Chapter 28: Welcome Back

The Holy Champion rode a white horse, of course, and it was majestic and pure, without a single blemish on it, and its mane was combed so well it looked like angels had done it. When the sun came up over Reedhollow, the horse glowed just like the Champion.

The village gave the rest of them a cart, a mule, and a donkey. Garrick and Elowen rode in the cart, and Mira took the mule, so Kai was left with the donkey.

Kai stared at the donkey, and the donkey stared back.

"Hi," Kai said, and the donkey immediately bit him.

[Four animals have now bitten you]

"What were the other three?" Kai whispered, rubbing his arm.

[A goose in Millbrook, a rat in the sewers, and Mira]

"Mira didn’t bite me," Kai whispered.

[Yes. She did. While you were sleeping]

Kai looked over at Mira, who was staring at the road ahead with her hood pulled over her head, and her ears were bright red.

"Did you bite me?" Kai asked.

"Get on your donkey," Mira said.

For two days they rode with the Holy Champion out in front, and in every town they passed through, people knelt as he rode by. Farmers knelt in their fields, and old women knelt outside their homes. One man was up on his roof fixing it, and he knelt so hard that he fell right off, so the Champion helped him back up and blessed his ladder before continuing on his way.

Nobody knelt for Kai, although a goat did try to eat his vest.

On the first day, Kai tried to sell a merchant who was traveling with them a lucky stone, which was just a stone he had picked up off the road. He made it about three sentences into his sales pitch before the Holy Champion turned his horse to look at him.

"That is a stone," the Holy Champion said.

"It’s a lucky stone," Kai said.

"Is it?" the Holy Champion asked.

In the cart, Elowen pulled out her sword, and it was glowing, so the merchant rode away.

"You guys are terrible business partners," Kai said.

"Yes," the Holy Champion said.

On the second day, they started to see the posters, and the first one was nailed to a tree next to the road, and then they were on fence posts and barns, and by noon they were everywhere. Every one of them had Kai’s face on it, and every one of them was brand new.

WANTED. KAI MERCER. HERETIC. MONSTER LORD.

DESTROYED IRONWATCH FORTRESS. UNLEASHED A BEAST UPON THE RIVER.

STOLE THE KNIGHTS OF LORD CASTOR DRAVEN.

REWARD: ONE THOUSAND GOLD.

Kai ripped one of the posters off a fence post and stared at it.

"I didn’t destroy the fortress," Kai said. "I destroyed a table."

"A floor," Garrick said.

"A floor," Kai said.

"He did not steal the knights," Elowen said. "They jumped into the river."

"They said nah," Mira said.

"One thousand gold," Kai said, sounding impressed. "My last one was only two hundred."

[Your status is increasing]

Mira took the poster out of Kai’s hand, crumpled it up, and tossed it to the donkey, and the donkey ate it.

"Draven beat us here," Mira said softly. "Brekk was right."

Up ahead, the Holy Champion had stopped his horse in front of another poster on a tree, and he stared at it for a long time.

"That is not true," the Holy Champion said.

"Correct," Kai said.

"He lied, and he put his name on it," the Holy Champion said carefully, as if the words felt strange in his mouth. Then he took the poster down and placed it in his saddlebag, and he didn’t speak again, but he began to ride a little faster.

By the time they got to the city, it was beginning to get dark.

Kai remembered the walls, and he remembered the gate. He remembered running through it with a stolen robe on his back and a slave over his shoulder, beating on his back the whole way. None of it felt like his own memory anymore.

Crowds of merchants, farmers, and soldiers with carts were trying to get through the gate, and when they saw the Holy Champion, they all parted to let him pass. Many of them knelt, some of them were crying, and one woman lifted her child up for the Champion to bless. Then they saw who was riding behind him, and they all went silent.

"That’s him," someone whispered.

"The heretic," someone else said.

"The monster lord!" another voice shouted.

More people began to whisper, and someone threw an apple at Kai, and it missed and hit the donkey, which bit the nearest person it could reach.

[That is five bites I have recorded]

"Can you stop talking about biting?" Kai whispered.

[I am learning about this world]

Kai kept his head down, Mira pulled her hood lower, and Garrick sat up tall in the cart with his hand on his hammer. Then a voice yelled out from the crowd.

"THAT’S MY MAN!"

Kai looked up and saw the fish woman standing with her arms crossed and a basket of fish on her hip, smiling at Kai with every one of her missing teeth.

"You came back for me!" the fish woman yelled.

"I didn’t come back for you," Kai said.

"He came back for me!" the fish woman told the person next to her.

[Your first lead has returned. Interest level: very high]

The guards at the gate stepped out to block the cart’s path, and when Kai looked at the guard in front, he felt sick. It was the big guy with the beard, and when he looked at Kai, his eyes went wide.

"YOU," the big guard said.

"Hey," Kai said.

"I want my cabbage cart back!" the big guard yelled.

"That’s fair," Kai said.

The Holy Champion turned his horse around, and the big guard dropped to his knees.

"Holy Champion," the big guard said. "This man is a heretic. He showed up in an alley with no clothes on and ran away from me, and then he bought a slave with rocks. I’ve been chasing him for weeks."

"I know," the Holy Champion said. "He is under arrest. I am taking him to the Cathedral."

The big guard looked at Kai, then back at the Holy Champion, and a huge grin spread across his face.

"Finally," the big guard said.

They rode through the gate and into the city.

The Cathedral of the Radiant Mother sat at the highest point of the city, where you could see it from anywhere. It was massive, made of white stone with gold accents, with towers that reached into the sky and a golden sun over the doors that looked like it was burning in the sunset.

The closer they got, the quieter Syraphim became, and by the time they reached the stairs, she was silent. Kai could feel her curled up in a tiny ball at the back of his mind.

"Hey," Kai whispered. "Are you okay?"

[I can feel her. The High Priestess. She is trying to find me]

The huge doors to the Cathedral swung open.

It was the largest room Kai had ever seen, with benches that went on for what looked like miles, statues of the Radiant Mother lining both walls with suns cradled in their hands, and candles burning everywhere. The whole room smelled of incense and gold.

At the far end of the room, a woman stood at the top of a staircase, probably in her sixties, with white hair that reached her waist, robes of white and gold, and a golden sun hanging around her neck. She didn’t glow like the Champion did, but every eye in the room was on her, so she didn’t have to.

She looked directly at Kai, right at the center of his chest, where Syraphim was hiding.

"So," the High Priestess said, and her voice echoed throughout the Cathedral. "This is the man who stole the Mother’s gift."

"Borrowed," Kai said. "Technically, she stole me."

No one in the entire Cathedral laughed.

The Holy Champion stepped forward and bowed low.

"High Priestess," the Holy Champion said. "I have brought this man to you as you asked. The Inquisitor found him to be truthful. He did not steal the gift. It simply found him."

"Then we will correct the mistake," the High Priestess said.

A man stepped out from behind one of the statues. He wore a gray coat with silver threading, his silver hair was slicked back, and he had rings on almost every finger and a brand-new pair of shoes.

"Mr. Mercer," Lord Castor Draven said with a grin. "Welcome back to the city."

Mira froze next to Kai, Garrick’s hand tightened on his hammer, and Elowen drew her sword.

"Lord Draven has been very helpful to our Cathedral," the High Priestess said. "He has told us everything about this heretic, the monster, and the stolen gift." She held up one finger and pointed it at Kai’s chest. "Now, let us see the Mother’s gift."

Light began to build around her finger, and Kai felt something pull. Something was being yanked out of his chest, as if there were a hook buried inside him and someone was pulling on the string.

Kai fell to his knees on the cold stone floor.

[Kai] Syraphim said, and her voice was shaking. [Kai, she is pulling me out]