Chapter 308

Enri stayed long enough to watch her goblin wolf riders racing away from where they formed up. The goblins were clad in their light armor, dark dragonskin leather with loose caps of the same material, with long thin lances at the ready. The wolves were the size of ponies, and their large pink tongues lolled out, panting as the Wolf Queen gave her orders. Ten across and five deep, they formed up in ten squares, making for five hundred in number.

Their lances carried pennants showing her national flag to diminish the appearance of hostility at least some and give them a more 'parade like' appearance when they moved as groups.

Enri, predictably enough, made her instructions brief. "...So then locate and secure the Draconic Queen, or if she is dead, her body, and return her to the safety of the international body, and… if you can, her maids as well. Save everyone you can."

Raymond watched the order being given out by the Wolf Queen. 'Such an… absurd name… for such a soft soul.' He thought, and he should have held her in contempt for it.

But he couldn't. 'Save everyone you can… that's the ideal we all began the priesthood with, that's the ideal we all chose to strive for when we trod the path of the Scriptures, to become Cardinals and lead the nation…' It was a bitter draught to see a peasant in royal garb who could give such an insane order with a straight face. She meant every word, he could hear it from the very core of herself.

'When was the last time I sounded like that?' He wondered while the liquor pounded against his brain, and he watched from his high place on the balcony of the hotel set aside for state visitors, but still apart from the nations that had, somehow, become so close that they were traveling companions. He put his hand to his head as if he could rub away his hangover. 'Years of flapping on about 'the good of humanity' how many villagers like hers did we destroy in pursuit of the greater good?' The destruction of the Sunlight Scripture, he knew, took place not far from here.

'At least I can say I told them that mission was a bad idea. We should have just killed the weak king and let them fall apart in the next invasion. That idiot Barbro wouldn't have lasted a year.' Raymond groaned at a particularly painful moment and watched the wolf riding goblins raise their lances and cheer for their Queen.

The sound of hundreds of wolf paws slapping the stone was like the noise of steady rain, far different than the thunder of horse hooves, but even at a glance he knew for sure that those wolves would cause a bloody mess if they came up against opposing horsemen.

'Lying to Zesshi was for the greater good too… and for hers… but will she still see it that way? She has to know the truth by now…?' He asked himself that while hoping the opposite. 'Knowing her she's sure to be on her way to Arwintar… which means my best chance of finding her is to go that way myself.' That wasn't the first time he'd thought it, and again he wondered if he was just trying to convince himself or not. 'If she went with that wanderer, who can say what she's doing? The gods know she'd get lost in her own house if she weren't careful… and naive, sheltered as she is… gods… please hear my prayer…' Raymond said and knelt to the empty air, he lowered his forehead to the floor and lay his hands on the floor with palms upturned above his head to receive their blessing.

"For all my life I've followed your teachings… protected humanity… but now… I see a beast, a traitorous beast… and she sets demihumans to save a human… She tells me that her humans are her people… and if she lies to me I cannot see it. I see a mere peasant turned Queen, and she sends goblins to save peasants from the monster of the elf Kingdom… and the girl I have known since I was a mere boy… I fear she is wounded in her heart and in pain… I fear the consequences of my lies, and that I will lose my friend, my comrade. Never in my life have I uttered a selfish prayer, I was given all the gifts I ever needed… until now. Please… tell me what to do! Give me words that will help her to understand! Strengthen my faith! Show me that I am deceived by a fever or a spell or the damned lies of a powerful mage! Show me I am not wrong!" He shouted the end of his prayer into the floor as he prayed for wisdom and guidance.

Outside, he could hear the clatter of carriages, and the cheers of humans and nonhumans alike as the monarchs resumed their shared journey to Arwintar.

They rolled past him moments later, but he couldn't see it. Not with his eyes closed and his head down.

But if the gods gave any answer, he couldn't hear it. If they were listening, they gave him no sign. If they cared, it seemed they didn't know how to show it. Silence stretched, minute became minute until a full hour passed him by, until his body ached from the uncomfortable posture, and Cardinal Raymond rose up again.

'Arwintar…' He reminded himself as he put the failed prayer in his past and pushed himself to his feet. 'I can't do anything else here, whether the gods answer me or not, this is not the place I need to be.'

And with that, he went to make preparations to leave, uncertain about what he would find as he went on.

'As long as I find Zesshi… my… Zesshi, I can live with almost anything else…' He told himself, and hoped to the gods the trip wouldn't make him into a liar…