Resurrected Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book Three (27 page)

CHAPTER 29

Over my shoulder, in the early morning light, five dead men swung from trees.

I wasn’t surprised, but still my anger burned.

I had given specific instructions to all officers that none of the women and children were to be harmed in anyway, and that anyone defying my orders would receive swift punishment equal to their crime.

I guess the low-life idiots who raped or attempted to rape five women among our newest additions didn’t understand just how serious their crimes were.

Ugly as it was, I was not unfamiliar with some soldiers doing similar things in times past. In the Geneshan War, I’d try to stop, or be on the lookout for them as best as I could. However, I didn’t have final say on how to handle the punishment of such abuse then. But in my new role, my judgment was swift and absolute.

Hamath walked up beside me and grunted. It caused me to turn away from the hanging men and face again what Hamath now marveled at.

A sixth man had died during the night as well. His punishment was anything but swift, though it redefined the term absolute.

The dead soldier was naked and castrated. At some point, he had been beaten until the blows, shock, and blood loss had killed him.

“I knew Ira had a mean streak, but by the gods, I never thought him so sadistic,” Hamath said.

“Can you blame him?” I asked. “That man tried to rape a child last night. A girl of seven.”

Some say the gods work in strange ways. Others say luck has a strange way of showing up. Whether it was luck or the gods, I was thankful that something had woken Ira during the night so that he came upon the girl before the scum had carried out his intentions.

Hamath sighed. “Balak isn’t happy, you know. He sent me over here to tell you that he wants to see you right away. He thinks you killing five men was excessive.”

“I don’t care what he thinks. He passed the people off to me. This is my call, not his.”

“He won’t like that.”

“Don’t really care. I’ll deal with him.”

“He uh . . . he also wants to know how you plan on punishing Ira.”

I turned my head slowly at Hamath. “You’re joking?”

He frowned. “You know I’m not. Look, I’m not saying I agree with Balak, but see things from his perspective. We’re already hurting for numbers. Then you kill five men for something that happens all the time in war. And on top of that, Ira kills not only a soldier, but a blasted Lieutenant. As sad as it sounds, he doesn’t care about those lives when weighed against a soldier’s. The six men dead could have helped him. These women and the child won’t.”

“Piss on Balak,” I said. “And piss on his plans.”

I turned away and started walking.

“You going to tell him that?” asked Hamath.

“Maybe, later,” I said over my shoulder.

“But he wants to see you now.”

“He can wait. I’ve got more important things to do first.”

* * *

I found Reuma pacing back and forth near the edge of camp. She stared at Ira who sat on a recently felled tree. His shoulders were hunched forward with his back to her. Dekar sat next to his brother, arm around him in comfort. I’m not sure I had ever seen that image before.

I stopped by Reuma. “Everything all right?”

She looked frazzled. “I don’t know. He won’t talk to me.”

That took me off guard. They had grown so close, I didn’t think there was anything kept between them. “Really?”

“He said it was hard to talk to me about it.” She opened and closed her fist. “Xank, what does that mean?”

“I don’t know.” I gestured to the two brothers. “He’s talking to Dekar?”

“Yeah. They’ve been over there for a while. He said he wanted to see you too.”

Admitting as much seemed to only make her angrier. I could understand that. She wanted to be the one to comfort Ira, not us.

I reached out and touched her arm. “Give him time. He isn’t trying to hurt you on purpose.”

She relaxed some. “I know. I just . . . I want to help.”

“You will. He’ll come to you when he’s ready. And the help you give him will be far more than what me or Dekar can give.”

She bobbed her head in understanding and gestured me on to see Ira.

Dekar glanced over his shoulder, then patted his brother’s back before removing his arm. Ira didn’t move.

I came around the front. Ira sat with elbows on knees, hands clasped in front. Blood was all over his hands, arms, and the rest of his clothes. He seemed oblivious to it.

“You going to be all right?” I asked.

“Dek, why don’t you go see how Talya is doing?” Ira asked, ignoring my question.

I realized Talya was the name of the young girl he saved.

Dekar whispered. “Reuma just checked on her a few minutes ago, Ira.”

“I know. But go check on her again. For me.”

Dekar’s eyes went from Ira to me, then back to Ira. He sighed. “All right.”

He stood, leaned down, then whispered something in his brother’s ear. He then kissed Ira on the cheek. “I’m here.”

Ira reached up and patted Dekar’s arm. “I know.”

Dekar let his hand slide from Ira’s shoulder, then walked away.

The exchange took me a moment to process. Ira and Dekar were both some of the toughest men I had ever known. Though I knew they cared for each other, I can’t recall in the ten years I had known them to ever show such a heartfelt exchange of affection. I had to fight back an itch in my eyes as I thought of Ava.

Ira broke the silence. “You can sit, Ty.”

I did and reworded my question from earlier. “You going to make it?”

“Yeah. Just shaken up a bit. Lots of old memories coming up I try not to think about.” He swore heavily. “Some people have nightmares about the war, about old battles, and friends dying. I haven’t had many of those yet. Memories of my childhood are what haunt my dreams.”

I said nothing. I had a feeling Ira was trying to work out what he wanted to tell me.

He continued after a moment. “We talked not that long ago about why I love kids so much. Remember?”

“Yeah.”

“All I said was that I wanted them to have the childhood I never got and then left the rest of the story alone.”

“I remember. I also remember how talking about that bothered you. I’m here for you too, Ira, but you don’t have to tell me if you aren’t comfortable doing so.”

He shook his head. “Outside of Dek, you’re about the best friend I ever had. Besides, I’m sure you’d want to know what possesses a man to do what I did to the lieutenant.”

“As a father, I understand completely what you did to him.”

He bobbed his head.

There was a long pause. I waited patiently. I had countless things to do. In fact, I had wanted to be on the road marching already, but for Ira, I waited and would keep on waiting until he no longer needed me to.

“I had an uncle that lived in Tamra not far from the house I grew up in. My pa’s brother. A good man by everyone’s account. He had a wide, warm smile of crooked teeth that I don’t think ever left his face. In fact, many people just called him Smiley instead of his real name, which for the life of me I can’t remember.” He clenched and opened his fists. “Uncle Smiley never refused a person who asked for his help. Never denied a hungry traveler a place to stay or a bed to sleep in. I even watched him literally give someone the shirt off his back once. Point is no one ever had a bad thing to say about him. But then again, that’s maybe what made it so easy for him to do what he did.

“I was six. He asked if I wanted to spend the night at his place so just me and him could go fishing the next day. Just the two of us. Of course I said yes. Why wouldn’t I? Man, I remember rubbing that in Dek’s face the entire day before. Gods, he was pissed.” He shook his head with a bitter smile. “We didn’t go fishing, Ty. Spent the whole gods-be-damned morning in his bed.”

He paused long. I reached and put a hand on his shoulder.

“When I got home, my Ma knew right away something was off. She asked what was wrong and I started crying. Old Uncle Smiley was with me though. He flashed that grin of his and said I was just upset that the big one got away from me. He also said he was going to pick me up the next day. That me and him would keep at it until we got that big one hooked.

“The next morning I tried to pretend being sick, but Uncle Smiley convinced my parents I just was still upset, and the fresh air would do me good.” He cleared his throat. “He came and got me almost every day for a month. We ain’t never went fishing.”

Gods.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too, Ty. Me too. I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t I tell anyone, right? I wanted to. I really did. But Uncle Smiley told me he’d hurt Ma and Pa if I did. I was too young to realize that Pa could have whopped him from one side of town to another. I still almost got up the nerve once when Pa asked me why I was limping around after a particularly rough visit. But when I started to say something, Ma interrupted me and by the time Pa got back to me I had lost my nerve.”

He snorted. “But Dek knew something was wrong. At seven, he could already see things that others couldn’t. I think he always knew really, but it was that night after Ma interrupted me that he pressed me into telling him the truth.

“To this day, I’ve never seen him so angry. Anyway, I cried myself to sleep then with Dek at my side the entire time. It was the first decent night’s sleep I had since it had all started with my uncle. I woke the next morning just as Dekar snuck back into our window. He was completely naked and wet. That worried me. I asked if Uncle Smiley had gotten to him. He shook his head and said, ‘You won’t have to worry about Uncle Smiley anymore, Ira. Ever. But let’s just keep this all between you and me, all right?’

“To this day Dekar never told me what he did that night. And I never asked. Not sure I want to know. But Uncle Smiley was never seen or heard from again.”

“Whoa,” I said, blowing out a slow breath.

“Yeah. It was after that Dekar began watching over every little thing I did. He never said as much to me, but I think in some ways he blamed himself for what happened. Like at seven he should have known and protected me, which is ridiculous. Regardless, he didn’t want to see me get hurt again.”

“I can understand that.”

Ira sighed. The back of his hand wiped at his eyes. “So now you know why I did what I did last night and why I’ll do it all over again without hesitation if I ever catch someone trying to do that to a child.”

“Again, I’m sorry. No one should ever have to go through that.”

“No, they shouldn’t.” He looked up. “Balak said anything about what I did yet?”

“No,” I lied.

“But he will, won’t he?”

“Don’t worry about Balak. I’ll handle it,” I said. I failed to mention that I was already ignoring Balak’s orders to see him about the matter.

He wiped his eyes again.

I glanced over my shoulder where Reuma still paced. She worried the nail on her right index finger.

“You love her?” I asked.

“Huh?”

“Do you love Reuma?”

He gave me a confused look. “I think so.”

“Then you need to talk to her about this.”

“Ty, you’re the first person other than Dek I’ve ever told. Now, you want me to tell her?”

“Yes. She’s over there sick to her stomach worried about you. She obviously loves you whether she’s said as much or not. You need to talk to her. Wouldn’t you want her to do the same?”

He sighed. “Prax’s balls, Ty. It’s hard to disagree when you put it like that.”

“That’s the point.” I stood.

He stood too. “I knew you were going to say that.”

We exchanged a firm embrace. “I’ll come by later before we head out, all right?”

He nodded, and I walked toward Reuma.

She stopped her pacing and gave me a hopeful look.

“He wants to talk to you.”

“About?”

I thought of everything he had told me, and all the pain I had felt for him grew tight in my gut. “That’s his story to tell. Not mine.”

She hurried to Ira.

Etan walked toward me as I re-entered camp. He wore a stern look that said he wasn’t very pleased with coming to find me.

“Balak wants—”

“Save your breath.” I walked past him. “I’m on my way now.”

“He’s mad at you for ignoring him,” Etan said, falling in next to me.

“I’m sure he is.”

And likely he was going to be even angrier after we had the conversation I expected.

The good thing about having Etan with me is that I didn’t have to stop at the entrance to Balak’s tent. I simply marched inside, past the other two guards without a word.

Balak looked up from his maps with both fury and annoyance. He opened his mouth as if to lay into me, but I beat him to it.

“Yes, I know that six soldiers died as a result of my decision to keep the women and children attached to the army. Yes, I know that’s six men we couldn’t afford to lose given our numbers. Yes, I know that gives me no room to talk about resources and more men since one of my orders directly resulted in the loss of soldiers outside of battle. No, that will not stop me from complaining about our numbers or bringing the matter up. Yes, I know that it is likely we could have other instances of this happening in the future, though I expect it to be far less likely given the example made this morning. Yes, I am also aware that one of my soldiers took the matter of punishment into his own hands against an officer. No, I am not reprimanding him for those actions. I support the punishment completely given the nature of the crime. And lastly, yes, I know we are now behind on our march given the happenings of this morning. I hope to make up the time lost while on the march today.”

His bushy eyebrows narrowed at me in such a way, I thought they might climb on top of each other. He breathed deeply, slow. But his glare didn’t move.

I admit that though I had long ago stopped being intimidated by Balak, I found myself growing a bit unsettled. Perhaps, I had finally pushed our relationship too far. But I kept my own gaze just as level and tried not to let any of the emotions I felt show.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, I saw the tension release from his brow, then his neck and shoulders.