Reborn: War's Nightmare (8 page)

12-11

The next day went by slowly as Ash and the others waited for news from Fay and the demon army. With nothing to do, Ash spent most of the time talking with Henry while trying to avoid his wives whose eyes still held a deadly glint that threatened to drag him off at a moment’s notice should he let his guard down. It was not that Ash didn’t want to spend time with his wives, but some part of him was fearful of their current over aggressiveness. Ash started to think that war was not a good place for women. Not because they were weak. Anyone who spent time with Tolarea and the others would be clear that they were far from weak, but it seemed that the life and death battles seemed to spark something within them that turned them from cats in to tigers even after the battle was over. With his wives current vigorous mood, Ash’s only haven was making himself busy and with the limited things around, he could only do that by talking to Henry.

Ash didn’t want to talk about himself too much. He was sure that they would win the battle, but even after that there was bound to be a few months before they could completely subjugate the kingdom. During that period if Henry was able to use his information to make a profit, Ash was not sure that he would not do so.

Surprisingly Henry didn’t mind Ash’s tight lips about himself and was more than willing to tell Ash many stories about his own life. Henry had grown up in a poor family but had been lucky enough to be apprenticed to a merchant when he was younger. The only problem was that the merchant was a greedy and unscrupulous person. He would take many apprentices who each had to pay a decent some of money along with signing a very detailed contract. The contract stated that their apprenticeship would continue until they were able to pass the merchant guilds, tier two merchant test. To young children and unknowing adults they never thought deeply about this, but in truth it was a very high hurdle. Most apprenticeships ended once someone passed the basic merchant test, even the hardest hearted masters only required their students to take the tier one test. Most people who were able to pass the tier two test often had been in the business for a number of years.

When Henry was 18 he had passed the tier one test. It was at this time that his master had started sending him on long distance missions with very little profit. It allowed his master to make a small amount of money, but the big thing was the contacts and goodwill his master would receive for the transport of rare or needed goods to isolated places which also had their own rare goods. Instead of being made, Henry took this chance to make his own contacts while at the same time taking every effort to bloody the waters between his master and anyone he came across.

Ash quickly learned that Henry was a very intelligent and even shrewder person. If he had been born among the noble ranks, Ash was sure that he would have already been at the right hand of the king running the country from behind the scenes. The more Ash listened to how he ruined his master’s business, the more Ash started to both fear and respect the merchant who sat before him. The story ended when Henry had been 24 and passed the tier two test. As soon as he passed, he gained his independence and put in to motion the plan he had been building for 10 years. In less than one season, his master lost all his business went bankrupt and was sold into slavery as a debt slave. At the same time, Henry had bought out his master’s debt and taken over his business and started building up the empire that he now controlled.

Unlike Henry, his wife Anabel was completely different. She seemed fierce on the outside but the more Ash and Henry talked, the more the woman seemed to open up and put in her own comments. She had met Henry when he was 17 and still an apprentice. She had been a child of a local washer woman and had no money to her name but her and Henry had been drawn to each other. After they were married Anabel tried to have a child but when she had failed year after year she had asked advice at the temple only to find that she was barren. She had thought that Henry would leave her or at best find a second wife and set her aside to her own devices, but instead he had remained steadfast.

“How sweet,” Celina said having heard the story. She ran over and gave the startled Anabel a hug with tears in her eyes. “You are lucky,” Celina added.

Anabel quickly recovered from her shock from the young demoness, her face shifting from distaste to happiness. “Of course my Henry isn’t like this young man who collects women as if they are some kind of trophy.”

Hearing Anabel’s words, Ash couldn’t think of any words to refute. At first he had been opposed to marry more than one wife. He truly loved Emelia, but he had not really fought that hard against his fate. In fact he had given in pretty easily once he thought about it. Ash was happy that neither Emelia nor the other women seemed to hate the idea of sharing him, but he still felt some sourness in his heart when he thought about it. He knew deep down that it was unfair but it was not as if he could take back his actions now.

Seeing Ash’s red face, Celina let out a light hearted giggle before speaking. “Ash doesn’t collect women, it is more like we are collecting him,” Celina said happily. “I don’t think you would find one of us who are not happy with our husband.”

From the outside, one would think that Celina and Anabel were arguing against each other but the two women continued to talk and soon the atmosphere calmed down and the two women almost seemed like lifelong friends. Ash was amazed at how quickly and seamlessly the two women became friendly. Shaking his head, Ash turned his head back to Henry who was currently sporting an awkward look on his face as he watched his wife. Just as Ash was about to say something, he felt something echo in his mind. Before he could find out what the odd sensation was, it happened again. Thinking quickly, Ash opened his inventory and pulled out the communication ring which was glowing lightly.

“Give me a moment,” Ash said to Henry before leaving the room. As soon as he was out of sight of the others, he activated the ring.

“Ash…Ash,” Fay’s voice was saying over and over through the ring.

“What is it?” Ash asked as soon as he heard Fay’s voice.

“Finally, I have been trying to contact you for hours. I have been discussing our options with anyone that has any knowledge of magical items and we have come up with a few ideas. The first is to simply disable them, but if we do that there is a good chance that it will be noticed and your presence or that of the soldiers that we are currently bringing in will be noticed. The second is to use the hidden forces to attack them just before we launch our attack but that will alert them to our impending attack and waste a valuable resource of the hidden forces. The last option is to find a way to disable them after we breach the wall again. This is of course the best option but it is easier said than done. We have the devices that could do it, but the main problem is that our men don’t know the locations of the stones nor can we freely walk through the city…Any ideas?”

“Give me a moment to think,” Ash replied. Sitting down on the ground Ash started running through his options. Out of everyone present, Ash looked human as long as his wings were out of sight. The other problem was that he didn’t have a clear idea of how to get around the city. He could take Henry with him, but it would only take one outcry from Henry to cause everything to collapse. It was a huge risk.

Ash knew that if he got captured then it would be a harsh hit on the demon forces, but if he didn’t even try to get rid of the illusion stones it would cost a great deal more lives on both sides to take the city. No matter how he looked at it, it was a no win situation. The real question to him was if it was worth it. After giving it a great deal of thought, Ash had his answer.

“Fay can you get the items to the storage building with the soldiers in it?”

“I can have it there in a few hours. Why? Do you have an idea?”

“I told you I have a hostage here that is very knowledgeable. If I can use him then we should be able to sabotage the illusion stones,” Ash replied.

“Do you think we can trust him?” Fay asked. “He could ruin everything. It would be better to go with the second option than to risk everything on an unknown.”

“I think we can trust him,” Ash responded keeping his plan to use himself as well out of her ears otherwise he knew that she would refuse.

“If you think so then I will have the devices brought over. Give it about three to four hours before you send the man over to the storage buildings. I will inform our men about his impending arrival so things don’t go wrong on our end.”

“Understood. I will contact you after everything is finished,” Ash said.

“Talk to you then.”

Putting the ring away, Ash took a deep breath and looked at the ceiling. Ash always found it hard to lie to people. He didn’t know why but it always caused his stomach to cramp whenever he lied or tried to hold something back from people. The whole conversation with Fay had left him feeling as if he had taken a dip in an ice cold river while being punched in the stomach. It wasn’t a good feeling.

After he had settled himself, Ash walked back into the main room where Henry was still sitting. Taking a deep breath Ash started to speak. “Henry, I am going to require a bit of your help.”

Henry furrowed his brow as his lips formed a thin line. “How?”

Ash explained what he would need Henry to do. Henry was not dumb and he instantly knew the dangers that were affixed with walking around town with a demon. If he was caught it wouldn’t just end with light punishment. Even if the army believed that he was forced, it would still end with his head on the chopping block. Looking at Ash’s calm face and from listening to his words, he could also tell that Ash wasn’t planning on giving him a chance to refuse. “When will we leave?”

“About three hours before nightfall,” Ash replied.

With Henry’s agreement, Ash called his wives together and started explaining the plan. Before he was half way finished with explaining he was interrupted by Eun who quickly refused to allow him to leave unescorted. After Eun voiced her refusal the others quickly added in their own voice and Ash was quickly drowned out. His ire quickly rising, Ash couldn’t contain himself anymore and yelled, “Stop.”

Not used to hearing Ash’s angered tone, everyone quickly quietened down. Once the room was once again cloaked in silence, Ash continued talking.  “I know it is dangerous but all you would draw too much attention. There are a number of soldiers out there and I am sure there is no few number of them who wouldn’t mind dragging a young maiden off for a little fun. If that happened you would be bringing more danger than safety. It would be best if only I and Henry do this mission alone.”

“What if he betrays you?” Eun asked looking at Henry with threatening eyes.

“I will kill him,” Ash replied coldly causing both Henry and Anabel to shiver as if they were hit by a blast of cold wind.

“I will agree as long as there is a way for us to stay in contact while you are gone,” Seia said after a few moments of silence. “Otherwise none of us will be able to be at ease.”

“I don’t have anything like that,” Ash said frowning. “If I had more rings like the one Fay gave me it would be great, but I only have the one and it is linked with the one Fay is carrying.”

“Then how about another way,” Li said calmly. “I am sure that we can come up with something.”

Ash sat down with the others working his mind as hard as he could but no matter how hard he thought nothing came to mind. In the end it was Mia who broke the silence that had started to hang gloomily over the group. “How far is the storage building from this house?”

“You know the large road outside of the top floor master bedroom?” Henry said after a few moments. “It is up one road and to east four streets.”

“If it is that close then it would be easy for us to see a signal like Ash used the other day from here,” Li said happily.

“Yes, but what about the illusion stones. There is no way that we will be able to see the signal from all over the city,” Eun said crossing her arms angrily.

“That is true but as long as Ash can shoot a fireball in the direction of the road then we could see it,” Li said as her face lit up. Her round eyes staring up at Ash as if she was wishing to be praised.

“I think that is the best we can hope for,” Ash said nodding his head as he lightly rubbed Li’s soft hair with his hand. “If anything happens where we require help I will use a bright yellow fire ball to let everyone know. If that happens I hope that everyone can respond quickly.”

“You have our word my lord,” Tolarea said standing and giving her normal military salute.

“I guess it would be too much to ask for you to have a map of the city,” Ash said as he started to think through the second stage of the plan.

“I don’t have a map, but I can draw you a rough sketch of the city and where the illusion stones are located. I am guessing that is what you are after,” Henry said.

Ash pulled parchment, ink, and a quill from his inventory. Without another word Henry began to draw on the parchment and within a few moments a small outline of the city was sitting before Ash. After the outline Henry started putting in the main roads. Once he was finished with the roads he added in large circles for the locations of the illusion stones.

“Is that all of the stones?” Ash asked once Henry sat done the quill.

“I believe so, though I can’t be completely sure. There are some places that I haven’t been too but that should at least be most of them,” Henry admitted.