Paul Kemp - Shadow witness

It warmed Cale to hear Thamalon still call him old friend. Cale downed his wine in a single gulp, stood, and bowed.

"May I take my leave, Lord? I have…" he smiled without mirth, "I have another game yet to play tonight."

Thamalon raised his bushy brows and gave Cale a piercing stare. "Do you already suspect the name of your next opponent?" He sat forward in the rocker and his eyes blazed beneath his fatigue. "Tell me if so, Ere-vis."

Cale's lie came easy to him; too easy. "No Lord, not yet. But I will learn it."

Thamalon eased back into the chair but his eyes never left Cale's face. "Everything I have is at your disposal-coin, men, magic. You don't need to play alone, Cale."

Cale raised his eyebrows at that. Thamalon had never before called him Cale. This conversation had changed their relationship. "Chess is not a team game, Lord."

Thamalon smiled softly and nodded in acceptance. "No, I suppose it's not."

Cale prepared to leave but Thamalon stood and seized Cale's arm. "If the circumstances of the game change, and you require something, anything, you need only ask."

"I know, Lord." Gale smiled. He wanted to embrace Thamalon, the man who had been Mend and father for ten years, but could not bring himself to do it. He cleared Ms throat and stepped away from his lord.

"I keep my chessboard and pieces in my room. That's all 111 need for now. Ill leave immediately. When I learn something certain, 111 send word." He wanted to tell Thamalon that he likely would not be coming back, but feared the inevitable questions that would follow. Gale knew leaving without saying goodbye would be something he would regret forever, but he also knew that if he told Thamalon the truth, his lord's pained expression would also haunt him forever. If Thazienne learned of his past, she would despise him. He could not endure that. Better they thought him dead or vanished. Better they remembered him as Erevis the butler.

"My lord should retire," he said, still playing the role of butler. "I will give this matter my full attention."

Thamalon seemed to notice his exhaustion for the first time. He nodded and gave Gale a tired smile. "I will, soon. I need some time yet to think. And I still want to wait for Talbot." He patted Gale on the shoulder. "You should rest too, old friend. Dawn is only hours away."

Gale returned his lord's smile with a hard smile of his own. "My Lord," he said, "I play chess best by night."

Cale left Thamalon alone with his thoughts and strode purposefully out of the library. The household still bustled as the house guard and staff finalized the cleanup. Some quietly hailed him but he ignored their greetings. His mind was focused on only one thing-making the Righteous Man pay for hurting his family.

He took the steps of the spiral staircase two at a time. When he reached his room, he gently closed and locked the door behind him. For the briefest instant, doubt reared its head and caused him to hesitate. The realization that he would likely never again see his home and family, and that he would probably be dead before tomorrow, hit him like a fist. Gale stubbornly blinked away the tears beginning to well in his eyes.

do it because I have to, he told himself. Ten years of my selfishness nearly killed Thazienne tonight. One way or another, it had to end. The lies, the schemes, the cover up-all of it had to end, tonight.

Resolved once again, he glanced around the safest room in which he had ever lived and tried to fix its image in his memory. The extra-long, wrought iron bed Shamur had thoughtfully acquired especially for him. The leather bound chair in which he so often fell asleep while reading. The worn oak night table with its tarnished oil lamp. In contrast to the rich but tasteful decor of the rest of Stormweather, his room looked like the spartan cell of an Ilmaterite monk.

Thazienne always tells me I live like a cloistered priest, he thought, smiling. His smile dissolved into a frown when he realized that after tonight, he would probably be dead and she wouldn't tell him anything again.

Unconsciously, he had kept his belongings to a minimum. So he could easily run away, he supposed. His room contained nothing personal.

Except for one thing: the locked pine trunk that stood at the foot of his bed. That trunk was personal. The lone link to his past in Westgate, it held his blades, enchanted leather armor, and his prized necklace of missiles-the gear of Gale the assassin. The gear that had saved them when thirty Zhents had ambushed Cale and Jak a month ago. That escape had been dose and had cost him all but one of the explosive globes on the magical necklace. He had told himself afterward that it didn't matter because he would not need it again, even while a part of him secretly had hoped for the opportunity.

And now I've got it.

He realized now the self-deluding nature of the fiction he had maintained. He had told himself that he would not wear his equipment again, yet he had kept it and lovingly tended it through the course of ten years. Why?

Because I'm a killer playing at a butler, he realized. A killer trained by the best killers the cities of the Inner Sea have ever seen. He smiled, glad now for his Night Mask training. Cale was thankful to the gods for the character that allowed him to kill a man without remorse. Tonight, he was laying the fiction of Erevis the butler to rest. Tonight and forever after, he was Cale.

He walked to the night table, pulled out the drawer, and removed a small iron key from an ingeniously hidden recess he had carved into the wood backing. He carried the key across the room gingerly, as though it was hot, and knelt before the trunk. There he stoppedHis hand shook uncontrollably. He understood that opening the trunk and donning his gear inside Stormweather-something he had never before done-signified the end. The end of his life as the Uskevren butler. The end of his life as a member of a family. The end of the happiest period he had ever known. He hesitated-it also meant the end of a ten-year lie, he harshly reminded himself. And the end of putting the people I love in danger.

With a snarl, he shoved in the key and turned it. The click of the lock sounded the death knell of Erevis the butler. Cale was back, this time for good. He threw back the lid and removed his gear.

Like a viper shedding its skin, he stood and peeled off his butler's attire. Out of long habit, he neatly folded his doublet, pants, and hose before placing them on top of the bed. Surprised at himself, he smiled.

Perhaps the butler isn't altogether gone out of me, he thought, and hoped.

He pulled on his leather armor-still strong and supple despite the passage of years due to its powerful enchantment. It was the first thing he had worn in a month that fit him correctly. The smell of it reminded him of Westgate and of all the corpses he had left in foe wake of his escape from the Night Masks.

Grimly, he strapped on his weapons belt. The weight of his long sword and daggers hanging from his hips felt right. He welcomed the feel of steel at his belt, easily adjusted his stance and movements to the familiar burden. Carefully, as though unveiling a jewel, he drew forth from a velvet bag the necklace of missiles. He thoughtfully rolled the delicate links and final explosive globe between his fingers before clasping it about his throat. He threw on a lightweight, midnight blue, hooded cloak, loaded his pockets with some fivestars, a tinderbox, and three wax candles, then made ready to leave. He walked to the door, turned to take one last glance around the room, smiled sadly, and strode into the hgjl.

He made a line straight for Thazienne's room. He knew that Thamalon, Shamur, and the two boys would no doubt miss him when he was gone-Tamlin perhaps less than the others, he supposed with a wry smile-but they would move on easily with their lives. He and Thazienne, however, shared a special relationship. Not having him around would be hardest for her.