Matthew Sturges - Midwinter

Each time they approached a trader or a coach headed in their direction, Mauritane steadied himself in case it was Purane-Es. And with each traveler that proved not to be his prey, Mauritane felt more and more uneasy.

When they passed the Paracala Bridge, Mauritane began to listen to his deepest fears. From the bridge to the City Emerald was no more than eight hours' ride. If Purane-Es had been riding at top speed, he might have reached the city by now. And then what? Would he take the girl to the palace and claim that Mauritane had turned traitor once again, spinning some wild tale for the Chamberlain? Or had he already ditched the girl and was just hurrying home to watch the public spectacle of Mauritane's failure? However Mauritane looked at it, Purane-Es reaching the city before him was bad news.

An hour later, they found him.

There was a group of riders blocking the road, several dozen of them, sporting the caparisons of the Royal Guard. They were resting their horses in the lee of a stone wall that ran alongside the road. A young woman in a thick fur cloak stood at the center of the group, her hands tied before her. As the car approached, a few of the guardsmen turned their heads at the sound and, seeing what was coming toward them, ran at it with their swords out.

"Stop the car," said Mauritane.

Satterly slowed the vehicle to a stop, and they climbed out onto the road.

"What is all this?" said one of the approaching guardsmen.

"Who's the commander you're riding with?" said Mauritane, his hand on his sword.

"Purane-Es," the man said.

"I have business with him."

"Who are you?"

"Mauritane."

The guardsman choked back a gasp. "Mauritane?" he said, his eyes wide. "You… the hero of Sylvan!" The rest of the guardsmen dropped their reins and ran toward the car, awed whispers spreading throughout their ranks.

"That man is no hero." Purane-Es strode between his men, pushing the guardsman aside. "He is a criminal, a traitor, and an escaped convict."

Mauritane ran toward him, his sword out before anyone could move. Purane-Es, his weapon already drawn, barely managed to parry Mauritane's lunge, the blade coming within an inch of his face. Mauritane grabbed at his shirt collar and dragged him down face forward onto the cobblestones.

"Get him off me!" shouted Purane-Es. None of the guardsmen moved.

Purane-Es clawed at Mauritane's eyes, anything to get away from him. Mauritane pulled back, swearing. Purane-Es used the advantage to rise to his knees and elbow Mauritane in the groin. With a grunt, Mauritane fell back, rolling to the side and back onto his feet.

Purane-Es stood and attacked, a low thrust that skittered off of Mauritane's blade. Mauritane's riposte was quick; the tip of his sword lashed across Purane-Es's forehead, drawing blood.

They closed. Purane-Es drew a dagger and came in low with sword out and knife high. He lunged and missed. Mauritane followed the motion of the attack and thrust, his blade slicing deep into Purane-Es's belly.

Purane-Es staggered forward a few more steps and fell.

"Someone get him away from me!" shouted Purane-Es.

Mauritane raised his sword.

"Wait," said Purane-Es. "There's something you should know."

The blade wavered in the air. "Speak quickly."

Purane-Es looked up at him, one hand across his bloodstained tunic. "The Lady Anne is my wife now. She divorced you." His eyes were narrow, and he winced from the deep wound.

"That is a lie," said Mauritane.

"No," said Purane-Es. "I brought the wedding certificate to show you in Sylvan. I'll show it to you."

"No," said Mauritane. He raised the blade again.

Purane-Es reached into the side pocket of his tunic and withdrew a scrolled piece of parchment, tied with a red ribbon. "Check the seal," hissed Purane-Es, his eyes rolling back in his head. "It's authentic." He turned to his side, clutching his belly.

Mauritane took the scroll from him and unfurled it. He scanned the print several times.

"She never loved you," said Purane-Es. "She loves me. Only me."

Mauritane sank to his knees and looked Purane-Es in the eye. "Is this true?"

Purane-Es nodded. "I win."

Leaning forward, Mauritane took Purane-Es by the lapels of his cloak and jerked him off the ground, then slammed his head onto the cobblestones. Purane-Es cried out in pain.

Mauritane screamed. He pistoned his arms roughly back and forth, smashing Purane-Es's life out onto the Mechesyl Road. He kept screaming.

Mauritane stood on a high platform at the edge of the Great Outer Court, overlooking what appeared to be the entire population of the City Emerald. All but one, anyway. The Lady Anne was not among them, not anywhere that he'd looked. He continued to search the crowd, scanning over the thousands of faces and seeing none of them.

The Lord Chamberlain Marcuse was at the podium, giving a carefully worded speech about Mauritane's heroism. Despite his ancient appearance he had no difficulty orating to the enormous court, his voice low and rumbling. He sketched the details of Mauritane's life, skipping gracefully over Mauritane's conviction for treason and alleged prison break, implying subtly that the former Guard Captain had spent the past two years on some kind of elaborate undercover operation.

Mauritane sighed and waved a pageboy over, asking for the third time if anyone had seen his wife.

"No answer at her home, sir," whispered the page.

Surely she had not already moved their things out of the house on Boulevard Laurwelana. That would take weeks, and the marriage certificate was dated only ten days ago. Could she be hiding? If all that Purane-Es had said was true, then she would not be eager to see him. It occurred to Mauritane that perhaps she had, in fact, been receiving his letters over the past two years and had simply been ignoring them. How had she become such a stranger to him?

Lord Purane was trotted out, bearing the Guard Captain's cloak. "We of Her Majesty's Royal Guard welcome you back, Captain Mauritane," he said. Always the politician, Purane had agreed without protest to the Chamberlain's suggestion that Purane-Es had died in combat at Sylvan. Returning the captaincy to Mauritane appeared to be his grand gesture to the public as the mourning father and elder statesman. In reality, however, it was the price he paid to keep PuraneEs's name clean. Mauritane had had nothing to do with any of it; the machinations had all taken place during their brief drive to the city following PuraneEs's death, moving at the speed of politics and message sprites.

Mauritane rose as Purane walked on stage, tacitly accepting his part in the melodrama.

"We welcome you, Mauritane," Purane announced, placing the cloak around Mauritane's shoulders. "I trust you will find the Guard as able as you left it."

"I am honored," Mauritane responded. He locked eyes with the man, wondering what kind of father he had been to his sons that they would turn out as they had. Purane-Es's blood was still sticky between Mauritane's fingers. That Lord Purane knew it and was still able to pretend courtesy was a kind of hypocrisy that Mauritane could only pity and never understand.

"Get ready to greet your public," the Chamberlain said. He turned to the crowd and shouted, "I give you Mauritane, the hero of Sylvan and Captain of Her Majesty's Royal Guard!"

Mauritane stepped forward and cheers burst forth in the square. Shopkeepers and message boys threw their caps in the air. The ladies-in-waiting on the grandstands blew bubbles and whistled down at him.

The Chamberlain had Silverdun brought forward next. Silverdun managed to smile and wave. He even made eyes at a few of the ladies in the stands, despite his new face. None of the ladies seemed to mind.