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DARK HOURS
Chapter 3
Soon after the deaths of the king
and the royal family, black clouds of evil began to drift over Noranye. A week
passed, then another. Then, one night, not long after Compline, Father Eustice
had knocked softly on his door with a message. It seemed the centurion and a
lady were waiting to see the priest. Padding barefoot into the rectory,
Matthias met the couple who asked that he marry them. Right there. Right at
that moment.
“Why the urgency?” Matthias had
asked. A lady as well-familied as Emers should have an ample dowry. A Centurion
of the Guard like Kayge should have an honor guard. Theirs should be a wedding
the village would talk about for months to come. “Why not post your banns, and
let the villagers and your family help celebrate this joyous occasion?”
Emers’s face was pinched with
worry. “Madeline, my lady in waiting, has brought me distressing news, Father. We
are left with no option but to leave Noranye as soon as possible. It has to be
tonight.”
Kayge stepped forward. “When my
lady passed along her information, I sought confirmation for myself. What news
she was given is true. God protect us all.”
Matthias crossed himself
automatically. “What kind of news could be so devastating as to drive you away
from the castle?” he demanded.
Emers pressed her lips together,
hesitating. It was as if her fears were greater than her faith in the church.
If I had only known . . .
“I was sent a warning that the witch
Gola is after Emers,” Kayge spoke out.
“What?”
“She’s out to punish me for her
treatment while she was held prisoner,” Kayge continued. “It’s said she
believes she can get to me through Emers.”
Matthias shook his head, not
certain if he’d heard right. “You know this for certain?”
Kayge nodded. “Benál, my lieutenant,
will support the claim. He approached me this evening to warn us that Emers
would be removed from her home in less than a fortnight.”
“How can that be? Gola has no
control over the guards.”
“She doesn’t need to,” Kayge
countered. “Word is she’s woven her dark magic over some of the weaker men.
They do her bidding without conscience.”
“Have you spoken to your cousin?”
the priest asked the woman. “Have you warned him? Have you asked for his help?”
“And what would you have me tell
him?” she half-whispered, half-cried. “He fears the witch as much as anyone.
Besides, he is my legal guardian. He has absolute say over my future…until I
take a husband.”
“Maybe...maybe your lady in waiting
misunderstood. Maybe the lieutenant was fed erroneous information.” Matthias
shook his head. It was all happening too fast for him to think straight. “For
what purpose would she target you for vengeance?” he directly asked Kayge. “You
did as you were ordered to do by the king. The king is dead.”
“For what purpose?” Kayge
snapped. “She cannot control me. Hence, I am a threat to her. So she seeks a
way to make me bow in obeisance to her.”
In the dim candlelight his dull
gray suit of armor seemed as black and as impenetrable as the night sky. He
took a small step forward, as if to take the priest by the throat, when a
slender hand grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. Emers turned back to the
priest.
“Father, Kayge and I had planned on
taking our vows next spring. But with this news it appears we have no other
choice but to flee Noranye and seek sanctuary elsewhere.”
“Where would you go, my child?”
“Anywhere. My sword would be
welcome in any kingdom,” the soldier answered for her. “I can provide for her.
I can make her happy. And she would be safe from the witch.”
As if anyone could be safe from
the witch.
“And your families. What about
them? Would you have them worry about your absence? Would you leave them to
face the witch’s anger?” Matthias tried to argue.
Kayge stiffened. “The witch will
not challenge my family. Our lineage goes back to the Pope himself. Seeking to
punish me is one thing. But should she try to bring harm down upon my
bloodline, she will bring a worse retribution down upon herself, the likes of
which she could never imagine. Much less be prepared for.”
Matthias could not deny his
reasoning.
“Kayge has made arrangements for
our travels,” Emers noted. “But before we go, we want you to marry us. Please,
Father. The road before us is dangerous. The journey we are about to take will
be a long one. Sanctuary may be farther away than we anticipate.”
“For Emers’s sake, I don’t want her
to be compromised. Nor do I wish her name to be sullied because of our
indiscretions,” Kayge added in his low, gravelly voice. He gave her a quick
look, one which was intended to ease her fears. Somehow Emers managed to answer
with a small smile.
The hour was too late to argue
further. Besides, Matthias could not dismiss their concern. The witch had
become a very, very dangerous entity, and there was no telling to what lengths she
would go to when crossed. If the couple felt their best option was to flee
Noranye, the priest would be able to serve them best by granting their request.
A short time later, before the
altar of Christ, amid the soft glow of candles, Matthias married the lovers
while Fathers Eustice and Tiberium witnessed. For his own piece of mind, he
blessed them twice before bidding them safe journey.
As the couple rode away from the
church, away from Noranye, a heavy mantle of guilt slowly descended over his
head and shoulders, and a small voice whispered in his ear.
You betrayed them. It was you.
You told the witch about them. You...you told...you....
“Father, how can I ever atone for
my sin?”
Just as he was still adjusting to
the turn of events which had happened less than an hour before, Matthias was
thrown into deeper turmoil by the arrival of the guards at the rectory. The men
bore looks on their faces that Matthias had never seen. They moved like
soulless creatures, as if someone else was manipulating them from afar.
“Where did they go?” the one in
charge demanded darkly.
“I-I don’t know. Away from Noranye
is all I know.”
“And he is with her, isn’t he?”
Rather than try to delay the
inevitable by acting confused, Matthias found the courage to be truthful. “Yes.”
“Why did they come here? Why this
hour of the night?”
Matthias shuddered and continued to
pray for strength. “They came to warn me,” he said.
“Warn you? About what?”
“About the witch.”
“The witch?” The knowledge bent the
corners of the soldier’s mouth into a sickly smile. “For what purpose? Again, I
ask, why would they warn you?”
“Because I am their friend and
confessor. Emers felt I needed to know...for my own protection, I guess.”
Incredibly, the soldier let out a
screech of laughter. The ground beneath his feet began to whirl like a small
windstorm, gradually growing stronger, larger, and more forceful, until it
enveloped the soldier from head to toe.
And then it was gone. Vanished.
Leaving a familiar figure where the soldier had been.
Matthias stared in shock at the
witch. He had heard of her ability to take on other forms. Although he had
never seen her perform such a trick with his own eyes, he hadn’t disbelieved
those claims. Still, witnessing it for himself filled him with disgust and
fear.
The witch paced the floor,
digesting the confession, testing to see if held honesty or treachery. A
hideous blackness seemed to dog the hems of her garments with an evil shadow.
“How long? How long ago did they
leave?”
“An hour, no more.” The words were
like bile spilling from his lips. The priest nearly gagged.
Shoving her face into his, the witch
stared at the cowering man with dead eyes. “If you think you can trick me, you
had better reconsider your options,” she threatened.
“I have no other options,” Matthias
admitted, realizing the implications. “I have no life other than the church.”
I no longer have a life in
the church.
“Nevertheless, you have betrayed
me. For that you will be punished.”
It took monumental effort for
Matthias not to tell the woman that he’d married the couple before they’d left.
He prayed she would not find out.
“Do with me as you will,” he
responded. “I don’t serve you, and never will. I serve the Lord.” The words
came automatically, as if he’d spoken them countless times before.
“Nevertheless…” The witch paused to
whisper something in one of her guard’s ear. The soldier nodded and left the
room. “Which way did you say they went?”
“North. They were headed north when
they left here. That is all I can tell you.”
Gola jumped on the wordage. “That
is all you can tell me? Or all you will tell me?”
“I have answered your questions
truthfully.”
The witch studied him. “And it was
just the two of them? No one else?”
“No one else,” Matthias confirmed.
“Very well. Listen to my judgment.
You will be taken to the castle and cast into the dungeon. There you will be
given plenty of time to contemplate your guilt and deception. Do you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“If Kayge, Emers, or anyone else
should try to contact you, you will notify me immediately. Immediately.
Am I clear?”
“Very.”
Gathering her robes about her, the witch
headed for the door. Her actions sparked further fear in the priest’s heart.
“Where are you going?”
“After them, you fool. They need to
be taught a lesson.”
Dread seeped into the very marrow
of his bones as Matthias watched the woman mount the horse brought to her by
the guard she’d dismissed earlier. She left on her own, without the small cadre
of armed men who’d accompanied her earlier.
The priest stood at the doorway
until he could no longer hear the sound of her steed’s hooves pounding through
the darkness. Only when she was gone from sight did the soldiers place him in
chains and escort him back to the castle.
That had been three days ago. Three
days. In three days, Jesus had died and been resurrected. But for a lowly man
such as Matthias, it was three days of self-sacrifice and self-abasement wherein
he could not find peace or restitution from his guilt.
The hour of Lauds came and went. As
the night grew darker and colder, the old man remained stretched out on the
stone floor before the makeshift altar.
Perhaps one day God would take pity
on him and give him absolution. Perhaps, but Matthias seriously doubted it.
“Heavenly Father, hear my prayer.”
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