Greywolf

  Greywolf felt like an idiot.

  Balthazar's Daemo had banged on his door, insisting Little Paulus had been stricken with some strange illness, and instead of remembering the rule Asena had taught him about never trusting a Daemo, he’d let the creature get behind him while examining the boy. If Asena were here, she'd tell me I deserved to have a sickly sweet smelling rag clamped over my mouth while the four burly guards grabbed me. Never, ever, trust a Daemo until you know what she or it actually wants... and I totally ignored what Asena taught me. Shite!

  Alright, stop beating yourself up and start thinking instead. Greywolf was trapped inside a long wooden box... surely it couldn't be a coffin, could it? His arms were tied in front of him as it bounced along on the bed of the wagon, which he saw when he looked through the air holes drilled into the sides. I think Paulus was in the box with me for a while, though whatever was on that rag made me woozy even after I woke up. But he's gone now and I'm getting worried. Not that I can do anything about it... yet.

  Hold on, we're definitely slowing down. The wagon creaked to a halt as the horses blew out their breath and rattled their harnesses. Greywolf scooted up a little to look through the air holes. The light was fading, so he knew it was past sunset, but he could see a couple men in leather armor releasing the horses from their harness and taking them away. A man in merchant robes was helping a smaller figure down off the bench seat... it's Balthazar and Paulus. The boy's staggering as if he's drunk... no, drugged from whatever that Daemo made us breathe in. Balthazar handed him off to the Daemo, who led Paulus away while Balthazar turned around and climbed onto the wagon.

  There was a rattle above Greywolf as the lid came off the box. "Ah, good; you are finally awake," Balthazar said, setting the lid down as Greywolf scooted himself into a sitting position. "Apologies for keeping you in the box until now, but we needed to make haste before Prince Timur mounts any kind of a rescue attempt."

  "Timur would let me rot with Hel in the Underworld before lifting a finger to help me."

  Balthazar chuckled. "So I gathered. However, Little Paulus is another story. Now," Balthazar said, holding up his hand before Greywolf could speak, "I am going to untie you. I am not worried about you attempting an escape into the Shadowlands, because if you create a gateway, you are going to find your friend waiting." He motioned with his hand and Greywolf looked to where his finger was pointing.

  The wagon had come to rest next to the ruins of an ancient temple: a few broken walls leaning at crazy angles beside a dead, grey tree... Oh, shite. There's a Night Hag standing in front of it. She saw him and started flitting like a silently shrieking hummingbird as Balthazar pulled out a knife and cut the leather straps binding his wrists. "I need to relieve myself."

  "Yes, I imagine so. When you are finished, join me by the fire so we can discuss your situation and Paulus's like civilized men. Much depends on what you decide to do."

  Balthazar climbed down off the wagon as Greywolf scrambled out of the box, which really did look like a coffin, and walked over to one of the broken walls. He knew it was petty, but as he finished, Greywolf curled his fingers at the Night Hag, telling her she was being an asshole. In response, the Shadow creature went berserk. At this rate, I'll never get rid of her.

  Taking a moment to look around before the light disappeared, Greywolf realized they were higher up than the road, whose outline he could barely make out, and the river beyond. The ground was mostly dry grass and scrub bushes, but there was an outcropping of rock with a spring that became a small stream leading towards the river. Several men in leather armor were leading the horses towards the water. Farther up, a dozen or so fire blackened stones were set in a circle, one of the guards using a fire-stone to get the wood and dried grass alight while others took out packets of dried meat and travel bread. The rest seemed to be keeping watch.

  Balthazar was sitting on a blanket beside the fire, pouring out a clear, reddish liquid into two wooden cups. Greywolf’s mouth felt dry as dust as he made a beeline towards Balthazar. As Greywolf got close, he lifted up one of the cups. "Water straight from the spring, with enough wine to dispel any bad humors the fountainhead might have." Greywolf stopped next to the blanket and he added, "I promise that nothing else has been added."

  Greywolf gave him a wary look as he took the cup. "I don't trust you, Balthazar... or should I say, Moloch."

  "I answer to either one, depending on the circumstances. Sit and drink, then when I am finished explaining myself, I will have my Daemo, Ogg, bring Paulus over to join us."

  Greywolf sat down as far away from Balthazar as he could, draining the cup and setting it down on the blanket before looking at him. "How’s it possible for you be two different people?"

  "Because I am a Janus, a two-faced agent for the Emperor of the East. In my role as the merchant, Balthazar, I traded extensively with the Sasnayams and thus had many contacts within their empire, which I used to gather useful information for my emperor. So when Emperor Konstan received word that Eurax desired an alliance with the Sasnayams, we concocted a plan to have me 'disgraced' by the emperor, then put me in Eurax's path so he could lure me over to his side. Moloch was the name we agreed he would call me by."

  Huh. "You set Eurax up with the Sasnayams?"

  He nodded. "And with Lady Jhadra, with whom I have had dealings in the past."

  Greywolf scratched his head. "If this is true, why didn't you explain what was really going on when you were in Bukhara?"

  Balthazar sighed. "When you live in, shall we say, the world of shadows, it is rarely beneficial to expose yourself to the light. When I see Eurax next, I will tell him how I pretended to be Balthazar, who had 'killed' Moloch, and thus wormed my way into Prince Timur's confidence. I will also tell him that the spirit of the sword is actually the Crimson Horde outcast it was supposed to be, but that Amazonia is playing a long game, waiting until she has all the dead under her control and the entire Crimson Horde in a position where she can turn her Shamblers against them and destroy the Crimson Horde once and for all."

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  Double huh. "But all of that's a lie."

  Balthazar smiled. "You know that and I know it as well. Eurax, however, only knows what I tell him." The man’s expression became serious. "However, there are still agents of the Sasnayams in Bukhara, hiding in the shadows."

  Greywolf’s eyes narrowed."How do you know that?"

  "Because one of them contacted me, a fellow merchant. Now do you understand why I could not tell any tale except the one I told?"

  Greywolf slowly nodded as he worked it through, but then a tendril of fear wrapped itself around his guts. "Balthazar, if you're working for the emperor, why did you abduct me and Paulus?"

  "You, I abducted because Eurax demanded it.” Balthazar made an apologetic gesture with his hands. “Eurax is having a temple dedicated to you built on his estate, including a life-sized statue carved out of red and white marble, and when it is finished, he fully expects his new demigod to occupy it so he may… worship you, in his own perverted way.”

  "I'm not setting foot anywhere near this so-called temple," Greywolf snarled at him.

  "You will if you want to keep Wysper alive." Greywolf went stone still and Balthazar's expression turned sardonic. "Yes, I thought that might grab your attention. I have a contact in Bukhara, loyal only to me, who has in his... or in her, possession, a vial of poison that causes the victim's senses to slowly become numb, until they finally go to sleep and die. It is a quite painless way to go, which is why I gave it to poor Paulus before I let you out of the box."

  Greywolf leapt to his feet with his hands clenched into fists. "No!"

  "Sadly, yes," Balthazar replied with another sigh. "Eurax was insistent in his instructions: little Paulus was to die by crucifixion, and you were to be brought to his estate. Greywolf, I am an evil man, yet not a heartless one. I do not want the boy to suffer as Eurax wants. Nor do I want your lover to suffer, or become degraded, as she would have if I had decided to bring her along as well."

  "What do you mean, degraded?"

  Balthazar's expression turned grim. "Eurax delights in taking innocents and subjecting them to humiliation and carnal tortures, designed to break them down, especially one with the strong, gentle spirit I understand Wysper possesses. I spared her that by instructing Ogg to leave her sleeping instead of taking her along."

  "And I'm supposed to thank you for threatening her life instead?"

  Balthazar shook his head. "I expect you to cooperate and not try to escape. My agent in Bukhara will actively work to keep Wysper safe until the agent receives a coded message. Whereupon he, or she, will administer the poison. Should I be killed, Ogg will send the message, and if we both die by your hand, the agent will follow my instructions."

  "What if I don't kill you? What if you die under a rock slide or drown in the sea, and I had nothing to do with it?"

  Balthazar shrugged. "My agent has ways of getting at the truth. However, for Wysper's sake I would advise you to protect me in every way you can, because once I am dead, I have no way to let my agent know it was all a tragic accident."

  A thought crossed Greywolf’s mind and he raised his chin in defiance. "Lys knows poisons better than anyone. I’ll bet she'd find a cure for Wysper."

  "Given enough time, she might. However, the only known antidote is actually a Necromantic spell Tanit of Carthago came up with centuries ago, that transforms any poison into a substance the body can then expel. Legend says she wrote the spell down in her lore books... the same ones the Etruscans burned when they took the city. So, I would not put too much hope in the Shadow Fae." He opened his arms as a father might to a son. "I know you hate me for doing this, yet if I am to help the emperor bring Eurax and all of his cronies down, I need Eurax to continue believing that I am his trusted agent."

  Glancing around, there were several guards around them at the edge of the firelight, watching. "What about them?" Greywolf asked, motioning behind him. "Any one of your guards could betray you."

  Balthazar gave Greywolf a thin smile. "Did you think you were the only one with the threat of a loved one being poisoned hanging over your head? No, my guards are the most loyal and trusted men that anyone could ask for. As for Ogg, when Eurax is laid low, my Daemo has a position waiting for him in the Great Library of Konstanopolis"

  Greywolf blinked. "Your Daemo wants to be a librarian?"

  "I can think of no better reward," the Daemo said, walking out of the darkness with Paulus in his arms. "A position devoid of danger and thousands of books at my fingertips." The Daemo knelt and set the boy down. "My lord, the guards wish to know your instructions for this evening."

  Thunder rumbled from the direction of Bukhara as the wind picked up. "The one disadvantage of having guards with the poisoned sword of Damocles hanging over their loved one's heads, is that they go in constant fear of displeasing you." Balthazar lumbered to his feet. "Ogg, keep an eye on our guests until I return."

  "By your command, my lord." Balthazar went off into the darkness as Greywolf knelt down beside Paulus, shaking the boy to wake him up. Without opening his eyes, Paulus mumbled a few incoherent words as Ogg said in a low voice, "All is not lost. There is no poison I concoct that does not have an antidote."

  Hope wrestled suspicion in Greywolf’s heart as the Daemo opened its hand long enough for him to see a vial made of green glass. Greywolf whispered, "You can save Paulus?"

  The Daemo shook its head. "I am thinking of your betrothed. Once we reach Khor, I will secretly send a messenger to Titan with the vial and a note, written in Babylonian, explaining the danger Wysper is in and the need for her to keep the vial with her at all times. That way, if she ever begins to feel the loss of sensation in her hands and feet, she can place drops under her tongue until the poison is neutralized and the feeling returns. Here, I will show you." The Daemo uncorked the vial and let a single drop fall in his little finger before corking it back up. Then it opened Paulus' mouth and smeared the drop under the boy's tongue, closing his mouth again. "Give it a moment... there. Go ahead and shake your friend once more."

  Greywolf did so and Paulus opened his eyes. "Greywolf," he said in a soft voice, "where are we? Where's Az?"

  Ogg placed his bumpy hand on Paulus' shoulder. "Amazonia will be here soon. Go back to sleep." Paulus's eyes drifted shut again as the Daemo stared at Greywolf. "I know you wish to save him, but right now, any attempt will end in failure. You have to think of Wysper's safety first."

  Is this Daemo being sincere, or is this all an act to get me to cooperate? "Why are you helping me at all?"

  The Daemo's dark eyes glittered in the firelight. "I am playing the long game. I came across the Shadowlands to this world at the end of the Conquest War, and after the last of our princes died, established myself into human society. I fancy myself as something of a historian, and once I am established in the imperial library, I plan to begin writing a history of that conflict from the Daemo perspective."

  Greywolf stared at him wide-eyed for a moment, then shook his head as thunder rumbled again. "I never would've guessed... and you're afraid I'll return someday and kill you before you get to write it."

  "Just so. Saving your betrothed means saving myself. I will return this vial to my travel chest, but when the time comes—"

  Before he could go on, from behind them one of the guards called out, "Lord Balthazar, a rider's approaching."