Like Puppets to Their Strings

The other captains are already awake before the bugle and are standing on the wall, watching the Karvithians. Standing there. Just. Standing there? They haven’t
continued constructing their trebuchets, and their forces haven’t moved. Something is seriously wrong. They should be preparing to attack us. Maheed suggested maybe when the last wizard never came back, they started to re-think their strategy. We
each suggested different possibilities as to why they could be just standing there but nothing seems to truly make sense. They still vastly outnumber us. And they still
have four wizards.

Then it occurred to me. I’ve seen magic create and destroy. I’ve seen an impossible
amount of water flow out of my hands and endless fire roar from a person. Where
did it come from? Where did I get the water? Maybe I was getting it from a different
realm? So, could magic be showing us a realm where they are just standing there? I
had my theories but what convinced me the most were the goblins. They weren’t
there. I know a good number of them escaped.

When I describe my idea to the others, they agree with me. It would be the only
thing that would explain their odd movements. Or rather. Their strange lack of
movements. Immediately we send Maheed, who runs on all fours as fast as he can
to warn the generals while we set up extra defenses among the main and eastern
gates which were so poorly defended. We spend the whole day anticipating a fight.
We wait and stew in our own anxiety. And wait. And wait. But it never comes.

I’m overseeing and helping build the defenses when Maheed returns with an army
of humans and building materials all lead by Sergeant Gore. His scarred face still
held that scowl only now he was using it against the humans. That felt good. It’s nice
to see he treats everyone like a stain on his boot.

Maheed approaches me first. “They’re here to help prepare fortifications-“

“Speak up maggot!”
Gore rode at us on his horse and full plate armour. I didn’t know he was actually a
knight. He spoke to me this time. “Glad to see you survived Captain Kar’Desh.”

Now that was strange. Not even my own men called me captain. “It’s just maggot to you, sir.”

His scowl intensified and his voice rose to a scream. “Don’t be so modest with me
maggot!”
That’s better. “You felled a wizard and came out unscathed! That’s worth your name at least!”

I think he may have heard the wrong story. I look to Maheed who quickly waves to
signal me to just go along with it. “Thank you, sir.”

He dismounts his horse and speaks in a hushed tone. Just enough so others didn’t
hear him. “Listen. The other knights are skeptical that some men-at-arms we just
trained were able to take out a wizard. You’re smart enough to notice, so I’m sure
you’ve seen through our guise. The royal court was using the demi-humans as
fodder to wear down the enemy and then send in the rest of the army for
cleanup.”
He said the royal court? Aroura. Curse her! That’s why she recruited us? I knew we
were being used as fodder, but I thought it was the generals. Not Aroura. I knew I
shouldn’t have trusted her. Gore continued speaking. “If it wasn’t for the Princess’s
order, I wouldn’t be able to come here.”

What? I speak up “I thought you said the royal court planned this?”

He explained. “The royal court is the King. All others in the court are just there to
give him ideas. Anything the King decrees can’t be overwritten except by his children
if they see fit. Normally they never do. I’m grateful to the Princess for allowing me to fight beside my trainees. Enough. Before we get into the realm of treason.”
He jumps onto his horse then returns to his normal shout. “Enough chit-chat! You
two! Why are you standing around, get working!”

After Gore rode off, I turned to Maheed, who was staring at me from behind his
curtain of fur. He spoke. “I trust the princess. She saved Wal and you. And all the
others in that building.”
Based on his words, he must have known what I was thinking.

That much was true but I’m skeptical. Maybe she was able to see how useful we
could be and helped us because she wanted to use us. Maybe she was the one who came up with sending the demi-humans to their deaths with the promise to help
their families. Then she could just forget her promise and go back to ignoring the
rats in her walls. Or exterminate them. Not my rats. The King of Rats will stop her
plan. Eventually I responded to Maheed.
“I don’t. She sees us as an experiment. As a test to prove her theories. She may be
our ally in this fight. It’s because of her that we have reinforcements, but in the end, she’ll just throw us away when we’re no longer useful. In the end, we’re just rats in
service to a human.”

He stares at me with sad eyes. “Humans aren’t any different from us, Kar.”

“They are when they have power.”
Before he can try to convince me otherwise, I march forward towards the
construction. He follows me and we help out with the defenses. It goes by faster
than I expected. When we can’t set up anything more, Maheed and I try to find the
other captains to explain the sudden arrival of reinforcements.

“Looks like I’m in her debt again.” Wal looked at the ground with a grateful
expression. We had just explained the royal court situation and how Aroura sent
reinforcements after we proved ourselves.

Naz crossed his arms and grunted. “Hmm. The fact they sent us just to join the
stones is concerning though.”
Toross agreed.

Wal’s head didn’t move, but his eyes shifted towards Naz and Toross. “The King
makes all the decisions. I doubt the Princess had any choice in the matter.”

I was next. “That may be true, but why was she the one to address us that day? It
may have been her idea.”

Wal’s eyes squinted at me. The growl in his voice was stronger than usual. “What
good does it do us to mistrust the one who sent us reinforcements and saved us
directly?”

“I’m not saying, expect a dagger in your back while we sleep. Durning the siege,
Aroura will be our best ally.”

Naz was the first to respond. “Then why bother tellin’ us about that part?”

They all just stare at me as I gather my words. The silence hangs in the air for a while before I finally break it. “I watched my father get run down in the street. He was
bringing me with him to learn the working man’s trade. He was carrying some
boxes across the street when a merchant decided he didn’t really need to worry
about an elf in the street. He was trampled by the horses and all the merchant had
to say as he rode away was ‘damn, elf, watch where you’re going.’ The human my
father had served faithfully for more than 15 years picked up his body and handed
him to me and said, ‘take this back to your house.’ He then picked up his boxes and
went into his store.”

The pause in the story let Toross speak next. “I am sorry you had to see that
Kar’Desh. Truly. But what does that have to do with our current situation?”

Like a puppet to strings. “My point is that humans don’t see us as anything more
than tools. An object to be used, until we break and then to be replaced. What
happens when we win this and are no longer useful? Do we just go back to being
rats trapped in these walls? Back to tools meant to be replaced? I won’t. I won’t let
my family starve and rot any longer. When we survive this and you don’t want to
be a tool for the humans to abuse, come find me. Together, I’m sure we can change
the way things are if she doesn’t keep her promise.”

Maheed grabs my shoulder and whispers. “You’re talking about treason!?”
Naz strokes his beard and Toross crosses his arms and looks to the sky in thought. Wal, as always, stares at me with those cold, stoic eyes.

In the second of silence, I decide to fix a mistake Maheed has. “I’m talking about
revolution. And if the ‘royal court’ keeps their promise, then we’ll have no need for
one.”

Despite his expression remaining unchanged, Wal spoke with an angry curiosity.
“What exactly are your plans?”
A grin ‘straight from the Lord of War’ crept across my face.