Despite victory, we suffered our own losses, more than four hundred soldiers. In comparison to the enemy, our casualties were small. In the long term, knowing we had larger forces to face in the future, our losses seemed ten times as significant. This was especially true when we factored in the wounded, some of which wouldn’t be able to really contribute again despite every effort by the healers and cutters.
As cold as it sounded, transporting our injured was one more logistical problem I had to consider as we advanced toward Hol and I didn’t like it.
The injured began to dominate my thoughts as I approached the infirmary with Reuma at my side. Her anxiousness didn’t help matters. Not that I could fault her since Ira was among those being tended to. About twenty-five paces from the entrance, I took a deep breath.
I had hoped that by doing so I might not catch the smell and better prepare myself for what lay ahead. But the wind shifted, sending a gust of death, blood, and open wounds my way. I wanted to gag, or better, turn around and leave.
But I didn’t.
The men who took wounds, did so while under my command. For their losses, the least I could do was deal with a bad smell and my own sense of dread.
“You all right?” asked Reuma.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I finally answered.
I grit my teeth and pushed on, once more jangling my ankle chains with each step. Balak had not made my reprieve from them a permanent one.
Reuma fell in beside me. I could tell she wanted to push the pace in order to get to Ira, but she also didn’t want to just go off without me either. The fact that Dekar had sent her to report to me after the day’s battle rather than report himself, worried me.
I pushed the tent flap aside and the wall of smells and sound struck me like the wind from moments before could never duplicate. Cutters and healers bustled among patients—sawing, stitching, strapping down, bandaging, or using sorcery. The men I had gotten to help Noam seemed fully integrated into the crew. Despite their hard work, it looked as though another two dozen would better staff the place.
I made a mental note to see about that.
I made my way through the tent, ignoring the shiver that wanted to crawl up my back from each moan of pain. I stopped at each conscious man who had already been treated to thank him for his actions and wish him well. At times I felt like a fool for saying the words, especially in the instances where a man had lost a limb. No amount of thanks would make up for that, and I knew it.
I was glad they did not bring up that point. I must have looked as upset and sincere as I felt because each man thanked me in turn for my words.
Amazing. What could you say to something like that?
Reuma led me to the back of the tent where Ira lay. I could have found him on my own though. His cursing at Dekar rose above most of the other sounds running through the tent.
“Ty, will you tell him to quit fussing over me?” Ira asked as I walked up. “Worse than our mother used to be.”
“I’m not fussing, you idiot. I just want to make sure you’re all right.”
“I’m fine,” he said, wincing as he adjusted himself. Reuma helped him, and they exchanged a look of tenderness. His hand went to his bandaged right side. “Or will be by tomorrow according to Noam.” He addressed Dekar again. “By Prax, I’ve been worse off than this before. What’s gotten into you?”
Dekar said nothing. I’m not sure he had to. The concern was plain to see.
I said. “He just wants to make sure you live long enough to pay off the debt you owe me from two nights ago.”
Ira chuckled, then winced while holding his side again, which only made him grin wider. “Oh, I’ll live. But I ain’t paying nothing. You’re going to owe me twice as much when all is said and done.”
“We’ll see. Reuma, make sure Ira gets some rest tonight.”
She grinned. “Yes, sir.”
“C’mon, Dekar. I need you outside for a minute.”
Outside, about a hundred yards from the infirmary, I faced him. “Talk to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb. What’s going on? Why’d you send Reuma to report to me? And why were you bent on not leaving Ira?”
“I thought that was obvious. He’s injured.”
“As he said, he’s been injured before.”
Dekar shook his head.
“Molak-be-damned, Dekar, just spit it out.”
“Remember how you told Reuma and Ira to keep an eye out for Boaz?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, they did. Boaz was doing well, but just got a bit careless. Reuma had to jump in and save him. She got a bit overwhelmed, and Ira ran in to back her up. That’s how he got the wound.”
“That happens. I bet Boaz will do better next time.”
“I’m sure he will. He’s picking things up quick.”
“Then what’s got you up in arms?”
“I’ve never seen Ira jump in so recklessly. My brother has always been the joker and acts like he doesn’t take things seriously, but you and I both know he’s focused when he needs to be and does things the right way. But when he saw Reuma in trouble, it was like all that went out the window.”
I understood now. “So you think that Ira is going to get himself killed because anytime Reuma’s in trouble he’ll just throw himself carelessly in front of the danger to save her.”
“I don’t think it’ll happen Tyrus. It already happened.”
I grunted. “You want me to take her off your unit?”
“I can’t ask that. Ira would kill me. And honestly, I don’t want her off my unit. She’s too good.”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know. But I refuse to watch him die.”
* * *
“Things just don’t look good, sir,” I ended my report to Balak on the state of our forces.
He grunted while staring at the map before him. He had barely looked at me since I entered the tent, just listening as I summarized the battle.
I waited for a moment. “Sir?”
“I heard you, Tyrus. You’re too focused on the negative. You did even better than I expected you’d do. We’re in good shape.”
“But the losses . . .”
“Are unfortunate, but they would have been much higher with someone else in charge. Besides, by tomorrow that problem will be remedied.”
I frowned. “How?”
He looked up finally. “We’ll meet reinforcements in the afternoon here.”
I looked where he pointed. “There’s nothing there, or anywhere in the area.”
“There is, I just didn’t mark it.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want the hope of larger numbers affecting how you trained the men. Now with a larger force you’ll be able to do much more.”
I gritted my teeth, angry at the deception. “How many more are you talking about?
“Three thousand.”
My mouth dropped. Then my anger got the best of me. “Three thousand!” I shouted.
“Calm down,” Balak glared.
“Three thousand men? That force is larger than what we started with. We’re reinforcing them, not the other way around.”
“Quit being so melodramatic. I might even be able to bring in a bit more when all is said and done, but don’t hold your breath. Regardless, we should have at least five thousand soldiers ready to take Hol.”
“We could have used those men today. Our losses might have been even fewer. Gods, the Geneshans might have refrained from even engaging us.”
“Which was my worry. Just as we would have built our strength by waiting, so would they have built theirs. They have forces nearby here, here, and here. We needed to eliminate the group we faced today, and you did just that.”
I sh
ook my head, not sure I bought into that philosophy. Arguing about it now wouldn’t do any good. “Where did you even get three thousand men from?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I want to hear it.”
“It isn’t impor—”
“I want to hear it. Where did they come from? Who’s commanding them? How’d they get here? What is their makeup?”
“You can learn all that tomorrow and—”
“General, quit being difficult and secretive about everything. It’s just you and me. If you want me to command, then this isn’t something to keep from me.”
He worked his jaw. “All right. Immediately after the war, the king decided to send the entire twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth regiments east to Noval.”
I raised an eyebrow. “We never had a twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth regiment.”
“Not with the main host. They were stationed in Hol, mostly new recruits being held back to guard the capital in case we suffered another setback like Wadlow Hill.”
“How come I never heard about them?”
“Because you didn’t need to know about them. After the war, with the Geneshans culled, and a seasoned army at his disposal, the king wanted to do some expanding himself, so he ordered the regiments east to fortify our borders. How Noval responded to those fortifications, would determine what he did with the rest of the army.”
“So he was planning another war?”
“Starting to. I hinted at that when I dismissed you, if you remember.”
“I don’t get it. Why would the king bother discharging any of the army at all if he wanted to keep fighting?”
“Because he really didn’t have a good excuse to go to war with Noval. He was hoping Noval would show aggression to the three thousand he sent east. That would better justify keeping the main army together. Plus, it wouldn’t take nearly the resources to fight Noval as it did the Geneshan Empire. He thought that by sending some of the army home, he’d win favor with the populace and the soldiers.”
“He should have told Damanhur that.”
Balak’s eyes grew dark. “Yes.”
An uncomfortable silence followed. I had to admit, it was good to see him still so angry at their mistreatment of us, even if he had gone overboard in handling it.
He cleared his throat. “These men are all well-trained, but they are all green with the exception of their officers.”
My mind was already working on how to fold in three thousand new faces. It was a problem much nicer than the one I’d had minutes before.
“Three thousand,” I said under my breath.
He nodded.
A thought struck me. “How did they all survive? It seems that like your force, or everywhere else, there would have been a natural attrition after the eruption.”
“Well, by the time the artifact erupted, they were already at the Noval border, farther out than most from Hol. Also, these regiments are unique in that over five hundred men among them have either a full or partial resistance against sorcery. It made it far easier for them to recover against any of the artifact’s effects.”
My eyes bulged. “Why so many with a resistance concentrated in one area? We could have used more of them during the war before it had ended.”
“I know. I tried to obtain them. But the king was paranoid about the Geneshans and wanted the soldiers to help the city survive against sorcery if the Geneshans pushed inland. Oddly enough, if the king had kept those forces around Hol when the artifact erupted, some in Hol might have survived.”
“Last question,” I said. “Why are they coming?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why would they join forces with us? And more importantly, why would their officers surrender command to me when they have the greater numbers?
“Because I said so,” Balak grinned. “Their commander recognizes me as the leader of all of Turine’s armies, and he understands I’m the best chance for this country’s survival.”
The look he held said he was probably hiding something from me. If he was, he wouldn’t tell me. If he wasn’t, I’d only get on his bad side for nothing.
I had to let the whys go and look at the positive news of more than doubling my fighting force. However, as usual, the positive only lasted so long.
Sorry Zadok, I thought to myself, your old man just can’t stop worrying about something new. I smiled briefly at the thought.
I missed my kids constantly.
* * *
Situated in such a way that the smoke would not blow back toward camp, the bonfires burned brightly in the night just outside of our camp. The walk was a pain with chains around my ankles again, yet I made it anyway.
My post-battle ritual was one I couldn’t ignore. Many dealt with losses differently, some drowning in a bottle, others reminiscing, some praying. I went to the fires and thought of the sacrifices and lost lives. I told people I never knew, and often never met, thank you and good-bye.
I stood for some time near the center bonfire, as near as I dared go with the heat and smell, watching morbidly as the flames ate away clothes and flesh. By morning, all that would be left was bone. We’d bury the remains before leaving.
Over four hundred men died under my command. Even in victory, that was a hard thing to bear. Of those four hundred, I knew that not all were what many might call good men, but today they had been soldiers, fighting for their brethren as well as their lives.
They deserved my time remembering them.
I turned at the sound of footsteps behind me. Hamath came to a stop on my right. That was a surprise.
During the Geneshan War we both spent a great deal of time at the bonfires. Given the changes in Hamath, I didn’t think he would care enough to show up—not so much about the soldiers who died, though I did wonder, but about me. Instead of giving me a report on the battle today, he had sent one of the men in his unit to take his place.
I still hadn’t figured out how best to handle that situation.
“Thought I’d find you here,” he said.
“Old habits.”
“You mean the one where you slap on another layer of guilt over something you had no control over.”
I grunted. “I had full control this time. More than four hundred died under my orders.”
“How many more would have died had someone else commanded? You didn’t strike the killing blows.”
“But I put them in the places to receive them, didn’t I?”
Hamath sighed and shook his head. “I’m tired of arguing with you, Tyrus. Truly.”
“I never wanted to argue with you. Just seems like we can barely talk to each other anymore without doing so.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t say anything to each other then. At least for a while.”
“That’s an idea,” I grunted. I was ready to try nearly anything to bring peace between us.
Side by side, we stared into the flames of the dead.
CHAPTER 20
Hamath and I never spoke another word that night, but we must have stood there for hours. I think something passed between us then. Not everything was made right. Everything definitely wasn’t back to how it used to be. It probably never would be. However, we at least came to what felt like an understanding.
We spoke with each other the next day only about the battle, working together rather than against each other about what went wrong and what worked, making notes for our next confrontation with the Geneshans.
Without saying so, I think we decided to ignore the unanswered questions about our time apart. We’d never see eye-to-eye on certain matters so why push the issue? It pained me knowing that I had lost my best friend in that way, and that I’d never be able to talk to him as I once had. That being said, it was good to know that we had at least gotten to the point where we could maintain a working re
lationship.
Sadly, I had been holding onto a memory. The man I once knew was gone. I had to accept that and realize that at best we were casual friends. We had become acquaintances who respected what each brought to their positions in the army.
* * *
Later that evening, a large force became visible over the horizon. If not for Balak’s advanced warning, as well as reports from our scouts, I’d have been worried. Seeing three thousand soldiers moving with discipline the army we fought the previous day lacked was a bit unnerving.
“They look impressive,” said Dekar.
I had moved to the top of a hill near our camp to watch the approaching force. Besides, my ever-present shadow of Etan, I brought Dekar along as well. I kept Ira at camp to oversee afternoon drills and nurse his injuries.
“According to Balak, they haven’t had much to worry about except drilling over the past year. I’d expect them to look impressive on the march.”
“How does Balak know so much about an army half way across Turine?”
The High Mages were the only answer. He had them working several tasks, I knew. I presumed they were also able to communicate with someone in that army. After all, Balak had mentioned transfer portals. Our scouts certainly weren’t ranging hundreds of miles away and back.
“Can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Pretty much the same thing in this instance.”
He bobbed his head. “Have you figured out how to incorporate the two armies together?”
I grunted. “That’s mostly all I’ve thought about since yesterday. However, I can’t reach any conclusions until I get a measure of them and speak with their officers, especially Captain Urion. He’s their commander. I’m a bit worried about that first discussion with him.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine it’s going to sit well with him for you to take over an army he’s commanded for quite some time.”
“Especially as I move things around. That’s a lot of power to give up.”
I looked at Etan. “Ready to meet them?”
Resurrected Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book Three Page 20