Paladin's Oath

by M. H. Johnson

  Apple blanched. “That crazy talk of Primacy and the art of Claimance. Rumors that could get us killed!”

  “Easy, Apple,” her brother soothed. “It is not so bad as all that. Not yet, anyway.”

  Apple gave an anxious laugh. "Honestly, Geoffrey, I don't know how anyone can take that madness seriously. That crazy night was like a dream. I barely remember it, and you know how queer Jessica gets when she is drunk or tired or not in her normal state of mind. When I think back on it, Geoff, I feel like someone put on a giant play while drugging our wine, just like half our friends say is what really happens when the Guild bards put on their performances. Of course, something that crazy Jess would love to be a part of, not even realizing how dearly it could cost us, if people took it seriously."

  Geoffrey nodded. “Sadly, I think you're right, Apple. I don’t have the heart to tell Jess, but half the time I think she’s just a gullible pawn of the Guild, their bards slipping poppy extract into everyone’s drinks, and Jessica is such a character when she is drunk, how could they not enjoy casting her as the lead heroine?” His rueful chuckle quickly transformed into a grimace. “Bloody fools. To play such a risky game, and use our sister as one of their pawns.”

  Apple sighed. “It makes sense, then. What Jessica did. I can’t completely forgive her, but, maybe I understand a little now. If they drugged her and convinced her that she had odd powers, or gods forbid, what if a Guild agent was here along with a royal one, and he was the one who goaded Jessica to follow Kipu in the first place, and cause all this horrific trouble?" Apple stopped abruptly. "By Heaven's Fallen, I'll bet that's exactly what happened!"

  Geoffrey sighed and shrugged. “No way to tell, right now. But if we are but pawns in the Guild’s game, they have a vested interest in keeping Jessica safe, lest they want to be seen as predators taking advantage of hapless young girls led to their own destruction.” He gave a sharp shake of his head. “Hopefully, this will be over soon enough with a heavy purse or two. Who knows? Perhaps the purse full of gold Morlekai gave Jess was in preparation for this very scene in the nightmare play we presently find ourselves trapped within. Perhaps it will conveniently total our expected bribes. One can only hope.”

  Apple squeezed her brother’s hand. “Jessica received a purse full of gold from this Delver? Brother, you never told me!”

  “Later, Apple. We are here.” With that, her brother solemnly ushered her into the grand chamber before pulling out her seat for her, all four of the Calenbrys present seating themselves to one side of the exquisitely carved and polished teak table in unison, their guests facing them, expressions grim.

  At last, Lady Agda broke the brooding silence. “Lady Verona, Del Morlekai, dear Alexo. Thank you for taking the time to see us again personally. May we ask, what news?”

  The Calenbrys' heavy gazes weighed upon their guests, Twilight noted, having slipped in at Geoffrey's heels, quickly positioning himself to best watch the scene unfold. The bard Alexo had the grace to lower his head, and Twilight could tell with the resulting hitched breath that Agda was near panicking with fear of bad news.

  “Lady Verona. Please. Tell us. Whatever the news, we need to know.”

  The agent, eyes terribly grave, took a deep shuddering breath, even as Morlekai held up a large and perfectly ripened golden apple.

  “Your house seems to be in season,” he said, taking a crisp bite. “And quite sweet it is, at that.”

  With too much at stake to protest such manners, Arthur had the diplomatic grace to take it all in stride. “And welcome to the fruit you are, Del Morlekai. I can only hope that your news is equally as sweet for us, as our fruit is for you.”

  Morlekai flashed a dark, predatory grin. “Sadly for some, dear baron, their fruit has born bitter seeds. Quite bitter indeed.”

  Agda gasped, her face growing deathly pale, her body shaking. “Please, Delver, do not toy with us. What news?”

  Morlekai gazed thoughtfully at Appolonia. “Well do I recall the words you spoke to your sister on that rather eventful evening. Do you?”

  Apple, captivated by his fearsome gaze, shuddered and looked away. “I am sorry, my lord, I do not recall the specifics, no.”

  “I am no more lord than I am fallen angel, child, my empire crumbled to dust, long ago.” He laughed quietly at his odd jest, even as his expression flowed to a bleak, measuring smile once more, pinning the Calenbry clan entire with his inhumanly brilliant gold green gaze.

  “But no matter. One thing you had mentioned in your furious outrage was that you found your sister to be, how did you put it? Completely and utterly mad, I believe.” Morlekai paused, gazing at the anxious, breathless clan before him. “And madness has been determined by the highest court of the land.”

  “Oh by the gods, no!” Agda shuddered, quickly grabbed by her husband before she fell out of her chair. Arthur’s gaze was instantly that of a grim-faced commander, preparing for the worst, ready to rally his troops to the bitter end. “No more wordplay, Del Morlekai. What was the royal decree?”

  “Del Morlekai!” Verona hissed, earning an angry flash of the Delver’s gaze. The agent shuddered and turned her head away, even as the Delver squeezed the agent’s thigh.

  “As we agreed,” he whispered, before turning his gaze back upon the Calenbrys once more. The pale-faced and shaking Appolonia bore the full brunt of his predatory stare.

  “Madness! Correct, Appolonia? A butcher. A raving killer. Many fine words you had for your sister, and Kipu, of course, was in total agreement. And only a fool couldn’t tell that the baroness felt the same, for all that she at least has the grace to stand by her daughter’s side in public.”

  Arthur de Calenbry inhaled, a look of grave offense upon his usually calm countenance, yet Morlekai did not allow him a single word in edgewise. "Did you think we were the only parties who took notice? Did you think it would not slip out how in a panic you were to reform your daughter? Treating her as a feral beast that must be broken, and quickly, before the royal gaze peered any deeper into your affairs, and realized just how vicious and uncouth she was?"

  Morlekai shook his head in contempt. “It would be well for you to keep better track of your staff, baron. I have it on excellent authority that your oldest daughter is a very good judge of character. 'Tis a pity, perhaps, that you neglected to have her audit your most recent servants.”

  “By Justice, who betrayed us?” Agda hissed, pale and shaking.

  “It hardly matters now, does it?” Morlekai’s words were cold as ice. “You allowed serpents into your bower, who saw all your secrets laid bare. And rest assured, they made full reports to their master before being released from service with fuller purses. Though I suppose you have been so busy focusing on your immediate… crisis, that you have hardly noticed the shortage of several staff members. But what matters is this, Lady Agda. The powers that see Jessica as but a piece on their board have access to everything. Enough so that even an agent like Verona, or I, but a Guild companion accompanying her, are privy to them. By last accounts, she refuses even to speak to you. Not a sign of a dutiful daughter by any means, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Lord Arthur was shaking with fury. “Enough of your contempt, Delver, lest you wish to see the back of my fist! What you are saying is that our secrets are laid bare, and we have been judged. So, tell us who dares pass sentence upon our family, and what their judgment is?”

  Morlekai flashed his wild grin once more, hands flying so fast the baron barely had time to gasp before a spinning object was thrust at his chest.

  52

  “Father!” Geoffrey cried, his panic sharp and awful, as if brutal judgment had already been passed, and Morlekai himself was to be their executioner.

  At that moment the house began to shake, a terrible shrieking wail reverberating through the chamber, as if the calm view of a crisp afternoon had been pierced by the howling winds of the blackest Abyss.

  Fierce gold green eyes locked upon Twilight's own.

  Je
ssica's familiar smiled back.

  Be calm, my mistress. Your jester but dances a merry tune, no more. Twilight's paw gently patted the trembling boards under his belly.

  And within moments all was calm, as if it had never been, only the caustic stench of sulfur lingering in the air.

  "By the gods!" Arthur whispered in awe, even as he finally looked down at what Morlekai had tossed with such adroit quickness at his chest. He gave Morlekai a puzzled look. "What is this?"

  “Angels above, what was that?” Geoffrey cried out, blinking, as the last stink of sulfur was replaced by the arboreal scents of a forest in midsummer.

  Apple gave a shuddering sigh. "It is past, now. Thank the gods." She then turned toward her father. "What is it that he gave you?"

  "That, dear Appolonia, is what you yourself need to peruse. In exquisite detail, before you say another word to anyone." Though his smile had turned oddly gentle, Morlekai's gaze held Apple's own, refusing to let her go.

  “Judgment has been passed. I shall let Verona say the rest.”

  Even as Morlekai said those words, a trembling baron opened the journal, several carefully made sketches falling out. Apple grabbed one for a closer look. Hands trembling, she let loose a bloodcurdling scream.

  “Apple! What is wrong?” Agda grabbed the exquisitely detailed sketch, looking suddenly sickened as she gazed upon what it depicted.

  “Those, Lady Agda, are renderings of what we saw. Firsthand. When we entered Kipu’s… home.” Alexo was strangely solemn, all traces of the ebullient performer utterly vanished, so grim he appeared at that moment.

  “No, no, no!” Appolonia’s face was a mask of horror and outrage. “This is sick! Wrong! No, I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it!” She screamed again and backed away.

  Lady Verona, herself looking deathly pale, shuddered and spoke. “We… we entered, not knowing what we would find. Prepared for… anything. Or nothing. Dear Alexo is a strong man. A very strong man. He took sketches. Of everything. Of everything we saw. Though his countenance was much as yours is at this moment, Lady Appolonia, he did not hesitate.” Verona shuddered. “His hands did not shake in the least.”

  Morlekai smiled grimly, giving the solemn bard an approving clap on the shoulder. “Our bards are trained to witness and endure horrors that would send a normal man howling.”

  "And this journal?" A pale-faced Arthur asked, his own hands clenching the leather tome tightly, fiercely, before dropping it in sudden disgust.

  “His diary, my lord,” Lady Verona gently answered. “It serves as the repository of his musings, and lists the specifics of his… experiments. All of it in unfailing detail.”

  “By the gods,” Geoffrey shook his head in horrified disbelief. “You mean, he did it. All those horrors Jessica accused him of... what he planned to do to Apple… it was all true?”

  Morlekai’s grin was fierce. “Read the book. Judge for yourself, heir to the Calenbry lands.”

  Apple was still shaking, glaring at them all with bitter fury. “It wasn’t enough, was it? It wasn’t enough for you to slander poor Kipu. You have to utterly destroy him? Just to keep Jessica’s ugly madness a secret?”

  Morlekai’s lip curled, but he was stopped with a gentle squeeze from Verona, a subtle shake of her head. He bowed his head in acquiescence.

  Verona turned to face the angry gaze of the trembling young lady. “My Lady Appolonia. If you take a careful look at the handwriting, you will, I think, find that it matches the handwriting of his correspondence with you. Perfectly. Perhaps you still have one of his letters with you? The one where he mentions the time and place for what was to be your secret rendezvous?”

  Appolonia’s face went instantly pale. She flashed a guilty look at her parents. “How do you know about that?” she asked softly.

  Verona sighed. “Perhaps, my baron, if you would be so good as to show your daughter the last several pages of the journal, she would understand that for herself?”

  “And let my daughter read of these horrors? I think not!” Arthur’s voice was almost a shout.

  “Please, Father, let me see.” Apple gently reached out to touch her father’s shoulder, his hand coming up instinctively to hold her own.

  “It is for the best, Arthur,” Agda soothed. “Far better she see and know the truth, however horrible, than for her to hate her sister who, perhaps, saved her from a nightmare we can only begin to fathom.”

  The baron clenched his eyes shut and sighed in acquiescence, solemnly passing the thick leather tome to his daughter who opened it toward the end with trembling hands. The look of horror that slowly etched itself across Apple's features, her head jerking back and forth in sickened disbelief, was too much for her parents to watch, or so it seemed to Twilight, the pair grimacing and clearly fighting the urge to tear the diary away from a trembling Apple.

  "You forged this. You must have made him write this! Oh gods, there is no way, no way! That he, that he would do these things? To me? He said he loved me!" Appolonia's eyes were filled with angry tears.

  “I am sorry, Lady Appolonia, but that would be extremely difficult to forge. If you look back, the details go back to the first time he killed. Where he wrote about the death of the first girl whose life he had taken.”

  Taking a shaking breath, Appolonia forced her trembling fingers to open it to the first page. The handwriting was faded, far shakier, the uncertain writing of a young man far newer to his letters, yet nonetheless writing with an intense passion about a subject which captivated him. Even Twilight could sense that as he flowed to the tabletop, casually reading the tome as a trembling Apple began to flip through the journal of the man who would have consummated their relationship in the most horrific ways imaginable.

  “Oh by the gods. Oh by the gods!” Apple began to whimper, taking a deep, sobbing breath before tossing the journal away with all her force.

  “Appolonia!” Her mother cried out in alarm, even as Apple raced into Agda's arms, sobbing hysterically. “He wrote her name, Mother. I read it! I read it! It's exactly what, it's exactly what…”

  "What is it, love?" Her mother soothed, gently stroking Appolonia's hair as she did her best to comfort her trembling daughter.

  "It's exactly what he said when… when Jess baited him. I remember. I don't want to remember, but I do. Jess whispered the first letter, he said Rosalind… and that handwriting… it's old. It's faded. It's the writing of a boy! And the first name in the book he wrote so obsessively, so horribly about… was Rosalind. Oh by the gods, Mother, I'm going to be sick!"

  With that Apple bent over and heaved, sobbing and vomiting until she at last collapsed in an exhausted heap.

  Agda shared a grave look with her husband, who gently lifted Apple into his arms, holding her tight even as she cried into his comforting chest.

  Shaking almost as badly as her daughter had been, deep calming breaths notwithstanding, Agda forced herself to lock gazes with Verona. "So it's all true, then." Her voice, little more than a whisper, carried through the chamber perfectly. "All of it. Jessica, she was completely and utterly correct. Kipu had those extra guards with him to do reconnaissance. He was intending for my youngest to meet up with him at a later date and then… Heavens above, I don't want to say it!" Shaking, she shut her eyes fiercely, forcing herself to speak. "He was intending to torture and kill my daughter, wasn't he?"

  Solemnly, Lady Verona nodded. “From what we can tell? Yes.” She sighed. “Truly, I am sorry. I am sorry your family had to cross paths with this monster for even a moment. And truly, I am grateful we were able to stop this fiend from preying upon any more women, be they noble or commoner.”

  “So! My only question is when is the execution for this vile monstrosity? Maybe they should give Jess the honor.” Geoffrey spoke with hot intensity, fingers trembling, so tightly did he grip the edge of their fine teak table, looking as bloodthirsty as Jess's familiar had ever seen him. Resembling his sister at last, Twilight thought approvingly.

 
; His father's eyes lit in fierce accord, lips set in a grim line. It was clear he too would be all too happy to oversee the execution of the wretch who had dared to threaten his family.

  "No, Geoffrey. I will not have Jessica involved in anything so… public," Agda firmly reproved. "I want this monster dead, but our dear Jessica has suffered enough wounds from this incident. It is best if she is not tempted with old, dark skills best forgotten. Best if neither of my girls ever set eyes upon that monster again."

  Verona sighed. “Unfortunately, there will be no execution.”

  "What?" Geoffrey's eyes flashed with outrage. "What do you mean, there will be no execution? This monster is as vile as any demon scurrying free of the Abyss, and must be struck from the face of Dawn! How dare he or any other fool think he can cause ill to our family and get away with it?"

  "I do not disagree with you, Lord Geoffrey," Lady Verona soothed. "The royal position is that Lord Kipu is… sick. Deranged. His journal the stuff of mad ideations and insane delusion. He is to be kept in the noble sanitarium. Under diligent care, and of course, kept very well guarded. For his own safety, you understand. The Royal position is one of pity for such a tragically ill soul, psyche so shattered by the death of his mother that he has always blamed himself for. In need of lifetime care that the Crown will, of course, provide for; even as his estates are put under royal supervision until a new… caretaker can be found.”

  Geoffrey's gaze turned thoughtful. “So, he is to be caged like the sick animal he is, while the Crown takes his estates away from him. That’s something, I suppose, though I’m surprised his father agreed to giving up his lands without some token protest.”

  Morlekai flashed a sardonic smile. “Perhaps he would have, had he not seen fit to jump to his death from the very same window his late wife had some ten years ago, when I made it clear that dear Lady Verona and I were not leaving Kipu’s old home, that royal armsmen were coming, and before he considered having his twenty guardsmen attempt to charge me, I invited him to step inside and see for himself what truly made his son the man he was.”