Devils' Among Us? (Abridged)

"They’re so unsettling aren’t they."

Naythan looked up from the fire he and his fellow sergeants of the Cloenaid Order were sitting around, towards his companion, Jay'san, who was looking out towards the dryads huddled in their charge.

Naythan turned and peered out into the darkness partially illuminated in the flickering light of their camp fire. The dryads in question were three young women, dark skinned at least compared to Naythan and other humans Naythan had met, beautiful in a strangely alien way, dressed in long white dresses with red trim at the ends. They were all chained together but by far the strangest and most disturbing aspect of them was the peculiar colour of the eyes. They were bright and burning reds, oranges and purples that seemed to give off a feint, near imperceptible light of their own, even in the darkness.

Further to the back other fires from of troops of sergeants around their camp surrounded the trio of dryads. It was often thought best to keep the sorcerers close to the center of any camp where the Brothers of the Cloenaid were near to still them if they made any attempts to escape.

Despite the precautions and the presence of a large body of men and Brothers to keep them from trying anything, Naythan couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what those deceptively beautiful alien creatures were capable of, and quickly turned his gaze to look back towards the fire. "Don't look at them. Who knows what they are capable of doing to us without us even realizing. There's a reason that they are kept in the Tower when we've no use for them after all."

Jay'san tore his eyes away still obviously enamored by the strangeness of the beautiful sorceresses, but fearful at the same time. "Well," he began nervously, "all the same I'm glad we have the use of them for this one. A Necromancer is not something I'd like to face with steel alone."

"I can't say I feel the same way." a gruff voice piped up as another of the soldiers, Naythan pulled his attention to another of their troop, Kay'sar, a longer serving soldier than the rest of them, who rarely spoke. A gruff older man with a short beard whose skin was rough from long periods of time in the wilds. His voice as he spoke was low and deep, a far contrast from the bellows that Naythan new he was capable of in battle. Although baring the same rank as themselves he commanded undisputed respect and authority amongst them for his experience.

"Monsters."

The sudden unexpected word caught the three by surprise. It had been a female voice, soft, but firm in its resolution. Naythan turned with the rest to where the voice had come from, and sure enough, much to his surprise, one of the dryads, the sorceress with red eyes was staring at the group intently. The others with her held her and were clearly trying to hush her, but the girl was not backing down. She stared hard at the sergeants and Naythan couldn't help but be impressed by how this small dryad girl was staring down a band of armed men while chained.

After a moment Kay'sar regained the use of his tongue as the word she spoke sunk in. "What did you say?" he said incredulously. He stood up, tucking the small wire he’d been toying with into his belt seemingly without thinking, and before Naythan or any of the others could reach out and restrain him he had paced across the space between the sergeants camp fire and the dryads they were guarding standing tall above the dryad girl.

He towered over her and though his presence was clearly intimidating to her now, she continued to glare up at him defiantly, and Naythan thought he saw the feint red glow from her eyes intensify ever so slightly. Naythan couldn't help feeling his admiration grow for this girl and he rose from where he sat to stand in case things got out of hand, but didn't yet move closer.

Kay’sar smirked at her defiance, suddenly he grabbed her by the shoulder, Naythan was already moving, the dryad struggled jostling against him, and the other two dryads started crying out in fear and anger. Kay'sar drew back his fist, and punched the girl full in the face just as Naythan's smaller frame slammed into Kay'sar, sending the man stumbling back under the weight, dropping the dryad girl. The other dryads came forward to help the girl, as Naythan sprawled into the ground with the bigger man. Kay'sar began to resist, but Naythan was on top of the bigger man grabbed his lapel, "Stop it you bloody idiot!", and then Naythan punched the man in the face, "snap out of it!"

Kay’sar looked up at him baffled and suspicious, “Your with her in this boy? Are you sure you are yourself right now? You know these creatures are capable of manipulation.”

Naythan himself wasn't completely sure what had caused him to act, but almost immediately a plausible reason occurred to him, "We're here to guard the sorcerers. If in the morning the Brothers find them roughed up then it will be all of our heads on the block." Naythan saw the reasoning of his words sink into Kay'sar's mind. Seeing that Kay'sar was now on the same page, Naythan rose to his feet and brushed the snow off his legs and arms and offered a hand to the bigger man.

Kay'sar's expression softened slightly, though his suspicion remained written in his face and Kay'sar begrudgingly took his hand, "You're a lunatic boy." was all he grumbled as he stood.

"What is all this about then? Someone tried to cast a spell through my barrier." Brother Lor'kan stood at the edge of the firelight, the light of which played on the silvery heraldry, a cloud partially covering a sun, on his blue tunic and on his sword. He took in the situation at a glance. The two men, Naythan and helping Kay'sar from the ground, both their uniforms roughed up from the brief scuffle, the young dryad girl lying, cut and bleeding next to them, being sheltered by the other two. "I will be needing a very good explanation. These witches are valuable property of the Order and are NOT to be harmed." The Brother gave both Naythan and Kay'sar a hard stare. "Now one of you find a suitable explanation before both of you end up strung up to the nearest tree."

Kay'sar froze for a moment, but as he was stammering a thought struck Naythan, "Sir," he interposed and the Lor'kan's hard gaze fell on him, "if I may?" He nodded for Naythan to continue. "Sir," Naythan began "sergeant Kay'sar here was narrating a tale for us involving previous experience with dryad sorcerers and this one," he pointed towards the girl on the ground, "took exception. We thought we saw her stirring up a spell and sergeant Kay'sar stood up and struck her before she might be able to cast."

Lor'kan looked skeptical at this explanation and paused for a long moment looking between the three participants. He gave and especially hard look between Naythan and Fyra. Finally he nodded, "Very well, but be more careful with your charges in the future. You are perfectly safe from their arcane arts when a brother of the Cloenaid is nearby." He turned to walk away, and then stopped as though another thought had occurred to him, "You." he said, pointing at Naythan, "take this one to the surgeon for a quick check up, make sure she's ok. Then the both of you will come to my tent.

Naythan nodded crisply, but felt dejected inside. This was what he got for trying to be helpful he thought, but he simply responded "Yes Brother." He walked over to the young dryad girl's chain staked into the ground, Kay'sar gave him a slight nod as they passed each other. Naythan released the chain so he could take it with him muttering at the girl on the ground, "Come on then."

She stood anger smoldering in her eyes at him as they walked away. After a while of walking he could still feel her boring holes in his back with her glowing red eyes. It was clear she didn't appreciate how she was portrayed in Naythan's narrative of events, but Naythan didn't care.

Naythan sighed as he maneuvered his way past the tents and other camp fires to the camp's surgeon. No good deed goes unpunished it seems.

To be continued in The Soldier and the Slave