Alarik's Crusade

CHAPTER 15: TARGETS

Jathi was high up in another tree, her leg dangling the same way it had the last time they decided to speak about the outsiders. This time, however, she was more pensive and quiet than before. The confidence and bluster of the planning stage had made way for the very real consequences. One death was on their hands, another was well on the way, and a third was more than likely. Adilash, who had not sat down since they started talking, paced long enough to leave a circular path in the brush.

Jathi once more tried to show him the logic of their decision, half to reassure him and half to try to stop his endless wandering. “Imagine if they came here, seeking to purchase our elixirs. They’d flood us. Half of them would die, and they’d kill us trying to get more. It would be pure chaos! They cannot control themselves! They’re like animals, but animals watch out more for their own self interest..” She still heard the shuffle of his restless feet as it kicked away the remaining twigs and debris that lined his newfound pathway.

“Do you really want that many outsiders here?” she continued. “This is Hashai. It’s Hashadi land. Think of how great a disruption just a small band of them has caused.” The logic was sound. Still, Adilash’s feet kept moving, revealing the drier earth underneath.

“We’d kill them or they’d kill us for it! You know this! The deaths of a few outweigh a war, Adilash!” she pleaded to deaf ears. Or, just to a body that was not yet ready to respond. “Listen to me! Speak to me!”

“I hear you,” he said.

“Am I wrong, then? Do you disagree?” she asked as she leaned from her perch in the tree.

“I suppose you’re not.” He stopped pacing. “I know this is what we must do. It’s what our people asked of us. But this blood is on our hands, and I wish you would not be so thirsty for it.”

She hopped down from the tree, every bit as graceful as Adilash wasn’t. She crouched to meet him face to face. “You know I care. It’s just that the care only extends to our own people. We must watch out for them first, before anyone else. We come first. Just remember that they endangered us as they set foot in our rainforest, and we didn’t walk into Vanda demanding passage through the halls of the king and expect to be treated as royalty!”

“Then that is their folly. It doesn’t have to be ours.”

“Yet you acknowledge it’s what we have to do. What would you wish from me, then? Should I lie in the dirt and mourn the loss of seven as we save the lives of hundreds?” She stood up again, her full height never an intimidation for Adilash, hunched and slouching over his walking stick.

“I wish for us not to revel in it. These are still human lives. We’re administering death with every one of these potions.” The path was all but smooth now. “And do not say seven. They’re not lost. Not yet.”

“No,” Jathi said calmly, always so when having a chance to properly analyse the situation. “We’re offering solutions to their problems. It’s not us that’s killing them. It’s their greed. Their covetous minds are bringing themselves down. The potions are not the issue.”

“No, the potions are not. I don’t blame the soldier’s spear.”

“So I’m the problem, then?” Jathi was beginning to turn red in the face. She often had this problem with Adilash. He cared about things deeply, but would withhold saying how he truly felt.

“That’s not the case. The fault doesn’t lie with you. I just don’t like the situation.”

“And are you going to suggest anything, or wear a path through the dirt so far you come out the other side?”

“I don’t presently have a solution. But I do have a fear.” He took a deep breath. “What happens if they all fail? What happens if we… if we kill all of them?”

“Then they die, and we move on. Same as always,” Jathi said with a shrug that was casual to the point it made Adilash wince.

“Then the word does not get back to Vanda that we are hospitable, but the path unusable. We need survivors. At least one! If we fail in that, it gives the same result of seven dead crusaders in our rainforest with the Vanderik thinking that we’re murderers.” He paused. “More murderous than we are,” he corrected somberly. “If they believe we killed the crusaders, they’ll view that as a direct act of war.”

Jathi was unsure of what to say, and for the first time in her life, she felt relief at Majad’s sudden intervention. He came through the trees, blank white eyes staring, red mask up to his nose as always. For all of his unnerving manner, she could not deny the man’s presence. The very rainforest itself seemed to pay deference to him.

“The gift has been administered,” he said. Jathi could swear his voice chilled the air around her.

“And… did the navigator…” Jathi probed. Adilash stopped his pacing and leaned forward, waiting for the news, good or bad, to be delivered. Neither one of the two was sure what good or bad news would even be.

“He took the full potion. Every drop. He quickly lost all memories of his former self. I last saw him wandering aimlessly away from their camp. I do not believe we will hear from Cendric the Navigator ever again.” The story was delivered as if reading a list of supplies.

Jathi was relieved, but in kindness to Adilash she did not show it, only nodded in solemnity. She could hardly feel any joy regardless. Adilash’s prescient comment on their plans still rang dangerous and all too possible. In the rush to concoct a strategy to remove the invaders, they did not anticipate they would continue in spite of the dangers of the rainforest. Their devotion to the cause, while admirable, was proving problematic. The manner in which they were to be expelled - or eliminated - was walking a very, very thin line with terrible consequences.

“Once more, we mourn the loss,” Adilash said. Of what the tiny man weighed, most of it seemed to be conscience. “So what has become of that man? Is he just… is he just wandering the rainforest, searching to find out who or what he is?”

“That is none of our concern,” Jathi said. If Majad had a perspective, he did not speak it. He’d probably only say some confounding nonsense about being the ‘will’ or the ‘arm’ or some other unnerving perspective he carried with him.

“It is of our concern, as he’s wandering in our rainforest and we caused him to be as he is. Are we not above torture now? Have we fallen that far?”

“Don’t be dramatic, we’re-”

“No,” Adilash interrupted. He so rarely interrupted. Even the stoic Majad raised an eyebrow. “No, I am not being ‘dramatic’, Jathi, and it’s so hurtfully callous of you to say that when just learning of another death! What is the purpose of delivering these elixirs? Tell me again, please.”

Jathi gritted her teeth. She did not like being spoken to in this way. This was turning away from an argument and into condescending theatre. “It’s to see if the Vanderik are able to show the required restraint to use our goods,” she said in a voice that was as if speaking to a child.

“It’s more than that,” Adilash corrected.

“Then tell me. I’m tired of this song and dance! Just say what you want to say!”

“We’re testing them! That’s what this is, it’s a test of character! And how can we administer an ethical test when we ourselves are not of sound morality?”

“Oh, we’re not of sound morality? Have you not signed on to this yourself? You knew just as I did what could happen. tWe came to this decision by consensus. And while you might shed a tear over it, you’re just as complicit as I am. Now you’re in it, and you’re telling me you don’t have the courage for it?” She lowered herself to his level again and whispered the last words. “What do you suppose we do instead, if our methods are so beneath you?”

Adilash sighed, and his shoulders visibly slumped. The good cheer had long left him. “We don’t change a thing then, I suppose. We continue on. I just… I hope we can value restraint as well, considering how hard we’re prizing it. I worry for you, Jathi. I don’t want us to stray too far from what we value. And before you say it, I worry for me, as well. When I go to the river to wash my face, I don’t want to recoil from my own reflection. I never have before, and I don’t want to now.”

“Adilash…”

“It’s alright, Jathi. I know. I know the work is necessary. I know it’s what we must do.” He took her by the hand. He began to say more, but realised it’s all been said already. They knew it in their hearts that what they were doing was terrible, but what they were doing was necessary.

It was then Adilash noticed that Majad had not only remained, but had hardly moved. His feet were planted securely, shoulder length apart. His hands were clasped tightly behind his back. At Adilash’s troubled expression, Jathi slowly peered over and noticed him as well, having locked so strongly into their conversation that they had forgotten him. “Is… is there something we can assist you with now, Majad?” Jathi asked, clearing her throat.

“Our next plan of action,” he replied. “Who is the next… target,” he said after a pause, as if searching for another word and deciding that there was no better fit.

“Yes, that business…” Jathi said softly, now more cognizant of Adilash’s misgivings and trying not to appear overeager. “Who would you be able to target effectively?”

“The captain. The remaining Khorsuli. The noblewoman. The guard. I can reach them all.”

Adilash rubbed his temples with his withered hands, resting his cane on the log for a moment. “It would be a heavy risk to directly target a noblewoman. Even if just one returns then that’ll bring the whole Vanderik army upon us if they suspect foul play. And the bodyguard, if he watches over her as closely as you say, will be looking for someone to blame. That will fall squarely on us. We cannot afford that bloodshed, not for any reason.”

Jathi raised a hand. “Unless, they don’t recognize it as us. Majad, will they be able to track the loss of the navigator to us?”

“They believe him to be incompetent,” Majad said coldly. “I doubt they’ll suspect foul play. They’ll likely think he is lost, regardless of the fact that it’s his sole purpose not to be.”

“Hmm,” Jathi mused. “And the Khorsuli boy?”

“The strongest link to us. I was unaware of the Khorsuli shaman's talents in animal communication.”

“And the Vanderik shaman. The short-haired, quiet one.”

“Dead by the claws and fangs of animals, albeit in a manner that would be abnormal. They would have their suspicions, but little certainty.”

Jathi held a hand up to her chin, tapping her neck with her long fingers, mouth slightly parted in thought. “Whatever we choose, we must not have it linked back to us.”

Majad nodded, the only motion he’d performed since arriving here. “I will find a means. I am the will,” he said. Jathi couldn’t help but shudder, and saw that Adilash did the same.