Brasti has better eyesight than me. He squinted down the path. ‘I can see the red-faced bastard,’ he said.
I took another look and now I could just make out the blood-red colour of his face. And then I saw he was wearing Kest’s greatcoat. I drew my rapier and started down the hill.
‘Falcio!’ Brasti called.
‘Take Valiana and Aline and go. I’ll hold him off for as long as I can.’
‘Falcio, come back, please!’
‘Go!’ I shouted.
They kept calling, but I ignored them. Saint or no Saint, if nothing else worked I could throw my body in his path and hope he tripped over it. A dusty haze was rising with the afternoon heat and it began settling into my nostrils and mouth, making me cough. I found a solid place to stand in the middle of the path and closed my eyes. If I couldn’t see him swing his sword anyway, I might as well swing blind and hope I got lucky. I don’t know if Luck is a God or not, but if he is then I’d sure like to make a better deal with him one of these days.
I heard the Saint’s footsteps as he approached, but I kept my eyes closed and prepared the fastest cut I could. When I felt the heat from his body I let it fly. I might as well have been aiming for myself. I heard the blow sail by him and dropped the point of my blade to await the inevitable.
‘Now I ask you,’ said a hoarse voice, ‘what kind of man fights with his eyes closed?’
My eyes opened wide and I saw him there. His face was indeed the colour of blood – mostly because it bled from a dozen shallow cuts.
‘Kest!’ I shouted. ‘Kest! How is it possible – how could you possibly have beaten Saint Caveil-whose-blade-cuts-water?’
‘I told you,’ Kest said, coughing, ‘he was a Saint – really just a little God, as these things go.’
And then he collapsed into my arms.
I heard screams as Brasti, Valiana and Aline raced down towards us. They wrapped themselves around Kest, who was fighting for breath.
‘Who knew it took so little effort to make women fawn over you,’ he said at last.
‘Little effort,’ Brasti breathed. ‘Gods, man, you’ve killed a Saint! Do you know what that makes you?’
‘Blasphemous?’
‘No, man, you killed Caveil – he was the Saint of Swords. That means you’re the new Saint of Swords. I have a Saint for a friend!’
‘Trust me, Brasti, all of your friends have to be Saints.’
‘Something is horribly wrong,’ I said to Kest.
‘What?’
‘You’re telling jokes.’
‘Life is funny,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘You remember what you told me before you left? About how you beat me?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Believe it or not – and I don’t think you really have any choice in the matter – I think it may have worked.’
I started laughing, but Brasti interrupted, asking, ‘What about the Duchess?’
‘She fled. I’m afraid I was a little too busy to deal with her.’
‘Leave him be a moment,’ Valiana said. ‘He needs to rest. We have a little time.’
He shook his head. ‘No – I’m afraid there’s a reason why I was moving so fast.’
‘Why? What is it?’
‘Oh shit,’ Brasti said as we saw the dust rise in the distance as the Duke of Jillard’s army marched up the slope towards us.
‘One more try for a brave death, eh, friends?’ Kest said. Then he lay down and stretched out on the ground as the rest of us watched them come.
THE WAR SONG
I wish I could say that my King met his death fearlessly, with a smile on his face and a joke on his lips. But when the guard let me into the tower chamber I found Paelis huddled in the corner, shivering and weeping and coughing.
‘I didn’t think it would be here,’ he said at last. ‘I thought … a trial or a public execution, some chance to speak – but it’s to be in here, tonight, in the dark.’
He looked as small and weak as he had the day ten years ago when I’d come to Castle Aramor with a blade in hand ready to murder a King. I couldn’t find any words to reply.
‘No,’ he said, composing himself. ‘No, I’ll be all right. I didn’t think I’d get to speak to you again, but their general is a reasonable man and he said he’d grant a request if it wasn’t unreasonable. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he might offer and so I couldn’t think of anything except that it would be good to talk to you again, Falcio.’
He looked around the room for a moment. ‘Gods. I had finally convinced myself that I wouldn’t end up back in this room. Can you imagine that? A decade of freedom and just as soon as you take it for granted—’
‘We would have rather died, you know. You took that away from us,’ I said at last. He was my King and my friend, but I couldn’t help saying it. His last act had been to strip us of everything that mattered.
He took my hand and kissed it. An odd gesture for a King. ‘I know you would have,’ he said, ‘but I couldn’t allow that. My time is over, Falcio, but the Greatcoats are my gift to the world. The one truly important accomplishment of my lifetime.’
‘But it’s over now,’ I said. ‘We are disbanded for all time.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Remember King Ugrid? He tried to disband the Greatcoats, and for a hundred years his order stood. But we brought them back, Falcio, you and I: we brought them back to the world. And you can do it again.’
‘How?’ I asked.
‘I haven’t been idle, Falcio, and I haven’t told you everything I’ve been doing. Years ago I began hiding my Charoites throughout the realm. You have to find them now. You and Kest and Brasti.’
‘My King, you told me this before, and I’ll do my best to look for them, but can you not tell me anything more?’
‘Only that they are priceless beyond measure, and even just one of them can bring down the Dukes.’
‘But how will we even know if we’ve found one?’ I asked.
‘If we’re both very lucky, you won’t know – that’s the only way the jewels will be safe until the time is right. Look for them, but do not expect to find them. Do you understand?’
‘No,’ I said, irritation overcoming sadness, ‘of course I don’t understand. No one could, because it doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Hush then, for a moment, and listen,’ he said. ‘There is one more thing you’re going to do for me.’
He told me what he wanted me to do and I agreed and then we sat and he talked and I listened but I don’t remember what he said. After an hour or so we heard the guard coming up the staircase and I drew the four-inch blade concealed in one of the pockets of my greatcoat and I jammed it straight into the King’s heart.
And so I kept my vow to the general that he would not kill my King.
It didn’t take long for the Duke of Jillard’s army to overtake us. There wasn’t any point in trying to run any further.
‘You’ve led us on a merry chase, Valiana,’ the Duke said.
Shiballe, by his side, grinned.
‘That’s not her name, actually,’ Brasti said.
The Duke ignored him. ‘But imagine my surprise to learn from Shiballe that you are not, in fact, Duchess Patriana’s and my daughter at all but the progeny of some peasant woman. Ah, well, perhaps you’re still my daughter. I bedded many a maid in Hervor during my bachelor days.’
‘You don’t need her,’ I said. ‘You can let her go.’
The Duke frowned at me. ‘Now why would I want to do that? I have her, and soon I’ll have the scrolls back and, since they bear Duchess Patriana’s seal as well as mine, I may as well take the girl and make her a Queen after all. I’m sure that she will be pliable to my wishes after the proper training for a year or two.’