by Hugo Huesca
Kes rolled her eyes at Lavy and said, “Oh, don’t be so melodramatic. If I wanted to betray you, all of you would be dead. I was trying to help your dear Lord Wright.”
“That’s one hell of a way to twist what you did,” said Alder, raising an eyebrow at her. “I mean, gods, Kes, you went to talk to a fucking Inquisitor!”
“What?” Ed said, again. But, again, they were too busy fighting to pay him any mind.
“Ex-Inquisitor,” Kes sighed. “Gallio lost the Light’s blessing a long time ago. He couldn’t produce a Sunwave if his life depended on it.”
“Doesn’t change a thing!” Lavy said, raising her voice and gesturing dangerously with her hands, not dropping her knife to do so. Klek, who was walking near her, took a step back and away from both the mercenary and the Witch. “He can call his Inquisitor friends, and then we’ll all hang! Except you, of course, because I’ll be the first in line to gut you!”
“Don’t point that thing at me, or I’ll make you eat it—”
“Enough!” This time, Ed activated his Evil Eye and almost screamed his command.
To his own surprise, they listened to him, and Kes took a step away from Lavy’s face, although her hand was still hovering over the handle of her sword.
“Good,” Ed said, before he lost the initiative. “Now, Alder, explain from the beginning, on your end.”
“Yessir,” said the Bard. He spoke quickly, and to the point. “I woke up. Neither Lavy nor Kes were around. I went out looking, found Lavy coming back from a trip to the herbalist, but no sight of Kes. So, we sent the batblins to search for her around the forest, to no avail. We were about to wake you, when Klek found her coming back from Burrova’s road, and when we confronted her, she admitted she had just talked to Gallio. We came back, you are here. Have I mentioned that green eye thing makes your skull visible under the right lighting? Because it kinda freaks me out.”
Uh, thought Ed, I had no idea. He turned off the Evil Eye. There were no mirrors around, so he had never seen himself using his power. Lavy had demanded he use it last night. That probably said more about her than it did about him.
“Okay,” he said. “Kes, please tell me why I shouldn’t believe there is a group of Burrova’s finest about to come knocking at our door with a lot of pointy sticks.”
“What does ‘okay’ mean? Is that a kaftar word?” asked the mercenary, but without waiting for an answer, she went on. “Yes, I talked to Gallio. No, I did not betray you. We are still connected by our pact if you haven’t checked.”
Ed confirmed it. She was telling the truth. “Go on.”
“I did so because I believe you.” She shrugged. “Last night, when you told your story. Edward, every single Dungeon Lord I’ve heard about has been either a monster, or an enemy of the Light, or both. But I’ve never heard of a Dungeon Lord taken from another world. You know nothing of our customs, or our ancient history, or our culture. You are a stranger here, and whatever sick game the Dark One is playing with you, I believe you to be a victim, not the culprit.”
“Dungheap,” said Lavy. “If there is a victim here, that’s you, Kes. You really believe Gallio can help him? Don’t you remember what the Inquisition does to Dungeon Lords? The same thing they are going to do to us!”
Kes nodded. “Yes, I know. Because of Sephar’s Bane. But Edward’s presence changes all, don’t you see? He can find out who is infected with that interpretation of the pact-making rules he used yesterday. Imagine all the good he could do! If he had been around during Sephar’s time, surely he could have helped avoid the entire thing. A normal Dungeon Lord would’ve never agreed to help Heiliges, but Ed could have!”
“That’s what you told Gallio,” Ed said. He passed a hand across his forehead. It was too early for this shit.
“Yes. Like I said before, he is not an Inquisitor anymore. He is not duty-bound to purge the Dark-aligned. You have an amazing opportunity, Edward. If Burrova is in danger of a mindbrood, you can help save it. You can help save the lives of everyone in the village.”
“They are in more danger of the Inquisition than of the mindbrood,” said Alder, but without Lavy’s animosity. “At least, for the moment. Just wanted to make that point clear.”
Kes said nothing to that, perhaps conceding the point. But she still looked at Ed expectantly.
She was asking him to risk getting captured by the Inquisition, and if they went by their Earth’s namesakes, they wouldn’t treat prisoners well. He was risking torture, and death, all for the chance of saving the lives of some strangers that would probably never get over their fears of Dungeon Lords long enough to thank him. If he said no, he could stay by his corner of Hoia, growing in strength, hunting the mindbrood his own way, until he was ready to face any Inquisitor with strength to match theirs.
It was an easy choice to make.
“Take me to him,” he told the mercenary.
Kes flashed him a radiant smile.
“I was right about you,” she said, like a child who had just found out that Christmas had come early. “You aren’t evil.”
“I was right about him,” Alder told Lavy, in a whisper. “He is insane.”
Ed smiled at the Bard and shrugged. “Last night, I told you I wanted to oppose Murmur, remember? If I don’t do this, if I’m not willing to work over our differences with Gallio and the Light before escalating the conflict, I would be the kind of person that I hate, and that Murmur loves.”
“Or you would be the kind of person who lives to see winter,” Lavy pointed out somberly.
Ed’s group met with Gallio’s at a middle point between Burrova and the cave, a spot close to the stream that the batblins usually used to replenish their water.
Gallio was accompanied only by Vasil, both dressed in the full garb of the Burrova’s guard, but their weapons were kept at their sides, and their arms were empty. Ed didn’t fully relax, though, since he now lived in a world where people could command magic from their fingertips, and he didn’t know Gallio’s stats.
The young Dungeon Lord had only brought Kes with him, as a show of good faith, but also to keep his other friends away from harm if he was betrayed.
Even then, he wasn’t defenseless. He was wearing the leather jerkin that he had worn against the spiders, his woolen jacked over it, his hunting knife hanging by a cord he used as belt, and his Earth-made jeans and running shoes, which were in a better condition than his Ivalis’ clothes. And most importantly, his spells were full. He had two for the day, and in the back of his mind he was already planning how he’d use them, while Gallio approached him with his arms raised above his head.
“Edward Wright,” said the Sheriff. Ed noted that the man’s toned arms were barely scratched, and that he had no signs of injury from the fight with the spiders. “Yesterday, I didn’t peg you for a Dungeon Lord. I didn’t even know if you had survived our run-in with the spiders. You really think you can help Burrova against the mindbrood?”
Ed threw a dubious glance at Vasil. The pockmarked man was armed with a shortbow at his back, and he wasn’t as calm as his boss. Ed could see pearls of sweat coming down of the guard’s forehead.
“Sheriff Gallio,” Ed said, “Kes told me she already filled you in to my story. Surely you don’t want me to repeat it?”
Both of them stopped an arms’ length away from the other and squared each other up. Ed had little doubt that, if it came to a fight, Gallio would win easily. But Ed had a few tricks up his sleeve.
In any case, he wasn’t here to fight the Sheriff.
“Kes believes you,” Gallio said, “and I believe her. She has been with us since Burrova’s founding, and she has never once lied to me. If Lotia can create such sleeper agents that are capable of maintaining a lie for so long…Heiliges would be doomed anyway.”
“So you don’t care she has joined me?”
“In a pact, you say?” Gallio shook his head sadly. “I know very well that men and women may have perfectly valid reasons to pact with a Dunge
on Lord. Threats, torture, bribery…surely you know all the tricks the Dark has to get you to its side.”
I know a few.
“The law is the law,” Gallio finished, after a pause to see if Ed had something to say. He turned to Kes. “I won’t patronize you by pretending you didn’t know what you were doing, or what the consequences would be.”
Kes nodded curtly once. “Thank you.”
Gallio returned his attention to Ed. “Is it true you can find the mindbroods’ hosts?”
“In theory,” Ed said, “yes. Though I’ve yet to find one.”
And lucky me. I have no idea what I would do to that person if I did.
“The mages capable of performing the correct divination magic are very rare,” Gallio said, “and they won’t risk themselves by wandering around in mindbrood-infested lands. If, all this time, Dungeon Lords had this power…Heiliges is at a clear disadvantage, at least in regards to this.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Ed, “and I don’t care about your politics. I want to help people avoid having their brains sucked dry and replaced by a monster.”
“A Dungeon Lord on the side of the Light,” Gallio muttered to himself. He passed one leather-gloved hand across his blond hair, which was starting to go white at the sides. “If Alita still answered my prayers, I wonder what she would say about that.”
“I don’t know her,” said Ed, “but if she’s a reasonable goddess, she would at least give me the benefit of the doubt.”
Gallio sighed. If all Inquisitors looked like him, they weren’t a very intimidating order. He was a strong warrior, no doubt, but he wasn’t scary. He was tired, and he was getting old.
“What do you think, Vasil?” Gallio asked.
“I should put an arrow in them both and be done with it,” Vasil said, and he spat on the ground. “Nothing good will come from trusting a Dungeon Lord.”
“Nice, Vasil, real nice,” Kes told him. “I taught you how to use your damn bow.”
“Ah, sod off, friend Kes,” the guard said, and he spat again. “You should have let the spiders kill you instead of running to the Dark to save you. What is Alvedhra going to think of you?”
Gallio gestured at them to stop, and said to Ed, “What do you propose to do? Ioan thinks the spiders could be lying, since Starevos is not a mindbrood’s natural habitat. Too cold for them. He believes we shouldn’t summon the Inquisitors, yet, though I think that waiting any more would be stupid.”
Ed nodded. “Agreed. From what Kes and Alder taught me about those monsters, you don’t want to take risks with them. Here is what I offer. I go to Burrova, you gather the villagers, I pact with them and not with any parasite that is pretending to be them—or part of them. Then, right after, we cancel all pacts, and I walk away.”
Gallio said nothing. Instead, he looked at Ed’s shoes, frowning. In the end, he only said, “I see.”
“He’s telling the truth, Gallio,” Kes reminded him. “I heard the wording in his pact, and nothing ate him after he tried to bend the rules, so the Objectivity avails it.”
“I’m sorry, Edward,” said the Sheriff, “but I haven’t been entirely honest with you. I came here not because of Kes’ urging, but because I had to shake my own doubts about you.”
“What do you mean?” asked Ed.
“I’m now sure of it. I may not have my powers anymore, but I can still tell when people are telling the truth. It’s a personal talent, bought with my own experience points. Both you and Kes are telling the truth when you say you want to help. This means, you are being used by the Dark. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t follow,” said Ed, frowning himself. He was on high alert now, aware that things weren’t going as he had hoped. Any strange movement and he would activate his improved reflexes and start throwing drones at people.
“If any other Dungeon Lord had come up to me with that offer, to pact with an entire village, I would have killed them on the spot, Inquisitor or not. It would be an obvious trick by a devious monster. It would mean they had planted the mindbrood themselves in the first place and are using its threat as leverage. But you…truly want to help.”
“He’s telling the truth!” Kes repeated. “Are you daft? You said so yourself!”
Ed sighed and said, “He thinks Murmur planted the mindbrood. Don’t you, Gallio?”
“Not only that, the Dark One allowed your pact trick to work in the first place. Probably gave you the idea himself, without your noticing. If I allow you to ‘help us,’ Murmur will take advantage of the pact. I don’t know how. But I know he will. I’m sorry, Edward, but like I said, you are being used.”
“Gallio!” Kes exclaimed. “You are being paranoid! Is this how the Militant Church trains its pawns? Alita’s mercy, why can’t the Light be the one who is using Ed? Why does it have to be Murmur? The entire village could get purged because of your stubbornness!”
The Sheriff shook his head, sadly, without anger. “Sorry, old friend. I may not be an Inquisitor anymore, but I am still a man striving to do as much good as he can. And that means making the hard decisions, the ones no one else is willing to make. The ones that damn you whether you make them or not.”
“Was that how you lost your powers?” asked Ed. “You made a decision no one else wanted to make?”
“Just say the word, boss,” called Vasil, who at some point had unslung his bow.
Ed eyed him from the corner of his vision and tried to guess the spot where he would have to create his drone.
“Wait, Vasil,” Gallio said, “be reasonable. We did not come here to fight. Dungeon Lord, you have been dealt a terrible hand. You are a good person, but no matter what you do or try, all your efforts for the Light will end up advancing the cause of the Dark. I’ve seen this happen, myself, with my own eyes. If you truly care about doing good for the world…then know that the only good you are capable of is ending your own life.”
Everyone fell into stunned silence after his words, and even Vasil lowered his bow, though it was Kes who spoke first:
“Surely, you don’t mean that—”
“It’s what I would do in his place,” said Gallio.
“Are you really going to let Burrova suffer Sephar’s Bane?” Her mouth was agape, and she could barely muster anything louder than a whisper.
“Of course not,” Gallio went on, “but I won’t—I can’t—ally myself with a Dungeon Lord. It goes against everything I once stood for. I’m taking a third option. I’m summoning the Inquisition.”
Kes cursed loudly, and Vasil turned to Gallio. The guardsman’s face was pale, as if he had seen a ghost.
“They will kill everyone in Burrova,” he said, “down to the women and the children!”
“The mindbrood will kill them just as surely,” said Gallio through gritted teeth. “But it will also spread its poison to other villages! And what happens if an infected reaches Undercity? What then, Vasil? What if they reach a ship, what if they make the trip to Heiliges? They could spread through all of Ivalis! Surely the life of a few villagers isn’t worth the life of everyone else?”
“You know these people,” Vasil whispered. “You have lived among them from the start. They consider you one of them. Your duty is to protect them. You’re the Sheriff.”
“My duty is to the Light,” Gallio said, “even if the Light won’t have me.”
He took a few steps away from Ed, and told him, “There’s nothing else we can say to each other. I’ll respect our truce here, but if I see you again I won’t be able to protect you from the Inquisition. Not even if I wanted to.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Ed told him. “I’m going to save Burrova whether you want me to or not.”
The Sheriff’s hands hovered over the handle of his mace.
“We’ll see about that. Not a step further, friend Edward.”
“We are not friends,” Ed told him while taking another step.
Gallio’s hands closed around the mace’s handle, and Ed’s eyes flashed green.
And then, Kes ran to the middle of them, sword drawn, and horror painted across her expression.
“Stop, you idiots! Are you blind?” She pointed at a spot behind Vasil, farther up than the tops of the trees. “Look!”
A column of smoke, thick and black, rose above the forest in Burrova’s direction.
Ed felt growing horror as he realized the implications. A fire.
The village is made of wood.
He and the ex-Inquisitor exchanged terrified glances, both thinking the same thing.
“An attack,” said Gallio. “We may be too late to stop the Bane.”
Ed didn’t dare to nod, although he agreed with the man. Instead, he said, “Let’s go.”
The four of them ran toward the smoke.
22
Chapter Twenty-Two
It came from the Wetlands
Ed’s muscles complained with every running step he took, with every half-jump he made over roots and depressions in the soil, all while the cold air of Starevos rushed past his raw throat and into overworked lungs.
Nevertheless, the young man kept running, even while the other three—who were trained warriors—left him behind in their hurry to reach their village.
He knew the way to the road—he could reach it on his own. So, he gritted his teeth and tried to keep his breathing under control.
It was like he was wading through invisible honey, or under a permanent version of someone else’s improved reflexes. Was the smoke getting thicker in the distance?
He had only been inside Burrova once. But all those people…they didn’t deserve what was coming their way.
His Evil Eye flickered on and off, and he summoned a drone that disappeared from view as quickly as it arrived. Back in his camp there would be one drone less, and he had instructed them, before he left, to remain in sight of Lavy and Alder at all times so his friends would know something had gone wrong if he called a drone away.
I hope they see the smoke and figure it out themselves, he thought.