EL Official BK5 Chapter 15 - Foolish Mistakes Brought On By Arrogance. (Patreon)

Markos might not have always been smart, but he learns quickly.

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A rush of movement burst from the shadows and sparks flew in the darkness as a sword clashed against my own. I twisted away when the second assailant slashed at me, and pivoted into an offensive attack. Magic sparked at my fingertips, sending a wash of energy in their direction to create some distance. 

Training with Ávila and Baltzar had me accustomed to two on one combat, but the third attacker tipped the balance. He came from the side while the other two had me distracted and his sword found its mark. It cut through my side, slicing deep through my training leathers into the flesh below. 

My blood spilled into the street, splattering the stone pathway with crimson and leaving me momentarily stunned. The last time anyone had landed a hit enough to make me bleed was back when I was tied to a chair on a boat. I stumbled, giving a humor filled laugh that wouldn’t stop as the shock settled.

“You ruined my coat!” I commented as my laughter tapered, before adding more sternly, “Quelle impolitesse.” (How rude.)

I turned back to face them as they circled. If I was going down, I was taking them with me. My energy ignited in a swell of circular movement and the fight began in earnest. Sharp bursts of magic deflected into the sky as I countered their attacks, but they were unrelenting.

The three of them coordinated, subtly corralling me into a corner against the stone façade of the inner castle wall. Of course I knew it was happening, but there wasn’t another way out. The buildings were too tall with no footholds to climb, and all together I couldn’t get past them.

They slashed at me in predictable repeating rotation. It should have been easy enough to counter if it weren’t for the utter lack of time in between strikes. Our swords met over and over and there was little more I could do other than to defend. There was no opening long enough for me to retaliate. 

I lost my footing under the weight of two simultaneous attacks and readjusted to deflect with a secondary upper strike when the third circled back. My sword found its mark. It sank downward into the gap between breastplate and collarbone where the armor had a join. 

The result was a satisfying liquid filled gurgle as the guard drew his last breath, forcing air through a punctured lung. I had aimed well, but the effort was a waste. I lost the weapon with the body when it fell and my back met with the wall not a moment later. I grit my teeth involuntarily. 

There were still two of them, and I was unarmed nearing fatigue. Only the energy whipping around me separated us. Dark liquid trickled down the side of my face from the hairline and the split in my lip, while pain made my muscles tighten until they were shivering. I was done for. Realization sat heavy in my stomach, all this work teaching and training, dutifully looking after the Klein spawn–it was all useless. 

I held my breath, waiting for the final blow as I frantically tried to think my way out. But the pair of them delayed. They lingered in the street, blocking my escape while making no further move toward me.

“My my, looks like you’re in quite the predicament here, young Bellerose.”

My attention snapped upward toward the voice and the tickle of white hot rage ignited in the pit of my stomach. It was Hasan who sat perched on the edge of a nearby rooftop. His legs dangling over the edge of the tiles while his long straight hair swayed forward with the breeze. 

“Although it looks like you managed to defeat one of them, at what cost? If only there was someone here to help you,” he continued, touching his thumb and forefinger to his temples on either side to cover his eyes as he shook his head in mock sympathy.

“What do you want?” I growled through clenched teeth. He had set this up, I knew it from the moment he spoke. 

Hasan let the pandering helpless act drop and his gaze sharpened. “You’ve gotten too big for your britches, did you truly believe you could get away with it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I shot back venomously. It wasn’t an untrue statement, after all, there were a lot of things he could have been referring to.

“The last time we spoke, I warned you not to cross me, and yet, a little bird tells me you’ve been reading those letters I distinctly remember telling you not to read,” the man leaned forward to slip from the roof and landed on the ground.

“Maybe your ‘little birds’ lied.”

“Trace spells don’t lie,” he responded, unconcerned while I cursed myself internally. I should have guessed, or checked, or known somehow. Fatal mistakes are often so insignificant 

“You didn’t keep your word, why should I have kept mine?” I stated.

“I kept my word, I got you into the castle,” he countered without care.

“I got myself into the castle,” I corrected him bitterly.

He scoffed, “Your position as Lazarus’s hand maiden is hardly a secure arrangement, I solidified it for you, and you should learn to be grateful.”

My eyes narrowed, “I have nothing to be grateful to you for.”  

“You should be grateful I chose not to claim you when you were small enough to do so,” Hasan leaned in to whisper in my ear and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

“The old ways are forbidden,” I hissed back.

“And who would you have told? Your father is away and your mother is absent. Moreover, who would have believed a filthy street rat?”

Energy stirred the air around me in a hiss of irritation, “I’m not a street rat.”

“No? You sure look like one, slinking around the streets at night. Your family line is a disgrace, and if you don’t want to die in this alleyway, you’re going to do exactly as I tell you.”

Impulsivity surged through my chest, spurred on by a bubbling rage I was too foolish to keep in check, “You’re not the only one who knows secrets. I saw that ship, I know you’re working with Lord Edwin to smuggle weapons into Leúchtend and the second I tell Lazarus, you’ll be executed for treason.”

Confidence blustered my threat as a flash of surprise crossed Hasan’s face.

“And I know you’re plotting against the Klein family, planning on assassinating little kids? Pathetic,” I muttered with a savage smile. I had him beat, I thought.

The man took a moment more to process before he chuckled, pushing his hair back, “You’re drowning in dangerous currents all the while claiming you know how to swim. But you’ve left the shallows and you’ll soon realize your feet no longer touch the bottom.”

I didn’t understand, but I pretended not to care, “Get out of my way, or I’ll go straight to Lazarus.” 

Hasan paused another moment before laughing in earnest, “Oh, you poor dumb child. You still don’t understand do you? Secrets die when those who know them are murdered. If I was, for some reason, worried that you would run to Lazarus, I would only have to kill you right here.”

My confidence drained into my boots as I began to comprehend, and I swallowed hard. Merde (shit/fuck). I’d misstepped. Hasan was right, I was in water too deep and I hadn’t even known the tide had swept me away. I thought everything was falling into place, I had failed to consider that anyone could be smarter than I was.

“What… do you want?” I repeated more softly, averting my gaze downward. He hadn’t killed me yet for a reason, he wanted something. That was the only reason I was still alive.

“You’ve read the letters, so I presume you understand that Peronne is carrying twins? If one should happen to be a son, he will be Lazarus’s heir, and you, as their designated carer, will be one of few with access to him,” Hasan began to explain as he pulled a thin necklace from under his clothes.

There was a small glass vial looped onto the chain. It held a clear liquid, and the small air bubble wobbled as he pressed the vial into my hand, “When the time comes, you will put a single drop of this in their food, for ‘prosperity’,” he smiled as my mouth went dry. 

He wanted me to kill the Klein heir…

**** 

Weeks after were spent on edge. Shadows watched me everywhere I went, lurking down alleyways, in the corridors, at the edges of the training fields, even across the way from the rundown building I had to call home. Sleep became a non-existent luxury. 

At the corner of my peripherals I noticed the wide eyed girl staring from far across the field. She was hard to see among the dappled shadows of the trees. Her dark clothes and hair blended with the forest in a way Fae simply didn’t. The message was clear, one slip up, and they would know…

“Markos-” a hand clasped my shoulder and my skeleton very nearly leapt from its container as I flinched.

“What the fuck is your problem?!” I snapped, turning to glare. 

Ávila shrank back, her expression caught somewhere between surprise and apology as I glowered down at her. “S-Sorry,” she stammered, unable to formulate a proper sentence.

“I told you to wait for me at the starting line,” I muttered, forcing down the adrenaline that brought a swell of bitter magic up the back of my throat. 

“I know I just… I got your keys… I thought you would want to see them before the cross country event, so you know I’m not cheating you…”

“As long as you have them, I don’t care. If you so much as tried to back out of this deal, I can guarantee that you won’t pass a single other exam. So it’s not like you ‘could’ cheat me.”

“...Asshole…” she muttered under her breath as I turned, striding away without allowing her to answer.

We regrouped at the starting line. The cross country exam was a simple mounted navigation task. Start at one point, and make it to the next. The catch was that there was a deadline, ‘obstacles’ to get through, and after all that only three groups could pass. There were six groups, it was a 50% fail rate.

Call it arrogance or irritation, I wasn’t going to fail this. The race began and the others raced past us, but I grabbed hold of Ávila’s reins, turning her horse in a circle to halt her. 

“What are you doing!?” she hissed, her eyes wide with shock.

“Winning. Now ditch your pack and dismount. We’ll ride together and switch horses later.”

“Why?” she demanded, confused.

“This race won’t take us more than a day. The packs are unnecessary weight, and we’re going over the mountain range. One horse, two riders, smaller target, are you starting to get it yet?” I mused.

Ávila snorted, tossing her hair back, “You’re eccentric.” 

“I win challenges,” I corrected.

The girl did as I instructed and we turned to begin the race. Fae horses are strong and giant, carrying two riders was nothing for them. “You just wanted me to hold onto you,” Ávila muttered.

“Are you complaining?”

“...No…”

Maybe part of me thought I could marry her, after all, even though she was better than being betrothed to my child cousin…

We made it up the main ride and over the other side. From the distance we could see the others bunched up at the edge of the canion but I had taken us well around it. There was only one narrow path down and then back up the other side. Something I had found courtesy of leaving the castle so often to hunt for food in the woods. Not being allowed at the banquets was worthwhile for something.

By midday we had a significant lead. 

Stopping only once to switch over horses, we hadn’t yet so much as had to unsheathe our weapons. There were of course griffins and fenrir wolves in the forest. That was more than intentional, part of the trial, but none crossed our path. 

I won’t say boredom didn’t leak into my soul. There are downsides to being too good at challenges, just like there’s downsides to underestimating others, I reminded myself. Hasan’s threat’s hadn’t slipped my mind. With the rendez-vous point in sight I slowed.

“What are you doing?” Ávila asked, confused.

“It’s odd,” I commented. My skin prickled and abstract unease nagged at the corners of my mind for no discernible reason.

“What’s odd?” she demanded, “We’re going to win… Come on!” 

I ignored her, scanning the forest and the path forward. Maybe I was just paranoid. Our horse turned around, agitated. He wanted to go onward, the best was just as obnoxious as his owner and I whistled my horse over. 

“Let’s go around a longer way,” I suggested.

“Another group might catch up…”

“Second, third, first, it doesn’t matter. It’s still a pass.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Do you trust me or not?” I retorted.

“...Yes.”

My horse pulled around close and I lifted Ávila over onto her. The mare was far more controlled than the stallion, and quite frankly, I think that came down to training. Since we train our own animals from their infancy, just as if they were human Pets. 

However, in helping the girl over, I had released the reins and the horse I was on decided to take the opportunity to lurch forward. He snorted, trotting forward as I reached over to yank him back around, “Elle ne t'a pas du tout entraîné, n'est-ce pas?” (She didn’t train you at all, did she?)

The ground below us depressed with a soft woosh, and Ávila’s poorly trained stallion and I fell into a pit. Wooden spines awaited us at the bottom. They impaled the horse at vertical angles and he screamed, there wasn’t any saving him. 

One of the spikes caught me through the thigh and narrowly missed my torso. Leaving me trapped against the animal as he struggled with what little energy he had left, “Be still while you die,” I commanded with callous indifference. I knew we should have gone around.

“Markos!” Ávila called from above. At least she had the good sense to shout my name, not the damn horse’s. 

“I’m fine,” I responded sourly. I would be fine, once I wrenched myself from the points and healed the damage. 

“No! There’s something down there with you!” she exclaimed and my head swam as I turned to examine the area.

Something moved in the darkness beyond me. It slithered, scales scraped along the dirt and between the wooden spikes. A gust of hot, foul breath raised the hair on the back of my neck. Wonderful.

I reached forward, snatching my bow and arrow from the saddle strap and loaded it. My energy flared, condensing to form a shield as I aimed. The creature rose from the depths of the pit, coiling itself around the spikes like a snake. I had no idea what it was, some sort of leg-less dragon? A non-icey ice serpent? Nothing like that was supposed to inhabit these woods. 

The lack of other problematic beasts fit into place, they knew this thing was here and didn’t want to be around it either. It lunged and I released the arrow. The shot bounced off its scales, but its aim was off and its fangs sunk into the horse instead. Its head jerked back, taking the corpse with it and ripping me from my impalement. 

Blood spurted from the hole in my thigh and I clamped my hands over it. Magic burned at my fingertips as I wove the spell threads to stitch the wound. I didn’t have enough time to make them fully secure before I smashed into the ground. Ávila was by my side in seconds with her sword drawn and we faced the threat as a team. 

She launched forward while I backed her with a rush of energy. Her sword clattered off its scales just as uselessly as my arrows had and I recalculated. Weapons won’t work. Magic only gets us so far- I scowled hauling myself up. 

“Lure it this way!” I called as Ávila bounced between the obstacles and the teeth.

“You’re hurt! You can’t fight it!”

“I’m fine. Do as I say!” 

I pushed my energy out in precise lines of power, slashing through a pointed log on either side. They fell between others, leaving a gap big enough for Ávila to dip between, but forcing the serpent to go around. The girl caught on quick. She ducked between the barrier and I pushed out a secondary pulse, collapsing the broken spines over the thing.

“Let’s go!” I ordered. 

That wouldn't hold the thing for long, but it would keep it in place long enough for us to climb out. With the advantage of high ground we together used our magic to collapse the sides of the pit. Rock and earth tumbled into the hole, blocking the serpent in.

I couldn’t say if that was enough to kill it, and we wasted no time waiting around to see. We mounted the more reliable, living, horse and steered her away. If the creature dug its way out, that would be someone else’s problem to deal with. 

***

We finished second. Fighting had cost us some time, and subsequently stopping to re-mend the hole in my thigh when it pulled open again cost us more. Krystian and Mathéo had circumvented us to finish first, but our little battle had earned us more points overall. 

The wide-eyed pet waited at the finish line, and one look was all I needed to know that she had somehow set up that particular trap. She or her master. Regardless, it didn’t bother me. It failed, Hasan would have to try harder than that. Even as I thought it, the idea bothered me. Why send Edwin’s pet to do this? 

Moreover, why after I had already agreed to do as he asked…?

I pushed the speculation from my mind when Ávila dropped a set of old fashioned keys into my hand. “We passed, so I passed~! Which means you get your damn mansion!” she purred proudly.

“You haven’t passed yet,” I snorted, nonchalant as I stifled the thrilling surge of energy in my chest. 

The spiral of uncertainty my life had become, suddenly mattered less. Lord Edwin’s pet trying to kill me, Hasan’s orders to assassinate the Klein heir, whatever else I had seen, however many more problems there would be. None of it seemed important. I had achieved something, which meant the rest could be figured out…

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