Spirit of the Sword: Faith and Virtue (The First Sword Chronicles Book 2)

by Frances Smith

Not as my servant, Michael, but as my friend.

  Michael bowed his head again, trying to shut out the memories. He had to do this, for Miranda's sake.

  When did it end?

  Davidheyr.

  Drink with me.

  I have to do this, Michael whispered. I must.

  Gideon has faith in you.

  I believe that the hero can overcome the monster.

  He could not do it. Though it cost him his soul and the love of his mother he could not do it.

  I'm sorry, Mother.

  "Damn you," Michael whispered as he released his grip. "Damn you for making me care this much but I cannot." He stepped away, "I forgive you."

  "What?" Jason demanded. "Just like that, it's all over?"

  "The quality of compassion flows like the river Iskalon, watering the fields of the deserving and the undeserving both alike," Michael said. "Forgiveness comes not from the desert of him in need of forgiveness, but from the heart of him who grants. I forgive him, it is done, and we shall speak of it no more."

  "Just like that?" Jason asked.

  Michael nodded, "Just like that. It seems that even the best may sin, yet there is hope for all of us so long as mercy reigns, for who can know when we ourselves shall stand in need of it?"

  Gideon appeared to be trying to blink back tears. "Thank you, Michael. You are, a better man than I deserve to know."

  "I could say the same of you," Michael forced a small smiled. "All this time I thought that you had saved me, now you tell me that I saved you. Where does that leave us? Saving one another?"

  Gideon nodded. "So it would appear."

  "I don't suppose any of you know how we can save ourselves from this cell?" Jason asked.

  "I am afraid not, Your Highness," Gideon murmured, his hand groping along the floor, into the dark corner of the cell. "Yet I do believe I know a way to save far more than we three here." He raised his hand, holding a rusty nail between his forefinger and thumb. It was an old and ugly thing, yet it still looked sharp and dangerous.

  "Gideon," Michael murmured. "What are you doing?"

  "Saving the Empire," Gideon said; as he slashed open his wrist with the nail.

  "Gideon!" Michael shouted.

  He darted up and started forwards, but Gideon raised one hand to halt him. "Stay back. I must do this. For the good of the country, and for the Empress." Lightly, he tossed the nail into his other hand, and opened his other wrist. He lowered his hands to the ground as his arms began to bleed.

  "I don't understand," Jason said.

  "I told you once that I would go to my death with a glad smile and a high heart if it would keep my country safe," Gideon said. He smiled. "I now have the opportunity to prove myself right in that regard."

  Michael blinked. His eyes felt moist, as though he were about to cry. "Why?"

  Gideon locked gazes with him. "I murdered my brother, one of the most beloved soldiers in the service. I betrayed my country and consorted with her enemies. I will never be able to resume my post as First Sword of the Empire. The nobility will never accept me, and nor will any other faction in the state. But you, Michael, my brave, devoted boy, you will be able to start with a clean slate, unknown, judged by none. You will be able to win the hearts of nobles and plebeians alike, to gain the support of the patricians and the equestrians, to obtain the backing of the throne itself as I could never do. You, my son, can become the First Sword that I could never be.

  "But you cannot do so while I live. The First Sword of the Empire serves for life, and not even Aegea can dismiss a First Sword she herself has anointed. So, in order to make way for you, as I must do for the good of the Empire, I must cast off all life's cares, that in so doing I may vest myself of office and place the burden on your more worthy shoulders."

  Michael shook his head, helplessly, desperately. "No, Gideon, you can't go, you can't just leave me. I need you."

  Gideon kept smiling as he shook his head. "You have Ameliora, and His Highness. Prince Jason, may I ask you, on behalf of you both, to do me one great favour. I know you have no love for me, but I do hope you have sufficient love for Michael to do as I ask: help him. Protect him, stand beside him, fight for him. I once thought that a First Sword needed neither servants nor companions. I stand corrected by your example. You are stronger together than you are alone. Do I have your word that you will not forsake him?"

  "You have my word," Jason murmured. "I'll not turn back."

  "Capital," Gideon said, blood pooling on the floor around his arms. "Now, Michael: I have tried, in our time together, to inculcate within you a love of the Empire, and an appreciation for its greatness and its values. I do not know how well I have succeeded, which is why I must beg a favour of you, from an old man to a young: protect this country. Take its cares and burdens upon your shoulders, be a shield for it against its enemies, guard and serve and love the Empire from now until it has no need of any protectors. Ward this land, this people against those who would do her harm, and rouse in all the citizens of the Empire that heroic virtue that once animated them to set all Pelarius aflame. It pains me to lay so heavy a burden upon you, but I have no more opportunities and no one else to whom to turn. Nor would I choose any other man, had I the opportunity.

  "You are the best, the bravest, the strongest, the kindest man that I have ever known. Your virtues are matched only by your skill in battle, your ferocity as a warrior is matched by your compassion as a man. You are the man I dreamt of being in my youth. You are every inch a hero of more ancient times, right worthy of the title of Last Firstborn.

  "Rely upon your friends as the Empire will come to rely upon you, let your actions be guided by duty in war and by piety in peace. And win. Do not let the Empire fall. Do not let the glorious dream of Aegea die.

  "Will you do that for me Michael, will promise me to keep the Empire safe, to protect her from all her enemies within and without, and to be a better man than I?"

  Michael found he almost could not answer, so large was the lump forming in his throat. "I promise, Gideon. Upon my honour, blood and soul I promise."

  "Then I may die content," Gideon declared, "knowing that I have left the fate of my beloved nation secure in the hands of one who will care for it with all due care and honour which it deserves."

  He closed his eyes, and leaned his had back against the dungeon wall. "May the Empress' Grace go with you, Michael, for now it is all up to you. Farewell, my son." He was very still, and for a moment the only sound was his shallow breathing. Then his last breath came, a hollow whisper echoing in the cell, and Gideon Commenae breathed no more.

  "Gideon?" Michael felt himself pitching forwards, his own knees striking the cobbles with a hard and painful thud. "Gideon?"

  No, it cannot be. Gideon Commenae, so strong, so brave, the hero of the tale. He could not have left his beloved country, abandoned the service of the Empress, abandoned Michael. He was the First Sword of the Empire, the man not even death nor the furies themselves could chain. He could not be dead. He could not be gone.

  Raindrops began to fall upon his hands. Yes, they had to be raindrops because they were cold and wet, and he did not cry. He hadn't cried since his mother died. Men don't cry, I promise Mother. Except, now he found that promise or no he could not help himself. Gideon was dead.

  "Gideon," Michael murmured.

  Outside the cell, the drums began to sound.

  XIII

  A Shining Knight

  Amy gripped the hilt of Magnus Alba tight as she sat in the little room in the Pleasure House and heard the soldiers outside.

  "You should hide that away," Elissa entreated from where she stood between Amy and the door. "If they should search the rooms and find it─"

  "Stuffing me in here like a peasant knave," Amy grumbled, oblivious to Elissa's plea. "I should be out there, with them. The nerve of that lad."

  "He's just trying to do his best for you," Elissa offered weakly.

  "I know perfectly well what that stupid arti
cle thinks he's doing, in as much as he thinks at all," Amy snapped. "I've known him long enough. He needs to learn that I can make my own decisions about when I put myself at risk and when I don't. If I want to fight the whole Imperial Army then I will."

  "Do you want to?"

  "I...that's not the point," Amy said. "Whose side are you on anyway?"

  "The side of reason?" Elissa suggested.

  "You won't find many allies in this company, let me tell you," Amy said. "You really are best off staying home with an attitude like that."

  Amy heard the sound of fighting outside, shouts of anger, the unmistakeable noise of somebody getting the salt kicked out of them.

  "Don't hurt him," Gideon shouted frantically from somewhere down below.

  Amy's whole body stiffened. Her eyes widened. Her blood ran cold. Only one person could arouse Gideon's concern like that.

  Michael. Merciful Turo keep him safe. Amy picked up Magnus Alba and started for the door.

  "You can't go out there!" Elissa hissed as she barred her way. "They'll kill you!"

  "They'll kill Michael if I don't do something," Amy replied.

  "You can't fight a whole company of legionaries."

  "Well I'm not letting my boy die alone," Amy snarled. "Not now, not again." When they came for Felix all I could do was scream. When my best boys set to tearing one another's throats out all I could do was watch and cry over Michael's body. I'm better than this, I'm stronger than this and I am not going to put up with it any more! I am a Knight of the Oceanhost!

  "Out of my way," she whispered. "I like you, Elissa. I don't want to hurt you."

  "And I don't want to see you get hurt," Elissa replied.

  "Get out of the way."

  "You won't hurt me," Elissa said. "I trust you."

  Amy's free hand, the one not yet encumbered by the weighty blade, clenched into a fist. "Out the way."

  Elissa shook her head, trusting yet unyielding at the same time.

  Amy scowled as she half turned away. "Damn it! Do I not scare you at all?"

  Elissa shook her head. "You're too good a person to be scary."

  Amy harrumphed, that'll show me being one of the good nobles who cares for the peasantry.

  "Search the rest of this place. We did not know about the Coronan, who knows how many other conspirators may yet be in hiding."

  Elissa's eyes widened. "Hide the sword, get into the bed."

  "I'm not-"

  "You can't fight them," Elissa insisted, half hissing half pleading, "These are the soldiers of the Empire. They'll kill you, they kill everyone."

  Mouth dry, cursing their misfortune, Amy allowed Elissa to bundle her into bed and under the covers. She hid Magnus Alba moments before the door burst open.

  Two soldiers swaggered in, their armour rattling and their footsteps creaking upon the floor.

  Elissa gripped her broom handle tight, and backed away from them.

  "Morning ladies," the first soldier said as he swept his eyes across the room. He was a wiry fellow, with several knives shoved into his belt and a fringe of straw-coloured hair peaking out from under his helmet. "Not hiding traitors under the bed are we?"

  "N-no sir," Elissa stammered.

  "Sir?" the soldier said with a laugh. "Do we look like bloody officers?"

  "Fair play," the second legionary said from where he lounged in the doorway. "Major Skleros doesn't much like an officer either." This second soldier had a dandified look about him, with a pretty face and dark hair in curls. He was wearing two swords, one an army spatha like Michael carried, the other an elaborately curved scimitar with a bejewelled hilt, although some of the gems looked to have been prised out at some point.

  "Are you going to tell him that? Because I won’t tell him," the first legionary said. He turned to Amy and Elissa. "You've been harbouring a traitor in here. Do you expect me to believe that you didn't know who he was?"

  Elissa mumbled something indistinct.

  "Speak up, love."

  "Leave her alone," Amy snapped. Elissa couldn't speak louder, not when confronted with the unassailable power she had always feared would descend upon her home. "Are you here to search or browse?"

  The soldier looked impressed and put out at the same time. "You've got a mouth on you and a temper to match, haven't you love? Most in your place would be scared."

  Amy grinned. "You don't want to know how many things I've seen scarier than you. Love."

  The legionary laughed. "By the gods it must be great being rich."

  "It's certainly better than being poor," the second legionary agreed. "But, as lovely as it would be to while away the morning verbally sparring with a spirited young lady, I don't think we could really excuse it to the major, do you?"

  "No, I suppose not," the first soldier said. "Let's go. Maybe the others will have found something worthwhile."

  They stomped out shutting the door behind them.

  Elissa sighed with relief. "Thank you."

  "They weren't so bad," Amy said, getting out of bed again. "I was expecting something a bit more vicious." Few of the knights or naiads-at-arms she had known would have taken being challenged by a peasant in such good humour.

  "If you heard the stories," Elissa murmured.

  "I'm sure they had good reasons for everything they've done, I usually did," Amy replied. "Help me get my armour on, would you? I'll need it if I'm going to set the others free."

  "You're going to try and rescue them?"

  "Well, I can't abandon them," Amy said.

  "But-" Elissa began, only to be interrupted by the door swinging open as Wyrrin dashed in.

  "How are we going to rescue them?" he demanded.

  "Are we the only ones left?" Amy asked.

  Wyrrin nodded. "They recognised Jason, but they thought I was some sort of exotic sex toy. I feel grievously insulted."

  "I'm sure you'll find a way to cope," Amy muttered dryly. "Help me with my armour, we might not take them on the way but we'll stand a good chance if we break into their prison."

  "But you don't even know where they're being held," Elissa said. "They might have been taken to the palace for all you know."

  "Very likely they have," Amy said. "And if they have, that's where we'll go."

  "You can't go there," Elissa said. "It's too heavily guarded."

  "Are you going to help me get this armour on or are you just going to council cowardice?" Amy snapped.

  The door slammed open as Dido strode inside. "You're not going anywhere until you explain just what you've done!"

  "What I've done?"

  "You brought those men into my house, where my daughters are," Dido yelled. "You put everybody here in danger! What kind of people have you gotten me involved with?"

  Amy snarled wordlessly. To hear this peasantborn trash, who ought to have been grateful for a sympathetic glance from a descendant of so many valiant princes, insulting her Michael like he was a disgrace, it made her wish for her sword in hand.

  "And what about your precious lamb eh?" Amy shouted. "You knew who he was, you knew what he was; you knew that they'd come after him. And as for your daughters, well, you can't be too concerned for their welfare if you're willing to sell them each night."

  Dido struck at Amy's face. Amy caught the blow one handed.

  "I am not in the mood," Amy growled. "Try that again and by God I'll rip your arm off. I am a knight of the Oceanhost and a descendant of Turo and I'll not have me or my friends made little of by the likes of you."

  Dido shook her head, "What have you done to the lamb that he calls you friend?"

  Amy didn't dignify that with a response.

  Dido continued. "You've bought nothing but trouble to us, you and the rest. If you hadn't come here then-"

  "Oh for gods' sake!" Elissa nearly screamed at her mother. "This was always going to happen, one way or another, can't you see that? How else was the Lord Commenae going to deal with us? If it hadn't been this, it would be some lord saying we cheat
ed him, or an equestrian saying that we stole his coin. We're like fleas to them, leaching off the mighty and hoping that they don't decide to crush us.

  "Isn't it better that it happened now, when no one got hurt? What matters now is saving Jason."

  Dido shook her head once more. "You're wrong. You've always been wrong. It was Jason brought this on us, Jason and the rest. Now he must face the consequence of that."

  Amy's eyes widened in astonishment. "That's it? The boy looks at you like a mother and you cast him off like a tatty cloak the moment he becomes more trouble than he's worth?"

  "I'm not his mother and I have children of my own to think of," Dido snapped. "You expect me to risk them for his sake?"

  "Me and Wyrrin are the only ones going to run any risks," Amy said coldly. "I just thought you might care what happens to him."

  "He's not my son," Dido said.

  "And Michael's not my brother but I'm going to go out there and save him all the same," Amy yelled. "Because he's my best friend and I'm his guardian naiad and we're two swords in the one scabbard. Now you've pretty much fostered that boy, and that gives you certain obligations in my book, and if I were minded I could try and talk to death with a speech on the subject. But I don't feel like wasting my breath on you, and so I'll just say this: you disgust me." And with that she slammed the door in Dido's face.

  "Well said," Wyrrin said from behind her. "If a little coarse at times. What is a tie of blood that its absence should come before bonds of spirit?"

  Amy did not reply. She stood leaving heavily upon the door, clenching her fists as she breathed deeply in and out, mastering her desire to hit something. Such instincts would do her no good here; she would have to marshal them for when they would serve her better. But it galled her, oh how it galled her. Under the sea such a woman would have been... Never mind. There were more important things. Amy turned her attention back to the business of the rescue. Amy huffed as she turned to face Elissa. "And what about you? Are you going to turn your back on your prince as well?"

  "Never," Elissa said, her tone unflinching.

  "Then help me," Amy commanded.

  As she started to work, with Wyrrin's assistance, Elissa said, "Mother doesn't mean it, she's just frightened. If Jason lives she'll be glad of it."