A: Ch. 2.2

General Hilt whistled cheerily as he walked through the labyrinth of halls and passages of the castle. Each of the five God-Generals’ spires had been an addition to the main castle, and their design had been rather haphazard. Their beauty was still remarkable, but the layout was absurd.

He was practically giddy, though he hardly showed it. Finally, progress. It took a woman, but Elivagar finally sent someone with a pinch more sense than pride. It had been easy, almost too easy. Most of the others, in fact all of them, had clearly stamped their foot down and refused to even hear of such a deal.

And her murder attempts were almost feeble. He was certain she would have been able to hear him ascending the stairs to the room. It should have given her plenty of time to at least hide the pins she had used on the locks. The bedding had been askew, the chair cushion flipped, and the chess piece had been turned backwards. It was almost as if she had wanted him to see it all.

No, she was too dense to plan anything like that. But it was all too obvious. The girl standing in the front row of the execution, the one day they execute the previous assassin? The attacks with daggers and no other weapon? Those were rookie mistakes; not even Elivagar was that daft. She was a woman, but even the General knew that some women were sly little snakes.

Truly, he was delving into this too deeply. Besides, there was no possible way that Elivagar could have enough information to make such a plan. No, this was just an idiot girl who wanted to honor her family after getting caught with another married man. He snickered at the thought. She hardly looked big enough to have flowered. Elivagar truly was desperate.

Yawning, but still quite cheerful, the General wandered out of the castle gates and took the lifts down to the third tier. He lightly jumped off and made his way to the Stormy Bay – a bar and inn that catered almost exclusively to the guards who should have been working. The name was absurd, of course. The closest bay was hundreds of leagues away. But apparently this dry city loved to think they were a coastal town.

Regardless, General Noden was growing hungry.

He pushed through the door to the warm fire glow washing over him and the roar of praise from the dozens of ‘off-duty’ grunts at the bar.

“General Noden,” said the barkeep, nodding slowly, but his face stern.

The rest were more jovial, but none more than the group of men and boys determined to earn their prize for stumbling upon his encounter with a new toy.

“Ah, Third General! We were afraid you had forgotten about us! ‘No,’ I had said! ‘The Third General would never forget about us, even if we are just mere flies in comparison,’ would you, General?” joked the tallest of the group with a disturbing goiter round his neck. Sickly, stay away.

“No, of course I wouldn’t,” General Noden said in a surprisingly cheery voice.

“Well come in, we’ll buy yeh a round or two, save of course yeh wan’ to be sober for later. Person’ly I’d want a drink or two in me belly before taking on that little northern rat. She tried to bite me balls. ME BALLS! Can yeh believe it?” This one was older and should have long moved up in rank. The clear problem was the thick apron of fat on his gut. Too much trouble.

“Why weren’t you protecting such a valuable appendage?” General Noden teased. The other men roared.

“Be careful, Sir Noden. She was difficult to carry,” said one of the youngest.

“I am a Lord and a General, but I am no knight,” General Hilt kindly corrected.

The boy blushed, looking flustered. He mumbled an apology and hid his face in his ale, but Noden kept his eye on him. Young, with lean muscle, probably worked in the mines prior to enlisting, no obvious diseases, and likely wouldn’t be noticed if suddenly went missing from the ranks. His hair was a softer shade of brown, his cheeks more flushed than bronzed. Likely from the north, or at least one of his parents was.

Bingo.

“Keep that redness on your cheeks and you’ll be mistaken for a girl,” the General teased. More laughter. More ale. And then more laughter still.

The men drank, women were fondled, but the General remained ever vigilant, watching the surroundings, keeping an eye on the young lad, and finally giving a firm nod to the bar keep.

“All right, you drunk old bats, either buy a room or get out of my bar!” he ordered, shooing them all outside. Silently, the General followed.

The youngest, as he expected, was ostracized from the rest, dragging behind, desperate to keep up. He drank more than the others in an attempt to fit in and rather drastically overestimated his capacity. Nature at its best. Boast your way through life.

The group was laughing, giddy in their stupor. They were fools. The General couldn’t believe they were given even a copper piece for their work. But they were predictable, as all humans were. The older core members of the group were dominant and did all that they could to exclude the boy. They taunted, teased, and then left him behind to sleep off the drink in the middle of the street. Pathetic.

“Come along, boy,” the General said, hefting him up, an arm across his shoulders.

“Wha..?” the lad asked, looking confused.

“Get in the carriage. I’ll take you up.”

“B-But my squad…”

The General was kind. “Don’t worry; they will be waiting in the barracks.”

“But, Sir, I-I mean… General…”

“Hush, it’s all been taken care of,” he cooed.

Finally, the boy nodded and agreed.

He helped him into the back of a conveniently parked carriage drawn by six black horses. The driver shivered as he caught the eye of Noden and determinedly looked away. Even the stallions were tapping their feet anxiously, eyeing the General with a worried glance.

“You know the route,” General Hilt said calmly. He smirked, stepped into the carriage with the boy, and slammed the door behind him.

The hooves clapping against the cobblestone and the screams of the terrified steeds echoed against the marble walls of the mountain but it still was not enough to drown out all that happened within the black and silver carriage. 

Ready for more?

 Next Segment