Oathbreaker ch. 10.16 - Her First Knight (Patreon)

“Of course he will not go,” my father said the next morning.

We were in the Empress’s solar in the early hours before the council was due to meet. There would be more discussion on the topic of Calerus Vyke then, but for now we had a more intimate gathering in the relative secrecy of Rosanna’s private chambers. Besides the seneschal, Rosanna, and me, the spacious room contained Kaia, the court clericon Ioannes, Moonbrand, and one of the Empress’s handmaidens, the Lady Dahlia of House Aurek, a serious young woman with hair a striking shade of fiery gold.

Gallow and Wynn were both there too. I saw them often lately, the couple having insinuated themselves into almost every council and meeting since their arrival.

Aven was pacing, his cane click-clacking on the stone floor. I stood near the window, my shoulder leant against the frame, and Rosanna sat on the small couch near the hearth. Kaia took her usual place by the door and old Ioannes, who’d been old even when I’d last called myself First Sword of Karles, stood serenely in his holy whites. The wizards sat at a small table, sharing tea and whispering to one another.

“That is what we are here to discuss,” Wynn told my father.

Aven scowled. He didn’t like the presence of the newcomers much more than I did. Admittedly, my thoughts were more ambivalent. They were Lias’s parents, which endeared me to them, but they were also Magi.

“We’re on the eve of a war,” Aven said with the pedantic impatience that’d colored my boyhood. “And days away from one of the largest gatherings of southern gentry in years. Surely sending one of our most experienced leaders on some mad quest to slay a bogeyman in Talsyn would be imprudent at this time? We just heard news that the Emperor is besieged at Isengotta. That should be our priority.”

“I am inclined to agree,” Moonbrand said, directing his words to Rosanna. “Forgive my poor manners to our guest, but the Vykes are known to be duplicitous.”

“Calerus Vyke is the king of Talsyn,” Wynn told the knight. “And he traveled all this way himself, alone, with demons at his heels to deliver this news. I think we can discount that he’s done this as some kind of elaborate ploy.”

“I’m not so sure,” I said. “I remember stories about Hasur Vyke dressing as a pilgrim and using that guise to visit other rulers while he was gathering his allies. Calerus may not be a powerful warlock like his father was, but the Vykes are unorthodox.”

“So you believe he’s leading us into a trap?” Ioannes asked me.

“I think it’s possible he’s leading me into a trap,” I corrected. Aven had stopped pacing, and I knew by the very slight frown he wore that he was annoyed at my interruption, even though the prospect of my quest was the matter on the table. He still saw me as his slow son, the one who waited to be told what to do and not the one who submitted opinions about it. “In that case,” I continued, “it would be Reynard’s ploy. He might be trying to take me off the board.”

“Why?” Aven asked.

It was a fair question. For all his actions had caused me personal grief, I didn’t consider myself any great rival to Reynard. I was simply the last active Alder Knight, youngest and most ignorant of that order. I’d never even spoken to the mastermind behind all our woes. If he wanted to kill me, there were other ways he could do it besides some convoluted scheme to get me to go where he was.

“I still have the power to banish demons,” I said. “That’s what the Alder Table was made for. I defeated two of the Traitor Magi’s lieutenants back during the war. Since then I’ve fought and beaten several others. I’m the one who convinced Calerus to surrender last year, and assuming he was behind Evangeline as well — and I’m not certain of that still — I foiled him there too. I’d say I’ve been a thorn in his side.”

“Ser Alken is the Choir’s hand,” Ioannes said with the quiet confidence of faith. “He is our champion. I understand that you may be concerned for the well being of your son, Aven, but we should consider the idea that he may be our best chance to strike at our foe. If the Traitor Magi is indeed in Talsyn, then should we not take this opportunity to end his evil once and for all? Even if it is a trap, it might be our best hope to finally end what started twelve years ago.”

Aven didn’t reply. I found myself watching him, trying to study the stark lines of my father’s aged face. Was he concerned? We were strangers to each other, and we’d not been particularly warm even when we hadn’t been.

We thought you were dead. For years. I’d been replaying that conversation for some days.

“Our problems began well before the Fall of Seydis,” Gallow said from where she sat with her husband. “But I do agree that killing Reynard would strike a blow to our collective enemy. Remember that we are fighting a cadre of villains, my friends, not some singular dark lord.”

“Exactly my point,” Aven insisted. “This is not the time for mad-dash assaults on heavily fortified towers or storybook quests. Reynard is a criminal who needs to be put to justice, yes, but we should be more focused on the Emperor and the war.”

I found myself watching Rosanna. Her handmaiden was whispering into her ear, and the Empress wore a shallow frown. She caught my eye and I felt I understood her thoughts.

“You think I should go,” I said, speaking my guess aloud. The chatter in the group fell quiet.

Rosanna pursed her lips. “I think that it’s obvious that Calerus came here in great desperation, and that our enemy was eager to see him dead. I also know that if he is telling the truth, then the Emperor is facing a threat from the west as well as the south.”

She was right. The hills of Talsyn bordered the eastern hinterlands of the Baern Cities.

“He couldn’t possibly have the forces to persecute an invasion of the Baerns,” Moonbrand said. “Talsyn’s forces were disarmed, its forts occupied by Accord soldiers. Only the Gastmount remained fully in Vyke hands after the attack on the Fulgurkeep.”

“That might not be true anymore,” I said. “We haven’t been getting reports from the Baerns except for Ser Garuman, who had to travel through the Wend and arrived here half dead.”

“You think the disruption might originate in Vyke lands?” Moonbrand said as he realized what I was suggesting.

I nodded. “I think that what’s happening in Osheim has as much to do with it, but if Reynard has come out of hiding and taken possession of whatever witchery Hasur kept in his castle, then he could do a lot of damage to us from that mountain. And we know that Graill has fallen to the enemy, without us knowing about it until after the fact. We’re being made blind and deaf, divided, bled by a hundred cuts. It’s exactly what happened before Seydis fell, except that damned wizard has replaced Hasur and Rhan with the Gorelion, who is considerably worse.”

I did not mention that I’d also made an oath to help Calerus all those months ago in the throne room of the Emperor’s palace. It wouldn’t help my case or convince my father that this was a tactical choice rather than an emotional one. Everyone wanted Reynard dead, but his threat was an abstract one, schemes in the shadows and demons in the dark, whereas the Gorelion led armies and was quite tangible.

Rosanna stood and moved to the window. I pushed off the wall where I’d been leaning, instinctively reacting to her shift from calm contemplation to regal action. She stared out at the dale below, her green eyes distant.

I had to wonder at her patience, her self control. I didn’t know if she loved the Emperor, her husband and the father of her children, but I knew she respected and admired him. The nation she built at his side was crumbling before our eyes, and yet she kept her composure.

“Nothing we’ve discussed will leave this room,” she told the gathering. “Alken, I will speak with you alone.”

There were bows and murmurings of assent. A minute or two later, and it was just me and Rose in the solar.

“You will go, I assume?” She asked. The Empress still stared out the window, her voice calm and her coldly beautiful features passive.

I hesitated. “If that’s what you think is—”

“That’s not what I asked you.” She turned her head in my direction, and her face hardened in the morning light. “I could order it — I could tell you that the Accorded Realms demand the wizard Reynard’s death, that it is necessary to finally end this war, that it is right and just. I could say all manner of things, or nothing at all. I could merely tell you what to do and I know you would do it.”

She drifted closer to me, her skirts rustling. We were alone then, more so than usual. Oftentimes, Kaia or some other courtier was at hand, either part of the conversation or listening in. But the First Sword had gone out into the hall, leaving her liege-lady in my care.

“But we’re past that, aren’t we?” Rosanna smiled, bitterness and fondness mingling in that small twitch of muscle. “You’re not mine anymore. I’ve known that for some time now.”

She had to look up to meet my gaze at that distance. Not for the first time, I wondered just who I was seeing. We’d both become different people over the years. This great queen had so little in common with the vengeful princess in my memories.

“We’ve never talked about it,” she said, and her gaze fell from mine. “What I did to you.”

“What you did?” I asked. “You made me a knight. You gave me a purpose.”

“I used you. Badly. And I’m not just talking about as a fighter. Before I sent you to the Archon, I…”

I drew in a sharp breath. We’d never spoken of it. It may well as well have never happened, or so I’d believed.

“I should not have done that,” Rosanna said, her eyes still downcast. “At the time, I…”

I almost interrupted, but something about her manner told me that if I did, she would stop speaking. I almost did it anyway, out of cowardice.

“…At the time, I felt on top of the world. I had my throne back, my revenge, and with you and Lias at my side I felt invincible. But you seemed… so dissatisfied. Distant. With the battles done, I thought you might grow restless, might leave my service, become Glorysworn or even be tempted to join one of my enemies.”

Shocked and horrified, I did interrupt then. “Rose, I would never—”

“I’m not done.” Her eyes were hard, and I fell silent. She took a breath, steadying herself, and continued. “I was much less wise back then. I let Lias be my wisdom. All I wanted was to win. I lost my whole family, watched my parents die in front of my eyes to my uncle’s henchmen, fled the same night that my sisters and brothers were abused and butchered like cattle. I didn’t want to lose anything or anyone else. So I tried to keep your loyalty the only way I could think of at the time. Ah, I was a vain, conceited girl! And I regretted it, Alken. I knew I would have to marry for power, and what I did to you… it was cruel. I was possessive of you. I still am. It was cruel of me to make you Darsus’s godfather with all else on your shoulders, but I did not want you to leave me again.”

It took some time before I could find my own words. “Is that why you sent me to Seydis? Because you regretted it?”

“In part,” she admitted. “I knew I’d made a mistake. For all that, Alken, for all of it… if things had been different, if it hadn’t been for the war, for Hasur and Reynard and all the rest, I would have made you my consort.”

The words were like a blow. Like a knife in my chest. I inhaled sharply, as I would have if she’d actually struck me.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, and heard the pain in my own words. “None of that matters now.”

She smiled sadly. “You know Gallow and I have been speaking?” When I nodded she said, “If Reynard wins — if we allow him to complete his work — there is a chance the world as we know it might end. I would rather say my words to you here and now, in the halls of my fathers, than say them to whatever powers wait beyond the veil when I am asked to give the measure of my soul.”

Her pale hand came up and caressed the side of my face. The unscarred side, where my cheek was unmarred by fiendish claws or burns. Her touch was warm and human.

“My first knight,” she said fondly. “I would wield you again, my sword, but you have slipped from my hand. Others try to pick you up, but you must decide. If you choose to stand with me when I march to support the Emperor, I shall take you gladly.”

I let myself feel that touch a moment. It wasn’t healing — there was too much pain there to be healing — but even for just the space of a few breaths I let myself believe that I could let it all go. The past, the mistakes, the regrets. When Rosanna sent me away all those years ago, I’d hated her for it. I’d thought what did I do wrong? Dei had helped heal those wounds, only to tear them open again tenfold.

“I have to go,” I told her once the moment had passed. “I would be your sword again, my queen, but Reynard has to die. And… I swore an oath to Calerus. I’ve broken too many of those, and this one matters.”

She nodded. “Then go. It is not a command — simply do what you must to end this.”

I took her hand — not to brush it away, but to squeeze gently and return that gesture of trust. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you let me be Darsus’s guardian. It’s one of the few burdens I’ve been given that I give a damn about.”

She was too composed to cry. Only once had I seen her lose that composure, but not now. She smiled instead. “That was a very worthy thing to say, Ser Alken. Thank you.”

She stepped back and turned from me. “What will you do now?”

“Prepare,” I said. “Gather what allies I can. I know where my enemy is. All that’s left is to chart the path.”

“She nodded. “I will provide what aid I can. When will you leave?”

“As soon as possible.” I smiled and added, “Would you believe me if I said this wasn’t just to get out of bringing a date to the grand feast?”

She laughed without turning to let me see it. “You should marry someone. I’d even forgive you for wedding that elven trollop.”

I realized then that at least some of her dislike for Tzanith might have been jealousy. One of her loyal handmaidens or even a dubious ally like Myrice, those were forgivable, but she knew I was fond of Tzanith. It was a startling revelation. Rosanna hadn’t completely gotten over me, either.

That helped, somehow, to know at least some of it had been mutual.

But regrets and unresolved futures would have to be left behind. I had my mission. Perhaps the most important one. Reynard and Shyora were waiting for me in Talsyn.

The day approached to end this battle once and for all.