Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) (34 page)

Ortis had managed to get as close as he could using cover,
and now he had to make a decision about how to proceed, and
really, it hadn’t been a choice at all. He stepped out from behind
the stall obscuring him and took two strides towards his thief, his
palms sweating. He had clearly identified her as soon as she and
the stall owner Silena had clasped hands and greeted each other.
He could see her mouth now, could clearly make out the soft lips of
a young girl, and her dirty bare feet standing in the dusty road, a
single metal ring looped around the middle toe of her left foot.

As soon as he had taken those steps towards her, she
sensed him as he thought she might, and turned to face him. He
hoped more than anything that she wouldn’t run, but he was
genuinely worried about that possibility.

Have I overplayed my hand?
he thought in a panic, his
mind racing.
He had thought about this moment for spans. He couldn’t
lose her, not again.
He spread his arms to his sides, knelt on the ground and
bowed his head.
Ortis didn’t understand any of the feelings he experienced
when he fell into her presence, and never once planned the words
he would say when he finally managed to catch up to her, but they
fell from his mouth, without bidding.
“I am yours. Command me.”
He looked up then, at the face swathed in rags, and hoped
that he would be deemed worthy.

Catelyn stood, transfixed, and she could sense the people
around her stopping to stare at the scene playing out right in front
of them. She was completely taken aback and rendered speechless
by what was happening, and she knew that she must look a fool
standing there motionless with her mouth hanging open at the
sight of this immense man prostrating himself before her, and with
no idea of what to do or say.

Silena was right behind her now, at her elbow, and she
whispered to her sharply.
“Tell him to get up. He’s causing a scene, and we can’t
afford the attention.”
Catelyn hesitated, and Silena pushed on her arm again,
finally jarring her enough to say the words “Please, get up.”
The man did as she commanded, just as he had said he
would do. As he stood motionless, apparently waiting silently and
patiently for her next command, the cluster of people who had
stopped to gape moved on, no longer interested now that he was
no longer acting a fool. Catelyn focused all of her senses on the
man standing before her. It was indeed the man who had watched
her escaping with Sera and Elexia the night of the fire, but there
was something different about him too, and not just because of
what he had just done. She could sense some sort of physical
change, as though he wore a disguise or had changed some part of
his appearance, but she had only dimly gleaned anything about his
appearance that night, and couldn’t tell what it was.
All of that was not important right now though. She
needed to know exactly what was going on.
“Who are you?” she asked him.
“My name is Ortis,” he answered directly.
At the name, Silena inhaled sharply and almost cried out.
Catelyn turned to her, while keeping one ear on Ortis, and reached
out to offer her support. Silena gripped her arm hard, and Catelyn
winced at the strength of her. Catelyn had underestimated just
how strong Silena actually was. She asked “Are you alright,
Silena?”
Silena said nothing at first, then she let out a long, low
breath.
“I didn’t recognize...I...Catelyn, this man is the Emperor’s
personal enforcer. Most know him as the Butcher. He’s the one
that they sent, those many sojourns ago. He killed my entire
family.” When Silena said the word family, Catelyn could hear her
pain interwoven with an unfathomable rage, and something more
visceral, and she genuinely feared what she might do.
Catelyn turned her bubble back on Ortis.
“Is this true? Answer me!” she barked.
“Yes. My crimes are innumerable,” was all he said in reply.
She heard no hint of deception, no hint of anxiety. He was calm,
devoid of any remorse or regret. Indeed, what she sensed from him
was excitement.
Catelyn felt herself tense involuntarily, ready to flee, and
considering how she and Silena were going to get away from this
monster. She was still unbelievably confused by everything that
was happening.
What is he doing here?
She asked the obvious question next. “Why on Ereas did
you just ask me to command you?”
Silena interrupted, stepping close and whispering into her
right ear.
“Catelyn, enough. The Emperor is probably right behind
him. We have to go. You cannot trust a word this...butcher says!”
Silena muttered, her words as venomous as any had ever heard
from anyone.
Ortis ignored the exchange, and answered Catelyn instead.
“You have returned my life to me, and because of that gift,
my life is now yours.”
Catelyn tried to understand what he was talking about, but
Silena was becoming insistent, and tugging on her to be gone,
before the Imperial trap she was convinced was about to be sprung
on them snapped shut.
She had to admit that Silena was making a very good
argument for fleeing, but she was also more and more intrigued by
this strange man’s seeming honor, such as it was. But Silena had
called him a butcher, and he himself admitted to innumerable
crimes.
Can I trust this man? He seems so genuine in his
answers.
Catelyn decided that she trusted Silena more. But she
needed to have the man answer at least one question before she
made up her mind.
“Ortis, you spoke of innumerable crimes...how many men
have you killed?”
“At least four thousand,” he announced nonchalantly.
Catelyn felt her knees go weak.
Silena gasped, and brought her hand to her mouth.
Whatever fancy she might have entertained about this
man or his answers, Catelyn was now convinced that Silena was
right. This monster could never be trusted. Could never be
forgiven. She was cold when she uttered her next words to him.
“Ortis, you say your life is mine. I don’t want it. You wish
me to command you? I command you to go, and forget everything
about me. I command you to turn around, walk away, and never
show your face to me again.” Catelyn could sense his
disappointment mounting with each word, and he remained silent
for several breaths, until finally, he answered.
“I will do as you ask,” Ortis said, then turned and strode
away, surprising Catelyn and Silena both. But they didn’t stop to
think about it, and as soon as the back of Ortis was no longer
visible through the crowd, Catelyn helped Silena pack up her stall
quickly, and they prepared to leave for Silena’s home.
They were both eager to go, and Catelyn was holding some
of Silena’s sacks of goods when the commotion first reached her
ears. She became instantly alert and reached out with her bubble,
and what she sensed was not good. She heard Imperial soldiers,
barking orders, and they were at distance and closing in. She
listened to them issuing commands and threatening people trying
to leave the marketplace. They were locking down the entire
central plaza.
Catelyn dropped the sacks, grabbed Silena who tried to
protest, and ran.
Silena was strong, but she was not spry on her feet, and
she was reluctant to simply abandon her stall. Catelyn rushed
through the crowd, pushing strangers aside with one arm, while
pulling on Silena with the other. She pulsed her bubble to all sides,
trying to find a gap in the Imperial lines, but she could detect
none, and the Imperials were closing the perimeter, slowly moving
inward and clustering everyone together into the center of the
market. Catelyn felt her forehead sweating and her heart racing.
She cursed herself for letting herself get distracted by Ortis
and his mysterious appearance. She should have grabbed Silena
and ran then, or shoved Silena aside and ran in the other direction.
She thought that she might have been able to outrun Ortis,
especially if she managed to get up to the rooftops at the edge of
the plaza, but it was too late for any of that now.
Each way Catelyn tried to run, she could hear and smell
Imperial soldiers. Dozens of them. And so Catelyn stopped to
assess their options, and she and Silena paused to catch their
breath. Silena quietly muttered prayers to the Divines under her
breath.
The Imperial soldiers had surrounded the plaza, and
Catelyn could tell that there was no escape. Were they searching
for Ortis? She assumed that had to be the case and maybe that
would allow her and Silena to simply lay low and get out of this
after all. If he had indeed betrayed his Emperor to search her out
for his own agenda, she imagined that would not have sat well with
a man the likes of Uriel III. It all made sense now. That was what
had drawn the man out of his Citadel after all these sojourns. His
long-time general and enforcer, his Butcher, had betrayed his trust
and broken his vow to serve the Empire.
And to the Emperor, Catelyn could imagine, that had to
have been more than just a crime. That would be personal.
Catelyn groaned inwardly at being caught, literally, in the
middle of these events, wondering again what she had done to
deserve being so embroiled in things that were none of her
concern. She nearly felt the urge to laugh out loud at the absurdity
of it all. She was just some stupid blind girl, and here she was,
having become trapped in a battle of wills between the Emperor
and his former man-at-arms Ortis.
The Imperial soldiers had finally stopped moving, forming
a ring around the main plaza, with about thirty or so civilians
caught inside the perimeter in addition to Catelyn and Silena. She
tried to appear nonchalant, and took Silena’s arm, like a daughter
helping her mother along. Silena continued to pray and place her
hand on Catelyn’s arm, stroking it warmly as a gesture of support.
They waited for only a few whispers, and that is when
Catelyn heard the distinctive clopping of hooves on stone
approaching from the east. Catelyn felt her face turn numb at the
realization. The Emperor was just a few breaths away from her and
Silena now. Silena could hear it too now, and she ceased her
praying. No one in the plaza moved a muscle or said a word.
She heard the horse carrying the Emperor burst forth from
a nearby side street, and canter up to the edge of the circle of
Imperial soldiers. She focused her bubble on the man, and was
somewhat surprised, at least on her initial inspection, to sense
nothing unusual about the man named Uriel the Third of his
Name, Emperor of the nation of Exeter.
She smelled his scent, a combination of sweat and light
perfume from his robes, and could hear his strong heartbeat and
the clear, powerful lungs of a man in prime physical condition.
That was somewhat surprising, as she had expected the Emperor
to be in poor physical condition, representative of his age. She
heard hushed whispers and gasping from those around her as well.
Silena squeezed her hand tightly.
“Silena, what is it?” she asked.
“By the Divines...he...he’s as at least as old as I am, but he
hasn’t aged a day.”
“What?” Catelyn asked, shocked. She scanned Silena and
detected no trace of lying, even though she knew that her friend
was telling the truth.
Catelyn could hear the disbelief plainly in Silena’s voice,
but she was being forthright in her astonishment and Catelyn
could also hear the underlying terror behind her voice as well as
the implications of what that truth meant. For if the Emperor
didn’t age, then his Empire could go on indefinitely. Could go on
forever.
She returned her focus to the man named Uriel, and
listened as he dismounted from his horse, dusted off his robes and
removed his leather riding gloves. He raised one arm up and
patted the top of his bald head, and she could hear the amusement
in his voice when he called out, loud enough for the entire plaza to
hear.
“My people. I am here for a very simple reason. One of
you...has something of mine. Something priceless beyond
compare. And to put it as simply as I can, I wish to have it back.”
Silena inhaled sharply and Catelyn felt as if the floor were
going to open up and sink beneath her into the Void. This was not
about Ortis. This was about the artifact.
How on Ereas does he know?
she thought.
Catelyn thought quickly through her options, as the
Emperor continued.
“I am led to understand that, at least within the past few
prayers, it was within the possession of a young girl.”
With that, she could feel the Emperor beginning to move
through the crowd now, looking at each of the citizens trapped
within their perimeter, and it would only be a few more whispers
until he got close enough to see her there with Silena, shouldering
her pack which still contained the artifact in its case.
“I would very much like to meet this young girl, and
discuss a transaction with her.”
Catelyn knew that to be a bald-faced lie, as did everyone in
the plaza. The Emperor would simply take what he wanted.
Catelyn knew then, with a sense of dread, that she was
going to die for her crime, and that death was imminent. The only
question was, how? Would the Emperor himself do the deed? Or
would he have one of his men do it?
Suddenly Catelyn wondered if she shouldn’t have kept
Ortis around just a little longer. Maybe he could have cut a path
through the perimeter and gotten them away. Things would still
have ended horribly, she suspected, but she decided in hindsight
that she would have happily taken the chance over the fate that
now awaited her. But whatever lay in her future, however long that
was, she knew one thing. No one else would die because of her. It
was time for her to accept the consequences of the choices that
she’d made. She scanned the citizens around her, gathered in the
square; sensed their fear, smelled their anger. And then she turned
her bubble on Silena, her dear friend. The woman was full of
sadness and despair, and although Catelyn had not been around at
the time, she knew precisely how the older woman had felt,
standing before Ortis as he had butchered almost her entire family
for the actions that she had committed.
What Catelyn had done was coming back to haunt her.
And she realized that she would need to stop running, and stand
up and take responsibility to save lives, the way that Silena had
done.
Catelyn made a decision then, and she found peace in it,
oddly enough.
She reached over, squeezed Silena’s hand, then gently
pushed her away to create a visible distance between them, and
called out “I have what you’re looking for!”
She could sense the Emperor turn toward the sound of her
voice and stalk through the crowd between the two of them,
citizens moving out of his way as fast as they were able.
The people around her gasped and stepped back, clearing
a lane between her and the approaching Emperor. Silena started to
cry, and Catelyn knew she wouldn’t have much time before the
Emperor would still be able to see them both clearly.
She waved Silena to remain silent, and whispered “No.
You need to take care of them. They need you now.”
Silena gasped, and Catelyn could sense her mounting
frustration, and the woman’s sense of panic, but she could see
what Catelyn was doing and remained silent. Catelyn could hear
the Emperor approaching unobstructed now, the last of the other
patrons in the marketplace now standing and watching as the
Emperor strode toward her with purpose.
As he approached she could feel his excitement.
“Ah, look at this, look at this.” The Emperor stopped right
in front of her, and she got the full sense of his tall the man was,
towering almost half a pace above her. He reached out and moved
his hand in front of her face.
“It’s true. You’re blind, are you not?” he asked, though
even his questions came out sounding like commands.
“Yes,” she replied tersely. She wanted this business over
and done with. The faster she complied, the faster Silena and the
rest of the citizens could get away. “It’s in my pack.”