For the next three days, Captain Hergol trained Maveith from early light until after sundown: calisthenics first, then war pick and shield, single war hammer, and double pick, followed by a short break. They ate lunch together but away from the other trainees. After lunch they took up survival skills like rock climbing, rappelling, swimming, and long-distance running. They took a short break and finished the day with ranged weapons like spears, pikes, halberds, crossbows and traditional archery.
The post-dinner schedule consisted of prayer and sleep. Hergol made sure Maveith was so busy and exhausted he had no time to think of Eleftheria or the past events. At night, they slept in Captain Hergol’s tent, moving out the captain’s desk to make room for Maveith’s cot. He no longer worked with new cadets or formed battle plans. The captain’s day and night were consumed with retraining Maveith in the ways of a cleric of Yauuh. After dinner on the third day, Captain Hergol was tired of his assignment. He missed his adult comrades and his snippy and rude demeanor showed it.
“I’m going out to the officer’s tent tonight,” announced Captain Hergol after another private dinner with his new recruit. “You will stay here and pray.”
“I’m tired of praying,” said Maveith.
“I really don’t care if you pray or not. So long as you stay in this tent and do tonight’s dishes, you can do whatever you want,” Hergol replied. “I’ll say you are not well if anyone asks. Deal?”
“Whatever,” said Maveith nonchalantly.
Captain Hergol left the tent. Maveith picked up the dishes, scraped the leftovers in a pail and stacked them to wash in a basin in the corner of the tent. Maveith stared at the clay plate. It was the same blue as Eleftheria’s eyes.
“Ade sto diaolo!” Maveith screamed, slamming the dish against the basin, breaking the plate and chipping the basin. He grabbed a black bear hide off Captain Hergol’s bed, wrapped it around himself, dashed out of the tent and snuck over to the stockade to visit Eleftheria. Unlike last time, he could not just walk in the stockade. The guards would never allow him inside, of that he was sure. The General undoubtedly gave strict instructions to keep Maveith out of the stockade and away from Eleftheria, although the General would never call her by name. Maveith carefully tiptoed around the back of the stockade, peeking between the slats. He whispered her name. She met him, sticking her fingers through the open slot in the slatted fence. He touched her.
“How are you?” he asked.
“Besides being a prisoner, Butcher?” she snapped with a smile. “It’s elegant in here. We have a nice cool breeze and gourmet meals.”
“Did they hurt you?”
“No. Not yet, anyway.”
“The General promised to let you go free,” said Maveith innocently.
“Well, as you can see, that’s worked out well for me,” she quipped.
“He had to make sure I was going to pull my weight. Snap to. Boot strap myself and all of that,” said Maveith.
“You mean, be an obedient follower of Yauuh,” she stated.
“Something like that,” said Maveith. “Are you hungry?”
“Let me guess, you started thinking again?” she stung back. Maveith sighed stupidly.
“Sorry. I’ll go sneak you some food.” He ran off, sneaking to the back of the grand tent. In the rear, the cooks stacked leftovers to feed the servants and slaves. Maveith sorted through the mess, picking out a nice quarter rack of ribs, half a loaf of bread and an apple. He wrapped it in a used cloth napkin he found laying on the table and snuck back to the stockade. On his way, he saw a group of soldiers walking toward him, so Maveith ducked under a cart. The soldiers stopped at the cart and talked for nearly half an hour before moving on. Maveith waited another five minutes to make sure, then darted back to the stockade.
“Eleftheria,” he whispered. “I have your food. Eleftheria?” He continued to call until an old man eyed him.
“Quit yer babbling. I’m trying to sleep,” said the old man.
“I’m looking for Eleftheria. The blond girl who ran away a few days ago.”
“She’s gone,” he said.
“A dwarf came by a while ago and took her away,” he said. “Now go away.”
Maveith opened up the cloth napkin. “I have food. If you tell me where she went, I’ll give it to you.” The man lost no time.
“The dwarf tied her hands behind her back, gagged her, and took her out of here. Now give me those ribs.”
“Just a minute,” said Maveith. “Where did he take her?”
“He threw her in a chariot and rode down the west road,” said the old man. “I’ve told you what you wanted. Now give me that food.” Maveith fed the ribs and bread through the slot, but the apple would not fit. He dropped it and dashed to the road. The road was dark and quiet. A light breeze fluttered about turning over fallen leaves that had not been crushed under the weight of hooves and wooden wheels. It was pointless; they were gone.
Maveith stopped. He couldn’t catch them on foot. He doubled back and went to the stable where the Andalusian war horses were corralled. The stable hands were sitting around a fire telling stories and staying warm. He hopped the fence and found a gray stallion of the ancient Carthusian line he’d ridden before. Therbeeo stood seventeen hands high with a broad chest, strong hind quarters, elegant legs, and a dark, thick charcoal mane and tail. Maveith had trained on horseback all his life, both saddled and bareback. He grabbed a bridle from a fence post and put it on Therbeeo, then used it to gently lead him out of the gate. He grabbed Therbeeo’s mane and hopped on its back, squeezing his knees against the war horse’s side. Maveith grabbed the reins, clicked his tongue, and trotted through camp.
I don’t have time to be sneaky, he thought. If I act normal, maybe no one will notice. He rode through camp confidently and no one paid him any mind. Once he made the road, Maveith touched the horse’s ribs with his heel and they darted down the road. He pushed the stallion as much as he dared, but it was hard to see. Luckily, the road was flat and relatively smooth. The nearest settlement on the west road was Laurium, a busy slave city where people were bought and sold in the marketplace every hour of the day.
“No!” screamed Maveith as he realized what was happening. The city was only five miles away. A person could easily go there, sell a slave, and be back before dawn. Maveith nudged the stallion in the ribs again, pushing him faster. They rounded a corner and ran onto the chariot. The stud passed the chariot then Maveith pulled its reins and cut them off. The chariot stopped.
“Who dares stop me. I am on official business for General Oglakanu,” said Captain Hergol.
“You lied again!” Maveith dismounted, recognizing the voice. “Maveith?” said Captain Hergol. Maveith reached down for his two war picks, but his weapons were back at the tent. She’s right, he thought. I am stupid.
“You can’t sell her. General promised,” Maveith claimed.
“It’s on the General’s own orders that I do what I do,” stated Hergol.
“You lie,” shouted Maveith.
“I have lied, yes, many times. But not today,” the captain stated. “Now stand aside. Go back to our tent and I’ll never tell your father you disobeyed … again.” He shoved Maveith aside, took the stallion by the bridle and guided him to the side of the road. Eleftheria watched from the chariot, her hands bound and her mouth gagged. She shook her head vehemently.
Maveith rushed Hergol, screaming. The captain rotated, deflecting the boy’s body into the dirt. He got up and lunged again and the captain deflected him into the dirt once more.
“I am your trainer, boy. You may be the prophet, but you have much to learn about warfare.” Captain Hergol turned and walked away. He mounted his chariot with Eleftheria inside and snapped the reigns. “Go home. I’ll be back in the morning to oversee your training.”
Maveith mounted his horse, rode past the chariot and turned his horse, blocking the road again. He dismounted the stud and stood in the center of the road, feet planted. Angry as he was, he swallowed his hate and focused on the chariot in front of him. Captain Hergol rode close, bringing his horse nose-to-nose with Maveith.
“Maveith!” Captain Hergol shouted. “This girl has …”
“Her name is Eleftheria,” Maveith said calmly. “Eleftheria. And you will not sell her into slavery.”
“Oh, Maveith,” he said remorsefully. “She has corrupted your soul and mind, twisted you all up inside.” Hergol dismounted the chariot and walked slowly to Maveith. “This girl is not worth throwing your life away.”
“Eleftheria,” Maveith reminded.
“She’s nothing more than a gambling gutter rat,” Hergol observed, placing his hand on Maveith’s shoulder. Maveith quickly rebuffed him, tossing the hand away.
“Your lies got her family arrested. Your lies got her father killed … by me! You are the one who has corrupted me. She opened my eyes.” Maveith’s eyes were sharp and his voice pointed and firm. He no longer cried or shouted; he did not tremble or waver. Maveith stood his ground calmly.
“I am doing Yauuh’s work,” claimed Hergol. “Your father’s work. What do you know? You are just a boy. You cannot even defeat a vagabond without us breaking his ribs first.” Maveith’s gut clenched along with his fists, the veins in his neck stood out as he bit down hard.
Calm, Maveith thought. He’s trying to goad me into rage. Maveith drew a deep breath through his nose, blew it out slowly through a small break in his lips, and unclenched his fists. His stomach still stabbed him.
“If you sell her, I swear to you I will kill you,” Maveith announced quietly, staring Hergol in the eyes.
“It is Yauuh’s divine plan,” retorted the captain.
“You don’t know that.”
“It is your father’s plan.”
“No. Even if that were true, it is wrong,” noted Maveith. “My father told me she would receive your fate. You heard him say so.”
“I did,” admitted the captain. “That was before he knew just how deeply she confused your mind.”
“I am not confused!” shouted Maveith. He breathed deeply again. “I see clearly for the first time in my life.”
“Do you now, son?”
“I am not your son,” Maveith snaped back. “I’m not sure I am anyone’s son.”
“Your father will be sad to hear you say so,” said the Captain. “You should pray I do not tell him of our conversation.”
“Let him hear,” Maveith said confidently.
“So be it,” said Captain Hergol as he threw a jab into Maveith’s nose, knocking his head backwards, causing him to stumble back two steps. Hergol shuffled forward and struck Maveith in the neck with a brachial stun. The boy’s knees buckled and he dropped to the ground, blood pouring from his broken nose, eyes blurred from the nerve strike. Captain Hergol grabbed Maveith by the criss-crossed chest harness he wore with the symbol of Yauuh in the center and drug him along the ground to the chariot.
Captain Hergol turned his back to the chariot and picked Maveith up to toss him in. Eleftheria jumped the captain’s back and threw her bound wrists around his neck. She wrapped her legs around his torso and threw her body back toward the chariot, choking the dwarf. He dropped Maveith then fell back on top of Eleftheria. Maveith got to his feet, but the stun disoriented him and he fell back to the ground like a dizzy toddler who spun in circles too many times.
Hergol grabbed Eleftheria’s right ankle and then shifted his weight downward onto her right knee. He cranked back on her ankle, twisting her joint. She cried out in pain and stopped pulling on his neck. Hergol flipped over on top of her body, picked up her head and smashed it against the floor of the chariot three times. Her skull cracked open and her body went limp.
Maveith scrambled to his knees in horror. He spied Hergol’s boot. Most Yauuh followers carried a blade hidden in the right boot. Maveith slipped his fingers inside the boot and nabbed the knife. The captain felt the tug and kicked, knocking the knife out of Maveith’s hands. The dwarf stood up and lunged into the air on top of Maveith, knocking the boy back to the ground. Maveith used his momentum to roll into a backwards summersault. He would have stood up but was still groggy from the brachial stun. The knife was near Maveith’s knee. He grabbed it as Hergol lunged forward and sunk the steel between the dwarf’s ribs. Before he thought, Maveith pulled the knife out and plunged it into the dwarf’s neck. Maveith rolled back, shook his head, then crawled over Captain Hergol’s body and into the chariot. He scooped up Eleftheria’s body and rocked her back and forth.
An hour passed and the sound of hooves pounding the ground filled the road. General Oglakanu rode up flanked by three behemoths on horseback and two dwarves driving a wagon in the rear. The behemoths dismounted; the General remained. He looked down at Maveith rocking Eleftheria.
“She’s dead. You killed her,” sneered Maveith, sobbing.
“A gutter rat, Son. Nothing more.” The General dismounted and moved next to Maveith. He reached down and laid his palm on Maveith’s shoulder blade. He shrugged it off. “I know you liked this little girl, but she’s just a crush. One of many.”
Maveith stroked Eleftheria’s hair. “Why did she have to die?”
“She would have lived had you not come after her.” The General leaned down on Maveith’s level.
“Lived? You mean been a slave.”
“It’s for the best.” The General cocked his head to the side. “She was a distraction to you, Son. She’s caused nothing but trouble.”
“She?” yelled Maveith as he took his eyes off Eleftheria. “You made me kill her father over a lie. You are the distraction.”
“Oh, Son. Don’t be ridiculous,” The General sighed. “She was nothing more than a dreg on society. Trash. Forget her. She’s nothing.”
“I loved her!” Maveith looked into Eleftheria’s still open eyes. His tears streamed off his face and covered hers.
“Love?” snorted the General. “Girls comes and go, Son. You will forget her in time. Right now you need to focus on your training and your purpose in life.”
“I. Hate. You,” whispered Maveith, as he caressed her cheek.
“All boys hate their fathers at some point. You’ll get over it when you grow up. You don’t really hate me anyway. You hate yourself. If you had followed my commands she would still be alive. This is your doing, Son. The best thing you can do is forget this trash and become a man.”
Maveith closed his eyes and held Eleftheria tightly in his lap. “I will never kill again,” whispered Maveith, looking up into the night sky. “Never again.”