A Soldier's Life

Chapter 130: Disconcerting Decisions

As I joined the company for breakfast, I didn’t feel immortal. Quite the opposite. Even with my slow aging active, I was constantly in danger being part of the legion. I realized I had become somewhat numb to a fear of injury and death—it was just part of my daily life now.

Castile was watching the dire wolf as she ate some dried fruit and salted crackers. “Blaze, can you hit it? She asked the marksman.

Blaze looked up, excited at the prospect of finally getting his wish. He rushed to stand next to Castile, and studied the dire wolf for a few moments, “No, the arrow’s arc most likely would not make it through the branches. Maybe if we encountered a clearing.”

Castile studied the massive wolf and said, “Take the shot if you think you can get it.” Blaze nodded emphatically and went through his arrows, selecting the best one for when the opportunity arose.

It was a long breakfast and a slow time packing up the camp, and Delmar did not rush us as normal. My suspicion was everyone was dragging because they knew we would be close to the Caelora and the specters this evening. Castile had me open one of the salves to give to Lirkin. He was using small swabs of the gel on the worst blistering and chafing of the company. Some men had gained weight in Sobral, and their armor did not fit perfectly anymore. It was a luxury we could afford now that we had a supply.

As we started the march, the dire wolf followed us but remained in the trees far back, not giving Blaze an opportunity to take the shot. It appeared much smarter than it should be. During a rest, I heard Konstantin talking with Castile, “The dire wolf will stop following us when we get within the site of the ruins. I am surprised it has followed us this far, but they are smart creatures and know not to approach the undead city.”

Castile muttered with some snark, “I am assuming you are suggesting we are not as intelligent as a dire wolf for going into the city?”

Konstantin shrugged and retorted with his own snark, “I have never met a smart human before. We all eventually do something stupid—more often than realize.”

Castile shook her head, smirking at the comment, but nodded in agreement. She looked back at the wolf, concern on her face, “Do you think you and Flavius could hide and ambush it when it passed? I am certain there is only the one.”

Konstantin studied the dire wolf, its yellow eyes seeming to glow from the distance. “With five of us, maybe? Eryk, Maveith, Blaze, and Flavius,” he named his choices for the ambush. I let out a low grunt from nearby but was ignored. Why was I always being volunteered?

Castile ended up shaking her head, “No. Perhaps it is as you say and will leave us as we approach the elven ruins.”

The afternoon wore on, and the road got wider as we passed over familiar stones. In one break of the trees, I could see the mammoth tree jutting out of the city ruins. Konstantin said the elves maintained gardens of special trees. Scholar Favian also noticed the tree, “That must be a Hearth Tree—a ceremonial tree where the elven dead were buried among the roots to be returned to the earth. The roots run deep, and they never stop growing. The First Legion supposedly cut all of them down within the Empire’s borders. The lumber was used to construct the Emperor’s Palace in the capital.”

“How?” Maveith asked, awed by the tree as well. I would think it would take a hundred men to circle that gigantic tree.”

As he stepped from behind a tree, Konstantin answered the question, “Magic felled the trees, of course, goliath.” He looked up at the canopy, which was odd as it was the only tree that still had all green leaves while every other tree in the forest was turning fall colors and losing its leaves.

Konstantin had a sour look on his face because I had not spotted him sneaking up on me. He noted, “Giant eagles were nesting in it the last time we passed.”

Adrian relayed to everyone in his command voice, “Giant eagles are a danger and can lift a man a hundred feet in the air and drop them to their death.” He made eye contact with everyone, “Do not wander in the open unless you want to test your ability to fly.”

We broke into the clearing around the city. Looking at it now, it felt like the forest respected the city’s territory, and there was no overgrowth from the road toward the city. It had been fifteen hundred years, yet the four hundred yards to the city were utterly unobstructed up to the walls.

Konstantin gave the orders, “We will stay under the cover of the trees as we circle to the western gate.” As we moved under them, few leaves were left on the higher branches. The company made a slow pace as we scanned the skies and the woods. I was not the only one to see the dire wolf off in the distance woods, still keeping track of us. I guess the city did not scare it off.

On our right, it was easy to see the city walls were crumbling. Large sections of the ramparts had collapsed. Some ancient foundations could be seen outside the city wall, with the wooden structure they once supported long since collapsed and rotted away. The sense of death was strong, with the vegetation refusing to grow and only the massive green tree jutting out of the city.

When we reached the western gate, we found a large wooden gate the height of two men and wide enough for six horses to ride abreast through. Delmar questioned aloud, “Why has the gate not rotted to dust?”

Scholar Favian answered, “The elves treat their wood with a preservative that can last the lifetime of an elf. Elves can live more than a millennia.”

Blaze, who had incredible eyesight, said, “It is not in good condition. It looks to have some rot, and there appears to be a gap on the right.” He pointed, but I could not see anything inside the city.

Castile studied the sky. “We will make camp further away and enter the city in the morning with an exploration group composed of those of you that have runic weapons, the Scholar, and myself. Everyone else will guard the camp.” I almost laughed when Brutus realized that claiming the runic sword prize came at a weighty price. I had obviously fallen into the trap as well. Although I suspected even if I didn’t have a runic weapon, I would have volunteered.

We moved two miles from the city and found a small ruined watch tower similar to the one we stayed on the river. There had once been a road that passed by this tower, but the forest had long since reclaimed it. Most of the walls had collapsed, but it would be easily defensible, and with the dire wolf still watching us, the added security was welcome. While men moved large stones in the rubble to clear space for tents and make it more defensible, Konstantin had Brutus and I practice against each other.

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I was finding the black blade’s added length more suited my strength. Without using my air shields, Brutus and I were good training partners. Konstantin and Adrian gave us pointers as they supervised the clearing of the ruined tower’s interior.

I actually preferred this practice to moving the large stones with everyone else. Benito complained, “I thought after a month of moving those cursed white marble markers, I would never have to move a stone again.”

Kolm clapped him on the back, “But you are so good at! I bet you could roll that stone out at the entrance.”

Firth quickly doubted Benito’s ability, “I don’t know. He is the smallest man in the company.”

Benito leaped at the opportunity, “I bet you a large copper I could!” I don’t know if I should feel bad for Benito for getting tricked into doing the extra work; after all, he got a copper out of it.

Everyone was famished as the sun set and a strong fire burned in the camp’s center. The walls around us were between twelve and twenty feet, so we felt safe. Dark clouds had moved in to cover the moon and stars, making it pitch black out in the woods. We established a shit pit going into the old basement of the tower, as no one was going out into the woods tonight. I heard Blaze tell Delmar he could see the yellow eyes of the dire wolf in the dark.

I had a choice when I entered my dreamscape amulet later that night. I could start working on a new spell form or practice with my new sword. I opted for sword practice as I didn’t want to get distracted trying to learn a new spell form during our exploration. I kept my practice short to just three hours. When I exited the dreamscape, all was quiet, and the weather had gotten very cold.

I pulled out my heavy rain cloak and wrapped myself to sit by the fire. I was not the only one. Three men were guarding the archway into the tower, and two other men were at the fire. I sat with them, glad for the heat. I was not surprised; one of the men was Konstantin, and the other was Delmar. They were talking quietly and just nodded at me as I sat across from them. The crackling of the wet wood made it impossible to hear what they were talking about.

Castile came and sat next to me unexpectedly. Delmar asked her, “Is something wrong?”

Castile looked to the sky, “The wolf is still out there, watching. And these clouds are not natural.”

Konstantin shook his head irately, “The summoner?”

Castile nodded slowly, “I think so. Some type of storm elemental is causing the clouds.”

Delmar cursed, “An orge’s ass, Castile. If it is Traeliorn, we should run now.”

Konstantin stirred the coals calmly, “It is probably too late. Depending on what he summons to attack us, we might have to take refuge in the city.”

Castile offered some hope, “It might just be another of his apprentices. We will see how strong the elemental is when it changes the weather.” As if she had cursed us, a few snowflakes started falling, quickly becoming bigger and heavier. The fire sizzled as larger and larger flakes were consumed on the coals.

No one spoke until Konstantin finally said, “Seems like a powerful elemental to me.”

The camp was quickly awoken, and everyone was ordered to pack. I was close enough to Castile, Adrian, and Delmar to overhear. Delmar wanted to retreat, “We should get back on the road and race back to Sobral.” He added,“If we are going to run, we could also head east. Parvas is much closer than Sobral.”

The wet snow was accumulating quickly, pulling the heat from my body, and my toes were getting numb. My breath was a solid cloud every time I exhaled. I just hoped they decided soon. My gear was packed, and I was ready.

Adrian thought staying was wiser, “If we march in this snow, at the rate it is falling, it could be a man’s height in half a day. We should fortify the tower and prepare for the summoner.”

Castile finally decided, “We don’t know how far the storm reaches. The dire wolf knows we are in the tower. I think the storm elemental is creating the snow, so we don’t move from here. Whatever beast he is planning to summon, it will know where to find us. He might be holding us here so he has time to summon a creature. We cannot deal with a wyvern,” she said emphatically. Reluctantly, she decided on a course of action. “We march for Parvas.”

When Castile mentioned a wyvern, I thought Castile would give me a look, but she didn’t. Delmar called out, “Three days food. Lighten your pack of non-essentials.” Delmar was giving us the freedom to decide what we wanted to drop. The snow, already three inches deep after just fifteen minutes, was soon littered with legion gear and food. The falling snow quickly covered cooking sets, tarps, spare clothes, discarded food, and hatchets.

Everyone was confused about the snow and marching before dawn. Glowstones were out, lighting our way through the deepening snow. Adrian moved among the men, letting them know what was happening so rumors would not spread. Visibility was only about thirty feet, and we marched three abreast and in close formation. The front of the line suddenly stopped.

Everyone moved forward to circle a blue spectral form of a child. It was thrashing at the snow, frustrated. Konstantin already had his blade out and was flexing his forearm, eager to strike down the undead. He was scanning the snow further away, and you could see more figures moving. Castile had dropped her pack and removed a large bronze urn, the kettle of souls.

Konstantin looked down at her, “They are wandering far from the walls. They must be killing the vegetation at night. We should be safe on the road.”

Castile stood with the urn. “Destroy that specter. Let’s confirm this will work if we need it.”

Konstantin eagerly stepped forward. The specter looked just like a child, just translucent. When it looked up, its face was twisted in pain as it lunged at Konstantin. His slash left a blue line on the specter, pushing it back as his sword sparked. A second strike followed, and the apparition deformed and melted slowly into the ground.

Castile moved forward, holding out the urn. Her feet crunched on the snow, and her breath created large clouds in front of her. The urn had blue sparks flash over it as she focused aether into the device. Where the specter had melded into the ground, wisps of blue-violent smoke flowed up and into the urn. It was similar to the smoke from forming an essence, but it had a deeper purple color.

Castile breathed a sigh of relief as she capped the urn. Konstantin asked, “What happens now that it is inside that?”

She shook the urn, but we couldn’t hear anything. She explained, “It is destroyed. Aether crystal dust with a necromantic affinity for alchemy. I had never used one before, and it just felt like it was draining the heat from my hands.” Adrian rushed forward to attack another specter of an older woman who was more white than blue and had blended in the snowfall.

“Runic weapons to the front. Do not fire any of the arrows unless you absolutely must!” I drew my blade and formed the front line with Adrain to my left and Brutus to my right. Castile was drawing the second dead specter into the urn.

My first opponent was the image of a guardsman. He wielded a spectral blade, and my slash passed through the blade and connected with his body. I did not get the same sparks as Konstantin’s blade, but it felt like I had struck something akin to a training dummy. I stabbed with my next strike, pushing it back. My third attack was an overhead swing onto its head, and it finally started to meld into the ground.

Blue wisps of violet smoke from my defeated foe flowed back toward Castile. Nine specters were killed before they stopped coming. Adrian was breathing heavily and accounting for all twenty-three men and Castile. Delmar barked, “It is getting heavier, Castile.” He was right, as the flakes were larger and the line of sight decreased.

Konstantin advised, “We will never make it if the snowfall is this heavy all the way to Parvas.” Everyone’s helm had an inch of snow on it. The snow also melted on our necks from our body heat, soaking our clothes under the armor. Hypothermia was going to be a real problem soon.

Castile’s hands were blue from the cold as she held the bronze urn. I produced leather gloves from my dimensional space and handed them to her. She took them absent-mindedly. She was considering entering the city, and we all knew it. Finally, the words came out with vitriol, “Cursed summoner. We make for the city’s gate.”

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