Usually. But remember when we were down here before, how his tight control was blown away by the winds of this place like seeds from a dandelion? He’s not to be trusted, sweetmeat.
Yes, I’d definitely trust a devil’s judgment on that over the paladin currently trying to save my skin.
It’s toothsome skin.
Adalbrand looked at the Seer as he stepped up to join Sir Kodelai. Just one glance, but his nostrils flared when he passed her, as if he hated that her corpse was being used for show instead of being respectfully carried away. The tiny dimple in his chin grew deeper when he clenched his jaw with determination. When he ripped his eyes back, I saw in their depths the edges of pain and bitterness. He was calm and immovable as a rock on the outside while a well of guilt and ripping sadness tormented him on the inside.
And I wanted both. I wanted to be near the calm and I wanted to assuage the guilt. But I’d never forgive myself if both ended here with me. I’d walk the halls of heaven as guilty as he trod the ground of the earth.
“I won’t allow it,” I said, my words garbled by how dry my mouth suddenly had become.
“And what will you do to prevent matters from progressing, Beggar?” Sir Kodelai asked as he flicked open the bottom of his wooden case. It had telescoping legs. He shook it and gravity lowered them, so that all he had to do was twist a knob on each one and his box was now a very small table. “Will you murder me, too?”
“I’m not a murderer,” I gasped. But I knew it was a lie. I had killed Sir Branson. My best friend in this world.
Killed is a relative term. I’m still mostly alive. Although I do miss my tea.
“We are all murderers here, or we would not have come through the door,” Sir Kodelai said gravely. “Or have you not yet realized what this place is for?”
“Is it not a monastery?” I asked as he drew his ceremonial cups from their velvet-lined slots, drew out the vial of blessed holy water, and then set them up very precisely on his small table.
“It was a monastery in the parts that were above the earth,” he said, meeting my gaze with his glacial one for but a moment before unstoppering his vial and pouring out a mouthful into each pewter cup with a measured eye. They were carved all over with skeletons, and each of the skeletons covered its eyes with ragged phalanges. “That part has long passed away, as I am certain you noticed. I took my time yesterday while the rest of you were busy with your treasure hunt. I studied this place with care — as I told Sir Coriand last night when he asked me — and I ferreted out the purpose of this great vault below. It does not store records, to the sorrow of the Engineers, nor does it store a cache of weaponry for the Majester, or a storehouse of holy relics for the High Saint, but rather, this vault is a carefully wrought tool. It will indeed make you a Saint by drawing out your sins one by one, feeding them into that trapped demon in the ceiling, and washing what’s left of the sinner until he is either clean or dead.”
“No man can be clean by his own effort,” the High Saint intoned.
“Indeed,” Sir Kodelai said, still looking at me. “Which is why — I suspect — so many have died in the attempt. I was once a king. I sent men to their deaths. And then I became a judge of all the world, and I send more men to their deaths than ever before. I rend and tear. I strip and expose. But their blood is not on my hands. Their blood is on their own hands. I am only the vehicle that makes them clean and offers them up to the God.”
I shivered. He sounded wrong. Insane. Dangerous. The Aspect of the God I knew was violent against evil but he comforted the victims of it. I did not know this murderous God of Sir Kodelai.
“Shall we make you a Saint, Beggar?”
“No,” I whispered, shuddering.
“And what about your valiant benefactor?” he asked, looking over at Sir Adalbrand. “Shall we make him a Saint?”
“No,” I pled.
“Are you going to stop playing with your food, Kodelai Lei Shan Tora?” Adalbrand asked coolly. He’d adopted a casual stance and again, I was impressed by his nerve. His eyes were sharp and his jaw tight, as if he were even now calculating and calculating again and coming up with options for how to fix this situation. I wished I could appear so in control of my own actions and destiny. I felt as out of control as a ship on a stormy sea.
“I am gracing the murderess with a lesson. It is a sign of my mercy. I have forsworn all power.” The smile barely flickering around the edges of his mouth suggested a lie there. “But not in this one matter, in the taking of the God’s vengeance. For, in that, I am his Hand.”
“Why are there only two cups?” I asked as the bonds around me tightened.
And at that, Kodelai’s smile deepened and the look in his eye sent spikes of fear through me.
“One is for me — the mortal judge. The other is for the challenger. We will both drink a draught of holy water. Nothing else. There is no poison in the cup or the water. There is no magic here. No curses set ahead of time or blessings asked. We drink down the attention of the God and turn his eye to our case. We beg his eye upon us. When we are finished, the God himself will judge. He who is right will be spared, and if it is Sir Adalbrand, then you, too, shall live, Beggar. And if it is me, then you shall die.”
There was a satisfied exhale from the circle. I ground my teeth at the sound of it. So, they found it fitting, did they? They thought I was getting what I deserved? I would not forget this.
“You don’t need to do this, Aspect of the Vengeful God. None of us will like this outcome.” I was not given to threats, and this was not a threat. Just a statement of the facts. I didn’t kill the Seer.
“Until this is decided, you will not speak.”
He flicked a hand and the ghostly bonds surrounding me sprouted another woolen thread. It spun up around my throat and then threaded through my lips, cinching tightly like a gag.
I dug in hard on my training to clamp down on the panic clawing up my throat. The worst enemy was the one you could not see or feel. It snatched the last control I had, ripping it away.
You’ve put yourself entirely into their hands! You should have fought!
