The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Seventeen

There wasn’t much forElise to pack the next morning, when she was supposed to leave for Semata withGeneral Polain and everyone else. She hadn’t brought anything with her otherthan the clothes on her back, and the things she’d gotten while in Asfalisamounted to the bow and quiver Eza had given her and Milo’s sword. Everyoneelse packed equally as sparse; the only one she even saw with a bag packed was GeneralPolain, and even his only had a change of clothes, a teapot, and some greentea. Everyone else just brought a blanket, food, and a change of socks. Olrickwas looking a lot better than he was before, though his arm was now in a sling,per Doc’s instructions. Everything seemed to be in order, until she saw Kaelwalking toward them.

The second they sawhim coming, everybody grew tense. Olrick seemed uncomfortable around him, Ezakept a tight hold on her staff, Silas seemed annoyed at his presence; onlyPolain seemed positive about Kael.

“What the hell isthat Gisken doing out here?” Eza growled. Her voice was ice cold; it sentchills right up Elise’s spine. “Shouldn’t he be dead by now?” Silas scoffed.

“You see, that’s justthe thing,” he said. “The bastard claims he’s Prince Kael Althaus, and Polainbelieves him.” Eza gave him a look.

“You’re kidding,right?” she asked.

“I wish I was.” Silassaid. Eza cursed in a harsh, guttural language Elise assumed was Kurzhian.

“Sometimes, I wonderif all that herbal tea is messing with his mind,” she muttered to herself.

Elise frowned inconfusion. “Kael Althaus?”

“He was the heir tothe Gisken throne, before Raul took over and killed the royal family,” Silassaid. “There’ve been rumors that one of the family members survived goingaround since it happened, but this is the first time anyone’s ever claimed theywere any member of the royal family, letalone the one person who’d be able to challenge him for the throne.”

Elise looked down at thebow in her hands. After meeting General Raul, she knew that he wasn’t the kindof person who would leave such a large loose end; there was no way that theheir to the Gisken throne could have been in such close proximity to himwithout him knowing.

“Do you havesomething you would like to share with the class, Olrick?” Eza asked. Eliselooked up from her bow and Olrick looked up from sharpening his sword at thesound of Silas’ voice. When he saw everyone’s eyes on him, he looked back downat his sword and continued sharpening it, the sound of the whetstone againstthe sword grating against Elise’s ears.

“No,” he said quietly.Silas raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Well, aren’t you a rotten liar?” he asked. “The leastyou can do is try to not look soguilty.”

“Spit it out,Olrick.” This time, it was Eza. “You know something about this Gisken,something you don’t seem keen on telling us.” Olrick stopped sharpening hissword and sighed.

“This Gisken is justa little different from the others, is all,” he said. “He was in Thaos while Iwas; he told me that he was Prince Kael and that he wanted to take down Raul.”

“And why did he tellyou that?” Silas asked.

Before Olrick couldanswer his question, Polain began to walk toward them. He had his pack slungover his shoulder and Kael, who was, for whatever reason, dressed all in furslike some sort of barbarian, at his side. While Silas and Olrick tried to act alittle more pleasant toward him, Eza still gave him an icy glare, one that hemade a point to avoid looking at. All of them stood up and stood at attention,while Elise stood with her hands clasped in front of her and her head bowed.

“Areyou all ready to go?” Polain asked.

“Yes,sir,” Silas said. With that, the small party walked out of Fort Asfalis andonto Thias’ Road.

Muchto her surprise, Elise found that she was nervous – scared, even – to beleaving Asfalis, and not because she was worried about the highwaymen that supposedlyplagued Thias’ Road. She’d never been much farther away from Thaos than a fewmiles in her whole life, and the thought that she would be days away from itmade her homesick. She began to think of how everything had been before theGisken invasion: how Milo used to make her, Papa, and everyone who visited thetavern laugh with his stupid jokes, Papa’s warm, bright smile, the warm,nearly-forgotten embrace of her mother. Part of her wished that everythingcould go back to the way life was before the invasion, but another, muchsmaller part didn’t; if it hadn’t been for the Giskens, she probably wouldn’thave met Olrick, and she certainly wouldn’t have met Eza, Silas, or Polain.

“Areyou alright?” Elise looked up to see Olrick looking at her, a look of concernon his face. She nodded as she took her right forearm into her left hand.

“I’mfine,” she said. “Why do you ask?” He shrugged.

“Youjust look like you’re deep in thought, is all.” It was around that time thatSilas turned around to look at them. When he saw that Olrick and Elise were talkingwith each other and walking next to each other, he smirked and began makingkissing noises.

Olrick’sface turned bright red as Elise’s cheeks began to burn. “Th-that’s not how itis! We’re just friends.” Silas laughed at Olrick’s attempt to back track.

“Uh-huh,sure,” he said, a wide grin on his face. “That’s how it always starts. Then,you start holding hands, kissing, getting pissed off your asses, and before youknow it, you’re married with kids and an extra twenty pounds to lug around,wondering where the hell your life went.” Silas looked back at the road aheadof him. “Believe me, Olrick, love is a slippery slope; right Eza?”

“Itwas very entertaining to hear you give love advice, Silas,” Eza said, her voiceits usual, monotone self. “The fact that you’re asking me about it is justpathetic.”

As the two of themlaunched into a sibling-like debate, Polain looked over at her, looking evenmore mortified than Olrick did.

“I’mterribly sorry about those two, miss,” he said. He glared at Silas, who was toobusy informing Eza that he was, in fact, quite the ladies man back home tonotice. “I’m afraid that Commander Silas is very quick to forget his courtesiesand the fact that he’s no longer a child.” He looked back at her, his facesoftened. “He didn’t offend you, did he?”

Eliseshook her head. “No, not at all.” Polain relaxed and looked forward again.

Aseveryone began to quiet down, Elise began to look around at the woods thatsurrounded them. The day turned out to be bright and sunny, with many of theclouds that had covered the skies the previous night. The dark brown trees weretall and thin, with thick, green leaves that turned the sun a bright green. Infact, all the foliage around them were various shades of green, with theexception of a few flowers that were beginning to bloom in hues of purple,white, and other vibrant colors. It was beautiful enough that Elise evenmanaged to forget about how the wet, muddy road snatched at her feet, soaked herold, worn shoes, and gave the air an earthy smell. Everything was just sobeautiful; Elise couldn’t quite fathom how such beauty could exist just downthe road from something so ugly.

Aftera few hours of walking, Polain announced that it was time for a break forlunch. Everyone sat down on the road, looking for a spot that was less muddythan the rest of the road, pulled out their rations, and began eating.

Armyrations, as Elise learned that day, were even simpler than the food peasantslike herself ate. They consisted of items that wouldn’t need to be cooked:crackers hard enough that they had to soak them in water before they could eatthem (she was fairly certain that Silas called it hard tack), salted meats,some nuts; most of it was quite bland, but she didn’t complain, and Silas, Ezaand Olrick certainly didn’t; in fact, they almost seemed excited, saying thatthere weren’t even any maggots in the hard tack, an event that was unheard of.

Aseveryone ate, Elise couldn’t help but notice that Olrick seemed to be in pain.He kept rubbing the shoulder he’d dislocated in Thaos, wincing when he did.

“Isyour shoulder doing okay?” Elise asked as he began rubbing his shoulder again.He nodded.

“Justa little sore, is all,” Olrick said. “I don’t suppose that you have anything tohelp that, do you?” Elise opened her pack and pulled out a small pouch; aparting gift from Doc. Inside it were small, green leaves: Cocca leaves, astandard pain killer that, according to Doc, every doctor worth their salt,carried with them wherever they went. She took a few leaves out of the pouchand handed them to him.

“Thanks.”Olrick popped the leaves into his mouth and began chewing on the leaves.

WithOlrick’s shoulder taken care of, Elise looked around at everyone else. Anypains that they were feeling seemed normal enough: Polain seemed to be the onlyone in any pains, and his seemed to be foot related, something that sheexpected after a few hours of walking.

That certainly wasn’twhat was making her concerned: somehow, Eza and Kael ended up sitting next toeach other, and the tension between them was palpable. She looked tense, as ifwaiting for Kael to pull out his sword and try and hack them all up, while hekept adjusting himself and avoided looking at her, obviously uncomfortable.While Silas seemed oblivious to it, Elise could tell that Polain and Olricknoticed that the two were a powder keg, one that was ready to blow with asingle spark.

Thatspark came in the form of hard tack.

Whileeveryone else was soaking their hard tack in water and choking it down, Kaelwas setting his aside, seemingly avoiding eating them. That did not sit wellwith Eza.

“What’sthe matter with your hard tack?” she asked, her voice ice cold. Kael looked upfrom his jerky, but didn’t say anything. “Is it below you to eat like some sortof commoner?”

“CommanderEza, I would appreciate it if you didn’t speak to him like that,” Polain said.

“It’salright, General,” Kael said. He looked over at Eza, who was giving him an ice-coldstare, again. “I guess I’m just not sure what to do with it, is all; we neverhad anything like this in the Gisken army.” His attempt to diffuse thesituation didn’t quite work. In fact, his courtesy in answering her questionmay have actually made things worse.

“Spareme your courtesies, Gisken,” she snapped. “I know how your army rations areoh-so-fancy; you guys just love flaunting them in front of us.”

While Kael got aconfused look on his face, Polain bit his lip as his face darkened, whileOlrick and Silas glanced over at each other, a look of understanding on theirfaces. It seemed that everyone but Kael and Elise knew what Eza was talkingabout.

Polainset his rations down on his pack, which was lying on the road in front of him,and stood up. “Commander Eza, may I speak to you in private?” Without a word,Eza set her food down, stood up, and followed Polain farther down the road andout of earshot, fuming mad.

“Whatis it about me that she doesn’t like?” Kael asked to no one in particular.Silas began to scratch the back of his head like a dog with fleas.

“You’rea Gisken, for starters,” he said. “You also happened to be a soldier; to her,you might as well be the devil in man’s clothing with that combination.” Kaellooked down at the road as he bit into his jerky, again.

“Ididn’t know that you Caithians felt so strongly about us,” he said.

“She’sKurzhian.” Kael turned red with embarrassment, then looked back down at hisfood.

“Deargods,” he said quietly. “No wonder she hates me.” Silas snorted, then swiggedwater from his canteen.

“Inall honesty, I’m surprised that she didn’t kill you when she first found you.”