The Justicar carefully tore his pancake in two and passed the largest piece to Escalla.
"He gathered about a dozen folk-rangers, Grass Runners… The Grass Runner tribes were gone, the villages dead, so we took the war to Iuz. Killed his couriers. Killed his foragers and his reinforcements. Went deep and far, right into the guts of Iuz lands. There were about a hundred of us all told, different groups, all working together.
"Iuz started to hurt. They pulled troops back from the front lines to deal with us. Set ambushes and began wearing us down. We killed a lot of them, though. Hundreds. We'd break into a camp at night and just butcher them in their sleep-slit a hundred throats and fade away…
"They got frightened of us. They'd only move in huge, marching columns-big squares with varrangoin flying overhead, or tanar'ri or a wyvern. Nothing we could do but watch and follow. Then Recca got wind of an Iuz general who was traveling with only a few zombies as guards. He wanted a general. In all the war so far, no one had ever managed to kill one of Iuz's warlords."
Shifting his sword, Jus shrugged his huge shoulders.
"Didn't work. It was a trap. They had wights shape-shifted to look like infantry. We got cut up. Recca and I covered the retreat, but a tanar'ri got him, killed him while I was caught in a fight. I killed the tanar'ri, buried Recca, and met the survivors. There were only five of us left. They went to join another group. I stayed back and decided to fight on alone."
Sitting crosslegged, Escalla looked carefully at Jus's face and asked, "So what is it? So why is this Recca guy after you?"
"It's not him!" Jus's anger snapped across the island. "It's an animated puppet! A nothing! Just a corpse that moves. It has his brain, uses his skills, but it isn't Recca!" The man flexed his hands and cracked a branch in two to feed the fire. "They did it to the villagers I grew up with-and I cut them down too! I took them out! They aren't the people you knew. It isn't a betrayal!"
Escalla flicked a look at Henry and Enid, who both had the sense to be looking busy. The faerie kept a hand on Jus's shoulder as the ranger finished kicking at the fire and spoke on.
"I was his second-in-command. We were both good-sword-master and apprentice. I did the scout work. He led the raids."
"Yes…" Escalla toyed with her own hair. "And you didn't want to do that last attack, did you? The one that got him killed. It was you that told him not to go."
"It was pointless! All just show of strength. We should have gone north into Iuz where they weren't expecting us. Always attack with surprise. Always hit where they don't expect you." The Justicar was angry. "He dropped his own rules out of pride. They were frightened of him, and he reveled in it! It gave him power, gave him a thrill." Jus rammed a branch into the fire. "He wasn't fighting for anything but vanity."
Enid looked to Escalla, then quietly cleared her throat. "So he just… got beaten in a fight?"
Jus pulled out a few inches of his sword. Benelux now sported a black wolf-skull hilt-a hilt taken from Recca's old blade.
"We-he-challenged a demon. He went for their general but never planned the fight. The demon did to him what he always did to others: got behind him, cut, then moved again. I killed my own enemy, but Recca was down. I took out the tanar'ri. It was too late for Recca. He died."
Escalla sat very, very still. There were black depths here that Jus had left unsaid. "Died how?"
"Died the way he had to! He went down fighting. We attacked to let our surviving people escape." The Justicar slammed his sword back into its sheath. "I cut off his hand and foot to stop anyone from re-animating him, then buried him. I swapped swords with him, so Recca's sword could keep up the work he should have been there to do."
Escalla winced. Enid looked away. Squeezing Jus's shoulder, Escalla softly touched his cheek with the back of her hand.
"Are you all right?"
"Of course I'm all right." Jus's face was stern but pale, and he refused to meet her eye. "I'm fine."
"He's after you."
"Lolth put him after me. She outfitted Tielle to take you, Recca to take me." Carefully easing Escalla down, the Justicar stood and turned away. "We just have to take them out one at a time."
"Can you beat him? I mean…" Henry faltered in embarrassment. "He seems to just… fix himself! And I… I never saw anyone match you with the sword."
"It isn't him. It isn't Recca! He was father and brother and teacher to me!" Jus hurled a stick into the fire. "It's just a cadaver, a tool. It's just a puppet made of rotting meat."
Escalla looked sadly at Jus. "And if it's really Recca?"
There was no answer. Leaving Cinders and the others by the campfire, the Justicar strode away to the dark, private places of the island. Escalla kept her eyes on him, then reached aside to fumble in the box of provisions. She came up with a little bottle on a string, hesitated, then walked after the Justicar.
"Guys? Keep an eye on everything."
Henry looked up from carefully smoothing down the fire. "Where are you going? What's that bottle for?"
"It's just a bottle." Escalla hovered, looking anxiously after Jus. "It's in case I get thirsty. I'll just be a while."
She flew off, and Henry rose to his feet in concern. "It could be dangerous! Should we come with you?"
Enid cleared her throat then helped arrange Cinders upon a rock where he could watch the river for a while.
"Henry? Perhaps we can see if there are any fish in the river. And we can find some willow branches to make you crossbow bolts of a kind."
Henry looked back anxiously as he was led away. "But will they be all right?"
"They'll be fine."
He was taken down to the riverbanks where Enid could stand in the water, flicking big fish onto the banks with her paws. Henry worked, Enid's freckles gleamed, and Cinders watched over every thing with his big teeth bright and bare.
Everything fine.
Sun gleamed on the waters, and Cinders wagged his tail.
The ceaseless rush and surge of the river lay like a blanket across bare skin, kissing little droplets across Escalla's side. She lay naked in the plush velvet moss, soaring in an infinite sense of peace. Half comatose, five foot nine, and tired over every inch of it, Escalla kept her head pillowed in her man's arms and listened to him breathe. Long hair, finer than softest silk, sheeted over her skin and spread like spun gold over the Justicar. She kissed him and felt him smile-felt big hands caress her pointed ears, her antennae-smooth down her slim back to her wings.
They should have done this long ago. The thought was shared in perfect communion as they kissed again, then lay with Escalla held in Jus's arms, watching the river gleaming in the sun.
Adoringly, Jus brushed Escalla's hair away from her face. "I've tried to work up to asking you to marry me for so long."
"I've been trying to be asked for so long." Escalla snuggled, contemplating her follies. "Idiots?"
"Idiots."
Stained green with moss, they rose and sat together. The Justicar fished something out of his purse and held it in his hand.
"But I saved this from the drow treasure. This is what I wanted to give to you."
It was a ring-an elven ring, delicate and beautiful-silver inlaid with jet, and with a diamond as clear as a summer sky. The Justicar put it in Escalla's palm. Suddenly pale, he looked at the ring.
"So I… wanted to ask you. To marry me, I mean. Because I love you. I really do."
Escalla had thought of a thousand ways of answering. They all failed her. She made a squeaking noise and felt herself cry. Her hand shook like a leaf as he slid the ring onto her finger. She threw herself on him in an adoring embrace, rolling on the moss with him beside the foaming river.