Garyung started cursing a blue streak - or at least, that’s probably what Kaldalis would have called it before spending time with Heluna - and stomping towards Cotanaku. As much as Kaldalis wanted to let him take point and follow his lead, it wasn’t the right decision at the moment.

“Hold off,” Kaldalis said, running around to stand in Garyung’s path. “We need a proper plan here.”

“The plan is I’m going to go in there and beat the tar out of him,” Garyung snarled. “That constitution has been my whole life since we got back to the islands. It’s written in my blood and laminated with my sweat. You want me to wait here while he wipes his ass with it?”

“Okay, I was going to be polite about this,” Kaldalis said firmly, putting a hand on Garyung’s chest and physically pushing him back. It was depressingly easy to gain ground against Garyung, even though the Bhogad was much higher level. “But you’re in no shape to fight. You’ve been mostly dead all day, and you haven’t recovered all your Clout. As soon as someone puts up any resistance, you’re going down.”

“What do you want me to do, then?” Garyung snapped. “Because I’m not going to just stand here and watch my work get erased.”

Kaldalis didn’t exactly have a lot of time to plan. In addition to the threat of whatever the Contender was doing, Garyung wasn’t going to be mollified easily.

“Are your people here?” Kaldalis asked, turning towards Brother Gnider. “What happened?”

“The Contender returned,” Brother Gnider said. He made a gesture and a handful of guards in the green-and-gold armor of the church emerged from the jungle behind him. “Having personally declared him a rogue agent, my choices were to face whatever justice he wanted to mete out, or flee.”

“He couldn’t have me executed on sight because of the constitution, though,” Kaldalis pointed out. “What was he going to do to you?”

“My crimes would have been against the church, not Cotanaku,” he said with a wan smile. “He could have had me struck dead on the spot and said that if the Glorious One wished mercy for me, I would have had it.”

“Are you not a believer, then?” Balrim cut in, peering at the priest with curiosity. “Aren’t you supposed to think that your god would save you?”

“I believe that the Glorious One saved me when He guided me and my men out of Cotanaku before the Contender caught me,” Brother Gnider said, offering Balrim a smirk. “I believe that it is my duty as a priest to spare Him the trouble of a miracle when He offers me the opportunity.”

Kaldalis could hear the capital letters every time he used pronouns.

“Watch out for Garyung,” Kaldalis said firmly, pushing them back on topic. “I need him alive and ready to move in and take leadership back when I’m done beating the tar out of the Contender.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” Brother Gnider asked.

“Not with my bare hands,” Kaldalis said. He took a moment to change his weapon, swapping the War Weapon sword and shield over to the War Weapon spear, drawing it out and giving it a flourish. “Balrim and Myrin will have my back. Hopefully I can persuade him to give the town back before it goes too far.”

“We’ll move closer to the town behind you,” Brother Gnider said, though he was glancing sidelong at Garyung as he said it. “As soon as the way is cleared, we’ll move in under guard. You’ll want Garyung near at hand when the fight ends.”

“Thanks,” Kaldalis said. “I’ll leave that to you.”

“I don’t like this,” Garyung grumbled. “I feel like I’m on an escort quest while everyone else has all the fun.”

“Look at it this way,” Myrin chirped cheerfully, “you might be on an escort quest, but you’re the escort this time! See if you can go faster than their walk speed but slower than their run speed. You know, as payback.”

Despite his obvious chagrin, Garyung couldn’t stifle a chuckle at that.

“Soonest begun, soonest done,” Kaldalis said, gesturing for Balrim and Myrin to follow as he headed towards the town. “And we’ve wasted enough time.”

Kaldalis hoped that they could get this handled quickly. He feared that Garyung might not wait for long before stepping in, and once he was on the field that was another angle of attack for the Contender. Not only were the Contender’s forces against him, but Garyung’s impatience might be the greater foe.

Emerging from the treeline and into the clearing between the jungle and the town gate was a sobering moment. It forced Kaldalis to re-evaluate the strength of his foes.

There was an army waiting for him.

Cotanaku town guards were assembled in a dense formation outside the gate. From their numbers, Kaldalis guessed it was about half of the town’s entire defense force. His first assumption was that the other half was at the beachside gate, but the Contender had to be smarter than that. This was the most obvious direction of approach, and so the beachside gate likely had fewer guards.

The watchtowers around the walls had to be manned as well. Kaldalis had entered by jumping the walls before, and there was no way the Contender would let him slip in that way without an alarm being raised.

“So what’s the attack plan?” Myrin asked.

“I’ll take the thirty on the left?” Balrim offered. “I’m sure between you and Myrin, the other forty shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Wait here,” Kaldalis said, “but be ready. I have a plan.”

“And what do you think is your chance of success here?” Balrim asked.

“I’d say thirty-two point three-three percent,” Myrin said with a smirk.

“Can you not?” Balrim snapped. “Can we get through one day without you doing one of those?”

“Trust me,” Kaldalis said, hoping that he could project as much confidence when he addressed the army as he was able to feign now. “I have this under control.”

Approaching the head of the army, Kaldalis was grateful that they didn’t break ranks and charge. Outnumbered as he was, it wouldn’t end well for him. The best he could do if it came to combat would be to use Jump to get around them. But even if he got into town, if there was an alarm raised and every guard hunting for him, his odds of fighting the Contender weren’t going to be good.

“We don’t have to do this.”

Kaldalis stopped. That was what he was going to say. But the voice had come from somewhere in the middle of the mob of fighters ahead of him. Following the sound of the voice, Kaldalis locked eyes with a face he recognized.

“Carington,” Kaldalis said. It was the gate guard that had indirectly told him what had happened to Garyung. “Good to see you again, though I wish it was under better circumstances.”

Her purple cheeks flushed a little at the recognition. She probably hadn’t expected him to remember her at all, let alone recall her name.

“You’re right,” he said, casting his gaze over the guards. “This doesn’t have to escalate any farther. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt any of you. We’re on the same side here.”

“We’re here to protect Cotanaku from invaders,” one of the other guards said, though his tone was weak and uncertain.

“And I’m not here to invade,” Kaldalis said loudly and clearly. “I have a score to settle with the man unjustly squatting at the head of the table.”

“I’d rather lose my job today than have lost my life yesterday,” Carington said, though a quaver in her voice made it clear that it was, perhaps, not entirely true.

“You’re our hero,” someone else said from nearby, much louder and firmer. “Whose butt is in the chair doesn’t change that.”

Voices of assent came at that. It seemed like all of Kaldalis’s work was paying off. The guards liked him. What was more important was that they trusted him. He didn’t think he could get them to rise up in revolt and take out the Contender for him, but he could get them to do what he needed most right now.

“Stand aside,” Kaldalis said. He gestured for Balrim and Myrin to catch up. “Once my business with the Contender is complete, we can get things back to normal around here.”

The crowd parted, and Kaldalis felt a thrill of victory unlike any he’d had before.

Fights he’d won in the past had been won because he was competent and capable. They were even fights, or else were skewed in his favor. At the very least, they were fights that he could win - because he did.

This was different, though.

This was a fight he would have lost handily.

Even if he’d approached with all the intent in the world to murder his way through everyone who stood between him and the contender, someone in this crowd was going to take the shot that took him down.

He would have been overwhelmed by raw numbers, and either killed or captured. Garyung would have come up behind him and been recaptured as well. Brother Gnider would have been executed, and then who could say what would happen to Reno, Ess, and Courbois when they returned with Dalgard, Martok, and the others.

But his heroism carried him through this fight. As surely as if he’d fought them seventy-to-one to a flawless victory, he was walking through their blockade without a scratch on him.

It was, in a word, intoxicating.

“We do this as cleanly as we can,” Kaldalis said when Balrim and Myrin caught up. “The last thing I want is to make a spectacle out of this. I started this day a hero, and that reputation just got us through an impossible fight. I’d like to end the day with the same reputation I started with.”

“How hard can it be?” Balrim grumbled. “We’re only trying to depose a religious fanatic who imprisons people and takes power by force. Historically, that always goes down without a fuss or fanfare, right?”