Pt. 16

Marianne examined the ruins of the small cottage before her with care, searching for something she couldn't quite put into words. Perhaps it was a sense of the man who had pointed out this path to her, a guide to the soul she knew he still carried hidden under all his scars. But all she saw was ruin, desolation, and the memory of terror. "What a lonely, cold place," she murmured, turning over a piece of stone with the toe of her boot.

"What did you expect to find after all this time?" a voice replied from behind her. The Swordsman stepped off the path and came to stand at her side. He too examined the site with care, his eyes flicking over the piles of burnt beams and fallen stones with disinterest. "It was a long time ago."

"Was it?" she asked, moving carefully through the rubble. "It feels like it happened just yesterday." She stopped in a clear spot, and stared suddenly across the field. "Here. This is where she stood."

"Where who stood?" he asked, a frown forming on his normally impassive face.

"The woman whose screams I can still hear." Marianne held her hands to her ears, trying for a moment to block out the psychic memory that flowed from the spot. "She saw what was happening but couldn't scream until it did. Then she couldn't stop screaming."

The Swordsman stared at the woman in front of him, a tightness forming in his chest. "My mother. They say she would not quiet until the Healers forced poppy juice down her throat."

"She made a choice, didn't she? They came to her after they had bound you." Marianne moved swiftly to towards the center of the ruin, pushing aside loose stones as she walked. "They stood here, those brave men, quaking in their boots for fear of what they thought she might be able to do." Marianne looked up at the Swordsman suddenly, recognition in her eyes. "She was a child of the old magic wasn't she? Those brave men who killed your father believed she might not have lost her talents when the Darkness came. That's why they were afraid. They didn't know what she could do if she lashed out at them. That's why they came to her to make the pact."

"She agreed to it," he growled, backing away from the memories as though they were poisonous snakes. "She surrendered her child to that monster for the sake of the old magic."

"No, for the sake of her child. She had lost her husband and stood to lose her only child. Had she ever used her gifts, Swordsman, or were they a simply an echo left in her blood from olden times - an echo that she couldn't place, couldn't use and couldn't ignore? They had nothing to fear from her but cowards that they were they chose to act against her anyway. They closed in on her, preyed on her terror of her own powers, on her fears of losing everything she had left. They made her ashamed of the blood that ran in her veins, the talents handed down through her family through the generations, talents most of them had long since forgotten. She had no choice but to agree. It was the only way she could find to save your life."

"My life!" he spat out, turning to her in a rage. "How can you call this nightmare I exist in a life? It would have been kinder to have killed me there beside my father."

"Kinder to you," Marianne agreed, stepping over the stones toward him with exaggerated care, the waves of past emotions buffeting her mind from all sides. "But not kinder to her. She would have been alone, a fate she feared more than all others. So she rationalized her decision, telling herself that as long as you had life you had hope. In the end, it wasn't enough." She stopped at the edge of the clearing and closed her eyes in pain. "She didn't survive her nightmare. She took her own life here, dying with the remnants of her hope."

"Hope! Hope is the first thing I lost when they bound me to that monster – hope and innocence." He kicked a small stone out of his way, his expression grim. "Enough of this, woman. Will you come to my master or must I drag you to his feet?"

"So, you've decided against the soft approach have you?" she asked sadly. "Ah well, I suppose I should have seen that coming. Very well, Swordsman, no more trips down memory lane. Let us see what the demon has in store for me today." Marianne walked calmly around the tense figure beside her, careful not to brush against him, and headed down the path towards the black towers of the castle. The Swordsman stood for a moment staring at the ruins of another life then turned on his heel and followed her towards the road.

Gideon stared down at the story, aghast by what he had read. "He set her up against this guy, Galen's doppelganger, knowing she couldn't win?"

"So it would seem," Alwyn replied thoughtfully. "He says that the Swordsman was renowned throughout their land for his talent with blades of all kind, ruthless in battle and pitiless in peace. Yet somehow this girl managed to defeat him. I wonder just how she managed that little feat."

"Doesn't the story say?" Gideon asked, quickly scanning down the lines of text.

"No," Sarah replied thoughtfully. "It seems Draco never told her that part of the story. All he said was that he was amazed she had won and more amazed that she kept the Swordsman as her guard considering what he had almost done to her."

"I can't imagine why he was so surprised," Alwyn, commented. "It makes perfect sense to me."

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Gideon said thoughtfully.

"I don't get the feeling that he was her enemy," Sarah protested. "If he hated her for wining then why take such an active dislike to her brother who probably put her in other dangerous situations."

"No, he didn't hate her," Alwyn agreed. "That much you can see, even in these old photos. Look how he never seems to let her out of his sight." The older technomage adjusted the screen to show the multiple photos side by side. "You see, in every photo where the girl appears, the Swordsman appears right at her back or at her side. He guards her almost religiously from everyone, even her brother."

"Not from all her brothers," Gideon commented, leaning forward to tap one image. The photo showed Marianne Draco and Andre McMasterson playing chess, huddled over what appeared to be an oversized ivory chessboard. The Swordsman was seated between the two, resting his head on his clasped hands as he stared down at the board in amusement. "Looks like he didn't have a problem with this guy – McMasterson is it? Funny, why the different name?"

"Near as I can tell from Mr. Eilerson's records, none of these people were actually blood-related," Sarah replied thoughtfully. "Marianne and Andre might have been – there are places here where the artist refers to them as twins – but I think they were fostered to the Draco family when they were young. Funny thing is, according to the artist's notes, Damien Draco was almost fanatically devoted to his sister yet he appears to have had no problem using her for whatever plots he came up with."

"A touch of jealousy behind those eyes," Alwyn murmured.

"Whose – the Swordsman's or Draco's?" Gideon asked.

"Yes," Alwyn replied cryptically.

Matheson's voice suddenly interrupted the conversation. "Captain? We're at the coordinates you gave me. I think you'd better come up here. There's something you might want to see."

"On my way," Gideon replied briskly. "You two want to join me on the bridge?"

"Where are we?" Alwyn asked, a feeling of dread coming over him.

"Eilerson found a record of a map Draco had before he disappeared. I had Mr. Matheson plot a course to take us to the place that map showed, a set of coordinates in space which, as it turned out, weren't too far from where we started. Draco's map showed something else, something that looked suspiciously like a jumpgate at those coordinates, technology he couldn't have known about. I'm curious to see what we find out there."

"Curiosity killed the cat, Captain Gideon, and I fear yours might just finish us." Alwyn rose stiffly, leaning heavily on his staff. "But since we are here, let us by all means see what there is to see." He motioned for Sarah to precede him then followed her with Gideon at his back. The trio moved swiftly to the bridge to find crewmembers staring in awe at the viewing screen.

"Well, anyone want to tell me what's so…" Gideon's voice trailed off as he saw what hovered in front of them in space.

Alwyn smiled grimly. "It seems there's a guardian for this jump point, Captain." He moved forward and examined the image closely. "And it doesn't appear any too eager to let us pass."

"What is that?" Sarah asked, breathlessly.

Alwyn shook his head in mock dismay. "You scientists, so neglectful of the things that make the world a magic place. That, my dear, is what legends called a Phoenix, the legendary bird that was reborn on its funeral pyre. And it appears to be waiting for something or someone."

"Galen." Gideon replied grimly.