Chapter 13

Drystan headed into the forest first to look for her but it wasn’t long before the others joined in.

“We have a mission,” Thomas told them again, finding it hard work to trudge through a forest in his thick cloak.

“And we have a missing soldier; we don’t leave anyone behind,” Drystan told him, his past coming to his mind. He would never leave another person behind again.

“Bloody trees,” Iagan growled, using his sword to slash at defenceless branches.

“Iagan, watch out,” Dawn advised him from the back of pack, “There’s a bog there,”

“Ah!” Iagan let out a surprised wail, falling backwards slightly.

Drystan stared at the ground where surely there was a bog, but how had she known it was there?

But they didn’t have time for this so he pushed on, seeing through the trees to the other side of the forest, when a strange sound filled his ears.

Sharing a confused look with the others he removed his sword and moved off the beaten track and into the small undergrowth.

After a brief patch wilderness they broke through into another small clearing where he found an elderly man, a soldier with the patch he had found Isadora staring at that one time, bleeding profusely from his abdomen.

“What happened?” Drystan asked, kneeling beside the man who instantly reached out and gripped him by the collar, his blood staining his shirt.

“You- You have to find her,” The man winced when something hurt.

“Thomas,” Drystan shouted and he rushed forward to aid to his wound. After a moment he shared a look with Drystan, shaking his head, confirming what Drystan already knew. They were too late.

Drystan looked back at the man, “Find who? Who did this to you?”

“Isadora,” He grunted, “My daughter. You have to save her,”

Everyone looked at each other with shock; Isadora had killed her own father.

“Isadora stabbed you?” Drystan frowned, unable to believe it. The man nodded his head, his breathing coming fast.

“I knew she was crazy,” Dawn told them smugly.

Drystan wanted to tell her to shut up when the man did it for him.

“No!” He spat out venomously, coughing up some more blood, “It’s not her fault.”

“She ran you through with her own sword. Was she possessed?” Dawn snapped.

“Just leave it alone,” Dermott advised her.

“I left her,” He explained, his hand still tight on Drystan’s collar, “Our village was attacked when she was little and I left my family,” he let out a loud choking sob as he remembered.

Drystan dropped his sword and clasped his hand in his, offering some comfort in his last moments.

“She watched her mother and sister raped and murdered,” He sobbed, “When I arrived she was gone and I didn’t look for her like I should have done . . . not in the way she looked for me,”

Everyone went silent as they took on the weight of Izzie’s past and why she was the way she was. Drystan bowed his head, simply trying to imagine how horrible that would have been was bad enough.

“Why do we have to save her?” Jarred stepped forward, changing the topic.

“She’s . . . changed. He’s changed her,” the man’s chest was racked with coughs and Drystan could feel him going.

“Who’s ‘He’?” Drystan leaned close, feeling his chest tighten at the thought of Isadora being in danger and the idea of losing her to evil was too much to bear. He had to save her.

“Colt,” the man choked on his own blood, “He’s made her his second in command,”

“What!?” Dawn rushed forward a few steps, her outburst raising suspicion in Drystan, “I mean . . . how is that possible?”

Drystan didn’t have time to deal with her so he turned back to the man, not even knowing his name, “Second in command to what? The King’s Guard?” Drystan scoffed, they were fighting them.

“No,” The man frowned, “Colt’s Army; we’ve been burning towns affected by the plague. Some of our own men had to be killed when they became infected.”

“Priest?” The man turned to Thomas.

“I’m only a simple friar,” Thomas corrected him.

“Would you- you pray for me? I know I don’t deserve forgiveness for what I did but would you pray for me?”

“Everybody deserves forgiveness. The Lord is very forgiving and he shall welcome you with open arms for repenting,” Thomas took his hands, Drystan letting the man go, and started to recite the Lord’s Prayer with him.

“So,” Iagan mumbled in his rough voice as Drystan stepped back into line, “Isadora’s more unhinged than we originally thought,”

Drystan gave him a look.

“What?” Iagan shrugged.

“No, he’s right,” Jarred spoke up, “No one just kills their father and becomes second in command of the army that killed your family. She’s definitely missing something,” he pointed to his head to show exactly where he thought she was missing it.

“We need to find her,” Drystan told them, sheathing his sword and walking away from the clearing.

He didn’t know what to think right then when he broke through a line of trees and saw a familiar sight; a sight of a discarded army camp.

Food and rubbish littered the floor, a few tents were ruined and left behind whilst burnt out fires remained where they were built. There had to be almost forty of them.

“Drystan,” Jarred called after him, breaking through the trees, “We have to-” Jarred lost his voice when he saw what Drystan had found.

“I think we just found our army,” Drystan murmured, looking out across the deserted area with mixed emotions.

* * *

They had left that evening once she returned, blood running down her arms.

Isadora couldn’t help but think back to the night before when she ran her father through with her sword.

No, Izzie shook her head, it wasn’t her father. Just a man she hardly knew anymore. Looking up from where she was sat on a new black horse, a present from Colt, she stared ahead at Colt’s back where he was leading the army forward.

Almost all of the soldiers were on foot and the sound almost shook the earth beneath them; Izzie had been into wars before and every time she felt the same anxiety and trepidation but not this time.

This time she just felt numb and in need of a good fight. Colt was right after all . . . she was evil.

And as her mother used to say, if you were good at something then excel at it.

And that's what Izzie planned on doing.