He had never considered telling the truth to Jarlath. At that time in his life he was crazed, dead inside, wondering the streets wild and half mad. He’d taken the address of from an informative blacksmith who told him where he could find a family with the name he sought. He’d sent men there instead of going himself, giving the orders to do whatever was necessary to persuade them to talk.
Mother, father, two daughters. The men reported that the father fought them, trying to protect his family, and was killed. The daughters escaped during the struggle, and their mother had fallen to her knees trying to get away as well, they had brought her with them, telling Ignatius that she was in labor, much to their dismay.
“What did you learn?” he asked. Surely out of the mess they had made, they had been able to gain a morsel of direction, something useful.
“Nothing, we were not able to subdue the cad before he’d rushed himself into my sword, after that the mother fell from the stairway, she’s in the sitting room presently, being attended to by the doctor” he shook his head “… little children were gone by the time we were able to chase them. Two girls, very small. Never was able to tell their age. I was thinking that we could..” he started but Ignatius slapped him across the face.
“Thinking?! You were thinking?!? HA! If you had been thinking then you would have brought me something I could use, something besides this trail of excuses” he put his face next to the mans cheek and whispered in his ear “..lame men are put out of their misery, housed on the edges of towns in houses with the cripples and poor, limping and starving, wallowing in filth and disease, you sir, did NOT do as you were paid well to do” he pulled away and looked him in the eye.
“Ignatius, I brought you the woman.. She is able.. “ he stuttered, his hands clenching, face reflecting fear.
“SILENCE! No more from you, I will see what her abilities are, you stay put” he stalked out of the room and down the corridor to the sitting room.
In the sitting room he could see a woman laying still as if she were sleeping, the doctors back was turned , his hands working with something Ignatius could not see. Then he heard the cries of a baby, and as the man turned, Ignatius saw the child in the doctors arms.
“She’s gone, and this is what is left” the doctor was covered in crimson, a small fleshy babe in his arms wrapped tight in a blanket.
“She took quite a fall, was bleeding in her stomach and drown in it. This child is lucky to be alive..” the doctor looked down on the infant and back to Ignatius.
“You should have left them both to die” Ignatius told him, walking over to the window.
“Lord Casimir, when I joined you years ago I told you that I would offer my services for payment but I would never take a man’s life. That includes all lives, women and children. That may be your business, but it is not my own. If you are finished with me, I must be getting home to my wife and daughter” he held the child out, hesitantly , standing to the right of the man who was gazing out the window.
Dismissing the child with a shake of his head he told the doctor “Take him to the kitchen, tell the cook to look after him while I attend to somethings, be back by morning, I will need you to look him over again” he pivoted and left to address the man he’d left shaking in his office. Before theman could speak, Ignatius pulled out a dagger from his hip sheath and burried it deep into the man’s gut, watching him fall and writhe on the floor. He spit on him and leaned down to whisper “…you brought this on yourself” as he cleaned his blade on his cloak.
Against all the things that told him better, he’d decided on raising the child. He’d never thought it would change him the way it had. He never expected to feel like a father again. He couldn’t have forseen the child falling in love with the doctor’s daughter, that she would help Jarlath uncover Ignatius’s lie.
It was too late to stop what time had set into motion, he should have known.
Ignatius had been building a silent army over the years. The monies in his purse keeping light as he tossed a few coins out for information or to make an unspoken promise of action if need be. It took little curiosity or hope for participation, the money was always enough. They had merely been waiting on him to say when the time was right, when could they get their hands dirty. Three weeks ago or more, when he had noticed the pattern of travel had become focused, that the boy was indeed quickening his pace, he sent word out to every mercenary group he could recall, sounding the siren of apocalypse, leading them here.
Just as he had expected, Jarlath led him right to the castle that now held the last family on his list. In the taverns he’d heard mention of a huge wedding, Geo Viceroy Mortimer’s daughter. He’d been drinking his mead peacefully, keeping his eyes adverted, waiting.
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