What was most despised on a battlefield? There were many answers if one looked closely: stupidity, incompetence, holding a position one did not deserve... None of these things was welcome to anyone.
Soldiers and officers on the battlefield understood their deadly consequences better than anyone. There was no room for carelessness here. This was a place where men staked their lives in pursuit of glory and wealth. If someone acted like a fool here, he would not be the only one to suffer. Every comrade around him would be dragged down with him.
The babbling scout looked so ridiculous that the soldiers around him were secretly amused. Had the general not been there, they might have laughed aloud. Only a few experienced veterans realized something was wrong...
There were no complete raw recruits among them. Why would this reasonably experienced scout return looking like such a fool, unless he had been frightened almost out of his mind...? Some men quietly tightened their grip on their weapons and began watching their surroundings.
Sure enough, a new order soon came down...
...
Everyone's face had turned ashen. Those who had been secretly laughing just now wore exactly the same expression as the scout. They had seen heaps of corpses before. But when all those corpses were their own comrades, the sight was entirely different.
Toris was deathly pale, not from fear but from anger. He walked up to the pile of heads, tightened his grip on his whip, and suddenly lashed out with a kick...
The kick was tremendously powerful. Those pale, twisted heads flew everywhere like balls. One even rolled toward the soldiers behind him. As though they had seen an evil spirit, the orderly ranks parted like a receding tide. Everyone scrambled out of its way.
The cowardice of his soldiers made Toris still angrier. Grabbing his whip, he charged into the ranks and lashed anyone he saw. For a while, the crack of the whip through the air and the soldiers' screams and wails never stopped.
Only after he had been whipping them for so long that his hand began to ache did Toris stop. The Hols general swept his narrow eyes coldly over the corpse-strewn road.
"Drag all this rubbish out of the way. Don't let them block our road any longer..."
...
The many bodies were dragged from the middle of the road to its edges. Pair after pair of green eyes moved through the woods.
They were predators drawn to the scene, waiting for the people to leave so they could pounce and feast. Foul-smelling drool ran from their mouths. This lavish banquet had attracted every meat-eating creature for several kilometers around.
Large numbers of black crows already filled the treetops. Their bright-red eyes stared unblinkingly at the masses of carrion in the pool of blood. Now and then, they let out a couple of shrill cries, as if urging the Hols to leave quickly so they could fill their bellies...
The ground, thoroughly soaked with blood, had become a blood-red bog. Cowhide boots made sticky sounds as they sank into it. The overwhelming smell of blood almost destroyed the sense of smell.
Every soldier passing through was fearful and hesitant. They could not imagine how a force of several hundred men had been wiped out in so little time... It also meant that if they left the main force, they were very likely to meet the same fate.
Toris's face was grim. Looking at the soldiers, he already knew his enemy had achieved his goal... Once his troops saw this, their morale would be badly weakened. They were afraid before they had even seen the enemy.
But this was an open scheme he could not avoid. They had to take this road. There was no way to hide it from the soldiers... Trying to conceal it would only give rise to even more terrible rumors. Better to let the men see it for themselves.
He could not imagine what sort of opponent he was facing. Toris only knew that he was certainly not a hunter assured of success. It was even quite possible... that he was already being treated as prey. The one he meant to hunt was grinding his teeth and sucking blood in the shadows, ready at any moment to tear out his throat.
Toris knew very well that he no longer had enough confidence in his chances. There were still some garrison troops in the nearest Hols town. If he called them in too...
The Hols general shook his head. That town belonged to the Tokashi family, who had always been at odds with his own. Even if he summoned their troops, they would not obey him. Divided command would only make it easier for the enemy to defeat them separately...
Toris hesitated for a while, then reached into his saddlebag and took out a sheet of coarse paper. He dipped his pen straight into the blood on the ground and began writing quickly...
Before long, he rolled up the note and put it into a small metal tube. At a slight wave of his hand, a personal guard brought over a cage and took out a long, slender bird of prey.
He tied the little metal tube to the bird's leg, then drew a dagger, dug a piece of bloody flesh from a dead warhorse's neck, and fed it to the bloodthirsty creature.
Soon, the bird had eaten and drunk its fill. With a forceful sweep of Toris's arm, it spread its broad wings and beat them hard, stirring a light breeze. In just a few strokes, it was high in the air.
Watching that black dot grow ever more distant, the Hols man gave a small sigh of relief...
* * *
Bright, piercing eyes, deep and sharp, watched the black dot receding across the sky. It was a clear, moonlit night. The bright moon was frighteningly large, as if within reach, making the little black dot stand out with particular clarity.
Tesolys gave his horse's belly a light kick. The huge black warhorse silently broke into a gentle trot, and two cavalrymen immediately followed.
As they rode, Tesolys took the great bow from beside his saddle. His left hand lightly brushed the black leather wrapped around its grip. With his right, he drew a light arrow from the quiver and nocked it, then urged his horse up a high slope.
The little black dot in the sky kept beating its wings. With every stroke, it grew more distant. Tesolys simply watched it intently in silence, never once losing sight of his target.
With a soft whinny, the warhorse leaped onto a towering rocky ledge at the summit, its huge hooves rising from the ground. In the instant the horse went airborne, he steadily drew the great bow and gently released the string. The long black arrow became a thin dark streak flying into the sky...
His bright, piercing eyes remained fixed on the little black dot beating its wings. Only when it suddenly stopped and dropped as though all its strength had gone did he give a slight nod and hang the great bow back on his saddle.
Under the bright moonlight, the three cavalrymen hurried toward the place where the dark shape had fallen. At the clear sound of their horses' hooves, the beasts in the woods lowered their heads, not daring to reveal the slightest sign of themselves...
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