Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale - Colin McComb

“I will see you all rewarded,” Prince Fannon told us. We believed in his confidence, and
we believed in his right to rule.
“Seek others loyal to me,” he said. “Turn them against their brethren if you must. Remind
them of their duty.” And so we did. We traveled among the House armies, speaking to the lesser
officers, to the enlisted men, promising them riches, rank, forgiveness. Some came with us. Some
denied us. Some sought to betray us, and these we slew. Slowly our numbers swelled, even as the
High Houses tore one another apart with their vicious battles and assassins and poisons.
The prince, for his part, went to the Knights Elite. They remained above it, guarding the
Imperial Palace, watching, impassive. When the prince, muffled and disguised, managed at last to
win through to their commander, his answer was brief: “Show us that you can command men, and
we shall be yours to command.”
“Watch me,” Prince Fannon said, “and you shall see.”
When the prince returned to us, his inexperienced general staff, his command to us was to
pick a battle that we might win. Our numbers were less than half those of any of the Lesser
Houses—as far as we could tell, none of the High Houses even knew we existed. I realize now
that of course they did; their spy networks covered and still cover the spheres of influence that the
Houses think matter. They were watching us as a matter of keeping their eyes on the prince
during this rite of fire. I just don’t think they believed he could manage it. After all, who did he
have on his side? A handful of officers, each with a small troop of men, some minor House
backing (purely as a political gambit), and the royal name. Fannon, who grew up in the intrigues
of the Houses, knew their capabilities, and he guided our hands as we laid the groundwork for his
assumption of the throne. We faced three assassins, and we were surprised we did not see more.
The apparatus of Empire turned ever onward as our drama played out.
Prince Fannon saw something in me. Perhaps it was the kinship born of arms. Whatever
the reason, he and I plotted and planned his resumption of the throne most intently. We laid traps
for the High Houses, building their suspicions and their enmities, setting snares for them from
their old histories. We played on the insults and slights they had dealt one another for centuries,
and through our few contacts in the court, we amplified their grievances. We fought them in the
words of aristocrats, through propaganda, through small acts of generosity to the common man—
and most of all, through their rivals.
The details are unimportant now, though our small victories were glorious. I still admire
our scheme to turn the proud Cronens against the money-loving Dengs. With a little coin and the
hint of more to come to the DeTrellzis (one of the Cronen's Lesser Houses), a few judiciously
placed words to the knight-aspirants of their House, and some careful research into their past
Colin McComb Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale
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