“I understand…But,” Seia said her tail swishing side to side in what Ash had learned to be a sign of her anger or annoyance. “I think I should accompany you as well. There is a chance that they could use poison.”
“There is a chance of poison,” Ash admitted. “It would be a quick and silent way to kill us.” In truth, Ash hadn’t even considered the chance of poison being used, but now that it was pointed out to him he had to agree that it was a viable threat. “Ok then, it will be the four of us, but no more. If we add anyone else, then if it comes to escape, I won’t be able to move us all.”
Seia showed a contented face and nodded her head in agreement. They were still a ways away from the capital but it didn’t hurt to plan ahead.
“STOP!” A loud shout reverberated in the air. Looking out the small window of the carriage, Ash noticed a large group of people gathered on the road ahead. Unlike before, the road was not empty as Ash’s group had earlier merged with a small trading caravan.
Sighing, Ash started to exit the carriage. “My lord, should we not use your dimension door to escape from this area and watch as we did before?”
“Last time we did that, it put everyone in danger and we still had to fight,” Ash said turning the small latch that held the door closed. “If we have to fight, I would prefer all of us to be close to each other so that we can fight as a group.”
Ash walked to the front of the three wagons when he heard the caravan leader talking loudly. “Can we help you? If not, I would suggest you find easier prey. We have ten guild trained guards and are traveling with an emissary that is headed to meet with the king. I am sure that is far more trouble than you wish to encounter.” Ash had to hold back a smile when he heard the old man speak. He had been quick to welcome Ash and the others even after he was told that the majority of the party consisted of demons. It turned out that his aunt had been more than half demon and he did not agree with the current policies where they applied to demi-humans.
“Silence,” one of the bandits yelled as he looked over the group. “I will give you one chance. All of you except the demon spawn may leave here.”
“You might have to be more specific,” the caravan head said with a heavy frown. “Almost half my guards have demon blood. Am I to believe that you expect me to leave them behind just to save my own hide?”
“I don’t care what you do, but anyone with demon blood has to stay behind. If they try to leave, they will do so without their heads.”
“Sounds like you are looking for someone,” Ash said, moving to stand beside the old man. “I already dealt with one group of the king’s knights dressed as bandits, I didn’t expect another to come so quickly. Seems like the king is completely shameless. I am surprised that he can find anyone other than dogs to follow his orders.” Ash spoke loudly and clearly and as he did so, you could easily see the faces on the pretend bandits contort into looks of outrage.
“The king’s knights?” The old man beside Ash asked in an astonished voice.
“Yes, it seems that the king cares little for peace,” Ash said in a disheartened voice though his acting was a little rough. “I don’t know what he is thinking, my demon army is easily three times the size of the force within his entire country and five times as strong. I guess he cares little for his people because I can promise, should anything happen to me, the demons response would be swift and deadly,” Ash said in a threatening tone.
“You can’t trust demons,” the leader of the pretend bandits said with a snarl. “That is why they are called demons. They were born to do nothing but sow chaos within the lands of humans and are thus the enemy of all mankind.”
“Looks like it is pointless to talk to someone who cannot even see the contradictions in his own words,” Ash said as he pulled his sword free of its scabbard. “From what I can see, it is the humans who can’t be trusted or do you think knights dressing up as bandits and attacking a peaceful envoy is trustworthy.”
The fake bandit leader raised his hand and a rain of arrows filled the sky. Not expecting the large number of arrows, Ash acted quickly and evoked agis shield of protection twice in succession, knocking all the arrows from the sky.
When the arrows hit the inviable barrier, the bandit leader called for a second volley, but once again they hit Ash’s shield and fell harmlessly to the ground. In case of a third barrage, Ash checked the status of his shields and found that they still had slightly over half their strength left. “You have chosen your path to walk and I am sad to say, it will be a short one,” Ash said with a hint of sadness in his voice.
Ash activated over-boost and then used his ability total destruction. Like a thunderstorm, a series of pure white energy tendrils lept from Ash’s outstretched hand and attacked the bandits. It would have looked beautiful had the smell of burning flesh not filled the air as the energy burned through everyone in its path. One bright energy wave hit an illusionary barrier, dispelling it and exposing more than two dozen archers hidden behind.
When the energy storm ended, Ash’s guards took their turn and rushed the remaining enemy with Ash not far behind. Seeing that the caravan guards joined in the battle. With their captain dead, the fake bandits were in complete disarray and within moments found themselves overwhelmed. Only three of the more than thirty attackers lived long enough to throw down their arms and surrender.
Once the battle was finished, Ash surveyed the damage. Surprisingly no one had died on their end. Ash’s shield and the strength of his first attack had done too much damage. Though none were dead, there were a few injuries, but Ash and Li were quickly able to heal those in need. Even though it was only partway past midday, Ash and the caravan decided to stop only far enough away from the dead bodies that they couldn’t be smelled. The reason for this was so that Ash could have time to talk to the three that remained alive.
Before talking to the captives who were currently tied up next to one of the wagons, Ash set up his tent and tried to ready himself for the confrontation. Once his nerves were ready and his heart was steeled, Ash asked Tolarea to bring all three of the captives in at once.
Two of the captives were no more than young boys, hardly old enough to shave while the third looked as if he could easily be old enough to be their father. “Take a seat,” Ash said as he waved his hand at the open chairs that he had prepared, with the help from the caravan leader. The three men quickly took their seats. Ash studied them closely before continuing. The older man looked calm while the two younger ones had hate lurking in their eyes. Due to this, Ash chose to speak to the young men first. Ash hated himself for the choice, but he knew that it had the best chance to get the information he needed.
“You three are prisoners and currently have two choices. The first is to answer my questions, the other is to die for the crime of banditry,” Ash said, his voice much more calm than he currently felt. Ash turned his body toward the first youngster who sat at the left hand side of the others. “What were your orders and who made them.”
“We are prisoners of war, you have to ransom us or set us free,” the youth said indigently.
“Prisoners of war,” Ash said as if he was confused. “At the moment, all I know is that you are bandits that attacked me and my friends. By law I can strip you, beat you, torture you, or simply sell you into slavery,” Ash said with a shrug of his shoulders. When the young men heard the words, their faces turned white while the older man took it all in stride. “Now, I will only ask you one more time. What were your orders and who gave them?”
“I cannot say,” the boy said his voice trembling slightly. Ash let out an internal sigh while keeping his outward appearance calm. “Tolarea, kill him and don’t make it pleasant.”
The young man was drug from his chair by Tolarea who had a menacing look on her face. No more than half a heartbeat after she left the tent, the whole camp reverberated with the sound of the young man screaming in pain. Ash didn’t say anything during this time. It wasn’t because he wanted the others to hear it, but
because his stomach was turning so harshly that he was afraid that if he opened his mouth, his lunch would come out.
Turning to the second young boy, Ash hardened his gaze. “What were your orders and who gave them?” Ash asked his voice as cold as steel.
“Sir may I?” the older man said, pulling Ash’s attention. Ash nodded his head while looking the man in the eyes. “I don’t know who gave the orders and I doubt this boy does either. The orders themselves were clear enough though. We were to act as bandits and attack a group of demons that were traveling within the kingdom. That is all that we were told.”
“What group do you belong to?” Ash asked his eyes narrowing dangerously.
“Fourth division of Count Harole’s knights.”
“Besides the Count, who else could give the order?”
“Any of the knight captains, but other than that, no one could give us a direct command,” the older knight admitted.
“Thank you. Sadly I can’t just let you leave, but you will live. If you give your names to my guard, we will see to sending your families the demand for ransom,” Ash said, trying to keep his voice calm. As he spoke, Seia moved to take the two remaining prisoners away.
“My lord, if I may?” the older knight said as he got up from his seat. “I don’t agree with what happened today. Had I known we were attacking a peace delegation, I would have protested, but I cannot condone your methods either. Killing during a battle is one thing. It is always live or die, but to kill the youngster when he was unarmed and helpless…That…”
“I know what you want to say, but I don’t have the privilege of being pleasant,” Ash said cutting the man off. “I have done everything I could to conduct myself in a peaceful manner, but at each turn I am attacked. If you wished to be treated like knights on a battlefield, then you shouldn’t have dressed as common highwaymen. Now leave before what is left of my patience is ran dry,” Ash snapped, trying to hold his cold demeanor together while it threatened to crumble at any moment.
11-4
Though Ash was not able to get much information from the two remaining men, he had gotten enough to do what he wanted. He had also sent off the ransom note to each of their families though Ash had not done this to be kind. If the families or the count paid the ransom, then it would prove their connection to the nobility.
Ash didn’t know and didn’t want to know how Tolarea had killed the young man, but from the large amount of blood that had pooled on the ground, Ash could guess that it was not a pleasant experience. Thankfully, Tolarea never mentioned what happened after she had taken the boy away. A point that Ash was eternally grateful for.
After the attack, the small caravan was able to travel unmolested to the next large town which was only four days away from the capital and the king. Being this close, Ash didn’t think that the king would send out more troops, but he still kept up his guard.
Once they reached the large city, the caravan came to an end and Ash’s group was once again left to travel alone. While they were with the caravan, Ash didn’t have the chance to train any of his abilities. It wasn’t just because they moved fast, but because Ash didn’t want to expose his dimension door to anyone outside of his own group for fear that it would get back to the king. If that happened, there was a chance that the king would find a way to block his escape during a critical moment.
“My lord, what are you thinking about?” Seia asked from her position next to Ash.
“Just thinking about the upcoming meeting with the human king,” Ash replied without thinking.
“Is something bothering you?” Li asked leaning her slender body forward slightly.
“I was just thinking about this world and everything that has happened recently,” Ash said with a heavy sigh. “I just don’t understand how everyone thinks. Why do they hate demons so much? Why must there be a war, and why are they so focused on me and Emelia?”
“Power my lord,” Seia replied with a hint of scorn in her voice. “When it comes to humans, it always comes down to money or power. From what you have told us, Emelia has rich lands and the other nobles coveted it. They don’t care what they have to do to get it as long as they do get it. The king most likely feared that the inner power struggle would cause trouble for the kingdom and moved to end it as quickly as he could while offending the least amount of nobles. To do that all he had to do was support the attackers who would then oust the Hawkwing family. When the tables were turned, the king only saw that he was losing a part of his land and not a small piece either and is trying to stop it. He can’t see far enough to know that he is courting the destruction of his whole kingdom.”
“I know but it all seems just…So…Idiotic. I don’t want to fight a war. I want to explore the world, train myself, and just have fun.”
“Tamerial has always been like this,” Seia said shrugging her shoulders. “Since the demons have existed, we have seen humans do nothing but make war. When they turned on us, we retreated back behind the mountains. We had been fighting at the front while the king at the time had consolidated his forces. Since then we have watched the humans and learned a great deal, but I have always found it odd that they consider us to be evil incarnate when it is the humans who seem to love duplicity and war so much.”
“Tamerial?” Ash asked having not heard nor read the word before.
“That is the name the gods gave the world when it was created. “Would you like to hear the story that we were told about the creation of the world. It could pass the time until we reach the next small town.”
“Sure. I have read some stories, but they all just say that the world was created and the gods came into existence,” Ash said slightly intrigued.
“Long ago when our people were first set free, the goddess lived with us for a time. She enjoyed learning about us and teaching us about the world that we would now call home. The world we live on is but one out of countless others. The goddess said that each world is governed by one or many gods. A group of worlds is governed by one or more true gods. The true gods are watched over by high-gods, and at the very top are the three overgods; Creation, Destruction, and Order. The goddess said there was one more god that was once an overgod, but the other gods banned together and he was forced to flee. His name was Chaos. Some consider him evil, but from what the goddess said he is neither good nor evil just like the other gods. He is just the embodiment of chaos. Most words are created by the overgod of creation and when their time is up the overgod of destruction ends them. The time in the middle is when the overgod of order watches. Chaos had no set role and could do anything the other three couldn’t. He had no limits on his power yet he cared little for what the other gods thought. He would make a world and then grow bored with it and move on to create another leaving it untended by what the goddess called a sanctioned highgod. Our world is one such world. Chaos created it on a whim and now it is left on its own, drifting in the endless sea of stars. It is said that he was the one who named the world since it was created with various forms of life from many different worlds. Even the power of the gods was stronger than that of other worlds. The goddess didn’t explain why or how the gods power work or even where it comes from but she did say that the gods created by chaos were unique compared to those created by the other gods.”
“Interesting,” Ash said as he leaned back. When he had been brought to this world had it been the overgod chaos that had brought him here and if so why. Ash had never truly understood why he had been brought to this world. In truth he had never given it much thought until now but he was starting to question the truth to the reason.
As he was thinking, Ash looked out the small window and noticed the smoke clouds rising in the distance. The town was not far away and they would be there within the hour unless the road was unnaturally windy. Only a few more days and everything would begin. Ash just hoped that it was a good beginning, though he couldn’t help but doubt those hopes.
“We have arrived my lord,” Celina said opening the door to the
carriage.
Stepping outside, Ash found himself on a long street. The village was large enough he couldn’t see the outside from where he was standing, but not so large to have more than a single inn. The inn was two stories and much larger than Ash had expected. Celina quickly booked their rooms, but due to limited availability they had to put three people to a room, which Ash didn’t find as much of an inconvenience.
Once everyone was situated, Ash had Li order their food and have it brought up to his room which was the largest. As they sat around eating on small portable wooden tables, Ash began to speak.
“In a few days we will reach the capital. I have a personal residence there, but I think it will be safer to stay at an inn. Before we arrive, I want everyone to dress in their best clothing. We need to make a show of ourselves. I know the past few weeks of traveling nonstop have been trying, but it is almost over.”
“Until we have to turn around and head back,” One of the knights said with a short laugh.
“That won’t be a problem,” Ash said with a sly smile. “I have arranged for a group of demons to bring in some hawks and hide far enough away from the capital so they wouldn’t be found, but close enough for us to use when it is time for our departure.”
“What else have you planned?” Tolarea asked.
“A few things, but I hope that none of them will be needed,” When Ash saw the pained look on the faces of his friends he felt his shoulders drop slightly. “It is not that I don’t trust each and every one of you. I just want to keep the secrets…Secret. There is no telling what abilities or skills our enemies have and it is more than possible for one to be watching or listening to us right now.” After Ash had spoken, their faces softened slightly, but Ash could still see a hint of annoyance within some of their eyes.
“Do you have a plan for how we will enter the capital,” Li asked changing the subject. “You said you wanted to make a show of it.”
Reborn: Flames of War Page 3
