The Vastness

by Hausladen, Blake;

  “She smiles too much. Like someone is always whispering jokes in her ear.”

  “No jokes. Screams. She is very close to the Spirit. They all are.”

  “You can’t tell me she wasn’t like that before, all happy and bouncing.”

  “That’s not a reason to dislike someone.”

  I shrugged. “How long do you think this is going to take?”

  “They need to walk the row and see if they can learn the magic names of each animal.”

  “All 5,420 of them? That could take days.”

  Dia staggered then and I caught her. “What’s wrong?”

  They were all stumbling, expect for Fana and Evela who stood as though they were two more empty statues of wood. Lilly collapsed and then Dia, too. I caught her head as she tumbled down. She was mumbling.

  “What do we do?” I shouted.

  “Nothing, this is perfect,” Lilly shrieked and began to thrash.

  I did not see how it could be. They all began to convulse and it went on forever. That sick blue glow crept across their skin and got so hot I could not bear to hold Dia’s hand. Rahan’s guard did not know what to do except get as far away as possible.

  Dia’s threads were all bend down, as if the spirit had hold of them. Each thread began pulse again and again, growing thicker with each beat. Dia’s eyes and ears began to bleed. She went limp, and the rest flopped once or twice like dying fish.

  “We are going to need that tower,” Fana said to a bluecoat. “And some books.”

  “Hey,” I shouted. “What just happened? They are bleeding.”

  “Don’t worry,” Fana said. “It only hurts them a little to learn. This was a fantastic result.”

  I did not like it at all. No god would ever make me bleed or hurt any—

  “Damn it,” I said and knelt down to clean Dia’s face and neck as she started to come to.

  “You are a singer, too?” I asked her.

  “No. I’ve never sung a word. I’ve learned a few, but I’ve no interest in the songs. The spirit can give me all the words she wants. I’m not interested.”

  Fana asked Dia, “Did you catch a few?”

  “I couple,” Dia said, but I knew the number was far more than 5,420.

  Lilly began to stir. Her usual smile was not there. “It wasn’t enough.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “There are more. I can feel it. We are still missing something.”

  “Where will you learn those?” Dia asked.

  None of them had an answer.

  Above us the albatross kept circling. I growled at it and closed my eyes. “Burn you filthy bird.”

  Nothing. Dia had told me to aim, but all I knew was on and off. She took my hand, and I hugged her.

  Something had changed about the bird though, and I had studied it I was sad to learn that I was not the cause of the difference.

  The thread between it and Geart was not pointed the same way.

  “Geart is moving south.”

  74

  King Barok Vesteal

  The Day of our Reunion

  The sun was coming up while Dia supervised Errati’s tussling with my robes and dalmatic. My mind raced with all the details of so many armies moving at once. I envied the map Evand would have tucked in his pocket.

  “This good idea of Evand’s is getting out of hand,” I said to Soma. “Yarik has swung his entire force around to face us.”

  “Emilia will signal if their disposition changes.”

  It was hard to be cross near Soma, but the field was not at all to my liking.

  The pavilion below had been raised by Evand in a wide field of an unfortunate wheat farmer. We each had men go down to inspect it since. At first it had the look of a place for meditation and solitude—a perfect square of white canvas surrounded by a starburst of trampled wheat. Since then, division has arrived one after another until the pavilion looked like an ill-conceived privy in the midst of what was sure to become the largest battlefield in Zoviyan history.

  My forces started opposite Yarik with a single brigade facing a division of Hurdu. I added men to defend a retreat onto the galleys, should I need to, and then more to defend my corps of singers along the beach. The only force I ended up leaving behind was the druids who had no business on such a battlefield and a contingent of soul-irons to keep them and the children safe.

  Evand arrived on my left with every man under his command in one grand move and occupied a hill I’d thought too far on my flank to cover. He had almost as many men as I did and three times what I’d expected. The Hemari 4th made up much of this, and they were sharp-looking indeed.

  Rahan had a hard time moving his men across the river but managed to deploy his divisions south of us as though he hoped to let us fight it out and swoop in to win the day. He had Sermod and priest by the score organized in hostile triangles behind breastworks and a screen of steel pickets. I doubted even the men of Havish would be bold enough to attack such a position.

  “Why did you pick me to be your second?” Soma asked.

  Dia chuckled.

  “Why? Would someone else be a better counter to the gods and priests my brothers will bring?”

  “Oh my. Today is not going to end well,” she said.

  “You’re not the loyal captain you used to be.”

  “I was never that, and at the moment I’m a queen responsible for more civilian refugees than you four idiots have soldiers. You should be my second. And I am only going to tell you more than this once to put away your sword. You’re not even supposed to be wearing one.”

  “It does bunch up the dalmatic,” Dia added.

  I’d not worn the layers since my wedding. The blackened stump hanging from the half sleeve Dia had tailored was jarring, despite her work to conceal it.

  “I could sew a knife in here, if that would make you feel better,” she said. “Which of your brothers do you think you are going to stab first?”

  I gave the sword to Errati before her joking became something else. He was kind and said nothing. I worked to do the same, and when the long blast of a horn signaled that it was time, I kissed Dia without saying anything dramatic or trite.

  “Don’t fart or burp on anything,” she said and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  I hated walking away from her. A pair of Akal-Fell waited for us outside and Soma’s poise in the saddle kept me from gawking at the divisions. Evand rode down with Emilia, and Avinda accompanied Evand.

  “Who is that with Yarik?”

  “I’ve no idea. His handler, perhaps?” Soma said.

  “He is something more—an Urmandish Yentif, perhaps, or someone from the prelature. Any of the Shadow in him?”

  “If I try to mend his soul now and he falls dead out of his horse, the day has only one outcome.”

  “Keep it in mind for later, then. If it was my job to try and kill us all, I’d send a priest to sing a song near Emi and blow us all up.”

  “He would have to be Sikhek himself to get a magic past me today.”

  The eight of us rode down and entered the tent from our respective sides. Four simple tables with straight ball chairs waited around a Yentif blue ring.

  “Nothing hidden in here,” I said and took a look back at the silent divisions lined along the field.

  “Focus. Smile. Make nice. We are here to make peace, not war.”

  I tried, I think. The first obstacle proved to be our robes, which were not made for sitting. Yarik and Rahan struggled with the ridiculous layers as much as I did. Evand was wearing comfortable Hemari blues. He strode to his table and took a seat. What followed for the rest of us was an awkward shuffling as we vacillated between greetings and failed attempts to sit.

  “Sorry for the confusion about attire,” Evand said. “It was never discussed. Perhaps we stand?”

  Rahan swung his heavy outer dalmatic up over his and cast it across his table. Yarik and I happily followed suit.

  Silence lingered.

 
“Your meeting, Evand,” Rahan said.

  “Should we start with what we agree upon?” Evand asked.

  “For instance?”

  “A darkness from the Bunda-Hith has overrun the east. It moves toward us now.”

  Rahan offered a curt nod and the three of us looked to Yarik who glanced at his companion.

  “Nothing will be agreed to here without the full participation and consent of The Exaltier’s Council of Urmand. We are attending as a courtesy to Yarik, who expressed a desire to convince his brothers to surrender.”

  The existence of such an organization was news to us, and I almost laughed out loud. Yarik’s good posture sagged at the embarrassment of being proclaimed irrelevant.

  Evand was undeterred. “Can it at least be said that troubles in the east have been observed?”

  The handler had no comment. Yarik nodded.

  “Can it be agreed—can be observed, perhaps—that at present over five and a quarter million or Zoviya’s fourteen million souls have gathered around Bessradi?”

  All of us looked at Emilia. I was as startled by the numbers as the rest.

  “I can tell you the exact number of men you had breakfast with if that would help.” This she said after the handler scoffed at her.

  “Your numbers sound very high, but I cannot discredit it,” Rahan said.

  The implication was that Emilia knew the exact size and disposition of every body of men not only in Bessradi or the Kaaryon, but across all of Zoviya. I would have loved to have those numbers. Rahan hid his anger at losing Emilia behind a short sniff.

  “Anything else?” he asked Evand.

  “We had the same father.”

  “And I am the oldest,” Rahan shot back.

  “There will be no talk of that,” the handler said.

  “Can you silence him?” Rahan shot at Yarik.

  “You better get to the point of this soon, Evand,” I said.

  “Yes, do,” Yarik said.

  “Always this with you,” I said to Yarik. “Nothing at all to say for yourself, yet always chatting back at everything said. It contributes nothing.”

  “Who are you to talk? Banished to a province of thieves, sucking on bits of silver instead of your thumb.”

  Evand said something which I yelled over, Rahan and Yarik both fired away at me and each other. I caught my skirts on my chair as I stood up and it flipped over. Yarik threw a pair of gloves at me.

  Someone started to cry.

  “Can’t take it, Barok?” Yarik grinned.

  “It’s not me,” I said and I turned with the rest toward Soma. She’d taken off her hat and was brushing away tears.

  “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying.”

  She couldn’t stop, and a terrible sob shook her.

  “Are you alright, madam,” Yarik asked and came around his table as though he was capable of genuine concern.

  “You—you reminded me of my sons, is all. They would fight like this sometimes. They were taken from me, so suddenly. I never got to mourn them. One day they were there, and then they were gone. Ignore an old mother’s tears. Please, everyone, you can sit down.”

  I found tears in my eyes as well.

  “We were taken from our mothers, too,” Evand said.

  “We’ll stop fighting,” I said. “We promise.”

  She laughed happily at that while trying to catch the fat tears she blinked from her eyes. “They would say the same.”

  “How long were their promises good for?” Rahan asked.

  “Never more than a day or two. They’d exhaust themselves doing chores and getting the house or docks organized, but would be right back to squabbling in no time. It’s what brothers do.”

  When I reached out toward her I found the rest gathered close.

  “We’ll make it at least rest of the day,” Yarik said. “Won’t we Barok?”

  We are all crying. I nodded.

  “Oh, boys,” She said and poured tears. “I miss you so dearly.”

  “Mother, I miss you, too,” Evand said.

  And then I was in the mix of a great hug and I could not contain myself either. “I love you.”

  We must have looked like the rain-soaked petals of an idiotic blue tulip. The five of us were head to head, crying and laughing at ourselves. Yarik’s arm was around my shoulder when Soma kissed his cheek and then mine.

  The functionary crossed and yanked on Yarik’s sleeve. “Enough of this.”

  We turned on him and Yarik had a fist headed his way when Soma’s straight jab snapped his nose. Yarik’s punch smashed him to the ground, and Rahan and Evand kicked him in the face and chest until his brief whimpers fell silent. I didn’t get a chance through the press to contribute to his due.

  The four of us were standing over him when Soma asked Emilia, “Did anyone out there notice the commotion?”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head.

  Yarik looked as curious as I was about how she did her magic but there were more pressing matters. I asked him, “What will be their response?”

  “I don’t know that it matters,” he said. “They are going to try to kill you.”

  “We’d suspected as much, what is their plan?” Evand said, and we all looked at Yarik. “Assuming that you would rather be your mother’s son today, like the rest of us.”

  “I ... well. They didn’t tell me. Our cousin here fancies himself a maker of magic. What would have happened if he’d managed a song near Emilia?”

  “A sudden ending for all of us,” Soma said.

  “Do they know what is coming at them from the east?” Evand asked and took hold of Yarik’s arm. “Your Hemari, have their scouts sent in word of the Hessier?”

  “There were reports from Alsonbrey of ravens and caribou, but it’s a mess. I’ve no good idea who is in charge half the time. They are as intent upon killing me as they are the three of you. I’m not sure I’d have survived these last few days if I hadn’t learned those few words. It’s been this way since the academy.”

  “My sympathies,” I said.

  He turned, thinking I was being cruel. My sincerity surprised us both.

  “So, now what?” Rahan asked. “The four of us agreeing to be civil with each other for the first time in our lives does little to change the military equation. The Yentif army is more than half the field.”

  “Remember the day at the council meeting, when you called all the Hemari to rally?” he asked.

  “What of it,” Rahan shot back.

  “It, well, it almost worked didn’t it?”

  “General Sonsol didn’t endear himself with his officers that day,” Yarik said. “I can tell you that much. They retired him before you flooded the city.”

  “It almost worked?” Rahan asked.

  “I’d never been more worried. If you’d have had Evand do it, we’d have been done for.”

  “You are not the same man, brother.”

  “A long time coming, perhaps. Learning that you are a puppet and cutting your strings takes some doing. I’ve Dia to thank for that.” He looked around at Emilia. “They think I’ve killed you with my magic, by the way, so sorry for taking credit for your murder. It kept me alive a little longer.”

  Listening to him talk after all those years of hating him didn’t fit in my head. Rahan was looking at him funny, too.

  “So we need to stand together, but which of us will take command of our three armies?” Rahan asked.

  “That’s a very loaded question,” I said.

  “I am the oldest.”

  “Don’t start that again,” I said.

  He and Yarik spoke over my suggestion that Leger be our general.

  “I was the first to graduate the academy,” Yarik said.

  “Having cheated on the exams,” I shot back.

  Rahan laughed at his both. “Your argument is irrelevant. I am the oldest, and I am your Exaltier.”

  An amount of profanity followed, and I would have punched Yarik in the jaw if I’d ha
d my good right hand.

  “Hey,” Rahan said. “Where is Evand?”

  I looked around, but he was not in the tent. Neither was Emilia or Soma.

  75

  King Evand Grano

  When I met Soma and Emilia on the west side of the pavilion, Emi was the calmest of the three of us atop her gentle mare. Soma and I had made mad dashes around the tent securing my brothers’ horses and it was not an easy thing to get unfamiliar Akal-Tak or coursers to follow.

  “You were right,” Emilia said. “They will never stop fighting unless they are made to.”

  I handed Soma the leads of my stolen horses and asked Emilia, “Are you ready for the ride?”

  “This is the least of what today will ask of us,” Emilia said. “Get moving. Every Hemari on the field is already looking to you.”

  She’d had so little practice in the saddle, but there was no more time for coaching. She started her calm mare away without issue and the line of horses followed Soma’s sure hand. They rode due north toward the wide hills my men occupied.

  Mine was the best position on the field, our flanks guarded by the fast spring currents of the Siln and Bessradi Rivers and the only bridge north across the Siln secured by my noteworthy militias. Barok’s better-looking greencoats were immediately south of me upon the shores of the lake, while Rahan had arrived last and shoved his men across the battered tithe road opposite my hills. Yarik’s divisions filled the eastern horizon from the river to the road and had twice as men man as the rest of us combined. Hemari and greencoats made of the forward elements of each force—eight full divisions facing each other around the pavilion. It could not stand.

  I kept Emilia’s encouragement in mind and galloped west toward Barok’s army, holding aloft a silver green pennant. I approached the soul-irons that stood forward of the compact formations of archer and horse. Barok and Evand began yelling at me from the pavilion, but I was quickly out of earshot.

  Leger and another ghost general upon ashen horses rode forward while the rest of the field looked on. No movement yet, but I needed to move fast.