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

After walking along the main road forthree days, sleeping in village inns and living off of hard tack and jerky,they finally made it to Semata. The large, city wall became visible after anentire day of walking down the dusty road, past fields and sweet-smellingorchards with budding white flowers. It all seemed endless, until, as theyapproached the Matisse Mountains, the towering walls of Semata began to riseover the landscape from their 1,000 year old spot.

“Oh,thank the gods!” Silas groaned loudly when they saw the city walls. “I hate thewalk here so much.”

“Weknow,” Eza said, rolling her eyes. “If I had a dram for every time you’vementioned it, I’d be richer than Queen Marion.”

Soon, the two of themfound themselves in yet another sibling-like debate again, but Elise hardlynoticed; she was too amazed by the fact that she was so close to Semata, a citythat, after the many stories she’d heard about it, had become legendary in hermind. Never, in her wildest dreams, had she thought that she would be there.

“What’sit like in Semata?” she asked. Olrick shrugged.

“It’spretty big,” he said. “I would try and stay away from the docks, though; theysmell like rotting fish more than I care to mention.”

“Actually,the entire city smells like rotten fish,” Silas butted in. “It’s that bit bythe western wall you want to avoid, unless you want to get robbed, or drunk offyour ass.” Olrick, Eza and Polain nodded in agreement.

“Ihappen to agree with Commander Silas,” Polain said. “The western wall isinhabited only by thieves and cut throats; avoid going there at all costs.”Elise nodded, but the revelation about the western wall did nothing to dim herspirits. Knowing that the city was full of danger didn’t make her less excitedto go to Semata. What sort of adventures would she have there? What kind ofpeople would she see there? It was with that line of thought that sheapproached the city, giddier than she’d ever been in her life.

Asthey got closer and closer to the city, Elise gained a greater appreciation ofjust how large the city was. The walls were massive, so tall that they seemedto touch the heavens and so long that they seemed to stretch on forever. To gowith the mighty stone wall, there was a massive wooden door, in front of whichstood soldiers clad in leather breastplates, leg guards, and swords strapped totheir hips. They stopped everyone who tried to enter the city, inspecting theirbags and carts to make sure they weren’t trying to take in anything illegal.Guards also walked along the top of the wall, searching the horizon for anydanger.

However,when they approached the gate, the guards didn’t search them. The second theysaw Polain, they saluted.

“G-generalPolain, sir,” they said. Polain saluted back. “Are you travelling alone,today?”

Polainmotioned at them. “These people are my guests.” He pulled his bag from his backand held it out to the guards. They looked at him, confused.

“Wedon’t need to search your bag, sir,” one of them said. “We know that you won’thave anything illegal on you.”

“Thelaw has no exceptions, gentlemen,” Polain said simply. “I know that you mayhave some reservations about searching me, but I ask that you humor me by doingthis.” The guards looked at each other, unsure of what to do; it seemed that asituation like that one was unheard of. Then, one of them took his bag andbegan going through it, while the other one took Elise’s.

Afterthe guards had finished going through everyone’s bags, they saluted again.

“Welcomeback to Semata, sir.” With their packs slung back over their shoulders, thegroup passed through Semata’s main gate.

ToElise’s amazement, the city seemed to be even bigger than she’d imagined. Largebuildings, as well as more people than she'd seen in her entire life,surrounded them. The sights, the sounds, the smells, they were all sooverwhelming, she found herself stopping to gawk at everything that surroundedher.

“Itake it that you’ve never been here, before.” Olrick’s voice brought her out ofher daze. She nodded.

“I’venever been this far from home, before,” Elise breathed. She and Olrick began towalk together along the cobblestone streets, lagging slightly behind the restof the group.

“Iknow how you feel,” Olrick said. “I remember when I first came here, I got lostrunning errands for my father every day for the first week or so. You’ll getused to it, I promise.” For a few seconds, Elise found that she didn’t believewhat he said; how could you get used to a place as big as this?

“Olrick,you know where the army medical school is, right?” Polain asked. Olrick nodded.

“Ineed you to show her where it is,” he said. “We’ll be at the internationaldistrict; meet us at the tea shop by that bath house when you’re done.” Olricknodded and the group split up, Olrick and Elise continuing northward whilePolain, Silas, Eza and Kael went down a side street, where some sort of marketwas set up.

“Howlong have you lived here?” Elise asked as they continued down the street.Olrick shrugged.

“Idon’t know,” he said. “Fourteen years, I think; I was six when we moved here.”

“Youweren’t born here?” she asked. He shook his head.

“Iwas born in Lake Town,” he said. “King Thias asked us to come here after hisblacksmith died, since my father was the best one he knew after him.” For a fewminutes, they walked in silence as they took in their surroundings. Most peopledidn’t seem to notice them, but the few of them that did gave them angry glaresas they past. While Elise found herself extremely uncomfortable, Olrick didn’teven seem to notice.

“Whyare people looking at us like that?” she asked quietly.

“They’relooking at me,” Olrick said without even looking at the people’s glares.“Watchmen aren’t really welcomed here; they think of us as cowards.” Cowards?The thought made her sick. Olrick was one of the bravest people she’d ever met;how could people see him as a coward?

Asthey continued to walk, Elise began to see a large wall in the distance, onewithin the city walls. Behind it, she saw tall turrets and towers, ones whoseheight rivaled even the city wall, rising up to touch the sky. Green vinescrawled their way up a few of them, pale, violet flowers blooming on them andturning the dull, gray stone into something beautiful.

“That’sCastle Matisse,” Olrick said, motioning towards the building. Castle Matisse?That was where the royalty of Caitha lived. It was certainly worthy of royalty.

Hepointed to another building, one that sat next to the castle wall. Though itcertainly wasn’t quite as grand as the castle, it was bigger than most of thebuildings around it and had its own, smaller wall surrounding it. “And that’sthe army medical core building. You’ll be staying there while you’re gettingmore formally trained.”

Asthey approached the building, Elise saw that, like at Semata’s main gate, therewas a man standing outside the building’s gate; however, he wasn’t dressed forwar. He was dressed simply in a pair of trousers and a light gray tunic withred bands on both forearms, signifying that he was an army medic. He waved atthem when he saw them walking towards him.

“Whatcan I do for you two?” he asked. Olrick put a hand on her shoulder.

“Youguys are still looking for recruits, right?” The man looked over at Elise. Ifshe hadn’t known better, she would have thought that he was on the verge oftears.

“Oh,thank the gods!” The man rushed over to her and shook her hand vigorously.“We’re so desperate for recruits, it’s a miracle we’re still running. Do youhave any medical training, already?”

“Alittle,” she said.

“Shepatched me up,” Olrick said. The man looked him over, and his smile broadened.

“Youreally are an answer to our prayers,”he said. He began to lead her through the gate and into a small courtyard,while Olrick stayed at the gate. “I’ll show you to your room; then, we candiscuss your pay and whatnot.” He led her through the courtyard and into thebuilding. The whole time, as he spoke about what she would be doing in the nextfew weeks, she couldn’t help but wonder what she’d gotten herself into.

Theinternational district of Semata was a strange area, a haphazard mix of allsorts of nationalities. As they walked to Ilsa’s home, Polain, Eza, Silas andKael walked by Abunaki, Chastians, Giskens, Vercourians, Jotiese, Espish, andeven the rare Kuzhian. They saw Jotiese bathhouses, Vercourian wine cellars,Gisken beer houses, and other foreign oddities all intermingled with eachother. While Polain, Eza and Silas were quite used to the place (all of them,at one point or another, had lived there,) it became apparent that Kael hadnever seen anything like it in his life. He gawked at everything: every signwritten in a foreign language, every person still dressed in the clothing oftheir homeland; it served to remind Polain of how little experience Kael hadwith foreigners, who were kicked out of Gishk after Raul took over.

“What’swrong, kid?” Commander Silas asked as they walked through a Jotiese market,filled with all sorts of knick-knacks. “They don’t have anything like this inGishk?” Kael slowly shook his head as he continued to look around.

“Allforeigners were expelled after Raul took over,” he said.

“Iwould hurry up and get used to it,” Commander Eza said as she scanned thecrowds. They were giving them – specifically Kael - weird looks as they past. Afew, likely members of one of the many crime syndicates in the internationaldistrict, were looking angry, ready to beat the shit out of them the second theythought he would start causing trouble for them. “Unless you want to make somenew friends, of course.”

Polainfound himself resting his hand on the hilt of his sword. Commander Eza wasright. The fact that there were three members of the military in these people’spresence was bad enough; if Kael didn’t stop looking at everything with suchinterest, a fight was going to break out, and the crime syndicates there had noqualms about killing innocent civilians if they happen to be in the way.

Afterthat experience in the market, they stuck to the main streets, even though itmeant that it took a lot longer to reach Ilsa’s home. Luckily, after awhile,Kael seemed to get used to things; in fact, when a few Abunaki men dressed inceremonial garb walked by, Kael didn’t even bat at eye.

Afterabout a half an hour of wandering through the crowded streets, they reachedtheir destination: a small building, just off the main road of the main road inthe district. It wasn’t a very nice building – a lot of the paint on the woodenexterior was chipping off and every metal surface was rusting – but it wascertainly better than a lot of the buildings in that area; most weren’t muchbetter than tall huts.

“Wholives here?” Kael asked as Polain knocked on the door. They could hearfootsteps from the other side of the door, lightly padding across the woodenfloor towards them.

“You’reabout to replace out,” Polain said. Before Silas could tell him to “shove hiscryptic crap up his ass”, the door creaked open and a young woman – perhapstwenty or twenty one years old - poked her head out of the door. She had darkbrown hair, tied behind her head in a tail, brown, weary eyes, and pale, sicklylooking skin. It must have been Ilsa’s daughter, though Polain didn’t know hername; he’d known that she had a daughter, but she never talked about her.

“IsIlsa here?” Polain asked. The girl nodded and opened the door more, allowingthem to enter.

Theroom they found themselves in was just as Polain remembered. It was dark,almost pitch black with the exception of a few, dim candles on the simpletable. A wardrobe filled with dishes sat by a rickety table and some chairs,while a hearth with an empty cauldron next to it was on the other side of theroom. The one window the main level had was dirty and grimy, just like everyother surface, though it wasn’t for lack of trying; a sickly-looking broom waspropped up in a corner, next to a water bucket and an old, frayed mop. Floorpillows sat in a circle on a hand woven floor rug, to which the girl directedthem.

“Mymother is upstairs,” the girl said. “I think she’s taking a nap right now, soit may take awhile.” Polain nodded.

“Please,take your time,” he said. “We’re in no hurry.” Ilsa’s daughter nodded and madeher way up the creaky stairs.

“Onceagain, who’s Ilsa?” Kael asked once Ilsa’s daughter was out of earshot. Silasnodded in agreement.

“Andif you start acting like some wise sage and give us some stupidly crypticanswer, I swear on all that’s holy, I’ll-“ Polain held his hand up, cutting himoff before he could finish his sentence.

“Yes,Silas, I know exactly what you’ll do if I don’t give you the answer you want,”he said. “Ilsa’s a refugee, back from when they were forcing foreigners out of Gishkunder threat of death.”

“Whereis she really from?” Polain shrugged.

“Shenever told me,” he said. “She preferred to keep the details of her life beforeshe came here on a need-to-know basis, and I guess she never thought I neededto know.” Kael looked at him, confused.

“Andyou never asked about it?” he asked.

“Ofcourse not,” Polain said. “What a person shares about their private life istheir business; it was not my place to ask.” Kael still looked confused, butbefore he could ask any more questions, the girl came back down the stairs, hermother in tow.

Polainstood up. She was just as he remembered, albeit, eleven years older. Her hairwas shot through with gray and fell down her back, her brown eyes were tired, andshe seemed to sag, as if her very clothes weighed her down. Ilsa had been thisway since she learned about the fate of the royal family, what Raul had done tothem. Perhaps that visit would bring her some hope again, as well as give somesort of clue as to who Kael really was.

“Whatare you doing here, Polain?” she asked quietly. She scanned Silas, Eza, andKael’s faces, the look on her face changing into one of disgust, and her gripon the stairs grew tighter. “And why have you brought them here?”

“We’rehere because I need your help,” he said. He looked back at Kael. “Can you standup, please?” He nodded and slowly stood up.

“Ithought that you might appreciate seeing someone from home.” Ilsa took one lookat him, and her face lit up in recognition. Tears began to well up in her eyes,but Kael seemed confused as to what was going on.

“P-PrinceKael?” Ilsa slowly approached Kael and held her hand out to him, as if she wereseeing a ghost. Then, she reached out and hugged him tightly as tears began tostream down her face.

“Thankthe gods, you’re back!” She whispered. Kael slowly wrapped his arms around him,unsure if what he was doing was appropriate for the situation; it seemed thatyears of being tutored in etiquette hadn’t prepared him for a situation likethis.

“I’mafraid that I’m not sure who you are,” he finally said after she’d left hisawkward embrace. Ilsa wiped her eyes with her hand. Her cheeks had turned redand glossy from crying.

“Isuppose you wouldn’t remember me, your grace,” she said, performing a quickcurtsy. “I was a nursemaid in your father’s house. I had to leave when you wereyoung.” Ilsa turned to Polain, shock in her eyes.

“Howdid you replace him?” she asked. “Has he been here all along?”

“Hefound us, actually,” Polain said. “I’m not sure where he’s been all this time,but it seems that he decided it was time to come back.” He, Kael and Ilsa allsat down on the floor pillows and everybody talked, as if they were all oldfriends. Through the happy conversations – most of which had to do with whatKael’s return could mean for the war – a thought sat in the back of his mindlike an itch waiting to be scratched. Before Raul had killed the royal family,Princess Marion and Kael were to be married when they reached the proper age.After the massacre, that deal had been made void, as Kael was supposed to bedead. It seemed that their marriage would now not only be possible, butmandatory; he was sure that King Thias and King Alberich would still want it togo on.

Buthow was he supposed to tell them?