quiet calm. “I’m sorry mayor, Mikus died in the Mountain of the Orc, we buried him in the foothills near the trail leading up.”
The mayor’s smug expression suddenly changed as his eyes narrowed and hardened, “He died?”
“We were ambushed by goblins just as we went onto the mountain,” said Sorus. “One of them hit him in the head with a sling bullet. I’m sorry.”
“I trusted you with my only son,” said the mayor and turned to Jon Gray his eyes filled with hate and his lips curled in anger. “What did you do, kill him yourself so that he wouldn’t report back on your plot to destroy Elekargul?”
Jon simply looked down on the man with his jaw stuck forward and his gaze steady and certain. “I’m here to help. You can take it or not.”
“An unlikely offer,” said Thorius and pushed past Jon and Sorus. “Thadeus, arrest both of these boys on suspicion of murder.” He looked around the small open courtyard for a moment, “I suppose you killed Sir Germanius as well,” he said with a shake of the head. “I can see now you came for the express purpose of distracting us while your reptile allies prepared for invasion.”
“This is madness,” said Jon turning to Sorus. “Come on, let’s go somewhere where real men need our help.”
“You’re under arrest Jon Gray, if that is your name,” said Thadeus, and another man, this one also reeking of alcohol but standing taller and broader than Thadeus with orc blood in his veins, suddenly appeared from where the mayor had recently emerged.
“Jon, he’s the mayor, he’s the extension of the law of the First Rider,” said Sorus. “If he says we’re arrested then there is nowhere to go. They will post arrest notices for us everywhere in Elekargul, we’ll be fugitives if we run.”
“Listen to the brewer boy,” said Mayor Thorius with a smile. “If you are innocent, as you proclaim, then a jury will find as such and you can go then.”
Jon looked at Sorus and then at the two hired thugs and finally to the mayor himself, “Sorus might be subject to your laws, but I am not. I answer to no one except the Gray Lord and if you try to arrest me I’ll pummel the men you send.”
The taller, broader orc blooded knight smiled and cracked his fingers. He stood well over six feet with shoulders near as wide as Jon’s and the thick body of a man in the prime of life. “I’d like to see that,” he said and nodded his head. “We haven’t met yet, Jon Gray,” he said. “I’m Decilus Valerus Brokenshield. I served with the First Rider and rode down the champion of Adas Jdar after we broke their invasion. He was taller than you and fully a man but my lance cut him down quick enough. Do not think you frighten me.”
Jon stared the man in the eyes for a long moment and neither showed any signs of retreat. “Sorus, you can stay in town, but the trial is rigged, you’ll be found guilty of associating with me, and I’ll be found guilty of planning an invasion or some such nonsense. We have to find the men of Black Dale or the First Rider to prevent something terrible from happening,” he said and turned his gaze to Sorus who stood with his mouth agape. “Now, Sorus, take a knightly name because you know that Sir Germanius granted it to you. Take your name and come with me or stay here and die.”
“Don’t listen to him, son,” said Mayor Thorius sidling up to the boy and putting his hand on his shoulder. “He’s a spy for the reptile men and hopes to clear the way for their invasion. He tricked you, but we won’t hold that against you in a trial. He fooled everyone in town except me and my son. I don’t think you killed Mikus, I’m sure it looked like an ambush but how did they know you were coming, how did Jon escape without any wounds, ask yourself that Sorus. You won’t be blamed; testify against him and I guarantee your safety and the safety of your family.”
Sorus stood for a long moment as his eye darted back and forth between Jon and the mayor and then to the hulking Decilus and his sidekick Thadeus. His hand clenched and unclenched at his side and then he felt the weight of Sir Germanius’s sword on his side, he remembered Jon carrying the old knight up all those stairs and how they buried him together, he remembered how the dragon creature knew Jon’s name. He turned to the mayor, “My name is Sorus Nightwalk because I slew my enemies underground in the darkling realm. I do honor to Agrium Nightwalk who led the midnight attack on the orc fortress we now call Agrium’s Keep. I pledge to honor his memory and hold his name to the highest standards of Elekargul. Today I go with my friend Jon Gray and any man who tries to stop me will feel my wrath!”
“Fool,” spat Thorius and looked to Decilus, “Kill them both.”
Decilus smiled and drew his sword, a long blade of black iron with strange yellow sigils carved up and down its side. Next to him Thadeus looked back and forth between the mayor and Jon Gray and appeared almost ready to run but then found his courage and drew his own blade, a slim steel weapon curved towards the end in the style of the humans of Doria. “I’ll take the boy,” he said and moved to face Sorus.
A number of passersby heard the exchange of words and saw the swords glint in the sunlight. Some of them stayed to watch the battle while others ran off to spread the news.
“This doesn’t have to be this…,” started Sorus, but Thadeus wasted no time and lunged at the boy before he even pulled out his weapon. Sorus jumped aside as the blade scraped over his left ribs and a sharp sensation of pain quickly followed. He took two quick steps backwards, pulled out his sword, and felt a momentary slickness as his hand brushed his left side.
Jon and Decilus circled one another for a moment before the orc blooded knight raised his sword and brought it around with a long low sweep designed to take advantage of Jon’s exposed legs. The gray knight didn’t even bother to draw his own sword but simply raised his boot and brought it crashing down on the wrist of his opponent which shattered like an old tree limb with too much ice in a heavy windstorm.
Decilus screamed in pain and spun to the ground, pinned there by the weight of Jon’s foot as the gray knight reached forward with his right hand and put it fully around the neck of his foe. Jon’s wrist flexed and Decilus’s neck pressed backwards to an unnatural angle. The Brokenshield punched at Jon’s face with his other hand, connected with a solid blow, but the boy ignored it completely and continued to push the neck backwards. A second snap followed a moment later and then the big warrior lay glassy eyed on the ground, his eyes bulging hideously and his neck muscles frozen in clenched rigor.
Jon turned to the mayor and saw that the man had a knife in his hand and circled behind Sorus, “Don’t do it,” said Jon his voice low but filled with menace. “Let them finish it.”
Mayor Thorius looked up at the huge boy and then his eyes came to rest on the dead Decilus and his courage fled. He tossed the knife at Jon but the blade spun badly and only the hilt struck him in the midsection. The mayor then fled back into the building as he shouted, “murderers, murderers, save me!”
The crowd didn’t seem inclined to heed his call and stood silently as Sorus and Thadeus circled one another; their blades leapt out to strike now and again but neither man gained any advantage. “You fight well for a brewer,” spat Thadeus to Sorus and flicked his blade towards the boy’s head but came up well short as Sorus thrust forward with his own blade. Sorus tried to remember the things he watched when the other squires worked with their masters but nothing seemed to be real in this fight as the steel blade of his foe flicked out and back. Whenever he circled to his left there was a strange pain in his side that he couldn’t quite pinpoint but that bothered him nonetheless.
He feinted at Thadeus but the experienced knight simply parried and moved again to his right and forced the painful turn. “You’ll bleed out soon enough,” said the newly restored Brokenshield and moved away from Sorus with a broad smile on his face. At that moment his path took him across the corpse of his ally and his foot hit it with a thump. Thadeus stumbled and his eyes opened in horror as he saw the frozen death mask of his friend.
“Now, strike,” whispered Jon to himself but so quietly that only he heard it.
Sorus noted the distraction but did not attack and instead circled to gain a better position and Thadeus snarled, “You bastard,” and regained his balance as quickly as he lost it. “I’ll kill you,” he said and moved forward, his sword a blur of motion. Sorus managed to block the first few blows but was driven quickly backwards and suddenly felt a stinging on the side of his face and then another on his shield arm.
“Now you die!” shrieked Thadeus lunging towards the former brewer with the tip of blade aimed directly at the center of Sorus’ chest.
Sorus suddenly remembered how Jon had stepped forward when the dragon child attacked him and did the same while also turning his body slightly sideways; this caused the thrust to slide inches past him. His own blade, the heavy sword of Sir Germanius, came down on the area between Thadeus’s shoulder and neck and bit ten inches
