The Demons We See Read online

  “Oh shit!” Lex shouted and pulled the reins hard to slow the horse’s gallop. Lex’s horse protested and reared up, throwing them off. Lex landed on the ground with a hard thud, knocking the wind out of them. Lex rolled out of the way as quickly as possible to avoid any wheels or hooves.

  “Lex!” Dodd exclaimed.

  “I’m fine!” Lex called out.

  The coachmen pulled on the reins hard, and was cursing loudly. The horses slowed their charge eventually, but it was a close call. Mrs. Ansley’s coach had to veer off into the ditch to slow the horses, the short brush slowing them. One of the wheels became stuck in the ditch, and the horses finally got the hint to stop galloping.

  At the road bend further ahead, where the Cathedral Highway dipped once again into Amadore, was a blockade formed by a company of the militia. Sunlight gleamed off armor and steel. They weren’t here to be decorative; they were here for a fight.

  Lex struggled to stand, gasping and coughing for air, but they managed to get on their feet. Their horse had finally come to a stop in the ditch and was happily munching on whatever green grew there.

  Rainier jumped out of the Contessa’s carriage. He drew his sword. Lex mirrored his gesture, and the others all did the same. Lex gave Dodd a firm nod. Dodd returned it. Dodd gestured at Mrs. Ansley’s carriage and his detail surrounded it. Likewise, Lex stepped alongside the Contessa’s carriage.

  If Rainier couldn’t talk these people out of whatever was going on, Lex was about to find out if all of the magical talismans on their uniforms were worth their weight in gold after all.

  ****

  Stanton squared his shoulders when he stepped out of the carriage. Normally that would not be a tactically sound move, but they were outnumbered and the way before them blocked. They were not bandits; the livery and uniforms declared them local militia, if he recalled the colors correctly. Either way, they had orders, not greed, motivating them. Negotiation and discussion were valid tactics at this juncture.

  Stanton walked toward the carts that blocked Cathedral's Way. “Who's in charge there? You? Explain this madness.”

  As a Cathedral captain, Stanton had significant powers over local militias and policing establishments, but it was not unlimited. Further, the little display last night in the tavern made Stanton worry that Queen Portia was thinking herself well beyond the Cathedral's rules.

  This is why they needed a damned Arbiter! To bring the nations all under the heel of the Cathedral and ensure the Almighty's law was being followed equally throughout all of His lands.

  “Well? Which of you are in charge here? Speak.”

  A young man almost as tall as Stanton stepped out in front of the carts. He motioned to the men behind him before approaching Stanton. His hand rested nervously on his sword's hilt, and though he was pale-skinned, his face was rapidly becoming bright pink.

  “I am Corporal Jeeno of Her Imperial Majesty’s Home Guard. I’ve been assigned to Sir Bertrand’s service, the magistrate for Montfort County.”

  Stanton waited, expecting an actual answer to his question. When none came, he said, “And?”

  “Sir?”

  “I asked you to explain yourself. All you’ve done is introduce yourself.”

  “I am charged with arresting Mrs. Patrice Ansley for the illegal use of elemental witchcraft and for being an elemental mage.”

  “I’m not an elemental!” Mrs. Ansley shouted from her carriage window.

  “Harness that mouth of yours, witch bitch,” the corporal shouted back.

  “Eat horse shit,” Mrs. Ansley said in return.

  The corporal bristled. “As you can see, sir, she is feral. We need to arrest her immediately or risk her wrath coming down upon us.”

  “Her wrath?” Stanton sneered. “Mrs. Ansley is no elemental, as you well know. She is a free mage and it is illegal to arrest her. You know this.”

  “I'm sorry, sir. You have been deceived.” He offered a letter to Stanton.

  Stanton snatched it from the man’s hand and read it. The letter appeared genuine, as did the green and white uniforms the soldiers wore. As did the seal on the bottom of the letter. Faking any one of those was a hanging offense. There would be no reason to go through the trouble of faking all of it to arrest a nobody mage.

  Stanton looked up at the guard and frowned. “Your magistrate has proof she is an elemental?”

  “I assume so, sir.”

  “What is this proof?”

  He shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll come up at her trial.”

  “There won’t be a trial and you know it,” Mrs. Ansley shouted. “Captain, please.”

  Stanton gulped. He had a duty and had taken vows to uphold the laws of the Cathedral. One of them was not to interfere with local laws unless they contravened those of the cardinals. He could stand up for Mrs. Ansley when they were trying to arrest her as a free mage. Standing in the way of an accused elemental, no matter how suspicious the accusation, was an entirely different matter.

  The Contessa might never forgive him for what he knew his duty required him to do.

  “This is outrageous,” the Contessa said from her carriage window.

  “This does not concern you, ma’am,” the corporal said. “Back inside where you belong.”

  “Starve in the abyss,” the Contessa snarled and swung open the carriage door. She smacked one of the guards in the chest with the door and jumped down the distance with a huff of breath. She stormed up to the guard and snatched the paper from Stanton. She read it, her expression turning dark. “Heathens. This is...this is lies. Surely everyone can see that. What did you do to this magistrate?”

  “Nothing!” Mrs. Ansley exclaimed. “I don’t even know him. I came here only to sell my factory. Nothing else.”

  “Who did you meet with?”

  Stanton frowned at the Contessa’s question, but glared down the guard when he attempted to interrupt her.

  “I’ve only met with my workers to offer them positions in my Jennings factory and offered to pay their transport,” Mrs. Ansley said. “Oh, and the lawyers, I suppose.”

  “You never met the person buying your interest on the Cartossa side of the border?” Allegra asked.

  Stanton looked over at Mrs. Ansley, who was still leaning out of her carriage. “No. It was all done through his lawyers.”

  “If she’s arrested as an elemental, all of her property is forfeit in the region, isn’t it?” the Contessa asked the guard.

  The guard cleared his throat. “I am not certain about…”

  “Oh, be a man,” Stanton shouted.

  “My orders are clear, as is the law. Mrs. Ansley, please come with us.”

  “You can’t let them!” Please!” Mrs. Ansley pleaded.

  “Do something!” the Contessa shouted.

  Stanton shook his head. “I am not permitted. I'm sorry.”

  Lex grimaced and looked away as the guards dragged Mrs. Ansley from her carriage. Stanton closed his eyes as her screams and curses filled the air.

  “Watch,” the Contessa demanded in a cold, harsh voice. “All of you.”

  So Stanton obeyed and watched as Mrs. Ansley was dragged by her hair across the stony path. He watched with repressed rage as her pelisse and dress snagged and ripped on the stones and bushes. He didn't untwine the fists his hands had formed as Mrs. Ansley’s own hands were shoved into iron manacles, nor did he hide the disgust on his face when the servants were equally dragged to kneel next to their mistress.

  Stanton glanced at the Contessa, expecting open weeping. What he found was far worse. Unabashed fury.

  Do not anger the kind, for their fury will know no limits and their rage no prisoners.

  Tasmin’s sacred words came to mind as he stared down at the Contessa’s face. This might push her over the edge to accept the position. They might all live to regret it, too.

  ****

  “Contessa, please! I beg you!” Mrs. Ansley wail
ed. “Do something, please.”

  Allegra knew she would look back on this moment and know this was the day she picked sides. The rest of her life would now be shaped by this moment, and that realization seeped into her bones along with her barely controlled rage.

  “Watch, all of you. Watch and may the Almighty curse your dreams with this. Whenever you are asked why the mages are revolting, think upon this day and know you caused it. Each and every one of you.”

  “Rot in the abyss!” Mrs. Ansley screamed when one of the guards slapped her maidservant.

  Allegra turned to the corporal. “Tell your master I am coming for him.”

  The corporal took a step forward. “Are you threatening him?”

  Rainier and Lex both pivoted to flank Allegra, but she held her hand out. She stepped forward and stared down the corporal. “Tell him the Contessa of Marsina will not rest until she sees him stripped of power. If anything happens to that woman over there, or any of her servants, I will see there is nothing left of his life but the regret of knowing he'd crossed me.”

  “I am following my orders.”

  “How noble. You've rid the world of a dangerous elemental. Consider. If I were an elemental in her position, I would have used all my supposed magic to char the lot of you all to ash. Or maybe I'd open a pit and let you all fall in. She hasn't, because she can't.”

  Mrs. Ansley's screams turned to desperate sobs. The guard next to the corporal grimaced and looked away.

  “Don't be a coward!” Allegra shouted in his face. “Surely you must be brave in the face of the Lord Almighty’s work!”

  The guard didn't look up.

  “May her screams haunt you for the rest of your life,” Allegra snarled.

  “Get away from her carriage! Hey!” Dodd shouted out.

  “Put that down!” Lex joined into the chorus of protests.

  Allegra looked over her shoulder. Two of the militia guards had climbed atop Mrs. Ansley's carriage. They tossed the light bags to their fellow traitors on the ground. The large trunks were merely tossed to the ground, exploding open from the fall.

  Dodd marched over and shoved one of the men who'd picked up a blush pink corset. “Put that down.”

  “Stand down, Lieutenant Dodd,” Allegra said bleakly.

  “You can't be serious!” Dodd demanded. “This is banditry!”

  “Captain? We have to stop this,” Lex said.

  Rainier sighed and said, “She's been accused of being an elemental. They get to confiscate everything, from her servants to her corsets.”

  “They’ve only accused her,” Lex said. “They can’t just…she’s only been accused.”

  “That’s all they need, Lex,” Allegra said. “Isn't it, Captain?”

  Rainier nodded his head. “The servants aided in hiding her identity as an elemental. It is now for a court to decide if they did it willingly.”

  “That’s bullshit, sir, and you know it,” Lex said.

  “This is fucking bullshit,” Dodd shouted. “This can’t be legal.”

  “This is a fucking mess,” Lex said.

  “It is,” Allegra said coolly. “Welcome to why there is a rebellion.”

  She could not stand here any longer. If they rode through the night, they could be at the Cathedral by tomorrow evening or early the next morning. She could accept the position and order Cathedral troops back. Four days. Mrs. Ansley had to survive four days.

  “Mrs. Ansley, I am coming back for you. Do everything you need to do to survive, do you understand me?”

  Mrs. Ansley was too busy sobbing to answer.

  She turned to the guard on the path and said, “Move. Now.”

  “Yes, of course. Thank you for…”

  “Move!” Allegra screamed in the corporal’s face. Spittle sprayed him. He blinked, not expecting her to act in such an unladylike manner. “Move your men out of the way or I swear to the Almighty I will strike you.”

  While the blockade moved, Allegra marched back to the carriage. Dodd, Lex, and Rainier were all shouting for the guards to show Mrs. Ansley and her people respect, but their pleas went unheard. Allegra didn’t bother to speak. There was no point unless she was prepared to burn them all alive: something that she was sorely tempted to do.

  Instead, she stepped up to her carriage and glared at the soldier she’d hit previously in the chest. He fumbled to pull the stairs out for her. He offered her his hand, and she slapped it away as if he was a leper.

  She sat in her carriage and let Mrs. Ansley’s sobbing shrieks etch themselves upon her soul. This was her doing. She had done everything possible to avoid this very fate for herself, and her own narcissistic complacency meant an innocent woman would pay the price instead. This was the price of her freedom: the enslavement of others.

  Rainier approached the carriage. Allegra latched the door lock. He gave her a quizzical look. She did not want him anywhere near her. She didn’t care that he was just following orders. Everyone was just following orders. An innocent woman was suffering because they were following orders.

  Orders could burn in the abyss for all she cared at that moment.

  “Tell the coachman we are riding straight to the Cathedral. No stops except to change horses.”

  “I don’t think…”

  “I didn’t ask your opinion, Captain.” Without waiting for a reply, she snapped the window shut and pulled down the blinds. There, in the privacy of her darkened carriage, she gave herself permission to sob for not just Mrs. Ansley, but also because she knew her own life was never going to be the same now.

  Chapter 8

  Orsini Cathedral

  Papal Residence

  “Where is he? Where is the Holy Father?”

  Allegra stormed through the corridors of Orsini Palace. They'd ridden for almost two days straight, stopping only long enough to change the horses and to eat. Even then, Allegra had not allowed them more than a quarter hour's rest. She'd not changed her clothes since the ordeal began. She'd not freshened up or tended to the most basic of hygiene. Servants bustled around her, all offering assistance, and she ignored them. She made a promise to Mrs. Ansley and she didn't have a moment to spare.

  “Your Ladyship, if you would but wait...”

  “We're here to see the Holy Father,” Lex said sharply, following just behind her.

  The other booted footfalls were Rainier's. “Is Father Francois in his study?”

  “His drawing room, Captain,” the servant answered, “But...”

  Rainier took a hard right turn and Allegra matched his quickening pace. She'd not spoken more than ten words to him in the last two days for fear her anger would boil over. For years she had been ignored whenever she suggested this kind of criminal activity was taking place. No one believed her. Some accused her of hysterics. Others patronized her with comments about how her delicate, retired life meant she couldn't possibly understand the ways of the world. Even Rainier had acted like she was exaggerating. Well, they’d seen a fine example of it with their own eyes and it ran to script like a play.

  “Your Ladyship! Please!” one of the servants called out behind her. “You’re not decent to see the Holy Father in your current condition!”

  “I do not care about the state of my dress. I need the Holy Father right this minute.”

  “We cannot be delayed,” Rainier said.

  “But you don't have an appointment!”

  “I don’t care,” Allegra said.

  Lex shoulder checked a liveried footman who attempted to block their charge down the corridor. “Out of the way. This is Consort business.”

  She reached the double doors of the Holy Father's private drawing room. The tall, white doors were guarded by two footmen. One put his hand up. “Do you have an appointment?”

  “Is the Holy Father within?” Allegra demanded.

  “Do you have an appointment?”

  “I shall take that as an affirmative. Open these doors
or I shall open them myself.”

  “And you are?”

  “Allegra, Contessa of Marsina.”

  “You do not have an appointment, Your Ladyship. Captain.”

  “I don't need one.” Allegra pushed past the footmen. She grabbed both door latches and pushed down.

  “You cannot enter uninvited!” the footmen exclaimed and grabbed her arm.

  Lex slammed his bony shoulder into one of the footmen, knocking him off balance. Rainier shoved the footman who’d grabbed her into the door frame, just as she swung the door open. The joint force of her anger and the footman’s momentum pushed the door into a table. Glass decanters shattered on the floor and the aroma of expensive claret filled the air.

  “Allegra!” Francois said, stunned. “What...what has happened?”

  The four men and two women seated next to Francois were all adored in regal religious attire of the inner circle of cardinals. “Did you mean it?”

  “Mean what?” Francois said guardedly.

  “Your Holiness, did you mean it? A woman's life and that of her servants are at stake,” Rainier said.

  “Yes,” Francois said. “Yes, the offer was genuine. What is going on?”

  “Then I accept. Rainier?”

  Rainier turned to speak to Lex, but Lex was already turned to face the Cathedral guards in the corridor. “Dodd’s already gone to get the Consorts. You! You! Let's go! Move!”

  “Father, what is going on?” Cardinal DeLancey asked. DeLancey was a wrinkled hag of a woman, with piercing blue eyes and liver-spotted pale skin. She gave Allegra a withering glance that would have shrunk her away any other day. “Child, you’ve forgotten your manners. Kindly fetch them before you return.”

  Allegra glared at the woman and said, “Out.”

  Francois glanced at the Cardinal and back at Allegra. “Contessa, perhaps we should...”

  “Get. Out. Now.” Allegra snarled the words, glaring at Rupert. He met her gaze for a moment before breaking it. He nodded to the others and said, “I’ll have my secretary reschedule. I apologize for the interruption.”