Cleansing Fire

The Captain looked up from his desk and stared at the guard for a moment.

“That will be all Corporal. It is unbecoming of an officer to treat a prisoner in this manner. Even one such as this is human. Report to the Staff Sergeant Bale and tell him what I has happened here.”

As the man opened his mouth to protest, the Captain stood up and walked towards him, eyes glittering dangerously.

“I’m certain some of the prisoner’s bruises were not there yesterday, Corporal. Perhaps I am mistaken – if you’d like to stay we can do a quick inspection and find out? No? Just so. The others are posted outside? Good. That will be all, Corporal.”

Marius silently re-evaluated the Captain. He might be young but his youth covered a core of steel. It couldn’t be easy for him, given a command over many older soldiers. He didn’t even react as the Corporal’s gaze heated and he opened his mouth again. The Captain merely raised an eyebrow and the older man closed his mouth with a snap, pulled off a credible salute and made his way out of the office.

As he passed by Marius, he gave him a look filled with venom. He would suffer for what he’d seen today.

The Captain stared after him for a moment then walked back around his desk and took a seat. Leaning his elbows on the table, he steepled his fingers and regarded Marius over them.

“Sit, please. We have a lot to talk about.”

Callahn managed to keep his face smooth despite the surging anger he felt inside. The Corporal would be difficult to deal with later but he would have to keep for now. Mild insubordination wasn’t anything he wasn’t used to – after nearly a year, many soldiers still saw his youth before they saw his Captain’s insignia. He hoped that one day when, if, he turned grey, they would realise he was their Captain without his having to force it on them.

He brought his attention back to the prisoner and another wave of anger almost broke through. He crushed it mercilessly. Losing control at this point would make all this even harder. He would have to tread very carefully here.

One misstep and things could go very badly for a lot of people. His wife said she’d seen that vermin Verrat lounging outside the house lately. There was only one reason a man like that made himself known – he wanted to send you a message.

If he had simply been spying for Treilim, Elise would never have caught a glimpse of him. The Governor was warning him to keep to the course that had been picked out for him.

Well, Elise had her instructions. If this went badly, at least she would be well on the way to Antini and her brother by morning. He hoped Verrat didn’t know about the passages that led out from his house to the docks; that could pose a problem. Nothing he could do about it now.

The young man sitting opposite him could be quite a problem but from all accounts he was clever so perhaps he would be able to save himself and Callahn’s family today.

Taking out his notebook, he scribbled the date at the head of the page and marshalled his thoughts.

“For the record, you are Marius Valia?”

Marius nodded in confirmation then opened his mouth to speak.

Callahn held up a hand to stop him and he waited patiently.

“There will be time for you to speak later. For now, you listen to me. Understand?”

“Yes Captain.”

So, he can be patient if he must. That’s good. A hot head won’t get us anywhere today.

“Good. Now, you were a resident of Mistress Arfor’s estate, yes?”

Marius nodded mutely, waiting to see what he had to say.

“I know how guards gossip so I’m sure you know that there was one survivor of the fire,” he didn’t wait for Marius’ nod before going on, “You should also be aware that there have been many similar fires recently. Very similar to this one in fact. No doubt you have already realised that you are currently our prime suspect for these crimes. With your… record, it’s obvious that you finally moved on to larger crimes.”

“I… no, sir, that’s not true,” Marius said, shaking his head, “If you’ll just let me…”

He held up a hand again, silencing the young man again.

“Just listen, Marius. Just listen. Now, you were found by a man called Bellak, one of those who fought so bravely to contain the fire. He says you were hiding in the trees around the farmhouse, covered in soot; as if you’d been digging through the remains.”

He could see Marius thinking furiously, trying to guess the direction he was taking. He couldn’t afford to force it more than this – there were certain conclusions that Marius would have to come to by himself. It wouldn’t be completely impossible for Treilim to have a spy listening in even now – to say anything more would be suicide.

Marius looked up at him, his face still a little confused.

“Yes, sir. Though I wasn’t hiding in the trees, I just fell asleep there after… after I saw the house.”

“And are you know of course that the man you killed out in the field was one of the Academy’s agents? You must have hit him very hard to do that much damage, almost as if you stood above him.”

He watched the information sink in. It was clear that Marius knew more than he was telling but it was equally clear that he had nothing to do with the fire or the killing of the agent. What one of the Academy’s agents was doing in such a strange place was a question for another time. He reached into one of the drawers and drew out the letter that had been delivered to him a little earlier on.

Now was the time he had to take the biggest risk. If Marius thought at any point to ingratiate himself with the Governor, everything he had worked to achieve in the last few days could still go badly wrong. He prayed there was as much distrust in Marius as there seemed to be.

“This is a letter from the Governor. It seems he has taken a personal interest in you.”

He hesitated, the letter hanging from his hand. He flipped it open and made a show of reading it through – he already knew the contents by heart and had made a copy for safety sake.

“By order of the Governor of Dunriver, the base murderer Marius Valia is to be hanged immediately. Due to the heinous nature of his many crimes against the people, he is to be given no trial and must be confined until such time as his execution is carried out. By order, Governor Treilim.”

He watched out the corner of his eye as Marius’ face fell with each word. Clearly he had thought he could get out of this situation with some clever words and a convincing argument – just as he always had before. Just a little more prodding should do. He needed the boy to be desperate. May the gods forgive me for what I am about to do.

“Your sentence is to be carried out at dawn tomorrow. If you would like a priest to sit with you this evening, I will have it arranged.”

Marius’ face blanched and he looked quite sickly, dropping his eyes to the tabletop as if studying the surface. From Callahn’s experience, people like Marius went one of two ways when confronted with an impossible situation. Either they did everything in their power to escape or they snapped. He prayed Marius would be a fighter.

“There’s only one thing I don’t understand,” he said, waiting patiently for Marius to look at him, “Why did you kill the girl? My informants tell me you seemed close, that you were almost betrothed. Why would you go through all the effort of wooing this…? Kaylee, come as close as someone like you is likely to get to happiness and then snuff it out so effortlessly? Are you really that cold a murderer? And to mutilate her corpse so badly…”

He almost flinched when Marius’ head whipped up to stare at him. The broken man was gone, there was only anger left.

“Kaylee is dead?” Contrary to the heat in his eyes, Marius’ voice was strangely quiet, measured. He flexed and loosened his hands, cracking his knuckles unconsciously. It was clear which path Marius would take. Just one more piece of fuel.

“That ring you carried Marius. Is that why you did it? Did she say no, at the end? Did she finally realise that she could never be with a criminal like you?”

He regretted pushing like this, it was clumsy but he had so little time.

“Or perhaps you were more interested in whoever you let escape. An accomplice? Did Kaylee find out? Confront you? Force you to kill her to shut her mouth?”

Despite the ropes holding his hands together, Marius rose out of the chair and leaned his fists on the table. His eyes were hard as iron and his hands shook as he leaned forward.

“I did not kill Kaylee. I loved her. I loved all of them. I…”

Callahn resisted the urge to smile as he saw everything click into place for Marius. If he was as clever as he seemed, he had just come to the same conclusion that Callahn had – that whoever had escaped must have been the real murderer. He could almost see Marius going over the people in his mind, trying to figure out who it could be.

“Well, we’ll soon have your accomplice. We found a set of footprints leading from the farmhouse out to the west and into the woods. Unfortunately whoever it was crossed the river and we lost the tracks. We know it was a woman, Marius. It’s only a matter of time before the Guard find her.”

That’s more than enough for him to think about. Time to end this before someone wonders why we’ve been in here for so long.

“Still, I don’t suppose it matters much to you. Your sentence stands. Guards!”

Waiting for the two new men to enter and take up position on either side of the prisoner, he gave the command for Marius to be taken back to the prison that would be his home for a short while.

After they had gone, the door firmly closed behind them, Callahn leaned back in his chair and held the letter up to the candle flame, allowing the edge to catch. He held it between his fingers until nothing was left but ashes. Just to be safe, he ground those between his fingers too.

He had planted the seed. It was up to Marius to extricate himself now.