Ch2-6: Paladin's Plot
“So what’s the word, Cid?”
The stocky engineer didn’t reply. Instead, he plunked himself down at the table across from Cecil and drained half a mug of ale in his first swig. The young king rested his chin upon one palm, drowning in his own patience.
It was well known to those who had lived in the Pollendina household that Cid never did anything before he darn well felt like doing it.
Finally, the words came as a half-belched answer, “All ships manned, supplied and sent. The captains took those official scrolls ya sent to the resta the kings just like ya ordered. Should be a matter of days before they come docking back.”
Cecil tilted forward slowly. “Were there any problems with the fleet discharge?”
“None worth mentioning. The Red Wings aren’t exactly what ya could call over-worked nowadays. Those ships need to get out of the hangars a good deal more if ya ask me. Those engines were spitting up dust.” Cid swirled his finger in the foam of his drink before sticking it in his mouth.
Kain leaned back, blue eyes hooded. “Then there’s nothing left to do now but wait.”
“It would seem so,” Cecil sighed, a tense look of frustration painted on his face.
“Hey, Cecil…” Kain grunted, dropping a heavy armored boot on the top of the table and stretching back in his chair luxuriously. “Chill out. You’re gonna pop a vein if you don’t get yourself pieced together.”
Green eyes flickered up at his childhood friend before the young king took a long draw from his own drink. “Just when things seemed like they were going to get back to normal again… something like this happens.”
“Such is life, lad,” the engineer gave a wry grin and a few mock punches at the air. “Ya dodge the left blow and get thrashed by the right. Ya should be used to it by now.”
“Yeah, I suppose so…” Cecil’s tone was glum, “But it doesn’t make it sting any less regardless of who you are and what you know. Believe me.”
“I’ll drink to that!” Kain raised his mug to his lips.
“You’ll drink to anything, Kain…” the Paladin grumbled.
The Dragoon swallowed his ale with a hint of a smile. “That is beside the point.”
Cid was busying himself tracing the lines of the woodwork on the table. His dark eyes shimmered from behind even darker lenses. “So what is it, Cecil?”
“What is what?”
“What’s chewin’ on yer guts?”
The young king wrinkled his nose at the mental image. Then shook his head, “Just stuff.”
“Stuff?” The engineer echoed.
“Yeah…” Cecil gave a soft sigh, hiding his expression behind a glance at his half-empty mug.
“All these fancy-smancy knightly training classes they put ya through and the only educated answer ya can give me is ‘stuff’? Come on Cecil,” Cid snorted. “I can smell a load of crap even when it’s hidden under the front porch.”
Kain snickered, “You’ll never let us live that one down, will you, old man?”
Cecil grunted, “Leave it to Cid to remember a failed prank that happened near fifteen years ago.”
“Well, let’s just say… ya kids never pulled anything like that again after having to clean it up, aye?”
“True, true…” the Dragoon subsided.
“So?” The bushy eyebrows slanted downwards as the little man prodded, “Out with it. What’s going on in that head of yers? Ya know ya can talk to us, Cecil.”
Kain nodded firmly, leaning forward to offer his undivided attention.
The Paladin gave a long compliant sigh. “This all just came out of the blue.”
“What did?”
“All of it… this Incrytan situation… the attack on Mysidia… the Water Elemental… Golbez…”
The Dragoon muttered something under his breath.
“What was that, Kain?” Cid gave the Dragoon a sharp look.
“I said…” The blond man scowled in return, “We should slap the bastard with a couple million sealing wards and shoot him back into void-space where he belongs.”
Cecil’s face grew unhappy.
“Kain,” Cid’s face was stern. “That wasn’t very thoughtful. This is Cecil’s brother yer talking about afterall.”
“So?”
“Isn’t there something ya’d like to say to Cecil?”
Kain paused, eyes falling curiously on his old friend. Then he turned back to Cid with a frown.
“It starts with an ‘s’,” the engineer prompted. “And ends in ‘o-r-r-y’.”
Cecil blinked slightly at the Dragoon.
“Okay… okay,” the blond man wrinkled his brow and grunted. “I’m sorry that your brother’s such a bastard, Cecil.”
Cecil’s tone was quiet as he began turning his mug between his fingers. “Regardless of what you think about Golbez, he is our ally for the moment. The first sign of a weak alliance is badmouthing your companions.”
“Com-pan-ion?” The Dragoon spat, eyes narrowing. “Cecil, what part about this situation are you not comprehending? I’m not about to trust that prick much less call him my companion.”
“Kain, close that yap of yers! I woulda thought that of all people ya would know what shoes Golbez stands in,” Cid chided in a booming voice. His fingers drummed out a heavy pattern on the table top. “Where wouldya be today if people had said the same about you, eh?”
The Dragoon curled his lip. “You know very well that I went up to—“
The engineer pressed on, mockery in his face. “Oh, that Kain! That no-good turncoat! Let’s take him out back and hang him to dry! Curse a rot on that good-for-nothing deadbeat!”
“Cid…” Cecil grated his teeth, sensing the growing tension in the air. “Let sleeping dragons lie.”
“Hey, someone has to shove it in his face,” the stocky man shrugged as the Dragoon shot him a glare that would have turned month-old dirty socks inside out. “If ya don’t have the guts to stick up for your own brother, then I will.”
“Stick up for him?” Kain growled. “Why in Shiva’s name would anyone want to stick up for him?”
“Because…” Cid’s tone fell somewhat more softly. There was a growing hint of sadness in his voice. “I can say that I know fer sure Golbez wasn’t always this Dark Lord that we fought against during the Crystal War.”
“Huh?” Cecil tilted his head slightly. “What makes you say that?”
“Just… trust me on this one, Cecil. Okay?”
“I… I don’t understand,” the young king puzzled.
“Of course not, lad. But due time tells all, yeah?”
The Paladin dropped his gaze at the heavy sorrow in his old friend’s voice. It wasn’t often that Cid looked so doleful. The drastic change in mood was enough for Cecil to drop the topic.
Never one to take a hint, Kain pressed on with a sneer, “If you ask me, I think we need to keep Golbez under lock and key. He’s screwed us over before. What’s to say he’s not trying to get into our good graces just so he can get a good final blow in this time around?”
“You never give anyone a chance, do ya Kain?”
“Listen, pops, I was the one that spent time under his control in Zot, not you!” The Dragoon jabbed one finger forcefully towards the goggled face. “I know just a bit more about what’s going on in that head of his than you do, don’t you think?”
“All I’m sayin’ is the Man of Darkness ya know was not the person Golbez always was.”
The firmness of the statement made even the Dragoon bite the last of his words and swallow them. His blue eyes turned to meet Cecil’s green. There was little doubt at the tone of conviction in the engineer’s words. The two of them had known Cid far too long to question him when he turned so serious.
Cecil found his mouth moving, a soft voice rising from the midst of turmoil. “Cid… I believe you.”
With a bushy nod of his head, Cid relaxed slightly. “Yer the one that matters, lad. What ya believe is what really counts fer him in the end.”
Brow furrowed, the Paladin opened his mouth in inquiry.
The engineer raised one hand to stop him.
“That’s all I’ll be saying fer now…”
Lips pursed in a straight line, Cecil nodded slowly.
“Yeah, but…” Kain was balancing his mug on one finger, obviously put-out at his dismissal in the midst of the conversation, “What does all this crap about who Golbez once was have to do with who he is now? It doesn’t mean he can be trusted just to romp about the castle and do as he pleases without someone watching over him.”
“This is true too,” Cecil nodded slowly.
“Finally. A word of sense from you. I thought your brain had gone moldy up there,” the Dragoon snorted.
Cecil snorted in return.
“Yer confusing what I’m sayin’ with what yer askin’.” Cid interrupted curtly.
“Well, get to the point of it then.”
“All I’m sayin’ is to give him a chance to prove to ya who he really is before ya go slappin’ him in chains of yer own judgment.”
“How poetic. Excuse me while I spew.”
“Kain… behave,” Cecil scowled, then turned back to Cid. “What’s your thought on the matter?”
A warm grin crossed the grizzled face. “Everyone deserves another chance in life. Ya had yer own moment up on that Mt. Ordeals, Cecil. Golbez needs one, too. I think that ya’d see a marked change in him if ya’d treat him more like a person and less like some sort of monster.”
“I… don’t purposely try to do that. I just honestly don’t know how to approach him, Cid.”
“I know. It’ll take a while. But no matter what ya know or don’t know, he’s not all as different as yer thinkin’. The same blood flows between the two of ya. Because of that, ya should try to treat him with a bit of love.”
“Love?” The Dragoon growled again. “What are you gonna suggest we do next? Hold hands and sing songs from Marnie’s Happy Happy Land? Get real, Cid! This is a cold-hearted murderer we’re talking about!”
“How do ya expect him to be anything but what everyone keeps making him out to be?” Cid snapped in return.
“Guys… guys…” Cecil fanned the air with his hands until the both of them fell silent. “I agree with Kain on one aspect, Cid. I’m not sure how to go about dealing with him. I don’t want to chain him up or set guards on him day and night. I know that I can’t watch over him… not with all the preparations for the Meeting coming up. But neither do I feel confident in allowing him to roam freely through the castle where he could be doing Shiva knows what. Somehow we need to find a happy medium. Do you agree to that?”
“I suppose so…”
“And how do you propose to do that, oh Enlightened One?” Kain chided.
“I’m not sure.” Cecil mused to himself, tapping his chin with one finger. “We just need someone we can trust to watch over him. But someone not too obvious. I mean, we don’t want Golbez to feel like he’s being spied on.”
“Brilliant. Let’s see, that cuts all the guards and just about anyone else we associate with.”
“Hey, I didn’t say I had it all thought out. I was just sugges—“
“Ya know,” Cid piped up, suddenly quite cheerful. “I might have the right man for this job.”
“Really?” Cecil asked, one eyebrow arching.
“Yeah… do tell,” Kain’s sneer was full of distaste.
“Well, ya ever hear ‘bout the boy with eyes the color of gold?” Cid asked.
Kain squinted in reply, totally caught off guard.
“I think I have. One of the children orphaned in the Pages’ Quarters here was supposed to possess such eyes, right?”
“The lad’s name is Chase,” Cid nodded slowly. “As sweet and forthright a boy as ya’ll ever meet, too, if I might say.”
“And…?” Kain prodded impatiently. “What does that have to do with Golbez?”
“Well, if you had been listenin’ to yer common folk-lore, ya’d know that golden eyes mark a child who knows only the truth,” the engineer leaned forward, voice lowering to a murmur. “They can see through straight to the heart of any lie… and are said to know a person for what they are at first meeting.”
“Is this really true?” Cecil pursed his lips in thought.
“I admit he’s more than a little bit strange. A good boy. But strange. As long as I’ve known the boy, I’ve never been able to pull one over on him. And some of the things he knows are just too uncanny, Cecil.” The older man shook his head. “Too uncanny. Enough to make a believer out of me.”
“So what are you suggesting? We see if this boy can snoop out old Golbez’s skeleton closet?”
“Actually, I was wonderin’ if he might want employment by the king?” Cid’s glance fell upon Cecil.
“What sort of employment?” the Paladin leaned forward in turn.
“What up-and-coming page wouldn’t want to serve his king? Or the king’s brother? Wouldn’t it be quite the honor to be assigned as Golbez’s personal servant while he is visiting the castle?”
A slow wolfish grin spread across Kain’s face. “I think I like where this is going. Get a kid in there that can see through all Golbez’s lies… who only tells us the truth… and use him to keep an eye on the bastard while we can’t.”
“Though… I don’t know…” Cecil frowned softly. “Using a child to do something that might place him in danger?”
“Cecil, take my word for one thing,” Cid interjected. “I don’t think the boy will be in any danger. If I thought Golbez’d be a threat to him, I would have never brought up the suggestion in the first place. Trust me.”
The Paladin’s frown grew deeper.
“Why not, Cecil? What other options do we have for now? At least it will fill in until we figure out what to do with him, yeah?” Kain spread his hands.
“I suppose so.”
“It’s the truth ya want, right?” Cid added.
“Cid?”
“Yeah?”
“What did you say the boy’s name was again?”
“Chase.”