“My father wouldn’t have an assassin,” Estephan said. “My father was a good, honorable king.”
“Careful, prince,” Allaind said. “You just insulted my honor by implying that having a spy on retainer is less than honorable. It is part of being a king and one you too will come to use. In any event, a battle in Demia is not the place for a man who only kills from the shadows. When you get back to your kingdom, you would do well to make nice with the thieves who run your capitol city and make amicable contact with the one they call The Green Death.”
“She’s a myth,” Estephan said. “She’s a rumor the thieves use to help them keep control of our streets.”
“She’s not,” Pantros said, remembering the woman in the green cloak from The Three Diamonds. “I’ve seen her. But, we should prepare for the battle at hand and save the troubles of running your kingdom for a time when you’re more certain that running a kingdom is part of your future. If we fail, won’t we all feel silly in the afterlife for having wasted so much of our morning discussing whether assassins make a king less than honorable?”
“I think now would be the time for me to fetch Bryan’s sword,” Kehet flickered into his Unicorn form and ran off like a gust of wind.
Estephan’s page returned and set a box on the table. Estephan opened it and removed the crown.
“Would now be a bad time to ask for amnesty for all I’ve done in the past?” Pantros asked.
“You’re a hero of my people,” Allaind said. “In my kingdom you have done no wrong.”
“I know you,” Estephan said. “I’m sure you’ve done shady things here and there in your past. Since these are all in your past and not part of the man I know now, I grant you forgiveness for your actions before now. I cannot promise immunity from crimes you commit in the future, so please avoid committing any.”
“Thank you, my prince,” Pantros said.
Kehet returned to the room and shifted again to his human form. In his hands he held Bryan’s sword. He held the crossguard under his arm and twisted the pommel off. He then pulled off the hilt and crossguard. He chuckled, “No wonder it was hard to twist off that pommel, it was pinned through the tang. I should have expected as much. The Matderi invented the threaded pommel a couple centuries ago. This sword is far older.”
“The crown setting is similarly pinned,” Estephan said. “I don’t suppose anyone has jeweler’s tools handy.”
“I have these,” Pantros produced a leather folding pouch from a pocket in his shirt. The pouch contained a dozen rods flattened and bent to various angles. “As long as we’re not cutting the gem, these should work to pop the pin out.
Kehet disassembled his own sword and slipped his hilt and crossguard onto Bryan’s. He then used one of Pantros’ picks to remove the gem setting from the Relarch crown. He used the same pin to affix the setting as the sword’s pommel.
“I would have expected some kind of reaction,” Estephan said. “At least a glow from a sword so renowned.”
Pantros remembered why he’d insisted on the amnesty. “Oh, right,” he said. He then pulled the pouch with the crown jewel from his shirt and proceeded to use his tools to remove the glass gem from the sword.
“I’m feeling a little anger right now,” Estephan said. “I’m also a bit amused. Amnesty: now I understand. I’m also thinking to enforce the ban on your presence in Fork. Good thing we already agreed on that land deal, so I won’t have to worry about you having nowhere to go.”
Pantros said “Whatever I did in the past, the gem would be on the sword now.” He affixed the gem back into the pommel. When he finished, the sword began to glow with a pale white aura speckled with red flecks. “Behold, the Blade of the Baron.”
CHAPTER 33: KEHET
It was shortly before sunset that Estephan had his group of raiders ready to enter Demia. They were delayed while the king had several leatherworkers and smiths put some real armor together for Marc. It wasn’t pretty, but the large man seemed to retain his full range of motion and now had a couple layers of leather and some metal plates between him and whatever wanted to make him bleed.
Marc’s own swords were strapped across his back, but he held an Abvi made dueling sword in each hand. They were ancient single bladed weapons that once belonged to the Twin Kings. King Allaind had actually offered them to Marc as a gift, but Marc insisted he would return them after the demon was dead.
Sheillene had a dozen arrows she’d procured from the king’s armory. They weren’t much, but they were the only ones she felt confident would help against potent demons. They were made of some translucent crystalline metal she called Opalite. Princess Adria also had a dozen similar arrows.
Pantros was standing by Prince Estephan. He was wearing an Abvian breastplate and bracers and seemed uncomfortable in the minimal armor. He carried a helm in his hands and stared at it in disgust. He then set the helm on the ground and stepped away from it.
Heather approached Kehet and gave him a long hug. “I get to go first,” Heather said after she’d released him. “I get to see how much damage I can cause intentionally.”
“I can go ahead of you,” Kehet said. “I can’t fight, but I can distract.”
“No,” Heather said. “I’m stepping through as soon as the Portal is open and doing my thing and then stepping back. Aven seems sure the energy I release won’t pass through the portal. Marc and the Prince will then pass through and clean up my mess. Mirica will be going with the others, standing with Adria and Sheillene. No one is making any plans for that Pantros boy. He’s the only one who thinks he should be going in.”
“He’s stubborn,” Kehet said. He’d tried twice to convince Pantros to let others handle the fight, but the young man wouldn’t concede. He felt responsible and felt he needed to do his part to make it right.
“Good luck,” a familiar sultry woman’s voice said. Beldithe stepped up behind Heather and hugged her, giving her a gentle kiss on the neck before releasing her. “Call it cheating, but that kiss will protect you for a little while. Until you harm anything, no one will want to harm you. They’ll just stare at your beauty longingly. It should give you the moment of concentration you might need.”
“Thank you, goddess,” Heather said.
“Thank you, Heather,” Beldithe said. “I prefer this world be populated by the peoples that populate it now. I don’t know if I would continue to exist if there were no mortals left to worship me.”
The Prince waved toward Kehet and called to Heather.
“Wish me luck,” Heather said. She kissed Kehet on the lips and walked briskly towards the portal.
“Come with me,” Beldithe said. She reached over and took Kehet’s hand in hers.
“Where are we going?” Kehet asked.
“We already went,” Beldithe said.
Kehet became aware that he no longer stood anywhere in Mealth. The sky was the color of smouldering charcoal. Kehet stood on the balcony of a tower above a black landscape. A city built of black stone sprawled out in all directions to the horizon. Off in the distance and far below, hundreds of demons were gathered around a stone structure Kehet recognized as a portal.
“We’re in Demia?” Kehet asked.
“I know you cannot travel between the worlds on your own,” Beldithe said. “I can go anywhere, but I tend to stick to where I have the most influence, Mealth. But, I wanted to see how your friends fared and I’m sure you’d like to see Heather do her thing.”
Kehet could see the portal clearly and by adjusting his perception, it seemed as if he were standing just feet away from the structure.
A woman’s voice, with even more purr than Beldithe at her most seductive, brought Kehet’s attention back to where he stood. A crimson skinned woman with glowing gold eyes and a pair of bat-like wings waving gently from her back stood with Beldithe. She wore a gown made of pale blue translucent crystal chain links. “Something is about to happen at the portal?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” Beldithe said. She nodded to Kehet, “He won’t remember you.”
The woman held a hand out toward Kehet and said, “They call me Lady Glacia.”
Kehet carefully took her hand a kissed it. “I take it you know me,” he said.
