Ascendant

by Florian Armas

  In the evening, they finally counted the dead both from the flood and the attack: six hundred and thirty-two soldiers. When the camp was settled, Pierre went to the channel which was draining the water from the plain. Verenius and a few soldiers from Tolosa followed him. Walking through the shallow water, he arrived at the entry point in the channel. His hand slipped on the stones.

  “Just what I thought,” Pierre said. “There is almost no vegetation growth on the last three feet. The floor of the channel was raised recently. I should have checked it earlier.”

  “Only three feet,” Verenius said. “It was raised enough to flood the plain, but not enough to attract our attention. It still looks like a deep channel.”

  “Something like that.”

  Mercifully, the storm blew over in the night, leaving only a steady drizzle in the grey overcast early morning.

  The siege trailed for the next month and half; Pierre army did not try to assault the walls while Codrin vanished in the forests around Poenari. There were skirmishes from time to time but, over the years, the siege of Poenari became known as the Sleepy Siege.

  “Blast this siege,” Pierre growled. “I will not stay a day longer. Send an embassy to Codrin. I want to meet him before we leave.”

  “I forbid it,” Bucur snapped. “We have to take Poenari.”

  “Be welcome to forbid whatever you want, but you will not command me.” We have food left for only ten days.

  “I am the Candidate King.”

  “Then take Poenari and win your crown,” Pierre said and turned abruptly.

  Behind him, Verenius gestured to Bucur to calm down, and followed the angry commander. Bucur had the finesse of a blunt spade, Verenius thought. It’s quite strange, because he is an intelligent political player. War is getting the worst in him. “Pierre,” he said, his voice calm. “Would you agree for a talk? There must be some facts behind your decision, but I am not a military man.”

  “We can’t take this fortress by force. That was clear from the beginning, and I did not hide it from you. We need ten thousand soldiers and the right attack equipment to mount a successful assault on those walls. Once we failed to burn the gate, there was no way to enter by force. My plan was to starve Poenari, and make it fall before winter comes. We lost most of our food and almost half of our soldiers. In a few days, we will start to eat our horses. Here, the second half of summer is rainy. In one month, we were able to deepen only half of the three-hundred-foot long channel which collects the water from the plain. With each rain we have to move on the hillocks because of the flood. You know that the floor of the channel was raised recently with three feet of stonework. Everything around us was prepared for siege, even the ravine’s stream. Why were you not able to find this before we came here?”

  “We tried, but all the spies we sent were captured.”

  “I can fight men; I can’t fight water. We should have stuck to the initial plan and take Deva. I know Deva, and I’ve guaranteed you that we would have taken in a month.”

  “I may agree with you, but that will solve nothing.”

  “This happens when women with no military skills make decisions on how to fight a war. Was the decision because Codrin took Leyona?”

  “Partially. It was more because Codrin became an alternative to the Candidate King, and more people started to look at him. Devan sent troops to help Codrin. In Peyris we could not get all the soldiers in time. Some nuclei of resistance appeared here and there. They could spread.”

  “After this,” Pierre gestured toward Poenari, “they will spread. Why did you allow Codrin to take Poenari?”

  “Fate,” Verenius shrugged. “Garland surprised us by giving him the fortress. We did not know much about it, and though that taking back Leyona was more important.”

  “Perhaps Garland did not like the pressure Maud put on him.” Or perhaps Garland tried to help Codrin. Pierre knew Sava, and a courier from Tolosa went to Leyona just after Codrin left the city. He learned that Codrin helped Garland to free his wife, even when she did not want to be freed from her lover. “Change your strategy, Verenius. You’ve bet on the wrong man for Frankis. Do you have more questions?” Pierre asked and Verenius shook his head. “Then inform that helpless Bucur. I will send couriers to reach Codrin.”

  Codrin stopped in the middle of the road, as did Pierre, both men studying each other under the brilliant blue sky, and they dismounted at the same time.

  “Sir Pierre,” Codrin bowed slightly.

  “Greetings, Lion’s Cub. Your fangs and claws were sharper than mine. There is not much to talk; we will leave tomorrow.”

  “It was about time,” Codrin said, a touch of a smile on his lips.

  Pierre frowned for a moment, then he smiled too. “Yes, yes, I remember; you said the same words when I freed you from that jail.” He extended his hand and Codrin clasped it. “I am still accustomed with Tudor, but Codrin is not a bad name either. I bet that it will become even more famous than the Wraith of Tolosa. It was unfortunate that we had to meet on the battle camp, and… Fate take both the Circle and Bucur. Fight for Frankis; you deserve to be the king.” He nodded and turned abruptly.

  Pierre kept his word and, the next morning, all the soldiers of Tolosa left the camp. All others could do nothing but follow, and the siege of Poenari ended.

  At the Burned Forest crossroads, the armies split, Tolosa going south, the others riding north. From a nearby hill, Codrin was watching the departing soldiers with his spyglass. Pierre was riding in front of his army with his captains. In the middle of a six hundred feet long, thirty feet tall ridge, a bush moved slightly, and a man threw a brief stare at the road. Three paces behind him stood Veres, in a state of intense agitation, wriggling his hands. They were just sixty feet from the army riding at leisure, its soldiers happy to return home. As the army came closer, the man in front retreated a few inches inside the bush.

  “Now,” Veres whispered.

  A bolt flew and hit Pierre on the left side of his chest. With a deep growl, he fell from his horse.

  “Run,” Veres ordered, his voice filled with a morbid excitation, and he turned toward the horses waiting for them thirty paces away, guarded by a third man. “One traitor less,” he shouted, and raised his thumb up once they were all mounted. That bastard from Tolosa disobeyed our King, and I brought justice. After this, Bucur will return Midia to me, he thought, his mind working in a feverish state. I must solve the issue related to Saliné too. I am the head of the family now, and I will order her to accept Bucur even before the marriage. She must obey, or I will beat her how I beat Vio. No, I will beat her worse. She deserves it.

  “Company one, take the ridge from south. Company two, take the ridge from north,” Jaun shouted, dismounting at the same time. He ran toward his father and found him still alive, albeit almost unconscious.

  “Quite a pity to die such death.” Pierre found some strength to whisper.

  “You are not dead yet.” Jaun eyed the bolt’s shaft, which was moving up and down in the rhythm of Pierre’s breath, and his face became grim.

  From the top of his hill, Codrin pushed his horse down, and a column of thirty riders followed him. “Vlaicu, take twenty men, and ride toward that ridge,” he pointed forward. “Pierre was shot. Fall behind the ridge, and find than man or men who did this. I suspect that it’s the Circle’s game and they will place everything in my hands.” Zor had no equal and Codrin reached Tolosa army, a hundred paces before his men. “Make place!” he shouted when some soldiers from Tolosa tried to stop him. One of them came dangerous closer with his spear and Codrin had to unsheathe Flame and hit the spear away. “We are not here to fight. I came to see Pierre.” A minute later, sneaking between the nervous riders and the ridge, he arrived at the place where Pierre was lying in the grass, and he dismounted swiftly.

  “Who did this?” Jaun asked with a tone implying that Codrin was involved, and his look was stern.

  “I don’t know, but it was none of my men. Why sho
uld I kill Pierre? Let me see him.”

  “Ah, the Lion’s Cub,” Pierre said in a weak voice. “Let him come, Jaun; Codrin would not do such thing to me.”

  With expert eyes, Codrin checked the bolt: the point where it entered into the body, the angle on which it pierced the flesh. His fingers measured the distance to the shoulder, the distance to the collarbone and the distance to the breastbone. “You had chance. Your heart was not even scratched, and you don’t spill blood through the mouth, so the lungs are fine too. Did you hit your head while falling?”

  “I suppose so,” Pierre said, and Codrin moved to take his helmet down, then his fingers went through the thick hair.

  “There is a lump here, in the back. That’s why you feel weak. You must come in Poenari. There is no way to ride home with these wounds.”

  “This was quite a good strategy to finally enter in Poenari,” Pierre said with a wry smile.

  “Jaun,” Codrin looked at him, “tell your army to march toward Tolosa, after they finish the search around the ridge. I have twenty soldiers doing the same thing. They are lead by Vlaicu. Tell this to your men; I don’t want more issues. Take twenty men and come with me. Pierre should mount your horse in front of you. It’s the fastest way. I can’t take the bolt out here, and he will need a few weeks of rest.”

  Jaun helped Pierre stand, and two more men came to raise him on the horse.

  “Careful,” Codrin warned in a low voice, “don’t break the bolt’s shaft.”

  With all that pain in his chest and shoulders, Pierre did not complain, but they rode slowly, and Vlaicu caught with them an hour later. “We could not find the rats,” he spat, “but I bet my sword that they were from the Circle.”

  Chapter 33 – Codrin

  Of the thirty-five hundred soldiers who besieged Poenari, less than two thousand remained alive. The mood was sour, and there were not many words spoken between the northern commanders. Even worse, all of them avoided Bucur like the plague. Having only fifty soldiers left, Bucur tried to attach his troops to the two armies going north-east: the one from Peyris and Orban’s army. At the first main junction, both of them turned north, leaving him alone. That was not by chance; the commanders had decided that it was better not to be seen with Bucur; Codrin’s army was following him.

  By the time he arrived in Severin, more than forty of his soldiers had deserted, and Bucur entered the city followed by only seven guards. The Sages of the Circle came with him too.

  “We could not take Poenari,” he growled, seating his tired body in a chair in Aron’s office. “And the cowards ran away, leaving me alone. Rats!”

  “How many soldiers have returned?” Aron asked, keeping his calm.

  “Seven.”

  “So many deaths?”

  “No, so many traitors. I had fifty when I left Poenari.”

  “Go and see Saliné.”

  “The last thing I want is to see that tramp. Oh, yes, she will keep her calm and hide her joy that her dog won the fight.”

  “Bucur,” Aron said coldly. “We may not have enough soldiers to defend Severin. Saliné is the only thing keeping us from defeat.”

  “Fine, I will make her my woman, tonight.”

  “That should have happened a long time ago, but you in your pride insisted on seducing her, instead of just spreading her legs. Now be the chevalier with her, and forget about your pride. She may be our only chance of escaping alive. See to her, and then we need to talk with Verenius.”

  Codrin took the plain in front of Severin in a methodical way. First, he cut off all the roads, with an invisible hand. His scouts were waiting, hidden in the forest, and grabbing anyone who tried to enter or leave Severin. The road looked peaceful. It helped him gather information and stop the flow of food going into Severin. After three days, Aron guessed what was happening, but he could do nothing apart from sending no more couriers for help.

  In his hidden camp, Codrin read the two letters Aron had sent the day before. While numbers were not mentioned, the request to Maud for help was desperate. Although no more couriers had left Severin, he was still waiting for the Mountes to build the assault ladders, and mostly he was waiting for Ferd to tell him how many soldiers Aron still had inside the walls. Once he had the information, he occupied the plain, in one sudden move. The ten assault ladders were laid in front of the soldiers, a warning to Severin. At the same moment, a patrol marching around Severin market was attacked by a mob of people. Their clubs and arrows were merciless, and when the people dispersed, it was difficult to recognize the five soldiers lying on the street. It took Aron a while to send another, much stronger, patrol to recover the bodies.

  That evening, in his office, Aron met Verenius, the Primus Itinerant, again, and the other Sage, Octavian, who was Maud’d right hand. “Negotiate a deal,” Aron growled.

  “I tried, but you stopped me,” Verenius replied, shrugging.

  “Do it now, before those cowards in the street assault the palace. I don’t have enough soldiers to fight two wars.”

  You don’t have enough soldiers to fight anything. “Free passage for you and Bucur, and whoever else wants to join you. Saliné will stay. Make sure Bucur does not harm her.”

  “I thought that you were worried for us, not for that bitch.”

  “Harm her and there is nothing left to worry for.”

  “Fine.”

  “Read this.” Verenius placed a sheet of paper on the desk. “If you agree, I will send it to Codrin.”

  “The surrender of Severin,” Aron growled. “Can’t you find another word?”

  “What’s more important? The word or your lives?”

  “Fine,” Aron grumbled and threw the paper across the desk. “Tell me when it is done.”

  Codrin agreed after as soon as he read the proposal, and he was surprised how well Verenius had represented his interests. The Primus Itinerant did not try to negotiate; he wanted the document signed fast. He had his own worries, which could not be shared with Codrin.

  “Thank you, for the good work, Sage,” Codrin said and signed the document, which was effectively a treaty.

  Verenius returned quickly to Severin, and tried to find Aron, when Octavian took him aside. “We need to talk,” Octavian whispered, and both left the room. “The document you’ve negotiated is not acceptable to the Circle.”

  “Severin will fail in an hour without that document, and it’s up to me to decide what is acceptable or not.”

  “Maud and the Conclave of the Circle have a different opinion.” Octavian pulled a letter from his pocked and gave it to Verenius, who took his time to read it, then read it again.

  I am trapped, Verenius thought. “Then we should renegotiate the document.”

  “The document was already signed, but we will interpret it in a creative way.”

  “Will you do the interpretation?”

  “That’s a Primus Itinerant’s task.” Octavian smiled in a gentle way, hiding his satisfaction. Soon, I will take your place, Verenius. The Primus Itinerant position should have been mine. You are too weak. At least, in this he was right. Octavian had been sick when Belugas was killed, and the healers did not think he would live. The Conclave named Verenius, who was next in line. He survived in the end, and saw Verenius more as an imposter than a Primus. Octavian had both seniority and Maud on his side.

  “I have two more letters.” Octavian pushed them forward. “In one of them, Baldovin, the Duke of Tolosa agrees to marriage between his daughter and Codrin, and he will become Duke at Baldovin’s death. In the second one, the Circle makes Codrin Grand Seigneur of Severin. With Severin, half of Mehadia and the north-east of Leyona, he has enough lands. As you see, everything has been prepared in the finest detail. Now let me explain what we will do.” Octavian spent almost half an hour revealing the details of the new plan.

  “It may work,” Verenius shrugged. “Except that you have forgotten one thing: Codrin’s reaction.”And it will fall on me.

  “Grand Seigneur today,
Duke of Tolosa tomorrow and King of Frankis the day after.” Octavian set a crooked smiled on his lips. Verenius is more stupid than I thought. “What more could Codrin want?”

  “We shall see. Let’s talk with Aron and Bucur.”

  The sun was not yet risen in the east when Aron opened the metallic door of the tunnel. It screeched, and two men with torches moved forward. Aron followed, then Verenius, then Bucur and Saliné. One by one, all the soldiers who had decided it was better to follow Aron than stay and bear the grunt of Codrin and the people of Severin went inside the tunnel. No one took care to close the door, and it remained open. At the end of the tunnel, everything was repeated in the same sequence.

  Outside, the light was not strong, but they saw a group of soldiers waiting for them, together with Octavian.

  “There is a change in plans,” Octavian said. “Codrin has agreed to take only Severin and let Lady Saliné go with you, Bucur. Laurent can confirm this; he is the Knight of Seged, and one of Codrin’s trusted people.”

  “By the authority that was given to me by Seigneur Codrin, who will soon be Duke of Tolosa through his marriage with the young Duchess, I guarantee your passage.”

  “Was this necessary?” Verenius whispered.

  “Yes,” Octavian replied. “That little bitch must understand her place. She will marry Bucur. For the future of Frankis, Codrin must marry the young Duchess.”

  All this time, both of them kept their eyes on Saliné. She was standing still, her face calm, without visible reaction. Knowing her better, Verenius guessed what was in her mind.

  Saliné did not see them. She was looking intently at Laurent. She knew that he was the Knight of Seged, but she also knew that he was lying. Codrin would never agree to such an arrangement, she thought yet, while she absolved him of treachery, deep in her mind, she thought him guilty of not being careful enough. Guilty of shattering their dreams. She had fought for and dreamed of a new life for almost a year, and what had happened in Severin was her last chance to escape. There was no hope from now one. She knew it.