Warning: Graphic descriptions.
The Angry Boy Chapter 90"The valiant never taste of death but once." - William Shakespeare
Colonel Greta Chase was enjoying a rare moment of relaxation in the Officers' Common room. Around her, the officers of Redruth Guard Post chatted quietly, played chess or saba or draughts, or watched the players after a long day. Outside the window, the last of the late summer twilight was long gone, leaving only the brilliant starlight; the waning moon would not rise for another two candlemarks.
She took a sip of the dark red wine in her glass and turned to the young captain in the next chair. "Urson, I want you keep an eye on Elias Thane the whole time. The Heralds are going to be busy with their review. That son-of-a-bitch's reactions are going to tell us if he's got anything planned."
Captain Tewkes-Felthan agreed with his commander. Heralds Kensie and Bredin would visit Thanesholding one more time before the end of their circuit. Normally, Thanesholding would not get another review until the next Herald took over the circuit in the spring, but the Heralds wanted to make sure that the Holderkin had not reverted to abusing their women after the horror of the previous year.
Colonel Chase did not trust Elias Thane and wanted troopers present during the review. With fall approaching, she wanted to get the review done while the weather was good and her troops could move easily. At her request, the Heralds moved the review ahead. They would meet Urson and a squad at Thanesholding just as Healer West finished his check on the women's health.
Urson and his squad would leave in three days. At present, the Heralds were at Dainhold, another Holderkin village slightly northeast of Thanesholding. The Heralds would go on to Thanesholding once they completed the Dainhold review. Heralds and guardsmen would approach Thanesholding together.
"When you get back," Colonel Chase continued, "I want your assessment whether the next Herald on that circuit is still going to need backup. Watch those men closely. I am hoping their hate is just for Heralds Bredin and Kensie and we'll be able to step back when the next Herald takes over."
Urson leaned back in his armchair. "I think we'll still have to send a small squad with the next Herald just to make sure that Elias Thane doesn't take his anger out on the new man when the circuit changes hands." He raised his tumbler to sip his whisky, but it never touched his lips as the sound of galloping horses came through the window.
"Ragnar! Are you running from something?" The officers could hear Corporal Spears' mocking tone.
"Karsite attack!" Ragnar gasped out. "The Karsites have crossed the border!"
"Right. Is this some joke?" Spears began. "Or are you running…."
Colonel Chase was already at the window. "Spears! Don't be an ass. Open the gate. I'll be down immediately."
Followed by her officers, the colonel raced down the stairs and out into the parade ground.
Ragnar saluted the Colonel as she emerged from the building. "I saw forty men, half Sunlancers, half bandits, cross the border around mid-morning."
"Where was this?" Colonel Chase demanded.
"At Fulda Gap, Sir." Ragnar said.
"That son-of-a-bitch!" The colonel exclaimed. Ragnar looked at the commander in surprise.
"They're going to Thanesholding. That traitorous bastard must have been plotting with the Karsites." Captain Urson followed her thoughts. Lieutenant Ritter nodded, remembering Ragnar's reports of the previous winter. Fulda Gap was the natural route from Karse to Thanesholding.
"Prepare to move out at first light." Colonel Chase ordered. "Captain Mazur and his company will hold Redruth until I return. Everyone else will come with me. I want couriers out to White Foal, Cordor and Lisle Guardposts as well as every Herald nearby." She spotted Sergeant Kelding. "Kelding, who is your best night scout? I need him off to Heralds Bredin and Kensie immediately."
"That would be Einarson, Sir. But he's run himself to nothing." Sergeant Kelding replied. "I'll send Trav Penrose."
"I can do it." Ragnar protested.
"You're exhausted. Your horses are exhausted. Tired men make mistakes. Tired horses stumble." Colonel Chase quashed Ragnar's objection. She turned back to the sergeant. "Send Penrose. Warn him that bandits and Sunlancers are nearby. He is to avoid them and get a warning to the Heralds. That is his first priority."
Quietly, her officers and men went about organizing the mission, seeing that everything was ready for the morning. Keeping Lieutenant Ritter with her, Colonel Chase turned back to Ragnar. "Give me the details." She ordered.
"The Sunlancer captain was the man Lieutenant Ritter and I followed at Midwinter. The leader of the bandits wore a Tedrel sigil on his surcoat." The colonel's eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips together. Ragnar paused, taken aback by the hate in her expression.
"Go on." She ordered. "I want your assessment of the men."
"The bandits are better armed and more disciplined than any I've seen before. They had uniform and proper helmets and gear." Ragnar said. "The Sunlancers carried standard lances, swords and shields. Only the officers had metal breastplates, the rest wore boiled leather. Except for the two leaders' mounts, the horses were ordinary. I saw two scouts: One at point and another flanking on my side of the line. I did not see a rearguard."
Lieutenant Ritter smiled slightly. Ragnar hadn't intended to boast, but it was clear he had bested the Karsite scouts in the duel of 'who saw who.'
"What about pack animals?" Colonel Chase asked.
"Four mules. Two attached to each file."
"Hmm. They're on a raid, not a campaign." She mused aloud. "Anything else?"
"There was a third man with the two leaders. He was dressed in Valdemaran style and looked highborn. His horse had a Verden brand." Horses from the Verden region were well regarded, though not the equals of Ashkevrons. Many minor Valdemaran nobles rode them, but other kingdoms had their own comparable breeds and Verden horses had no foreign buyers. Only a Valdemaran would ride one. Ragnar did not add what his Gift told him about the man; this was a military, not a spiritual matter.
"Tholan damned traitor." The colonel said angrily. "I'm willing to wager he's the same man who visited Elias Thane in Watford." Ragnar blinked. A flash of his spirit sense told him the Colonel's words were true.
She asked Ragnar a few more questions, then ordered him to bed. "Good work, scout. Rest up. We'll need you in the morning."
Ragnar saluted her as she turned away. He started unsteadily towards his quarters. Sergeant Kelding took his arm and supported him. The sergeant almost force-fed Ragnar before allowing him to sleep. Ragnar didn't remember pulling the sheet over himself.
###
'I am truly beginning to dislike Holderkin.' Bredin thought as he listened to Cass Dain's complaint. Cass Dain was the son of Filan Dain, the Patriarch of Dainhold. Because he was the Patriarch's eldest, his complaint was the first brought forward this morning.
::They are Valdemaran citizens. And they deserve your ear as much as any other.:: Lacaral admonished Bredin.
::True.:: Bredin sighed mentally. ::But they have a remarkable propensity for picking fights with others.:: Particularly with Holderkin, it was difficult to maintain an expression of interested concern.
Cass Dain stated his complaint against Andy Wahlberg, a resident of Southend, which was a non-Holderkin village to the southeast, accusing Goodman Wahlberg of breaking the fences between their lands in order to steal Cass' sheep.
'Why am I not surprised that it is sheep once again?' Bredin thought to himself. Lacaral snickered mentally. Bredin would have to summon Andy Wahlberg to hear his side and arrange for the disputants to meet him at some neutral point.
"Rider approaching!" Someone called out from the back of the crowd.
Bredin turned his head, but couldn't see over the crowd. Using his Farsight, he looked. It was Healer Chad West, whipping his mule into a gallop. The Holderkin parted, allowing the healer through.
Healer West yarded his mule to a halt in front of Bredin. "There are bandits attacking Thanesholding. They sent me for help."
Bredin and Kensie glanced at each other as Lacaral and Losanir trotted over to their tack.
"How many?" Bredin asked. He threw the saddle over Lacaral's back. "How are they armed?"
"Ten to fifteen men on horses. They swarmed the gate as the men went out in the morning. They are inside the walls." The healer said.
"How did you get out?" Bredin asked.
"I went out the small gate at the back." Chad West said. "Sent me here for you."
By now, Bredin and Kensie were in the saddle. The waystation was just off the road on their way. They stopped for extra arrows and streaked towards Thanesholding.
Trav Penrose galloped up to the gate of Dainhold three candlemarks later.
###
Lacaral and Losanir stretched out into their fastest gallop.
::Damn. Why did it have to be Thanesholding?:: Bredin asked. ::There are a lot of others I'd rather rescue.::
::Like them or not, they are still Valdemaran.:: Lacaral answered his rhetorical question.
"If it's only a dozen or so, the Holderkin should be able to fight them off until we get there." Kensie shouted over the wind of their passage and the chiming thunder of the Companions' hooves.
"You think so?" Bredin shouted back.
"Up at Evendim, the pirates never attacked with less than eighty men. Whatever you think of them, Holderfolk aren't weaklings. The bandits won't take them easily." Kensie thought a moment longer. "The bandits must have surprised them, though." He bit his lip. He couldn't put a finger on what bothered him.
"The bandits are mounted and probably better armed. The villagers are on foot." Bredin pointed out.
"I know. It's chancy. We should be able to swing the balance. We just have to stay open and not get boxed in by the bandits." Kensie said.
"That's tricky inside a village." Bredin said.
Kensie grinned. "True. That's why the guard manuals say that cavalry shouldn't be used inside walls."
::I am not a horse!:: Losanir said.
Kensie laughed and stroked Losanir's neck. ::Indeed, you are not. But let's not get hemmed in anyways.::
In half a candlemark, they were near enough for Bredin to use his farsight. ::They're inside. I see several down. Just one building on fire off to the side, but the gate is open.::
::How many do you see?:: Kensie asked.
With the combatants milling around, it was hard for Bredin to count. ::Ten or twelve, I think.:: He said after a moment. ::The gate is on the far side. Do we go around both sides or just on one side?::
::Stick together. Go left.:: Kensie said without hesitation. They swung around the east side and shot through the gate.
The bandits broke off from the villagers and charged them. Bredin just had time to notice the 'fallen' villagers getting to their feet before the bandits hit them. It was a trap.
Bredin and Kensie lashed out as the Companions spun back towards the gate. One bandit went down as Lacaral bowled him over. Kensie sliced through the throat of another.
Four yards from the gate, more bandits, backed by Sunlancers, blocked their path. They had hidden in the woods until Bredin and Kensie were inside the gates. Bredin had not thought to check the surrounding area when he scanned the village. "Try to break through! It's our only chance." Bredin shouted.
Even as Lacaral and Losanir charged, part of Kensie's mind recoiled. He recognized the bandit leader. It was the man he had seen in Orthallen's livery at the Final Battle. Kensie headed for him.
A volley of crossbow bolts hit Lacaral and Losanir, drawing screams from the young Heralds. The Companions tumbled, dead from a score of hits.
::Bredin! Final strike! We've got to tell Alberich!:: Kensie's mindspeech was slightly stronger. Boosting Kensie gave them a better chance of reaching the weaponsmaster.
His mind roiling with pain and grief, Bredin threw all his power behind Kensie's mindspeech. ::Alberich! It was Orthallen!:: Kensie filled his mindshout with every detail he could cram in, including images of Lavrenti Ionescu here and at the final battle as well as the Sunlancers and Wallis Mittel.
The two Heralds hit the ground, sprawling as the bodies of Lacaral and Losanir rolled over theirs.
Kensie woke a few moments later. Pain racked his body and grief racked his mind. He blinked tears from his eyes, which focused on a face bent over his.
"I have waited for this for a long time." Wallis Mittel said. He raised his sword.
A knife embedded itself in Sir Wallis' throat. He dropped his sword as blood gushed out from the wound and his mouth. In a moment of odd clarity, Kensie recognized it as one he gave Bredin last Midwinter.
A hail of bolts struck them both. In their last moments of consciousness, Bredin and Kensie clasped hands. ::I am your friend.::
Ser Lavrenti Ionescu looked down at the bodies phlegmatically. "We were supposed to bring Hierophant Rhithik one of them alive. I suppose he'll have to be content with their corpses." He spat on the body of Wallis Mittel. "At least they saved us the trouble of disposing of that one."
Captain Alikan looked down, sickened at the sacrifice of two brave young men for the Black Robe's ambitions. He did not look at Wallis Mittel; Khal Alikan felt no pity for the stupid blind fool who had not realized he was a catspaw to be thrown away as soon as he had served his purpose.
Elias Thane strode forward, a gloating grin on his face. "Such a pity." He mocked. "They sacrificed themselves to save us."
"They didn't save you." Ser Lavrenti said, with a grin as unpleasant as the Patriarch's.
Elias Thane looked up, startled. "What do you mean?"
"My men raid for loot, not your revenge." Ser Lavrenti said. His sword split Elias Thane's skull to the eyebrows. "Leave no one alive and nothing standing." Ser Lavrenti shouted.
The bandits charged the screaming villagers, joined by the Sunlancers. Captain Alikan did not move, still staring at the bodies of Bredin and Kensie.
###
Alberich swept Kris' sword aside with contemptuous ease. Kris braced himself for the stinging slap of the practice blade to drive home yet another correction. The blow never came.
Alberich froze as Kensie's final message filled his mind. ::Alberich! It was Orthallen!:: The words carried every detail Kensie sent.
Kris stared at the Weaponsmaster uncertainly, wondering what was going on. A few breaths later, the Death Bell began tolling and Alberich's face became a mask of agony.
Kris, too, felt the Death Bell. He saw the death of his cousin and Herald Bredin.
"Enough for today!" Alberich rasped out. "Go to your fellows." He turned and left.
Most of the class were fourth and fifth year students, already sensitive to the Death Bell. Sorrowfully, they returned their practice swords and equipment to the racks and headed for the Collegium in a despondent group.
###
Count Wyeth Poldara peered anxiously between the curtains of his palace suite, the way he did every time the Death Bell sounded. Though not sensitive himself, he knew what it meant to the Heralds. "Please, Kerenos, not Kensie." He prayed.
A few sunwidths later, there was a knock on the door. Spod opened it, revealing the Weaponsmaster. The look on Alberich's face told the Count everything. With a wail, he collapsed on the floor, weeping. "My son, my son." He cried.
Spod deduced what had happened. Weeping himself, he and the Weaponsmaster helped Wyeth to a chair.
Choking back his sobs, Wyeth said "Tell me all you know." When Alberich's eyes flicked to Spod, Wyeth added "Spod can be trusted. He was Kensie's man more than he was ever mine."
Quietly, Alberich told the Count everything he received from Kensie's Final Strike. As Alberich spoke, Wyeth stiffened with pride and love for his son.
When Alberich left, Wyeth pulled Spod to the seat beside him. The aristocrat and the one-time street rat embraced in tears. A quarter candlemark later, they rose. Wyeth braced himself. He must now tell Kensie's mother, who waited in their manor on High Street.
###
Kyminn screamed. He felt the bolts strike Lacaral and Losanir, who he remembered so well. Cydris and the other Healers embraced Kyminn, helping him to a seat on his bed. The Healers looked at one another as they heard the Death Bell.
The night before, Kyminn's foresight had warned him of an attack on two Companions in the south of Valdemar. He thought he recognized Lacaral and Losanir, but they were too far away for any help. He had passed the information to Dean Elcarth, but no one had the reach to warn Bredin and Kensie.
As a precaution, the Healer's Circle had kept Kyminn from seeing any patients that day and stood by to help him.
As Kyminn lay back on the bed, Healer Crathach dosed him with poppy and used his Mind-Healing to ease Kyminn's pain.
###
In the school at the Temple of the Iron God in Bransat, Leif Kase cried out in the middle of Brother Wosam's class "Lacaral! Losanir! Gone!" The monk could not calm the boy or stop his tears. Leif continued to shout the names of the Companions, Bredin and Kensie. Eventually, Father Luca sent someone for Twyla Kase, who arrived with her mother-in-law. They took Leif home and put him to bed. Zelar Kase prayed that Leif's ravings were untrue.
The next afternoon, Zelar saw Heralds Jan and Tanis approaching and knew the truth. Enro's howls of grief could be heard across the town.
###
"No! No!" Ragnar shouted, startling Colonel Chase's men, who were taking a quarter-candlemark rest in their forced march. "We have to go. Now."
"Einarson! What's the meaning of this?" Colonel Chase demanded. Ragnar ignored her and began tightening Tosh's girth. Sergeant Kelding and Art Scranton tackled him before he could mount. They pinned him to the ground as the Colonel stalked over.
Ragnar continued to fight. "Let me go. They're dead. Let me go!"
Colonel Chase slapped his face. "If they are dead, you cannot help them. If they are still alive, you cannot rescue them alone." The colonel's cold logic stopped Ragnar's struggles. He closed his eyes and wept.
"Fall in!" Colonel Chase ordered. The guardsmen obeyed and resumed their march. Riding beside the colonel, Captain Tewkes-Felthan thought he saw a tear in her eye.
A candlemark from Thanesholding, they topped a rise to see a pillar of smoke rising from the area of the village. "Double time!" Colonel Chase ordered. "Scranton! Scout ahead."
"Not you." Sergeant Kelding held Tosh's reins, preventing Ragnar from following.
Art Scranton met the column a mile from the village. "All dead. The bandits have headed back to Karse."
"Including?" Colonel Chase asked.
"Including." The scout confirmed, blinking back tears of his own.
The guardsmen entered the cleared fields surrounding the smoking ruins of the village half a candlemark later. They headed for two white shapes amid the blackened remains.
"The bastards!" Urson shouted as he spied the bodies of Lacaral and Losanir. The Karsites had taken the Companions' heads as trophies. Bredin and Kensie's bodies were nowhere to be found.
Ragnar wheeled Tosh and galloped south, following the broad trail left by the raiders.
"Ragnar! Get back here!" Sergeant Kelding shouted. Ragnar did not listen and disappeared down the trail. Kelding and Scranton tried to follow. After a quarter-candlemark, they pulled up, realizing they would not catch Ragnar before he crossed the border.
###
It was nearly midnight. The fires were out and the bodies of the villagers – men, women and children – were buried in a common grave.
Herald Lars, using his Hindsight, gave Colonel Chase and her officers a description of the murders of Bredin, Kensie, Lacaral and Losanir and the slaughter of the villagers, sparing them nothing as he gave the horrific details and making clear the brutality of the raiders and the Sunlancers. Only the Karsite Captain had done nothing but stand watch over the fallen Heralds.
Healer West, who arrived with Trav Penrose a candlemark after the guardsmen, told how the patriarchs convinced him there was a bandit raid and sent him to lure Bredin and Kensie into the trap.
Belelme and Cealine, through their Chosen, forbade the guardsmen burying the remains of Lacaral and Losanir. The Companion mares insisted that what was left of the village stockade be piled together and the remains be placed on top, but would not allow the pyre to be lit.
"Companion coming!" Private Orser shouted. All eyes turned to the south, where Orser was on picket duty. The guardsmen could make out the white shape of the Companion and heard the soft tinkling of bridle bells, but it was too dark to make out the rider, who was not wearing whites. In a few moments, they could make out the forms of horses around the Companion.
Only when the Companion drew close enough for their lanterns to illuminate him could they make out the rider. It was Ragnar. Tosh trotted faithfully beside the Companion. Three other horses followed, secured by a lead to the Companion's saddle. Two bore what were obviously bodies, the third bore the severed heads of Lacaral and Losanir.
The guardsmen wept as they laid the bodies of Bredin and Kensie beside those of their Companions, whose heads they put roughly in place.
Sergeant Kelding handed Ragnar a torch, which he used to light the pyre. Done, Ragnar threw the torch on the logs and stood back, placing his hand on his Companion's shoulder.
The flames caught and the pyre quickly blazed up. Flames soared high into the night sky. Urson swore he saw the flames take the shape of the Windrider, towering over the pyre.
The ferocious blaze quickly consumed most of the pile of wood and remains before it settled to a much lower burning. Ragnar looked up where the ancestor's dance filled the sky with green fire. Amid the flickering green, four white shapes danced. Were they men or horses?
::We are not horses!:: Ragnar smiled and stroked his Companion's neck.
"Now you are sons of the Eagle." Ragnar said to the white shapes amid the green.
"What did you say, Ragnar?" Urson asked at his side.
::Say it in Valdemaran, Chosen.::
Ragnar blinked. He had spoken in the language of the clans. After a small, quick smile at Urson, he looked up once more and repeated in Valdemaran. "Now you are sons of the Eagle."
###
"Lord Orthallen is here to see you, My Lord." Piran Couch stood at the door of Count Wyeth's study. Wyeth braced himself; he had expected this.
"Please send him in, Master Couch." Wyeth said. He rose as Orthallen entered.
Count Wyeth did not attempt to hide his tears. Orthallen would expect it, after all, and the tears would help hide Wyeth's true thoughts.
"I am deeply sorry for your loss." Earl Orthallen said, his face an appropriate mask of concern. "I came as soon as I heard."
"I loved my son." Wyeth covered his face with his hands and wept anew.
Orthallen stayed a while, speaking words of condolence, which Wyeth knew the Earl did not mean. In the midst of his speech, Orthallen sighed "If I had only realized how obsessed Wallis Mittel had become, I would have put a watch on him. His mania caused sorrow and his own destruction."
It took all of Count Wyeth's experience to keep his thoughts from his expression. 'And how did you know that, My Lord Orthallen? Herald Alberich told me that detail would be kept within the Heralds until the report came from Redruth.'
Instead, Wyeth put on a mask of dignity and said. "His father has been my friend since we were boys. I will not let his son's failing create a feud between us."
"That is good of you, my friend, to place the kingdom above yourself." Lord Orthallen said. After a few more words, the Earl left.
###
Two men sat in chairs. Both mourned two young men who had once been enemies but had learned to become friends.
One was a wealthy man of great estate; his chair was in the gilded study of his fashionable manor in the wealthiest neighborhood of Haven. He stared at the door which had just closed behind one of the most powerful men in the land. One of the two young men was his son, who had fallen from grace and risen to redeem himself. The second young man had been his vassal, who had risen from his low birth to serve his Queen and country with honor.
The other mourner was a man born in the land of Valdemar's enemies; his chair was in the unadorned sitting room of his quarters attached to the salle on the palace grounds. He stared at a stained glass window that bore the image of his God. Beyond that window was his Companion, who hung his head and mourned with his Chosen. He had trained both young men and had shown them the way to turn their anger and pride into determination and fidelity. In his own way, he had loved them as much as any father.
The same thought ran through the minds of both men. 'You think you have won, My Lord Orthallen. You think you have wiped out the traces of your perfidy and hidden your deeds from all men. But those you have slain passed on what they knew and have made your evil plain. In this, it is not you but they who have triumphed. Someday, My Lord Orthallen, someday I will see you brought down.'
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12. King james bible
###
Afterword: Thank you to all my readers and followers who have borne with me and supported me for the last four years as this very long story played out. Many of you were fond of Bredin and Kensie (and Lacaral and Losanir) and may feel betrayed by the tragic end of this story. I am sorry to have disappointed you, but this was the only logical ending possible. Kensie's enemies were too powerful for him to escape forever. Bredin's fate was entangled with Kensie's from the beginning of their lives.
I could not unmask Orthallen without contradicting canon. By my calculation, Orthallen's fall lies some six or seven years in the future from the end of this story. Alberich loathes Orthallen and now has another reason to do so, but he has not yet found out the full measure of Orthallen's treachery. Alberich does not yet know the precise circumstances that put a Tedrel Knight in Orthallen's livery in the Final Battle and, with Kensie dead, he has no evidence to challenge Orthallen.
I planned the ending you see here from the time I wrote the first chapter. I wrote the last four paragraphs of this story three years ago, knowing how it would end. If it is any consolation, Wyeth and Alberich's last words are true. "In this, it is not you but they who have triumphed."
The recovery of Bredin and Kensie's bodies and Ragnar's Choosing are part of Ragnar's tale and are told in "Chapter 16 – Loyalties" of "Ragnar of the Eagle Clan", which I am publishing at the same time as this conclusion and the epilogue.
If you wish a little sweetness to go with this bitter ending, please proceed to the epilogue which follows.