The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Thirty-Three

Elise made her way to General Raul’s room,a basket full of folded linens on her hip and his freshly washed chamber pot inher free hand. Thank the gods, the second she got back to her duties, theopportunity to put the letter back in his room came: they’d finished washingthe general’s linens and his chamber pot, and they needed her to put them backin his bedroom, where they belonged. The letter was in her sleeve, tied to herarm with a small piece of twine and close enough to her hand that she couldpull it out without having to dig up into her sleeve with her other hand.Hopefully, she’d be able to discretely pull it out and put it back on his deskwithout General Raul even knowing that it had been stolen in the first place.

Onceshe reached the right floor for General Raul’s room, she saw Finn down thehallway from her, walking toward her. It seemed he’d just gotten off of a shiftof guarding the general’s room

Elisefound a small smile forming on her lips. Gods, did he make this normallyterrifying part of her job almost enjoyable.

“Letme help you with that,” he said, jogging down the hall to meet her. He took thechamber pot from her hand, letting her carry the linens with both hands. “Howhave you been? I haven’t seen you for most of the week.”

“I’vebeen busy, but good,” Elise said. “I’ve been wrapping up my medical coretraining; I’ll be a private by next week.”

“That’sgreat,” Finn said. “Does that mean that you’ll be deployed to the front, soon?”

“I’mnot sure,” Elise said. “I think they’ll probably just send me to the medicalcore building.”

Finnfrowned. “Where is that?”

“Acrossthe street.” He seemed relieved to hear that as they reached General Raul’s room,where a man with a white armband stood by the door.

“Stateyour business,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. Elise held up thelinens, while Finn showed him the chamber pot.

“Ihave General Raul’s linens and his chamber pot,” she said. He nodded and openedthe door, letting the two of them inside the room.

Justas Elise walked though the door, she found herself stopped dead in her tracks.Sitting at the desk, reading through reports, was General Raul.

GeneralRaul turned around in his seat to look at her, making the wooden chair he wassitting on creak beneath him. “I see that you’re back with my linens and mychamber pot. I was really starting to miss those this afternoon.”

Elisebowed her head. “S-sorry sir; we washed them as fast as we could.” She set towork putting the linens back on General Raul’s bed as he turned around,flicking his hand in the air.

“Noneed to apologize; you Caithians are much more efficient at the laundry than myservants in Gishk,” he said as he went back to his reading. He took a sip ofwine. “Perhaps when this is all over, I’ll hire a few of you to work in Gishk.”

He chuckled with thatlast remark, but he was the only one laughing. The prospect of going to Gishk –even if it wasn’t in chains – was terrifying. If it ever came to that, Elisetold herself, she would do everything she could to keep it from happening toher.

Thelonger Elise spent making General Raul’s bed, watching him as he read hisreports out of the corner of her eye, the more she found herself panicking.What if he discovered that the letter was missing as she stood there? What if,if that happened, he connected her to it? What if the letter slipped out of hersleeve and General Raul saw it? She did everything she could to keep herselffrom panicking, but the longer she spent making his bed, the harder she foundit was to do so.

Asshe was finishing with his bed, General Raul began to look around his desk. Hemuttered something under his breath.

“Was ist los, mein Herr?” Finn asked.General Raul said the same thing, this time, loud enough for the rest of theroom to hear it.

“Whatis it?” Elise asked as Finn, too, began to look around.

“Itseems that one of General Raul’s letters has gone missing,” he said.

Elisecould feel a pit beginning to form in her stomach. It was too late: he knewthat the letter was missing.

Shefought off every instinct she had to run as she began “searching” for theletter, too. She frantically began thinking of a solution to this, beforeGeneral Raul connected her – or anyone else – to the missing letter. She couldpretend like she’d found it on the floor by his bed, but what if he or Finnlooked over at her at just the wrong moment to see her pulling it out from hersleeve? Perhaps she could come back later, while he was gone with Polain, andput the letter back; maybe he would think that he just hadn’t been looking hardenough if she did that. No, he wasn’t dumb enough to fall for that.

WhileGeneral Raul and Finn’s backs were to her, she pulled the letter out from underher sleeve and stood back on her feet, acting as though she’d just discoveredthe letter.

“Isthis it?” she asked as she held it up. General Raul took it from her andquickly skimmed through its contents.

“Yes,this is it, thank you,” he said, walking back to his desk. “However, what itwas doing over by the bed, I’m not so sure.” He sat down at his desk and beganreading through the report.

“Iapologize for keeping you here longer than the castle staff probably wants youto be,” General Raul said. “You’re excused, miss.” Elise quickly bowed and leftthe room, trying to keep herself from running down the hallway as fast as shecould.

“Areyou alright?” Finn asked once they were out of earshot of General Raul’s room.

Elisenodded. “H-he’s just a little unnerving, is all; I thought that I’d be used tohim by now, but I guess not.” Finn nodded in understanding.

“Believeme, I get it,” he said, looking back at General Raul’s room as he rubbed hisforearm. “I’ve been in the army for this entire war, and I still get the chillswhen I’m around him.”

Shelooked over at him, confused. If that was true, that would mean that he wouldhave been there during the Kurzhian campaign, when the Giskens destroyedeverything – and everyone – in their paths; the stories she’d heard about ithad given her nightmares for weeks. Finn couldn’t have been involved in that,could he?

“Youwere in Kurzh?” Elise asked. He nodded.

“Yeah,”he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He seemed embarrassed about it. “I hadthe misfortune of reaching enlistment age when General Raul invaded them.”

“So,you wanted to help him invade?” she asked as her stomach twisted itself intoknots. For the past few weeks, she’d grown to like Finn; he was the one Giskenshe’d met that seemed like a real human being, one who just had the misfortuneof being born in the wrong country. Hearing that he’d enlisted to invadecountries and hurt people was just… it wasn’t something that she wanted tohear.

Heshook his head. “Every able-bodied boy in Gishk has to enlist in the army atfourteen and serve for at least two years, even in a time of peace. In a timeof war, we have to serve from the start of the war to the end, or risk havingus and the rest of our family executed.”

Thebitterness that had filled Elise vanished after he said that. That would meanthat he’d been forced to participate in the most horrific military campaignever launched when he was just fourteen. That was much too young to become aman.

“So,after all this, you’ll get to go home?” Elise asked. He nodded as a slightsmile came to his face.

“Forthe first time in ten years,” he said fondly. They reached the stairwell, wherethey would normally split up to perform their separate duties: her to hercleaning, him to his soldiering. Instead, they found themselves pausing at thetop of the stairs in an awkward silence.

“So,do you have some time off, soon?” Finn asked, rubbing the back of his neck. Hischeeks were starting to turn a deep shade of red, the way they did when he wasembarrassed about something.

“Idon’t know,” Elise said. “I can ask General Polain, though; why?”

“Well,I-I’m really starting to like you,” Finn said, looking away. “I kind of want tosee you for more than a few minutes at a time.”

“So,you want to call on me?” Elise asked. Finn’s cheeks grew even redder.

Helooked to the side. “W-well, yeah.”

Elisecould feel her own cheeks beginning to burn red. She’d never had anyone try andproperly court her, before; the only person who’d ever wanted to marry her wasBram, and, well, his way of showing it was by stalking her and grabbing her bumevery time she walked past him.

Downthe hall, someone began laughing and whistling. When they looked down there,they saw a few Giskens by General Raul’s room, making kissing faces and sayingthings in Gisken that made poor Finn even more embarrassed than he already was.He stuttered something in Gisken to them, but they just laughed even harder.

“What’rethey saying?” Elise asked as Finn took her by the hand and began to lead heraway from them.

“Believeme when I say that you don’t want to know,” he said. Once they were at the footof the stairs and away from the eyes of any Gisken soldiers, they stopped andturned toward each other. “I’m sorry about them. Sometimes, they act like theyhaven’t seen a woman in years.”

“It’salright,” Elise said. “They aren’t any different from the men from Papa’stavern.”

Papa. It had beennearly a month since he’d been killed, and the wound it left was still fresh.

“So, if you were tohave some spare time, would it be alright for me to call on you?” Finn asked.He looked nervous: he kept rubbing the back of his neck and he couldn’t seem tolook her in the eye.

“Of course, it wouldbe,” Elise said. Finn perked up when he heard that; it seemed that he didn’tthink she’d say yes.

“R-really?” he askedas his entire body relaxed. Elise nodded.

“I’ll ask GeneralPolain if I can have some time off,” she said. “Since there isn’t another ballor something like that, I don’t think that’ll be too hard. Where should I meetyou if I can?”

“Would the gardenwork?” Finn asked.

Elise nodded with asmile. “The garden would be great. I guess I’ll see you there.” She began towalk away, then turned back around. “Do I need to pick up another dress?”

“N-No,” Finn said. “Idon’t have any money for something nice like that.” Elise smiled a little widerand began to walk away again.

She could hardlybelieve it; she’d never been called on, before. Since she was a little girl,she wondered what it would be like, who it would be with, what they’d dotogether. Never had she thought that it would be with a Gisken soldier, or thatshe’d be so excited about it.