Arc 1: Chapter 35: The Headsman’s Mien
Once the ghouls had retreated into the mist encircling the chapel hill, I closed my eyes and made myself breathe. I mediated on my vows. Not just the ones I’d made to that elf tree, but those I’d sworn to my queen as well. The ones that’d made me a knight before I’d been wrapped up in all this horror and myth.
I knew Catrin watched me, but she’d seen this before. She didn’t interfere, or get too close and risk getting hurt. After several minutes, I had the fire under control.
When I opened my eyes, I turned to the dhampir and spoke in a soft voice. “I thought you’d betrayed me.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “No way I was going to stall all those marrow eaters on my own, big man. I knew you could handle yourself. Just needed to pick my moment.”
She glanced at me, then at the corpses, then back to her blade. In a hesitant tone she said, “I did consider abandoning you. If the Mistwalkers thought you dealt with, it might have given me my shot at the baron.” She blew a stray lock of brown hair out of her eyes. “But I figured my chances were better with you alive, so I stuck around.”
Catrin reclined against the edge of the old fence lining one part of the church yard. Edgar, or perhaps Micah, had kept a little garden there. It would go untended now, and already ivy crept from its bounds. She had one ankle crossed beneath her long skirts, an elbow propped on the fence.
The image of casual indifference. Her eyes were on her elven blade, distant and aloof.
Her mask cracked when I went down on one knee at her side, that neutrality scattering into shock.
“Hey, big man, what are you…” A nervous laugh escaped Catrin’s lips. “I’m flattered, really, but it’s just so sudden!”
“I owe you an apology,” I said, ignoring her jest. I bowed my head, just as I might have done before a great lady in the court of a High House. “I’ve treated you with suspicion and distrust this entire time. Twice I nearly attacked you, and my words and thoughts have been… unkind.”
I lifted my face to meet her gaze. “You’ve saved my life twice. Even if you hadn’t, my behavior was not worthy. Please, forgive me.”