“We are skirting through the street and thoroughfares, but at last report none were found. No living. No dead.”
That alarmed her. “People do not vanish without a trace, not in a city this large. Send more of our sisters to search. The city, the surrounding plain, villages and towns within an hour’s ride. I will know what became of them.”
Claire nodded and went off to relay instructions.
“As for the commander,” Lara said softly, glancing towards Andrew. “Our kinsman ordered the defenses.”
“And Lord Commander Rafael Azail?”
“Cimmerii’s Hold would be my guess, along with a myriad of other riddles.”
Sable against the black mountain, the keep loomed ominously; its shadow seemed to creep against her turned back. There was a presence that she could not explain before the mountain. The same presence that crept through Lanan, and turned her consort into a husk of his former self.
The Faceless Shadow.
Who—or what—he was, Aerona did not know, but she was sure that flesh lay under the overlapping robes. Words and promises may have sufficed for her consort, but she would not be swayed. Lanan would no longer be robbed of its sovereign right to rule.
“Mistress?” Jessica asked, breaking her thoughts. “Is aught amiss?”
No—and yes,” Aerona offered disconsolately. “It is not a shade that is in there, but the full strength of the sorcery that has ensnared Damian. We must convince Ser Elin of that, and move against it quickly.”
“That will not be so simple,” Dominique said, crossing her arms. “Klara reports that Ser Elin has become increasingly agitated o’er the months. Talk of the relics only makes him wroth. He will not believe what we have seen—and felt.”
She is still undiscovered, good. The Voice will still be ours, and Trecht will not bestir itself. Every piece had nearly fallen into place. She knew only one move was left to be made. “We will humble ourselves, and throw upon his mercy,” Aerona said flatly.
“We have the strength to throw them back!” Lara protested, insistent. “Whatsoever Argath Diomedes has concocted behind his walls, we can face.”
“No Lara,” Aerona said flatly. “There is a strength that remains inside those walls. The Dalians will contend with them, whilst we see to the Faceless Shadow. Klara will lurk and do what she was meant to do. The shadows will scatter, and the Voice will be our staunch friend.”
They nodded their heads obediently, though reluctance dwelled in their eyes. Aerona did not fault them. The gambit had risks, but what truly thrived within those walls was a mystery, and she would not face it without Ser Elin.
Claire returned. “Orders have been given, and we have learned the Dalians have taken their command to the cross roads. Ser Elin takes counsel with Ser Johnathan and the knight-captains. He is wroth still, and advisors do little to dampen his anger.”
One man is like the other. “We will make for there now,” Aerona declared, walking east through the gardens. “They will understand what has been bred in the shadow of the mountain.”
“I would like to have some of us in the shadows if—”
“No,” Aerona cut Dominque off. “Without them, there is no hope. This is not a discussion any longer.”
“As you command, Mistress.”
The gardens faded behind and the thoroughfare opened. Slowly, the Dalian knights parted, but hands were ne’er far from the hilts of their swords; their eyes leering and probing. It was an expected welcome, and she hoped that none of her Brood forgot why they were here.
Wounded lay afield upon the left of the road, while women in white knelt, feeding them herb scented broth. Little seemed to distinguish the priests from the healers.
The realm is near at an end, and all effort should be upon the living.
Aerona walked off the cobblestone road, and a tall knight shouldered through the crowd. He was garbed in all the livery of the Dalian knights: crystalline armour, and a swirling silver and white cape. Unlike the others, the knight did not leer, nor did his brow furl. “Aerona Harkan. Name your affair.”
She chuckled, smiling sweetly. “Mine is with Ser Elin, not with you. You will take us to him.”
“I will take you, Aerona Harkan, but not the others,” the knight replied stiffly. “They will wait within our sight; not in the presence of Ser Elin.”
“You are young—and handsome,” she remarked and the knight flushed. “Yet you have not seen us before. We are not like the sheepish women from your homeland. We have sharp claws and a will of iron,” she paused and saw that the knight held fast. “My instructions for them is to remain by my side. Hinder them, and talons will jut out from your eye sockets.”
Steel scraped against leather, and all save the knight who addressed her showed steel. “This need not be bloody,” the knight whispered softly, hands trembling.
“All these knights in white and silver, and yet you fear us.”
The knight said not a word.
“Take us to Ser Elin.”
The knight did not move, though a few of the others fidgeted. Her Brood were still as water, and that pleased her. They had not forgotten their purpose.
“Sheathe your steel,” a voice announced, and the crowd parted to allow a slender knight to come forth. This new knight seemed different from the rest. “I shall take them—all of them, to the knight-commander. I will bear responsibility.”
“Ser Geoffrey,” the first knight replied, stepping aside.
“Good lad,” Aerona said, brushing a hand against his breast plate. “Do take care of yourself.”
The knight stammered a few words, but Aerona looked to Ser Geoffrey, and the Brood followed behind, offering soft spoken compliments.
In the distance stood a blackened stone building. A sign was strewn beside three stones steps, and the square windows were shuttered. Aerona thought it some shop, perhaps a jeweller. “You are a knight-captain?” she asked as they walked.
“I am, Lady Aerona, and I am no friend of yours.”
“You will not endear yourself to me with patronizing titles.”
“I do not mean to,” he stopped at the head of the stair, pushing the door open. “For my part, I hope Ser Elin lets us cut your throat.”
She patted Ser Geoffrey on the shoulder and walked through. I like him.
Inside the chamber was dark and grimy, cleared of all furniture save for a table in the middle. There were four sets of eyes staring back. Two she did not recognize, but Ser Elin and Ser Johnathan closeted with each other.
“Come and say what you will, Aerona Harkan,” Ser Elin declared when she stood near the table. The knight barely glanced towards her. “You embarrassed me upon the field, but I will hear your words. See that they are worth my time.”
Aerona swiftly drew her steel, and her Brood did in like kind. The knights stepped back, clasped their blades quickly, but relented when she tossed hers upon the table, and the others skittered away across the floor. “We have come here as friends, not enemies. You may hold my steel ‘til our affairs have concluded.” None of the knights so much as grinned. “I have dispatched my Brood ‘round this cross roads—plain to your eyes—blades staked upon the ground. If steel should be drawn ‘gainst them, they will die in this wasteland. Much as we will.”
“The Harpy accepting death so willingly?” Ser Johnathan growled. “We know about you and your kind. You were naught but a wisp of a girl, but in my youth, I fought against your overlord’s raiding ships. I will believe self-sacrifice from you whence trees grow once more in this broken land”
Aerona recoiled at the moniker and slammed her right fist upon the table. “All your long years, Ser Johnathan, and you do not see that I am not Overlord Damian Dannars.”
“No, you are not,” Ser Johnathan spit. “You are his bed warmer.”
“Mind your—”
Aerona turned her head towards Dominique, and she fell silent. “I did not come here to discuss who I sleep with.”
“Then why are you
here?” one of the knights asked.
“Who do I address, ser?”
“Ser Kevan Jarn.”
“Ser Kevan, then,” Aerona began. “Not all in the islands see as my consort does, even those close to him. There is much that I would share with you. Yet your minds are as closed as his. Do you, ser, understand why you are here?”
“We are here to answer the slaughter of our Northlands,” Ser Johnathan interjected, pointing a gauntleted finger at her. “The eyes of the Harpy see all, they say. Surely you have seen the burned ground. The unburied dead. The wanton desecration.”
“We know of that, and more that you may not have guessed, though it has ensnared you utterly.”
“And what is that?” Ser Elin asked suddenly. “What can we not guess?”
“What destroyed Imperator Argath Diomedes is the same that consumed King Marcus Marcanas. That malignant will draws you here.”
The chamber fell silent. The knight-captains looked aside, and Ser Elin and Ser Johnathan scowled. It was not what she hoped for.
“King Marcus Marcanas was a warlord obsessed with vengeance from the past,” Ser Elin rebutted. “I will grant you the same drive consumed the imperator, and there is but one salve for that wound.”
You tried to understand affairs, but you know so little. If only your ears were not shut. “You stand before the Mountain with Judgment drawn, and you will die, Ser Elin.”
“Is that a threat, Harpy?”
She glared at Ser Elin, roiling. “It is what shall pass. No threat. I have seen this fell pow’r with my own eyes; watched as it changed the man that I loved. There is more to these affairs that you do not understand.”
“And you do?” another of the knight captains asked—a large buxom woman. “You are spymasters and cut throats, not seers. Do not act like one.”
“I have seen it,” Aerona declared.
“What have you seen, Aerona?” Ser Elin asked sharply.
“I have seen cloaked men in Lanan, singularly obsessed with crystalline stones that my consort is all too eager to deliver.”
Ser Elin’s face seemed to soften, and he stepped back. “I did not believe this fantasy from my old friend. I will not take the word of my enemy.”
Aerona sighed, frustrated with the ignorance of the pious servants of Mother God. “King Marcus Marcanas impulsively invaded Dalia three years past. Whence he was pushed back to his homeland, we hear word of the king’s sudden death, and his eldest son upon the throne, refusing all visitors. Likely to hide any misdeeds that would threaten his own power.
“This Faceless Shadow appears in the imperium, and convinced Imperator Argath Diomedes to raise the sword against Dalia, burning and raping. Shortly thereafter, I discover my own consort obeying the whims of men in cloaks. It is not mere fantasy, no fairy tale, or half remembered dream. These are wakened nightmares that must be met with steel and blood. Get your head straight, boy!”
Ser Kevan slammed the table, brooding and still. “You will speak kindly to the knight-commander, or you will not speak at all.”
Aerona bowed her head, cursing the stubbornness of men.
“Lord Commander Rafael Azail spoke of a change, and warned me not to come here,” Ser Elin said solemnly. “That there is a darkness consuming this land. I did not believe him. I still do not. Nor do I believe you. Yet I know enough of islander politics to reckon that you are not here upon the overlord’s command.”
“If he e’er learns I have come here, the women who serve me will not find safe haven anywhere.”
“Yet still you come at great risk,” Ser Elin said, walking around the table towards her. “I may have been in a small village for three years, but news oft reached my ears. Your overlord has impoverished my people. It is his iron fist that drove a wedge between the imperium and the Faith. Our misgivings for your pleas are not unfounded. I daresay every knight that still draws breath would rather slay you than simply watch you pass by. I am of a mind to give them that, and call it righteous slaughter in the name of Mother God.
“Aerona Harkan,” he stood before her, eyes intent. “The imperium has fallen by our hand, not yours. All that remains are a leaderless Black Guard within their hold, protecting an old, done man. Why should I not spill your blood here?”
Aerona could not help but laugh, and turned to the large woman who so arrogantly mocked her a moment before. “Would you like to tell Ser Elin what became of the three hundred men and women who roved near the north gate—or shall I?”
“Lady Deborah!” Ser Elin shouted, turning to her in a fury. “You exposed our flank?”
“I had no choice, ser,” Lady Deborah protested stubbornly. “There was no risk of an assault from the north, and my knights were bleeding out. If I had not recalled them, you would have fallen.”
It was the moment Aerona waited for. “We held the north gate.”
“The north gate had naught but a handful of defenders,” Lady Deborah bristled. “You lie with every breath you take.”
“If you believe my words to be lies than you are a blind fool, Lady Deborah!”
The lady knight stirred, walking toward her. “I have heard more than I have seen of your vaunted strength.” Looking to Ser Elin, Lady Deborah said, “Give me the command to cut her down.”
“If I had not given my word,” Aerona said harshly, “I would have delivered your head to Ser Elin long ago. A fitting price for an inept captain.”
Lady Deborah drew an inch of steel, and suddenly a knock came from the front of the shop. The knight slammed her blade back into the scabbard and returned to her place at the table. Ser Geoffrey shouldered past Aerona sullenly. The knight-captain listened to the whispers of a short man in studded leather. When the discussion broke off, the knight captain grasped a talon in his hands, and thrust it upon the table. “She does not lie.”
Lady Deborah stared at the table in surprise, as did the other knights. Ser Elin raised his eyes and said, “That is your mark.”
“It is,” Aerona said, smiling. “What else did your man report, Ser Geoffrey?”
“There are near as many dead at the north as by the east gate,” the knight-captain replied solemnly. “Few who wear the garb of the Brood.”
“Do you expect thanks, Aerona?” Ser Elin asked after a time. “I still do not believe in your fantasy.”
“Lord Commander Rafael Azail did.”
“He—”
“Is not a liar!” Aerona blurted out, frustrated at the stubbornness. “The walls did not shake whilst you assailed the city. Yet the battle turned when a few of you opened them from within. You discovered a path through Mount Cimmerii, or I am a bloody fool. How is it that the walls held strong, but the mountain passages were left unchecked, lest someone wanted you before the Mountain? The imperator has not lost his wits. You would walk into a trap.”
Ser Elin pulled away, pacing. “You would walk into the trap with us? Is that your wish?”
You are no fool, ser, but you must see sense. “We are stronger together than we are apart. I wish to recover the relics that the Faceless Shadow covets, and cut his head off!”
Moments passed in silence. The knights looked to each other skeptically, and Aerona heard her Brood whisper behind.
“I regret losing Lord Gareth,” Ser Elin declared harshly, breaking the silence. “I desire his counsel now.”
“It could not have been helped,” Ser Johnathan replied. “I do not know what else he could have told us. Yet his claims are not dissimilar to hers.”
The name Lord Gareth was familiar to her, but distant. She thought the man was a steward in high regard in the Faith, advisors to the priesthood. “What has a steward to do with your war?”
“He believed that the Isilians were searching for hidden treasuries of the Faith, and if we should ever discover them, he was to take charge of whatever contained within. We never came across any, but there was a man who claimed to have knowledge of one such. He was a husk of what he was.”
“You thoug
ht him mad, did you not?”
“I did. He mumbled like some blubbering fool. I do not know what he saw, what my old friend did to him, but whatever it was, he believed it.” Ser Elin appeared deep in thought. “Much as you do, shorn of faith.”
“Faith is not needed to see when aught is amiss.”
“Aerona Harkan,” Ser Elin began, “I will confess there is much I do not understand. The needless, senseless death of my family, and my village. The hithertos and the whyfores of belief in Mother God. The reverence of ancient treasures.
“I will not stand and believe that some mystical relic compelled wanton slaughter. Not of King Marcus Marcanas, nor of Imperator Argath Diomedes. They are warlords who see only power and greed.
“Yet I am not blind to the peril you have put yourself in by coming here. You could have slaughtered my knights in the courtyard if you so chose, and yet you did not. You came here unasked, and surrendered your steel, risking much. I will return the favour, but no more.”
“You know what must be done,” Aerona implored.
“I have heard your thoughts. You are deluded. Pick up your steel and return to Lanan. Account yourself to the overlord, and beg for mercy.”
The Brood shuffled their feet behind Aerona, retrieving their steel. She did not stir. Would not. She knew this to be the only path. “I am not deceiving you.”
“You are a liar!” Ser Elin shouted. “You stand with your overlord three years past and subjugate my people after throwing Trecht back across the sea. You did not join with us. You sacrificed naught. Year after year you collect tithe and tariffs, impoverish those who lived. Your words are meaningless. Leave before I cut you down myself.”
Aerona did not move. “And when you do not return? What of your people then?”
Ser Johnathan leaned over and whispered into Ser Elin’s ear. Aerona could not hear a word that passed between them, but a smile crept across the knight-commander’s face.
“You are a liar, but if you are so insistent, I shall test your worth, Aerona Harkan,” Ser Elin began, smirking. “Your Brood shall surrender your steel to my quartermaster, all save the small number I permit to you. You will tarry to Cimmerii’s Hold under the Ser Johnathan’s command, and there you shall look for the Faceless Shadow, whilst I attend to Imperator Argath Diomedes.
Darkness Rising (Ancient Vestiges Book 1) Page 23