We were getting close to the burning village now, so I could use my new scout to potentially save us some time and hassle.
“I’m going to send the harpy over to the village that Rollar’s goons raided,” I said to the others. “I’ll look for any survivors.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Rami said.
“Perhaps that foul fiend could be useful,” Elyse said, but she still wore a disgusted expression.
I commanded my harpy to fly down low over the burning village, and once more, I closed my eyes, blocked my ears, and merged with the beast.
When we flew clear of the smoke, the sheer heat of the flames was almost too intense to bare. The sight that greeted me was not a pleasant one. Many buildings were aflame, while others were little more than charred marks on the ground. Corpses dotted the town among slaughtered livestock and pets. Nothing moved save for the flicker of flames and floating ashes.
Rollar’s thugs had been ruthlessly efficient. It didn’t seem that they had left a single thing alive. Any previous regrets I might have had about killing the soldiers was gone. Now, I only wished I’d done it more slowly.
Before I could command my harpy to leave this vile sight, I spotted movement through the window of an unburned building.
Someone was still alive.
The harpy swooped down and perched on the branch of a large oak tree, untouched by the flames. The buildings surrounding the oak tree had been spared the fires, and it was the one on my left where I’d seen the movement.
Anger crackled through my core when I saw a drunken soldier stumble out of the building, rubbing his eyes as if he’d just woken up. Through the doorway, I could just make out an old man, skewered on the end of a sword. I didn’t want to think about who else the soldier might have killed or defiled elsewhere in the house.
“Fellas?” he mumbled, looking around him in confusion. “Hey, where the hells is everyone?”
Before he could say another word, I sent my harpy after him. The soldier was oblivious as the massive beast crashed into him and brought him to the ground. For extra measure, the harpy drove its talons into his shoulders, pinning him down.
“Fuck,” he whispered, his drunkenness fading before terror. Eyes wide, he blubbered a prayer to the Lord of Light, and I couldn’t help but grimace.
Even the God of the Chaste wouldn’t hear him now.
But I couldn’t kill him yet. I wanted to question him.
I attempted to speak through my harpy’s mouth, but the words were a garbled mess. They must have sounded terrifying because the soldier pissed himself after hearing them.
I disengaged my senses from the harpy’s and ordered it to wait there but to keep the soldier alive.
Back at the wagon, in control of my own body, I stuck my fingers in my mouth and whistled.
“Fang, get over here!”
As Fang came bounding over to me, rumbling the ground beneath him, Rami and Elyse looked at me with quizzical expressions on their pretty faces.
“I’m going to take a quick trip to the village. Alone.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
I didn’t want Rami and Elyse to see the mutilated bodies of the women and children. Sure, they were both warriors and had seen their fair share of battle and death, but even so, the sight of slaughtered children was something that turned even my stomach.
“Nobody’s alive,” I said. “Except for one man: a soldier who got left behind. I’m going to question him, then give him a little taste of some good ol’ justice. Fang will travel faster with only me on his back, and we’ll be back here within the hour.”
Before either of them could raise any more objections, I jumped onto Fang’s shoulders, kicked my heels into his flanks, and commanded him to run at full speed. He took off at an eager sprint, bounding through the fields as he made a beeline for the distant village.
As we sped through the forest, a deep pit grew in my belly. It was like the tingling of my sixth sense, but far stronger and far more persistent. It also seemed to increase in intensity as we grew closer to the village. It was like a loadstone’s powerful magnetism drawing me closer, a force that made my nerves tingle and my skin prickle.
When we reached the village and started seeing the corpses, I felt it even more powerfully. I went to the unburned oak tree and found where my harpy was pinning the drunken soldier.
He had passed out beneath her. I stroked her scaly neck, and she purred, a sound halfway between a strangled cat and broiling acid. I dismounted Fang and walked over to the unconscious man.
I delivered a kick to his stomach, and he awoke with a start. He cried out as my harpy’s talons tore through his flesh, but he remained pinned.
“You,” he whispered, eyes wide. “You command the beast?”
“I command more than the harpy.” I gestured behind me at Fang.
When he noticed the zombie-lizard, he let out a girlish shriek.
“What the fuck is that thing?” the soldier said, his limbs flailing with panic. He yelped, his erratic movements only making the harpy’s talons carve more of his flesh.
I pulled out Grave Oath and spun it slowly in my right hand. “Your soul probably isn’t worth much, but Fang is hungry.”
“D-don’t let that thing eat me, please!”
Fang rumbled out a menacing growl and leaned in closer, his huge jaws mere inches from the man’s face. His long lizard’s tongue flicked out of his mouth and darted across the man’s face. The soldier whimpered and shook.
“If you hadn’t already emptied your bladder when my harpy attacked you,” I said, “I bet you’d be pissing yourself right now. Tell me, big man, how good of a fighter are you?”
“I’m… I’m decent enough with my sword.”
“I bet it’s a real challenge to fight unarmed old
