CHAPTER 25
Checkmate

The map was an ugly thing. Truly hideous. Peering at the crude lines in the flickering light of a low-burning tallow candle, Jester grimaced. Such a scrawled thing would barely pass before his court tutors. The scale of the distances couldn't be accurate, and the roads seemed both crooked and optimistic. He knew that at a glance. But there was something about it, some dark kernel of truth that made his gut twist and ache with dread. Slave routes. The lines traced the slave routes of flesh merchants headed to a tyrant king. The thought of Maia and Godric even possibly being marched along them made Jester's innards freeze. The blond boy thumbed the corner of the thick vellum he had begged from Père Matthieu before the rest of the clan had bunked down, half wishing he could tear the thing to pieces, and half needing to memorize its every detail. He could feel the fear and the fury that ebbed below the surface of his thoughts, but he pushed all feeling aside as his eyes traced the routes Maurus had drawn, culminating with the jagged symbol at its centre. King Baltor's Keep. Wordlessly, he glanced across the table at his battered cousin.

"You're certain this is… accurate?" Jester asked. The words were sour on his tongue, and his voice was low. Flat.

Maurus glared back with indignant eyes.

"'Course it is," the man spat. "Roughly, anyhow. Two, maybe three days' journey." There was a deep purple bruise that mottled his cheek. A crust of dried blood rimmed his nose, and his injured arm now hung in a makeshift sling Jester had cobbled together from one of Octavia's spare linens. "Think I went to all that trouble over the years to protect my kin without knowing where not to go?" Maurus snorted, a sound equally as ugly and ironic as the map he had produced.

"Protect your kin?" Jester scoffed. "Man to man, cousin, please don't mind my saying this, but… considering that our shared blood is in potential captivity, you failed abysmally in that regard."

Maurus glowered, yet beneath the surface, for a moment Jester thought he glimpsed a flicker of remorse. But then his cousin's face settled into a cool mask.

"Everything was just fine until you fell on to our damn doorstep," Maurus grumbled.

"You've said that before, but I think you really mean until you raced over to Cliff's threshold," Jester countered. He leaned across the table in the dimly lit caravan. "Look where that greed got you." His cousin squirmed beneath his cool blue gaze and looked away. "No better than Judas' thirty pieces of silver."

"What's done is done," Maurus said. His voice was gruff. "I've paid for it bodily."

Jester took one more look at the map routes, before he quietly pocketed the folded vellum. He cocked his head to one side, a deep certainty churning in his gut.

"Perhaps the past is past. I mean, scarcely, if the days you can count on one hand is the past. But there's only one true way to pay for it. Truly, I am glad you're sure of the roads, cousin. Because you're coming with me on them."

Maurus half spluttered and half laughed, a sound like grated iron.

"And why, pray, boy, would I do that? I already helped you know where to go." Maurus' eyes narrowed, and he leaned deeply into his seat, propping one muddied boot on to a low stool as if he were the warlord king himself.

Jester made a face, feigning innocence.

"Because, dear, sweet cousin," he said jovially, "I know you have a heart somewhere deep, deep inside that bitter shell that wants to make things right. And…well, my newfound aunt – your mother – is sleeping not two caravans over. Your entire clan is here. You can either face them now in disgrace – and take your chances of being cut off. Or you can change that fate by regaining the honor you claim to care so little about."

Maurus shook his head with a snort.

"I ain't one of those court lads, boy. Obsessed with honor. You'll have to try harder than that."

Jester shrugged.

"Pity," he said softly. "Survival will be brutal on your own in this country. What with the snows coming… and especially when I tell Cliff's men where you've headed. You'll be a wanted man in his camp, I'm sure."

The fool held his breath. It was a gambit, to be sure, and near on cruel. Jester bit his inner cheek, sending up a silent prayer for forgiveness. His cousin was a hard man, unyielding and contrary. Truly, these were desperate times. Jester knew that the hour was scarce. He could feel it in his gut – how every minute ticked by with Godric and Maia ending up further away. Already, the outline of a plan, rough as the map routes tucked in his pocket, was forming in his mind's eye.

But first he needed this to work.

As realization of the threat dawned on Maurus' face, something flashed across his features. Jester almost breathed a sigh of relief. Fear. He recognized the worry lines in the weathered man's features.

Check, he thought, envisioning them both as pieces on a black and white board, Maurus tucked into a corner. Jester crossed his arms across his chest, leaning back in his own seat, assuming an outer confidence he didn't feel.

"I can barely walk," Maurus said at last. There was a thoughtfulness to his tone that Jester had never heard before, as if below the words' surface, deeper consideration was actually churning.

Typical. He'd only care about himself.

Jester shrugged.

"You said it's not far. Two, maybe three day's journey at most." He rose to his feet. "But have it your way. I'll go and fetch your mo—"

Maurus sighed.

"Stop, boy. Fine," he snapped. "I'll come with you on your goose chase, but it's not my fault if you die or are taken yourself."

Checkmate. A hint of a smile tugged at Jester's lips.

"Now that I trust. In fact, that's just what you'll help me to do. Cousin."

Author's Note:
Wow. Thanks so much for reading and sticking with Ballad all of these (very inconsistent) years. I'm just going to stop saying "I'm back", because it's hard to know apparently with me and life. But I am trying. And aiming to give you all a concluding act worthy of your patience and all of the trouble Jester has fallen into and morphed with. So thank you for the kind and constructive reviews. Even when I fall off of the writer's wagon, finding them in my inbox is so encouraging.

Cheers,

-Mintermist