Part 4 Chapter 3

CHAPTER 26

 

 

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lraym and Trugaime spend another ten minutes in the stables with Harke’s dead body in front of them. After declaring their mutual love they kiss for just under half that time, until they separate, needing air. They talk for the remaining five minutes, not just about their love and why it has taken so long to say it and how long they have felt this way, but also about what they will do next. Trugaime guesses Harke is the person Morcale wanted Olraym to kill, which Olraym agrees to since he cannot think of anyone else he knows who would be here, and he tells her they should go back to Morcale and tell him the news.

  First they go back to their room in The Weeping Child, not for rest just to get their stuff. They don’t want to return after visiting Morcale again or anytime soon. There are still a few stragglers from the crowd staring at them, when Trugaime stares back they rush away like the rest. They walk in, up the stairs, enter the room and collect their things then leave in very little time, barely stopping.

  Once back outside Olraym cannot help notice Trugaime is both depressed and content, and he knows the reason for both emotions.  He tries talking to her about Harke, asking her how well she knew Harke, what he like was, but she doesn’t answer. Just tells him she doesn’t want to talk about it.

  “We need to leave,” she says suddenly.

  “What now? Is there someone following us?” Olraym looks around; paying attention to everyone he sees for some bad sign that he thinks she has seen.

  “No I mean Burden; we need to leave Burden now.”

  “What about Morcale?”

  I don’t care about him. I just cannot be here right now. Not after this.”

  “So we just leave, just like that?”

  “Please, let’s just go,” she starts heading to Burden’s city gates and Olraym follows, “I will take you to the Cult.”

  “Just like that, what about your fear I might kill them?”

  Now neither is paying any attention to anyone or anything they pass, especially not the man who is following them.

  “I know and I’m still afraid of that. But I’m hoping we can figure something out before we get there.”

  Olraym can see she is getting very upset and guesses this sudden change of heart is because of that Cultist she just killed. He feels he should ask about it so after a moment of thought he does, as carefully worded and nicely toned as he can.

  “He was my father.”

  Olraym nearly trips over his own feet as he stops. Trugaime looks down at his feet but doesn’t stop; he forces himself to continue walking, faster until he catches up with her.

  “That guy was your father?”

  “Yes, can we go now?”

  Olraym doesn’t know what to say. She has just killed her father and now she has agreed to take him to the rest of her family. Though she looks like she is grieving over this sudden loss, to Olraym she doesn’t look like a daughter grieving for a lost father. It is more of someone grieving for a friend, a great friend, but a friend nonetheless.

  By the time they reach the city gates and leave Burden Trugaime has become blank. Her face is expressionless and her eyes stare ahead at nothing. Though she is still moving Olraym feels she is just going through the motions and is not paying attention to where her feet are taking her. With a hand on her shoulder he is able to stop her but even though she stops she pays it not attention either.

  “Trugaime,” he says concern evident in his voice.

  “Hmm, what is it?”

  “Which way do we go?”

  “It’s umm…it is this way,” she says, pointing to a road on their left. Her voice is blank but there is a hint of confidence in there as well.

  The road goes straight south then takes a bendy turn until it goes south east. The two head that way, Olraym keeps glancing her way and makes sure she doesn’t stop or veer off the road. She looks a little better but still looks blank.

  She catches one of his stares and he immediately looks away.

  “What is it now?”

  “Huh? Nothing, I’m just worried that’s all.”

  “Worried, about me?”

  “Well yeah, what else would I be worried about?”

  “You shouldn’t be worried, I’m fine.”

  “Look maybe we should stop and rest.”

  “No, we can make good time. The sun won’t reach the top for another hour; we’ll get there before night.”

  Her voice is becoming wet, she is about to burst and Olraym knows it. He grabs her by the shoulders and forces her to stop and face him. Before long she lets go and falls to her knees screaming, Olraym falls with her and rests her head on his shoulder, soon his shoulder is wet with her tears.

 

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Relon has had enough. Too much has happened and too few answers have been provided. While he felt he could deal with Gremborlin’s death since he had been ill for some time and he felt he could deal with Olraym leaving since he gave Relon his reasons, but Sertia becoming a traitor to Tov’ra. This he cannot deal with.

  Without realises it he is standing at the entrance to the Highguard cell. Deciding this means something he opens the door at the top of the stairs and walks inside. He hears noises coming from the cell: grunts and screams, smacking sounds of metal on flesh. Relon rushes down the stairs to see the cell door open and one of his fellow guards hitting Sertia in the stomach with a fist enclosed in armour. There are cuts on her face, a bloated lip and a black eye.

  Relon grabs the guard and throws him out of the cell. He yells at Relon but after Relon gives him a hard stare and tells the guard to give him the shackle keys, he does and he leaves. Sertia looks as if she is waiting for the beating to resume, she barely notices Relon in the room.

  “Is it over?” she asks in a pained whisper, she sounds scared but hopeful. She says it more to herself than to Relon.

  Relon carefully uses the keys and unshackles Sertia from the wall. She falls forward onto him, he is able to catch her and steps back so they are both away from the wall. He then lays her down on the bed which has dried since last she was on it but is now crusty with dirty patches of dried sweat.

  She soon starts shivering, not from a cold feeling, but a fear as well. Fear of what Sertia thinks he might do next. A hand on her shoulder sends more shivers down her spine. Relon might want her punished for what she has done, but not like this. No one deserves this. 

  Sertia takes a close look at him.

  “You’re the knight who told me and mother about Olraym leaving wit that woman.”

  Relon nods.

  “Look at me, you Highness.”

  She looks at him in surprise. Relon thinks it is because of being called ‘Highness’. She waits for him to retract the ‘Highness’ but he doesn’t.

  “You shouldn’t call me that, not anymore.”

  “Then what should I call you? Harlot, traitor, b***h maybe? Are they more to your satisfaction?”

  “Anything, just don’t call me ‘Highness’ or ‘Majesty’. I’m not that anymore, haven’t been for a while now.”

  “How about Sertia, will that work?”

  Sertia looks surprised again. Then she nods. Her shivers are diminishing, but are still clear to Relon.

  “Good, now that we have that out of the way I want to ask something.”

  “You want to know why I killed Lord Wazilli and blackmailed others so get whatever it is I want.”

  Relon silently nods. Sertia shifts her position so she is further from Relon although still within reach and she is nearly touching the wall and head of the bed.

  “In truth I don’t know why I did some of those things. I had chances to avoid them yet I let them happen. I went after Bevil the way I did because he is so easy to manipulate and he always knew something I didn’t. Something I wanted to know.” Sertia closes her eyes and shakes her head, “with Thorne being the oldest I originally thought he would be king next, but then father spent more time with him so I wasn’t sure. I don’t think anyone was sure but father. After thinking it through I decided Olraym was the best choice for king, he seemed a simple man and easy to manipulate.”

  Sertia waits for some response at the mention of manipulation. When Relon gives no response she continues.

  “Over the first few years, things seemed to me to be tied between both my brothers being king, so I decided to push things in Olraym’s direction. Nothing bad at first, but the more I did the worse I felt I could get away with.”

  “What happened when Olraym suddenly left for the Tervunmal Islands?”

  Sertia smiles at her memory, “when that happened I thought it was all over. I thought Thorne will win and that was that, the only thing I could do was remove all trace of my involvement. As far as I know it worked, I know mother and father didn’t know, but I’m not sure about Thorne. I think he suspected, still suspects, but I’m not sure if he actually knows anything for sure.”

  “What do you mean ‘remove all trace’?”

  “What do you think it means? I bribed, intimidated or just plain killed all who knew anything incriminating about me.”

  Sertia is saddened by his shocked expression, thinking this will make him leave or start beating her like the other guard. She tenses up and raises her arms slightly, expecting the hits to come soon, then moves further away from him until she is almost sitting on the length of the bed.

  “Why do all this?”

  “I wanted power. I know I’ll never get any crown here in Tov’ra, I really don’t want it, but to be the woman behind the curtain, telling him what to do so well he thinks it’s all his idea. That is what I wanted.”

  “And now that is what you will never get. Because of what you have done your life will end before it can truly start.”

  “If you have come to berate me for my actions you can leave now. I should get back to being tortured by your friends and fellow knights."

  “It is not my intention to berate you, Sertia,” she cringes at the mention of her name, “I just wanted answers.”

  “Well now you have them.”

  “Very well, I will leave you to your torture.”

  Relon leaves the cell. He is about to lock the cell door but sees the guard he threw out earlier is waiting near the bottom of the steps to re-enter. Relon doesn’t want him to beat Sertia more than he has, but if he tries to stop it he might end up in the same position as Sertia. Relon passes by him and soon he hears the door opening. Before he gets to the top step he hears low mumbled words from both the guard and Sertia then it is quickly followed by more smacking of metal on flesh and flesh on flesh. Each smack is followed by more screaming.

 

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Like Relon Thorne too has had enough. Now two Cult assassins have failed to kill Olraym and one has joined his side. He has spent days following Olraym and that b***h assassin and only now is close to them in Burden and they are already leaving.

  When they go back into The Weeping Child Thorne runs into the stables to see Harke’s corpse. His own sword is still sticking out of his head.

  He has no idea where they are going now, or exactly why they stopped at Burden unless it was just to kill that Cultist. But if that is true there are certainly safer places to do that. Burden is more trouble than it is worth.

  Once outside burden he sees the two figures head the south path. Thorne knows only some of what is along that path. Several small villages like the one he stayed at before and met Tyanst and Soija, long empty fields and, most important, Divinwood.

  ‘Why go there? What is so important to Olraym he’d risk going there?’

  Just as they reach the end of the road’s bend they stop and suddenly both fall to their knees with their arms around each other. Thorne wonders why, but thinks it a good thing since he can now catch up to them. He speeds up for a second then slows again as they stand up, still holding onto each other, and resume walking.

  He cannot believe it. They are in love.

  ‘That is disgusting.’

  His curiosity soon gets the better of him and he lets them get ahead. He doesn’t know why but he wants to know what Olraym is doing and where he is going.

  He stays out of sight by walking in the low bushes next to the road. Though they are ahead of him he thinks they aren’t looking back, but he wants to be safe.

  At times he speeds up ready to go in for the kill, but he always slows and lets them get ahead more. He scolds himself for his curiosity but lets them go. He cannot hear them talking but at the times he is close he sees them moving about so much he would be surprised if they aren’t.

  As the hours tick by Thorne follows close as Olraym and Trugaime pass by small villages under the eyes of curious villagers. When Thorne passes by he acts natural to seem like just another traveller. They pass open fields which make Thorne’s way difficult to stay hidden. The sky turns twilight and Thorne feels he has wasted enough time; he speeds up again but doesn’t slow just as they all reach another village.

  At first Thorne concentrates on his targets but glances at the village and finds something different about it. There are more houses than others and they are closer together. Though there is fiery light from candles coming through the widows of all the houses Thorne can see no one inside them. The entire village is eerily silent. While the outside of the houses look like single-storey buildings made from fine stone, the inside that Thorne can see are Spartan but for the candles and some tables. Each of the houses has a small front garden and back garden separated by a wooden fence.

  At each side of the houses’ front is a high wooden pole; at the top of each pole is a kind of metal cone-shaped basket with coals inside. The coals are burning creating a bright yellowish glow of fire in each. The fire from each basket creates enough light to act as a beacon gesturing all three forward.

  A look at Olraym and Trugaime tells Thorne they too feel the strangeness of this village, but they seem to be unfazed by it. Since they have slowed when they entered this village Thorne is much closer. He can hear them talking now enough to catch a few words like ‘Cult’ and ‘home’.

  ‘They know where they are, where we are.’

  Thorne walks through the village with a hand on his sword; ready to take is out of its sheath. He darts around at the first sign of trouble: a flicker of movement, a sound of something near or far.

  The light from the basket torches ends suddenly and Thorne sees the silhouette of a large building ahead of him. Olraym and Trugaime are heading that way so Thorne quickly follows.

  Olraym and Trugaime walk up to it and Thorne hears creaking wood and they disappear; he guesses they opened a door and entered the structure. When he hears it creak again and bang closed he rushes to where he saw them last, where the door is.

  When his eyes get used to the darkness he finds the whole structure to be made of wood. It is higher than he originally thought and from what he can tell is made to look like a large barn. He puts his ear to the door and listens. He hears nothing at first but then hears more wood creaking as if another door is opening, then nothing again, then some hushed voices. He cannot hear what is being said but those voices soon turn loud, and violent.