Fortitude by Samantha Schinder

Author:Samantha Schinder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2019-10-02T15:03:23+00:00

Chapter 31

Francis Beckett

Francis picked his way through the wreckage on the Arcanton side of the wall. A crunch under his boot alerted him he had stepped on something. A hand. Attached to the body of one of his soldiers. He kicked it aside. He was growing weary of having to wipe his boots off, scuffing them in the grass to rid them of the defecation that accompanies death.

Behind him he heard Veronica stumble. He stifled a sigh, willing his temper into submission. Once he found his spot of calm, he offered the woman his hand. He hadn’t wanted her following him out here. Not that he particularly cared for the fiendish woman, but her safety was important to his cause. She was his backup weapon, his grand stand if the Westlanders managed to fix whatever was wrong with the ethersphere in this bit of the south they managed to regain. Therefore, he played the part of the doting admirer. That was what was required to keep this frivolous, needy woman placated.

Though he detested needing allies, he had to admit the push from “Ned Turner” to reclaim the Westlands after a very convincing report of their lawless ways to the Senate was what he’d needed to finally rally the forces he needed. The hole in the ethersphere…he had no idea where that came from but perhaps it was Odin smiling on him finally.

“I wish you had stayed back in Sharlott,” he quipped, unable to keep a note of annoyance from his voice.

Veronica shot him a hot stare. “I wanted to see it for myself. I may be a lady but I am not above seeing the nitty gritty of war. Death is no stranger to me. You said yourself I was pivotal to this whole ordeal.” This pronouncement was followed by yet another stumble in her impractical, preposterously heeled shoes. The hems of her travel skirts were already a red brick dust ruin.

Francis massaged the bridge of his nose. “Yes, but little good it will do us if you catch an arrow through the lung…remember our healers must rely on etherless medicine on this side of this convenient little rift,” he cautioned.

“Your concern for my welfare is well noted, Admiral Beckett, but…” Veronica trailed off. “Hello, what have we here?”

She released his arm and picked her way closer to the earthen wall. Francis sighed audibly this time and joined her to see what had riveted her attention so. It was the body of a Westlands insurgent, her head cocked at an unnatural angle, belaying her plunge from the top of the berm. Various puckering holes riddled her muscular frame, including a rather large one on the side of her head, indicating she was probably dead before the fall snapped her neck.

“Isn’t this the one who caused your breach to fail? That famous female warrior, Liberty Quentin?” Veronica asked, prodding the inert corpse with the toe of those ludicrous shoes.

Francis gazed down at the body, blood and brain matter caked onto braids

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