23: Blood

I missed the start of the fight, as I was preparing my prayer to Shallya, to keep Kurtis safe, and if necessary, to take any wounds from the duel upon myself. I’m such a martyr. I wondered whether the grace of Shallya would manifest in the fighting arena and reveal the invocation, but a single white dove flew over the arena, alighted on Kurtis’ shoulder and then flew off again. No one else seemed to notice.

Kurtis began insulting his opponent, which I suppose was his attempt to distract him and put him on the back foot. I’ve no idea whether it worked, but if he managed to wind his opponent up half as much as he winds me up, then it would be a very good tactic. Otto took the opportunity to talk to Genevieve. She was probably more interested in Kurtis’ fate, but Otto complimented her on the wideness of her hips and how they might be good for boy-bearing. She thanked him politely.

Kurtis acquitted himself surprisingly well in the duel, hitting his opponent a couple of times, drawing blood, and carefully keeping the advantage and controlling the fight. It looked like he might win, but the duel was interrupted by a huge explosion coming from the courthouse. Part of the front of the courthouse building fell away to reveal some of the rooms inside, and some of the cells. The overseeing magistrate ordered the fight to stop, and a band of horsemen rode across the square and towards the courthouse.

Gulgad went out to see what he could do to help, but it was chaos on the streets. The rumour went round that this was some sort of spectacular jailbreak for some outlaw leader, which was good to hear as I thought we might get the blame for it, as we seem to get the blame for everything else. Erhardt kept his eye on Marband and determined that the explosion had nothing to do with her, and I suspect Marband was keeping an eye on Erhardt to make sure the explosion had nothing to do with him. But Erhardt did notice that Marband was paying particular attention to the gravin.

Kurtis returned to our side of the arena and the gravin asked him if he was ok. Kurtis in return asked her for some fighting tips which she wasn’t able to give. Genevieve rushed forward and gave Kurtis a kiss and told him she would marry him, and that she loved him. Kurtis told Genevieve that he loved her too. I don’t want to intrude on the romance of the moment, but I find it necessary at this point to put down on paper my doubts as to the veracity of his statement.

Extraordinarily, after the fuss had died down, it was decreed that the fight would continue, so once more Kurtis faced his opponent across the arena and crowd began to cheer. As soon as the magistrate dropped his handkerchief Kurtis charged in and immediately put his opponent on the back foot, hitting him hard and drawing blood again.

Then, between the duellists a strange green flame erupted and some sort of apparition of a man screaming formed from the flames. The figure made its way towards Marband. The witch hunter said something like, ‘it’s you, you’ve returned.’ Erhardt attacked it with his magic and the figure fell back screaming, and Marband emptied her two pistols into it, but that did little good. Needless to say, the fight stopped again. Some Morrite-looking priest emerged from the crowd and said some prayers. Otto slinged it and Solvej shot an arrow but both missiles went through the ghost and hit a man in the crowd. Then the ghost passed its hands through Erhardt wounding him with its chill touch. The Priest of Morr finally got rid of it, banishing it I would think, to the lands beyond the veil, to the realm of dreams, or whatever spooky stuff Morrites come up with to shroud their vocation in mystery. Creepy bunch.

Marband looked at Erhardt and told him that perhaps she had misjudged him. She admitted that she had had a man burned to death in this very arena last year and she recognised the ghost as that man come back to haunt her. She still made it clear, however, that the two of them were not yet even.

Kurtis returned to the pavilion. Twice he had been having the better of the fight, and twice the contest had been interrupted. He wondered whether this was a sign that the gods were in his favour or not. Meanwhile I tried to see what was up with Erhardt. He had obviously been wounded by the ghostly spirit but it wasn’t the sort of wound I could do anything about.

The fight began again, but Solvej, still on lookout up in the stand, saw the younger scholar/cultists again, making their way through the crowd towards the von Liebwitz pavilion. Quickly, she drew her bow and shot an arrow at the cultist. It hit him directly, and he fell and dropped a blowpipe. The fight had to be stopped yet again while the guards moved in and hauled the scholars off to jail. Gustav looked on impressed by Solvej’s fine shooting.

And so round four began. There had been so many interruptions the fight was dragging on and the crowd were growing a bit restless. But Kurtis moved in and dispatched his opponent ruthlessly, winning the fight and proving the gravin’s innocence. She even gave a subtle bow to him as Kurtis lapped up the applause of the crowd. If I thought he was insufferable before, on the strength of a few songs and a gig in some run-down Ubersreik inn, he was going to be impossible now.

Kurtis immediately called for someone to come and heal his opponent. I’m not sure if this was more playing to the crowd, or he was sincere, but I prepared to do so. But before I could get near, eight watchmen entered the arena. I assumed this was the usual form, but the watchmen grabbed Kurtis’ defeated opponent and decapitated him. One of the watchmen held the head up in front of the shocked crowd and shouted something about blood and gods. I think it was ‘blood for the blood god,’ but the phrase didn’t mean anything to me.

Erhardt, with his new frenemy, Ursula Marband, were quickly on the scene. Marband quickly reloaded her pistols, while Erhardt gazed into the magical winds, which were ‘confusing.’ I stepped up to tell the watchmen to calm it down a tad (I know they can get a bit over-enthusiastic with their job, sometimes), but they responded by drawing their weapons and cutting their own throats. All eight of them fell to the ground, in a pool of their own blood.

The pools of blood then coalesced before our eyes into strange demonic, sinuous, blood-coloured, creatures, each wielding a green glowing blade, and they attacked the crowd, cutting them down in a frenzy of destruction. Gulgad, of course, charged in, obliterating one of the creatures with a single blow. Kurtis, full of his feats at arms, charged in, too, hitting another of them, and Marband fired her pistols while Erhardt did his magical thing. Meanwhile, Otto and Solvej attacked with missiles from their places in the stand.

The strictures of Shallya are controversial and there are any number of interpretations, as I have discussed before. But I felt that as I charged towards a blood creature swinging my stick like a club, I was on solid theological grounds. In any case my stick didn’t come anywhere close to hitting the thing, so if Shallya had been opposed to me attacking these foul abominations of the Dark Gods, she needn’t have worried.

Then Erhardt cast more magic at one of the blood-things. I don’t understand about magic, and I don’t really care, but some sort of coincidental magical confluence, or whatever it’s called, must have occurred because the magical power invoked was spectacular (unlike most of Erhardt’s decidedly unspectacular efforts). The blood creature was emphatically struck down, but I was later to learn that such had been the magical energies involved that they inflicted a mark upon Erhardt’s body. A bold symbol of his college became etched upon a region of his body that I have no wish to see.

As a Shallyan, I am somewhat sympathetic to those with mutations, and understand that it might not always be the entire fault of the afflicted. And sometimes they do not have to be immediately immolated for the good of the people. And I’m not saying that Erhardt is definitely mutated, I’m just not saying that he definitely isn’t.

So we managed between us, and Marband, to defeat all the blood creatures. I actually landed a blow upon one of them, too. When they were killed, each of the creatures disappeared, either returning to the realm of the dark gods, or the bloody mess whence they came. One of the creatures had hit Erhadrt and I saw to his wound. I was worried it might be a strange magical wound, as these creatures were plainly strange and magical, and to be fair, so is Erhardt, but it seemed to me to be a mundane wound.

Their green glowing weapons disappeared with them, except for some reason, a single weapon remained on the ground where it had been dropped by its blood creature wielder. Otto, without a hand weapon since his tusk dagger had been stolen yet again, picked it up to feel its weight. He said it felt good. Erhardt was immediately concerned and confronted Otto about it, but Otto did not want to put the blade down. Erhardt promised we would get him a new weapon if only he would drop the green glowing one and smacked him on the wrist as encouragement. So, the weapon was dropped, and it lay on the floor at Otto’s feet.

I could see that strange look in Otto’s eyes again. The last time I had seen it I had tried to bring Shallya to him to ease his burden but I fear I may have made things worse. But, it was still my duty, I think, to try again, and so we said a few prayers together and I think it helped.

And when the dust has settled, the magistrate announced Kurtis was the victor and he declared the gravin to be innocent of all charges against her.