Lucifer de Morte tightened his jaw and clamped his eyelids
shut. The sheep tallow used to oil his saddle oozed
between his leather-gloved fingers.
"Just last night," Mastema's emerald-liveried messenger
said in a tone too soft and fearful to blossom from a
whisper. "I rode all night, my lord. I beg thee
forgiveness."
At a dismissing flick of Lucifer's fingers, the messenger
bowed and backed from the private chamber positioned deep
in the center of the fortified lair. Lucifer remained
stiff, his hand fixed in a scrubbing position on the
cantle of his saddle.
To his right, a blazing fire spat angry sparks across the
tiled Istrian-marble floor. The hearth — forged of iron —
resembled a demon's mouth, complete with curved fangs, and
above the gaping jaws, carved recesses for eyes where the
flames danced high, animating the macabre face in wicked
design. Overhead, suspended from the pine-beamed ceiling,
a stuffed eagle, preserved and mounted with its eight-foot
wingspan regally spread, silently mocked Lucifer with its
glistening ruby eyes.
The black knight, the messenger had said. Again.
In a rage of motion, Lucifer pushed away from the saddle
stand and crossed the room, scattering tallow and steel
saddle furnishings in his wake. His sword, propped by the
hearth, flashed violently as he swung the jagged-edge
espadon through the heat-festered air.
He spun once, his anger, the pure force of his loss,
drawing the pain up through his arms and to the end of the
espadon. With a grunt and a thrust, he dashed his blade
against the stone wall. Steel clanged dully. Limestone
chips spattered the air. He thrust again. Clang. And
again. He smashed his sword against the wall until his
arms burned with exertion and foul sweat poured from his
scalp.
Staggering to the wall, to which his back connected with a
jaw-cracking thud, Lucifer finally dropped his sword with
a clatter. A spark from the hearth leapt into the air and
landed an amber jewel upon the deadly steel.
Lucifer raked his fingers through his tangled mass of dark
hair. He squeezed his scalp until he saw crimson behind
his closed eyelids. The color of blood.
The black knight's blood.
Some fool bastard had taken it upon himself to exterminate
the de Morte clan. Why?
No! It mattered not the reason. Lucifer knew well there
were hundreds, perhaps thousands of reasons; the bones and
scarred flesh of those reasons buried copiously beneath
the frozen French soil or floating down the murky waters
of the Seine.
But why now? Why, after nearly two decades of de Morte
reign, had some demented soul finally decided to exact
revenge? And to succeed?
Mastema had been beheaded in the middle of the
battlefield. He always surrounded himself with his own
men. Always. After learning of their brother Satanas's
death on the field but five days earlier, surely Rimmon,
Mastema's Master of Arms, must have been at his side, his
eyes peeled for oncoming danger?
With a guttural grunt, Lucifer kicked at the flaming ember
that simmered on his sword blade. It sailed through the
air, a sizzling missile launched by hatred, to land in the
fire with a grand explosion of heat and bluered flame.
Still panting from the toil of his anger, Lucifer stood
before the blaze, fists clenched at his thighs. Heat
blistered his face in delicious warmth. He could feel the
sweat bubble upon his flesh like the surface of a witch's
cauldron. So difficult at times, this sheath of mortality
that he wore.
But obviously not a challenge for much longer, if this
black knight would have his way.
Satanas had lived south of Paris in Corbeil; his nickname,
the Demon of the South, as the villagers had taken to
calling him. Hell, half of France used the monikers years
of destruction and debauchery had attributed to the de
Morte brothers. Mastema, the West Demon, had resided in
Poissy. Sammael, the Demon of the East, resided in Meaux.
The four brothers surrounded Lucifer, who lived in Paris.
But if the black knight was systematically attempting to
erase the de Mortes from the planet, north would be his
obvious next move.
Abaddon.
Squeezing his fists so tight the tallow and sweat and his
own blood mixed to a hideous ooze, Lucifer decided on his
course of action. He would not leave his own fortress to
aid his youngest brother. Abaddon was an ox in size and
vigor; he did not require Lucifer's help to flick away an
offensive gnat like the black knight.
But he would send out a scout — no, a mercenary — to track
this vengeful knight, and stop him in his tracks before
Abaddon even need worry about defending himself against
the revenge the de Morte family surely deserved, but would
never tolerate.
The road to Pontoise stretched a long white ribbon this
chill January eve. Flakes as light yet massive in size as
swan's down fell quietly through the night. Seraphim blew
a breath through her nose. Ignoring the ice-fog that
lingered in a pale cloud before her, she slipped the
leather hood from her head. She scratched a hand over her
newly shorn locks and eased her heels into Gryphon's
flanks to pick up the pace.
Gryphon had been her brother Antoine's prized mount. A
fine black Andalusian bred for battle stealth and stamina,
it measured near to sixteen hands. The beast's coat
glimmered a blue sheen under sun and moon. "Power,"
Antoine had always whispered, as he'd brush down Gryphon's
coat — a formidable partner to sword and shield.
Behind Sera, Baldwin dutifully followed on his borrowed
roan, clad in borrowed clothes and borrowed life. He was a
reluctant squire to Sera's bold, black knight. The man —
teen — had been studying under the tutelage of the abbe
Belloc, an ill attempt at penance against his former life,
when Lucifer de Morte's raid upon the d'Ange castle the
first morning of the New Year had taken down all but a
handful of household servants and knights.
Much as Sera would rather shoulder the quest for revenge
entirely herself, she took comfort in the young man's
company. There was no favor for a lone woman riding the
high roads by night. Even if the disguise of armor and
distempered countenance did fool some, it certainly would
not fool all. And as Baldwin had implied, she might be
physically prepared to fight off attackers, but mentally,
there were no promises.
Sera had endured much since her mother's illness had
rendered the taciturn matron useless about the d'Ange
castle a decade ago. But she had endured so much more in
the short days since the New Year had begun.
The moment she allowed herself to stop, to think on what
had occurred just weeks earlier, the nightmare would
engulf her.
Never. I will not allow it. "Oh my — bloody saints!"
Baldwin hitched a clicking sound at his horse and rode up
alongside Sera. "I — I'm so — damn — so sorry!"
She regarded him slyly, for to turn her head any more than
a fraction of an arc pained fiercely. Exhaustion from this
night's battle clung to her muscles. She needed rest. Even
the chill air could not rouse her to any more than dull
interest. "What be your concern, Bertram?"
"Your..." He gestured at her head with long, pale fingers
that she'd always remember as clutching a bible. Or a
toad. The makeshift squire stretched his mouth to speak,
but after a few more gesticulations and wide-mouthed
gasping, couldn't express his obvious dismay with any more
than, "I'm just so sorry."
Sera rubbed a hand over her scalp, assuming his chagrin to
be directed at her hair. "Twill grow back."
The sound of her own voice, abraded and sore, was an odd
thing. She did not recognize the deep rasping tones. New,
shiny scar-flesh had begun to appear beneath the scabbed
wound on her neck. Little pain lingered. Save that which
seeped from the tear in her soul. "But...it's so — oh —
Mother of Malice! Why did you command me do such a thing
in the dark of night, my lady? It is hideous! You look a
sheep shorn by a swillpot. It juts here and there and —
Heaven forgive me!"
His dismay made her smile. Briefly. Soon as she realized
her swing toward mirth, Sera checked herself and drew on a
frown. Much easier lately to touch sadness than any sort
of joy.
"It is but hair, Bernard."
"Baldwin is my name, my lady, I have it on very good
authority from my mother and father."
"If you insist."
The man was not averse to correct her; nor should he be.
His forthright manner was one of many reasons Sera had
invited him along on her quest. Baldwin Ortolano would do
whatever the situation required to survive, be it honor-
bound or criminal. A favorable ally to have.
There was also his plea not to be left behind at the
castle d'Ange in the blood-curdling wake of battle. Sera
could not have ridden away, leaving the teen alone,
fearful, and so lost. Especially when she felt virtually
the same. Alone, lost — but not fearful. Never choose fear.
One final scrub over her lighter, choppier coif brushed
off a scatter of half-melted snow. "It will grow back."
Her words did not work to cease the man's sorry head
shaking. "Come, Baldwin, I find it quite refreshing. I
have lived four and twenty years, each morning being a
struggle to pull a comb through such a long tangle of
hair. So many treacherous curls, all coiling and slipping
over my...shoulders."
She made sure her sigh was as inaudible as possible. So
much had been lost in so little time. Now, the last
vestments of woman had been shorn from her head, making
her more an anomaly than she had ever before felt.
But regret would not serve her mission. "Now, you see,
I've only to give my head a shake and it is done."
"Tis a fine circumstance we've not a mirror in our
supplies."
Sera yanked her leather hood up over her head. Lined with
thinning white rabbit fur, the hood provided a bit of
softness to ease the mental pain. "I shall keep it covered
if it vexes you to look upon it."
"That is all well and good, but I fear your reaction when
finally you do come upon a mirror. You were always so
beautiful, Seraphim —"
A twinge of regret spiked in her breast. "The removal of
my hair has made me ugly?"
"Oh, er...nay."