Forgotten Soldiers Read Free

leathers. She ran a thin hand through short, brown hair, and rubbed the back of her neck—a tell-tale sign that her run-in with the recruit bothered her more than usual. When I saw the faintest hints of sorcery crackling at her long fingertips I knew Hamath did right by letting me talk to her. She was having a hard time controlling herself.
    Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about any serious injury if she lost her temper. I was one of the rare cases of someone born with a resistance to sorcery. Each of our special units had someone resistant among them. Considering the crap Ava tried to pull on me as kids, it’s a good thing I had the gift. Otherwise, I would have ended up missing a limb or worse a long time ago. It was also a good thing for others near me in battle as one of the nice things my resistance afforded me was the ability to draw sorcery out of others injured by some spell.
    “Well?” I asked as I came upon her.
    She stopped and gave me a bitter look. Tall for a woman, she could almost give me that look at eye level. “Well, what? I’m ready. Lay into me if that’s what you’re here for.”
    “I’d like to know what happened first.”
    “Hamath didn’t tell you?”
    “I want to hear your side.”
    She put her hands on her hips. “Some idiot wanted to prove how tough he was by beating on one of the camp followers.”
    “Whores.”
    “What?”
    “Call them what they are. Unlike the merchants that come and go, the only thing she was peddling was what’s between her legs.”
    She grit her teeth. “Fine. Whores.”
    “Did you find out what prompted him to lay into her like that?”
    “No.”
    “Don’t you think you should have?”
    “No.”
    A long breath passed through my lips. “You know, we’ve had this conversation far too many times over the years.”
    “We’re going to keep on having it if little men continue to think they can mistreat a lady.”
    I snorted. “A lady? Look, you know I don’t condone hitting women, and I would never put up with someone in my unit doing it, but I’d hardly call a whore a lady. You need to be more concerned with protecting those fighting alongside us, not someone who can’t stay off her back. Quit taking matters into your own hands. You should have reported the incident to the soldier’s sergeant. Now, his unit is shorthanded for tonight.”
    She ignored my last point. “Nothing would have happened if I had reported it. You know that.”
    I said nothing. She was right. I hated it when she was right.
    “There were still better ways to handle the situation than how you did. Ways that would have punished the soldier without possibly crippling him for life.”
    She shrugged. “See if I care. Her face is no less important than his manhood.”
    “Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here. I’m not trying to defend his actions, I’m just mad at how you handled things.” I shook my head. “Well, maybe the woman will get out of the trade now that she knows the risks.”
    “I’m sure she knew the risks, and she chose the trade anyway. What does that tell you?”
    “That she doesn’t have her head on straight.”
    She frowned. “Could be. Maybe she just saw the money she’d make and didn’t care about getting slapped around. But how many choose that life because they feel that’s the only chance they have to survive?”
    “Here you go again.”
    Ava cocked her head to the side. “What if that had been Lasha?”
    My eyes narrowed. Hypothetical or not, if anyone other than Ava had suggested such a thing I would have been all over them. “Don’t. It wouldn’t happen.”
    “You don’t know that. We’ve been gone almost a decade. Neither one of us knows what things are like back home.”
    “Stop, Ava. I know my wife. She’d never stoop to that. She’s too smart. Too resourceful.” I opened and closed my hands. “Besides, Lasha’s got friends to look after her and the kids if it came down to it.”
    Somewhere in the last few exchanges I