VI
Fort Tezcapolis
Faced with attacking imperial forces that none of them had seen coming, Ellis and the rest of her garrison fought on hopelessly, all for the sake of allowing one man to escape the fort...
“Oy, Sis!” bellowed Foster. “Did Lieutenant Colonel Ashton get out safely?”
“He’d better have, or what are we bleeding ourselves dry for here?!” Ellis split the skull of an imperial soldier who came at her with an uncanny smile. Her aide, Foster, knocked a group down with a mighty sweep of his spear.
“Something’s off, though, isn’t it? These clods are all grinning like they’re possessed or something.”
“If you want to know why they’re off, you should ask th—?!”
“As if I don’t know!” Without turning, Foster stabbed backward with his spear. The imperial soldier coming at them from behind had no chance to react before they were silenced. Despite the tragic state of his hairline, Foster was no slouch in a fight.
He was a good man to have on hand when on the back foot, but Ellis could already imagine how even the slightest praise would make him gloat. As such, she would have rather died than tell him.
“They just keep coming!”
The imperial soldiers came crawling around the corner in the corridor like maggots from a corpse. Ellis cursed under her breath.
Every suit of ebony black armor makes me sick. I, who served as her double, am the only one allowed to wear my big sister’s noble color... All right, as much as I really don’t like it, I suppose it’s all right for that unit Gile put together too.
An image of Gile, laughing like an idiot with that stupid look on his face, came to mind just as an imperial soldier turned to her and raised an enormous battle-axe so out of proportion with their height it looked ridiculous.
“Diiiieee!” they shrieked.
“Oh, shut up! You die!” As the axe came crashing down, Ellis caught it on the flat of her blade, spinning as she did so to slice through the imperial soldier’s carotid artery from behind. Little bubbles of blood welled up out of the line her sword left, followed by a gush of blood as the soldier’s knees gave way. She went on cutting down every imperial soldier she saw, becoming steadily drenched in their blood. Then, she saw a familiar face coming toward her. It was Ashton’s attendant, the boy called Lochie.
“Where’s Lieutenant Colonel Ashton?” Ellis demanded before Lochie could speak.
He seemed unsure for a moment, but answered, “I think he made it out of the fort.”
Ellis’s eyebrows shot up. “You think? So you didn’t make sure?”
Under her angry glare, Lochie said quickly, “Along the way we encountered a large number of imperial soldiers. I had no choice but to lure them away...”
“You guard Lieutenant Colonel Ashton from the shadows, don’t you? That’s no excuse. Why didn’t you stay with him all the way?”
The sudden sharpness in Lochie’s manner was palpable. “Why do you think I’m guarding Lieutenant Colonel Ashton?” he asked, backing away as though wary of Ellis.
Ellis gave a contemptuous snort. “Why? I should be asking you why you didn’t think I’d notice. The fact is there are too many inconsistencies in what you do and how you act. They might all be small individually, but as they build up, they start to stand out. Basically, it’s obvious to anyone with eyes to see it.”
“I didn’t notice a thing, sis.”
“If a moron like you noticed him, he’d be out of work.”
Foster pursed his lips irritably.
Lochie didn’t take his eyes off of Ellis for a second. “All right, that makes sense,” he said at length. “Apparently, my training has been far from sufficient. If my sister hears about this, I’m going to be in for an earful and no mistake.” He relaxed somewhat, letting out a deep sigh. Though a glint of suspicion continued to simmer in his eyes, Ellis saw his wariness gradually drop away. He was skilled, no doubt, but apparently, he was also still naive.
“Can you take us to Lieutenant Colonel Ashton?”
“Yes, assuming he kept running as I told him.”
Ellis and Foster, now with Lochie joining their number, set off running once more through the fort that echoed with the screams and yells of combat and death. Lochie took the lead, demonstrating his unarmed combat skills to them on the imperial soldiers they encountered on the way.
Ellis saw neither fear, nor carelessness, nor arrogance in Lochie’s face. He neutralized each enemy who appeared before him with mindless efficiency. They passed by imperial soldiers with arms bent at unnatural angles, eyes glazed over and drooling from their mouths. Ellis was privately awestruck.
It’s not just his physical technique, she thought. He’s cultivated his skills specifically for killing. I honestly didn’t expect this much from him, but that’s a happy mistake.
Along the way they reunited with Evanson, who was equally drenched in blood, then as they continued after Ashton, Ellis and the others came to a wide-open door in front of which lay a heap of fallen imperial soldiers. Ellis stopped, looking at the other three. Then, keeping her guard up, she entered the room.
It was Evanson, his face twisted in horror, who spoke up as soon as they entered.
“No... Lieutenant Gile...”
Gile, his hand still clenched around his bow, had his back to another door, guarding it. He had died on his feet, eyes still open. It was clear he had been protecting someone, and in Fort Tezcapolis, there was only one someone that could be.
Ellis approached him, treading on the corpses of imperial soldiers strewn about the room. A gentle smile formed on her lips. “This room tells me all I need to know. I didn’t think a stupid, incurable bonehead like you had it in you to fight so well. I, Ellis Crawford, am genuinely impressed.” She softly lay a hand over Gile’s face, then slid it down.
“Lieutenant Colonel Ashton must have gone through there,” Lochie said.
Without looking at him, Ellis laid Gile down beside the door. “Don’t state the obvious,” she quietly admonished.
“I’m sorry...”
Ellis kicked the door in, then she simply ran, trying with all her might to hide the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.
Evanson and the others passed through the open door and saw a stable glowing in the light of the sunrise. The holes here and there in the roof made it clear it had not been used in a long time. Evanson crept toward the stables, signaling to the other three with hand gestures. It was a precaution against any soldiers who might be lying in wait, but in the end it proved unnecessary.
“It doesn’t look like there are any imperial soldiers here...” he said under his breath. Then Lochie, who had gone ahead, suddenly crouched down. “What is it?” Evanson asked. Lochie’s eyes ran over the ground as though he was searching for something. Evanson watched quietly until Lochie stood up, then pointed ahead of them and to the right.
“I think Lieutenant Colonel Ashton went that way.”
“Why?” Ellis demanded at once. Lochie explained that the footprints that remained unquestionably belonged to Ashton. Crouching down beside Lochie revealed that there were indeed footprints. But to Evanson, they looked no different from the ones he himself had left on the ground. Ellis and Foster apparently thought the same; they eyed Lochie with skepticism.
“What evidence do you have for being sure that these belong to Lieutenant Colonel Ashton?”
“Footprints are more distinct than all of you think. You can tell, for example, by the length of someone’s stride how tall they are, and the depth tells you roughly their weight. The way these footprints drag along the ground show that this person was extremely tired, and most importantly, there is a pronounced indentation from the toe. That is consistent with Lieutenant Colonel Ashton’s particular way of walking.”
Evanson and Foster both sat there, impressed by Lochie’s explanation. Ellis, meanwhile, set off toward the long grass Lochie had indicated.
“Don’t let your guard down,” Evanson said, following after her.
“I know.”
He pushed his way into the grass, with Foster and Lochie behind him. They moved forward cautiously, clearing a path as they went. Then, Ellis abruptly stopped.
“Ellis?” Her gaze was fixed ahead. There, Evanson saw a dead imperial soldier, a look of delight still on her face. A knife that had presumably struck the fatal blow protruded from her neck. It was engraved with the lion sigil they knew well.
“Hey, sis...” Foster looked uncertainly at Ellis. Lochie, who had coolly killed all those imperial soldiers without a flicker of emotion, was like a different person, his face ashen. The reason was the knife clutched in the woman’s hand, stained red-brown. There was no question that she and someone else had stabbed each other, and given the dead woman was an imperial soldier, the inevitable conclusion was that her opponent had been with the Royal Army.
Calm down. We don’t know that it was Lieutenant Colonel Ashton yet, Evanson told himself. But denying it only made his heart beat faster. Scouring the area around him with his eyes, he noticed patches of bloodstained grass continuing away to their left.
Lieutenant Colonel Ashton! Before he knew it, he was running desperately. A little later, he heard uneven breathing from behind him. Whenever fear threatened to engulf him, he pushed it back, telling himself out loud that Ashton was all right, he had to be all right. At some point, the words turned into a prayer.
“No...”
The scene that awaited them was unbearably cruel. Evanson jerked to a halt like a broken clock, burying his hands in his hair.
Under the dappled light of the tree, Ashton seemed at first to be only sleeping peacefully. But the pool of dried blood that spread out beneath him pitilessly dispelled this image. The aroma of the white flowers blooming all around him mingled with the scent of winter, leaving Evanson feeling as though he were dreaming.
“Lieutenant Colonel Ashton...” Lochie fell to his knees. “Second Lieutenant Ellis was right. Whatever happened, I should never have left his side. I am to blame.” Tears poured down Lochie’s cheeks as, without a care for the rest of them, he pounded the ground with his fists. Ellis, meanwhile, passed by him without a word. She began to shake Ashton lightly by the shoulders.
“What are you thinking, napping here, Lieutenant Colonel Ashton? It’s morning. Come on, get up.”
“Ellis...”
She knew that Ashton would not reply. But she didn’t let a little thing like that stop her. She began to shake Ashton harder and harder.
“Sis, stop it! That’s enough!” Foster ran over to Ellis, grappling her under the arms to try and pull her away from Ashton.
“You bastard!” she screamed. “You get your hands off of me!!!” She slammed the back of her head into his face, then, as Foster wobbled on his feet, blood streaming from his nose, she grabbed his collar and pulled him toward her before driving her knee into his stomach with her full strength. Groaning, Foster hunched over while Ellis ran back over to Ashton, then started shaking him harder than ever.
“What the hell!” she yelled at him. “What the hell did that bonehead give his life for?! Wake up already, damn you!”
As Ellis raged, Evanson walked up behind her and gently laid a hand on her narrow shoulders.
“Not you t—?!”
“Let him rest, Ellis. This is too unkind.”
Ellis dropped her hands, then stared at Ashton. An empty look came over her face, like it had when their father had finally passed away. Then, tears began to spill from her warm brown eyes, pouring down her cheeks.
“Let’s go, Ellis. We can’t die here too. It’s our duty to live and tell the others of Lieutenant Ashton’s death.”
Evanson got Ellis and Lochie to stand up, then slung Ashton over his back. It would likely be a brutal journey, carrying him all the way home. But Evanson decided the least he could do to make amends would be to let a certain two others see Ashton’s fate.
“How am I supposed to face Big Sister Olivia and Colonel Claudia...?” Ellis wept in despair. No one answered her.
Evanson and the others set off to rejoin the main force that had gone on ahead, their legs heavy as lead and with a gaping sense of loss in their hearts.
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