VICTORY

As everyone came out from the palace, James saw some of the men chasing someone away. He then saw Cletus smiling at him as the rest of the city was looking a bit wild after the fight and people were just either lamenting over their destroyed property or looking for loved ones. As they started moving around to check things out in the city, they saw a woman crying and asking for where her son could be. James then went to her and asked her about the description of the boy and it matched that of the boy he kept in an inn. He then told her to go to the inn to pick the boy on his command.

"Thank you very much sir, I appreciate what you have done." She said as he held his hand and she ran towards the direction of the inn.

King Esiarp then approached him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"You have saved my life today james, I appreciate that. I am ready to grant any favour that you ask of me." He said to him enthusiastically.

" My Lord, I ask for nothing but that you give me some of your men. As you can see, we need to start attacking and taking back this continent from Benard's clutches before he totally takes over." He said to him as he took a gulp of the wine one of the men gave him.

"We are safe here James, we don't need to start attacking anybody. We just defeated Benard remember?" He said to him.

" I know that we just did that but we wouldn't have succeeded if we weren't helped by one of his men and he will be more careful now meaning that anytime soon, he might launch another attack."

" You mean one of Benard's men helped us to win? That is very strange because Benard's men are very loyal to him." He said with suspicion evident in his voice.

" I know that this is also very suspicious and might just be a diversion created by Benard to prevent us from seeing the real plan but Benard was here and got into the city and attempted to kill you like he said in the letter." He said to the king.

" But why will one of Benard's men want to help us to stop him from succeeding?" He said as he thew meat to some of the street dogs roaming about who immediately pounced on it.

"I don't know sire but I hope my request will be granted to me?" He said as he bowed his head a little bit.

"It will be granted to you son. I wish you the best and my blessings are with you." He said as he laid his right hand in his head.

" Thank you my Lord, I will bring victory and Benard's rule will come to an end. I have already contacted the Dichanians and hopefully they agree with us and join forces with us."

" If you can get the Dichanians, things will be easy because they have such a large population and having them on our side is a big plus."

" Yes sire, we are working to make sure that we can convince them and this victory over Benard should help to do that." He said.

" Good luck to you and I will assign a quarter of my men to join yours in this fight." He said as he started going towards the palace.

" Thank you very much sire, may you live long." He said as he drank the last of the wine. Cletus then arrived and tapped him.

"What is it Cletus?" He asked with a bored voice.

"I forgot to tell you that I and Ashra are getting married in 30 days." He said with an excited tone.

" About time too, the two of you have been engaged but have not gotten married. But for now, we have a lot to think about." He said to Cletus.

" Yes of course and Benard will be raging seriously now because he has lost twice to you." He said while laughing.

" We will take back what belongs to us from him and he will pay for his sins." He said as he shook Cletus's hand and hugged him.

" We will brother, we will." He said with emotion in his voice.

" What if Benard catches us hugging and kills us like this, don't you think that that will be a terrible way to die?" He said as James released him from the hug.

" Benard is still running away brother, he can't come back now." He said while showing a wide smile.

" We thank the gods that we are all alive." A familiar voice echoed behind them and when they looked back, they saw Varlom smiling at them. James and Cletus then went to hug him as they all jubilated. They then went to the spot where they normally drink to have some drinks.

"Free drinks for everyone here because I will pay!!" James said at the top of his voice with excitement and everyone hailed him and everyone was happy.

Meanwhile, Benard was still running towards the camp of the Snake army and while running, he then removed an arrow from his back as he let a little groan out and cursed. One of his men saw him and offered to take him to the camp but he refused.

"Don't help me you idiot! You all still need to be in Fadian to help me to do certain things." He said as he pushed the man away and the man then ran back to the gates of Fadian.

After some hours of walking, he finally got to the camp of the Snake army and immediately he got there, he attacked one of the men and started choking him.

"Tell me which of you dared to betray me and told the Fadian army about my plan?" He said with rage evident in his voice.

" My Lord I do not know please." He begged Benard as he tightened his grip on his neck.

" You do and you are the only people I told about the plan." He then brought out a small knife and slit his throat as he fell to the ground struggling for his life before finally giving in to death as the other Snake soldiers watched. He then went into his tent and summoned Vandrol. Immediately, Vandrol came to him with concern on his face.

"I see that you have killed one of your men out of anger my Lord." He said to him.

" Tell me why I should not have killed him Vandrol, tell me why. One of my men informed the Fadian army about my plan and they countered the plan and made me loose in a shameful manner." He said with pain evident in his voice.

"It is alright sire, another day will come for you to get what you want." He said as he held his shoulder.

" I will find out who has been revealing my plans and I will kill him but for now, we will start assassinations on many important figures in Fadian and it is only between me, you and whoever executes the assassination." He said to him in a low tone.

" Yes my Lord I will keep this as a secret." He said to Benard. Benard then dismissed him and started thinking about his plans to expose the traitor.