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

Olrick was in deep trouble.

AsBlair dragged him away from the tavern, he began to realize just how muchtrouble he was in. The first time they’d caught him, the night Milo died, theyhadn’t take much stock in him, at least, not at first. They hadn’t known thatthey’d managed to arrest the person in charge of the Watchman corps of the Caithianarmy until that last night, when they reallybegan to interrogate him for information, but hadn’t added extra security by thetree they’d tied him down to in time to keep him from escaping.

However,they certainly wouldn’t make that mistake a second time. They knew who he was,they knew what he was capable of; there was a very small chance of him beingable to get out of this situation.

Aftera few minutes of walking through the occupied town, they reached a large, whitetent, just outside the town. Blair led him to it and walked inside.

Olrick nearly wet himself when he sawwho else was in the tent. Sitting down at a table with a map of Caitha spreadout in front of him was General Raul, the leader of the Gisken forces. He hadpale, gray hair that he always pulled back into a short tail, just as Olrickhad seen many Giskens do, blue eyes (at least one of them was; he had a bandagewrapped around his head that covered one of his eyes,) and pale skin. Despitethe fact that he was growing old, he still looked strong as an ox.

“GeneralRaul, sir.” Blair saluted him, raising a fist at a ninety-degree angle. Helooked up from the map at them and returned the salute. When he put his armdown, Blair did, as well.

“Isthis the Watchman who was giving you so much trouble, Lieutenant?” He asked. Hescoffed. “He’s little more than a child.” Blair’s grip on Olrick’s forearmtightened in anger, but he didn’t say anything.

“Keephim under lock and key somewhere with a guard this time,” General Raul said witha flippant wave of his hand as he looked down at the map again, seeminglyplanning their next attack. From what Olrick could tell, they were going toattack a small village east of Thaos. “We’ll send him off to Kurzh once ourships come to resupply us.”

So, that was to behis fate? He knew that that was likely what would happen to him – after all,that’s where they sent all of their prisoners – but the news still managed tohit him like a brick wall. It was a virtual death sentence; he only knew of oneperson who’d managed to make it out of that frozen hell alive, and she couldbarely talk about it without getting antsy.

“Whatdo you want us to do with the people that were hiding him, sir?” Blair asked.

“Whowas it?” General Raul asked.

“Anolder man and a girl,” Blair said. “They own the tavern here.” General Raulpaused as he thought about it.

“HasNalia gotten control of her little gift, yet?” he asked. Olrick bit his lip,praying that she had.

“No,sir,” Blair said.

“Theman can serve as someone for her to practice on,” General Raul said. “Perhapsthe Abunaki can replace a purpose for the girl.”

“Wait-“Olrick blurted out. General Raul looked up at him, surprised. He swallowed andbegan to try and keep the fear from registering on his face. As much as hehated to admit it, he was terrified of the aging general: after all, he’dpersonally brought about the deaths of thousands of men just like him.

“I’msorry; I didn’t quite catch that,” he said. Seeing that he couldn’t keep hismouth shut without revealing his fear, he sighed as he tried to gather histhoughts. What could he say to keep them from sending Elise and her fatheraway?

“Thegirl is the town’s doctor,” he finally managed to say. “You’d be wasting avaluable asset if you were to sell her to the Abunaki.” He hated having to talkabout Elise like that – after all, she was a person, not a pawn to be played –but he was afraid that if he didn’t refer to her as an asset, his words wouldfall on deaf ears.

“Adoctor, you say?” General Raul asked as he looked back down at his map and continuedplotting. “I suppose we’ll have to put her to the test, then.” He saidsomething to Blair in a strange language, one he didn’t think he’d ever heard,before. Olrick heard him unsheathe his sword.

Alump began to form in his throat. What were they going to do to him?

To his surprise, itwasn’t the sting of a blade that Olrick felt against his good shoulder.Instead, Blair slammed the pommel of his sword against his shoulder, hard.There was a loud, ugly pop, and the next thing Olrick knew, he was laying onhis stomach. His shoulder hurt so badly, it took every ounce of willpower hehad to keep himself from screaming in pain. Both Blair and General Raul simplystood there, watching him as he writhed on the ground in pain.

“D-damnyou,” Olrick managed to whisper, praying to the gods to lessen the pain. Blairgot tense, as if he intended to strike him again, until General Raul held upone of his hands, much to his dismay; he seemed to take pleasure in each littlepain he was able to inflict on their first prisoner of war.

“Therehave been so many times where I could have ordered my men to kill you,” GeneralRaul said, his voice eerily calm. “With just one flick of my wrist, I couldhave you killed like a dog.” Olrick looked up at him, into his emotionless faceand stark, blue eyes, confused.

“Thenwhy haven’t you?” he asked through clenched teeth.

“BecauseI have no use for a dead slave,” General Raul responded bluntly, looking backdown at his map. Olrick grimaced after he’d heard that, as if the very wordsthemselves had managed to slap him. The gravity of what was happening to himbegan to sink in: they were going to sell him off in Kurzh. He was going to diein a frozen wasteland, without any hope of ever seeing his homeland ever again.

“Takehim to the girl,” General Raul said as Blair grabbed him and pulled him back tohis feet. He almost passed out in pain. “If she knows what to do, bring her tome.” With that, Blair began to drag Olrick out of the tent and back to thetavern.

Elisefelt like the world was falling apart around her.

Asshe sat on the floor or the tavern, Pa’s arms wrapped around her, her deadbrother’s sword on her lap, her vision blurry with tears, she tried to piecetogether what was going on. How could any of this possibly be real? In the pastfew minutes, the Giskens had managed to destroy her life: her brother was dead,the Giskens had invaded, they’d probably gone and killed Olrick and werebeginning to decide her and her Pa’s fate as they mourned her brother. She keptpraying to the Gods that someone would hurry and wake her up, but she knew thatthat wouldn’t happen; this was all really happening to her.

“Howdid you know him?” The Gisken with the shaved head, who’d introduced himself asCorporal Kael, sat with them, his sword back in his sheath. Once Blair andOlrick were gone, he seemed to have found his humanity again. She was surprisedat how pleasant he seemed to be.

“Hewas my brother,” Elise said quietly. Kael adjusted himself, seeminglyuncomfortable.

“Sorry,”he said quietly. Once again, she found herself surprised at how genuine thisGisken sounded. She’d been under the impression that Giskens were even morebrutish than Kurzhians all through the day, with the invasion and the fact thatthey seemed to have killed her brother for no good reason at all. Because ofthis one corporal, she began to see that not every one of the Giskens wereevil, that some may have been, heaven forbid, decent human beings with themisfortune of being born in the wrong country.

Thenagain, it all could’ve been an act to get her and Pa to cooperate with them.

Thefloorboards by the door creaked as someone walked into the tavern. They lookedover to see Blair, holding Olrick in his arms. He was shaking and his face wascontorted in pain.

Elisecould feel a lump beginning to form in her stomach. What had they done to him?

“Areyou a doctor?” Blair asked. Elise slowly stood up, leaving Milo’s sword on theground. Pa took it, careful not to cut himself on its sharp blade.

“Whathappened?” she asked as Blair set Olrick down on one of the tables. He flinchedand yelped in pain when his shoulder touched the table.

“Aninterrogation went south and he hurt his shoulder,” Blair said as Elise beganto feel his shoulder, making Olrick flinch and begin groaning in pain. Shecould feel a large, hard lump in his good shoulder, one that hadn’t been therebefore. “General Raul ordered me to get him to a doctor, and as all of ours areoccupied with our injured, I had to replace someone else.” Elise walked behind thebar and began to fill a tankard with ale.

“Youdislocated his shoulder,” she said. Once the tankard had been filled, shewalked back over. “I’ll need to put it back into place.” She put a hand onOlrick’s shoulder as she held the tankard up to his lips.

“Olrick,I need you to drink this,” Elise said. “It will help with the pain.” Though not by much. She would prefer touse something a little more potent, like some of the medicinal herbs that camefrom towns near Thaos, where the soil was more fertile and the delicate herbswould be able to survive. However, she didn’t have enough of them for it to domuch effect, and she had a feeling that there wouldn’t be another market for awhile. Olrick didn’t seem to know that the ale wouldn’t help that much ordidn’t care that it wouldn’t, though, because he drank up the entire tankardwithout a second thought.

Oncethere wasn’t any more ale in the tankard, Elise set it back down on the table.“Can you put your arm over your stomach for me.” Slowly, he moved his arm sohis arm was at a ninety-degree angle and rested on his stomach, right where sheneeded it.

“I’mgoing to move your shoulder, now,” Elise warned. “Try to relax.” Olrick noddedand took a deep, shaky breath.

Carefully,Elise took him by his forearm and began moving it away from his body. He didn’tseem to be in too much pain, until she began to move his elbow away from hisbody.

Olrickbegan to scream in pain through clenched teeth as she moved his elbow up anddown, trying to get his shoulder to pop back into place. Finally, she heard aloud pop and Olrick began to relax. Elise hadn’t realized that she’d beenholding her breath until she sighed, relieved. The method hadn’t seemed towork, at first; she was worried that she would have to use a more painfulmethod of putting his shoulder back in place.

“Youdid good,” Elise told him. “Try not to move your shoulder too much, alright?”Olrick nodded.

Elise looked over atBlair and swallowed, hard. Even though she hadn’t even known him for a day, shefound that she was more scared of him than she had been of any man, even Bram.He was ruthless, the kind of person who didn’t like it when his plans wentawry, which was why, she thought, that he hated Olrick so much. What was hegoing to do to her if she disrupted the Giskens’ plans even more by telling himthat he couldn’t interrogate Olrick, anymore?

“He needs to keep hisarm stationary for a few weeks,” she said. “If he doesn’t, it’ll just pop backout.”

“That’s out of thequestion,” Blair said. He grabbed Olrick by the front of his shirt and pulledhim to his feet. He stumbled forward and nearly fell to the ground, until Blaircaught him. “General Raul’s orders stand; he’s undergo interrogations until hebreaks and gives us the information we want, or until our ships are able totake him to Kurzh.” Elise’s heart sank. It seemed that Olrick would be yetanother person the Giskens would tear out of her life.

“If he continues togo through these interrogations and his shoulder keeps getting popped out ofplace, he’ll be of no use to you if he can’t do anything with his arm,” Elisesaid. They’ll kill him if he can’t work.

“It isn’t me thatyou’ll have to convince,” Blair said. “It’s General Raul.” Elise didn’trespond. The very name was enough to inspire fear in anyone who wasn’t aGisken; after all, he did lay waste to every country he invaded.

“Perhaps, you couldmanage to do it, though,” he suggested, as if such a feat were so easy toperform. “He can be reasoned with.” Kaelstepped forward.

“Blair, I don’t thinkthat’s a good idea,” he said. Blair glared at him.

“Then, perhaps youwould like to join her, corporal,” he said. “I’m sure her father wouldappreciate it.” For the first time during the conversation, Elise looked backover at her father. His eyes were wide with horror, no doubt worried about whatthe Giskens were going to do to his daughter. She was scared about that, aswell. Kael looked over at Pa, as well. He gulped when he saw the look on hisface, then looked back at Blair.

“I-I think I will,”he said. Blair seemed surprised by his answer, but he didn’t say anything aboutit.

“Then, go on ahead,”he said. “I’ll go replace a place for the Watchman.” He walked out, Olrick in tow.

Once Blair and Olrickwere out of eyeshot, Pa looked over at Kael.

“What is he going todo to her?” he asked, scared. Kael rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m not sure,” headmitted. “I’ll try and keep her safe, though; you have my word.” Pa, frowned,unconvinced, for a few moments. Then, he sighed.

“Why do I trust you?”he finally asked. With that, Kael escorted her outside to some unknown fate.