Finding The Army

Finding The Army is the twenty-second chapter of Tales of Sheol'gotha:  Shadow of the Abaddon.

Synopsis
The light of the new day sees soldiers being herded up by angry superiors, beat for their disobedience, and corralled into formations by the eastern gatehouse. Valon emerges from the keep with Imma at his side, leaving Palus with Calliste and focusing his search on Haebin. The first he encounters is Maire who makes good use of her sober soldiers in finding the drunk, hungover warriors and dragging them back to duty. She laments had absence in the battle with Surtur, even going as far as to imply that she would enjoy being subjected to similar treatment by an incubus such as Valon, but when she catches Imma's reaction quickly withdraws from the idea.

Valon does not give Imma time to vent her anger over the gita mistress' forwardness as Valon sends her off to find Schurr who supposedly left the tavern around the same time Haebin did, and while she goes to find him Valon enters the tavern looking for anyone else. In the cellars he finds Asus asleep in a barrel, and upon bringing the siegemaster upstairs finds Soltas and Ysir freshly arrived from upstairs. Asus is woken after being thrown at Soltas and is very angry at his treatment, stating he was hiding in the barrels because of how loud Soltas and Ysir were during sex.

The innkeeper is more useful in Valon's hunt for Haebin, directing the prince to the gatehouse, stating that he heard Haebin mention watching for new arrivals. Valon leaves with the three commanders, but as Soltas and Asus end up at one another's throat again he threatens them with blinding and cutting out their tongues if they don't behave. They cease promptly and they arrive at the eastern gatehouse with no sign of Haebin whatsoever. Imma arrives with Schurr who had been lazily striking a wall, and lashing out at anyone who was nearby, and Valon sends Soltas and Ysir into the guardhouse to look for the missing vampire. He begins to reconcile with Imma, but horns from the walls draw his attention as Soltas alerts them to riders coming from Nazrin.

Maire is there soon after and Valon prepares to greet the arrivals, finding approximately a dozen shifters arriving. They are revealed to be his half-siblings, all De-jin children, led by Kaltrin. He is amicable and surprised to see Valon, explaining that he and his siblings patrol a route, and are shocked to hear of the death of Shozir at Valon's hands. Kaltrin prepares to leave when a voice demands he stays, and Haebin makes his presence known as he emerges from a building and accuses the shifters of having something in their packs that needs to be unpacked and shown to all. Initially reluctant, Valon agrees with the demand, but the shifters use the chaos of the gita stampeding to escape, running from the town in their feral forms.

Ysir manages to get several arrows into them and brings one of the brothers down, and Valon and Soltas are quickly to catch up to the lone shifter along with Maire's cavalry. They find Wiq'tin, the youngest of the litter, and drag him back to Flagstone by his legs. Valon states that all twelve were from the same birth, to which Soltas corrects him by saying that thirteen were present, however Valon warns that there won't be thirteen much longer.

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