by G. D. Penman
What the Eaters remembered reverberated in the minds of their Beloved. It was now beyond the skill of the Marked to construct this machine for her so she had done it herself. They came out onto the blinding plain of glass as the sun dipped sullenly towards the horizon. They were over a thousand strong with forty Chosen amongst them. There were another two thousand in the militia, though they would be of little use in prolonged combat except as a buffer. It was one of the most impressively large armies that could be fielded by any Eater.
The progress had been slow, though they set off on the same day that the letter from Walpurgan had arrived. Their supply lines were harried every step of the way. Many of their servants and peasants had been carried off in raids through the nights. It had been five days now since they mobilised, five days for this new Eater to entrench herself.
Vulkas had been certain that was the course that she would take. Certain that the field would be left empty and they could lay siege to the Ivory City. They had planned accordingly, arranging for great shipments of food and construction materials that were being lost during the ceaseless attacks. They suspected in the beginning that it was some commoners uprising in support of the new Eater but as time went on and they started to find the camp fires and the well chewed bones around the camp fires it became clear that Negrath had never come down on the ghul problem in its lands in a significant enough way.
In the path of the army stood a man. He was clad in called steel, shaped in a pattern never seen before, sleek and almost seamless, patterned with fine scales. The march drew to a halt and the man gave a formal bow. He walked, unchallenged and unafraid, through the ranks of soldiers. The metal constructs drew back as he approached the great steel bull. When he stood before it he gave an even deeper bow.
In a shimmer of liquid steel the Beloved of Vulkas emerged and fell to the glass with enough force to send a cobweb of cracks over the surface. She was a hulking creature, as were all the people that dwelt in her lands. While other Beloved made all efforts to appear dignified and perfect, the better to win over their nobility, Hulia was a creature of war, and she strove to appear as intimidating as possible. She was dressed in called armour but instead of robes it was accented with the thick fur of the albino moles that were a constant nuisance in her lands. Her hair was a faded red, turning to grey and bound in huge braids down her back. Her yellow teeth were on full display when she sneered down at her visitor. “Are you the new one then? Why shouldn’t I just have you cut down?”
Kaius released his armour and met her gaze, “I am the Beloved of Lucia, and you should not have me cut down because it would cost your army dearly. And because we have a common cause.”
She spat at the glass by his feet, “How’s that then?”
Kaius glanced around at the many listening soldiers then shrugged, “Because Walpurgan seeks both of our deaths.”
She considered this casually, “Aye. She's been trying to kill us since the dawn of time. What's your point.”
Kaius came a step closer and the great metal beasts of Vulkas’ siege machines shifted to loom over him until Hulia waved them back, “I have heard whispers from within her camp. I have taken some of her owl riders, blinded by the light, and extracted information heard from their mistress’ lips. When the three of you come to lay siege to the Ivory City, her army will turn on yours.”
Hulia grunted her disdain, “Such an obvious ploy from you, trying to divide us.”
Kaius kept his eyes on hers as though they had bare blades in their hands and were circling, “The one that I serve will be mighty soon but for now she is new to these arts. Walpurgan does not consider us to be a threat, merely an excuse.”
Hulia’s eyes were small compared to her expansive face, but they narrowed further still as she tried to find the flaw in his logic. Kaius pressed on, “We are warriors you and I. We have more in common than you have with that witch. My mistress does not seek war with Vulkas, the mightiest of the Eaters. Think of the peace that we could make together if you held Walpurgan’s lands as well as your own.”
The glory of finally crushing this old foe would ensure Hulia’s place in the war-songs of her people for all of eternity. She kept on searching for the deceit, obviously this Lucia would have to be destroyed, but did it need to be now? Could this opportunity be used to clear the field? Hulia remained silent for a long moment, trying to draw more out of Kaius, but sighed when he smiled at her placidly. “What do you propose?”
Kaius said, “When the siege of the Ivory City begins she means to strike at your flank. Her army will turn to face you, and while my people are occupied defending themselves from Ochress’ forces, she will tear through you.”
Hulia leaned forward, “What about Ochress’ army? What of them?”
Kaius resisted the urge to smile. “When I have your word, I will go to them and speak. I will try to draw them into this alliance of ours. But even if they decline and remain ignorant, I believe that we would be better served working in concert. When Walpurgan turns on you, we shall come out from the city and strike her newly exposed flank. Between the two of us we will destroy her.”
Hulia closed the distance so that Kaius could smell the sour wine on her breath, fury simmered behind her eyes, “Then what? You just let us take her land?”
Kaius shrugged impassively, “The Glasslands serve as a natural border between our lands, and I understand that my master wishes to direct her attention elsewhere.”
Hulia’s eyes flashed wide again at the prospects. This newcomer meant to wage war on Ochress. The Ivory City, and all of its lands would be the exposed rear of the chain of supply. It could be seized. It could all belong to her. And Vulkas, of course. One thing still troubled her. “And you will just trust my word?”
Now he smiled at her, “Of course. As I said, we are warriors, not backstabbing politicians.”
She spat into her hand and held it out to him. With barely any signs of disgust or reluctance he did the same. They shook hands in full sight of every man, woman and child in her army. They all heard his words. She smiled drily, perhaps he was not as foolish as he seemed.
In the tower the finest of her Chosen were in attendance of Lucia. They had been selected by Kaius as the best and brightest, the ones whose fluid loyalty had solidified under her caring approach. The march of days, just waiting for the invading forces to arrive, was beginning to weigh on her. Kaius reassured her every night when they found their peaceful time together that the city would be safe, that the people would be protected and she watched from the tower as the farmers and miners of the exposed lands around the city flooded in, having received their warnings from her Chosen.
She was taller than before, towering a head over Kaius now, and her already slim frame was becoming spindly and lithe. The fine silver scales covered her entirely now, her hair receded away from them and while it maintained its new lustre, it seemed to be thinning and disappearing at an alarming rate. Her eyes, in Kaius opinion, were the most changed. They had slowly elongated, first into the almond shapes of his own eyes and now longer still. The changes happened mostly at dawn, but through careful examination and experimentation, he believed that they could be exacerbated by drawing upon more of her power. She had attempted a few of the simple creations that she half recalled from her time beneath the glass. Tiny flames drifted over the Ivory City, illuminating it at night and driving on her metamorphosis.
To begin with she had been afraid of the changes, but as time went by and she accepted that her personal changes at least were inevitable Lucia pondered what her final appearance would even be. Sometimes the little flames would explode upward, searing an owl and sending Walpurgan's spies fleeing back to her. Sometimes they would burn hotter and brighter and drift down over the slums on cold nights. It was not much but it was all that she could do for now.
Kaius had explained that feeding the impoverished would actually become much easier once the siege had begun and they could begin rationing. If they established it early, a
nd it was shown that it was successful, they would face much less resistance to their other plans for the future. This was the direction that their night-time conversations were heading now. More and more often. What were they going to do with the peace when the other Eaters had been driven back. Kaius pressed her to do more than drive their attackers off, to hunt the other Eaters and spread her influence, but something in his sensible strategies made her uncomfortable. The words sounded too similar to the ones she suspected that the other Eaters and their Beloved were sharing.
Lucia laid a many jointed finger on the brow of each of the Chosen in attendance and pushed some of her will through that smoking connection. Her mark was physical as well as spiritual, each of these men and women left the audience chamber with a fresh black burn upon them.
Each of them went off to the special duties that Kaius had already assigned them. Lucia felt the tug increase as the power she granted them grew. Between them and the new lights, she was starting to get a feel for this new ability. She kept her eyes locked firmly on the real world except when she was summoning her lights. Staring at it too long did not give her a headache as such, but it left her disoriented. It made navigating in the real world difficult. It made her question her own use of the term “the real world” as a means of contrast. The longer she spent staring out with her new vision, the more she suspected that the world she had spent her entire life looking at was just the front end of a more complex machinery.
She shook the thought away and tried to be practical like Kaius advised, but she wondered if this is what happened to the other Eaters. If this was how they stopped thinking like people, and stopped caring about people. On that practical, real world level that Kaius kept on dragging her back to, she understood that the defences of the city were being dutifully reconstructed. That her soldiers were being trained day and night, that her Chosen had been given special orders and new stratagems, and that she understood less and less of it every day.
Her time spent with the nobility was surprisingly relaxing, she truly enjoyed talking to these people with all their privileged education and fine manners. Compared to the life that she had before, this luxury alone made up for quite a bit of the suffering she had to endure to get it. They were not easily swayed by her humanitarian arguments. But the fact that she was making arguments instead of pronouncements, and the fact that they could argue back without fear of execution, had made her many friends in the court.
Families that were long out of favour quickly adopted her new policies. Charity was spreading out like an infection despite the larger noble houses digging in their heels. The tide was beginning to turn. Now all that she had to do was let time bring the rest around. Just that, and defeat three all-powerful immortal monsters from the dawn of time. She took each small victory as it came to her.
Lucia had been happy to see Kaius appear back in the tower each night, even if sometimes it was long after the sun had set and he was smeared with dirt. She did not know the entirety of the work that he was doing, the fortifications being built or the tunnels being collapsed, but she acknowledged her own limitations readily. He knew how to wage war and whether she willed it or not, war was coming for them. Nothing drove that home as clearly as the sight of the owls bursting into flames each night. That and the ominous cloud of dust rising over the Ashen Dales as what Kaius described as a colossal army approached.
Ochress was moving more slowly than the other two, and she had heard rumours among her Chosen that there were not any signs of him moving against them at all. Kaius considered it to be a wistful hope. Ochress' troops had not been seen because they were moving with stealth, not because they were not there. The opportunity was too great to pass up. That was how Kaius always described the death of Negrath, as an opportunity. Lucia was not sure if he was a perpetual optimist or if it was some sort of combat term, an opening in an enemy's defences.
She had watched him going through the motions of the Forms of Bone early one morning in a little courtyard garden and when he had finished and realised that she was there, he had playfully led her through the movements saying, “You must learn to defend yourself.” while nudging her off-balance constantly. After the third fall she had conjured a ball of flame and chased him back into the tower with it. It had all been in good fun until a servant spotted her stalking the halls with the blue hot flame dancing in her hand and fainted dead-away.
Three more days and nights passed before the armies of Walpurgan and Vulkas came into sight. Any one of their Chosen could have cleared the distance far faster of course, even a merchant dragging a cart of his wares could make the trip faster because an army is more than just the individuals it contains. It is a great slow lumbering beast, dragging a fat tail of whores and merchants and a long chain of messengers and supplies all the way back to wherever it came from. Not a single man could take a step without every other man taking the same step and it slowed things to a crawl. It had given them time to prepare but also too much time to think about what was coming. Kaius had warned her about the war-machines, so she was not too startled when she caught her first sight of them. But as they drew closer they got bigger and bigger, her mind struggled to accommodate the sheer size of them.
Walpurgan's army lacked such extravagance. It merely held thousands of highly trained killers and hundreds of giant swooping death birds. As Lucia watched them from her tower a particularly large owl circled over that army then plunged down into their ranks. Lucia covered her mouth to stifle the gasp. The creature had fallen so fast it must have died and likely taken a few ranks with it. Lucia peered out, trying to make out the result of the fall through the clouds of dust it had thrown up. Walpurgan rose up amidst her soldiers, at least twenty feet tall and emitting shocks of green-blue light from her cracked and stony hide. Lucia stepped backwards into the room and had to sit down. This was too much.
How could anyone contend with a creature like that? How could anyone dream of fighting against it? The heat of anger flushed the despair from her. These thoughts were what had kept people cowering in fear before these monsters for centuries. This could be the end of all of that, if she could just be brave. She walked back onto the balcony and looked down at Walpurgan. Walpurgan look straight back at her and waved. Then she threw her head back and musical laughter rolled over the city. The pitch growing higher and higher until the commoners quaked, the Chosen covered their ears and the rare panes of glass shuddered in their fittings.
“Will you come and parley with me, Lucia of the Cowering Flame?”
Walpurgan's words shook her where she stood. She tried to shield herself with anger at the slight but it wasn't enough. Dread was sinking into her. She blinked her eyes a few times, making sure that there were no tears there. For just a moment she let her gaze slip into the other world. She saw the complex masses of will tied around Walpurgan, stretching off to her servants and in a hundred different directions. She traced the path of one, thin as spider's silk that seemed to come all the way to the tower. She followed it along until she reached up and touched where it connected to her own temple. The anger chased away the despair this time. With a flick of her wrist she severed Walpurgan's connection to her and all of the fear vanished. She would have to remember that particular trick and try it out with Kaius if she got the chance. Her vision was still on the other world and she watched Walpurgan closely.
The giant woman was immobile but her mind was moving tirelessly around, twitching a construct here and expanding a weaving there. There were rich and dense tangles of power all around that it would take Lucia all day just to discern the purpose of. In this arena she was clearly outclassed. It seemed time to gamble heavily on Kaius' much vaunted tactics. She wondered what his reply would have been. She could hear him in her head after their many hours deep in conversation, “You cannot let this insult stand. It will affect the morale of your soldiers. You must make some impressive display. Startle the enemy, make them back down.”
It was like he thought that people were wild an
imals, just barely tethered by the commands that the Eaters passed down. She heard the voice again but this time it was more urgent.
“Make your display now. It would be better if it did not initiate hostilities. We cannot afford to take the field without all of our enemies arrayed, but you must do something.”
She furrowed her brow and then realised that this voice was not her imagination. He was not the voice of reason in her mind. He was reaching out across their connection and speaking to her. She tried to form a reply but couldn't even work out how to send words down the cord to him. He must have detected her confusion and doubt through the link because his next message came through with the force of a roar, “Are you the coward that she claims you are? Fight back!”
Walpurgan's sniggering voice travelled over the city once more, “See how this weakling cowers behind her walls. See how pathetic this domain has become. See how feeble are its defenders.”
Lucia staggered under the impact of the words and the same spark of anger that had let her shrug off Walpurgan's insidious attack the last time ignited once more. She stormed out onto the balcony and glowered down at both of the collected armies. She snarled when her vision narrowed in on Walpurgan's smirking face. In her ire, she had not grasped the balcony's balustrade. Her hands were wrapped around the copper posts that Valerius once used to light the city. Her face split into a razor toothed grin and she unleashed her power in a torrent. Starting at the tower and then rippling out, the galvanic lanterns that the city had once held as a great achievement exploded and great gouts of flame burst upwards.
A cloud of smoke blossomed out and darkened veins appeared all over the ivory of the city as the copper running through them carried the heat. The entire city lit up like a bonfire for a long and glorious moment before her anger abated and she realised that she may have inadvertently burned her citizens. She drew the power back within herself. It was difficult and almost painful to swallow it all back down now that it had run free but when the worst of the smoke drifted up into the sky, she saw that every man, woman, war-machine, and giant had moved back from her city walls and showed no desire to move closer again.
