Reavers of the Blood Sea (The Chaos War Series) by Richard Knaak

Author:Richard Knaak [Knaak, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780786962914
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2012-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

An Eye for an Eye

Chapter Ten

Subcommander Drejjen cursed the fog. He cursed the shelled horrors that had emerged from it, and in the process, he cursed the minotaur warriors under his command, who could not seem to fight the way he intended them to. The fact that the orders he had given had been at times contradictory or put the minotaurs into hard-pressed situations did not occur to him. The failure had to lie in the locals, who did everything they could to frustrate the Knights of Takhisis, even during a crisis.

Now they even argued against his orders to clear the area of bodies. Thanks in great part to someone’s clever suggestion to use torches against the overgrown lobsters, Drejjen’s talon had finally turned the tide in this sector. The minotaurs had played some small part, adding numbers to offset those of the monsters, but if they thought they could rest now, Drejjen assured them that they were mistaken.

For creatures claiming to be fastidious, their reluctance to clean up the mess seemed contradictory. Did they expect the knights to dirty themselves with such a task? Drejjen and his men had enough to do, what with patrolling the area and keeping the minotaurs in line. The stench rising from the hideous corpses should have been all the encouragement the natives needed, but some had already sneaked off, supposedly to attend to loved ones.

“Sloppy,” he muttered. “Undisciplined beastmen!” Drejjen coughed, then coughed again. “Damned fog.…”

Some of the minotaurs coughed as well, but he paid no mind. A little cough meant nothing, not to a Knight of Takhisis.

One of the beastmen began gathering the shelled corpses into a pile, clearly with the intention of creating a pyre. Drejjen cursed. The fool minotaur would probably burn down the entire district! Drejjen spurred his weary mount toward the warrior, in the end nearly running the minotaur down.

“What in the Lady’s name do you think you’re doing, bull?”

A fresh scar crossed the dark brown minotaur’s muzzle. Tired as he appeared, he still answered defiantly, “Getting ready to burn these foul bodies! What does it look like?”

The subcommander thought of striking the bull in the face for his arrogant attitude, but decided he had better things to do. “It looks like you’re trying to burn the city to the ground!”

The minotaur looked at him as if he had gone mad. “The bodies are far from any wooden structure! I checked the direction and strength of the wind and even built up a ring around the mound! This is the best spot to burn them, human! What else would you have me do with them?”

“Throw them in the harbor, of course.”

“All these corpses? They’ll all rot and foul the water!” He coughed. “They smell bad enough now. What do you think they’d be like after a few days in the water?”

Drejjen had finally had enough. “That is an order! You know how to understand a simple order, don’t you? Although judging by the battle, it’s no wonder you can never win your wars!”

The vein in the minotaur’s neck throbbed.

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