Fire Angels

Chapter 19 Part 3 The Patriarchs Army

The order was that all regiments that had been formed by sundown that evening were to move out for Beenac the following morning. A small group would be left behind to act as recruiters and send on latecomers. The Klementari had already begun moving those priests in the Patriarch's entourage who were too wounded to travel away into safe hiding. They had now become prizes upon which Fire Angels might leap. I returned to my name taking and worked as fast as I could. The stream of men, many of them old and some very young, coming to join Julia's army seemed to increase during the afternoon. So intent was I on the task, that when the man standing before me gave his name as Lucien Sercel, I had almost finished writing it down before it actually registered.

"Lucien," I cried hugging him. "What are you doing here? Is Tomas with you? You haven't come to drag me back, have you?"

"No." he said. "I've decided to throw my lot in with Lady Julia's army. As for Tomas, he did not see things my way, so we agreed to differ."

There was something in the way he spoke, that made me ask him if everything was well in Lammerquais.

"Well enough. Can we talk?" he said.

"Of course." I sent one of the guards to find someone to take over from me. "Have you eaten, Lucien? Let's get some food then."

I could not help wondering if Lord Sandor had sent Lucien to join this army, because he thought we might have some chance of winning and as usual he wanted to have a family member in both camps. But something in Lucien's manner suggested it was not this simple.

When we had settled ourselves on a patch of grass a little away from the rest of the camp and I asked him if his father had sent him, he looked annoyed.

"I can act without my father's orders sometimes," he snapped. "I beg your pardon," he continued more calmly. " The long and the short of it is that I can no longer give myself to the cause of a man who sets murderers free for policy."

"What do you mean?"

"Darmen Stalker has "escaped" from prison," he said shortly.

"Do you mean the Duke set him free?"

"The Duke insists that he escaped. It is just that I find it impossible to believe him," said Lucien.

It seemed that Darmen Stalker had escaped the night before Lady Julia had left Lammerquais. I was astonished at this for nothing had been said that whole day and I was almost certain that Lady Julia did not know of it.

The night of the escape, Lucien had been dining with the Captain of the Guards and had accompanied the Captain on his rounds. They had of course checked Darmen Stalker's quarters and spoken to Stalker himself. He could not say what had made him uneasy; perhaps it was something in Stalker's manner, for he seemed more mockingly confident than ever. When Lucien left the Captain's quarters, he felt an urge to check the prisoner again. He was well known to the guards and had no hesitation about just going over to the tower alone and looking around.

As he went up into the tower, he was struck by its quietness. There was no sign of the two guards who were supposed to be patrolling the corridor and the torches were out further up the stairs. Thoroughly alarmed now, Lucien drew his sword and made his way cautiously through the darkness to Stalker's apartments. There was a light under Stalker's door and the sound of voices. As he approached the door, he tripped over the body of man and he was bending to make sure he was dead, when he was seized from behind and someone hit him on the head.

He came to lying tied up on Stalker's own bed and the servant found him the following morning, when he came with breakfast. By then Darmen Stalker was well away.