masterghandalf

Chapter 12: War Stories

The sun was creeping down past the horizon when Len called for a halt. Halfway between Korth and Sarrin there were no towns nearby, and the Captain had decided that even if there were, she didn’t want to risk running into any of ir’Sarrin’s people so close to his home. Therefore, the company made their way off the road and found a small clearing where they could put up a camp for the night.

Harsk began the task of gathering wood for a fire, while Ghazaan laid out several bedrolls he’d apparently been carrying in his overlarge pack; the price, it seemed, of being the largest and strongest of the team. Soon they were arranged around a merrily roaring fire while Harsk sat beside it, the shifter intent on the boiling pot – something else from Ghazaan’s supplies – he’d suspended over it. Thyra didn’t know what the shifter was cooking, but it smelled delicious.

As they waited for the meal to be finished, the mercenaries fell to various activities. Rinnean seated against a tree, engrossed in cleaning a collection of daggers far more impressive than what Thyra had imagined he could have hidden on his person. Havaktri stood apart from the others and seemed to be engaged in some sort of elaborate dance, flowing from one pose to another with a serene expression on her face. Len and Yhani regarded everyone else with sharp looks, apparently satisfying themselves that everyone was present and unlikely to get themselves involved in too much trouble, and then they stepped backwards before sharply turning to face one another. They bowed once, and then each drew her sword – Len’s a straight-bladed longsword, Yhani’s an elvish scimitar – and held it before her in a salute. Then they struck.

Thyra, like most Thranes, could shoot a bow, but she had little knowledge of swordsmanship. Still, as Len and Yhani sparred, she could tell that they were both incredibly skilled, their blades darting and meeting in what seemed more dance than fight; it was obvious that they knew one another’s moves intimately, with the result seeming less a form of exercise and more a graceful, sharp-edged duet.

“Something, isn’t it?” Ghazaan asked suddenly, the big hobgoblin sitting at the base of the tree beside Thyra. “They do this every time we’re on the road and they’ve got the space, but it’s always worth watching. Those girls know how to handle a blade.”

Thyra started instinctively at the hobgoblin’s presence, then forced herself to calm down, knowing that she was being ridiculous. Ghazaan was imposing, but so far as she’d seen, he was good-natured and not nearly as threatening as he looked. “You know them both well, then?” she asked.

“Yep,” Ghazaan said, leaning back against the tree. “I’ve been with the Captain since the beginning, and I know her better than anyone except Yhani. We were all in the same company during the War, you know, the three of us and Harsk. Rinnean and Havaktri came later.” He looked over at Thyra and winked. “No need to change the subject, though. I saw that I startled you, and it’s okay. I get that a lot.”

“I’m sorry,” Thyra said, hanging her head and feeling an embarrassed blush creep up her cheeks. “It was stupid.”

Ghazaan chuckled and his long ears twitched. “I’m seven feet tall and I have fangs. I’ve been around long enough that I know I set off every human’s instincts about big, scary predators. Which, I’ll admit, I’ve taken advantage of a time or two in my line of work. There’s a lot humans have done to my people that I don’t understand and won’t forgive; being startled when I show up suddenly isn’t one of them.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Thyra said, letting her gaze drift back to Len and Yhani sparring. “So, you fought for Breland, then?”

“Yeah, I was a mercenary then too,” Ghazaan said, “but on my own, not part of a company. Got assigned to a fortress along the border with Cyre – that was back before the Mourning, of course. At that time, Cyre was mostly concentrating on you lot up in Thrane, so we all thought we had a pretty cushy assignment. That is, until the Karrns decided to pull a major offensive. They cut straight through south Cyre and headed right for us; I think they were trying to cut Cyre in half, and we just happened to be in their way. The fort’s commander and most of his staff were killed or put out of commission in the first assault, and we all thought we were done for.

“That’s when I saw her. Len was barely into her twenties at the time, just a skinny girl who’d enlisted to get away from a past she never talked about, not even an officer. But she rallied us, and by Dorn, we stood. Seemed like she was everywhere along the wall that night, her sword blazing like fire, and by the time the dawn came, we’d held, and the Karrns were pulling back. She stood there on the wall, battered, bruised, but on her feet, and then this Karrn officer came riding out from their ranks in full armor. Thought he was going to launch another attack, but instead, he just saluted us; Len saluted him back. We couldn’t hold out another night, and we all knew it, but later that afternoon we were relieved and the Karrns decided to go look for an easier target. Well, the commander of the reinforcements took credit for it, of course; Len got promoted, but nobody in the top brass ever really cared what she’d done. But I knew from that day on that there was a soldier I’d follow, and I’ve followed her ever since.” Ghazaan shrugged. “And I couldn’t tell you for sure, but I think that was probably when Yhani started to fall in love with her, too.”

“Wait, you mean the Captain and Yhani are… oh… oh,” Thyra said, closing her mouth and feeling stupid. The quiet glances the two seemed to share, as if they could communicate on a level without words… their insistence on only rooming with each other… even their current sparring, which Thyra had already thought seemed more like a dance than a fight. “Well, that explains quite a few things,” she finally managed.

Ghazaan grinned. “Yeah, they don’t make a big deal about it in public – Captain wants to make sure people think she’s professional and announcing to everyone that she’s sleeping with her second-in-command wouldn’t fit with that, and I don’t think Yhani’s people really go for public affection anyway – but it’s no real secret that they’ve been together for years.” He gave a short laugh. “Growing up, I’d always heard elves were snooty and kept to their own kind, so I’d never have thought one’d end up with a – well, with someone like Len. But Yhani’s not as stuck up as some, and like I said, I think the Captain impressed her.”

“What do you know about Yhani?” Thyra asked, her mind flashing back to their disconcerting conversation on the lightning rail. “I know she’s Aereni, but do you know anything else about where she came from or why she came to Breland?”

“Can’t help much there,” Ghazaan said. “The Aereni don’t exactly advertise about their culture, and there’s some bad blood between Yhani’s ancestors and mine, going way back before the first humans ever showed up from Sarlona, so it’s not like I heard a lot good about them growing up. But Yhani joined up shortly after I did, just saying she knew healing magic and could serve as a medic. I thought it was strange at the time – since when do elf priestesses deign to mingle with the rest of us? – but as it turns out she’s quite a bit more open-minded than I expected. Definitely someone I’d trust with my life any time. She never did talk much about her home life, but I’m pretty sure she’s noble born, and I remember one time she casually mentioned having tea with her great-great-grandmother, a woman who’s been dead for more than a thousand years. I don’t know if elf priests have ranks, but if they do, I think Yhani’s probably a fair bit higher on the ladder than she lets on. But any time the Captain or I’ve needed her, she’s always been there for us – always. So long as she keeps that up, I say she can have her secrets.”

The hobgoblin suddenly chuckled. “And of course, she’s got that mask – you haven’t seen it, she only wears it for battle or holy days – that looks like a gilded skull. Night we met, there’d just been a skirmish with some of the Karrns’ undead, and she was wearing it during the fight, and didn’t bother to take it off before treating the wounded. Len took a good knock to the head, and when she woke up and saw Yhani bending over her with that thing on – well, let’s just say she hit Yhani so hard it knocked her flat on her rear in the dirt.”

“Seriously?” Thyra asked, struggling not to laugh. “And they still ended up falling in love?”

“Well, I grabbed the Captain and told her everything was going to be all right, and then Yhani stood up and pulled her mask off and Len got a good look at her face. I think she fell for her right then and there. As for Yhani, it took a little longer, but still, they were together before the year was out.” He shook his head. “Damn lucky, both of them. My mate’s a storyteller, lives down in Darguun. I send her part of my pay every month, but I still don’t get to see her as often as I’d like. And here these two get to spend every day together.”
Thyra boggled as she struggled to absorb this latest revelation. “You’re married?” she finally managed for force out. She hadn’t really thought of Ghazaan in that sort of light at all, but looking at him again, she supposed that he might be handsome, in a rough sort of way, if one looked past his fangs, yellow eyes, and long, tufted ears. Then again, for a hobgoblin woman those features would probably count in his favor.

“Word of advice, kid,” he said, pointing at her, “nobody is quite what they seem at first. Thought you’d have figured that out, considering.”

That brought a faint chill to Thyra’s heart. “Yes,” she said softly, “I suppose you’re right.” She looked back to Ghazaan. “Why are you telling me all this? We’d barely exchanged ten words before today.”

He shrugged. “Remember what I said earlier about how humans react to me?” he said. “Well, I know something about being a monster. And from the sound of things, you’re afraid that you’re one too. Far as I’m concerned, sometimes we monsters need to have each other’s’ backs.” He grinned. “And kid? You lied to us earlier, and that’s not always something that’s easy to get over. But you came clean, and your money’s good. For as long as you’re the client, we’ve got your back. The Captain doesn’t go back on her word, and neither do I. So just keep in mind that while this business is going down, whatever you might think, you’re not alone.”

///

Later that night, Len lay awake on her bedroll, staring up at the stars. She tried to pick out the distinct constellations, supposedly named after old draconic gods, but wasn’t having much luck; ‘Hani had always been better at that sort of thing than she was. At that thought, the captain rolled over to look at where the elf lay in the next bedroll over; her hair was spread out across the ground, and her eyes were open but unseeing as she walked the paths of elven dreams. Len smiled faintly, and resisted the urge to brush a silvery lock away from Yhani’s face.

The sound of soft footsteps echoed through the clearing, and Len tensed, preparing for a sudden fight, but it was only Harsk, who was currently standing watch. The shifter approached slowly and then bent down by his captain’s side, dark eyes serious.

“What’s the matter?” Len whispered.

“Thought I heart someone out there,” he said. “Off the road, near us. Thought it sounded like a man and a woman talking, then they went off. I didn’t bother following them, but I’d swear by the Tree they knew we were here.”

Harsk was an expert tracker and had sat with druids in his youth on some quest for personal enlightenment that had failed and led him to seek out different experiences in other lands; he knew woods well, even ones he hadn’t personally spent much time in. If he said there were people out there, Len believed him. And a man and a woman… “Probably our Flameite friends, still following us,” she said quietly, mulling it over. “Doubt they wanted to attack us like this – when we woke up, it would be two on seven – but I’m still worried about what they might do.”

She pulled herself out of her bedroll and stood up. “You look tired, and I can’t sleep,” she said. “Get some rest, I’ll take the rest of your watch.”

Harsk bobbed his head in thanks and quickly headed over towards his own bedroll. Len took up a seat at the base of a tree, her unsheathed sword laying across her lap as she ran over a handful of combat spells in her mind. Her eyes stared off into the darkness between the trees, watching vigilantly for any sign of an attack.

///

This chapter is the first time we really get to chat (through Thyra) with Ghazaan. We’ve seen bits of his personality before, but something I really wanted to do was undercut the stereotypical image of the hobgoblin as a merciless soldier of evil (Eberron, which its rich goblinoid histories, being an ideal venue for that). Ghazaan is an affable, avuncular sort, and though he’s certainly a terror in a fight, he’s very laid back out of action. He’s also quite a bit smarter than he looks, and in addition to his stated reasons for talking to Thyra here he was also probing her a bit, watching her reactions to his stories; what he saw helped convince him further that whatever she is, she isn’t evil.

We also get a bit more information on Len and Yhani through the eyes of their oldest comrade, including some insight into their relationship that they probably wouldn’t have volunteered on their own. Ghazaan is right that Yhani has her own reasons for being here – which we’ll learn eventually – but her love for Len and her loyalty to their team are both very real as well.

-MasterGhandalf