Resurrected Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book Three (24 page)

Ava understood completely. “And the next time will be different again. It’s never the same.”

“I-I want to help, but . . .” She looked at her the bloody knife in her hand.

Ava put an arm around her and gave a squeeze. She surprised herself with the move. She had never been one to show affection easily. However, she felt a certain bond with Damaris, especially then as she recalled the first time she had killed someone up close. The circumstances were different, but she was sure they shared similar emotions.

Damaris leaned her head on Ava’s shoulder and sighed.

CHAPTER 25

Everyone hurried back to camp. Those who had remained behind greeted everyone warmly. Other than a twisted knee, everyone returned without physical injury.

Hard to hope for more than that.

People either began cleaning up, eating, or in a couple instances, crawling up next to a loved one and going to sleep.

Eager to forget the fighting. We’ll know about the mental injuries when the nightmares come.

Ava grunted. There’d be no loved one for her to curl up to. Not that she wasn’t used to that. She had told Tyrus that she mostly didn’t think about relationships, which was true. But that didn’t mean she didn’t sometimes long for the touch of another. In the army, she’d borrow that feeling from someone.

But who would I sleep with here? Gods, people wouldn’t stop talking about it. The kids don’t need that.

She sighed. Find comfort in sorcery. A girl’s best friend.

“I was coming to check on you, but it seems like you’re doing fine,” said Nason walking up. “Were you just grinning?”

She blinked away her thoughts. “Gods if I know.” She did know. She just didn’t wish to share her thoughts. “I thought you’d be sleeping next to your little ones.”

“Dinah’s keeping an eye on them so I could talk to you. Everything went all right?” He gestured to his right where Myra and Zadok sat with the two people rescued from the Southern Kingdoms.

“It was a success.” Her gaze shifted over to Damaris who sat staring at her bloody hands. “I wouldn’t say everything went all right though.”

“You need to talk?”

She smiled. “No. I’ve seen so much of this, I’m a little numb to it.” She paused. “There is something you can do though.”

“Anything.”

“Switch places with Dinah.”

“All right,” he said hesitantly. “You need her?”

“Sort of. Ask her to go to Damaris. She could use some help right now in getting cleaned up. Maybe someone to talk to as well.” She paused. “I’d do it myself, but I need to take care of a couple of things first.”

Besides, she had already spent much of their time coming back to camp at Damaris’s side, and was at a loss for what else to say or do. Dinah seemed like a woman much more in tune with how to help others anyway. Ava hoped she’d have more success at comforting Damaris.

“Sure, no problem.”

“Thanks.”

He started to turn. “Ava?”

“Yeah?”

“I know you might be used to this sort of violence, but if you do need to talk to someone about it, whether tomorrow, or whenever, well, I’m a good listener.”

He was a good listener and a good friend, but the burdens she carried from the war and the life she lived would be hard to truly share with someone who hadn’t been through it.

How do you explain to someone the smell, the fear, the anxiety of killing someone? How do you explain that you had moved past those emotions and killing a man is sometimes no different than stepping on a bug? How do you say that killing isn’t what scares you about war, its living afterward? Will my next meal be the last? My next breath?

Sure, Ava could try to explain, but words only told part of the story. The rest of it came only through experience that Nason didn’t have.

Still, Ava smiled, genuinely touched by the offer. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

And she would. She just wouldn’t act upon it.

Ava walked over to Myra and Zadok and the two people they had rescued from the Malduks. The husband and wife, as confirmed by Eder, seemed much more relaxed than before.

Not being bound will do that to you, I’m sure.

Chadar, a middle-aged man, sat with his back against a struggling pine tree. He kept his dark hair closely cropped. The gray at his beard stood out even against his dry skin in the flickering light of the nearby campfire. His wife, Galya, a much younger woman also with short hair, sat at his side. Their arms rested intertwined. They were both dressed in simple clothes—brown trousers, black boots, and white shirts long ago stained yellow from sweat and dirt. A deep weariness sat upon their wrinkled faces. But despite their haggard form, there was still something beautiful about their foreign features.

Though they appeared in better spirits since their rescue, neither had moved more than an inch from the other’s side. Chadar’s eyes never stopped as he studied his surroundings.

Their dark skin and southern features reminded Ava very much of Lasha. People from the Southern Kingdoms rarely ventured this far north, and so the only person Ava had ever had strong interactions with from that part of the world was her sister-in-law.

It was a little strange to see how much more noticeable the Southern Kingdom features were on her niece and nephew with them sitting so close to Chadar and Galya.

She stopped a couple feet away from the group. Chadar looked up, smiling. The gesture made Myra and Zadok turn her way.

“Hi, Aunt Ava,” said Zadok. “We were just—”

“I need to talk to you in private,” she said to Myra.

Myra frowned. “Can it wait? We were just talking about—”

“No. It can’t.”

Her frown deepened, but she stood and followed Ava over to a secluded edge of camp.

“What is it?”

“I need you to go talk to Damaris.”

Myra looked over Ava’s shoulder. “Dinah is with her now.”

“I know, but I think Damaris could use some more company after tonight.”

“I don’t know what to say. I wasn’t there.”

“Neither was Dinah. That’s not the point though. Making the effort goes a long way. It will show that you care about her, and that her risking her life meant something. Understand?”

She bit her lip. “Can I do it in the morning? I really want to talk to Chadar and Galya.”

“That can wait until morning. At least for you. I need to talk to them to figure out our course for tomorrow. I can’t do that, talk to Damaris, and get some semblance of rest. That’s why I’m coming to you. I need your help.”

“All right. I’ll go.”

“Thank you.”

They parted and Ava returned to their guests. She sat next to Zadok.

“Aunt Ava,” said Zadok, excited. “Chadar and Galya are from this town called Okahao. It’s within a day’s walk of Rundu. Do you know what that means? They might have met Ma when she was a kid and didn’t even know it.”

Galya smiled. “Well, most of our travels outside of Okahao took us in a different direction than Rundu. Still, it is possible our paths crossed.”

Chadar met Ava’s eyes. “Is everything all right with Myra?”

“Fine. She asked me to apologize for her, but she has some more pressing things to take care of right now.” She changed the subject. “So, I hate to be blunt and interrupt your conversation, but it’s late, I’m tired, and I’m sure you are too.”

They nodded.

“Then let’s get down to the heart of things. What are you two doing so far from home? And why were the Malduks keeping you as prisoners?”

Chadar took a deep breath, but then began coughing.

Galya patted his chest. “I can answer her questions.”

He nodded in assent, collecting himself.

“Are you all right?” Ava asked Chadar.

“He will be,” Galya said. “The eruptions made him very ill, and though he’s recovered in most other ways, he still feels a tightening in his chest from time to time.”

“I hope it doesn’t affect his ability to travel. We have a lot of walking ahead of us.”

“He’ll be fine,” she said. “Now, your questions. The first one is very easy to answer. We left the Southern Kingdoms months before all this destruction happened. We were tasked by our government to expand our trade routes. We had already opened up new ways with the Byzans and also parts of southern Turine. However, we knew we’d have a real advantage if we could get new routes established with the Geneshans.”

“You wanted to establish trade with the Molak-be-damned Geneshans?”

“Why not?”

“For one, didn’t they attack you in the early years of their expansion?”

Galya chuckled. “And they were reminded quickly how foolish such a thing was. We beat them quite easily.”

“And they turned their attention to everyone else. Like Turine. What about all the awful things they’ve done? You had to have heard the stories.”

“Of course we have. And we are not so blind to think that your military didn’t also do things to them as well. It is war after all.”

“They sacrificed children!” she hissed. She was about to go further when she remembered Zadok was next to her. Though he had seen his fair share of atrocities, she didn’t want to add to it by sharing her experiences. “That goes beyond just the evils of war.”

“This is true. It’s why our government wanted to establish Geneshan trade routes. We hoped that our influence might eventually sway them away from such barbaric practices.”

“And what would have happened had they turned on you later?”

“We would have beaten them handily as before, probably worse to make the point again. Just as we would have done if Turine grew arrogant in their victory and thought to look south.”

Ava bristled at the arrogance. Of course, how could she argue? History showed that the Southern Kingdoms hadn’t lost a military engagement in hundreds of years.

You’d think that a nation with such a powerful army would have become the conquerors instead of the Geneshans. Yet, they’re absolutely passive. The sleeping giant.

Ava didn’t like Galya’s response, but she knew it was fruitless to argue when so much else still needed to be said.

“Back to your story, you were going into the Geneshan Empire. . .”

“Yes. We were several weeks into their lands when the first eruption occurred. It made us both very ill. Chadar almost died. We found safety in a small town after the first eruption, then later in an old wolves’ den after the second. We were on our way home when the Malduks captured us.”

“Why?”

“Why did we get caught or why were we taken as prisoners?”

“Both.”

“The first answer is because we are not soldiers. We didn’t see the signs of an ambush. At least that’s what I presume. The second answer we didn’t learn until much later. Apparently, there are a lot of smaller armies moving north made of both Geneshans and Malduks.”

“We’ve run across quite a few.”

“And you saw they were carrying prisoners, correct?”

“Yes.”

She frowned. “I had hoped what we speculated on was wrong, but it appears to not be the case.” She paused. “The armies are heading toward your capital.”

“That’s were Pa’s going,” gulped Zadok.

“It’s not just that. It’s where all this mess started,” Ava said gesturing to the world around them.

Apparently, she and Myra hadn’t been wrong in their hunch.

Galya frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Ava filled them in on how the Geneshan War ended, the confiscated artifact, and how it went off in Hol because of people tampering with it. She gave a quicker recap of their journey and how Tyrus and an army were heading back in that direction to fight another war.

Chadar and Galya listened intently. When Ava finished, they exchanged a look. Chadar cleared his throat, having finally recovered. “That explains much.”

“It explains what we overheard the Malduks discussing,” Galya added. “They know about the artifact. I think the Geneshans are going to retrieve it.”

Why would they want to retrieve it? They see the destruction it caused. Gods, they warned us what it could do. Seems like they would be running away from the thing like everyone else. Everyone but Balak’s army.

Gods-be-damned, they’re heading right to you, Tyrus.

She paused in her thinking. Unless they think they can stop the destruction.

Is that what the sacrifices are for? Appease their god and bring the artifact under control?

“So you got caught in the middle of this mass movement of sacrifices then?”

“Yes. The Malduks had never seen our likes before and believed that we in particular would be received favorably by their god due to our appearances.”

She rubbed the side of her face, tired, but unable to keep her mind from racing. Something seemed off in regards to the behavior of the Geneshans. She was missing something, but gods if she could figure out what it was.

Maybe in the morning after some sleep.

She cleared her throat. “Your story raises a lot of questions.”

“Yeah,” said Zadok. “I know I—”

She raised a hand. “But they’ll need to wait until tomorrow at the least. It’s too late to start hypothesizing.”

Chadar and Galya looked relieved.

“That being said, I do have one more question that can’t wait.”

“Which is?” asked Galya.

“What is the best route south?”

“I’m not sure.” She shrugged, looking helpless. “We are still in unfamiliar lands with nothing like the maps we once had at our disposal. We got lost several times before our capture. Perhaps once we get farther south and closer to the Southern Kingdoms, then we could be of more help.”

Ava sighed. We have to get there first.

She had a feeling this would come back to bite her. Instead of gaining an advantage in knowledge to direct the people she was already responsible for, she only gained two more mouths to feed.

Ava looked around at the rest of camp as most everyone had settled in except for those on watch.

Gods, what is everyone going to say once they learn we gained little that will help us?

* * *

“Aunt Ava, wake up,” said Myra.

The girl’s hand roughly shook her shoulder.

“What’s going on?” said Ava as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Is there trouble?”

“Why didn’t you tell me last night what Chadar and Galya said?”

Ava sighed. “You talked to Zadok?”

“Yes.”

She yawned and stood. A twinge in her bladder caused her to shift her stance. “Let me go relieve myself.”

A couple minutes later, she was back in camp. Myra waited for her, pacing over a small stretch of dead grass.

“Why didn’t you tell me what Chadar and Galya said?”

“Because you were busy with Damaris. How is she, by the way?”

Myra softened. “Doing better.”

She paused, waiting for Ava to start explaining.

“Look, I wasn’t purposefully keeping anything from you. I just wanted to wait until morning since we got no insight on a new direction to follow, which means we’re still running blind to the river. Everything else, although interesting, is not essential to our survival.”