Semper Indomitus: Book Five of the Fovean Chronicles

by Robert Brady

  I nodded. I was freezing in a shaggy fur and no armor, so no armor padding. The wind whipped into the city off of a cold, grey Tren Bay under a cloudy, grey sky.

  The little, brown-haired, brown-eyed man with pale skin from being inside from the cold and paunch belly probably for the same reason stammered out a greeting to me that I was bound to sit there and listen to. Behind me the kids stirred on their horses, the armed guard with them. Next to me on her gelding, Shela smiled in what I recognized as her, “I’m not actually listening to you,” face.

  “And be welcome in my – in your – in our – our city, this city, in Hydrus, your Imperial Mordetur – um, Majesty,” he finished.

  I leaned forward and in a quiet tone said, “You’re done?”

  He nodded, his eyes wide open.

  “I’m freezing,” I told him. “Lead us to the palace so we can put up our horses.”

  “Im –im – immediately,” Rhor began.

  “Have your lieutenant direct my troops to your barracks,” I said.

  He nodded, turned around, pointed at the lieutenant and then at my mounted escort.

  I gave Blizzard my heel and we started forward. The lieutenant would arrange through his command to get these warriors, mostly Uman, back to their command. For my purposes I just wanted to get indoors.

  “Send a messenger to Central Communications, to get Duke Arath in Wisex for me,” I ordered him.

  He nodded and was off to his troops. That meant I didn’t have to listen to him. We were able to get down the main thoroughfare in relative silence.

  The palace was as I remembered it. The royal stables were a little more full – the Andarons had really been taken by surprise, caught between my canine corps and my Theran Lancers during the Battle of the Foveans, and their horses had run free. Volkhydrans had collected them and the addition of this many horses to the economy, in addition to cheaper Eldadorian wares, had really changed their lives.

  An invading army was likely to change it back. While the kids were sent to separate rooms to change clothes and bathe (some for the first time in months), I went to Central Communications with Shela.

  While wizards manned the conduits for Central Communications, the people whom I wanted to talk to could be anywhere. Normally I liked to send a message before I went to the local conduit for that reason.

  By the time I’d put up Blizzard and found my way back to the local conduit, Arath, Nantar and a fellow Volkhydran, General Tagamack, who ruled Wisex the City for me, were with the local wizard – actually an Andaron sorceress. The Andaron village called ‘Wisex’ was controlled by the Wolf Rider tribe, which I’d founded. Technically I was the war chief of it – in fact, command had fallen to another Andaron whom I’d barely met, whom I’d been informed grew fat doing the job. The Wolf Riders never raided – they never needed to. They tended crops and trees and traded Eldadorian goods to the other tribes – however the one attack on them ever was met with overwhelming force from the Wisex garrison, and hadn’t been repeated.

  “Black Lupus!” Nantar shouted when he saw me. “I see you’ve taken good care of Karel of Stone.”

  “Ha!” the tiny Scitai said from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I hadn’t seen him in weeks, during some times when I could have really used his help.

  “I left him in the frozen north,” Karel said, “and have been waiting for him here. He probably doesn’t even know who’s invading this land.”

  “Invading?” Arath parroted.

  “A Man from the North, named Vinkler,” I informed him. “At least two groups, probably more, moving materials south to build hard point fortresses.

  Karel frowned. “Better than I thought of you,” he informed me.

  “But not good to hear,” Arath said.

  “Agreed,” Nantar said. “We’ve always known that there were Men to the north, on the other side of the Ogre lands, however we never hear from them, and neither side could ever thin the Ogre bands enough to cross their mountains.”

  “Until we did it,” Arath said. I nodded. Two years ago, Volkhydro had paid the Free Legion to push as deep as we could into the Ogre mountains and kill as many as we could find. The Ogres may have moved farther West after that – to lands that the Confluni laid no claim to.

  “If we’ve opened up the north,” Arath added, “then we need to address these Men from there.”

  There was an understatement, I thought to myself.

  “At any other time, I would say my countrymen could turn any invasion,” Nantar said.

  “This isn’t an army from Conflu crossing the border after a bad harvest,” I said to him. I could see the concern on all of their faces. “This is an invasion force that crossed a mountain range at the start of winter, marched through some really inhospitable land afterwards, and plans to build garrisons before the spring.”

  “An army coming in right when all of the Fovean nations are against us,” Karel said. “The Uman-Chi, especially, could look to them as saviors.”

  “We need more information,” Arath concluded. I had to agree.

  “How committed are we against Conflu?” I asked him.

  He shook his head. Nantar answered, “The troops are assembling. We captured one of their river boats and we sent some of our own Confluni soldiers up the Jeng-Jeng. They’re already forming a defense.”

  So not only was our invasion a near miss, we’d just moved Conflu away from any fighting to the North. That could help or hurt us.

  I sighed. “If the Confluni decide to move down the river, either we can handle them or the Andarons will,” I said. “Weather in place, plan to come back up the Safe River at the start of spring. Nantar, where are your Sarandi now?”

  Nantar grinned under his thick, black beard. “In your ‘Luparran,’ in Dorkan, 2,000 strong.”

  “If you pull them,” Arath warned, “We’re in for it if the Dorkans come back for that city.”

  I nodded. Nantar’s Sarandi were trained like a Marine strike force – experts at going in first to establish a beach head that a larger force could follow behind.

  “I have 19,000 troops in Volkhydro, all Eldadorian Regulars,” I said. “If I start the march north, I’m inviting Dorkan, Sental and Conflu to come right in behind me. I could probably march 6,000 and support them, but then I could get caught between these invaders and the Volkhydran army if Garf Bendenson decides to grow a back bone.”

  “I’ll come there,” Nantar said. Arath turned sideways, surprise clear on his face.

  “I don’t think - ” Arath began.

  But Nantar shook his head. “I’m the most popular Volkhydran after the Hero of Tamara, and everyone thinks he’s dead,” the Scarlet warrior said. “You need someone who can collect the locals – that’s me.”

  “Can you move here through Outpost X?” I asked him. D’gattis had created one of his portals between Outpost X and Wisex, and between Outpost X and Galnesh Eldador. From there, he could be here in under a week.

  He nodded. “Can Shela contact D’gattis?”

  I smiled to myself. The Wizard in Yellow could get him here even faster.

  “I’ll see to it,” I said. “Meet in Galnesh Eldador?”

  Nantar shook his head. “In the tower in Chatoo – in Charancor,” he said, and grinned. “I think it’s time to get back my daughters.”

  That was a surprise. “Your daughters are here,” I informed him. “I thought you knew?”

  “There?”

  I nodded. “They’re the self-assigned protectors of two of my daughters.”

  “Nina of the Aschire protects Lee and Chawnee,” Arath said.

  I frowned. “Nina left the family service, and is with my son, Eric,” I said. “Nanette and Thorna are protecting Chesswaya and Waya Daganogeda, my Andaron daughters. Mostly Chesswaya – who’s a sorceress.”

  Arath and Nantar exchanged a glance but didn’t say anything.

  “I’ll collect my wife, then,” Nantar said. “She’ll want to see the girls. Stay
where you are so I don’t have to go chasing you.”

  I nodded. We exchanged good-byes and the wizard cut the connection.

  I turned to Karel. “Have a nice journey?” I asked him.

  The Scitai stared up at me with eyes at least as blue as mine. The silver question mark turned upside down on the front of his bearskin armor almost seemed to sparkle.

  “No,” he informed me. “The north is cold and the ground is hard,” he said. “It’s hard enough to move around there alone, harder still to keep a pony alive.”

  “How is Trickery?” I asked, referring to the pinto I’d given him.

  “Spry as ever,” he informed me. “You’ve got three armies moving south out of a break in the mountains,” he said. “You have another grading a road back toward the north, so that it’s easier to bring more warriors.”

  “So, a full-scale invasion,” I said.

  He nodded. “This spring won’t be a good time for you,” he informed me.

  I really don’t like Karel of Stone.

  ***

  My first stay here had been in the ducal chambers, now occupied by Evleck Rhor. I half-expect that he was waiting for me to kick him out of them, but there was no point. The place being newly-conquered, the palace didn’t want for rooms – the only real problem was that most of them were either unfurnished, or simply weren’t fit for the Imperial family.

  Personally, I hated that sort of thing. Fourteen years ago I slept on the ground and was grateful for a blanket. Now it was inconceivable that one of my kids wasn’t four feet off of the floor. A marching army of palace workers first raided every wood-worker and carpenter’s shop in the city and surrounding towns, then moved the contents of a dozen rooms into the streets and replaced them with new furniture, so that not only would my kids have wonderful, soft beds, but in fact their choice of them.

  The process had begun when Rhor was first-informed that I was on my way from Medya. Shela commandeered the entire thing once she heard of it, Dagi at her side. The latter simply reveled in the idea of telling palace Volkhydrans what to do. Shela simply couldn’t let such a domestic task escape her.

  By the time Karel and I made it back to the residential part of the palace, the movement was in full-swing. Evleck Rhor was a bachelor as a court baron and hadn’t been cured of that since coming here, and simply gave in to whatever the Empress wanted.

  Since coming here, the inhabitants had built a direct entrance from the family tower that faced the stables – that was in full use now. Either Dragor or his father had built additional rooms for guards – those were gone under Rhor, who had decided to restore the palace back to its origins, as much as was practical. I watched three burly Volkhydrans muscling the parts of a bed frame through a door never meant for it as I approached the tower.

  Vulpe, Eric and Lupennen were watching them, standing to one side in the cold, their backs against the stone wall that made up the outside of the tower.

  Vulpe straightened as I approached. Lupennen saw him do this and emulated him. Eric just watched me, the white question mark, turned upside-down on his chest still gleaming on what was a cloudy, cold day.

  “Greetings, father,” Vulpe said.

  “Greetings,” Lupennen parroted.

  “Black Lupus,” Eric said, then turned his attention to the Scitai at my side. “Silver Karel.”

  “The Holy Avenger!” Karel announced. He cast a sideways glance at me. “I’m getting tired of the stories of you already.”

  Eric furrowed his brow.

  “The troubadours love to sing of the battle between father and son,” Lupennen said.

  “He swung his sword,

  “As black as night,

  “And there was born,

  “Avenger, white!”

  Vulpe raised an eyebrow. “You have a nice voice,” he said to his older brother.

  Lupennen actually smiled. I’d never seen him do that before.

  Vulpe then turned to me. “This is taking too long,” he said. “I’m going to find a minstrel and learn that song.”

  “Why?” Eric asked him, maybe a little too forcefully.

  Vulpe turned back to him. “I need some new songs.”

  “Oh,” Eric said.

  “I’ll go with you,” Lupennen said.

  “Take a squad of Regulars,” I said to Vulpe.

  He nodded. He should have realized that he should have one here, as well, but I didn’t, so he could just as easily have believed that those sorts of rules were off. Both of them left for the stable, Lupennen stumping after his brother on his club foot.

  We watched them go. “Scarlet Nantar should be here today or tomorrow,” Karel said to Eric.

  “Oh?”

  Karel described the conversation that we’d had. As Daff Kanaar, Eric not only had the right to know of it, he needed to.

  Four more groups of workers lined up at the door to the back of the tower, each with an armoire. Tower rooms weren’t notorious for their closets, and then things like armoires and bureaus were needed.

  A Volkhydran at heart, Eric was already concerned about the invasion from the North. I think the idea that we were doing something about it made it better in his mind.

  “Eric actually spoke to this Vinkler,” I informed Karel.

  The Scitai raised his eyebrows and looked up at my oldest son, obviously curious for more.

  Eric’s pink facial scar, a mirror of my own, twitched under his eye. He looked away from both of us, out across the palace grounds between the tower and the stable. I’d expected a report from him after he met with the foreign leader, but hadn’t received one and decided not to push him. Hopefully, he’d feel more comfortable giving that report to Karel.

  “He’s not a big man,” Eric said, finally. “Tall, like father and I, but thinner. He is blonde with blue eyes like we are, but the first thing that I noticed about him with that those eyes are always looking everywhere, as if he’s waiting for the next challenger or the next threat.”

  “Understandable when one is invading Volkhydro,” Karel said. I simply listened.

  Eric shrugged, his chainmail shirt jingling. “Perhaps,” he said. “To me, it seemed more like he’d had to climb his way to his position and he wasn’t sure he could keep it.

  “When I told him we were the vanguard of a Volkhydran war party, he knew I was lying right away,” he continued. “I didn’t think it was a good lie, either. Angadorian Knights look nothing like Volkhydrans.”

  “It wasn’t a good lie,” Karel agreed, looking sideways at me.

  Oh, well.

  “He asked, ‘What Ogres?’, ‘What city are you going to?’ When Nina told me that you wanted us to retreat to the East, I was ready to go anyway, and this Vinkler was picking his warriors to come take us into custody.”

  “Did he say anything when he saw your sister’s illusion?” I asked.

  Eric finally looked at me. “He was surprised,” my son said. “He asked, ‘How did they get here?’ I don’t think it ever occurred to them that it was an illusion.”

  “I saw no one I could identify as a wizard among them,” Karel said. “These could be a people with no magic.”

  “If that’s true, then they’re in for a rude surprise when they meet my family,” I said, grinning.

  Eric shook his head. “Magic makes you lazy,” he said. “When some caster can shake their hands and your problems are solved, you stop thinking about other solutions. Volkhydrans have no magic, and until you, no one stood against us.”

  That was the Volkhydran position in a nutshell, I thought to myself. In the Battle of the Foveans, magic really just cancelled itself out. In the Battle of Tamaran Glen, on the other hand, Shela turned the battle with one spell.

  Of course, Karl Henekhson was the one credited with that win.

  “Over-dependence on magic is what doomed the Silent Isle,” Karel said, apparently agreeing with Eric. “The sack of Outpost IX happened when your troops overwhelmed their spell casters.”

 
; “When Shela overwhelmed their spell casters, you mean,” I corrected him.

  “One woman against dozens of wizards, hundreds of years old,” Karel said, shaking his head.

  “Her power is in the desires of Men,” I told him. “Our own troops, the disdain of so many Eldadorians for Angron Aurelias ordering the murder of their queen.”

  “Murdering a queen should never be taken lightly,” Shela called to us from the top of the steps to the family tower. We’d become so engrossed in our conversation that we’d lost track of all else. It occurred to me that the armoires were inside the tower, and no one had followed them.

  I lowered my head to her, “Much less, an Empress,” I informed her.

  She smiled. “Eric,” she said, “your Nina has insisted you have your old rooms, which are ready for you. She’s running a bath and wants you before the water can get cold.”

  Eric smiled wide. I had to think that had some meaning to him. He’d spent several weeks here when he’d met Vulpe on the road and been unconscious for a big part of them. I’d personally approved Vulpe adding him as an advisor when I thought he was just a viscount from Myr.

  Now he held the title of Count. Now he was a married man; married to my children’s former nanny.

  He started up the stairs. “And what for the rest of us?” Karel demanded of Shela.

  She frowned. “I think we found a closet for you,” she told him, putting her hands on her hips. “Or you may want to sleep with your pony?”

  Karel grinned his mischievous grin and followed Eric up the stairs. I didn’t need to look to know that his ‘closet’ would be as opulent as the rest of the rooms. If it weren’t, we’d hear about it without end until she changed it, not as complaining but in one thousand biting comments thrown into every conversation.

  Shela passed him on the way down to me, running a hand through his thick, brown hair as she might a child. In a way, I think she thought of him as a naughty little boy more than anything.

  I met her at the bottom of the steps and she fell into my arms. I held her – I knew she had to be exhausted after so much time on the road, then having to coordinate so many things here. No matter how much I thought I was doing, it wasn’t hard for me to believe that, behind the scenes, Shela was usually doing more.