A Creature of War, Book 7, CH05

As the weeks passed, the weather turned ever colder. And the people in the camp’s attitude toward LRK warmed a little. The youngest were responsible for it. Unlike the adults, they didn’t have the time for nonsense like the revelation Derik was a wizard; LRK kept them safe, so he was a friend.

The adults not present for Derik’s demonstration were the quickest to warm back up to LRK. They didn’t openly claim they other made it up, but with the slag in the forge cooled against the sides and no one who knew how a forge should function, it was easy for them to question the stories. Maybe it had been Garina with the power. She was the blacksmith after all. Any time one of them suggested LRK had been the one to manipulate the molten metal, he stopped it.

When LRK was asked, he told what happened, how Derik had defended the forge, defeated the soldiers and, therefore, defended the camp. Doubt always remained; Derik was nothing like the wizards of stories. He had been kind, withdrawn.

Ultimately, what caused LRK to be accepted again was the war itself. The danger was too great for anyone to refuse his help. When he warned of approaching soldiers, those too stubborn to listen to him got hurt.

Aemid, as befitting a general, was the last one to thaw, and that too was caused by the war.

*

The winter was brutal. Storms hit one after the other for weeks at a time, and as soon as they stopped, the fighting restarted. Stories of the city running low on food caused its own dissension within the camp. Some wanted to send food to help, others wanted to let them suffer for supporting the king.

By all accounts, the king himself had yet to suffer, although some of the nobles were beginning to feel the impact.

That day was bright, but frigid. Breath turned to ice on the fur. Humans stayed by the fires as much as they could; no amount of clothing seemed to keep them warm. The fighting was hampered by snow piled higher than LRK in places. He kept the camp free of it, using the wind and willing the snow at the edges, creating a palisade that blocked sight more than kept anyone from crossing it.

The attack came from all side, LRK felt them approach and assigned the fighters he had to intercept them. His people had the advantage of having kept warm. The king’s soldiers had numbers. The fighting was hard, and almost too late, LRK understood it was a diversion.

He felt the fire begin and had to ignore it as he fought to stop the soldier from reaching the kitchen. It intensified and in horror, he realized one of their food warehouse had caught fire. He extinguished it and continued fighting.

The fire started up again.

LRK split his attention long enough to confirm soldiers were within the warehouse and abandoned protecting the kitchen. It could be rebuilt, their food could not be regrown until spring. He extinguished three more attempts to burn it down before reaching it, by which time they had settled for destroying the structure.

LRK subdued and tied them quickly, then returned to the fighting.

Of the hundred or so soldiers attacking the camp, only the dozen LRK captured survived. He lost two dozen of his fighters, and too many civilians for him to want to know the number.

Aemid returned from the front to a kitchen partially rebuilt, to too many bodies set at the edge of the camp and twelve scared soldiers, only alive because they respected LRK’s desire not to kill them.

LRK gave his report.

“You should have killed them,” Aemid snapped. LRK didn’t reply.

The lion had the soldiers in a line, each with a man holding them. The unit leader was pushed forward.

“The old,” Aemid said, “children. What kind of men kill children.”

“We didn’t—”

“No, you tried to destroyed out food supplies, you really think that makes you a better man?”

“I was following order,” the captain said. “You’re the one who caused this. All you had to do was stay in your place and you’d be in your houses, living comfortably.”

“You mean we’d be scraping for enough grain to make bread. Contemplating which of our animals we could kill for meat so we’d have something to eat? We were farmers, and your king wouldn’t even leave us enough to survive.”

“You didn’t have to resort to war. You could have come to the king, explained your situ—”

“My grandfather suggested doing that,” Aemid said flatly. “Guards overheard him. Your king had him thrown into a dungeon to starve to death. We sent an emissary telling your king what we needed from him so we could survive the winters. We gave your king a way to avoid this. Do not come and tell me we started this. You king did, over years of taking all but the meager leftover from our harvests. You caused this by enforcing his will, by imprisoning those who couldn’t pay the taxes, taking fathers and brothers from families.”

“He is your king,” the soldier said through gritted teeth. “He protected you, he protects the city, he does what is needed.”

Aemid snorted. “How much of the city sits at his feasts. Do you? Do you ever set foot outside the castle, other than to come to attempt to starve us? How many in the city cheer you when you walk through the streets? Or do you enjoy the fear you cause them to feel?”

“I am a soldier,” the man said, glaring at Aemid. “I obey my orders.”

“And I was a farmer. I did all I could to be fair in this war. I returned my prisoners to your king. I have left your dead on the field so you could bring them back to their families. In return, he put the head of my friends and family on pikes around the city walls. I tried to be considerate of you, the men he sends to their death, and you come here to destroy our food.”

“You—”

The lion stepped forward, growling. “I want you to give a message to your king. Tell him I am done being considerate. Tell him that I will fight this war his way from now on. Tell him to look to the forest as the sun sets. You too look this way and remember that you could have been part of the message instead of the messenger.”

Aemid motioned to the man holding the captain. “Escort him outside the forest.” He looked to the others. “Kill the rest.”

“No!” the captain yelled as he was dragged away. The other’s screams were short-lived as their throats were cut.

The lion watched the captain until he and his guard vanished from view. “I want the head of every dead soldier on a pike at the edge of the forest. Dig out those the storms have buried. I want the king and his soldiers to see what we have done. From this point forward, their dead are ours, their heads to go on more pikes. They will no longer be able to dismiss us. They will be reminded any time they leave the city to fight us of how many of them died at the hands of simple farmers.”

The cheer rose, and Aemid took a step back in surprise. He straightened, watched until everyone was busy, then headed to his tent. LRK followed at a distance, hurrying and slipping in before the flap closed.

Aemid stood, his back to him, looking at the maps on the table, shaking. He slammed a fist on them. “I hate this,” he growled.

“Good,” LRK said, causing the lion to spin and draw his sword. He glared on seeing the lynx. “The day you like the war, is the day I have to stop you.”

“How can anyone like this?”

LRK smiled sadly. “Far too easily, it seems at times.”

“Did you know it would come to this?”

“Them trying to burn our food? No, but I should have. An army who doesn’t respect civilians, won’t respect much. We should think about posting guards through the night. It’s just a question of time before they launch an attack after the sun sets.”

Aemid shook his head. “Even Rumford wouldn’t be this sacrilegious.”

“If he starts to think he is going to lose, he isn’t going to care about his religion.”

“I understand you see this as meaningless,” the lion said, leaning against the edge of the table. “You lived for a long time in a world without faith, and then you destroyed the Celeste so it’s normal you see this as meaningless, but there is evil in the night. And to act in it, taints you. Nothing good comes of the night.”

LRK didn’t argue. He’d tried to win this argument countless times since arriving and never did.

*

Aemid did more than put the heads of the soldiers on pikes. He moved the war within the city.

The dissension there was quiet. No one was in a position to take an active stand against the king, but many supported Aemid’s effort, and had no issues hiding fighters in their homes.

In the chaos of the fighting outside the walls, some made it in and hid. Setting traps for the soldiers as they traveled through the city.

Stories of soldiers’ head on pikes appearing throughout the city forced the king to split his forces between finding the hidden fighters and fighting those outside the walls.

LRK spent those nights awake, his sense extended, feeling for soldiers approaching in the night, but none came.

*

In the middle of the winter, LRK caught Aemid looking at the forge wistfully. Half their swords were now no more than metal clubs. Everyone here knew how to maintain an edge, but the kind of damage the swords took during a war required more than whetstones to fix.

“Are you going to point out how wrong I was?” Aemid said once, when he noticed LRK standing next to him.

“I doubt I have to.”

“He was a wizard,” the lion said. The vehemence was missing.

“He was a man, forced to live with the hate others of his kinds created.”

“How could I risk it? How could I take the risk that he wouldn’t turn into one of them?”

“By looking beyond the terror you felt. Your own hate from stories you were told but never witnessed.” LRK looked into the distance. “There is a real danger to wizards. Back when I was young, we called them crazies, because something about what they can do alters their minds.”

“And you would have had me let him stay?”

“Aemid, why haven’t you chased Jamine away?”

The lion looked at the lynx in horror. “She’s my sister. I’d never do that.”

“But there is something about her mind. Her power does something to it.”

“She sees the past and the future. That isn’t the same as being able to cast melted metal.”

“What if she attacks you for no apparent reasons because of something she sees you do in the future? Would you cast her out then?”

“Of course not, she isn’t of the night, she’s just…” he searched for words.

“It’s the same with wizards. They aren’t of the night, they are simply different from the rest of us. Something about what they can do makes them see the world differently. And yes, too many of them embrace it and do horrible things. The rest, if they're helped, like Garina did with Derik, they can be kept from going too far. Wizards can help, if they are given a chance.”

“I don’t know how I could ever take that chance.”

LRK patted the lion’s arm. “We can revisit the question once this war is over.”

“If it will ever end,” Aemid sighed.

“It will. We have the better food reserve. The one caravan of food for the king’s army was intercepted, and we’ve managed to get some of it into the city for the civilians.”

Aemid looked at LRK sideways. “I thought you were staying out to war proper?”

The lynx shrugged. “They’ve been leaving the camp alone since you started putting up heads on pikes. Covert operations have given me something to do, and those haven’t involved much fighting. Caravan guards aren’t much for fightings after week and weeks of traveling in winter.”

“Thank you.”

“I said I’d help, I’m just—”

“For not leaving when I tried to kick you out. For continuing to protect us, even if few here gave you reason to for a while.”

“I’ve been the monster in the night, Aemid, I can endure being hated for a while, especially when I know I’m doing the right thing.”

“Thank you anyway.”

LRK smiled. “You’re welcome.”

*

LRK hadn’t intended on finding someone to share his bed with, but she proved insistent. Caamsee was one of the fighter, a human with hair the red of fire, a temper to match when disrespected and a stubborn streak to put a mule to shame. She brought herself to LRK’s attention by getting him in a fight. She lost, but laughed it off. After all by then he’d shown the kind of fighter he was; taking on full units by himself.

She sat with him and engaged in conversation. She was her father’s firstborn and had worked the fields as soon as she’d been able to walk. She had a habit of talking to the animals, because not enough people did it. Her humor was crude, and her interest in him evident.

The first night she spent with him reminded him why he’d loved sharing his bed with someone in the past.

She let him spend the nights awake, in his vigils for coming attacks. She listened to him talk about his long life without judgment. When he cried, talking about Leo and his mother, she held him.

The nights she spent in his bed were some of the few nights he slept well.

*

The winter was coming to an end. Most days were still cold, but the occasional one caused enough melt to provide ice for the children to play on when it froze through the night.

Aemid and his commanders were going over the day, The ice-covered fields making for difficult fighting, when a bundled up lioness burst in.

“Oh good,” she said, pulling back the hood. “I’m not too late.”

“Jamine?” Aemid asked.

“Of course it’s me, were you expecting mother?”

The lion studied her. “Are you here?”

“Where else would I be?” She looked at the others. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Aemid said. “We’ll continued this later.” He took a chair and motioned for his sister to sit.

She did, and he sat across from her. “What have you been up to?” She asked, “Tell me everything.”

LRK looked at Aemid’s amazed expression before stepping out of the tent, leaving his friend and his sister to talk.

Writer’s notes

This is the last of Creature of War, except for the epilogue, which I’ll post next week. It’s independent of the story itself, as it deals with the storyteller, so isn’t impacted by whatever I might have written.

I never made notes for this story, other that the just ideas I had for what the next chapter might contain.

In this case it was about LRK finding Jamine in a forest talking to herself, asking if she found her brother in time to say goodbye. That causes him to run back to camp, but he isn’t in time to stop the assassination.

Aemid’s death would galvanize the resistance and they’d overthrow the king. Amidst the celebration, LRK would leave.

There would be a time cut, and the next part would start. No idea what it might have been. Basically, from this point forward the ‘plan’ would have been to touch on the points Ellarkay mentions in ‘the founding of Tiranis’. With at the very least making a full part of the one where Vee almost kills LRK, and the one where he ends up ruler of a city, only to vanish in the night because his presence causes other kingdoms to attack, putting the citizens in danger, which would be what lead to the first story.

I abandoned this story in part through exhaustion. It’s over 200k words, and I’d never written anything this massive before. But also because of the utter lack of interest from the readers. No one on my Patreon even acknowledged this was being posted. The two meant this wouldn’t go anywhere. And I don’t know if I’d be able to pick it up now, even if I had the time.

I was already writing other stuff in this world, so there will be more after the epilogue.

See you next week.