“Not now, ma’am,” Kang said with emphasis, “but they’re not above trying a lucky shot, and-no disrespect intended, ma’am-but in those white robes, you make a very fine target.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Sister Marsel, looking down at her robes with a rueful smile. “Do. . do you have a moment, Commander? I’d like to talk to you, if I may.”
Kang heroically put aside thoughts of stretching out beneath a warm blanket. “Did Sister Hana send you?”
“No.” Sister Marsel flushed. “She doesn’t know I’ve gone. She and the others are asleep.”
“Where I should be,” Kang muttered, but only to himself. “What can I do for you, Sister Marsel? Would you like some venison?” He brought out a choice morsel, a meaty bone, he’d been saving for his own dinner.
Sister Marsel eyed it, swallowed, licked her lips and said, “No, thank you. Well, maybe just a taste. .” She took the meat and began to eat ravenously. Halfway through, however, she paused, her face flushed. She handed the bone back to Kang. “I’m sorry. I took your supper, didn’t I? No, you eat the rest. Really, that was all I wanted.”
Kang ate what she had left him, tearing the meat from the bone with his sharp teeth.
“The babies wouldn’t eat,” Sister Marsel said. “Your man offered them some food. They wouldn’t touch it.”
Kang suddenly lost his own appetite. He tossed the uneaten portion down on the altar. Later that night, the cook would come around, gather up all the bones, throw them into the soup pot for breakfast.
“Could I ask you a question, Commander?”
Kang nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“What did you mean when you told Sister Hana that she was on the side of evil. Was that. . was that a joke?”
“I’m not much given to jokes, ma’am,” Kang said.
Sister Marsel looked perplexed. “Did you mean it? That we are on the side of. . evil? I thought we were on the side of right.”
“We thought the same, ma’am. We believed that what we were doing was right.”
She shook her head. “Killing, murdering. .”
“Your Knights have killed countless numbers of us, ma’am,” Kang returned. “The graves of my men stretch from the Plains of Dust all the way to here.”
“You really care about them, don’t you?” Sister Marsel was astonished. “Sister Hana always said that caring was what made us different. That draconians and goblins don’t care about each other, that evil turns in upon itself.”
“I wouldn’t know about that, ma’am,” said Kang. “I know that I’m a soldier and that my men are my responsibility. During the War of the Lance, we fought for the glory of our goddess, just as your Knights fought for the glory of your god.” Kang shrugged. “As it turned out, we were both duped. Our queen turned tail and fled, leaving us to die, the cowardly bit-female. Your god did the same, or so I hear.”
“That’s what some say, but I don’t believe them,” Sister Marsel returned. “I think. .” Her voice softened. “I think Paladine has gone and left us in charge in order to test us, to see if we are able to take what he has taught us and use it wisely. He’s not the overprotective father, hovering over his children every minute to make certain we don’t hurt ourselves.” She smiled.
Kang, who had been drifting off to sleep, was jolted to awareness. “I beg your pardon, ma’am. What were you saying about children?”
“That’s really what I came to talk you about. I think that’s what’s wrong with the babies, Commander,” said Sister Marsel. “You can’t keep them cooped up in those sacks for the rest of their lives. You have to let them out to learn about the world, the good and the bad.”
“We tried that,” Kang said harshly. “They hurt themselves. One wandered off. No.” He was emphatic. “They are too precious to us to risk.”
“You sound just like my father.” Sister Marsel smiled and sighed. “He said the very same thing about me. Do you know what he did, Commander? He sent me to live with the Sisters of Paladine. He sent me here, to this temple, where I would be safe and protected from the world. Am I safe, Commander?” she demanded. “Am I protected?”
Kang cleared his throat, embarrassed.
“The world finds us, Commander,” said Sister Marsel quietly. “We can’t hide from it, not even in the cellar of a temple. We have to know how to face it. I don’t.” She lowered her head. “I don’t know anything. I’m stupid, and I’m afraid.”
She cast a glance out at the blazing bonfires. Every now and again, a goblin battle shriek split the air. Sister Marsel shivered. “I’m afraid because I feel so helpless.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid, Sister,” Kang said, “not by a long shot.”
“The babies could play in the cellar,” said Sister Marsel. “They couldn’t get into much trouble down there. They need exercise and fresh air.”
“Perhaps in the morning,” Kang said.
Morning. The goblins would attack in full force. Kang wasn’t at all certain he could hold them off. In the morning he and his men and their young might be dead. He said nothing of his own fears to the young human, however, and he made a silent vow that she would not fall alive into goblin hands. He’d seen what goblins did to their human captives, particularly their human female captives. Maybe she was right. Maybe they had been on the side of evil, but then he’d seen what Solamnic Knights did to the goblins they’d captured, he’d seen goblin babies carried on the ends of spears. Kang would protect this female from that savage and horrific part of the world at least. He would end it for her quickly. He hoped she would understand and forgive him.
“I had better go back now,” said Sister Marsel. “You’re tired and I’ve kept you talking. Besides, if Sister Hana were to wake up and find me gone, Paladine alone knows what she’d do.”
“Good night, Sister Marsel,” said Kang. “And thank you.”
He continued his rounds and then headed for his bed, taking one of the bunks in the upper room of the temple. He was looking forward to his bed. Kang was not one to lose sleep in needless worry. He’d done everything in his power to prepare. The morning would bring what the morning would bring. He did miss laying the burden of his problems in the lap of his Dark Queen. Now he had to shoulder the responsibility himself, he could not foist it off on his goddess. He thought over what Sister Marsel had said, about the gods leaving them to make of the world what they could. He wasn’t certain he bought it, but it was an interesting idea.
On his way to his bed, Kang gave the snout of the platinum dragon a rub for luck.
“Sir! Commander! Sir!”
Someone was shaking him by the shoulder violently. Kang started to wakefulness, peered bleary-eyed into a bright torch blazing above him.
“What? What? Huh? Is it the attack?”
He sat up, groggy and still half-asleep. He had a vague recollection of someone else waking him in the night. Slith, or so Kang recalled. Slith had been excited about something. Wanted permission to do something. Kang couldn’t remember what. He’d agreed to it apparently, because Slith had departed, but what it was he’d said or what it was he’d agreed to, Kang couldn’t for the life of him remember.
“I always said I could give orders in my sleep,” Kang muttered. “I guess it’s finally come to that.”
“Sir! Please! You have to come! You have to see this!”
The soldier had thrown open one of the shutters. Red streaked the sky, clouds massed on the horizon. There would be more snow today. Horns blared. His troops were shouting and clashing their swords.
Certain that he would look out the window to see a couple of goblin regiments bearing down on him, Kang could not for the life of him understand what was going on.
The goblins, it seemed, were moving backwards.
“What the-?” Kang blinked, rubbed his eyes.
“They’re retreating, sir!” the draconian said.
“What? Why?” Kang was astounded.
The draconian pointed. “See their general, sir. The big hairy bastard riding that great, hulking warhorse.”
