several long breaths before answering. He knew that she was struggling with everything that she had heard over dinner. Frankly, he was surprised at how willingly she accepted it. It took a special kind of person who could maintain their composure and calmly listen to people who were more or less strangers explain the fact that her father had abandoned her, written her off for dead, and then used her multiple times as a bargaining chip to get what he wanted. Madison didn’t know if he would have been so willing to accept it, even in the face of everything that had happened.

  Madison didn’t really feel like sticking up for the guy, but he didn’t feel like he had much choice in the situation. He couldn’t just come out and bash her father for what he had done. That would just drive an even bigger wedge between them, and that was the last thing he wanted before setting off on a trip with her. More importantly, he really didn’t want to hurt her either.

  “I’m sure your father was doing what he thought was right for his people,” Madison said at last. “It doesn’t mean I agree with him or that he was right to do it, but I’m sure he made his decisions with his people in mind. The burden of responsibility is a heavy one . . . But you deserved better than that.”

  She took another sip of her wine before answering. “It’s not too surprising, actually. You’d have to understand my father. He’s a caring man, and he’s more than capable as a ruler, but he would never hesitate to make a decision if it meant saving his people. It genuinely speaks volumes about how desperate he was for a solution that we ever undertook the trip south to begin with. If we were in any other situation, and there was any other way out, he would have taken it if he believed that it was the right one to save lives. He has put their lives and security above all else—even that of his own family.

  “Oh, don’t mistake me, he loved me and my brother in his own way. He’s never been anything but a good father, but he and I were never extremely close either. That was what it meant for him to ‘bear the responsibility,’ as you put it. He was always at meetings, conferring with experts or councils, or off on matters of importance when I was younger. After my mother passed away, he threw himself in
to his role as a ruler as a way of dealing with is grief, I think. We traveled from one lord’s estate to the next for years as he fought to curry favors and secure deals until I was old enough to remain at home and turn my attention to schooling. Even then, if it was someone particularly important, I would be expected to arrive on time and attend to him while he was there. I was always expected to play the part of the prim and proper young lady, and it was always doubly effective whenever the host had a young man about my age.

  “No, he was a kind and caring father, but we were never close. It was always Darrius who looked after me . . .”

  She trailed off at the mention of her brother and took another drink of her wine, this time much longer than the others. Not wanting to push her or spoil the moment for her, Madison just sipped on his own wine and remained quiet until she was ready to continue.

  “I always looked up to my brother when I was little. . .” She shook her head and took a deep breath, and her voice trembled slightly as she pulled up memories.

  “No, that’s not true. I always looked up to my brother, not just when I was little. I guess that lots of younger sisters do, but I always adored him. I followed him around everywhere they would let me, and then cried when they wouldn’t. Even as I got older, and I began to understand that he and I would have completely different roles in life, I still snuck around the manor and the estate just to keep tabs on him. I’d pop in on classes while he was being tutored, hang on his arm at balls, and sneak out to watch him while he trained with the sword. I was just enamored with him.

  My brother was always there for me whenever I needed him and often when I didn’t—or well, at least when I didn’t think I did. I hate to think about what you think life must have been like for me, but it wasn’t always easy, I assure you. We always had food on the table, and we always had a fire in winter, but even being the daughter of a powerful lord wasn’t protection from the common dangers of growing up.