Chapter 18 — Mercy Beneath a Crimson Debt

That's what I used to think.

I was wrong.

We'd been moving north for two days when Cassian spotted the smoke from a farming settlement ahead.

Not fire.

Cooking smoke.

Normal smoke.

That alone felt strange enough to make me nervous.

Seris noticed.

"You realise we're scared of soup now."

"I'm not scared of soup."

"You stared at that chimney like it insulted your family."

Cassian glanced back from the ridge.

"Could be poisoned soup."

I pointed at him.

"See? Sensible concern."

Seris groaned.

The settlement was called Bellmere.

Twenty houses, three barns, one tiny shrine, and enough wheat to hide in.

Perfect for fugitives.

Instead, we were starving.

Bellmere's headwoman recognised me immediately.

That would've been a problem anywhere else.

She just looked at my torn coat, Seris's muddy boots, Cassian's exhausted face, and said, "You three look awful."

I liked her instantly.

She gave us bread, stew, and a barn loft to sleep in.

Nobody bowed or asked for blessings.

For two hours, I remembered normal.

Then Cassian stopped eating.

His spoon stayed halfway to his mouth.

"What?"

He looked toward the window.

"Horses."

I heard them too.

Too many.

Cassian stood.

"Back door."

I reached for Epitaph.

The headwoman appeared.

"Trouble?"

"Probably," Cassian said.

She sighed.

We made it behind the barn before riders surrounded the settlement.

Bounty hunters.

Eleven.

Their leader wore black leather armour and a red scarf around one arm.

"Zyrion Caelaris!"

I hated how quickly my body went tense.

"We know you're here!"

Seris whispered, "Maybe they're looking for another Zyrion Caelaris."

"Common name."

"Very."

Cassian crouched beside us.

"They've blocked the north road."

"South?"

"Four riders."

"Fields?"

"Open ground."

I looked at the houses.

Families were already peeking through shutters.

If we ran, the hunters would question them.

Maybe worse.

I stood.

Seris caught my sleeve.

"Zyrion."

"I know."

"Do you?"

"No."

That almost made her smile.

I stepped into the road.

Eleven weapons turned toward me.

"Morning."

The leader looked relieved.

"Star-Chosen."

"Not using that anymore."

"The Council pays three hundred gold alive."

Cassian stepped out behind me.

"How much dead?"

The hunter grinned.

"Two hundred."

"Bit insulting," I said.

Seris joined us.

"Your nose is worth more on the posters."

"Thank you."

The leader drew his sword.

"You coming quietly?"

"No."

"Expected that."

They attacked.

They weren't terrible.

The first two came from opposite sides while an archer fired over them.

Epitaph caught the arrow.

I twisted, struck one sword aside, and kicked the second hunter into a fence.

Cassian met another with the flat of his blade.

Seris threw a small glass vial.

It burst under a horse.

The animal sat down.

Not fell.

Sat.

The rider stared at her.

"What did you do?"

"Muscle-softening powder."

"To my horse?!"

"It'll wear off!"

Another hunter rushed her.

I crossed the road.

Epitaph's pommel hit his chest.

He dropped.

I didn't cut anyone.

Every swing aimed for weapons, straps, armour joints.

Things.

Not people.

Within three minutes, eight hunters were on the ground.

Cassian had two pinned beneath a broken cart.

The leader knelt in the dirt with Epitaph against his throat.

I was breathing hard.

Not from the fight.

From how easy it would've been.

One movement.

That was all.

The man looked up at me.

"Do it."

I frowned.

"What?"

"That's what monsters do, isn't it?"

People watched from the houses.

Children too.

I lowered Epitaph.

"No."

Cassian's expression changed.

"Zyrion."

"We take their weapons."

The leader blinked.

"You're letting us go?"

"Apparently."

"Why?"

I looked at him.

"Because you lost."

Cassian came closer.

"They know our location."

"They'll be walking."

"They can talk."

"So can everyone else."

He lowered his voice.

"They came here willing to kill you for money."

"I know."

"Then don't give them another chance."

I hated how reasonable that sounded.

Seris stepped between us.

"We're not executing prisoners."

Cassian looked at her.

Then at me.

Finally, he sighed.

"Fine."

We took every weapon and all but three horses.

Cassian burned their bounty papers.

I gave the leader a waterskin.

"Next time," I said, "pick an easier bounty."

His eyes stayed on mine.

"There won't be a next time."

I believed him.

That was my mistake.

We left Bellmere before noon.

The headwoman gave us bread.

"Sorry," I told her.

"For what?"

"Bringing this here."

She waved me off.

"You didn't bring greed into the world, boy."

By sunset, Bellmere was behind us.

By midnight, it was burning.

We saw the glow from the hills.

I knew before Cassian said anything.

"No."

I turned my horse.

He grabbed the reins.

"Zyrion, wait."

I pulled free.

"That's Bellmere."

"We don't know that."

"Yes, we do."

I rode.

Seris and Cassian followed.

The first thing I smelled was burning wheat.

Then smoke.

Wood.

Blood.

The hunters had returned.

Not alone.

Council soldiers were with them.

The men I'd spared had led them back.

One barn and two houses burned.

People ran through the road while soldiers dragged villagers from doorways.

The headwoman was on her knees beside the well.

The hunter in the red scarf stood over her.

He saw me.

Smiled.

"There he is."

Something inside me went quiet.

Seris grabbed my arm.

"Zyrion."

I didn't answer.

The soldiers turned.

Twenty, maybe more.

Cassian swore.

"Get the villagers out. I'll hold the east road."

The hunter lifted his sword.

"Kill him!"

I remember that fight in pieces.

A soldier raising a spear.

Epitaph cutting it apart.

A shield splitting.

A man flying through a wall.

Someone casting fire.

My wing sweeping it back into the sky.

I didn't use the ninth sigil or kill anyone I didn't have to.

But I stopped caring whether they walked away comfortably.

Bones broke.

Armour shattered.

Men screamed.

The red-scarred hunter tried running.

I saw him.

I could've followed.

Then a roof collapsed nearby.

A child screamed.

I chose the house.

Of course I did.

I tore through the burning wall and found a woman trapped beneath a beam with a little girl beside her.

I lifted the timber.

Seris pulled them out.

"Anyone else?"

The woman coughed.

"My sons."

"Where?"

"Back room."

I ran.

Smoke swallowed everything.

I kicked through one door.

Empty.

Then I found them.

Three small shapes under a collapsed section of roof.

Too still.

I knew.

Still, I moved the wood.

One boy was maybe eight.

Another five.

The smallest held the older one's shirt.

I touched his neck.

Nothing.

"No."

I tried healing magic.

Nothing.

Again.

"Zyrion."

Seris's voice behind me.

"Help me."

She didn't move.

"Seris, help me."

Her hand touched my shoulder.

"They're gone."

"No."

The house groaned.

"Zyrion, we have to go."

"I can fix this."

"You can't."

"I can."

I pushed more magic into the oldest boy.

Nothing.

All that power, and three children lay there because I'd decided mercy was enough.

Seris knelt beside me.

Smoke covered her face with grey streaks.

"This isn't your fault."

I looked at her.

Wasn't it?

I'd held Epitaph at that man's throat.

Cassian had warned me.

I'd let him leave.

The roof cracked above us.

Seris slapped me.

Hard.

"Move!"

That worked.

I carried two children.

She carried the third.

We brought them outside.

The headwoman saw.

Her scream still follows me.

The fighting was over by dawn.

The soldiers who could run had run.

The hunters with them.

Bellmere was half gone.

Most survived.

People called that lucky.

I didn't.

I sat outside the burned house with soot covering my hands.

Seris lowered herself beside me.

Neither of us spoke for a while.

Then I asked, "How many?"

She knew what I meant.

"Five."

Five dead.

Three children.

Two adults.

Cassian stood near the well, organising water lines.

He wouldn't look at me.

Because he'd been right.

I stared at Epitaph.

"You remember what you said?"

Seris asked.

"About what?"

"The hunter."

I remembered.

Next time, pick an easier bounty.

A joke.

Mercy dressed as confidence.

I hated it now.

That was the first time mercy frightened me more than violence. A strike ended a threat. Mercy left the future open, and every open future looked like another road an enemy could use to reach someone innocent.

"He came back."

"Yes."

"Because I let him."

"Because he chose to."

"I gave him the choice."

Seris turned toward me.

"Zyrion—"

"The next people who find us won't receive another chance."

She went still.

I finally looked at her.

I expected anger.

Instead, I saw fear.

Not of the Council.

Not of bounty hunters.

Of me.

Only a little.

That was enough.

I looked away.

People like to talk about mercy as if it's free.

It isn't.

Sometimes you pay for it.

Sometimes someone else does.

That morning, five strangers paid for mine.

And for the first time in my life, I looked at Epitaph and wondered whether sparing an enemy could be just another way of making innocent people bleed.