Part Eleven

"No, I'm not lost," said the boy.
"Then where," Nevsky demanded, "are your parents?"
"Father left, then Mother killed herself."
"Wha-!" Exclaimed Nevsky.
"Hey, you!" Someone called. "What are you doing off-duty?"
Nevsky looked beyond the boy, and saw Lieutenant Hanft of the Third Company.
"Well, sir," stammered Nevsky.
Lieutenant Hanft frowned.
"I see. Get on now, and come with me! There's still a war on!"
Lieutenant Hanft, strode briskly up the narrow street, trailed by Nevsky. Turning a corner, saw Hideoshi, Takashi, and Galen leaning on a house wall. Nearby, several soldiers were seated at a low table, gambling.
"Stop that, get up, and go help repair the rest of the walls!" Ordered Lieutenant Hanft.
The soldiers shifted in their seats and moaned, "Why don't our Fairy 'friends' help? They've just holed themselves up in the nicest building in town, and don't even talk to us!"
"Who says such things?" Laughed several voices. Before the soldiers stood several Fairies, clad in white.
None of the soldiers replied.
"Besides," continued the foremost of the group,"we have decided that we will assist by caring for the wounded, cooking meals, and loading weapons, unless we must fight."
"Look at those sissies," Galen snickered, while everyone else except Hideoshi, Nevsky, and Takashi laughed.
The Fairies faces flushed red, and their eyes blazed, but one of then shouted "Stop!" Which caused all present to turn and look at him.
Tugging his wing was the boy Nevsky had met. But now, seeing that everyone was staring at him, he stopped, and looked bashfully at the street.
"What did you do that for?" Asked the Fairy.
"I wanted to be noticed. I've never seen Fairies before, and I wanted to see if your wings would stay on."
"Where are your parent-what happened to your arm?"
Nevsky spoke up. "He's an orphan, and he was born without that arm."
"Oh," said the Fairy. Then he turned towards the boy, asking. "What is your name?"
"Illari."
"Alright. Would you like to have two arms, like other boys?"
Illari wrinkled his freckled face, then looked up at the auburn-haired Fairy
"No."
Everyone gasped.
"Why not?" Queried the puzzled Fairy.
"Because I wasn't meant to have it."
"Who told you that?"
"Nobody. I once heard some men talking about how one wasn't meant to be a king since he wasn't born one. So, maybe I wasn't meant to have two arms."
"Come on, now, we've got to get ready to-" said Lieutenant Hanft, but deafening shouts of "Look!" Began to resound on all sides.
The entire group dashed to the nearest set of stairs that led to the top of the city wall, rushed up, and pressed themselves against the cold stone. Far below the plateau, on the white plains, a dark column wound its way towards the plateau. A faint tramp like continuous thunder accompanied by a low rumble could be heard.
"Wow," gasped Takashi.
"How many soldiers do we have?" Nevsky asked while his face blanched at the sight.
"About twenty thousand," replied Hideoshi. "One of our against five of theirs."
"We'll see how this goes," said Lieutenant Hanft.
"We must now depart to our own quarters," said a newcomer.
It was Lord Anomijah Miron, who stood facing the group, his brown hair hurled about by a sudden gust, his green eyes shining with urgency. The Fairies began to withdraw from the group, when a thud sounded.
"It's Illari!" Nevsky shouted.
On the stone wall Illari lay still for a moment, then began to twitch violently. After several seconds, the twitching subsided, and Illari opened his eyes. Galen knelt beside him, asking, "Has this happened before?"
Illari moaned, "Lots of times. Even when I was a baby."
"Missing an arm and epilepsy-how could he survive?" Wondered Galen aloud.
"But," Lord Anomijah interjected, "we must prepare for a seige, not stand here! My men and I will care for the boy, but-" turning to Illari-"do not pull on our wings."
The Fairies turned and strode away, bearing Illari with them. But, at the foot of the stairs, Lord Anomijah glamced back at Hideoshi and Takashi, sighed, and turned away.
"What was that for?" Galen asked.
Hideoshi stared after Lord Anomijah, then said, "I can't tell. But we've got to get ready."
For the next several hours, Hideoshi, Galen, Nevsky, and Takashi bustled about with the rest of the Third Company, reinforcing walls, stuffing quivers with arrows; and stacking cannonballs, cannonshells, and gunpowder kegs next to the cannons. Meanwhile, the dark column slithered closer, preparing to open its jaws and strike at the city of Valash.
Well into the night, the soldiers, Hideoshi and his friends among them, were stationed on the wall. Before the city, where the lone road dipped beyond sight into a cluster of trees, the first division of the enemy emerged, and marched onto the open plain. Hideoshi tensed, his breathing and heartbeat accelerated, and his hands grew cold, though he gripped his bow the tighter.
"I'll make it! If a thunderbird couldn't kill me, there's nothing to fret over," he mused.
"Then why do I tremble?" He continued.
For several hours, more Karician divisions appeared, each joining the others on the snowy plain before the city. Hideoshi had begun to rest his head on his shoulder when a lurid orange glow flared from behind him.
"Fire!" Screamed many.
Galen rushed up to Hideoshi, panting, "Those Valashians! They set the city on fire to aid their Karician friends!"

Part Ten

"I won't leave you," said Hideoshi breathlessly, "if you stop that and stiffen up!"
Takashi suddenly burst out,"I know! You can come and live with us after this siege is over!"
"Why not? What do you say, Nevsky?"
Nevsky had calmed down, but he still quivered as he said,
"That's fine. I promise I'll be better. Besides-in case you got some queer notions in your heads-I'm no drunk. I even loathe the very smell of alcohol! It's just-never mind. I'll come with you two."
They briskly left the basement, Nevsky snatching up the letter, climbed up the stairs, and walked out of the tavern. A full moon glowed milky-white overhead in the dark blue sky, lighting the snow on the ground and the city of Valash.
"You know," Takashi said, "I never really noticed the city before. See that round tower with the cone roof right in the middle?"
"Or, how everything seems to have a blue tile roof?" Said Nevsky.
Hideoshi interjected, "That's because there's blue clay about six miles or so from here. Let's get to bed now!"
They plodded through slushy streets just beginning to freeze over, until they reached a large house, climbed up the stairs, opened the door, and stepped inside. Gasping, Nevsky said:
"It's the house we looked around in yesterday!-or the day before- I don't remember."
But now there were rows of sleeping bags on the stone floor beneath the stained glass windows. A fire was burning in a fireplace that escaped their notice on their last visit, while soldiers milled about, talking, drinking, or sitting alone on their sleeping bags. Takashi yawned.
"It's drafty in here, and it echoes a lot. I won't be able to sleep tonight," he said.
"Then you're no soldier," grinned Hideoshi, who ran up to, then dived into his sleeping bag afterwards. Takashi and Nevsky followed his example.
However, several hours later, Nevsky still lay awake. Thinking.
"I-I run from it, yet it follows me. It won't leave me! And I'm such a coward, though I want to be brave. But how-the world is not what I thought it to be! It's savage and heartless! But it can't be! If it was, then why would Hideoshi and Galen help me? If that was true, totally true, they wouldn't have.
"I've got to fight tomorrow, but I'm nothing but a scared nineteen-year-old, alone, alone! So I'm a man, they say. In years, maybe, but inside-
"-Hideoshi. How can he say that life is wonderful despite suffering? But it's true that I felt like fighting for it. Then the rest must-must be true! But how? How can life be wonderful in spite of fear?"
The darkness of sleep overtook Nevsky however, and he slept in peace.
When Nevsky awoke, dappled flecks of coloured light shone on the stone floor, while the dim outlines of the ceiling and the columns grew more defined with increasing light. Other soldiers from the Third Company were also arising from slumber, grooming themselves or just crawling out of their sleeping bags.
"So you're up now!" Said Takashi (who was nearby ) in a loud whisper.
"Yeah."
After grooming and a breakfast of stew, Hideoshi, Nevsky, and Takashi walked out of the front door, down the steps, and onto the street. A group of women walked past them, spitting into their faces and shouting "Bah!" Before strolling away.
Takashi, grimacing while wiping his face with his coat sleeve, said: "Yuck! How rude!"
"I heard some other soldiers say that they were spit at when walking around," Nevsky said.
"Well, I suppose they don't bear goodwill towards their 'invaders'," said Hideoshi.
Frowning, Takashi replied, "We'd better watch out then!".
Meanwhile, Nevsky, seized by an adventurous mood, wandered off into a side street nearby. He strode across frozen mud, stared at the blue tile roofs, and puffed out a cloud of frozen breath while twiddling his thumbs. Then he looked down, and saw a child alone in the street, huddled against a stone house wall. It was a boy, about seven, barefoot and draped in a woman's coat caked with mud. His straw brown hair curled, and his eyes were a vivid turquoise.
Nevsky stared, then asked, "Are your eyes really that colour?"
"Yes," came a hurried whisper of a reply.
The boy turned to face Nevsky while saying this, which caused Nevsky to notice that the boy had no right arm.
"Were you hurt?" He asked.
The boy lowered his head, almost whispering, "No."
"What happened then?"
"Wuz born that way."
"Oh."
They stood silently in the grey-white light in the grey street, Nevsky staring at the boy, the boy gazing at the ground. Then Nevsky broke the silence.
"Do you have any parents nearby? Are you lost?" He asked.