[64]

“What evidence do you have?” Izzy asked the trooper.

Rage like I have never felt blackened my vision. A voice whispered in the back of my mind that I already knew. My sickening suspicion, I once tried pushing aside as paranoia, now strolled into my heart, justified, and vindicated.

Reynold was responsible.

I exposed him for the fool that he is. Learning from the experience was too much to ask. The Kestev heir settled on murdering everyone I ever knew and loved as recompense. His sick pride could not permit me to live unmolested. No, the boy that had everything from wealth to looks and training insisted on shattering the peasant that had offended him. Even as I served the God’s will alongside him, a brother-in-arms against ruin, it had not occurred to him to find a semblance of peace. Reynold had to have his way, no matter the cost, as it had always been for him.

The irony was, I understood the sentiment now. One of us was going to die. I wanted nothing more than to cut off his head the way I did that demon in the dungeon.

“There were several survivors that identified him,” the cavalry leader said, snagging my attention.

That pulled me out of my anger enough to replace it with a surge of hope.

“Who?” I demanded.

The young man looked at me, noticing me for the first time. “Sir, I can’t really say.”

“Tell me now!” I stomped toward him, nearly roaring in his face.

He jumped back, placing a shaking hand on his blade. His more experienced men formed up around him, less disturbed by my barely contained bloodlust.

“He’s from Weston!” Joy said loudly enough for everyone to hear. Ugz stuck his claws into my skin to calm me, and Raxx placed a restraining paw on my shoulder, gently pulling me back with his beastly strength.

“I don’t know!” the soldier said, holding up both hands in appeasement. “My commander didn’t tell me, and frankly it would have been really weird if she had. I have an arrest warrant if you want to see it, but it doesn’t have that information on it.”

“I’d like to see that warrant,” Izzy said, stepping forward.

Raxx continued pulling me away toward the campfire. My limbs trembled, and my mind reeled with the clarifying focus of hate. If Reynold was lucky, a ghoul would get to him before I did. A lifetime of cruelty never broke me; I let it fuel me to become a better man. I never wanted to be like the abusers. Until now.

“Just wait,” Raxx whispered next to me.

Joy came up on my other side, also resting a hand on my shoulder. “We will get him,” she said. “Let’s just play this smart.” With her other hand, she pointed at Gene.

Looking at the armored ascendent of war, it transpired that we traded places. He looked merely concerned. His brother was not a target for the Ergentein military. Tedric was only really in danger by a horde of ghouls—and whatever else Gozmyr had to throw at him. That problem was solvable with a sword, unlike a country or nobles.

But the question was, how would he react toward his cousin? Gene did not look too worried about Reynold’s fate, but that did not mean he would stand by while I slaughtered his relative. At the least, Tedric would do his best to stop me, which would, by necessity, cause Gene to intervene. The best I could hope for is that Gene would want his cousin to be taken in alive.

I could not let that happen.

With a war brewing between Ergentein and Ankest, I feared some chicken-shit noble, or the bureaucratic machine of Ashmere, would attempt to thwart justice by serving their desire for peace. Reynold came from a powerful family and was an ascendent. To them, would the loss of a bunch of rural villagers really matter? Especially if they believed they could stop thousands from dying in a pointless war. I would not let Ashmere have the chance to fail me again.

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Like a premonition, Izzy echoed my thoughts with words I seethed at hearing. “We will make sure that Reynold Kestev is brought in alive. You can count on that.”

“Wait, you are going into the mountains after him?” the young officer asked, unexpectedly allayed.

“That’s the plan,” Izzy nodded.

“Better you than me,” he said with an amiable smile that died as quickly as it came. “You should know, his group killed two of my men to escape. We tried to speak to them at first, but they just attacked. I also have reason to suspect they led us into an ambush with the ghouls.”

“Hah! How is that even possible?” Gene said, laughing without mirth.

“They set up an enormous bonfire to pull the undead from the area into our path.”

“A bonfire?” Gene said incredulously.

“Yes—look, it doesn’t matter how they did it. My point is they were willing to do it. Most of my men are wandering zombies because of those Ankest turncoats.” the young officer retorted.

“So, is it your plan to return?” Izzy asked.

“Five of us cannot complete the mission.”

Izzy nodded, as though she expected the answer.

“Gene, you will escort the troop back to Felbrigg,” Izzy ordered.

“What!?” Gene said, outraged. “The hell I will! I’m the most powerful one here, and you know it.”

“There is no way those men will survive if that Doom Champion attacks,” Izzy explained.

“Doom Champion?” the young officer paled. His men looked nearly as nervous.

“One,” Gene said, holding up a finger. “That isn’t my problem. They are stupid for coming out here in the first place, half-assed and unprepared.” Gene turned to look at the men. “You are lucky my cousin and brother didn’t turn all of you into ash.”

“Two,” Gene continued with another finger. “You don’t have the authority to command me. Instructor Fulk is the only person I have to listen to during this mission.”

“I’ve been in direct contact with the headmaster. In case you fell asleep during the command and structure class, she outranks Fulk,” Izzy said in a bored tone.

“Well, until her old ass gets out of that tower to come tell me in person, I’m not going back.”

“Are you ignoring a direct command?” Izzy said, now with steel in her voice.

“Koth himself would not stop me from going after my brother,” Gene said, balling his fists.

“Very well,” Izzy said. “I expect you will regret this decision.”

Gene shrugged.

“The three of you will have to do it instead,” Izzy said to us, but staring at me.

I opened my mouth to protest, but Joy stopped me by pinching my butt with her sharp nails.

“All right, commander,” Joy said with an exaggerated salute. “We will get these gents home, safe and sound.”

I could not stop the betrayal from writing a book on my face.

“Don’t look at me like that!” Joy said seriously, but a twinkle in her eye and a hand that was still pressing sharply against my rear end gave me pause. I looked at Raxx, noticing his upper lip slightly pulled to one side, baring a fang. It was his version of a tug at the corner of the mouth.

Catching on, I glanced at Izzy, who was looking at us skeptically.

“You promise to bring him in?” I asked, doing my best to pretend that there was not a tornado of rage infecting my heart.

“He won’t get away with it. I promise you,” Izzy said.

“All right, then. Are your horses ready to go?” I asked the young officer.

“They are,” he confirmed.

“We should go soon then, before I change my mind and you have two people guilty of dereliction.” I said harshly.

Gene snorted, a sound I found I loathed. The hypocrisy of a man that wanted to lead a military life but thought he was above following orders he did not like disgusted me. In a way it made sense; Koth was not the god of the military, he was just the god of war. Nonetheless, my growing respect for Gene Pew had waned again.

“I’ll get our horses ready,” Joy said, nodding at me, then patting my backside one more time. Not unlike a horse.

Less than an hour later, the eight of us stopped a mile west from the camp.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Joy said, looking back.

“What worked?” the young officer said, confused.

“They let us just go with no fuss.”

“Let you go?”

“Yeah, after Reynold.” Joy said, smiling wide with her thorny teeth.

The five troopers looked back and forth at each other.

“So, you aren’t going to escort us back? What about the Doom Champion?”

“Hell with the Doom Champion,” I said, releasing some of the hate I had tried to contain. “Do you want to bring that piece of shit to justice or not?”

“We do,” the young officer nodded. “But no offense. I’m not sure how a group of young cadets are going to take them down.”

“No offense taken,” I said. “All eight of us will have to work together to avenge the Ergentein' blood those cowards have spilled. Are you up for that?”

The officer showed his promise by looking at the faces of his men. All of them nodded in resolution.

“Good,” I said, looking at Joy for direction.

“Okay, you said there was a big horde to the north, right? So, we are going to go around that, following the low areas between hills as best as we can. That way we can avoid getting caught by barrow ambushes.” Joy explained.

“If we do that, won’t Gene and Izzy get ahead of us?” Raxx asked from behind a soldier. We decided he should ride on the back of a warhorse with one of the men. Doing so gave our group a lot more speed.

“No need to worry about them any longer,” Joy said, grinning. “I poisoned their horses.”