Chapitre Treize

Connais Ton Ennemi

Magnus

Magnus' mare kept pace with his prey.

The stag was in his sights. Such a beautiful creature, with such magnificent antlers. He almost hated to take the shot. Was it truly worth it to end the life of a creature so beautiful for the trophy he could mount on his wall?

Be a man. His father's words repeated in his head. Yes, he was a man. Thus, he would compete and gain the trophies to show for it.

The shot fired. The blast of his pistol echoed off the trees. Birds and squirrels scattered.

He'd missed. It was always so much harder to fire from horseback like this, which was why he was a musketeer rather than a cavalier.

Leon chuckled as he rode up beside Magnus. "Looks like that one got away from you."

"It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't kill anything today," said Magnus as he reloaded his pistol. "Not that I mind. For me, it's about the hunt, not the kill."

"I imagine you do more than enough killing," said Leon, still grinning.

"Killing barbarians is always far easier than killing animals," said Magnus. "The fear you feel as a barbarian charges at you with his blade brandished high. All the while you listen carefully for your commanding officer's order. You aim your musket and you wait. The savages draw closer and closer. You begin to wonder; how much longer is your commander going to wait? Will he wait until the barbarians have already attacked you? But you trust his judgment.

"Then you hear it, the command to fire. You pull the trigger, and what follows is the sound of roaring thunder. As if lightning struck thousands of times in the same second. Then, before you, the barbarians fall dead, and the only ones left standing are so wounded that you make short work of them with your bayonet."

Magnus loved the look of wonder on Leon's face every time he told these stories. If he was being truthful, however, they'd sound far less glorious. In the moments before firing a volley at a barbarian horde he heard his fellow soldiers cry. Others begged Lyr to deliver them from death and danger. He himself only felt relief as the barbarians fell, not the joy he portrayed to Leon.

But a good story was a good story, even if it wasn't completely true.

"How is that possibly easier than killing a beast?" Leon said, gaping.

Magnus laughed, "Either way you're killing a beast, but at least one runs right into your cross hairs for you!"

Both erupted in laughter.

"Oh, listen to me ramble on," said Magnus, giving his own forehead a light slap. "I'm sure you have some fascinating stories of your own now! How was it? You were in prison with the dregs of humanity, then put on trial for a murder you did not commit. I'm sure you have something interesting to tell. Did you witness any fights in the jail? Did you fight anyone?"

Leon shrugged. "I'm afraid prison wasn't terribly exciting. Sure, I was afraid, but not because of my fellow prisoners. The air in that prison was miasmic; I was sure I would catch some terrible disease if I stayed too long. Thankfully, my father's physicians say I'm healthy as can be."

"Good!" Magnus sighed in relief. "I was terrified when I heard the news that Corina had died and you were accused of her murder! I knew it had to be a mistake."

"Hence you absolutely had to testify at the trial."

"I did." Magnus bit his lip and nodded. "They were all calling you a murderer. I had to let them know you'd never murder anyone. It's just not who you are. It must have been some sort of miracle that the real killer came forward like that."

Leon laughed out loud. Magnus' horse startled a bit at the sudden sound, but Magnus pulled on the reins to keep her steady. "Oh, Magnus... to see the world the way you do..."

Magnus gave him a confused look. "I don't understand."

"That wasn't the real killer." Leon held his chest. After laughing so hard his ribs must have hurt. "He was a killer, though. My father's doing. Even the innocent must play Le Jeu Fatal if they wish to survive, it seems."

"An innocent man hanged for Corina's murder?" Magnus' brow furrowed and his lips turned down in a scowl. "I don't find that funny at all, Leon."

"He wasn't innocent," said Leon, though his tone suggested he was still trying to convince himself too. "Come now, you heard me. I said he was a murderer, even if that wasn't the murder he committed."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Justice has not been done here! The real murderer is still at large, and the police aren't looking for him anymore!"

"The police aren't," said Leon. He raised a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun as he glanced around the forest for any sign of another deer. "But my father's agents have been looking into it."

"Oh?" said Magnus. He too scanned the area for signs of a new target. "Have they found anything?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, they have." The smile disappeared from Leon's face, and he crossed his arms. It took Magnus a moment to notice, but Leon was clearly pointing his pistol at him under his arm. "Your father hired the real assassin."

Anyone watching the scene from a distance would not be able to see it, no one would be able to do anything before a shot was fired. Magnus felt his whole body go cold.

"What are you talking about?" Magnus didn't take his eyes off the pistol for a second. His own pistol was pointing in the wrong direction. Were he to move it to aim he would certainly be gunned down.

"Are you really going to claim you had no idea?" Leon's face screwed up in disgust. His nostrils flared and his brow cast a dark shadow over his eyes. His teeth were so tightly clenched that Magnus could swear they were about to crack.

"I... There must be some kind of mistake!" said Magnus. He let go of his pistol started to raise his hands.

"Hands down!" Leon hissed. "Keep your damn hands down on the saddle!"

Magnus dropped both hands to in front of his lap. "Fine!" Leon was more astute than Magnus anticipated. He'd intended for that to be a signal that he was in danger. "Then you know. My father's agents are watching, even now. If you fire that gun they'll kill you. Think on that before you do something rash."

"I know that," said Leon, a smirk coming across his face. "My father's agents are here too. Out here in the woods we could have a bloodbath with dozens dead and none would hear of it."

"Don't do this!" Magnus clutched tightly his horse's reins. "You may be furious with me because of whatever lies Fitzroy's told you, but don't throw your own life away."

"Fitzroy's not a liar," said Leon. "He's fiercely loyal to my father. He would never betray us."

"But you think I would?" Magnus shrank down in his saddle. "Leon, I hold you in my heart of hearts! I would never--"

"Shut up!"

"Leon--"

"I said shut your damn mouth! I trusted you with so much, and you betrayed me! The night of my father's masquerade ball, when I was very nearly assassinated, you and your family were conspicuously absent, despite your invitation. Then I told you about how my father wanted to arrange my marriage to Corina. First you tried to talk me out of it. Then, when talk failed, an assassin murdered Corina and left me to take the fall."

"You're not thinking clearly, Leon!" Magnus did not turn his head, but his eyes searched for a possible escape route. "If I wished you ill why would I have testified on your behalf at the trial?"

"You told them I didn't want to marry Corina," said Leon. "Hardly testimony that helped prove my innocence."

"You cannot know how hurt I am!" Tears streamed from Magnus' eyes and he bit his lip. "That you would accuse me of such a betrayal... I value our friendship more than anything in the world! You don't understand the love I feel. Leon, I dream of finding a woman that is half the companion you are."

"Stop your blubbering!" Leon shouted. That was sure to get his father's agents' attention. "Crying as if you're hurt? You're a damned coward! You're only crying because you were caught!"

"Is that what you truly think of me?" Magnus reached for his handkerchief to wipe his face, but Leon shook his head at him, so he returned his hands to the reins. "Fine! If you think me a traitor then pull the trigger, but know that as I die you too shall soon follow. I'm a soldier, Leon. I've been ready to die for years. Are you?"

Leon unclicked the hammer of his pistol and returned it to its holster. "No, Magnus. As you said, I am not a murderer." Leon pulled on the middle finger of his riding glove, slipping it off.

Magnus sighed in relief. "Thank you! I'll prove myself loyal! I have always been your friend, Leon! You've got to believe--"

Leon's leather riding glove struck Magnus' face, cutting off his sentence.

As the glove fell into Magnus' lap, Leon said, "I challenge you to a duel. Choose your terms."

"A duel? Really?"

"Choose your terms!" Leon repeated.

There was no way out of this. Nothing Magnus could say would dissuade Leon from this course of action. And Leon knew that Magnus was a soldier, far too honorable to back down from a challenge.

"We will fight with sabers," said Magnus. "Two weeks from now we will duel in the capital, before the gates of the Imperial Palace."

"Sounds reasonable," said Leon. "Very well. I will see you again in two weeks." Leon spurred his horse and galloped away, leaving Magnus behind in silence. Only his own breathing and the pounding in his head filled that void.

With a heavy heart, Magnus returned to the hunting lodge. Outside, he could see his older brother, Marc, skinning and gutting a boar. Marc's forearms were covered to the elbows in blood, and he'd removed his shirt so as not to stain it.

"Why isn't your friend with you?" Marc asked, wiping sweat from his forehead with the inside of his bicep. Blood dripped from his hand onto the patch covering where his left eye used to be.

"He left." Magnus hesitated a moment, then said, "He knows of Father's involvement in Corina's murder. Worse... he knows I've been spying on the Renart family through him."

"He told you all of this?" Marc peeled off part of the boar's thick hide and set it aside. "He's worse at the game than I thought."

"He challenged me to a duel," said Magnus.

Marc stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. "And... what are the terms of this duel?"

"It's to be fought with sabers two weeks from now in front of the Imperial Palace."

Marc chuckled. "That will ensure that Duke Renart doesn't attempt to cheat on his son's behalf."

"How can you just laugh about this?" Magnus rushed over to Marc, knocked the skinning knife from his hand, and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Leon is my best friend, and now he's doomed to die!"

Marc rolled his eye at Magnus. "Let go, Maggie."

Magnus' fists clenched tighter at the sound of his old nickname.

"You love your friend, yes?" Marc asked. "Well, you love Father too, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" said Magnus.

"Alright. Well, you have to decide who you love more." Magnus released Marc and stepped back. Marc picked up his skinning knife, cleaned the dirt and grass off it, and stuck it into the boar's side. "Duke Loup wants the Renart family to fall. He's said it's the only way he'll forgive Father's debt, and you know what he does to those who fail to pay off their debts."

"I do... but..."

"But nothing! Decide. Decide right now. Who dies? Leon or Father?"

"It's not that--"

"It is that simple!" Marc crossed his arms, smearing boar's blood on his chest. "Until the Renart family has been annihilated our father's debt to Duke Loup stands; he basically owns us. At any given time he could have our whole family thrown into debtor's prison, but knowing him the bandit lords in his pocket will do far worse."

Magnus sighed and rubbed his forehead with two fingers. "There's really no other way, is there?"

"No, there isn't."

"Leon is a good man... he doesn't deserve this..."

"He's virtuous, yes," said Marc. "But, from what you've told me, he's a dead man anyway. He's so atrociously bad at the game that he's bound to die soon enough. At least now, thanks to you, he can die with some honor rather than by an assassin's blade."

"Or poison," said Magnus. "I just can't believe we're really doing this..."

"Tell me, are you so naïve as to assume that every barbarian we kill on the battlefield has a black heart?"

"Well... no..."

"Sure, some of them are nothing but vicious, raging animals, but some are as virtuous as your friend. You've killed a Leon plenty of times, you just didn't know it. When you think about it that way, there's nothing special about this Leon."

"That doesn't really justify it... I've betrayed his trust; is anything more sacrilegious than that?"

Marc placed a bloody hand on Magnus' shoulder, staining his coat. "You earned his trust with stories of war, and all your talk about how it's better to know your enemy. Well, now he knows his enemy. He'll get to be the warrior he always dreamed of being."