Page 79 of Paladin's Hope

“We’ve worked together closely before, Mallory,” said Stephen. “I have always believed that you were a good man.”

Mallory tried to meet the paladin’s gaze. Galen could have told him that it wasn’t going to work. Stephen in full more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger mode was a force to be reckoned with. Galen would much rather the other paladin came at him with a sword than with that disappointed voice. And this is why Piper had you bring Stephen. Good thinking. I would have gone in hot and gotten us kicked out of the guard post.

To his credit, Mallory held out for nearly fifteen seconds before he crumbled. “Maybe I’m not the man you think I am,” he muttered. “But you and that damned bishop have made it impossible to do our damned jobs any more. You expect us to sit back and let hardened criminals go free, when you know damned well they’ll end up right back in front of a judge for something worse next time.”

“We are not talking about a hardened criminal,” snapped Galen. “We’re talking about Earstripe. He hasn’t done anything.”

“The internal investigation will turn that up, then,” said Mallory.

“If you’d listened to him to begin with, you wouldn’t need an internal investigation. He’d have caught the killer and you’d give him a medal. But he did it anyway and he wasn’t even a guard at the time! You fired him, remember?”

Mallory wouldn’t meet his eyes. “That’s as may be.”

“You did inform the investigation that he had been fired, did you not?” asked Piper coolly.

The captain hesitated just a fraction too long. “It doesn’t matter. Guards can’t simply quit their jobs, go after a criminal as a private citizen, and then be reinstated. Your precious bishop would have our necks.”

“But it wouldn’t be an internal matter,” said Piper. “Would it?”

Mallory fiddled with papers on his desk.

“Captain Mallory…” said Stephen.

“They didn’t ask me,” muttered Mallory.

“And if this was any other one of your men, you would have moved heaven and earth to correct that,” said Stephen. He had a way of speaking quietly that somehow made him louder than everyone else in the room. “I know you. You are loyal to your people. Why didn’t you protect Earstripe as well?”

“Is it because he proved you wrong?” asked Piper coldly. “Or simply because he’s a gnole?”

Mallory winced. He didn’t speak for a long moment, and when he finally did, something in his voice had shifted. He sounded tired. “This all happened above my head, all right? They really didn’t ask me. Everybody’s been pissed at Beartongue for months and then one of her pet paladins goes stumbling in—” he jerked his head at Galen, leaving no doubt as to who the pet paladin was, “—and kills the bastard and she sends around one of her oh-so-fucking-polite letters rubbing our noses in it, and it was the last damn straw.”

“If they can prove that it was improperly handled, or that Thomas was not killed in self-defense, they save face,” said Piper. “They can say, ‘Leave it to the guard next time.’”

Mallory nodded.

“You have no jurisdiction over paladins outside the city walls,” said Stephen. “But if Earstripe is a vigilante, using one of us as his weapon, then the guard will have jurisdiction over him.”

Mallory nodded again, his shoulders sinking. “I’ll deny everything if you repeat this,” he said, “but some of the higher-ups aren’t that happy about gnoles. They weren’t happy about a gnole in the guard to begin with, and the thought of a gnole executing a human has them completely riled up.”

“Earstripe saved my life when Thomas tried to kill me,” said Piper. “Galen killed him to keep him from shooting us with a crossbow. Again.”

The guard captain blinked. “That wasn’t exactly in the report.”

“I begin to think that I would very much like to see this report,” said Piper.

Mallory rubbed his forehead, then reached into his desk and pulled out a form. He scrawled a half-dozen words and sealed it with wax. The three men waited while he stamped it with a seal the size of Galen’s thumb.

“That’ll get you in to see Tamsin,” he said, still not looking at them. He tossed it across the desk to Stephen. “You tell him what you told me. I don’t say he’ll listen. He’d like to see the bishop put in her place as much as the rest of us. But that gets you five minutes with him, and that’s as much of my neck as I’m willing to put on the line for you.”

“Thank you,” said Stephen gravely. “I knew that I had not been entirely mistaken in you.”

Mallory grunted. The trio rose to leave, Piper leading the way. Seeing that Stephen had lingered, Galen paused in the doorway. Whatever the paladin said to the guard captain, he didn’t catch it, but Mallory grunted again. Stephen joined them, his face serene but his eyes sadder than usual.

“You can’t save everyone,” said Galen gently.

“No. No, but we still try, don’t we?”

“We have someone much more important to save,” said Piper, his voice still cool and clipped. “Let us go speak to Commander Tamsin.”

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