Victims of War

Concordia, Eleven Hundred Years Before

“Well, they definitely know that we’re here somewhere, as they’re now looking for us,” Thaelen observed dryly as he watched as two scouts fought against the hold of his men, frantically seeking freedom as they were stripped of clothing. Their screams and pleas were muffled behind the gags that were tied so tightly around their heads that their lips were pulled back and their cheeks indented.

The gags, and the tightness in which they were tied, were necessary. The shrieks of previous captives had almost led to Thaelen’s capture when they had drawn the attention of a group of traitor vampires searching the trees for Thaelen’s force.

Thaelen kept his face controlled as the men were impaled and the stakes hoisted and set into the holes in the ground. It was a terrible way to die and was intended to be. Every day that the human force found new bodies in the forest killed in increasingly horrendous ways, the more soldiers deserted, fleeing back towards