The Outskirts: The Rogue Knight (Jace x OC) BOOK 2

The Rogue Knight: 27

In all directions, Morgassa's horde fell. The blank figments disappeared, and the changelings dropped as one, puppets with the strings cut, either dead or unconscious.
Honor approached Morgassa with Verity in her grasp, ready to strike. Morgassa looked different. She was now the height of an average woman, dressed in black, her features duller and less sculpted. Her injuries were no different. She was dead.
Cole shakily stood up. I ran over to him, but Twitch got there first.
"Are you all right?" I asked.
"I don't know," Cole replied.
"What did she do to you?" Twitch asked, crouching to peer at the little gouges in Cole's side.
"I'm not sure," Cole said. "It wasn't fun. Thanks
for catching me."
"Thanks for helping take her down," Twitch said.
"Okay," Jace said, coming over to us, his golden rope now small again. "You get some points for that one. Good timing on finding your mojo. You okay?"
"I think so." He replied.
"You saved the day," Dalton said, coming up from behind to put an arm around Cole.
"Thanks for the help," Cole said. "I noticed the illusions you made."
I smacked a hand against my forehead. "I forgot about the seemings! I could have helped more."
"I had it covered," Dalton said. "You were busy enough."
"Maybe next time we'll lend you a Jumping Sword," Jace said, slapping Dalton on the shoulder.
Honor and Mira stood near Callista's fallen form. "Cole!" Honor called. "Callista wants to speak with you! Hurry!"
Cole ran over to them, me and the boys following.
Still enormous, Callista lay on her back, her sword lodged in her torso. Her helmet had been removed, showing that her head was in scale with her enlarged body. Her intent eyes found Cole.
"She did it to you too," Callista rasped.
"What?" Cole asked.
Callista closed her eyes, swallowed, then opened them. "Morgassa worked some sort of changing on me. After she stabbed me. She disconnected me from my power. She didn't steal it. Somehow she put me out of sync. She did the same to you."
Cole nodded. "I felt it. Everything went black."
"I thought so," Callista said. "You touched her corrupted power-an endless hunger forever devouring itself. It was bad enough to glimpse. Imagine being her. The power had full control. We freed that woman from a terrible fate."
"Can't you reconnect to your power?" Mira asked. "Can't you heal yourself with a changing?"
"Perhaps given more time," Callista said, gasping.
"It wouldn't be easy. Morgassa did something unnatural to me. Something that surpasses my current knowledge of enchanting. The injuries I received are personal. Unlike the masks. I designed them to take away all that was part of the animal when removed. Including wounds. The dangers of the masks are never removing them, or dying before you do. I chose to cast aside my mask. It was blocking full access to my power. That meant facing Morgassa with less protection- as many of you risked at the end."
"Search for it," Mira encouraged her. "Find your power!"
"My power remains with me," Callista said. "I can perceive it, if not access it. If only . . . No . . . I lack the time. These shapecrafters must be stopped! The woman who became Morgassa was one of them. She merged her art with Brady's power. Honor, try to revive Skye. Like the other former changelings, she is sleeping, not dead."
Honor hurried off.
Callista reached out a hand. "Cole." He put his hand in her large one as she continued. "I wish I could undo what Morgassa did to you," Callista said. "You have a unique gift. You must find your way back to your power. Morgassa has made it difficult. But your power remains. And the five kingdoms need you."
Supported by Honor, Skye shuffled over. She looked pale, her eyelids and lips a pasty gray.
Letting go of Cole, Callista reached out to Skye, who accepted her hand. For a moment, they regarded each other.
"I name you my successor," Callista said solemnly. "After I pass, you will be Grand Shaper of Elloweer. I cannot seal the decision with my power. My abilities are currently beyond my reach, and my moments grow few. Go to Trillian. You should not fully trust him, but you need him. Learn from him. Elloweer needs you to become what only he can make you. Once he sees that I have named you my heir, he will teach you. Promise me you will go to him."
Skye hesitated. Then she squared her shoulders and stood taller. "I promise."
Callista dropped her hand and slumped back, flat. "All I have is yours," Callista murmured. "Take care of them." Her eyes closed, and her ragged breathing stopped.
Honor and Skye knelt close to Callista. Honor probed her neck. "She's gone," Honor said, bowing her head.
Skye looked weary and confused, like a young child awakened in the night. Sitting down, she stared dully at Callista's oversize form.
I swallowed back a lump in my throat. We hadn't even known Callista that long, but she had been nice to us, had helped us. She had been on their side and had fought bravely to protect them.
There had been to many deaths here. There was Sultan, Callista, plus some kids I had known casually as a Sky Raider. I knew I would never get used to living in a place where people regularly got killed.
Turning, I saw that the remaining knights had gathered around their fallen captain. Minimus was with them, but three of the knights and several of the horses would not rise again. Their armor had seen better days. It looked like they had tumbled together down a rocky mountainside.
Minimus noticed me looking and waved a hand. "Honor, all of you, the Rogue Knight wants to speak with you."
I glanced at Honor. She appeared uncertain.
"As he wishes," Honor replied.
They walked over to where the Rogue Knight lay supine, armor scuffed and dented, legs gone just below the knees.
He did not appear to be bleeding.
"You put Verity to good use," the Rogue Knight said, his voice a bit tired but still hearty.
"i's an extension of me," Honor said. "I felt a strong connection. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," the Rogue Knight replied. "Though I would not be alive without you and your friends. You saved me and you saved Elloweer. No one else could have stopped her." Cole wondered whether the Rogue Knight realized his legs were missing. He considered pointing it out.
"It was a group effort," Honor said. "Callista perished."
"I feared so," the Rogue Knight replied. "I lost three of my men. They are beyond all aid. I could repair the damage to myself and the others, but I do not intend to do so, except for Minimus." The Rogue Knight waved a hand, and Minimus was once again in flawless armor.
"Why just him?" Honor asked.
The Rogue Knight sighed. "Where to begin? It was easy to imagine you spoiled, immature, undeserving. It was easy to tell myself that I wielded your power in the name of the greater good. But now I have witnessed your courage and nobility up close. Of course you are as extraordinary as your power--it originated within you. I should have known. The power that I wield rightfully belongs to you. Who can argue otherwise? I had no honor before your power came to me. I worked for the shapecrafters who created Morgassa. I accepted the power they offered. They wanted me to be their weapon. But the presence of your power opened my eyes and changed my nature. I am proud of who I have become. But if I attempt to withhold your power any longer, the man I have become will be lost."
"Are you certain?" Minimus asked.
The Rogue Knight held up a hand to stay him. "Though it will reduce me to my former state, and strip my knights of their stations, the honor that guides me demands that this young woman have her power back. I do not wish to walk the same path as Morgassa, claiming what does not belong to me. I may not have personally taken Honor's abilities, but I collaborated with those who did, and if I now refuse to give up what belongs to her, I may as well have been the thief. My deepest apologies, Your Highness."
"You have done much good," Honor said. "Perhaps I should let you and your men keep my power for a season. I'm afraid that together, you wield it more effectively than I could alone."
"At the moment, perhaps," the Rogue Knight said. "But the power is yours. If I return it to you, it can continue to grow. One day, you will wield it with more might than any of us. And unlike us, you can stray beyond the Ellowine borders."
"This is your decision?" Honor checked.
"It is," the Rogue Knight said. "Phillip. Divide me in half just below the waist. This is my last command."
Breastplate warped and scarred, the knight with the big battle-ax lumbered up to the Rogue Knight. Me and Jace shared a shocked glance. Was this an execution?
After raising the weapon high, Phillip paused. "Serving you has been our greatest honor."
I looked away as the ax came down. I heard the impact. Unable to resist, I looked back and saw the bottom half of the Rogue Knight parted from the top.
Off to one side, Honor gasped. Eyes wide, she turned to Mira. "It's back! I feel my power! It came in a rush. There were only hints before! It's like it never left!" Mira hugged her sister.
As I watched, the Rogue Knight's armor dissipated, as did the full suits of armor of all the other knights besides Minimus. The knights lost stature. Some, like Oster and Desmond, wore other armor and gear underneath. Some were dressed in plain clothes. Several looked too old or frail to be warriors.
Nobody changed more than the Rogue Knight. Where the great knight had lain, a middle-aged dwarf sat up. He stood, slightly bowlegged, his stocky body barely more than three feet tall. He looked up at those around him.
"Sigmund!" Minimus exclaimed.
"Donovan," the dwarf replied with a nod. "You kept your armor. I sensed something had changed within you."
"Callista sealed my armor to me," Minimus said. "She made my changing permanent."
The dwarf nodded. "My power was borrowed. Same with Morgassa, even though she had sole claim to it. Eventually, it had to end."
Cole frowned. "Morgassa worked a changing on me. She separated me from my power. But it didn't go away when she died."
"Then she must have used her own power to do it," the dwarf said. "Her native power."
"Makes sense," Honor agreed. "Callista said that Morgans. used to be a shapecrafter. She must have used shapecraft on Cole and Callista."
"I worked for them." The former Rogue Knight sighed. "The shapecrafters. I was no one of import. A lowly servant. Which is probably why they assumed they could control me. They did, at first. But within a week I had turned even after receiving great power from them, I still don't understand the art they practice."
I could hardly believe that this little man with the soft voice was the Rogue Knight.
"Your name is Sigmund?" I asked.
The dwarf cleared his throat. "Correct. And Minimus is my older brother, Donovan. He never served the shapecrafters, as I did, to my shame. When I came to him and offered to make him a knight, he agreed, but insisted on keeping his small stature. He has always been more comfortable with his height than me. He embraced it with the nickname he invented."
"It was good you made your armor large," Minimus said. "Otherwise, you would have lost your legs."
"My armor was big," Sigmund said. "But I never altered my body to fill it. Since my armor moved with me as if part of me, there was no need. The choice to keep my hidden body small saved my feet."
"You caused a lot of trouble for such a little guy," Jace said.
"Never underestimate a man based on his stature alone," Minimus chided.
"I have much to answer for," Sigmund admitted. "I have made many more enemies than friends." He went and knelt before Honor. "I will submit to whatever punishment you see fit to inflict."
"You used my power well," Honor said. "In the end you returned it voluntarily. You may have made enemies among the shapecrafters and the power brokers of Elloweer, but you have earned friends as well." Honor looked to his men. "Are any of you ashamed of your leader?"
Phillip, a lean farmer in his forties, went down on one knee. "I would die for him."
The other former knights knelt as well, heads bowed. Minimus knelt too.
Honor surveyed the wider area, taking in the sea of unconscious changelings. "I move we continue to keep the true identity of the Rogue Knight a mystery."
"Prudent advice," Sigmund said. "The Rogue Knight and his company are no longer. Divulging our past will only harm us and our cause. Let our enemies wonder who we were and where we have gone."
"I remain," Minimus said firmly.
"Aye," Sigmund replied. "You do. And you are now free from any obligations to your former captain. Which may mean we ought to separate for a season."
Minimus folded his arms. "I would hate to draw suspicion in your direction. I will go with Twitch. The lad needs a champion." Minimus turned to Twitch. "Will you have me?"
"Yeah," Twitch said, astonished and pleased. "Of course. Renford won't know what hit him!"
"My usefulness may have decreased, but I will not forsale the rebellion," Sigmund said. "It was the Rogue Knight, cause, but it is now mine as well."
"Mine too," Desmond said. "And I'm happy to train any men who want help learning to fight without the aid o enchantments."
All the other former knights shared their willingness to serve.
"We are yours to command," Sigmund told Honor.
"Then rise," Honor said. "The people who Morgassa possessed begin to stir. We should leave this place. I suggest we return to your encampment. Joe and Brady deserve to know what happened. We can make further choices from there."
I looked out at the army of collapsed bodies. Here and there, bewildered people were sitting up, hair matted, faces smudged with grime, male and female, old and young. So far, only fifty or so were awake out of the thousands in view. Most rubbed their temples, as if troubled by head-aches. Ripples of motion passed through the mass of bodies as more people stirred.
"They're waking up," Dalton said.
"There will be great commotion soon," Desmond warned. "We should gather our surviving horses and depart."
"And the masks," Jace said. "We can't leave them lying around."
Honor came over and put an arm around Cole. "Can you travel?"
"I think so," he said.
"You look pale," she said. "We can put you on one of the horses. Skye too."
"I think I'm all right," Cole said, but Honor kept an arm around his shoulders.
"Everyone contributed today. But you saved us. Without your power, the fight would have been lost. Morgassa didn't see you coming.
Everything you did caught her off guard. I underestimated you and your friends when I first met you, which isn't fair, since I met you when you rescued me. Thank you, Cole." Honor said.
"Sure," Cole said. "But I don't know—you were the one who finished Morgassa."
Honor shook her head. "Morgassa was finished when your Jumping Sword came to life, along with Jace's rope. He's amazing with that thing."
"They're out of commission again," Cole lamented. "For now, at least."
"You'll figure it out," Honor assured him. "We should go."