Valessa hit the ground, her only conscious thought that of the ringing in her ears. As if from someone else’s body, she watched the battle end. Jerico turned his shield back to Mallak, joining the traitor Darius’s side. Mallak, seemingly realizing he had to end the fight quickly now that he was outnumbered, assaulted the wounded Jerico with all his might. The fire of his blade flared, and he struck with awesome fury. Jerico’s shield weathered the blows, though he cried out in pain all the while. But Darius was there, and he took the opening before him. Valessa silently shrieked as the traitor thrust his blade through a crease in Mallak’s armor, and then twisted the handle. Blood gushed from Mallak’s side, and when he coughed, more spilled across his lips and neck. He fell.
“Help me,” Valessa whispered, struggling to stand. It was as if her limbs had suddenly stopped taking orders. “Please, Karak, help me
…”
Jerico fell to one knee, and he screamed when Darius yanked out the dagger she had lodged into his shoulder. Whatever satisfaction she might have felt meant nothing knowing he would survive. So many dead, and all their fault… all their fault.
“Karak,” she breathed. “I am your darkness. I am your shadow. Do not abandon me. Not now.”
The two paladins turned their attention to her, and there was no misunderstanding the look in Darius’s eyes as he approached.
“Don’t,” she heard Jerico say, and she felt fury at any false sympathy he might show. Darius refused to listen.
“I’m sending her to her god,” said the traitor. “I know what she is, what she is capable of. The world is better this way.”
“I will hunt you,” Valessa said to him, even as tears welled in her eyes. “Even to the Abyss.”
The traitor knelt beside her, and he touched her face with a hand even as the other lifted his sword so the point rested against her throat.
“I will never feel the Abyss’s flames,” he said. “Don’t you see, sister? I’m Karak’s champion no longer.”
“Darius!” cried Jerico.
He hesitated, and that was enough for her. With the last of her strength, she flung herself onto his blade. The metal pierced flesh, her whole body retched, and then she felt fire burning.
*
J erico and Darius stood over the bodies, and they watched as Valessa’s corpse was consumed by a dark fire.
“I’ve never seen such a thing,” Darius said, watching until she was all but ash.
“I think we’ve seen more than few firsts today,” Jerico said, and he grinned despite the pain and blood that trickled down the inside of his armor. With his good arm, he gestured to where Gregane’s army had pushed into the forest in chase of Lord Arthur’s men.
“I think we should get out of here,” he said, chuckling despite the pain it caused. “At some point they’re going to come back, and I doubt they’ll be happy with us.”
“Where do we go?” Darius asked as he came over to inspect his wounds.
“Later,” Jerico said, pushing him back. “I’ve survived worse. And where should we go? You’re an outlaw now, as much as I.”
Darius looked to the forest.
“I spoke with Sebastian,” he said. “I’ve seen how his mind works. If Arthur is alive, we need to help him. It only seems right, given the mess I helped cause here in the North.”
“Plenty my fault, too,” Jerico said, and he leaned on Darius to remain standing. “Let’s put Gregane’s army far behind us. I know a place we can hide.”
Epilogue
“You are certain?” Sir Robert Godley asked as he leaned back in his wooden chair, which creaked from his weight.
“Sure as I am of anything in this world,” said Jeremy Hangfield, who stood with his hands clasped behind his back, the chosen spokesmen for the people of Durham.
“And you have witnesses who will swear to this?”
“Over a hundred,” Jeremy said. “This was something we’ll never forget. We’ll say it until our graves, or the king brings us justice.”
“Go,” Robert said, dismissing him. “I promise you an answer by tomorrow.”
The man bowed and left Robert to be alone with his most trusted friend, Daniel Coldmine, in his room in the Blood Tower.
“This is bad,” Daniel said.
“I gathered as much.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Daniel leaned on the desk with both hands, and he looked out the window to the distant wildlands of the Wedge. “A paladin of Karak? We can’t make enemies with the Stronghold. You know damn well how favored his priests are in the capital.”
“But that many witnesses…”
“They’ll mean nothing, and you know it. All their lives are a pile of shit in the eyes of anyone outside the North.”
Robert crossed his arms and forced himself to bite his tongue. He knew there were good people in the capital, but Daniel was right. Given the current balance of power, they would be making enemies of those who controlled the mind and heart of the king.
“What is it you think I should do?” he asked.
“Bring him in for questioning,” Daniel said, turning to him. “Play it safe. Either that, or give him over to the Stronghold and let them handle the matter.”
Robert scratched at his chin, then shook his head.
“No. I’m tired of these games, Daniel. The whole North is in chaos because of those two Hemman brothers, and the king already loathes my name. He’ll leave me to settle this on my own, and settle it I will. I want proclamations given to every single village along the Gihon, and for them to send riders west until they reach the sea announcing the same. The dark paladin known as Darius shall be executed on sight, without trial or capture. Offer the largest reward we can afford. A hundred people watched him burn their village to the ground, a village I helped save! If he’ll destroy what all our good men died for, then we’ll destroy him, and to the Abyss with what the Stronghold might think.”
“Are those your orders?” Daniel asked.
“They are,” said Robert. “And I expect them carried out.”
Daniel saluted.
“You’re thrusting fire at a hornet’s nest,” he said. “But I’ll trust you.”
He left the room, and once alone, Robert swore up a storm.
“Damn you, Darius,” he said, slamming a fist against the top of his desk. “How could you do such a thing? How?”
He would receive no answers, for he wanted none. The entire North would descend upon him, and if the world were just, Darius would receive the punishment he deserved. And if Karak had a problem with that…
“I’m afraid of no gods,” Robert said. “Not Ashhur. Not Karak. None of you.”
He thought of the corpses strewn across Durham’s streets, of what the Stronghold’s reaction might be, and then poured himself a drink to help make some truth of that statement.
*
Valessa thought she went to her god, to join her deity in the Abyss, but something was wrong. The image of Darius refused to fade. Fire burned across her flesh, but she saw no darkness, just the face of a man who had turned against everything she stood for. Her body felt strange, full of pain but without any definitive source. At last Darius’s face broke like shards of glass, and she saw darkness. Within that darkness, a lion roared.
Not yet, she heard a voice say, the words flooding her existence with cold terror.
