Chapter Four
“It's not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
~William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
I was wounded on Lathalen Hill, in a desperate charge up the side of it to engage the Alliance army.
It had been an ill-advised attack from the beginning.
The only path for my soldiers to take to the enemy lines had been through a dense woodland, and the weather on that planet was abysmal.
The extreme heat and humidity, not to mention the little black, biting bugs that seemed to swarm everywhere, soon drove the men half insane.
These were inexperienced troops, unused to fighting under adverse conditions, and they were not any kind of foot soldiers.
They hated marching and I heard near constant loud complaints running up and down the line.
They were young, and inexperienced, like I said.
Recent heavy casualties had required us to get boys fresh from the Academy.
I warned the king, but he either didn’t understand, or he simply didn’t want to.
He had always been rash and not good at taking counsel.
We made two failed charges up Lathalen Hill and were repelled each time by the enemy who had fallen back on the other side and were entrenched there in the trees and foliage.
And each time, we were driven back, we lost more men.
On our third attempt, I knew it was then or never, and I rallied my men enough to reach the top.
I was at the top of the hill, when I heard my name being shouted from behind me and made the mistake of turning to look over my shoulder.
That was when I was hit by a disruptor blast from the trees that struck my ribs.
It was excruciatingly painful and broke several of them on one side.
Even so, it must have been a glancing shot.
A disruptor caused damage by exciting the molecular bonds of its target, and they did so much damage they could maim or cause death instantly if it was a direct hit.
If that had been a more direct hit, it would have killed me.
Charges from a disruptor, even one set on stun, hit their victims with great force and had been known to break bones or blow off limbs when they didn’t kill outright.
More frequently, the victims didn’t live to complain about it.
I was lucky and though it broke my ribs, it hadn’t quite been a direct hit.
I was still alive. I was evacuated from the field to a hospital in the rear, though I remembered little about it at first.
Command of the regiment was taken over by another general named Thaylar and the king himself. During a skirmish, Thaylar suffered a horrible, debilitating wound that blasted off his right leg. He, too, was carried to the field hospital, more dead than alive.
Eventually, the balance of the brigade came up, and the king led it in a brave and reckless charge that defeated the enemy. The battle ended as a Tygerian victory. Tragically, the king received a fatal wound right at the end of the action. All this I heard about much later.
I was still deeply unconscious and remained that way for hours.
When I awoke, I discovered I had been moved to another hastily assembled field hospital deep in the woods, and that our old location had been overrun.
Some of the Alliance survivors had taken it on themselves to exact a personal revenge on the bodies of the king and General Thaylen, who had tragically died at the hospital from blood loss.
They had attacked and destroyed as many of our wounded men as they could, the cowards.
One of my soldiers told me the Alliance bastards had thought Thaylen was me, and that was why they’d targeted him and desecrated his body, as well as the body of the king.
But a few of us had managed to escape into the woods.
I was unconscious for that part, but some of my men carried me out of there, saving my life.
After surviving against all odds, we hid out in a village of non-combatants, the original inhabitants of the planet, Myrthia.
These people had no new technology, and so we had no way to contact our people to let them know we were still alive.
The Tygerians had destroyed the Alliance outpost on their way off the planet.
Nothing was left for us to be able to make contact.
We had to wait until a passing trader landed on the planet before we could be rescued or even get a message out.
We had returned home to fanfare and acclaim and were welcomed as returning heroes, though none of us felt like heroes.
War was a grim, cruel and stupid business.
But we had been taught all our lives to love it.
I hadn’t yet been able to speak to Blake back on Tygeria, or even send word to him, and I was worried sick about him.
As reckless and mouthy as he could be at times, he was also emotionally fragile.
It came from many things, like being so high-strung and having such vivid emotional responses to anything that happened to him.
He had confided in me once that he’d been alone as a small child and had to go live with an older relative that he called his “grand mother.” The grand part didn’t mean she was good.
It meant that she was his mother’s mother.
But he did love her. He suffered some stress there at her home because of her age-related illnesses and his strong fear of being left alone again, so he’d developed some unhealthy coping mechanisms. As beautiful and smart as he was, he had a weak sense of self-worth.
It was one reason I’d had such a hard time with him when he first came to live with me and before he fell in love with me.
I had to gain his trust quickly because the king was watching us like a hawk, ready to swoop in and take him away from me if he thought I was spending too much time with Blake—as if that were even possible.
I had loved him from the first moment I saw him, and I couldn’t imagine how I could love him more.
I was wild to see him again, but I was worried too.
The two of us had come a long way since we met, and I only hoped that we hadn’t lost all the ground we’d gained.
I received word from Werros that he had been named the new king, a title that was supposed to be mine.
I wasn’t sure yet how that would play out.
He was yet to be ordained as king, though the ceremony had been planned.
I thought I would have a fight on my hands.
The army and many of the noblemen were loyal to me, along with some of the council members.
However, the powerful Veranon church wanted Werros to remain king, because their leaders knew I’d never favored them, preferring the old religion.
Werros was my friend, so I thought that maybe I would name him Dyson, or battle commander, though I should be king.
It was enough to fight the Alliance—we shouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves too, and I hoped we could work it out between us.
I figured the Council would meet soon to decide the issue.
If they decided against me, then I would have to plan my next steps, because I wouldn’t meekly accept it.
If Werros had truly lost the backing of the army and the majority of people, then in my opinion, he should step down willingly.
If that were the case, and he didn’t, I’d have to “encourage” him to do the right thing. Strongly.
Werros had also sent word that he needed to speak to me with some urgency as soon as I arrived back on the planet.
I heard that he was about to be married too, so congratulations were in order.
Who was he marrying? I was curious about the man.
Was that why he particularly wanted to speak to me?
Or could it be the issue of who would be king?
My mind went back to Blake, as it always did. Had something happened to him? I dreaded finding out, as I still had heard nothing from home, though others around me had begun to receive messages. We were still two days out from landing on Tygeria.
Finally, I managed to track down one of my servants, a Jayronian man named Talise.
He was glad to speak to me, and he told me that a mob of angry people had come to my house after word of my supposed death had reached Tygeria.
Because of my association with Blake, they had tried to set fire to the house but had been driven away by guards sent by Werros.
The king had also come for Blake at the same time, and he had taken him to the palace to stay.
I felt so relieved and grateful. I had asked Werros to look after Blake for me while I was gone.
He was an old friend, and a good one, I thought.
We’d done our training together. I knew he admired Blake’s beauty, and he had promised me that he’d look after him for me until we returned.
It helped assuage my feelings for Werros, and I began to think of him more kindly than before.
I contacted Werros directly then to ask him about Blake, and I got my first indication that something was badly wrong.
“Come and see me as soon as you get back, Davos. I have things to tell you about Blake.”
“Tell me, now. If something has happened to him, then I have to know.”
“Nothing has happened to him. I can assure you of that. He’s quite healthy and in good spirits.
But certain events have unfolded, and I need to speak to you personally about them.
Blake is fine but come see me as soon as you arrive.
” With that, and not another word of explanation, he clicked off and I couldn’t get him back.