DarkFyre Ch. 12

"Shit, shit, shit balls!" The Gnari girl cursed quietly as she struggled with the sheets twined around her ankles, all her usual grace and poise gone as her cheeks burned with raging heat. "Hang on!"

When she answered the door, she was panting, flushed, covered in sweat, her hair a mused, disheveled wreck, and her new dress he'd just bought yesterday was a wrinkled up not-so-new looking mess. Lord Rael looked down at her with an utterly perplexed look.

"I didn't think you were going to be back so soon," she said by way of explanation, then realized not only did that not explain anything, but he hadn't even asked a question, and it sounded about as utterly suspicious as she could get.

Rael stepped into the room, hung up his cloak on the peg by the door, and sat on the corner of the bed. "Plans changed."

"Oh?" Silmaria asked, trying to sound nonchalant and turning away from him to fidget with some of their supplies on the room's solitary tiny table, arranging them even though they were already perfectly fine, then putting everything back in their original places again. She didn't care; any excuse to keep him from seeing her face while she struggled to compose herself seemed a fine idea at this point.

"I never made it in to see Commander Dern," Rael explained. "I ran into an old friend. Galin Cador, second son of his house, though he's pretty much given up all right of inheritance to his nephew."

Silmaria took a deep breath, then another. She turned to face him at last, and it was all she could do to keep her face neutrally interested as she wrestled with the potent mix of lingering arousal and shame. Her eyes wanted to roam along the Nobleman, to drink him in as a parched man drinks in fresh water. It took an immense force of will to keep her eyes on his face, and even that only helped so much.

"So is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

"I'm not sure," Rael shrugged, and he seemed blessedly too lost in thought to notice her fidgeting and awkward posture. "Ordinarily, I'd say it's a good thing. I trust him, and he's a loyal ally and friend. But he's behaving...oddly. Not like himself at all. And he shouldn't be in the city."

"Why wouldn't he be?" she asked.

He turned his eyes to her, and for a moment she was utterly pinned by the strange beauty of them. "Because I left him in command at the FrostFall war camp when I left."

"Oh," Silmaria said, and to her relief as she warmed to the conversation, her nerves started to settle somewhat. "What is he doing back in the city, then?"

"I didn't get a chance to find out. He called me a fool, warned me away from Commander Dern, and told me to meet him at his holdings here in the city before riding off like all the minions of the underworld were on his heels."

"That's just a bit cryptic, don't you think?" she asked as she fidgeted with her hair to try and get it back into some semblance of neatness.

"It is, especially for him. He's not a man for skirting around issues or ambiguous messages," Rael agreed. Then, as if noting all over again her disheveled appearance, asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," she hastily replied, adding, "Do you think you can trust him?"

"I'm much more inclined to trust him than Dern," Rael replied, effectively distracted. "And if he's warning me away from the man, I'm inclined to listen, even if his behavior is strange."

"Wasn't he one of your subordinates?" She asked with an arch of her brow.

"Yes."

"And you trust him more than the Lord Knight Commander?"

Rael chuckled softly and shook his head. "I see where it seems backwards. But experience has told me, Dern isn't overly fond of me, while Galin has proven himself loyal time and again in the past. So yes. Given the choice, I'd take my chances with Galin over Dern any day."

Silmaria perched on the edge of the bed, smoothed out her skirts, and gave a thoughtful frown. "I don't like it. Something feels wrong in all this."

Rael nodded slowly. "I know. I don't like it, either. But I don't see where I have much choice. I have to go talk to him and see where the cards lie. There's things in motion I don't understand, and it seems that he has some answers."

"I don't understand any of this, really," she pointed out irritably. Her conflicting emotions at last took a back seat to something that had been rubbing her wrong for quite a while. "I think it's past time you told me what the hell it is I've gotten involved in. I've been hunted, attacked, killed someone to save my life, had my home and my friends taken away from me, and been chased through the countryside. And I have no idea what for. Tell me, Lord Rael. What the hells are you mixed up in? What am I mixed up?"

Rael's silver gaze studied her, and for an uncomfortable moment, she thought he wasn't going to answer. Then he reached up and slowly stroked his coppery beard as he said, "I owe you that much. I'm afraid I have more questions than answers right now. But...what I know, I'll tell you. It's the least I can do after all this."

"Thank you," Silmaria nodded, and pulled her legs up to sit cross legged across from him on the bed, her hands folded in her lap as she waited, listening.

"The long and short of it is, in the middle of a battle with the Haruke, at the warfront, someone tried to assassinate me."

"Someone from the Haruke?" she asked in confusion.

"No," he shook his head. "It wasn't the Haruke. The Haruke have no real concept of assassins. An assassin would be far too indirect and dishonorable to them. There's no glory, no battle, no proving, and those things are the heart and soul of Haruke warriors. No. This was an assassination attempt from some other faction. I still haven't found out who the assassins are, or who they work for.

"In any case, they botched it. The whole thing was brought to my attention by one of my subordinates. The means taken were unusual, disturbing, and quite serious. Like none I'd seen before. The circumstances around the attempt were unique enough for me to take notice and believe that the assassins would try again, and wouldn't relent until I was buried."

"I don't understand. What did they do that was so strange?"

Rael explained the circumstances around the arrow, and the strange spell ensorcelled to it.

"That's why you've been doing all this research into magic and spell work," Silmaria mused softly.

"Exactly," Rael nodded. "It's one of the main reasons I decided to return home. I knew if I stayed in the war camp, they'd just wait for their chance to strike again. It would be easy; they knew exactly where I'd be.

"So I left, as quietly as I could, and came back home in the hopes they wouldn't discover where I'd gone until I found more information," he explained. "All I had to go on was the arrow and that spell. I'd hoped, unique and strange as the spell was, if I could find some information on it I could use that lead to discover who the assassins were and then deal with them. I've had no luck. And the rest...well. You know what came after that."

"So we know nothing about them, then," Silmaria said somberly.

"No," Rael admitted, clenching his jaw in what she recognized as a subtle tell of frustration. "But one way or the other, I'm going to find out."

"How many of them could there be?" she wondered aloud as she wrung her hands distractedly. "We've already killed...what? A dozen? More? I've never heard of men like them. Especially working in a group like they are. How can this kind of thing be happening?"

"There are many evils in the world," Rael replied, and that was all the explanation he could offer.

"There has to be some information on that spell. Surely someone somewhere knows of it, or something in the writings you've gone through through makes some mention of it," Silmaria insisted.

"Nothing I've read has spoken of the spell. There's few enough mentions of dark arts and black magic sorcery made in most tomes on magic to begin with, and nothing about that spell in particular," Rael replied.

"I did find someone who seemed to know something. An old sorcerer, or so he claimed. He ran a shop of... magical oddities. I showed him the arrow. He definitely recognized the runes, and when he did, he became terrified and wouldn't say another word to me. After they attacked the Manor the first time, I went back to press the man for more information. He was gone when I arrived."

"Gone? Gone like dead?"

"Gone like vanished," Rael clarified. "Every sign of him and his shop was erased. Like they'd never been."

Her ears flicked as she looked thoughtful. "Do you think he ran away?"

"I don't know," Rael shrugged his broad shoulders. "But I suspect something more sinister at work."

"You don't think... the assassins..."

"Normally, I'd say there's no way the two could be linked," he said in a rumbling voice. "I don't see how the assassins could know about my visit. But, now? I don't know anymore. I've no idea what they're capable of... and at this point I'm more inclined to lean on the side of caution and say they're capable of anything."

Silmaria let out a soft sigh. Her tail lashed out to the front of her body, wrapping around her waist. She reached down and distractedly smoothed the sleek fur along it. "What do we do now?"

"Now, I go meet with Galin to see what news he has for me, and we go from there."

Silmaria turned her eyes up to him, bright, vivid greens the color of fresh leaves startling against her slitted feline pupils. Some emotion flickered there, hiding behind her tough exterior. "You better not get yourself killed while you're off trying to find your answers," she said at last in a no-nonsense tone. "If you leave me all alone in this place, I'll never forgive you."

Rael met her eyes and nodded, his face somber and grave. "I'll come back for you. I promise."

"Good," Silmaria nodded, and seemed to relax somewhat. She even ventured a smile at him. "Now can we go eat? I'm starved. So much that I should get the double portion this time."

The Nobleman laughed, and they left to see what the common room had to offer.

***

"What the hell is going on?" Rael asked brusquely.

"Well a fine evenin' to you, too, and don't you look well tonight?" Galin said with a glare as he stepped aside and allowed his Captain to enter his home.

Rael stepped through the back door and into the small, empty kitchens at the back of Galin's modest estate. The old Knight's holding in the city wasn't half the size of IronWing Manor, but then House Caldor was a minor House of even lower standings than his own, and this wasn't even the House's main estate, but rather Galin's own private little Manor. Galin would say it was given to him so the family didn't have to bother with him, but Rael suspected it was rather the other way around.

The kitchen was dimly lit by a single torch in the wall and the glowing coals that remained of the cooking fire in the little kitchen's lone brick oven. In truth, Rael was a bit surprised to find Galin himself answering his knock instead of a servant, but Galin had few enough servants left here to tend the upkeep of the diminutive Manor. Now, as Galin sat down at the small, battered kitchen table and it became evident that he intended for them to have their meeting here instead of a sitting room or some other more comfortable room, Rael's surprise turned to annoyance.

"Drop the sarcasm and bluster, old man. I've no time for either. I've far too many questions and not nearly enough answers, so out with it. What's going on? Why are you here?"

"Sit down already, and stop giving me that look," Galin grumbled as he waved toward the empty cedar wood chair sitting opposite his own. "And you may as well give up on any of the usual 'my Lord' or 'Sir' garbage. If you've no time for levity, I've no time for pomp or circumstance."

"Just as well with me," Rael returned. He reluctantly took his seat, and shifted his chair so he kept the door in his peripheral vision. His hand rested on the hilt of the short sword at his waist. If Galin noticed, he made no comment.

"Why here?" Rael asked.

"Because it's quieter and less likely to have bloody ears nearby than my sitting room or study. I have few enough servants, but those I have I wouldn't trust with the knife to shave my whiskers."

"You never shave your whiskers," Rael pointed out with an arched brow.

"Who's playin' at sarcasm now?" Galin snapped irritably.

Rael leaned back in his chair and regarded the grizzled soldier closely. "Tell me what you know."

Galin made a face and slowly shook his head. "Damned little enough. I know you're a wanted man, for one. The price on your head would be enough to make the King himself wince."

Rael shook his head slowly. His jaw clenched and his face turned grim. "And what have I done to earn this dubious little honor?"

"What haven't you done would be the better question," Galin returned. "Arson, theft, destruction of property, murder, abandonment of duty, treason against the Crown...the list got too sodding long for me to follow. Basically, they're saying you turned traitor when you left the camp, and the mess over at your estates was all your own doing."

Rael's face twisted harshly as he cursed for a brief moment, before reining his temper in and saying simply, "Lies, the lot of it."

"Course it is," Galin scoffed, as if the very notion were laughable. "But speaking out otherwise is a quick way to a short life at this point. I no more than began to express an inkling of doubt, and now I've been suspended from duty and taken from the front. Indefinitely."

"That's ridiculous! What in the name of the gods is going on?" Rael growled.

"I was counting on you answering that bloody question," Galin said as he scratched absently at the scar creasing his face. "Seems you've done something to royally piss Dern off."

"Dern?" Rael asked, surprised. "What's Dern got to do with all this?"

"Near as I can tell, all the accusations and orders about needing your head on a pike is coming directly from him," Galin explained. "And it was him ordered me put on leave. Bastard refused to meet with me this morning, and his man said if I left my estate before they sent for me again, I'd be investigated for treason my ownself."

"Gods be damned," Rael cursed as he ran his fingers through his thick, tangled copper hair in frustration.

"You mind telling me just what in the name of Ceradi's holy tits you've managed to get yourself into?"

Rael stared at the weathered, scarred face that he knew so well, searching for any sign of duplicity. "The more you know, the worse it will be for you if they turn their attention your way."

"I'm already fucked if they look at me twice as it is. Out with it. Now."

Rael folded his heavy hands on the table between them, took a deep breath, and told him.

"Damn all," Galin swore quietly. He leaned back in his seat, his hands folded across his middle as he rocked gently in his chair, thinking. "And this Gnari girl...this Silmaria. You think she can be trusted?"

"She was probably closer to my father than I ever was," Rael asserted. "And she's had all she's ever known stripped away. She has more reason than I to hate these men. I trust her."

"Well. Might be it's a moot point, anyway," Galin harrumphed.

"Why do you say that?"

Galin leaned in closer and rubbed his hands together in a gesture Rael recognized as nervousness. "You've got to leave, Rael."

"Leave? Leave how, exactly?" Rael asked with the rising feeling that he wasn't going to like this.

"Leave Trelling's Rest. Leave the Dale. Hell, leave the North entirely," Galin stated, then quickly held his hands up to ward off Rael's protests as he plowed on, "Think about it, lad. You're a hunted man. In more ways than one. Might be these assassins of yours are in league with Dern, or be controlling him, or be him who bought them to begin with. And might be the two have nothing at all to do with one another. Does it even matter? The assassins are hunting you, the Knighthood is hunting you, and the guard, and it damn well might as well be everyone in the Kingdom! You can't stay here. Your disguises and skulking about are only going to keep you under their notice for so long. You stay anywhere in the North, you're going to get yourself found sooner than later, and someone'll have your head on a pike, mark me."

Rael listened with a mix of impatience and begrudging agreement. As much as he was loath to admit it, Galin was right.

"I can't just run," he said angrily, clinging to the last of his stubbornness. "What kind of life is that? And what of justice for all those that have suffered and died of these madmen? For me? I cannot let these murderers go unpunished."

"And neither should you," Galin agreed, gruffly, "But you won't be punishing anyone unless you figure out who these bastards are in the first place, and you won't find any answers here in the Dale that don't come at the end of a blade."

Rael lean back in his chair with a pensive look, his eyes turned to the dying coals. Galin, for once, was silent, letting the young Noble think. When Rael at last spoke, his voice was calm and level once again. "Where would you go?"

Galin thought long before replying, "You're familiar with the Ondarian Federation, yes?"

"I am," Rael nodded. "They're a group of allied city-states to the south. They're spread across The Weeping Lands, situated between the Johake Grasslands to the northwest, the Reach to the east, and the Ashlands to the far south. What of them?"

"There's a place in the Federation. A great hall of learning called the Kahrthen Library. It's vast, and many scholars, sages, scribes and other men of learning congregate there to pursue ancient mysteries, secret lost knowledge... and whatever other pile of complete horse shit those types go jabbering on about."

"The name is familiar, vaguely," Rael said thoughtfully. "You think I can find answers there?"

Galin shrugged. "Could be. Could not be. But the Ondarian Federation's neutral ground. They keep themselves removed from the politics and power games of their neighbors, and we all leave them alone because the Federation is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the continent, so they're about the most vital trading hub there is. The Kahrthen Library is known throughout the land for its stores of knowledge, and best of all, no one there's likely to want to kill you. It's the best thought I've got."

"It's a good plan. But dangerous," Rael mused. He rose to his feet and began to pace as he thought aloud. "It'll be a long journey. South and out of Dale lands. Then looping southeast to skirt around the Johake Grasslands, following the edge of the Reach to avoid the Haruke. Then on to The Weeping Lands and the Ondarian Federation. It's a long way."

"Good," Galin returned. "The farther away from here you are, the better, at least until you've figured out what all this is about."

Rael looked at his friend closely. "Come with me."

"Pah! Not bloody likely," Galin said with a wry grin. "There'll be no tromping off on a grand adventure for this old soldier. I don't have that many leagues and miles left in me. Besides, supposing I were to up and disappear, it wouldn't take long for someone to get wind of it and put two and two together. They're pretty convinced you're in Trelling's Rest, hiding out somewhere. Let them keep thinking that for as long as possible, and you'll have that much more of a lead on any pursuit. If I went with you, that lead would be blown. Besides, here I can keep my eyes and ears open for changes while I do some digging of my own. Not to mention I can keep an eye on that Gnari friend of yours."

Rael frozen with an expression of confusion. "What do you mean?"

Galin gave him a withering look. "Don't be stupid, lad. The girl can't go with you. She can't possibly make that kind of journey. On the road trailing after your heels is no place for a woman. She'll slow you down and get herself killed, more than like. Best you leave her here. I can look after her and keep her safe."