Chapter 47
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"What the hell is going on here, you bastard!" I screamed into the face of the brown-haired elf commander who was struggling in Shaqs' massive, almost tree-trunk sized, arms.
On my order, Shaqs had lifted him off his feet and pinned him in place with a troll-style bear hug that was the equivalent of a steel clamp.
The elf struggled against his binds, with his feet kicking and flailing about, but he couldn't escape Shaqs' grip. It seemed fake immortality didn't automatically come equipped with super strength.
In my rage, I smacked him on the cheek with the pommel of my falchion. It was until after the red welt appeared right on the spot I struck him that I realized my mistake.
My eyes darted toward the wagon where we found the kids. The memory of what I'd seen seared into my mind like an old song that just wouldn't quit playing in the brain. But it was remembering the smell that made it worse, though.
The smell drifting out of the open flap was like a public restroom complete with clogged toilets and shit stains on the walls coupled with the metallic scent common in a battlefield—the lingering scent of blood.
It was Qwipps who peeked out of the side of the wagon and said, "Hey, Dean, not that it's any of my business but did you just hit that elf?"
His words were horror to my ears. It meant I'd hurt another kid. "I-I'm sorry... slipped my mind..."
"Yeah, well, Aura said you should hold off on the torture until she or Berrian or Varda can figure out the trick to this crazy mud sho..." Qwipps said drearily. "Muddamit..."
If even Qwipps was in a subdued mood then the situation wasn't going to be as simple as I'd hoped.
After Qwipps pulled his head back into the wagon, my eyes turned eastward.
The road was still clear and we hadn't received any advanced warning from Enna and her lookouts about trouble coming our way. But it was only a matter of time before the enemy noticed the delayed arrival of their supply of human sacrifices.
The west was equally quiet, but Varda's earthen wall stood as a glaring sign to anyone who saw it that something strange was afoot. It's why I sent Thom back to the spot where his lookouts were. Just in case.
I turned my sights back on the elf. The defiant, murderous look he sent me only inflamed my anger more.
"What did you do to those children?" my voice cracked as I spoke these words.
My hate for fairies after Luca's abduction had subsided somewhat since meeting Aura and the other Foolhardies—but now it was back in full force. My hands were shaking, not out of fear or fatigue, but because I was desperately trying to hold back the rage I wanted so badly to pummel into the arrogant elf before me.
"I see the anger in your eyes, mud-man... and I relish it," the elf spat.
"Look... it speaks," Edo commented from beside Shaqs. He stood there with his arms crossed like a bouncer outside a bar.
The elf's eyes narrowed as he looked over Edo. "Do not speak to me as if we were equals, filthy halfbreed..."
Edo rolled his eyes. Then he glanced toward me. "I can't hit him, right?"
I shook my head. "No... bastard's got hostages."
"Maybe Donar can burn his hair away then," Edo suggested. "Might not hurt the kids... and it would certainly make this little shit smug... Elves love their hair."
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Edo's threat did more psychological damage to the elf than my pommel strike did. He was actively trying to pull his head as far away from Edo as possible.
"I can do that," Donar said as he poked out his head from behind Edo. "I've got a nice little spell that could do just the trick."
"Um... no," I said while thinking inwardly about what Edo had just said. If it was true, then Aura cutting off her hair when we made our pact meant more than I thought it did. I shook the thought from my head. There would be time to review it again later. Now, I had to deal with Donar who had his hands—his fingers alight with flame—reaching out for the elf's head. "Donar... stop scaring the fake immortal bastard... why don't you go help the other magicians and see if you can undo whatever's happening to those kids."
Donar shrugged. "Very well, Commander... but I won't be very useful. I'm a combat magician. Not a healer like Berrian..."
He walked away from us looking like I'd just stolen his lunch or something.
I sighed heavily. It was hard to keep my anger intact around all these weirdos who I couldn't help liking. Even so, I was going to need to have a chat with Donar about fire safety, and fire hazards, and general conduct.
Luckily for my anger, the idiot elf just didn't need to shut up because as soon as Donar was out of sight, the brown-haired elf was back to being a spiteful git. He ran his mouth, calling me and Edo names like dumb mud-boy or stinking half-breed as if these soft-core slurs affected us in any way beyond me thinking how PG-13 the Fayne was when it came to verbal abuse.
"Edo... the next time he speaks without answering my questions... you have my permission to shave his head," I said coolly. "I'm sure the kids will survive a haircut."
Edo grunted an affirmative. Then he pulled his glaive out from his back and planted the end of its pole on the ground in a loud bang.
"Cut my hair? Y-you think that will frighten me into speaking you lowly parasite?!" he snarled, and yet, his eyes darting back and forth between Edo and his glaive.
"You'll answer my questions... or I promise that when we do figure out what you did, because we will, and you aren't cooperative..." I leaned forward so he could see the rage in my eyes. "You'll wish a haircut was the worst thing we'd do to you. The art of Mudgardian torture is extensive... and I am trained in its many intricacies."
Of course, this was a lie. As if a fifteen-year-old would be able to learn stuff like that in school. But the elf didn't know that, and like Sun Tzu said, "All warfare is based on deception."
I must have been convincing enough because the elf's face lost some of his haughtiness, although he was still very snooty when he ordered me to tell him what I wanted to know.
"You're not immortal," I said.
"That was not a question... You Mudgardians are as stupid I thought," he hissed back at me.
Edo's glaive went up an inch. This took the elf's defiance down a notch.
"N-no... I am not immortal..." his voice was still arrogant.
"So how come you're not dead?" I asked as I pointed back at the wagon. "How is it you're alive when there's a dead human boy in there with all the wounds we inflicted on you?"
My voice was rising again but could you blame me? As if it was easy to stay calm in this kind of situation.
The elf responded with, "Your voice weeps for these slaves but they are nothing more than fuel for our victory."
"Fuel..." I repeated while feeling at a loss for words myself. These human and fairy kids who looked younger than Luca were considered nothing more than energy bars by this superior feeling jackass. It was a few seconds before I responded with, "How are they fuel?"
He just glared at me and refused to answer.
"I'm warning you..." I began but then the elf laughed.
"You showed me your hand with your worry over our sacrifices," he hissed. "You cannot kill me because you'll just be killing them. I am untouchable so long as you are too weak to murder children."
It was infuriating to hear but he was right. He was calling my bluff and I had no hand to play. That is until Aura and Berrian came over to explain their findings to me.
"It's a kind of binding curse similar in some ways to a visere contract," Aura said. "Only... the benefits only go one way."
"Constitution, strength, agility, intellect... all of it is up for grabs," Berrian added in a soft, anguished voice. "Whatever part of the slave's abilities the contractor wants he can get... or at least that's what I can tell based on the primordial script in the bindings..."
"Dean... these children... what's being done to them..." Aura's eyes were wet with tears. "It's beyond horrible."
I nodded. "Can you remove it?"
Both of Berrian's hands pulled on the fabric of his wool pants. "We don't even know what kind of curse it is... we might do more harm than good."
Aura nodded in agreement. "Perhaps the senior magicians in the Darah army can undo this..."
Berrian placed a hand over his forehead and pulled his wavy brown hair back. "We're out of our depth here."
The profound silence that met Berrian's admission was broken only a few seconds later by a piercing shriek from inside the wagon behind the one we opened. I'd learned earlier from Qwipps that at least six of the ten were carrying these child sacrifices.
Aura and I instinctively moved toward the sound but we were met by Luca coming out from behind it and puking his guts on the ground. Varda, who stood beside him, called out to us in a loud and clear voice that a pixie had died because of a stab wound appearing in her chest.
The laughter that assaulted my ears then made me see red. I glanced back and glared at the elf in Shaqs' arms. "Shut the hell—"
"You foul wicked monster!" Aura interrupted my outburst with her own. Then she walked over to him and slapped the elf in the face.
This elicited an outcry from Qwipps who was still inside the first wagon. "Cut it out, people! Kids are getting hurt in here!"
Aura quickly backed away. Tears streamed down her face.
As if on cue, the drow, Enna, appeared from the eastern side of the road. Her brow dripped with sweat.
"Trouble..." she huffed.
"How many, Enna?" I asked.
"At least two dozen. Half are elken riders..." she said.
That was it. Our time had just run out.
I looked over to the supply caravan and calculated our odds. There wouldn't be enough time.
"Qwipps!" I yelled.
He poked his head out of the wagon. "What?"
"How many kids did you count in each wagon when you checked them?" I asked quickly.
"Fifteen to a wagon," he answered just as quickly. "Well... less two, I guess..."
"Six wagons times fifteen," I made a quick calculation. "That's ninety children... eighty-eight..."
I turned to Edo next.
"How many wagons are still working?" I asked him.
"Four wagons are operational. We've got eight able elken too," he answered.
"Luca!" I called his name but he was already up and aware of what I wanted before I could ask my question.
Luca wiped the remnants of puke with the back of his bracer. "Nine prisoners... ten if we're counting that monster."
We all knew which monster he was referring to.
"Dean," Edo began, but I cut him off with, "I know..."
It just wasn't feasible to transport nearly a hundred people, most of whom were kids, while we were under pursuit.
"Edo..." I started, but I couldn't ask him.
"You want me to hold our pursuers off?" he confirmed.
He already knew what I wanted but couldn't ask him. How do you tell a guy that he might have to sacrifice his life for strangers?
"I'll need some good comrades," Edo said, not even hesitating.
"We'll go," Ashley said.
She had arrived from the rear and was standing next to Varda and Luca.
"I'll take my squad. Plus Luca's raiders. Varda to cause a mudslide," Ashley was counting with her fingers. "That should be enough to hold them back and do damage."
I nodded. "Make your stand here. The broken wagons will limit their mobility. Harass them and prevent them from being able to follow us. Then double back to our fallback position," I instructed her. "Do you remember where?"
"The cliff wall south of here and right below our supply team's position," Ashley answered. "Are you thinking of..."
"Just make sure you lead any pursuers to that cliffside," I said quickly. "We'll double back to the west and take the fork that leads south... it should take us where we need to go."
Ashley didn't wait for me to dismiss her. She quickly gathered her squad and they got to work setting up a second ambush here.
"She was amazing," Aura whispered beside me. "Her squad gathered and protected our wounded until the battle was over. It's why we have so few casualties."
"We have six dead and another fifteen wounded," I said with a heavy heart. The counting of wounded and dead were left to Qwipps, and he'd given me the report before I interrogated our prisoner. "They died because my plan wasn't good enough again."
Aura squeezed my hand.
"Stop beating yourself up," she chided. "Most of us lived because your plan went well."
"Can you and Berrian take care of the children?" I asked. "Divide them and our wounded on the three wagons... We'll leave the fourth one for our prisoners and our dead."
Aura nodded wordlessly. Then she left me there to wallow while she led the others in moving the children to their wagons.
I ordered Qwipps and Donar to round up the prisoners and gather our dead. Put them all in the fourth wagon.
"You're all going to die!" The elf commander screamed. "You will be pursued like prey in a hunt, and I will relish in watching you suff—"
Shaqs knocked him out with a hammer fist to the back of the head.
"Too noisy..." Shaqs growled.
No one complained that Shaqs had also knocked a dwarf kid out. We were just getting tired of the enemy's grating, spice-filled voice. Plus, no one wanted to complain to the massive troll while he had his battle-ax draped across his shoulder.
After all the preparations were ready and we'd hitched two elkin to one wagon each for increased mobility, I climbed up on the enemy Commander's green-furred mount—which I deemed was a very smart elkin to have survived in all the chaos—and readied the convoy to travel west.
Aura sat at the front of the lead wagon beside Qwipps who held the reins.
Those who would remain had repositioned themselves behind the trees. Their bows readied for a second ambush. It was a smart idea. After all, no one would expect enemies lying in wait in a spot that already looked like a warzone. At least, I hoped so.
"Heading out?" Luca asked.
I nodded. "You okay with this?"
"Yeah..." Luca's eyebrows bunched together. "After what we just saw... I feel like hitting something hard."
"Try not to kill any Commanders you come across," I said as an afterthought. "We don't know who those kids are connected to."
Luca planted his broadsword onto the grass. "Yeah... bastards... all of them..."
I heard the hate in his voice. "Luca..."
He glanced up smiling. It was that fake smile he always gave me during sunrise. It had arrived too early as dawn wouldn't arrive until much later.
"I'll be okay, Dean," he answered.
"Fine... just don't die," I said.
I wished I told him something else. Maybe an "I love you, bro," or something equally sappy. At least then I wouldn't have felt so guilty for leaving him behind again.
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"What the hell is going on here, you bastard!" I screamed into the face of the brown-haired elf commander who was struggling in Shaqs' massive, almost tree-trunk sized, arms.
On my order, Shaqs had lifted him off his feet and pinned him in place with a troll-style bear hug that was the equivalent of a steel clamp.
The elf struggled against his binds, with his feet kicking and flailing about, but he couldn't escape Shaqs' grip. It seemed fake immortality didn't automatically come equipped with super strength.
In my rage, I smacked him on the cheek with the pommel of my falchion. It was until after the red welt appeared right on the spot I struck him that I realized my mistake.
My eyes darted toward the wagon where we found the kids. The memory of what I'd seen seared into my mind like an old song that just wouldn't quit playing in the brain. But it was remembering the smell that made it worse, though.
The smell drifting out of the open flap was like a public restroom complete with clogged toilets and shit stains on the walls coupled with the metallic scent common in a battlefield—the lingering scent of blood.
It was Qwipps who peeked out of the side of the wagon and said, "Hey, Dean, not that it's any of my business but did you just hit that elf?"
His words were horror to my ears. It meant I'd hurt another kid. "I-I'm sorry... slipped my mind..."
"Yeah, well, Aura said you should hold off on the torture until she or Berrian or Varda can figure out the trick to this crazy mud sho..." Qwipps said drearily. "Muddamit..."
If even Qwipps was in a subdued mood then the situation wasn't going to be as simple as I'd hoped.
After Qwipps pulled his head back into the wagon, my eyes turned eastward.
The road was still clear and we hadn't received any advanced warning from Enna and her lookouts about trouble coming our way. But it was only a matter of time before the enemy noticed the delayed arrival of their supply of human sacrifices.
The west was equally quiet, but Varda's earthen wall stood as a glaring sign to anyone who saw it that something strange was afoot. It's why I sent Thom back to the spot where his lookouts were. Just in case.
I turned my sights back on the elf. The defiant, murderous look he sent me only inflamed my anger more.
"What did you do to those children?" my voice cracked as I spoke these words.
My hate for fairies after Luca's abduction had subsided somewhat since meeting Aura and the other Foolhardies—but now it was back in full force. My hands were shaking, not out of fear or fatigue, but because I was desperately trying to hold back the rage I wanted so badly to pummel into the arrogant elf before me.
"I see the anger in your eyes, mud-man... and I relish it," the elf spat.
"Look... it speaks," Edo commented from beside Shaqs. He stood there with his arms crossed like a bouncer outside a bar.
The elf's eyes narrowed as he looked over Edo. "Do not speak to me as if we were equals, filthy halfbreed..."
Edo rolled his eyes. Then he glanced toward me. "I can't hit him, right?"
I shook my head. "No... bastard's got hostages."
"Maybe Donar can burn his hair away then," Edo suggested. "Might not hurt the kids... and it would certainly make this little shit smug... Elves love their hair."
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Edo's threat did more psychological damage to the elf than my pommel strike did. He was actively trying to pull his head as far away from Edo as possible.
"I can do that," Donar said as he poked out his head from behind Edo. "I've got a nice little spell that could do just the trick."
"Um... no," I said while thinking inwardly about what Edo had just said. If it was true, then Aura cutting off her hair when we made our pact meant more than I thought it did. I shook the thought from my head. There would be time to review it again later. Now, I had to deal with Donar who had his hands—his fingers alight with flame—reaching out for the elf's head. "Donar... stop scaring the fake immortal bastard... why don't you go help the other magicians and see if you can undo whatever's happening to those kids."
Donar shrugged. "Very well, Commander... but I won't be very useful. I'm a combat magician. Not a healer like Berrian..."
He walked away from us looking like I'd just stolen his lunch or something.
I sighed heavily. It was hard to keep my anger intact around all these weirdos who I couldn't help liking. Even so, I was going to need to have a chat with Donar about fire safety, and fire hazards, and general conduct.
Luckily for my anger, the idiot elf just didn't need to shut up because as soon as Donar was out of sight, the brown-haired elf was back to being a spiteful git. He ran his mouth, calling me and Edo names like dumb mud-boy or stinking half-breed as if these soft-core slurs affected us in any way beyond me thinking how PG-13 the Fayne was when it came to verbal abuse.
"Edo... the next time he speaks without answering my questions... you have my permission to shave his head," I said coolly. "I'm sure the kids will survive a haircut."
Edo grunted an affirmative. Then he pulled his glaive out from his back and planted the end of its pole on the ground in a loud bang.
"Cut my hair? Y-you think that will frighten me into speaking you lowly parasite?!" he snarled, and yet, his eyes darting back and forth between Edo and his glaive.
"You'll answer my questions... or I promise that when we do figure out what you did, because we will, and you aren't cooperative..." I leaned forward so he could see the rage in my eyes. "You'll wish a haircut was the worst thing we'd do to you. The art of Mudgardian torture is extensive... and I am trained in its many intricacies."
Of course, this was a lie. As if a fifteen-year-old would be able to learn stuff like that in school. But the elf didn't know that, and like Sun Tzu said, "All warfare is based on deception."
I must have been convincing enough because the elf's face lost some of his haughtiness, although he was still very snooty when he ordered me to tell him what I wanted to know.
"You're not immortal," I said.
"That was not a question... You Mudgardians are as stupid I thought," he hissed back at me.
Edo's glaive went up an inch. This took the elf's defiance down a notch.
"N-no... I am not immortal..." his voice was still arrogant.
"So how come you're not dead?" I asked as I pointed back at the wagon. "How is it you're alive when there's a dead human boy in there with all the wounds we inflicted on you?"
My voice was rising again but could you blame me? As if it was easy to stay calm in this kind of situation.
The elf responded with, "Your voice weeps for these slaves but they are nothing more than fuel for our victory."
"Fuel..." I repeated while feeling at a loss for words myself. These human and fairy kids who looked younger than Luca were considered nothing more than energy bars by this superior feeling jackass. It was a few seconds before I responded with, "How are they fuel?"
He just glared at me and refused to answer.
"I'm warning you..." I began but then the elf laughed.
"You showed me your hand with your worry over our sacrifices," he hissed. "You cannot kill me because you'll just be killing them. I am untouchable so long as you are too weak to murder children."
It was infuriating to hear but he was right. He was calling my bluff and I had no hand to play. That is until Aura and Berrian came over to explain their findings to me.
"It's a kind of binding curse similar in some ways to a visere contract," Aura said. "Only... the benefits only go one way."
"Constitution, strength, agility, intellect... all of it is up for grabs," Berrian added in a soft, anguished voice. "Whatever part of the slave's abilities the contractor wants he can get... or at least that's what I can tell based on the primordial script in the bindings..."
"Dean... these children... what's being done to them..." Aura's eyes were wet with tears. "It's beyond horrible."
I nodded. "Can you remove it?"
Both of Berrian's hands pulled on the fabric of his wool pants. "We don't even know what kind of curse it is... we might do more harm than good."
Aura nodded in agreement. "Perhaps the senior magicians in the Darah army can undo this..."
Berrian placed a hand over his forehead and pulled his wavy brown hair back. "We're out of our depth here."
The profound silence that met Berrian's admission was broken only a few seconds later by a piercing shriek from inside the wagon behind the one we opened. I'd learned earlier from Qwipps that at least six of the ten were carrying these child sacrifices.
Aura and I instinctively moved toward the sound but we were met by Luca coming out from behind it and puking his guts on the ground. Varda, who stood beside him, called out to us in a loud and clear voice that a pixie had died because of a stab wound appearing in her chest.
The laughter that assaulted my ears then made me see red. I glanced back and glared at the elf in Shaqs' arms. "Shut the hell—"
"You foul wicked monster!" Aura interrupted my outburst with her own. Then she walked over to him and slapped the elf in the face.
This elicited an outcry from Qwipps who was still inside the first wagon. "Cut it out, people! Kids are getting hurt in here!"
Aura quickly backed away. Tears streamed down her face.
As if on cue, the drow, Enna, appeared from the eastern side of the road. Her brow dripped with sweat.
"Trouble..." she huffed.
"How many, Enna?" I asked.
"At least two dozen. Half are elken riders..." she said.
That was it. Our time had just run out.
I looked over to the supply caravan and calculated our odds. There wouldn't be enough time.
"Qwipps!" I yelled.
He poked his head out of the wagon. "What?"
"How many kids did you count in each wagon when you checked them?" I asked quickly.
"Fifteen to a wagon," he answered just as quickly. "Well... less two, I guess..."
"Six wagons times fifteen," I made a quick calculation. "That's ninety children... eighty-eight..."
I turned to Edo next.
"How many wagons are still working?" I asked him.
"Four wagons are operational. We've got eight able elken too," he answered.
"Luca!" I called his name but he was already up and aware of what I wanted before I could ask my question.
Luca wiped the remnants of puke with the back of his bracer. "Nine prisoners... ten if we're counting that monster."
We all knew which monster he was referring to.
"Dean," Edo began, but I cut him off with, "I know..."
It just wasn't feasible to transport nearly a hundred people, most of whom were kids, while we were under pursuit.
"Edo..." I started, but I couldn't ask him.
"You want me to hold our pursuers off?" he confirmed.
He already knew what I wanted but couldn't ask him. How do you tell a guy that he might have to sacrifice his life for strangers?
"I'll need some good comrades," Edo said, not even hesitating.
"We'll go," Ashley said.
She had arrived from the rear and was standing next to Varda and Luca.
"I'll take my squad. Plus Luca's raiders. Varda to cause a mudslide," Ashley was counting with her fingers. "That should be enough to hold them back and do damage."
I nodded. "Make your stand here. The broken wagons will limit their mobility. Harass them and prevent them from being able to follow us. Then double back to our fallback position," I instructed her. "Do you remember where?"
"The cliff wall south of here and right below our supply team's position," Ashley answered. "Are you thinking of..."
"Just make sure you lead any pursuers to that cliffside," I said quickly. "We'll double back to the west and take the fork that leads south... it should take us where we need to go."
Ashley didn't wait for me to dismiss her. She quickly gathered her squad and they got to work setting up a second ambush here.
"She was amazing," Aura whispered beside me. "Her squad gathered and protected our wounded until the battle was over. It's why we have so few casualties."
"We have six dead and another fifteen wounded," I said with a heavy heart. The counting of wounded and dead were left to Qwipps, and he'd given me the report before I interrogated our prisoner. "They died because my plan wasn't good enough again."
Aura squeezed my hand.
"Stop beating yourself up," she chided. "Most of us lived because your plan went well."
"Can you and Berrian take care of the children?" I asked. "Divide them and our wounded on the three wagons... We'll leave the fourth one for our prisoners and our dead."
Aura nodded wordlessly. Then she left me there to wallow while she led the others in moving the children to their wagons.
I ordered Qwipps and Donar to round up the prisoners and gather our dead. Put them all in the fourth wagon.
"You're all going to die!" The elf commander screamed. "You will be pursued like prey in a hunt, and I will relish in watching you suff—"
Shaqs knocked him out with a hammer fist to the back of the head.
"Too noisy..." Shaqs growled.
No one complained that Shaqs had also knocked a dwarf kid out. We were just getting tired of the enemy's grating, spice-filled voice. Plus, no one wanted to complain to the massive troll while he had his battle-ax draped across his shoulder.
After all the preparations were ready and we'd hitched two elkin to one wagon each for increased mobility, I climbed up on the enemy Commander's green-furred mount—which I deemed was a very smart elkin to have survived in all the chaos—and readied the convoy to travel west.
Aura sat at the front of the lead wagon beside Qwipps who held the reins.
Those who would remain had repositioned themselves behind the trees. Their bows readied for a second ambush. It was a smart idea. After all, no one would expect enemies lying in wait in a spot that already looked like a warzone. At least, I hoped so.
"Heading out?" Luca asked.
I nodded. "You okay with this?"
"Yeah..." Luca's eyebrows bunched together. "After what we just saw... I feel like hitting something hard."
"Try not to kill any Commanders you come across," I said as an afterthought. "We don't know who those kids are connected to."
Luca planted his broadsword onto the grass. "Yeah... bastards... all of them..."
I heard the hate in his voice. "Luca..."
He glanced up smiling. It was that fake smile he always gave me during sunrise. It had arrived too early as dawn wouldn't arrive until much later.
"I'll be okay, Dean," he answered.
"Fine... just don't die," I said.
I wished I told him something else. Maybe an "I love you, bro," or something equally sappy. At least then I wouldn't have felt so guilty for leaving him behind again.
"What the hell is going on here, you bastard!" I screamed into the face of the brown-haired elf commander who was struggling in Shaqs' massive, almost tree-trunk sized, arms.On my order, Shaqs had lifted him off his feet and pinned him in place with a troll-style bear hug that was the equivalent of a steel clamp.The elf struggled against his binds, with his feet kicking and flailing about, but he couldn't escape Shaqs' grip. It seemed fake immortality didn't automatically come equipped with super strength.In my rage, I smacked him on the cheek with the pommel of my falchion. It was until after the red welt appeared right on the spot I struck him that I realized my mistake.My eyes darted toward the wagon where we found the kids. The memory of what I'd seen seared into my mind like an old song that just wouldn't quit playing in the brain. But it was remembering the smell that made it worse, though.The smell drifting out of the open flap was like a public restroom complete with clogged toilets and shit stains on the walls coupled with the metallic scent common in a battlefieldthe lingering scent of blood.It was Qwipps who peeked out of the side of the wagon and said, "Hey, Dean, not that it's any of my business but did you just hit that elf?"His words were horror to my ears. It meant I'd hurt another kid. "I-I'm sorry... slipped my mind...""Yeah, well, Aura said you should hold off on the torture until she or Berrian or Varda can figure out the trick to this crazy mud sho..." Qwipps said drearily. "Muddamit..."If even Qwipps was in a subdued mood then the situation wasn't going to be as simple as I'd hoped.After Qwipps pulled his head back into the wagon, my eyes turned eastward.The road was still clear and we hadn't received any advanced warning from Enna and her lookouts about trouble coming our way. But it was only a matter of time before the enemy noticed the delayed arrival of their supply of human sacrifices.The west was equally quiet, but Varda's earthen wall stood as a glaring sign to anyone who saw it that something strange was afoot. It's why I sent Thom back to the spot where his lookouts were. Just in case.I turned my sights back on the elf. The defiant, murderous look he sent me only inflamed my anger more."What did you do to those children?" my voice cracked as I spoke these words.My hate for fairies after Luca's abduction had subsided somewhat since meeting Aura and the other Foolhardiesbut now it was back in full force. My hands were shaking, not out of fear or fatigue, but because I was desperately trying to hold back the rage I wanted so badly to pummel into the arrogant elf before me."I see the anger in your eyes, mud-man... and I relish it," the elf spat."Look... it speaks," Edo commented from beside Shaqs. He stood there with his arms crossed like a bouncer outside a bar.The elf's eyes narrowed as he looked over Edo. "Do not speak to me as if we were equals, filthy halfbreed..."Edo rolled his eyes. Then he glanced toward me. "I can't hit him, right?"I shook my head. "No... bastard's got hostages.""Maybe Donar can burn his hair away then," Edo suggested. "Might not hurt the kids... and it would certainly make this little shit smug... Elves love their hair." Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com for visiting. Edo's threat did more psychological damage to the elf than my pommel strike did. He was actively trying to pull his head as far away from Edo as possible."I can do that," Donar said as he poked out his head from behind Edo. "I've got a nice little spell that could do just the trick.""Um... no," I said while thinking inwardly about what Edo had just said. If it was true, then Aura cutting off her hair when we made our pact meant more than I thought it did. I shook the thought from my head. There would be time to review it again later. Now, I had to deal with Donar who had his handshis fingers alight with flamereaching out for the elf's head. "Donar... stop scaring the fake immortal bastard... why don't you go help the other magicians and see if you can undo whatever's happening to those kids."Donar shrugged. "Very well, Commander... but I won't be very useful. I'm a combat magician. Not a healer like Berrian..."He walked away from us looking like I'd just stolen his lunch or something.I sighed heavily. It was hard to keep my anger intact around all these weirdos who I couldn't help liking. Even so, I was going to need to have a chat with Donar about fire safety, and fire hazards, and general conduct.Luckily for my anger, the idiot elf just didn't need to shut up because as soon as Donar was out of sight, the brown-haired elf was back to being a spiteful git. He ran his mouth, calling me and Edo names like dumb mud-boy or stinking half-breed as if these soft-core slurs affected us in any way beyond me thinking how PG-13 the Fayne was when it came to verbal abuse."Edo... the next time he speaks without answering my questions... you have my permission to shave his head," I said coolly. "I'm sure the kids will survive a haircut."Edo grunted an affirmative. Then he pulled his glaive out from his back and planted the end of its pole on the ground in a loud bang."Cut my hair? Y-you think that will frighten me into speaking you lowly parasite?!" he snarled, and yet, his eyes darting back and forth between Edo and his glaive."You'll answer my questions... or I promise that when we do figure out what you did, because we will, and you aren't cooperative..." I leaned forward so he could see the rage in my eyes. "You'll wish a haircut was the worst thing we'd do to you. The art of Mudgardian torture is extensive... and I am trained in its many intricacies."Of course, this was a lie. As if a fifteen-year-old would be able to learn stuff like that in school. But the elf didn't know that, and like Sun Tzu said, "All warfare is based on deception."I must have been convincing enough because the elf's face lost some of his haughtiness, although he was still very snooty when he ordered me to tell him what I wanted to know."You're not immortal," I said."That was not a question... You Mudgardians are as stupid I thought," he hissed back at me.Edo's glaive went up an inch. This took the elf's defiance down a notch."N-no... I am not immortal..." his voice was still arrogant."So how come you're not dead?" I asked as I pointed back at the wagon. "How is it you're alive when there's a dead human boy in there with all the wounds we inflicted on you?"My voice was rising again but could you blame me? As if it was easy to stay calm in this kind of situation.The elf responded with, "Your voice weeps for these slaves but they are nothing more than fuel for our victory.""Fuel..." I repeated while feeling at a loss for words myself. These human and fairy kids who looked younger than Luca were considered nothing more than energy bars by this superior feeling jackass. It was a few seconds before I responded with, "How are they fuel?"He just glared at me and refused to answer."I'm warning you..." I began but then the elf laughed."You showed me your hand with your worry over our sacrifices," he hissed. "You cannot kill me because you'll just be killing them. I am untouchable so long as you are too weak to murder children."It was infuriating to hear but he was right. He was calling my bluff and I had no hand to play. That is until Aura and Berrian came over to explain their findings to me."It's a kind of binding curse similar in some ways to a visere contract," Aura said. "Only... the benefits only go one way.""Constitution, strength, agility, intellect... all of it is up for grabs," Berrian added in a soft, anguished voice. "Whatever part of the slave's abilities the contractor wants he can get... or at least that's what I can tell based on the primordial script in the bindings...""Dean... these children... what's being done to them..." Aura's eyes were wet with tears. "It's beyond horrible."I nodded. "Can you remove it?"Both of Berrian's hands pulled on the fabric of his wool pants. "We don't even know what kind of curse it is... we might do more harm than good."Aura nodded in agreement. "Perhaps the senior magicians in the Darah army can undo this..."Berrian placed a hand over his forehead and pulled his wavy brown hair back. "We're out of our depth here."The profound silence that met Berrian's admission was broken only a few seconds later by a piercing shriek from inside the wagon behind the one we opened. I'd learned earlier from Qwipps that at least six of the ten were carrying these child sacrifices.Aura and I instinctively moved toward the sound but we were met by Luca coming out from behind it and puking his guts on the ground. Varda, who stood beside him, called out to us in a loud and clear voice that a pixie had died because of a stab wound appearing in her chest.The laughter that assaulted my ears then made me see red. I glanced back and glared at the elf in Shaqs' arms. "Shut the hell""You foul wicked monster!" Aura interrupted my outburst with her own. Then she walked over to him and slapped the elf in the face.This elicited an outcry from Qwipps who was still inside the first wagon. "Cut it out, people! Kids are getting hurt in here!"Aura quickly backed away. Tears streamed down her face.As if on cue, the drow, Enna, appeared from the eastern side of the road. Her brow dripped with sweat."Trouble..." she huffed."How many, Enna?" I asked."At least two dozen. Half are elken riders..." she said.That was it. Our time had just run out.I looked over to the supply caravan and calculated our odds. There wouldn't be enough time."Qwipps!" I yelled.He poked his head out of the wagon. "What?""How many kids did you count in each wagon when you checked them?" I asked quickly."Fifteen to a wagon," he answered just as quickly. "Well... less two, I guess...""Six wagons times fifteen," I made a quick calculation. "That's ninety children... eighty-eight..."I turned to Edo next."How many wagons are still working?" I asked him."Four wagons are operational. We've got eight able elken too," he answered."Luca!" I called his name but he was already up and aware of what I wanted before I could ask my question.Luca wiped the remnants of puke with the back of his bracer. "Nine prisoners... ten if we're counting that monster."We all knew which monster he was referring to."Dean," Edo began, but I cut him off with, "I know..."It just wasn't feasible to transport nearly a hundred people, most of whom were kids, while we were under pursuit."Edo..." I started, but I couldn't ask him."You want me to hold our pursuers off?" he confirmed.He already knew what I wanted but couldn't ask him. How do you tell a guy that he might have to sacrifice his life for strangers?"I'll need some good comrades," Edo said, not even hesitating."We'll go," Ashley said.She had arrived from the rear and was standing next to Varda and Luca."I'll take my squad. Plus Luca's raiders. Varda to cause a mudslide," Ashley was counting with her fingers. "That should be enough to hold them back and do damage."I nodded. "Make your stand here. The broken wagons will limit their mobility. Harass them and prevent them from being able to follow us. Then double back to our fallback position," I instructed her. "Do you remember where?""The cliff wall south of here and right below our supply team's position," Ashley answered. "Are you thinking of...""Just make sure you lead any pursuers to that cliffside," I said quickly. "We'll double back to the west and take the fork that leads south... it should take us where we need to go."Ashley didn't wait for me to dismiss her. She quickly gathered her squad and they got to work setting up a second ambush here."She was amazing," Aura whispered beside me. "Her squad gathered and protected our wounded until the battle was over. It's why we have so few casualties.""We have six dead and another fifteen wounded," I said with a heavy heart. The counting of wounded and dead were left to Qwipps, and he'd given me the report before I interrogated our prisoner. "They died because my plan wasn't good enough again."Aura squeezed my hand."Stop beating yourself up," she chided. "Most of us lived because your plan went well.""Can you and Berrian take care of the children?" I asked. "Divide them and our wounded on the three wagons... We'll leave the fourth one for our prisoners and our dead."Aura nodded wordlessly. Then she left me there to wallow while she led the others in moving the children to their wagons.I ordered Qwipps and Donar to round up the prisoners and gather our dead. Put them all in the fourth wagon."You're all going to die!" The elf commander screamed. "You will be pursued like prey in a hunt, and I will relish in watching you suff"Shaqs knocked him out with a hammer fist to the back of the head."Too noisy..." Shaqs growled.No one complained that Shaqs had also knocked a dwarf kid out. We were just getting tired of the enemy's grating, spice-filled voice. Plus, no one wanted to complain to the massive troll while he had his battle-ax draped across his shoulder.After all the preparations were ready and we'd hitched two elkin to one wagon each for increased mobility, I climbed up on the enemy Commander's green-furred mountwhich I deemed was a very smart elkin to have survived in all the chaosand readied the convoy to travel west.Aura sat at the front of the lead wagon beside Qwipps who held the reins.Those who would remain had repositioned themselves behind the trees. Their bows readied for a second ambush. It was a smart idea. After all, no one would expect enemies lying in wait in a spot that already looked like a warzone. At least, I hoped so."Heading out?" Luca asked.I nodded. "You okay with this?""Yeah..." Luca's eyebrows bunched together. "After what we just saw... I feel like hitting something hard.""Try not to kill any Commanders you come across," I said as an afterthought. "We don't know who those kids are connected to."Luca planted his broadsword onto the grass. "Yeah... bastards... all of them..."I heard the hate in his voice. "Luca..."He glanced up smiling. It was that fake smile he always gave me during sunrise. It had arrived too early as dawn wouldn't arrive until much later."I'll be okay, Dean," he answered."Fine... just don't die," I said.I wished I told him something else. Maybe an "I love you, bro," or something equally sappy. At least then I wouldn't have felt so guilty for leaving him behind again.
