Soul of the Fire

Chapter 63

Beata squinted out over the plains in the dawn light. It was good to see that the sun was going to shine, once it reached the horizon. The rain of the last few days had been wearing. Now there were only a few dark purple clouds, like a child’s charcoal scribbles, across the golden eastern sky. From up on the stone base of the Dominie Dirtch, beneath that immense sweep of sky overhead, she could see forever, it seemed, out onto the vast plains of the wilds.

Beata saw that Estelle Ruffin was right in calling her up top. In the distance a rider was coming. He was taking the dry ground, right toward them. The rider was still a goodly distance, but by the way he was running his horse, he didn’t look like he intended to stop. Beata waited until he was a little closer, and then cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled.

“Halt! Halt where you are!”

Still he came on. He was probably still too far away to hear her. The plains were deceptive; sometimes it took a rider much longer to reach them than it seemed it should.

“What should we do?” Estelle asked, having never had a rider approach so fast before, looking like he didn’t intend to stop.

Beata was finally used to Anders relying on her and asking her for instructions. She was not only getting used to her authority, she had come to delight in it.

It was ironic. Bertrand Chanboor had made the laws that enabled Beata to join the army and command Anders, and Bertrand Chanboor had caused her to avail herself of the laws. She hated him, and at the same time he was her unwitting benefactor. Now that he was Sovereign, she tried, as was her duty and hard as it was, to feel only love for him.

Just the night before, Captain Tolbert had come by with some D’Haran soldiers. They were riding down the line of Dominie Dirtch to take the votes of the squads stationed at each weapon. They’d all talked about it, and though Beata didn’t see their votes, she knew her squad all marked an X.

Beata had a strong feeling about Lord Rahl, having met and talked to him, that he was a good man. The Mother Confessor, too, seemed much kinder than Beata had expected. Still, Beata and her squad were proud to be in the Anderith army, the best army in the world, Captain Tolbert told them, an army undefeated since the creation of the land, and invincible now.

Beata had responsibility. She was a soldier who commanded respect, now, just as Bertrand Chanboor’s law said. She didn’t want anything to change.

Even though it was for Bertrand Chanboor, their new Sovereign, and against Lord Rahl, Beata had proudly marked an X.

Emmeline had her hand on the striker, and Karl stood close to it, too, anticipating Beata ordering it out. Beata, instead, motioned the two away from the thing.

“There’s only one rider,” Beata said in a calm voice of authority, settling their nerves.

Estelle heaved a sigh in frustration. “But Sergeant—”

“We are trained soldiers. One man is no threat. We know how to fight. We’ve been trained in combat.”

Karl shifted his sword on his weapons belt, eager for the responsibility of doing some real soldiering. Beata snapped her fingers, pointing to the steps.

“Go, Karl. Get Morris and Annette. The three of you meet me down at the front line. Emmeline, you stay up here with Estelle, but I want both of you to stand away from the striker. I’ll not have you ringing this weapon for no more threat than a lone rider. We’ll handle it. Just stay at your post and keep watch.”

Both women saluted with a hand to their brow. Karl did a quick version before he raced down the steps, breathless with the possibility of real action. Beata straightened her sword at her hip and went down the steps in a dignified manner more befitting her rank.

Beata stood beside the huge stone weapon at the line, as they called it; beyond, the Dominie Dirtch would kill. She clasped her hands behind her back as Karl raced up with Morris and Annette. Annette was still putting on her chain mail.

Beata finally understood the shouts coming from the rider racing toward them. He was screaming for them not to ring the Dominie Dirtch.

Beata thought she recognized the voice.

Karl had his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Sergeant?”

She nodded and the two men and one woman drew steel. It was the first time they’d done so for a potential threat. They were all three beaming with the thrill of it.

Beata cupped her hands around her mouth again. “Halt!”

This time the rider heard her. He hauled back on the reins and drew his lathered horse to a stumbling, clumsy halt a little distance out.

Beata’s jaw dropped.

“Fitch!”

He grinned. “Beata! Is that you?”

He dismounted and walked his horse toward her. The horse looked in sorry shape. Fitch didn’t look much better, but he still managed to swagger.

“Fitch,” Beata growled, “get over here.”

Disappointed that Beata knew the man and there didn’t look like there wasn’t going to be any swordplay, Karl, Norris, and Annette returned their weapons to their scabbards.

They all stared openly, though, at the weapon Fitch was wearing.

It was held on with a baldric running over the right shoulder opposite the sword and scabbard at his left hip, thereby helping balance the weight. The leather of the baldric was finely tooled and looked old; Beata knew leatherwork, and hadn’t seen anything that fine. The scabbard was embellished with simply peerless silver and gold work.

The sword itself was remarkable, what she could see, anyway. It had a downswept, brightwork cross guard. The hilt looked wound in silver wire, with a bit of gold, too, glinting in the early light.

Fitch, chest puffed up, smiled at her. “Good to see you, Beata. I’m glad to see you got the job you were after. I guess both of us got our dream after all.”

Beata knew she, had earned her dream. Having known Fitch a good long time, she doubted the same of him.

“Fitch, what are you doing here, and what are you doing with that weapon?”

His chin lifted. “It’s mine. I told you that someday I’d be Seeker, and now I am. This here is the Sword of Truth.”

Beata stared down at it. Fitch turned the weapon out a little so she could see the hilt with writing in gold wire. It was the word Fitch had drawn in the dust that one day at the Minister’s estate. She remembered it: TRUTH.

“The wizards gave you that?” Beata pointed, incredulous. “The wizards named you Seeker of Truth?”

“Well . . .” Fitch glanced back over his shoulder, out to the wilds. “It’s a long story, Beata.”

“Sergeant Beata,” she said, not about to be outdone by the likes of Fitch.

He shrugged. “Sergeant. That’s great, Beata.” He glanced over his shoulder again. “Um, can I talk to you?” He cast a wary eye to those watching their every word. “Alone?”

“Fitch, I don’t—”

“Please?”

He looked worried, like she’d never seen him before. Behind the cocky attitude he was distraught.

Beata took hold of his filthy messenger’s jacket at the collar and pulled him along, away from the others. All their eyes followed. Beata guessed she didn’t blame them; it was the most interesting thing that had happened since the day the Mother Confessor and Lord Rahl came through.

“What are you doing with that sword? It isn’t yours.”

Fitch’s face took on the familiar pleading expression she knew so well. “Beata, I had to take it. I had to—”

“You stole it? You stole the Sword of Truth?”

“I had to. You don’t—”

“Fitch, you are a thief. I should arrest you and—”

“Well, that would be fine by me. Then I could prove the charges are false.”

She frowned. “What charges?”

“That I raped you.”

Beata was thunderstruck. She couldn’t even say anything.

“I got accused of what the Minister and Stein did to you. I need this Sword of Truth to help me prove the truth—that I didn’t do it, that the Minister is the one who did it and—”

“He’s the Sovereign now.”

Fitch sagged. “Then not even this sword will help me. The Sovereign. Boy, this is a real mess.”

“You’ve got that right.”

He seemed to get life back in him. He seized her by her shoulders. “Beata, you got to help me. There’s a crazy woman after me. Use the Dominie Dirtch. Stop her. You can’t let her through.”

“Why? She the one you stole the sword from?”

“Beata, you don’t understand—”

“You stole that sword, but it’s me that don’t understand? I understand you’re a liar.”

Fitch sagged. “Beata, she murdered Morley.”

Beata’s eyes widened. She knew how big Morley was. “You mean, she has magic, or something?”

Fitch looked up. “Magic. Yes. That must be it. She has magic. Beata, she’s crazy. She killed Morley—”

“Imagine that, someone kills a thief and that makes her a crazy murderer. You are a worthless Haken, Fitch. That’s all you are—a worthless Haken who stole a sword that doesn’t belong to them and they never could earn.”

“Beata, please, she’s going to kill me. Please don’t let her through.”

“Riders coming,” Estelle called out.

Fitch nearly jumped out of his skin. Beata—looked up at Estelle, but saw she was pointing to the rear, not out to the wilds. Beata relaxed a bit.

“Who are they?” she called up at Estelle.

“Can’t tell, yet, Sergeant.”

“Fitch, you got to give that thing back. When this woman comes, you have to—”

“Rider coming, Sergeant,” Emmeline called, pointing out to the wilds.

“What’s she look like?” Fitch called up, frantic as a cat with its tail afire.

Emmeline looked out to the plains for a minute. “I don’t know. She’s too far away.”

“Red.” Fitch called. “Does it look like she’s in red?”

Emmeline peered off another minute. “Blond hair, wearing red.”

“Let her pass!” Beata ordered.

“Yes, Sergeant.”

Fitch threw up his arms, looking suddenly terrified. “Beata, what are you doing? You want to get me killed? She’s crazy! The woman is a monster, she’s—”

“We’ll have a talk with her. Don’t worry, we’ll not let the little boy get drubbed. We’ll find out what she wants and take care of it.”

Fitch looked hurt. That did not displease Beata, not after all the trouble he was causing, after he stole something as valuable as the Sword of Truth. A valuable thing of magic. Now the fool boy had gone and got his friend Morley involved in thieving and got him killed for it.

And to think, she once thought she could fall in love with Fitch.

He hung his head. “Beata, I’m sorry. I just wanted to make you proud—”

“Thieving is not something to be proud of, Fitch.”

“You just don’t understand,” he muttered, on the verge of tears. “You just don’t understand.”

Beata heard an odd ruckus from the next Dominie Dirtch. Shouts and such, but no alarm. As she turned to look, she saw the three special Anderith guards, the ones Estelle had spotted, trotting in on their horses. She wondered what they would want.

She turned to the sound of the galloping horse coming in. Beata jabbed a finger against Fitch’s chest.

“Now, you just keep quiet and let me do the talking.”

Rather than answer, he stared at the ground. Beata turned and saw the horse race past the stone base. The woman was indeed wearing red. Beata had never seen anything like it, a red leather outfit from head to toe. Her long blond braid was flying out behind.

Beata’s guard went up. She had never seen a look of determination such as was on this woman’s face.

She didn’t even bother to halt her horse. She simply dove off it at Fitch. Beata shoved Fitch out of the way. The woman rolled twice and came up on her feet.

“Hold on!” Beata cried. “I told him we’d settle this with you, and he’d give you back what’s yours!”

Beata was baffled to see that the woman held a black bottle by its neck. To dive off a horse with a bottle . . . maybe Fitch was right; maybe she was crazy.

She didn’t look crazy. But she did look resolved to carry this matter into the next world if she had to.

The woman, her sky-blue eyes fixed on Fitch, ignored Beata. “Give it over now, and I’ll not kill you. I’ll only make you regret being born.”

Fitch, instead of giving up, drew the sword.

It made a ring of steel such as Beata, used to the sound of blades, had never heard.

Fitch got a strange look on his face. His eyes were going wide, like he might faint, or something. His eyes had a decidedly strange look in them, a shimmering light that gave Beata gooseflesh. It was a look of some kind of awesome inner vision.

The woman held the bottle out in one hand, like it was a weapon. With her other hand, she waggled her fingers, taunting Fitch to come closer, to attack her.

Beata stepped in to restrain the woman until they could talk it over.

Beata next realized she was sitting on the ground. Her face stung something fierce.

“Stay out of it,” the woman said in a voice like ice. “There is no need for you to be hurt. Do yourself a favor and stay down.”

Her blue eyes turned to Fitch. “Come on, boy. Either give it up, or do something about it.”

Fitch did something about it. He swung the sword. Beata could hear the tip whistle going through the air.

The woman danced back a step and at the same time thrust with the black bottle. The sword shattered it into a thousand pieces that filled the air like a storm cloud.

“HA!” the woman cried in triumph.

She grinned wickedly.

“Now I’ll take the sword.”

She flicked her wrist. When she did, a red leather rod hanging on a gold chain at her wrist spun up into her hand. At first she looked expectantly overjoyed, but the look turned to confusion, and then to bafflement as she stared at the thing in her hand.

“It should work,” she mumbled to herself. “It should work.”

When she looked up she saw something that brought her back to her senses. Beata glanced over, but didn’t see anything odd.

The woman seized Beata’s outfit at the shoulder and hauled her to her feet. “Get your people out of here. Get them out now!”

“What? Fitch is right. You are—”

She thrust her arm out, pointing. “Look, you fool!”

The special Anderith guards were coming toward them, chatting among themselves. “Those are our men. They’re nothing to worry—”

“Get your people out of here right now, or you will all die.”

Beata huffed at being ordered about by some crazy woman treating her like a child. She called over to Corporal Marie Fauvel, not twenty feet away as she was walking out to see what the commotion was all about.

“Corporal Fauvel,” Beata called out.

“Yes, Sergeant?” the Ander woman asked.

“Have those men wait there until we get this settled.” Beata put her fists on her hips as she turned to the woman in red.

“Satisfied?”

The woman ground her teeth and grabbed Beata’s shoulder again. “You little fool! Get you and your other children moving right now or you will all die!”

Beata was getting angry. “I’m an officer in the Anderith army, and those men . . .” Beata turned to point.

Marie Fauvel stepped in front of the men, held up a hand, and told them they would have to wait.

One of the three unceremoniously drew his sword and swung it with casual, but frightening, power. Accompanied by the sickening thwack of blade hitting bone, it cut Marie clean in half.

Beata stood stupefied, not really believing what she was seeing.

Working for a butcher, she’d seen so much slaughtering it hardly ever warranted a second look. She’d cleaned the guts from so many different animals that seeing guts seemed to her just a natural thing. Guts didn’t appall Beata in the least.

Seeing Marie there on the ground, with her guts spilling out of her top half, in one way seemed only a curiosity, a human animal’s guts so similar to other animals’, but human.

Marie Fauvel, separated from her hips and legs, gasped, clutching at the grass, her eyes wide as her brain tried to comprehend the shock of what had just happened to her body.

It was so dauntingly horrifying Beata couldn’t move.

Marie pulled at the grass, trying to drag herself away from the men, toward Beata. Her lips moved, but no words came out, just low, hoarse grunts. Her fingers lost their power. She slumped, twitching like a freshly butchered sheep.

Up on the Dominie Dirtch, both Estelle and Emmeline screamed.

Beata pulled free her sword, holding it aloft for all to see. “Soldiers! Attack!”

Beata checked the men. They were still coming.

They were grinning.

And then the world turned truly mad.