[62]

“What do you mean you are Tedric’s brother? Tedric is a Kestev, and you are a Pew?” Joy demanded. It was apparent to Raxx and me that her inability to discover this information made her angry.

I was not too pleased either. My heartbeat in my chest while I waited for an explanation. The three of us together could not stop Gene in the training dungeon. There was nothing we could do if the same thing occurred in real life, except maybe run in different directions. Knowing that he was a blood relative of the man who swore to make me pay turned my mood black.

Gene took a swig of a waterskin filled with a spirit so potent I could smell it ten feet away. After a nice long gulp, he wiped off his face and looked at Joy.

“Our father disowned me,” Gene said, licking his lips. Despite the severity of the proclamation, our team leader looked unmoved, lacking the expected resentment. He just looked a little drunk.

In silence, we waited for him to continue. Nobles only took titles away for grave offenses.

“I wanted to go fight in the Ruinlands,” Gene said, looking back toward Ashmere. “But, since I was the eldest, he forbade me to touch a Godstone. I did it anyway, and my brother GIles took my place.” Gene said, shrugging.

A shorter story than I anticipated. Still, I was not at ease just yet.

“Wait, you wanted to get sent to the forts?” Izzy asked, an incredulous look on her face. That was the biggest fear anyone touching a stone had!

“Ever since I was a kid,” Gene said, nodding.

Raxx let out a barking laugh. “And you still failed!”

Gene sighed, then took another swig of drink. “That I did. Instead of going off to fight in the Ruinlands, living a militant life of action, Koth sent me to Ashmere. I gave up my family and lifelong friends for the chance, and my reward is listening to stupid lectures and having to train idiots like you three.”

Raxx laughed even louder, and this time Gene laughed with him, tossing his wineskin at the Harak. Raxx snatched it out of the air and took his own big gulp.

“Well, if you were disowned, why would Ergentein want to go after you?” I asked. An insane thought leaked over from my subconscious mind, what if Gene sacked my hometown? He would have been perfect for that. Reynold could have brought him along.

“Why indeed,” Gene said, snorting.

“Answer the question,” I demanded, feeling my ire growing stronger than my sense.

Gene looked at me curiously, eyebrow arched. “I’d be useless as a ransom, it’s true. But if they could get a hold of me, they might be able to convince Tedric to cooperate with whatever they are planning.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

Gene shrugged, catching the wineskin Raxx threw back to him and taking another deep drink.

“Enough with the drinking for now, I need to talk to you about something,” Izzy said, interrupting their festive mood.

“Yeah?” Gene said, a lingering smile on his rosy face.

“We got attacked by a Doom Champion at the Derek’s Fall rest area. An ambush party filled with ghouls was with it. You need to talk to the other team—” Izzy continued.

I missed the rest because Joy stalked over to me and pulled me away from the group.

Once we were out of earshot, Joy spoke. “I don’t like this.”

“Don’t like what?” I said patiently. There were a rather large number of things I found concerning about our situation. Her displeasure lacked specificity.

“Gene being a stinking Kestev,” Joy said, slapping my arm in annoyance.

“I can’t say that I care for that either,” I said.

“I didn’t want to attack Ergentein soldiers on Reynold’s behalf before, and now that I know Gene’s perspective is tainted, I especially don’t want to do it.” Joy said.

“So, what can we do? Izzy wants to stop a war, which I agree with in spirit, even if we all know it's a lost cause. Gene wants to save his brother, and we have to follow his commands. The two most experienced people on the team outvote and outrank us.” I said.

“Yeah, but they are depending on me to track the cavalry.” Joy said with a wicked smile.

“Uh, surely it won’t be too hard to follow a trail of over a dozen horses?”

“For now, that is true. But the further north we go? The landscape will get rockier, and the cold earth harder to follow. There will be a point where they will have to rely on me finding the correct route.”

I nodded, thinking it over. Her plan had merit, but I worried what Gene would do if we did not find the men. Would he have us circle back around? How far out of our way would he order us to go? The biggest problem was that I did not want to lie to Izzy. Even if I disagreed with her, she was still a friend.

“We may not even have to wait that long,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if we can confirm that there are other ambushes in place, Izzy won’t want us to follow the trail of the soldiers. You know, like we have been doing all day today. Each time you ‘ride out’ to make sure we are on the path; you can lead us a little further away each time.”

“Right! If he comes with me, I can just say they must have turned off. It’s not like he’s going to ride backwards to check and see if I am lying.” Joy nodded.

“Why do you think they put him with us?” I asked, switching the topic back to Gene’s revelation.

“My gut isn’t saying that it is a setup. That makes little sense. The Ministerium has its share of politics and bureaucratic nonsense—I can’t believe that anyone there would want us to die though. More likely, they put him with us in case Reynold tried something. Gene is an excellent deterrent for anyone that knows him. He’s as pigheaded as he is strong. Familial influence would not work on him the same way it would most nobles.”

“Yet, he still ran off in the middle of the night to save them,” I pointed out.

“True,” Joy admitted. “But wanting to save his family isn’t the same as wanting to kill on their behalf. And? Who knows, maybe he really means all that crap about protecting students of Ashmere.” Joy said.

Her reasoning made me feel a little better, but not enough to eradicate the dark undercurrent of doubt. If Gene was not on the up and up or had anything at all to do with Weston being burned, I would spend the rest of my days making him suffer. Same for Reynold.

That was a promise.

Joy and I went back to the camp, and soon after, she left my side to go talk with Raxx. I returned my attention to Izzy and Gene, who were talking loudly. Well, Gene was talking loudly, while Izzy looked like a mother that had just found her toddler trying to eat a dog turd.

“Think of all that essence, though!” Gene said eagerly. He looked half a step away from jumping on his poor worn out warhorse and riding off.

Of course, the idiot wants to try his hand with the undead monster who’s aura makes the likes of Izzy quake. At least I know now that stupidity is a family trait for the Kestev’s, I thought.

“You want the rest of your team to die?” Izzy said, glaring.

“No! Just, you know, stay back and I’ll take care of it.” Gene said, unperturbed by her look. “I mean, it is our mission to exterminate them.”

“Call in the other teams then! There is no reason to take a risk this big, Gene.”

“You don’t think I can do it, do you?” Gene said, getting angry.

“No, I don’t. You don’t have the rank to handle that creature. It is old.”

Against all reason, that seemed to mollify the nutter. “What rank do you think it is?”

“At least 25 would be my guess.”

“Aren’t you like rank 30?” Gene asked.

“Yeah, but regular classes aren’t designed to take on monsters like ascended do. We work together in large groups, coordinating our skills and equipment. I would not go after that creature with anything less than a company.”

“How many of our teams would we need?”

“As many as we can get,” Izzy said.

“Are you sure we can’t just go get Tedric’s group and take care of it?”

“I’m sure, Gene.” Izzy said patiently.

“All right, fine,” Gene said, sitting on the ground with a clank. After nearly a minute of rummaging through his backpack, he pulled out a device that looked like a compass. He opened it up, then gave Izzy a second look.

“You know, once I send out the beacon, there is no coming back, right? They are all going to rush to this location.” Gene said nervously.

It took me longer than it should have to realize that he was worried about his brother not responding. Once he pushed that button, if Tedric did not come he would know for sure that the Ergentein troopers had caught up with him. Even worse, it might cause Tedric to run into the pursuing soldiers.

“I know,” Izzy said softly, placing a hand on his big shoulder. “Once the field commander arrives, he will handle things. Then we can continue after those horsemen.”

Gene nodded, then pushed down on a little button under the lid of the compass.

“It’s done,” was all he said.

I gave Joy a quick wink. This was a good turn of events. The longer we waited, the harder it would be for us to save Reynold. Gene’s loss was my gain, but I respected him more for his decision. Not that he would care about that. The best part was now we did not have to lie to Izzy.

Without another word, we all set to building up the camp to receive the others.