by Billy Wong
#
It came quickly, the news of the invasion of Linel by a band of Volstonian raiders and its subsequent evacuation. After a bloody battle, the overmatched defenders had been forced to concede their position. How many enemies had there been? Could Rose have changed the outcome? She would never know, but went with the Whitestones to meet the fleeing survivors on the road, so as to give the worst off the care they urgently needed.
Those refugees who could afford horses quickly arrived at Geben, and it was the poorer folk suffering on foot, many wounded and painstakingly carried by their kin, who would require their aid. The Whitestones set out, but on the road they found a carpet of bodies strewn across the dirt. Mostly men, she saw, and she knew why.
At the sight, Rose finally broke down and cried, ranting while she did, "This is what your peace is about?! Letting the innocent die? Look! Look at what we've done. The raiders came after their defeated foes, and massacred them like they weren't even human beings. And look at the women, the children, who aren't here. You think they've escaped a hideous fate? No! They've been taken away. They won't have happy days."
Ethan looked sadly at her. "I hate this too, you know. I hate it so much." With a fire which surprised and somehow excited her, he added, "Sometimes I wish they'd all just die."
"Then fight them. Make them pay."
He hesitated, and Rose knew the sight of all these dead had called his convictions into question. Even a saint was only human. Was she evil, then, for trying to turn him from his devoted path? No, she didn't believe that. Her way was right; it was practical, and the way change was made.
"They're monsters," Ethan whispered. "I don't want to be a monster..."
"Am I a monster?"
The rest of the Whitestones had stayed out of their conversation until now, respecting their intimacy. But now Brian said, "Stop, Rose. You're being cruel."
"Am I? You think just because you're a pacifist now, you've erased your own sin. But you haven't. You'll always be bound to the past. Even if your mind forgets, your soul will remember."
He looked at the ground. "Of course I remember. But I don't want to repeat it."
She glared at him. "Killing fiends isn't the same as the slaughter of innocents. Even a child would understand that."
"We're all human beings."
"They don't care. Why should you?"
Brian sighed. "You'll never understand. You're not one of us, Rose. I don't know why we took you in."
Ethan came to her defense. "Brian, none of us started our lives as 'one of us.' We took her in to give her a chance, just like we did Gary—and you."
"We don't constantly try to undermine your ideals, like her."
"She's still new. She'll learn."
"I don't want to learn," Rose spat.
He stared at her, and his voice trembled as he said, "Then leave." The words lanced through her like acid in her veins.
She let out a single sob, then met his eyes, tears flowing down her cheeks. "So you choose your ideals, over my love."
"Y-yes. I thought you could change, Rose. I love you, but I also loved what you could be. Now, I know you'll never be that woman. You're too hard, you won't bend for our sake..."
"It's you who won't bend, it's you who's rigid. Ethan, think about it. I haven't fought for months, I've checked my blade. Even all the times people in Dunwal tried to challenge me to bar fights, I turned them down, at the cost of pride—a little thing, I know, but a change for me. And when I tell you that evil must be stopped, what do you say? That the ideals of your soft morality are more important than people's lives!"
"I'm sorry. I can't compromise my beliefs."
"Fine, then. Goodbye." She turned, crying as she stormed away. Gary stepped in front of her as if to stop her and she shouldered him aside, putting him on his back and sending gasps of shock through the watching Whitestones. Oh no, a shove. She almost rolled her eyes.
Averting his gaze, Ethan said, "Let's go. Some of them might still be alive."
Rose wanted to help if there were indeed any survivors, but couldn't bear to be here and continued her walk away. Then, she heard a faint scream of horror and pain. The captured refugees were still nearby!
She gave Ethan one last meaningful look and ran towards the sound, soon coming into view of about a score of raiders stalled on the road. Several bound women yelled and cried in protest while one man took his turn with a bruised young girl crying and squirming beneath him in the dirt.
Disgusted by the sight, Rose bellowed, "Get off her, you pig!"
He looked up in surprise, and his head rolled away as her sword flicked forward through his neck. Her steel shield splintered a nearby man's ribcage, and she eyed the rest of the raiders with hateful eyes. "You're all dead, you maggots."
A minute earlier, they might have laughed. Seeing the example she'd already made of their friends, they didn't, and instead rushed her like they meant to die. She let the first one spill his guts on her blade, and the next fell split open from belly to groin. They were everywhere, battering her with numerous blows, but she blocked the ones she could and took the rest in stride, feeling every blow but never letting pain get the better of her will.
She cut furiously about her with her sword, weaving a haphazard pattern of death which ended a life every other second, and her shield lashed out alongside her blade, crushing bones like twigs. There had been many of them, but fewer and fewer returned her swings. Soon they were running, their futile attempts at resistance given up for a chance to survive. She chased after the fleeing fiends and cut down a handful more, then turned back to the prisoners she'd saved.
"You're wounded," one woman said.
Rose cut the ropes which bound the prisoners together and replied with a painful shrug, "I'm fine. Are any of you hurt?"
"Her..." a small woman said with a nod at the girl shivering on the floor, the smell of urine rising from the ground beneath her.
Rose walked over to the terribly shaken girl and knelt to take her hand. "It's okay, they're gone. You're safe now, with me."
The girl looked up. "W-what did they d-do to you?"
Must have been all the blood. "Less than I did to them. Are you hurt?"
"A-a little. They did... things to me. What did they do?"
She didn't understand? Well, she was young. Rose wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad thing, and had no idea how to handle this. She helped the girl get up and put on her clothes, then led her to join the other women. "Here, your friends will take care of you."
One of the women looked at Rose and asked, "What do we do? Where do we go? Our home's gone..."
She didn't know that, either. "There's some people who can help you down the road. Come with me."
When they arrived in view of the Whitestones, Rose thought she saw admiration in some of their faces, and considered trying to argue her stance on fighting again. "You saved these women?" Ethan asked.
"Yeah. Would you have?"
"Rose, don't do this." He addressed the women. "Here, get in the wagons. We'll take care of you."
Putting her hands on her hips, Rose shook her head. "You're blind."
Ethan groaned. "Leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you." Looking at her, his eyes grew moist.
She nodded as she realized that he must have shared her awful hurt inside. She hated having to fight him, and of course he felt the same. Watching the Whitestones pack their wagons with wounded and drive away, Rose walked down the road after them, not even bothering to ask if she could get a ride.
#
Back in Geben, there was really nothing for her to do but wait for news of more attacks, and she knew she would do more good working with the Whitestones to treat the wounded and sick. So she tried to help out in the infirmary, but found it difficult to bear the disdainful gazes of her former comrades and spent her days cringing in shame. She drank and drank in her free time, and though she was young no one tried to stop her from having her fill of rum. They knew who she was.
She was chugging away at a tall cup when she noticed a familiar face next to her. "Jerry? What are you doing here?"
The old mercenary recognized her and almost fell out of his seat. "Rose! What the hell are you here for?"
They stared at each other for a moment, then she said, "I was here with my friends. Now I'm fighting the good fight alone. You?"
"I'm here with Alicia and her crew. Fighting raiders."
"Wait—Alicia's here?"
"Not in Geben. I'm on my break right now, and decided to visit an old friend here. But yeah, they're all nearby."
"And you're fighting raiders. Why?"
"Some lord or another hired us to hunt the ones who've gotten into Jugeld. I'm getting paid, and don't really care who's doing it."
Rose saw her chance to begin making more of the difference she wanted, as well as get away from the Whitestones' depressing hostility. "Would I be welcome back to help?"
"I don't know. You got kicked out last time."
With a frown, she nodded. "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't take me back. But you're fighting raiders, right? I doubt I'd rebel on you for that."
Jerry studied her face and smiled. "You really are bloodthirsty, aren't you?"
"I'm thirsty for justice."
"Ah, maybe she'll let you back. She liked you, after all."
"She?"
"Alicia."
Rose thought Michael had been the mercs' leader—"Master"—but said, "I hope so. You going to take me there?"
"A little later, Rose. Let me get a few more drinks first."
She agreed, and got a few more of her own.
#
When they had their fill of alcohol, Jerry led her out of Geben and to another fort called Tulb where the Blood Vines were staying. It was almost night. He brought her to their musty quarters, and said as Alicia sat up from her cot, "You've got a visitor."
"Rose!" Alicia boomed with a grin. "How have you been?"
"Okay, I suppose. Better some times than others."
"Here to fight the raiders?"
"How did you know?"
"What else would you be here for?"
She shrugged. "Not much, I guess. So can I rejoin you? You think Michael will let me?"
"Michael? He doesn't make the rules around here."
"Isn't he-"
Alicia shook her head and smirked. "He's gone. I booted him after he disrespected me."
"Booted him?"
"Beat him up and tossed him out. Had to do it, or I would've lost all the respect I worked so hard to gain."
"How did he disrespect you?"
"He tried to put me on medic duty, when we needed one in a tough spot. There was plenty of other people who could have filled the role. What about Timmy? Keeping me from the fight? Doesn't he know how damn good I am?"
"It sounds to me like he did it because he was concerned for you..."
"Ha! I don't need that kind of concern. Makes me feel inferior, is all it does. He wouldn't have done it for any man as good as me, so I couldn't let him do it to me."
Rose supposed Alicia was right. She herself would have appreciated such consideration for her safety, but she wouldn't have wanted to listen, either. "Why did you like him, anyway?" she found herself asking. "You seemed as different as night and day."
Alicia shrugged. "I thought we understood each other. He didn't judge me, and I didn't judge him. For our kind that counts for a lot. But it wasn't enough."
Looking around, Rose noticed that many of the men here were unfamiliar to her. "You get rid of some of his friends, too?"
"I can't very well let someone who won't listen to my orders work for me, can I? One of them even tried to stick a dagger in my back. He lost his arms and his life."
"So who hired you to come here?"
"Doesn't matter. All that matters is that we smash us some raiders, right?"
But why wouldn't Alicia want to tell who had hired her? Not wanting to push the question just yet, Rose nodded. "So you know where to find these raiders?"
"Sometimes. They move a lot."
"Do you have any leads now?"
"Yeah, we're going out tomorrow."
Tomorrow! That was fast. Rose hesitated a moment before asking, "So how you find out where they are, anyway?"
Alicia recognized her wariness and laughed loudly. "The raider bands are always fighting with each other, and don't mind at all if their rivals get wiped out by an outside force. So I just use them to bring each other's demise. They never seem to catch on, that it'll be their own group's turn one day."
Rose was a little surprised to find she felt no qualms about manipulating the raiders in this way. It sounded rather smart, actually. "Where do I sleep?"
Her host waved a thick arm. "Pick the bed you like, if no one's stuff is there."
"Happy hunting, Alicia."
"You too, crazy Rose."
#
The next morning, they went out and found their latest raider camp, and surprising them slaughtered them to a man. Despite her hatred of their kind, Rose couldn't help a bit of guilt as she looked upon their corpses, and wished men wouldn't force her to act this way.
Still, she shook her reservations aside, and over the next week accompanied the Blood Vines on two more raids. Luckily, the raiders they killed hadn't brought their families with them; they must not have come here for a long term stay.
As the sun set on one more bloody day, she asked Alicia again, "So really, who hired you to do this? It wasn't Prince Victor, was it?"
"No. Does it really matter who it was?"
Not really, except that she was hiding it. That told Rose something was strange. Maybe she didn't know who it was, or maybe she'd been told not to talk. "But why did you come all the way out here? Aren't there jobs for you elsewhere?"
Alicia gazed at the orange sky and smiled. "Sure there are. None as worthwhile, though."
"You've got a altruistic streak too, don't you?"
"Me? Says who?"
"Your actions."
The redhead frowned as she turned towards Rose. "That's not true. I'm not doing this because I want to help some people I don't even know."
Rose realized sadly that she was telling the truth. "But why come after these raiders if not for the sake of those they harm? Patriotism? Good pay? Vengeance?"
"Deterrence. There's more threat to these raiders than meets the eye." Alicia explained. "Right now, we haven't seen so many of them. But if enough of them establish themselves here, it'll encourage their fellows to come, too. And there's thousands upon thousands of wild men like these in Volston. They wouldn't be easily driven away."
"Even if many came, they couldn't get far. They're not organized enough to match up against Kayland's forces."
"No. But they needn't go far to threaten my home."
Right. Rose had forgotten about Alicia's residence in Weith, a small island duchy just north of the edge of Volston. Yes, raiders with boats could easily invade the place. "So you are still attached to your home."
"No one can truly leave their home behind."
"That's true. Do you have family back there, like me?"
Alicia grunted, blinking her eyes. "All dead, Rose."
"How? Raiders?"
"No. My mother died giving birth to me—I was always a big girl, even as a baby. Then, when I was fourteen, my father was out hunting when a boar gored his horse and he was pitched from the saddle. He got up and killed it. His brain had been injured by the fall, and he died days later."
"That... I'm sorry."
"It was a long time ago. Barely hurts anymore, until people ask."
"Sorry. What happened to you then? I'll shut up now."
With a laugh, Alicia shook her head. "No, this part I'm actually proud of. I took over for him, my father. Ran the family business until I got bored of it all." She touched the handle of her axe meaningfully.
"At age fourteen?"
"Such surprise from the woman who killed over a hundred men in one da
y at fifteen?"
"Almost sixteen. And I was lucky to fight them where I did, or else I'm sure I would have died."
"Well, I did have help. It's not like the business didn't come with employees."
Rose nodded. "So this was a big business?"
"Bigger than anything you would know."
"How do you know what I'd know?"
Alicia shrugged and walked off to make dinner. Following after her, Rose decided she was probably right. She wondered what exactly this business had been, and supposed it was probably something criminal. Alicia's details had not been merely vague, but just about nonexistent altogether, and besides, she did seem suited to the lawless life. After all, she had stolen Rose's family recipe for stew. And maybe, if she'd heard young Timmy right, tried to sell it as well.
#
Rose did not have a good feeling about this chase. Upon reaching the supposed hideout of their latest raider band, they had managed to kill two of the four men there only for the others to mount their fast light horses and bolt away. Taking their dead comrades' steeds, she and Alicia had chased after them.
What unnerved her most was the small number of men they'd found in camp, but also confusing was the ease with which they'd been able to procure the enemy horses for use. Having heard stories of the bond between Volstonian horses and their masters, she would have expected it to be more difficult than this...
They had almost caught up to their prey when one of the raiders whistled, and Rose found herself thrown from her horse as it bucked suddenly with the ferocity and force of a living storm. She looked around to see Alicia sitting up, her face covered with dirt, at her side. "Damn tricks!" the redhead spat.
"We have more," said one of the raiders as he wheeled around, drawing back a shortbow in his hands.
As the two women stood, Rose noticed a section of plain rise up some twenty yards away, a large clump of archers emerging from their hiding spots in the tall grass. Fifty, maybe. More than a lot. "Alicia... I think we're going to die."
