Joshua Simon - Forgotten Soldiers

It was my turn to spit.

Gods, why had I taken a bite of tobacco? “Well, I guess I know how he died then. And the reason for it.”

Ira shrugged. “Yep.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“You had enough on your plate managing us and the never-ending missions Balak threw our way. You didn’t need something like that clouding up your thoughts. Besides, if someone had ever figured out what I did, and you knew about it but didn’t address it, you’d be in just as deep as me. Probably deeper.”

Ira nodded toward his brother. “Dek thinks that most of your threat earlier in Kafr about killing everyone was a bluff. He said it wasn’t like you to go around killing civilians. But it wasn’t a bluff, was it? You would have cut that man open in a heartbeat.”

I shifted uncomfortably. “What makes you say that?”

“Because I’ve only seen you that angry one other time and that was when we all first joined and them two mages were picking on Ava. You were madder then actually, which only makes sense because of her being family. But this was close. And you nearly killed both of them mages then. Probably would have if me and Ham hadn’t pulled you off.”

“Good thing you did. Balak would have had me hanged. The lashings were bad enough.” I winced as phantom pains drifted over my back and shoulders. “He said it was unfair that I beat them so badly since I had a resistance to sorcery. I told Balak that those idiots should have carried swords.”

Ira snorted. “Yeah, they should have. So like I asked, you weren’t bluffing earlier, were you?”

“No. I wasn’t. I don’t bluff when someone threatens my family.”

Ira was probably right by keeping that story of killing Jahleel from me. My unit had taken the place of my family during the war and I wouldn’t have turned my back on Ira for something like that. Regardless of what would have rained down on me.

I glanced over my shoulder at the men talking, playing cards, a few others already settling down for the night. I knew they weren’t perfect, but I’d die for them just as I knew they would for me.

When it comes to family, that’s the way it should be.

Eventually it was down to me, Dekar, and Ira. Thankfully, Kafr was the last confrontation we had to deal with during the remainder of our travels. That made the journey more palatable and still allowed us to hang onto our hope of what was to come when we reached our homes. That’s not to say the people we came across started throwing flowers at our feet or anything like that. They just never tried to kill us.

Small victories.

Ira and I sat up front while Dekar snoozed in the back of the wagon.

“Gods, Ty. You’re shaking the wagon more than the road.”

“Huh?”

Ira nodded to my hands that I had been rubbing subconsciously while tapping a leg and rocking in my seat.

“Sorry,” I said, trying to force myself to relax. “I’m getting anxious. We should be in Denu Creek within the hour.”

He shook his head. “Well, we ain’t there yet so calm yourself. I swear you’re acting like a kid on his name day.”

I chuckled, but stopped at a sudden urge. I stood.

Ira swore. “What in the name of Xank are you doing now?”

“Gotta piss.”

“Well, let me pull over then. It won’t take but a minute,” he said pulling the reins.

“No! Just keep going. We can’t stop now. We’re too close,” I said, undoing my britches.

Dekar woke up. “What are you two going on about? That was the best sleep I had in days.”

“Ty’s being ridiculous,” said Ira. “Man can wait a decade to see his family, but not a few extra minutes to make sure he doesn’t get piss on his leg.”

“Seriously?” asked Dekar, looking away from my stream.

I shook off and started tying my britches up. “Let’s see how you feel tomorrow when you’re this close to seeing your Adwa again. Then we can talk.” I sat. “You got time to get a bit more sleep if you want.”

“Too late now. I’m up, and I’m hungry.” Dekar started rummaging around in the back. “I guess we won’t be stopping to eat. Might as well do it now. Here.” He handed up some jerky for me and Ira.

I was pretty hungry, but my stomach was also in too big of a knot to eat much. I took a bite of the dried beef, and let it sit in my mouth, slowly sucking out the spices before chewing and swallowing. The ritual gave me something to do other than think about seeing Lasha and the kids again.

How would they react? What would they say? Molak be damned, I still hadn’t figured out what I would say.

The food only calmed me for a few minutes. After the third bite, I started blabbering about Denu Creek, my home, Lasha, Myra, and Zadok. Stories I knew Ira and Dekar had heard dozens of times before spilled out before I even realized it.

I couldn’t help myself.

Ira started to drive the horses harder with each story. We actually had to slow down as we reached the outskirts of town.

Ten years is a long time for anyone to be gone from home. In that amount of time, a baby can become a boy or a boy a man. Even still, I had not expected Denu Creek to be so different. The place had more than doubled in size-inns, taverns, specialty stores, and even a small theater next to the local auction house lined Main Street which actually lived up to its name.

Ten years ago it was the only street. Now there were a couple of side roads branching off. It used to take a man less than five minutes to walk from one side of town to the other. It would take at least twice that long now.

“I don’t even recognize it anymore.”

Ira grunted. “Makes you wonder what our home is like, doesn’t it?”

Home for Dekar and Ira was a small town to the south named Tamra.

“It does,” Dekar whispered.

We entered Main Street in the evening. It wouldn’t be fully dark for hours, yet business owners prepared for night anyway, lighting oil lamps that hung on the posts of awnings over their doorways. Wagons owned by locals began to fill the street while men and women who looked like they had just come in from a hard day of work walked the wooden sidewalks. Many of them headed straight for the taverns.

“Dekar, how old would you reckon most of this is?” I asked.

He grunted. “You can tell a few buildings are fairly recent by how green the wood looks.”

I pointed to a barber shop, something the Denu Creek I remember never had. “What about something like that?”

“Older. Same as the inn on the other side of it. Probably seven or eight years old.”

“That’s what I was thinking too.”

“Why?”

“Just trying to figure out why Lasha never mentioned any of this in the letters she sent to me. She’d write a paragraph about the weather, but not even one sentence about all of this.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess that’s something you’ll have to ask her.”

“Yeah. It just seems so unlike her.”

Ira gave me a nudge and nodded when I looked his way. “You know any of them people?”

I followed his gaze to a group of men standing near the old, single-room jail. It was nice to see there hadn’t been a need to build a bigger one despite the increase in population. I couldn’t read lips, but I didn’t have to. The eyes of the men at the old jail betrayed enough. They made no attempt to hide their displeasure at seeing us.

“No,” I answered.

“What about them?” Dekar asked from behind.

I looked to the other side of the street where a handful of ladies stood outside a tailor shop. They looked just as sour about our presence as the men near the jail. However, most had the courtesy not to act so obvious about it. All except one that is. She spat as we passed.