The man hesitated for a moment. My gut tightened.
Finally, he nodded and began giving orders to the other villagers.
* * *
We got out of town as fast as we could. Weapons stayed out until the place was a tiny speck in the distance behind us. I didn’t think those ranchers would be dumb enough to come after us, but then again, I never thought they’d have been dumb enough to try anything to begin with.
We didn’t make camp until well after dusk and when we did, I made sure we were well off the road. I doubled the watch and even set up a few trip lines. If there had been time and enough men, I might’ve even dug a trench with stakes.
The mood in camp wasn’t quite as bad as it was after Damanhur. The knowledge that we were all so close to home helped. It was easier to believe that Kafr was so inhospitable because none of us were from there.
I hoped that was true.
* * *
After dinner, card games broke out. Ira came over with a stick of tobacco and offered me a bite. I hated the stuff usually, but for some reason felt like having a piece. Anything to help take my mind off Kafr.
I took a bite and immediately regretted it. It tasted worse than it smelled, like coffee grounds and boiled leather. Ira told me that meant it was a good brand. I worked the stuff around my mouth until I had it positioned in my cheek. Off my tongue, it became tolerable.
Ira sat beside me. “Doing all right?”
I spat. “About as good as one can expect.”
“I hear you. Crazy stuff back there.”
“Yeah. Hoped we had left all that stupidity behind.”
Ira chuckled. “You know stupidity doesn’t work like that. That stuff spreads like crotch rot. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of Turine has heard about Damanhur by now.”
“I’ve wondered the same. Hopefully, Balak got Nehab’s message. Maybe he can get the king to put a stop to this nonsense before it gets worse. Make it easier on the others who come home after us.”
He spat. “Maybe. Though you heard that man with the scythe. Most of what they were worked up about had nothing to do with Damanhur. That had just been the tipping point. He brought up stuff that had been going on since the war began.”
“Yeah.”
“You know they gave me and Dekar that speech about duty when the army recruited us. Unlike you and Ava, we were dumb enough to actually join on our own.”
“Really?” Somehow after ten years, I hadn’t known that.
He nodded. “Bunch of morons we were.” He snorted. “The bones of those kids you mentioned . . . that was in El Ghriba, right?”
I nodded.
“Yeah, that got to a lot of people. Cemented my resolve in what we were fighting for, you know. We had to stop the Geneshans. Who else was going to stop them if we didn’t? They had already conquered four nations.” He paused “I know you were pressed into the army, but did you ever really feel a sense of duty to what we were doing?”
“Sure. Sometimes. Like you said, it was hard not to after stuff like El Ghriba.”
“What about now?”
I blew out a slow breath. “On occasion, but less and less as the days wear on. You?”
He spat. “Nope. Not anymore.”
“What did it?”
“One of those villages that man talked about us burning. Hadera. We were making our final sweep after they allowed us to evacuate it before we razed the place. I found a baby crying in a basket under one of the beds. Xank knows what parent would have left their kid like that. Of course, the parents might have been dead for all I know. Anyway, I grabbed the baby out the basket and walked back to camp. Balak saw me and called me over.”
Ira changed his voice to Balak’s, stiff and deep. “Son, what are you doing with that baby?”
“I found him, sir. Left behind in Hadera,” he answered back in his own voice.
“And?” he said once again while imitating Balak’s voice.
“Thought I’d give him to one of the whores. I know it ain’t the best life for a kid, but at least it’s something.”
“And are you going to become that baby’s surrogate father too?”
“Honestly sir, I haven’t thought about it much. Probably wouldn’t hurt for him to have someone around while I can do it.”
“That’s what I thought. Give me the baby.”
“Sir?”
“I’ll take care of things.”
“How?”
“Give it to me, son, or find yourself in the stockades!”
Ira laughed. “Well what was I going to do, Ty? I didn’t want the stockades so I gave him the baby.” He spat, then worked the tobacco around his jaw. “He took care of him all right. I saw one of his aids burying the child during third watch near the latrines that night. I dug him back up to know for certain and saw his lips were all blue and there was some bruising around the mouth. Likely smothered. I realized then just how awful a person Balak was and what sort of person the king was for promoting him to general. It also said what sort of people we all were for following them both.”
We sat in silence, watching the flames dance for some time. I always had issues with Balak, but never did I think he was that cruel. Something dawned on me. “That aid. That was Jahleel, wasn’t it?”
He spat. “Yep.”
I remembered Jahleel dying around that time. Strangled with a belt. Body dumped in the latrines. No one knew who had done it though Balak did his best to find out. I put two and two together.
It was my turn to spit.
Gods, why had I taken a bite of tobacco? “Well, I guess I know how he died then. And the reason for it.”
Ira shrugged. “Yep.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“You had enough on your plate managing us and the never-ending missions Balak threw our way. You didn’t need something like that clouding up your thoughts. Besides, if someone had ever figured out what I did, and you knew about it but didn’t address it, you’d be in just as deep as me. Probably deeper.”
Ira nodded toward his brother. “Dek thinks that most of your threat earlier in Kafr about killing everyone was a bluff. He said it wasn’t like you to go around killing civilians. But it wasn’t a bluff, was it? You would have cut that man open in a heartbeat.”
I shifted uncomfortably. “What makes you say that?”
“Because I’ve only seen you that angry one other time and that was when we all first joined and them two mages were picking on Ava. You were madder then actually, which only makes sense because of her being family. But this was close. And you nearly killed both of them mages then. Probably would have if me and Ham hadn’t pulled you off.”
“Good thing you did. Balak would have had me hanged. The lashings were bad enough.” I winced as phantom pains drifted over my back and shoulders. “He said it was unfair that I beat them so badly since I had a resistance to sorcery. I told Balak that those idiots should have carried swords.”
Ira snorted. “Yeah, they should have. So like I asked, you weren’t bluffing earlier, were you?”
“No. I wasn’t. I don’t bluff when someone threatens my family.”
Ira was probably right by keeping that story of killing Jahleel from me. My unit had taken the place of my family during the war and I wouldn’t have turned my back on Ira for something like that. Regardless of what would have rained down on me.
I glanced over my shoulder at the men talking, playing cards, a few others already settling down for the night. I knew they weren’t perfect, but I’d die for them just as I knew they would for me.
When it comes to family, that’s the way it should be.
CHAPTER 11
Eventually it was down to me, Dekar, and Ira. Thankfully, Kafr was the last confrontation we had to deal with during the remainder of our travels. That made the journey more palatable and still allowed us to hang onto our hope of what was to come when we reached our homes. That’s not to say the people we came across started throwing flowers at our fe
et or anything like that. They just never tried to kill us.
Small victories.
Ira and I sat up front while Dekar snoozed in the back of the wagon.
“Gods, Ty. You’re shaking the wagon more than the road.”
“Huh?”
Ira nodded to my hands that I had been rubbing subconsciously while tapping a leg and rocking in my seat.
“Sorry,” I said, trying to force myself to relax. “I’m getting anxious. We should be in Denu Creek within the hour.”
He shook his head. “Well, we ain’t there yet so calm yourself. I swear you’re acting like a kid on his name day.”
I chuckled, but stopped at a sudden urge. I stood.
Ira swore. “What in the name of Xank are you doing now?”
“Gotta piss.”
“Well, let me pull over then. It won’t take but a minute,” he said pulling the reins.
“No! Just keep going. We can’t stop now. We’re too close,” I said, undoing my britches.
Dekar woke up. “What are you two going on about? That was the best sleep I had in days.”
“Ty’s being ridiculous,” said Ira. “Man can wait a decade to see his family, but not a few extra minutes to make sure he doesn’t get piss on his leg.”
“Seriously?” asked Dekar, looking away from my stream.
I shook off and started tying my britches up. “Let’s see how you feel tomorrow when you’re this close to seeing your Adwa again. Then we can talk.” I sat. “You got time to get a bit more sleep if you want.”
“Too late now. I’m up, and I’m hungry.” Dekar started rummaging around in the back. “I guess we won’t be stopping to eat. Might as well do it now. Here.” He handed up some jerky for me and Ira.
I was pretty hungry, but my stomach was also in too big of a knot to eat much. I took a bite of the dried beef, and let it sit in my mouth, slowly sucking out the spices before chewing and swallowing. The ritual gave me something to do other than think about seeing Lasha and the kids again.
How would they react? What would they say? Molak be damned, I still hadn’t figured out what I would say.
The food only calmed me for a few minutes. After the third bite, I started blabbering about Denu Creek, my home, Lasha, Myra, and Zadok. Stories I knew Ira and Dekar had heard dozens of times before spilled out before I even realized it.
I couldn’t help myself.
Ira started to drive the horses harder with each story. We actually had to slow down as we reached the outskirts of town.
Ten years is a long time for anyone to be gone from home. In that amount of time, a baby can become a boy or a boy a man. Even still, I had not expected Denu Creek to be so different. The place had more than doubled in size—inns, taverns, specialty stores, and even a small theater next to the local auction house lined Main Street which actually lived up to its name.
Ten years ago it was the only street. Now there were a couple of side roads branching off. It used to take a man less than five minutes to walk from one side of town to the other. It would take at least twice that long now.
“I don’t even recognize it anymore.”
Ira grunted. “Makes you wonder what our home is like, doesn’t it?”
Home for Dekar and Ira was a small town to the south named Tamra.
“It does,” Dekar whispered.
We entered Main Street in the evening. It wouldn’t be fully dark for hours, yet business owners prepared for night anyway, lighting oil lamps that hung on the posts of awnings over their doorways. Wagons owned by locals began to fill the street while men and women who looked like they had just come in from a hard day of work walked the wooden sidewalks. Many of them headed straight for the taverns.
“Dekar, how old would you reckon most of this is?” I asked.
He grunted. “You can tell a few buildings are fairly recent by how green the wood looks.”
I pointed to a barber shop, something the Denu Creek I remember never had. “What about something like that?”
“Older. Same as the inn on the other side of it. Probably seven or eight years old.”
“That’s what I was thinking too.”
“Why?”
“Just trying to figure out why Lasha never mentioned any of this in the letters she sent to me. She’d write a paragraph about the weather, but not even one sentence about all of this.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess that’s something you’ll have to ask her.”
“Yeah. It just seems so unlike her.”
Ira gave me a nudge and nodded when I looked his way. “You know any of them people?”
I followed his gaze to a group of men standing near the old, single-room jail. It was nice to see there hadn’t been a need to build a bigger one despite the increase in population. I couldn’t read lips, but I didn’t have to. The eyes of the men at the old jail betrayed enough. They made no attempt to hide their displeasure at seeing us.
“No,” I answered.
“What about them?” Dekar asked from behind.
I looked to the other side of the street where a handful of ladies stood outside a tailor shop. They looked just as sour about our presence as the men near the jail. However, most had the courtesy not to act so obvious about it. All except one that is. She spat as we passed.
“Well, that’s nice,” said Dekar.
“Could be coincidence,” I said, not liking the general feeling I had so far. I didn’t recognize those women either. Or anyone else walking about on the dirt streets for that matter.
“Right,” said Ira. “She had this big wad of phlegm she needed out, and it just so happens she dislodged it right as we passed. Very ladylike.”
I noted the sarcasm and gave him a look. He said nothing more as all three of us were too busy focusing on other passersby. I thought I saw a couple familiar faces, but wasn’t sure since heads turned away quickly from us. It wasn’t until we reached the other side of town that someone I knew for sure caught my eye.
I waved at the slender man standing in the doorway of the tanner shop. “Nason! It’s . . .” My voice trailed off as Nason darted inside, looking nervous.
“Friend of yours?” asked Ira.
“Yeah. We used to be pretty close.”
“Emphasis on used to be.”
“He probably didn’t know who I was. I’ve changed a lot in the years I’ve been gone. Besides, we all could use a bath after the time on the road.”
“A man can at least raise a hand in courtesy when someone calls his name.”
“I hate to say it, but at least on the surface, things don’t appear much different here than they did in most other places,” said Dekar.
“I’m sure things will be better once I come back with Lasha and they see who I am. Then they’ll realize I live here and I’m not someone trying to dirty up their town.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Dekar as we left Main Street behind us.
* * *
The tract of land I called home sat a few miles outside of town. That distance had been an aggravation before the war when I’d have to travel it during bad weather to stock up on supplies. Now, it was a blessing as the more distance we put between us and the town, the more our mood lightened. My hope and excitement grew once more as we passed homesteads that reminded me of mine. The township of Denu Creek might have gone through extensive changes in my years away, but the land around it hadn’t changed one bit.
The road curved around a small hill bordered by tall oaks. I always hated that curve, especially at night. The cynic in me thought the place ideal for an ambush by thieves. Even though I had Ira and Dekar with me and was a far more capable fighter, my hand still drifted to the hilt of a dagger strapped at my thigh.
Just like every time before, no one jumped out from those oaks, and we rode along without incident.
My plot of earth sat at the bottom of a small dip in the rolling land. It was odd to see it after so long. For the most part it too remained unchanged. Between gro
wing seasons, someone had cleared the fields in preparation for the next planting. The fence looked as though it could use some work, but that wasn’t anything I couldn’t fix over a couple of days with Zadok.
That thought struck me like a mace to the head. When I left for the army, Zadok was barely two years old. Now, he’d be helping me in the fields, and soon I’d be showing him how to shave. Myra would be fourteen. In a couple of years she’d be starting a family of her own.
Gods, I had missed so much.
I silently cursed everyone who had a hand in taking me away from those years—starting with the Geneshans and ending with myself.
No, I couldn’t exactly have avoided the war. Once they learned of my resistance to sorcery, there was no way they were letting me stay on a farm. Although, maybe I could have faked my death or something and returned home sooner.
That never would have worked. The army would have found me eventually, and things would have been worse than before. Unless I forced my family to leave Turine that is.
But that would have brought on a whole new set of problems.
I looked at Ira and Dekar, then thought of Hamath and Ava and everyone else in my unit. Desertion was never an idea I had seriously considered. I just couldn’t imagine abandoning my friends like that. Even for Lasha and the kids.
The wagon came to a halt. Ira had pulled over, stopping at the entrance to the long path leading to my house.
My house.
“I actually made it back,” I whispered.
Every soldier wants to get home and tells themselves they will. But deep down, I’m not sure how many truly believe it.
A hand slapped my back. Dekar appeared to my right smiling. “You did. We all did. Now go see that family of yours.”
“Unless you enjoy our company so much you want to stay on a bit more?” Ira smiled.
I hopped down from the wagon and pulled out my things. “Don’t get me wrong, I love you, but not that much.” I threw my pack over one shoulder. “Hey, do you both want to come in and say hello? Meet the family? Grab a quick bite to eat?”
Dekar shook his head. “Nah, this is your time. We don’t need to be intruding.” He looked up at the evening sun. “Besides, if we push on for a few more hours before making camp, we should be able to reach Tamra sometime in the late morning. And frankly, I’d rather be kissing Adwa, than taking up room in your place.”
Forgotten Soldiers Page 12
