Chapter Nine
"And why hadn't you killed it before now?" The Adept huffed.
"Because it's new."
"Don't waste my time with lies, Chapter Master."
The chapter master pulled out a stack of papers from underneath his desk and, after adjusting the comically small glasses, he put on, began to read. "The first sighting of a Beast matching the description of the Beast now dignified as 'Grimrider' is from a routine patrol about two weeks ago. Notably, Grimrider lacked the armor-like plating and was of a size consistent with a Juvenile roughly three days of age." He sets both the paper and the glasses down on the desk. Leaning forward, he continued, "A Beast barrels through, killing more than a dozen people and one of our own. We looked into it."
Daniel looked a bit guilty when the knight mentioned the death of their subordinate. I put a hand on his shoulder.
As much as I find the knight's incapability to do their job competently annoying, Daniel still must have liked them to some extent if he felt sad about the Outrider’s death.
Lantos still didn't look convinced, "If that was the case, then why had it been able to pierce the boundary? Furthermore, Juvenile or not, you still should have killed the bloody thing."
"Sir Adept, you know that's not how these things work. And for the boundary, we don't know. Then again, the how doesn’t matter. We have a Beast that is both aggressive and dangerous with the ability to bypass it. Its death is all that matters. How it got through is the Margravine’s problem."
I had to resist rolling my eyes, as if "aggressive and dangerous" isn't just the default with Beasts.
Seriously though, what does he expect us to do? Lantos is busy babysitting Daniel and me, for lack of a better term. Who couldn't fight. Well, we couldn't fight well. Couldn't fight well against Beasts.
We got into a surprising amount of fights in hindsight. Did we even lose any of those? We were bruised, but they had broken something, usually their nose. Not my fault they couldn't take a punch. The point is that both of us would be next to useless, if not downright detrimental.
And while they say if we help them with this, they’ll guard us to San’kis. The only real option was to decline and find someone else to protect us upriver. So, of course, Lantos agreed to help them, 'Cause Zefra hates me.
---
We sat in the ruins of a farmhouse only a couple of minutes away from the boundary.
Luckily, if there were any, the bodies were already removed, and there were no apparent stains. So there's that, at least.
I could do without the hole in the wall, but beggars are stabbed in alleyways, apparently. On the bright side, we're under a roof. The bare minimum for a house, really, but I liked how it kept the rain outside. Not nearly as leaky as I thought it would be. Really let me be dry and miserable instead of the alternative of wet and furious.
Maybe Lantos would have answered why he brought us with him on the dangerous mission to kill a Beast if I were angry enough.
But I wasn't, and he didn't, so here we are. Something about it being a learning experience on how Elementalist-knight operations work.
Daniel, for his part, had taken the whole thing in stride. He simply asked the chapter master if he could borrow a couple of things from their armory and came back with a shield and a hammer of some kind I don’t know the name of but am pretty sure you’re not supposed to use in one hand.
He had a solemn eagerness as he waited, leaning next to the door. Occasionally peeking out a window. Before pushing off the door frame and walking over to the hole in the building.
Lantos noticed them next. The full moon's light is coming through the windows and reflecting on the pools of slowly gathering water on the floor. Reflecting the glistening blades of what Daniel told me were swordstaves
Standing up from the chair he was sitting in, dusting himself off, and moved to greet the squad of knights coming around the corner of the hole in the building. “Sure took you long enough. We were beginning to think that you forgot about us.”
The knight leading the group stepped forward, speaking, “ Apologies, sir Adept we were distracted by a Beast sneaking around the boundary.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Well, you’re here now. Next time be more punctual.” bushing past the knights, he called over his shoulder, “come on, we don’t have forever, and I am not doing this without some bodies between the armored beast and me.”
Can he not go one sentence without insulting someone. He didn't need to say that. There’s nothing to gain by insulting the people guarding us. Their actual skill in doing so is yet to be determined, but the point stands.
The lead knight nodded, moving ahead of Lantos while commanding the others to take formation around us. One on each side and one behind.
Once past the boundary, we started to move just a little slower than a jog. Lantos and the leader of the knight whispered to each other. The rain and clanging of armor cover up the conversation.
“So Tell, did he pull through?” Daniel said suddenly.
“He lived.” a soft voice came for the trailing knight.
“That’s good. I was worried. Did they find out who stabbed him?” Daniel responded.
I suppose that’s Tellock then, going by the conversation. Looking at her, I couldn’t spot anything that differentiated her from the other outriders. They were all tall, and you couldn’t tell sex through the armor, which was a bit disappointing. Armor was like any other piece of clothing in that it's meant to help express yourself on top of providing a utility. And it seemed that Outriders wanted to say that they have no individuality. It had to be policy. I couldn't imagine having to wear that and not decorating it somehow.
Asking Daniel how he knew who she was unhelpful, what kind of response was “she has a quiet presence,” wouldn’t that mean it would be harder to tell who the figure behind us was, not easier.
Tellock shook her head, "Unfortunately not. To my knowledge, the perpetrator is still free within San’hallon."
"Daniel, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" I say.
He speaks, "Tell, this is my sister, Anna,” without missing a beat. “Sister Anna, meet Tellock Lemire, Knight of the Tempest order and friend of two days."
"Order tempest. Order is always first." She looks down at me, "It is my pleasure to meet you, Miss Anna."
"And mine to meet you." I lie politely. Ignoring Daniel's questioning look.
Tellock moves her armored head to look at Daniel, "You consider me a friend?" She asks belatedly.
"Of course I do. Dad always said if you help move a body with someone, you’re friends."
I understand what Daniel meant about her voice now that I can hear her myself. All the Vinna I've met before just talk like everybody is ten feet away. Never lowering the volume, even when they are close enough to touch. Tellock seems to be whispering in comparison, almost like she was intentionally softening her voice. It was especially strange since she is a knight. I thought they would want to sound commanding.
“Your father says the weirdest things,” I say. What does that man think he’s teaching his kids?
“Keep the noise to a minimum. We don’t want to attract unwanted attention to ourselves. Beasts act bolder and aren’t the only things out here.” The lead knight calls to the group before continuing to converse with Lantos.
We didn’t talk after the chastisement and focused on keeping an eye on the surroundings.
---
By the time we made camp, the moon was high in the sky, piercing through the light cloud cover of the diminishing rain. We quickly ate some rations, and this was when the lead knight decided to introduce himself and his group.
He skipped Tellock as we already knew her, but we also met the other knights, Teson and Hudon, before. They were two of the knights that fought Grimrider outside the city. The leader called himself Vinsar. All three men seemed distracted when they spoke. Like they were listening to something else in the far distance.
For all I knew, they were. Elder Richard did say they were “more than human” in a similar way to Daniel and his family.
Anyway, we only stayed there for a couple of minutes before setting off again, a pattern that continued for the next few hours—occasionally hearing a Beast howling just beyond sight of the full moon or the swarms of bitters and screechers hunting in numbers that blocked out the moonlight. The grass softly crunched underfoot as we traveled. The clinking of armor disappeared after the rain stopped. We didn't light any torches or set up campfires while we moved, not that we needed to with the moonlight illuminating the plains, so that we weren’t putting a beacon on ourselves to be seen for miles around.
Our first sign of Grimrider was hoofprints, deep enough in wet earth that Vinsar could fit an entire finger in the grove as he knelt to inspect them.
We were led to a slight depression in the landscape following the tracks. The depression was only a dozen or two yards across and lowered about five to eight feet at its lowest, forming a bowl shape in the ground. The sound of a man grunting and heavy steps of some creature coming from it. I made sure to grab Daniel before he decided to throw caution to the fire. I’m not going through that again.
Crawling to the lip and peering over there, it stood in its unholy splendor. Practically unchanged from our last encounter, with one exception. Where its hollow eyes once were is now a bone that has grown over them in a deformed lumpy growth. Not that seemed to impede it as it weaved back and forth, dodging the blade of the far more surprising sight.
Facing off against Grimrider was a person in gorgeous plate armor wielding a two-handed axe of some kind with a spike on one side of it.
However, the weirdest thing about the situation was that what was clearly a knight didn’t seem to be trying to kill the Beast. But that couldn’t be the case why would anyone be fighting a Beast, the single-minded hunters of humanity, and not be trying to kill it?
Lantos cursed quietly under his breath. Sadly not quiet enough as both figures in the pit shoot their heads directly in our direction.
What Lantos cursed still bounced around in my mind as the knights stood up from their position and wearily readied themselves for a fight.
“Why is a Paladin here?”