CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
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Alaric Sampson
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28th of Decepter, 935 PC
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Everyone but Alaric poured out of the stagecoach as it came to a rest along the edge of The Emerald Forest, graciously put at ease by Lily’s magic.
Diedro walked with Edwin toward the woods to piss. It never ceased to amaze Alaric how friendships could blossom between the strangest pairings. The only thing he could think had pulled them together was their willingness to let silence sit between them.
Alaric’s head stuck out the open door just far enough to see Lily walking away with Therrin. “Lily, may I have a word?” Right on cue, Tripelthin slid into the vacancy left beside the healer and began a lecture about taking their mission seriously. Alaric gave the healer a curt smile as he closed the door on the boy’s infatuation.
The sunlight illuminated one half of Lily’s face as she ran her hands across the top of the plush cushion covering the benches innocently, leaving the other half hidden in the shadows beneath the bangs that had been pushed that way. He hated her friendly demeanor. He’d given her a reason to hate him, whether it was the truth or not, and yet to this point she’d shown him no ill-will or outward resentment. That made him curious, suspicious. However, he hadn’t gathered enough information on that matter to confront her. Yet.
He examined his fingernails to make sure there was no dirt under them as he waited for the uncomfortable silence to pry words from her first.
“Still just the one feeling, sir. Far enough away to not be a concern. Though I will say it is getting larger.”
“Very good, very good indeed. But that’s not why I wanted to speak to you.” Her face became flat and concerned. He considered letting another long silence coax whatever she was hiding out of her but decided to deal with that later. “When we were at the Black Boar Inn you spent a lot of time with a man named Jameson Wicket. Did you not?” She swallowed something? Fear? Guilt? He might feel guilty too if he was throwing himself at multiple lovers.
He reached into his breast pocket to find he only had three hard candies left. He offered her one out of disingenuous courtesy and to his dismay she took it. They tossed the sweets into their mouths simultaneously as if they’d planned the show. He mimicked her effort to crunch up the wrapper and fiddle with it for comfort.
“I know you spent a lot of time with him, Lily. It’s a small inn. People see things you think are hidden. Especially when one knows he must watch Jameson closely.”
She bit her bottom lip as if she’d been accused of something. “I didn’t spend that much time with him, sir. Mostly at the bar. He had a tendency to sit by me whether I liked it or not.”
“No one questions what happens behind closed doors at the Black Boar, but that doesn’t mean the walls aren’t thin as parchment.” Her eyes narrowed. The opposite of what he’d expected. “Don’t worry, he was the loud one.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Look, you’re a grown woman. You can do as you please. But since you’re involved with him I must warn you. It’s not a good idea to develop feelings for Therrin as well. Jameson is a dangerous man. One I try to keep an eye on but he has a way of slipping out of sight from time to time.”
“Wait. What?” There was too much horror on Lily’s face for her confusion to be fake. “What are you talking about? I never went into his room.”
He twisted his wrapper into a thin rope. “It was your room if-” He paused in shock as it all came together in his head. “Oh.”
She pushed her hands into her thick hair, grabbing two fistfuls. Her eyes widened but were ignoring the world in front of her as she tried desperately to see inside the Black Boar miles and miles away, searching for any recollection of when Jameson may have gotten his slimy hands on her.
“Lily,” he leaned forward, touching her knee gently. Her leg shot away from his touch, snapping her out of her shock.
“No. No, he wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t. I would have sensed it,” she said.
He was trying to think of what could possibly be said in a situation like this when Lily rushed toward the door, pushing it open so hard it snapped back in her face. She pushed it open again and dropped out of the coach. The door slammed shut, leaving Alaric alone and in disbelief.
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The village of Redwall looked like what he imagined Lily’s heart felt like right now; scorched by evil and left to burn to ashes. He should have been furious. He should have been ranting and raging. He should have felt how he’d felt when he burst into Perku’s temple. These were innocent people too after all. Good people. Good people burned to a crisp for no reason other than supporting him. But rather than feel any rage, he simply felt guilty. He’d dragged Lily into Jameson’s reach, he’d exposed her to a man he knew to be a demon.
“Hounds,” Diedro said. Alaric was well aware, no purple flames meant no Lotus. “General Camdrie doesn’t do this unless he’s paid to though.”
Alaric had a decent idea who might have put the Leos in his pocket. Which meant Rhyne was closer than ever to finalizing the alliance between The Hounds and Iris. He hardly cared though, even as he looked at Rosey’s charred body. At least he thought the corpse belonged to the sweet old innkeeper that ran The Coppers for him. She’d been even feistier than Aunt Bethunia and twice as busy. Redwall was the last stop before Locke on the Dirt Spine, not sitting atop a hill no one wanted to climb like The Hawk’s Nest. The constant flow of Lotus and other passersby didn’t phase her a bit though. She’d run the place with an iron fist, like a grandmother that didn’t want any rough-housing in her home. Brought down by that animal, Urman Gant. “All shall walk the road home with good health and good fortune,” he whispered to Rosey, knowing she was probably too far down the road to hear him.
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“So be it,” Diedro whispered.
Alaric turned to check on Lily who had shut herself in the coach when the rest of them had gotten out to look at the carnage. She’d sat in silence as far from Edwin and Therrin as she could as they rode to Redwall, arms wrapped around her legs, chin on her knees, hiding from the idea of human touch.
“Well,” Tripelthin said. There wasn’t enough sympathy in his tone to fill a thimble. “Now what? I refuse to spend another night in that miserable coach.”
Edwin lifted a hand slightly, careful not to startle the pack of lions he found himself stuck with. As meek as it was, the gesture still froze the rest of them. The boy had barely volunteered more than a few words in days, only speaking when spoken to, and only minimally then too. Perhaps this was his way of trying to get into their good graces. Or at the very least, to not be gobbled up by them when he became expendable. “There be a place to sleep not all that far from here. Not enough beds for all of us but thrice the room that old gal offers.” He flicked his head toward his coach. “Warmer too.”
His accent came through in spades now, one Alaric had never heard before. Not even on the docks in Locke and people from all over the world ended up in Locke’s harbor.
“Don’t just stand there, tell us where it is,” Tripelthin said.
“It be a windmill in the fields outside Locke,” Edwin said.
Alaric knew of what he spoke of. There were a half a dozen windmills spread out across the fields adjacent to Locke’s walls. They’d once kept the city full of grain but they’d been abandoned after Iris took over and replaced them with more efficient means created by her alchemists. “Are they safe? No Lotus snooping around them?” he asked, making it clear that if there were any threats he wasn’t mentioning, Edwin wouldn’t live through the night.
“Believe they are, sir. Me and me brothers spend nights in ‘em when we can’t find nowhere else to sleep.”
“What do you think, Trip?” Alaric asked.
“I think I will be taking one of the beds.”
Alaric looked at Diedro.
“I’ve slept in worse,” the mercenary said.
Therrin was about to speak but the others had already started back toward the coach.
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“I asked you if it was safe,” Alaric said. Every muscle in his body was tense. He had to remind himself that it was indeed Edwin that was gripped tight within his magic. The commoner’s mouth was locked in a position that suggested he was about to claim his innocence. Hard to believe when the fields of Locke were flooded with Hounds, Lotus, Cloudcruisers, Wreckers, wagons, and enough horses to make each man, woman, and child in the city a mounted soldier. Which, he feared, might be exactly what Iris and Rhyne intended to do. Tents were pitched in perfect lines up and down the fields. Soldiers in white cloaks and green gambesons sat around the fires that burned bright through the light snow.
“Do you intend to preserve your magic at all?” Tripelthin asked Alaric.
Diedro put a hand on his shoulder. “Ain’t no way this boy knew anything about this. Rhyne’s not one for tricks and spies.”
Alaric released his grip and stifled the thump, thump, thump in his own chest. He turned to Tripelthin, trying to speak calmly. “Looks like we’ll be using our backup plan.” Even without Eilif’s disguises, Tripethin had convinced him to not rule out the possibility that they may be able to get through the gates with a well thought out scheme. Now, with thousands of Lotus and Hounds sitting within a stone’s throw of the gates, there was no way he’d risk one of them recognizing any of them.
“I think the more important detail is that our intuitionist didn’t warn us of this?” Tripelthin said.
Lily turned away from the sight, pressing her back against the tree. “Why would I have? No one kept me safe.”
“Please, don’t be pathetic,” Tripelthin said.
Therrin lunged at him. “Shut your mouth!” Diedro held the boy by the collar for the few seconds he was ambitious enough to bark at Tripelthin.
“Lords. You of all people want to defend this woman. She belongs to another, you fool. You’re just-”
“I don’t belong to anyone,” Lily said. She only glared at the advisor for a moment before she turned and started to walk away. Alaric flipped his hand as Diedro, expecting him to fetch the girl but he didn’t move, reminding Alaric that helping talk young women through their emotional trauma wasn’t what he’d signed up for.
Alaric took off after her, telling the others to get the stagecoach turned around. “Lily, wait.”
“No.”
“Lily, stop.” She kept walking, getting dangerously close to the treeline. Too much farther and she’d be on the road, heading straight toward the fields and an inevitable death, but he’d never catch her on foot. She froze a few feet from the last trees, making walking around her so much easier. He chose his words deliberately as he watched the tears trickle down her cheeks. “I’ll give you back control if you’ll just hear a few words. If you don’t come to the same conclusions I have, I’ll let you walk right into their camp. Let them have their way with you.”
She wiped her eyes the moment he released her and said, “I want to go home. I want to see my family.”
“You won’t get there going that way.” He waved an open palm toward the field. “That field is full of Jamesons. Many of them are even worse. If you can imagine that. They’ll take what he took and leave you face down in a ditch. And that’s only if they don’t deliver you straight to the Lotus Queen.”
Her eyes went to the ground. “I know that,” she whispered. “But I can’t stay here. I just want to be alone.”
“The Lily I saw in the stagecoach was stronger than this. That Lily looked like she could kill Jameson for what he’s done to you.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone.” She paused. “I’m just hurt that no one protected me.”
“Of course you’re hurt. What he did to you was horrible. But pain like yours, like mine… it rots until it becomes something far different than pain. It becomes a plague you can’t cure but with one remedy. Whether you walk away now or stay with me, you’ll be infected by that plague soon enough. At least if you’re with me I’ll be able to hand you Jameson on a silver platter when the time comes.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t want that. I just want to go home.”
“I find everyone feels that way until they’ve done it once,” he said. She wiped her eyes again. “It will make all the pain you feel right now go away.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Can’t you just do it for me?”
He smiled, slowly extended his arms, waiting to see if she’d withdraw. When she didn’t he grabbed her shoulders cautiously. “The lords know I would love to, but I’d prefer you do it. Revenge is best served by those it marinates in.” He pulled her closer to himself, hugging her gently and whispering, “You’ll make him pay. I’ll make sure of it.”