Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) (53 page)

“Now, I believe we’ve answered all of your questions, and
it is now for you time to choose.”
Catelyn felt herself launch into a panic.
“I still have one question! You said that the last two would
count as one!”
“And so I did. But then you asked a third question. You
asked ‘How’?”
Catelyn’s heart squeezed so tightly in her chest that she
thought it would explode. Uriel was right. She had asked that, and
now it was going to cost her everything. She had run out of time.
She frantically tried to think of something, some solution to the
dilemma she was in.
She imagined the manacles around Ortis’ wrist snapping,
and she wished him to use his talents for killing to save them all.
But how could that happen? He had been trying to tell her, with
his eyes, about the weak spot in his bindings.
And then she remembered the draw bridge. The fraying
rope. She ran her hand over her waistband, and felt the small
bladed lockpick still snugly secured there. It was a foolish hope,
but she clung to it with the fervor of a woman drowning, and
clinging to the rocky shoals, even as they sliced her open and
flayed the skin from her body. She turned to the Emperor.
“I beg you, Your Eminence. One last question. Not for you.
For him.”
And she nodded her head towards Ortis.
The Emperor looked at her with his dark, malevolent eyes,
a bemused expression on his face. He pursed his lips, considering
for a moment, before responding.
“You push farther than anyone I have ever known. You are
insolent, as men once were in the Before. I have no patience for
insolence.”
Catelyn thrust out with everything she had, trying to will
him to consider her plea. She watched his eyes, as they bored into
her. Finally, he seemed to reach a decision.
“I...admit to being curious. Very well. Ask the traitor what
you will.”
Catelyn took two steps towards Ortis, putting her within
an arm’s length of Silena and the two girls. She folded her arms
across her body, trying to look defiant, and slipped a finger under
her waistband until she felt the cool metal under her fingertips. If
this first part of her plan was going to work, she would need to rely
on her skill alone, not her bubble, to prevent the Emperor from
knowing what it was that she had intended.
“Ortis, you asked me to kill you personally, and you
promised that I could ask you why before the end. It appears that I
will not be unable to fulfill that promise to you, but I would still
like to know. Why did it have to be me?”
Ortis’ expression did not change, and he did not lessen the
tension in his arms. But he looked directly, unashamedly into her
eyes, and he answered her.
“It needed to be you, because no other could kill me and
call it justice. Of every man, woman or child in the Seat, only one
other that I have met has ever so moved me to want to change who
I was. There was one, but she died many sojourns ago. You remind
me much of her, and for my innumerable crimes, your hand
should have been the one to end me in the way that this city
deserves. Now, do what you must.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Catelyn saw the Emperor
seething with every word, but he remained silent glaring at the two
of them, and Catelyn knew that she would never get another
opportunity.
She reached deep down inside herself, deeper than she
ever had before and pulled open her bubble to encompass
everything she could see, everything she could hear, and taste and
touch. She flooded herself until she reached her breaking point,
and then she pushed further, and shifted her bubble the way she
had done on the drawbridge.
The world around her exploded in sound, shape and color.
She saw the very currents of the air as it moved past her, she
smelled the anxious sweat of every man in the courtyard, she
tasted the sea air hundreds of paces to the south, carried on a
passing breeze, she felt the whisper cracks of earth and the
smallest grains of sand under her feet, and she heard the
squeaking of the metal straps like thunder in her ears as Ortis
pulled tightly on the manacles at his wrists.
Time itself seemed to creep by as her perception of its
passing became more refined, and she could see the panicked gaze
of the Emperor as the sensory overload slammed into him as well.
He was unprepared for the sensations, and he brought his hands
to his head, appearing to move in slow motion.
Catelyn moved in two ways. First, she withdrew the metal
lockpick from her waistband and flung it with as much accuracy as
she could manage, towards the taut iron chains around Ortis’
wrist, and second, she dove toward Silena and the girls, reaching
out to grab all three of them. Her own sense of the world was over
the limit of what she could maintain, and as she felt Silena’s hand
in hers, she let her bubble collapse and the world resumed its
normal rhythm.
Chaos ensued.
She slammed to the ground with Silena, covering the older
woman and the two girls as best she could, and she heard the
snapping metal of Ortis’ restraints and swords being drawn. The
nearest Imperial soldiers rushed toward Ortis, but with his hands
now free, they stood no chance. He had been keeping himself in a
state of readiness for this moment, and with his wrist restraints
now gone, he was like a storm let loose on the world. He moved
aside like a whirlwind and in three breaths, four of the nearest
Imperial soldiers crashed to the courtyard stones, dead.
Catelyn looked up at the situation unfolding around her.
Imperial soldiers were closing in all around, and she could tell that
she wouldn’t be able to reach any of the other captives in time. The
Emperor was slumped on the ground, kneeling and holding his
head with both hands. Blood streamed from his eyes, ears and
mouth.
And then Ortis was there, standing over her, with one
sword in each hand, looking like nothing less than a guardian of
the Divines.
The next several whispers were little more than a blur.
Imperial soldiers rushed in, and were cut down by Ortis. He
moved with the grace and the speed of a natural born killer.
She had remembered reading about creatures that had
once lived on Ereas, and one of them had always fascinated her. It
had been called a shark, and the pictures that had been drawn of it
were of a sleek body and a mouthful of razor sharp teeth, and it
was reputed as a vicious and deadly predator. She didn’t know
why, but that is exactly what she thought, seeing Ortis fight. He
moved from one opponent to the next, slitting throats and
stomachs open with efficiency and speed, until the area around
them became splattered with crimson. She could taste the blood in
the air, and it made her gag.
Ortis defended their entire group, while the Imperial
soldiers tried everything they could to break through. It was futile.
Ortis had been right...he had a gift of his own. A gift for death.
Bodies fell, and men died. There seemed to be no end to it. At one
point, Catelyn could do nothing but to bury her head and hold her
hands over her ears, to block out the screaming and the pain.
This went on for some time, and Catelyn lost track of how
long.
And then, quiet. Not complete quiet, as Catelyn could still
hear the moaning of the dying, but she could hear that the battle
itself was over, and she looked up and saw Ortis, standing over
them like a blood soaked sentinel, swords extended and coated
with gore. She brought her hand to her mouth.
Through the carnage, his clothing had been cut to ribbons,
and she could see now the deep, rough scars covering every inch of
his exposed flesh. Bloodfire.
Who did this to you?
she wanted to know, though she
could guess at the answer. Regardless, the words did not pass her
lips.
Catelyn looked past Ortis, and saw the courtyard littered
with bodies, as well as severed arms, legs and other body parts.
She looked for the Emperor among the dead, but he was nowhere
to be found.
“Uriel?” she asked him.
“Gone,” Ortis said weakly. That’s when she noticed the
dozens of mortal wounds that Ortis himself had sustained. He was
covered in blood, and much of it was his own. He looked unable to
move more than a finger width, now that the combat had ended.
Gifted though he was, even he had his limits, it seemed.
She stood and put her hand on his shoulder and he
crumpled to the ground, shaking.
Catelyn turned him onto his back and she could see his
flesh turning a pallid grey color, where it wasn’t covered with raw
scars or splashed with crimson blood. He turned his eyes to her,
and she could see the pleading in them. He reached into the
tattered remains of his breast plate, pulled the folded paper flower
from inside, and held it out to her weakly, his eyes pleading with
her to take it. She did so, pulling it to her heart.
“Please. Do it,” was all he said.
Catelyn felt herself turn to jelly, and she crashed onto his
chest, sobbing. She heard his breath rattling in his chest, and
realized how much pain he must be in. Whatever he had done, he
had paid for it a thousand times over. Catelyn felt a hand on her
own shoulder, and she looked up. Silena was standing over her,
and holding a slender dagger in her outstretched hand, handle out.
Catelyn’s mouth curled in sadness, but she took the blade from
Silena, and felt her mouth tremble and her eyes blinked away
tears.
She looked into Ortis’ eyes, the eyes of a killer, the eyes of
her savior. Her tears ran down her cheeks, she gave him one final
look and said “Thank you.”
She slid the dagger into his chest, up under the breastbone
and into his heart, and she watched his eyes fill with tears, and
then the life fled from his body. In his last moments, he smiled up
at her, and she collapsed in grief, hugging him to her as he left this
world.
Silena pulled her away before she knew it.
“Catelyn, we have to go. Reinforcements will be here soon.
Uriel will not take this defeat easily. We need to be gone. We can
mourn the dead later.”
Something about Silena’s words registered with Catelyn
and she looked around, and realized that Erich was lying a pace
away, lifeless on the ground. Catelyn broke apart again, wailing at
the loss, and Silena embraced her, making shushing sounds, while
the two girls clutched onto her legs, loudly sobbing their own tears.
“Come now, come now,” Silena finally said. “We’re alive,
and we need to honor what these men did for us by making sure
that we stay that way.”
Catelyn didn’t want to do anything of the sort, but she
knew that Silena was right about the Emperor, so she let Silena
gather her up, and they all stood.
A familiar voice from one side of the blood-soaked plaza
called out “The Seat will know of your bravery, my barefoot
Catelyn. This is only the beginning.” She looked up to see Marko,
his wide, white smile shining through the gloom, as he carried the
young man Duncan over one shoulder. He waved, then exited the
courtyard quickly through one of the raised portcullises by the
entry.
Catelyn wanted to go after them, to ask about Duncan’s
condition, to apologize to both of them for their captivity and
torture, but they were gone within a flash. Silena tugged on
Catelyn, and the four of them made their way over to the Grand
Gate. She tucked the paper flower into the pouch of her waistband,
and wiped the tears from her face.
As they approached the stone edifice, Catelyn finally
realized what a daunting structure it was. A massive slab of stone
paces high, braced with massive metal framing and shut tight with
dozens of heavy iron clasps. Looking at it, Catelyn had no idea how
in Ereas they were going to get it open. Silena seemed to read her
thoughts.
“It looks more impregnable than it is,” was all she said.
Catelyn didn’t see how that was possible, but she trusted Silena.
She had to, as she no longer trusted herself.
“Wait here a moment,” Silena said, and then she ducked
into the small guard house next to the Gate’s structure.
She heard Silena moving something inside, and then she
heard massive groaning coming from the inside of the Wall, and
then the Grand Gate rumbled. It was so loud that it shook the
ground under their feet, but as she watched in astonishment, the
Grand Gate began to slide open, scraping dirt away from the
ground as it was pulled forward as though by some vast invisible
hand.
Silena popped her head out, and watched the Grand Gate
pull inward, until it was wide enough for them to squeeze through,
then she disappeared and Catelyn heard the mechanism inside
being pulled again. The massive stone gate gave a great groan, and
then slowly began to reverse its direction, closing up again.
Silena ran as fast as her legs would carry her out of the
guardhouse and back to where Catelyn and the girls waited. She
grabbed the girls by the hand and rushed on through to the gate,
before it closed up again. She looked back towards Catelyn as she
ran.
“You decide, Catelyn. Is your future life, or is it death?”
And then she ran through the gate and out into the wider world.
Catelyn first looked back, towards the Seat and at the
carnage of the courtyard all around her, at the dead body of Ortis,
unceremoniously left in the dirt like a piece of trash, and then
turned and looked forward. All she could see beyond the gate was
the slowly lightening sky and some mountains on the horizon. And
no walls as far as she could see. She took two steps at a walk before
she felt the itch in her bare feet and then raced the rest of the
distance towards the slowly closing gate, and finally she crossed
the threshold and embraced the coming morning air. Despite the
pain she felt at everything that she had just been through, she
smiled as she passed outside of the Walls that had imprisoned her
for her entire life, and rejoiced at the fact that she was taking her
first steps toward a new life.

Units of Time
Time is measured somewhat arbitrarily in the world of Ereas, a
result of the distinct lack of timekeeping devices. Much was lost in
the cataclysm that befell humankind in the days prior to the
Before, and the only increments which survived were those set by
the laws of nature. Citizens of the Empire use the following
standards for measuring time.