Indomitus Sum (The Fovean Chronicles Book 4)

by Robert Brady

  Landing chest first into the hard ground, Xinto still managed to grope her ass as he landed on top of her. Raven’s nose filled up with the torn sod as she came to a rest on the ground. She rolled over, with the horny little Scitai next to her, looking up into the blue sky.

  Zarshar was the first of them off the ground. He towered over Raven, his red eyes almost on fire, his red teeth actually foaming, and said, “Girl, as you love me—not that again.”

  Seemed like pretty sage advice to Raven.

  * * *

  She sat by the campfire that night, another creature like an antelope turning on a spit over it, the dog with its head in her lap.

  Jahunga’s turn to cook. She’d offered and been turned down. They didn’t trust her to do a lot things, especially not now, but it seemed that, in this world, cooking was a man thing. She’d asked Vedeen about it.

  “Cooking?” she parotted. “Well, I suppose women do it more than males. I know Andaran men would starve to death with their kills around them, were it not for the women. However, Eldadorian males are measured by their cooking, and I actually find them, especially the Uman, more severe than the Andarans. A Toorian who can’t cook his own kills is called ‘part man,’ and your Volkhydran, Karl, has probably cooked more than has been cooked for him.”

  “My Volkhyrdran?” Raven asked her.

  “Am I mistaken?” Vedeen asked. “I’d considered coupling with him, but did not, for respect of you. The child would certainly be sound.”

  ‘What was it that her father used to say?’ Raven wondered. ‘Spank my ass and call me Sally?’

  “I’m—um, er—I’m with Jack, not Karl,” she said, finally.

  “Ah,” Vedeen said, nodding sagely.

  Matchmaker action, Raven thought. She’d had this before.

  It would be easier to be with Jack if she could actually be with Jack, or Bill, or whatever he was calling himself now. Personally, she’d really fallen in love with being Raven.

  Raven could handle things.

  “Goodsirs,” she heard. She turned to see one of the Volkhydrans talking to Karl.

  He was the oldest one—Forn. When the Volkhydrans needed to talk, they spoke to Forn, who spoke to Karl.

  “What is it?” Karl grumbled. He did that. When they spoke to him, he acted like he couldn’t stand them. They lapped that up.

  “There’s an outrider been shadowin’ us fer an hour ‘r more,” he drawled. “Been waitin’ to see what’s he’s about, seems he’s about keepin’ an eye what we’re about.”

  Raven had to digest that. Glynn and Jahunga were already off their feet.

  “And my Toorians missed this?” he demanded.

  “My respects,” Forn nodded to Jahunga, “an’ it is that yer Toorians wouldn’t know horse sign from horse shit. I don’t suspect as it’s much in yer jungles, anyway.”

  More for Raven to decipher.

  Sorry, dude—jungle people can’t tell anything about horses. Well, true enough. Jahunga nodded his acceptance of it.

  “Where and how many?” Karl demanded.

  “Jes’ one,” Forn said. “He’s a whiley, though—we git closed to him once, and he lit off, showed up t’ the other side of camp.”

  “You’ll never catch him,” Glynn said. “Either an Eldadorian scout or a Bounty Hunter hired by the Emperor to find us—either way, he’ll torment you into chasing him, while his allies encircle us.”

  “Break camp and ride, then?” Karl asked her. He seemed uniquely worried. Raven really didn’t know what Bounty Hunters were, but she’d heard them mentioned and there seemed to always be an edge of fear.

  Jahunga shook his head. “This we cannot do,” he said. “Move with them upon us, they start on our outriders and work their way in. Without the outriders they’ll surround us like a lion pride.”

  Again, Raven couldn’t argue with that.

  She reached out with her mind, imagining keeping low, imagining keeping her power to the ground like little mice, scurrying through the dry grass.

  She found a male three hundred yards from the camp, mounted, watching them; small, mean, dark—he wanted a reason to hurt them.

  She found another, a woman, much the same. This one had a longbow and arrows.

  Another to their south, another to their north.

  “Girl?” Glynn asked her.

  She roused herself from the spell, then felt embarrassed. She wasn’t supposed to cast spells this close to Metz.

  “I—um, gee, I’m sorry,” she began.

  “Too late for sorry, the damage, if any is done,” she said. “In fact, you did a passable job reining in your power, much as you usually wield it like a club. Did you find this person?”

  “I’m up to four so far,” Raven said. “North, south, east and west. But that’s just close to camp.”

  Karl looked at Jahunga across the fire. “That’s something you do before you bring in an attack force,” he said.

  “That would be my thinking, yes,” Jahunga said. “If they aren’t about to attack us, then they’re on their way.”

  “Who?” Xinto demanded.

  All eyes turned to Raven.

  “They’re small Men,” she said. “Black hair, yellow skin—they wear leather outfits and ride shaggy ponies. Does that help?”

  Now all eyes reverted to Xinto.

  “There’s a shaggy pony from deep in Conflu,” he said. “Some ride them—I don’t know those people. You’re describing Confluni warriors, but what are they doing here?”

  “The Emperor of Conflu has approached the Silent Island many times since the second invasion of Thera,” Glynn said. “They believe this is the side of Eldador that is, in fact, vulnerable.”

  “With thousands of Daff Kanaari warriors in Metz?” Karl scoffed. “I doubt Angron Aurelias ever got behind that plan.”

  “No,” Glynn said, “he did not. However, with a sufficient force of Confluni…”

  Xinto was already shaking his head. “No,” he said. “Conflu would never take on the Empire alone. Then all of the retaliation would fall back on Conflu, should it fail. No, the Emperor would demand some powerful ally, someone with magic to counter Shela, should go with them.”

  “Such as the Dorkans,” Karl said.

  “Or the Toorians,” Jahunga added. “Our shamans are strong.”

  “And without them, my people would lay waste to every village in your jungle,” Zarshar said. “No, the Dorkans—definitely.”

  “Then our lot is with these people,” Glynn said. “When this invasion force arrives, surely we must join with it.”

  “I don’t think we’re going to get that option,” Karl said. “Those scouts aren’t trying to contact us; they’re following us until someone else can sweep in and destroy us.”

  “However with our own Ambassador,” Glynn said, “we may well negotiate a peace, even an alliance—”

  Xinto sighed. “I can at the least find this army and speak with its leader,” he said. “Surely no one from Conflu will attack me.”

  “Take the Slee with you,” Zarshar grumbled.

  Xinto looked back up to the Devil quietly.

  “Take the Slee,” he repeated. “Best chance you have, if your friends decide not to like you. Let him know to slither in if you’re not back out in half a day.”

  “I haven’t even seen Slurn—” Raven began.

  The Slee melted out of the night, a double curved bow in his hand, his spear and a quiver full of arrows over his shoulder. He dropped the bow and the arrows at Raven’s feet.

  “Well, maybe only three watching us, now,” Karl said. “Where was this one, Slurn?”

  Slurn pointed to the south.

  “Any idea where that army of Confluni warriors is?” Karl asked.

  Slurn pointed to the west, and hissed.

  “Pretty far inland,” Karl noted. “Had to find us by accident.”

  Slurn turned his yellow eyes to Raven. Much as he communicated anything, he showed his love for her. She had
no idea where it came from, however she knew she felt safe with Slurn. She pushed the dog out of her lap and stood, crossed the camp and put her hand to the side of Slurn’s scaly jaw.

  She’d been getting stiff lately. She’d been hurt getting thrown. She’d stretched her legs too far apart, and fallen on her shoulder.

  “Slurn,” she gushed at him, batting her big, brown eyes. “Can you get Xinto to that camp and, if he needs you, get him out safely.”

  Slurn closed his eyes and hissed, “Ray—hen.”

  “That probably means, ‘yes,’ Forn speculated.

  “I hate to think what that means,” Karl added.

  Slurn turned and was into the high grass in a moment. Xinto shot her a wink and was after the reptile-man.

  What would come next was anyone’s guess.

  * * *

  Nina of the Aschire road hard to the west—as fast as her horse could stand it. Up in the saddle, her legs aching, the sun beating her back, she searched the horizon for a sign of the Emperor’s outriders.

  It would take her days to get to Uman City and more days to get back. In days, a Confluni army could kill thousands and rout the inner earldoms of the Empire, even threaten Metz and Steel City.

  She’d almost doubled back for Angador, but the Duke would either have the Emperor’s kinsman and be sending his own riders to Uman City, or have given up by now, and either way he would be bound for Angador.

  Better to let the Emperor know not to move his tens of thousands from his country, with an enemy already on the Andurin Peninsula.

  There! She saw it to the northwest, horse-sign. Dust kicked up, and a lot of it—a strong force of horses.

  She turned her mount and topped a hill, giving her some view over the land. She immediately saw the Wolf’s Head standard of the Emperor himself, at the center of a company of Theran Lancers.

  What he was doing this far north was anyone’s guess. Perhaps he had already been warned.

  But no, as she approached, she made out the details of others there, first Duke Two Spears, larger than life on an Andaran stallion, then beside him his sister, the Empress herself, Chawny in a kirruk on her back. To either side of her, her children, Vulpe and Lee.

  Her heart leapt, then another horse trotted up beside them, a black stallion larger than all of the rest.

  She didn’t recognize the Man, his hair and his beard longer, his stomach half the size, but she recognized Little Storm.

  She drove her heels into the horse’s side, pounding out the distance to her family and her enemy.

  * * *

  Had the world gone mad, she wondered?

  Nina felt as if she’d woken up in a dream instead of from one.

  Shela, Lee and Chawny had been captured by Genna. Vulpe had rescued them by collecting Wolf Soldiers and Lancers and setting a trap, and Jack, the Emperor’s kinsman, had helped him.

  Now Shela deferred to him, and Two Spears as well, and Wolf Soldiers were calling Vulpe by his first name, and saluting him.

  What’s more, Shela, the Bitch of Eldador, most feared woman alive, took direction from her son; her eyes looking like she’d buried him instead.

  “Girl, are you sure?” Two Spears demanded of her.

  She nodded. “Shela taught me how to interrogate a prisoner,” she said. “The man came from a moving army of no less than fifty thousand Confluni, and they were waiting for reinforcements.”

  “Conflu could turn out that many,” Shela said, “but to what end? We’ve crushed more.”

  “How?” Jack asked her.

  Even his voice made her skin crawl. Nina yearned to plunge a dagger into his breast.

  Shela’s eyes narrowed and Nina could tell she felt no different. One of the Wolf Soldier guards whom she recognized from Shela’s entourage, an Uman named Grelt, piped up, “Thirty thousand tried to overrun Thera more’n a decade ago, and the Emperor beat them with four thousand. Then they came at us with sixty thousand six years later, and Uman-Chi wizards, and we beat them in Thera again. Theran Lancers mowed them down; the Lady tore apart their wizards with her magic.”

  “I had help,” Shela admitted. “Even Nina, here, was involved in that battle.”

  “So attack Thera again, with fewer troops?” Jack pulled at his grey and brown beard, looking past all of them. “No, I don’t see that. That would just be stupid.”

  “They’re waiting for reinforcements,” Nina told him. Senile old man—she’d decided it. When she got him alone, he died. He couldn’t be allowed to infect young Vulpe with his ramblings.

  Vulpe would be a great man with the right guidance.

  “Has any army been big enough to match the Emperor?” Jack pressed them. Now, Nina thought, he was just flattering them. “Has he ever been outnumbered so badly he didn’t win?”

  “No,” Shela’s fierce eyes told of her pride. “No, never.”

  Two Spears was nodding, however. “Even the Confluni wouldn’t be so foolish,” he said. “The old one is right. They’ve struck Thera twice and been beaten twice. The last time we sank most of the ships in their navy and burned Sarn to the ground. Lupus swore he would march to the capital of Conflu if they tried this again.”

  “When they went after Thera the first time,” Shela said, slowly, “they attacked Eldador first, to try to draw the Wolf Soldiers out of the city. Yonega Waya pretended to send them, but sent the city militia instead. When they attacked Thera, they thought they faced the militia, and instead they faced the Wolf Soldiers.”

  “So if they make a feint at some city now…” Jack speculated.

  They were all quiet. Now Nina could see it go either way. Attack a city as a distraction to go after another one, or attack a city, pretend to attack the other one, and then go after the first city.

  Either way, a lot of Eldadorians were going to pay the price.

  “We have to move before they’re ready,” Vulpe said, finally, his hand on his sword.

  Nina recognized Fury, the sword she’d helped him name, which the Dwarves presented to his father on the day he was born. She’d hid it on him hundreds of time, and he’d found it as many. She was sure one day that he’d cut a finger off on the ultra-sharp blade.

  Now she saw the blood splatter on the top of the sheath. Nina felt her mouth drop open as she looked into the face of the little boy whom she’d mothered, whom she’d held with skinned knees, whom she’d tickled until he gasped for air.

  The face of the man, blooded before twelve years old.

  There is no peace in the House of Mordetur, she told herself. No wonder they deferred to him. No wonder his mother looked as if she’d lost her son.

  She had.

  “Your Highness,” Two Spears said, straightening, “we need to inform your father.”

  Vulpe looked immediately to Jack, whom he called ‘grandfather.’ The boy so desperate for his busy father had replaced him with this manufactured relative.

  Jack nodded. “If your father sails off on some campaign with troops on his doorstep, he’ll lose respect and maybe get stranded. The first thing they’ll want to do is to cut off his supplies.”

  “If they know that he’s campaigning,” Two Spears said.

  “Don’t you think it’s kind of a coincidence they picked this season to attack?” Jack looked him in the face, straightening on the impassive Little Storm. “Don’t you people usually start your wars this month, because it’s called War?”

  “What of it?” Nina spat. These people talked and talked.

  But now Shela was nodding. “Yes, we do,” she said, and looked at her son. “Angron Aurelias all but paved a road for your father to start this new campaign. Now the Confluni are here, just as he’s about to leave on it.”

  “Between Thera and Angador lie the most fertile plains in Eldador, and most of our grain and cattle,” Two Spears said. “If the Confluni take or destroy those, our armies abroad will starve.”

  “A feint for Steel City,” Jack said. “Then a direct assault on Uman City. That’s wh
at I’d do. Destroy that, and then park outside of Thera, and there goes all of the supplies in Eldador.”

  “We could ship—” Shela began, and caught herself.

  They could ship through Galnesh Eldador, except they’d have to fight their way through whatever was left of that Confluni army, plus their reinforcements.

  “Your Grace,” Vulpe said, using the formal with his uncle. Vulpe the boy would have called him ‘Uncle Tali,’ or even Two Spears. Vulpe the man owed him better.

  It still rattled Nina’s brain.

  “Two squads of fast Andaran riders, minimum armor, to Uman City. My father has to know what we know.”

  “Send them on different routes,” Jack said.

  Vulpe looked up at him. Marauder was more than a hand smaller than Little Storm, and Jack sat tall in the saddle regardless.

  “You’re at war, son,” he said. “You have to assume that whatever you do, your enemy knows you’d do it and, whatever you know, your enemy already knows it. If they know you’re on to them, then you’ll want to tell your father, and they don’t want that.”

  “One squad directly,” Two Spears said, “one squad through the plains, and a third back to Thera, to approach by boat.”

  “Mother, you must warn the capitol,” Vulpe said. “Hectar has probably already sent out a patrol—”

  “I should return to my father,” another boy said. Nina recognized Hectaro, Hectar’s son. For the last year she’d been fighting a war to keep Lee away from him.

  She shuddered imagining what they’d accomplished in her absence.

  Vulpe nodded. “You’ll take thirty Lancers and ride back to Galnesh Eldador with my sister,” he said. “Lee can operate the Central Communications as well as mother.”

  “Lee has never—” Shela began, and looked at her daughter, who blushed crimson and looked down.

  “Lee, you’ll stay in communication with mother,” Vulpe ordered her. Then he kicked his horse and moved right alongside of Hectaro, extending his tiny arm to the older boy.

  Some would consider him the man, of at least eighteen summers. Hectaro took the prince’s arm in his.

  “On your life, guard her better than you did my mother,” Vulpe said, the brown eyes hawkish.