Chapter Fourteen #2
But that flying dagger gave them a window of opportunity to charge into the room, confident another dagger would not come flying at them so soon.
They burst into a bloody scene—St. Gerard was on the floor in a pool of blood, clearly dead, while the man in the dark clothing hurled himself out of the window.
Tay ran after him, reaching out to grab the man before he could get away completely but only managing to grab some long, graying hair before he lost his grip.
The man fell to the rain-soaked kitchen yard below.
Ming Tang, Creston, and Aamir were in the yard, rushing toward the man as he fell into the pile of dung that had been cleaned out of the stable.
“Get him!” Tay roared.
Fox bolted from the chamber, taking the stairs down to the common room as Sinclair knelt beside St. Gerard.
Tay, however, leapt out of the window after the man, who had sprung up from the pile of shite and now faced Aamir and Creston, who were armed.
Ming Tang was armed with one of the only weapons he would use, a staff he’d brought with him from his homeland, known as a Monkey Stick.
The man in the dark clothing never stood a chance.
He gave a good try, however. He was armed and managed to unsheathe his sword, only to have Tay land behind him in the dung pile and take his legs out from under him.
As Tay leapt to his knees, the man rolled away from Creston, who was coming in for the kill.
The man bolted to his feet, almost straight into Ming Tang, who had his Monkey Stick at the ready.
No one moved as fast as Ming Tang when facing an enemy. His shouts, his spins, his flying feet and hands had the man backing away even though he was armed. Ming Tang brought the Monkey Stick around, as fast as lightning, and struck the man in the throat. Choking and gasping, the man went down.
By this time, Tay was on his feet, but Creston was faster.
He was standing over the man, broadsword on the downswing, catching the man right in the belly.
It was a clean cut, all the way to his spine, and his victim’s gut opened up to spill out his innards.
Immobilized, he lay there and groaned, looking down at himself and realizing his life was now measured in seconds.
As the blood drained from his body and his features turned a ghastly, pale color, he looked up at the men standing over him.
“It does not end with me,” he breathed. “More men will come. They will not stop until they find her. You think you are protecting her, but you are only delaying the inevitable.”
Tay stood by his head, gazing down at him. “Are you Kane?”
The man’s dark eyes flickered. “You know my name.”
“I know who you are,” Tay said. “What happened to the man in the chamber? Why did you kill him?”
“His was an accident,” Kane rasped. “But hear my words… the lady’s death will not be an accident. More men will come, and they will put her head on a pike and parade it through the streets of Breda. Her uncle will dine on her flesh. You… cannot save her.”
“Then they shall meet the same death as you.”
“You think you can kill them all?” Kane said, growing weaker. “The lady’s uncle is offering a fortune for her return. You would be a rich man if you returned her to Breda Castle.”
Tay ignored that. “Are you alone?”
“You’ll never know.”
“Tell me and I will be merciful. Refuse and you will suffer.”
“I am already suffering.”
Tay looked at Creston and nodded. Creston was the trainer who taught recruits methods of interrogation—how to resist them and how to give them.
Anything underhanded or unscrupulous was Creston’s strength.
Reaching down, he grabbed hold of the guts that were spilling out of Kane and yanked on them, pulling them out as one would when a man was drawn and quartered.
The pain was excruciating.
Kane howled. “I’ll not tell you what you want to know!” he cried.
Creston pulled some more.
Kane was screaming in pain. It was a horrific scene, but the men of Blackchurch had their methods. They knew how to get what they wanted, and when it came to a man like Kane, there was no sense of compassion. He wouldn’t have shown Athdara any, and they knew it.
No mercy.
Creston did what Creston was so capable of doing and, in the end, it was an utter mess.
In fact, Ming Tang went over by the rear door of The Black Cock, mostly to keep people from coming out into the kitchen yard to see what the commotion was about but also because this wasn’t his kind of warfare.
He’d been in many a battle, but his training and upbringing were far different from what went on with the Christian knights.
He was a great warrior, that was true, but pulling a man’s guts out wasn’t something he relished.
He kept the people inside the tavern while Creston and Tay butchered the man on the ground.
When most of the life was out of Kane but he was still alive, he finally sputtered a few last words.
“I… am not alone,” he breathed. “God damn you to hell, you English bastards, but know I am not alone. There is… another…”
Creston was going to go to work on the man’s chest, but Tay stopped him. Kane had stopped breathing, and there was nothing more to gain.
Tay pointed at him. “Wrap him up in my cloak and put him on my horse,” he said. “Lake Cocytus will have another victim tonight.”
Creston and Sinclair moved to take care of the body, but the evidence of their torture was all over the ground. It looked as if someone had gutted a pig.
Ming Tang came over from his position near the kitchen door. “Fox,” he said quietly. “Help me with Gerard. We must take him back to his father.”
Tay closed his eyes briefly as if to ward off St. Denis’ reaction. Now that Kane was dead, his thoughts immediately shifted to his liege’s son.
“My God,” he muttered. “What is the man going to do when he is told his eldest son and heir has been murdered?”
Aamir appeared particularly grief-stricken. He was closer to St. Denis and his sons than the others, and he knew how much this was going to affect the de Bottreaux family.
“I should have suspected Gerard might do something like this,” he said. “He was very much in disagreement with his father. Anything that affects Blackchurch is always something of great concern to him.”
Tay looked at him. “But why?” he asked. “Why did he come here? What were his intentions?”
Aamir shook his head, baffled. “We shall never know for sure,” he said.
“My guess is that he came to chase Kane away. If there is no Kane, then there was no possibility of Blackchurch taking sides in a Toxandria blood feud. He did it do defend Blackchurch’s neutrality.
But that is only my assumption, Tay. I cannot know for certain. ”
Tay looked at the body on the ground. “Do you think he actually tried to force Kane to leave?” he said. “Is it possible that he drew his weapon and Kane killed him in self-defense?”
Aamir shrugged. “I do not know,” he said. “Kane himself said it was an accident, so we may never know the truth. But we do know one thing for certain—St. Denis has lost a son this night. He is not going to take the news well.”
They all knew that. Tay, in fact, felt extremely guilty, as if he had caused all of this.
He’d told St. Gerard that he had been attentive to Athdara because he thought that was what St. Denis would want, but it wasn’t the truth.
His quest to eradicate Kane had taken on a personal flavor, no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise.
He had told St. Denis about Kane and suggested they undertake the responsibility of removing the man. All of this was his idea.
And now a man was dead.
“I must tell him personally,” Tay said. “This is my responsibility.”
“Nay,” Aamir said, putting his hand on Tay’s arm. “I will tell him. He will take it better coming from me.”
Tay couldn’t even fight his friend on it. He was greatly distressed over the entire situation.
As Aamir and Ming Tang headed back into the tavern to collect St. Gerard, Fox lingered behind for a moment.
“He said there was another,” Fox said. “The bounty hunter didn’t come here alone, so it stands to reason the man he came with is somewhere around here.”
Tay nodded. “I will ask Hobbes,” he said. “He will point the man out to me. You go and help Ming Tang and Aamir. I’ll help Creston and Sin with the bounty hunter.”
Fox nodded. He looked as if he wanted to say more, but he held his tongue. Without another word, he walked toward the tavern, following the path of Aamir and Ming Tang.
With St. Gerard being tended to, Tay turned to help Creston and Sinclair by going to his horse and removing a length of rope from his saddlebags.
The rain had let up somewhat, falling gently now, as he went to help his friends wrap up the body of the man who had caused Athdara so much pain and fear.
Early that morning, just before sunrise, he took the body out onto the lake in one of Kristian’s boats. He wasn’t sorry in the least when he dumped Kane over the side to be forever lost in the murky depths of Lake Cocytus.
Blackchurch had buried yet another secret.