Chương 39: The Sting II

The other banners saw the smoke and heard the silence. One by one, they bowed. Each baron and earl renewed their oaths - Swearing to House Morsin and the flame-eyed Duke. Those who knelt were not punished. They were rewarded. Golden circlets, land grants, spell-favors - Their coffers swelled like sails in storm-wind. Fear carved the path. But gold paved it. The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 36 Erik stared at the hospital doors from his bed. It would do him no good to walk up to them, then freeze at the critical moment.

He couldn't show cowardice in front of the half-dozen people that still roamed the hospital wing at this time of night. The Camelot wards were excellent. They'd saved his life twice in a day already. But either by design or by happenstance, the pain had all been there. Erik had nearly drowned in his own blood just a few hours ago, and was finding it difficult to muster up the courage to open the door and have it happen to him again. He was no stranger to pain.

No stranger to injuries sparring, no stranger to breaking a bone. But this was a step further. It was one thing to go into a confrontation on even footing. Erik was finding it quite another to deliberately offer himself up as a sacrifice when he knew it would hurt. He had a great deal more respect for the elderly men and women who willingly offered themselves up to the altar. The sandy-haired boy reviewed the plan one last time in his mind.

It had two critical hinge points with no redundancies, which his tutor would've failed him for. At the same time, Erik was so limited on time and resources, while critical moments were slipping away. A slapdash plan was better than being purely reactive, and better than meekly letting himself get sent back to the hospital wing, time and time again. Right. Nothing for it. It was about to be curfew, and Erik only had a few minutes to get from the hospital back to his dorm room.

He got up, and not giving himself time to chicken out, went directly for the door. He left his bag in the office - either this would work, and he'd go back to grab them, or it wouldn't work… and he'd go back to grab it. Having it on him right now was the wrong move. A bit rudely, Erik slammed the door all the way open and stepped outside. A brief, uncontrolled flash of triumph went across his face as he saw De Corci waiting for him.

"Morsin!" The man shouted, firing a jet-black spell at him. The world briefly became extremely chaotic. Erik took a single step backwards, back into the hospital wing, and deliberately held himself still so the spell would hit him. That was all according to plan. What was not according to plan was the shield that shimmered into existence around him, nor the dozen-even bolts of spellfire returned in De Corci's direction from empty corners in the hallway.

Nor was the solid beam of burning golden light that went over his shoulder that hit De Corci's wand and burnt it, and the man's hand, to a crisp. Erik ditched the part of the plan to call for the healers - they clearly knew - and froze, letting events play out. He hated inaction, but it was occasionally the correct move. The spells hit De Corci, and the man had a bad time. Bindings erupted all over him, tying him up in chains from head to toe, while cloth wrapped around his eyes and mouth.

He was flipped upside down and spun around, and Erik didn't have enough experience to tell what the other spells cast were. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Morsin!" Healer Elaine sounded enraged. Erik stiffened up and turned around. The woman was shorter than he was, but seemed to tower over him.

"Yes ma'am?" He squeaked out.

"Lose 100 points for that stunt. Do not do it again." Erik didn't bother trying to protest or play dumb. He was already clearly on thin ice, and nodded. That seemed to mollify Healer Elaine.

"Hugo. You know the law. Lose 400 points." The crest on De Corci's uniform broke. Erik hoped expulsion wasn't as simple as one teacher having a bad day and docking an arbitrarily large number of points. Something to look into later. The two Praetorians shimmered back into visibility, their mirror shields held up in a guard position while their conduits were trained on De Corci.

"Lose another 500 points, not that it matters." Praetorian Walker said.

"Morsin, stay there, we need to talk. Hugo De Corci. You're under arrest for attempted murder, and we'll let the Wand of Logres determine what else to charge you with."

"Head of a noble house, attempted murder on a Crown Heir of a duchy? She's going to have fun." Praetorian Jones said. Then he started to flick his focus through a number of complex motions, spells occasionally being cast on De Corci but otherwise going into the air.

"Right, he's clear for transport. Ready transport." Jones said.

"Aye, transport away." Walker said. With a burst of flames, De Corci vanished. Quite a few wisecracks went through Erik's head, but he wisely shut up and didn't give voice to any of them. It was not the time or the place.

"Elaine, you don't need Morsin for anything else, right?" Walker said.

"No." Her tone could freeze water, and Erik briefly debated grabbing his bag later. He also had the sense that next time his throat was slit, he wouldn't be walking out of the hospital a few hours later.

"Right then, Morsin, with us please. We need your statement while it's still fresh." Walker said.

"Yes sir." Erik quickly grabbed his bag, then followed the two red-robed Praetorians to a nearby classroom. Jones pulled out a notepad and a heavily enchanted quill.

"In your own words, please tell us everything you consider relevant to the situation that just occurred, starting from the first altercation in Thunderbird room." Walker said. Erik started to explain. The first attack, leaving the hospital, being ambushed outside his room the second time. He briefly hesitated when mentioning Felix's role in things, but he decided to be clear and transparent with the Praetorians. They had just helped quite a bit.

"... I got Felix to tell De Corci when I'd be leaving. I didn't know if he succeeded or not until now, I'll have to thank him. I was hoping De Corci would ambush me right outside the hospital, like he did. Healer Elaine said that she considered the hospital sacred ground, and I figured that was a way I could permanently handle the problem." Walker crossed his arms.

"Really? Why didn't you come to us?" Erik looked him right in the eyes, refusing to flinch.

"With all due respect, you seemed to blow off the first incident entirely. De Corci said he was going to sabotage my entire education, and I know I've already missed the CATs, which is going to hurt me. How badly, I don't know yet, but I wasn't about to resign myself to living in the hospital wing. I found a workable solution, and I executed it." Jones snorted.

"You're not entirely wrong, but we're not complete idiots. First fight? Yeah, that looked like a fairly normal brawl. That second attempt on you though? We accept that you kids will do a lot of fucking around, but attempted murder is way, way beyond the pale. We didn't show up because we were shadowing you, looking for something exactly like this." He said.

"There's two of us, and around 800 of you students, before we get into the staff and employees of Camelot." Walker said.

"Don't expect us to be your invisible bodyguards, but we're not idiots. We're not blind. We do let you lot get away with pranks and a degree of bullying, because there's simply too much here to handle everything, and we don't bother sweating the small stuff. Lot of that is life. We do have lines, and attempted murder, no matter how fucking stupid of an idea that is with the wards, is a line." Walker said.

"Well, thank you." Erik said.

"You're a credit to your profession." Jones rolled his eyes at the obvious flattery.

"Now, we've got a number of follow up questions. How did you…" The two Praetorians interrogated Erik for over an hour, trying to poke holes in his story and getting the details from every angle. He was relieved that he had decided on a policy of complete honesty. In the end, Jones snapped the notebook shut.

"I believe we've got everything we need." He said.

"Morsin, we'll be around now and then." Walker said.

"Don't rely on us, but if you suddenly and mysteriously find your point total dropping, that's us dinging you for poor behavior."

"So be good." Jones said.

"Do the two of you do that often?" Erik asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Roam the hallways invisibly?" Walker flashed a cheeky grin.

"That'd be telling! I'd suggest joining us after you graduate to find out, but given your circumstances, I doubt you'll be able to."

"No, I'll just send a friend of mine your way instead." Erik joked.

"Ha! Alright, you're out after curfew, let us escort you back to your dorm." Walker said.

"Hopefully we won't meet again like this." Jones said.

"Here's to a peaceful eight years of respectfully nodding at each other and never chatting." Erik proposed.

"Oh, if only we could be so lucky." Walker said.

"I have the sense that we're going to end up knowing each other quite well." Erik flashed grin #3.

"Well, then here's to a long and fruitful relationship, where I'm not the one getting arrested." Jones laughed.

"You'll do, kid. You'll do."