A sense of purpose and satisfaction settles over me. Mayhap my first plan is gone, but I can still keep them off my lady paladin’s back as she finds a new solution. I hope she realizes that if the dog took my place, then she must drown it as she had been about to drown me. I hope she’ll use the time I give her.
I leap into action, gritting my teeth.
Suture first.
I summon what strength I have left and I charge, channeling all my purpose, all my certainty into a series of quick blows to drive Suture backward.
One. Two. Three.
His stubs of arms try to deflect, but that’s not the point. The point is to get him off-balance. The point is to find my opening. There it is.
I put the full force of my twisting torso and sinewy grip into the blow and I smash his skull into shards.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Vagabond Paladin
And now you really do kill the dog, the voice in my head said.
But it wasn’t unkind. It was fatherly, and as it spoke, I could see the faint blueish outline of Sir Branson flickering in and out, squatting down in the fountain over the figure of Brindle the dog. His old face wasn’t ruined like it had been on the riverbank. It was whole and well and he was looking at me with that kind of gentle musing kindness he always had when I was around him. Behind him, demon figures flickered, arms and eyes and mouths snatching, so wrong that they made my stomach twist. But here, close to me, it was only my friend.
Brindle shuffled his feet in the water. Water dripped from his sad eyes and ran to drip from his ears down his cheeks and back into the fountain. He whined nervously, tail flicking side to side as if he could feel the tussle within him but was as helpless as I was to stop it.
I reached out and rubbed his ears, and he leaned into the affection. It crushed me. Wrenched me.
How was I to meet my responsibility to banish these demons taking refuge in him when before I couldn’t banish even one? How was I to meet these innocent eyes and hold him under the water?
Snackling.
I barely heard the whisper of that demon’s voice, though it had become familiar to me. It spooled out into faint, echoing laughter as Brindle whined again and put a dripping paw up on one of my shoulders. He’d taken a long drink from the fountain and his muzzle was clean. If only drinking holy water were enough to dispel demons.
It’s not.
Lesson learned.
I told you I still had things to teach you.
I wasn’t sure if the sound I made was a laugh or a sob. Whatever it was, it prompted Brindle to start licking my face with his newly washed tongue, and that only made it worse. He was innocent of all this. Why did he have to pay the price?
This is the last lesson, my girl, Sir Branson said. I’ve drawn them all in. It took every last bit of effort I could muster. But now you must banish them. Drown poor Brindle, sweet doggy that he is, and dismiss these devils. Learn today that the sacrifice of a paladin is that sometimes we must be used for grim sacrifice if we are to find the path most valiant.
There were two problems with that proposition. Firstly, that I had already determined I could not drown Brindle. Would not. I could not drown Adalbrand and he’d been less vulnerable, more determined that I do it than I had been.
Then do not drown the dog. Simply dismiss the demons and I will take care of the holy water part of the process. The Poisoned Saint was right to bless this water. Right to try this method. But drowning won’t be enough. It’s not enough with the really difficult ones.
Then what would be enough? For that was my second problem. I did not think I could banish these demons. I did not know where I would even begin.
It begins as it always does. With prayer. And with faith.
And then what? For I had prayed and prayed and nothing yet had helped.
What have you prayed for?
That I might bury Sir Branson.
Which will be done.
That I might save Sir Adalbrand.
