Chương 98: Don't Be the Fixer

"What are you doing in there?" Both men inside the shed turned at Kichan's voice. Marten set down his tea. Grad's hand stopped over the medicine pouch. Kichan pushed aside a loose plank and entered.

"Were you two friends?"

"No." The commanders answered almost together. Kichan looked at the molly tea and mandragora medicine between them.

"You look like friends." Marten pressed a hand to his forehead.

"Did you follow us to confirm that?"

"The wagon was taking a strange road." Grad checked outside the shed once.

"Who have you told?"

"No one."

"Not even Seria or Theor?"

"What would I tell them? That you two take medicine?" Both men were silent for a moment. Kichan dragged over another crate and sat down. The teapot was cooling untouched.

"So why were you fighting?" Marten looked at Grad.

"The civilians at the border must be moved inside the stone fortress before winter. If they remain in the fields and tents, we cannot protect them when the next attack comes." Grad's ears flattened.

"The moment our people enter walls guarded by the human army, they cease to be refugees and become hostages."

"Better that than leaving them to die outside the gate."

"That gate has long been a prison to our kind."

"This is no time for stubbornness."

"If refusing to trust your walls is stubbornness, prove yourself by sleeping in our graves first." Marten pushed his cup. Its base scraped across the crate. Kichan spoke.

"If you're going to fight, put the tea down." Both men looked at him.

"You'll spill it." Marten removed his hand. Grad set down the medicine pouch as well. Kichan did not tell them which side was right. The inside of the walls might be safe. If the gates closed, they might become a prison. Kichan had never lived in that fortress or been trapped behind its gates.

"Can't you ask the people in the shelter?"

"There is no time to let them choose." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Marten spoke. Grad shot back.

"You mean you intend to take away their time to choose." Kichan pointed at the cold tea.

"Then why did you give him that?" Marten did not answer. Grad wound the cord around the medicine pouch once.

"So he wouldn't die."

"Then find a way for the people over there not to die too." Kichan said only that and stood.

"The tea's cold." Neither commander managed to finish it. Marten left the shed first. Grad gathered the medicine pouch, but left one packet of molly leaves on the crate before departing through the opposite door. The following morning, human cavalry withdrew from the western approach to the stone fortress. The cleared route allowed demihuman refugees who did not want to enter the fortress to move toward a shelter at the foot of the mountain. The human army announced that it had repositioned for rear reconnaissance.

By midday, an order came from the demihuman camp. Do not stop anyone who wishes to enter the stone fortress. Send mandragora medicine and winter food first. The tribal council was told it was civilian reconnaissance meant to observe movement inside the walls. One side cleared a portion of the fortress approach. The other stopped blocking those who chose to enter. No one apologized. Even so, the refugees gained a choice between the stone fortress and the shelter outside it.

Seria held the two orders for a long time after reading them.

"They reached the same conclusion."

"It isn't the same conclusion." Kichan spoke.

"Each one did half." Kichan told only Riphiel and Argaon what he had seen in the shed. Riphiel sighed before showing any surprise.

"So that is why both pursuit units kept taking the wrong roads." Argaon turned the meat on the griddle.

"This has been going on a long time."

"What has?"

"Their habit of keeping each other alive." Several days later, Theor spread an old medicine pouch and three notes bearing different dates beside the griddle. Haven had brought them. One side of the pouch cord was tied in a human military knot, the other in a tribal knot.

"These are traces they left from when they were young." The notes had been written in different years, but each was short. Three prisoners sent back by a night road. Two sacks of molly and a crate of mandragora medicine hidden among trade goods during a famine. The next attack delayed by half a month. Theor pressed one fingernail against a fold worn down by repeated handling.

"Each needed the other alive to restrain the hardliners in his own camp."

"They are friends." When Kichan said it, Theor considered the thought.

"There are times when friendship makes trust more difficult."

"What kind of friendship is that?"

"They know what the other must protect." Several days later, both commanders came to the shelter on the same day. This time, they did not arrive separately. They stood far apart, but appeared together before the adjutants and guards of both sides. Batu stood across the kitchen entrance and blocked the children from the visitors. Valkyrie touched one edge of its body to the kettle beside the griddle and cooled the tea. Dust moved between the two commanders' medicine pouches, feeling at the military knots.

Marten spoke to Kichan first.

"Do not become the fixer of this war." Kichan stopped cleaning the meat.

"I wasn't going to." Grad continued.

"If you defeat the human army, the tribal council will proclaim that a god delivered our victory."

"And if you defeat the demihuman army, the king and nobles will say the same."

"What if I beat both?" Kichan asked. The corner of Marten's mouth moved by the smallest amount.

"Then both sides will make you their new enemy."

"That means they'd get along."

"To kill you." Argaon laughed beside them.

"That sounds a little entertaining."

"You be quiet." Grad looked into the shelter. An elderly human was tying the belongings he would take inside the fortress. A horned family was loading a sack of mandragora onto a cart bound for the outer shelter.

"Saving the people before you is enough."

"The war is ours to bear." Marten spoke. Kichan wiped the grease from his hands.

"I never planned to take responsibility for a war anyway."

"That is somewhat reassuring."

"But if anyone comes here and overturns the children's bowls, I hit them."

"We are already aware of that." The two commanders did not greet each other when they left. One took the road toward the stone fortress. The other followed the road toward the marsh. Kichan watched their backs a little longer than usual, until neither could be seen. Then he smelled the meat burning and spun around.

"Argaon!" Argaon had already put the best-cooked piece in his mouth.