by Lily Thomas
Once she was on her feet, he backed away, tied up his pants and then walked over to his horse.
“Is that all?” Roxanne cried out as she threw a hand out to the tree trunk to help balance herself while she kept weight off her injured ankle.
He turned, and his crimson eyes studied her. “What were you hoping for? Loving caresses?”
“No… I just wanted…” What had she wanted?
Meeting his red eyes, she could see the sorrow still lingering in those depths. He might be a warrior, but clearly, he was still affected by the effects of war. It touched her, even if he had just fucked her for emotional release and walked away.
“Are you alright?” If he needed a shoulder, she would give it to him. She just hoped he wouldn’t share anything too gruesome. There was a limit to what she would be able to listen to when it came to war stories.
“I am fine.”
She grabbed her fur dress and rushed to cover herself from view. There was a slight bit of shame flowing through her. They’d just had sex, and it’d meant nothing to him. He’d only wanted to use her to forget whatever was plaguing him.
“What went on?” Roxanne would have expected the battle in the village to take longer. Maybe the fire giants had been defeated, and Daerrin had just come back to collect her?
“We defeated the humans.” Daerrin watched her face as it fell. “Don’t be too disappointed. They gave quite the fight, but they ended up being no match for us.”
He stated it simply, but she caught his meaning. Human soldiers would never compare to them. It was true. The giants usually won, leaving human soldiers to fall to guerilla tactics.
In some ways, the fire giants had been remarkably restrained in their fights. They’d never intruded into Arcaern’s lands, just stuck to the border.
“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been slightly hoping the human forces would win,” Roxanne confessed as she crossed her arms over her chest. It would have been easier to have the human forces win. Then the decision of leaving or staying with Daerrin would be easier.
“I need to return to the village, but I wanted to check on you since I left in a rush. A camp is being set up near the village. I will take you there to get settled before I go back to the village.”
“Could I come with you instead?” She blurted. “To the village?” Roxanne was curious what had sent him flying back to her thighs for comfort. Maybe if she saw what he’d seen she’d be able to understand him a little better.
“You won’t like what you see, Roxanne.”
He was probably right, but she was curious, and she didn’t want to be left alone again.
Swallowing her fear, she tried again. “I would like to accompany you to the village. I don’t want to be left alone.”
This was her father’s life. He would never tell her much about what happened on the battlefield. He had always treated her like she was a delicate flower, and maybe he was right to do so, but she wanted to see for herself what happened at the battles her father fought. This had been a village, and she needed more facts about this war they were all fighting.
Daerrin cocked an eyebrow at her. “You will tell me if we need to leave at any point?”
“Of course.” He didn’t need to worry about her saying if she needed to leave. “Do I seem like the kind to act shy?”
He cracked a small smile. She took in the sight. It was lovely to see his face looking so carefree and happy, but the smile didn’t last for long. If only he had smiled at her like that after their intimate moment.
Shaking his head, he grabbed the reins of his snorting stallion. “Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you about what you’re about to see.” Daerrin pinned her with a stern gaze.
“I understand what I’m doing.” She hoped. All she might end up doing was giving herself nightmares, but her curiosity for knowledge spurred her onwards.
He mounted up and offered her a hand. “Then let’s be on our way.”
Her chest tightened, as the village drew closer. There were still buildings on fire, and the black smoke blocked the view of streets as the wind blew it around haphazardly.
It was so quiet, except for the random cries of injured people and horses snorting wildly, as the sights and sounds disturbed them.
As they finally entered the village and made their way down what once used to be a street, Roxanne was greeted with her first sighting of dead bodies.
Her mouth popped open in horror.
The dead on the ground were mainly fire giants, and they were strewn around each other like they had been tripping over each other to escape the onslaught, and then had been cut down as they darted for their lives.
Daerrin’s pace through the village didn’t leave her with much time to focus on any of the bodies too well, which she was thankful for. He had been right. These sights, smells, and sounds were a bit overwhelming for her. She never wanted to smell charred flesh ever again.
All these images would plague her for many nights to come.
Stopping the stallion, Daerrin assisted her to the ground and then dismounted himself.
“We will be walking from here.” He told her as he tied up the stallion to a building that had been spared the heat of the flames.
Taking her arm, he guided her through the streets. Her legs felt a little wobbly, but she pushed on.
She wanted to gag several times. Now that she was closer to the ground the smell of blood kept assaulting her delicate nose. She didn’t like being so up close and personal with so many bodies, but she wasn’t about to complain.
She’d told Daerrin she wanted to come, and she’d assured him she would be able to handle it. So she would handle it.
There were so many bodies, and none of them were warriors. A child’s body was half hidden from view under a fire giant woman.
Roxanne held back a sob. Dear lord, what had happened in this village? The human soldiers who had attacked had to have no souls to kill a mother and child. She was no fan of any giants, but such senseless and cold-hearted killing against those who were unable to fight back was disgusting.
Breaking free of the streets, they entered what had to be the center of the village. It was an open area with houses and other buildings forming a circle around the space.
Looking around the courtyard, Roxanne took in the sight before her. There were human men on their knees, bound and gagged. Fire giant warriors surrounded the group of human soldiers, sneering down at the men.
As Daerrin led her through the center of town, the human soldiers turned to stare at her in wide eyed shock. She knew they had to be confused what a human woman was doing so far from civilization.
She knew what their fate would be, but her sympathy for the human men was slim to none. On her way here she had seen too many women and children slain by their hands.
It was unforgivable, even if the women and children had been fire giants. None of those women had a sword in their hand. They were no threat to the human soldiers. Some of the women had obviously tried to spare their children the same fate by throwing themselves over them. It hadn’t worked though.
How could the soldiers have done such a horrible act? Did they all lack any soul?
Roxanne would make sure to find out which commander had ordered this attack on an innocent village and allowed his men to kill women and children. They were above such mindless killing. They had to be, or else they were no better than the people they fought.
Once she got back to her father, she would make sure he knew of this transgression. Someone would be punished for what happened here in this village. She’d make sure of it.
No wonder the fire giants thought humans were brutish.
But she was sure her father would make this human commander pay for what he had done once her father knew what happened. She had confidence in her father to handle this situation properly.
As she passed by a human soldier, she stopped, forcing Daerrin to stop as well.
“What are you doing?” Daerrin growled ove
r at her, as she stepped a little closer to the soldier.
Roxanne ignored him.
Glancing at the chest of the soldier she noticed her father’s emblem stamped on the chest armor. Reaching a couple of fingers out she lightly brushed the emblem on the soldier’s chest. The emblem portrayed two wolves in battle.
It was her father’s emblem, but that didn’t make sense. She didn’t understand how it could be there.
Staring at the emblem in horror she realized this had to be a man from her father’s command. There was no other way this man would have armor with her father’s emblem. But her father couldn’t know what these men had done. Her father would never allow his men to do such horrible things like kill women and children. He wouldn’t.
These men must have acted without her father’s knowledge or consent. He couldn’t control all the armies. He could only direct them and tell them where and when to fight. Other than that it was up to the soldiers how they handled the people in the villages.
Then again, did she know how any of this even worked? It wasn’t like her father had told her much about what he did, and she had never been interested enough to ask about it.
Desperate for answers she yanked her arm out of Daerrin’s grasp and pulled the gag out of the soldier’s mouth.
“Who is your general and what were your orders?” Roxanne cried out, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice, but it was harder than she expected.
The soldier just stared at her, but when Daerrin took a threatening step forward, he spoke. “General Johnston sent us out to take this village, and we were ordered to spare no one in the village.”
Roxanne shook her head. “You must have got your orders confused. General Johnston would never have ordered such a thing to happen to an innocent village.”
“I was there when he gave us the order. There was to be no mercy for any fire giant, whether it was a man, woman, or child. We were to strike a blow and leave all dead in our wake.”
Her mouth dropped open, and she couldn’t think of what to say. She still couldn’t believe that her father would have ordered such a cruel act on a village. Undoubtedly, the man was mistaken or had heard the orders wrong.
Her father would never. Never.
Daerrin didn’t like seeing the horror in her jade eyes when her father’s name was spoken by the soldier, but it was about time she knew what her father ordered. Daerrin had never come across such a cruel general before. Her father was one for the records. This wasn’t even the tenth village he had ordered destroyed. There were so many innocent lives on her father’s hands.
“I’m so sorry,” Roxanne uttered as he led her away from the human soldiers.
He knew it was meant for him. She hadn’t known what her father did when it came to beating down the fire giants. Then again, had he really thought she would know?
Human men always treated their women like fragile pieces of glass. Of course, her father would never tell her what he honestly did and ordered on the battlefield. Her father probably told her the revised stories without all the gory details.
She probably wasn’t just loyal to him because he was her father, but because she held him in such a high esteem. Roxanne had to think her father was a good man fighting the good cause. Daerrin almost felt bad about breaking her naïve thoughts, but it was about time she was faced with the facts.
“I had no idea.” She mumbled as she walked away from the soldier.
Daerrin motioned to one of his warriors to re-gag the human soldier. He didn’t want to listen to any of the humans beg for their lives because he wasn’t about to take any pity on them.
“I too am sorry that you had to learn about this. War is never a pleasant topic.” But he was glad she saw it. He knew Roxanne was strong enough to handle what she was seeing without breaking down.
Grabbing her arm gently, he led her away from the human men, as a fire giant re-gagged the human soldier. “How’s your ankle?”
“What?”
“Your ankle.”
“Oh.” She glanced down. “I suppose I forgot about it,” Roxanne asked, turning her piercing green eyes on him. “What will happen to the soldiers?”
Daerrin debated with himself. Did he want to tell her what would really be done to the human soldiers or was he going to be like her father and give her some trumped up story that would allow her to sleep better at night?
No. He couldn’t be like her father. He had to tell her the truth, even if she didn’t like hearing it. Roxanne wasn’t a child, and Daerrin wasn’t about to treat her like one.
“They will be interrogated for any information they may know about human troop movements, and then they will be killed.”
She turned her watery green eyes on him. “Can they not be spared?”
“You’ve seen what they did here. They deserve a lot more pain for what they’ve done. They are fortunate I don’t have them just tortured until they die.”
“Just because they have done awful things doesn’t mean you need to do it in turn. Someone needs to draw a line and decide to take a higher road. You should show mercy and hope it’s returned.”
“This is war, Roxanne. I will not hide the truth from you as your father has. There are no knights in shining armor here. There are just tired blood-soaked men who want to go home to their wives and children.”
“So you’ll just kill the men? They have wives and children too you know.” Roxanne’s arms folded in front of her breasts, pushing them up.
He may have just wared with the humans and slaked his lust with her, but all he could think about was Roxanne in his arms again. He’d liked her and wanted her in his arms. He couldn’t resist her.
“They marched into our land looking for war, and I’m not the commander in charge here. The commander will decide what to do with them, and I wouldn’t presume to interfere with the men he captured.”
“Aren’t you a general. Can’t you override him?”
“I could, but I won’t.” Daerrin could care less what Roxanne thought about it. He was only here to assist the commander in charge, nothing more and nothing less.
Roxanne watched Daerrin turn away from her and lead the way back to his horse. She knew she had begged, more or less, for the lives of the human soldiers, but Daerrin seemed hell-bent on letting them be tortured and then killed.
She plodded after him, but the sight of the human soldiers kept drawing her eye. She felt terrible knowing their fate, but as they walked through the village, she was once again faced with so many dead bodies. Women and children littered the ground.
In some ways, she believed that these men deserved what they got from the fire giants, but in other ways, she thought mercy should still be shown. Blood for blood didn’t seem right, even if her primitive side said it was perfectly fine.
Somebody had to take the high ground. It all started with one person. All Daerrin had to do was be that one person.
Yet the soldier’s words echoed in her mind. Her father had given the order to kill every living person in the village. How could he give such an order? He was the kindest man she had ever known. He had always been her rock and had managed to raise her without a mother.
Maybe the soldier had been mistaken? There was a part of her who refused to believe her father would give such an order. He had been the man who visited her bed every time she cried out as a child because of a nightmare.
He always made sure she had loving women role models in her life. She couldn’t ever remember a cruel word from his mouth towards her. It was impossible to imagine that her father could have two such drastic sides to him.
She knew what her ears and eyes were telling her, but her mind and memories were telling her something completely different.
“What will we do now?” Roxanne asked as he mounted up on his horse and offered her his hand.
“Now that the human forces have been captured we will head back to the fire giant castle like we’d been planning.”
He hoisted her up in fron
t him on the saddle.
She nodded numbly. There was no way she would sleep peacefully after seeing all this. All those dead bodies would haunt her for the foreseeable days to come.
Within a few hours, Daerrin had rounded up his warriors, and they were on their way again.
Still, Roxanne was haunted by what she’d seen. “How do you live with what you see every day?”
She felt him shrug his shoulders.
“You’ve killed people up close and personal, yet you can smile.” She continued. It bewildered her. If she killed another, she knew she would lose her mind.
“You get used to it after some time. It can still haunt me from time to time, but if it’s their life or mine, I’m going to kill them.”
Roxanne nodded. She could understand that.
She still couldn’t get past the fact that those had been her father’s men. She wouldn’t stop loving her father, but if he knew about this… it would change what she thought about him.
If only she could ask her father about it, but Roxanne had no idea when she would see him again.
Killing warriors was one thing, but women and children were still women and children no matter their species.
“It couldn’t have been my father’s men.” Roxanne blurted as Daerrin kept directing his stallion through the forest surrounding them.
“You saw his emblem on the soldier’s armor.”
“That could have been a borrowed piece of armor, or they were acting without his orders. We don’t know for sure.”
“If your father doesn’t want to be responsible for the actions of his men, then he should keep better control of his emblems.”
Roxanne huffed a bit. She still wasn’t ready to say it was her father who was responsible for such a horrible act.
“It might not be his orders then.”
Daerrin growled. “That’s not what I said.”
“You implied it though. These men could be acting out on their own and if my father knew he might whip them into shape. You should let me go, and then I’d be able to find the truth.”
