Read Online Forgotten Soldiers by Joshua P. Simon - Free Book Online Page A

wanted to slam my fist into his face for not refusing my sister’s request to go to Hol. But I refrained. Ava and I weren’t children anymore, and I had to let her make her own decisions. I needed to respect her decision, regardless of how much it hurt to do so.
    The weight of my conversation with Ava had one positive in that it sobered me up.
    Losing her. Losing half my unit. Winning the war. Winning my freedom. With everything that had happened, I felt as emotionally drained as I did physically fatigued. Even still, I knew sleep wouldn’t come any time soon so I walked around camp again.
    Like a moth to a candle, I drifted toward blazing bonfires off in the distance, careful not to get too close to them. The bonfires were not fueled by wood, but by mounds of flesh. No officer wanted death to linger so close to their army lest all the disease that came with it spread among the survivors.
    I stopped fifty yards upwind from the hellish inferno, near a pile of armor and weapons stripped from the corpses. Men stoked the flames licking at the naked bodies.
    If there had ever been a sight to damage the allure of war, this was it.
    “Gods, you left us for this?”
    I turned at the sound of Hamath’s voice.
    “No. Though it smells better here than downwind of your feet.”
    He laughed. “Talked to Ava, then?”
    I nodded. “She’s moving on to Hol. The High Mages are taking her on as an apprentice. Our successful mission really impressed them.”
    “I’m sorry. Really.”
    “Thanks.”
    We didn’t say much else for some time, watching body after body smolder and burn.
    “Crazy, isn’t it?” I asked.
    “What is?”
    I gestured. “All of this. How many soldiers will be forgotten? One turn of the blade or stab of an arrow separates the living from the dead. They could have been here watching our bodies dumped onto the fire, rather than the other way around.”
    “Well, I’m glad it isn’t like that.”
    “Yeah, me too. Makes me feel guilty for admitting it though.”
    “Every soldier feels that way.”
    “Maybe. It’s just sad that a hundred years from now, no one is likely to remember what they died for. Gods, how many people are likely to forget in ten years? One year? Molak be cursed, less than that?”
    “I won’t forget them. That’s for sure,” said Hamath.
    “Me either.”
    Hamath turned, slapping me in the arm. “All right, enough of this. We’ve got all the time in the world to mourn. Let’s get back to the others and celebrate. We’re going home, and we’ll be treated as heroes. What better way to honor those soldiers who died than enjoying all the accolades for them.”
    I chuckled as we turned and started walking away. “Heroes? You really don’t believe that do you?”
    “Trust me.”

CHAPTER 4
    The next morning I saw Ava off.
    I stood in the middle of camp near the officers’ tents with Ira, Dekar, and Hamath. They had already wished Ava good luck, and said their farewells. Though Ava could be a hard person to get along with at times, I could tell they’d all miss her. Even Ira. You didn’t fight alongside someone for ten years without growing close in some way.
    Ava waited for the transfer portal a step ahead of me, nervously shifting from foot to foot.
    Further away, High Mages guarded prisoners of war, most of which wore the robes of Geneshan sorcerers. The leader of the High Mages, someone’s whose name I couldn’t pronounce, carried the wooden box that held the Geneshan artifact under his arm.
    The Geneshan sorcerers looked nauseous just being in the box’s vicinity. Thinking on my conversation with Balak, it appeared the Geneshans believed the artifact was something to fear.
    Loud, rapid popping filled the air. A blue and white flash of radiance followed. It coalesced into an oval of bright light that hung a few inches above the ground.
    I’ve seen dozens of transfer portals over the years and they never ceased to fill me with a sense of awe.
    According to Ava, portals