Death Flag

by Richard Haygood

  “Shh . . .” he cautioned quietly, his face only inches from hers. “I don’t suggest it.” His voice came out softer than a whisper, but it was clear as a bell inside the otherwise silent tent. He quickly glanced around the tent and then let out a sigh of relief when he realized it was otherwise empty. The struggle had only taken seconds, but anyone inside would have certainly heard it and woken up unless they were the world’s most sound sleeper.

  He turned back to look at the young woman and instantly broke into a large smile. “Hello, Erin,” he whispered. He watched as her eyes grew wider as she recognized him, and he couldn’t stop his own smile from growing even larger. He removed his hand from her mouth then, and she instantly threw herself forward, wrapping her arms him and burying her head in his chest like a child. He was caught off guard by her actions, but he eventually wrapped an arm around her and patted her head softly. “I’m sorry it took so long,” he said. “We got a little sidetracked.”

  She pulled away and looked up at him questioningly, and he knew what she was asking. “Alaynna is still missing, but we know where she is. Shayna and Warren are below. I signaled to them just before I came in, and they should be headed this way to cover our retreat. Time to go.”

  She looked up at him and then at the tent flaps as if weighing something. Her hand curled up into a tiny fist, and she scowled up at him before striking him on his shoulder. He hadn’t realized it until just now, but that was something that both sisters seemed to have in common, even if nothing else: they liked to beat up on him when they couldn’t voice the words they wanted to.

  He shook his head. “I only killed one. We have to go,” he whispered somewhat urgently. “It’s not a bloodbath out there, but if we don’t hurry . . .”

  She stared at him for a long moment and then nodded her acceptance and agreement. Madison grabbed her hand and pushed his way out of the tent and then came up short, stopping dead in his tracks so quickly that Erin bumped into his back before she realized what happened. There were two rings of people standing around the entrance of the tent with weapons drawn, and they were all focused on him and Erin.

  CHAPTER 21

  Madison automatically threw his free hand out to the side and dropped into a defensive stance without letting go of Erin’s hand. He quickly scanned the two semicircular rings as he took a headcount, and he let his gaze wander off toward the side as he looked at the empty bedrolls. As far as he could tell at a quick glance, there wasn’t a single person in the camp who was still asleep. His brain raced as he tried to figure out what had happened. He had only been inside the tent with Erin for a moment, two minutes at most, and yet all these people had been able to get onto their feet and into position so that they would be waiting for him when he came out. Not only that, but they had managed to it so quickly and so silently that he hadn’t even noticed.

  The hairs on his arms stood on end as someone began working magic, and the two campfires flared to life, clearly illuminating the entire camp and momentarily blinding Madison. He fought back the urge to shield his face from the light, instead holding his position and forcing himself to stare down at the ground so that he’d be able to keep an eye on everyone just in case someone decided to make a move. Thankfully, they didn’t. He looked up and toward the flames up far sooner than he should have and scanned their faces, squinting against the bright light.

  There were three men and two women in the innermost circle, all of whom were decked out in armor, and Madison recognized at least three of them. The only man he recognized was a pudgy redhead with one of the most awful haircuts he had ever seen, and the only reason he had even an inkling of where he had seen him before was because of his friend whom Madison had killed a short time ago. There was a girl with straight, blonde hair, whom he thought he recalled having seen at the same time as the other two, and then the second young woman had long, curly, blonde hair. She was the only one looking at him with anything other than outright disdain and disgust, and she actually managed to somehow look sheepish despite the circumstances they were in. Madison locked eyes with her for a brief moment, and he had to choke down the derisive snort he felt building.

  The second ring was completely unrecognizable. It was comprised of well over a dozen or so of the bandits he had seen stretched out on the ground around the fire. They were clothed in the same grimy, mud-covered rags he had seen on the ones down below, and he suddenly wondered if they actually liked wallowing around in their own filth like pigs or if it was some religious thing they did to show devotion to their goddess. A religious excuse for a complete lack of cleanliness was as good as any other he could come up with. He also noted a familiar black-clad swordsman in the center of the second ring. The man stood out like a sore thumb amongst the others simply because his garments weren’t completely soiled, and he kept his face covered. Though his sword wasn’t drawn, his hand rested on the hilt at his side as if he were expecting to use it at any moment.

  The rotund redhead smirked as he stepped forward, almost toddling back and forth as he moved, and he had s self-satisfied smirk plastered between his chubby cheeks. “You really are such an idiot! I can’t believe how stupid you are! Did you really think you could sneak in here and then back out again? What a joke!” He threw his head back and chuckled in the most self-satisfied way Madison had seen outside of a movie, and he was reminded of a cartoon pig snorting by the action.

  Madison remained as calm as possible without dropping his defensive posture and forced an easy smile onto his face. “Hello, Rae,” he said, looking directly at the blonde girl and ignoring cajoling. “I never thought I’d see you all the way out here. How are you?”

  Rae’s eyes grew wide, and she visibly shook as she stared at him. She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something, but no sound came out for a long moment. Finally, she opened and closed it several times before saying, in a small voice, “You really . . . You are—”

  “Don’t bother her!” the redhead screamed, toddling forward another step. “You have no right to speak to her, filth! After what you’ve done, you’re lucky you’re even allowed to be alive!”

  “Filth!” the other blonde girl echoed.

  “Yeah,” one of the other two men said, suddenly finding his voice.

  “You don’t even deserve to look at us!” the other male chanted.

  “Traitor!” the blonde girl cried again.

  Madison looked up and down the line of people as he tried to figure out what they were going on about, and his confusion must have slipped through into his face because the redhead leered at him even more smugly. “You don’t get it, do you? I thought you were supposed to be some genius or something. Why is Ryder even concerned with you?” He glanced at the two on either side of him and said, “We might as well just kill this kid right here and be done with it. What do you think? Let’s have us a little accident?”

  Madison’s ears picked up at the mention of the Guardian’s name. He had just been given his first clue as to how and why these people from K’yer Utane were out here, whether they meant to give it away or not. Madison raised an eyebrow and asked, “Didn’t you hear, Gregory? Ryder had a bit rough time dealing with me on his own. Of course he’s concerned with me.”

  Several of them openly laughed at that, and Gregory came close to snorting like a pig again, his little eyes squeezing together until they were small slits. “Oh, please. Everyone saw that fight—if that’s what you want to call it—so don’t think you’re fooling anyone. Everyone saw exactly how badly he wanted to cut you in half. It must have been so hard for him not to. Playing-fighting a simpleton is never easy, and I can understand why. Watching you flap around with that cute, little sword was so hilarious and pathetic it almost made me want to cry.”

  “What do you say, Rae?” Madison asked, turning to look at her. She was doing her best to avoid direct eye contact with him now without completely looking away, and she visibly jumped when he spoke to her. “You’ve patched me up enough times by now. Think I�
�m that hopeless?”

  “I . . . I think . . . I . . . ” She stammered around, but couldn’t get the words out.

  “Yeah. You think I’m a bully, right? Sorry about that, by the way.” He was talking about the fact that he had stolen bottles of medicine from the infirmary from directly under her nose and then practically extorted her into covering for him. He had sworn then that he would make it right to her somehow, but with her on the other side of the circle now, there was a good chance that he was going to have to fight against her instead. He found her bubbly, over-the-top attitude annoying, but that didn’t mean he disliked her. Anyone he fought against had a nasty habit of winding up dead, and he hated to end things with her that way. After all, she had been the first person whom he had talked with after waking up in the infirmary that first time, and she had sat and watched over him for days while he was unconscious.

  “Ryder knew you were a thief and a bully the whole time,” Gregory explained. “He saw right through you. We all did. There’s no way someone as worthless as you could be anything different. It’s just so sad that you’re so bad at both. I don’t understand why they let a charity case and a coward like you come to K’yer Utane to begin with. There’s no place for useless, freeloading scum like you there.”

  For all his bluster, Madison could tell that Gregory really did believe everything he was saying. He knew that the rumor mill must have been working overtime since they left, but he had no idea what it must have been saying for things to get this bad. Gregory hated him for what he had done to Randall, but he was laying it on way too thick for it to be something so simple.

  “You sure you want to talk like that?” Madison asked tauntingly. “Daddy Ryder isn’t here now. Neither is your idol, Randall. Don’t you think you should have had someone come along who actually knew what they were doing? Something bad might happen without them here to save you.”

  The blonde Madison didn’t recognize visibly hissed at him, recoiling from his words as if they were the most unpleasant thing imaginable. “Keep his name out of your mouth, you filth!” she screeched. “Someone like you does not deserve to speak his name!”

  “Uh-oh. It looks like I struck a nerve . . .” Madison said, not bothering to suppress his obvious amusement.

  Erin squeezed his left hand then where she still held it, bringing him back down. As much as he wanted to fall into his sarcastic habits and bait them in, he had to remember that she was with him now. It wasn’t just himself that he had to worry about: he was there to rescue her, to protect her.

  “Where’s your skank girlfriend?” Gregory asked. “She was supposed to be with you. I bet she’s out there now, skulking around, isn’t she? Wait a minute. Where are the guards? Who was on watch?” he asked, glancing up and down the line. Recognition dawned on his face as he realized what had happened. “Why you . . .” He stepped forward several steps, his face going beat-red with anger. His meaty hand curled up into a fist, and he shook it angrily at Madison. “If you did something to Nicholas . . . If you so much as hurt him . . .”

  “Uh-oh . . .” Madison spoke the two words with the same conviction of a five year old who knew that he had just broken his mother’s prize vase and was going to be in trouble for it—but who didn’t care at all. Erin squeezed ahold of his hand again, likely as hard as she could, and he knew that it was either because he was still being antagonistic or because of what he was implying. He knew that she hated violence of any kind, but what was done was done. He knew it, she knew it, and Gregory knew it as well.

  “You little . . .” Gregory started forward again, but both the blonde and the man rushed forward and grabbed him around the shoulders, pulling him backward. A third, one of the bandits on the end of the line, ran off, ostensibly to check on the missing guards.

  “Careful, Greg!” one warned.

  “Not yet, Gregory! We have to do this the way Ryder said! We can’t afford to hurt him until we find the others!”

  Gregory looked like he was ready to explode, but he allowed himself to be pulled back by his friends until he was in line with them once again, his eyes seething with rage and hatred.

  “Nicholas got less than he deserved,” Madison said calmly. He was doing his best to remain level and calm for Erin’s sake, but his words were going to be antagonistic no matter how he said them. “Only a true coward would jump a young woman with three-to-one odds and hold her down while she was beaten. There’s a special place in hell for people like him. I just sent him there early.” The squeezing in his hand didn’t abate, and if anything, it grew stronger as he spoke.

  “You’re still worried about your little skank, aren’t you? You still think you can protect her? We had fun with her last time. She’s our toy now. Just wait till we get our hands on her again. We’re going to have real fun with her.”

  “Why are you here?” Madison asked, switching topics and turning serious. He had no desire to continue down the path of the current conversation. It was only going to lead places that would get him into trouble and someone killed. “Why are you working with all these people?”

  “I told you,” Gregory barked, his face turning even redder. “Ryder saw right through you from the beginning! He knew that you were going to kidnap the princess and try to use her. He knows all about your plans to corrupt her so that you can take control of Stargrave. He knows exactly how you used magic to make her trust you even after you killed her brother and made her drive her own father away in shame. But we’re not going to let that happen! We’re not going to let you get her pregnant with your demon spawn or manipulate her any longer! We’ll never let you defile her innocence!” He was practically shouting by the time he finished, and spittle was flying from his mouth as he spat out the words.

  Madison blinked once as he processed the rather grievous—though ludicrous—charges. He definitely hadn’t been expecting that. At least he understood now why this man had such an obvious hatred for him. If he had been fed lies like that, even Madison might have been tempted to go after someone with reckless abandon and vitriol.

  “That’s right,” Gregory continued, though he was no longer shouting. “Ryder told us all about you. He told us all about how you came to the valley seeking refuge like the coward you are. He told us all about how he took you in and nursed you back to life from the brink of death. He said he just couldn’t stand to see another human being beg like that. It’s too bad he didn’t know about your past then. If he had known that you were a pirate and a deserter, it would have saved us a lot of time and effort.”

  He turned to the side and snorted before continuing, his voice scathing and filled with disdain. “That’s right, kid,” he snarled pompously. “We know all about how you turned on your crew. We know how you betrayed the great Janos to the pirates just so you could make off like a thieving snake in the night with his treasure. We know all about how you attacked a group of innocent merchants on their way to market in Marpot and then killed half their group just for the fun of it after they offered you food and shelter for the night. We know all about you, you double-crossing rat. You thought you could take advantage of us. We saved your life, and then you betrayed us too. What an ingrate. The minute you thought you could take advantage of the princess, you spit on all of us and everything we stand for!”

  Madison felt Erin grasp his hand with both of hers and squeeze tightly, and he was grateful for the distraction. They were so far off the mark that it was almost impossible to believe someone could be so utterly and completely wrong. Madison had to wonder if that wild error came from the lies they had been fed by Ryder or if it was the product of all the rumor mongering and gossip about him that had spread throughout K’yer Utane during his time there. He had to assume that it was the former since there were parts of that story that he hadn’t told to anyone other than Davion and Ryder when he first arrived. To the best of his memory, he hadn’t even filled Warren in on all the details, and he had witnessed Madison’s fight against the slavers as he escaped—or found him di
rectly after at the tail end of it anyway.

  “We know all about you,” Gregory growled scornfully, as if he hadn’t said enough already. “And I don’t know what you used to convince everyone to go along with you, but I’ve had enough of it. Now that we have you, we can undo whatever magic you used on poor Erin. And once we’re done with you, our friends here”—he nodded towards the line behind him—“will take whatever is left of you back to their goddess as an offering. They plan on making you atone for your sins, boy!”

  “You really did a number on her, you know it?” the blonde asked haughtily and distastefully, staring toward Erin. “She’s never broken a rule in her life, and now she’s following you around like a love-sick puppy and just letting you take advantage of her any way you like! Abusive, manipulative pigs like you should just die!”

  “It’s just a matter of time until that tramp you’re screwing shows up to try and rescue you,” Gregory finished. “After that, we’ll have her too. And then it’s back to Ryder with the both of you so that he and Sherrie can sort you out.”

  Erin had finally reached her boiling point. Madison felt her practically tug against his arm as she stepped forward next to him. In the tiniest and most exasperated voice he had ever heard, she yelled, “We are here on orders from Guardian Burke!”

  Madison looked over at her in sheer surprise. He had only ever heard her speak in a quiet, mousy voice, and it was almost always respectfully and in response to a Guardian. She seemed to communicate with everyone else by knowing looks and expressions, which left Madison guessing what she meant even more often than he actually knew, and he could easily count on one hand the number of times that he had ever heard her speak at all in the entire time he had known her.