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

“I know this is a shock,” I said. “But out here, where the Houses rule mostly in name, we
see things much differently than they do in Terona. We see the effects of their policies, and we
suffer accordingly. When I finished my apprenticeship in the magi, they sent me against a tower
in the south to claim it for myself against the other candidates. I refused to fight, and they stripped
me of my staff. They declared my life forfeit, and they prepared an execution for me. But I still
had friends, and my friends helped me burn a hole in my cell, and I fled here. Now you know
why I hide. Now you know why I hate.”
He looked up at last. “I have spent my life supporting Terona’s order. I have crushed
rebellions. I have used the armies of the Empire to enforce peace within and without its borders. I
have killed our citizens in the name of the king. You must hate everything I stand for.”
“Stood for,” I corrected. “Are you not an outcast? You haven't done any more than
anyone else has done. You did what my parents did. You had no reason to question your life. It
had meaning, purpose, and comfort, so why should you have cared?”
“I never thought...” He did not finish his sentence. “I should go. I have been a poor friend
and a poor citizen.” He stood.
As he staggered toward the cave mouth, I thought about the sheep he’d cost me, and
about the broken bone that would likely not heal right for however many years I had left. I
thought about these things, and then I set them aside. I said, “No. Don’t go. It’d be a shame to
throw away the one good friend I’ve had in these past twenty years just so I could get back to
being lonely for the few years left before I die. At least now we can be honest with each other,
eh?”
He came back and knelt before me, clasped my hand with both of his. “I need to evaluate
my life. Everything you say… I could ignore it, but these last few months have turned all I know
around. What are the chances that the two of us would meet here, this far from Terona?”
“Why,” I said, “it's not so difficult to believe. This is at the far reaches of the Empire, on
the edges of the Sickened Lands. This is almost a logical place for outcasts, exiles, and rebels.”
He said, “I’ll run the sheep myself until you've healed.”
“And lose still more?”
“I won’t lose more.”
“Yes, you will. You can’t handle the whole flock, Toren… Tomas! No, I'll just keep
calling you Toren. It's easier. Now look: I’ve watched you with ’em. Listen to me. You need help.
Further, I need the town’s doctor, because you might be able to battle-dress a broken bone, but
I’ll be damned if I’ll trust this without a second pair of eyes on it. We'll get back to the cottage,
Colin McComb Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale
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