Chapter 8

The watchtower garrison had been reduced to a black, smoldering wreck. What was once the eye through which the Justitian Empire watched over Riverside and the neighbouring settlements by the river Kalde was now a mockery of said rule. The corpses of the defenders were strewn about the fields surrounding the remnant of the tower. Some had been horrifically mutilated, others had been burned to a crisp. They had managed to take some of their killers down with them, however: Two dragons laid motionless by the river, with red trails running down their orange and light blue bodies.

The rest of Riverside stood in sharp contrast to the carnage at the tower. The idyllic houses and fields of the village were no different from the last time Victor was here. There wasn’t a single stone or blade of grass that looked out of place, nor any stray victims of war in the village itself. It was as if no battle had taken place here at all.

After the initial shock wore off, Victor and his companions slowly trotted towards the tower. The strong scent of blood mixed with ash hung in the air, a smell which strengthened the closer they got to the tower. William and Victor winced upon seeing how bad the nightmare truly was. Large patches of grass had burned away, or were painted red. At their feet lay the body of one of the soldiers in a pool of his own blood. His armor had been destroyed, exposing the marks of a claw swipe running vertically over the man’s back.

Eric rolled the body over. The soldier’s face carried an expression of unparalleled horror. His last moments must have been terrifying, thought Victor. Those facial features… Victor had seen them before, but couldn’t put his finger on where. It then dawned on him. This was the soldier that rode with him in the carriage all those weeks ago. Victor shuddered. He resented the man, but never wished this upon him. He wouldn’t wish such a cruel fate upon anyone, not even his worst enemies.

“Look over there!” yelled William from some distance, his finger pointing to something obscured by the tower. Victor quickly ran back up to his companions. William pointed towards a dozen still living soldiers, resting under the shade of the trees by the river. Some of the soldiers had spotted the company, and gestured for them to come closer. They had been badly roughed up: their faces were covered in grime, their armor was dented and damaged, and a few clutched their wounds.

The company ran to the soldiers. A feminine voice ordered them to stop as they approached. The voice, which spoke perfect Lokahnian, came from a woman with short, brown hair, holding her arm before her chest. The golden stripes on her linen collar marked her stature. A light surprise for the company; it wasn’t often that one would meet a female soldier, let alone a female captain in the Justitian armies; both men and women didn’t see it as a very ladylike calling. But that was all secondary to the events at hand.

The captain slowly stepped towards the company, occasionally wincing and squeezing her left arm with her free hand. “Citizens, what are you doing out here? Get yourselves to somewhere safe, anywhere but here!”

One of the soldiers moaned in excruciating pain. “Excuse us, miss, but we’re members of Ravens Hill Civil Defense. We’d like to help, if that’s possible,” said Eric.

The captain sighed. “I was hoping for more help than three scruffy-looking mercs, but I can’t choose at the moment. Listen, there should be a box of bandaids and medicine on the ground floor of the tower, and they would come in handy right about now. Can you guys bring that box to me, provided that it hasn’t caught ablaze yet? It’s a brown box with a red gavel on it.”

Eric bumped William with his elbow. “Can you go fetch it, Will? This sounds like your speciality.”

William stared at him with disbelief. “W-what? You can’t be serious, what do you mean it’s my speciality?” he begged Eric. He sounded pathetic. Victor stared at the lifeless dragons behind them out of embarrassment.

“Well, you’re the guy familiar with scavenging right? You said you did it a lot during your hunting trips.”

“Well, yeah, but… not from a burning building!”

The captain didn’t take this bickering very well. “Why don’t all three of you go look for it instead of doing this garbage? Justitia almighty...”

Victor wasn’t impressed, either. A small sigh escaped his throat, before he spoke. “Let’s just get that box, guys,” he said. “We’re not here to argue.” He pushed his companions in the direction of the tower, and both hesitated before taking the hint.

“Idiots…” said the captain, as the three ran off.

Little remained of the conflagration barring a few sparks, as seen from the outside. The company pushed the fortified wooden door forwards without a hitch. The ground floor had mercifully been spared from most of the fire, barring some debris from the floors above. After a brief search, they found the the box resting an inch away from a collapsed bit of the upper floors. Thankfully, the box was still intact, albeit covered in a little ash. A look inside revealed that the contents were still intact: the bandages and potions sat neatly in their little square spaces still.

The captain had returned to the cool shade of the tree by the time the company came back from their search. She comforted one of her soldiers by laying her right hand on his shoulder. His eyes were wide open, but looked lifelessly dead ahead. Small, ragged breaths rapidly entered and escaped his mouth. He must have seen something horrible, thought Victor.

The captain’s head shot upwards, and filled with surprise when she saw the company approach again.

“Back so soon?”

“Yes, umm, this is the box you were looking for, I think,” William said.

“Ah, so you lot are useful after all,” the captain said. Eric bit his cheek. He wasn’t pleased at being treated with contempt, an emotion his face made crystal clear. “Perfect… this is just what we needed. I suppose I owe you guys a thanks. So thank you.”

“No problem, captain. We are always pleased to help out,” said Eric.

“Just call me Bellona,” said the captain. “That’s the way I prefer it.”

“Sure. Anyway, is there something else we can do to help, Bellona?” Eric said.

“Not really, besides seeing whether the reinforcements have arrived yet. Again, I’d rather not work with mercs. Don’t ask why, just take it for what it is, okay?”

“Well, then I suppose-”

“Actually, is it okay if you told us what exactly happened here?” Victor asked, cutting off Eric. “Why is there no damage to the rest of the village?”

Bellona scowled at Victor. “Bastard...” she muttered under her breath, with her fists clenched. Victor rolled his eyes in an angry manner. Why don’t you keep that to yourself, like I do, bitch? He wasn’t one to start physical confrontations, but that didn’t mean he’d accept getting insulted over nothing.

“Well, we were minding our own business, when suddenly we heard townsfolk screaming, and the sound of something being beaten against the wind. Next thing I know, three dragons are setting my tower and my men ablaze. I had everyone evacuate the tower, since it wasn’t going to hold out for very long, what with three dragons breathing on it.”

“And what happened next?” asked Eric.

“Well, the dragons landed to attack us head on. This was my initial plan, actually. I believed that since we were with more, we could overwhelm them. Turns out that the beasts are actually very agile. It was horrible, they tore through my men and we couldn’t inflict more than a couple scratches. They brutally ripped people apart who just wanted to keep the peace, and they took such pleasure in it, too.”

“They took pleasure in killing? How do you know that?” Eric continued.

The captain let out a deep sigh. “Well, you don’t need to be a master of sorcery to figure that out. They bore these sadistic looks on their… whatever you’d call their faces. See that orange one over there? He pinned one of my men on the ground, then laughed as he slowly ripped open his back like a hot knife through butter. It was horrible.”

“So, how did you end up killing them?” Victor pointed at the dragon corpses behind them. “You said there were three, and there’s two dead ones right there. How did you do that?”

“Well, after the first approach failed, I came up with a new plan. I ordered my archers to get in formation by the river, precisely where we are standing right now, in fact. Then, I had my footmen and myself act as bait. We would catch their attention, then run as fast as we could to the archer line, tricking the beasts into following us. Turns out, dragons are easy to fool. The blue one sped through the air to catch their latest victim, and was greeted by arrows. It fell to the ground shrieking in pain, and the soldier it chased after now put his sword through its gut. Then, we did the same to the orange one, with similar success. And that’s how we slew ourselves some monsters.”

“Wait, wasn’t there another one?” William said.

“Oh yes, there was. A dark blue one. One of my men told me earlier that he saw it fly off after we killed the orange one. Smart move on their part. Here’s to hoping it learned its lesson, now that its fellow beasts are rotting in the abyss.”

“...!”

A commanding voice then revealed itself from behind. It shouted in a language the company recognized, but didn’t understand themselves: Justitian. Soon afterwards, the sounds of men shouting and chainmail sabatons crunching into the dirt replaced the lone voice. Victor turned around to see imperial soldiers running across the fields straight towards them, their weapons still sheathed.

“Finally! There are my reinforcements!” shouted Bellona.

The soldiers had come well prepared for the tasks at hand: They had brought along medical supplies for the injured, and a few empty carriages for the deceased. Captain Bellona and the male captain coordinated their actions in Justitian. Victor and Eric remained by the river, with William standing behind them, and waited for someone to give them orders. They occasionally waved to try and catch someone’s attention, but it didn’t work. It was a silly folly: The soldiers’ training had made them far too disciplined to drop the task at hand for the whims of lowly mercenaries.

Gradually, the red fields were cleared of bodies. Once the final victim was loaded onto the caravan, the male captain instructed his men to start clearing out the tower. Bellona told her men to rest easy. Finally, she walked calmly back to the company, who paced about the banks of the Kalde.

“Well then, I’d like to offer a more proper thank you,” Bellona said, holding her hand out to the company. Eric accepted the gesture, and shaked her hand.

“No problem, Bellona,” said Eric. He then took a step back, to give Victor and William room to accept her kind gesture as well. William blushed as he shook hands, eventually opting to put his free hand in front of his mouth.

“That’s a rather weak handshake, laddie. You ought to practice more with that, lest you want to stay untaken, of course.” Bellona chuckled, something which Eric heartily joined in on. Victor remained ambivalent, still on the edge from the captain’s insult earlier. He tolerated his handshake with her, feeling that it was a mere formal thing, and not something that came from the good of the heart.

“Right then.” said Bellona as she and Victor let go of each other’s hand. “If you excuse me, I’ll have to send you lot off. It’s protocol that no civilians get near a scene like this. I hope you understand.” The three members of the company all nodded. “Good. One more thing before you go, you said you were members of the Ravens Hill Civil Defense, correct?”

“Yes, that is true,” said Eric, pointing to the tiny membership badge pinned to his chest. “I’m a full-fledged member, while these guys are just Initiates. I’m hoping they’ll become members like me sometime soon.”

Bellona grinned. “That’s nice to hear. I wish you all success in your future endeavors. Anyway, I’ll mention to my superior officers that you lot came to our help. And… that’s it. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, captain Bellona."