The Slave Knight Part 1: The Dagon

Chapter Thirteen: The Wenches Battle Commander

"Answer me this, Durug, why were the merz so hell bent on over taking us? It was uncanny the numbers that they threw at us." Sir Wallace had sat down next to Durug. He was entirely battle fatigued, and attempting to regain his wits and strength for their final leg of their journey through the marshes. He did not want to think too much about what he had just experienced, but knew that these itches needed to be scratched, and who better than Durug to scratch them, given his year long venture through the marshes.

"You see wall and ford, yes? Before you come to Durug, yes?" Sir Wallace nodded and crossed his arms. "All refugee from Meri. Many refugee from Meri and beyond. No man, or race come through Meri, 'cept Durug of course, as merz are here. No human, no race, no food. Merz get tired of big bullfrog, or slippery snake, and Durug too strong to be killed and food for merz. So merz stuck here, with no food, or no good food. Little game here, there, but no good food. Merz starve. But slave knight come in. Food that is strong. Food that sustain. Food that stop merz starvation."

"The merz are starving without the humans huh?"

"Yes. They think, I guess, of swimming up or down stream, but water that way and human that way," Durug pointed in various directions, "human no kind to merz trying to return to sea. Trying to return home where they eat fish and things and be fine."

"How do you know these things?" Durug gave a devilish smile. He took out a long coral knife that he had taken from one of the merz and began to clean some dirt from his fingernails absentmindedly. He liked his lips and breathed out.

"I find many merz, for food, but first to know of merz. I no kill at first. I speak. I ask. I listen. I tickle with knife to get words from merz when they no give me words I like."

"You speak their tongue?" Durug bobbed his head from side to side. Yes and no, Sir Wallace thought.

"Enough to know merz thoughts. I ask, they no tell, I tickle for little," he pointed the knife at Sir Wallace menacingly and twisted it from side to side, "they no like my tickle, so they tell me what I need. Some things I no need, but they tell. Durug listen. Durug understand. Durug use or no use. Depends." Durug shrugged his shoulders and decided to walk away, seemingly bored of the conversation. He walked around to do some final menial tasks before the warbands headed out toward Newbrit. Durug told Sir Wallace that they were close to the border, and there was really no rush. That if they had things to do concerning their dead, they could do that at their pleasure. Sir Wallace was thankful for that, and let Durug go on his way.

The merz had been sent back to their murky depths to suffer and starve, and the border was close for them to traverse and possibly get around the dastardly Haert. Sir Wallace had taken some time to rest as he knew not what the trek ahead entailed. He had gone through post fight debriefing, not only with his own warband, but the Wenches, who had unfortunately lost their battle commander and three other fine slave knights. The total tally, to his closest estimation, was four lost slave knights, a few dozen wounded, and five hundred lost merz, give or take some. He knew that some of the numbers of killed were embellished, as well as others understated, so all that Sir Wallace could work with were estimates.

Five hundred merz lost, of a colony of who knew how many given the fact that this starvation thing probably was not a recent phenomena. We could have easily committed a genocide. A whole species wiped out by some slave knights. How long had the Wall and the Ford been up? A decade? A century? Captain Rogers said he had near on thirty-thousand people from Meri and the surrounding areas as refugees i. With no food source for that long, the merz must be on their last legs, and we just swept it out from under them. Sir Wallace was astounded at the depth of his thoughts. He had killed many things. He had done terrible things to men, women, and children, but to commit genocide was something deeper than he could even fathom. It was something he could not get his mind around. He wanted to ask Durug how many merz there had been total, but knew he would hate himself if Durug gave an answer he did not want. He decided to leave it alone.