“Talking like that will only make you more miserable. You can’t change the past, Ingrid. Believe me. I’ve spent countless nights staring at the ceiling thinking about what I could have done differently. None of that matters. The only thing you need to do is look to tomorrow.”
“To what point? I’m a fraud. This rebellion was doomed from the onset.”
Frowning, Bahr decided to scold her like a small child. “Enough of this. Wars are fluid. Some days there is victory. Others defeat. You’re a leader, whether you can handle it or not doesn’t matter. These people look to you for guidance. What good will it do them to find you wallowing in your self-pity while the same despair creeps through their hearts? They need you. They need to see you sitting atop your horse with a rigid back and clear eye. These people are willing to fight and die for you. Don’t abandon them now just because you’ve had a setback.”
“Setback?” Her eyes flared hotly as she looked him in the eye. “Nine hundred of my fighters were killed by an impossible army. You and I both know it was the Goblins that did this. Even if Harlan had escaped what good would his paltry-sized force do to aid us against tens of thousands?”
“That’s not your concern,” Bahr told her. “All you have to do is see these people through the dark times. Find a way to win at all costs or fold back into the night. You’ve already fought a guerilla campaign. Your people know what to do. Have confidence in them and I doubt you’ll be disappointed.”
“I won’t order them to their deaths. Our original agreement was to see your party to the ruins. My rebels were supposed to liberate Chadra.”
Bahr paused, debating what to tell her. In the end there was little real choice. She needed to know what he had seen in the capital city. The pain and distress of rampant destruction never before dreamed of in Delranan. “There is no Chadra left to liberate, Ingrid. The city is completely destroyed.”
“I warned you not to go back,” she scolded.
He shrugged. Her wants didn’t matter much. They seldom did. Bahr was used to dealing in needs, not wants, though he contradictorily forced his wants on them all. “I had to. This is still my kingdom, whether I want to be in control or not. Chadra’s not the question. You need to come to a conclusion real quick about which way you’re going to turn.”
“How can it be that easy? When have you ever lost so much?”
Her scathing retort invoked unpleasant memories of watching his estate burn to the ground even as his beloved Dragon’s Bane drifted to ashes across the harbor. How could he accurately explain he’d lost everything over the course of the winter without provoking further indignation? Unaccustomed to explaining his deeds, Bahr became infuriated.
“I have lost everything I ever loved and knew. What you see before you is all I have left. Don’t you dare cry to me about loss. You said yourself I should be on the throne. I have no family. No home. No ship. I have only these hands and the quest Anienam Keiss has deemed me responsible enough to perform. When you have lost as much as I you can come and debate the morality of my decisions, but not a moment before.”
Rebuked, Ingrid sank deeper into her blanket. Her shoulders sagged. The wrinkles around the corners of her eyes deepened. She felt the weight of another thirty years heaped upon her. Nine hundred souls reached out from the grave to condemn her for her sins. Ingrid hadn’t known very many of them. She hadn’t needed to. They were each valuable contributions to the kingdom and her efforts to return Delranan to normalcy. They were the future. And she had failed them all. The grief threatened to become too much.
Tears flowed freely. She didn’t want them to stop. Her body racked with sobs but it felt good. Bahr leaned over and wrapped a fatherly arm around her. Truthfully he enjoyed her company. She had sharp wit and was more than capable of handling her own on the battlefield, at least from what he’d seen. The rebellion still needed her. She was the backbone of their force. Their singular point of focus for hope and the future.
“Ingrid, I know you don’t want to hear this. Especially now, but I need you to come back to me. Yes, nine hundred are dead but you still have nearly two thousand more looking to you. How do you want to be remembered? As the one who led her people to victory or the one who tucked her tail and ran the moment things got tough?”
Ingrid continued to cry.
Bahr continued, “Listen to me. This isn’t the time for weakness. You need to take this sorrow, harness it and use it. Feed your anger with it and focus on tomorrow. The rebellion isn’t dead. You’re still the leader. Get out there. Tell them what they need to hear. Say anything. Just keep them moving forward. The rest will work itself out but it has to happen now.”
She choked back her tears. Bahr’s words slowly broke through her mental barrier. She found the slightest measure of courage deep within the reservoir of her heart and clung to it with all her might. Ingrid was a generally strong woman. After all she’d endured, from her husband’s death to Harlan’s massacre, she was the only one who had the ability to find a way to win. Bahr had given her the words necessary to carry on. The rest was up to her.
“Very well, what do I need to do?” she asked after wiping her tears away.
Bahr grinned. “That’s a girl. We might have a chance to win after all.”
NINETEEN
Honor Due
The rebels gathered nervously as they waited on Ingrid. Word had shuffled through the makeshift camp to assemble almost as quickly as what had happened to Harlan’s column. Threats of desertion were rampant. Her officers struggled to maintain control despite their own misgivings. Everyone knew about the Goblin threat and it stretched the edges of their courage just to keep going day to day. The suddenness of their slaughter left many wondering just how much longer they could stomach a never-ending war.
Ingrid slowly walked up onto the small platform a pair of former carpenters had made and surveyed her crowds. This wasn’t how she wanted to speak with her people. They deserved better than a figurehead separated from them. Ingrid shocked Orlek and Bahr by climbing down from the platform and walking into the center of the camp. She spied Groge, the young Giant, at the back of the crowd. The innocence on his face was refreshing.
She raised her hands to quiet the chorus of murmurs, speaking only after silence settled over them. “My friends, it grieves me to confirm what most of you have already known. Harlan and his company have been killed. We suspect the Goblins did it, but haven’t been able to confirm so yet. I know many of you had friends, even family, in his units. Nothing I say can bring them back so I won’t try. I won’t insult you by saying they died for the kingdom or for you. They were ruthlessly murdered by our enemies.”
Several broke out in cries. Others wailed their grief. Ingrid felt her heart burn with each raised voice. She wanted to join them but couldn’t. Bahr had called it right. The rebellion needed her to be strong for them all.
“I know the urge to run away is in many of your hearts, for I once felt it too. My heart can only handle so much, but as easy as it would have been for me to abandon you under the cover of darkness I couldn’t. You deserve better. We all deserve better. I won’t make promises of vengeance. What I do offer is the opportunity to avenge your loved ones. To preserve their memories through your deeds. Your valor. The old kingdom is dead. It falls upon us to recreate the world as we see fit. The question is not who wants to go into battle beside me, but who will?”
Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the rebels broke out in ragged applause. Ingrid felt a great weight pulled from her. They were battered, beaten, and pushed to the breaking point, but the rebels of Delranan carried an unquenchable spark. Their kingdom was in flames. Their backs threatening to break. As easy as it would have been to turn and run, not a single person listening to Ingrid moved.
They realized that they were all that was left to defend and protect the people. Should they abandon sword and spear, the people of Delranan would methodically be wiped from existence. Not a soul among them was willing to let that happen, not
without fighting to the last beforehand. Ingrid’s heart swelled with pride. The sting of losing so many, and such a close confidant as Harlan, lessened ever so slightly. She felt pride again at the fighting spirit of her people. Bahr was right. They didn’t look to him, for they never had. All eyes were fixed on her, eager to see how she handled the situation and took them to the next level.
“Sleep well this night, for it will be our last for some time. Tomorrow I intend on taking a small force to bury the remains of our friends. We will pause to give memory to their lives and deeds. After that we march with Bahr to the ruins of Arlevon Gale and meet our enemies head-on! We fight for the future of our very race.”
She paused as cheers ringed the crowd again. “I will not order you to follow blindly. Those of you who wish to leave may do so with my blessing and good will. This will be no easy task and I fear many of us will not survive. Win or lose we will make such a name for ourselves that all history will tremble from awe!”
Ingrid walked off amidst undying cheers. Her voice carried conviction she hadn’t felt since the beginning of the war. Proud of herself beyond measure, the blond warrior-queen of Delranan hurried to make plans. Much remained to be done if she was going to get her army to Arlevon Gale in time.
Two hundred volunteers marched behind her. They walked with dour faces and steeled resolve. Sword and shovel were sheathed and slung over their shoulders. The ground was much too frozen to dig in, so Ingrid and a handful of engineers devised a strategy to cover the remains with stone and pine boughs until the spring thaw. Some would be burned so that their trapped spirits would return to the gods. The rest would have to wait for months, if any rebels managed to return at all.
Ingrid marched at their head, her shoulders back and erect. She neglected taking her horse, knowing it would go further among her rebels to present herself as one of them rather than in charge. Bahr and Anienam accompanied them, the spindly wizard sitting aside a swayback horse. He cackled with bad jokes in an attempt at livening the mood. He failed. The rebels were too entrenched in their moods to think positively.
“How much further?” Bahr asked Ingrid.
She gestured ahead. “Not much. We should be there before too long. The scouts have already come back with reports the area is clear of enemy activity.”
“That doesn’t mean they aren’t hiding somewhere. Goblins are known for their dislike of sunlight. They might easily be holed up for the day,” he countered.
“With fifty thousand warriors? Where in Delranan could a force that large hide undetected? No, Bahr, I believe my scouts.”
Ingrid fell silent, her thoughts already racing ahead to the scene she was about to witness. Her stomach felt ill and it was going to take all her inner strength to maintain control in front of the others when the killing grounds came into view. She’d grown accustomed, reluctantly, to the horrors of warfare but worried it might not be enough. Some atrocities just shouldn’t be glossed over, especially when it concerned a full third of her fighting strength.
“Been lost like a pickle in a tree!” Anienam exploded suddenly and burst out in laughter.
Bahr’s mouth fell open as he turned back to stare at the wizard. “Have you gone daft?”
Anienam broke his laughter. “Eh? What’s your problem now? I haven’t done anything wrong. Just minding myself and passing the time.”
“With dreams of pickles?” Ingrid asked.
The wizard shrugged. “I like pickles. Crunchy or soft they both taste good. It’s been a long time since I last enjoyed a good pickle.”
“But what would one be doing in a tree?” she asked.
“Ha! Exactly my point!” Anienam fell back into a fit. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes and down past his blindfold. He mumbled under his breath. “Pickles in a tree. As if!”
Ingrid looked back at Bahr. “Perhaps I was mistaken. He definitely seems to have cracked his skull.”
“More times than I can remember, but I’m far from done. Don’t you fret any. Just because I’m blind doesn’t make me feeble. You’ll see. You all will, I’m afraid. There’s a terrible storm coming that none of us can escape.”
“Thank you, Master Keiss, but I will keep to my own consort for the time being,” Ingrid replied, her voice terse, strained.
“Still think so highly of him?” Bahr whispered.
Ingrid shot him an angry glare.
Work was slow, many pausing long enough to vomit. Rags were wrapped around mouths and noses to prevent the stench from overpowering them. Most of the corpses had been all but devoured, whether by Goblins or carrion eaters remained unknown. The rebels were slow at first. More than one made warding signs against evil while others closed their eyes to pray. Ingrid offered her prayers to the gods with less conviction than a season before. Bahr’s explanation of his quest left the foundations of her faith shaken.
She personally counted more than seven hundred remains. “Bodies” wasn’t a fair term considering so many had been devoured. Blood trails dragged off eastward into the snow. No doubt the Goblin army took the other bodies to consume along their march. It sickened her to think that Harlan was reduced to a meal without consideration of his rank or stature. All of these bodies deserved better. They were the best Delranan had to offer, now nothing more than passing indigestion for the filth of a horrid race. Ingrid vowed to avenge them all.
“There’s more at work here than a mere ambush,” Bahr offered after exploring the immediate area around the slaughter. “Bits of armor and scraps of uniform. Your rebels aren’t equipped like that.”
“What are you saying?”
He pointed towards the road leading north. “I’d guess that Harlan ambushed a company of Harnin’s forces before the Goblins struck. There are broken spears and spent arrows littering both sides of the road for a few hundred meters. One thing is for certain, there was a lot of fighting going on here yesterday.”
“That makes sense. With his force engaging the enemy it would be easy for the Goblins to sneak up on them,” Ingrid said thoughtfully. “He was no fool but becoming engrossed in a battle would take his eyes off of the road, especially if he was certain the way was clear.”
“Making the rebels easy targets,” Bahr concluded. “This is more dangerous than I feared. Not only do we need to contend with a fanatical Skaning but now the Goblin horde. We’ll get pinched between the two if we’re not careful.”
Ingrid grasped the gravity of their situation and felt her heart freeze. Logic suggested Skaning and Harnin’s loyalists would abandon their attack on the rebels with the new, and far greater, threat the Goblins presented. No one could accurately say how such an army had arrived in Delranan but that didn’t matter. The enemy had increased tenfold and possibly more in a short period of time. She couldn’t realistically fight both sides but offering a ceasefire with Harnin wasn’t possible. Skaning would stop at nothing to murder every last rebel and more than likely viewed the slaughter as a movement in his favor. The war would go on until no one in Delranan remained.
“What are we going to do?” She lowered her voice so only Bahr could hear. Ingrid had already avoided one panic. Driving them into another served no purpose.
Bahr placed his feet shoulder-width apart and his gnarled hands on his hips. He honestly didn’t have an answer. “So much of my life has been driving forward, always moving towards a fixed location in the future. None of this makes any sense. Nothing Anienam or Artiss Gran said mentioned anything like this. My gut tells me to keep moving. Our mission is to destroy the Olagath Stone and thus save the rest of the world.”
“Lofty aspirations but all of this changes matters,” Ingrid said.
“Indeed, but we can’t turn back now. Too much is at stake.”
He thought about telling her more, about how each and every one of his group had been handpicked by destiny to stop the dark gods. How could he possibly expect her to believe such mystic nonsense when he was still having issues with the concept?
“Do you trul
y believe you can alter the course of the world?”
Bahr offered a sly grin. “I certainly hope so.”
The last remains were buried shortly before dusk. All told, there were more than eight hundred distinguishable remains. Most were undeniably human while a small portion were denser, shorter. At least Harlan had taken a toll on the enemy. Perhaps not as much as Bahr would have liked, but there was only so much a paltry force could do against fifty thousand. Smoke from the funeral pyres rose high into the fading daylight.
Bahr stared up at the smoke for a moment before turning away. He’d already secured permission to take a handful of Ingrid’s best and scout the northern road in the hopes of ascertaining the truth of their predicament. Every minor bit of intelligence helped him form his final plans for the assault of Arlevon Gale. He feared he was going to need more than he was about to receive.
Anienam argued otherwise. The wizard’s faith in his own capabilities clearly outweighed Bahr’s. With talk of pickles subsided, the wizard agreed to wait behind with Ingrid. He quietly urged that time was nearly upon them. Only one more day and the Dae’shan would attempt to open the gateway between dimensions. Bahr had little time to dally with personal quests.
The Sea Wolf made it less than a third of a league before his senses began acting up. He drew his sword and tensed. Experienced eyes scanned the perimeter, catching every broken branch or disturbed patch of snow. The others crouched behind him, nerves getting the better of them. Bahr cursed silently at their skittishness. He wished for Ironfoot or Nothol and Dorl. They wouldn’t shirk away from enemy contact.
“You can put the sword away.”
Bahr froze before recognizing the voice. His grip on the sword loosened, slightly. Frowning, Bahr rose to full height. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Even Gods Must Fall Page 18
