***
Torthan gave the soldiers the slip easily. Just like before. He wanted to run back and strangle every one of them, but there were too many. Their shiny helmets massed before the Firehouse like an army besieging a castle.
“I’ll get them!” he spat to himself, ‘There’s still time! There’s more allies roving in these hills… I just have to find them… yes, I’ll find them…”
He talked to himself more than he ever had, even in the depths of the dungeon.
“Of course they betrayed me! Teaches me to trust traitors!”
Then was the first time he stumbled, and took a real effort to get back up. The icy ground bit like a wolf.
“Tripping on myself. Musn’t get too eager.”
He stumbled again an hour later. Now he could not deny that his limbs felt a little funny. He stood up and looked at the perfectly cloudy sky.
“Should have been sleeping instead of rolling around with that little bitch. I’m too tired to keep one foot in front of the other!”
It was not lack of sleep, and he sensed it long before he was willing to say it. Torthan did not understand until he collapsed again, and threw out his arms. The elbows hit first, and then the forearms. Torthan’s wrist burned savagely. The old man turned his arm around and saw a jagged gash, crusted with blood.
“That was it,” murmured Torthan.
Last night, in between orgies with Ealia, he had caroused with his new followers, and guzzled whisky that the madam had brought in. He had drawn his sword. So had a man who had been drunk even before the whisky. The sword… it had looked rather rusty… it had been stained!
Torthan had had a poisoned wound all night.
“The bastards set a trap,” said Torthan, “They knew I was coming. They poisoned the sword and set up the whole party; they cheered for me and paid for my beer and my girls- just so they could weaken me and sell me for a few coins!”
It gave fresh fire to his steps. He almost forgot the simmering pain in his wrist. On and on he tramped, through the snow that was finally coming down in earnest. Brittle dark grass crunched like bones beneath him. The more he thought of feeding Casrad to Vengir’s dogs, the harder he stamped on the grass.
Then he fell for the third time. Torthan got up, face sore from hitting the earth. He realized he had just climbed to the top of a thick hill. He took a moment to survey the landscape. Green spread around him, but was streaked with white. Winter was coming.
“You!” cried a voice.
Torthan looked at the bottom of the hill. A cloaked figure stood there.
“You!” said Torthan, “By your girlish voice, I trust I am the elder here. Who are you?”
“Someone who wants to take you to redemption.”
“Redemption through what? Branding irons? Bone-studded whips? I know what you’re here for, you fool. What makes you think I'll willingly come with you?"
"Because Gerthi told me everything about you, Torthan. I know that you loved my mother. I know that I should have been your son. And I'm walking up this hill, and I-I’m bringing you to the proper authorities."
Torthan stared as Vengir’s son threw off his hood and walked slowly up the hill. Nothing in that barren land was as chilled as Torthan’s breath, as the boy’s features became clear. He had a smooth face. Smooth and round as an apple. Just like Haltha. He had a little crook in his nose. Just like Vengir. A rapier dangled from his hip.
“You must understand,” said the boy as he reached the top, “I don’t want to hurt you. That’s why I followed you myself.”
“How did you find me?”
“I’ve been able to see you for quite a while. You keep falling over. Can I help you?”
“You tracked me to the Firehouse.”
“Lieutenant Casrad told me we might find you there.”
“Did he, now? I bet he didn’t tell you that it’s where he came from in the first place. We became good friends when he ran out of brigands to con, and he snuck into Tulrasia to find a new victim. He found me. He was my lieutenant. See how well he served me, boy? Look at this scar. Do you want to know where it came from?”
“I don’t need to. Vengir told me everything. He felt grief before you killed him.”
“What do you know of grief, boy? I’ve been told everything about you. Vengir was so taken by your rosy cheeks that he threw you in a bed of goose down. He stuffed you with milk and sweetmeats, and you responded with all the credit of a hungry dog. Is that why they call you virtuous? You never had to bleed for all those nice things you did.”
“Perhaps not… but I’m ready to bleed! If I have to!”
“You can say that all you like, boy, but I’m the one with the scars.”
“I’m sorry you were hurt so badly.”
Torthan wheezed with laughter.
“No you’re not! You’re just terrified! You’re nothing like I thought you’d be! You’re even better! You’re the worst of them all! Did you seriously think you were going to chase after me and make me feel so guilty I’d come with you? Like a lame deer?”
“I… I… yes!”
“Then you had better learn how to live like a wolf! It’s Casrad who sent you out here! Do you think he’s picking flowers while you’re gone? He’ll lay down martial law, just like Vengir did when he came into power. Casrad’s fooled you, just as he fooled me. If you really care about justice, you had better join up with me. Help me stop him.”
“I will do many things, sir, but joining you isn’t one of them.”
“Your nobility is touching, but it won't touch Casrad. He's wanted power long before you were alive, and he'll want it a long time after you’re gone. Mark my words, boy. He’ll kill you if you go back. The villagers won’t suspect anything. You just fell off the tower by accident.”
“You’re bluffing for time-”
“- and I’m doing it with the truth.”
“I won’t join you! That poor woman you exploited last night- she hanged herself when she learned you abandoned her.”
“Keep talking like that and I’ll kill you, bastard. If you draw that little toy of yours, I‘ll draw mine, and you’ll find out the hard way that I can wield a sword better than you. You’ve never even killed a frog with that thing, have you?”
“I’ll still stand up to you.”
“No you won’t. You don’t have the backbone to kill a man. That’s why you need me. If you don’t take my help, I might as well kill you here and now, because Casrad will show no mercy. Who will help you if not me? Gerthi won’t help. He won’t have a clue until it’s too late. The tribes are the same way. The brigands? You saw their greed for yourself. Only I can help you keep the freedom you’ve restored.”
“You’re lying to me! A criminal would say anything!”
“But I’m not saying just anything, am I? How much of a criminal am I if the biggest sin is letting justice go undone? I’m the only one who knows Casrad’s threat. I’m the only one who will help you stop him.”
“Then- then I stand alone!”
“And you won’t stand for long! I’m done with all this talking. Are you going to make me come, or are you going to keep braying like an ass and watch me walk away?”
“You are a murderer and a fugitive. Y-you must be brought to authority.”
Torthan smiled. It was the biggest, toothiest grin Vengir’s son had ever seen in his life. It only grew wider and brighter as Torthan drew his sword. Vengir’s son drew out his rapier, and it shook in his hands.
“And which authority might that be?” said Torthan, raising the blade.
“The truth which my mother died for!”
All of Torthan’s world went silent, and then exploded with rage. Howling, Torthan launched into the boy and rained down his blade until the boy’s hesitant strokes gave way, and red blood flooded onto the snow. Torthan stabbed down again and again until Vengir’s son fell on the ground. When he could move no longer, he threw out his limbs and took the hits like a slug. His blue eyes pierce
d like diamonds, even as their life ebbed away.
Torthan breathed heavily. His tongue hung out like a dog. His teeth showed again, and a little laugh crawled from between them. It got louder and louder. Torthan finally lifted his sword in the air and crowed. He sung out a battle-cry.
“Is this your best?” cried out Torthan to the silent horizon, “Is this the best you can send me? I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you all! I will roll into your homes with fire, with lightning! All your happy world will burn! Burn! Burn to the ground, and I will defile the ashes and cast them to the cruel winds! Your babes shall be food for jackals! Your sons the sport of crows! Long will you rue the things you've done to me!”
He could not forget the boy’s piercing blue eyes. Torthan reached down in a fury to pluck them and crush them into jelly. Right after his fingers bended into claws to do it, they froze. Torthan stared at the helpless figure. The boy’s face was locked in fear and agony.
And yet the boy had never screamed once.
Torthan fled down the hilltop. He slipped on the thin snow halfway through, and by the time he hit the bottom more flakes were coming down. He felt weaker than ever before. He remembered the scar.
“Mother…”
He said it at last. The word had torn at him for years, decades, from the day he had begun his fight against Vengir’s regime, and he had never said it until now. It was a sign of weakness. And he had proved strong, and not uttered it once through the battles, and the betrayals, and the torture, and the pain…
“Mother…”
It was a cry for help, and the moment Torthan realized it he began to weep. He looked to the top of the hill like a starving man. He tried his best to climb up, but at last he lost strength and rolled back down. Every time his body bounced on the rock-hard ground, it grew evermore clear. There had been poison in the drunk man’s sword. Torthan was going to die.
“Mother, mother, no!” howled Torthan, feebly tearing at the ground. He could feel the warm memories coming back, and that old song she had always sung when he was a child.
You always shall endure…
Torthan managed to lift himself until he could get to his knees. His legs refused to go higher than that. Snarling, Torthan came back to earth.
When all your foes they come…
Torthan gorged himself on the thoughts. He had had to kill the boy. He was a danger to others, even more than to himself. Casrad would have used him to finish what Vengir had started. He would have!
Hold fast to strength and wrath…
Torthan clapped his ears, as if there was a physical voice in the air. He could feel the fingers of the memory close on his heart, and he resisted with all his might. But it soon held him fast, and he could not look away. The warm firelight. The soft arms. The smiling face. The comforting voice! Oh, those words! Make them stop! Make them stop!
And victory is yours…
“I’ll still beat them,” said Torthan with an effort (his throat felt funny). When he pushed with his arms, he could barely do more than raise his chest from the ground.
Hold fast, hold fast, my son…
Torthan began to cry again. No! Not like this!
Though giants do close in…
He saw a band of soldiers in the distance.
“I’m saved,” whispered Torthan, shaking from the poison, “They’ll take me in and heal me; they’ll want me healthy and alive for Casrad’s whips. I know how to break out from his dungeons. The revolution will happen at last!”
He summoned all his breath. His chest pumped like a bellows. He roared at the top of his lungs. All that came out was a croak. Panicked, Torthan tried to get up. He could not speak loud enough for the soldiers to hear. Whimpering, he flung out his hands.
“Help! Mercy! Mercy!” he croaked as the soldiers marched further away.
The gods will see and cheer…
He lay on the ground, and that took almost all of the energy he had left. Spitting and scowling, he cursed every man he had ever known. He cursed Vengir. He cursed Casrad. He cursed Gerthi, and the Elders, and all the fools that had gotten in his way. At last, he looked to the top of the hill, and the piercing blue eyes tortured his memory. He cursed Vengir’s son worst of all.
… when you die by the sword.
Torthan threw his fist at the sky, raging and sobbing with his last few breaths.
###
About the Author
Sean McGuire is a man without a hometown, and a man who has a story to tell, just like you. Right now he is an undergraduate at Benedictine College. When he's not studying literature, he's trying to create it.
Contact the Author
Official Website for The Kingdom Trilogy (https://thekingdomtrilogy.wordpress.com/)
Official Twitter Account of The Kingdom Trilogy and its author (https://twitter.com/#!/TheKingdomBooks)
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