The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Twenty-Eight

When Elise arrived back at the greathall after her escapade into General Raul’s room, she saw that the ball seemedto be going on just as it had before she’d left. Most everyone had stoppeddancing and were now sitting at one of the many long tables that had been setup in the hall, eating all sorts of delicacies and chatting with each other.Nobody noticed as she slipped out from a wooden door in one of the alcoves thatheld a marble statue, except for Eza. She was staring at the alcove, waitingfor her to remerge from the servant’s passage from her seat across the roombetween Silas and Olrick. She grabbed another servant and sent him over to her.

“CommanderMitriovna says you have something of interest to her,” the servant said. Heseemed confused. “She asks that you get some ale for her so you can discussit.”

Elisenodded. “I’ll be right over.” She walked over to the drink table, got a tankardof ale, and walked over to where Eza, Olrick and Silas were sitting.

“Yourequested ale, miss?” she asked as she slipped the letter from her sleeve andinto her hand. Gods, she hoped this worked; she couldn’t afford to have thewrong person see this.

Ezanodded and took the ale and the letter. The exchange was fast enough, shedoubted the gods themselves would’ve seen it.

“Wecan discuss what happened tonight in the morning,” she said quietly. “For now,try to relax; you did a good job.” With that, Elise walked away to perform herother duties

Elise sighed as shewalked to the other side of the grand hall, trying to relax like Eza told herto. It was over, and nobody had noticed. It was time for her to calm down,maybe even enjoy the ball as much as she could.

“MissElise?” She looked to the side to see General Polain approaching her. Unlikemost of the guests, he didn’t seem very drunk. In fact, the only sign that he’dtaken a single sip of alcohol was the slight smell of wine that clung to him.

Shebowed her head and curtsied. “General Polain, sir. What do you require?”

“Wouldyou be so kind as to take a bottle of wine to General Raul?” he asked. “I’mafraid that he wasn’t feeling too social tonight, and I don’t wish for him togo without simply because of that.”

“Ofcourse, General Polain,” Elise said. “Shall I take one of the bottle’s we’reserving, tonight, or is there a more expensive vintage that you wish for him?”

“Onefrom the kitchen is fine,” General Polain said. “Please, take a goblet up withyou, as well; I don’t believe he took one up with him.”

“Yes,sir.” Elise curtsied again and headed for one of the tables set up, where muchof the castle’s wine was.

“Canyou spare one of these bottles and a goblet?” she asked the servant who wasoverseeing them. “General Polain wishes for a bottle to be sent up to GeneralRaul.” The servant began surveying the bottles, then picked up a bottle ofVercourian red wine and a goblet handed it to her.

“Thank you.” Sheturned around-

Andran right into one of the Gisken soldiers.

Shefound herself dropping the goblet in a combination of shock and horror. For abrief second, she thought that he knew about what she’d done, and that he wasthere to arrest her; however, that was before she saw the empty wine goblet inhis hand.

Elisefroze in surprise. The Gisken that stood in front of her was tall and lanky,with blonde hair tied back in a tail, dull blue eyes, and pale skin. He had along, black coat on with a blue band around the forearm, a sign that Olricktold her signified that he was a captain.

“Oh,gods forgive me,” he stuttered as his cheeks began to burn red inembarrassment. “I’m so sorry! Are you hurt?”

“I’mfine, thank you,” Elise said as the servant handed her a broom and a pan. Sheput the wine down and began to sweep up the pieces of glass from the floor. “Areyou?”

“I’malright,” he said. The Gisken knelt down beside her. “Let me help you withthat.”

“It’salright,” Elise said. “I don’t want to trouble you-“

“It’sfine, really,” he said as he took the dustpan. “It’s my fault that the gobletfell in the first place; I should help clean it up.” Elise looked up at hisface. He was sincere about his offer, something that she hadn’t realized aGisken was capable of until then.

“Thankyou,” she finally said as she stood up with the broom. She began to sweep theglass shards into the dustpan as he held it.

“Wherewere you heading when I bumped into you?” The Gisken asked as Elise swept.

“Iwas going to General Raul, actually,” she said. “General Polain noticed that hewasn’t feeling very social, and thought that a little wine might brighten hisspirits.” She finished sweeping up the glass.

“Youdon’t seem very sure about it,” he said as he stood up, the dustpan in hand.

“I’mnot,” Elise said as she handed the servant the broom and the Gisken handed himthe dustpan. She picked up the wine bottle and took another goblet. “Beingaround him is just a little unnerving.”

“Believeme, I get it,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I can come with you, ifyou want; it’s always a lot better when you have someone with you when you facehim.”

“Areyou sure?” Elise said. “I don’t want to trouble you any more than I have to.”

“It’sjust fine,” the Gisken said. “I’m not that big into parties, anyway.”

Elisecould hear kissing sounds coming from the side of her. When she looked over inthe direction of the noises, she saw two drunken Giskens, their arms over eachother’s shoulders. Their cheeks were red as cherries and they looked like theywere barely able to stand on their own.

Eliseand the Gisken’s cheeks began to burn red in embarrassment. He stutteredsomething quickly in Gisken, but all they did was laugh and reply in somethingthat sounded vaguely like the same language. Whatever they said managed to makehim even more embarrassed than he already was.

“Whatdid he say?” Elise asked as the Gisken began to pull her away from them. Theywere walking – no, staggering - awayfrom them, laughing.

“Youdon’t want to know.” They left the main hall, replaceing themselves in a desertedhallway. For a few minutes, neither of them spoke to each other as they walkedthrough the narrow corridors to the west wing.

“Inever caught your name back there,” the Gisken said, breaking the painfullyawkward silence.

“I’mElise,” she said. “What’s yours?”

“Finn.”There was quiet for a few more seconds as they walked to General Raul’s room.Finn spent a lot of it looking around at the statues, the paintings and thefrescoes that lined every inch of space of Castle Matisse’s halls.

Eliselooked up at the ceiling as they walked into a small gallery, one of many thatcould be used to host small parties. Above their heads was a massive, intricatefresco of the heavens, with the sun god Jeriah sitting on his throne in thebright, sunny half, while the moon goddess Delia sat among the moon and thestars on the other half.

“Arethose your gods?” Finn asked as he looked up, too. He had an amazed look on hisface; he must not have seen anything like it, before. She nodded.

“Thesun god and the moon goddess, yes,” Elise said. He continued to stare up at thepainting as they walked through the gallery.

“Doyour churches have pictures like this, too?” he asked, his neck still craned upat the ceiling.

“Thechurch back home had a picture of the village’s patron god,” she said. The twoof them walked up the stairs on the other side of the gallery and came into along hallway with paintings of religious scenes lining the walls. “Why? Don’tyou have paintings of your gods in Gishk?” To her surprise, Finn began to shakehis head.

“Inever did growing up,” he said, looking back at her and shoving his hands intohis coat pockets. “Paintings are too expensive for everyone to have them.”

Aftera few more minutes of walking, Elise and Finn reached General Raul’s room. Asoldier was standing outside of it, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.Unlike many of the soldiers who’d come with Raul, he was wearing a whitearmband on his left arm. She was pretty sure that she’d heard someone say thatthe white armband showed that the man was a private in the army.

Theprivate stood at attention when he saw Finn. The two spoke to each other inGisken for a few seconds, then the private opened the door and ushered theminside.

Whenthey entered the room, Elise saw that General Raul had certainly made himselfcomfortable. The sheets on the bed were balled up and wrinkled, as if he’dalready slept in it, and a few trunks filled with his things were scatteredaround the room. The general, himself, was sitting at his desk, reading throughone of the many reports that covered it.

Itwas strange. For a few seconds, he almost seemed like a normal person, sittingat the desk; stressed, but normal.

“Was?” General Raul asked. He turnedaround to look at her. He looked tired,as if he hadn’t gotten much sleep in the past week or so.

Elisebowed her head and curtsied. “General Polain asked me to bring this to you,sir.” General Raul stood up and walked over to her.

She bit her lip tokeep herself from shaking; what if he recognized her from Thaos, or somehowknew what she’d done? She knew it was next to impossible, those paranoidthoughts kept creeping to the front of her mind, no matter how hard she triedto keep them back.

“AVercourian vintage?” he asked as he picked up the bottle and read the label. Hetook the goblet and began walking back to the desk. “Be sure to tell yourgeneral that he has good tastes.” General Raul pulled the cork out of the winebottle with a loud pop and poured some of the blood red wine into his goblet.

“Iapologize if this is a strange question, maidservant, but is there any way toget into this room other than through the door?” he asked. He took a delicatesip of wine. “Castle Lügenburg has quite a few hidden passageways, I’velearned, and I’m curious to know if this castle is the same way.”

Achill ran down Elise’s spine. General Raul knew about the servant’s passage;did he know about the letter, too?

“I’msorry, sir,” she said quickly. “I-I don’t know about any secret passages; I’veonly been here for a few days.” General Raul nodded, taking another sip of winefrom his goblet.

“You’reexcused,” he said. “Captain Finn, I would like to speak with you, for amoment.” Elise curtsied, again, and left the room, leaving Finn alone withGeneral Raul.

Shecouldn’t seem to get away from there fast enough.