that I’ll feel hollow inside when I’m done? You’re wrong. I’ll feel elation. I’ve lost friends, family, and spilled sweat and blood to achieve what Arthur now marches toward. I’ll feel complete, paladin. Does that answer your question?”
Jerico nodded.
“Sadly, I think it does.”
He stood to leave, but Kaide stopped him with two words.
“The Citadel.”
Jerico glanced over his shoulder, and he stood very still.
“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked.
“You are no different than I. You lost your friends, your home, everything you’d ever known. Would you tell me that, if given the chance, you wouldn’t hunt down and kill the man responsible? Would anything I said change your mind?”
The paladin fell silent. Kaide knew he’d struck home. He wouldn’t lose a valuable ally, not now.
“You feel it burning in your gut, don’t you?” he said quietly. “I know the feeling. Let me give you what you want. The people talk to me, tell me whispers of stories they might be afraid to speak in the daylight. I know the name of the man who destroyed your home. Stay with me, and I’ll tell you. Then you can decide for yourself just what type of man you are.”
Jerico brushed his red hair away from his face, then touched his shield as if needing its strength.
“I’ll help you,” he said. “I still think you’re in the right, and I’ll pray to Ashhur that when the battle is done, you’ll be a better man than I fear. Just promise me one thing.”
“And what is that?”
Jerico looked him in the eye, and there was a force there that made Kaide’s throat tighten.
“Never, ever, tell me that name.”
“I promise.”
“Good.” Jerico smacked him upside the shoulder, and he grinned as if a heavy weight had left his chest. “A few days more until Stonahm, yes? I hope you realize that I barely had time to teach your men how to hold a blade, let alone kill anyone with it. You better have something in mind for them other than standing in the front lines when Sebastian’s knights come crashing in.”
“One of these days you’ll stop thinking I’m a fool,” Kaide said, tossing a nearby stone at him. It clanked off the paladin’s armor.
“One of these days it’ll be right do so, but until then, I work with what I have.”
Another rock, this one larger. Jerico failed to duck in time, and as he rubbed his eyebrow, Kaide laughed.
“You may be a big lug in armor,” he said, “but even this fool knows to strike where a man’s weakness is.”
“Mine’s my forehead?”
“It’s big enough.”
Jerico smiled.
“When the battle starts, you stay at my side,” he said. “I’d hate for you to get killed off on your own.”
Kaide shot him a wink.
“We may lose this entire war, and I’ll still survive. Trust me on that. I’ve eaten the flesh of the dead. Sebastian has nothing, nothing , that can frighten me now.”
13
“You’ve really done it now,” Bellok said, the wizard looking positively annoyed.
“Is that so?” Kaide asked, grinning as the rest came up to greet them.
“You started a war without me. I’m disappointed.”
The two laughed, and then louder as Adam and Griff wrapped them in bear hugs.
“We get to fight!” they cried in unison.
Jerico slipped to the side, content to let them celebrate. He caught Beth watching him while waiting for her father to be free. He smiled at her, but she looked away. When Kaide called to her, she ran and wrapped her arm around his chest, hugging him tightly. Her stump remained at her side, as if she were afraid to touch him with it.
“We’ll need to move out soon,” Kaide said after kissing the top of her head. “There’s several places the two lords might choose to meet, and I want us there before either side can discuss matters with the other.”
“You really think they’d make a truce?” Bellok asked.
“No,” Kaide said, his grin ear to ear. “But I want to be there just in case Sebastian sends an envoy. I’ll enjoy sending him back in pieces.”
“Father!” Beth said, and he kissed her forehead once more.
“Pay no attention to what I say,” he whispered. “Now go on to your room and leave us be. You entered this dark world of adults sooner than you ever should have.”
She blushed but did as she was told. Jerico watched her exit, wishing for even the tiniest of smiles to soothe his lingering guilt. He received none.
“Jerico,” Kaide said, pulling his attention away. “You know more of this than I. We need to march, and prepare supplies. Come give us a list, will you?”
Jerico helped much as he could, detailing necessary provisions to bring with them, from the obvious to the obscure. Kaide frowned as he listened, and rebuked several things they could not get in time.
“We’ll make do without,” he said. “How many we have with us ready to go?”
“They been comin’ in from all over,” Adam said. “Burly men, thugs, farmers, rapers. The whole lot’s ready to beat some heads.”
“Wonderful,” Kaide said, his expression anything but. “How many?”
“Three hundred,” Bellok said. “And Adam’s right… they’re the sort even we might normally turn away.”
“Not today. Give them a stick if we have to. We’ll club Sebastian down from his castle walls.”
Jerico excused himself, feeling no longer needed as they continued. He stepped out into the town, where many still lingered about the home, hoping for any word. Their expressions did not match their earlier joy upon seeing Kaide, though. He felt the outsider, a necessary tool, and that was all. He thought of the flock he had taught in Durham, and longed for such a connection. Would any care to hear the word of Ashhur from him, or was the word of Kaide, a word of war, the only thing they desired?
“Will Ashhur be with Arthur’s war?” a farmer called out as he walked for the village outskirts.
“I pray he is,” Jerico said, committing to nothing further than that.
He walked until he reached the pond, and he found the log he’d sat upon when training his leg. It wasn’t so long ago, but it felt like a separate age. Sitting down, he grabbed a few nearby rocks and began skipping them across. Finally alone for the first time in weeks, he closed his eyes and listened for the words of his god. All he heard were the soft sounds of the night birds rustling, the blow of the wind through the grass, and the trickle of the small stream feeding into the pond.
“Jerico?”
The paladin looked back to see Beth standing behind him, holding her stump. She looked ashamed, but she met his eye despite the effort it clearly took.
“Yes, Beth?” he asked.
“Can we talk?”
He shifted, and gestured for her to sit beside him on the log. She did so.
“I…”
She stopped, and Jerico let her take her time. The sun had begun to set, and he watched the colors.
“I’m sorry,” she said at last. “I shouldn’t be mad. I am, but… it was so awful, Jerico. They…”
She’d begun to cry, and he shushed her.
“You have no reason to apologize,” he said. “Not to me.”
