Loyalty and War

by Devon Vesper

  “Shit.”

  “Kaphir is using me against him.” Valis groaned and struggled to sit up. His vision came back as Tavros helped him get vertical. “Our element of surprise is gone.”

  “Why don’t you scry after him?” Tavros offered. “If it’s happening in real-time, instead of past or future, he should be alone now, right?”

  Valis shivered and took a deep breath. “Honestly? I didn’t see anything reflective in his cell, so I don’t know if I can.”

  “Describe his cell?”

  “It’s just like the ones in Avristin…”

  “Metal cots?”

  Valis whipped his head around to stare at his husband. “Yes!”

  “Well, get to it.” Tavros pulled Valis in to kiss him softly. “Everything will work out.”

  Valis wished he could be so positive, but he had to try. The only way they would succeed was if they stayed positive and put out that energy into their universe—put it out to Sovras and whoever their creators were.

  Once Valis was calmer, he pulled his pocket watch out and flipped the golden cover down. With a deep breath, Valis focused on his father and the shiny metal cot frame. But every time he tried, Valis saw nothing. Not the “black darkness of a lightless cell” kind of nothing. But “the scry isn’t going through” kind of nothing. After getting up to pace and trying several more times, Valis’s stomach pitted, and he fell to his knees, clutching at his stomach. Either something very bad was going to happen, or somehow the Sovereign Pries of Qos had found out about Valis’s scrying habits and put some kind of barrier in place. Could that be the problem?

  Tavros hauled him up off the ground and kept hold of him, guiding him toward one of the fires that Valis just now noticed. It seemed his army had gotten hungry and decided it was an opportune time to cook lunch.

  When he sat, Syn handed him a mug of his spiced milk, and Tavros sat next to him, keeping Valis tucked securely against his side.

  “Why don’t you scry after Kerac to help you calm down and get some comfort?” Tavros asked softly. “He would love to hear from you.”

  Valis shook his head. “What would I tell him? That the Sovereign Priest of Qos knows we’re coming and is prepared? That I can no longer contact Darolen and only know he’s alive because of a vision I saw where the Sovereign Priest of Qos completely broke him? That I nearly died rescuing the entire army from a flood that threatened to break us all? …I have no good news for him, Tav…”

  “I’m sorry,” Tavros said against the side of his head. He pressed a kiss there and murmured near his ear, “Then why don’t you scry the distance and see how close we are? Planning always calms you down.”

  Valis frowned. “Do you think it’s real, or do you think I was seeing what the Sovereign Priest of Qos wants me to see?”

  “How would that be possible?” Shyvus asked as he handed Valis a bowl of stew and a hunk of bread.

  Valis took a bite of bread, washed it down with his spiced milk, and balanced everything precariously on his lap. “Kaphir knows we’re coming. Or… that’s what the visions show.”

  “Tell me what you know,” his friend said as he sat down next to Valis. “All of it.”

  And Valis did. He took his time to eat between recounts of his last two scries. Then Phalin glanced over, peeking around his husband. “I would almost bet he’s bluffing. Chances are, he found out about ‘someone’ talking to Darolen. That might be why he put him in a clean, comfortable cell instead of the dungeon because there are fewer reflective objects with which to scry there. Then he probably added a scry-blocking parameter to their monastery’s shields. It would make sense, then, to use what he knew to break Darolen’s will.”

  “And Darolen’s reaction told Kaphir, without a doubt, that Valis is, indeed, on his way if he didn’t know that information already,” Shyvus said.

  “You can’t honestly fault him for that,” Valis said with a growl in his voice.

  Shyvus set his bowl on his lap and raised both hands. “I don’t fault him, Valis. I’m merely stating facts. No one, not a single soul, could fault him. He’s stayed strong longer than any of us could—excluding you, at least. I’m fairly sure you could withstand it based just on how stubborn you were to amass an army to rescue Darolen no matter who opposed you.”

  Ducking his head, Valis poked at his stew and went back to eating quietly while he processed that. When he finished his stew and bread, Valis let Brogan take his dishes while he sipped on his spiced milk, not even bothering to fight the pang of homesickness it brought.

  Then he sighed and pulled out his pocket watch again. After a few moments, he had scried the distance and nodded to himself. When he was finished, Valis turned to Shyvus. “Get the ground map, please. We need to get this worked in.”

  When Shyvus brought it to the fire, Valis looked over it and found the landmark the cartographer had sketched in that was closest to their current position.

  “We’re not far east of this marker,” Valis said. “According to the scry, we should be there in two days if we keep riding as we are.”

  Valis took the pencil from behind Shyvus’s ear and made a few marks. “There are small nests in these three places. We need to hit those before we head for our final destination.”

  “How small is small?” Cassavin asked as she squatted in front of them.

  “The largest is ten people,” Valis said. He smiled at her. “I just don’t want any surprises biting us in the ass.”

  “Anything else?” Nevesar asked. She stood protectively over her wife, Cassavin. “You’re too pale for that to be all of it.”

  Valis shook his head and rubbed his hand down his face with a sigh. “I saw a shimmer near the entrance to the cave.” He shrugged. “It feels like a trap, so we’ll have to be extra careful.”

  “Traps,” Tavros groaned. “Great.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Do you see the shimmer?” Valis asked.

  Tavros groaned. “Wish I didn’t.”

  As Valis had predicted, the base of the mountain was only a two-day ride, and now the army stood only about a third of a league out. Just far enough away that Valis felt secure that the army remained hidden behind the steep hill he, Tavros, Shyvus, and Phalin now stood upon. The shimmer was faint, but with an adjustment to his eyesight, pushing his dark magic into his eyes, the colors leached out to grayscale, but he was able to see past the shimmer. It was too far away to see anything more than a wall and what he thought were people, but it was enough to take with him back to the army.

  “Jintas!”

  The mercenary leader urged his mount into a trot and stopped before Valis. He bowed shallowly over his horse’s neck, right fist over his heart and left hand out, palm up. “What do you need?”

  Valis smiled at the formality but dismissed it with a nod. Jintas knew how he felt about such things, but it warmed Valis that Jintas respected him enough to continue bowing to him, regardless.

  “I need a couple of scouts to go check out the stronghold about a third of a league past this hill.”

  Jintas raised both brows. “You can see that far?”

  Valis grinned. “Magic, Jintas. Magic.”

  “Cheeky shit.” Jintas shook his head and called for the twins. When they pulled their horses alongside Jintas’s, Valis nodded to them. As he explained what he saw, Valis cast two shields over each of them—an invisible black magic one that would enable them to see past the invisibility shield protecting the stronghold, as well as keep them from tripping any shield-based alarms, and a gold one with the invisibility, soundproofing, and track-erasing parameters beneath.

  “Go, and be careful,” Valis ordered. “I want you both back here within two hours or less with an estimate of their numbers, and details on the stronghold’s structure and layout.”

  “Sir!”

  As they took off, their horses’ hooves making not a single sound as their gallop ate up the distance, Valis motioned back toward the middle of the army. “Set up camp. Wa
r council after the scouts return.”

  Shyvus nodded. “Sir!”

  Valis rode toward where he wanted the edge of the shield to be and dismounted. It only took a few moments to erect the shield with the invisibility, soundproofing, smoke-filtering, and impermeability parameters in place. Once he did, he helped Tavros set up their tent and worked on unburdening and brushing down Rasera. By the time he finished and got done helping set up the fires to get lunch on, Valis broke away to check the time and scry after the scouts. When he didn’t see them, he had only two minutes to internally freak out before both scouts rode into the shield, heading straight for Valis.

  “What news?” Valis called.

  They both made almost identical faces as they bowed, just like their leader, right fist over their hearts and the other hand out, palm up. They both dismounted, and the identical twin on the left took both horses and went to erect their tent. The one on the right stepped forward. “They are about thrice our size, Grand Master. The stronghold blocks the way to the base of the mountain. There is a well-worn trail from the stronghold to the base, and then after it climbs a ways it just… disappears.”

  Valis nodded. “We are aware of that. The mountain face moves aside to reveal the entrance into the labyrinth that leads to the monastery within. We will need to clear the way.”

  “You mean kill everyone in the stronghold,” the twin said with a grin. He shook his head. “Why not just do as you did before and lay stasis over the entire stronghold?”

  Valis took a deep breath because he had been dreading that question. Clearing his throat, he opened his mouth, but Tavros clamped his hand on the back of Valis’s neck and started massaging as he took his place at Valis’s side.

  “Valis needs to conserve as much magic as possible to fight against the Sovereign Priest of Qos,” Tavros said. Valis was proud of Tavros for not sounding condescending. “He’s already depleted himself once, and putting that many people in stasis at once could leave him at a disadvantage in the final stages of this war.”

  The twin nodded. “Thank you. I’ll pass that along. There will be others who would ask the same.”

  “Thanks,” Valis said. “You’re dismissed. Relax while you can.”

  “Sir!”

  As he left, Valis turned and kissed Tavros softly. “Thank you. I’ve been dreading that question, and I couldn’t figure out how to word it right.”

  “I have you, love,” Tavros said. He stared into Valis’s eyes, his tone serious. “That’s my job.”

  And Valis fell in love with his husband all over again.

  Tavros must have noticed because he leaned in and claimed his lips in a languid kiss that Valis lost himself in. He only pulled back when he heard Seza and Zhasina giggling beside them.

  “You two really are too cute,” Zhasina said.

  “Glad you think so,” Valis teased once Tavros released his lips. “Now, let’s gather the reliquary guards and leaders. Someone set up some kind of table. Don’t care what it is. We just need something to write on.”

  “I’ll get the paper and pencil,” Seza said. “I brought writing supplies because I knew you would forget.”

  Valis chuckled. “Thanks. And yes, I did forget.”

  Seza just grinned at him and left. Zhasina left with her, raising her voice to call the reliquary guard. When Maphias and Jedai walked past, Valis grabbed Jedai’s arm to halt him. “You two, stick close. War council in five.”

  “You want us there?” Maphias asked.

  Valis nodded. “And bring your senior officers to represent the layman forces.”

  “Yes, sir,” Maphias said with a bow of his head.

  As he and Jedai jogged off to gather their superiors, Valis waited impatiently until Vodis called that the table was ready and the leaders were all assembled. When he got to the table, Valis smirked. They had removed the back gate from a wagon and propped it on two food barrels. It was crude, but it would work for their purpose.

  Valis called for the twins to come. They didn’t take long and stopped to Valis’s left.

  “I need you to lay out a rough sketch of the stronghold. I want to know what we’re getting into before we head in. Include as much detail as you can without taking forever. I’d like to get this done before lunch is served.”

  “We’re overtaking the stronghold today?” Jedai asked.

  Valis shook his head. “No. We strike early in the morning. I have a feeling it won’t be a short fight, and I want to be sure we’re all rested and ready for the battles to come.” He motioned to the table where the twins already started working on the sketches. “I meant I want the war council done before lunch.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Valis turned around to ask Tavros something when a shrill squeal pierced the air. Valis’s heart jolted. His stomach roiled.

  “What the fuck?” Tavros said. He stood there, wide-eyed.

  “AENALI, GO HOME RIGHT THE FUCK NOW,” Valis demanded in an undignified screech.

  Aenali ran to him and jumped, so certain that Valis would catch her.

  He did.

  He glanced at Jedai, and the poor man looked about ready to faint. He just stared, so Valis held Aenali tight and went to stand next to him.

  When he came up beside Aenali’s older brother, the little girl squished Valis’s face with both hands, got real close, and whispered, “Nope.”

  “What do you mean, ‘nope?’” Valis whined, his words distorted as he spoke through squished cheeks. “Please go home.”

  “She brought me.”

  Valis’s stomach did another somersault, and Tavros’s eyes got so wide that Valis feared they’d fall out of his head.

  “Aryn?” Valis shifted Aenali to his hip and rubbed his eyes with his fingers, thankful that his gloves were on the makeshift table. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  “Damn it,” Tavros spat. He rounded on his brother and grabbed him by the shoulders, giving him a solid shake before pulling him into a crushing hug. “Aryn, no…”

  Aryn wrapped his arms around his older brother’s neck and held on just as tight. Valis shook his head. Why were they here? His precognition, a feeling in his chest, told him that he needed them here, but just the thought made him nauseous.

  He stared at Aryn’s straight black hair that hung like silk down his back. He’d gained healthy weight, and the dark circles had vanished from under his eyes. It looked like he’d grown a few inches, that he had matured a little. His dark gray eyes held mirth and love rather than jealousy and hatred.

  He looked and felt like the boy Valis had first grown close to back in his early days at the monastery.

  Aryn tapped the back of Tavros’s head. “You need a haircut. You look like a shaggy dog.” He grinned then gave him a gentle push. “Let me go so I can go hug Valis. Aenali’s hogging him.”

  “I am not!” Aenali said. She stuck her tongue out and wiggled to get down after pressing a kiss to Valis’s cheek.

  After putting her down, Valis traded places with Tavros, giving Aryn a tight hug while Tavros cuddled the little girl.

  “What are you doing here?” Valis murmured into Aryn’s hair. “You could get killed.”

  “Aenali insisted,” Aryn said. “She badgered Thyran about it, saying she needed to go. Then Thyran had a vision, and he said we both had to go.”

  “Thyran sent you here?” Valis squawked. “What?”

  Sighing, Aryn tucked a stray strand of blue-black hair behind his ear and stepped back. “Thyran has been helping me hone my skills of late. Especially those I used to try and break you and Tavros up. Now, he and Aenali think I can make use of those skills here. I’m willing to try.”

  Valis glanced from Aryn to Aenali’s auburn curls that peeked up over Tavros’s pauldron. “You and Aenali will stay in this camp. Do you understand me?”

  Aenali frowned at him as Tavros handed her to her brother, Jedai, but Aryn gave her a look that Valis couldn’t read. “We will remain in the camp unless an emergency aris
es that we can help with.”

  That made the little girl nod. “Yes.”

  Valis doubted he would get any other answers by force, so he motioned to the table where the twins were finishing up their sketches. “We’re about to hold war council. You both can stay.”

  He looked around, and every reliquary guard and leader around the table frowned. Valis lifted a hand to gain their attention. “I’ll be confirming with Thyran after the war council. Try to reserve judgment until then. Right now, they are safe within these shields.”

  Sullen murmurs arose, but no one objected to Valis’s request.

  “We are finished, Grand Master,” one of the twins said. They both stood aside, moving to the end of the makeshift table so they could be available for any questions.

  Valis took a look at the sketches, his fingers skimming over the landmarks, and his mind almost broke with the memory of Darolen chained to a pole in the center of a stronghold as some man sliced his throat. His stomach churned. He forgot how to breathe.

  Then he felt warm hands on the back of his neck. Valis took a gasping breath and leaned into Tavros’s side, wishing they weren’t in armor.

  “What is it, love?” Tavros asked.

  Valis shuddered hard and took another deep breath before tapping the nearest sketch. “I recognize the stronghold.”

  “From one of your nightmares?”

  Valis nodded. “The one where they slit Father’s throat in front of what looked like a village’s worth of people.”

  He studied the sketches for a few moments and picked up the pencil. “Okay, tuck in close—”

  “Actually,” Aryn said in an apologetic tone, “if you want, I can cast the scry projection spell to show everyone, so the table isn’t crowded.”

  Valis frowned but nodded. “It’s important, so yes. Please do.”

  The boy slung his satchel around to his front and withdrew a black metal bowl and a sheet of steel with a mirror shine. Once he filled it with water from the water skin, one of the twins handed him, he stared into the bowl, and a moment later, images of the sketches hovered over the table.