Meta Gods War 3 by B. Miles (the ebook reader txt) 📕

“Some would say what you did wasn’t justice.”

He felt a jolt of surprise. “Are you one of those?”

“I don’t know,” she said, staring straight ahead. “Lagon wasn’t such a bad man.”

“And yet he’d been actively trying to subvert me.”

“True.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand it.”

“There’s nothing rational about his decision.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Lagon was always smart.”

“But now he’s stuck in the wilderness with only fifty men and an entire wolf army wandering around.”

She nodded, eyes locked forward on the ground, searching for tracks. “What were you going to do with him?”

“I planned on sending him back to the Mansion,” Cam said. “Once this was all over, I’d give him a fair trial.”

“That’s reasonable,” she said. “But I can’t imagine it would have worked.”

“Why?” he asked, starting to feel annoyed.

“He would’ve escaped on the way back, or they would’ve been ambushed and killed, or something like that. I can’t see them actually making it back.”

“Maybe,” Cam said. “But I wasn’t going to execute him in the field.”

“No, that would’ve been a bad idea,” she said.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” he asked. “I can’t kill and I can’t punish. If my men are insubordinate, I’m supposed to just let it happen?”

She squinted at the ground. Her breath came out in streams of white. Creaks of armor and grunts from exhausted and overworked men drifted up around them.

“There was no way out,” she said. “You should’ve left him, at least for a while.”

“That was Felin’s decision.”

“But you gave Felin her authority, so it comes back to you in the end.”

“What should she have done then?”

“Left him alone,” Brice said. “For a while, anyway. She should’ve watched carefully and waited for him to do something stupid. Then you could’ve taken him with some proof in hand, and at least it wouldn’t have caused half the camp to question your motives.”

Cam stared at her. “Question my motives?”

“Some believe Lagon was the first in a purge,” she said. “That you’re aiming to get rid of anyone that was loyal to the previous Lord.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“That’s what the men are saying.”

“Do you believe that?”

“No,” she said. “I know that’s not what you’re doing.”

“I can’t win,” he said. “I stamp out one fire, a thousand more spring up.”

“That’s what it means to be a General,” she said. “You’d better get good at stamping.”

He pushed through a thicket of bushes and came out onto a tree-lined hill. Footprints marred its surface. Branches were bent and broken. Men came through here, and not too long ago. Cam began to stalk up the hill toward a tree line at the top. He smelled dirt and pine sap. He wanted to turn around and burn the whole damn valley.

But the wind turned. It blew into his face and brought with it something rancid.

He stopped in his tracks and took a sharp breath.

“Brice,” he said. “Do you smell that?”

She came up next to him and scented the air. “I think so,” she said. “What the hell is that?”

“Smells rotten.”

Cam pushed up the hill. Brice rallied her men and got them into a tight formation. Cam reached the top and peered between the trees.

Bodies lay in a sun-drenched field strewn with rocks and short bushes.

Wolves were torn to shreds. Blood oozed across the grass. Piles and piles of wolves, starting at the far side of the clearing and ending at the opposite. Along the way, several Humans were scattered in with the wolves.

“Oh no,” Brice said.

“This happened not too long ago,” Cam said. “Hours, maybe.”

“How many?” she asked.

Cam shook his head. “Too many wolves to count,” he said. “They put up a good fight.”

“I don’t see many men.” Brice took a step forward but Cam caught her wrist.

“Careful,” he said. “Wolves might still be alive. I have the feeling Lagon didn’t stick around to put them all down.”

She met his gaze and nodded once.

They moved forward as a unit. Brice’s men spread out and killed any wolves that were still clinging to life. Cam kicked over Human corpses, hoping to find Lagon’s face in the mess.

But he was still missing.

“Only fifteen,” Brice said. “That I counted.”

“I got the same count,” Cam said.

“They must’ve killed twice that.”

“Three times, even.” Cam shook his head. “They put on a good show, I’ll give them that.”

“I think they kept heading toward the mountain,” Brice said. “I found tracks leading away.”

“Any wolf tracks?”

She shook her head. “I’m guessing they ran into a large scouting party.”

“I think you’re right.” He grunted and kicked over another body. An unfamiliar face missing half its right cheek stared sightlessly up at him. “We should get moving before someone comes back.”

“You’re right.” Brice called her men into formation and they marched away from the battlefield.

Cam didn’t want to leave the Humans behind, but they didn’t have much of a choice. They had to keep moving if they were going to catch up with Lagon.

The mood shifted as they headed further up the slopes. Brice’s men spoke less. They marched with grim determination. Cam got the sense that the death back in the field was a reminder of the stakes at play here, and how even losing fifty men was a blow to their chances.

Fifty men and a competent supply General.

They marched in silence for another hour before Brice called a halt. The men looked grateful as they began to strip off their armor and switch with their partner. They sat and drank water from skins and hid from the late afternoon sun as it beat down bitter and unrelenting.

Cam wandered away from the main group, eyes on the forest floor. Lagon was heading toward the mountain, but for what reason, Cam couldn’t guess.

Brice appeared through the trees. She’d taken off her armor for the first time since they left the Mansion. Her hair was down and stray strands billowed along her pretty face. Cam turned to her and leaned against the trunk of a young tree.

“He’s going to get them all killed,” Cam said, speaking softly.

Brice stopped a few