“I never anticipated that our deliverance would come in the guise of a Fae of the royal family,” Kieran admitted, softly, through her tears. “But you’re not truly Fae, are you? A Fae noble would never choose to live amongst us, or to worship with us in our temple. You’re Vilken to your core. I see it now. The Vilken nobles who are still living will come forward. They will do as I have done, pledging their fealty. We will rise from this squalor, and once again be proud of who we are,” she said. “Together we will restore Vilkerland to her former glory.”
“Now we’re truly speaking treason, Kieran,” I replied, smiling at the earnest emotion evident on her timeworn face. Kieran finally stood, and accepted her weapon from my hand.
“Then I’ll not ask you to voice your consent in this moment. First, I’ll earn your trust, Your Grace. After this war against these Head Takers is won, we’ll discuss the future,” Kieran said, smiling genuinely for the first time, as tears continued to slide down her cheeks.
-CH 19-
It happened as Kieran foretold. Over the following ten days every shabby, threadbare, Vilken noble, who had been anathematized by Lore after the Baneland War, presented at the gates of Lauderdam. Each time a formal audience with me was requested. On every occasion, I rode out to treat with the former noble, as I’d done with Kieran. As soon as we reached the fountain in the center of Lauderdam Village, the noble would solemnly dismount and pledge fealty to me. In this way, the ranks of my army grew rapidly, with well-trained and dedicated officers.
Kashun was provided the workforce to rebuild the barracks, and Kieran, at my command, began rebuilding the southern barracks for her arm of my Vilken force. Finally, we were ready to face the savages marauding the coastal regions. I could forestall no longer. War was at hand.
I worked ceaselessly over the following weeks, training new recruits with Kashun, and studying the intelligence I received from my tattered little band of spies. I knew where to attack, and where to send Kieran. We would launch simultaneous assaults on two fronts, and hopefully, quickly devastate the savages who had been prowling unchallenged through Baneland.
I was in my office studying maps, hammering out our strategy, when Lia appeared. We’d hardly spoken since that day we rode together, when she insisted she would be joining me on the battlefield. Usually I was sleeping when she finally came to bed, in the early hours of the morning. Always, she was up before I rose. Furthering her isolation from me, she’d even chosen to take her meals alone in the library with only her books for companionship. She’d not even ceased studying long enough to spend time with Astrid over the previous weeks.
Lia didn’t greet me as she entered, but sank down in the chair opposite my desk. She was grown thin, I noticed, her beautiful, pale, grey eyes underlined by dark circles. Patiently, I waited for her to speak.
“I’m ready,” she said by way of greeting.
“Ready for what, my darling?” I asked, thrilled she had finally sought me ought.
“The smithy has completed my body armor and weaponry, and I’ve studied every book on war, and battle strategies, and tactics, that Ania could provide for me,” she said. “If you’re still determined to do this insane thing, I’m ready.”
“Lia, you don’t belong on a battlefield,” I said gently.
“I realize that, Pet,” she agreed, sounding almost defeated. “Neither of us belongs there. Unfortunately, it’s required of us.”
“Lia, please, you can’t mean to…”
“I have no intention of arguing with you about this. Now, tell me about our army,” she demanded. “Size is relevant to strategy.”
“I’ve built six regiments,” I said, gazing down at the map on my desk. “Three of them are in the south with General Kieran.” I pointed to the southeastern territory. “Here is the regiment made up mostly of southern Vilkerlings, just beyond the Baneland wastelands. And there is my second division, behind those hills to the west. A third division is waiting to the north, between these two mountains.” I skimmed my finger across the map and away from the territory I was depending on Kieran to protect, to the three divisions I would lead. Already they were moving west of us. “In the northwest my elite infantry, made up mostly of former Vilken nobility, should be nearing their position in the foothills of the Nutamek Mountains. Just south of them, I have a division of generally low quality recruits, poorly trained, either too young or too old, and with inferior weapons. I’d like to keep them out of the fighting, unless I desperately need numbers on the field. Southwest of there, and a day’s ride from the coast, I have sent Kashun with my sixth division, made up of well-trained, but untried soldiers. At this point we have an army of roughly forty thousand.”
Lia focused on the map a moment before raising her gaze to mine. She appeared surprised. She glanced down at the map again before speaking.
“How many Head Takers are there?” she asked.
“It’s hard to know for certain. My spies tell me each ship holds around three thousand, and we’ve counted thirteen ships landing along the coast. This is a full scale invasion, Lia,” I added. “They plan to take Baneland.”
“Then what you said, about being safe behind these walls, it wasn’t true,” she observed.
“It’s true because I will make it so,” I replied. “None of these savages will reach so far inland. I’ll kill every last one of them near the coast. After their blood has soaked the Vilken soil, we will return their headless corpses to their ships, set them ablaze, and be done with them.”
“When do we leave?” Lia asked.
“I leave in the morning,” I replied. “And you will remain here with Astrid, Emma, and Ania,” I added.
“How do you plan to stop me from going with you?” she asked evenly.
“Lia, please,” I said quietly. “I don’t want you being exposed to such brutality.”
Lia glared at me a moment, her eyes hard, her jaw set, her lips tight as if she were biting them inside of her mouth to keep from reacting. Slowly her expression softened and her eyes became slightly red. She took a deep breath and stood from her chair. She came around my desk to me, and then eased my chair back from my desk to face me. Dropping down to her knees, she rested her head on my lap, her arms encircling my waist. One of my hands fell to her back and the other cradled her head in my lap.
This was the first glimmer of affection she’d shown me since our confrontation in the stables more than a month earlier. She remained still as I waited. Finally, I felt my eyes stinging as I watched her.
“Lia, I don’t want you hurt,” I whispered. “Please. Stay here where I can keep you safe.”
She raised her head to meet my gaze, and then rose to her feet before sitting in my lap, tucking her face against my neck. She sighed, and my arms tightened around her while my chair groaned in protest at our combined weight.
“If it didn’t feel so wonderful to be in your arms again, I’d be furious with you, Pet,” she whispered against my neck. “I love you more than anything in this world,” she added.
“Lia, you’re not meant for war,” I said gently. “Let me protect you from this.”
“The way you protected me from Lord Gere?” she asked softly. Every muscle in my body tensed at her mention of the high lord. She drew back from me and offered an indulgent smile. “I’m not a fool, my love,” she said quietly. “I know you orchestrated that evening from start to finish, making certain I was safely away with Astrid, and drugging all of my mothers’ guests. I’m not certain how you struck the actual blow, though my instincts tell me poison. I do know you used that meticulously crafted chaos to kill him,” she said. “You’re not like my mothers. You were never meant to be a killer, Pet. You’re gentle and kindhearted. Circumstance forced violence from you.”
“Lia, I…I didn’t want…” I stammered, unable to reply easily. I hadn’t expected her to see through the ruse so easily.
“You didn’t want me to know you killed him?” Lia replied. “Well, I know. You couldn’t stand to see
me upset, so you removed the provocation. In all honesty, it took me a while to put it together,” she admitted. “But it was all too convenient. Lord Gere disappears on the evening of his arrival, the first time you set eyes on him since learning of what he did to me. And you drugged all of those people. You’re the most honorable person I know. It must have been difficult to overcome your conscience when the time came.”
“He was a monster,” I replied. “I would have torn his head off with my bare hands in front of everyone if that’s what it took to protect you.”
“Yes, he was a monster,” she agreed. “But you didn’t need to kill him. He could have harmed you, or you could have been caught. It was too much to risk.”
“I disagree,” I replied.
“I love you for wanting to protect me, even when you are so misguided in your actions. I’m not a child, though, Pet. I’m your mate, your equal. You can’t shield me from everything unpleasant in life,” she whispered.
“You’re wrong, darling. I can and will shield you,” I said emphatically. “It’s my responsibility to keep you safe.”
“All right, I’ll agree to that,” she replied. “Just as it’s my responsibility to keep you safe. I’m your partner, not your ward. I’ll face this threat with you. I’d have helped you kill Lord Gere if you hadn’t shut me out.”
“It’s done now,” I replied, wanting to end the discussion. “There’s no reason to delve into it.”
“Your life has been a solitary one since you lost your mother when you were a little girl. You’ve always relied on your wits, and kept your own counsel. It’s probably the reason you’re still alive. But, you don’t have to face everything alone anymore. I’m with you,” Lia whispered next to my ear. “You took the burdens from my shoulders when I was vulnerable, and for that I’m more grateful than you’ll ever know, but that’s not what I need from you now. I don’t want to be kept safe, as if I were weak. Let me protect you, and keep you safe.”
I shook my head as I spoke. “Lia I’ll be more vulnerable with you there, in constant fear of what might happen to you.”
“You’re no stronger than I am,” Lia observed. “Of the two of us, I’m actually a little taller. I’ve been trained in combat arts since I could walk. I’ve studied strategy and tactics. What makes you think I would be less effective than you on a battlefield?”
“That has nothing to do with it,” I admitted. “I simply can’t lose you. The fear of it paralyzes me.”
She took a deep breath, as if frustrated. She shifted back, and then moved to straddle my lap. Sitting in front of me, she met my gaze silently for a moment, her hands gripping my shoulders. She leaned in and kissed me gently before drawing back.
“You won’t lose me, Pet,” she assured me. “I’ll be by your side the entire time. We’ll keep well away from the worst of the fighting, and protect each other.” I knew there was no way, short of having her imprisoned, to stop her from joining me the following morning. I never had any control over her. I nodded and she relaxed her weight against my chest.
“You win, Lia,” I conceded.
The following morning I awoke with Lia in my arms for the first time in weeks. As I stirred, she snuggled closer to me, and I allowed myself the indulgence of waiting for her to wake before rising. I listened to her quiet sighs, felt the soft undulation of her breathing, and craved her soft lips. After what seemed not enough time, but was actually almost an hour, the sunlight reached through the windows of our bedchamber to shine across her. Watching her come back to herself, my heart sank. A sense of loss pervaded me with the realization that she would soon lose the innocence so obvious about her. She would charge into battle and kill our enemies. Lia would be spattered with blood and gore, just as Lore had been, and M’Tek, and in the same way, she would change. Lia was correct. She would be a great warrior, but that tenderness would be sacrificed in the endeavor.
Lia turned over onto her back and gazed up at me, her beautiful pale eyes catching the morning sunlight. A sweet smile reshaped her features as she reached a slender hand to the base of my neck, behind my head, to draw me down into a kiss. I wanted her, but we had no time. She drew away from me and rose from the warmth of our bed. Allowing myself a moment of weakness, I lay in our sheets a little longer, as I watched her begin to ready herself for the journey ahead of us. She set her traveling clothes out, and ran a brush through her golden hair, and then disappeared into our bathing chamber. Throwing the sheets back, I hurried after her, to share one last bath.
Two hours later we were ready to set off. Both Lia and I wore our hair in tiny rows, braided close to our scalps. Neither of us donned battle gear at that point, as the nearest encampment of Head Takers was two days ride toward the western coast. We opted for comfort over caution. We rode with only three guards, as the rest were necessary to keep Lauderdam safe in our absence. Throughout the first two days of our journey, we never left our own land, as it stretched toward the sea. We turned in a southwesterly direction in the late afternoon of the third day, and finally left our holdings behind.
The landscape was eerily quiet as we moved into the less forgiving, rocky terrain, of the central Vilken coast. Several hours after nightfall we reached the Nutumek Mountains, and my elite infantry waiting there. Lia had been almost brooding, her manner reserved throughout our journey, instilling a feeling of foreboding in me as we traveled. Once we reached the camp she seemed to wake.
Before my eyes Lia altered from a shy young woman into a general, as she rode the circumference of the camp, checking the situation of the soldiers on watch, adding a few guards to the perimeter. I was meeting with the lieutenant on duty when she returned. Clearly, she was exhausted, but she threw herself into studying the maps. Scouts had provided locations for the makeshift encampments of the Head Takers. We believed at that point we possessed the element of surprise, since the Head Takers hadn’t moved far inland from the coast.
Unaware, or unconcerned more like, with the skepticism of my lieutenant at her involvement, Lia peppered him with questions as she studied the map, running a delicate finger across the mountain range and along the river. After about a half an hour she gazed up at me and finally pronounced her judgment.
“We need to split this regiment, Pet,” she said in her clipped Vilken. It was strange for me, almost distracting, to hear her speaking to me in the Vilken tongue. Usually we spoke to one another in Fae, and reserved Vilken for the servants. “We have to split all of the regiments. The Head Takers will move more freely in their smaller cohorts,” she explained. “If we divide into cohorts and surround this area, we might herd them all into one group. It would cause chaos for them, and allow us to contain them.”
My lieutenant stared at her as if she’d said something insane, and then turned his attention to me. “If we divide the regiment, communication will be impossible, Your Grace,” he pointed out.
“You are wrong, Lieutenant Tissane,” Lia said firmly, addressing him directly. “This is the elite infantry. We are not leading common warriors, but Vilken nobility. They understand order, and chain of command, better than any other soldiers. Divide them off by rank. We’ll inform the captain of each cohort of our strategy, and keep scouts moving between them, passing information.”
“Lia, I’m not certain…” I started.
“But I am certain, Pet,” she replied calmly. “We need to clean up this part of the coast quickly and join General Kieran in the south,” she said. “This western coastal attack is only a diversion. Even if they took this land, they couldn’t hold it, or launch a successful invasion from here. Crossing the mountains would be too perilous, especially with the sudden and massive snowfalls of late fall, and by people who don’t know the terrain, on the wrong type of horses. With the mountains at our backs, we’re isolated, and vulnerable. We are being drawn into a trap,” she explained, her finger gliding across the map from our position to the Baneland wastelands, and then across the border into Faeland. “This is where their invasion will succeed
or fail,” she added. “They’re not only here to take the Baneland Territory, but Faeland too, and eventually Nogeland. They’re keeping Mata busy in the extreme east of her domain, so they can take the lower Borderland pass. The attack on Nogeland may be a diversion too, an attempt to draw Mamma, and her powerful army, away from the heart of where this continent is most vulnerable, here at the core, just inland from the Luminous Gulf.”
I followed the graceful movements of Lia’s fingers on the map and realized what she was seeing. Lia was correct. The attack was of a far greater and more organized scale than I’d realized. The haphazard appearance of these attacks was only subterfuge. I looked at her face, stern with concentration, completely focused. My heart beat faster as she raised her eyes self-consciously. She looked like a girl again, eagerly seeking my approval.
“You’re right, of course, my darling,” I agreed, speaking softly, and in Fae. I heard Lieutenant Tissane shuffling behind me. “We’ll do as the princess commands,” I added, resuming the Vilken tongue. “This infantry must be reorganized by morning. See to it, lieutenant.”
“It will be done, Your Grace,” he replied.
****
In the beginning Lia and I lead from the rear, usually from a good vantage point, so we could control communication between the cohorts, and gage the movements of the individual clashes. It was almost surreal, giving orders to seasoned Vilken warriors, and watching as they obeyed with utter precision in the unfolding battle. Commanding an army came more naturally to Lia. She fretted less over the loss of life, focusing on the destruction of our enemy instead, while I looked on our soldiers as my people, those I meant to protect, but was instead sacrificing.
A Fortunate Woman Page 33
