Excerpt: Lost Years Quintet

Today was a good day. Today, he would see Koldo killed. Although he knew that it would do little to accomplish anything except to make him feel better about himself, that was okay. He deserved to have one good day when so many of them were awful. He would make sure that he didn’t do this too often, but it was good to be able to do it at least once. He doubted that anyone would protest Koldo’s death; the truth was that he had been missing for months and might well have been doing what he had been accused of. The fact that there was no evidence of it didn’t matter much to him; if he hadn’t done it, then he was still guilty of accusing the heir to the throne of crimes which he had not committed.

At first light, he got out of bed and dressed himself in his most formal robes. He was getting used to all these trappings of power. He wasn’t sure that he’d even be comfortable in a military uniform anymore. This felt so much more natural, as though he had been born to wear royal clothes.

There was no point in bringing the king to the execution. He might as well just stay here. It wasn’t as though he would be able to do anything about it. There was no point in disturbing his sleep. He would tell the king about it later, and maybe the king would even remember about it for a while. The king’s memory had been the most recent thing to disappear; just one more sign that the king was edging ever closer to death.

He had decided that he was going to be lenient. He was just going to hang Koldo. Publicly, so that anyone who saw would know that treason was punished in this kingdom still. He hoped that Koldo would beg. It would make him feel that much more powerful to deny Koldo any reprieve and to watch him go to his death. If he was lucky, it would be a slow, strangling death rather than a quick snap of the neck. He knew that it was fairly gruesome of him to think about it that way, but it was the truth. He wanted Koldo to suffer. It would make him feel better.

As he sat down to eat breakfast, he sent word out that Koldo was to be brought from the prison to the gallows that had been set up outside the castle gates. They would wait there until a sufficiently large crowd had gathered - people liked executions, so he didn’t think that it would take all that long - and then Koldo would die. And then he could get on with his work for the day. He knew that he would remain in a good mood for the whole rest of the day. It was nice to know that there were still simple ways to brighten his day.

The messenger came back just as he was finishing up his food. He didn’t look very happy. “Koldo isn’t in prison,” the man said. He couldn’t make eye contact.

Petri rose to his feet, furious. “What do you mean, he’s not there?”

“The guards…they said that you had issued a stay of execution…that he left the prison just before dawn today. They thought that you had issued it.” The man looked as though he wanted nothing more to escape from here.

Petri didn’t care. He pushed the man aside and walked from the room. He was going to have to see this for himself. He couldn’t believe that this moment was being stolen from him. Someone would pay for this if it was the truth. He knew that he had issued no stay, that it hadn’t even crossed his mind to do so. That meant that someone else had been involved in the escape, and he knew exactly who to blame for it. The only person that cared enough about Koldo to do something like this was Ineko. Hopefully, he could find Ineko - and Koldo - and punish both of them. To the first guard he passed on his way to the prison, he ordered that Ineko be found right away. He would give the man no chance to escape, unless he already had. If that was so, then they would simply have to be hunted down like the criminals they were.

The trip to the prison confirmed his suspicion; the two of them had walked out not that long ago. It meant that there was still some hope that they could be caught. But he didn’t know where they would be going, and so he didn’t know which city gate they would have left from, and he didn’t want to waste time by going the wrong direction and allowing them to escape. So he sent out riders to all of the city gates with descriptions of both men. Surely a guard must have seen them at some point, and that would give him some hint as to their destination.

There was, finally, one piece of good news. For whatever reason, Ineko had not left. He had been found in his chambers, in bed, asleep as though he had not just been roaming through the city and causing mischief. He was arrested immediately and dragged down to the audience chamber. Petri wanted to be alone with the man, so he ordered all of the guards out. What was going to happen between the two of them was intensely private. No one else needed to witness it, no word of what happened would ever travel past the walls of this room.

The guards had been none too careful with Ineko; there was a bruise already blossoming along his cheekbone. Petri felt no sympathy whatsoever for him. He deserved far worse. He would suffer far worse, in time. Petri would make sure of it; it was the only way that he could make up for losing Koldo.

He advanced on Ineko; Ineko did not take a single step back. “I believe you were officially dismissed some time ago and I told you that I wanted you out of here as soon as possible. Why did you stay?”

“Because I wanted to,” said Ineko, his gaze defiantly meeting Petri’s. “Is there a reason that I was arrested this morning? Have I broken some new law that you just thought up as you were eating your breakfast?”

“Treason,” Petri said. “The same as your friend, who you helped escape.”

Ineko smiled. “Who did I help escape? I don’t recall doing that.”

“Stop it. You know I know that you created a false stay of execution and then walked boldly out of prison with him. I don’t know why you didn’t leave, but I promise you that it was the worst mistake that you could have made. I already have riders going after Koldo, and I expect that he will be found shortly.”

“That’s strange…he’s not left the city yet. He was supposed to wait for me and then we would leave together.”

Petri’s eyes narrowed. Could that be the truth? If that was the case, then there was no point in sending his guards to the gates; they needed to be searching every possible hiding place in the city. “Where were you going?”

“Abrosul.”

Petri was sure that Ineko was lying, he just didn’t know how or about what. So he lashed out, hitting Ineko in the face. The man staggered back a few steps, but did not fall, nor did he make any sound as he was hit. Petri rubbed his knuckles and waited for Ineko to recover. There was blood welling around his nose now, but the expression on his face had not changed one bit. It was eerie. “Why would you remain behind when you knew that I would find out? What possible purpose could it serve, unless you wanted to die in his place. Is that what you wanted?”

Ineko shook his head, then wiped at the blood on his face. He looked at his bloody hand for a moment, and then back up at Petri. He took a step forward, to make up for the distance he had gained when Petri had punched him. “I wanted to see how you would react. I couldn’t quite resist. I thought that it might be amusing for me to do so.”

Another stupid answer. Another punch, harder this time. Ineko stumbled and dropped to one knee, but did not fall all the way down. In the silence of the room, Petri could hear him breathing hard, but he made no other sounds. Slowly, Ineko rose back to his feet, expression as unchanged as ever, as though his face was carved from stone, unable to show any other expression than the one he was wearing.

“Why did you stay instead of both of you leaving right away?”

“I already answered that question. Now, if you’re done and can’t think of anything
else to ask me, I’d like to go and clean up. I think I’m going to have a few bruises that will need taking care of.”

Petri unsheathed his short sword. “I don’t think so. Would you imagine that I would let a traitor such as yourself leave without any kind of punishment? I know that you would do everything you could to squirm away from punishment, so I am going to deliver it right here and right now.” He wanted to provoke some emotion from the man, but even this threat didn’t seem to faze him.

Ineko took another step forward, as though inviting whatever punishment Petri intended to dish out. Surely he knew that Petri intended to kill him, but he didn’t seem to be making any effort to get away or to even defend himself. Perhaps he thought that Petri wouldn’t hurt him if he didn’t show any signs of fighting back, and in that, he was severely misguided.

Keeping his eyes fixed on Ineko’s, he stepped forward and buried his sword in Ineko’s stomach, pushing it almost all the way in.

Now Ineko’s expression changed; contorting into pain even as Petri could tell that he was struggling to not cry out.

Petri pulled the sword out and blood began to stain Ineko’s tunic. Ineko made no move to staunch the flow, his expression settling back to what it had been, as though the injury caused him no pain.

Ineko slowly reached underneath his tunic and withdrew a small knife, barely even large enough to call a dagger.

“What are you going to do, try to kill me with that little thing?” Ineko was paling from blood loss, and Petri knew that the strength was quickly draining from the man. It had been a sure, strong blow and he knew that it had caused Ineko a lot of damage.

Ineko shook his hand, his jaw clearly clamped shut to keep himself from making any noise. Instead, he tilted his head back and raised the knife to his throat. He opened his mouth. His voice was shaky but clear. “I won’t give you the satisfaction.” With his eyes fixed on Petri’s, he drew the dagger across his throat. Blood began to pour out.

Ineko only remained standing for another few instants before dropping backwards to the floor. Blood continued to spill from both his throat and his stomach.

Petri sheathed his sword, angry. How dare Ineko do that? He had wanted Ineko to feel real pain, not to die quickly. This was not the way it should have been.

Ineko was still and unmoving on the ground, lying in his own blood. Petri kicked the body and walked from the room. Someone else could clean this mess up, he wasn’t going to. He was already in a bad enough mood already. The guards did not ask questions as he passed by them; that was good. If they had asked, he might well have killed them out of spite.

This had entirely ruined his day. How dare they?