Chapter 50

I’d been trying to avoid Sergeant Lakhdar ever since my encounter with Fera. The silver lining of her temporary promotion was that she was too occupied to ask questions I couldn’t answer. She seemed to have assumed that no news from me was good news.

Somehow, I had to somehow convince the sergeant to let me get away from that security checkpoint. Since it was a job that only I could do, that meant there were two options. I either had to give her a reason to think the emergency had passed, or I had to create a situation that would pull me away from that gate. The third option, Gabriella’s lie about the wand, wouldn’t satisfy anybody who knew better, and we’d been lucky the sergeant hadn’t shown up for a random inspection while we’d been AWOL.

I decided on the first option, hoping to appeal to the sergeant’s desire to encourage our creativity.

I found her in her office furiously tapping away at her keyboard. There were a few empty energy drink cans dotting her desk. I hoped they were leftovers from the last few days, but that seemed unlikely for the clean soldier. Ah, well; I wasn’t her doctor.

“What can I do for you, Private?”

Cutting right to the chase, then? I certainly wasn’t going to complain. I snapped a smart salute once she acknowledged me. “Ma’am, I think we can lower our guard. Whatever was going on with Major Smythe, I haven’t seen any signs of it again.”

Her eyes bored into me. “That isn’t reassuring.”

“No, I suppose it isn’t, ma’am,” I replied. “However, I think this is a bad use of my skills, and a waste of time for everybody involved.”

“Can you train anybody else to recognize whatever magical blight affected Wendy or Amanda?” she asked.

“Well, no,” I said.

“Do you know where the blight comes from?”

“Again, no.” I managed to keep a straight face with that boldfaced lie.

“Then sitting at that checkpoint is a perfect use for your skills,” she said. “I think they’re either after you specifically, or maybe the King. Either way, you’ll be there to spot them.”

“But, ma’am…”

“That isn’t up for discussion,” she said. “A woman who saved my life three times during the Madagascar campaign and lost her home to the Horde turned traitor out of the blue. Until we know what’s going on, we can’t counter it. What they want is on Stormont Estate, and you’re going to catch them.”

“Surely…”

“I understand,” she said, cutting me off again. “It’s boring work, and I know it must be sapping your magical energy. However, until we know what’s going on, you’re our best hope.”

I considered letting her in on the snake in our midst. It seemed unavoidable if I was going to meet Fera’s timetable.

I couldn’t simply come out and say it, though. “You’ll be glad to know that I’ve given our last conversation a bit of thought.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Which one?”

“I suppose that was a few dozen energy drinks ago,” I said.

A spark of irritation danced in her dark eyes. “Just for that, you can tell me while doing thirty pushups.”

I suppressed a sigh and didn’t reply. I’d grown too comfortable again, and I knew it was easier to comply.

“I’m more open to the idea that the blight is some sort of possession,” I grunted out between reps. “It might explain why the major was so out of character.”

“That’s a surprising admission, coming from you,” she said.

“I’ve had nothing but time to mull it over,” I said. “It does fit the facts better than I thought at first.” To put it mildly, I didn’t say.

I finished my punishment and went back to attention.

“If you think that some malevolent force is seizing bodies and using them against the owner’s will, that’s all the more reason to keep up this security checkpoint,” she said.

“Assuming we’ve determined their true motives,” I said. “Or that they haven’t possessed somebody who hasn’t left the estate. Freeing me up for some on site patrols would be for the best.”

She shook her head. “The only person who doesn’t leave occasionally is the King. By now, you’ve scanned everyone.”

Another suppressed sigh. “I know I’m supposed to try and hold anybody with that taint, but I don’t see how I’m to do that.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t object before.”

“Ma’am, with all due respect, I didn’t think possession was possible before,” I said. “If I hogtie the victim, there’s nothing stopping the occupying force from jumping right out.”

She weighed my words a moment before pulling out a sheet of paper from a binder and filling it out in front of me. “You have my permission to check out a magical disruption shackle from the weapons locker.”

That was actually rather helpful of her. “Thank you, ma’am. However, if this doesn’t work, what are your orders?”

She pondered my words for a moment, and I didn’t like the expression on her face one bit. She looked rather resigned.

“Do you remember what you did to the Tower to kill Holy Brother Ratte?”

“I can hardly forget, ma’am,” I replied. The teaching staff wouldn’t stop berating me for perforating the whole Tower. I’d vaporized the bugger in the bargain, at least.

“Catch the victim off guard and do the same to them,” she said.

“M-ma’am?”

“You heard me. Hit them with a spell of such overwhelming magnitude that there will be nothing but atoms left.”

“What if it jumps into one of my squad mates?”

“Then that will be a tragedy,” she said. “However, you’re the only one that has resisted whatever force possessed those women, and that force leaving the body seems to kill them. As painful as it might be, if we can’t trap that force, we have to try and send it back to hell where it belongs.”

“You’d sacrifice…” I nearly blurted out Kiyo. “You’d sacrifice one of us like that with no guarantee?”

“Soren,” she said, her tone almost gentle. “We’re soldiers. Everyone in the Nineteenth Platoon is expendable if it keeps those we’re tasked to defend alive, me included. I know you care about Private Yamada and the rest of them, but we have to be able to make the hard choices.”

She’d guessed wrong that I’d been about to say Mariko’s name, but I could see why. “You’ll understand why that would be difficult for me.”

“Absolutely. Nobody said our jobs were easy, though. Now, do you understand your orders?”

The damnable thing was, Sergeant Lakhdar could have been right. Fera had claimed that she’d survive the death of her ‘ride’ with a headache, but she wasn’t exactly a reliable source. Trading Kiyo might just end this whole affair and save hundreds of lives.

Like Hell I’d even consider it, though. The sergeant had just talked her way out of my circle of trust.

I couldn’t let it show, though. “Understood, ma’am,” I said, saluting again. “That’s everything I had to report, ma’am.” I kept my tone even, despite my irritation.

“You’re dismissed, Private Marlowe,” she said, checking her watch. “You have forty minutes until you and your squad are back on duty. Use them wisely.”

Oh, she’d better believe I would! If she wouldn’t get me away from that damn security gate, then I knew who could.

Chapter 51

“Sir Marlowe,” said King George, smiling up at me from his bed. His tone was jovial, despite his clear tiredness. The rings under his eyes gave Kiyo a run for her money. “Oh, get off your knee! We don’t have time for all that, from what you said.”

“Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice,” I said, rising to my feet. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

His jowly face added extra oomph to his deep frown. “Of course you did,” he said. “Which is why I’d rather not dally; my nurses get upset when I don’t get my eight hours.”

“Ten hours, sir,” said the nurse to his side, the only other person in the room besides another guard.

“I’ll try not to keep you long,” I said. “Though, may I ask you for some privacy?”

“It must be serious,” he said. “Leave us.”

“But sir…”

“I said leave us!”

“Don’t get overexcited; it isn’t good for your heart.” The nurse complied, though. The heavyset brunette shot me a glare that could have peeled paint. She shuffled out without complaint, though; one probably grows tired of being reprimanded by a king. The guard followed suit, and I wondered if they’d have done that for just anybody.

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Knighthood has its privileges; I doubted most others would have slipped right by the Yeomen posted at the front of His Majesty’s residence or requested an audience without advance notice.

I almost wish that I hadn’t been ushered upstairs so quickly; I’d have liked a minute to gather my thoughts for the nonsense I was about to spread. Ah, well. I always did my best work under pressure.

“Your Majesty,” I said, pausing for effect. “I have been a tad out of touch due to my training, but I have to imagine that the results of my knighting ceremony were… mixed.”

A barked out a harsh laugh that sounded more like a cough. “To put it mildly! The way you simply vanished afterwards undid a lot of the good work of knighting you in the first place, too.”

“Duty called, unfortunately,” I said.

He scoffed at that. “If the League had any sense, they’d have given you a public job to capitalize on that good will. Maybe paired you up with the Divine Blade; you seem to get on with him well.”

Thank Our Father Below they hadn’t, after my close call with the press before. Still, that was bound to make my task here easier. “I’m not much for public events, sir. I tend to put my foot in my mouth.”

“It couldn’t have been worse than what did happen. Public morale managed to dip even lower, if you believe the polls. However, you aren’t here to talk public policy.”

“Correct. I think we have a chance to do some good and, perhaps reverse some of that damage. But first…” I twisted my fingers into casting position. “Zone of Silence.” The barrier filled the air around us, cutting off the outside world. I trusted him well enough, but I had to assume there would be some sort of camera or microphone monitoring the room. “Your Majesty, when we spoke during my first visit, you called me a fraud. What did you mean by that?”

He smirked at that. “I’d imagine you know damn well.”

“You’d be surprised, sir. Neither of us have much time; please, be plain about it. I wouldn’t bother you for anything unimportant.”

That killed his mirth. “I know you blew that hole in the Nagoya Tower. Don’t look so surprised; I called in some favors with old friends in MI6, and they found some interesting files on you in a secure database in a League Intelligence building.”

“Not that secure, it seems,” I said, gulping. “Then you know the whole of it.”

He nodded. I was a little relieved, since headmaster Tachibana had been good about keeping my big secret. Still, I’d have to be careful about who I angered enough to go digging into my so-called past, if it was so accessible.

“Yet, you still knighted me?”

“I was a tad surprised,” he admitted. “From the outside, you seemed like the perfect candidate, from a public relations perspective. Besides, the reports were clear: you balked when you realized the hostages weren’t going to survive, and that traitor Maggie Edwards was negotiating in bad faith.”

Thank the Dark Lord somebody had edited out that I’d been willing to let the headmaster die! Probably his doing, the sentimental fool.

He continued. “It seemed to me that you were too zealous about restoring Britain before you saw sense. Not an awful trait in a knight, especially in these times.”

Ah, that explained it. He thought of me as a reformed crusader, not a demonkin under his nose. That also told me I couldn’t be quite as forthright as I’d have liked. I couldn’t claim demonkin insights, and I certainly couldn’t tell the actual truth.

“Then you didn’t want me for my sterling record,” I said.

“We talked before about the importance of appearances,” he said. “By all appearances, you do have a sterling record. The fact that you have restraint sealed the deal.”

Restraint? The senile old idiot didn’t know me at all. I set aside my moment of guilt at what I’d visited upon him and his nation. There was no time for that.

“Then I suppose I must go further into your debt, Your Majesty.”

“I knew you’d be here to ask me a favor,” he said.

“It can’t be an unusual occurrence.”

“You would be surprised,” he said. “Don’t expect too much; I told you before that I’m a figurehead.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” I said. “It’s a favor only you can grant.”

He raised his eyebrow. “Well, get it out.”

“You didn’t get much bang out of your buck for knighting me. I think I know how to fix that.”

I told him my request. He was a tired old man, but his eyes still had the spark of intelligence, and I could see the gears turning as he considered my words.

“I could put in the request, but why in the world would you want your squad assigned to be my honor guard? It’s going to be frightfully dull sitting around here.”

Oh, how wrong he was. “You were honest to me, so I’ll be straight with you.” I’m amazed I was able to keep my face straight as I started weaving truth and fiction together. “One of my squad mates doesn’t do well in the chill weather, and this emergency posting has been rather hard on her. I think it would give us an excuse to spend some time indoors.”

“Isn’t that a matter for your sergeant?”

He seemed to believe the premise, at least. Good; mundanes tended to be rather ignorant of magic in those days, so he couldn’t ask about St. Bernard’s Charm or the like.

“I wouldn’t bother you if I didn’t have to,” I said. “I’d also ask you not to reveal that I was the one who asked you. You were able to get me on the other side of the world; I’m sure the Wizard Corps would do you this favor, too.”

“Ms. Jones is the one suffering, I assume?” he asked. “She is a little slip of a girl.”

“Correct,” I said. “I’m surprised you remembered.”

“I have a gift for names, especially for the ladies,” he said.

It explained why he’d buried two wives. It seemed George and I had more in common than I’d thought. “So, can I count on you?”

His jowls quivered a moment as he pondered the request. “I’m afraid I don’t have much use for an honor guard most of the time. My Yeomen are more than enough. Frankly, as little as I get around these days, I fear I’m wasting their time, too. I mean, who is going to try and attack me?”

You’d be surprised, I didn’t say. “Think of the optics, sir,” I said. “What’s going to play better than the King accompanied by his loyal knight and his retainers?” Never mind that one of those retainers was a demon in girl’s clothing.

He gestured, indicating his bedridden self. “How often do you think I leave this bed? I told you, the pills that make me feel human work a little less every time. Between you and me, that dinner party the other night left me exhausted the next day.”

It might have helped if he hadn’t insisted on boozing it up. However, I couldn’t blame him; Dark Lord knows how I’d hated sobering up at the damn, dry Nagoya Tower.

“Surely you aren’t going to be a hermit forever,” I said. “If not permanently, we could volunteer for your next public appearance.”

“There is something next week,” he said. “I’m going to be christening a new naval vessel over at the Harland and Wolff shipyards.”

“It must be a special ship to call you in,” I said.

“Yes, actually,” he said. “It’s a support vessel testing some new fabricata that the engineers over at the Lisburn Academy of Magic think can defeat the electronics jamming that the Horde is so bloody fond of.”

That got my attention right away. Our ability to shut down the humans’ technological advantage was all that had let our armies of pike-wielding orcs and magic slinging devils overrun the whole world in such a short period of time. If the humans could defeat that… well, that would go a long way towards equalizing an unequal war.

“How does that work?” I asked.

“How should I know?” he replied. “Still, I’m afraid it won’t do much to get your friend out of the cold. It’s bound to be worse, actually, since we’ll be right on the sea.”

“Well, I’m sure she’ll appreciate the change of scenery, at least,” I said, the words tumbling out of my mouth. “When will that be?”

He considered me in silence for a moment. “It isn’t the cold, is it?”

My stomach churned at the harsh tone of his voice. “O-of course it is.”

“Boy, if you’re going to lie to me, do it with a strong voice!” he said, sitting up straighter, barely contained fury in his eyes. “I know your title is an archaic throwback, but you promised loyalty to me and the United Kingdom in front of the whole world. I’d think that would mean something to you.”

“I-it does, believe me.”

He jabbed his gnarled finger in my face. “Why should I, if you won’t be straight with me? Are you going to get the same treatment as Yosuke Tachibana, with your knife at my back? Will you get cold feet again?”

Damn, that old man was astute. I hesitated.

“Well? Out with it! What’s really going on? What’s worth lying to me?”

“It is Miss Jones,” I said, scrambling to figure out how much to tell him, what could possibly satisfy him. Bloody Hell, if I made the wrong move, I’d get my honors stripped away and have no access to him at all. That would lead to questions, which would pull me away from where I needed to be, or possibly even expose my secret. That meant no plan I could sell Fera on, which meant that Kiyo could…

“Pull yourself together! Are you crying for yourself, or for her?”

“For her,” I said, the words steeling me, even as I cleared my eyes with my sleeve. This was about her, not me, and I wasn’t going to sacrifice my unworthy hide at her expense.

“Promise me this,” I said. “When I’m done, whatever else, don’t do anything rash. Her life is at risk if the wrong steps are taken.”

He nodded. “It can’t be as bad as all that, can it?”

“Oh, it can be, and worse. When I’m done with this, I’ll understand if you want my cross back,” I continued. “But… Kiyo has fallen into some awful danger, and it’s all because of me and my past associations.”

“What kind of danger?”

“Would you believe demonic possession, sir?”

From the look in his eyes, he didn’t, at least not right away. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Deadly serious,” I said. “You see, I… I used to consort with the Horde.”

I’d expected a few responses; anger, devastation, maybe even a heart attack. His wry grin took me completely by surprise.

“So, you finally admit it!” he said. “I must say, I’m impressed; you demonkin are abject cowards. It usually takes a few rounds of truth serums and torture to get it out of you.”

My jaw went slack. “Who told you?”

“When I found out the real truth of the Tower Attack, I decided to get it from the horse’s mouth,” he said. “Yosuke Tachibana happened to be in the hemisphere a few months back, so I had him over.”

That lined up with when Tachibana had visited us in Iceland. “So, he ratted me out?’

“Not exactly; that secure file said more than I let on,” he said. “He didn’t volunteer the information; I ambushed him with your unforgivable past and demanded to know why he suffered you to live, after what you did to him.”

I gulped. “I-I see. And what did he say?”

“He told me that you were better than your upbringing, and that you finally understood that fact,” said the king. “He was rather shocked that there was a file anywhere that said you were a demonkin, and begged me to delete it, since it could destroy you.”

“And did you?”

“Did better than that,” he said. “The same agent who secured the data made sure it was scrubbed from the League’s servers. At least, all of the ones he could find it on. After all, it does me no good if you’re exposed now.”

That was something of a relief, then. “So you knew this whole time that I…”

“Betrayed your country and humanity at large,” he snapped.

“Why am I a bloody knight, then?” I demanded, weeks of frustration boiling over. “What’s your game, old man? Why lift me up, when you know the truth?”

He shook his head, tsking at me. “Haven’t I drilled it into your head yet? The thing in itself is less important than the appearance. In truth, you were the last man out of England not because you were heroic, but because you sold us out. Yet, there’s power in the lie of Soren Marlowe escaping England after months of torment, never bending to the demonic lash. Also, your records say you were a poor wizard until Tachibana took you under his wing. I know that the good you will do in the future outweighs whatever little bit you did to hurt the defense of England.”

Well, at least I had some secrets from him. “This is an awful lot to take in.”

“You think it’s bad for you?” he asked. “If I’m to believe you, there’s a devil in our midst!”

Oh, if only you’d known the full extent of it. “We don’t have to worry too much, sir,” I said. “She can’t see anything too secret sitting out at that gate, and she’s content to spend her time tormenting me. Ironically, it means I can keep an eye on her.”

“Who else knows?” he asked.

“You’re the first and only I’ve entrusted with this information,” I said.

“I imagine asking the Archbishop to look into exorcism wouldn’t help much?” he asked.

“If only,” I said. “She has Kiyo’s life in her palm, and the price is… well, she seems to think I can be made to assassinate you in public.”

He was awfully calm, given the circumstances. “How right is she?”

“Absolutely wrong,” I said.

“Even for that girl?”

I hesitated. “I’m making sure it won’t come to that. However, I need to give the appearance of going along with it. I already have a plan to deal with her, but it requires your help.”

“Then say it now,” he said.

Can’t bloody well do that when I’m still concocting it, I didn’t say! I tapped my forehead. “I have to keep it up here; if she were to possess anybody else with an inkling of the scheme, it would all be ruined.”

He sat still a moment, before nodding once. “Can we get this devil at the same time?”

“Oh, absolutely, Your Majesty,” I said. I had no intention of letting her out of my grasp.

“Then you have my aid, Sir Marlowe. I’d gladly trade the time I have left for a chance to be useful again,” he said, his serious face breaking into another smirk. “Still, it seems a bit backwards for a knight to come to his king for help.”

I let out a relieved sigh. “These are backwards times, sir.”

“Hopefully we can get them turned the right way again.”

“I certainly hope so,” I said.