Hours later we had been relieved and were heading back to the barracks. The first sign that something was wrong was as we started up the stairs. The light provided by the torches revealed blood splatters and smears as we hit the first floor. On each subsequent floor, we found traces of blood, signifying that there had been combat there.

  Since there were no sounds of fighting I did not draw my weapons, but I did fear for the safety of my people. Without them, there was less chance of me getting out of this hellhole alive.

  When we got to the seventh floor there was a lot of blood pooled by the doors leading into the area assigned to Anders’ squadron. However, the blood stopped halfway down the corridor. Well, except for very minor drips down by the door leading into my people’s. Another reassuring thing was the fact that Alan was standing guard outside the door.

  “Alan, what happened here? Casualties?” I demanded as soon as I spotted him.

  “Milord, no need to worry, none of our people in the barracks were hurt, well minor injuries, but nothing major,” he replied.

  “Good, you can tell us what happened inside,” I said with a sigh of relief. Whatever losses we had taken at the wall was bad enough, no need to compound that. Turning to one of the squad leaders behind me, I ordered him to post guards at both doors to relieve my bodyguards.

  Stepping inside I saw that the wounded that had been carried away from the wall were well taken care of, but both of my healers looked tired. I could see no trace of Yathanae or the two herb mages, which made me worry. Without the herb mages, the roof garden would not be growing. Even if we had selected vegetables that could grow without a lot of direct sunlight, it still needed their magic to flourish.

  “Okay, senior squad leader meeting, we need to debrief,” I said loudly, before walking over to Nathalie who looked up at me with a tired smile. “Did we lose any of the wounded?”

  “No, Milord. Though we would have if left solely to the infirmary,” she replied.

  In a low voice, I asked, “Where’s Yathanae?”

  “In your room, she protected us, but it was hard for her. The two others are consoling her,” she replied in an equally low voice.

  I squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you, good work.”

  “Thanks, Milord.”

  I turned my attention back to the senior squad leaders who had gathered in one corner around one of the fires. There was no room to hold a private meeting, so we had to do it out in the open. I motioned for Alan to join us.

  “Alan, catch us up on what happened here,” I said as soon as we had all gathered.

  “Some winged elves started making their way up the stairs, attacking the quarters at every floor. Being on the top floor we had some warning, so Nysa managed to block one door and we guarded the other door,” Alan explained. “Yathanae helped us. Without her, we would have taken more than superficial wounds.”

  “Thank you, Alan,” I said with a little relief, but I could not help but think that it was an inefficient way to assault the barracks. Especially considering they could fly. I voiced that thought, “I wonder why they didn’t just have a lapomancer make holes in the roof?”

  “Because harpies don’t have any lapomancers,” Linus answered unexpectedly. I turned around to look at him, he was standing nearby together with Ethan. I motioned for him to go on. “Each of the four elven sub-species is aligned with one of the four basic elements. Harpies are aligned with wind, the opposite of wind is earth, so you won’t find any harpies with earth magic, just as you won’t find any dryads with wind magic.”

  “Interesting. Thank you for that tidbit,” I said. I turned back to the senior squad leaders. “Now to the unpleasant part. Casualties?”

  “First Platoon, only minor wounds.”

  “Second Platoon, no injuries.”

  “Third Platoon, two dead.”

  And so it continued. In total, we had lost seventeen men. When 13th Platoon had reported in, I asked, “What would you say were the largest factor in the loss of life?”

  There was silence for a time, before one of them finally voiced an opinion, “No lights.”

  “That’s certainly one factor,” I conceded, “But is it one we can fix?”

  “No, the light mages are under the Church control,” Hrothgar answered. “And we just lost one, the priest is going to be pissed.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” I said. Silence reigned again for a minute or two.

  Finally, someone spoke up again, but not one of the senior squad leaders. One of the nearby troopers spoke up, “Begging your pardon, Milord.”

  Turning around to look at the man, I nodded for him to go on. “Milord, the problem was confusion on who should change to melee weapons. Either too many or too few did it.”

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Alrik, Milord.”

  “Thank you, Alrik. You’re right,” I said and turned my attention back to the senior squad leaders. “That is exactly what I believe led to a few unnecessary deaths. I know that there’s a whole thing about honouring the Gods, with thirteen being a lucky number. I’m not going to change that. We’ll keep the structure as is at the moment. Just add an extra step at the bottom.”

  “Milord, that’s not a good idea,” Hrothgar protested. Always the traditionalist.

  “You haven’t even heard it, Commander,” I said sternly. “You’ve squad leaders and senior squad leaders. So we’ll make a new rank, junior squad leader. Every squad is still led by a squad leader, but he’ll have two junior squad leaders to delegate tasks to. Each junior squad leader is in charge of five of the men, we’ll call that a group. That way we’re not messing with the overall structure.”

  The senior squad leaders looked, for the most part, pensive, but a few of them nodded. Whether it was because they agreed or just wanted to make a good impression on me, I did not know.

  I pointed to Alrik. “There’s the first junior squad leader, for whichever squad he is in.”

  The trooper in question looked horrified at being singled out again. I did not care. The man had some boldness in him to speak up in a conversation that he was not really a part of. He would do well, hopefully.

  I left the senior squad leaders to their task and made my way to my bedchamber. Yathanae was on the bed, curled up in a fetal position, flanked by Ilmadia and Siphanien who were trying to console her. They saw me enter and with my head, I indicated they should leave.

  When they vacated the bed, I slipped in behind Yathanae and embraced her. At first, she went stiff like she did not want me to touch her, but then she relaxed and backed into my chest. Small silent sobs wracked her body.

  I put my head next to her and whispered in elvish, “Thank you for protecting my—no our people.”

  Which made her start crying in earnest. After a few minutes, she mumbled, “I’m truly a traitor now. I killed elves.”

  “I’m sorry you had to do that,” I said softly. I repeated an offer I had made after the incident with the Cardinal, “I’ll offer it again. I can make a binding stone for you alone. You and Emma could disappear.”

  “No, unless you can remove the collar and manacles, I’m dead in their eyes,” she sniffled.

  “I don’t get that. You were taken prisoner and enslaved.”

  “Yes, my will is no longer my own, meaning I’m dead to them, or even worse, a traitor,” she explained.

  “I still don’t get it, but I don’t get any of the cultures on this world,” I said with a shake of my head. “But really, thank you for protecting my people.”

  “I was protecting myself. If they had found me, they would’ve killed me,” she countered.

  “Doesn’t change the fact that you also protected my people,” I said and kissed the tip of her ear. “You’re their hero. And mine.”

  She was silent for a while. Then in a meek voice, she asked, “Could you hold me like this while we sleep?”

  “Of course,” I replied and gave her a squeeze. It took fifteen minutes before her breathing deepened. Satisfied that she was asleep, I turned off the healing magic that kept me fresh and going. At once it was like a huge wave of sleepiness crashed over me, and I was asleep in moments.

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  I was awoken by someone pounding on the door. As I awoke I became aware of a voice calling through the door, “Milord, the High Commander demands that you attend a meeting in the portal cavern in five spans.”

  Extracting myself from Yathanae who was still sleeping, I made my way to the door. I opened it and was almost hit in the face by a descending fist. The senior squad leader who was disturbing my well-earned sleep took a step back. “Sorry Milord, the—”

  “Yeah, I heard you,” I said and stepped out into the main chamber. “What time is it?”

  “Half glass after dawn, Milord,” came the answer.

  “Too damn early,” I muttered and started refreshing myself with the healing magic.

  Saori stepped up to me with a cup of hot tea. “I’ve some water ready for you, Milord.”

  “No time right now. Thank you, though,” I replied. Looking around, and smelling the air in the room, I gave her a new order. “We need to give everyone a chance to wash off the grime. Work with the squad leaders and have one squad bathe at the time. I want everyone clean by the end of the day. And everyone gets another bath tomorrow. I want everyone bathed at least every third day.”

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  “Yes, Milord,” she said.

  The senior squad leader looked doubtful. “Is that really a good use of our resources?”

  “Definitely, better to prevent diseases than having to heal them,” I said and looked around. “Linus, just the man I was looking for.”

  “What can I do for you, Milord?” he asked.

  “I want this room aired out. Work together with Mary and Saori about having the privies cleaned as well. Didn’t we bring a linteomancer?”

  “Yes, Milord, she’s—” he started saying.

  “Good, get her started on repairing uniforms. Might seems inconsequential, but I know I feel better when I’m clean and don’t have the smells of privies wafting around,” I said and drank the tea in a few big mouthfuls. It was a little too hot and burned my mouth. A little healing magic and I was as good as new.

  Looking around for my next victim, I found Hrothgar and Kiril. “Commanders, form up. We’re going to a meeting. Two guards should be enough, Kiril.”

  “Yes, Milord,” they said and got their feet.

  As we made our way to the meeting, I asked Hrothgar, “Did the platoons implement the new rank and groups?”

  “Yes, but I still think this is a mistake, Milord,” he replied.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because—” he started, but stopped again immediately. Finally, he said, “Because it’s not how we do things here.”

  “But surely you can see the benefit of having someone ready to step up if the squad leader falls? Or like last night the need to have clear directions as to who’ll switch to melee?” I countered.

  “Yes, of course, but it’s only in specialized circumstances. Normally—”

  “Normally would be nice, but they are soldiers, they need to prepare for the worst while hoping for normal,” I said in a tone conveying that it was the end of the useless discussion. His objections seemed to be purely about tradition, of little substance or value.

  “Yes, Milord,” he replied. The rest of the trip there was done in silence. Instead, I thought about the other point raised at the meeting. Light. We needed more light, the light mages were not enough. What we needed was some big searchlights like you saw in World War II movies or something. Unfortunately, I had no idea where to start on such a project.

  Arriving at the portal cavern I saw that the priest was standing there with High Commander Farnsworth, Ballard and the high commander of 5th Battalion. The other Battalion that had been on guard duty during the night. A quick count revealed twenty-two commanders in attendance as well, meaning I was not the last to arrive. I recognized Anders of course, but I did not see any sign of Nerd—Adam. Also noticed Theo amongst the commanders, meaning he had been assigned to 5th Battalion.

  There was no talking, so I just found a spot to stand. I was the only one who had brought someone with me, which earned me a stink eye from the priest and high commanders. I did not give a fuck about that. I had seen splashes of blood on the way down into the cavern, meaning that the fighting had spread that far.

  A few minutes later the last commanders had shown up, Adam trailing last with a soldier at his side, and two skimpily clad females trailing behind him. Twins it seemed, and he had them on leashes. I could only shake my head. Trust an insecure nerd to take things too far. The look on Anders’ face was pure murder.

  “Now that we’re all finally here, we can talk about what the fuck happened last night,” High Commander Farnsworth thundered in the largely empty cavern. “We lost a mancer who should have been secure in the tower. Tell me how that happened?”

  Ballard threw me under the bus without hesitation. “It was Lord Karth’s section of the wall.”

  “Lord Karth, I hope you have got a good explanation!” Farnsworth demanded.

  Stepping forward so I could tower over the two. “We spotted movement in the pass, but too far away for the mancer to light them up, so we took him closer.”

  “They shouldn’t leave the tower,” the priest complained.

  “Listen here, I took a decision that foiled a sneak attack. It seems to me that there were some on the eastern wall as well, some that were not discovered, since they got to this cavern and the barracks,” I said, letting all my irritation shine through. “Because my men stopped the harpies before they could get too far into the castle.”

  “Don’t get snippy with me, you’re under my command,” Farnsworth growled. “You’ll not remove the mancers from the towers from now on. Is that understood?”

  “Sure, don’t go blaming me for not protecting the wall properly at night then,” I countered. An answer that did not go over well with the man.

  “If not for Lord Karth’s men discovering the sneak attack, it would have been much worse,” Theo said. “Because of the musket fire, we became alert on the eastern wall. When we spotted the harpies they were already approaching the barracks.”

  A few of the commanders from 5th Battalion nodded their heads. Farnsworth looked around. “That’s all well and good, but because of him, we now have one less lumomancer. Meaning a section of the wall will be without one.”

  “Then get some more,” I countered. “We’ve already too few to mount a proper defence during the night.”

  “They don’t normally attack at night,” Farnsworth pointed out. “They prefer to wear us down at long range.”

  “They might be changing strategy,” Anders said. “I mean, they’ve not been able to take the castle for a thousand cycles, maybe they’re finally trying something new.”

  “Enough,” Farnsworth thundered. “I called this meeting to admonish both battalions. Your carelessness has been noted, and if it continues, you’ll be replaced. Is that understood?”

  “Fucktard,” I mumbled in English, while the commanders responded in the positive. The meeting turned into all kinds of other directives and orders, but I tuned them out, knowing Hrothgar would be taking notes for me. Instead I turned my focus on the problem of light.

  Shortly after that, we were dismissed, and I caught up with Adam. “Hey Adam, could I have a moment of your time?”

  “You remembered my name, how nice. Since you didn’t call me nerd, what the fuck do you want?” he sneered at me. Seemed to me like he had grown a backbone.

  “Listen, I can be an asshole, I know that. Sorry about that, it was a stressful situation, and I lashed out.”

  “Yeah, whatever. What do you want?” he asked, tugging angrily at the leashes he was holding.

  “We need light, and I know making searchlights like we know them would be pretty difficult, however, wouldn’t it be possible to make something similar? Maybe something that catches the light of a fireplace and enhances that or something?” I asked.

  He laughed at that. “Big dumb brute can’t figure something out, comes begging the clever nerdy guy for help. How fucking cliché, high school all over.”

  I tamped down my anger. “Listen, I know I was an asshole, but if you don’t want to help, fine. No need to be a bitch about it.”

  “If I had some sand to make glass, sure I could do it. Would need someone to manipulate metal as well, plus a lot of metal, but I don’t, so I can’t do it,” he said dismissively.

  “Let’s say I could provide that, would you do it?” I asked. The sand was a problem, but I knew that the lapomancers could summon different kinds of rock, so sandstone should be possible.

  He looked at me for a moment. “I heard you had some elven females in your party. I’ve not fucked an elf yet, send one of those—”

  That was as far as he got before I decked him. I gave his commander a hard look and he backed off. Standing above the bleeding nerd I stepped on his wrist, forcing him to let go of the leashes. “Listen here, you little twerp. I was being nice. I’m not going to whore out my people just because you’re on a power trip. Now I asked nicely, and we could have done this painlessly and have become friendly. But no, you decided to be an asshole, something I’m an expert in, and you don’t have the balls nor the power to back it up.”

  I gave him a kick in the ribs and stalked away. Coughing he shouted after me, “I’m never going to make those searchlights for you!”

  “Idiot, you already said you could make them,” I mumbled, and went back down to search for High Commander Ballard. I found him talking to Anders. I walked up to them, not giving one fuck about the conversation they were having. As I approached they stopped and gave me an irritated look as I interrupted their conversation.

  “What do you want?” Anders asked, irritation evident in his tone.

  I ignored my fellow earthling, and said, “High Commander Ballard, I had an idea for the whole light situation.”

  “Oh?” was his half-uninterested reply.

  “We’ve machines in our world that can replicate what a lumomancer does to some degree. We call them searchlights. Instead of creating a point of light somewhere, they enhance a light source and cast it in the direction it’s pointed.”

  “Interesting.” His tone did not sound very interested.

  “I just had a talk with Lord Adam, he said he could replicate this effect to some extent,” I said, which finally made him look interested. “However, we don’t see eye to eye, and he refused to make them.”

  “Is there anyone you don’t piss off?” Ballard asked.

  “I’ve got that effect on people,” I said with a shrug.

  “Very well, I’ll talk with him about it.”

  “Just thought you should know,” I said and left after receiving another glare from Anders.

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  Nine days later, we had just finished another guard duty. Luckily there had been no attacks during the day, and I had not lost any more men. Though I had lost a handful of troopers over the last week.

  Adam had reluctantly been building contraptions that could catch some of the light from a torch and project it in a pale imitation of a searchlight. It was not perfect, but it was better than nothing. The nerd had been glowering at me whenever he saw me, but he could just have been less of an asshole about the whole thing.

  A few hours past midnight, it was finally time to get Gudrun and the other girls back to the barracks. Nysa and I made our way to the roof. Soon the rock melted away and Gudrun appeared. She quickly made the bridge back to the barracks. One of the good things about the new searchlights was that the lumomancers had stopped throwing around random lights.

  When all of them were back on solid ground, and Gudrun had removed the bridge, we led them downstairs to some waiting baths. They needed them. They stank to high heavens. There was also warm food waiting for them.

  Gudrun said, “Thank you, Milord, warm food and a bath is just what we needed after twelve days closed in.”

  “You’re welcome, and do please take your time in the baths,” I replied, making sure to breathe through my mouth.

  “Sorry Milord, not a lot of room or light to wash by in there,” one of the other stone mages said.

  “It’s okay, you’re doing important work. How far would you say that you’ve gotten?” I asked. “Even though I know what to look for, I can’t really tell. You’re doing nice work ladies.”

  “Thank you, Milord,” they mumbled.

  Gudrun answered my question, “We’re only a couple of days from reaching the overhang.”

  “That’s great to hear, good work all of you.”

  “Thank you, Milord,” they said again, most of them focused on their food.

  Gudrun, on the other hand, looked a bit concerned, so I asked, “What’s the matter?”

  “Milord, I hoped we could have a few days before going back in there,” she mumbled, looking a bit afraid to ask.

  “Of course, for the next four days I just want you to relax, and enjoy what little sunshine we can get on the roof,” I said with a smile. “What you’re doing is important, but so are you guys. I highly doubt we need a backway out just yet.”

  “Thank you, Milord,” they said with more enthusiasm.

  “However, I want you to keep channelling into those manacrystals, is that understood?”

  “Yes, Milord.”

  “Good,” I said and left them to their food and baths. I made my way into my bedchamber where Yathanae and some of the others of my retinue were sleeping. Only Yathanae was lying on the bed, the others were sleeping on pallets made of blankets.

  I slipped into the bed behind Yathanae who stirred slightly. In elvish she whispered, “Is it morning?”

  “No, not yet. Still a few glasses,” I answered and kissed her ear tip, eliciting a low moan from her. “How are you feeling?”

  “Still coming to terms that I had to kill other elves,” she whispered sadly.

  “Haven’t you ever had any civil wars or something like that?”

  “Not since the First War, we’ve been fighting humans ever since, only had few periods of truces,” she replied.

  I thought about that. That was a long-ass war. Five thousand years or thereabouts. That was a lot of animosities that could be built up there. It made me think about why the Gods would allow the races to be fighting. I thought the whole point of the world was to keep the Destroyer locked up, with the races at war, how could the Gods keep an eye on the Destroyer?

  “Karth,” Yathanae whispered.

  “Yes?”

  “Could you make love to me, I need to feel alive, need to feel cherished,” she begged.

  Instead of answering, I just kissed her ear tip, and started turning her on to her back. I did not care if any of the others woke and looked on, but I did try to be quiet about it. Which was a bit difficult, because Yathanae could get quite loud at times.