The Fireseed Wars

While they waited, Verkan began. "It's a long story. You remember I took the Mounted Rifles out to find the enemy. Well, we found them. By Galzar, we did! After our detachment was attacked by the forward wing of the Grand Host, we settled down on a ridge top and pinned them down for about half a day. At first, it was like target practice for the Mounted Rifles, but more and more of the damn Styphoni showed up until we were badly outnumbered. Ten to one, maybe more. We pushed them back half-a-dozen times, but finally they overran our position."

"That's the story we heard," Kalvan said.

Cleon returned with a small keg of Ermut's Best and filled a goblet for Verkan, while Kalvan put a hand over his cup.

"My husband and I will have some tea," Rylla said.

Cleon bowed and left to brew some sassafras tea.

Verkan took a deep drink and sighed. "By Wodan, I've missed this! Anyway, the Harphaxi overran our position and in the hand-to-hand combat that ensued I was shot point-blank in the chest." He paused to lift up his loose tunic and showed them a scarlet keloid scar about the size of a small plate.

"Wow!" Kalvan said, while Rylla turned white. Understandably, he thought, she was probably afraid that his own luck would run out and one of these days he'd come home in a shroud or with a similar wound. Maybe one he wouldn't survive.

"General, you're one tough son-of-a-bitch to have survived that hit!" Especially, with the quackery here-and-now that qualifies as healing!

Verkan nodded solemnly. "You're right. It was Lystris' Own Luck that I'm still alive, Praise Galzar and Dralm! I must have been lying there all night; I don't know how much blood I lost. I included Dralm because it was a peasant, busy looting the dead, who discovered me. Instead of using my own blade to cut my throat, he brought me to his hut. It appears my reputation had preceded me and he was a loyalist. Janos recognized me from one of your visits to Sashta. He and his wife hid me in their root cellar and tended to my wounds. I was unconscious for the first moon half. After I returned to consciousness, I hid out in their hut while my body recovered.

"They had to move me four or five times to keep us safe from roving bands of soldiers, bandits and Investigators. Fortunately, the skirmishing and fighting in western Sashta had cleared out most of the people and all of the loot in the area. Pickings were slim for all but the most desperate of bandits and looters. Your Majesties, you wouldn't recognize Hos-Hostigos today; it's a wasteland as far as the eye can see. The towns and villages are in ruins, the forests and trees burned and the fields barren and dead. You can travel an entire day and see only one or two people."

Rylla's eyes welled up. She brushed at them with the sleeve of her gown.

Well that settles it, thought Kalvan. We won't be going back to Hostigos for a long time. Of course, that's not how Rylla will see it. I'll have to keep coming up with excuses until it doesn't matter anymore.

"So how did you escape?" he asked.

"I was on my back for three or four moons. I know we were on thin rations for a long time. I didn't dare leave until I could walk again and moons of bed rest left me weak as a pup. Things in Sashta got a little better after the new prince, Prince Phidestros, arrived. He parceled out a lot of land to his veterans and provided relief for those without homes or food. I never thought I'd say good things about that Dralm-damned tool of Styphons House, but the Prince does care for his subjects and he prevented Roxthar's Investigators from continuing their Investigation in Sashta and Beshta. For that alone he deserves a place in Galzar's Hall. No one else has had the stones to thwart that madman! And that includes the twice-cursed Inner Circle and their new Styphon's Own Voice.

"Janos' harvest was poor and I didn't want to deprive his family of food. So I left as soon as I could walk-sometime in early fall. I traded Janos my good poignard, with the gold and silver inlay, and he gave me enough powder for my pistol. I traveled mostly at night and hid myself away during the day. Even though Phidestros was hanging bandits left and right there were still a lot of deserters and starving peasants driven to madness by war, murdered families and deprivation.

"It took me almost a moon, but I made my way south to Xanx where I passed myself off as a wounded Harphaxi mercenary. Luckily, I had a few coins secreted away in my boot heels and I was able to find lodgings for the winter in a small border town named Gela Town. My boots probably would have been confiscated by Janos but his feet were too large; I know I saw him eying them. Those gold coins probably saved my life, or kept me from turning into an outlaw. In Hos-Ktemnos, I saw other soldiers, deserters and battlefield casualties, who turned to banditry to get through the winter.