The Words of a Mad Man

He couldn't resist. Balian's feet took him back to the dungeons immediately after the meeting.

Why?

Why do I care so much for her? This is all her fault anyways! Sitting on the king's throne? Why had the thought even gone to her head?

Athena was a radical thinker, like none Balian had ever known. He couldn't deny that at least a few of her words made sense to him. 

No matter. Balian needed to wipe those words from his mind. Just storing the thoughts was treason enough. 

Yet it was somehow addicting. Hearing words he'd never dared to think.

Balian found himself at the entrance of the dungeon, where two guards normally stood, day and night. "Hello?"

"Hellllo!" A shrill voice called out. "Come to open my cage?"

A prisoner.

Where were the guards?

He walked down the long hallway of seemingly endless cells, each containing a single prisoner. Most of them, depending on the severity of the crime, would be there for only a few days before taking part in the daily executions. 

Others would be let go with a smaller punishment, such as losing a hand if they stole. Many males should have been facing castration, but there weren't any rapists in these cells. Not after King Leandis had absolved that law. 

After all, bastard children made the best soldiers.

"Yes, if you could just unlock this door for me, I seem to have misplaced my key, Sir," the shrill voice said again. 

A pair of hands reached out from the darkness, coming to a stop as the figure's chains restrained them.

Balian walked past them.

"Oh, please don't ignore me. You're a new face. How I do love making friends. Say, if you're in a hurry, you could take me with you. I could show you what happened to those guards."

Balian paused. "You saw what happened?"

"Yes yes yes, Sir. Sir. Sir Baliaannn."

He's insane, Balian thought.

"What's your name, prisoner?"

"Ha! I haven't spoken that word in a long, loooong time, Sir. I am Caelus!"

Balian wrapped a gloved hand around the bars and the prisoner took a step back. "Tell me, Caelus. Where are the guards?"

"I could show-"

Balian shook the bars with an abrupt rattle, causing Caelus to jump in surprise. "Tell me. Or I will cut your tongue out so you never speak again."

He reached for his dagger, but found it wasn't in the sheath at his waist. 

Did I lose it in the battle without noticing?

"Okay," Caelus said with a smile. Then he stuck his tongue out. "Do it," he mumbled, taking a step forward. His eyes were wide with excitement.

Balian growled in disgust and continued down the hallway. Of course, the prisoner wouldn't be of any help.

"Wait! Cut it off! Do it! DO IT!"

Balian's boot splashed into a shallow puddle. 

A leak?

He knelt, dipping his fingers into the liquid. His eyes were still having trouble adapting to the darkness, but the liquid was familiar.

Blood, he realized as his nose caught the smell. 

Then he noticed the two dark shapes in front of him, unmoving. The guards. 

"She killlled them, SIR Balian! Used your own dagger that she stole during your last little meeting," Caelus said, his voice filled with excitement. "Why, to my eyes, it seemed you knew. That you wanted her to escape."

"Which way did she go?" Balian asked gruffly. He didn't have time for this. 

"This was an hour ago, Sir Balian! Well, one hour and twenty-two minutes…and…yes! 30 seconds!"

"How di-"

"So, I would say it is much too late to find her now," the prisoner interrupted. He flashed another smile.

"Say, Sir Balian, I wish to conduct a tesssst. It is approximately one hour before sunlight, meaning the next pair of guards will be down in just a few moments here to relieve…those ones," Caelus said, acknowledging the dead bodies. "I will tell them the truth as I saw it. That you killed the guards and let that girl you are so clearly infatuated with escape from her cell."

"Why should they believe you?" Balian asked, resting his hand on the cell's bars.

"EXACTLY!!!" Caelus squealed with exitement. "I'm a prisoner. A maniacal prisoner. In fact, that day I was hungry…that piece of bread got me sentenced to twenty years behind these bars. Look look! I even lost my right hand for it! Such an interesting punishment. I grabbed that bread, now I shall never grab again. Ah, yes, I lost my thought. YES! A test. You see, when those two guards descend those stairs, I will be a free man. In…fifty seconds now, I will have served exactly twenty years. The test is if theyyyy believe meeee, or if they believe you?"

"Why? What is the point of this?" Balian asked with disgust. "If you're free, why lie about something you don't have anything to do with? Why take me down when I've done nothing against you?"

"Because I want to test the will of my future leader. You see, as soon as I leave this cell, I'm joining your army."

Balian looked down at Caelus's shortened arm. "You're mad. Besides, I would never let someone like you join me on the battlefield."

"Someone like me? Why, that is hurtful, Sir Balian. I thought the crazier, the better! We might be unpredictable, but that's what makes us strong! Ah, right on time. Here they come. Guards! Quickly! This way!"

The two men already had their swords drawn, and they looked to Balian with confusion.

"General? What is the matter?" One of them asked.

"Oh no," the other said, stepping past Balian. He knelt down next to the dead guards and looked up at Balian. "Dead. Has a prisoner escaped? What's going on?"

"A prisoner did escape," Caelus said, pushing his face against the bars. "Balian let them go…and killed the guards when they tried to give pursuit."

"Lies," Balian said, trying to remain calm. The guards wouldn't believe the words of a prisoner.

"Speaaaking of letting prisoner's go," Caelus said with a smirk. "My time is up, guards. Twenty years, as of this moment. My punishment has been served."

"Wait," one of the guards said. "General Balian, what is he talking about? You let that girl go?"

"No," Balian said quietly. "I did not. She was gone when I arrived."

"Why were you going to see her at such an early time, General?"

"Stop. I will not face any questioning!" He said, trying to control his temper. But it was gone. None of this was his fault, yet he felt guilty already. 

Balian turned to Caelus, who backed away. 

Wrapping his hands around the cell door's bars he ripped it open, breaking both the lock and the door's hinges.

Caelus pushed himself to the very back of the cell, gasping. "Sir Balian…please. Don't hurt me! I'm about to be a free man."

"General Balian, stop! He's lying!" protested one of the guards. 

Balian stopped. "You believe me?"

"That man got here three days ago, just before that girl. He's in for the murder of a child," said the first guard.

"The king has scheduled an execution for next week," said the other. 

None of it had been true. The twenty years of imprisonment. The story about the bread. This prisoner had tricked him. 

Balian turned back around, his eyes noticing a flash of movement. Something brushed past him and he spun around, watching as Caelus dove from the cell.

The guards scrambled after him, but he was fast. Faster than Balian ever would have expected for how weak he looked. 

There was one thing Caelus hadn't lied about. Balian really had helped a prisoner escape. Two prisoners, even. He'd fallen for their traps too easily. 

What had happened to Athena and the guards was still unclear. Had Caelus been lying about the dagger? No, it made sense. His dagger was gone, and he didn't remember losing it. Athena had stolen it from him. Picked the lock. Then slashed the throats of the guards, allowing her to make an escape. 

So that was his fault too. 

Balian sighed and made for the exit. Maybe the guards would catch the man. But they probably wouldn't. He would be responsible for letting a child killer back into the city.

And the king trusted him to lead over twenty thousand men into battle?

I'm not the right man for this job, he thought, quickly losing all of the confidence he'd built up. 

The two guards were walking back as Balian exited the dungeons. 

"He's gone, General," one of them said.

"I…am truly sorry," Balian said quietly. "I was a fool."

"We won't tell anyone," said the other guard. "About what happened."

"No," he said quickly. "If you lie for me, you'll be blamed for this. Let King Leandis know what happened. Also, keep an eye out for that man and the girl. If they aren't captured by the time I return home, I will hunt them down myself."

"Understood."

Balian found himself patrolling the city's walls for the next hour, watching the sunrise. He hadn't slept in days now, yet he had to keep pushing on. 

In just a few hours time, the army would be prepared. The journey to Kaladia would take two days, if they traveled at an efficient pace. 

Balian let go of a tension he hadn't realized he was holding.

I'm scared, he realized. 

How he reacted to House Styte's attack over these next few weeks would determine the fate of his home.

I won't lose. I won't lose. I won't lose.

But what if I lose?

*******

The warhorn cried out through the cold morning air. 

General Hawke stood atop the wall, a smile growing on his face. "And so, they descend, like a predator charging at its prey. But we don't intend to run away."

House Styte's army was approaching, rapidly. By the time the sun began its descent, the siege would begin.

We just need to hold off until Balian arrives, he thought.

No, that was the wrong line of thinking. They needed to win. 

"Uh…General?" His son said behind him. 

"What is it, Elond?"

"It's me, sir," another voice said. General Hawke spun around to find the scout he'd sent over a day ago. "I have the estimate."

"How many?"

The scout paused, then he spoke softly, as if he feared his own words. "Nearly eighty thousand."

"Heh, eighty thousand. Four times as much as us. This'll be fun," Sir Hawke said, trying to cover up his growing nervousness.

Sir Hawke had fought in so many battles he'd lost count. He'd killed so many men, he'd lost count. He'd lived so many years, he no longer bothered to count. 

But over all that time, he'd only had one family.

One love.

One son.

If Kaladia fell, they would both perish. The solution was simple. 

He wouldn't let Kaladia fall.