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

by Frances Smith

  Michael looked up at her, his eyes filled with sorrow.

  "He's gone," Michael murmured. "He...he left me."

  XIV

  A Place of Safety

  Miranda sat on the floor, her good leg crossed and her bad one stretched out across a mosaic of Beltor and Cupas, the tip of her walking stick resting against her bowed forehead.

  "Don't you think we should go somewhere safer?" Octavia asked.

  "It's only Amy, there's no real danger," Miranda muttered.

  "Only Amy," Ascanius said. "I have a hard time thinking of someone who can invade the palace as being 'only' anything."

  "I admit she's changed a lot since I knew her," Miranda said wearily. "But her smile is still the same. She only wants to help Michael."

  "If she breaks Gideon out we're right back to where we started," Ascanius said.

  "Which is better than where we ended up thanks to you," Miranda said sourly.

  Ascanius frowned. "Sorry, sir."

  "It isn't as though you went behind my back, I knew what I was agreeing to when I agreed to it," Miranda said. "I just...he's foolish, irresponsible, infuriating, but he's still my brother and I love him. I don't know if I can watch him die."

  "Perhaps if you could speak to the Emperor alone, without the Lord Commenae or anyone else in the way, he might listen to you," Julian said.

  "Perhaps," Miranda said. "Or perhaps I should just pray that Amy can get them out."

  "Even if she can, where will they go?" Octavia asked. "They'll be all alone in the city, and the Lord Commenae will be hunting them, won't he?"

  "Almost certainly," Ascanius said. "He won't let Gideon Commenae escape if he can avoid it."

  "There must be something that..." Miranda began, before her voice trailed off as her mind began to whirl.

  Octavia blinked. "Miranda?"

  "The army warehouses, the ones that I was telling you about," Miranda said, climbing to her feet. Her leg ached, but she ignored it. "One of them, if I remember right, is on Sanctuary Street, not far from the river wharfs. A fitting name for it, don't you think? Octavia, Julian, I need you to find that warehouse, then Julian you stand guard and make sure that no one comes snooping around. Octavia, when you have the location, find Ascanius and lead him to it."

  Octavia nodded. "I'm on my way." She turned on her heel and ran off, Julian following quickly after her.

  "Ascanius," Miranda continued. "Catch up with Amy and the others and keep them safe. When Octavia finds you, bring everyone to the warehouse and hide them there, until I can make the arrangements to get them out."

  "And if they won't come?" Ascanius asked.

  Miranda sighed. "Make them, it's for there own good."

  "Right," Ascanius murmured, not looking entirely happy with his instructions. "Only how am I supposed to find them?"

  "I think I might be able to offer some assistance in that regard."

  Miranda gasped as Silwa appeared beside her, a beatific expression upon her face.

  "You enjoy startling me, don't you?" Miranda said.

  Silwa tilted her head. "I'm afraid I could never confess to indulging such petty impulses on my part."

  Miranda's eyes narrowed. "I see."

  Ascanius, who had drawn his sword with a muttered oath, sheathed it again. "Are you sure we should trust her?"

  "You've prayed to me in the past, haven't you, Ascanius?" Silwa asked. "What is the difference between putting your faith in me and trusting me now?"

  "I didn't know you'd been spying on me when I used to pray to you," Ascanius said.

  "Should not a god watch over her children?"

  "Yes, but..." Ascanius shook his head. "Never mind. I am your man, m'lady."

  "Oh no, you're Miranda's man to be sure," Silwa said. "I am merely lending a hand."

  "Do as she says," Miranda said. She did not trust Silwa, but she believed that she would sincerely try and help Michael. "Can you follow them?"

  "My dear Miranda, I can help your fellow beat them to their destination."

  "When you've got them to safety, ask Octavia to come back and fetch me. I'll bring their other companion to join them. And...Divine Majesty?"

  Silwa's eyebrow rose. "Something the matter, dear?

  "I just wanted to thank you, for trying to help."

  Silwa smiled. "Just doing my part for mankind. Make sure you don't waste it.

  Amy wrenched the door off its hinges, throwing it to one side with a clatter of iron bars.

  "We need to go," she said.

  Jason was up on his feet instantly, but Michael remained where he was, kneeling by the side of Gideon's body, the captain's blood staining his hands.

  "He's gone," Michael murmured.

  "Michael, I'm sorry, but we need to leave now," Amy shouted. "We have a little time yet before they realise I'm not here to kill the Emperor, but the moment they do realise that the whole palace is going to come down on us, we have to get out before that happens."

  "I never thought he'd die before I did," Michael whispered.

  "Michael!" Amy yelled. "Get up and follow me, I can't do this without you."

  "He's dead," Michael said to himself.

  "Oh, God forgive me," Amy muttered as she knelt down, grabbed Michael by the shoulder, spun him around so he was looking at her, and smacked him across the face.

  It was just a little tap, but a little tap from a naiad was enough to send him sprawling across the floor.

  "I'm sorry, I really am," Amy said firmly. "And when there's time we'll see him safe to Eudora and raise a dirge in his memory. But if we don't move out right now then you'll be joining Gideon in the shadowlands a lot sooner than either of you would like. Now I can take the lead, but I need someone who knows which end of a sword to use to guard the rear, and if His Highness could pick one up without cutting himself he would have by now. Until we’re safely out of this I need you on the battlefield not the burial chamber, understand?"

  Michael stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "I am with you, our Amy. Your Highness, will you please carry the body?"

  "I-" Jason began.

  "Just do it," Amy snapped. "Get on with it!"

  Jason scooped Gideon's body up in his arms, cradling the broken form close to his chest. "My staff and wand? Michael's swords?"

  "I don't know where they are and we don't have time to look," Amy said.

  "Damn," Jason muttered. "I'll have to carve another I suppose."

  "We'll get them back, soon," Amy said. "When all of this is done, we'll get them back. But for now..." For now we'll have to settle for our lives.

  Outside the drums continued to beat, and though Amy could hear no shouts of alarm or thudding of masses of booted feet as yet, she could not imagine they were far away.

  "Right, is everyone ready?" she asked. "I'm the van, Michael has the rear, and Jason...don't die and don't lose the body. We'll want to inter Gideon properly later."

  "I understand," Jason said, and Amy thought his decision to leave it at that for now was for the best under the circumstances.

  "Then let's go," Amy said, bursting out of the guardroom and back into the corridors. She led the way at a brisk pace, her armoured feet beating a tattoo to rival the drums sounding the alarm throughout the palace. Only a handful of guards appeared to oppose their progress, and Amy's Magnus Alba swept them away without issue as Amy made good use of her newfound sorcery. She battered the guards unconscious into the ground, leaving them moaning on the floor as she and her friends passed over them.

  "How long were we imprisoned, that you have learned so much?" Michael asked, taking up the short sword of one of the fallen guards.

  Amy grinned. "I've learned a lot in little time. I'll tell you all about it when we're safe."

  She led them down into the lower echelons on the palace and out through the hole into the wall back into the stinking sewers. The smell there was just as bad as it had been the going in, but there was even less time to think about it now as they ran through the
waste, sloshing and splashing filth around their. Fortunately Kal chose not to trouble them on this occasion, leaving them alone on their errand of urgency as they fled through the sewers, Amy following her memory of which turns in the labyrinth they had taken to break into the palace.

  "I don't suppose that any of these tunnels might take us outside the city walls?" Jason asked.

  "I don't have a map to guide me," Amy said. "I'm relying on memory, and the only place my memory can take us is one of the streets near the edge of the Metics' Quarter."

  "We can't hide with Dido again, she'd be in danger," Jason said.

  "Don't worry; she wouldn't take us in anyway."

  "Why not?" Jason demanded. "What did you do?"

  "What did I do?" Amy replied. "She was the one mouthing off about you having brought danger into her house."

  "Well... we did."

  "That doesn't give her the right to say so, she's only a peasant," Amy said.

  "She isn't really, is she?"

  "No, a peasant does honest work," Amy snapped. "Look, can we argue about how I may or may not have insulted your friends later? I need to concentrate."

  She led them to the ladder which she had climbed down to get into the fetid catacombs in the first place, and slung Magnus Alba across her back.

  "How strong do you think your shoulders are?" she asked Jason.

  "Nothing to boast of," Jason replied, still sounding incredibly disapproving of her attitude to Dido, and he didn't even know the half of it yet.

  "Right, then I'll carry Gideon up on my shoulder. Michael, do you want to go up first?"

  "I could carry Gideon," Michael said.

  "No, I'll do it, I'm stronger than you," Amy said. "Go on, up you get."

  "As you say," Michael said, and he began to scurry up the iron ladder with the agility of a monkey. Jason handed Gideon over to her, before following at a more sedate pace.

  Amy looked down at Gideon, his eyes closed, his face in repose, a slight smile stretching his features.

  "It isn't the way I'd choose to go," she murmured. "But I suppose the point is that you did get the choice. Farewell. You raised a good man. And I'm sorry for any indignity." She slung him over her shoulder, his arms hanging down as if he was trying to reach for something, and then hauled the weight of the body and her armour both up the creaking ladder out of the malodorous pit.

  "So, the old bastard's dead then," someone said when she climbed out onto the street. "That makes things easier."

  Amy reached for her sword.

  "Wait!" Silwa cried, stepping out of the shadows, holding up one hand. "There is no need for conflict here. This man is sent to help you, by Miranda."

  Amy's eyes narrowed as she studied the fellow, standing in the shadows, almost hiding in Silwa's shadow. He had a face like a ferret, with scraggly hair and black eyes. He wore a scruffy looking uniform, patched and faded. Amy reckoned him for a deserter, and began to wonder why, if she really wanted to help, Miranda would entrust their aid to such as him.

  "We don't need his sort," she said.

  "You have a hiding place of your own then, do you?" ferret face asked. "You know how to evade the law? How to get out the city?"

  "I don't need to get out the city," Amy replied. "And as for evading the law, I'll admit I haven't had as much practice as you."

  "If he is here to help the last thing we need to do is antagonise him," Jason said sharply. "We are in need of aid."

  "I am glad to see that you remain the voice of reason," Silwa said. "Allow me to introduce Ascanius Posci Castra. Ascanius, let me present Michael Sebastian Callistus, Amitiel Ameliora Doraeus and Jason Nemon Filius."

  "Ascanius," Michael murmured. "You are one of Lysimachus' men, aren't you?"

  "The sergeant major's dead, I'm your sister's man now," Ascanius said.

  Michael scowled. "And what was that you said about Lord Gideon?"

  "Michael, this is hardly the time," Jason muttered.

  "Gideon is dead!" Michael shouted. His voice quietened, but became sharp as a well-honed dagger in consequence. "I will not have him slandered by petty men unworthy to touch the hem of his greatness while he lived."

  Ascanius smirked. "The hem of his greatness? You sound as full of it as the captain ever did. Gideon Commenae was a slave-driving, glory-hunting, drivel-spouting, cold-eyed bastard and if we were still alive I'd look him in those demon eyes of his and tell him so."

  Michael scowled. "If you were not my sister's sworn man I would rip out your tongue."

  "And if you weren't Filia Miranda's brother I'd open your belly and watch you bleed to death."

  "ENOUGH!" Silwa bellowed, and as a peel of thunder struck the sky the goddess became so bright that Amy had to shut and shield her eyes or be struck stone blind. Burned against her eyelids she could see the edges of Silwa's form, her wings ablaze, her body burning with the inner light of her divine radiance, the glamour of the gods.

  The light died. Amy could open her eyes again to see Silwa sagging visibly against a wall, beads of sweat forming on her alabaster skin.

  "Enough," she whispered. "This is not the time for childish squabbling over the legacy of a dead man. Lives are yet at stake, many more lives than just your own."

  Michael lowered his eyes. "My apologies, my lady."

  Silwa shook her head slowly. "If Beltor should locate me from that display I shall be very cross with all of you."

  "Understood," Jason said. "It will not happen again. So, where do we go now?"

  "We stay hidden and wait for Octavia to find us," Ascanius said.

  "How will she find us if we're hidden?" Jason asked.

  Ascanius opened his mouth, but no words came out. "Ah. Miranda might not have thought that bit through."

  "Fortunately I think she's found us already," Jason murmured, looking up at the sky.

  The sound of beating wings filled the air before Octavia landed on the cobblestones, skipping a few steps before coming to a halt.

  "Hello!" she said brightly. "It's been a while, hasn't it." She looked around. "Is everything all right?"

  Michael grimaced. "Merely a disagreement, ma'am, between those who are not yet friends and yet at the same time not quite enemies."

  "I see," Octavia murmured. "Well, Julian and I have found the warehouse; it's nearly empty and it doesn't seem to get many visitors anyway, so we should be okay once we get there."

  "Getting there is going to be the hard part," Ascanius muttered. "Sanctuary Street's on the other side of the Imperial City from here."

  "Radiant One, can you shield us from prying eyes, as you did Wyrrin and myself?" Amy asked.

  "I fear not," Silwa said. She still sounded very weary. "I am afraid that playing parent has worn me out for the time being."

  "We won't make it from here to there, with the guard alerted, carrying a dead body," Ascanius said bluntly. "We'll have to leave him behind."

  "Absolutely not," Michael said. "We are not leaving Gideon here for the rats and the crows to fight over."

  "What do you think people will say if they see us carting a corpse around with us?" Ascanius demanded.

  "We can go back through the sewers, if anyone knows the way," Jason suggested.

  "Does anyone know the way?" Ascanius demanded.

  "I will not leave him," Michael murmured.

  "There's also the question of Amy," Jason said.

  "There won't be time for anyone to have been told about me or what I did," Amy said. "And this is the capital of the world; it must be full of unusual sights."

  "Perhaps, but that still leaves us with the dead body," Ascanius said.

  Octavia said, "I'll take him."

  Jason frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "I'll carry him through the air," Octavia said. "Up in the sky no one will be able to see what I'm carrying."

  "Yes, but..." Ascanius said. "Do you really want to carry a dead body through the sky?"

  "Not really," Octavia admitted. "But I will if I have to. M
iranda's relying on us."

  Ascanius smirked. "Well, so long as I don't have to carry the old bugger then who am I to complain."

  "Don't talk about him like that," Michael growled.

  "Michael," Amy said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. "That's enough. He's not worth it." She cradled Gideon in her arms, and gently placed him in the welcoming grip of Octavia. "Bear him safely, for he was our captain, and a noble man whatever his faults."

  Jason snorted softly, but said nothing.

  Octavia nodded. "I'll bring him safely to the place, and then I'll come back for the rest of you. Wait here." Her wings unfurled around her, launching her up into the air, carrying her up, up towards the clouds, until it was impossible to tell that she had anything more offensive or interesting than a large package in her arms.

  They all watched her as she took off. Ascanius muttered. "Wait here, eh? At least her instructions weren't arduous."

  Amy ignored him, walking towards Michael, who was standing in the shade of a wall, his face bowed, his long hair falling down to hide his expression.

  "Michael," she said softly.

  Michael raised his head a little, his hair parting slightly. He looked so lost. For a moment she thought he wouldn't recognise her.

  "I never thought he'd leave me," Michael whispered.

  Amy's brow furrowed. "What happened?"

  "He...I...he took his own..." Michael stammered. "He left me."

  "I'm sure he had his reasons," Amy murmured.

  "He..." Michael looked away. "I can't, our Amy, I'm sorry."

  Amy reached out and squeezed Michael's shoulder gently. "It's alright. It's going to be alright. I'm...we'll come back from this, like we always do."

  Michael looked at her. "I don't know if I can do this without him."

  "You aren't without him," Amy said. "Just like I'm not without Fiannuala, just like Tullia hasn't left us either. We're a brotherhood, a band of seven, and we're going to conquer all, the seven of us. He loved you."

  "I know," Michael replied. "That's what makes it hurt more than anything else."

  Amy left him alone, and sought out Jason, to hear the whole story that Michael's grief prevented him from telling.

  "So, you were right," Amy said. "I wish you weren't."