He knocked on the gate of the monastery, surprised when a viewhole in the gate opened immediately. A pair of sharp eyes glanced out at him. “What do you want?”
“I’m supposed to be here.”
“On whose orders?”
“I don’t remember. But I’m supposed to be here.”
The man on the other side stared hard at him. Brandt saw his eyes narrow. “You’ll be wanting to see the abbot, then,” he said. The viewhole shut and a few moments later the gate swung open.
He stepped in and was treated to his first real view of the monastery.
Most of his initial impressions were reinforced. The monastery consisted of four squat buildings, one just a single level that couldn’t be seen from the other side of the walls. The stonework throughout was simple, but executed so well as to nearly be art. A small courtyard stood just inside the gate, but there was little activity at the current moment. Brandt saw several people going about their daily tasks, but a single glance didn’t reveal any common threads. He saw young and old, man and woman, with skin tones providing evidence enough that people had come from throughout the empire to be here.
The man who had been guarding the gate motioned for Brandt to follow. “Name’s Kurl.”
“Brandt.”
Kurl nodded, and that was the end of that discussion. The guard took him to the smallest of the four buildings, the one that couldn’t be seen from beyond the walls. He led Brandt through barren hallways to a large office where he knocked on the door. When he heard the answering call, he opened it and announced the visitor. “This here is Brandt. Says he is supposed to be here.”
Brandt wasn’t sure what to make of the abbot at first glance. She seemed unremarkable, the sort of woman he would have passed on the street without a second glance. And yet she led this secretive outpost, and her gaze was piercing. His curiosity was intense.
The woman looked up at Brandt. She studied him for a moment through narrowed eyes.
“Who told you to come here?”
Brandt looked down. “I don’t remember. I just know I’m supposed to be here.”
The abbot looked to Kurl. “A compulsion, then, and a sloppy one.”
“I’d wondered as much,” agreed Kurl.
Brandt didn’t know what they were talking about. The woman waved Kurl away. “Summon a group. A strong one. Have them wait in the courtyard.”
Kurl nodded and left them, closing the door behind him as he did.
Brandt couldn’t shake the feeling there was more happening here than he knew.
The abbot addressed him directly. “Why are you here?”
Brandt opened his mouth to answer, but the words somehow caught in his throat. He tried again. “I’m supposed to be here.”
The abbot shook her head, as though he hadn’t answered her question. “What happened to you before you were ordered to come here?”
“I was on the way to Landow with my unit of wolfblades. We were supposed to find and apprehend a bandit.”
“Where are your wolfblades?”
“I don’t know.” The confession shamed him. He wanted to find them, but he needed to be here.
An expression passed over the abbot’s face too quickly for him to decipher. “Interesting.”
Brandt felt a certain desperation creep through him, like an unsatisfied desire. “Can you help me?”
“We’ll see.” The abbot took a key from within her robes and unlocked a compartment in her desk. She reached inside and grabbed an item, then stood up, as though she had finally decided something. “Come with me.”
Brandt followed. As they walked, the abbot spoke over her shoulder. “You are about to experience something profoundly disturbing. Do I have your word that you will not attack us here?”
Brandt’s confusion only deepened. “Of course. Why would I attack you?”
The abbot gave a bitter laugh at that.
They entered the courtyard, but this time it was filled with more people. There was a whole ring of monks, all apparently waiting for him. His old instincts warned him of danger, yet he couldn’t quite bring himself to react. The pieces in his mind just didn’t match up, no matter how hard he tried to make them. He shook his head, following the lead of the abbot. She seemed to be the only way out of this confusion.
They walked to the center of the circle. The abbot looked around the group and spoke loudly enough for all to hear. “This man has been placed under a compulsion, which I am about to remove. Be prepared.”
There were nods around the circle, and people took various fighting stances. Brandt almost drew his sword in response, but couldn’t convince himself it was the right idea. He’d just promised he wouldn’t attack them.
But he had to defend himself.
Before he could understand, something in his mind suddenly shifted, like sand being pulled back into the ocean by a receding wave. His head felt as though it had imploded in on itself.
Why had he come here?
He needed to find his wolfblades. He hadn’t seen his friends in some time, and now this group of strangers surrounded him.
Recent memories returned, but this time they carried a different weight. They mattered now. A compulsion.
What had happened to him?
The abbot’s voice spoke behind him. “Brandt, sheath your sword. No one here is going to hurt you.”
He looked down at his hands, surprised to see his sword in hand. He looked around at the surrounding monks. They were prepared to fight, but he saw no willingness to do so.
Through an act of sheer will, he sheathed his sword. He turned and faced the abbot, who smiled at him. “Welcome to Highkeep.”
26
Survival was easy, but it wasn’t enough.
Alena had taken all the money she kept in her bedroom, which hadn’t amounted to much, but it was more than many lived on. She thought nothing of sleeping under the stars and eating simple, cheap, but filling food. Her days were long as she put leagues of road behind her, but there was a startling simplicity to travel that she grew to appreciate.
At
