The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Thirty-Six

Something was wrong.

Thatmuch was obvious from the second Olrick saw a Gisken in old, worn clothes comeinto the party. He stood out like a sore thumb among the other guests, all ofwhom were dressed in fine silks and velvets; even the few Gisken soldiers whowere there were dressed in formal suits, which stood to confirm that he wasn’tat the ball to enjoy himself. Seeing him there, trying to get in between Liraand Tai Ming and Raul made a pit grow in his stomach, one that he couldn’t seemto get rid of.

“Something’shappened,” Olrick said as he stared at the Gisken.

Ezalooked up from her meal and looked at the Gisken, who was now whisperingsomething interesting in General Raul’s ear, judging by the look on his face.She frowned when she saw the man in black; it seemed that she didn’t trust hismotivation in being there, either.

“Normally,I would dismiss him as a messenger, but it isn’t like the Giskens to use an officerfor such a task,” she said. She began to look around. “Where’s Elise? Did sheleave, already?”

“Sheleft the second we saw Raul come in,” Olrick said. “She should be back anysecond, now.”

Olrick’sstomach twisted into knots. He didn’t know how or why, but he just knew thatElise was the reason the Gisken had come; they’d caught her.

Hestood up from his seat and began walking towards the Gisken. “I’ll be rightback-“

Ezagrabbed his arm without even looking up from her mutton. “Hold it.”

Holdit?!

“What do you mean,hold it?” Olrick snapped, turning to face her. “As far as we know, they’retrying to get information out of her as we speak, and you expect me to sit hereand pretend like nothing’s happening? Gods, Eza, it’s as if you don’t give a damnabout what happens to her, or something!”

“Iexpect you to think before you act,”Eza said. “As far as you know, that Gisken’s there to tell him about somebattle we don’t know about. We can’t just go running around, acting like gutfeelings are just as accurate as detailed reports from the field. It’s a damnedgood way to get yourself killed.”

Ezawas right; he knew it, she knew it. But… how could he just stand there whenElise could be in danger? He’d promised Milo that he’d protect his family; he couldn’tjust back out of that, now, just as it was really starting to matter.

Olrickshrugged Eza’s hand off of him. “I’m sorry, Eza.” He walked over to the Gisken,who was making his way out of the ball after saying something to Raul. Whateverhe’d said, it had peaked Raul’s interest quite a lot; he was now walking overto Polain, ignoring Lira and Tai Ming.

“Whereis she?” Olrick growled once they were out of the main hall. His voice echoedloudly in the room, enough that it made his voice more of a thundering boomthan he’d intended it to be. Not that he gave a damn.

Whenthe Gisken turned around, Olrick’s blood ran ice cold. It was Bram.

“Why,if it isn’t Commander Olrick?” Bram said, folding his arms. His eyes almostseemed to smile with glee, like a little boy receiving a toy sword. “I mustsay, you’re looking much better, now that you don’t have that nasty black eye.I’m happy that it healed up so nicely.”

“Younever answered my question,” Olrick said. He could feel his fists beginning toshake in anger. “Tell me where she is!” Bram began to chuckle as he slowlywalked towards him, his hands shoved in his pockets.

“Ah,you mean that little whelp, Elise?” he asked. “Well, she’s been wondering thesame thing about you; I think she may be under the impression that you’re goingto come and rescue her like some knight in shining armor. I guess it’s neveroccurred to her that those stories about Watchmen being spineless cowards aretrue.”

Olrickgrabbed the hilt of his sword, but he managed to keep himself from drawing. Asmuch as he wanted to, he couldn’t just kill the turncoat; as far as he knew, hewas the only person who knew where Elise was. “Damn it, Bram, this isn’t agame!” Bram simply laughed, again.

“Oh,but it is a game,” he said. “Don’t you see? This entire war is a game, and allof us – you, me, Elise – are all pawns. The difference between me and you isthat I’ve accepted that, while you’re all still trying to manipulate thepieces, yourself.” Bram turned around and began to walk away.

“Bythe way,” he said, stopping and looking over his shoulder at him. “Elise isawaiting the judgment of General Raul. She’ll probably end up in the gallowswithin a few days.” He turned so that only one side of his body faced him.“It’s a crying shame, too; it’s such a waste of beauty.” He turned his back toOlrick and began walking away from him, again.

Olrickslowly began to draw his sword, his hand shaking. Damned monster! Every part ofhim wanted to kill him, even the part that wanted to help Elise; it would bebest for everybody – including her – if he were to die right then. “Youtraitorous bastard, I’ll-“

“CommanderOlrick!” When Olrick turned around, he saw that General Polain was standingthere, with Eza, Silas, and Kylar behind him. Never, before, had he seen thegeneral look so pissed: for the first time, he allowed his anger to show on hisface. “I would like a word with you, please.”

Hetook a deep breath as he put his sword back in its sheathe. He had to calmdown; getting angry wasn’t going to help Elise. “Yes, sir.” Polain led them toone of the side rooms. It looked to be one of the small, private dining rooms,where they would entertain their more prominent guests with private dinners.

“Shutthat door,” Polain ordered quietly as Olrick walked in. He shut the door behindhim. For a few seconds, nobody spoke as Polain looked into all of their faces,trying to figure out exactly what he was going to say to them.

“Whatwere you thinking?!” he asked.

“Wewere thinking that it would be a good idea to do our damned jobs,” Silas said.

“Soyou spied on General Raul while he was here for a peace conference?” Polainsnapped. “Yoi kamigami, Silas, do youhave an ounce of political tact in you?” He began pacing, running a handthrough his hair. “Thanks to that little scheme of yours, all hope of peace isgone; General Raul has informed me that the only sort of peace he’ll accept,now, is unconditional surrender after he burns Semata to the ground.” Nobodyresponded to that. Now, Olrick could see that Eza was fuming mad, as well. Hecouldn’t even imagine how she felt about all this, seeing her adoptive homelandfall to the same armies that took her birthplace from her.

“So,the fact that we’ve managed to save the asses of thousands of civilians isn’tworth it to you?” Kylar asked. “Like it or not, Polain, this plan of ours hasbeen saving lives.”

“Iguess you haven’t heard the news about the eastern invasion force, then,”Polain asked. “That last letter you stole from Raul’s room was a trap; we lostan entire army to not only a Jotiese army, but a Gisken one and a force ofMirinian mercenaries. They’ve managed to take everything as far as Bimin.”Silas cursed. Bimin was just a day’s march from Semata, without a thing butfarmland between them.

However, that factwasn’t what was twisting Olrick’s stomach into knots. He’d just gottenthousands of men killed, and for what? So he could delay the end of all he’dever known by a few weeks? He felt sick to his stomach.

“Now,General Raul wants all of your heads on a platter, along with that of that poorserving girl you got wrapped up in this mess,” Polain said. “Believe me, if itweren’t for the fact that you four are the only commanders that I know aren’tgoing to do everything they can to preserve what they have when the Giskenscome to kill us all, I’d happily oblige.”

“They’vekilled Elise?” Olrick asked, his heart sinking. That couldn’t be true; shecouldn’t be dead, not yet!

“No,not yet,” Polain said. “He’ll have her executed once they get back to theircamp tomorrow.” He looked around at everyone else. “I hope you’re all happy;you’ve gotten an innocent girl killed over this, not to mention all the poorsouls out east.” He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

“Wearen’t going to let her die,” Olrick said stubbornly once he was gone.

“No,we aren’t.” Eza opened the door and looked around, making sure nobody wasthere, and shut the door behind her. “One of us needs to go in and get her,before they ride off with her in chains. Since the idea to get someone on theinside was my idea, I’ll go.” She picked up her staff and turned to leave, butSilas wouldn’t let her: he stood in front of the doorway, with his arms foldedover his chest.

“Likehell you are,” he said. “If the Giskens catch you, Raul will ship you back toKurzh to die, and everything Mitrius ever did for you would have been fornothing; is that what you want?” Ezadidn’t say anything; she just stared up at him, anger burning in her eyes. Itseemed that she knew he was right.

“I’llgo,” Olrick said. Silas and Eza looked over at him.

“Alright,”Silas said. “Be quick about it, and try not to do anything stupid.” He steppedout of the way, letting Olrick walk out of the room-

-Andright into a very distraught Finn.

“Isit true?” Finn’s face was flushed, and the look on his face reminded Olrick ofa child who couldn’t replace his mother. “Is Elise really a spy for you guys?”

Olricksighed, running a hand through his hair. In his anger, he’d completelyforgotten about the poor Gisken.

“Yes,”he finally said. Finn looked to the side and began rubbing the back of hisneck. He looked like he was on the brink of tears, now.

“So,everything she ever told me was a lie?” he asked. He rubbed his eye as heturned around to walk away. “Gods, how could I have been so blind?”

“Notall of it was a lie,” Olrick said, grabbing him by the shoulder. Finn lookedback at him, a look of disbelief on his face. “Believe me, she’s just assmitten with you as you are with her.”

“Howcould you possibly know that?” he asked.

“Sheseemed genuine when she told us about her feelings for you,” Olrick said.“Believe me, it isn’t in her to lie about things like that, especially to herfriends.” For a few seconds, neither of them spoke; poor Finn didn’t look likehe was in the mood to say all that much.

“You’regoing to go help her, aren’t you?” he finally asked. Olrick nodded; he somehowdoubted that he would go and tell Raul about his plans.

“Youwant to join?” to his surprise, he began to shake his head.

“Ican’t,” he said. “They’ll kill my family and ship me off to Kurzh if I dosomething treasonous like that.” Olrick nodded in understanding.

“Doyou know where she is?” he asked.

“I-Ithink she’s in General Raul’s room,” he said. “He just went up to start herinterrogation.” He nodded and began running down the hall, praying that hewouldn’t be too late.