Moral Stand (Aether’s Revival Book 7)

The sun was below the horizon, the gloom of twilight hanging over the land, when Gregory approached the gate of Icelake alone. His men marched a mile behind him, eager to get into the warm barracks for the evening. The guard above the gate had called out in challenge in the fading light, but he stopped his second call when Gregory came into the lantern light.

“Magi Gregory Pettit of Aether’s Guard,” Gregory said flatly. “I have wounded from a battle. Do not impede my men.”

The gate sergeant, who’d been about to go off duty, came out of the gate house. He stared at Gregory in shock for a moment before he saluted. “That is fine, Magi. How many wounded?”

“Nearly the entire unit. Three dead on this patrol.”

Sergeant Quintas’ eyes got wider when Gregory spoke, and he stammered the next two words, “O-only t-three? I mean, yes, Magi. We will make sure they go right through.”

The slightly warped hollowness Quintas radiated got Gregory’s attention as surely as his fumbled words had. “Sergeant, why are you surprised to see me?”

“I-I’m not, sir.”

Gregory saw the oncoming sergeant standing well back; the tap of his resonance against that sergeant wasn’t twisted. “Take over for him,” Gregory addressed the second man before focusing on Quintas again. “You will be coming with me to the commander, Sergeant.”

“Yes, sir…” Quintas whispered, feeling the pressure slowly build around him.

The second sergeant accepted the command, saluting as he did.

“Oh, and I have bodies that need to be seen to. Have someone come to the barracks in an hour to see to our dead. But you have a lot of work tonight, as well.” Gregory rode to the side out of the way of any potential traffic. Summoning the corpses of their attackers, he laid them out in orderly rows that took up most of the space the guards used outside the guard towers. “These men attacked my unit on the road. Handle their funerals and notify their kin.”

The new sergeant swallowed, saluting again as he looked at the dozens of corpses.

Quintas was pale as he looked at the rows of dead, briefly pausing twice— once on Dalt and once on the Buldoun mage. When he tore his eyes away from them, he found Gregory watching him, and he started to sweat profusely even in the frigid cold. “Sir?” he croaked.

“March, Sergeant. You’ll get your chance to explain to Trida.”

The gate guards on duty didn’t stop the unit as they limped through the gate. Many of them came to attention, saluting the walking wounded. No one stopped them, none of them wanting the wrath of the magi called down on them.

Gregory rode behind Quintas, who marched like a man on his way to the gallows. He kept foresight going, but only a couple of seconds ahead in case Quintas tried to flee. When they reached the command post, Gregory was dismounting as Commander Trida and Captain Hendil came out the door.

“Magi? Sergeant?” Trida questioned, eyeing the terror on Quintas’ face and Gregory’s dark expression.

A single soft word escaped Hendil, “Shit…”

When Trida turned toward his captain to question him, a flash of something made him stagger back. “What in Aether’s name?!” Trida snapped.

Hendil yelled in pain, his sword falling from his hand as a dagger carved a groove across his forearm. He turned to run only to find Gregory already there, aether pressing down on him. Eyes widening, he tried to speak, but Gregory had him by the neck.

“Attacking your superior, trying to flee a magi, and conspiring to kill a magi? All of these are serious crimes, Hendil,” Gregory said coldly. “If Trida suddenly died, you’d be acting commander. I’m sure that was the plan, wasn’t it? Was it supposed to be poison tonight, or a blade in the back?”

Hendil couldn’t speak, nor could he catch his breath. The magi survived? How had he survived the mass of men and a physical enhancement mage? Chainer had promised him the command position after the adept was dead. Everything he’d been promised was a lie.

“Magi, unhand my captain,” Trida said, not having been keeping up with what was happening.

“He cut you, Commander, or tried to,” Gregory said, looking at Trida. “Your armor has a gouge in it from his sword.”

Trida glanced down to the visible line just above his waist. There was a gap between his chest and leg armor where a sword could slip in. The metal was scored from his navel to just above that gap.

“We need to have a talk, Trida. Your captain is under arrest, and Quintas here is being placed under arrest until he can clear his name. I don’t think he was an active participant in this like Hendil, but he might’ve known.”

Quintas lowered his head. He knew he was screwed, but trying to fight this magi was asking for death.

“Umm… yes,” Trida said slowly. “Strip Hendil of his gear, search him all the way to the skin, then lock him up. Same with Quintas,” Trida commanded the pale-faced guard a few feet away.

The man saluted before calling inside for help. Gregory waited for the two officers to be taken away before he and Trida went up to the commander’s office.

~*~*~

Trida read the report, asking Gregory a few more questions before he slumped in his seat. “The witness is with your men?”

“Yes. I will keep him safe until Magus Smitton can be brought in to hear the report, too. I’d ask you to arrange for her and yourself to come out to the barracks tomorrow. You should refrain from telling her too much before you arrive.”

Trida groaned. “I knew you’d be trouble… Hendil turning on me was unexpected, but Quintas being involved… are you sure?”

“He knew about the men going out like they did. What he did or didn’t know, I’m uncertain, but I will leave him to you, Commander. He took bribes from the slavers in the past, didn’t he?”

“Yes. He was reprimanded for it,” Trida conceded. “I thought he’d learned from that. I’ll talk with him.”

“Hendil might have others who will try to help him,” Gregory said slowly. “I’ll leave his punishment to you, but you heard my charges, Commander. I will have a supplemental report drafted for you by tomorrow.”

Trida leaned forward to rest his head on the desk. “I’ll handle it, Magi.” He swallowed as another terrible thought rose unbidden in his mind, “What will you do if the magus is part of the attempt?”

“Defend myself,” Gregory said simply as he stood. “I don’t think she participated, but, like Quintas, she likely knew. That will be a problem for tomorrow.”

“Rupert Chainer won’t accept the accusation,” Trida groaned. “Not from an adept.”

“When the town guard, town magus, and my unit march on his home, he will have no choice in the matter. He will face justice for attempting to kill me and for all the other laws he has broken. If his family is smart, they will surrender him so their interests can survive this year.”

Trida lifted his head to meet Gregory’s eyes. “You’d take the Silver Collar?”

“I’d break the entire family. However, I’ll give them a chance to not lose everything they hold dear. It will be a single chance only.” The finality in Gregory’s tone brooked no disagreements.

“Yes, sir,” Trida said softly. “I will do my best to bring the magus to the barracks tomorrow.”

“If you fail to appear, I will come looking for you, just in case she did something monumentally stupid.”

Trida swallowed, as he hadn’t considered the magus doing something to him. “Uh… right. Thank you, sir.”

“I hope you get some rest before tomorrow, Trida,” Gregory said. He bowed his head a fraction, then left the office.

Trida sat there for a few minutes, wondering who the adept was to act so certain and casually about matters that would make master-tier magi pause. It ultimately didn’t matter; he had a job to do, and he would do it. He might not want to be in the middle of this messy power squabble, but he was, and now, he had to survive it.

~*~*~

Gregory arrived at the barracks to find Davis waiting for him in the stable. “Something wrong?”

“No, sir. Just reporting. The men are settled in; bathing currently, in fact. The witness is stashed in the room with Barny, as it’s unlikely anyone would look for him there first. Dinner will be ready as soon as you’ve had a chance to wash up, sir.”

“I got him, sir,” Basal said, taking Legacy’s reins. “Come on, boy. Let’s get you settled.”

Gregory let Basal take the gelding from him, but watched the boy for a moment. Turning his attention back to Davis, he exhaled slowly. “Captain Hendil tried to kill Trida in front of me, just as the future showed. Trida now has him and Quintas to deal with.”

“Still shocked that was a possibility, sir. Did he plan to kill you after that?”

“I don’t believe he thought of that, Davis. He panicked when he saw me and acted on impulse.”

Davis shook his head. “What now, sir?”

“Hopefully, we see Trida and Justina tomorrow. If we do, then we move on Rupert Chainer here. I’ll be seeing the courier tomorrow morning to make sure the Chainer family doesn’t send a warning to Phineas. We’ll be dealing with him when we get back to Coldwood. Whether or not the entire Chainer family is brought down will be up to the rest of the family.”

“You’re going to ask for Rupert and Phineas and leave the others, sir?”

“It will mitigate things in these towns. I don’t want to break them so much that the entire empire looks this way if I can help it.”

“Understood, sir.”

“I have to get the supplemental report about Hendil and Quintas written up. I’ll bathe after that. Please let the others know. I’ll see you and the boys there, won’t I?”

“Yes, sir,” Davis saluted.