Rudimentum: Oracle

Chapter 19

"There it is," said William tautly. "The night that changed the course of your history. The night you refuse to speak of yet keep bringing up. Why do you not tell us?" Elysia looked up at William.

Swift narrowed his eyes. He scowled and said, "If you could pinpoint your biggest regret would you speak it so easily?"

William met his gaze. The silence sat between them like an anchor had crashed through the floor of the carriage and dragged along behind it, tearing up dirt as it went. William saw in Swift's eyes and set jaw the differences between them. But their histories created similarities he had never considered. They glared at one another, realising their why might no longer be so different.

William leaned back. "Very well, let us go back. If you had followed me, what do you think would have become of you?"

"I would have aimed high, no doubt. A King's Guard, like yourself, but better, maybe captain," he said, his humour covering his truth. It fooled neither of them, but William played along.

"Very well, a King's Guard. What then? Perhaps you would have been killed by Mordrake protecting your king or turned into one of his guards. Perhaps we would have run into pirate Captain Meehan instead who murders me on the spot and Mordrake captures Elysia before she even sails out of Vasilisian waters. Suffice to say I believe none of us would be here. Does that excuse the suffering endured by you? No. But it is my belief that a man redeemed is stronger than anyone can predict."

"You think I am redeemed?" said Swift.

"Do you want to be?" said William. The question plonked itself between them. The horse's hooves outside echoed off the dirt and a round of laughter filtered in from the guards outside.

Swift, after a short deliberation, nodded his head. "Aye, I do."

"Saying you want to is one thing, doing it is another," said William.

Swift straightened and opened his arms, spreading out his hands. "What would you have me do?"

"It is not that easy, Swift," he said not breaking his gaze. "Only you can know the true depth and darkness of the wrongs you have committed, and it does not simply mean being forgiven. I cannot tell you what to do, only you can decide what is befitting, but I doubt it is something simple."

"Helping take back a kingdom seems a decent start, does it not?" said Swift, a grin growing over his face. "Or would you prefer a more extravagant display of my declared loyalty, Princess?" He looked to her.

"No," she said, "I do not think that will be necessary."

After a moment, William said, "Do you still hate me, Swift? Would you hold a grudge after twelve years?"

He shrugged. "I tolerate your moodiness and I will have to for a while yet. Who knows, you may be ordering me around one day. And the answer to your second question. Yes." He leaned back and glanced at his empty hands. "I have made peace with the fact that there was no king at the end of my path. Do not be thinking I followed you now to make up for not following you all those years ago, Willy. I followed her, the future Queen of Vasilis. You just happened to be there. But hell, aren't we all?"

#

With the city walls far behind them, they crossed the bridge over the moat and under the old portcullis to the castle grounds. The vast towers pierced the sky above them as did the early morning sun. They grey walls brooded like a presence lingering over them. As their carriage halted Elysia swallowed the lump in her throat. William squeezed her hand.

"Everything depends on what he decides," said Elysia, "and whether I can convince him." Through the window she spied the front doors and the procession of guards. She frowned. Her heart trembled in her throat. "I am the Princess of Vasilis," she whispered. She breathed in. Then out. "This is my mission."