Crimson Blood

Chapter 5

"The whole mad swirl of everything that was to come began then."
— Jack Kerouac

Over the next few days, things were going smoothly.

The following morning after the "accidental" fire, Bennetti received word from his subordinates to deploy part of the troop to the 7th and the 9th battalions. Crow had smiled triumphantly when he delivered her the news — the woman had been right and things were as good as they could be, given the situation they were in.

'Deploy the more healthy ones. Leave only the people who have been either here for the longest or have a very poor complexion. And start feeding them the belladonna. Small doses, please, we don't want to accidentally kill anyone here.' She instructed and even though it pained Hades to follow her orders, he did it anyway.

By the end of the day, he had only a third remaining from the original battalion and they were all eating the herb with their supper apart from Crow, who was recovering. Even the captain himself had to take some belladonna, as well as his lieutenants.

When the first three days of consuming the plant passed, everyone was exhausted and on the verge of wanting to die. The dosage had been just enough to cause them bowel problems and nausea, but not to harm the body in the long run.

Crow watched while her enemy barely slept on the chair, turning green with the plant... The former captain didn't even make an effort to hide her smile. How could she? Her body had been recovering well, in a few days more she would be able to take the stitches out and move freely –- and this was a source of worry for Bennetti's trusted subordinates. Nixon couldn't stop thinking about the consequences of her scaping, and the man worried about Hades.

Ever since he met his best friend at the Military Academy, they had stuck together. Hades could've come from the archduke's house, but his face and poor clothes said enough about how much his family wanted him. Benetti didn't mingle with the upper nobles, instead, he chose to be closer to commoners that attended the academy, which was a select group.

Lucky for him, Sen and Vale chose to do the same, despite their family names. Sen, for an instance, had never liked the surname he carried, especially when he didn't have a chance of taking the marquise lands for himself. He was, indeed, the next in line. Nixon just had to wait for his dad to pass out and, if he takes into consideration how much the old man drinks on a daily basis, would be soon.

But assuming the title means he would have to become a nobleman, by all means, having to follow social rules and treating people like they were nothing more than mere flies. No, Sen didn't want that.

That's why he didn't announce who he was when he met Bennetti, who doesn't take after his father's surname, so his origins were unknown. The two of them became friends, those who slowly learn to rely on each other, together with Boehner. When the nobles found out who they were, their lives got harder, being ostracized in all ways possible, but that only strengthened the bond between the three of them.

That is exactly why Nixon had the audacity to keep defying his captain's orders. Because he was scared Hades trusted too much in his intuition to the point he forgot to consider the risks. Which, with Crow Burnham, weren't little.

The ginger still doesn't know how he was able to accept the idea of consuming a deadly poison deliberately, but he did it. And, in four days, he saw that, maybe, and only maybe, the wicked woman could have some logic behind her crap.

'Captain.' Boehner said, entering Bennetti's tent, where a bathed and dressed in the active captain's clothes Crow was standing up behind Hades's chair, while he was seated, looking at a Nixon pointing something in the map.

'Boehner. What is it?' The archduke asked, lifting his head to eye his underling. The three men had nauseated expressions, some of them experiencing dizziness and stomachaches.