Page 144 of Paladin's Faith

…shit. I am in love, aren’t I?

What a lousy goddamn time to figure that out.

“If we can make the demon jump to someone else, we might have a chance,” Jorge was saying.

“But if he’s not possessed—” Marguerite began again.

“We can’t risk it. I’m sorry.” He swallowed. “Shane saved my life once. He’s my friend, too. If I thought that I could save him, I’d walk into that keep alone, even if I knew I wouldn’t come out again.”

Marguerite put her face in her hands. “There has to be another way,” she whispered.

“If you think of it,” said the Dreaming God’s champion, “let me know.”

FORTY-NINE

“The plan is simple,” Wisdom said. “The Dreaming God’s people will come here, and they will tear this keep apart to reach me, correct?”

Shane nodded. That was about the shape of it.

“Most of my people cannot fight, and I will not ask it of them. They are leaving even now. First to the raider’s camp you cleared, then on. Better to be refugees than casualties.”

Shane licked dry lips. “The Dreaming God’s paladins wouldn’t…” he began, and then stopped. He’d never dealt with a demonic cult before. It had never come up in his time with the temple. He was sure that they wouldn’t put everyone to the sword—almost sure—but they probably weren’t going to send them on their way with a stern lecture either. At the very least, Wisdom’s followers would find themselves in a very uncomfortable position, and it was likely that some of the leaders would be treated as heretics or accomplices or both.

Even in the very best case, families would be split up and people held as the priests attempted to sort the innocent from the guilty.

He thought of Erlick and his niece and his heart sank.

“Exactly,” said Wisdom, reading his thoughts. “I will not gamble with the lives of my followers. We have gathered enough here that they need not go completely penniless into the world. That encampment you cleared will serve as a staging ground for those who cannot travel quickly. The rest will spread out as they can, and spread the word of a god called Wisdom.” It laughed, a little ruefully. “It is my hope that my worship will continue long enough for me to find a way back if I am banished again.”

“Do you expect to be banished?”

Wisdom spread its hands. “It does me no good to run. They will follow like bloodhounds, and I risk leading them directly to my people. So I am going to stay here, as are you. As are enough of my people to make a good showing fighting back. And when we have fallen back, you and I shall make a very dramatic show.”

“And what is my part in this show?”

“Simple.” Wisdom grinned its slightly-too-wide grin. “You’re going to kill me, where everyone can see.”

“You know, I could just kill you now and tell everyone that I did,” said Shane. “It would save a lot of steps.”

Wisdom rolled its eyes. “Yes, and they might believe you. But what they’ll actually think happened is that I jumped to someone else, and they’ll round up anyone that might have been associated with this keep, which puts us back where we started. The only way that this will work is if I do enough demonic tricks to convince them that I am very much present, and then you kill me. Preferably where they can see it.”

Shane opened his mouth to say, But they’ll think you jumped to me, and then closed it again. “Ah,” he said instead.

“Now you understand.”

“And they will capture me, and you will have left enough of a demonic taint through the bond between us to be convincing.”

“Precisely.” Through the bond, he felt a wash of something like…regret? Apology? He would not have thought that a demon could feel such things. “Though they may choose to kill you outright, of course, and try to bind me with your death. I am sorry for that.”

Shane shrugged. I have been a dead man walking since I left that cell for the first time. “And you plan that they should be binding the wrong person.”

“Exactly. I will already be gone, back to hell but unbound. From there, I think that I can follow the faith of my people back.”

“You think? You’re not sure?”

“It’s not as if I can test it. The only thing I know is that no demon comes back once the Dreaming God’s people bind them to hell. This is the only way that I can think of that keeps both myself and my people free.”

Unspoken between them was that Shane would be in a great deal more trouble if he was taken alive. The punishment for a paladin convicted of heresy was burning at the stake. It didn’t happen often, but Shane had read too many tales of martyrs not to have some idea how that would work. Better to die fighting.