Chapter 18

In the tavern, Titus sat alone once again with an ale in hand. The tavern was still deserted despite the evening hour since half the villagers were home nursing injuries while the rest were unsure if the threat was truly over. None knew that Waldron’s corpse was laying prone in some dark wood or that Lia was harmlessly bathing upstairs.

The whole turn of events only added more weight to the scales that had started to tip in his mind since the attack on Bal Lorn’s castle.

A month ago, he had witnessed that carnage and, despite the prisoners being vampires, the cruelty done to them did not sit well with him. There was something wrong with the collaring that he couldn’t put into words at the time. The other Saviors argued that it was the best use for them – to make them serve the people for once. But the Saviors were treating them worse than any human prisoner. The vampires and monsters were kept in pens without anything to sustain them. A few would die each day, turning to ash under their silver collars. When he had asked about it, many of the others shrugged, ‘one less monster in the world’ they’d say. Others told him that humans wither and die much the same under the rule such monsters.

Titus thought back to Snow’s words in the field. Was he truly a monster like Bal Lorn? The sight of his magic electrifying Waldron back to life like a puppet was indeed disturbing. What else could he do? Was he born with this or did some demon gift it to him? There were still too many questions and not enough time to ask them. But despite the unknown, Titus was sure that Snow was not as evil as the Saviors made him out to be.

Unfortunately, Waldron’s corpse spoke the truth. The Saviors had decided to collect the resurrectionist, though they didn’t call him by such a benign title. Necromancer, they called him, and Spawn of the Dark in human form. How could he be anything else if he can call upon the dead and manipulate them as he wished? Or at least that was the argument. And Titus would have believed it if he had not heard a tale of resurrection for himself.

As the Saviors sought to understand Snow’s route through the countryside, Titus came to hear the story of a townsman who had lost his wife last winter. Her death had been an accident, but it had happened after a bad argument. The thought that those angry words would be the last ones she ever heard had drove the man to tears. He couldn’t afford Snow’s full fee but offered his best goods to work the miracle so he could tell his wife that he loved her. Snow accepted trade and the man spent that night pouring out his heart before saying goodbye.

It was then that Titus made the decision to see this resurrectionist for himself before blindly following more orders. The fact that Snow happened to be hiring felt like more than just a stroke of good luck. And as the magician addressed his curious questions, Titus realized there was much to learn about the shadows of this world – far more than his comrades would want to believe.

Titus had not lied to Snow. He was leaving the Saviors. He just hadn’t told them yet. While he still believed in what they fought for, he no longer believed in their ways. It wasn’t some vampire that had killed the baker’s daughter, it wasn’t Lia’s fault that two men were killed in Folfern with half a dozen injured. Humans were just as cruel as any monster and while Snow seemed cold at first, Titus could see something under that ice when the magician placed his own coat around Lia.

Titus was staring down into his ale, working on how to patch things up with Snow, when the door to the inn creaked behind him. It wasn’t an urgent sound and Titus hoped it meant some men from the village were trying to return to normalcy – coming in for a drink or a meal. Titus liked the thought of sharing a drink with them by the fire and asking them about the last time Snow visited.

Titus turned with a gentle look, expecting it reassure some half-shaken farmer, but the men at the doorway were not farmers. Both were dressed in black with a silver four-point star over their heart.

“Axl,” Titus frowned as he got up from his seat.

“Titus? I thought you said you were going home to visit family?” The first man replied. He was dark haired and sharp eyed, with a clean-shaven face.

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“Right upstairs,” Jorn’s voice came in between them as the innkeeper pushed in behind the two men. “He’s in the last room on the right.” Jorn’s voice stopped the moment he saw Titus staring at him from the empty bar. “And THAT one came with him.”

Titus stopped breathing as the two Saviors and Jorn stared at him.

“Is this true, Titus?” Axl asked as his hand came to rest on the heavy sword sitting at his hip.

“It’s not what you think,” Titus was quick to reply.

“They rode in together! Like partners!” Jorn pushed until Axl hushed him and told him to leave. Jorn huffed and slipped out but not before giving Titus a long scowl.

The silence that followed felt suffocating. Titus quickly grasped for something to say. He wanted to give Axl the truth, but Titus didn’t know how the captain would receive Waldron’s death and everything that happened prior.

“So,” Axl started slowly as him and his partner stepped closer. Titus didn’t know the man with him, but he certainly looked capable of handling himself. “You’re traveling with the necromancer now?” Axl asked as he drifted towards the hearth as if to warm himself a little. His man stood squarely between Titus and the door.

“I was passing through Erbin when I saw an opportunity.” It wasn’t a lie, Titus thought. “He was hiring - looking for a sword to watch his back.”

“So, this is an undercover mission of your own design, eh? And he hasn’t seen through it yet? Surprising. I always heard the necromancer was a shrewd villain. Suspicious of everyone,” Axl took off his gloves to warm his hands. He was a tall knight, lean muscled yet broad in the shoulders, and he knew well how to swing a sword.

“Well, I won’t say he’s not chilly,” Titus tried to smile as if the joke might put the room at ease. “Why are you two here?”

Axl turned away from the flames and said, “We’re here tracking an old Savior. Maybe you recall him… Waldron? The man stole one of our ‘new recruits’ and I hear he’s suddenly become a great hunter. The villages I’ve passed through talk of him collaring a very similar creature over and over again. Convenient.” Axl flashed a knowing smirk as he said it.

“We, ah, already dealt with him,” Titus replied.

“So I hear from the men outside. How did that come about?”

“The villagers asked the necromancer and I to hunt down a monster that killed two people and we stumbled upon his plot. He’s been dealt with.” Titus was unsure if he wanted to elaborate or not.

“The necromancer?” Axl clearly didn’t believe it. Titus saw an opening and went for it.

“He’s not what we thought. He cares. He is what he is, but he doesn’t use it to hurt people,” Titus said, wincing in fear that his words would be ill-received.

Axl stared for a long, unnerving moment. “Are you… defending him?”

“I’m only saying that he might help us willingly,” Titus amended his tone to sound more pragmatic.

“Well, let’s not give him a chance to decline,” Axl replied as he drew his sword. His silent compatriot did as well. “Which room is he in?”

Titus stopped breathing as his mind raced for an answer. He was good with a sword, one of the best if he said so himself, but Axl was a trainer of men and Titus didn’t know how skilled his partner was.

“He trusts me,” Titus said. “Let me bring him down here and all three of us might have a chance.” He prayed Axl went for it.

At length the man nodded, “fine, we’ll take up positions down here.” Axl then gestured for his partner to stand outside the front door while he walked behind the bar to be out of sight from the stairs.

Titus nodded and then slowly walked up as he quickly rehearsed what he was going to say. He wasn’t only afraid that Snow might see this as another kind of betrayal, but that the resurrectionist would go down there with his sword bared ready to kill. Titus didn’t want to see that. Axl might be as close-minded as the rest, but the man had a good heart.

Despite dragging his feet up the stairs and down the hall, Titus still came to the door faster than he wanted to. He knocked briefly before opening it.

“Snow,” he started urgently, but as his eyes peered round the door, he realized he was going to have a whole new problem.

The room was empty.