Chapter Fifty-Eight

“You didn’t mention this before. Why not?” Amberose asked and sipped from the cup after Brotus spilled everything out.

“I wasn’t sure about her before, but I am now! The way Master Corwin acts, he wouldn’t keep working with that paladin mercenary if she weren’t just like him. A sympathizer toward nonhumans. He got too angry otherwise, and he’s made statements about them before… plus she even offered to fight for them if they were put on trial!” Brotus put his hand over his chest, he was still breathing hard after having run faster and harder than if the demon god himself was on his heels. “I-I thought she was just a battle maniac but, but now that I think about it, from what Master Corwin said, it seems like they might even be thinking of getting even more slaves out!” Brotus exclaimed, and Amberose’s frown deepened.

He looked down at the kneeling elf woman who held the silver tray in her upturned palms, then finishing his cup, he set it back in its place and said, “Get out.”

She rose with golem-like mechanical precision to her feet and fled the room on fast moving feet.

“What makes you say that?” Amberose demanded. “With what you already gave me, I thought I could stop my idiot nephew from leaving, maybe get some free merchandise out of him in exchange for silence… but preventing a larger escape?”

The possibilities were endless if there was anything to it. Not the least of which was the prestige of exposing a traitor to humanity.

“She stays holed up in her room most days from what I hear, she and that woman of hers, only comes out to assemble her soldiers and make sure they’re okay. She’s probably planning on getting a bunch of them out, and that’s why she’s staying there. After all, has she even reported the runaways that are with them now?” Brotus asked, and doubts began to lift from Amberose’s mind.

He’d checked each day since he learned of them, and… ‘No… no she hasn’t.’ That, combined with Brotus’s testimony of their journey and what he said of Corwin’s own words in the warehouse? Amberose stroked his beard and nodded while he thought it over. ‘Yes… I’ll take over my nephew’s holdings… I can have Brotus manage them for me after I make him ‘my’ apprentice. And if I keep him as such for another ten or twenty years because of his former master’s misdeeds and to make sure he’s not ‘also’ a traitor to the human cause, well, who is going to object? Not even him, not as long as I dangle the carrot of inheritance out to him. And who knows, maybe I’ll even actually do it?’ And with that, Amberose had made his choice.

Brotus was looking up at him with wild hope in his eyes.

“You’ll stay here tonight, I’ll have a bed warmer provided, and send a messenger to the head of the Paladin Order of Wenmark letting her know of the need for urgent action to prevent a mass escape by slaves and to capture a suspected pair of traitors to humankind.”

“Thank you, Master Amberose! But ah, what of my future?” Brotus asked.

“I’ll move that you be put into my apprenticeship as an extraordinary measure given the treachery of your former master and as a show of gratitude for your loyalty to the human cause and the peace of this city. Don’t worry, my boy, you’ll receive everything you’ve earned, I promise.” Amberose answered with a kindly smile that brought a sigh of relief to Brotus.

The young man saw the vision of his old life restored in an instant, and when his sigh was done, he smiled bright as day and said, “Thank you, Master Amberose.”

The light of the early day streamed through the window and lit up the golden hair of Illyana from where she sat at the table. “I’m going to address the temples today over what happened in Laylan, and what is happening here.” Speranzi said while seated and munching on some fresh baked bread Coaxing Illyana to sit with them had not been the easiest of processes. And though the elf now did so, it was fairly obvious she wasn’t used to actually using most of the furnishings of her own assigned room.

Using the table to eat alongside the two humans as they sat at ease still dressed in the robes the Golden Roan provided while their bodies dried off with the help of a gentle breeze through Illyana’s open window, felt almost surreal. Her legs kept moving to force her to rise as an ingrained habit and her constant training over years warred against a gentle invitation to eat with people. Illyana finally bent her legs beneath the chair and hooked her feet behind the wooden legs to hold herself in place. ‘It’s like eating with… friends…’ Illyana thought to herself while the conversation about the intended actions of the day went on.

“I don’t think that’s wise.” Skana said with a small frown forming on her face. “People who are that powerful don’t like being told they’re wrong, and people who think they’re good will hate being told they’re bad. You should let it go.”

Speranzi shook her head, “No. Sitting there on that wall, watching families torn apart, all that misery… I’ve seen the battlefield, I’ve seen men with severed limbs clutching for the one they lost. I’ve seen powerful, mighty orcs calling out for their mothers while their guts slid off the end of my sword, and even demons claw at their own backs unable to believe they lost one of their wings while it lies severed at their feet. But never in my life have I seen so miserable a thing as what I saw on that auction block. And I could do nothing, so I have to say something. I’m a paladin, even if I’m not the very best of them…”

Illyana huffed a little, “If we can bear our lives, you can bear silence about them. If you really do buy me, just to set me free. If you really mean all that you say, you can do far more for us just by doing more of that. Any idiot can die a martyr or throw themselves into danger. But quietly working to make things better where there’s no glory or renown to be had, that’s a lot harder.”

Speranzi sipped in reflective silence from her cup, pausing to watch the ripples of tea expand and contract against the sides. “Then you all are a lot stronger than I. Somebody has to say something, even if they reject my message, who knows how long it will be before someone who thinks like me, who has status enough to be heard, comes along to say anything?”

When either Illyana nor Skana answered, she nodded. “That’s why I have to go. It’s not a crime to do what I’m going to do-”

“But harboring runaway slaves is.” The voice rang out crystal clear, but it was not outside the door, nor within the room.

Speranzi shot to her feet, as did Illyana and Skana. Projected Voice was a paladin skill, the more powerful the paladin, the broader and clearer it could be projected, and this one came from outside.

Speranzi rushed to the window and looked down at the courtyard, ‘I knew I recognized that voice.’

On the ground outside sat Damadeqi Somat, clad in equipment befitting a paladin of legendary stature, she reflected the glory of the sun itself with her shining long brown hair, her polished white armor and mounted on a massive percheron steed. Behind her stood a battalion sized element of full plate armored soldiers armed with bows and halberds. She drew and leveled her sword toward the dividing archway between the two areas of the Golden Roan, and toward the barracks, slave quarters, and stables on the far side. “Seize them all, we’ll sort it out later. And send a whole company for that one.” She added.

“My armor!” Speranzi shouted over her shoulder.

“It’s been a long time, Speranzi. Still a treasonous, vile piece of garbage I see?” Damadeqi said it with a smug, casual smile on her face.

“Bitch!” Speranzi shouted down at her and pushed herself away from the window.

She rushed back and flung everything on as fast as she could with Skana starting before the commander said, “No, just help me!”

Skana hesitated for a brief second, then redoubled her speed and secured the straps while Illyana grabbed one foot after another and shoved them forcibly onto Speranzi’s feet. What was normally a languid five to ten minute process was repeated in a minute.

“Now me.” Skana insisted.

Speranzi put her hand on Skana’s shoulder. “It looks like it’s my turn.”

Skana had time enough only to see the fist loom like a mountain in front of her face, and then there was only blackness.

Speranzi pointed to the crumpled form of Skana and whispered, “Gag her, then put her under the bed.”

Illyana didn’t need to be told twice, she grabbed Skana’s shirt, shoved it into her mouth, and then with a grunt, shoved the woman under the bed, throwing the blankets amiss to cover any incidental view from the doorway.

Speranzi whispered a brief, “Thank you… will you be OK?”

Illyana straightened up, she formed a fragile smile, “I’m an expensive slave in the Golden Roan, they’ll no more hurt me than they would smash a chair for being here. Go!” She exclaimed and racing toward her end table, she pulled a key out and threw it to her. “Take the side entrance we use to move around in, it’s your only chance to get around them!”

Speranzi caught the little brass key and nodded.

There was no time for the mercenary to think, she grabbed her sword and bow then ran out of the room.

With Speranzi gone, Illyana rushed to the table, she threw all the dishes into the little wooden bucket and kicked Skana’s items under the bed as well to hide that there was another person in the room, finishing what Speranzi hadn’t thought to do, and then she swallowed hard, sat on the bed to wait in silence.