Blood Sword by Terry W. Ervin II

Author:Terry W. Ervin II
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, epic fantasy, sword and sorcery, post apocalyptic
Publisher: Gryphonwood Press
Published: 2018-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

The size of the troglodyte’s shovel made it difficult to dig. Enchanter Jonas had helped dig some of the grave but it appeared to be the first time he’d handled a shovel. While we worked Grand Wizard Seelain and Lilly prepared Private Zunnert’s body for burial.

Captain Bray sat leaning up against the trunk of an unusual sort of hickory tree with bark that appeared to be peeling off. Bray’s right leg lay outstretched and splinted. He’d leapt from Flint Spitter after the Kraken’s claw had crushed the life out of his mount. I’d helped the corpsman, holding Bray as the soldier pulled the serpent cavalryman’s leg to realign and set the snapped bone that had nearly broken through the skin in his calf. Bray endured the grueling process, sweating and biting on a thick leather strap. We’d then had to pop his dislocated shoulder back into place, but that was nothing compared to the leg.

Even more amazing was that somehow Captain Bray had managed to fend off a fishman with his battle axe until a troglodyte took it from behind.

About thirty of the gray trogs were caring for their own dead close to where Grand Wizard Seelain had extinguished the fuel fire by taking away the air it fed upon. Instead of burying their dead, they laid each of their fallen on a pallet of split logs and then covered the fallen under heavy stones before covering all with dirt. They did this now next to recently built burial mounds.

I asked Enchanter Jones, “What did Private Zunnert tell you before he died?”

“To tell his wife he loved her. To see that his sword is placed in his son’s hand, and his hunting knife in his daughter’s.”

I thought of the hours on watch Zunnert shared with me, sometimes talking, and all the meals and campfires. “I never knew he had a family.”

“Neither did I,” said Jonas.

“His wife left him,” Captain Bray said. He struggled to keep his voice even as he spoke. He’d insisted on being present for Private Zunnert’s burial. The pain-numbing herbs helped some but not nearly enough. “She threatened to leave him when he volunteered for the King’s Infiltration Force. When he passed the training, something that most volunteers fail to do.” He took a breath. “His wife took his children and moved back south to her family.”

The future of our mission was in peril, but we had to get this duty past us before we looked forward. Talking helped me some. “Why would she do that?” I asked, climbing into the hole and continuing to dig. King Tobias housed and saw to the needs of the families of all the elite soldiers serving him. They were known to be a solid community living in apartments just north of the palace.

After a moment Bray answered. “Zunnert believed serving as an infiltration soldier was the best way to ensure his family’s safety. She thought joining would get him killed.”

I shook my head and cut a root with the shovel’s blade before lifting another shovel full of dirt out of the hole.

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