Wald and I stood side by side in the entrance of the stable, looking out across the station yard. The mercenaries’ corpses still lay scattered across the compound.
Wald glanced at me. “What should we do with them? Burn them?”
“No. The smoke would tip people off that something’s wrong here.” I knew the prince was asking about the bodies, but I shook my head. “We won’t even bury them. Just leave them there; if we leave the gates open, the monsters in the forest will eat the remains.”
Wald was worried about that. “But then there’d be evidence that they’ve been ravaged by beasts. And if wandering spirits happen upon the bodies, they might possess them.”
“That won’t be a problem for us, at least. We’re leaving before the sun goes down.” Scratching my head, I further clarified my train of thought. “In three days, a patrol of soldiers from the national guard will come by this station. They should be able to dispose of the corpses then. We can’t anyway—I’m not a priest, so I can’t purify the bodies to ward off ghosts. Our only option would be to burn them, but we can’t afford to make any smoke. Thankfully, there don’t seem to be any villages in the surrounding area. We can abandon the bodies.”
“Won’t it be a problem if they find out the people here were killed by someone?” the prince asked.
“This country is at war. That means there’s only one reasonable culprit, don’t you think?”
He nodded silently. “Right. I see now.”
“I also made a mess of the inside of the building to make it look like it’s been ransacked.”
Wald nodded at my explanation.
Since he seemed satisfied, I changed the subject. “I’m going to let the horses out of the stable now. When the patrol comes, they’ll think either that the enemy let them go or that they took the horses with them. If we leave them here, they’ll only be eaten by monsters. It’s better to release them.”
“Okay,” he agreed.
I turned around to look into the stable.
The horses were all huddled in the far corner. They must’ve been frightened by the constant noise outside that had only ended a short while ago. That and the pervasive smell of blood.
Speaking of smells, the stable had an utterly foul stench. The area near the entrance hadn’t been so bad, but the deeper in I went, the worse it got. I doubted the stable had been cleaned very well.
Moving the stall gates aside, I coaxed the horses out.
Did my ability to do this have something to do with how things had worked in Golden Dawn? Curiously, humans in the game could somehow understand what animals were trying to convey even though we couldn’t understand their “words.”
Animals, for their part, seemed to have a greater understanding of human speech than we did of theirs. If someone issued an order to a good-natured animal, they would obediently do as directed.
And that was how, for some reason, I could tell that the horses were trying to tell me to check the furthest corner of the stable. As they exited the structure, they kept turning back to look in that direction.
Under the dim light, a white form began to emerge from the darkness. There, in the gloom of the stable, stood a single mare. She was such a fine horse that I was surprised to see her in the stable of such an outlying station like this.
She was thin and a little dirty overall, but I had the impression that her coat’s original luster had been something else entirely. Her bearing was graceful, and she watched me with an unwavering gaze as I approached.
As I drew closer to her, I noticed her breathing was somewhat strange.
“Is she sick?” I wondered aloud.
The mare only gazed at me as she continued breathing softly.
If we were to set her free without any medical intervention, her body was likely to fail. I doubted she had the strength to flee if she were attacked by monsters.
The horse was calm and composed; when I had approached her, she hadn’t shown any signs of fear. She simply extended her head toward me gracefully. Despite her poor health, she wasn’t showing any signs of discomfort aside from her labored breathing.
The way her gaze had settled on me straight and unwaveringly, as if she could see right through me, somehow reminded me of Prince Wald.
I gave in. “Shit,” I groaned. “I’ll help you, but don’t think I’ll be taking care of you forever.”
I coaxed open the horse’s mouth and force-fed her several different potions. She looked startled for a moment, but then she began to stamp her feet on the spot as if she were testing out her improved condition.
Then, leaving the recovered horse to her own devices, I left the stable.
Wald had evidently gone to open the main gate of the wooden walls surrounding the base. I called out to the horses that were crowding around near the exit.
“Hey, you horses! I’ve got a gift for you all, so drink up and then get outta here!”
Manifesting a wooden rectangular bucket from my storage to use as a trough, I poured a dozen HP potions into it and watered the liquid down with magically conjured water. I added some status recovery potions to the mix as well. The other horses might also be sick.
The horses gathered around the trough in a flash and began guzzling down the water with incredible vigor. They must not have been given adequate water to drink.
Realizing that one trough wasn’t going to be enough, I brought out a second.
“You even have hay in your storage,” remarked Wald as he returned from the gate.
“Oh, yeah,” I said as I placed an armful of rustling plant fiber on the ground. “I kept it for making rope.”
Look at all this tasty hay, guys! It’s all sun-baked, so I bet it tastes amazing. Come ’round, all you horses! Eat up!
I spoke again, addressing Wald. “Once they’re done eating, we’ll lead them away from here. It’ll be safer to let them go in the wastelands where the monsters are less dangerous than to leave them to wander the woods.”
“Right,” said Wald. Then, after a moment, he added, “I’m glad you’re so good at taking care of others.”
I looked at him quizzically.
A small smile came to his lips. “Because you’re taking care of me too.”
That’s because I’m under contract... But I couldn’t bring myself to say something so tactless, especially since that wasn’t the only reason I had chosen to stay by his side.
I reached out and ruffled the prince’s hair. Now that it’d been cut short, it felt so soft and gentle.