The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Seven

Elise didn’t say anything as Blair ledher back to the tavern; she was too numb from everything that had justhappened. Everything just felt so surreal,like she was in some sort of awful nightmare; however, as she’d realized manytimes that day, none of this was a dream. She wasn’t going to wake up andrealize that her brother was still alive and the Giskens had yet to invadeCaitha; she wasn’t going to wake up, safe, away from all the pain and thesuffering caused by the Gisken’s war. Olrick wasn’t going to wake up from hisown nightmare, filled with being tied up in the stables like some sort of ananimal, beaten and tortured for only the Gods knew what. She couldn’t help butwonder what went on in these Giskens’ minds to make them treat people likeanimals.

Andthen, she remembered Kael. He’d seemed to actually care about what was happening in Thaos, at least, until he foundhimself in front of his superiors. He’d stood by and watched as all these awfulthings happened to her brother, to Olrick, to her. He didn’t do anything to help. No matter how much he actedlike he cared, he was still one of them.

Aftera few minutes of walking through a town littered with dead bodies, she andBlair reached the tavern. It was completely empty, void of anyone except forthe two of them. Even Pa was gone…

Pa.

“Where’smy father?” she asked as a pit began to grow in her stomach. “What had themonsters done to him?

“Maybesomeone had some use for him,” he said with a shrug as he stopped walking toinspect the bottom of his shoe. It was covered in sticky, dark red blood, justlike the rest of the floor “I’m not sure what, though; he’s too old and tooweak to do anything of use.” He saton the chair that Olrick had used to prop the door open and pulled a skin ofale from inside his coat.

“Whilehe’s gone, you have some cleaning to do,” he said, waving at the mess of bloodon the floor. “I’ve heard plans that we’ll be using this place as a base ofoperations, and I don’t think the general would appreciate it if this placestill smells like blood when he gets here.”

Elisefound herself biting her lip, scared, as he began to drink from his ale skin.“W-What do you mean, base of operations? I live here-“

“Notanymore, you don’t,” Blair said. “Try not to worry about it. They just emptiedout the prison a few minutes ago; I’m sure there’s a lovely prison cell you andyour father can live in.”

Theprison. That was where they were holding Bram until they could give him a courtmarshal. If that was true and they’d really let all the prisoners free, thatmeant that he was out, roaming free while she was here, cleaning blood from thetavern floorboards.

Shelooked away from him, trying to keep herself from shaking. Could this day getany worse?

“Now,hurry up with the cleaning,” Blair said as he folded his arms over his chest andmade himself comfortable in his seat. “Maybe if you do a good job, General Raulcan replace you a nice place in Kurzh for you to live in.”

Eliselooked down at the ground. Blood soaked every floorboard, and was dry enoughthat she knew that it would take hours to scrub out. It was a big job, one thatshe knew she couldn’t do alone.

“Areyou going to help?” she asked quietly. Blair snorted.

“Ofcourse not,” he said. “It’s not my tavern, is it?”

Eliseswallowed the lump that was forming in her throat and went behind the bar tograb the water bucket and some rags. It looked like she had her work cut outfor her.

Thesecond she got down and began scrubbing, she knew that the job would be evenharder than she thought it would. They’d already waited too long in scrubbingthe floors: the blood had already seeped into the floorboards enough that shereally had to push on them to get even a small amount out. When it did come out, it soaked the rag she wasusing and turned her hands and the skirt of her dress red with watery blood. Itwas definitely the hardest cleaning job she could remember doing, and the factthat Blair was sitting there, watching her the whole time didn’t make it muchbetter.

“Youreally aren’t doing that good of a job over there,” Blair commented after a fewminutes of scrubbing. He took a few swigs of ale from his skin. “It looks likeyou’ve barely done anything.”

Elisefound herself biting her lip. Even though she couldn’t care less about how hefelt about her, she still found that the comment stung. She knew that she wasdoing her best, so hearing that her best wasn’t good enough made her feel likecrap.

“Theblood’s soaked into the floorboards,” she said quietly. “I-it’s hard to scrubout when it’s like this-“

“Ididn’t ask for excuses,” Blair said with a wave of his hand, a look on his facethat reminded her of a parent dealing with an obnoxious child. “Just getscrubbing harder; we don’t have the time to wait for you to learn how to cleanfloors properly.” He cursed, rolling his eyes in annoyance as Elise began to scrubeven harder.

“Idon’t understand what General Raul could possibly see in you,” he said to noone in particular. “You can’t even clean floors properly, for the god’s sake;what makes him think you can do something of importance? We ought to send you offto Abunaken.”

Eliseclosed her eyes as tears began to brew in her eyes. Gods, how could anyonethink that being so mean was okay?

Beforehe could say anything else that was demeaning, another Gisken walked in, onethat Elise didn’t recognize. She assumed they were friends: Blair seemed torelax when he saw him and laughed at a few of the things he said.

Shelooked down at the floor and concentrated on her work; she really didn’t feellike getting chastised by two Gisken soldiers in one day.

Aftera few minutes of them talking and joking with each other, she got the feelingthat they’d started to talk about her: both of them were looking at her as theyspoke, something that really unnerved her. Finally, Blair sighed and stood up,shoving his skin of ale back into his shirt.

“Lookslike we’ll have to take a break from the cleaning,” he said. “Get up; we needto go.”

Eliseput the rag in the water bucket and stood up as her stomach began twistingitself into knots in nervousness. She really didn’t like the way this wassounding. “Go where?”

Blairsmiled, which only served to make her even more nervous. Having a psychopathlike him smile couldn’t be good. “To see your old man, that’s where.”

Sheswallowed down her nerves. Elise may have grown up isolated in Thaos, but shewasn’t stupid. Whatever Blair was about to lead her to wasn’t going to be good,and if it really did involve Papa…well, she didn’t want to think about what that could mean.

Godsknew she had reservations about it, but she still let Blair lead her outsidethe tavern and to the city of white tents the Giskens had set up just out ofThaos. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t refuse to go with him; she didn’thave the strength to fight him.

Aftera few minutes of walking through the city of tents, Bram poked his head intoone of them, then looked back at her.

“Thisis the one,” he said, pulling back the tent flap. She couldn’t see anythinginside it; it was too dark in the tent.

Fora few seconds, Elise simply stared at the tent, unsure of what to do. Shedidn’t want to go into the tent; she didn’t care if Papa was there or not.

“Well,what are you waiting for?” Blair asked, impatient. “Do I have to force you inthere?”

Itlooked like she didn’t have much of a choice. With a deep breath, Elise steppedinto the tent.

Fora few seconds, Elise just stood there, staring at the sight in front of her.She felt like someone had gone and punched her in the stomach, knocking thewind out of her. Lying in front of her on the ground was what remained of herfather.

Hewas dead, that much was obvious. His body was lying in a heap on the ground,his limbs folded and bent at grotesque angles. Blood slowly trickled out ofevery orifice of his body: his mouth, his eyes, his ears, his nose; it leaked fromplaces that she hadn’t even realized it could leak from. His eyes were wide open and his jaw hung open in one finalscream. He looked like he’d been crushed to death by a boulder or something,without the external evidence.

Eliseput a hand to her mouth and fell to her knees as tears began to brew in hereyes. Papa and Milo were dead; any family she’d had left after her mother dieda few years before had been taken from her in just a week.

Shelooked away from the body as sobs began to wrack her body. This couldn’t behappening; her father couldn’t be dead!

“ThatWatchman friend of yours is to blame for all this, you know,” Blair said fromhis spot behind her. When Elise looked behind her at him, she saw that he waslooking at the body without even a hint of sadness. Not that he had a reason tofeel remorse; not that he’d ever had even an ounce of compassion in his body.“If he hadn’t tried to escape what was coming to him, your father might stillbe alive.”

Elisewrapped her arms around herself and looked down at the dirt beneath her. Shefelt sick, like she was about to throw up. Ever since she first startedtraining with her mother to be a nurse, she’d wondered why people would cursethe gods when something bad happened to them. Now that she’d had everythingshe’d ever known ripped away from her in a matter of hours, she was beginningto understand. The gods must hate her; that was the only explanation for all ofit that she could come up with.

“Whydid you do this?” she whispered. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Thisis what we do to resistors,” Blair said. “Everywhere we go, General Raul hasthe choice between saving his men’s lives or keeping life as it is. It’scomforting to know that he’ll choose us over people like you when it comes downto it.”

Peoplelike you. Was that how it was? Was Raul really so willing to sacrifice thelives of innocents like her to reach his goals? She liked to think that therewas good in everyone, but the more time she spent among people like Blair andRaul, the more she was beginning to rethink that.

“Willyou at least bury him?” Elise asked. Blair snorted and folded his arms over hischest.

“I’m not going to, and I doubt GeneralRaul will loan you any of our men,” Blair said. “If you want help, you’ll haveto get it from someone else.”

Eliseclosed her eyes and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. So, not only werethey going to kill her father, but they were going to make her bury him, too?Maybe the gods really did hate her.

Shegot to her feet and tried to swallow down the lump in her throat. She toldherself that there wasn’t any way her day could get any worse, but then again,that was exactly what she’d thought while she was cleaning the blood from thetavern floor.

“Willyou at least carry him for me?” Elise asked as she turned around. Blair sighed,annoyed, and yelled something in Gisken. A few seconds later, a younger soldierwalked in and saluted with his fist raised.

“Getthis corpse out of here,” Blair said. “The second you get to the cemetery, getback here.” He nodded, picked up Papa’s body, and followed Elise to the towncemetery so she could bury her father.