Milos stepped forward and addressed the colonel. “In that case, we shall also stay behind to protect you, sir.”
“You’ll die if you stay with me.”
“None of us shall die. We will board the last ship with you, sir.”
Having made up their minds to remain behind, the soldiers formed ranks, and the colonel went down the line, shaking the hand of each man and clapping him on the shoulder. All the men looked thin and feeble, like beasts with tattered fur, but their eyes shone brightly above strange smiles.
They had to fight. So the Slavic people would not be forgotten.
Milos and the other soldiers checked their equipment and gripped their rifles tight.
Everyone would board the ships. They wouldn’t lose a single man.
Their final stand a success, Milos and the other guards eventually boarded a boat. Accompanied by Colonel Dimitrijević, of course.
Milos lay down in the hold of the ship, curled up into a ball, and immediately fell fast asleep. His fellow soldiers similarly threw themselves to the floor, collapsing into a sleep so deep that it seemed unlikely they would ever open their eyes again.
In his dreams, Milos saw visions from his childhood. He saw his days of running through sun-drenched mountains, though he couldn’t tell if he was a human or an animal. His foster father lifted him up high in the sky, smiling at him and saying, “Grow up to be big and strong, Milos. Become a man who will traverse mountains, cross valleys, and ford rivers. Everything in nature is your domain. Never give in. Protect your honor with your life.”
France protected Corfu while Serbia’s exiled government and army slowly regained their strength.
Milos, who knew little of the world outside Serbia, took in the warmth and abundance of this land on the Mediterranean Sea.
As the season changed, a refreshing, sweet scent began to fill the fields and farms.
The island’s residents told him it was the smell of orange flowers.
They gave off a pleasing fragrance that evoked the sweet tanginess of the fruit.
The groves of olive trees surprised him, too, with small, cream-colored flowers in full bloom.
His body and heart began to soften and relax.
But it was just a moment of peace before the next battle.
As France and Great Britain defended Serbia, they continued to send troops to support the Macedonian front.
The Allies couldn’t let the Central powers seize any more of the Balkan Peninsula and planned to break through their line at Greece. The refreshed Serbian Army joined them there, with their exiled government moving to Salonika.
Another battle broke out. The role of the Serbian Army was limited to fighting smaller skirmishes, but Milos and the other soldiers felt their progress shaping the path that would help decide the fate of the Great War.
Colonel Dimitrijević joined general headquarters to assist in commanding the battle. He would admit anyone to his private quarters who could provide him with vital information, regardless of rank, so Milos would visit him from time to time.
He never stopped treating everyone with generosity and fairness.
Milos often saw the shadow of his adoptive father in the colonel and always served him with the greatest respect.
It was the middle of December 1916 when Jörg fought Nil’s familiars in Rotterdam and was taken away somewhere.
At the same time, Milos was fighting on the Macedonian front. One day, the commanders there suddenly began receiving orders that they were being removed from their posts.
It wasn’t just the generals who were discharged, either. Rumors circulated that lower-ranked officers and people who had been working with the Serbian Army were also being arrested and imprisoned. Some had apparently even been exiled to the French colonies in northern Africa and sent to the prisons for commissioned officers in Salonika.
No one knew what was happening. Nothing about the situation made sense.
Yes, the Macedonian front was locked in a stalemate, but it wasn’t because the Allied powers and the Serbian Army were pushed back by the enemy Bulgarian troops. The strength of the Allied armies grew by the day, and there were whispers around the camp that the next attack might break through the line. All this is to say that they weren’t replacing incompetent officers, but gradually removing exceptional officers whose absence would prove problematic.
A few days later, the distressed soldiers received even more shocking news.
The exiled Serbian government had arrested Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, who had been commanding the battle from general headquarters. Moreover, he had been charged with high treason and masterminding the assassination of King Alexander of Serbia.
Milos visited his commanding officer and asked to be allowed to investigate the matter, which was swiftly approved. Milos had been using his powers as a werewolf to do the jobs that humans couldn’t, making him perfect for a situation like this.
After leaving the front lines, he first checked on the men who’d been arrested and was shocked to find that everyone had some connection to Colonel Dimitrijević.
Everything immediately clicked into place for Milos.
The arrested men were victims of a power struggle that had been building within the government for years, with the crown and the establishment on one side and the supporters of the movement for Greater Serbia on the other. The sweeping moves enacted by the ruling parties hinted at ceasefire negotiations going on between Austria and the Allies.
Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I passed away in late November, so these negotiations were an act of his successor, the more moderate Charles I. Uncomfortable at the length of the war, he must have entered into secret peace talks with the Allies behind Germany’s back. If so, then Serbia’s revival was drawing near. The established faction’s greatest obstacles to rebuilding the country were the people of the Great Serbia movement who had assassinated Austria’s archduke and triggered the Great War in the first place. The members of the exiled government must be planning to settle Serbia’s debts at Salonika before returning home in triumph.
As Milos found evidence to corroborate his theory, preparations for the trial of the arrested men proceeded steadily. The establishment didn’t show even the slightest inclination to pardon Colonel Dimitrijević and other officers. Of those who had been arrested, the exiled government planned to execute the men who had played key roles in the plot—six officers and one activist in total. To that end, they had begun assembling people who would provide false testimony.
The more he investigated the matter, the more Milos realized just how bad the situation was for the colonel’s group. Had only Colonel Dimitrijević been arrrested, the officers on the outside could revolt against the exiled government and perhaps even pull off a coup d’état, thereby freeing the colonel. However, the exiled government had preempted that possibility, arresting any officer they feared might be capable of such an act and throwing them in prison with the colonel. The mass movement and arrest of commanders in December was a tactic to prevent insurrection before it happened.