Gravedigger

[Tobias]

Toby sat outside the northwest gatehouse looking at his sword. The blood gutter had done the job, its entire length caked in the coagulating red goo that leeched onto the hilt and just licked his claws. It reminded him of candle making. He passed the chandler?s shop on the way to see his mother in the infirmary, and nearly every time the chandler was working. The weasel, he remembered, dipped a length of rope in a cauldron of hot beeswax and immediately plunged it into a cauldron of cold water which cooled it. Darius told him (rather dismissively, he recalled) that the chandler repeated that process hundreds of times, the candle thickening with every iteration.

So it was, Toby thought, with his sword. He had dipped it into the hot, enraged blood of the enemy and immediately exposed it to the cold winter air. By the end of the battle, his war candle was fourteen layers thick.

He liked how the layers darkened as the aged?his weapon looked like a ruby, polished and sparkling at the top but still rough-cut at the base. The king had a ruby and emerald chess set. He?d seen it when Darius brought him to one of the council?s dinners. The first time he saw it, it was sitting under a window such that the dying sunlight showcased the finely polished pieces. King Rolf had caught him looking at it and leaned towards him.

?I?ve never lost with that set. Do you know why?? he asked.

Toby shook his head.

?I always play green,? he answered, ?because the red look wounded already, and my opponent knows it. Your father, for one.? He laughed, and Toby distinctly remembered Darius cutting his woodpigeon a little too harshly after that.

Somebeast shook the architect?s shoulder. ?Ey. You need t?go t?the infirmary, mate?? a voice asked. Toby blinked and looked up at some stoat guard he'd seen around the barracks but had never caught his name.

?Ah?No, no, I?m fine,? he said. The mink remembered what just happened, gradually, as he gazed at his surroundings. ?Do you need any help??

?I?m lookin? fer survivors t?take t?the infirmary. Nobeast has checked the walls.?

Toby stood up and, finding that his legs worked properly, nodded. ?Right. Let?s go.?

The pair scaled the deserted gatehouse stairs?save for one dead water rat at the bottom with its skull split open?and walked along the north rampart. Not many beasts had fought up there, so only half a score of bodies lay on the walkway. They probed the bodies quietly, but most did not need thorough inspection; a glassy eye or open maw was indication enough. To break the solemn silence, he asked the guard's name. It was Romand.

At the end, they found a water rat slowly inching toward the stairs. Toby added a fifteenth layer to his candle.

?Y?should clean that,? Romand said, noticing the bloody blade. ?The blood?ll dry an? make it hell to clean.?

Toby glanced down at his sword. ?It?s not mine. And the owner is dead.? He turned to the field and waved his paw across the emerald field scattered with ruby pawns, knights, and one king. ?Besides, we have a surplus of swords now. I can find a better fit.?

The stoat looked over the field with a slight grimace. ?I wouldn?t do that, mate. ?S bad luck.?

The mink held in a laugh. ?We don?t need much luck now, do we??

?I guess not?? Romand?s gaze swung back to the architect. ?We should keep goin?.?

They entered the northeast gatehouse and found a Kotir guard slumped against the wall. Romand checked it, even though it was clearly dead, as Toby descended the stairs. The guard was not following him when he looked back.

?What are you doing??

Romand plodded down the stairs as a response. ?It was one?f my mates,? he mumbled.

Toby found empathy difficult at the moment, but managed a sorry. And then he didn?t find empathy so hard when he thought of Adrian.

How the hell could he forget Adrian?

Fear pierced Toby. He thanked Vulpuz none of the bodies he found was hers. But then he came to his senses. She was too good a fighter to die.

She?s not dead. She?s not dead.

He couldn?t block the image of her on the grass, arms splayed, a gash on her arm, an arrow in her neck, blood seeping out from a hole her side. He felt sick.

?Actually, I do have to go to the infirmary.? Toby dropped his sword and started walking. He couldn?t run, or he wouldn?t be able to properly see the bodies around him and, Vulpuz willing, strengthen his hopes of Adrian?s survival. But she isn?t dead!

The infirmary wasn?t built for war, Toby noticed, as he found the building packed. He saw nurses rushing between beasts that were hopeless cases, beasts that might survive, and beasts that got off lucky. He passed each. Adrian was not there.

Fear shot down his spine again. His eyes were not on the verge of tears. They were too dry.

He walked over to a nurse assembling a poultice for a beast that might not make it. ?Are these all the wounded?? he asked, his mouth also too dry.

?They took the less serious cases to the dining hall,? she replied without looking at him.

Toby muttered thanks and walked to the dining hall, taking the nearest door into the main castle to avoid the field. His steps were less stiff now. The less serious cases. She?d definitely be in there.

The dining hall was considerably louder than the infirmary. Soldiers groaned and screamed and yelled as barbed arrows were extracted or broken bones were set or gashes were sewn shut.

Toby?s eyes darted frantically between faces marred with pain. Adrian wasn?t there. Toby sat down on the nearest bench. She?s not dead. She?s not dead. She?s not dead!

He would get up and go outside. He would eventually find her body, whether in the place where she fell or where they put the fallen before burial. He would look and not believe. But he would have to.

The architect stood and started his plan. Out the dining hall door. Down the hallway. Out the main doors.

He started looking, but most of the bodies were water rats. He looked around and spotted a corner of the grounds with rows of beasts laid out neatly. Toby walked over to them.

There were four rows. He looked at the first row: no Adrian. Second row: no Adrian. Third row:

?Toby!?

Adrian.

As if in a trance, he slowly turned his head and there she was. Toby forgot how he got there, but he was there, hugging her, fiercely, and his eyes weren?t dry anymore. She smelled like sweat and blood and their chestplates knocked together annoyingly and he felt a shooting pain in his lower chest. All of those things Toby ignored. He also didn?t notice that a minute had passed.

?Toby??

He released but still held on to her shoulders. ?I?m sorry, but that was the greatest moment I?ve had here, and I didn?t want it to end.?

Adrian smiled and started crying too and she pulled him back into their embrace.