A Soldier's Life
chapter-39

As I watched the disoriented rats scurry away, I should have realized that the griffin egg I collected had allowed me to bring live objects into my storage. Castille had confirmed it was viable after I removed it, and then I transported it for the First Citizen. The only difference was it did not bottom out my aether when the egg went into my dimensional space. Still, it was good to see live rats scurry away and know the other griffin egg in my storage was probably viable. It opened the possibility of possibly moving an entire person or monster to the dimensional space and knowing they would be alive when I retrieved them.

The bell rang for lunch, and I had not gotten any sleep. I joined the line in the kitchen for sliced roast beef in a thick gravy with a side of candied carrots. I took my plate, filled to overflowing, to the gardens where we would have weapons practice directly afterward.

For the last week, Brutus had been helping me with my spear, and Konstantin was helping me with duel-wielding. I think Konstantin was planning to have me with the short sword in my right and and the parrying dagger in my left today. He kept changing the weapons that each hand wielded to work on my ambidexterity.

As the company ate, Adrian and Delmar came into the gardens. Delmar led, “No weapons practice after the mid-day meal.” The pronouncement was met with cheers. Even though everyone knew it probably meant we had other duties coming. “Instead, we are going to search every boarded-up house in the upper city,” the cheers went silent. “The other Legion company is handling the lower city.”

Someone barked, “What are the lazy regulars doing?”

“Keeping an eye on the remaining citizens and guarding the wall. The Bartiradians have started their match from the city of Guiracas,” Adrian snapped. “They will arrive at the walls in three days.” I realized that confirmed what the dwarf woman had said last night. She said the march was going to start today. Everyone was suddenly silent. The reality of our situation was settling in. Everyone in the company knew the plan was to hold up in the city. When the Bartirdians fortified for a siege, our noble rescuers would come and wipe them out. It all seemed good on paper unless you were the ones holding back the tide of enemies and waiting to be saved.

Delmar got everyone settled down and announced three teams of eight to do the searches. My group was adding Firth, Wylie, Pavel, and Regis. We only had an hour before starting, and I lamented not sleeping this morning and would be running on adrenaline for the evening and into the overnight patrol. I had been too anxious waiting for my aether to recharge to test on releasing the rats.

Linus stopped me, “Eryk, run down to the city. In the Legion Hall, there should have been a shipment of potions from the portal opening by the Displacement Mage this morning. Go retrieve them. We are going to divide them among the three groups. There should be seventeen simple healing and three full healing. Also,” he thought for a moment, “One rack of healing salve, one rack of stamina potions, and four water purification potions. Castille paid for all of this, so do not let them short you. Hurry!”

I rushed to put my armor back on and ran down to the lower city and the Legion Hall. I was not even winded entering the building and heading to the back where the Legion warehouse was located. Unlike picking up weapons, the potions—and now also the foodstuffs were tightly monitored. Two civilian males were behind the desk. “I am here for Castille’s shipment of potions.” One of the men went and got the racks and brought them out. One small rack had the water purification, all four potions. The next was the complete rack of ten stamina potions. The third rack was full of ten of the minor healing potions. The healing salve was next and had all ten. When we got to the fifth rack, I inhaled sharply. It only had five of the lesser healing potions. I was missing three of the major healing and two of the minor healing potions.

The man slid me the log book to sign off on receiving the potions. The logbook noted the potion order as being complete. I stated, “There are some potions missing. I need two more simple and three more full healing potions.”

The man spun the ledger around to read it and carefully counted the potions he had brought. He turned to his partner, “Marx, do you know anything about this? We are missing two lesser and three greater healing.” The man, Marx, took the ledger, counted the potion racks, and compared them to the ledger. I could tell it was an act, but how deliberate and orchestrated his actions were.

Finally, he said, “No.” He looked at me, “Check with the other company commander. He was in the here when the shipment arrived and took everything he ordered.”

I was calling bullshit. I looked at the ledger again. “Are these your signatures by the ledger saying the potions arrived? You logged them into the store room, yes? Then get me my potions. I need to get back to the upper city soon.” I let my irritation grow as I continued.

Marx did not look happy, “You should talk with Mage Gregor. I believe I noticed him taking the potions from the shipment.”

I growled in irritation, “Where is the mage?”

The first man, whose name I did not have, spoke, “He is staying at the Cock and Hen down the street. It is the nicest inn in the area.” He looked apologetic. Should I have been afraid of confronting a mage—maybe. I stacked the remaining potions and moved them into my space in one action. I left and did not sign the ledger book to their protests.

The Cock and Hen was easy to find. The sign had a proud rooster standing over a pair of chickens. I thought the sign indicated the name should be Cock and Hens but did not dwell on it. I entered to find a few familiar faces in the common room. Men from Durandus’ company who were now assigned to Gregor. I saw Gregor at a table with books spread before him and some maps. I approached, and he slowly looked up, waiting for me to speak.

“The men at the warehouse said you mistakenly took Castille’s potions,” I stated loudly and clearly.

Gregor appraised me, “No, there was no mistake. I just took back the potions I had supplied to Durandus’ failed mission. Since he is not alive to reimburse me for their use, Castille, who suggested the exploration, can reimburse me.” He said it calmly, like it made sense. Our confrontation was getting the attention of the legionaries in the room.

Damn it. Did Linus know this was going to happen? Was this why he sent me? I looked around the room at the fifteen or so legionaries. They all appeared curious as to the outcome of the confrontation. I backed down as I did not want an escalation, “I will relay your reasoning to Mage Castille.” He twitched slightly as I turned and left.

I fast walked to the villa and found Castille, Adrian, Delmar, and Konstantin talking. Adrian, Delmar, and Konstantin were each leading one of the eight-man search teams. “Do you have the potions, Eryk?” Delmar asked.

“Most.” I faced Castille, “Mage Gregor said you owed him potions and took them before I arrived. He took two simple and all three full healing potions,” I answered.

Anger clouded Castille’s visage, and thin black tendrils of smokey shadow appeared around her. She said steelily, “I will handle this. Start the searches. Adrian, I will join your team on Fortuna Street.” Castille left with a determined walk.

Konstantin muttered, “Hope neither ends up dead.” He addressed me, “Eryk, let’s divide the potions you did get and move out.” It took just a few minutes for Adrian and Delmar to take what they needed, and then I went to get my weapons and shield.

I took a medium-round shield with me. House-to-house searches sounded slightly dangerous, and I had been exceedingly lucky in my first fight. When we left, I walked next to Konstantin. “Did anyone get the enemy they said were using the aqueduct to enter the city last night?”

He shook his head, “The upper city guard sits on the route, and there is a gate across it. They assured us no one came through. We searched two other businesses last night and found nothing. They were talking about a sewer route, but all the entrances are gated and guarded. The city guard will search the sewers tomorrow.”

“Do you think they heard us enter and were trying to lay a false trail?” I asked, and Konstantin laughed.

“If they heard us, then we wouldn’t have surprised them, and both of us would be dead. The elf was a mage, and Castille thought he was decent at that by the equipment he had on him. You were not the only one lucky last night. Things could have gone much worse if I hadn’t killed the mage first. The dwarf was a commander; she had a tattoo on her forearm indicating so. I think she was in charge of this secret assault. Adrian thinks they meant to sabotage one of the gates,” Konstantin added doubtfully.

“What do you think was their objective?” I asked the veteran.

He thought for just a moment, “They probably planned to target someone specific. One of our mages or a general. The sewers run under the whole city, so maybe they planned to use them to reach their target.” He reached inside his armor and pulled out a small bag. “The soldiers didn’t yield much in terms of essence. They must have been dead too long, but it was unusual the mage did not yield something. I have two power and one dexterity from Castille. All minor essences. You killed the majority of them, which two do you want?”

I looked at the two dark purple and one dark yellow marble-sized spheres in his hand. I took the yellow sphere and one dark purple. I realized that Konstantin would expect me to consume one immediately, but I was fairly certain I would get negative feedback as it was too soon since I consumed the apex reasoning essence.

I put the dexterity essence in my pocket. I made a show of consuming the power essence but actually sent it to my storage. I added the dexterity essence to storage as we moved out. Konstantin popped his own essence into his mouth. “I would have preferred the dexterity,” he muttered and mockingly continued, “But you definitely needed it more than me.”

We searched our first shop, prying the boards off and going through the house. I handed out glowstones to everyone to make the process quicker. I was unsure if I would get them back after mentioning they were from Durandus. Firth’s argument was they should have been sent to the Legion Hall warehouse and available to everyone. So, he argued that I had saved them the trip of heading to the lower city to get one. Everyone agreed with his argument, and Konstantin looked to be sympathetic but smirked and kept the one I lent him as well. Glowstones were a bit of a luxury item at a little over a gold coin each. I now had four remaining.

We searched two residences, a cobbler shop, a butcher, and a furniture maker. We did not find anything. It was near darkness, and Konstantin announced, “We will head to the villa and get dinner before continuing.” Some good-natured groans erupted, knowing we were not finished for the day.

As we walked through the orchards, a town guard came rushing up behind us, “Legionaries! Come quick! The Displacement Mage has been attacked and killed!” I looked at Konstantin, who had the ‘I told you so’ look. This was terrible news, as a Displacement Mage was needed to operate the portal stones on both ends of the connection. Most cities had just one since they were rare—and I believed that was the case for Macha.

“Let’s go. Guess they couldn’t wait to set up an array around the city to cut us off from the rest of the Empire,” Konstantin roared and jogged after the anxious city guard, leading us to the scene.