The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Twenty-Three

Elise stared at the page, watching thetip of her quill etch the shapes of different letters. She’d spent three daysworking on nothing but her reading and her writing, and it was really startingto pay off. She’d been able to read a passage from one of the massive volumesin the library (it was one about the origins of the royal family), thuscompleting her reading exam, and she then found herself completing her writingexam by writing journal entries; she would have to right three with minimal errorsin order to become a private in the medical core.

Mathisnodded as he examined the journal entry. “Excellent; if you keep writing likethis, you’ll be a full member by the end of the week.

Elisefound pride swelling in her chest. It excited her, to know that she would soonbe able to help in the war.

Beforeshe could respond, there was a quiet knock at the door.

“Comein.” The door to the study opened and, to her surprise, Olrick stepped throughthe door. Elise was glad to see that he no longer needed a sling to support hisshoulder and he was walking with a lot more strength than he had, before.

Mathisstood up when he saw him, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Why, CommanderOlrick; to what do we owe the pleasure?”

Olrickbegan to rub the back of his neck. “You know that little piece of informationwe got at the war meeting?” Mathis got tense, his face taking on a look ofworry.

“Whatabout it?” Mathis asked the question hesitantly, as if he weren’t sure if hewanted the answer or not.

“We’vecome up with a solution,” Olrick said. Mathis looked down at Elise, and hisface softened.

“Wouldyou excuse us for a moment, please?” he asked. She nodded as she stood up.

“Actually,Elise should probably stay,” Olrick said. “She’s part of it.” Elise foundherself wrapping her arms around herself, suddenly uncomfortable. She trustedOlrick with her life, but she had a very bad feeling about this.

Shegot the impression that Mathis, too, wasn’t so sure about what Olrick was aboutto say. His brows were furrowed and his arms were folded over his chest.

“Does General Polainknow about this?” he asked. Olrick began to rub the back of his neck and lookedto the side.

“Probablynot,” he admitted. He looked back at them. “Silas was worried that he’d say noif we gave him the chance to.”

Mathissighed as he shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “One of thesedays, he’s going to have you all lashed for going over his head like this.” Helooked back up at Olrick. “What genius plan has the commander come up with,now?”

“Well,we kind of need her to figure out what Raul wants,” he said. Mathis bit hisbottom lip.

“So,you need her as a spy?” he asked. Olrick nodded.

Athousand objections rose in Elise’s mind as a pit began to grow in her stomach.She remembered General Raul all too well from when she met him back in Thaos:his massive, tree-like build, his cold, calculating eye, his eerily calm voiceand demeanor, the large sword on his back, possibly the same one that hadkilled Milo; she couldn’t go back to that, no matter how much her countryneeded her to.

Eliselooked down at her feet as she began to rub her arm. “I-I’m sorry, Olrick. Ican’t go back to Thaos.”

“Andyou won’t have to,” Olrick said. “Raul’s coming to us; a messenger came a fewdays ago to tell us. He’s supposedly coming to negotiate peace.”

Elisefelt as though she’d been punched in the gut. For the past few days, she’d beenconvinced that she’d managed to escape the war for a month or so; knowing thatGeneral Raul – the very cause of all the pain and devastation she’d beensubjected to for weeks – would be coming to her supposed safe haven scared her.

“Deargods.” She sat back down, staring at the far wall.

“Olrick,this is insane,” Mathis said. “If Raul is actually here to negotiate and hereplaces out about this, you could ruin any chance we might have of getting apeaceful end to all this.”

“Youand I both know that there is no peaceful solution to this,” Olrick said. “Ifthis plan ends up working, the solution might end up in our favor.” The twowere silent for a few seconds, then Mathis sighed.

“Youhave a minute to convince me that this won’t end horribly wrong, or you cansave yourself the trouble and replace someone else to do Silas’ work for him,” hesaid. Olrick nodded.

“Elisewill come to the castle before General Raul to pose as a new maidservant,” hesaid. “This will give her a way to eavesdrop on him, maybe even take somethingfrom his room while he’s gone. If he ends up catching her, she can use the factthat she’s new to the castle as a reason why she stumbled into his room. She’sinnocent enough that he might believe her.”

“Andwhy wouldn’t the current castle staff work, or a Watchman or a Rook?” Mathisasked. “Are you presuming that they can’t act like a new servant?”

“I’msure they can, but it’ll be much to hard to get that confident little walk oftheirs knocked out of their head in time,” Olrick said. “Besides, Watchmen andRooks are trained to act as if they belong in a certain situation, not to stickout like a sore thumb; Raul wouldn’t believe they’d gotten lost in the castlefor a second.” Mathis raised an eyebrow.

“Confidentlittle walk of theirs?” he asked.

“Whatif General Raul replaces me out?” Elise asked. The boys looked over at her; itseemed that they’d managed to forget that she was in the room with them. “He’llkill me, or worse.”

“Hewon’t replace you out,” Olrick said confidently. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t, Ipromise.” His confidence didn’t do much to calm her fears.

“Safetyaside, how is she supposed to continue her training?” Mathis said. “She’snearly a private; it would be a shame to stop, now.”

“Whereis she at?” Olrick asked.

“She’llbe done with her written exams in a few days,” Mathis said. “She has a bow anda sword, as you already know, but she has yet to begin training in either one.”

“Thenthe solution is really quite simple,” Olrick said. “We can do her weaponstraining.”

“Andhow will you do that without Raul noticing?” Mathis countered. “I might not bean expert in Gisken culture, but I think he’ll replace it really strange if hesees you training a maidservant in swordsmanship and archery.” Olrick beganrubbing the back of his neck as he tried to think of a solution.

Finally,he sighed, defeated. “I don’t know. We can figure something out, though.”

Mathisclosed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Olrick, but I don’t feelcomfortable sending Elise into a possible death sentence. You’ll have to replacesomeone else to do this.” Olrick almost seemed to deflate when he heard it, buthe didn’t argue with him.

Eliselooked down at her feet and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. “I’ll doit.”

Toher surprise, Mathis and Olrick looked over at her; she hadn’t thought thatshe’d said it loud enough for them to hear.

“Areyou sure, Elise?” Mathis asked. “If you feel uncomfortable doing this, don’tfeel obligated to; I’m sure that they can replace someone else in time for Raul’sarrival.”

Eliseshook her head as she tucked a stray chunk of hair behind her ear. “I-I’msure.” Mathis didn’t seem entirelyconvinced by her answer, but he didn’t argue, thank the gods; if he had, shedidn’t think that her resolve would hold out enough to say she was sure, again.

“Well,I guess there isn’t much I can do if you agree with this, too,” he said. “We’llfinish up with your writing exams, then we’ll send you off to the castle.”

Thetavern Olrick, Eza and Silas found themselves in after Marion and Kael had goneto sleep wasn’t the kind of place Olrick would normally go to. It was by thewest wall, where the black market and most of Semata’s criminal element waslocated. That bar was where the worst of it was, too: in fact, there was a sortof betting pool going on between the cut throats there on organized fistfights, in which almost all the patrons participated in. It definitely wasn’tan ideal situation, but it was the only place they could come up with wherethey knew Polain – or anyone else - wouldn’t walk in on them.

“Howdid you two replace this place?” Olrick asked, trying to keep his eyes on Silas.Even so, he found himself stealing quick glances at the criminals around them.They glared at him and Silas, recognizing them not only as members of themilitary, but as strangers, as well. However, they hardly gave Eza a secondglance.

“Inall honesty, I had no clue that this place existed until a few hours ago,” hesaid. He nodded over to Eza, who was sitting with her legs propped up on thetable, a tankard filled with ale in hand. “She’s the regular, if you can’ttell, already.”

“Whydo you come here so often?” Olrick asked. “I’d think that you prefer a placewith a more potent ale, like one of those places up by the northern wall.”

Before Eza could respond,one of the men in charge of the betting pool walked up to her and whisperedsomething in her ear. She smirked, making alarm bells ring in Olrick’s head; asmile from Eza was hardly ever a good sign.

“You’re about to replaceout.” She said. With that, she stood up, put her tankard down on the table, andtook off her cloak.

Olrick and Silaslooked over at each other, unsure if they should stop her from doing whateverit was she was planning, then back at Eza. She’d walked to the makeshift ring,along with a brute of a man, who was gnashing tobacco to a green pulp betweenrotting teeth.

The man laughed whenhe saw who his opponent was. “Is this some sort of joke? I feel a bitconflicted about beating up a child.” Some of the men in the tavern chuckled.

“I wouldn’t,” Ezasaid. “Having a woman and a child fight each other isn’t as frowned upon as youthink.” The confident smirk on the man’s face went away, replaced with an angrysneer.

He spat the tobaccoout at Eza’s feet and raised his fists. “Don’t expect me to go easy on you,child.”

Eza took her handsout of her pockets, but didn’t raise her fists. “Likewise, princess.”

That was the laststraw for the man. He began swinging his fists wildly, aiming mostly for herhead.

He might as well havebeen trying to hit a ghost: Eza dodged every blow with ease, using his ownmomentum to throw him at the surrounding tables. The fight went on like thatfor about a minute, until Eza grew tired of toying with him.

From that point, shebegan a barrage of her own attacks. Knees, stomach, chest; she landed quick,hard jabs on every inch of the man’s body. Just as he would react to one punch,another would strike him. By the time she was done with him, the man was on theground, moaning in pain. Most of the patrons began cheering, even those wholost a significant amount of money because of the number she did on theirchampion. By the time Eza made it back to their table, she was a hundred or twodrams richer.

“Supplementing yourmilitary pension, are we?” Silas asked as Eza dumped her mass of coins on thetable.

She shrugged as shetook a swig from her tankard of ale. “Ten drams a week isn’t quite cutting itfor me. I like this tavern, but I sure as hell don’t want to live in this partof town.” Silas shook his head with a nervous chuckle.

“You greedy littleshit,” he said as Eza literally filled her pockets with money. He took a swigof ale, then slammed his tankard down on the table.

“Now, to business,”Silas said. “How have preparations for our little plan gone?”

“Polain’s set whichroom in the castle will be Raul’s,” Eza said. “I’ll see if I can’t get myself aroom by where he’ll be staying and get some spy holes installed, if therearen’t any, already.” Silas nodded.

“Speaking of spies,how did your meeting with your lady friend go, Olrick?” he asked. Olrick couldfeel his cheeks beginning to burn red.

“I-it’s not likethat!” Silas smirked.

“Sure, it isn’t,” hesaid. “Will she be joining us, or will she be staying out of this?” Olricksighed and took a sip of ale, the liquid scorching his throat.

“She’s in,” he said.

“Good,” Silas said.“Now, take a manly swig of ale.”

Olrick frowned,confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything,actually,” Silas said. “If you don’t have the cock on you to take a proper swigof ale, then how can I trust you to have the balls to defy your general? Now,take a manly swig of ale before I shove that tankard down your damned throat.”

Olrick looked over atEza. She nodded, a serious look on her face. “Do it.”

He sighed and swiggedsome ale-

Then coughed it up,right into the faces of Silas and Eza when his throat seemed to catch fire.

However, they didn’tseem to care; in fact, Silas began to laugh so hard, he couldn’t breathe.

Olrick could feel hischeeks beginning to burn red as Eza began wiping the ale off of herself.“S-sorry; I-I don’t think I’ve ever drank ale like that before.” Silas beganshaking his head as he tried to get enough air in him to talk.

“Ah, kid,” he said ashe wiped tears from his eyes. He smacked him on the back, hard. “You’re sodamned innocent, sometimes, you know that?” Olrick began to rub the back of hisneck.

“We should probablyget this cleaned up,” Eza said as she wiped the table down with her clothnapkin. “I don’t think they’d appreciate it if we were to leave this behind.”