David Mcintee - The Light of Heaven

"We're in luck," she said. "It looks like our man is still there."

"Or he's dead."

"I hope not," Gabriella said grimly. "There's a lot of questions I'd like to ask him."

She led the way, keeping low. Gabriella had no intention of inviting arrows towards Erak or herself. They rustled through the long grass in a crouch, expecting at any moment to either hear a cry of alarm, or feel the heavy punch of an arrow smashing through ribs.

Neither thing happened and Gabriella rose to press her back against the wall next to the cottage's door.

Cautiously, she pressed her ear to the door and heard Stoll's muffled voice.

"Do you really need that? Brand and DeZantez will be here shortly!"

"You took the maps," a rough voice said.

"A gamble for a little time. DeZantez has been here before. She scouted the whole area. Just grab what you truly need and get out to the Huntress. I've already dealt with one potential leak, but I must implore you — "

Gabriella kicked the door in, drawing one sword as she pushed through into a cramped room filled with stout furniture and the smell of peat-smoke. Stoll and Warrigan spun round. Warrigan was a solidly-built man, who looked like a brawler.

"Sister DeZantez," Stoll gasped. "I was just… questioning Warrigan. I remembered you mentioned he might be of help to us. He's admitted to running the Golden Huntress."

Warrigan glared and reached towards a sword hanging from a belt on a wooden stand. Erak darted through the back door of the cottage and kicked it away from him.

"Warrigan, you will be returning to Solnos with us, to confess."

"To confess to what? That I run an inn? That's not illegal."

"You don't run an inn any more."

"You want to shut my place down. Why?"

"Because you encourage and profit from sin and immorality."

"Sin and immorality? You mean the enjoyment of simple pleasures of the flesh? Pleasures, I might add, which harm no-one and make life more bearable. God gave us this flesh, you know. And the ability to feel any pleasures it feels. He must have had a reason."

"God gave us the means, the right and the obligation to create and nurture future generations to spread His word and to carry mankind to the point where he can become one with God. Reckless pleasuring for fun is a perversion of that intent and, more practically, a diversion from it."

"Oh," Warrigan drawled sourly, "I see. Yet Makennon gives her blessing to the marriage of Kalten's son when everybody knows the bride has one in the oven already. The happy couple having had their reckless pleasure. And the Faith shows their support for that."

"God created us imperfect, so we would learn and strive to better ourselves. Occasionally individuals make mistakes, but mistakes are a thing to be taught from and to learn from. They're part of the striving to better ourselves. There's a world of difference between erring and simply by being human — which can be forgiven — and systematically urging people to go astray. Exploiting people's weaknesses and mistakes, rather than teaching them how to not make those mistakes."

"You learned that speech in the seminary I suppose?"

"Yes. That doesn't make it untrue."

"And what do you think? If you're allowed to that is."

She smiled. "I think we do people a favour. How embarrassing must it be to be so unattractive that you have to pay for something most people enjoy for free?"

"Enlightened One Stoll gives special dispensation, you know. He takes a cut every time Travis Crowe brings in a wagon of something interesting from Turnitia or Freiport."

"Travis Crowe?"

"He's a smuggler. Allegedly."

"Sounds like an interesting fellow."

"He likes to think so."

"Perhaps I'll ask him about his friends."

"He won't tell you."

Gabriella didn't answer. Instead, she turned to Erak. "Get him out of here."

When Erak pushed Warrigan out of the cottage at sword-point, Gabriella re-sheathed her sword and regarded Stoll for a moment. He edged toward the door and she stopped him, with a hand on his chest.

"Just a moment," she said. "That was brave of you." Gabriella chose her words carefully, not rushing through them. "Good work, Enlightened One. Unfortunately while you were away, the prisoner escaped."

Stoll looked appalled. "Escaped?"

"He must have waited for you to leave, then stopped pretending to be drunk and picked the lock on his cell. He's long gone."

"I see…"

"Now let's get this sinner back to town, and send for a Confessor from the cathedral at Andon."

Outside, Erak had tied Warrigan's hands and put him over his horse's saddle-bow. Stoll mounted his own horse and Gabriella pulled Erak a couple of steps aside.

"Erak," she whispered.

"What about Stoll?"

"Neither of them know we're onto Stoll. Let's keep them separate."

"You're plotting something?"

"The Lord gave us wits to use. It would be wrong to let them lie fallow."

"What now?" Erak asked. He had settled into a pew in Solnos' church. Gabriella was conferring with a Healer, who poured the contents of a paper sachet into a water jug held by an altar girl. The Healer left the church and the girl went through an interior door.

"Now Warrigan sleeps for a couple of hours and wakes very refreshed."

"And talkative?"

"Is Stoll secured?"

"The Healer promises me that the draught we gave him will keep him out for at least a day."

"Good. I wonder whether he released the lad, or…"

"He'll tell a Confessor. We'll send a message to Andon, reporting what we've learned. The goblins said to be on the loose, Stoll's betrayal, all of it. Request a Confessor and a new Enlightened One for the parish."

"I'll take care of that."

Now that they were alone, Erak got to his feet, and hugged her. "My father always said the same thing, you know."

"What thing?"

"That the Lord gave us these wits to use."

"You must remember to pass that one on."

"I have a list." He tapped the side of his head. "In here. Most of it's farming stuff, I'm afraid. Not much use to a young Sword."

"Even a young Sword has to eat."

Warrigan woke feeling more refreshed than he had in years. He had dozed off after the simple meal brought to his cell by a pretty altar girl and was vaguely surprised. He had been convinced his dread would keep him awake all night.

He was even more surprised to find that the sleep had done him good. He felt more awake and alert than he had in days. If he wasn't locked in this poky little room that smelled of stale bread and stale robes, he thought he could probably do more with the day than he ever had. He glared at the cell door and that was when he noticed a piece of parchment lying at the foot of it, sticking out from under the wood. When he reached down with a calloused hand to pick it up, it caught on the door and the door jerked inwards slightly.

He stared at it in disbelief and glanced down at the parchment.

'Get out quickly,' it read, 'the two Swords have been dealt with — Stoll.'

Warrigan tugged experimentally at the door and it juddered open. There was no sign of guards outside. Satisfied, Warrigan wasted no time in following the note's advice. He crept through the empty church as silently as any ghost, and hopped down the steps to the deserted plaza.

Gabriella and Erak watched from a darkened archway as Warrigan hurried along to the inn on the corner of the marketplace and had a hushed conversation with a man on the doorstep. The man disappeared after a moment and soon returned on a pale grey horse. He dismounted and handed the reins to Warrigan.

Warrigan galloped off and Gabriella stepped out to watch him. Already, a dozen soldiers in the tabards of the Swords were materialising silently out of the shadows, leading horses. One handed a set of reins to Gabriella, who mounted immediately. Erak took another. Within a few moments, they were clattering out of Solnos, at just the right distance to keep Warrigan in sight without the sounds of the hooves alerting him to their presence.