The Fallen World

War Rules - Part 2

     “What a joke!” he said, still laughing in that same way. “What a damned joke! Apart from that human girl who desecrated my temple, you’re the one I’ve been looking for the most in the whole world. I’ve had the boys out all over the country looking for ya, and I’ve been spying on every patrol sent out by the big city before the war started to see if you were in it, but ya seemed to have disappeared right off the face o’ the world. I’d given up, I had! I’d given up! I thought someone else must've killed ya, or else you’d been posted to some far corner o’ the world where I’d never find ya, but then this war starts. This beautiful, glorious war. The biggest war for thirty years! Skorvos says it’s war rules now, and then I finds ya not half a mile from me new home. Ya walks right into my lap! Good joke, eh human? A good joke on me! Skorvos must be laughing the tusks right outta his face!”

     The sholog laughed some more, leaving Drake in even greater confusion. What was the joke? What was it that was amusing the huge sholog so much? And what were war rules? He remembered Resalintas mentioning them once, during one of their discussions about the worshippers of the evil God of Conquest, and he struggled to remember what he’d said. “War rules,” he said thoughtfully.

     “Yeah, war rules,” repeated the sholog, no longer smiling. “What a pain, eh?” He drew a dagger and held it thoughtfully in both hands, fingering the razor sharp blade with his thumb. A wistful gleam entered his brown, dog eyes. “I used to lie awake at night, thinking about what I was gonna do with you when I caught ya. It would've been glorious, the things I was gonna do to ya! I’d have made ya last for days, and every scream woudda been a prayer to Skorvos. The screams of a priest of Samnos bring great glory to Skorvos, and the one who made him scream like that would rise high in his favour. But it’s war rules now. War rules! Where’s the justice in that, eh human? Where’s the justice in that?”

     He’s going to kill me, thought Drake, beginning to grow afraid. That must be what war rules mean. Prisoners taken must not be given the chance to escape. They must be killed as soon as they’re taken. I should be grateful that I won’t have to suffer torture, but I’m afraid to die. May Samnos forgive me, I’m afraid!

     He forced down the fear with an effort and tried to say something defiant. He was determined to die with dignity. “If you’re going to kill me, hurry up and do it,” he snapped. “The sound of your voice is making me sick, and the smell of your fleabitten hide is more than I can stand.”

     The sholog stared at him in something like admiration. Courage was something that shologs prize above almost all else. “Kill ya?” he said. “But we're at war now, human, and you know how we work. War is the glory of Skorvos, and all wars must be made to last as long as possible. The torturing and killing of prisoners. The massacre of innocents. The burning of towns and cities. The looting and pillaging and raping. The blood, the brains, the guts, the smell of smoke and death. It must go on and on and on! More and more and more! War without end, slaughter without end. And when everyone’s dead in one place, another war starts somewhere else. That’s why we always join in a war on the losing side, human. To make the war last as long as possible.”

     “You always join in a war on the losing side,” said Drake numbly.

     “That’s right human, and you're losing.” He pointed a claw at the young priest. “You're losing!”

     For a moment the young priest’s mind whirled in bewilderment and confusion. He tried to speak, but found he had no idea what he was going to say. The sholog looked at him in amusement as he searched for words. “Are you saying...” he managed to say at last, “that you’re offering to help us fight the Shadowarmies?”

     “Not offering, human,” replied the sholog. “We are fighting them. That patrol that nearly got ya wasn’t the first we’ve killed. The Shads think it’s you, human soldiers, out picking them off a few at a time. Imagine their surprise when they find out it was us!”