The Demon's Blade (20 page)

"Well, now that you've got yourself untied, help tie this woman," Darien ordered. "Let's get her secure, then we'll decide what to do with her."

As he tied her hands, Darien considered what to do with the mysterious assailant, but he wondered even more how she had managed to find him here. Clearly, her skills marked her as more than an independent bounty hunter. Her armor was as Tobin had described it, shiny and expensive, but without marking or insignia. The spells she used in battle suggested a knight of the Golden Shield, but it was unusual for any of them to operate alone, or conceal their affiliation. He realized he would have to pry the information out of her, and the real threat could be gaining ground while he dragged this prisoner along.

After she was well secured, Darien dragged her over near the sheer face of the mountain, and plunked her down with her back against the wall, just inside the underpass. Jerris stood a few feet away, watching her intently, as if he could actually do anything to prevent her escaping. "So, what now?" Jerris asked. "I mean, do we just leave her here or take her with us or take her back to Vorog?"

"Well, we can't very well go back, so that just leaves the two choices," Darien replied. "We won't get much farther today anyway. We should rest, and resume our journey tomorrow. I’ll look for a suitable campsite, while you keep an eye on her. If she gets loose, just yell. See if you can get her horse out of the underpass entrance, but don't go so far up the tunnel that you lose sight of her. She's obviously got some skill in magic so she may try any number of tricks to get herself free and run off."

Darien soon found a small cave that was dry and just large enough for them. It would be rather cramped for three people, but it would do. Darien headed back to the road to fetch Jerris and the prisoner. The lad was still standing watch, and apparently had managed to fetch the horse, as he now held the lead of a svelte white steed. "Alright Jerris, I found a site, so go fetch the horses."

A few minutes later, they were safely camped and had a small fire going. Darien sat his prisoner against the back wall of the cave. He sat against the left-hand wall of the cave and Jerris the right. After all were seated, he reached over and pulled the shiny metal helm from the prisoner’s head. She neither struggled, nor raised her eyes to her captors. She only sat in silence, her head hung down with her long hair covering her face, a veil of golden locks. "You should be thankful you're still alive, whoever you are. Only a handful of people have ever engaged me in single combat and lived to tell the tale. Sitting there moping will not help your situation," Darien spoke to the prisoner.

"I have nothing to say to you, monster," the woman growled back. "Just kill me and be done with it. I will tell you nothing."

"Oh, I don't think so," Darien said. "If I wanted to kill you, I would have already done so. Whatever information you have is most likely worthless to me anyway. I admit that I am curious how you were able to find me while far more capable adversaries have failed to do so. Whatever stroke of luck allowed you to find me, it hardly matters now. Unless I miss my guess, you're on some personal quest for vengeance, and there won't be anyone else coming looking for you." The prisoner did not respond but turned her head to the side, an unmistakable signal to Darien that his words hat hit their mark. "Well then, now that we've established that, we can move on," he said with a smirk. "Who are you?" The prisoner looked up and seemed about to speak, but instead spat in her captor’s face. Jerris chuckled but the Executioner’s scowl quieted him. "Still nothing to say, then? You had plenty to say a few minutes ago. I believe it was something about killing me and avenging your family." He paused to wait for a response, but getting none, he continued. "You did say I killed your family, right? You'll have to forgive me but I've killed a great many people. I'm afraid you'll have to be somewhat more specific." Darien snickered as he finished speaking. Jerris laughed loudly, an unexpected response to be certain, but this finally managed to get a response out of the prisoner.

"That isn't funny, you stupid child," the woman sneered at Jerris. "He's a murderer and you're laughing about it. Curse you for your tricks. I might have had him but for your treachery."

"Oh, I doubt that," Jerris said merrily. "He can do much worse than he showed you."

"And Jerris gave it away anyway," Darien added. "You don't tell someone that something 'isn't a trap'. That makes it fairly obvious that it is, in fact, a trap."

"Yes, thanks for pointing that out. I'm sure I never would have figured that out on my own" Jerris rolled his eyes, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I thought this was someone who might actually kill me and I panicked. I expected someone scarier than her to be behind that helmet."

"A thousand curses upon the both of you," the prisoner said. "It's bad enough that I am held captive, but now I must endure your mockery as well. You have no honor."

"Oh, now that is funny," Darien said jovially. "There isn't much honor in real combat I'm afraid. If you had ever fought outside the arenas you would realize that."

"Dammit, how did you know…," The prisoner stopped in mid-sentence, suddenly returning to her silence.

"You may as well talk to us," Darien said. "I'm not going to kill you, nor am I going to leave you tied up here in the wilderness to starve. I can't let you go for several reasons, not least of which being you aren't my only pursuer. I have many enemies, and you are far from the most formidable. We're going to be traveling together for a while whether you like it or not. I have no particular desire to make you any more miserable than you obviously are, so just cooperate and this will be far less unpleasant for all concerned." The prisoner did not respond. Once again, she seemed determined to stay silent.

"Darien's not nearly as bad as he seems at first," Jerris added with a smile. "He's a bit harsh, but I've gotten used to it. He just sounds a lot more frightening than he acts. He could have killed you and didn't. He could just leave you here to starve, but he won't. I'm not sure I'd be that forgiving to someone who just tried to kill me. He actually stopped me from killing someone a few days ago."

"And that one actually deserved it," Darien scoffed. "Look, whoever you are. I have no doubt that you have good reason to hate me. Many do. I did not lie to you when I said I have killed many people. I would give them back to you if I could. Believe it or not, I would allow you to kill me if I could, but there are more important things than my life and your vengeance. If this were not so, I would have died a long time ago by my own hand. My life is a curse upon myself as well as others, yet for the moment, it holds a worse evil at bay."

The prisoner finally looked up at Darien. Her light brown skin marked her clearly as a southerner, and contrasted sharply with her long straight, golden hair. Her eyes were light blue, the color of clear sky on a summer day. Her lips were narrow but full, her nose was short, and her face was young and vibrant. Most men would have thought her quite beautiful, but the Executioner was not most men, and if he had ever had any desire to seek out the companionship of beautiful ladies, it was now long extinguished. The expression on her face seemed confused and uncertain, as if she had suddenly been handed a riddle for which she had no answer. "I don't understand what you're talking about. What do you mean when you served the Demon King? You mean you don't serve him anymore?”

"You mean you didn't already know that?" Darien rubbed his temples, disappointed and more than a little confused at how uninformed this woman was. "I had assumed that you were better informed since you were able to track me down. No, I betrayed the Demon King five years ago. I tried to kill him, failed, and escaped. I've been wandering the northlands hoping no one would notice me ever since. Unfortunately, the Demon King has finally found me and sent assassins after me, so I'm now attempting to flee south. Frankly, I find it stunning that you were able to find me without knowing that…"

"What kind of trick is this?" the woman said. "No one betrays the Order of the Shade. The Golden Shield has never gotten one to turn. They don't even bother interrogating them anymore."

"So you have trained under the Order of the Golden Shield," Darien observed. "I thought as much, though you're obviously not acting on their behalf at the moment. Keep your secrets to yourself if you wish. I know you're not working for the Demon King, and that's really all that I care about. There's a man chasing me. You may have heard of him, Avirosa the Wraith." The woman nodded yes. "Well, he's the one after me, and he'll quickly learn about you since you've been asking questions in Vorog. He'll be interested in any information you have, and I have an interest in seeing that he does not get that information, so here's what I'm going to do.” The Executioner smiled dryly as he spoke to the scowling woman. “We're headed for Galad, and the plains beyond, and you're going to come with us. I'd rather go as quickly as possible, so dragging along a tied prisoner is not my preference. I will do that if I must, but I'd much rather we just put aside our differences for the moment and travel together. Once we're safely over the mountains, you may go your own way, and Jerris and I will go ours. You may even resume trying to kill me if you must, but I'd recommend you don't actually engage me again until you're far more skilled than you are now."

"You… You're just going to let me go?" the prisoner asked.

"Once we're over the mountains, yes, I will let you go," Darien confirmed. "I have already said several times that I am not going to kill you, and I can't very well drag around a prisoner for the rest of my days, so that just leaves the one option, doesn't it?" Darien slipped sideways out of the cave as he’d finished speaking, and wandered over to where the horses were tied.

"See, he's not so terrible," Jerris added. "We're all more likely to get out of this mess if we cooperate. Can you at least tell us your name?"

"Rana," the prisoner finally relented. "It's Rana."

"Then goodnight Rana. I'm Jerris, and I'm going to sleep."

"You can sleep too if you want," Darien said to Rana as he tossed her the bedroll that he had picked from her supplies. "I'll even untie you. I won't be sleeping tonight." The bedroll landed at her feet.

"Um… Okay." Rana scooted until her hands were turned towards her captor. He untied the ropes that held her, and then she laid down to sleep. "Th… Thank you."

Chapter 17: The Craglands

Darien did not sleep that night. He never slept after the nightmares. They affected him deeply, but it was not the uncontrollable fear that swept through him in the dreams, fear far greater than he could ever remember feeling in the waking world. What Darien hated about the dreams, what he hated about himself, was that once again, just as in his youth, he was powerless, powerless to escape what was happening, powerless to change the outcome. That, most of all, kept him awake this night.

He reasoned it just as well, since he needed to keep watch on the woman who had attacked him. She slept soundly enough, lying on her own bedroll. The night air was chilly, but not uncomfortably so. Aside from the breath of the sleepers, the only sound to be heard was the occasional whistling of the wind through the rocks. During the night, Darien alternated between watching the sleeping Rana, and staring up at the mountainside, wondering if anyone more dangerous had followed her.

The night passed without incident. Morning came, and surprisingly, Jerris awakened with the sun. After wiping the sleep from his eyes, Jerris got up and looked at the woman on the ground. "I don't see how she can sleep with that armor on," Jerris observed.

"That's the first thing you think of?" Darien said. "I suppose it is somewhat uncomfortable, but after the battle she was probably too tired to care. She won't have to worry about that from now on. I don't plan on letting her keep that armor."

A few minutes later, the young southern woman began stirring from sleep. As soon as her eyes began to open, she caught sight of the Executioner and lurched backwards against the wall, shocked to wake up in this place staring into the face of a most hated enemy. A moment later, she relaxed her muscles, and came to a sitting position against the back wall of the cave, raising her knees up in front of her defensively. She did not speak, looking expectantly, waiting for the others to speak.

"Good morning, Rana." Jerris smiled as he spoke.

"Good morning," she said nervously back.

"I take it you remember the situation you've gotten yourself into?" Darien said. Rana nodded yes. "Alright then, take off your armor and leave it in the back of the cave here."

"What?" Rana’s eyes flew open wide, then narrowed sharply into a fiercely defiant stare. "You… You disgusting pig! I won't! You'll have to kill me before I'll…"

"Just your armor, stupid girl!" Darien shook his head in disgust, realizing what the woman had been thinking he intended. “I haven’t the slightest interest in… that. I just want to be sure you're unarmed and unarmored. Since you did try to kill me yesterday, it seems like a reasonable precaution, don't you think?"

"I suppose," she muttered, looking off to the side with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Jerris, watch her, and then search her for any hidden weapons while I get the horses ready," Darien ordered. Jerris nodded in agreement.

When Darien returned, he found Rana unarmored as requested, tying her long yellow-gold hair behind her head. She wore a simple white woolen shirt with a golden shield emblazoned on the front and dark indigo pants, a standard uniform for an apprentice of the Golden Shield. She stood taller than most women, standing but a couple of inches below Jerris. Her shoulders were slightly broader across than most women, but that was easily obscured by her height. Besides that, however, she appeared inarguably feminine. The armor, most likely designed for a grown man, had hidden her form well. Her arms and legs were lean but muscular, possessing a strength which was obvious even through the heavy woolen clothes. The armor had also been enchanted to conceal the magical aura of the wearer. Without it, Darien could now sense the woman’s formidable magical aura. She appeared well trained, capable, and strong, qualities Darien admired. Were circumstances different, she would no doubt prove a valuable ally, he thought. Even as the thought went through his mind, his eyes settled on the armor at the back of the cave. It couldn’t do much harm to take it with us. If we do end up in a fight, it might make the difference between life and death.

Jerris stood watching a few feet away, open mouthed, gawking boyishly at the lovely woman who had suddenly appeared before them. He admired her shapely form with the usual zeal of adolescence, and Darien shook his head. “Jerris,”

The older half-elf’s stern voice brought the lad out of his stupor. He jerked, nearly jumping into the air. “What is it, are we ready to go then?” the younger half-elf blurted out awkwardly.

“Let’s gather up that armor and pack it on the back of my horse. It will be a bit of an unwieldy burden, but if Avirosa does find us, two fighters are better than one.”

“You’re not even counting me?” Jerris said.

“No, and why should I? You got captured by a pair of idiots as I recall.” Jerris mumbled something under his breath, and gathered up the armor, while the Executioner turned to Rana. "All right then, what about you, Miss Rana? Are you going to cooperate or do I need to tie your hands?"

"No, that won't be necessary," Rana said. "I give you my word of honor that I will not attempt to escape nor will I attempt to kill you again."

"Hmph," The Executioner grumbled. "A simple 'no' would have sufficed. The rest of it is meaningless to me. Let's be on our way then."

They led the horses to the road, and then mounted up, ready to continue the journey. Darien had tethered Rana’s horse, named Squall, between Cloud and Terra. A thick morning fog slowed their progress at first, but as the sun rose over the land, the fog dissipated, revealing rocky terrain covered with scrubby bushes, scattered grasses, and scraggly trees, all brown and dormant for the winter months. The road ran along a high ridge that extended many miles into the Craglands from the south door of the underpass, until the ridge simply ended and the road dipped down into some unseen canyon.

The Craglands were a gray web of randomly placed ridges of high hills, canyons without any visible entrance or exit, steep gravelly slopes that appeared ready to slip away at the slightest touch, and massive boulders and piles of fallen rock to mark where other such slopes had crumbled in ages past. The road, where it was visible, was composed of regularly sized gray stones, square and worn smooth over centuries of wear. Unfortunately, the road disappeared in many places, buried by the remains of past rockslides, broken by boulders, or long worn away by torrents of water. More than once, the travelers had to pick their way slowly and carefully forward through distances where the road was worn away. It generally took several minutes of wandering to find the road once again, a frustrating delay, but not entirely unexpected. Slowing their pace was still preferable to becoming lost and then having to navigate the empty wilderness of the Craglands without a guide.

Rana rode silently between the two men, making no attempt at escape or conversation. After a while, Darien decided to see how cooperative his prisoner would be. There was only one question to ask that was of any importance. “So, Rana. Are you ready to tell me how you were able to track me down?”

“I still have nothing to say to you,” Rana turned up her nose and stared resolutely forward. “Just because you showed me mercy does not mean I’m going to think any better of you. You’re still a murderer and nothing more. Do you think that because you no longer serve the Demon King, that I will forget all your crimes?”

“Not at all, but in our present situation, it might benefit us all to be honest with one another.” The Executioner said. He waited a few minutes for a response, then continued. “As you please then, I suppose I’ll just have to guess. Your outfit marks you clearly as an apprentice in the Order of the Golden Shield. However, if they knew where I was, I presume they would not send an apprentice after me. Further, they have spies just as the Master does, and their leadership must know by now that I’ve left his service. If they don’t, then they’re far more incompetent than the Master believed them to be.”

“The Master?” Rana asked curiously. “Who is...”

“It’s what he calls the Demon King,” Jerris interrupted. “I know it’s rather creepy, but he can’t help it.”

“Are you sure?” Rana shot back., “How do you know he isn’t lying? How do you know anything he tells you is the truth? He might be trying to spy for the Demon King, and he just made up this story so you’d trust him.” Jerris laughed heartily in response. “What’s so funny?” Rana protested.

“I believe he’s laughing at the idea that all this is some sort of grand plot to spy for the Demon King by befriending a half-elf northerner and sparing the life of a Golden Shield apprentice,” Darien said. “I must admit, no one would expect that.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. Rana’s face turned red out of embarrassment and she fell silent again.

“Well, yes, that’s about it.” Jerris said, “What a silly notion. Anyway, I have my own reasons for trusting Darien, one being that if he’d been working for the Demon King, I’m sure I’d have been dead almost the instant he met me.”

“Fine then, But you should know who it is you follow, and what he’s done. Have you any idea what crimes he’s committed against the civilized people of the world?”

“I know his name,” Jerris said. “I don’t know what crimes he’s committed and against whom, but he’s committed none against me, and that’s all I’m concerned about.”

“He’s Darien the Executioner,” Rana’s voice rose with anger and she waved her hands furiously. “He’s killed hundreds, maybe thousands of people. The Order of the Shade executes horrible tortures of the worst kind imaginable. He’s a monster and a murderer and a bloody scourge upon us all.”

“You may be right,” Jerris said flatly. “He’s told me as much, but he’s been kind enough to spare me the details. I’d appreciate it if you would do the same.”

“Then you’re no better than he is. He brutally murdered my entire family while I watched.”

“That’s interesting,” the Executioner shrewdly observed. “I was a soldier, not an assassin. There were only a few occasions where I was called upon to personally kill anyone aside from enemy soldiers. The Master occasionally ordered members of the Order to execute prisoners, just to be certain we would kill without hesitation, but it seems quite unlikely that you witnessed any of these, so I must guess you are a survivor of one of the purges.”

“Purges?” Jerris asked.

“Occasionally, the Master would decide to make an example of a rebellious city, and declare a purge,” Darien explained. “In that case, it was my task to purge the city. The purges were used to instill fear in the Demon King’s tributaries. He would send soldiers under the command of one of his generals, often myself, to utterly destroy a city, and make it seem as though everyone was killed, though that was rarely the case. In almost all of the purges, the nobility and any others who might be dangerous were killed, and the rest taken captive, an excellent way to replenish the Master’s slave work force. It was important that none escape and the city was left an empty ruin. The point was to remind every other city what could happen. Fear was the main objective.” Darien reasoned that he had not been a Shade long enough to command more than one or two purges. This actually narrowed this woman’s possible identities considerably, but, unfortunately, those memories were lost in the fog of his mind. There was no need to mention that to the woman, though. It will be just as well if she believes that I executed dozens of purges, he decided.

“Do you think that you’re innocent because you were following orders? You are utterly disgusting,” Rana snarled.

Darien ignored her insult, continuing to speak. “If you escaped from a purged city, then I’m impressed. That’s a task few have managed. I’d be curious to learn just how you accomplished that.”

“Damn you and your devious words!” The woman spat out the words, increasingly frustrated that her captor continued to wheedle information out of her despite her not wishing to cooperate. “I see the only way to keep you from learning anything is to stay silent.”

“Come on, Darien,” Jerris said. “She’s never going to trust us if you keep interrogating her like this. If you can’t at least be somewhat nice, then why don’t you just use that spell you used on me and be done with it?”

“I only used that on you because you were young, naïve, and simple minded. For you, it was unpleasant, but otherwise quick and painless, and it didn’t work anyway, if you recall. Rana, on the other hand, is probably trained to resist that spell. All Golden Shield members are. That resistance can be broken if the caster is sufficiently stronger of mind than his target. However, the process of breaking this resistance is extraordinarily painful. If I used it on this woman, I’m quite sure she would never trust us at all. I’ve been on the receiving end of that spell as part of my own training, and it isn’t pleasant. It’s also tiring for the caster, and I would rather not waste my energy. I don’t want her information that badly.”

“See, even when he’s being rude, he’s not being cruel, not on purpose anyway,” Jerris said as he turned to Rana and smiled. “He’s like that. It’s like the only things he knows are between bad and horrible, so to him, bad is as good as it gets.”

“Bah, now whose compliments sound like insults?” Darien scoffed, then added, “if she doesn’t want to speak to us, she doesn’t have to. If she somehow survived one of the purges, then she has good reason to seek vengeance. I am many things, but innocent is not one of them, orders or not. I won’t bother to ask for forgiveness, as if pretty words would make any difference. I probably am a monster, and a very dangerous one, but I am not the only one.”