Divided (#1 Divided Destiny) (21 page)

Leo’s eyes skittered over the stock-still collection of fighters. He had been going to try and pacify them, to talk them down. Nick had gotten their attention, and that attention was likely to be violent. However, the silence stretched on; they just stared as if they were waiting for something, a sign for what they should do next.

He decided to give them the indicator they were looking for. Leo raised his rifle and fired a short burst into the air, just as Nick had done.

“Go on, then, get out of here!” Leo yelled.

That did the trick. All the knights—brave men, soldiers of the realm—scattered in fear. They mounted horses and galloped away, or sprinted as fast as their armor allowed. Within minutes, the village was empty, the enemy forces disappearing fast into the distance. Gatlan’s forces ran west, Sintiya’s more to the north; they were split presumably heading back to their respective base camps.

This battle, at least, was over.

Chapter Sixteen

“Okay, that was weird,” Don said as he came forward, away from the hut he had been sheltering against. His expression mirrored that of his two colleagues: complete befuddlement. “Who knew they would be scared by a bit of gunfire. Next time, we should lead with that.”

“Next time, it won’t be new,” Leo cautioned. “They’ll have had time to think it over, realize that they weren’t hurt. I doubt that the same trick will work twice. Not on the same forces, anyway, though we could probably buy ourselves another round if we actually hit somebody.”

“But we don’t want to do that,” Nick murmured.

He couldn’t quite believe that it had worked. He had intended to scare the knight, to make him think twice about his actions. Nick wasn’t been sure whether the knight had been planning on stabbing the fallen knight in the throat or attempting to sever his head. Either option was unconscionable, given the other knight was already dead or dying. However, Nick hadn’t expected for one second it would stop the battle, or lead to everyone running away. He wished he had tried it the first time, as it might have saved him from that sword nearly running him in two.

Now that the sorcerer’s magic paste had fixed it, though, he wasn’t as bitter about the experience as he had been. It was a hell of a story, but it hadn’t been a fun one to think about telling, when he’d thought he might die here of the infection he had felt set in.

“No, don’t want to annoy any future potential allies,” Leo confirmed.

“So what now?” Don asked awkwardly, looking around the empty village.

There were signs it had been abandoned quickly. A couple of baskets lay broken, trampled into the mud in the melee, their contents spread over the area. Fruit, linen, straw, all ruined. But at least their owners had run in time; they had made it to safety.

There were a couple of bodies lying on the ground. The knight Nick had seen stabbed, who was likely dead. Another knight whose armor was dented in several places; it appeared he had been trampled by a horse. He wasn’t moving, but it was possible he was still alive.

Then there were two young boys in leather who hadn’t been so lucky. Infantry, by the look of them. They’d somehow gotten caught in the melee, their pikes laying by their sides. Their eyes were open and unmoving, great red gashes marring their skin, a pool of blood sinking into the mud around them, almost invisible in the dirt. They didn’t have the protection of armor, and they had paid the price.

Leo felt sick as he looked at their faces. They were teenagers, far too young to be conscripted into any decent army. He had fought kids like that, young boys conscripted into local militia, brainwashed and sent out to die. He had killed kids like that. He’d had no choice, but it never sat right. Children were supposed to be protected. He tried to remember this was a different world, a different culture, and that he shouldn’t judge. However, looking at a dead kid on the ground, it was very difficult not to cast judgment.

“Looks like the locals saw what happened,” Nick said.

He pointed into the distance to where there was a stream of people heading
for
the village this time, not away from it. Mathis was at the front, two young children mounted on his horse. He held the reins tightly, guiding the animal, leading everyone home.

In a matter of minutes, the village was bustling with life again. The mood was far more buoyant than subdued, but then Leo realized that they had expected things to be much worse. There was a small amount of damage to the wooden buildings, mostly from missed sword strikes, and there were some frightened horses, but nothing had been destroyed beyond repair. These people had run with nothing but the clothes on their back. They had saved their lives, but they had expected that they would lose everything else.

The four dead on the ground should have had a sobering effect, but a few of the men picked them up and carried them inside a building, away from the sensitive eyes of women and children. Once that was done, the last restraint was lifted and the cheers started.

“You saved our village,” declared the same better-dressed villager who had directed them to the inn less than an hour earlier. Leo realized he was probably the mayor, or what passed for leadership in this place.

“We were just trying to help,” Leo told him, brushing off the thanks.

It was the job. It was what he’d signed up to the marines for: to run towards trouble and not away from it. They could no more have turned their backs on this village than they could have turned their backs on Earth’s alien invasion. It didn’t matter that this hadn’t been their fight, just as it didn’t matter that they had been off-duty at the time. It really wasn’t anything special.

“You did more than that, stranger. You are our saviors. We owe you a great debt.” The mayor bowed his head seriously.

“Friend.” Mathis placed a gauntlet on the mayor’s shoulder. “The battlefront is not far from here, and it draws ever closer. The forces of Gatlan and Sintiya have clashed here once; they will do so again. Your people now have time to gather their belongings. You can bring with you whatever you can carry when you head for safety.”

The mayor stepped back. Mathis’s hand fell loosely to his side. Leo watched warily as the mayor’s jaw set, stubbornness creeping over his expression.

“No, that is no longer necessary,” the mayor said, shaking his head. He tipped his head in the direction of the three marines. “We have been saved. These strangers are our saviors. Their magic has frightened the enemy away.”

“Oh no,” Leo objected.

“That’s not what happened,” Nick argued quickly.

“We don’t have magic,” Don said hastily.

The mayor looked puzzled. “Your magic saved our village. You have great power; you are our saviors, and we owe you a great debt.” He bowed deeply, and all around him the rest of the village followed. A few even dropped to one knee as if pledging fealty.

Leo felt deeply uncomfortable and completely out of his depth. He had guessed some time ago that the locals had no idea that the rifles and sidearms they carried were weapons, that the lack of recognition was why no one had seen them as a threat. However, he had never considered that they would believe that a gun was a magical artifact.

Although, he supposed that from their perspective, it was so far outside their comprehension it would appear magical. It was like how they could have viewed the transport platform. Leo steadfastly believed it wasn’t magic, just technology they didn’t understand, but that Arthur C. Clarke quote applied yet again. Advanced technology and magic were indistinguishable, and by any normal measure the villagers were more primitive than people were on Earth. An automatic weapon would certainly be very advanced for them.

“Yes, Staff Sergeant Frasier and his comrades saved your village today, but they have tasks of their own to complete. They will be leaving the village today; they will not be here tomorrow,” Mathis explained patiently, his concern clear.

“The forces of Gatlan and Sintiya will surely not return, not now they have seen what magic protects us.” A sly grin spread across the mayor’s face. “They do not know that our magical saviors will have moved on. Fear will make them take their fight elsewhere.”

“Perhaps,” Mathis agreed begrudgingly. “But I would not bet the lives of your village on it.”

Nick caught sight of the mother and baby he had seen earlier. He grabbed Leo’s arm desperately. “They aren’t seriously considering staying?”

“We can’t make them leave,” Leo replied with a shrug.

The flush of success had faded all too quickly, and now he just felt uneasy. In truth, he felt responsible. These people could die based on a false belief, and there was nothing he could do. He’d accepted long ago that they couldn’t save everyone, but that didn’t mean he liked it or that it didn’t bother him.

“How’s our resident magic skeptic taking being thought of as a ‘magical savior’?” Don teased, but his heart wasn’t really in it.

The villagers cheered again, cheering for their saviors. Leo scowled. It wasn’t the magical part of ‘magical savior’ that he objected to; it was the savior part that they all objected to. They weren’t saviors; they were soldiers, and they were powerless in the face of the villagers’ faith.

Nick looked down at the ground, unable to look at the cheering masses. They would move on, they would leave them behind, and in all likelihood the villagers would die. As close to the frontline as this village was, it was only a matter of time before there was another clash. He felt sick, and he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

“So, where are we heading?” Nick asked solemnly.

Leo looked at Mathis, who was talking earnestly with the mayor once more, begging him to reconsider. “We’ll see what Mathis says and then decide,” Leo told him. He wanted out of this village too.

They’d never thought saving a village could feel so bad.

*****

Early the next morning, Mathis led them from the village. By the time the battle was over the previous day, there had only been a couple of hours of light left. While the lost time rankled, Leo had bowed to Mathis’s judgment that they wait till morning. The knight had managed to borrow a horse, and two more had been corralled, having run free from the knights of Gatlan or Sintiya who had ridden them into battle and then lost them during the ensuing fight.

“We can ride back to the city; speed is our greatest strength,” Mathis told them as he double-checked the girth. He shook his head. “I am sorry that the sorcerer was not helpful; he has never failed the kingdom yet. Perhaps because you are strangers…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Leo replied quickly, eyeing his horse with some trepidation.

In this world, especially as self-proclaimed envoys of their kingdom, not being able to ride wouldn’t just be unusual, it would be impossible. True, he’d leapt on a horse mid-battle, but that was somewhat different to riding one for miles. He hadn’t exactly been thinking at the time. It was only afterwards that nerves and self-doubt appeared. Adrenaline was useful like that.

“You should petition Prince Edmund once more. It is regrettable that, in these troubled times, we can’t help simply because it is right. However, now that you have performed a service for Kaslea, perhaps the court will see fit to help you in your cause,” Mathis explained.

Leo nodded. Politics was politics everywhere. It would be far easier to continue here, where they already had a relationship with the people of Kaslea, than going into another kingdom and starting from scratch. Kaslea might not have a weapon to offer, but they could ask about the ‘legend of the light in the darkness’ and for an introduction to other kingdoms which might have the weapon they sought. That was progress of a sort.

“Alright, let’s ride.” Don hoisted himself into the saddle. “All I’m missing is my cowboy hat,” he said, grinning.

Nick laughed. “This isn’t exactly the Wild West. I’m thinking a cloak streaming behind; I’ve definitely seen that in the movies.”

“That would clash with my fatigues,” Don fake whined.

The horses set off, slowly gathering in speed but still a long way from a full gallop. It was a steady canter, one that they could keep up for a while before they would have to rest. Leo tried to do the mental calculation about where they were, the time of day, and the speed they would travel to deduce whether they would make it to the city by nightfall. He couldn’t be sure; their trip to the sorcerer had confused him on distance.

“Will we make the city by nightfall?” Leo asked.

Mathis shrugged. “I am unsure. Alone, I would make it, but together, perhaps not. However, we do not have to make camp if you do not wish it. We will be close enough to continue once darkness has fallen.”

“Excellent,” Leo breathed, relieved that they were as close as he had hoped, and that they would only be wasting one day traveling to somewhere else.

It was mid-afternoon when a roar disrupted the otherwise quiet forest. Mathis looked up in sudden alarm.

“We must hide,” Mathis shouted urgently. He slipped off his horse and anxiously yanked on the reins, pulling the horse forward, desperate to leave the path and flee into the anonymity of the forest around them.

“What’s going on?” Leo demanded as the three marines dismounted to follow.

“The dragon approaches,” Mathis said, his fear audible.

Leo frowned. Mathis hadn’t said previously that the dragon had done anything but attack villages, but he supposed that there was a first time for everything. Perhaps it felt like having a light snack, and four travelers could be scooped up like a takeaway meal to go. The trees might hide them from view, but they would provide little protection otherwise.

“Do you think dragons are like eagles, bats, or wolves?” Nick wondered aloud when they were all safely behind the tree line, the horses’ reins loosely looped around the nearest tree to tether them in place.

“How do you mean?” Don asked curiously.

“Well, eagles have good eyesight, right? They can see a mouse from a thousand feet in the air. Bats are blind, but have hearing like sonar. And wolves, well, I’m guessing they have a good sense of smell,” Nick explained. He shrugged. “I was just wondering whether dragons hunt by sight, smell, or hearing.”