The lieutenant led her and her few remaining soldiers through the mocked-up western town. They stayed in the backs of buildings, pressing themselves up against the shadows. Eva moved quietly as she kept an ear out for any sign of an enemy.
Not being able to use her blood sense on the constructs was far more inconvenient than she had thought. It was a skill she should have taught herself
Unfortunately, most of what reached her ears was arguing. Of her own forces. The goblin-lizards were in a fight over who actually dealt the killing blow on the bug-dog-thing.
Eva silenced them with a glare of her glowing red eyes.
Even if they could be useful through learning–and Eva was having strong doubts about that–she would kill them herself if they brought the enemy’s attention to their troupe.
At least the dullahan-bears were quiet. Then again, none of them actually had heads, just the iconic black wisp of smoke pouring out of their necks. They might be quiet out of necessity rather than intelligence.
“This should be safe enough for now,” Eva’s lieutenant said. His two cat ears twitched in the air. “I don’t hear any skittering nearby and my ears are quite good.”
Eva frowned as she looked at the building. Unlike most of the rest of the town, it wasn’t made of wood. A large shadow of the nearby water tower darkened the heavier gray bricks that made up the building. There was no glass set in the window frames. Just bars. “The town jail? Of course it is, what else would it be?”
Glancing at her lieutenant, Eva noted that the vampire-cat just looked confused. He wouldn’t know about her usual residence. Well, he might if Juliana had told the theater-demon.
In fact, thinking about it more, there was no chance that this was a coincidence. The theater-demon planned this. If not this specific outcome, then to have the lieutenant direct Eva to the prison if she asked for a safe place or a base of some sort.
But, nothing to do about it now.
Eva walked in, checking for any sign of traps around the doorway. There was nothing.
Her forces followed her in as soon as Eva moved out of the way. They settled in with plenty of space left over despite the fact that the entire building was smaller than her women’s ward common room.
Regarding her soldiers with a dour expression, Eva felt herself frown once again.
Six goblin-lizards, four dullahan-bears, and three vampire-cats were all that remained of her initial force of about one hundred. And one demon-human, if Eva counted herself. Absolutely zero of the angel-crabs had survived.
“Your orders, ma’am?”
Eva turned to her lieutenant and considered for just a moment before speaking. “What, exactly, is our objective?”
It was more of a question to herself than to her lieutenant.
First and foremost, she needed to get Juliana and escape from the theater-demon.
Not exactly the most achievable task at the moment. She hadn’t even seen the theater-demon since he dropped her off on one side of the old western town. He had disappeared, leaving only the words ‘try to put on a good show and
Her lieutenant opened his mouth and mirrored her thoughts. “To defeat the enemy, of course.”
“Define defeat.”
“To fight until they can’t fight back?” The lieutenant cocked his head to one side. “Are you alright, ma’am?”
Eva nodded. “Which among you would serve as the best scouts?”
Her three vampire-cats all stood slightly straighter than they had been standing. “With our hearing and natural agility, we easily surpass the others.”
Eva nodded again. That was expected, though she had been hoping that the goblin-lizards could camouflage themselves somehow. The vampire-cats was probably for the best anyway as they had shown off a far greater mental ability than the goblins.
Not, however, great enough to avoid three of her initial six from perishing at Genoa’s mages’ hands.
“If I order you to scout, are you going to run off and die? Do I need to teach you how not to die?”
The three glanced at one another before the lieutenant turned back to Eva. “I think we can handle that. What do you need?”
“You two,” Eva said, pointing her long fingers at the non-lieutenants, “go out and scout. You are to keep yourselves alive at all costs. You’re looking for pockets of Arachne’s forces–those are the insect-like creatures–somewhere on the edge of the battlefield. No groups larger than five or six. Return when you’ve found a suitable group.”
Both saluted. Before they could carry out their orders, Eva spoke again.
“And if you find Arachne, return here immediately.”
