leave, they still sobbed, still clutched at their loved ones as if they might never see them again. Breaking that up felt wrong, but he knew it must be done.
“Jerico?”
The paladin glanced up to see Darius standing at the door. He gestured outside, and Jerico nodded.
“Will you watch them?” he asked Dolores.
“Go on,” she said. “You have much to do, but don’t push yourself. Hate to find you on my floor with the others.”
Jerico stepped carefully among the bodies, then followed Darius outside. Daniel had returned, though his men were still hurrying about the town. Things had calmed down, but only a little. It seemed like everyone had a task set before them, and that kept down the bulk of the panic.
“So what’s the story?” he asked.
“Patrols to both directions,” Darius said, and Daniel nodded in agreement.
Jerico sighed, wishing he was a cussing man. He knew plenty that felt appropriate for the situation
“Where’s Jeremy Hangfield?”
“Taking stock of our supplies,” Daniel said. “We got lucky. With everyone preparing to move out, most had gathered up their belongings and brought them into town already. Because of this, we got plenty of food to live on, at least for a week or two. If they plan on starving us out, it’ll take time, time I doubt they have. Sir Godley will notice something is up, if not one of the other towers.”
Jerico caught sight of a man in black robes approaching, and he raised an eyebrow.
“That your friend?” he asked Darius. The paladin turned, and seeing the man, bowed on one knee in respect.
“Pheus, you’ve returned to us,” he said.
“I have,” said the priest, glaring at Jerico. “Two wolf-men accosted me on the northern road.”
“How did you escape?” Jerico asked.
Pheus gave him a look of such contempt it chilled his blood.
“I killed them, of course.”
“We’ll need all the help we can get,” Darius said. “And the question is, do we hunker down, or try to punch through their circle?”
“They’ll harry us for miles,” Jerico said, shaking his head. “No matter which direction we go, it sounds like they’ll be watching. Our best chance now is to protect ourselves and hope someone notices our isolation; the traders they attacked last night, perhaps.”
“What about sending off a boat for aid?” Daniel asked. “Down south to the nearest tower, or better yet, to the Citadel?”
Jerico winced, and he saw both priest and paladin of Karak look his way. Darius’s eyes revealed nothing, though Pheus was clearly amused.
“The Citadel is no more,” Jerico said. “We will get no aid from them.”
He turned to leave. A hand grabbed his shoulder, and he spun, his hand reaching for his weapon. Darius pulled away, and he looked at the mace with a mixture of betrayal and anger.
“I wanted to thank you for what you did in there,” he said, gesturing to the inn. His voice lacked what conviction it might have had, though. Jerico released the handle of his mace and nodded.
“We’ll gather everyone into a few places to sleep,” Daniel said, glancing between them. He clearly felt the tension in the air, and he pushed on to change the subject. “Will make it easier keeping watch. Need to get our food into safe places too, so they can’t destroy it. Oh, and last of all, we need to stay off each other’s throats. Times before a battle can make even the kindest men turn to ogres. Let’s all remember that, eh?”
“I have wounded to attend,” Jerico said. “Excuse me.”
He returned to the inn, feeling both furious and embarrassed by that fury. Darius had meant no insult, yet he felt hot under the collar anyway. It was just the way that priest stared at him, with a mocking glint. No doubt he’d cheered when the Citadel fell. No doubt he expected Darius to feel the same way. Did he?
“Any news worth sharing?” Dolores asked him, keeping her voice low so as not to wake the sleeping.
“No,” he said. “What hope we have is little.”
She frowned.
“Out in the back,” she said. “Will you take care of ’em?”
He sighed. His temples throbbed, his forehead ached with every heartbeat, but still he nodded.
“Might be the only chance we have to bury our dead,” he murmured.
“Don’t you talk like that,” Dolores said. “Not where they can hear. Thought you smarter than that.”
Jerico accepted the berating in silence, then left the inn once more.
At Jeremy’s mansion he found a shovel, and he brought it with him to the inn. There was plenty of open space behind it. Normally the people of Durham buried their dead at the corners of the fields, returning them to the ground that allowed them to prosper. There would be no such act, not with the wolves closing in. The ground was soft enough, and he dug the first of many graves. After he was done with the second, and the sun had started its descent, coloring the sky pink, Darius arrived. The dark paladin watched for a moment, left, and then returned with another shovel. Jerico put the bodies in, and Darius covered them up. This they did until the seventh, and both stabbed their shovels into the ground and leaned their weight against them.
“I’m sorry about the Citadel,” Darius said.
“Are you?”
Darius sighed, and he looked away. When he looked back, he knew for certain his answer.
“Yes. I am.”
Jerico gestured to the graves.
“Hundreds of my brethren died. I saw them in a vision, granted to me by Ashhur. No one will dig them graves. No one will gather before them to mourn. The dead tore apart their bodies and cast them to the dirt. Who deserves such a fate? Who would hate us so?”
The Voice of the Lion, Pheus had said. Darius knew that name, though he had never met him. The fabled prophet of Karak, his priest since before the Gods’ War. Eyes of blood and fire, and never the same face. He was a relic of a more fanatical time. At the Stronghold, Darius had been taught to honor him should they ever meet, for none were supposed to be closer to their deity. And now he had brought low the Citadel. Would Jerico understand? Could he? Were they truly at war, and Jerico an enemy he had befriended?
“I fear whatever answer I might give will offer no satisfaction,” he said.
“You’re probably right. Every part of me wants to leave, to go to the rubble and see it for myself. I don’t want to believe it. I might never, really, until I see the wreckage. How could…how could Ashhur abandon us so?”
The crisis of faith seemed too personal, too close to home for Darius. He turned away and gestured to the setting sun.
“We should go inside and rest. Unless the wolf-men are exceptionally clever, they’ll attack at night, which will be when you and I must stand guard. It’ll be a long night, and following a long day, but we’ll endure. Won’t you, Jerico?”
Jerico stood and clapped Darius on the shoulder.
“Forgive my behavior, Darius. I’m tired, scared, and sad. That priest of yours, when I see him looking at me…I feel more alone than ever. And hated, too. I never should have disrespected you so.”
“All’s forgiven,” Darius said. “I’ll be with the wounded at the inn. Daniel’s men are watching Jeremy’s estate. That leaves the tavern for you.”
“Thank you,” Jerico said.
“For?”
In answer, he gestured to the mounds of dirt, the only marker for the seven dead.
“Think nothing of it,” said Darius. “They won’t be the last. Together, life and death, the fate of the village rests in our hands, both yours and mine. Peaceful nights, Jerico.”
“To you as well.”
They split for their respective assignments.
S he’d always liked the privacy of her room, and that’s what Jessie Hangfield missed most of all. Keeping her bed to herself had required little argument, but three other women slept on the floor. They shuffled, cried, and snored. Every noise bothered Jessie to no end. There were summer nights where even the song of the cicadas
