In a World without God

Chapter 17

"Don't you want to play with the children, Captain Bosha?"

Ygraine asked, a dozen or so children, all about five years old, dangling from the hem of her skirt. They stole glances at Bosha, hiding behind her skirt.

"I hate children," Bosha said in a deliberately grumpy voice, not wanting to see them.

The children who heard her flinched and stepped back.

"Why?"

"Because they're shameless. They think they deserve what they get. I saved this village, and they don't even know how to thank me."

Ygraine stroked the sobbing children's heads. Still smiling, she turned to Bosha.

"Does Captain Bosha think he saved the children?"

"Of course I did! The Black Fangs wiped out the demons! If I didn't save them, what did?"

Ygrain shook her head.

"The reason he thinks that is because you drew a line between the children and yourself."

"What?"

"Captain Bosha didn't save the children. Captain Bosha saved himself"

He called it bullshit. At the time, he thought Ygrainne was always saying unintelligible things. Even now, as Edulis, he didn't quite understand what she meant. But he was beginning to get a sense of it. At least, he didn't have the heart to call them "brats" as they slept, and the sight of their sleeping faces made him smile.

He couldn't stop thinking about Tarik's face when Enri hugged him around the waist. When he was traveling with Ygraine, he would often see a face like that. Not only Enri but these kids inherited more than just scars from Ygraine.

"Hmm.... Why aren't you running away? Let's hear it."

As Edulis removed his hand from Ishkur's mouth, he asked in a low voice.

"Let me ask you the other way around, why do you think you can run away?"

"Well, I have an escape route...."

"You mean the one hidden among the arrowroot in the back mountains?"

"Yes...." Ishkur's red eyes widened.

"A word of advice, don't assume the enemy is dumber than you. There are signs of human traffic on that path, and they'll follow it somehow."

Ishkur was visibly flustered. He was confident in his strategy.

"Really? There were tracks there? Shit... I didn't realize it because I didn't check it myself. What am I going to do? When am I going to get another chance like this...."

The danger got closer. Out the window, he could see three men approaching the house. Ishkur spun in place, thinking.

They don't know about his betrayal yet. He might be able to survive if he fled on his own, but it's not every day you get an ally with this much power. What could they do?

Edulis thought as he looked at Ishkur. What if he had been Bosha when he was just a mercenary captain? He would have used the children as bait to draw the enemy in, then set the house on fire. He would have waited outside to ambush them while the children and the enemy huddled together in confusion. The Red Fox of Caldura was a man of strategy.

But not Edulis.

"Stay there and rest. Don't wake the children."

"What? You, you!"

Ishkur was at a loss for words. Edulis lunged for the window as he spoke. The sound of a fang-like sword tearing through the air could be heard.

"Madman..."