The Union

Wismarines lay dead on the sandy ground. The orange sand mixed with blood. Those who died of h.e.l.lfire were lined separately. It had been a win for them without a single loss of life. The rest of the Wismarines either fled or surrendered.

Abraham failed to understand why the Wismarine Princess did such a thing. Even if they failed to notice the cohort, Coldford would still have defended. It was a futile attempt. The host they defeated just now were all green. Some didn"t even have armor. He had seen others hold their spears inverted. It was as if the Wismarine Princess just threw away the lives of her people.

Well whatever the reason is, he shouldn"t think much about it. The intricacies of warfare was not for him to decide anyway. His purpose is to serve King Timothy and Queen Lucia. But staying away from the monarchs bugged him. What if the royal guards slacked in the duty? What if those lads are chattering again? What if they just did a single round of patrol instead of three?

"There you are!" A loud voice exclaimed followed by a heavy pat on his shoulder. Bear was still b.l.o.o.d.y and disgusting. He handed Abraham a bottle of what seemed to be mead.

Abraham took it and drank. Mead wasn"t his poison. He preferred good ol" wine. But he had just accomplished King Timothy"s command and that called for a celebration.

"Have you seen us Sir Abraham?" Bear declared with pride "We are a good team! Ah with you bashin" and I chargin", we are unstoppable!"

"Yes, yes" Abraham took another sip and promised it to be the last one. He cannot get drunk. "You served us well. You are strong. Is there anyone at the Council stronger than you?"

"I don"t know. I haven"t met all of them"

"You haven"t?"

"Yea. I myself just received orders to come to Vanadis one day. I come to Vanadis but them people there are weak. Not even worthy of a fight. That was boring. So I just built a den in the forest and slept. That is until that oldie Helios woke me. He told me to fight in a coup but you bashed my face in that one. Lucky me, you dragged me here or else I would have slept again. This is fun Sir Abraham. Bashin" Wismarine skulls is fun"

"Well Bear, I hope you serve us long" Abraham held the bottle high as toast "To the Strong"

**********

"Ash!" Sarah shouted as she burst into Ash"s room. She leapt into Ash and hugged her on the bed.

Ash felt cold dread. This woman is crazy. She wanted to call for help.

"Good news Ash! They won. King Timothy won" Sarah"s smile was sweet and Ash couldn"t see any trace of fakeness. It was as if she was genuine. If only she was genuine…

"What are you doing here?" Ash asked in a trembling voice. She looked at the two Falconheads standing near them.

"What do you mean?" Sarah held both of her hands and looked at her in the eyes as if they were childhood friends. "I just brought you the good news. The Union won another victory. The eighteenth if I"m not mistaken. The survivors just arrived. They are broken with their clothes b.l.o.o.d.y. They said it was terrifying. The Castonians hurled pots of h.e.l.lfire to them. h.e.l.lfire Ash! h.e.l.lfire! Can you believe that? Genius. And here"s the amazing part." She paused and excitement erupted on her eyes "They saw a huge man riding a bear. Oh Ashkara smite me! A bear and a giant! King Timothy sure is talented. The Bear and the giant caved through their ranks like a hot sword through a bar of tallow. It must have been a glorious sight!"

"They are your soldiers"

"Oh right. They are my soldiers. But who cares? They are mine to play with and look what they got me. A thousand men for a good tale? That is a good trade. I mean those people were just living their boring lives planting and fishing endlessly until they die of old age. They may father some children or something but it"s still a boring life. There"s no fun to it. There"s no fun in them. So I figured that they must be put to good use"

"So you are sending your citizens to their deaths for fun!?"

"You put it like I"m evil" Sarah said sadly "Come now. I am not evil. Probably not"

Ash couldn"t handle her craziness anymore. She was sweating hard. "Why… why are you here? You told me of the news, now get out please. Please!"

Ash cried. She doesn"t know what to do. If she stays here any longer, then she would probably die. Queen Lucia told her to slip into the night and go back. Maybe it was time to flee.

"Don"t cry" Sarah wiped the tears from her eyes. She handed her some rolled paper "Here. Send these to your lieges"

Ash took the paper. It was a letter with Sarah"s seal.

"That contains names if you are curious" Sarah said "Names of my spies in Heraldshome, Coldford and Rockstuck"

"Spies?" Ash was beyond confused.

"Yes, spies. I imagine you to be familiar with the term. You are Queen Lucia"s spy right? You are spying at me and sending the information to her. My spies are spying at King Timothy and Queen Lucia and then sending the information to me. Of course none of them are as well positioned as you"

"Why...These people would be executed. Innocents…"

"I a.s.sure you Ash" Sarah made her voice calming "Those people in the list are my spies. None of them are innocent. When have I lied in my letters? In my last letter I told them what I was going to do. I didn"t lie"

Sarah rose from the bed. "Although I already did in my letter, say hi for me would ya?"

Ash didn"t reply and just stared at the letter. Sarah left after giving her one last pat on the back.

She needs to leave this place the soonest.

**********

Marvin, Bourgis, Hoover and Brent were all seated on the other side of the table. Breakfast was already served but n.o.body was eating. The four Generals including the usually jolly Hoover wore deep frowns.

"This is really unusual" Marvin said while looking at the two letters from Sarah Wismar "I have never heard or read anything about somebody sending information to her enemy"

"And accurate too. The la.s.s is a little cuckoo" Hoover said

"We should punish her. She is mocking us" Said Bourgis

"Yes, attack Mythrille with all we got" Brent, the General of Goldentooth legion, added.

"Calm down" Lucia said with a sigh "We cannot just attack her and expect that we would succeed. She is toying with us. She is not some lowly opponent like the others in the past. She is smart"

"Couldn"t agree more" Timothy said "We need to think about our next moves with care. If what she wrote in the last letter is true, then there are sixteen spies lurking in the shadows. Some of them have high ranks in the n.o.bility. Some are rich"

"So the first thing we need to do is to confirm that the people in the letter really are spies?" Marvin asked.

"She could be lying. This letter could just be a plot to sow seeds of distrust between us. Some of the names written are names of our supporters. This Baron Hyde, first in the list, feeds my legion" Brent said.

"That is why we need to confirm" Marvin said.

"A trial for all sixteen would take time. And what evidence do we have? A letter from the enemy herself? We would be mocked" Brent argued.

"We don"t need a trial really" Timothy said "We need to spy on the spies"

"And if proven?" Brent asked

Timothy lowered his head "If proven then woe to them. I don"t like the thought of dark deeds but they must go. We cannot let people know that there are spies among us. We cannot afford to lose their confidence, not now. Our spies and Shadow are already finding the truth about these people in the list"

"She only said that these sixteen are her spies" Lucia said, finally breaking a bread. She put the half to Timothy"s plate before she continued "She didn"t say that these are her only spies. Maybe these sixteen are the most useless. There could be more hiding from plain sight. You four should be careful. Although a Castonian"s loyalty is strong, we must remain vigilant at all times"

The four Generals agreed with salutes. Timothy looked at his plate. He and Lucia already had a guess as why Sarah was doing this. If all sixteen on the list were proven to be spies, then their guess would be confirmed.

She really is a terrifying opponent, Timothy thought.