WW Chapter 104: Victory’s Spoils (Patreon)

Yesterday's chapters. Baby's been sick, dealing with that. Should get the other chapters out tomorrow. Ugh. That will have us at a 12 chapter week though, so I'm gonna push for it.

Coming back in contact with the delegation of soldiers that he had been traveling with until now was strange. It had only been since the night before, but it felt like a month had passed since Ezra left to attempt to protect the village that he now learned was called Stonestep. After the Dragonkin had been killed, the fight was far from over. The biggest issue on the front from the stairs was that the flames were getting out of control. Eventually, they crawled up the stairs, burning the wooden walls and climbing up to the building above. There, the flames had raged enough to make the ceiling start to grow warm underground.

Fortunately, the heat had melted all of the ice in the room, which had then been used to fight off the fire and keep it from smothering everybody.

Darius lost his right arm below the elbow stabbing through the Dragonkin’s mouth. That, combined with the massive wounds from being bitten and cut, had to put him in a rough spot. It looked like he was going to pull through, though Ezra was going to talk to Jhas about maybe sending a quick healing spell his way.

Then, the two wolves had dug in from opposite sides of the cellar. One had gone down to Telemachus and Luna working together, but the other had carved through five defenders and a dozen civilians before getting put down. That was a particularly grisly sight.

From there, the battle had been just as fraught as before. In the end, though, fathers picked up spears from the wounded and dead and fought desperately to protect their children. Two mothers did as well, their faces painted in the spraying blood of their enemies. Whenever somebody fell, another filled their place until, in the end, the two dug-out holes were plugged with the corpses of goblins, and Ezra had retaken the stairway.

There, with Telemachus behind him, he had cut through every goblin that came close. With a fit of fury-granted strength, he carved up through the stairway, killing two dozen goblins before he reached the top. There, the small archer battalion of bugbears had waited. And there, Telemachus could finally let his fire free to greatest effect. The furry beasts went up in flame, and like that, the night was won.

Instead of giving the gory details, Ezra gave a cheeky smile as he let his axe hang low.

“Welcome! Glad to see you.”

Adonis stared at him, his narrow face twisted in genuine confusion as he tried to understand what was happening. As Ezra’s young charge started to smile widely and come forward, Hector reached a hand out and stopped his younger brother. Then, Basil came up and stared at the young Adept.

“Report.”

Ezra snapped out a salute as he fell into parade rest and started to tell the story.

“Yes, sir! Last night, after the departure of Jhas, my squad and I led an initial charge on the goblin army’s flanks. We cut down about twenty before beginning a fighting retreat. After preparing a secondary ambush, we slew another fifty. From there, we disengaged fully, though we were pursued. In our escape through the hills towards our current location, the village called Stonestep, we were engaged several more times. During these, we cut down the first of the Dragonkin, though Dirk was heavily wounded in that battle.

“In our retreat, we killed another forty across several engagements. Then, we made contact with the guards of this village and set up a defense perimeter here under the town hall in the town’s cold storage. Then, my squad and I, as well as the defenders of this village, worked in tandem to defeat the rest of the attacking goblins. Among them, the most notable enemies were a total of four Dragonkin, one of them humanoid, and three wolf-like. In the defense, a total of twenty one civilians from the village were killed. An additional thirty two have sustained injuries of varying levels of severity. Forty six civilians remain unharmed.”

Then, Ezra had nothing more to say and fell silent. Basil blinked a few times, his face impassive as he looked around the city and at the proof of what Ezra had said.

“I’ve only seen the bodies of the goblins,” Hector jumped in. “What happened to the civilians?”

“We had no way of knowing if there would be any more coming to attack, my Lord,” Ezra said, bowing his head. “Despite everything else that happened, we remained inside of the most defensible place in the village. We decided to spend the night inside of the cellar, but nobody wanted to have the dead bodies in there. We threw the goblin bodies into heaps, but carefully carried all of the human bodies to a nearby building. Now that you’re here, we think that the people from here will have an opportunity to take care of their dead.”

Again, a heavy silence descended over the assembled soldiers, the veterans and the trainees alike. What Ezra was saying was insane, but the proof was pretty irrefutable. Finally, Basil shook his head.

“You’re fucking lucky. What you did is damn heroic, but I can guarantee there are a thousand things that happened last night, each one of which, if it had changed, would’ve ended up with everybody dead.”

“I think you’re right,” Ezra shrugged. “You can’t discount luck.”

“That’s it.” Basil didn’t say anything else as he stepped away and waited for Hector to come forward. The leader of the delegation narrowed his eyes at Ezra. At first, Ezra bristled at the look, but Hector gestured for Ezra to come closer as he continued to look troubled. Walking away, once they were a couple dozen meters away from the stairway, Hector let out a long sigh.

“How’s your squad? You said Dirk was injured. Is he going to pull through?”

“If you’ll pardon my language, he’s a stubborn bastard. He’ll make it. He woke up an hour ago and he’s not in a good way, but he’ll live. He, along with another man especially would benefit from Jhas’s healing. If you would spare him.”

“Consider it done. And Luna? Telemachus?”

“We’re all banged up, but what we need more than anything is just rest, honestly,” Ezra answered. Even as Hector was so concerned with the individuals, Ezra was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. He’d disobeyed orders, and even though Hector had been a pretty good guy, he was still a noble. Plus, Jormun had said—

“I’m glad you all survived,” Hector interrupted Ezra’s thoughts. “All things told, this is as good as it could have gone.”

For a few short moments, they both stood in silence, and finally, Ezra couldn’t wait any longer. He asked, “Is that it? Do I just… get back to work?”

Again, Hector sighed, but this time longer and louder. His lips flapped as he shook his head and shrugged. “I mean, kind of yes, but in reality, no. I can explain that to you, or have Adonis do it. First, what did you tell the people here? That you were sent here? That you abandoned your post?”

Ezra thought about it. As he puzzled back and forth, he realized there hadn’t been a whole lot of time for explanations. They forced their way in and said that goblins were coming. Did they even mention who they were here with? Honestly, he couldn’t remember. But once the fighting was over, people hadn’t wanted to ask questions about how he had gotten there. Instead, they were mourning over the bodies of their family and trying to stabilize their wounded friends.

“I think I just told them that the goblins were coming, get together or everybody will die. Darius recognized the crest on the uniforms, and I said that we were under the employ of your father. But I don’t think I told anybody how we ended up coming here.”

“That almost makes it harder,” Hector grunted. “If you had done something, I would only have the ability to react. Now, I’ve got to make a decision.”

“A decision about what?” Ezra asked, his jaw tightening involuntarily.

“You’re a hero to these people,” Hector answered simply. “You put your life on the line to try to save them. Then, you succeeded at it. To everybody here, you’re an angel from the gods. They don’t care why you’re here, just that you came. Now, I come in here, and I’m supposed to somehow interact with you in a way that won’t make all of these people hate everything that my family stands for. Because the reality is that you disobeyed my direct orders, but doing so saved all of their lives. If we tell them what orders I gave, they’ll hate me. Honestly, I don’t care if they hate me, but if they become rebellious, it’ll be particularly problematic, considering what’s going on to the north.”

“Is there any reason to tell them?” Ezra shrugged. Hector narrowed his eyes at the younger man, and Ezra just shrugged again. “Can’t you just, I don’t know, congratulate me? Then we move along?”

Hector went still as Ezra suggested it. Then, he narrowed his eyes. “But that won’t let anybody know that you did this despite everything telling you not to.”

Ezra just looked over for a few short moments before he hesitated, “Permission to speak honestly?”

“It’s just you and me. Please do.”

“Yes, I hate the idea that you’re going to come in here and make everybody love you for saving them when you told me to let them die. I could curse you out all day for it. However, I’m also aware I fucked up and you  could throw me in prison if you wanted. I’m not in charge of this delegation. I don’t have to decide what to do to get the reinforcements we need, according to your father. It’s not gonna make people like me any more if I just go around telling them how terrible other people are. So do what you need to, and let’s keep going.”

Hector nodded a few times before smiling. Even as he did, he let out a long sigh.

“I said you should talk to Adonis about it. However, I think you deserve to hear me say it. It’s unfair, but I’m going to ask that you continue to accompany us.”

“I don’t think that’s unfair. That’s kind of what I planned on doing.”

Hector’s eyebrows pulled together as he stared at Ezra. “Do you realize that you’re not going to be welcome in Brayton from now on? When you go back, if you do, you’ll probably be court-martialed. You put this entire operation at risk, and you’ll be lucky to only be thrown out.”

It was a gut punch hearing it from Hector, but Jormun had spent most of the night ripping into Ezra and explaining exactly what would certainly happen to him. Insults regarding his stupidity had fallen unceasingly on him, and eventually, Ezra felt like he could say that he had a pretty good handle on what kind of consequences would be coming his way.

“I figured,” Ezra shrugged. “However, I also know that you need everybody you can get. Me, Luna, Dirk, and Telemachus will accompany you on this journey and then, before going into Brayton, will leave. Unless you refuse to have us along. But, given what you just said, seems like that’s not a bad plan to have.”

“I think you’re crazy,” Hector said bluntly.

“You’re not the first person to say that to me today. Could be worse.”

“If that’s the case, then welcome back,” Hector nodded. “Please don’t take this as an opportunity to do whatever you want from now on. We really need people to actually do what they’re told.”

Ezra just smiled in response.

***

“As the people responsible for coming and saving you all,” Ezra said with a chuckle, “we are being put in the wagons and left to sleep.”

“Sounds about right,” Darius chuckled as he glanced down at what remained of his right arm. Jhas had healed him to make sure he’d survive, but it wasn’t more than making sure the wound wouldn’t go septic. “Hard work just gets you more hard work.”

“Thank you,” Ezra said as he started to walk away. 

“No, thank you,” Darius answered. “You saved us all. Ezra Soldier, the savior of Stonestep, will never be forgotten.”

There wasn’t anything more to say, and like that, Ezra got into the wagon that was already holding Dirk. Settling into a sitting position, he got comfortable and tried to get some sleep.