104 Survivor (2/2)

”We're fine…” answered the frail man sitting on the cot opposite mine. ”Wondered when you would get to us.”

Ashley rolled her eyes at this .

”He says they're fine,” Ashley said dryly.

Azuma, looking like a mummy with his many bandages, sat up and glared at me. ”You failed to kill Spellweaver… I'm still bound to him.”

”Yeah, well… you didn't warn me he was a backstabbing lunatic who was planning to commit patricide,” I fired back.

Azuma chuckled softly. ”So he really did gut his old man? I thought that was just a rumor.”

”Uh, no… we were there. We saw it happen,” Ashley reported.

Azuma sat back and leaned on the wooden wall of the wagon's interior.

”I knew he wasn't happy with how his father cast a shadow on him… despite his many achievements, Ardeen Spellweaver was only ever the son of a Great General,” Azuma revealed.

He went on another one of his coughing fits. But once he was finished coughing his lungs out, he set his sights back on me.

”Doesn't change the fact that I and those viseres who followed me are still bound to the Magesong clan, boy,” he hissed.

I waved the threat in his voice away with my hand. He wasn't as scary when he wasn't holding onto his spear. Especially not in our current setting where we were both considered unfit for combat.

”Cool your jets, old man,” I answered. ”We'll get to that once we're free and clear of pursuers.”

I glanced out through the wagon's opening and back to the procession of soldiers making their way south to the golden general riding atop a fresh swifthart mount.

”Darah's agreed to contract with you herself,” I admitted.

”Seriously?' Ashley asked.

Even Azuma looked surprised.

I nodded. ”Yeah…” Then I leaned forward and patted Azuma on his bandaged leg. ”Congrats. You're about to contract with a Great General.”

”Just like General Thors did…” Ashley added.

Both Ashley and I lowered our heads at the mention of Thors.

There had been no news about the commander who led our center army. Not since we decided to escape south. Last I heard, Thors had rallied a few hundred soldiers to hold the line and keep the Magesong and Scarlet Moon from hounding our butts.

Of course, I should have had more faith in the lone visere of the Trickster Pavilion to ever be honoured with the title of general.

It was hours later, and we were well on our way south to Broken Sellsword's Canyon, when Thors appeared behind us at the head of five thousand more Darah soldiers.

The cheers rang out in waves that cascaded down the rear, all the way to our vanguard units.

I watched from my spot in the wagon as Great General Darah clasped Thor's shoulder and laughed as she greeted him. And as far as I was, I could still hear her loud voice when she proclaimed, ”I knew they couldn't kill you, Thors. You're like one of those Mudgardian insects that just won't die when you step on it!”

As if hearing Darah admit out loud that she'd been to Mudgard and lost a battle with a cockroach wasn't surprising enough, Thors brought back with him an even bigger bombshell.

Standing behind the general, bloodied shoulder and all, his face a mess of bruises and cuts, his once braided black hair now a mess behind him, was Aura's half-ogre bodyguard.

Seeing Edo alive, I couldn't even begin to explain the swirl of emotions that burst out of my chest in that moment. It was like stumbling blind in the dark, afraid of every shadow, and suddenly, a small flame lights up to banish the dark.

Edo, that giant oaf, had survived and brought back hope—the hope that things might be alright after all. Just in the nick of time too as dawn was peaking over the horizon and my time in the Fayne was nearly over. At least now I could go back to Mudgard feeling a little lighter in the chest.