Stolen Lives: A LitRPG/GameLit Novel (The Underhill Chronicles Book 1) Keith Ahrens (best e reader for epub txt) 📖

I can’t save…sometimes the damage is just too much. Sometimes a body just gives up the fight. I learned to deal with that a long time ago.

But this is completely different.

My traitorous mind offers a quick slide show of all the people and Fey folk I've killed or maimed in the past few months, and I shake my head side to side as if I to dislodge the images. It doesn't work too well. This is a parade of deaths that I've had a hand in. Deaths I have caused. Reasons and rationales don’t matter. The fact is, I’ve killed living, thinking creatures. I feel like I've lost my sense of identity, and my moral compass is just spinning in circles. Where do I go from here?

I gaze out at the rest of our friends caught in a magic fog that will trap us as well if we try to save them. Jesse is still missing and is as good as dead right now. We're still miles away from the gate, and as far as we know, it's heavily guarded. I can only hope that Nian's Shamans were right because we don't have any other options and no other hope. If there is anything left to feel hopeful about.

Once again, exhaustion must have overcome me. Consolation is in the fact that I wasn't alone this time. I wake to the sound of voices as the muted sunlight still manages to sting my eyes.

“No one woke me for watch! If you assholes fell asleep, I'm gonna kick your asses!” Olivia shouts. “Caleb! Jesse! Front and center!”

I groan as I get to my feet, still stiff and groggy.

“Caleb! Why the hell is Jesse tied to that wagon?!” Des shouts.

“Huh?” is the best reply my sleep muddled mind can come up with. “I dunno; I didn't do it.” Shit, that sounded whiny. What am I, five years old?

I look over and see Jesse fast asleep on his side. There's a leather cord tied around his neck, which leads to the back of the wagon next to the two horses that he and Haynes had ridden yesterday. A piece clicks into place in my brain, and I realize that there never was a third horse… just Jesse changed into one and hidden in plain sight.

“All right, everybody, calm down and stop shouting!" Haynes bellows.

Thorn runs over, cuts Jesse loose, and helps him to his feet.

"Vince, make sure the other horses don't trample anyone. Thorn, is he all right?” Haynes asks as he takes charge right away.

Jesse answers for himself as he stands, albeit a bit unsteady on his feet, “Aye, sir. Me back and head hurt like the devil himself. The last recollection I have was splitting from ye to scout some trails… I've no goodly idea how I came to be here tied up with the horses.”

Nian steps over to Jesse. “I will try to explain. Come, I have a doppelganger corpse to show you. That will help you understand.”

Haynes does a quick headcount before he sends Grayson back to the saddlebags to fetch a round of MREs for breakfast.

“These are the last of them,” Grayson reports.

“Don't worry about that now; by tonight we'll all be having steak and beer in our own world,” Haynes replies.

We all begin to eat while we await Nian and Jesse. A few minutes pass before they return to us. Jesse still seems to be faltering in his steps, leaning forward like he wants to crawl or walk on his hands and feet.

“All right, for those of you who got a good night’s sleep, here's what you missed,” the Sarge begins. For the next fifteen minutes or so, we take turns telling last night's story, starting at the point where Haynes and Jesse were separated while scouting. We now know that’s when the doppelganger had gotten the drop on Jesse. No one had any reason to suspect anything at that point, and who would question an extra horse? I was hoping that we would skip the part where I fought the doppelganger that I thought was Jesse, but Haynes is nothing, if not thorough.

Jesse seems a bit confused at this point. Maybe residual magic from the spell that had transformed him. After all, he'd just spent almost a day as a horse.

I have a hard time looking at him though, knowing what I did. I take solace in the fact that he doesn't seem to get that I beat him to death with a handful of rusty chains. Okay, not him, but what I thought was him. I do notice Olivia and Grayson giving me sidelong glances.

We finish up and answer a few questions. The conversation fizzles out as everyone absorbs all this new information. Thorn goes over to inspect the remains and agrees with Nian's assessment. Definitely a doppelganger.

“Jesse, how you doin' over there?” Olivia asks.

“I am well, Madame. However, I'm afraid this bivouac has been compromised, and we should make all haste to take to the road,” he replies around a long piece of grass he's chewing on.

“That’s good advice. Everyone check your gear and be ready to leave soon,” Haynes says. “Get moving.”

The horses have been grazing since we stopped yesterday, so Jesse and Des lead them to the creek to let them drink their fill. After they’re done, we tighten the saddles and refit the draft team back into their harnesses. We decide to leave the wagon filled with the dead behind. There's no point taking it further, and we've already looted the bodies of anything useful.

We take Sylvia's body out first and let the other horses loose. Without saddles, they are useless to us, so they might as well be free. We take a few minutes to gather enough large stones and rocks from the creek to build a cairn for her body. Everyone pitches in, and the work goes quickly. Haynes says a few brief words, but in truth, none of us knew anything about her, so it’s a bit