“Sergeant Erin O’Grady,” I said, slapping my fist to my chest in a Knights’ salute. “I have a message for Chaplain Conway.”
Karl looked up from a document he was writing. “Ah, I’ve been expecting you. Come in and close the door.”
I went in and passed him an envelope with blank paper in it. He would be able to say anything he wanted about the “message” if asked. He touched his ear and rolled his eyes upward. I touched my eye, and he shook his head.
I walked around his desk, sketching a rune in the air at each corner, and again behind his chair, then sat down on the edge of the desk, and cast a ward, drawing ley line magic to reinforce it.
“We should be able to speak freely now,” I said, and he chuckled.
“I did receive the message from your priest,” he said. “How are things going out there?”
I gave him my report, he asked me a few questions, then he said, “I agree that we need to know how they’re using the Heart to disrupt the ley lines. I wonder if there is a way to block that, or to stop them from doing it.”
He told me to dissolve the ward and suggested taking me to lunch. I was all for that, and we walked to a pub he said he was fond of. On our way, I noticed that many of the people on the street wore either Knights’ uniforms or clerical clothing.
“Have you ever been in Salisbury before?” Karl asked.
“No. But it’s a lovely town.”
“Yes, though it changed a lot from the last time I was here. It’s a big tourist destination, what with Stonehenge and the cathedral. But now the Church discourages tourists from coming here. If it wasn’t for all the Knights, a lot of the businesses here would be in bad shape.”
The pub was one of the oldest in town, with a heritage dating back 700 years. Its enormous timbers came from old ships, and it was full of quirky rooms and spaces with creaking floorboards. The food and the beer were pretty good, too.
“I’ve been spending a lot of my time reading history,” Karl said while we waited for our food. “I can’t identify a war similar to this one anywhere, anytime. I would almost call it an insurrection, but it’s out in the open. There are no battle lines, except locally and temporarily, and the representatives of the combatants travel freely through each other’s territory.”
“The Knights jumped the gun,” I said. “They haven’t even consolidated their power within the Church, from what I hear. They made some major gains early, but more on the strength of the Church’s support in various places than on their military power.”
“That’s true. You would think that with their magic and control of the Heart they would have made more progress by now.”
“And that’s what I mean by they jumped the gun. They’re recruiting magic users, but they just don’t have the numbers to hold what they gain. Most of the new recruits I’ve seen are fairly weak mages and witches, and they’re untrained, especially in combat magics. It’s not like taking an eighteen-year-old kid and teaching him to shoot a gun and take orders in a couple of months. They should have gone for control behind the scenes instead of a splashy, public takeover.”
Karl chuckled. “I’ve discovered there’s a significant, if quiet, number of upper-echelon Knights that agree with you. And I suspect there are even more people in the ranks of the clergy questioning their strategy. Of course, it’s not politically safe to voice those opinions too loudly.”
When we parted after our meal, he said with a grin, “So, you’re in the chamber with the Heart twice a week at sunrise? I’ll see if we can organize something that will cause a panic at that time.”
“I’m sure I’ll enjoy that. Uh, do you know how I might contact Oriel? Do you think it would be safe?”
“I think so. Just keep it on a parishioner-to-priest level, okay?” He gave me a phone number. “He’s not here in town today, though. He went out to Old Sarum for a meeting.”
Since Old Sarum was only three miles from Salisbury and it was a sunny day, I walked out there. I still hadn’t made arrangements for a place to spend the night, but I didn’t plan to go back to my barracks. For the first time, I wondered if the Knights, due to their religious basis, were different from other armies. Did they spend their leave time drinking and screwing, or did they go to the cathedral and pray?
Old Sarum was originally built around an ancient Iron-Age hillfort, but it got too crowded, and they moved the city about a thousand years before I got there. The original site was a tourist attraction, and the Knights had left it alone. But the farmlands around it had been developed and built up over time, and then the Knights appropriated the entire area as their English headquarters.
I played tourist and visited the old fort. After wandering around for an hour or so, I went looking for the building where Oriel was supposed to be.
A receptionist told me that the meeting was still in session, but that it would be letting out shortly. I went outside and lurked in an alley. Oriel came out about twenty minutes later.
I didn’t expect him to go to the bus stop, and I was correct. He hated public transportation. So, I followed him until he traveled beyond the buildings, crossed a road, and hopped over a fence. He obviously planned to walk across the fields and through nature as much as possible rather than going through the city.
I circled around, jogging for the most part, trying to reach a line of trees bordering the field before he did. When I got there, I slipped between the trees and hid, waiting for him.
Just as I was gathering myself to ambush him, a voice from behind me—close enough to touch—said, “Do you really think you can hide from a Fae in a woodland?”
I about jumped out of my skin, whirling around, and found him an arm’s length away, grinning at me.
Looking over my shoulder, I saw the other Oriel, who had been walking toward me, fade away.
“Even mages can be fooled by illusions,” he said, pulling me into his arms and kissing me.
After spending half an hour or so saying hello, we adjusted our clothing and resumed our walk into Salisbury.
“So, you have three days of leave?”
“Yeah. This is day one. Three days, two nights, since I have to catch the bus back and go on duty at sunrise the next morning.”
“Where are you staying?”
“No idea. My chevalier gave me the names of a couple of hotels.” I told him what they were.
“The first one is cheap, but the second one is nicer,” he said, “and larger. Easier for me to slip in and out discreetly.”
“Karl said for us to be very discreet. He told me to maintain a parishioner-to-priest relationship.”
“Oh, I agree.” Oriel changed his glamour, morphing into a Knight in a chevalier’s uniform. “I think this would probably be more appropriate for taking you to dinner.”
“What about my reputation?”
“Honey, this place isn’t much different from any other military town. The debauching is just a little quieter. I’ll bet my corvette that virginity is as common as teetotaling among the young Knights in Salisbury.”
Considering how full the pubs were that evening, it didn’t appear that too many of the Knights were abstaining from drink. Oriel had chosen his glamour well. I saw a lot of chevaliers and standard-bearers dining with young female Knights.
After dinner, we went back to my hotel, entered through a side door and climbed the back stairs to my room. It was almost dawn before he left and I finally got some sleep.
Chapter 19
By mutual agreement, Oriel and I didn’t plan to see each other during the rest of my leave. He had things to do, both for the resistance and to maintain his priestly disguise. And I wanted to get a better picture of what was considered normal for a Knight sergeant on leave.
Due to my late start on the day, I was lucky to find a pub that was still serving a full English breakfast at noon. I hadn’t considered that a young female Knight dining alone would be noticeable. But when I did attract the attention of several tables of young men, I looked aroun
d and saw that I was the only woman sitting alone. All the others were either with men or with at least one other woman.
I still didn’t think much about it until I paid my bill and left, only to find that I was followed by three Knights—a sergeant and two corporals. A couple of catcalls made it clear that it wasn’t coincidence and that they had started drinking early. I ignored them.
A tour through the market square followed by a trip to view the inside of the cathedral didn’t shake them. One corporal even tailed me into the church, and when I exited through a side door, they soon picked up my trail again.
Not knowing the city well, I made the mistake of going west past the museum and away from the center of town. The next thing I knew, I found myself facing the Avon River, with trees behind me blocking the view from the street a couple of hundred feet away. I turned and saw the three young Knights spread out to corral me.
“May I help you, boys?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah,” the sergeant said. “I think you can help an itch I have.”
I put my hand on my sword. “You really don’t want to do this.”
One of the corporals licked his lips. “Yeah, I really do. Now, just be a good girl. We’re not going to hurt you.”
My sword cleared its sheath, and the sergeant laughed. As they drew closer, I could tell, both from the insignia on their uniforms and by my senses, that they were mages. Obviously, they thought they would shield and easily take me down.
I backed up until I felt a tree trunk at my back, then drew a rune in the air and said a Word. A witch might not be able to shield, but she could ward. The tree provided both the magic and the anchor for the ward.
“Sorry, boys, but you’re going to have to find your sport elsewhere. And I suggest that you should sober up first, unless you want a trip to the brig.”
The sergeant—a large, blonde man—laughed. “No one is going to take your word against three of us. Everyone knows that descendants of Eve are temptresses.”
He threw a blast of energy at my ward, attempting to take it down. When it held, the other two sent balls of white energy at me. In response, I drew ley line energy and strengthened the ward. I figured that as long as I didn’t do anything offensive, they wouldn’t be able to tell I was tapping the ley line.
They tried another assault that I withstood. Then a man walked out of the trees behind them and yelled. My attackers turned and saw him. After a few moments, they took off running away.
The man who had interrupted their fun approached me. He was wearing a Knight’s uniform, and as he drew closer, I saw that he was considerably older than the other men. His hair was graying at the temples, and making an adjustment for him being a mage, I estimated he must be well past a hundred years old. The rank insignia on his shoulders identified him as an Under-Marshal.
“What is going on here?” he asked in German-accented English.
“Some of your men have a hard time taking no for an answer,” I replied. I dissolved the ward and sheathed my sword.
He turned to look in the direction my assailants had fled, then back to me. “Do you know them?”
“Never saw them before. They followed me from the pub where I had breakfast. All I know is one was a sergeant, the other two corporals, and they all were mages.”
He took in the witch symbol interwoven with the cross on my chest.
“It is disgraceful. May I escort you back to a safer area?”
“Thank you.”
Reinhard Muller turned out to be the under-marshal in charge of security of the Salisbury region, including the Sarum area where I was stationed. In our conversation, I mentioned that I was new to my posting and that the only person I really knew was Chaplain Conway.
He brightened. “I have met the chaplain and find him delightful, a fellow student of history. We have dined together and I enjoy our discussions. I shall mention that we met.”
Along the way, he gave me a mild lecture on keeping safe and outlined the layout of the city—areas I should stick to and those I should avoid.
“Unfortunately,” he said as he dropped me off at the market square, “our Order shares some of the problems of other militaries. Young men will be young men. You really shouldn’t be out alone, especially at night.”
“Yes, I see that. I’ll try to be careful, but being new here, I don’t have any friends to go out with.”
He bowed slightly. “Then, in that case, I cannot, in all honor, allow you to go out unaccompanied. Where are you staying?”
“The Wayfarer’s Inn,” I said. “It looks more like a chain hotel than an inn, though.”
He chuckled. “I shall call for you for dinner at seven this evening.” He walked away, and I stood staring after him with my mouth hanging open.
I found a phone box and called Karl.
“What’s up?” he said after I identified myself.
“I had a problem today with some drunk young Knights who thought I might offer them a bit of sport.”
“Oh, God, you didn’t kill them, did you?”
I chuckled. How does a girl clean up her reputation when so many idiots are running around loose in the world?
“No, they aren’t even mildly traumatized. But I did meet Under-Marshal Reinhard Muller, and he asked me to dinner. He said he knows you.”
“Yes, he does. Charming gentleman, rather old school. He could be an excellent source, since he’s one of the top security officers in the country. But be careful, Erin. He does have a reputation as a ladies’ man.”
“What do you know about his magic?”
“An aeromancer. He’s also an experienced combat commander. I think he was involved with that fiasco in Germany last winter. The one near Munich. I know that he fought the Nazis in the Balkans during World War II.”
I thought about what else I might ask. “Do you think he’ll try to come back to my hotel room?”
“I doubt it. He has a house in a neighborhood north of the cathedral. From what I’ve seen, high-ranking officers prefer the comforts of their own quarters.”
I thanked him and hung up. If I had still been working for the Illuminati, I wouldn’t have thought twice about seducing Muller. Men often talked more than they should to the women they bedded, and what I could learn from him was tempting. Oriel wouldn’t even blink. He had the Fae’s contempt for what he called ‘the human conceit of sexual fidelity,’ which he had expounded on more than one occasion.
For my part, I pretended I didn’t care about him sleeping with that congresswoman in D.C. He loved me, and I knew I was special. And if he was too blatant about such things, I’d break his nose again.
On the other hand, I would prefer to gain access to Muller’s secrets without all the humping and grunting. I wasn’t the same woman who killed innocents for the Illuminati without any remorse. And finding love had changed my attitude toward sex.
One of the things I carried with me to Salisbury was the handbook every Knight was given when they enlisted. I checked it and found there a section on what to wear for every occasion. In general, the Knights had two uniforms. One was worn for doing dirty work, the other on all other occasions.
The manual also set out the conditions and circumstances for wearing civilian clothing. Being on leave was the major excuse, and for women, it was the only time they might wear a dress. But I had yet to see any Knights—at least people that I knew were Knights—in civvies in Salisbury. In the end, I decided to play it safe and wore my uniform to dinner.
I didn’t know if that was the right call or not. Muller showed up at my hotel in his uniform and didn’t give me any indication he was disappointed in my choice of clothing. My hotel was near the square, and he didn’t have a car waiting. It was a pleasant evening, and we walked the three blocks to the restaurant.
It definitely wasn’t a pub, but it wasn’t super fancy, either. Italian with a British flavor and a rather extensive menu. We were seated by a window with a view of the cathedral towering over the buildings between us. It w
as obvious that the waiter knew him, and Muller ordered a bottle of wine while we perused our menus.
I surreptitiously glanced around. The majority of the men eating there wore either Knights’ uniforms or were priests. Only a couple of the priests sat at tables with women, and none were alone with a woman. Almost all of the Knights were officers, and most were alone with a woman, half of whom also wore Knights’ uniforms. Of course, it was impossible to tell if the women in civilian clothes were Knights or not.
Muller was an urbane and charming dinner companion, although when the waiter cracked the third bottle of wine, I suspected the under-marshal was trying to get me drunk. He should have been more successful, considering my body weight, but bartenders tended to have a bit more tolerance for alcohol than most people, not to mention better skills at pacing themselves. I didn’t think he noticed that I drank half as much as he did.
He did get very tipsy, and by the time we ordered after-dinner coffee drinks, he was obligingly bragging about his responsibilities. Since I was also involved in security, I thought he felt as though he was speaking to a colleague. I doubted he had ever found a girl more interested in his work.
His gait was a bit unsteady when we left the restaurant, but he wasn’t staggering. I was profoundly grateful for that, because he was too large for me to hold up without using magic. Karl was right in his supposition that Muller would take me back to his place rather than go to my hotel.
“Thank you for the wonderful evening,” I said when we reached his home. “I hope to see you again.” I pressed against him, stood on my tiptoes, and kissed him on the cheek, then quickly backed away before he could wrap his arms around me. “Have a good night.”
Forestalling his reaction, I turned and walked away, taking to the shadows and avoiding any streets where I saw people. It took me about twenty minutes to reach my hotel, and I entered through the side entrance Oriel and I had used the night before.
Knights Magica: An Urban Fantasy (Rosie O'Grady's Paranormal Bar and Grill Book 5) Page 15