Shadow of the Unicorn

Apprentice: Chapter 1

They found the Lady awaiting them in an informal sitting room, hiding both her burning curiosity and mild irritation behind a face of placid patience. She greeted the peculiar servant and his weary companion with a slight nod as the boy collapsed in a chair while Jared gave the necessary courtesies. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, but remembered the man's warning that the boy would be rather disoriented for a time after his trial, whatever it was, and this seeming affront must therefore be laid at the feet of whatever currently afflicted the boy. She studied him briefly, frowning slightly at the heavy cloak he wore despite being indoors, and then turned her attention back to Jared, said she, "I see he has emerged."

Jared smiled wryly, "aye Lady, and as I said, a little worse for wear, but nothing a little rest will not set aright."

She raised an eyebrow, "and just what is going on in the lowest levels of my Keep?"

The servant shook his head, "I have told you all I can my Lady."

She took a chair with a heavy sigh, said she, "to think there are things within Astoria to which even I am not privy!" She smiled wryly, "the Brethren would think it scandalous."

Jared smiled openly, "that they would my Lady, but you need fear no nefarious business as we are all servants of the same Master." He bowed deeply, "we answer to you as well."

She arched an eyebrow, "do you now? I thought you were the one giving the orders of late?"

He bowed again, "there are rare occasions when it must be so, I fear, but in general we are ever at your command."

She smiled in amusement, "I see," while studying the boy anew, her smile vanishing as something suddenly registered, she had noticed it previously but only now realized its significance. The boy slumped in his chair, little noticing what passed between his companions, seemingly focused on his own thoughts, but there was no mistaking that he was now numbered amongst the Brethren. In all the strangenesses of the day, she must have overlooked this small fact, which was not surprising when everyone all but assumed of late that he was of their number, save he had not taken the Oath. She shook her head in astonishment, "how can this be? He was forbidden from taking the Oath yet here he is numbered amongst us?"

Jared quashed a vastly amused smile and said as seriously as he could, "it was the Master Himself, my Lady." Suddenly he shifted, seeming to grow taller, less grizzled, and thirty years younger while also bearing the unmistakable signs that he too was of that brotherhood. The Lady was quite happy she was already sitting, for this revelation might well have collapsed her in a chair had she not been. She sat up and studied him with incredulity, all the while he grinned like an impish child.

At last she sat back and shook her head in wonder, "how can this be?"

He smiled mysteriously, like a cat that will never divulge its secrets, and said, "that I cannot tell you Lady, but know it is of the Master's doing, and we are technically a part of the Brethren."

She smiled wryly, "technically?"

He shrugged, "for all intents and purposes, yes, but in certain circumstances our orders come from the Master Himself and supersede even your own."

She shook her head in wonder, "am I ever to know the truth of the matter?"

Jared shifted again, and suddenly he was again the man she had always thought him to be, said he, "I am only allowed to reveal so much Lady, and that solely because you are the Lady of Astoria. Even his own kin cannot know half so much, the rest of our comrades, even less so."

She nodded and said, "I suppose we had best get the lad to bed. Why is he so dreadfully listless? What happened in my dungeon? What did his sister see and what happened to her?"