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Overview
Paizo Publishing is the award-winning publisher of fantasy role playing games, accessories, and board games. Liane Merciel's Pathfinder Tales: Hellknight is a thrilling addition to their popular novel series.
The Hellknights are a brutal organization of warriors dedicated to maintaining law and order at any cost. For devil-blooded Jheraal, even the harshest methods are justified if it means building a better world for her daughter. Yet when a serial killer starts targeting hellspawn like Jheraal and her child, Jheraal has no choice but to use all her cunning and ruthlessness in order to defeat an ancient enemy to whom even death is no deterrent.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781466847354 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tor Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 04/05/2016 |
| Series: | Pathfinder Tales Series , #32 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 320 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
As a so-called "Army brat," LIANE MERCIEL grew up in Germany, South Korea, and several different parts of the United States. She is an alumnus of Yale University and the College of William&Mary Law School. She now lives in Philadelphia, where she practices law. Liane is the author of two original fantasy novels, The River King's Road and its sequel, Heaven's Needle, and has written both novels and short works for the Pathfinder rpg.
Read an Excerpt
Pathfinder Tales
Hellknight
By Liane Merciel
Tom Doherty Associates
Copyright © 2016 Paizo Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-4735-4
CHAPTER 1
THE SCHOLAR'S MURDER
JHERAAL
Birds cared nothing for murder.
Sweetly they sang from the branches of the fig and lemon trees that wreathed the grounds of Vaneo Celverian, the city manor of proud, ancient House Celverian. Under the elegant tile roofs and gilded balustrades, all might be in panic, but nothing disturbed the birds among their sun-dappled leaves. They sang and sang, bright as joy, while down below, mortal men and women struggled to grasp the enormity of loss.
They'd suffered a staggering one, Jheraal knew. Master Othando Celverian, second and favored son of Lord Abello Celverian, heir to his house and hope of his family's future, had been murdered in the night. Others had been killed, too, but in Cheliax, only one of those deaths really mattered.
Out on the grand lawn, a semicircle of maids, grooms, cooks, and washerwomen in white and gold-slashed blue stood where they'd been turned out for her inspection. Every one of House Celverian's servants was a picture of shock and grief. The younger maids held handkerchiefs to their tear-puffed eyes, while the older servants muttered about what they'd do when they found their master's killer.
Both the sobbing and the plotting died abruptly when Jheraal rode into the servants' view. One did not cry before Hellknights, and one certainly did not conspire to commit crimes. A sullen hush fell over the Celverian household as Jheraal's chestnut destrier trotted across the graveled path, coming to a halt before the chief steward.
He was a tall man, spare and elegant and silver-haired, and although Jheraal was framed against the sun, he looked up into its full glare without blinking. "Sir?"
"I'm here to investigate the murders." Jheraal removed her fearsome, devil-visaged helm, allowing the servants to see her face.
It caused a stir, as she had known it would. House Celverian's people were well trained, and other than a gasp from one of the youngest grooms and a few tightened mouths and half-steps backward, none showed an overt reaction to her appearance. But Jheraal read their shock all the same.
The hellspawn taint ran strong in her. Jheraal's skin was white as snow and covered with fine, soft scales, each one edged with a faint shimmer of copper. A pair of four-inch horns, curved and sharp as a goat's, poked through her bronze-streaked black hair. They fitted into the hollows of the horns in her helm, and had indirectly served as inspiration for the same.
It was not unheard of for the devil-blooded to serve among the Hellknights, but neither was it common. In Cheliax, hellspawn were widely considered to be no part of proper society, and few of them received the training in arms or spellcraft needed to gain acceptance into the Hellknight orders' ranks. Yet here she was, armored in the scarred breastplate and horned helm that marked her as a full Hellknight sworn to the Order of the Scourge.
The chief steward, a consummate professional, tipped his head downward in an extremely correct nod, affording Jheraal precisely the degree of courtesy that her status warranted. "It is our honor. Should we be expecting any of your associates?"
As he spoke, his eyes flicked to the star of bleeding lashes painted on Jheraal's shield. That was the Scourge's sigil, and the steward's unspoken query was clear: Will the Order of the Rack be coming?
It was a delicate question. The Hellknight Order of the Rack, based in Citadel Rivad near Westcrown, was the primary order of Hellknights in the city. Jheraal's order, the Scourge, was less well known and much less strongly represented, which was both advantage and disadvantage: it gave her greater independence, but fewer resources to call upon.
Less currency with the common people, too. As Westcrown had long been troubled by rumblings of dissent, Her Imperial Majestrix, Queen Abrogail Thrune II, had granted the Order of the Rack wide-sweeping authority to detain, question, and even execute suspected rebels in the city.
And although the Order of the Rack held the preservation of peace to be its highest duty, the methods it chose to achieve that duty were not always peaceful. In much of Westcrown, the order had a fearsome reputation. Few Wiscrani were glad to see them coming.
House Celverian, Jheraal recalled, might have more reason than most to be wary where the Order of the Rack was concerned. There had been some trouble with the eldest son, who'd gotten caught up in the idealistic fervor of the young. He hadn't been accused of any serious wrongdoing, and his father's influence had hushed any whiff of scandal, but nevertheless the boy had been sent packing to a crusader's exile in Mendev.
That had been years ago. Well over a decade, in fact. But fear could take a long time dying, and Jheraal couldn't blame the servants of House Celverian for being cautious.
"The Order of the Rack has no part in this investigation," she said. Some of the servants relaxed visibly at her words. Out of long habit, Jheraal noted their faces, as well as those of the servants who didn't blink at all. "The dottari will assist in whatever capacity they can, but they will not send a separate investigator. In this matter, I serve both the throne and my order. All of us wish to see your master's killer brought to justice. You have my condolences for your loss."
"We are grateful for your kindness. I have the honor of being Belvadio, chief steward of this house. Lord Abello Celverian should be arriving late tonight or early tomorrow. In the meantime, the household staff is at your disposal." The chief steward clapped his hands, signaling the end of the assembly. In a flurry of curtseys and bows, the maids, cooks, and house servants dispersed. Jheraal dismounted, and one of the grooms led her horse away. Two servants, a pair of boys who looked no older than fourteen, remained behind at the steward's signal.
"Achio and Tirol were the first to discover the ... the ... what had been done," Belvadio said, clearing his throat. "They found Nappandi, one of our guards, lying in the hedges and came together to wake me a little after midnight. I hastened to wake the young master, and that is when we found him. Master Othando had been murdered in his study, where he was accustomed to read nearly until dawn. There are still two servants unaccounted for. We have not found their bodies, but I fear the worst." The chief steward took a breath, quavering only slightly. "Where would you like to begin?"
"Show it to me as you found it." Jheraal had no reason to doubt the steward's honesty, but if there were any gaps in his story, she expected that it would be easiest to find them by walking alongside Belvadio and seeing whether the evidence matched his words.
"Of course. Please, this way." With a courtly bow, Belvadio led his armored guest through the gardens' fragrant shade toward the honeysuckle-threaded hedges that encircled the vaneo. Overhead, the birds continued their merry, oblivious song.
Although House Celverian's main seat lay in the hinterlands, and its manor in Westcrown was not as grand or expansive as the sprawling estates called vira, it took several minutes for them to reach the bloodstained spot by the walls where Nappandi's body had been found.
There wasn't much blood. Only a few brownish drops, already mostly soaked into the earth, and a patch of crushed clover near the base of the hedges where the body had lain. In the darkness, screened by the dense thorned shrubs, it might have been a long time before anyone noticed a body at night.
Jheraal crouched and looked for tracks that might have been left by the killer, but found none. Either Nappandi's assailant had known how to hide them, or the servants had already trampled out those traces.
She straightened with a clanking of steel and leather. "Your guard kept a regular patrol?"
"Yes. Every hour on the hour. Nappandi was extremely diligent. He would never have missed a round, nor been a minute late on his circuit."
Predictable, then. Easily evaded. The lack of struggle suggested that the killer had never been seen. He could have slipped by if he'd wanted, but instead he'd chosen to kill the guard.
"Was anything taken from his body?" Jheraal asked.
"Yes. A ring of keys. Nappandi had keys to most of the vaneo, other than the master's private rooms and the wine cellar. That was the only thing I could see that was stolen. Do you wish to examine the body?"
"Later. Show me where you went and what you did after you found him."
Belvadio glanced at the two boys behind him. They hung back nervously while Jheraal examined the blood-speckled grass. "After Achio and Tirol told me what they'd found, and I had confirmed with my own eyes that this was no prank, we went together to inform the master. I also sent word to the captain of our household guard that there was a murderer at large in the vaneo."
"How many guards do you have?"
"Four." The steward grimaced, shaking his head. "Three, with Nappandi dead. But none of the others saw whoever did this."
Jheraal nodded. Three household guards were unlikely, in her estimation, to present much difficulty for someone who could kill one of their number so easily and silently. That they had seen nothing meant little. There was no need to insult their honor by saying so, however. "Show me to Master Celverian's study."
"At once." With another neat bow, Belvadio strode toward the manor, the two younger servants trailing him like puppies. A few steps from the servants' door, he hesitated. "Do you wish to follow precisely the same path we took? These halls are ... not grand enough for guests, I fear. I would not wish to cause any insult."
He is worried about offending the Hellknights. Belvadio's concern about ushering her through the servants' door might have been reasonable if he'd been dealing with the touchiest of high Chelish lords, but she had no illusions that a steward who'd spent his entire life in service to a great house really believed that her rank was so exalted, or her skin so thin. This was caution and nothing but.
Jheraal snorted. "I'm not a duchess, Belvadio. I won't be insulted by walking through the service door. Just show me where you went."
"Forgive my presumption." Producing a ring of keys from some unseen pocket inside his blue coat, Belvadio unlocked the door and stepped aside to hold it open. "The young master's library will be up the stairs and to the right."
"Lead on."
He took her past the larder and buttery, through the kitchens, and up a flight of well-worn wooden stairs. No footprints stood out here, either.
At the top of the stairs, they reached the discreet little door that separated the servants' quarters from the nobles' halls. Quilted padding covered the servants' side of the door, insulating their superiors from any unwanted noise or smell that might drift up from the kitchens. The other side of the door, Jheraal noted, was painted white and adorned with gilded scrollwork. All the unsightliness — and all the function — was on the servants' side.
Although the servants' halls had been lit only by the daylight that streamed through their small, cloudy windows, enchanted lights shone serenely along the ceiling and upper walls of this corridor. Wide picture windows overlooked the manor's gardens, while carpets in faded blue and white sank under Jheraal's booted feet. The carpets were lush at the periphery but worn in the centers. That they hadn't been replaced suggested that House Celverian wasn't as rich as it had been in years past. No surprise. Failing fortunes were common among the old nobility that had declined to align strongly enough with House Thrune.
Nevertheless, it was lovely. The airy beauty of the upper hall was marred only by the faint whiff of blood that grew stronger as they approached an open door on the right.
"In there," Belvadio whispered. The color had drained from his face.
They hadn't moved the body. The mortal remains of Othando Celverian remained in the overstuffed armchair where he had presumably died. A linen sheet covered his slumped form imperfectly, trailing over part of the desk in front of him. A carafe and half-full wineglass rested on a silver tray near his elbow. Papers spilled across the floor by his side, along with a fallen candle stub trailing a comet's tail of wax spatters.
Jheraal stepped forward to examine him, taking care not to disturb the papers. "This is all as you found it?"
"Almost. There was ... a cleric came before you. Udeno of Abadar. He looked over the master and said there was nothing he could do. Other than his examination, and the sheet I placed over the master, nothing has been touched."
The Hellknight nodded without looking up. With as much delicacy as she could muster, she lifted the sheet that covered Othando Celverian.
He had been a young man. Twenty-five, she guessed. Maybe a year or two to either side. Slim, handsome, with the soft hands and pale skin of a scholar who spent little time outdoors. Drying blood spilled from a single deep puncture wound on the side of his neck and darkened his sleeping robe in a crooked fan that widened as it stretched toward the floor. More blood painted the carpet behind him and to the side, and a single brownish-red fingerprint smudged his right arm near the elbow.
Othando's own hands were clean. That bloody fingerprint had come from someone else.
His face was buried in the pages of the book he'd been reading. When Jheraal lifted Othando's head, she saw that his eyes were wide and his lips slightly parted. The breeze from an open window fluttered dark blond hair across his brow. She couldn't tell if he had been talking, trying to cry out, or just gasping for breath in his last extremity, but it seemed that he'd been looking at someone when he died. The spill of blood from his wound suggested that he had turned toward, and then away from, something or someone at his back.
The killer? It was tempting to conclude that Othando must have seen his assassin. If he had, his shade might answer a cleric's prayer and identify his attacker.
Jheraal had been an investigator long enough to know that such hopes almost always proved futile. Something as simple as a mask or hood sufficed to prevent recognition, as every professional killer knew, and the dead were blessed with no more knowledge than they'd had in life. The Hellknight had worked on dozens of murders in the twelve years of her investigative career, all across Cheliax and its vassal states, and never once had she seen the spirit of an assassin's victim able to identify his killer. Amateurs might be named by the dead. Professionals never were.
That didn't mean she had no use for magic. Only that its use had to be less easily anticipated by her target.
She glanced at the open book. Drying blood gummed its pages and darkened the illustrations, but the lettering remained clear. It looked to be a collection of Taldan heroic stories — disgraced knights winning back the honor of tarnished houses, second sons and valiant daughters carving names for themselves in savage lands, heroes who vanquished monsters and won the love of their people. Tales to stir excitement into a quiet life.
The letters that had blown onto the floor appeared to be correspondence: invitations to various social events from other Wiscrani nobility, orders from his lord father at the family estate, and an unfinished letter from Othando himself to his exiled brother in Mendev.
Drawing the sheet back over the body, Jheraal stepped sideways to examine the desk. Two of the drawers were partly opened. One held signets in gold and bronze, sticks of sealing wax, unsharpened quills, a paring knife, and a wrinkled paper sachet of sugar-rolled mints. The other was empty save for a few faded stains at the bottom. The remaining drawers were locked.
She motioned to the desk. "Was anything taken from here? Or from Master Celverian himself?"
"I cannot be certain," Belvadio admitted. "The master's study was private. I did not notice anything stolen, but some small theft might have escaped my notice."
"How busy would the household have been at that hour?"
The steward took a moment to think it over. "We had no guests at the vaneo, and no entertaining planned for the next few days. Other than one or two of the under-cooks in the kitchen and the guards making their rounds, everyone should have been sleeping. Achio and Tirol were out only because they were making mischief."
"Was it Master Celverian's custom to leave that window open?" Jheraal gestured to the skylight, although she already knew the answer. That window was too high to be opened without the aid of a ladder, and she had seen none in the study.
Belvadio frowned, confirming her guess. "Pleasant as the weather is, no. The master was concerned that nothing should damage his books — not rain or sun or snow. The window was only to admit light to assist his reading. He never opened it."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Pathfinder Tales by Liane Merciel. Copyright © 2016 Paizo Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Tom Doherty Associates.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Copyright Notice,
Dedication,
Inner Sea Regionz,
Westcrown,
Prologue,
1 The Scholar's Murder,
2 The Crusader's Farewell,
3 The Heartless,
4 Regret and Reunion,
5 The Value of Law,
6 Devils,
7 Reading Bones,
8 Keeping Faith,
9 Dead Sector,
10 The Black Chest,
11 The Citadel of the Rack,
12 The Winter of White Roses,
13 The Citadel's Mirror,
14 Conquerors of the Crux,
15 An Inheritance of Sin,
16 Dissolution,
17 Fishbone Alley,
18 Letters from an Old Friend,
19 The Cost of Humanity,
20 March into Memory,
21 The Dead Gates,
22 Two More Deaths,
23 Loss,
24 Without Armor,
25 Truth in Glass,
26 The Bone Smithy,
27 Hearts in Hell,
28 Breaking Chains,
Epilogue,
About the Author,
Acknowledgments,
Glossary,
The Pathfinder Tales Library,
Copyright,