The Laughing Gods

by Wilbur Arron

  It all looked logical to me, but what did I know? I knew my purpose was to keep any Syrina or Lantia mages from causing trouble. There was more talking, and after a while, the meeting ended. After the ride and the conference, I was both tired and hungry. I had some dried fish and bread along with some well-watered wine. I found I was sharing a room with Carenos. I walked in, took off my robe and went to sleep on a straw mattress. At least they had changed the straw before my arrival. I figured Carenos would want to question me about the crystals since I was sure Philocrates told him everything of my experiences and experiments, but my fellow Mage Council member said nothing. He just rolled over and went to sleep.

  At least he did not snore.

  The next day I went out to look at the defenses. Xanphos was no fool. There were no visible defense structures on the beach. That way looked open, almost inviting. What I saw was a wooden wall behind the warehouses where about two hundred troops were stationed out of sight from the beach. Most of these troops were citizens of this polis. Most had heard what happened at Vorepolis, so they were determined the Zilar were not going to enslave them. Xanphos had also blocked the clear view of the streets leading from the docks. They could not count the polis patrols as we had done when we took back Vorepolis. All of the trierse were gone, along with most of the hoklas. The barriers we had put up to defend the ships made excellent places to put archers who were stationed nearby.

  That night, after a dinner of beans and rice, we had another meeting to discuss defense. It was a repeat of the first. Diomedes wanted to make sure everyone knew what they were to do. I did not say anything until after the meeting. Diomedes pulled both Carenos and me aside, and when the room was empty, he spoke in a hushed voice.

  “I know you two in Vorepolis just about made our landing there successful by yourselves. I do not want that here. I want you to stay back. I want them to start forming on the beach. Our plan depends on hitting any invaders as they mass together on the beach but not yet formed up. I am afraid if they see you and your power, they will run. I want to smash this invading army to bits, not give them a chance to run away and come back again.”

  “Archon,” I said respectfully. “I fully understand the need to destroy any army that lands here, but I also do not want a huge infusion of blood turning the sea red. I was not going to take part in this battle unless the enemy brought their own mages to oppose us, or that the battle went against us.”

  “I also did not want to take part in any battle here,” Carenos added. “The Zilar troops are one thing. They want nothing more than wanton death and destruction. They deserve no mercy for they have given none. My own people of Lantia are another thing. I do not want to slaughter them. I will protect this vasíleio as I promised, but I will take part in no mass killing.”

  Diomedes took a deep breath. “I understand, but we may need help. I hope we can get the invaders and fleet to surrender quickly, but if I have to make a bloodbath to keep Argina from being destroyed, then so be it. I expect the mages to feel likewise.”

  With that, he turned and left the meeting room, leaving Carenos and me alone.

  “What do you make of that?” I asked.

  “I see a frightened man, scared of what may happen to his poleis,” Carenos muttered. He looked me straight in the eyes with a glare showing that he too was afraid. “I just hope the gods are still with you, Alex.”

  That made two of us.

  I rested that night and slept in fits and starts. It was getting near dawn when my head tingled, and I distinctly heard in my mind: “We are here, are you all ready?”

  I shot up in bed. Carenos did likewise. “You heard that?” he shouted.

  “We are ready, go ahead,” came a reply.

  I shot to my feet and yelled for the guard to wake Diomedes. I yelled at the top of my lungs to get everyone awake in the castle. Within moments the place was a beehive of activity. I threw on my mage robe and gathered my three crystals. As I ran for the front of the citadel, I saw Diomedes putting on his armor. I ran up and spoke quickly.

  “I heard mages talking to each other, and they were not ours. They are close, and it sounds like they are planning a joint attack.”

  “Faneus,” the archon called out.

  One of the guards by the door turned and stood at attention.

  “Run out to the guard and awaken the army. Have them send out word to all our troops. Have the archers come forward but do not shoot.”

  Carenos ran up. “I have told Master Mage Nisos on our fleet. He is telling Laodamus.”

  “Well then, there is nothing more we can do here,” I said. “I am going to go to the port.”

  “I will go with you,” Carenos said.

  “Remember what I said about scaring them off,” Diomedes said excitedly. “Also keep your head down. I do not want to tell that pretty wife of yours she is a widow.”

  I walked quickly toward the dock, all the time charging my crystals up. It took me a while to get there. When I looked out into the dark sea, I could just see motion in the reflected torchlight of ghostly images coming toward ashore. When we got to the wooden wall behind the warehouses, the men were already up and getting their weapons ready. I recognized that besides the men from Aegae, there were others from Vorepolis: men who had lost their homes and families to the Zilar, men whose faces showed a very grim desire for revenge.

  The first boats came up to the docks, and several men came out and started running toward the warehouses. No doubt scouts looking for any opposition. Most of the soldiers were armed with sword and shields. They began to take up formation. Spears would not work well inside buildings or in the narrow streets of the polis. Whoever their polemarch was had armed them with weapons good at close range fighting. This was knife and sword work.

  Several of our men went out from the wall and hid in the shadows of the warehouses. Maybe twenty scouts were running towards the warehouses; they would look inside those building and find nothing but empty space. There would be no blazing dockside here caused by buildings full of supplies, like when we took Vorepolis. The scouts started to come around the buildings and saw the wooden wall. For most of them, the wooden structure was the last thing they saw as our people leaped from the shadows and slit their throats. There was some noise, but an army disembarking from boats is not silent no matter how quiet you want to be. No sound carried back to the beach.

  One scout managed to break away and was running down the back of the warehouse. He would warn the others. I pulled only a bit of power.

  “Energeia,” I whispered.

  The force projection was invisible and could not be seen from the beach, and the noise was only a small pop. When it struck the man, I doubt if it killed him, but it did knock him flat. Three other men were on him before he could get up and made sure he would not get up again.

  By now more boats were landing and more men getting out. They were starting to form larger units. I heard a noise behind me as archers by the hundreds took up positions behind us. Chremon was leading them. They stood behind the wall near the street and in open places between the wooden buildings, so they had a clear shot at the beach. The first line of troops started marching up from the beach. I could see men looking over the beach, no doubt wondering where their scouts had gone. The time for hiding was over.

  “Everyone, get ready for a loud bang and then shoot your arrows,” I ordered like a stratigos. “Pass the word down the ranks.”

  I waited a few moments for that to happen as the formed unit made it halfway to the wooden wall.

  “Get ready!” I called to Chremon.

  “Draw!” he called out immediately.

  I cast a sphere of force around me and then stepped out from behind the wall.

  “KARVANO!” I yelled out. A bolt of lightning flew from my hand and hit the front rank of the closest approaching unit. There was a massive thunderclap that shook the buildings around us. Many men in the front rank were flung back as if the Cyclops hit them with his club. About a thir
d of the men went down.

  “Loose!” Chremon yelled out and instantly, hundreds of arrows fell on the men on the beach and the approaching troops. I quickly stepped behind the wooden wall again. All sorts of alarm horns were going off on the beach and from the citadel behind me. The battle was now joined.

  “We have started our attack. There are mages here,” I heard in my head.

  “Do not worry, we will be there soon,” came the reply.

  I looked over to Chremon, who was directing a withering fire from several hundred bowmen on the attackers. “Careful, there are mages here,” I called.

  Right after that, I saw my first fireball fly from the largest trierse in the harbor. It flew straight at one of the warehouses and hit near the roof. It was not very powerful, but still strong enough to set the building on fire. I saw lights from the same ship. It was like a large candle, but the candle leaped into the air and flew over my heads into the polis and exploded in a rain of fire. It was like the stone-throwers the Zilar had used to set fire to my forest when they invaded. I remember well how we stopped that.

  I got down behind the wall and relaxed my mind. Instantly the other realms glowed in front of me. I put enough power into all three of my crystals until I could not put in anymore. Again, I put a sphere of the force around me. I got up and faced the ship that just the let another ball of fire fly into the polis. That was going to stop. I focused on the ship, forgetting what was going on around me. I saw a few arrows bound off my sphere. I directed the power at the ship that held the mages and the stone-throwers.

  “PYRA!” I yelled out.

  I had never thrown a fireball using all three crystals at full power. What came out was about twice as tall as I was and flew through the air. It passed easily through the army in front of me, flew over the water, and struck the ship head-on, turning it into a mass of flames from bow to stern. A moment later there was a geyser of flame as the firepots on deck exploded. The entire ship burned to ash in moments. At least that is what others told me. I never saw any of it. The reverse power flow knocked me back on the ground, and it took a little while for me to get to my feet again. When I looked around, there were no more fireballs from either the mages or the stone-throwers.

  “Zeus,” was all Carenos could say.

  “HELP US!” I heard some mage almost scream in my head. “There is a mage that just turned our command ship to dust. We need help. They were ready for us.”

  There was no reply, both to that message and half a dozen others that the Lantian mages sent with increasing panic.

  The troops by now had come swarming out from behind the wooden wall along with the first of the others from the army. They had not bothered to organize into formed units, but it did not matter. The swarm just hit the troops on or near the beach. The slaughter was great. There was an attempt to withdraw the Lantian troops back to the ship, but by then, Laodamus came in with our fleet and trapped everyone in the harbor. It left the invaders with a stark choice: die on land, die on the sea, or surrender. They quickly chose the latter. By morning the fighting was over, and by midday, we had over three thousand prisoners. No one else ever showed up.

  After we got things sorted out, we found out from the prisoners what happened. We did not even have to use extreme means to get the information. The troops were eager to talk. All the invaders, the troops, and the ships were from Lantia. We found Polemarch Areisius in with the troops. He looked very deflated now. Navarch Ibanolos had been on the command ship and was now burnt fish food. We took a rough count and found we had almost the entire Lantia fleet here, along with most of its best troops, at least those that were left alive. The arrow storm had killed most of the seven hundred and ten enemy bodies we collected and burnt on a funeral pyre. Our losses were fewer than one hundred men.

  Laodamus, Diomedes, Carenos, and I questioned the polemarch, who needed no prodding to tell us the whole story. Pytheas had made a deal with Zilar for a joint invasion at the start of the spring season with the object of conquering Argina. That was no surprise. The plan was the force from Lantia would land and take Aegae by surprise. The Zilar would land with six thousand troops, and together they would proceed south through Erinia and then to Arginnia. They were especially keen on stopping off to burn down the Forest of Allund to get rid of me and all the mages they thought I had gathered around me.

  When Diomedes asked if the attack was planned to be a surprise, why then did the Zilar insist on sailing so close to Aegae so our scouts would see them, Areisius was totally shocked. He had no idea why the Zilar would have done that. He had no idea where the Zilar force had gone. Then it hit me like Heracles’ fist: the Zilar had played us all for fools again.

  “The reason the Zilar warned us, and the reason why they are not here is simple,” I said. “I know exactly where the Zilar are.”

  I looked at Laodamus who put his hand to his forehead and grimaced. He saw it too.

  “The Zilar are in Lantia,” I said. “They are right now overrunning your west coast. Since that moros Pytheas made that deal with Zilar, they got you to send the rest of your fleet and your best troops here. They warned us so we would be ready for you and would slaughter you—or at least have your navy and best troops far away from Lantia when they invaded. They gave up on Argina when they lost Vorepolis and instead, decided to take Lantia instead. The Zilar even put a mage on their scout ships so they could make it sound like they were here. It was a brilliant plan, and you all went along with it. I hope you are happy.”

  Areisius open his mouth, gagged, and fell on the ground like he was poleaxed. I just folded my arms and growled. We had handed a great victory to the Zilar.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: REDEMPTION

  “Not only have we given the Zilar a great victory. We gave it to them at no cost to themselves,” Xanphos lamented. “Yea gods, what a mess we have.”

  The old man paced around the room, alternating between disgust at our situation and fear of the results.

  “You could let me, my ships, and the armies from Lantia go back home and fight the Zilar,” Laodamus said.

  “And have your father make a deal with Zilar and send them right back here?” Pallas spoke out. “Not a chance that will happen.”

  “I promise you, that would not happen unless you do not believe my word either,” Laodamus said his face getting a little red.

  Pallas looked over and saw he might have pushed the Megas Archon a bit too far. “I trust you,” Pallas replied in a sincere voice. “I do not trust your father, however, who just might have you killed when you get home and take command of those forces. Until I get some assurance those ships and troops will never again be used against us, they all stay here.”

  “We could all go together to Lantia,” Diomedes suggested. “All of us could attack the Zilar together.”

  “And leave Argina defenseless,” Xanphos grumbled. “All the Zilar would have to do is pack their ships and sail here, and then what do we do? The Zilar now can go anyplace they want, any time they want, and there is damn little any of us can do about it. Then again if we just sit here and wait, the Zilar will get new troops from Syrina, train them up, and attack us here, but that will take them at least a year to put that together.”

  “Also, we now know they have taken over the three main vasíleia in Syrina,” Zila added. “My father will now have all the time, people, and money he will need to raise thousands of troops.”

  I sat in the back of the big room and listened. It had almost been a month since the failed invasion of Aegae. In that time, we had heard that the men Zilar had put into the vasíleia in Syrina had overthrown all three of the ethnarchs and taken control of the eastern and most developed part of that land. Only the wild open plains of the central and western Syrina were free, but they were so sparsely populated it hardly mattered. To add to our miseries, the Zilar had landed near Scolussa in Lantia and occupied the base. With no fleet, garrison, and army to defend it, Philie’s two babies could have taken it. The Zilar troops wer
e spreading out along the south coast using the southern mountains to shield them from what forces Lantia still had.

  “To compound our problems, we have heard from our few brothers still on Lantia that the Zilar are busily training new mages to help them with their conquests,” the Megas Mage said. “The one good thing is the two mages we captured in Aegae told us they were no longer on the run. Pytheas appears to have learned his lesson. He is trying to get the mages to come back to him.”

  “A bit late, I should think,” Xanphos growled again.

  I had arrived from the forest two days ago, having talked to my friends. The Old Ones and my friends had given me other news. I figured I might as well tell them now.

  “My forest friends also bring information,” I said. “The first thing is that the Zilar have sent away most of their troops they kept in their main base on our north shore. My friends did not know where they went.”

  “Most likely to Scolussa,” Laodamus said.

  “The second thing is that a four-man Zilar patrol came in from the desert to snoop around my forest.”

  “Did they find anything?” Pallas asked from his seat.

  “Their deaths,” I added. “Some of my friends said they were delicious.”

  That brought a laugh from everyone before I reminded them, “That also means they have taken up residence in Dysiasty again.”

  “So, they have not given up on that plan either,” Xanphos added.

  “Then exactly what do we do?” Pallas asked, holding his hands up in exasperation.

  I stood up. “We could destroy the Zilar main base east of the Central Mountains,” I suggested. “We have the ships and the troops to do that. There is hardly anyone there. It will leave the Zilar with no base on Argina to launch an attack from. We would only be gone at the most four or five days. Not long enough for the Zilar to invade Argina.”