Water's Reflection or Hero's Guilt

Chapter Thirty-Six

          Laurent Byzantine found them where Madame Lyss said they would be: the Golden Scale inn. It was a fairly small place, but rather civil. When he entered, he immediately spotted them. They sat at the large table in the middle of the taproom. Byzantine recognized Terrance Longeway, his companions and the Royal Mage too. He was a little surprised to see that Mage Whitesands was here as well. Bigwaters was a large city, and when the Mage had left to find the Royal Mage, Byzantine had thought he would not succeed. They all seemed too occupied with their discussion to notice the armored knight walking in. Only when he neared the table did the little girl look up at him. The others soon followed.

          “Sir Byzantine,” said Mage Whitesands. “You have found us. Good. Come, join us.” He motioned at one of the empty seats along the table, which he took. “How did you find us?”

          Laurent Byzantine hesitated for a second as he searched for the right words to tell them of what had happened to him. He managed to suppress his emotions as he said, “June Bailey ambushed us at the fortress. She had killed most of the staff. There was blood everywhere. She claimed she did not murder everyone though, but that she only murdered those who did not agree to fight for her.”

          “She did what?!” the Royal Mage shouted out, but his emotions were quickly subdued by Terrance, who remained utterly calm.

          “Where are the other knights?” he asked.

          “She offered us the same deal she offered the others. We refused. She... She attacked us.” He turned to Mage Whitesands, the only one in this company he was familiar with. “I don't think she murdered Sir Decker and Sir Toughmace; I saw how she bit them. I think she turned them into demons... I was lucky to escape.

          “How did you escape?” Whitesands wondered, but he did not answer. When the question was repeated, he still refused to answer, but instead turned to Terrance.

          “Madame Lyss waits for you to see her,” he told him.

          Terrance jumped up violently; his chair fell over backwards and clattered on the floor. He stared at the knight with a strange fury set on his face—the calm he possessed mere seconds ago had disappeared. He nearly lunged over the table to grab the knight as he said, “How do you know of Madame Lyss?!”

          Quickly, Adam Clay put his hand on Terrance's shoulder, to hold him back. Byzantine did not answer though, and everyone in the company could see he did not intend to either. Terrance grabbed his chair and sat down again. He kept a close watch of the knight, and Sir Byzantine noticed others shot him wary glances as well.

          “Anyway,” said Adam Clay, “this is important news to us. We know June's location now, provided she'll stay there. And we know she has recruited people to fight for her. For what purpose would she do that?”

          “She told us she wanted to rule Bigwaters. And not only that, she wanted to expand her kingdom from there. I fear she might aim to conquer Wealthorn as a whole.”

          The Royal Mage shook his head. “She can't. She'll never make it.”