Pentigrast (3 page)

“Yes, I was a longrider, long ago, but no more. In the year of my 21
^st
summer I was sworn into the king’s duty to protect the kingdom. I did my duty and 10 summers later I left the longriders behind and became a trapper, nothing more, nothing less.”

“A longrider swears an oath unto death does he not? Would you now stand by as your kingdom needs you?”

“It’s complicated. And as I said I am no longer in service to the king” Talen replied. “Besides, The great Riven Lannister of Legend is tracking this tale, what need is there of me to find such a deviant?”

“You think me a fool Talen Morgan? Riven hissed loudly. “Yes, it’s complicated, it becomes that way when a kings man decides to let fate dictate life’s course instead of action. I know who you are and what you did and I also know that you didn’t leave the longriders of your free will.”

“What I did was my duty.” Talen spat out with distaste. “And I would do so again if the needs be.”

“Ah your duty so you say. Was it not your duty to protect the queen’s only child? Then how is it that she is dead and you are not?”

Talen rose with his fists clenched and a madness in his eyes. Riven rose slowly and stood before Talen speaking softly words not wanted. “You did not kill the princess, Talen, nor did your unborn child. Your only crime was to love a woman above your station which she gave you back in kind, gladly.

“Who are you to speak to me of such things? You know nothing of me or the princess, only tales told out of turn by old crones who like to gossip. I was released from the Longriders when it was suspected that the princess and I were having an affair, I knew nothing of the child until I heard of her passing.”

“I knew, because I was there that night. I also know that the child did not kill the mother.”

Talen drew his sword and pointed it towards the old man “Lies! What game do you play at now old man? I will have your heart on the point of my sword before this night ends.”

Riven moved quickly towards Talen deftly grabbing the point of the sword in his bare hands and placing it on his chest above his heart. “Then do so. I will not stop you. The night is yet long, listen to my tale and decide for yourself. If you are still wanting for my heart at the end of my tale then I shall give it unto you freely.”

Talen let go the grip on his sword and it fell to the granite surface of the ground with a clang. Riven asked Talen to please sit and listen to his tale. He motioned to the fire and Talen sat quietly gazing into the fire with a look of confusion set upon his face. Riven sat across from him and long moments passed as Riven slowly sipped his tea. Talen broke the silence.  “I know this tale already old man and it was misery enough the first time and I don’t relish reliving it through second hand accounts and gossip.”

Riven looked up from his tea slowly and saw the pain etched on Talen’s face. He looked back down saddened by the fact that his tale would further injure the man but it must be told. “It was June and the whole kingdom was abuzz with news of the coming betrothal of Princess Sarah to the king of Caledonia. It wasn’t to be a marriage of love but convenience. Caledonia would make a great ally and keep the Eastern borders of the kingdom at peace while also securing a very lucrative trade deal but, of course, you already knew all of that. Then there were the rumors; the princess was gaining weight, many believed she was anxious or upset and eating much more than usual. Darker rumors told of a secret lover and a child growing in her womb. Small folk like their gossip but when these rumors spread through the court and church the queen and council took notice.”

“Doctors, midwives’ and clergy were summoned to a secret conclave and the princess was brought before them and stripped naked. They poked and prodded her frame and checked every nuance of her body, but it was too early to tell if she was indeed with child or merely eating through her emotions due to the pending betrothal. That night I was summoned by the Arch bishop and told of the day’s events. I was then ordered to keep my eyes on the princess and the comings and goings of all people to her chambers as well as anyone she might meet with elsewhere. I was bound by the church and I obeyed my orders but secretly wondered why a man of my talents would be wasted on such a mundane chore.”

I watched and I waited for weeks and saw no one but chamber maids, servants, ladies in waiting and the king’s guard, more specifically you, Talen. Not accustomed to such trivialities and angered at my use in this matter I didn’t give it the attention it deserved, because if I would have I would have discovered that you were her lover. I gave all this information over to the Arch Bishop in daily reports, his eyes and ears in the palace quickly realized that you were the lover and that is when the Queen and council had you summarily dismissed from the longriders and the princesses private guard. Another month passed and I was again called before the Arch Bishop who sternly dressed me down for not taking my task seriously. I was told I would be sent away to the parish of Downwater but before I left he had one final task for me. I was to meet the queen at the chambers of the princess and do what I was told. When I arrived I was led into the chambers, the princess lay naked on a wooden table already dead. I was handed a small bundle wrapped in a blanket and told to dispose of it in the barrens past the borderlands, it was your child, Talen, and it was dead.”

“You tell me a tale that I already know well old man, now if that is all…”

“No, that is not all, if you know of me as well as you would like to think you do then you know that I am an accomplished killer of men. The princess didn’t die giving birth to your child she was murdered, the tell tale sign of faint bruising to her neck was all I needed to see. As I left the city for the borderlands of Quinth I stopped and inspected my obscene package. The child was pulled from the womb in pieces and at best was but 4 months into its lifecycle. It was not possible that she died giving birth.”

Talen listened quietly, his face belying the anger and sorrow overtaking him “Why would anyone want to murder the princess much less her own mother?”

“Exactly what I thought Talen, I assumed my skills would be needed to dispose of you, the lover, not to dispose of a dead infant. These questions weighed heavy on my mind, I took no joy in carrying out the perverse orders of the church or the queen and I had questions that needed answers. I reported to Downwater parish as ordered but quickly made excuses within the month to be elsewhere on an urgent matter. I traveled back to the kingdom and stealthily made my way into the crypts beneath the castle, and do you know what I found?”

“Dead people” replied Talen mockingly.

“No, what I found was something very peculiar. When I opened the princess’s crypt it was empty with no sign that she had ever been interred there at all, but I did find something curious, a pentagram drawn in blood on the floor with one inverted point which would have been aimed directly at the princesses resting place.” Do you understand me now Talen, do you see.”

“I understand nothing. I have heard wives tales like this many times in my life, most are well travelled and bloated with lies.”

“You know I speak plainly the truth, you saw with your own eyes the pentagram in the barrens. Do you mean to tell me you believe these tales unconnected and nothing at all to do with you?”

“I mean to tell you I am tired and I will sleep now. On the morrow I will show you to the proper path so you might leave me quickly to my life. Good night” With that Talen laid back and closed his eyes, his mind reeling at this news and the confusion of it all. He needed time to think, to try and put it all together in a way that made some semblance of sense to him. That night dreams and nightmares intertwined in Talen’s head pulling him this way and that, but in the end they all told the same tale, the woman he loved so greatly was dead and mystery or not she was not coming back.

When he awoke in the morning Talen saw that his unwelcome visitor was already awake and brewing tea. Riven had set out more dried meat and hard cheese as well. Talen walked to the rear of the cave where an old barrel filled with snow water stood; he washed away the night’s sleep from his face before dunking his head in the barrel to clean his hair and wake him fully. He pulled back his shoulder length hair with his hand and glanced at the old man readying breakfast, he had questions but would he want to hear the answers?

As he walked back towards the fire Riven handed him a mug of tea. They both sat and ate their meal silently, both wondering the best way to break the silence without causing any anger. “Let’s say the tale you tell is true old man, what has it to do with me other than the coincidence of the pentagrams. And why would the princess be murdered by her own family?” Riven picked his words carefully before he spoke. “As I told you the night before last, this tale has its beginnings over a century ago. When I saw the pentagram with an inverted point in the crypt I was perplexed. I spent the next 2 years studying the dark arts to find its meaning. I stole into the churches library every night to find more information and then one day I came upon an obscure manuscript that was hidden in the depths of the churches library. The manuscript was written in the old tongue so it took some months to decipher but when I had finally understood its meaning things started to fall into place.”

“120 years ago there lived a woman in Quinth, it was said that she was the most beautiful woman in the kingdom and for a price a man could sleep with her for one night. When the time came the man would be led to the room and instructed that he was not to try and wake the woman from her sleep. He was allowed only to gaze upon her and touch her gently, anything else was forbidden. No man that slept with her ever told the tale, nor was he ever seen again. And then one day she was gone. The writer of the manuscript had only second hand tales to go by but his curiosity led him to delve deeper into the story. He had traveled to Quinth and had found the house only to find that the previous occupants had left in the middle of the night and now the house belonged to an old widowed woman. After much cajoling he persuaded the old woman to sell him the house. He spent months combing every nook and corner of the house only to find nothing, until one night as he lie in bed he noticed a draft coming from under the far wall of the bed chamber. The next day he opened up that wall to find a secret room with a large bed at its center. On the floor was a pentagram drawn in blood with one inverted point that should have been directed at the bed.” And that is where the manuscript found its end”

“Another pentagram?” Talen whispered quietly “What did it mean”? “It meant I had a lot more research to do.” the old man replied. “I spent the next 10 years researching the dark arts and tracking down its disciples for more clarity on the issue, the church believed I was doing the work of the righteous so they let me be to do God’s will. Little did they know the real reason of my research. Even so; in ten years I found no information on a pentagram with an inverted point. Eventually I found an old woman well versed in the dark arts and for the price of her freedom she would tell me the secrets of the pentigrast as she called it, the pentagram with the inverted point. I conceded and she filled in the story the manuscript told of the house in Quinth. The pentagram was part of a ritual that required the sacrifice of 5 young women. The women must be sacrificed in a way that spills no blood or marks there body with scar. It was told to her that these sacrifices must happen at the time of the winter solstice and that the ritual would end on the vernal equinox. The four women displayed around a pentagram drawn in blood were the power; the fifth woman was the receiver. The pentagrams linked to one another through the fifth point. The power would flow to the fifth woman and in return she would steal the life force of any man that lay with her.”

“This is children’s nonsense, a spectacular tale of the absurd….power, stealing life, all to what end?” Talen demanded.

“Immortality”, Riven let the word hang there in the silence for a small amount of time before continuing his tale. “In some form at least. It’s believed that the person that the person that creates the ritual gains the life of the men who lie with the fifth woman, how, I do not know and the old woman knew not either. But she did say that the ritual must be performed again and again over time.”

Talen pondered this for a moment and then asked. “I don’t see the connection or what this has to do with me.”

“While this isn’t clear to me either Talen, I assure you it is no coincidence that you were meant to find the pentagram, nor that your princess was murdered and a pentagram with an inverted point found in her crypt. You, it would seem, are the key to this mystery and with your help we might be able to answer these questions.”

“And you believed this old woman’s tales?” Talen asked incredulously.

“I don’t know what to believe but I do know that women have been killed in a sadistic and ritualistic way, I have heard rumors that for an amount of gold you can lie with the most beautiful woman at a certain house in Quinth and I have heard tales of men disappearing. At the very least won’t you have the truth of the matter as it concerns your princess?”