Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (14 page)

“What?” Danner
asked. “Who is it?”

Flasch
straightened and turned to look at Danner.

“It’s Maki,” he
said hoarsely. “God have mercy, it’s Maki.”

- 2 -

After the deaths
of two paladins within the hallowed walls of the Prismatic Order – the body of
Alister de’Kelenath was found shortly after Maki’s – the Council issued a
command directing all paladins to move about in pairs at all times. Who- or whatever
was behind the rash of deaths, it was obvious that paladins were being singled
out as targets and cut down without anyone witnessing the attack. Until the
culprit or culprits were found, all of the holy warriors were to remain on
their highest alert and watch each other’s backs.

For the paladin
members of Shadow Company, this posed little problem. They lived with each
other, and rarely were any of them alone without at least one of the others
within hailing distance. The only time they were truly separated from each
other was at night in their respective rooms.

Garnet slowly
ran his hands through his hair, wishing he could start pulling it out by the
roots. Fate, God, Satan, or pure unfortunate chance had placed him in an a
singularly unenviable position, and he had put off the inevitable confrontation
for as long as he dared.

He had spoken
separately with each of the Shadow Company officers, asking them their thoughts
about the recent events and anything they might have noticed that could give
them any insight into Garnet’s growing dilemma. One by one, they told him all
they could, and one by one they left with a sinking feeling weighing at their
hearts and souls.

One by one… all except
Danner: the one person around whom all of Garnet’s personal anguish now
centered.

Garnet sat
slumped at a table in the common room of the Iron Axe. Forlorn, but resolved in
his decision, he knocked once on the table to attract Brican’s attention. The
denarae looked up from across the room and locked eyes with Garnet.

“Brican, send
word for Danner to meet me in the war room immediately,”
Garnet thought,
trying to keep his mental voice steady and resolute. After a moment, Brican
replied that Danner was on his way.

“Good.
Brican… I know I don’t have to say this, but stay out of it,”
Garnet
thought firmly.
“More important, though, I want you to make sure everyone
else stays out, too. No mistakes.
 
This
is going to be hard enough as it is. Not just for Danner and me, but
potentially the whole company, and I don’t want to have to worry about who
might be eavesdropping or accidentally stumble into the conversation. Do I make
myself clear?”

“Yes,
Garnet,”
Brican replied. His mental voice wasn’t resentful or bitter, but
compassionate and understanding.

Garnet stood
slowly and went to the war room. He activated the complex series of locking
mechanisms to open the door, then went inside, leaving the door slightly ajar.
He had a few minutes to compose himself before Danner showed up.

“Close the door
behind you,” Garnet said when Danner stuck his head into the room.

“My turn for the
one-on-one?” Danner asked. His tone was light, but his voice lacked the energy
and personal strength Garnet normally associated with Danner.

Garnet took a
good, long look at his friend as he locked the door and took his seat. Danner
was still obviously lacking in sleep. His emerald-green eyes had deep circles
of weariness under them that Garnet hadn’t noticed; even earlier that day they
hadn’t been so prominent. Danner’s entire body radiated exhaustion, and for a
moment Garnet’s resolve wavered at seeing his friend in such a pathetic state.
Then he remembered one of Marc’s theories, and he put aside his doubts and
pity.

“Danner, I’ve
spoken with the others to get their insight into a terrible problem, and I
would give absolutely anything if we’d come to a different conclusion,” Garnet
said heavily. Sensing the gravity of Garnet’s words, Danner’s manner lost all
trace of good-natured ease, and his face turned somber. With the weariness
etched into his features, it made for a hideous caricature of Danner’s normal
light-hearted expression. “Please just bear with me silently for a moment, my
friend. This won’t be pleasant.”

Danner nodded,
his face expressionless.

“The deaths of
the Nocka paladins and city soldiers started about two and a half days ago,
almost exactly the time we returned from our demon hunt,” Garnet said. “The
Green paladins were able to approximate the times of death, and they confirmed
this a few hours ago. All of them show evidence of being slain by the same
attacker.

“Before this,
however, three of our brother paladins were slain during the demon hunt,”
Garnet continued grimly. “Their bodies and the manner of their death are identical
to the deaths in the city. Again, it seems they were all killed by the same
person or creature. Maki’s body was the same, as was Alister’s.”

Danner nodded.
“I’d sort of gathered that, even if I hadn’t heard all the evidence. Someone is
stalking paladins. No,” Danner corrected himself with a frown, “it’s not just
paladins. They’re stalking warriors, and good men at that.”

Garnet nodded,
filing Danner’s comment away. Interesting that he should make that distinction.
Interesting, and potentially condemning as well.

“That’s the
pattern that finally emerged,” Garnet said. “Every one of the dead men was not
only a paladin or a soldier, but a good and decent man. Paladins have been hit
the hardest for obvious reasons. What’s most disturbing about them, though, is
the manner of their deaths. You remember after the demon attack, when you
examined the bodies and told us the killing blows weren’t dealt by demons?”

Danner nodded.

“Those were the
wounds that match the injuries on the other victims,” Garnet said. “Everyone
who has examined them agrees, those injuries were not caused by a mortal hand.
Most men wouldn’t have the strength to deal some of those blows, and the sheer
perfection of the cuts indicates immortal power.”

“But I told you
they weren’t caused by demons,” Danner said, perplexed. “They looked like sword
cuts, not claw marks, which was obvious. More than that, I didn’t feel any
residual demonic taint, and I would have, believe me.”

“Oh, I believe
you,” Garnet said. Part of his brain was gauging Danner’s reaction, which made
him frown. Something didn’t add up. Garnet began again to doubt their
conclusions.

“We all agree
those wounds weren’t caused by a demon, but they
were
,” Garnet said
emphatically, “caused by immortal power and strength.”

“You aren’t
suggesting an angel did this?” Danner said. Then suddenly something clicked in
his mind. Garnet could see the instant of realization, and he cringed inwardly
at the hurt expression on Danner’s face.

“No, you’re not
saying that at all, are you?” Danner whispered. “You think
I
had
something to do with these deaths. That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Listen to me
for a moment, Danner,” Garnet said placatingly, but his friend practically
leapt out of his chair and stood defiantly before him.

“How could you
possibly think something like that?” Danner shouted. “You’re my friend!”

Garnet carefully
stood and looked down slightly at Danner’s shorter stature.

“Yes, I am your
friend, Danner, which is why…”

“And everyone
else thinks the same thing, don’t they?” Danner asked. “That’s why you’ve all
been so bloody anxious around me lately. Some friends you are, sneaking around
behind my back and…”

With a surge of
motion, Garnet gripped the material of Danner’s tunic and hauled Danner into
the air, then slammed him against the wall.

“Listen to me,
you self-righteous little prick,” Garnet thundered, and he saw Danner cringe
slightly. Garnet had only rarely raised his voice to his friends since they’d
been under his command, and he had never to his knowledge used physical force
against
anyone
to intimidate them. His friends all knew this, and he was
counting on that knowledge now to keep Danner off-balance long enough to get
his point across.

“We’re all your
friends, and we’ve been wracking our brains trying to figure out what’s going
on before someone else puts things together and jumps to the wrong conclusion,”
Garnet said forcefully. “God knows I’d give anything to have the evidence point
somewhere else, but right now everything we know indicates you’re involved
somehow. I’ve been putting this off because I just couldn’t believe it, but
it’s finally come to a point where I couldn’t delay any longer.

“Now if you’ll
shut up and listen, maybe you can offer some sort of explanation other than
what we’ve come up with,” Garnet said, letting some of the power drain out of
his voice. He relaxed his grip on Danner’s tunic and let him slide gently to
the ground. “I hope to God you can.”

Danner’s fists
clenched angrily, and for a moment Garnet thought Danner might actually attack
him. If he was enraged enough to use his immortality, Garnet knew he’d stand
little chance. When Danner’s wings were asolved, he was all but impervious to
physical blows, and he had strength enough to toss Garnet around like one of
his sister’s toy dolls. Even if Garnet summoned help through Brican, there was
nothing they could do except perhaps help to talk Danner down from his rage.

Fortunately for
all of them, Danner mastered his anger and relaxed visibly.

“Alright,” he
said, and Garnet could still hear the tenseness in his voice, “I’ll listen.”

They returned to
their seats, and quickly Garnet laid it all out for him.

“I asked Brican
to do a deep kythe on you after your incident during the demon hunting
expedition, or rather after we considered the deaths of those paladins,” Garnet
said, and he saw Danner’s face tighten. “I’m not happy or proud of it, but at
the time it was the best option. More than anything, I wanted to verify what
you’d told me to remove any of my doubts. No matter the results, I swore I’d
tell you what I had him do so things would be honest between us.”

Danner nodded.
He was obviously not pleased at the decision, but it seemed as if he at least
understood Garnet’s reasoning.

“Most of your
memories then were blocked because of that mental shield of yours, but Brican
did see a few images that seemed to center around two of the paladins that
died,” Garnet explained. “We both know you tend to go a little haywire when it
comes to demons, especially when your angelic heritage is involved. I didn’t
think it likely, but we couldn’t rule out the possibility that you’d slain them
during a frenzy and just didn’t remember doing it. It was a little strange that
you focused in on those men alone during the battle, and that’s ultimately what
started this unfortunate theory.”

Danner gazed at
him, his face inscrutable. Even his anger was now hidden behind an unreadable
mask.

“I remember I
thought I saw something strange a few times that day,” Danner said impassively,
“but when I tried to look directly at it I couldn’t see anything. I only dimly
remember that I happened to be looking at any of the men who died at the time.”

“Well, with the
exception of those three deaths, we’ve also noticed an alarming trend in their
association to your sleeping.” Garnet noted the puzzled tilt of Danner’s
eyebrows – the only change in his expression – and hurried on. “Several of the
deaths have occurred when you were known to be asleep. Or
supposedly
asleep, I should say.”

“What do you
mean?”

“You’ve said
yourself that when you wake up you feel like you didn’t get any sleep at all,”
Garnet said. “Marc’s got a theory that involves your being somehow influenced
by the ongoing war in Heaven. Basically, that you’ve been sleepwalking, and
while you were up and about, you’ve been attacking people. It’s far-fetched,”
Garnet said, holding up a hand as he saw Danner about to object, “but it makes
a twisted sort of sense. Combine that with the identities of the last couple
people, and we have a potential problem.”

“What about
their identities?” Danner asked. “I barely knew Alister, and we both trained
with Maki, for San’s sake.”

“Exactly.
Alister was somewhat less than complimentary toward Shadow Company during our
expedition, and I know you heard the stories, same as everyone else,” Garnet
said. Danner grunted. “It’s no stretch to think he’s pretty low on your list of
amicable people right now.”

“I’ll give you
that,” Danner conceded. “I thought at first he might bely the
decent men
theory,
but even racist jackasses can be devoted men of God, so it hardly seems a
reason to kill him. But Maki? He saved Alicia’s life! I owe him more than I
could ever say.”

Garnet shook his
head. “That’s true, but did you see the way he
looked
at Alicia? He had a
crush on her, ever since that incident during the war. He tried to hide it,
because he respected you and probably knew Alicia’s helplessly in love with
you, but you could see it whenever he looked at her.”

Danner actually
looked surprised.

“I didn’t know
that,” Danner said. “I mean, I know he gets, I mean he
got
a little
red-faced, but I’ve seen him do the same around a couple other pretty girls. I
always just figured he was the shy sort.”

“I’ll keep that
in mind,” Garnet said, “but we can’t rule out the possibility that you noticed
it subconsciously. Think back to your training days, and the classes in
philosophy. We notice a lot more than we think, no pun intended.”

Garnet could see
the internal struggle going on in Danner’s mind.

“There’s more,
but not much,” Garnet said. “When Flasch went to wake you up earlier, you
shouted something in the immortal tongue. Marc translated it: ‘Death comes.
Death is among us. Death slays the virtuous.’ Now we’re not sure what you
meant, but it’s strikingly similar to the conclusion we all reached about the
nature of these deaths. They’re all good, virtuous men, and the fact that you
just pointed that out to me a few minutes ago indicates that thought has been
lurking somewhere in your head.