‘What do you mean?’ Mark asked. He could smell his tecan burning; the water hissed as it boiled over. Jesus, but Garec could sleep through anything… or maybe he was already dead ‘They hadn’t been drilling. They had grown fat and lazy. There was no army or navy to oppose them, no resistance movement in Praga at the time, so they all attacked the wharf. Two or three platoons massed out on the edge of the dock firing arrows into the pirate ships and calling curses and promises of a swift death to anyone bold enough to come ashore. Stupid horsecocks.’ He almost smiled and Steven realised Sallax truly had no love for Malakasia. At least that much was genuine. ‘They forgot the third ship, or if they didn’t forget it, they didn’t consider it a threat. Well, it was. Nearly two hundred armed mercenaries, tough bastards, came ashore from the third ship, strolled along the wharf as if they were courting some Pragan merchant’s chubby virgin daughter. They proceeded to hack and slash those platoons to ribbons, drove them right off the town docks and into the sea. Then, with a whooping holler, they came for us.’
The burn in Steven’s hand intensified: the staff was warning him Sallax was about to come at them, there would be no subduing him. This would be quick, bloody and to the death.
Sallax went on in matter-of-fact tones, ‘My mother was taken. They dragged her right over my father’s burning body and I watched as the hem of her dress caught fire on his back, a small flame that connected them one last time. It soon went out. I held Brynne tightly to my chest and waited to die, but they ignored us. They took what valuables they could find, including the brass bells I had polished so lovingly, and left the shop to burn. I carried Brynne outside, not out back but out front, out past my father and onto the cold cobblestones of the street. Behind us, the waterfront was in flames, but I couldn’t put Brynne down on the chilly stones because she might catch a cold. So we stood there and waited. That’s when I saw him up close for the first time.’
‘Prince Malagon?’ Steven was confused.
‘No, Gilmour.’
‘Gilmour was there?’ Mark interjected.
‘Gilmour was the captain I had seen giving orders to reset the main and top sails. He then ordered his archers to set fire to the town. When his ship slammed into the naval frigate, he ordered his men to fix grappling hooks and board her, to kill every Malakasian aboard and to burn her to the waterline. With that done, he ordered a launch to carry him ashore where he strode along the waterfront surveying the damage as his men pillaged and raped their way through town. Any who resisted him were murdered. It was simple, beautiful in its efficiency.’
‘I can’t believe it, not Gilmour. ’ Steven realised he had made a mistake as soon as he opened his mouth, but he couldn’t stop the words.
Nor could he stop Sallax from reacting: the man took a step towards him and screamed, ‘It was Gilmour, you rutting foreigner! No one rutting asked you into this!’
Then the staff was there, in his hand, and he felt its power course through him. Compassion. He heard himself say it and looked at Mark to see if he had said it aloud. Compassion.
‘Sallax, don’t do this. I don’t want to kill you.’
‘Kill me, you whoring dog?’ His rapier was inches from Steven’s throat. ‘I’ll run you clean through before you draw another breath. So sit there and shut up! I am not yet finished!’
‘Right. Yes. Okay.’ Steven felt it grow stronger. Compassion. This was a sick man, not a murderer. Sallax did not want to kill them. He was suffering, and Steven had to find a way to help him. He dropped the staff to his side and apologised.
‘Sorry, I interrupted,’ he said quietly.
Sallax glared, but continued, ‘I carried Brynne for days, begging for milk and buying what I could with the few coins my mother had kept inside an iron pot near the fireplace. Brynne cried so much, I thought she would die, but I kept her clean and managed to feed her, stealing when I had to.’
‘How did you get to Estrad?’ Mark asked.
‘We heard a rumour that Malagon was sending a brigade of soldiers down to reclaim the town. The pirates were long gone and no one wanted to be around when a vengeful army showed up with no one to fight. So, many of us piled into anything that would float and made for Rona. We found a husband and wife travelling together who made certain we had food and water during the journey. I have tried for two hundred Twinmoons to find them, but I can’t even remember their names. They saved our lives.’
‘And she doesn’t know any of this?’ Mark asked, trying to keep him talking. He doubted he could get the chair around in time to defend himself against Sallax’s rapier.
‘She believes our parents died in Rona.’
‘But still,’ Steven entreated calmly, ‘how could you fight for Ronan freedom while planning to betray Gilmour?’
Sallax had the look of one already lost, a tragic hero with no escape from the reality of his own weakness. ‘I did not betray Gilmour and I did not betray Rona. I avenged my parents. I never told Jacrys that Lessek’s Key was waiting for Nerak on your writing table, Steven Taylor, and I never passed along secrets of the Ronan Resistance. I avenged my parents; that’s all.’
‘But you have known Gilmour for-’
‘For fifty Twinmoons, yes, but it wasn’t until about twenty-five Twinmoons ago that I realised he was the same man who had ordered the attack on Southport.’
‘How is that possible?’ Mark needed clarification.
‘I had a vision – call it a dream, or a message from my parents. I saw him there, as clearly as if I were standing there, and in that moment, I knew it was he who had led the raiding fleet against my home. The memory of his face had been lost to me for so long; getting it back was like being reborn. I planned Gilmour’s death while fighting alongside him in raids on the Merchants’ Highway. I planned his death while drinking with him at Greentree Tavern. I planned his death while watching him walk with my sister, his arm around her shoulder like the father she never knew.’ Sallax’s voice rose as he spoke and he stood tall, towering over Steven and Mark.
This is it, Mark thought and prepared to dive at Sallax, hoping to distract the man long enough for Steven to call forth the staff’s magic.
He was tensing for his leap when Steven interrupted. ‘So, you succeeded,’ he said quietly. ‘You avenged your parents. Any of us would have done the same thing, but now you are conflicted. You are wrestling with demons over this decision, Sallax. Why? Will you tell us? We’re here, at your mercy. We can’t get the jump on you, you’ve got us at sword-point. Why are you struggling now?’
Sallax exhaled, a long sigh. ‘Gabriel O’Reilly, the wraith.’
‘What did he do?’ Steven asked.
Sallax’s tears came again. He broke down and buried his face in his hands. Mark looked over at Steven, thinking hard, Now! Let’s go now! – but before he could spring forward, Sallax lifted his head and pointed his rapier at Mark’s chest. ‘The spirit, O’Reilly, showed me the captain’s face. My vision, my memory of Gilmour as the captain of that dreadful ship was not real. It was planted in my mind by Prince Malagon. I worked for Malagon for twenty-five Twinmoons planning Gilmour’s death.
‘I killed him, my mentor, my leader. He was my friend and I prepared his death. The captain was not Gilmour.’
‘Why didn’t you say something? If you’d told us the killer was coming, we could have saved him.’ Steven was frustrated.
‘I couldn’t,’ Sallax admitted. ‘I wanted him dead. It sounds stupid, but I couldn’t let go of my desire. It was as though the truth wasn’t strong enough to clear Malagon’s false image from my mind.
‘So I ruined our chances for survival, for Eldarn’s freedom. We are going to die at Nerak’s hand, and it is my fault. I didn’t have the courage to kill myself – I was afraid of what I would find in death. Instead, I watched Gilmour die. I watched his body burn away, my second father, burning like a shadowy image of my first, and all I could think to do was to take care of Brynne again, to get her safely off that mountain. It was Brynne’s heartbreak that pulled me from O’Reilly’s spell. I couldn’t let her fail, because it was the only good thing I had ever done. I saved her life then and I had to save it now.’