Shadows of Destiny

by Rachel Lee

  “You are wondering,” he said to Alezzi’s men, “what it is we are discussing here, why my legion arrays itself in those hills with the Anari. Against you.”

  A murmur of agreement answered him.

  “We are not against you, my brothers. Not unless we must be. But we are on an important mission, one more important than any ever undertaken by a Bozandari army. We have all known our conquests over the years. The history we repeat to our children is rife with tales of glory.”

  Again murmurs of agreement.

  “There is no soldier of Bozandar who cannot hold his head high in memory of those who came before. There is no soldier of Bozandar who does not feel the deepest of commitments to emperor, empire and people. Each and every one of us is willing to die for that commitment.”

  Nods of agreement answered him. But questions remained on every face.

  Tuzza lifted a hand, indicating those arrayed behind him. “You are wondering at the companions I choose now. You wonder why I would join with those who so recently attacked my legion and killed so many. One might ask the same of these Anari and their companions, the Lord Annuvil and the Lady Tess, for they suffered mighty losses of loved ones at the hands of my men.”

  Now satisfaction chased over the faces of his listeners. He had given a good account of his legion, while reminding them that the losses had not been Bozandar’s alone.

  Reaching back, he motioned Ratha to step forward. “This Anari beside me watched me kill his brother, just as I watched his brother kill my young cousin. Yet we have buried our swords rather than pursue revenge and bitterness, for there is a greater enemy who threatens all of us.

  “But before I speak of that, let me remind you of equally important matters. You worry because there has been a slave rebellion at home. Some of you may have lost family in that rebellion. I have no doubt that in the army of the Snow Wolves behind me, many have lost loved ones, both Anari and Bozandari. So why should we end the fight here? Why not carry it on and seek a hollow victory right now in our foe’s blood?”

  Some heads nodded and others murmured agreement. Even Alezzi seemed to find that idea appealing.

  “I will tell you why,” Tuzza said, his voice quiet. “Because if you do that, you will not be fit to fight the greater evil. And to fight the greater evil, you will need everyone, Anari and Bozandari alike, to stand together as brothers, for in this fight we will be brothers. Failure to unite now will leave us easy prey for the Enemy who even now plots against us. An enemy that will makes slaves of Bozandari as surely as we have made slaves of Anari. Think on that, my brothers. Think on how you have treated the Anari and ask yourselves if you would like your families to be treated in the same way.

  “For you must decide and you must decide now. Joining us will be no betrayal of Bozandar, but instead will be its salvation.”

  One of Alezzi’s officers spoke. “Who is this Enemy? We have seen no one.”

  “You will,” Tuzza said. “You have heard of the hives.”

  The man nodded reluctantly. “But I have not seen them with mine own eyes. It is rumor.”

  “Not rumor,” Ratha said, folding his arms. “We fought one. They are possessed by the Enemy, and they care not if they die. They act as with one mind. Have you tried to stomp out all the ants in an anthill? You cannot do it. The hive is much the same.”

  The Bozandari exchanged looks.

  “The Enemy,” continued Tuzza, “makes this winter unnaturally cold and bitter. He has caused crops to fail and thousands to die of hunger and cold. You know of this. You have heard of it or seen it. What you do not know is that it is being caused by the Enemy. He seeks to weaken us before he takes us over.”

  “Who is this Enemy? Where does he get this power?”

  Archer stepped forward. “It is he who was foretold and called the Lord of Chaos by some. He is my brother. Ardred.”

  Gasps ran through the assembled Bozandari, who had not heard all. Every one of them had heard the old tales and prophecies, for all were educated men. But none had ever expected them to be real.

  “These are the foretold times,” Archer said. “I will fight him alone if I must, but he has armies and hives, and he will use them to gut your cities and homes all while I struggle to reach him. The only way you can protect all that you cherish is to make it impossible for him to sweep unopposed through your lands.”

  This comment brought murmurs of agreement, for the argument made sense.

  “But how,” one of them finally asked, “do we know the truth of this?”

  “Is not my word enough?” Tuzza asked simply.

  Everyone among them knew Tuzza’s reputation and importance, but they were being asked to commit an act that might well turn out to be treason. Loyalty to their emperor demanded that they die before allowing such a thing to happen.

  Many appeared almost swayed to Tuzza’s side, but it was as if that last step was just one too many. They hesitated, and while they hesitated, one of them cried out and pointed to the west.

  Brilliant in the afternoon sunlight, glowing white as the creature of myth it was, a snow wolf came running. He crossed the plain like the wind while every eye fixed on him in disbelief and awe. Murmurs of wonder escaped several throats. Only one man even thought of touching his sword hilt, and he was stayed by Alezzi.

  “Wait,” Alezzi said. “I have already seen a miracle today. I would not object to seeing yet another.”

  The wolf loped toward them with all the ease of an animal accustomed to running league after league. It slowed only when it came within a spear’s throw. Then it walked toward them, its golden eyes bespeaking ancient wisdom.

  When at last it halted, it stood beside Tess, leaning against her side as she sat on her stool. Reaching out, she buried her fingers in its thick white ruff. Then she looked around at the gathered circle. “Do you need more?”

  “That is no dog,” murmured one of the Bozandari.

  “Nay,” agreed another. “’Tis the Snow Wolf. I saw one once as a boy in the northern forest, but I thought they had long since died out.”

  “It is not yet their time,” Tess answered. “What more do you need? Tell me, and I will try to show you. Would you like me to turn the sand to glass right before your feet? Shall I shoot a thunderbolt into the air?”

  “Tess…” Archer spoke cautiously. “You must not use your strength for a mere display. These men must believe in what they do, not be cowed into it.”

  She looked down, then nodded. “Let them decide, then.” She rose and scanned them all. “I am done with councils, done with trying to persuade men to do what is right and good. If you cannot see the way, then perhaps you deserve all that will befall you.”

  With that she turned and walked back toward the hills. Beside her went the Snow Wolf.

  Chapter Twenty

  On the whole, Tess was pleased. The Snow Wolves had spent the past two days encamped with Alezzi’s Black Lions. Once again, there was tension in the camp, for there were some among Alezzi’s legionnaires who could not countenance marching alongside Anari. Alezzi offered amnesty and an honorable discharge to all who could not march with him, and perhaps one in ten of his number had done so.

  Still, their combined host numbered nearly eight thousand, and while the commanders lacked confidence that they could fight together effectively, Tess believed they could at least march to Bozandar without too much friction in the ranks. The more time they spent together, sharing the inevitable hardships of an army in the field, the more they would bond as a unit.

  “My men do not wish to adopt your pennant, lady,” Alezzi said quietly, watching the activity in the camp.

  “Nor would the Snow Wolves wish you to,” Tess said. “The Snow Wolves fought together, and even if they fought against one another in that battle, they share the memory of those dark days. They might resent granting their banner to men who have not yet been tempered together with them.”

  Alezzi nodded. “You are very wise, lady. And perhaps that
is for the best. Would it not be better that we enter Bozandari lands not as one army but as two—one from each of our peoples—marching side by side?”

  Tess smiled. “Yes, that might well spare us much trouble along the way. Once we near the city, though, I wonder what we can expect.”

  “I would not hope for arms opened in friendship,” Alezzi said. “Sadly, I do not believe that can happen.”

  “You think not?” Tess asked, not in challenge but because she was curious as to the mettle of the man with whom she now stood.

  “Have you never been to Bozandar?” he asked.

  Tess shook her head. “I don’t know. If I have, I have no memory of it.”

  She quickly told him what she knew of her story, from waking in the carnage of a butchered trade caravan, her rescue to Whitewater, her journey down the Adasen River, the horrible famine and death in Derda, her captivity in Lorense and the battle with Lantav Glassidor’s hive, then through the desert into the Anari lands and on to Anahar.

  “The rest you know,” Tess concluded. “And I know only little more than you of my life before that.”

  “That must be…frightening,” Alezzi said.

  Tess smiled. “Yes. I know too much of who I am, but too little of who I was.”

  “I can scarcely imagine, lady. If I am a good officer and a good man, it is because I remember the mistakes of my past. How can you avoid the mistakes of your youth if you cannot remember them?”

  Tess considered that for a long moment. It was a question she had not yet pondered, and the more she thought on it, and the man who had asked it, the more she saw of the depth of that man.

  “I suppose I can only trust myself,” Tess said. “Trust that the choices I make are born of those lessons, even if I cannot recall them.”

  And yes, she thought. That was frightening. Alezzi had put his finger on the fear that hovered always in the back of her mind, the reason she so often doubted every decision she made.

  “I would not fret on this too deeply, lady,” Alezzi said. “I can clearly see that you have earned the trust of all who know you, and not only because Ilduin blood runs through your veins. My cousin has spoken of your courage and wisdom, as has Lord Archer and his Anari commanders. Whether you know from whence comes that courage and wisdom is of little account. That you possess them is without question.”

  “Thank you, Alezzi,” she said. “You are a comforting counselor.”

  “If I am,” he replied, “it is only because the truth favors you.”

  “And if it did not?” she asked.

  Alezzi replied with an almost unreadable smile. “I am an officer, lady. My life is governed by the harsh truths of time and distance, hunger and fatigue, fear and death. I cannot afford to lie to myself, nor to my men. Nor would I lie to you.”

  “If all officers saw their duty thus, there would be no cause for war,” Tess said. “Yet fight we do. And, you say, we will again at the gates of Bozandar.”

  Alezzi shook his head. “I did not say that, lady. I said only that we cannot hope to be greeted as friends and brothers.”

  Tess looked at him, the unspoken question written on her face, waiting for him to continue.

  “The Bozandari are a proud people,” Alezzi said. “And with good reason, I think. For many generations, we have brought security and prosperity to the people of the Adasen Basin. We provided a common currency and a system of roads and markets. We provided both a body of law and the courts in which that law is applied. The city of Bozandar is the sparkling jewel of the Enalon Sea, a beautiful, safe and orderly city where peoples from east and west, north and south come together for commerce and banking.”

  “I dare say that your home is not so beautiful, safe or orderly right now,” Tess offered.

  He nodded. “Perhaps not. Though perhaps once those Anari who wish to leave have done so, it will be even more beautiful than ever. I say that not to criticize them, but simply from my belief that to own a slave poisons the owner as much as the slave.”

  “You oppose slavery,” Tess said.

  Alezzi lifted his head, as if searching for an answer in the wispy feathers of cloud that floated high above in an otherwise clear azure sky. “Yes, I suppose now I do. I have not opposed it in the past. I merely rejected it for myself, leaving for others their own choices to make.”

  That rationale, Tess thought, had been a seductive yet incomplete justification for keeping silent. Such thoughts were likely common among the citizens of Bozandar.

  “And yet,” Tess said, “in leaving for other Bozandari their own choices to make, you stood by while choices were denied the Anari.”

  He met her eyes. “You speak truth, Lady Tess.”

  Speak truth to power. The phrase bubbled up into her consciousness, and for a moment she waited, wondering if the words would find context in some as yet buried memory. But none came. Still, the meaning of the words was plain in her mind, and she decided to continue.

  “And if Bozandar has given so much to the people of these lands, do not forget that those gifts were offered at the point of a sword.”

  Now Alezzi closed his eyes, drawing a long, slow breath before he spoke. “If that is true, it is only in part, my lady. Yes, we conquered. But in most of those lands, our conquest brought the first peace their people had ever known. Darkness more than light was often their fate, and clans fought clans, slaying people in their beds or in the streets. And do not forget that most of the more lawful peoples joined Bozandar willingly, paying taxes and swearing fealty to the emperor in exchange for the security and commerce we could provide.”

  “I cannot forget what I never knew,” Tess said, wondering how much of this explanation was true, how much Alezzi believed to be true, and how much was yet more facile justification. “But your treatment of the Anari makes me…skeptical. Perhaps too much of your glorious history has been washed too clean.”

  “That may be true,” he said. “But if so, I played no part in the scrubbing of it. What I have shared with you is what I was taught. Until these past days, I had not thought to challenge it. My duties and my focus lay with my men.”

  Tess nodded. “I appreciate that, Alezzi.”

  He let out a brief, silent chuckle, almost a sigh.

  “What?” Tess asked.

  “No one calls me by name except my wife and Tuzza, lady. And I have seen little of them in the past months. It sounds strange to hear my own name.”

  “I am becoming too familiar with that,” Tess said, smiling. “Too often now, I am ‘lady’ or at most ‘Lady Tess.’ Whatever others may think of me, I have not yet become entirely comfortable with it.”

  “And I would feel disrespectful calling you anything else, Lady Tess,” he said, smiling. “Please do not take that amiss. It is a sign of honor.”

  Tess sighed. “Sometimes I feel I receive too much honor. I did not ask for this gift, if indeed a gift it is. I did not ask for blood that causes men to burn and die a horrible death. I hate it.”

  “And well you should,” Alezzi said. “What an awful burden to carry. And yet, you also heal men. I have heard of it from the Snow Wolves, of horrible wounds made whole, so that men who would otherwise have died could live.”

  “Many of them only to die in the battles ahead,” Tess said. “What gift is that, to enable a man to experience that agony and terror yet again?”

  Alezzi ran a knuckle along his chin, studying the rocks for a long moment. “And yet you press on, my lady.”

  “What choice do I have?”

  “We always have choices,” Alezzi said firmly. “Those who believe they have no choices panic and do nothing, or worse. You may not have wanted this road you walk, but you choose it each day when you put one foot before the next.”

  “If I saw another road, I fear I would walk it,” she said. “I fear I would leave all of this behind and return to whatever my life was before. I would never again burn a man with my blood, or heal the horrible wounds of a war that is fought in my cause. I w
ould never again see men suffer so horribly under my care. Yes, Overmark. If I saw another road, I would flee this one, no matter how much I might loathe myself for doing it, rather than bear another day of battle and death.”

  She hated herself even for saying the words, and for a moment her lip trembled, her vision blurred. She turned away, repulsed by her weakness, revolted by what she had admitted. She was no Weaver, save for a weaver of death.

  She felt a hand on her shoulder, gentle but firm, and soon her back felt warmer, the nerves alerting her that he had stepped closer. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and soothing.

  “Lady Tess, you have no idea how often I have heard those words. I have heard them from my officers. I have heard them from my men. I have heard them from my own lips, too many times to count. No soldier who is also a good man could think otherwise, for no good man could take true pleasure in war. Those who do are dark men, evil and not to be trusted, for they have a lust that all the blood in the world could not slake. What you say does not make you a coward. It makes you a woman worthy of respect, worthy of the blood you carry.”

  Tears trickled down her cheek but she kept her face averted so that Alezzi could not see them. She still did not know this man well enough to show weakness with him. Certainly not weakness of this kind.

  Salvation arrived in the form of Archer. “Alezzi, Tuzza, Ratha and Jenah seek you. A council is being held to determine our strategy for the next few days.”

  Alezzi’s hand dropped from Tess’s shoulder. “I will go at once. Do you come?”

  Archer shook his head. “This is a decision for the commanders of the armies. I would not take their place.”

  Alezzi bid them both good-night and clattered his way down the rocky slope, disappearing into the inky night. Soon even the last of his sounds trailed away.

  “I did not hear you come,” Tess remarked.

  “I can be as silent as a desert mouse when I choose. I felt you needed me.”