by Pfantazm

	The three approached the sinkhole at a run. They'd left Madoc alone with Damon for too long. The area at the top of the cave was nearly free of plant life, save for one tree. It had survived lightning storms, hot dry summers, harsh winters, poor soil, and even a volcanic eruption. Now, the three men had tied a long rope to it, and this it would survive too. "Madoc," the blond one called, "are you alright?" "I'm just fine," came the irritated reply. "Damon is here and he's ready to go. Lower the rope." The redhead who'd tied up the tree tossed the free end down and into the gaping hole in the rock, and a weight tugged at the roots of it. With the weight of the man climbing, there was a slight strain on its trunk, but the tree was strong and healthy, and no one man would be able to pull it down. As the climber reached the top, the blond and the dark-haired man reached to pull him up. The two took him aside, and one more a weight could be felt on the rope. The long-haired man took the climber off to the side. Suddenly, the climber pushed the dark man down and ran around the sinkhole. He punched the redhead on the way by. As he came back around to where the rope was, a blade appeared in his hand and he slashed the rope. The tree got jerked as fibres snapped. The blond gave up the chase and grabbed the rope below the break. The redhead came over to help. The climber threw the blade away and started climbing down the cliffside. The long-haired man had recovered and started after him. When the second climber was finally hauled up, the three remaining men took to the cliff and followed the first two. The tree remained, with the discarded rope still tied to it, and stood as it always had, as though nothing interesting had happened. Damon and Bastian had a good head start, but Lennox was experienced in climbing, and Thom even more so. The irregularity of a cliff face was a new challenge, though. Stone buildings were much more regular. Damon was moving fast and looked up to his pursuers constantly. Seeing Thom descend so quickly toward him made him panic. Lennox had never seen Damon afraid before. He was always a one to charge in against the guards, but now he was running scared. He couldn't imagine what could have affected him like that. Thom got to Damon's level and passed him. Lennox moved beside the robber, a safe distance away. "Yeh best leave me be, Lenny! I'll throw yeh off this mountain! I mean it!" Seeing Damon so desperate took all of the impact out of the threat. He couldn't see Damon doing it with his love and his friends closing in on him. Damon just seemed... pitiful. Thom was under Damon now, and watching where the Marauder was putting his feet. He could try to step on Thom's fingers, but he risked losing his footing, and Thom had much more confidence. Damon would be more likely to fall, and he clearly did not want to die. The bandit was surrounded. Nobody moved. Damon looked at the people around him, then at where he could possibly go. "We have you, Damon. Climb back to the top," Bastian ordered. Damon still did not budge. Lennox could see sweat on his brow. Something had to happen. They couldn't hang on to the cliff face for too long. "Damon," he repeated, "hanging there isn't going to save you, and we're not going to move until you do." The last Marauder's mouth was open in a grimace of pain. He seemed unable even to speak. Bastian approached him. He edged nearer on the side opposite Lennox. He laid a hand on Damon's far shoulder. "Bastian," Thom called, "what are you doing?" The mage climbed onto the bandit's back. Damon looked up and around, but was afraid to move. Lennox was seeing ahead. If he's hanging off his body when he disappears.... "Bastian!" Lennox yelled. The mage laid his hand down on the Marauder's other wrist, ending their mission. He was left clutching empty air. Madoc could only watch helplessly as Bastian tipped slowly backwards and off the cliff. Thom pressed himself to the rock so Bastian wouldn't necessarily pull him down with him. Lennox wasted no time. He dove off the top of the mountain. He had started from a great height, but he was falling very fast. The distance to the ground was shrinking very rapidly. The trip would last only a few seconds, even when one is not trying to understand what's happening. Lennox kept himself in a dive pose, trying to catch up to his lover. Bastian was falling back first, staring up at him. The redhead grabbed Bastian as they collided. "Fly me!" he yelled. Lennox aimed them upwards and they cleared the tops of the trees below. Bastian was levitating Lennox, as he had the other night, and Lennox carried Bastian in his arms. He gripped Bastian tighter, wrapping his legs around his hips while hanging on to his chest. He cheered as they flew through the air. This was the feeling he'd wanted in the forest: to fly for real, and he had the man he knew he loved with him. "Lennox, how did you know...?" "It's like a witch with a broomstick, I think," he replied. "You're making me fly, but I'm lugging your weight. I thought of it a couple of days ago, but I never remembered to tell you about it." Lennox steered them back to Mt. Silpin, where Sir Madoc and Thom had climbed back to the top and were waiting. Their landing was a little clumsy: Lennox dropped onto Bastian's back when Bastian ceased the spell. Their friends helped them to their feet. Lennox and Bastian hugged and kissed each other. "Thank you for saving me," Bastian whispered. "Kraid's Marauders are all gone now. Thank you for saving me." The mood was light as the four headed back to Aragon to give their reports. They made camp early since they were no longer in a rush. "You're a hero, you know, Lennox," Thom was saying. "I'm not," came the reply. "But you are, leaping off the mountain like you did to save Bastian. You couldn't know you'd be able to carry him. If that's not being a hero, then I don't know what is." Lennox just blushed and stayed quiet. "There's sure to be a legend or two written about this. The end of the Marauders, brought about by a team of four men--" Thom paraded around the campsite presenting each of them to an unseen audience as he described them, "the powerful mage, who dealt fire to the enemy; the mysterious redhead with unknown powers; the handsome High Guardsman, the youngest in history; and the former Dark Rogue, with no innocent man's blood on his hands!" Lennox smiled at Sir Madoc as the knight tended to the fire. The word innocent was a new addition. "Of course," he continued, "they'll have to leave out all the best parts." Thom raised Madoc's shirttail and pinched him. The knight straightened up with a yelp. Bastian and Lennox laughed. Thom suddenly grew serious. "Can we talk in private a moment, Madoc?" The guard nodded. "In private, hmm?" Lennox said, grinning. Thom smiled back and Bastian chuckled. Lennox hugged him and curled up around him as the other two left. They walked through the field and into forest cover, out of earshot. Thom held Madoc, kissed him, and laid his head on his shoulder. "How did you hurt yourself?" he asked. "What do you mean?" Madoc said. Thom waved the flap of tunic covering Madoc's backside. "I lifted this just now and saw that you don't have your smallclothes on anymore, and there's a stain that could be something else, but I'm pretty sure is blood." Madoc looked pained. "Did something happen with Damon?" The knight explained about the wrestling match. "Damon wasn't satisfied with that outcome. He came after me again. We ended up on the ground with him on top of me, and he...." Thom held his partner close. "I told him to," Madoc finished. "You said what?" The former thief looked him in the eye. "I'm sure he was going to anyway, so I chose before he could take the choice away." "Oh, Madoc," Thom said, head over Madoc's shoulder, "why do you put yourself in these situations?" Thom rocked Madoc back and forth. "How are you doing?" "I'm well." "I'll tell you this: you'd better not do anything as bloody stupid as Bastian did this afternoon, because I wouldn't dive after you." "You wouldn't?" "Hell, no. I can't fly. Someone has to be there to bury your body and waste away at your graveside. So don't do it, alright?" "Alright," Madoc said, tears in his eyes. "Thank you. Now let's go back and let Sir Bastian have a look at you." "Alright," he said meekly. Thom kissed his partner deeply. "I still love you, Madoc, heart and soul, and I think I always will, whatever you do." "I love you, too, Thom." They walked back to camp together, while Thom tried to figure out how to get Madoc healed without having to tell Bastian why. The Greypoint Road had fallen into disuse over the last few years. No one had wanted to use the rough road, with its rocky foothills on one side and dense forest on the other, because the Marauders had liked to keep an eye on it. `Perhaps now,' Thom thought as they took this route back to Castle Cal-Dragan, `people will start travelling it again.' They'd done it. King Dunstan had set for them a task that most people, themselves included, thought would get them neatly and conveniently killed. Bastian and Madoc had both said that if killing Thom had been the real point, there were far easier ways to do it. Thom still trusted his instincts, though. He wondered how the King would react when they returned triumphant. He suspected he would find a similarly daunting or impossible task for them, and continue until the inevitable happened. In one sense, this was what became of all the High Guard; none ever retired. The only difference would be that no tears would be shed at Thom's demise. The former thief could accept this. He was still doing what he had set out to do: to right wrongs. Removing the threat of a Marauder attack from anyone who would travel through the Greypoint Mountains, or work a farm they might raid for food, was a far greater change than any theft he'd committed. He rode with his comrades into the city with a quiet confidence, secure in the knowledge that he'd done well, whatever the Crown might do or say. Lennox and the others arrived in midmorning and the streets were full of people. The business of the largest city in Aragon was being conducted and the redhead caught himself gawking like a farm hand. He'd lived in cities before, but the capital was enormous. From the time they'd entered the city gates to the time they'd reached Dragon's Keep, Lennox had seen more stores, more horses, more alleys and more people than he'd seen in a day in Janusport or Karelia. Lennox was installed in the guest chambers where witnesses were protected. Bastian stayed with him. "Don't you have to go and talk with Calder?" he asked. "Yes, but it can wait. He can sense when I am here, and thus he knows I truly do have my magic still. I think he can guess who was responsible for that," Bastian said, smiling. "Am I going to see him as well?" "I'm not sure yet. He knows about you through your mental communication with him. That means that he is bound by honor not to reveal what he found out that way." Bastian described Calder's ability to read the thoughts of those around him. "He could probably break the kingdom with the secrets he knows. That's why the vow is so important. "While we are on the subject of who knows what about whom, there is something I would discuss with you." This sounded serious. Lennox paid close attention. "I am most grateful for the fact that you returned my magick to me. I will be indebted to you forever for that. The Council of Mages, however, will want to know how I did it. "The Council...." Bastian paused, considering how best to describe them. "They and I do not get along well. Our political stances are quite incompatible. That's all I really need to say for now. "They are interested in improving our collective magical knowledge, and they will demand to know how I got my powers back. I have no option but to tell them the truth, about you and what you can do." Bastian licked his lips. "This is a warning. Right now, my strongest wards are up, and even Calder cannot read my mind, or yours. We should start teaching you how to discipline your mind so as to keep your thoughts from straying. What I am about to tell you is a dangerous thought to have. "They will try to manipulate you. They will try to use your gift to their ends, and they will try to separate us." Lennox's eyes were wide and he was sitting stiffly. "Take this," the mage said. He held out a green stone in a gold setting on a chain. It was glowing brightly. "It will tell you if there are any people nearby with magic. The brighter the stone gets, the more powerful the mage. If that is glowing, try not to let anybody touch you. The Council will want to know if what I tell them is so. They will want to see for themselves." Lennox took the amulet and looked into the jewel. "It's happening again. People are going to be looking for me again, and this time, I'll know they are." Bastian brushed Lennox's cheek. "I did not want to get you involved in this. I'm very sorry that I have to. I will do everything in my power to help you. But there is one decision you must make. "Once I find out what my next assignment is, I will know whether it will be practical for you to accompany me or not. You must decide whether you will come." "Of course, I'll come," Lennox began. "Do not decide so quickly. Listen to the consequences of that choice. Right now, only you, Thom, Madoc, and I can tell the Council about you. Calder Grimes is bound to silence until he sees you. The Council does not know where you are or what you look like. They cannot find you right now. If you come with me wherever I go, they will be able to follow you even when I am not there. It will be as though the Marauders are chasing you again, and I cannot guarantee that I will be there to protect you. If the Council calls me home, I must go, and you must not. Until I returned, you would have to be in hiding." Lennox was trembling. "What would they do?" "They would most likely experiment with you to see what you do. You would not be harmed, I can tell you, but once they learn your secrets you would be put to use. They have... plans. I don't know much about them. I only know they want power - political power. You would be useful to them. Once you were under their control, I do not believe you would be given the choice not to go along with them." Lennox sighed heavily. He had thought his troubles were over. "Do I have time to think about this?" "Some. Once I have my assignment, time will be short." "I don't have much, then." "Would you like me to leave you to consider?" Lennox hugged Bastian tight. "No. For now, I know I want to stay with you." Thom was suspicious. When he and Sir Madoc had come to put the Dark Rogue on trial, he had been left in a room with four guards while the King decided his fate. This room was full of guards. It seemed as though every member of the palace guard, and every knight who was anywhere nearby had been rounded up. The large throne room had a large balcony above, overlooking it. Ordinarily, archers and crossbowmen would take their posts there. Today, they were on the main floor along with everyone else. Thom presumed the many rows of armed warriors surrounding him could take care of any trouble. There was only one person in the room who wasn't wearing the dragon tabard: the King himself. King Dunstan sat in his usual place on the dais. His face was no less serious than it had been when he had been trying cases and Thom had first laid eyes on him. Sir Rhys, the bulldog-faced leader of all the guards, stood to the King's right, but closer to floor level. It would not do to have anyone's head higher than the king's. Thom could not help but notice the large, nasty broadsword hanging from his belt. The hilt alone looked to be ten pounds of gold and precious stones, in his expert estimation. "Sir Madoc of Fieldgate," the King said. Madoc stepped forward and bowed. "You have impressed me once again. I called upon you and your comrades to bring Kraid and his men to justice, and I saw those very men hang from my gallows these past three weeks. Have you anything in particular to report?" "No, sire. All the details will be in my report to Sir Rhys, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I would just say, Your Majesty, that the help I received from Sir Bastian and from my partner was crucial. "Yes," King Dunstan said, with a hint of a smile. "Thom At-the-Well, step forward." He did so, and bowed nervously. "I will look forward to hearing how you helped out on this mission. I feel I may learn something. "You have performed well, Thom, where I was not certain you would perform at all. We have already heard that you yourself dispatched Kraid to save an Annisport city guard. That alone is enough to convince me that you are deserving. Stand before me, Thom At-the-Well, and kneel." As Thom approached the dais and bent down, he heard much movement behind him. He dared not look, but he was certain that the other knights in the room were all kneeling before the King. Thom saw Sir Rhys draw the monster of a sword and hand it to King Dunstan. He put his head down. Sir Rhys said, "Repeat after me, Thom: I pledge my life, soul, and body to the Crown." The words stuck in Thom's throat, but he forced them out. "I - I pledge my life, soul, and body to the Crown." "No force on this plane, or any other, will stay me from my duty." As he recited, Thom felt the flat of the sword point tap him on each shoulder, twice. He still could not believe it wasn't trying to pass through his neck. "I will be a Knight of the Realm, forthright and true." After Thom finished, he heard a thunderous, "forthright and true," from the assembly behind him. Oh, gods, he was being knighted. The King said, "None but the Brethren of the Guard know the Knight's Oath. Arise, Sir Thom, Knight-Errant of the Realm." "All hail Sir Thom," cried Sir Rhys. "Hail!" came the reply. Thom wanted to weep. They had accepted him, after all. He hadn't realized how important it had been until then. He shakily got to his feet. "Sir Thom, Sir Madoc, I would see you in private momentarily. Then I understand that the Guard have rituals of their own, and even I don't know the details." "All rise," commanded Sir Rhys. "You are dismissed," said the King before being escorted through the door to the Private Throne Room. The new knight made his way over to the door, receiving handshakes and pats on the back from the others. A man he recognized said, "Welcome, brother." It was Sir Fergus, who had angered him during his training. When Thom followed Madoc into the empty corridor, he was picked up as soon as it was closed. Sir Madoc kissed him and spun him around. He crushed Thom's body to his own and his tongue filled his mouth. After he set Thom down again, he said, "I am so proud of you." "Madoc, I thought I was a knight all along." "Only in duty. The King wanted to be sure of your intentions first." "You knew?" Madoc nodded. "I thought it would be better that you didn't know. You said that you didn't feel like you belonged and I thought telling you would make it worse." "But Dorian called me--" Then Thom thought, but why would Dorian know any better? Madoc, Bastian, Sir Rhys, Dunstan, none of them had ever called him "Sir Thom", only Dorian, and other civilians who had made the same assumption he had. "Are you angry?" Thom paused. "No. I suppose that was sensible. I'm glad you didn't tell me. I don't think I could have done this if I hadn't thought I was truly a knight." "Come, we shouldn't keep the King waiting." They knocked on the door to King Dunstan's inner chamber, and Sir Rhys bade them enter. Madoc kneeled immediately upon entering, and Thom followed a second behind him. "Rise, goodknights," said the King. They stood and approached the monarch once more. "I am forced to admit, I expected less from you, Sir Thom, when I sent the two of you out to capture the Marauders. I was aware of your crimes, but less so of the legends that go with them. For the most part, they tend to be inaccurate, but comparing them to any record we have of the Dark Rogue's crimes, it seems they are to be believed." The King was smiling openly. "You act a moral man, even in theft. I misjudged you greatly. My only hope is that you will continue to serve as nobly as you did in this assignment." Thom wasn't sure, but thought that this was as close to an apology as a king ever got. "For the time being, you are free to travel where you may, as representatives of the Crown. If ever we should find an assignment calling for your particular talents, Sir Thom, Sir Madoc, you will be notified and you will return straight here, whatever you may be doing. If you are investigating a crime, find a local authority and come at once. Is that clear?" "Yes, Your Majesty," they said. "Good. Dismissed." Thom could only stare with his jaw open. "Sir Thom, were you expecting something else? We are on the same side now. You are serving your sentence, but it need not be a death sentence. Have faith." "Y-yes, sire," he stammered. The king dismissed them again, and Thom managed to make it back into the corridor before the tears really did start to flow.

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