Chapter 2

“Here is the case,” Algeron says as we both stand before him. “Difficult, possibly long, depending on how things go. I am glad you are going together. Here, take a look.”

He hands me the folder.

I see a middle aged man, strong but very tired. I sense pain, bitterness, and despair. Temerlin senses it, too.

“My, this one is sinking…” he mutters.

Yes, Melcor certainly is. He was not raised in faith but found it later in life, and has done his best to hold on to it, through all the trials and disappointments, of which he had many. He was wounded in battle and discharged from the army, thus losing his dream of a military career. He was cheated out of his well-deserved pension and had to search for a way to support himself, as well as his family that he hoped to start. However, yet another disappointment awaited him there. The woman he loved turned him down and married someone else. Melcor managed to get over it and resolved to build his life anew, leaving the past in the past. He turned to farming, first getting hired to work other people’s lands, then trying to buy his own field. He needed help with that as he still didn’t have enough money saved up. When an old army buddy showed up, with some money and a farming dream, it felt like Melcor’s prayers were answered.

Alas, Beresh, the so-called friend, had plans of his own. Treacherous plans. After months of hard work together, he disappeared, taking everything he could, leaving Melcor deep in debt.

This is more than the old soldier can bear. He was ready to overcome anything: storms, droughts, competition, poor harvest or sickness. Anything but betrayal, especially by someone like Beresh.

“Looks like this Beresh fellow is my specialty,” Temerlin notes, frowning.

“He certainly is,” Algeron nods, “but, as you see, he is not who we’re focusing on in this case. First and foremost, you’ve got to save Melcor. And by ‘save,’ I don’t mean simply preventing him from taking his life. You and Blaze will work on healing his soul and restoring his faith.”

Temerlin checks the folder. “He hasn’t completely lost his faith.”

“Not in the Creator,” I say, “although it’s never been this weak before. But he has lost faith in people. And it gets rather lonely and cold down there when you are convinced that everyone is out for themselves.”

“Is that why he wants to end it?” Temerlin asks. “I mean, he’s in a tough situation, but he still has options. He can report the theft, chase Beresh down, return at least some of what was his.”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself, Temerlin,” Algeron says. “If you can get him to listen and talk to you, that is.”

My new partner glances at me. “Blaze will.”

Given the depths of the man’s pain, I’m not so sure. But I’ll do all I can.

“All right, let’s work out the specifics,” I say. “Who are we going as? Monks?”

Temerlin perks up. “Oh yes, please let us be monks!” He catches Algeron’s questioning look and gives a timid smile. “I’m a big fan of Brother Blaze… And I thought Melcor probably wouldn’t respond to anyone else.”

Algeron nods. “You thought correctly. Monks it is. Blaze – the usual. Temerlin, you’ll be a warrior monk, tall, broad-shouldered, with brown hair and eyes, human age around thirty. You wear a cloak instead of a habit and carry a double-edged longsword underneath, hidden from view but noticeable to those who care to look. Your name is too distinctive, you will change it to Timothy. Blaze is in charge. You will follow his orders, unless you hear from me. Questions?”

I don’t have any. Temerlin does.

“Will I get to use the sword?”

Algeron’s expression is impenetrable. “Time will tell, as humans say.”

***

Temerlin and I materialize next to the barn where Melcor has been living. It’s getting dark, not a soul around.

I look my partner over. He is very impressive in his disguise, and I can tell he is enjoying it.

“Wait here, I’ll go inside. Come in when I give a signal.”

I enter very quietly. Melcor is here, he stands with his back to me, tall, well built, with a bit of gray starting to show in his dark hair. His preparations are well underway. He’s thrown a rope over a thick rafter beam, secured it and made a noose. He makes sure the wooden box he’s placed under the noose is stable. Pausing just for a second, he moves to step up on it.

“Don’t do it!” I shout.

Melcor swings around. The startled look on his face is quickly replaced with that of extreme annoyance.

“A monk, of all people! What do you want?”

“I don’t want you to kill yourself.”

“That’s none of your business! Get out of here!”

“I will not.”

The man lets out a frustrated growl. “You won’t leave me alone now, will you? Save a soul and all that!”

“Yes.”

“Well, you’re wasting time, so get out!”

I say nothing and stay put. Melcor gives me an evaluating look and figures I can’t do much to interfere physically.

“Fine, watch if you like, I don’t care.”

He steps up onto the box and reaches for the noose. I dash forward, grab him with both arms and pull him down.

Melcor is furious.

“You little pest!” He breaks free and punches me in the face.

I don’t dodge. He puts all his anger and pain into that blow. Had I been human, he would have knocked me out.

I tumble down and land several feet away.

“Stay back, Temerlin!” Algeron’s voice. “Do you honestly think he is hurt??”

I slowly sit up, holding my face. For additional effect, I make some blood seep through my fingers.

Melcor’s anger dissipates just as quickly as it had flared up. Under normal circumstances, he’d never hurt someone obviously weaker, especially a monk.

“Hey, man… I’m sorry, I… Darn it, why did you have to meddle?!”

I take my hand away from my face and look at the bloodied palm.

“I didn’t mean to…” He takes a hesitant step to me. “Can you get up? Did I break your jaw?”

“No. Just a split lip, I think.”

“Let me see.” He kneels next to me. “You need to wash off the blood. I, uh… I’ll go get some water.”

“I’ll go with you.”

That makes him mad again. “So now you’ll follow me everywhere?”

“I have to, until you change your mind.”

“I will not! I’ll do it anyway, you hear me? Only now I have to die with the sin of hitting a man of God on me – thanks to you!”

“So you believe in God?”

“Don’t even start! I don’t need a sermon.” Melcor gets up. “I’ll go get water, you stay here.”

I secretly summon Temerlin. He enters.

“Brother Blaze? What’s happening here?”

We’ll need to work on his acting skills. He should have been more surprised and alarmed at the sight of me bleeding.

Thankfully, Melcor is too worked up to notice.

“Another one?” he exclaims. “How many of you are out there?”

“What’s going on?” Temerlin demands as he walks to us, hand on the sword hilt, which doesn’t escape Melcor’s notice. “You attacked him! You wanted to kill a man of the cloth, how dare you?!”

That’s better, more convincing.

“Brother Timothy, you have misunderstood,” I say.

“Have I? And what is that?” Temerlin points at the noose.

“That’s for me, not him,” Melcor says. Despite himself, he is a little intrigued. He has never seen a sword-bearing monk before.

Temerlin turns to him, frowning. “Oh, really? So you kill him and then hang yourself, is that the plan?”

“Don’t be hard on the man, Brother Timothy,” I speak up again. “He is very hurt.”

“He is??”

“I am?” Melcor echoes.

“You wouldn’t attempt to take your life if you were not.”

“…None of your business,” Melcor mutters. Not nearly as passionately as before.

Temerlin looks him over. “I see. You were about to off yourself, Brother Blaze must have interfered – and this is your gratitude. Is that what took place?”

Melcor nods, looking down. “Yes. I am sorry.” He glances at me. “I mean it, Brother Blaze.”

“Apology accepted.”

“Let me examine the injury,” Temerlin says, bending over me.

Melcor once again wants to go to the water well. Once again, I won’t let him do it alone.

“Please go with him, Brother Timothy.”

Melcor shakes his head but doesn’t object. He and Temerlin leave the barn. They return with a bucket of water; Temerlin takes a piece of cloth out of his traveling bag, dips it in the bucket and carefully cleans my face.

“Thank you. I’m fine, really.”

“It appears so,” Temerlin agrees. “Bleeding has stopped. What do you want to do now?”

“Well…” I look at Melcor. “First of all, I think we should get properly introduced. You must have caught our names, Brother Blaze and Brother Timothy. What is yours?”

“Melcor,” the man says. “Listen, uh… You are welcome to spend the night here, if you like. It’s the least I can do to repay.”

“You own this place?”

He shakes his head with a bitter smirk. “No. But I am in charge of it for two more days.”

“Very well then, we accept. Thank you.”

“Sorry, I have no food to offer you…”

“That’s all right, we have provisions. Will you share a meal with us?”

Melcor, of course, refuses. “No, no… thank you. I think I’ll go. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna… you know. I live here nearby, I’ll just go home.”

“Don’t lie,” Temerlin puts in. “There are no dwellings nearby. You just want to get away.”

“In which case, we are going with you,” I say, getting up. I sway a little to the side and grab Temerlin’s shoulder. “Oh, wait, I’m a little unsteady…”

Temerlin is confused.

“Concussion!” Algeron helps.

My partner catches on and puts his arm around me for support. “You must have had a concussion, Brother Blaze! Sit down.”

He lowers me on a pile of straw.

“Don’t let him leave, Brother Timothy.”

“All right – all right! No one’s leaving.” Melcor plops on the wooden box. He is looking at me with a mixed expression of remorse and annoyance. “I’ll stay right here. Happy now?”

“Almost.” I gesture at the noose. “Brother Timothy, would you get rid of that?”

Temerlin pulls out the longsword and slices the thick rope with one powerful swing. As the noose falls, he kicks it away to the farthest corner. Melcor watches in silence.

“Good, thank you,” I say. “Now, let’s have something to eat.”

“I think you better lie down.” Temerlin adjusts the straw and makes me recline.

He sits down next to me, opens the bag and takes out provisions. Bread, boiled potatoes, fresh vegetables. He gives a potato to me and hands another one to Melcor. Melcor attempts to refuse again, although he is hungry, he is completely out of money and out of food.

“Eat, we have plenty,” Temerlin says, tossing the potato to him.

Melcor catches it. The way he was raised, you don’t let good food hit the floor.

“Well… thanks.”

He starts peeling the potato. I do the same. Temerlin steals a questioning glance at me. I know what it’s about, he is wondering whether he actually has to eat the food.

“Yes, you do.”

I suppress a smile. “Thanks, Algeron.”

“You are welcome.”

I let Melcor satisfy his hunger, at least to some extent, before I speak.

“Tell me, Melcor, how did you come to believe in God? Did your parents teach you?”

He gives me a surprised look. “I was expecting a different question.”

“We’ll get to that later.”

“So if you don’t give a sermon, you want a confession? Do you ever give up?”

“No.”

“I figured.” Melcor sighs. “No, my parents didn’t teach me anything. Father drank, mother was working herself to death trying to feed the family. If she had any faith, she didn’t talk about it.”

His mother actually did have some faith, deep inside. The reason she didn’t share it was because her non-believing husband would beat her up for mentioning any “religious junk,” as he called it. Especially to his son.

“I didn’t know much about God,” Melcor continues, “never read the Good Book. Until I was wounded in battle.”

“You fought in a war? Which one?”

“The Northern war, with Amirra. Amirrians always kill the wounded, so I was doomed. My officer, Captain Trent…” he pauses, fighting emotion. “He knew God. He saved me. Paid with his life for it, too.”

I give him a moment before I ask my next question. “How did he save you?”

“He… hid me. Under the branches of a big fallen pine tree. Then he distracted the enemy, fought them, led them away from me…”

Another pause. Temerlin is watching very intently.

“Before he did that, the captain… told me about faith,” Melcor says. “Told me that I needed to come to God, that I’m not ready to die until I do.”

“Sounds like Captain Trent was quite a man.”

“He was. And we weren’t even friends, he hardly knew me.”

“Was that all he said to you?”

“He didn’t have much time for talking. But there was something else, something I never forgot. He said, ‘If you survive and I don’t, do not torment yourself with guilt. I know what I’m doing and why. Just make sure you get right with God.’ That’s how. How I came to God, I mean.”

“So, let me ask you this…” I choose my words carefully as I get to the main point, the reason I started this whole conversation. “What do you think Captain Trent would say now, if he found out you want to end the life he’d paid for so dearly?”

Melcor doesn’t respond right away. I wait.

“I don’t,” the man says at last. “It was weak of me.”

He means it this time. The pain is still there, but he sees what I wanted him to see, and resolves to persevere.

“You win,” Melcor says, not looking at me. “I don’t know how I’ll climb out of the hole I’m in, but I won’t kill myself. I’m not lying, Brother Blaze.”

I catch Temerlin’s awestruck gaze. He must be thinking I’ve done the job. Far from it; this is a milestone, yes, but it’s just the beginning.

“I know, Melcor,” I say, “and I’m glad to hear it. Now, would you please tell me about this hole? Perhaps Brother Timothy and I can be of help.”

He shakes his head. “That’s unlikely.”

“You never know.”

Once again, I have to wait for his answer. It’s hard for him to speak about this. He’s not sure he wants to. But he still feels like he owes me, so he finally opens up and shares it all. He tells us how he wanted to buy his own farm, but his savings were not enough. Then Beresh showed up, with some savings as well. Together, they could afford the place Melcor had been eyeing, but Beresh convinced him to rent a bigger field instead, he said they would earn much more with it and buy a separate farm each after selling the crops. Melcor agreed. They planted wheat, beans, and potatoes. They lived in this barn and worked side by side, every day, plowing, planting, tending, and finally harvesting. The crops turned out very good. Beresh suggested to sell them in Klosh, a town farther away but where prices were considerably higher. For that, they’d need another wagon.

“So Beresh sent me to buy a wagon while he’d finish harvesting potatoes,” Melcor says, eyes fixed on the floor before him. “That was the only thing we had left to harvest. I didn’t mind going. I thought I was finally close to achieving my goal, getting somewhere with my life…”

He stops. I know what’s coming. Temerlin does as well, but he listens in fascination. He has never heard a human pour out his heart like that.

“My trip took a little over a week,” he resumes his tale. “When I returned… There was no harvest, no money, no Beresh. All gone. At first I thought something happened, someone killed and robbed him. Then people told me. As soon as I’d left, he started selling the crops, as fast as he could. Hired men to dig out potatoes, sold most of that as well, loaded the rest into the old wagon we had and left.”

“He deceived you,” Temerlin mutters, his hand gripping the hilt of the sword.

Melcor doesn’t acknowledge the comment.

“That’s not all,” he continues. “The field owner came and demanded the remaining half of the rent. Turned out Beresh had only paid him a half, you see, promising the rest after the harvest. He did that with every other purchase I had entrusted him – seeds, tools, horses, you name it. Paid only half, wrote a note for the rest. A note in my name. So, now all these debts are on me. Roughly three hundred pounds all together. Have to be paid next week.”

“That’s not what drove you to the noose, though… Is it?” I ask.

Melcor nods. “You’re right. It’s not the money, it’s the stab in the back. Beresh… He must have planned it all from the start. Had to have. That’s why he insisted on renting instead of buying – much easier to get away if we didn’t own the farm, he wouldn’t be able to sell it without my consent. That’s why he sent me for the wagon so far away, claiming he knew the cheapest seller… The man lied to me from day one. Every day he looked me in the eye, worked with me, ate with me, laughed with me…” Melcor slams his fist on his knee. “And lied!!”

“He used you. And stole your dream.”

“I just couldn’t…” Melcor sighs and waves it off. “I wasn’t myself when you walked in on me, Brother Blaze. That’s why I acted the way I did. That was terrible of me, I’d never disrespect a monk, ever, and I’ve seen some bad ones. I’m sorry.”

I don’t want him to keep beating himself up. “You already apologized. Don’t mention it.”

Temerlin picks up on something else. “You’ve seen bad monks? What do you mean?”

“I hope I haven’t insulted,” Melcor says. “But it’s true. There’s this monk in Blyon, a town nearby. Always goes around with a collection box, supposedly for the church; always drunk.”

“Disgraceful!” Temerlin’s hand grips the sword again. “What is his name?”

I am about to get him back on track but Algeron is ahead of me.

“Stay on the case!”

“I don’t know,” Melcor shrugs. “Why?”

Temerlin bites his lip and glances at me, seeking help.

“Brother Timothy doesn’t take kindly to those who dishonor the ministry,” I explain. “Under normal circumstances, he would have investigated such an incident. However, we are on a different mission.”

My partner gapes at me. He thinks I am blowing our cover.

“What mission?” Melcor asks.

“That’s not so important right now. Tell me, what happens if you don’t pay the debts?”

“Prison, what else? I have nothing. I suppose I can ask the field owner to let me work for him for free next season. But even if he agrees, there are other creditors. I don’t know what to do about those.”

“I believe we might be able to help.” I turn to Temerlin. “What do you think, Brother Timothy?”

Temerlin is lost. He is yet to learn to play it by ear.

“Say yes,” Algeron steps in again.

“Yes,” Temerlin nods, “it appears so.”

Melcor’s puzzled gaze shifts from me to him and back. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Tomorrow, we will go to your creditors with you and negotiate down the debts. Most people find it hard to refuse a monk.” I see that he is about to object and raise a warning hand. “Wait, let me finish. I remember you said you have nothing. We’ll reduce the debts as much as we can and give you money to pay them off. It won’t be charity. We have a job for you, and it will be your wages. What do you say?”

Both Melcor and Temerlin look at me in utter confusion.

“What job?” Melcor asks. “I mean, I’ll take anything! Just curious…”

So is Temerlin.

“Algeron?” I hear his silent inquiry. “Care to fill me in?”

“Wait,” the boss says. “He is improvising. I am just as intrigued.”

I hold a brief pause. It’s not often that my superior can’t figure out my next move.

“That brings us back to our mission,” I begin my explanation. “I am carrying something important to the Berkinton Abbey. Important and valuable. Brother Timothy has been my guard. However, we need to temporarily part ways. He has another errand to run. I was going to look for a trustworthy strong man to escort me… But I think I’ve already found one.”

Melcor regards Temerlin. “So that’s why you are armed…” He turns to me again. “Are you serious, Brother Blaze? About the job?”

“Of course I am.”

“But you don’t even know me.”

I smile. “I think I do. Will you take it?”

The man looks like he still can’t believe it. “Yes… Yes, I will! Thank you.”

“Excellent. Now, let us all get some sleep before the long journey tomorrow.”

We finish our modest meal, put away leftover provisions and settle in for the night. Melcor is too excited to fall asleep, so I help with that. One minute later, he drifts away in peaceful slumber.

“Blaze.” Temerlin shakes his head. “You. Are. Good.”

“Thank you. Have you learned something?”

“Yes. Brother Timothy has a long way to go to be anywhere near Brother Blaze… What is this errand you’re sending me on?”

“I thought you wanted to pay a visit to a certain monk in Blyon.”

He brightens up. “You’re letting me?!”

A little too eager, but I can’t blame him.

“I am. Check with Algeron whether judgment is due and what kind.”

He nods. “Of course. But that errand will only take several minutes. What should I do next?”

“Come back and follow us under invisibility, until I tell you otherwise. Melcor must think you are away.”

“All right. Got it. Now, tell me something else. Why are we going to negotiate the debts? Can’t you just pay them all off?”

“We could. But a good monk will always be careful with the funds entrusted to him. That’s the first reason. The second one… you will see for yourself tomorrow.”

***

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