How could he make her understand? How could he show her how different she was from Kayna? How different she was from all the other girls? How precious she was to him? He took a deep breath. “You’ll never be like her. And after she is dead, you can build all the homes you want. Guide rivers to where they are most needed. Heal injuries. Whatever you like. But you can’t right now. She would destroy everything you started.”
Nara said nothing but turned away, dropping her arms to her sides and looking up to the open dome of the cave. What else could he tell her? She wasn’t wrong. They shouldn’t have to do this. This cave shouldn’t need to exist. They were just two kids pretending to be generals in a game far too grand for them.
“Are you going to finish it?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” she said, stepping towards one of the nearby walls. “I need to be alone. I’m sorry.”
The wall opened as she drew close, its stone peeling apart like the petals of a blooming flower. Nara didn’t even slow down as she walked into the opening. In reflex, Mykel reached towards her, vainly swiping the air in front of him, but it was too late. The entrance had closed behind her just as quickly as it had opened, and she was gone.
“Holy Dei,” he said, shocked at the ease with which she had just moved the earth. The ease with which she had left him.
Conflicting emotions raced through him, and he felt almost dizzy. Despite the epic struggle they were in, he had always looked at her as his young, vibrant friend. The girl he had known from childhood in their sweet little coastal village. But so much had happened since then. Nara was changing. She was becoming someone he did not know–a powerful figure destined for something far greater. All she had shared with him about Bylo’s study of scripture and how her own destiny was supposedly foretold by Dei now came to the front of his mind. She was not gifted, and she was not blessed. She was something else entirely. Something far greater.
In the past, he had feared losing her in a battle. At the palace with the king, on the road with the racer, or at the compound with the soldiers, there had been many risks taken. But a new fear crept into Mykel’s heart. It wasn’t a fear of her dying.
He was losing her in a very different way.
23
Report
They took him from his cage and strapped him to a table. Again. The red-haired demon held a hand on each side of his face, squeezing him like a vice so he couldn’t bite her. Her strength was incredible and as she squeezed, his head felt like it would cave in. She never spoke. And she never said why. She just hurt him.
The pain in his chest began again, deep down. It felt as if his soul was stretching and tearing. Sharp spikes of agony grew hot and then became an excruciating sensation of pulling, twisting. Then came dizziness. And panic. He felt weak but so angry. He wanted to bite her, to scratch her, or to put his fingers into her eye sockets and push until he ran out of strength. Screams and curses came forth from his mouth. Foul curses at her beautiful face. Furious screams at her long, red hair and the evil smile she wore. She used to be a friend, this demon, which confused him and made the pain worse because it made no sense. He searched through his memories, but they were scattered, distant, and he couldn’t find her name. Or even his own.
Dei save me.
But there was no Dei. Only the demon. And the pain.
As he suffered, he tried to think of the only blessing in his life. The angel in the dark who had held his hand like a mother and whispered words of comfort into his ear. The sweet lady who loved him.
It was morning and Ennis shuffled down the hallway toward the stairs. Although it was cool in the project buildings each morning, particularly in the cages below ground, it had warmed in recent days. Summer was coming. He clicked his tongue and picked his feet up as he reached the stairs that led to ground level. He’d visited all four of the project buildings and the armory this morning and would deliver a report to the queen. Her efforts were bearing fruit, and he was eager to tell her as much.
A driver sat atop the carriage outside, and Ennis climbed into the seat beside him. He didn’t know why she always sent a covered carriage. Perhaps she thought he didn’t care to be seen in public anymore, but that had changed. He was doing good things. Let them stare if they liked. Let them talk. He was proud of his work and he didn’t want to hide. Someday they would all know who he was, what he did for the Great Land, and they would honor his name.
The driver said nothing as he guided the two horses along the main city street toward Fairmont castle. They entered the grounds through a side gate and pulled up to a service entrance. Ennis climbed down from the carriage and shuffled into the building, taking a shortcut through the kitchen where he grabbed a bread roll and an apple. He gulped bites as he moved through a long hallway to the queen’s quarters, finally arriving at the small sitting room she used for meetings.
The room had no windows but was well-lit, several large candelabras providing the necessary illumination. A small fire crackled in a fireplace on one wall, lending ample heat. The walls bore a bright mural that depicted a lavish party, painted right on the stone blocks and stretching around the room. The mural was decorated with hundreds of guests who celebrated with food and wine and on one wall, some knelt before a figure that walked in from a large, arched entrance. The figure was difficult to make out, nothing but the outline of a woman in a gown, her black hair topped with a brilliant crown. The light emanated from her shape so brightly that details were lost and many of the partygoers held their hands up to shield their eyes from her brilliance.
“Hello, Ennis.”
He turned, startled. She was dressed in a short blue gown, black hair tied up in a bun. He bowed deeply. “A report, Your Majesty.”
“Go ahead.” Kayna moved to a nearby table to pour herself a cup of wine from a crystal decanter.
“The normal methods are moving forward as they always have. Sometimes we announce a gifted, but many die. The multiple piercings with the ceppit are productive but dangerous. Lost a racer to infection yesterday.”
“We expected as much. How many total this week?”
“We’ve announced more than a hundred in the last few days, but only one gifted aside from the racer. A knitter.”
“Bah. I need warriors.” She replaced the decanter and turned to take a seat in a luxuriously cushioned settee, angled in the corner. The few shadows there were in the room flickered across her face as she took a sip.
It was true. Knitters were of little use in combat, but when trained would prove useful at keeping the rest of the army healthy. At first, however, they were scared, useless children.
“The projects have been interesting. Three have died since you began your efforts, but several show promise.”
“The barbarian?”
“Yes, he’s doing well. He’s seen battle and has quite the will. Perhaps because he is older. There’s a girl who is also doing well.”
“And the young one. From Dimmitt.”
“He’s angry. Oh, so angry. After you stretch him, the watcher sees him leak. A lot. Far more than the others. But it fades after a few hours. Hopefully, we can make it permanent.”
“I loathe the wig, but it is working. He’s furious with her,” Kayna said. “I can see it in his eyes. He has grown so much and fights like a rabid dog. I have to flare strength to keep him still, and he isn’t even gifted.”
“Yet.”
“I hope you’re right, Ennis.”
“You’re doing everything perfectly, Majesty. He cries when you aren’t in the cell next to him. For hours. He says your name over and over. He’d do anything for you.”
“I hope you’re right. But he mustn’t merely hate her and love me. I need this to work!”
“It’s working, Majesty. Give it time. You’ll have your cursed. Maybe more than one.”
24
Resolve
Nara sat on the side of the high, sloping peak near the rim of the half-built fortification. She hadn’t finished the wa
ter system and needed several more tunnels to ensure escape routes, but her heart just wasn’t in it right now. A defensive position was nice, and this place might become useful someday, but she tired of the internal turmoil and it would be better to get this conflict over with. Offense, not defense. She would take the fight to Kayna.
Below, she could see the soldiers training with Mykel. There were more than before, at least eighty now, and she wondered if men from nearby villages had joined the effort. Eighty against what, a thousand? Five thousand? A traditional battle was simply not possible without a lot more men. She wanted ideas, and a conversation with Jahmai might provide them.
It took little time for her to descend to the training area, the exercise stopping when she got close. Some knelt when they saw her, and one of the younger lads went fully prone and started praying out loud.
“Please, get up,” she said. She turned to Jahmai. “General, can we speak?” She turned and walked back into the traveler cave and sat on a stone seat. A freshly stoked fire crackled and popped, and an iron pot of something hot bubbled on a grate stretched across the flames. Jahmai took a seat beside her.
“Eighty men?” she asked.
“Eighty-three, actually. Several are out gathering food. Can’t buy enough around here, so we’re foraging and hunting in shifts.”
“I have half of an impressive fortress started up on this mountain, but no way to feed my men. Didn’t really think of that.”
“We’ll make do, ma’am.”
“Call me Nara. Please.”
“In front of the men, I’ll need something else. Holiness. Mistress. Your Majesty. Something.”
“Nara. I insist.”
“As you wish.”
She grabbed a stick from the ground near her feet and poked a log. “We need more men. How do you propose to get them?”
“I’ve been thinking of that. We could attack more outposts. Give terms. Like you did in Junn.”
“Anything nearby?”
“Several, actually.”
“Why not just go big?”
“Ankar? It’s a few days away, but we could. It’s twice the size of Junn. Three outposts there. And even bigger than those in Junn.”
“Make it happen.”
“They have gifted in the Ankar outposts, mistress. And at least three hundred men in total.”
“Nara.”
“Yes, of course. Nara. Ankar has been deploying gifted. We’ll see at least one in each outpost. I think a steelskin-flamer pair might be in Ankar as well. Won’t be easy with only eighty-three men.”
“We’ll find more along the way. I’m hoping for more than a hundred by the time we’re in Ankar. Besides, Mykel and I have only fought on a small scale. We need to learn what it’s like to face an army, even if it’s a small one.”
“Yes, miss,” he said. “Um. Nara.”
“Thank you.”
“First names aren’t used by soldiers, Nara, especially for their commander. Standard military etiquette. It will take some getting used to. Not the normal rules.”
“We’re outnumbered, tired, away from our homes, and half our force is made up of local boys with courage but no experience,” she said. "Not a time to play by normal rules.”
She stood and walked back to where Lieutenant Martel was directing two men to spar in heavy armor, pointing out weak areas where the metal did not protect. She stepped up to the fray and everyone stopped, turning to look at her. Eighty men marching on Ankar was foolishness, but if they wielded the hearts of heroes and carried hope, it would be better. Plus, it would give them stories to spread. Watching Mykel fight surely helped, but Nara was their leader and they needed more from her than pretty caves.
“May I join you?” she asked.
Martel stuttered enthusiastically, “Yes. Um. Majesty.” He cleared his throat. “We’re demonstrating the flaws in armor. Where to strike, limitations in an armored opponent’s ability to move.”
“Nara. Not Majesty. How can I help?”
“Well, we’ll be fighting racers, and that’s a big concern,” Martel said. “We usually make a defensive circle and overcome them with numbers and time, but they do a lot of damage.”
Mykel was standing on the other side of the throng of men but didn’t move. Good. She wanted to do this alone.
“Okay, listen up,” she said. “We racers are fast. We won’t carry heavy items; they slow us down, so we have knives or axes, small weapons we can swing quickly, injure you, then run away before you can counter. Met a racer already myself, and she was fast. Darn fast. We don’t have enough men to overwhelm them. But they have a weakness. They must move to be a threat. We’ll take that away.”
Several wore curious looks on their faces.
“Who knows how to make banners?” She scanned the crowd. “Flags?”
A man in the back raised his hand, and she walked toward him, the men parting to allow her passage. “What’s your name, Soldier?”
“Panuk, Your Majesty. From Trapper, west of here.”
Panuk was native and old, at least sixty. He was tall, with a solid stance, and his black hair was neatly combed. Proud man. Good. They needed more like him.
“Call me Nara. None of the ‘Majesty’ stuff. Please. Panuk, you will find fabric and make banners. Spread them among the men. Mount them on the end of spears for others to see. In the middle of battle, we will seek the gifted, but racers can do a lot of damage and I must know where they are right away. By making banners, you will help your brothers signal the discovery of a racer so I can find them quickly.”
She reached up to put a hand on Panuk’s shoulder. “Start working on the banners today. Red ones and black ones. Tomorrow we march south.”
Nara stepped back into the middle of the circle. “If you’ve never seen a racer, know they are a fearful thing.” She flared speed and danced around the circle, touching several men on the cheek before they could move. “We are fast and can disarm you.” She flared it again and held a dagger in her hand a moment later. Several soldiers checked their sheaths. “Or we can run away.” They lost sight of her until she waved from a hundred feet away, near a tree. She raised her voice as she returned to them, “But we have a weakness.” Her foot caught a rock, and she fell forward, dropping the dagger. A deliberately clumsy move, but it illustrated the point. “We depend on stable ground, keeping our eyes high on our opponents. No racer watches her feet.”
“You will alert me to a gifted by waving the special banners sewn by Panuk. Black for any other gifted, but red for a racer, whom I will engage.” As she stepped back into the circle, she closed her eyes, summoned the earth rune and flared it. The ground rumbled and shifted, dropping in places, rising in others, the landscape under the soldiers’ feet becoming pockmarked, jagged and uneven. “Two things will happen after that red banner goes up,” she said. “The racer will fall, becoming vulnerable, allowing you to attack. Do so before the racer adjusts to the new terrain. The problem is that I won’t know where the racer is, so I’ll disrupt the ground in a wide area. If you aren’t alert, you will also fall. Watch and listen. Call out ‘gifted’ when you see the black banner, and ‘racer’ when you see the red. Others will hear and will know to watch their footing.”
The men clapped and cheered as she rose to her feet. Loud bellows filled the air. Some knelt and praised Dei. Nara looked over to Jahmai, a big smile on his face as he clapped along with them.
Nara continued, “You are doing something precious, my friends. And you are growing. A few days ago, we had two dozen. Today, we have many more. We will grow, and we will fight. This is a battle for the Great Land, and I intend to win. But I can only do it with your help. Work hard. Be good to one another. Your friends and neighbors depend on us to defeat the monster in Fairmont and we will not disappoint them. Now get back to work. We leave for Ankar in the morning.”
Nara walked away from the men, stopping when she found a good place to look out over the valley below, and on Keetna. Perhaps that demonstrat
ion would give hope to these men. Men who might die for her. Hope can be a powerful thing.
Mykel came over to her, smiling. He clapped a few times. “Very nice. Never thought of that one.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
“I thought you would just wrap them up with a mound of dirt so they couldn’t move.”
He was still smarting over that one, clearly. “They are too fast to trap that way. Besides, I only use that method to stop big brutes who won’t listen to me.”
“I’m listening now,” he said.
“I know you are. Thank you.”
“So, it looks like you’re gonna do this after all.”
“I’m tired of second-guessing myself. They are depending on me. Besides, I don’t see any other way.”
“Me either. Ankar?”
“Maybe we get some gifted to join us. At least we’ll get more soldiers. We’ll need more than this ratty crew to march north.”
“Need anything from me?”
“Yes. Show off as much as possible.”
“What?” Mykel’s face displayed his confusion.
“These men are tough-minded and eager but will be far from their homes and alone. They’ve seen terrible things, they’ve done terrible things, and may be as frustrated with Dei as we are. They are scared, even if they don’t show it. When citizens join up with men who have wronged their villages, taken loved ones, there may be infighting. It could brew into chaos if we don’t manage it.”
The Godseeker Duet Page 45
