Delver Magic: Book 06 - Pure Choice (11 page)

"We all put ourselves in
danger. It's part of what we do... part of life. You don't think your soldiers
realize they face danger every time they step outside?"

Sy was not deterred.

"Not
unnecessary
danger. You can try to paint in any way you want, but that's
inexcusable!"

Ryson realized his attempt at
diplomacy was not going to be effective. There was too much hostility. He felt
it himself; a swelling dissatisfaction that he believed came from Sy's lack of
appreciation for the delver's service... and beliefs.

"Why don't you come out and
say what you mean?"

"Fine. Your unwillingness to
utilize appropriate force with the river rogues hindered us tonight. It wasn't
just the rogues that got through some broken drainage gate; a goblin raid broke
through our defenses. That's totally unacceptable. Things spiraled out of control
tonight, I'll take ownership of that. My soldiers were distracted because I
didn't prepare them properly, but that doesn't change the issue I have with
you. You cannot dictate to me how I protect this town, especially when it puts
people in danger. Rogues came into this town to kill us. We have every right to
protect ourselves."

"I'm not trying to dictate
what
you
do. I only told you what
I
was willing to do. You asked for my
help. I wasn't going to help you find the rogues so you could kill them. If you
wanted to shoot them down, you should have gone after them yourself."

"And that's exactly what I'm
talking about. You're putting your own preferences ahead of the safety of this
town."

Ryson felt the charge was not only
unfair, but completely ludicrous.

"The safety of the town? I've
saved this town more times than I can count. If I'm not mistaken, I saved it
again tonight."

"You keep trying to change
the subject. This is about your decision regarding the rogues!"

"And that's just a matter of
opinion. You see it one way. I see it another. I said it before, I'm not a
soldier in your guard. I don't have to follow your orders."

"You may not be an official
soldier, but we pay you to work as a scout."

"Pay? This is about money?
Unbelievable. Go try to hire another delver to do everything I do for what you
pay me. Good luck."

"No, this is not about
money!" Sy responded with growing impatience. "Whether you are paid
or not is irrelevant. You're a member of this town. Everyone else does what is
expected of them. Civilians follow orders, just like the soldiers... everyone
but you!"

The delver quickly became as
equally annoyed as the captain. He did not appreciate Sy's tone or his claims.

"And that's what this is
really about, isn't it?" Ryson shot back. "You have everyone under
your control, but not me. You tell people what to do and they all just jump
right to it, but not me. That's what's really bothering you. Isn't it?"

Clenching his teeth in mounting
resentment, Sy found the accusation totally unjustified. He was not some
dictator that issued edicts at a whim. He was willing to give his life to
protect the people of Burbon. If it was simply control he was after, he could
have clapped the delver in irons and let him sit in the stockade for several
days. Rather than make that threat, he pointed out a very clear truth as to the
consequences of several mistakes made on that evening.

"What's bothering me is that
people died tonight!"

Shocked, Ryson's own emotions
bubbled over.

"They didn't die because I
wouldn't let you kill the rogues!"

"How do I know that? My
soldiers were watching you streak across town with your sword like a blasted
comet!"

"You're the one that told me
to use the sword as a signal."

"Because you wouldn't let me
use archers to take the monsters out as quickly as possible!"

"You're not making any sense!
You asked me to find them and I did. I still would have had to signal for your
troops... even if I let them shoot the rogues. I would have been a distraction
either way!"

"But it would have been quicker!
You added to the distraction by forcing us to use nets, and you put more
soldiers at risk than necessary. I heard about the corporal!"

"Don't even think about
hanging that on me! What happened to him was his own blasted fault!"

"Like I said before, I'll
take responsibility for the failings of my soldiers, but that's still not the
issue!" The captain paused, caught his passions.

Despite Klusac's presence, the
conversation had eclipsed combative. It was becoming an angry shouting match.
Sy didn't want that. He wasn't trying to rebuke a soldier, he was hoping to get
a trusted friend to realize just how dangerous certain decisions had become.
They lived in difficult times that required hard decisions and harder actions.
None of them had the luxury of making every choice that would fit their
particular preferences, and the captain tried to refocus on the true matter of
contention.

After taking a heavy breath, he
pointed to the war blades that Ryson wore at his hips. "I gave you those
blades when you lost your sword. You took them because you knew that sometimes
weapons are necessary. I don't give orders because I like to tell people what
to do. I do it because they trust me to keep this town safe. I do it because
it's necessary. We
have
to defend
ourselves."

Ryson looked down at the blades at
his sides as he also tried to find a calmer tone. He understood what Sy was
stating, but he had his own perspective on the matter.

"You're right. I still wear
these blades... just in case. They're not enchanted. There's very little I can
do with them... other than kill."

Ryson took his own heavy breath
and then explained how he saw the truth. "Not so long ago, they were taken
away from me by a bunch of separatist dwarves that wanted to kill me. I could
have left them behind after that, never picked them up again. I had the excuse,
but you know what? I retrieved them. I retrieved them because I understand
exactly what you're saying."

"Do you? Because I'd like to
see you use those blades once in a while."

"That's exactly my point; I
did use them once, once when there was no other choice. I killed shags by the
hundreds... actually, probably more like the thousands. Sometimes it keeps me
up at night when I think of how many lives I ended in the desert sand."

"You killed shags during a
battle. They're just monsters and they were there to kill you."

"They were monsters to me. To
them, maybe I'm the monster. But yes, they were there to kill me, and also to
kill innocent algors. As hollow as it sometimes sounds, I justify what I did by
saying that to myself over and over again... that if I didn't kill them they
would have killed me... they would have killed me and I don't know how many
innocent algors. I killed because I really didn't have a choice. That's my line
in the sand... when there's no other choice."

"I have to make choices,
too," Sy noted. "Some of us can't draw a line in the sand because
other people are depending on us to make the hard choices. Some of us can't
afford to take the easy way out."

The delver stared into the captain's
face with pure disbelief. It felt as if he had been stabbed, and his emotions
began to erupt once more. The calm tone left his voice as the accusation sliced
into Ryson's core.

"The easy way out?! You're
kidding right?"

"No, I'm not. I'm telling you
how it is."

"You think it's easy? Easy
would have been to do exactly what you wanted me to do! I could have simply
allowed you to make the decision for me. Easy would have been for me to find
the blasted rogues, point to them, let your guards shoot them down, and then
just forget it ever happened."

Ryson almost shook with fury. He
could barely stand still. He looked from the captain to the sergeant and then
back again. He saw defiance in both their expressions, a total unwillingness to
accept the delver's viewpoint.

"Easy?" Ryson
questioned. "You think it's easy to try and do what's right? You think
it's easy to live with making that kind of decision day after day? Let me tell
you about a hard choice. You're going to let three rogues loose down river because
I told you to. I have to live with that! They still have to eat. They have to
kill something. You think that's easy to wipe out of my mind?"

"Hey, if you're upset over
this, it's your own fault!"

"My fault?! You really are
narrow-minded. I didn't bring the blasted rogues to this world. All I'm trying
to do is set a standard for myself. None of it makes any sense to me."

Just like Ryson, Sy's emotions
bubbled to the surface once more and his frustrated tone returned.

"Sense? You're trying to find
sense in all of this? Good luck! You keep looking at these monsters as some
kind of innocent bystanders, like maybe a herd of deer in the forest. I see
them for what they are... a dangerous threat, total insanity that decided to
enter our lives. There's no sense to it. This is about doing our duty, doing
what's best for the town, not about trying to make sense of it all."

"That's one of the stupidest
things I've ever heard you say! Your duty better make sense. If it doesn't, you
should step down right now. And don't start giving me that 'best for the town'
nonsense. Maybe it would be best for the town if I just went out and killed
every small time thief out there. Put the fear of Godson in them. Hey, if I
should kill a river rogue, why not a human thief?"

And with that, all attempts at
civility dissolved.

"And that's the stupidest
thing I've ever heard
you
say,"
Sy countered. "There's no comparison!"

"There's not? Maybe not to
you, but there is to me. If I start killing indiscriminately, then why stop at
river rogues? I might as well just start killing anything that starts annoying
me."

"That's also idiotic!"
Sy replied. "How can you possibly say that? You think that fighting off
rogues—killing them when it's necessary, when they invade our town—is the same
as indiscriminate killing?"

"I thought we were talking
about choices, the choices we have to make in life. I have to make a choice
about where I draw the line. That's what I'm talking about. And if you'd think
clearly for a minute, you'd understand. How many times have you told me people
have to live with the choices they make? We can't save everyone, especially
from themselves... I've heard that from you as well. But at the same time you
expect them all to follow orders. That's rather inconsistent."

"I don't see it that way.
People have to be held accountable for their actions."

"Accountable? How can they be
held accountable if they're just following orders, doing what you tell them to
do?"

Sy suddenly felt the need to
defend himself. The issue had changed from Ryson's unwillingness to compromise
to whether or not Sy was acting as some kind of tyrant.

"We need order here!"

"So which is it? Order or
freedom to choose?"

"You can have both!" the
captain declared, fiercely defending both his honor and his methods. "I don't
interfere with people's lives. Every order I give is based on keeping this town
safe. That's what I'm charged with, that's what the people of this town want me
to do! You want to question my orders? Fine. I'm not happy about it, but I can
take questions, I can even take criticism. What I cannot take, what I
will not
accept, is you putting your
personal preferences over the safety of my soldiers and this town. That stops
now!"

Ryson felt as if he was just given
an order he could not, would not, follow.

"Or what?" the delver
demanded, unwilling to simply accept Sy's declaration as the final word.

Sy understood Ryson's question all
too well. The guard captain was placed in a situation where he had to exercise
his authority. It was not a position he savored, but it was a duty he would not
shirk. With one deliberate decision, he put an end to the argument.

"I'm not giving you an
ultimatum, if that's what you think, because it's not up to you. I've had my
say and you've had yours. Hopefully, you'll understand my next decision. What
you said is true, you have saved this town many times over, and for that, I am
eternally grateful. Still, I don't believe I can rely on you as I have in the
past. In my judgment, your actions contributed to the breakdown of our defenses
tonight. Whether you want to believe it or not is irrelevant. In the future, I
will not be calling for your assistance."

The finality of Sy's tone caught
the delver completely off guard.

"Just like that?" Ryson
asked in disbelief.

"No, unfortunately, it's not
that easy. I have a great deal of work to do. I have to retrain my guards, have
to break my own reliance on you, but I don't have a choice. Your official
service to Burbon is at an end."

A thousand questions burned
through the delver's mind. He wondered exactly what that meant and how Sy would
treat him from that moment on. He had grown accustomed to working with the town
guard, in being part of Burbon's defense. Did Sy take all of that away because
of one disagreement? It certainly seemed that way. He wondered what he would
do, how he would feel about being excluded, about not being allowed to help,
something that was part of his very nature.

He was a delver, a scout, and he
used his abilities to track threats, defend against invaders, and unravel mysteries.
One such mystery faced them that very evening, and he could not remove his
focus from it once it reentered his thoughts.

"And what are you going to do
about the elves?" the delver demanded.

"That's not your
concern," Sy stated, holding to the very core of his decision,
disregarding the assistance he knew the delver could offer. It didn't matter.
If he was going to move forward without Ryson's aid, he would have to start
that very evening.