“Yeah, and just yesterday those guys—or, at least, the men they used to be—were all hell-bent on killing me. Now, look at ‘em! Each and every one of them would die, um, die again, before letting any harm come to you or me! And it’s the same with Fang, okay? Yes, he was wolfing down soldiers like a fat kid let loose in a candy store yesterday, but today—just like these skeletons—he’s completely loyal to me, and he’d die for me if that’s what it came to. It took a lot of my power to resurrect this beast, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you blast him with your holy… whatever it is.”
Okay, it hadn’t really cost me that much to resurrect Fang, but I felt like I could bend the truth a little here for the sake of making a point. Fortunately, it seemed to work. The golden glow around Elyse’s hands subsided and then vanished altogether. Her shoulders slumped slightly, and her jaws relaxed, so I let go of her arm, confident she wouldn’t be trying anything.
“You promise he won’t try to eat me?” she asked.
“What is it your lot say again… circle my heart and hope to die?”
I drew an imaginary circle around my heart with my fingertip and smiled. This seemed to be enough to convince Elyse. She walked slowly around Fang, giving him a good looking over. She was still pretty nervous, but hey, who wouldn’t be around this beautiful thing? It was actually quite admirable, the way she maintained her composure.
“His eyes look… unsettling,” she remarked. “Wow, are they actually glowing?”
“It’s an effect of the enchantment,” I said, trying to sound as if I knew what I was talking about.
Fang showed no interest in Elyse at all and didn’t seem to care much about the skeletons either. He kept his eyes on me.
“He’s actually quite handsome, isn’t he?” said Elyse as she examined his head more closely. “His scales are such a striking tone of red.”
“He’s a good-looking fella,” I said. “And he’s gonna carry us all the way to Erst. You don’t happen to suffer from seasickness, do you?”
“I’ve been on ships a few times, and I didn’t get sick. Why?”
“That’s good news. When he walks, he does this side-to-side swaying thing that makes you feel like you’re sailing on a choppy ocean.”
“Are you sure we can’t… ride horses or something?” she asked, staring at Fang with trepidation.
“Sure, saddle up! Oh, wait, I forgot mine. Did you bring yours? You don’t generally find them walking around in the middle of the woods, saddled and ready to go, you know.”
“I know, I know, it’s just—”
“I get it. Don’t worry. You’ll be okay. Come on; I’ll get on first, you climb up after me.”
Fang seemed to sense what we were about to do, so he meekly lowered his head so that I could climb up onto his neck. I helped Elyse up behind me, and once again positioned myself just behind Fang’s shoulders. I felt Elyse get settled behind me, her hands around my waist.
Fang set off at a trot on my command. It took a while to get used to his swaying gait again, but once we got into the rhythm of it, it really wasn’t that bad. I was surprised at how fast our mount was able to move; my pack of skeletons had to sprint to keep up with him. It was a good thing they seemed to have essentially unlimited stamina.
After a while, Elyse and I had grown comfortable enough to chat.
“So,” she asked me, “you’re really Lord Chauzec of Brakith, huh? How did you end up losing your lands and title, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“My uncle,” I muttered. “He’s a real piece of shit. Just like your Nabu. He stole everything that was rightfully mine. Ripped it all out from under me and made me an outcast in my own lands.”
I paused to spit into the woods; I had a bad taste in my mouth.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, Vance,” said Elyse gently.
“No, it’s fine. Really, it is. Talking about that troll-fucker keeps me motivated. I will take back everything he stole from me: my title, my castle, my lands, my reputation… And I’ll stick his ugly head on a spike in the town square and leave his Sunsword cloak there for Brakith’s beggars to wipe their asses with.”
“This thieving uncle of yours… was a Sunsword?”
I turned and smiled wryly. “Yes, one of the Church of Light’s elite holy knights, believe it or not.”
“They’re renowned as some of the mightiest warriors in all of Prand,” murmured Elyse. “They train with the blade from the day they can hold one in their infant hands—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Twelve hours a day, every day, and when they’re not training, they spend their time praying and living like ascetic monks, so fucking devout and holy and selfless and all that horseshit. Well, maybe some of them really are like that, but my uncle very obviously isn’t. He’s a greedy, lying piece of rancid garbage who used his position as a Sunsword to manipulate those in power. Fuck him and all the other Sunswords with him.”
“I’m sorry to hear your uncle’s such a… such a piece of work,” said Elyse. “He sounds all too similar to Bishop Nabu. Such things are unfortunately common among the clergy, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a Sunsword doing such a thing.”
“Well, you learn something new every day, huh?” I muttered. “Anyway, fuck it. I don’t want to talk about the sack of shit that turned the whole of Brakith against me anymore. That’s the only reason I haven’t killed him, you know… because I need to expose his lies, get the people of Brakith back on my side first. There’s no point in killing him and taking my title and lands back if everyone in Brakith believes I’m
