Forgotten Embers

79. Dead in Shackles

The sirens blared and the halls convulsed with magic as the mages prepared a defense and the guardsmen ran off to battle. An announcement rang out through the stone walls around him, and the voice of the man from the intelligence corps came seemingly from all around him, yet remained as clear in his head as were his own thoughts.

"The enemies have broken through the walls, and are now approaching the eastern lawn. They are not to reach the palace under any circumstances. All members of the army, intelligence, and magicians' corps are to report to their battle placements immediately. If you have been given a special assignment, please carry it out at once."

Kelvin's eyes widened. 'They're already through? But how? I know that pyrite is powerful, but...'

Kelvin felt his blood run cold. There was a part of him that had hoped they would not make it past the eastern gate of the city, that they would have surrendered in the forest or been killed long before this time. He hadn't wanted a piece of this war. He had hoped to be able to say that he was not involved, but now that wouldn't be possible.

'Blackridge is with them... and Webber.' He frowned. 'I would be ashamed to even look them in the eyes, and now may I be expected to kill them? At the very least, I have a hand in their deaths.' He clenched his teeth in inward pain and closed his eyes tight. 'And Avera? Is she there, also... with Caliphus? I killed him once; I'll do it again if I have to, but... could I ever kill her? If I were to see her when the smoke lifts and the war is over, the rebellion squashed, if I were to see her lying in the lawn, her corpse among the dead... would I care? Would I mourn, or is my heart become so hard that I would even cry for her? I wonder how I could forgive myself my role in her departure, but when my love is finally gone, then maybe my conscience will die, also.'

"Take care of it," Kallida said, interrupting his thoughts and breaking through the background noise of useless sounds.

Kelvin looked at the vampiric man with a surprised glance and hesitated to answer.

"It doesn't bother you, does it?" the Inquisitor inquired, examining the boy with a dark skepticism.

"Bother me, sir?" Kelvin replied, keeping his voice monotone as his body vibrated with the stress of the king's request.

"That he's your representative," Kallida clarified. He paused, watching the soldier from Sa'ar. "You don't strike me as the kind of person to have strong Kingsmen loyalties, but I understand that it is sentimental to some."

Kelvin shook his head, his eyes turned down. "No, it's alright," he told him. "I won't have any trouble with it."

"Good," Kallida replied, "then go and take care of them. The two have outlived their usefulness. Besides, we wouldn't want to find that they had somehow managed to escape. I'd like to see someone die, and I would prefer it very much if they would stay dead."

"And once it's finished," Kelvin asked, "should I report back to you?"

"Stay a while," the magician instructed. "Doubtless, someone will come looking for them, and when they do, see that they all go together. Show these servants of Himmel the reward for their service."

"Of course, sir," Kelvin replied. "I'll see to it that it's take care of."

'At least then I'll be kept away from the action. A couple of executions are a fair price for avoiding the deaths of my friends.'

He turned to go, but Kallida stopped him, making one last request of the young knight apprentice.

"Meet me in the field when you're through," Kallida instructed. "I have a plan to be rid of Blackridge, but it will require your cooperation. You wouldn't be opposed to such a task, would you, Mr. Dehnhardt?"

"No, sir," Kelvin replied dutifully, clenching his teeth.

"Good," Kallida said with a wicked sneer. "The deed will come with ample compensation, I assure you."

'Compensation?' Kelvin closed his eyes at the thought. 'If there is compensation enough to kill a man, then what is the worth of a man's life, anyway? And should I be so opposed? No. Zephyr was right... what is friendship but a momentary means of selfish influence over another's life. I served Blackridge once, but I serve Kallida now. Such is better for me now.'

He rushed through the halls to the dungeons where the prisoners were held. The sight was cold and dark and the air damp as he strode down the unfinished halls of the underground. It was a cruel thing to put such dignified guests in a room with such shoddy conditions, but such was Zephyr's way and none would dare to question their king.

There were, however, a few cells which the workmen had built better than the rest, the floors and walls having been fashioned in stone. These rooms were more spacious than the rest, rooms without bars and only shackles to chain the men to the walls. The lighting there was a cold blue with a purple hue like magic mixed with maurium. There were kept the representatives to whom Kelvin had been given a special task.

'This is it, then... my last shred of dignity.'

He left the door open as he entered the room, inviting his enemies into his trap, and he drew his steel saber from the sheath at his side.

'But I hear that it stops bothering a man after a while... after his conscience dies and he becomes hard as the stone floors beneath him,' he considered as he stepped, his boots clacking against the silver stones.

McFarland looked up at him from the wall near to his right with his eyes like the light of wounded stars and said, "Is it time, then?"

Kelvin paused and shot the man from Asrymn a questioning glance. "What?" he muttered foolishly.

The representative smiled faintly. "They're here now, aren't they?" he asked, wetting his lips.

Kelvin nodded. "Yes," he said. "It's time."

The man from Asrymn nodded wearily, closing his eyes as he took a laborious breath. "Unchain me, please," the man requested. "I should like to die a free man."

"Such requests!" Garner scoffed. "What does it matter whether our bodies lie chainless on the ground or dead in shackles?"

Kelvin turned to look at the man from Sa'ar who knelt, bound in chains, hanging from the western wall. There was a bitterness about him which never left Kelvin with anything more than a bad taste on his tongue and a dark cynicism. So, he turned his wandering eyes back to the suffering man from Asrymn, and he smiled at him.

"I will do it," he promised him, sheathing his sword and kneeling to unlock the cold shackles from his wrists.

The first of the shackles fell away, and McFarland brought his hand before his face to examine it, staring at the bruised and fragile skin covered in the dirt and dust from the ground on which he lived.

"It's coming to an end, you know," he said, addressing Kelvin without moving his eyes away from his tender wrist.

Kelvin paused, his eyes glancing over at him as his fingers worked the second lock, releasing the shackle of his other hand. "What is?" he asked him.

McFarland pulled his right arm in, smiling at his newfound freedom as he waited for the bonds to be removed from his ankles. "This kingdom," he told him, his voice filled with assurance of right. "Caliphus is coming, and he is King. He will reign in Pyre, and all of this world's forces, all of Zephyr's wiles, and the powers that have been could never stop him, because he is king, and he will rule justly."

"You won't see it," Kelvin replied simply, unlatching his leg from the hard metal cuff.

The man from Asrymn chuckled. "Perhaps," he said, "but I am his servant, and I shall be known to him as such."

Kelvin released the final shackle and stood again to his feet as he wondered at his words, being quick to expel them from his mind.

"Are you ready?" he asked, taking his saber back in his hand to slay him.

"Just a moment," the man from Asrymn replied breathily as he pulled himself to his feet, standing shakily before his executioner, and he smiled. "Now," he said with an incomprehensible gladness, "I'm ready now."