Chapter 41 Try To Run.

  Sir George Pane was a man who had seen it all, or at least he thought that he had. It was a cold night for Sapphirestone but he didn’t even feel the chill. No, something else was giving him the chills. “Magistrate, everyone on the list is… accounted for, how should we proceed?” A young and very shaken guardsman asked him as he stared up at the moon. It only had the slightest sliver of light and he clung to it as he looked down and met the young guardsman’s eyes.

  “Guardsman Aguila, we should proceed as law dictates.” Sir George replied calmly. “Line them up and I will question them, judge them, and then carry out their damnation.” He spoke calmly but with a tightness in his chest that simply would not go away. Some of the men and women on the list that Lord Wexler and Lady V’Nova had delivered to him were people that he had known for years.

  The young guardsman nodded to his magistrate before he spoke: “As you say, sir.” He then turned around and joined the rest of the guards, who were not on Topaz’s list, in wrangling the rotten fish that had settled into the school of guardsmen that had protected Sapphirestone for four centuries.

  George slowly made his way into the courtyard of the Guard Complex. He walked through the large double doors into the open space that was flanked by two barracks and a main building across from him. As he stared at the almost five dozen men and women lined up on their knees in front of him, he remembered what his predecessor had told him before he had taken the position: ‘The guardsmen (of Sapphirestone) are the navy academy’s rejects and the locals’ third and fourth sons. Their futures were bleak, otherwise they wouldn’t have sold their bodies to the Guard. Always remember that.’ George had forgotten and now everyone was paying the price for it. Too many guardsmen were only there because they had nowhere else to go and Topaz had taken advantage of that. The worst part for George was that usually he would be exempt from such a morbid duty, but the man who should have been doing it was stretched out and tied up across the duke’s unbreakable coffee table. “Damn you, Fernando.” George whispered under his breath.

  “What was that, sir?” Guardsman Aguila asked him with large eyes that seemed to be searching for anything to latch onto. The poor young guard’s mentor was among the ones tied up in front of them.

  “Nothing.” George replied. “By my oath no lies will be spoken.” He chanted with every ounce of resolve in his body. He was going to need it. Four men were already dead and another three had just been brought back from the brink. Of those, only three of them were on the list, two dead and one strapped to a stretcher on the side of the courtyard.

  As the magistrate walked over to the end of the lineup, he looked down at a familiar face. “Sir George, please, we’ve known each other for what, seven years now? You know me. Why am I here?” The middle-aged man pleaded with him.

  “Have you taken money from the criminal boss known as ‘Topaz’ or any of her associates?” George asked the man simply and without any hesitation. Hesitation was not something he could allow himself to have.

  “What? Why would I do that? How dare you accuse me of something like that?! I’ve been in the Guard for seven years!” The former guardsman went on.

  “Answer the question or I will take it as an admission of guilt.” George spoke loudly and sternly enough that it was clear that there would be no arguing with him.

  After a long moment of silence, right when George was about to declare him guilty, the guardsman spoke up: “Just a ffphff… just a… yes. Yes! Fine! I took sssss- ah damn it all! I took bribe money! But so did half the Guard!” The guardsman yelled furiously as his will slammed against the enforced truth of George’s spell. He was angry at the truth spell. He was angry at having been sold out. But more than anything, he was angry at himself from not upholding his own pledges of honor and duty.

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  “Roberto Garza, I pronounce you guilty, of no less than five accounts of corruption under his Majesty's law, code twenty three, section seventeen.” George declared in a voice that felt like the hammer of the gods themselves to all of those present. There was no magic involved but the power and conviction was palpable with George’s aura hanging heavily in the air. “Under code twenty four, section four, ‘if a soldier, or guardsman, has been convicted of an offence that would necessitate more years of hard labor than they have remaining and available to pledge to his majesty’s service, they are to be executed.’”

  “No-no, no, no you can’t do this to me! George!” The convicted guardsman called out but Sir George simply drew his sword, the sword given to him by the king on the day he officially became a magistrate.

  “Pray.” George told the former guard in front of him. “Pray to Halya so that she may save your soul from eternal torment. This is the last mercy that I can give you, Roberto.”

  “Fuck you!” Roberto spat.

  George sighed. “In his Majesty’s name, cease to be.” He spoke calmly and sliced with all the speed and power he could through the man’s head. George had been aiming for his neck but Roberto had tried to duck under it at the last moment, with no success. As the top half Roberto’s head hit the ground, and his body tumbled to the side, nearly half of the prisoners tried to get up and run. “Cut down any runners!” George ordered over the chaos. “If you show mercy, I will hold your trial as well!” With that order his aura blazed and his armor and sword began to glow white with his divinely backed oath. An oath that he would not break, especially for those that would sell out their city and its safety to criminals.

  An hour after the first head rolled, forty three former guardsmen were dead, one current guardsman had died, and eleven more were convicted to somewhere between ten and forty years of hard labor. The courtyard was covered in blood. Nearly half of the active guardsmen were sent into the mess hall as they were no longer serviceable due to either mental or physical trauma, or both.

  “Merlo!” George yelled out to one of the older guards who was still at least able to function.

  “Yes, sir?” Guardsman Merlo replied.

  “Get a barrel of lamp oil. I want nothing but ash in this courtyard by dawn.” George ordered him. “Paz!”

  “Yes, sir?” Guardsman Paz spoke even though she looked like she was about to lose her dinner.

  “Find four more guardsmen and get all of the still living prisoners to the brig.” He ordered her.

  “Yes, sir!” Both Paz and Merlo replied to Sir George’s orders as he took a deep breath through his mouth. He had done it so he wouldn’t take a deep inhale of blood but instead the taste of iron hung on his tongue.

  “Gods, this has to be the worst night of my life.” George whispered to himself under his breath.

  “Rough night.” A voice came from behind him. George couldn’t even muster the energy to flinch from the voice that he would never forget.

  A few of the guardsmen stopped to stare at the figure that had just materialized behind the magistrate. George waved them off. “Carry on!” He ordered the still loyal and active men and women that were left in the Sapphirestone Guard. George turned around casually to face Isaac. “Yes.” He replied with a soul-deep sigh. “How are things on your end?”

  “Fine.” Isaac replied. “Bureaucrats are not known for their strength.” He explained. “All thirteen people on the list are alive and secure. Some of them are more roughed up than others but that’s their fault not mine, they’ll all live. Well, they’ll all live until their trial, apparently.”

  George nodded. “Yes, thank you, Lord Wexler, for your assistance. We needed every loyal guardsman we had left here.”

  Isaac shrugged. “Arthur promised to write up a bounty contract and sign it off as completed if we could round them all up by morning.” Isaac explained to the magistrate. “Lenna is currently glaring at them so they won’t make a move, but I would like someone to relieve her of that duty. My wife and I have other things to do before the sun rises.”

  George nodded again in understanding. “Are they bound in any way?” He questioned Isaac.

  Isaac tilted his hand back and forth in a so-so gesture. “Not in a way that’ll stick once Lenna and I get to work on our other task.” He replied.

  “I will get thirteen sets of shackles and a few…” George’s voice trailed off as he looked at the remaining guardsmen to choose from. “I’ll get at least two more men and go relieve Lady V’Nova of her duty. Where are they being held?”

  “The courthouse.” Isaac replied. “I found it strange that you even have a courthouse. Safeharbor doesn’t. It’s just a large room attached to the garrison’s main building.”

  “For Safeharbor, criminals are more likely to be turncoats and thus considered ‘threats to the kingdom’ which puts them under the garrison’s purview. For most cities, criminals are always under the Guard’s purview and thus a dedicated courthouse is necessary.” George explained.

  Isaac nodded. “Learn something new everyday.” He commented to himself. “Thank you, Magistrate, I will await your arrival at the courthouse.” Isaac finished and vanished without a trace.

  George sighed. His legs felt like they were encased in stone but he still had work to do. “Kimson! Marik! Come with me! There are more. Hopefully these won’t try to run.”