36. Thirty-Three

There wasn't much fighting left to do. As soon as Ruith's forces rode into the camp, they made straight for where the Broken Blades were being held and freed them. When Tarathiel's army realized what was happening, they fled.

The sun rose on a bloody battlefield. Smoke drifted up from the charred remains of ruined tents. What had once been proud battlements the night before were half toppled ruins. Horses wandered without riders, and children searched for parents. Hungry dogs were run away from corpses while flies were allowed to gather.

The last of the fighting had ended hours ago, but the conflict was far from over. An unease had settled over the camp, with Ruith's forces keeping to one side and the slaves mourning their losses on the other.

I walked through the empty field where, the night before, the slaves had been lined up for their decimation. The dead lay where they fell, elves and humans frozen together in a single bloody moment.

It wasn't until the sun was fully risen that I heard the whispers.

"That's him. The one that stopped the decimation."

"He's the one who killed the Runecleaver in single combat."

"They say he killed Nessir."

A group began to gather in my path, armed former slaves donning the ill-fitting armor of their captors. I stopped in front of them, waiting. It was Hawk who stepped forward. I flinched when he put a fist to his chest. "What are your orders, sir?"

"My orders?" I stared at him, trying to process his words, even though I'd understood them the first time. "Why would I have orders for you?"

He glanced back at the others, his armor shifting noisily. "Well, who else would we ask?"

There was no one, I realized. They wouldn't trust Ruith or any of the other commanders, not after last night. Already, I could see them shifting uneasily and throwing looks to the other side of the encampment, wondering if Ruith and the Bone Empress were friend or foe. I wondered the same.

Hoofbeats made everyone tense. Hands went to swords and gripped spear hafts, ready to renew the fight.

But the elven rider stopped out of range. I recognized Aryn's silver hair and held up a hand to still the men behind me.

"I'm to escort whoever speaks for the humans to Ruith to negotiate a peaceful exchange," Aryn announced, scanning the unfriendly faces.

I hesitated briefly before saying, "I suppose that's me."

Aryn sighed. "Of course it is."

"What should we do in the meantime?" Hawk asked before adding late, "Sir?"

I looked back at them, seeing exhaustion and nerves. One wrong word, one heavy breath, and more fighting could break out. They needed somewhere to direct that energy, something to do. "See to the wounded. Gather up the women and children. See that they're fed. No one is to touch the dead without my leave." I wasn't familiar enough with elvish burial and death customs to know if they'd take offense to us moving their bodies out of the way, and I didn't want to spark more tension.

Hawk nodded and turned around. "You and you. Get a cook fire going. You, fetch water from the river and boil it. Who's got knowledge of medicine and herbs?"

Aryn offered me another horse. "You surprise me, human."

Tiredly, I rose into the saddle. "I surprised myself."

At that, he offered me a rare smile, and we rode on.

Ruith had posted guards, marking a perceived territorial line that none of his elves crossed. The Spine tribes seemed unwilling to cross it as well, hanging back even further than the elves.

I was brought to what must've been the remains of Tarathiel's command tent. There were signs all around that's what it was, and yet anything strategic had been hastily removed or burned. Evidence of the latter sat in a charred pile near a wall that had been eaten by flame.

Before I was allowed to come close, Ieduin searched me for weapons. This, I thought, was a step up. They thought me dangerous, and they were right.

Niro, who stood at Ruith's right hand, greeted me with a small nod.

"I knew it would be you," Ruith said. "But I'm glad to see I'm right."

"I don't think you know how to be wrong," I replied.

We stood across from each other, separated by mere inches that might as well have been oceans.

"Tarathiel has fled, likely to D'thallanar," he said with all the authority of a king. He was one, after all. "The forces here were only a token of what he will muster on his return. It will be unwise for us to remain, but I am not willing to move on until we've retrieved our dead. With your permission, of course."

"Of course." I nodded awkwardly. "They should receive appropriate rites."

"We will return any human bodies to you for your rites and rituals as well. Unaltered, so they can be identified."

"Naturally," I agreed.

Tense silence.

Ruith took a deep breath in. "What are your demands?"

I blinked, stunned. My demands? As if we were in a position to make such things. Even now that we had armor and arms, we didn't have mages. We didn't have supplies or supply lines, and we were stranded in a foreign land. Any half decent commander would see that we were an easily bullied group who would be forced to submit to the orders of a larger, more well supplied force like Ruith's army. All the bloodshed aside, we were still slaves. Slaves who had risen up to kill their elven masters. What I knew of elven law couldn't fill a teacup, but that must have been punishable by death.

Yet we lived. We were being allowed to collect and mourn our dead. Ruith was not treating with me like a king did with the leader of rebellious slaves, but as an equal, and there could only be one reason why.

"You need us," I said quietly. "This was your plan all along, wasn't it?"

Ruith was quiet.

"It's why you put me on the post and made them all come out to watch. It's why you made me start carrying orders to them, why you pushed me into that pit the first day. All this time, I was just a pawn to you. A means to secure an army of slaves willing to fight against a shared enemy."

Niro's eyes widened and swung to Ruith.

Ruith stayed still, but a tic in his jaw betrayed everything. "I couldn't have foreseen it all," he said, though I felt as if he could have. Somehow, Ruith had orchestrated all of this, or at least twisted it to his advantage. "They needed someone to follow. Why couldn't it be you? They respect you. They'll fight for you."

"And you want me to tell them to fight for you. To die for you and your war against your father."

"No," Ruith said sharply. "I want you to tell them to fight for them. I want them to fight and die for their freedom, which I will give them when we win."

Some would say slaves make the best soldiers. They have the most to gain when promised freedom in exchange for service.

He had been planning this all along, and I had been too blind and stupid to see how he was manipulating me. Every time I thought I was defying him, I was only playing right into his hands.

"What happens if I refuse?" I asked, knowing that it wasn't possible. If we refused and fought them instead, we would lose. We would die. I hadn't gone through everything just to die now.

He sounded genuinely pained when he answered, "You know what happens. Neither of us wants that."

"Is it really a choice when one option is death?"

"It is always a choice." He sighed. "It's always the carriage problem, Elindir."

And now I was the one with the hard choice to make.

I looked at him, the memory of his silken braids in my fingers suddenly stronger. I remembered the feel of his body moving inside mine, the soft glow of fire against his shadowed face.

"We'll be allowed to form our own command structure," I said. "We'll appoint our own commanders, who will answer directly to me. You will involve me in all strategy meetings and give me a voice equal to your other commanders. Food, weapons, and armor will be distributed evenly between your people and mine."

"Done," Ruith said, as though he'd been expecting all of that.

"I'm not finished." I forced my voice to be cold and impersonal. "I have two more demands and a…personal request."

"Let's hear them."

"First, there will be no more lashings. No elf will enact corporal punishment of any kind on a human without facing equal and appropriate consequences. Second, humans are not to be treated as property. We won't fight for you as slaves fight for masters. We fight as your equals. Anyone who commits a crime against my people will be punished, his punishment determined by a joint council of elves and humans to be appointed immediately."

Ruith glanced over at his commanders, who all indicated their approval, including Niro. "All right. Those are your demands. What's your personal request?"

The elves tensed as I took a step forward, but no one made a move to stop me. "When I have helped you claim your throne, you will march your army to Ostovan and help me claim mine."