Part 7 Lorne's Tale
Lorne walked purposefully toward me where I stood in the street before the warehouse. I had helped slaughter Moire's men here not so long ago and I wondered how long it would be before the warehouse became again a haven for the homeless and the lawless. It was deserted now, although presumably Bishop lurked somewhere within. I had seen no sign of him or Karnwyr, nor had I expected to.
Lorne took the lamp from my hand and we stared at each other. Without a word, he pushed open the heavy door and I followed him inside. It was very quiet, dark and quiet. He set the lamp on a crate and turned to study me again. I searched for some sign of the man I'd once known, beneath the loss of his beautiful hair and the disfiguring tattoos, and the rage, the terrible rage that burned in his eyes like a fever.
"So, my little Thorn, have you come to beg me for your life?" I winced at the sound of his old nickname for me and at the coldness of his voice.
"Lorne," I began but he interrupted.
"I am required to kill your champion tomorrow, but your life is safe enough."
"Until your Luskan masters hang me."
"Luskan cares nothing for you or that pathetic village. You are only a problem while you stand in my lord's way and that is at an end now. The Brotherhood will leave your fate in Lord Garius' hands and he has promised you to me." His hot covetous eyes made my blood run chill.
"Lorne, you must leave this madness behind," I cried. "You must leave Lord Garius before he drags you to the hells with him."
"Leave Lord Garius? And do what? Surrender to Neverwinter?" He laughed. "You ask me to put my head in Lord Nasher's noose. Why would I do that, Thorn?"
"Then go to Waterdeep, go to Baldur's Gate, but go. If you stay with Garius, you will die." He looked down at me and I could not read his expression.
"Is this why you called me here?" he asked incredulously. "Are you trying to save me?"
"I do not want you to die," I whispered. "Not like this. What has happened to you?" His laughter was dark and unsettling. It was the laugh of a stranger.
"Oh, my sweet Thorn, you are far too late to save me. You don't even know what you ask. I cannot leave my lord, even if wanted to. You don't know him."
"For Tyr's sake, Lorne, what has happened to you?"
"What happened to me?" He gave me a bitter look. "This road I am on, with death all around me and death and shadow before me—you started this, Thorn." He grabbed me by both arms and pulled me into him, his eyes burning into mine. "You look at me with horror now and I can feel the fear on you," and he shook me, "But it is you that brought me here. You and that 'father' of yours.
"Daeghun killed my father and I should have killed him for that. I wanted to, oh, by the gods did I want to kill him. But I didn't. Why? Because you loved him and I would have done anything for you, anything, Rose. You loved him, the gods know why. We all knew he cared nothing for you. I spared him though it made me half mad to know that he lived and my own father lay buried in a shallow nameless grave."
Lorne's father was an evil man that deserved death if any man did.
"After my father died, I could not stay in West Harbor. You know that. Your father made sure of that. And then you turned your back on me, like all the others.
"So I went to Neverwinter and nothing went right after that, not one damned thing. Let me tell you about the Greycloaks, Rose, when they see one of us enlist, it's 'oh, good, a big dumb Harborman, why I have just the place for you, my lad, and that's the front line'. I'm sure war is one glorious battle after another when you're a general or one of the Nine safe on a hill, but when you're a big dumb Harborman on the front line, it is blood and guts and skulls split open, and dying soldiers screaming for their mamas.
"I am big and strong and I fought hard and I killed many, many Luskans, but did anyone care? No promotion for me, it was just 'back to the front, lad, let's win one for Lord Nasher'. When I finally fell in battle, as all of us on the front line did in time, the Greycloaks left me for dead. They left me on the field with the foul stinking bodies for the dogs and the crows to eat. But I wasn't dead. I am very hard to kill, my sweet Rose, and the Luskans found me." He gave a harsh laugh. "And then it got much, much worse."
"You were captured by the enemy? What did they do to you?" He gave me another shake.
"They're Luskans, Rose. What do you think they did to me? Have you heard no tales of how Neverwinter soldiers were treated?"
They tortured him. Oh, gods, they tortured him.
"I survived. I am hard to kill. There are those in the Hosttower who value that in a man. Do you pity me, wife? I am sure there are…many ways…you can make it up to me in the time to come. West Harbor threw me away, Neverwinter threw me away, but Lord Garius will keep me around, so long as I am of use to him."
I shook free of his hold. He let me.
"You should have come with me when I begged you, Rose. We could have made a life together apart from all this. There is no escape now. You will serve my lord—or you will die."
"I will never be a slave to Lord Garius."
Lorne gave a harsh laugh.
"I believed that once myself. He will break you, Rose. He is very good at destroying the strong."
I shook my head.
"You've made your offer, now hear mine," he said. "Come with me tonight. There is no need to fight. There is no need for anyone to die for you tomorrow. Abandon the field, and Lord Garius will protect you from the Brotherhood. He will be easier on you if you come willingly."
"No." I turned to leave.
To my back, Lorne said, "Who do I face in the arena tomorrow? Who is going to die for your stubbornness?"
"You face me."
"Too bad. I was looking forward to killing that paladin." When this didn't get a rise, he said, "You know you have no chance against me." He took my shoulders, turned me to face him. "I can take you down without killing you. We've sparred together too many times. You know I'm right." He pulled me in close so that the whole length of our bodies was pressed together. He put his fingers around my neck. His thumbs caressed my throat.
"All I have to do is choke you until you pass out. You won't even have to yield to me." There was a mad stranger in his eyes, but my body knew him, remembered him. A slight shudder ran through me and I felt the prickle of tears. I couldn't love him anymore—there were too many shadows between us now—but I sorrowed for what we once had. Once I thought I would have a life with this man—a marriage, a family—and I had hoped that perhaps the symbol of Tyr emblazoned on my shoulder would fade away or become nothing but a curiosity for our children. Lorne didn't deserve his evil father, whose madness and foul, brutal acts had ruined Lorne's life. Nor did I deserve my celestial father, whoever he was, man or angel. I did not deserve the burden he laid on me to serve Tyr's justice, no matter what the cost in blood or in pain.
I don't know how many of my thoughts showed on my face but Lorne felt me soften in his arms.
"Rose," he said. There was something of the Lorne I had once known back in his eyes. He looked at me and for a moment, I saw regret.
"Let me kiss you," he said. "My sweet wife." I raised my face and his lips touched mine and the tears slid down my face and into my hair. We stood in each others arms a long time and then some sound, a creak, the building settling perhaps, brought me back to myself.
"Don't cry, Rose," Lorne said as I turned and left him. But I had to cry because I had to kill him in the morning and that was worthy of tears.