Before the Battle

Reckoning 4/20

--Mika Marat--

The smell coming from the burnt village was unbearable. I covered my mouth and nose with my sleeve to protect myself. But the sight of the devastation was no less horrifying.

"The end justifies the means," Satoshi replied laconically when I asked him if all this was really necessary. "We have to fight fire with fire."

He threw in some more wisdom to rationalise that joining forces with a bunch of bloodthirsty marauders was the best thing for our plan.

Whether his plan really involved plundering the entire village and slaughtering all those who did not manage to escape, or whether our allies simply got a little carried away, he did not explain.

On the other hand, I'd like to see Imara persuade this bunch of barbarians to lay down their weapons and befriend him.

These mercenaries, who would murder their own mother for money, often came across the sea from the west, plundering the smaller islands off the coast. But they had not ventured into the North Island for many years.

Satoshi used money and trickery to encourage them to venture there after all. Reports from scouts in Imara's camp further aided their attack. They knew that many of the clan leaders had gone to meet the General, leaving the villages unprotected. And by chance, we found out another interesting piece of information.

Raskov, the leader of the mercenaries, seemed to have seen countless similar atrocities in his life, as evidenced by his scarred face and the manner of one who understood only violence. He had a shaved head with a disgusting tattoo of a skull with eyes crawling out of its sockets.

"Here," he handed Satoshi a black sheath. "But the price for that guy just tripled."

"What?" I snapped at him, but quickly fell silent as he bared his teeth at me and gave me a malicious grin.

"That was not part of our deal," Satoshi argued, running his hand over the smooth, lacquered wood of the scabbard.

"He killed eleven of my men and wounded seven."

"That's your problem," the bald agent retorted. "I warned you he was dangerous."

"Besides, he's the reason Kano's son got away. We could have asked a fat ransom for the chief's son," Raskov counted the losses on his fingers.

"Triple or nothing."

"Keep him, kill him, we don't care," I said. I wouldn't be blackmailed by that primitive.

I expected him to lash out at me, threaten to cut me open and other such niceties, but he just grimaced and added, "Maybe someone else will pay for him."

I gritted my teeth and kept quiet. I supposed he wasn't a complete idiot and there were at least two brain cells in that tattooed head of his. Imara would pay anything for his sweetheart. But I wasn't going to let that happen. Not now that we'd finally caught the assassin.

"We'll pay you," Satoshi spoke before me. "But I want to see him first."

"Follow me," Raskov said, and accompanied by several of his henchmen, he led us towards the burning village, from which bright orange flames continued to leap, lighting up the dark night sky.

I tried to ignore the massacred villagers and suppressed the urge to cover my nose again at the ever-increasing smell of burning, blood and death. Although the Emperor was also known for his brutal treatment of his enemies, I had never seen such carnage, even during the war.

Most of the wooden houses had burned down, the worst of the heat had subsided, but clouds of choking smoke still hung in the air. Hot sparks flew around like stray fireflies, looking for something else to ignite, but there was nothing else to burn. Everything that could burn was already burning. Including the bodies.