Faerie's Champion

by M. H. Johnson

Apple paled. "Oh Jess, what are you planning on doing?"

  Jess flashed a cold grin. “I'm about to declare war.”

  Apple just stood there, sobbing bitterly.

  Jess gave a frustrated shake of her head. "Don't you understand? If I don't take a strong stance now, when I'm at my most vulnerable, it will never be the right time. And before I know it, I will be hemmed into the role of a meek and obedient tool, a toy dog kept on a short leash, whose only job is to legitimize the fiefdoms of various nobles by Rite of Primacy, just so they can be even more entrenched in their positions of power than they already are. And once done, I will be put back on my leash, with firm threats and dire warnings, should I ever think to stray from my assigned role." Jess shivered. "The angels above know that I'd probably end up the plaything of one power broker or another, and thus both my honor and my body would no longer be my own. And that miserable life, where I'm nothing more than a slave in gilded chains, is one I refuse to live!"

  Apple’s gaze was haunted, her voice defeated. “You know you are going to doom us all, Jess. Our whole family will be ripped apart and destroyed by the Council, simply because you couldn’t accept your role.”

  Jess's eyes flashed with barely repressed bitterness. "To be their broken little lapdog, yelping at their pleasure, the rod of your lives always being used to beat me into terrified submission, should I not obey their every whim? I'd sooner die. Hell, Apple, after all our father has sacrificed for this kingdom, to be treated so basely, I'd sooner burn that corrupt Council to the ground than accept a life of such subjugation!"

  Apple shivered. "For gods' sake, Jess. Watch what you say, please!"

  Jess stopped abruptly, forcing Apple to a halt. "You saw what that damned disciplinarian did to me the other day, Apple. Well, it was not enough for her to beat me. Today, she did her best to have me killed!" Cold eyes locked upon her sister's suddenly pale features. "Since Grimsly couldn't shatter my will, since she saw she wouldn't be able to break me into a timid little waif, subservient to the bidding of whatever vile bastard secretly pulled her strings, she thought I was better off dead! And my death wouldn't have been enough for her, Apple. She intended to have our entire family scapegoated for trade in the very poisons she had arranged to be placed on that pack mare! How long, Apple, do you think it would be before you were forced to marry some hideous monster Grimsly or the headmistress would arrange for you, under threat of our remaining family being executed for treason if you didn't comply?" Jess gave a furious shake of her head. "If these jackanapes think I won't respond with equal force, they are damned fools!"

  Apple gazed at her sister in speechless horror.

  Jess took a deep steadying breath, forcing control. “I trained for three years at Highrock with every ounce of my heart and passions to master the skills of war, Apple. I learned to take on overwhelming odds, to immerse myself in the most ruthless aspects of conflict, all to better defend our great nation, should invaders seek to cross our borders. Yet though I would die in defense of our home, I will kill before I kneel before any man who would treat me as his slave, and I will cut down any man that would subject you to those horrors as well! And well do I know that the corrupt Council would seek to undermine even the king's authority, if they thought they could get away with it.”

  Apple just shook her head. "I didn't know, Jess. By the gods, I didn't realize. And that, that damned bitch had been so... nice to me. Acting so interested in what my classmates and I had to say when she purposely stopped by our table, chatting with us all like she actually gave a damn about us, not like that cruel thing I had seen in the cellars, and I should never have forgotten for a second which was her true self."

  Apple gave an apologetic grimace. "Jess, I have to tell you, I did take it upon myself to... speak to her. In her office. And she was like, well, a whole different person. Acted like she pitied you more than she was angry with you. That she was only angry that your stubbornness might cost our family everything. By the gods, Jess, she actually seemed to be taking my plea seriously when I implored her to give you a second chance, and let you join me in classes again when the week was up." She chuckled bitterly. "Of course, I was only seeing what she wanted me to see. She was playing me along, the whole damned time."

  Jess gave her sister a supportive hug. “It's okay, Apple. There was no way you could have known. And Grimsly? She was clever enough only to communicate with me only by notes or proctor Aislin." Jess shook her head. "It was like she somehow knew that I would sense it, if she dared a malicious lie right to my face."

  Jess shuddered, voice dropping to a whisper. "Like those merchants that tried to sabotage our family, seasons back. And by the gods, the rage I felt when that happened. The things we had to do to pretend it never happened. That none of those incidents had ever happened."

  Jess hurriedly shook away the guilt that threatened to overwhelm her, recalling with icy clarity General Eloquin's lessons: Bitter regrets were for times of peace. But when battle did rage all about, the merciless application of savagery and the furious butchery of all one's opponents was all that mattered. To inflict depravities of such horror that darkest rumor would become yet one more weapon Eloquin's disciples had at their disposal to break the morale and discipline of their foes, until the point came that no foe would dare challenge any regiment led by Squires of War, knowing all too well the horrors in store for them.

  War crimes, after all, were simply fictitious constraints devised by Erovering's enemies after the Velheim Wars, mocked by Eloquin, unrecognized by Crown or Council. A term made up by nations that feared the consequences of crossing Erovering once more.

  "Somehow, Apple, she knew. She made no bones about showing her hatred for me out and in the open, but she was careful to use ignorant cat's paws when setting me up for my fall. For she knew, or at least suspected, that to lie to my face with malicious intent, to try to set me up directly, would have ignited such a rage that I would have painted the chambers red with her blood."

  Apple visibly paled, even as Rulia whistled.

  “By the gods, my lover, you are a fierce one, aren't you?” Rulia gently kissed Jess's cheek, as if to let her know she cherished her, even so.

  Jess gazed gratefully at her lover. "Thank you, Rulia. Sometimes, sometimes accepting how different I am from the girl I once was, my most savage instincts amplified, fills me with a quiet sort of shame." Jess chuckled softly. "It's why I drank so much at Highrock, why I reveled so freely, when not training my heart out. I both loved the fierce weapon I was being forged into, and at the same time I hated what I had become, so far from the sweet, innocent girl I once had been."

  "But if you were anything other than the girl you are, I don't think our family would even be around, Jess." Apple gave her sister a gentle hug. "Jess? Since you now know what the head disciplinarian had been planning, what are you going to do about her?"

  Jess's cold smile caused Apple to step back. “Don't you worry about her, sister. I left her in the tender care of the duke she had thought nothing of betraying, using his own men to try to kill me, even as the duke had sought a far gentler outcome to our destined meeting.”

  Quickly and concisely, Jess explained the day's events to her sister, a stunned Apple shaking her head in disbelief once Jess had finished.

  "So Duke Smida had actually hoped to entice you into marrying his son. And the original plan was for tincture of poppy to be found in your packs, for which he would somehow forgive you in exchange for, what, giving Johann a chance?"

  Jess shrugged and sighed. "We might never know. But I like Johann well enough, he is a sweet boy. And Smida's daughter, as fortune would have it, we are actually close friends with already." She turned to her sister. "What matters is that we have, if not exactly an ally save in taking care of mutual enemies upon this night, at least an understanding. I think he respects something of my character, or perhaps just my knack for killing, and I sense that though he may be more ruthless than Duke diOnni, they are both men of their word. H
e as good as said he would not oppose our clan in Council, even if he won't swear any oath of friendship, either."

  Now Apple smiled knowingly. "That enticement you will only earn if someone in our clan marries one of his own. I note that somehow Juliana's brother did manage to run into her and meet both of us tonight, and I have to admit, sister, he is not displeasing to the eye. For all that he lacks a certain wild charm, he seems safe and sweet, and the gods above know I have had enough of dangerous would-be lovers for one lifetime."

  Rulia chuckled softly. "You could do worse than win his heart, girl. Though this eve I fear we still have vermin to put down, before we can plant seeds of love for times to come."

  Apple nodded, turning to her sister once more. "I know we have both been ill-used and ill-treated, Jess, but please don't declare war on the school entire, or the Council! For me, Jess, please?"

  Jess shrugged. "I make no promises, Apple. For the head disciplinarian did try to arrange my death, and the ruin of our family. And I have no doubt, absolutely no doubt, that she is but a creature of the headmistress herself!" Jess squeezed her hands into fists. "It is time we let the headmistress know that just as we are vulnerable, so is she."

  Apple just shook her head and sighed. "Very well. but I'm coming with you. Maybe, somehow, I can pull our butts from the fire."

  Rulia chuckled softly, bantering with Apple for some moments after, yet to Jess their words were somehow distant, feeling herself sink into the cold bleakness that was a Squire surveying the battlefield, judging in her mind's eye how best to wipe her enemies clean off the map, their eventual screams and pleas for quarter to be utterly ignored, as she and her fellows choked the killingfields in rivers of their enemies' blood.

  She had faced down more than a few slaver camps with her Squire brethren not so long ago, all of them burnt to cinders and ash in the end, and not a single one of their enemies left alive, no matter how they pled. Of course, they always brought home several handfuls of desperately grateful women and children after those clandestine operations, maimed as often as not, but loyal to Highrock forever after.

  Shortly thereafter, wearing her Highrock uniform once more with mail underneath and her sword belted to her hip, Jess and her companions made their way to the headmistress's office, Jess measuring those souls who dared to meet her gaze not as a student, but as a Squire of War. All those not at the gala stared at Jess with a sort of dreadful fascination, not a one daring to say a word.

  Before the gilded doors of the headmistress herself were two fully armed guards, Drake and Armond, both of which Jess had sparred with, the day before. Her knowing smile and their solemn nods made it clear that they understood the situation as well as anyone.

  “How are you boys doing today?” Rulia asked cheerfully.

  “Quite well, my lady,” Armond acknowledged, voice lowering to a whisper. “Fear not, Dame Jess. We have spoken with the captain, and none of us are fools. There are certain lines you do not cross. Please, go right on in, and may the gods grant you an iron spine and a silver tongue. But first...” He gazed almost apologetically at the arming swords she and Rulia both wore.

  Jess took a deep breath, bowing her head. “You men are a credit to your station. And of course, you have your own duties to fulfill.” Solemnly, Jess and Rulia handed Drake their sheathed swords, neither guard mentioning the shirts of mail both girls wore under their doublets.

  "Thank you," Armond said, fist to chest, before quietly knocking on the door and coming out moments later. "The Headmistress will see you now. Have a care, she looks quite irate," the guard confessed, before bowing the girls in, and quietly closing the door behind them.

  26

  The head office was quite impressive, Jess allowed, noting the quality of the woolen rugs lining the tiled flooring, gazing at the exquisitely crafted hardwood bookcases and tables with a discerning eye. The tomes she spied dealt mainly with history and economics. Not surprising, she supposed, for a mistress of intrigue. The headmistress herself was taking their measure from behind a grand writing table covered with various papers neatly stacked in piles, even as she put down her fine silver quill upon their entrance. Her hair was done in a tight steel gray bun, very much like her disciplinarians, her features unlined despite her middle years, giving evidence to the beauty she had once been lush with. Her dress was muted yet tasteful, a rich shade of blue of excellent cut, and conservative enough to fit the role of a headmistress quite well.

  Jess gazed coldly at the woman before her, earning a raised eyebrow from the woman; surprised, perhaps, to find herself subject to Jess's icy gaze, and not the other way around.

  "You have confidence, chit. I'll give you that," the headmistress said after a few moment's pause. "Now, perhaps you would like to explain what mad delusion has possessed you to enter my quarters as if you were my equal? As if you were anything but a supplicant on the most precarious of grounds, who should even at this very moment be seeking desperately to please the head disciplinarian you had so foolishly offended with your overweening arrogance and horrific deportment, but a handful of days ago?"

  Jess pinned the headmistress with her gaze as she approached the writing table, slamming her fist upon its surface, taking a certain satisfaction when the woman flinched, blinking furiously before her expression twisted to one of dark outrage. But Jess had seen the fear underneath.

  “Tell me, Lady Zerona, are you familiar with the moves behind the farce of a game Lady Grimsly was playing with me? To think she could so easily best me with physical blows and grudge-work, to offer reprieve with a single final task? One that just happened to include delivery of a certain package to a certain inn?”

  The headmistress blinked and paled, lips pressing together in a tight frown.

  “Did you?” Jess roared, banging the table once more, causing the headmistress to flinch.

  "How dare you!" the woman shouted, searching for confidence in her outrage. "How dare you speak to me in such a tone, cur! Lady Grimsly was right about you. You really are little more than a wild beast!"

  Crimson eyes locked upon watery blue, and it was the headmistress who flinched and looked away.

  “You knew,” Jess quietly said.

  "Enough of this farce! Yes, I knew, you foolish girl. And if you had even a lick of sense, you would be making your way to that inn even now, following the directions of your betters, replacing that untenable arrogance with humility, and allowing whatever lesson fate decrees! And if you are incredibly lucky, one day you will find a patron who might actually tolerate your overweening insolence, and redeem your family's tottering fortunes!"

  Jess chuckled softly. “No doubt you mean Duke Smida, no?”

  The headmistress's hiss, the way she squeezed the lip of her table, was all the confirmation Jess needed. “And perhaps a particular ladies' vice, as it is referred to in some circles, would be found upon my person, or within the packs I was told to bring? A mark of shame and weakness when it gets out of hand, no? And perhaps good Duke Smida would see fit to... redeem me, to wean me off such a foul vice, with his son no doubt nursing me from the brink of oblivion, a boy I would fall deeply in love with, and die for joy should he consent to marry such a flawed creature as I.” Jess smiled into increasingly pale, furious features. “Was that the gambit in play?”

  Lady Zerona looked simultaneously sick and furious. Grimly, she schooled her features into stillness. “Think what you like, you stupid girl. An offer was made that did not involve your family being cut from the game of Houses entirely, and you are a damned fool not to have taken it.”

  Jess grinned. "Really. Well, what if I were to tell you a certain horse's packs were filled not with tincture of poppy, but rather wax sealed packets of poisons so vile that just possessing such is enough to get you hanged?"

  Lady Zerona suddenly paled.

  “Yes, Zerona. Your head disciplinarian was playing dark games all her own. Making alliances with Duke Smida's most corrupt captain, all to assure that I was lanced dead
by a dozen charging knights wearing armaments far more suited for the killingfields than attending a simple school gala! Even when I freely surrendered said pack mare, my innocence proven clear as day, the fool still ordered those knights to charge!”

  Jess slammed the desk so hard that the air rang with the sharp crack of wood. “Good men died this day, Zerona, because of you and your lackey's conniving schemes!”

  The headmistress shuddered. "I think you are bluffing, Calenbry. If a dozen of Smida's knights had charged, you would not be here to tell this tale! Scores of men would have fallen before them, let alone one arrogant loudmouth who needs to be put in her place!"

  Jess's eyes glittered with fury. “Shall I show you why they did not best me, Zerona?”

  Her voice rang with the cold finality of a steel cage. Boldly she took the first steps down a dark path from which there was no going back. She was committed, utterly, to her chosen course, and no longer feared to bring her truest nature to the fore. A nature as icy as entropy and as hot as the fiery furnaces of Hades.

  Jess flashed a smile bleak as death, reveling in the darkness welling up inside her. Her words, when she spoke, hardly felt her own. "Should I find out you have moved against me a second time, Zerona, I will come for you, and nothing on the face of Dawn will stop me from snapping your neck as easily as I will shatter your bones!"

  The headmistress had time only to shriek before Jess's own hand darted forth faster than one could blink, grabbing ahold of Zerona's forearm and yanking her close, gazing into Verona's panicked eyes even as she slowly squeezed, a dark and savage part of her soul savoring the crackling snap of bone being crushed to kindling.

  Jess allowed the woman to shriek in terror and pain, yet refused to drop her terrible gaze or loosen her steely grip until Zerona begged for mercy, only then contemptuously letting her go.

  Having lost all pretense of command, the headmistress involuntarily lurched back in her chair with a shuddering gasp, sobbing, her left hand desperately and frantically ringing a small bell, even as she cradled her shattered forearm, gazing at Jess in speechless horror. There was a dull thudding that appeared to come from the far distance upon the other side of the great oaken door. A door that had thrilled at the touch of its mistress, and that would open for no mortal, lest Jess will it so.