There was something very wrong with Blair al’Heida.
Ulrick had made a lot of observations about the Gisken Army since they first blew a hole right through their lines a few days earlier. They were well organized, well trained. Disciplined in away that would impress even the toughest of Caithian training sergeants. But, a lot of them were still young kids, only there because they were drafted. Kids just wanting to go home.
Blair wasn’t one of those people. Every army had people in it who seemed to enjoy the violence of war, and he was the worst one Ulrick had ever seen. His own men couldn’t seem to look him in the eye. And, judging by the fact that the lieutenant suddenly had sergeant’s stripes instead of the laurel branches he’d had earlier, even Fleischer seemed weary of him.
Ulrick might have chuckled to himself, if it weren’t for the fact that he was strung up by his wrists with a mouth full of blood and one less molar.
Blair paced the small cell they’d found for him, his knife in one hand and his molar in the other. “So, let me get this straight: your Blessing allows for you to knit tissue and bone back together, but you can’t regrow a damned tooth?”
Ulrick didn’t say anything. He could see that his silence was starting to drive Blair nuts, more than him saying that he didn’t know ever did. Fact of the matter was, he didn’t have a clue if he could grow back teeth. He wasn’t about to give Blair the satisfaction of finding out, though.
“Open your mouth,” Blair demanded. “You’re hiding it from me, aren’t you?”
Open his mouth?
Gladly.
Ulrick waited until Blair was right in front of him, then spat blood on him.
He hit his mark: it only took a second for Blair’s face to be covered in blood.
Blair stumbled back and wiped at the blood with his sleeve, cursing.
Ulrick couldn’t help it: he smiled to himself.
Blair turned and glared at him, rage contorting his face.
Ulrick only had a few seconds to brace himself before Blair punched him in the stomach, hard enough that he felt something in his stomach crack.
He gasped as the wind got knocked out of his lungs. It felt like Blair had gotten one of his ribs. Just as he’d gotten to the point where they were feeling normal, again.
“You think you’re very brave for trying to resist,” Blair said. “Fact is, you’re making a mistake. You think you’re going home a hero. Really, you’re going to face a firing squad at the end of the week. Nobody’s coming to help you; nobody even knows you’re here. And if you think you’re going to be able to escape on your own, again, you’re mistaken. Do the smart thing: give Fleischer a reason to keep you alive until your people can figure out a prison exchange.”
Blair couldn’t have been more wrong if he’d tried. Ulrick knew full well he was on his own: as far as he knew, he was the only one who made it away from the line when the Giskens broke through. Even if someone else did make t through, his people would have no way of knowing if he was even still alive, let alone, where he was. He didn’t even escape the last time without help, but he already knew full well that he couldn’t count on that, again. Not when it was a miracle that he got help in the first place. If he wanted to get out of that camp, he’d have to do it, himself. And he wasn’t daft enough to think he had the physical strength to do it.
He knew that he wasn’t going to make it out of Thaos alive: he wasn’t an idiot. At that point, his goal was to waste as much of the Giskens’ time as possible, give his people some extra time to catch up.
As to his family… he just hoped that someone let them know what happened to him and spared them the details.
“You still plan on dying on this hill, don’t you?” Blair snorted. “It doesn’t make you a hero: it makes you a damned idiot.”
Funny: his father had told him the same thing when he first enlisted.
There was a knock on the door. “Lieut-… Sergeant al’Heida, Dr. Braun needs to speak with you.”
Blair’s eyelid twitched. Ulrick smiled to himself; something about watching that bastard squirm was very satisfying.
He pulled his saber out from its scabbard.
Ulrick braced himself.
Blair swung the sword above his head, cutting through the rope holding Ulrick up.
His legs buckled beneath him the second he landed. He felt to the ground in a heap, his arms on fire as he suddenly regained feeling.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Blair said as he replaced the saber. “Think long and hard about where the Godswater is: I’m going to get directions to it, today. And I don’t care what I have to do to you to find out.”
The hole in his mouth began to throb a little more. It didn’t take much of an imagination to figure out what that meant.
Blair walked out of the cell, closing and locking the door behind him.
And just like that, he was alone.
He sat against the wall of his cell, closed his eyes, and sighed. Finally. He’d been putting up his military front for too long: he was exhausted. Physically. Mentally. He wanted to sleep, try and rest before Blair got back to resume the torture. But… he knew what would happen if he managed to sleep: flashbacks of the front would come back. He’d watch good people die while he rode away. Guilt still ate him alive. No matter how many times he tried to remind himself that he was under orders. From King Thias, even.
That was the other thing that kept him awake. King This had been performing an inspection of the front when the Giskens broke through. Ulrick had been with King This at the time. And he’d watched him get shot. He saw it over and over again every time he closed his eyes. And every time he saw it, he wondered if he’d witnessed the end of Caithia as they knew it.
He had to find a way to get the word back to his people: as far as he knew, Polain was still waiting on word from King This as to what to do next. Word that would never come.
And to do that, he’d have to find someone to help him escape.
***
Elise sat down on the nearest chair, dabbing at her forehead with a rag. She’d been working all day on moving all of General Fleischer’s things into the tavern. Arranging, rearranging. Sometimes with Finn’s help, but mostly by herself. He’d taken up residency in what had once been her parents’ room, and had been “gracious” enough to allow her to stay in her own room. The general and his top men were supposed to have a meeting in the tavern area. She was supposed to make all of them tea for the meeting, serve them any refreshments they might need.
Her thoughts went to the box behind the bar as she rested. The one they were careful to keep away from the food. During the border war with Fialia ten years back, there’s been panic about the Fialians putting arsenic in the water. People couldn’t stop talking about the symptoms: stomach pains, vomiting, nausea. And the scariest part of all: it didn’t have a smell or a taste. Any meal could be one’s last. She had arsenic. A lot of it, in fact: she used it for rat poison. Just like everyone else in town. She could put some in the food. They wouldn’t be able to taste it; they wouldn’t even know it was there until they were sick. And it would be far less messy than the knife that still sat in her pocket.
But, it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out what happened. If she wasn’t out of town by the time they did, they’d kill her. And it might not even work.
She closed her eyes and sighed. She couldn’t believe how much had changed just that day. That morning, the thought of killing a man on purpose would’ve scared her. And it did, when she was faced with the possibility with Blair. Now, if she could do it all over again, she’d do it. And she wouldn’t hesitate, again.
The world as she’d known it had been turned on its head. And it seemed like the only way to fix it was more violence.
Elise stood up and went behind the bar to start the tea.
It wasn’t long after that Finn walked through the door.
She didn’t look up at him: she still hadn’t forgiven him for letting them bury her father in an unmarked, mass grave.
“Looks good in here,” Finn said as he walked over to the bar.
“Thanks,” she said curtly. She still didn’t look up at him.
He was standing in front of her, on the other side of the bar. “… You’re still mad at me, aren’t you?”
She finally looked up at him. “What do you think?”
He winced. “Sorry.”
“‘Sorry’ isn’t good enough.” Elise turned away from him to put the kettle on the stove.
When she turned back around, Finn had hopped the bar and was looking around. “What can I help you with?”
You and all of your friends can leave. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
Finn was still frowning. He looked like he wanted to say something else, maybe apologize more to her.
But, before he could say anything else, older men wearing green uniforms began to come into the tavern. The meeting was about to start.
Elise looked back at the kettle as it struggled to heat up. “I think you’d better get to your meeting, Major.”
He sighed. “Right.”
He hopped the bar, again, and began welcoming the officers coming into the bar.
Elise looked back at the box of arsenic. Her heart was fluttering in her chest, now, nerves making her skin vibrate. She grew more and more nervous the more people walked in. By the time General Fleischer walked in, there were ten officers, including General Fleischer and Finn.
Suddenly, she wasn’t as confident in what she was going to do. She wasn’t hesitant about poisoning General Fleischer: his death would be justice for people across Kurzh, and now Caithia. But those other men… what were their crimes? Being Gisken? Were they men who just wanted to go home, like Finn?
And that was the other problem: Finn. She was upset with him, but… he was a good man. She didn’t want him to die. She knew that it might come to that, that a sacrifice might need to be made for the good of everybody, but… she wasn’t sure if she was ready to make that call.
She wished she could, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t strong enough to kill a man to save people he may have killed.
Elise looked up at the ceiling. Gods, what am I supposed to do?
“How’s the tea coming?”
She just about jumped out of her skin.
Elise turned around. Finn was standing at the bar. The nine men at the table were staring at them. All of them looked at her as if she had something crawling out of her ear.
Her skin crawled at their stares. “I… erm… let me just…”
She turned around to check on the kettle, her cheeks burning red. She could still feel them staring at her.
General Fleischer began to speak, again. The meeting went as normal, as if nothing had happened.
She managed to relax a little.
“Elise, is everything alright?” Finn was still standing there, waiting for the tea.
Elise took the kettle off the stove. “Everything’s fine.”
Finn’s frown deepened as she poured the tea. “Your hands are shaking.”
She hadn’t even noticed.
She set the kettle down and wrung out her hands.
“Listen,” Finn said. “You’ve done a lot of hard work today. I know that you haven’t exactly had a break, either. And to top it off, it… hasn’t exactly been a great day. Go sit down: I can handle this from here.”
“I’m fine.” Just go sit down so I can finish this tea!
Finn sighed, then turned to leave.
Now was her chance.
She grabbed the arsenic from the box. It came in a small, dark green bottle. She wasn’t certain that it would be enough to kill all the men at the table, but if she dumped all of it into General Fleischer’s cup…
Elise pulled the cork out of the bottle. Her hands were still shaking. Easy, she thought as she held the bottle over General Fleischer’s cup. Easy…
She began to turn the bottle-
A hand grabbed her by the wrist.
Her heart stopped. The blood drained from her face.
Afraid of what she’d see. Elise looked up at the person the hand belonged to.
“Don’t,” Finn whispered. He looked as scared as she felt. “Please.”
Elise was frozen to her spot, as still as a statue.
“I won’t say anything, I won’t do anything,” Finn continued. “All of this goes away, as if it never even happened. But only if you put that bottle down.”
“Pa’s dead,” she whispered past the lump in her throat.
“I know,” Finn said. “But killing other people won’t bring him back.”
She knew that. She’d known that all along. But, hearing that was still enough to hit her like a brick to the face. Pa was gone. He was gone, and there wasn’t a thing anymore could do about it. Her life as it was before was gone, and there was nothing she could do about it. General Fleischer’s death wouldn’t solve any of her problems, wouldn’t wave a magic wand and put everything back as it once was. What was lost could never be found. Even if every single Gisken left Caithia.
Finn gently pulled the bottle out of her hand.
“I think you should go lay down: you don’t look well,” Finn said a little louder. Loud enough that the men at the table turned to look at her, again. “I can take it from here.”
Elise nodded. His tone made it clear that there wasn’t much room for argument.
Wordlessly, she turned and walked into the back, where her room was.
She couldn’t breath until the door to her room had shut behind her.
Elise leaned her back against the door as realization broke over her. He saw me, she thought to herself. He saw me trying to put arsenic into the general’s tea!
Finn’s words came back to her: All of this goes away, as if it never happened. Could she trust him at his word, though? Or was he telling General Fleischer about the bottle of arsenic right then?
She sank to the floor and put a hand over her mouth before they could hear her sobbing. She was going to die. They were going to kill her. For nothing.
All she could do was sit there and wait for the inevitable.
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