Oath Breaker Part 1 by Kris Kramer

  ***

  I broke the news to Saras that evening in his room, just before dinner. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to see the benefits of the arrangement as well as I could, and another of our usual arguments soon broke out.

  “You made an oath!” he said, his voice uncharacteristically high.

  “Do you not understand the part about the money?” I replied.

  “How can you so blatantly break an oath you made only three days ago?” He emphasized that by holding three fingers up to my face.

  “What about the dying? Do you understand that part?”

  Saras paced around the room, huffing and shaking his head, which he did a lot when we had discussions like this. “Haven't you learned that people don't forget this kind of thing? If you break your oath, especially like this, word will get around, and no one will trust you. Or us!”

  “Word will not get around, because no one will be alive to tell it. Brecon is going to lose this fight. Badly. Kurich knows all about this sneak attack, and he'll break it. If we go out there with them, on the Aberweynian side, we might die, too. Is it better to honor an oath and die, or to live so that we can properly make amends for breaking it?”

  “Don't twist words just to make it sound okay to you.”

  “But I'm right. And you know it.”

  Saras sat on his bed, defeated. He shook his head in disgust, knowing the argument was lost. “So what's the plan? We sneak out of here at night and go to Cinnich?”

  “No. Even better.” I sat down next to him excitedly. “We stay here until the battle, then turn on them when the fighting starts. They'll never know what happened.”

  Saras wasn't as amenable to that as I thought he would be. “So we'll stand with them as allies, then stab them in the back?”

  “Well...” I wasn't sure how to make that sound any better to Saras, so I gave up trying. “It'll make more sense when we're actually out there.”

  “I can't believe this. You can do this so easily? Especially after you were with Lady Meranna?”

  “What?” I stood up and tried to look as indignant as possible. “Who told you that?”

  “I heard her leaving your room last night.”

  “Damnit.” Only a small part of me was upset that the secret was out. I was far more aggravated that I'd given up getting more money from Rufus. That cow had cost me money twice today. “Don't worry about her. It's nothing.”

  “It's not nothing. She'll die, just like the rest,” he said. “Or worse.”

  I knew what he intimated, and a small part of me suddenly felt protective of Brecon and his daughters. Not enough to die stupidly for them, though.

  “Brecon's not a fool. As soon as he gets word that he's lost the battle, he'll either pay off Kurich to leave him alone, or he'll have his entire court on the first ship out of here. They'll be fine.”

  Saras shrugged. “Go ahead then. I already know you won't be talked out of this.”

  I liked to give Saras a hard time every once in a while. It never seemed to bother him too much, and it always entertained me, but I could sense he was more than just annoyed with me right now so I needed to play this straight. I leaned back on the dresser opposite his bed.

  “This makes the most sense for us. We have nothing here except ourselves. We'll probably have to head back to Raven's Crest soon, and we'll need money for that, and we're not going to get any by picking the losing side. You do want to go home eventually, right?”

  “You're right,” Saras sighed. “I just thought that coming here would let us make a fresh start, and we could do things the right way this time. Like normal people do.”

  “It won't be a big deal once we've won,” I replied. “And money can buy us more than a fresh start.

  “Fine.” He paused for a moment, then looked down at the floor with the same haggard expression he always had when he was tired of talking to me. “Let's do it.”

  “Good to hear,” I said, and started leaving.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I have to let Rufus know that we're going through with this. He wanted me to think on it until tonight to make sure.” Saras nodded, then looked at the floor, so I continued. “Oh, and I'm taking note of everything in this palace that I want when we come back and sack it. Make sure you pick out something quick, before it's claimed.”

  “Wait.” Saras stood up. “What do we tell the men?”

  “Nothing. Not until the morning of at the earliest. I don't trust any of them to keep a secret like this.”

  I walked away from his room with a content smile on my face. I'd come to a new land, I'd escaped my enemies, I'd found a place to ply my trade – whatever that may be – and I was shortly on my way to glory and riches. But it was the last time I'd feel carefree about my time in Aberweyn.