A Soldier's Life
chapter-37

Forcing yourself to sleep in the morning, even in a dark room, is difficult. I had one of the best rooms in the villa temperature-wise, but I still could not get comfortable. I knew what the problem was—the stupid healing spell form. I wanted to learn it sooner rather than later. Even with what I had learned from Damian, I was having trouble feeling my way through the process.

I considered if the resistance was just because I did not have enough space to add the spell form. It felt like squeezing a grapefruit through a hole meant for an orange. Maybe that was a terrible analogy because now I was wondering if oranges were available on Desia. Perhaps if I counted oranges, I could fall asleep...

A loud knock woke me, and Konstantin’s too-joyful voice was on the other side, “Dinner is in fifteen. We leave for patrol fifteen after. Gear up!” I sat up and was confused. Had I slept the entire day? I had been exhausted. I checked my curtain, and it was late evening outside. After cleaning, I started to strap on the armor. I decided to carry a short sword and dagger on my belt.

As I walked into the foyer, Konstantin was stretching, “Good weapons choice. If we do have to chase anyone down tonight, draw the entire scabbard, not the blade. The last thing you want is to die by tripping and falling on your own sword.” I worked to adjust the belt so I could pull the sheathed short sword out easily. Mateo and Felix showed up all smiles, having obviously slept well.

Konstantin nodded and walked, and we followed. “We are on patrol in fours, so if we divide up, we can remain in pairs. Never go anywhere alone, always in pairs.”

“Got it, never leave your wingman,” I quipped.

Konstantin gave me a hard look, trying to figure out the meaning of my words. “Eryk, you will be my wingman,” Konstantin said with a smirk before continuing. “We will patrol in a diamond formation. The point will scan forward, the right and left will scan their side, and the man in the rear will check behind them every minute.” The explanation was for my benefit, as Mateo and Felix looked bored. I had already learned this in training but paid rapt attention anyway.

As we walked out into the city, I was the point on the diamond, Mateo to my left, Felix to my right, and Konstantin behind me. Konstantin talked the entire time, and the other two were bored as they probably heard everything he was saying last night. Konstantin taught his scouting and observation skills as we walked.

He was an endless stream of knowledge. He talked about the structures, noting everything from the construction methods of buildings to what each shop sign indicated they sold inside. I assumed it was for my benefit since I was not from the Empire. Whenever we met a civilian, we talked to them briefly and told them they were past curfew and to get home. After the interaction, Konstantin quizzed us on the encounter. What they were wearing, their story, why they were out, their body language, and what we thought their true reason was for being out past curfew.

It was information overload but extremely useful. All the mental exercises were taxing, and I was glad when we finally returned to the villa at first light. Lirkin had breakfast for us, and after eating a few servings and listening to others returning from patrols, I was ready for a long sleep. Of course, Konstatin noted that I was to be at weapon practice after the mid-day meal. I secured my room, and instead of studying, I slept.

The following eight days proceeded the same. We patrolled at night and returned for breakfast and sleep. After lunch, we did weapons training and calisthenics, and then I retreated to my room to study the healing spell form book. We started to have an informal dinner as a company just before the four-person teams went on patrol. Never again with any wine, but always with a weak ale. I think I remember weak ale had enough alcohol to kill bacteria, which is why it was so prevalent at meals. But I was uncertain if I remembered this fact correctly from my history of Earth.

Konstantin never talked about his side profession as a spy for one of the Praetorian Guard. I was curious to ask how the Praetorian and Empire treated out worlders these days. My best guess was it had been a few generations since an outworlder arrival was public knowledge. A few hundred years had seemed to push it more into myth than fact. Talking with Linus at dinner, I learned of the possibility of how I managed to remain unnoticed. Linus knew a few tales of arrivals, and large groups were always arriving all at once. The First Legion was the largest arrival in recorded history, but there were others where dozens of people arrived at once.

I do not know what made my transportation to the World of Desia so unique, but I felt that keeping to myself was still my best course of action. I wondered how arriving in a land full of violent orcs might have gone for a group in the past—or appearing on the island of the undead. I had gotten extremely lucky—or something had guided my arrival. But why? I was nothing special—definitely not hero material.

“What do you think of that?” Konstantin interrupted my internal thoughts. I looked left at a boarded-up shop, he indicated. I did not see anything at first. Then, I noticed the bottom half of the panel had been moved, as evidenced by a small line of differential weathering on the door.

“Someone recently removed the board covering the bottom of the door and didn’t place it back exactly the same,” I commented first.

Mateo asked Konstantin, “Do we enter?”

“Yes. We only enter if we suspect something is amiss. That is enough evidence. Mateo and Felix, go to the back of the building and wait there in case someone runs. Eryk, use your heavy dagger to pry the panel,” Konstantin gave his orders.

I tried to be quiet as I worked. It was not difficult; I could have removed it with my fingers. I surmised it had been pried off many times prior. This was only the bottom half of the covering for the door. I could reach the handle, tested it, and the door was still locked. Konstantin pushed me aside, and after just a few seconds, it clicked and swung inward. I whispered, “You have to show me how you did that.”

He did not respond but indicated I should use my glowstone and go first into the shop. I ducked below the higher board with my shortsword drawn and the glowstone in the other hand. My stone illuminated the shop in shadows and appeared to be a clothing shop for women. It was a high-end shop by its location in the upper district.

Konstantin followed me inside and motioned for me to be quiet as he scanned the room. After a moment, he indicated faint tracks in the dust on the floor. They all led to the same doorway. Konstantin whispered, “Basement. We will listen for sound at the door. Walk slowly, and do not make the floorboards creak.”

He had already continued into the shop, deathly silent. I tried my best not to make any noise, but for some reason—where Konstantin seemed to weigh nothing and passed over the boards without a sound—every step I took had the floor give a squeak or groan. Konstantin did not say anything and reached the door. We listened for minutes as the stuffiness and lingering day’s humidity made my sweat bead and drip from my face.

Then we heard it—very faint voices. They sounded far away. Konstantin seemed to understand what was being said, and I just remained frozen, waiting for an order and trying to listen. I figured we were dealing with looters or squatters. After a good ten minutes, Konstantin leaned in close and said, “I will go first.” He tapped my dagger, “Draw it; you will need it. I picked out at least four voices.” I wanted to ask how he could have heard anything, but he reached for the door and opened it very slowly. There was sufficient light coming through the door to see the stairs clearly.

With it three inches ajar, he paused, drew his own dagger, and carefully cut a string I had failed to notice. I guessed it was a trip wire for an alarm. He opened the door the rest of the way, and the voices were now much clearer to my ears.

“How many men are in the lower city?” A husky feminine voice asked.

“We have twenty in the lower city and another thirty in the upper city,” a male voice responded.

“Have Oliver and his men arrived yet?” The husky voice asked another question. Konstantin took a step onto the stairs and started to descend.

“No, he might arrive tonight along the aqueduct route under invisibility,” the same male replied.

“Damn it! The march starts in the morning, and they will lock down the city when they hear,” the woman said angrily. “I need those fifteen men.”

Konstantin was almost at the bottom of the steps, and I took my first step onto the stairs. I realized I was holding my breath and exhaled slowly as I took the next step. My third step caused the wooden stairs to whine softly under my weight. All talking stopped, and Konstantin rushed his last two steps and turned left at the bottom of the stairs toward the voices. I sped down as well and was going to follow him, but a man came from the right chasing Konstantin.

Konstantin was already fighting, so I assumed we had enemies here. I lunged the rest of the way, plunged my dagger into his neck, and pushed him back the way he had come. I swore as I looked in the direction I had pushed the dying man. A half dozen bedrolls were on the floor, and people were rising. I counted three. I figured to tell Konstantin why I was not at his back, “I have four to the right!” I only had three opponents left, but it sounded better as Konstantin’s side increased the fighting intensity.

I waded into the room and stabbed a man in the throat, who was reaching for a sword. It was more of a lucky strike as I had aimed for his chest. I wrenched the sword lose, causing blood to spray. I briefly stared into the man’s wide eyes as he grasped his throat and rolled away. By the spurts of blood, I had severed at least one of the carotid arteries. If he didn’t have magical healing, then he was dead.

The other two men were armed with long swords and eyeing their shields, leaning at the base of the wall. I wished we had gone and got Mateo and Felix before coming down here. I was matched against two skilled men with much longer reach blades than myself. My advantage was that I was wearing armor, and they had linens on.

I decided not to risk fighting them. I tried to outline two small fist-sized blocks where both their hearts were. I could pull their hearts into my dimensional space and kill them since they were within ten feet. I quickly got frustrated as I could only establish one region at a time. I focused my effort on the most confident appearing swordsman. He was within ten feet, and I moved his heart to my storage.

I got slight vertigo, letting me know my aether had just bottomed out from moving the small object. He screamed, clutched his chest, and collapsed in a smooth motion. Even though I was confused that I was out of aether from such a small object, I could not hesitate and launched myself at the last man. His shock at seeing his companion fall without a blow quickly disappeared. His long sword cut the air as he turned his body into a fencing pose and edged toward the wall to retrieve his shield.

I moved to cut off his route, and that was what he had expected. I was fooled as he moved quickly in the other direction in a lunge. I parried the thrust, but it glanced off my leather chest piece slightly, leaving a gash in the leather. He was already retreating by the time my short sword came at the opening. I only nicked his forearm, but a steady flow of blood started. He flexed his sword arm and winced. I had gotten some muscle on the cut.

He considered his shield again but then switched the long blade to his left hand instead. I could tell it was awkward and unpracticed in his other hand. I launched into my attack, and he defended while retreating. It gave me a chance to take the shield for myself. I knew this fight was now over. Konstantin was still fighting, so I needed to help him by ending my fight quickly.

I pressed with the shield. He tried to use his superior reach to score on my legs, but my speed allowed me to strike his chest before he retreated on a failed swing. My strike had parted the outer layer of the pectoral muscle, and he was wincing, just trying to hold his blade. I thought he would surrender, but he rushed me again. The sword attack was weak on my shield, and I hacked his neck on the side, certain it was a killing blow by the depth of my blade. I left him to bleed out. I stabbed the man whose heart I had taken in the throat on the way by to conceal how he died.

On the other side of the cellar was a stalemate between Konstantin and a short woman. She had a buckler and a shortsword. She had one wound, a gash on her upper shield arm. Two dead men were on the floor. One had distinctly pointed ears, meaning he was the first elf I had laid my eyes on. The other dead man was human.

“Any others?” I asked as I joined Konstantin’s side. He looked at me, and I think he was surprised I was not wounded—or maybe that I was alive at all.

“Not in the cellar. We need this one alive. I believe she is the commander,” he said, and her eyes narrowed at Konstantin. She looked resigned to her fate, but rather than surrender, launched herself forward, tossing aside the buckler in an effort to distract Konstantin. I only meant to parry her blade, but she impaled herself on my sword. I awkwardly rushed my shield to protect my head from her final blow. Konstantin aided me by hacking her swinging arm, killing the momentum of the blow to just cutting lightly into my pauldrons.

My blade pieced near enough to her heart to kill her. “Shit,” Konstantin swore. The dwarf woman was dead. He started searching her body and, not finding what he wanted, started on the rest of the basement. “Eryk, see if there is any access to the sewers from this basement. They mentioned something about the sewers earlier.”

I walked the outer walls and checked the floor. The dead men’s eyes seemed to follow me as I went and gave me the chills. I felt nothing for taking their lives, which surprised me. Maybe having been close to death a few times myself was numbing me to it.

I returned to Konstantin and reported, “Nothing on the walls or floors that seems to grant access.”

“Troll shit! She said nearly fifty of them were in the city, but nothing to tell us where!” He made a decision. “Keep searching. I will post Mateo and Felix upstairs and get more men here. I have to tell Castile there are at least 43 men in the city and more traveling along the aqueduct tonight under a spell.” He quickly grabbed his weapons and swore as he stomped up the stairs, “The Bartiradians are already in the city!”

I was left alone with seven corpses of the Bartiradian army infiltrators.