“It’s true,” Ondus said heavily. “They’ve raided in Holwey, Reoth, and three times in the Fells. One of those attacks was on the docks of Ishkabur.”
“I hoped it wasn’t true,” Kel groaned. Khollo recognized him because of his overlong nose. “I remember the first war, and not fondly.”
“None of us here remember it fondly,” Khollo said quietly. “Many of us were directly affected by it.”
“Moving back to the mission,” Ondus said. “I assume you returned here after joining forces and finding out what happened to Reoth?”
“Yes,” Khollo said.
“When did get Janis get hit?”
“Yes, I’d like to know that myself,” Janis muttered.
Khollo shifted uncomfortably. Here goes nothing. “As we were approaching the fortress, Janis and I heard something moving in the bushes,” Khollo began. “We ordered the others to run ahead of us to the fortress and get to safety. Cadet Hern is certain that he saw the horns of some kind of beast gleaming beside the trail.”
“A vertag?” Ondus asked, eyes widening.
“Apparently,” Khollo agreed. “I’ve ordered the sentries to shoot on sight. Maybe in the morning we’ll be retrieving a vertag corpse from in front of the gates.”
“Did I get hit by a rock?” Janis asked. “Was I attacked?”
“Erm, well, you were attacked,” Khollo mumbled. “Thing is, when the others were safe, you turned around and decided to make yourself bait to draw it out.”
“What?” Ondus demanded. “Janis, you should know better. What if it had a ranged weapon?”
“And what if there was more than one or two,” Khollo added. “That’s what I was thinking too. So, when Janis turned away . . . I whacked him.”
He looked around the circle of faces, trying for a challenging expression, daring anyone to contradict his actions.
“You . . . whacked him?” Ondus asked.
“Yes,” Khollo replied defiantly.
“Good job,” the warrior replied.
Khollo felt a knot in his stomach unwind. “Thank you, Ondus. Good to know you agree.”
“Well, I don’t!” Janis said with some feeling. “My head still hurts!”
“But you’re alive,” Khollo countered. “You might not be if I had let you stay out there.”
“But we’d have a dead vertag to show for it!” Janis snapped.
An awkward silence ensued. “That’s not a trade I’m willing to make,” Khollo said finally, his throat tightening. “Or anyone else here for that matter.”
Janis looked around slowly, reading the expressions on the faces around him. After a moment, he sighed and sat back. “Well, thanks, I suppose,” he muttered.
Ondus smirked. “Khollo is right, Janis. We need you alive and fighting with us. No more arranged suicide missions. Oh yes,” he said, noticing Janis’ guilty start. “I’m aware that was the reason you wanted to hunt for the vertaga. I imagine you brought the others along to drag the bodies home.”
Khollo felt as though he had been punched in the stomach. Well, I did think it was strange we were going to confirm what our scouts reported, he reflected. But since when has Janis had a death wish?
“It was not a suicide mission,” Janis said, a little too loudly. “It was a hunt. At worst, a trade. We would have gained an army and a victory if we had found a vertag and brought it back.”
Khollo didn’t quite believe Janis, and Ondus looked doubtful as well. The hunters, Hern, and Sermas looked uncertain at best. “Maybe it would be wise to order the guards not to let anyone, including their leader, out of the fortress,” Khollo said quietly, glaring at Janis.
Janis slumped in his seat defeated. “Fine,” he muttered. “But don’t come whining to me when the king discounts our ‘warmongering’ out of hand.”
“Speaking of which,” Ondus said. “Another village is gone. Three days east from Holwey.”
“The whole Basin will be purged before we get a response from Etares,” Janis muttered. “There has to be a better way.”
“There isn’t,” Khollo said. “We’ve been over this. The only thing we can do is train, and watch, and plan, and wait. We will be ready when the vertaga arrive, and we will destroy them.”
The others looked at him, obviously surprised. Hern and Sermas looked at Khollo as though he had taken leave of his senses. After a long silence, Gort turned to Janis.
“Khollo here is . . . an officer?”
Janis smiled. “In a manner of speaking. He’s capable enough.”
“And a leader,” Hunter observed.
“You should be proud,” Kel murmured.
“We are,” Janis said, looking at Khollo. “Very proud.”
Later, when Khollo was alone in his tower room, he sat in front of a blazing fire that could not compare to the warmth in his heart. Over and over he replayed those words in his mind.
You should be proud.
We are. Very proud.
Finally, Khollo thought to himself. I have found my place. I made Janis proud. And, maybe, my father as well.
Chapter 13
Five more villages were razed in the next three weeks.
With each attack came a marked increase in the fear and panic evident within the West Bank. People no longer moved from place to place alone. They were always in pairs now, or threes. Sermas and Hern had appointed themselves Khollo’s personal guard and were only separated from him during training and when they retreated to their barracks at night. At first, Khollo thought that perhaps they were shadowing him on orders from Janis or Ondus. But as time went on, he realized that they were just as afraid as everyone else, and desperate for information. And since everything that happened in the region was going through Khollo at some point, he was a prime source of intelligence.
In addition to the attacks on the villages, there were reports of hit-and-run type raids on
