Unpredictable Fortunes (The Memory Stone Series Book 3)

by Jeffrey Quyle

  The talk of long ago battles excited the imaginations of the soldiers, and gave them something to talk and conjecture about, as they endured the crowded conditions of the decks of the transports. The soldiers agreed to take turns rowing and pulling the vessels to relieve their boredom and to speed the journey.

  And so it was that the vessels rounded the great curve at the end of the valley and followed the river as it turned to flow eastward towards Great Forks; they passed by the small village of Northside, and Theus recollected the adventure he’d had in the city, fighting off a trio of inept armed robbers.

  As they sailed on past the settlement, Theus felt a sense of urgency to arrive at his destination as soon as possible, to help defend Great Forks as early as possible. He knew the city well enough to feel attachment to its landmarks and people, and he wanted to prevent damage as much as possible. And even though he wouldn’t have any personal connection with Coriae, he would feel better in his heart for having protected her and her community.

  The ships moved rapidly, and reached the vicinity of Great Forks in a week’s time. As they approached the city early one morning, traveling towards the city from the east, they spotted pillars of smoke rising.

  “Is that usual for Great Forks?” a soldier asked Theus as he intently studied the scene in the west.

  “I’ve never seen it like that before,” the ship’s captain commented, as he happened to be standing nearby, studying the horizon as well.

  “I think the invasion may already be underway,” Theus said soberly, shaking his head. “We better prepare for war.”

  Messages passed among the ships, and excitement seized the expeditionary force, as they prepared their weapons.

  “Where do you think we should disembark?” Theus asked the captain of the leading ship.

  “We don’t know where the Southsand forces are, and I don’t think we want to bring our ships in close enough to suffer any loss of life or vessel. There’s a fishing village a mile outside the city where we could release you and wait for you,” he proposed.

  Theus accepted the suggestion, and the river barges pulled up to the village dock, one by one, unloading their armed passengers and then pulling to the opposite side of the river. There was no sign of any river traffic trying to move upriver, which the captain reported was an ominous sign that traffic had been cut off.

  Each boat unloaded, comparatively quickly, though it seemed a frustratingly slow process to Theus as he and the officers moved out towards the road that lead from Great Forks to the village and further beyond. They waited for their entire troop to leave the ships and move through the village to the road.

  And while the river was empty of traffic, the road was full of panicked refugees fleeing from the invaded city.

  “Unfurl the flag,” the captain of the Greenfalls guards ordered. A member of the leading squadron unwrapped a green and white flag with the blue curls of the waterfall in the heart of the city, the symbol of Greenfalls.

  “We’ll have trouble making much headway through this crowd,” the captain concluded with despair as he looked at the crowd flowing in the direct opposite of the army’s intentions.

  “Let me see if I can do something,” Theus suggested after studying the situation momentarily. He opened his abilities to find and absorb the energy of the sunlight, then increased to his uttermost limit the amount of energy he could draw in.

  At the same time he began to produce a steady breeze, one that he caused to drop down from the sky above and to strike at the center of the road just beyond the front ranks of the waiting army. As the flows of air struck, the crowd began to unwillingly respond by moving aside as the wind forced an opening that began to stretch forward.

  “Let’s lead the way,” Theus said through gritted teeth as he focused on absorbing all the energy possible, and then using it in the taxing work of moving great masses of air.

  The arriving army wove to the center of the road, then picked up speed, as Theus’s magical application moved ahead of them, continually pressing the opening closer towards the city, while the people around then cried in anger and fear and confusion.

  Theus and the army leaders pressed the speed of the force to move faster, as the smoke from the city fires rose higher and darker in the sky ahead. After twenty minutes, the refugees who were fleeing from the city diminished in number, and Theus was able to cease to blow the road open.

  The force entered the city proper, and heard the sounds of combat in the distance.

  “Theus, stop. Enter the shop on the left, and take the cloth that awaits you on the counter,” Limber’s voice spoke to him. It was Limber speaking, the god of his city, Theus knew now. It was not simply the Voice, the unnamed guide who had looked after and directed him through so many adventures. It was the voice of a god, one who had reached out to him on a personal level.

  Theus stopped his procession and ran to the designated shop, a tailor’s shop, he saw. On the counter he found a large folded sky blue cloth, and he picked it up.

  “Now, take the pole standing in the corner, and tack the flag to it, then carry it alongside the flag of the city of Currense,” Limber told him.

  Theus picked up several tacks that were resting on the counter next to where he had picked up the flag, and then he found the tall wooden pole that had been promised. He snapped the flag open, crudely fastened it securely to the pole, then took it outside and raised it high as he walked back to rejoin the waiting column.

  “Behold the flag of Limber, not seen for hundreds of years, going into battle once again,” his god’s voice was clear in his soul as the god spoke. It was a golden mountain line, outlined against the blue background.

  “I’ll fight for it proudly,” Theus pledged.

  “I know you will,” Limber replied.

  Theus explained what he had brought out, and a member of the column offered to carry it for him.

  “It might seem silly to carry a flag for just one soldier in an army, but you might be just the single soldier to deserve it,” the enlisted man grinned at Theus as he accepted responsibility for the flag pole and moved into the front ranks beside the Greenfalls flag bearer.

  The column moved on for five more minutes, then stopped at the order of the Greenfalls captain. The officer sent a man with good eyesight up into the tower of a local temple, then waited for the man to return.

  “There are forces falling back over there,” the man pointed to the left. “They’re being pushed by a group that looks bigger. They’re going to be pushed into a trap soon it looks like.

  “There’s a bigger battle going on past them, another thousand paces beyond, but we can’t get there without going through the near one,” the observer reported.

  “Can we join the closer battle and turn the tide?” the commander asked.

  “If we could sneak into place, but there’s not enough cover to really envelope the Southsand invaders, not before we’d be seen and fought,” the observer explained.

  Theus looked up at the light from the still rising sun. It sparked an idea, one that stretched his likely capabilities. But he saw no other way.

  “I may be able to turn everyone invisible, for long enough to let us circle around and attack the Southsand force,” Theus surprised the Greenfalls commander, who was considering options.

  “Would this be with your magic?” the man asked. “Would it be safe for my soldiers?”

  “Yes,” Theus answered simply. He reached out and took the hand of the man next to him, then lifted it and placed the hand on Theus’s own shoulder.

  “Watch this,” Theus told the nearest bystanders, and he turned invisible.

  As he turned invisible, so did the man whose hand was on his shoulder. The crowd around them gasped and muttered.

  “Now someone else put their hand on this man’s shoulder,” Theus referenced the unseen soldier standing invisibly next to him.

  A nearby man bravely reached out to where he expected the shoulder to be. As his hand made unseen
contact, he too disappeared from sight.

  The men nearby gasped again, then several called out to their missing companions.

  “We’re right here, right as rain, right next to you,” one of the invisible men replied, then knocked the hat off one of his chums and laughed.

  Other soldiers began to disappear and laugh as they reached into the small vortex of invisibility and make contact with those who were unseen.

  Sensing that his point was made, Theus discontinued his white magic display, bringing the full body of men back into view.

  “If we can all line up and march forward with a hand on the shoulder of the man in front of us, we can move around the Southsand forces and ambush them,” Theus told the Greenfalls leader.

  Minutes later, the men were scrambling to gain places in a long, then line. Theus waited impatiently at the head of the line.

  “We’ll pass behind the Southsand forces, curve around the far side, then become visible and attack,” the Greenfalls commander repeated for the last time, and then Theus reached out for the energy of the sun, and began to spread his invisibility back through the line. He could feel the long string of bodies drawing the energy away from him, as he consumed more and more sun power, and transformed it all through his white magic.

  He felt himself reach his limit at last, and knew he could do no more. He hoped it was enough to hide the men who needed it most. It was more than he had ever done before; he knew that his abilities were evolving rapidly as circumstances forced him to stretch himself to meet critical needs.

  “We’re going to start now,” Theus warned, and then he took a measured step forward. He felt the captain’s hand on his shoulder slip a half inch, then grip more tightly, and hold in place. Theus grew confident and took another step, and then another, and then fell into a steady pace of walking. He walked, not ran, towards the rear of the Southsand force, which was inching forward as it continued to make the Great Forks defenders retreat.

  Theus walked closely past the hindmost ranks from Southsand. It was tempting to begin to fight them, to immediately swing his staff and slice his sword, but he knew the overall victory in the battle depended on the patience to bring the rest of his small force into the proper position. He tried to increase his pace slightly, to hurry their next step.

  Minutes later he was moving as quickly as he dared, and was drawing forward along the side of the battle. In the distance behind him, he could hear the larger dominant battle raging. It was in the direction of Glory’s home, and Coriae’s.

  “I think we need to attack now – things look desperate out there,” the Greenfalls leader urged Theus.

  “I’ll release my invisibility now,” Theus gladly agreed, and he ended his use of the white magic, breathing in relief.

  The perimeter of armed men suddenly became visible, a few score of men newly added to the battleground. They were not enough to tilt the balance of power in the arena, but in the smaller, particular engagement they joined, their dramatic appearance changed the nature of the combat.

  “Greenfalls! Men of Greenfalls, advance and engage!” their captain shouted loudly.

  A bugler pulled out a horn that Theus hadn’t known was part of the journey, and blew an exhilarating song of notes that urged the men into battle. On three sides of the battle where a regiment of Great Forks soldiers were being trapped, it was suddenly the Southsands’ invaders who found themselves surrounded.

  The newly-arrived line of men in rumpled green uniforms began to close in, while the men in Southsands’ black uniforms began to hastily try to turn their attention to the new swarm of attackers who faced them on all sides. And the men of Great Forks, some wearing blue uniforms, many just civilians in everyday clothes, raised their weapons with renewed energy as they sensed the dramatic change in the desperate atmosphere, and their hopes began to grow.

  Theus stepped forward with the men of Greenfalls, next to the man who carried the flag of Limber for him. He carried his staff in his hands, while his sword remained on his hip. It was appropriate that while he was in Coriae’s city he should use her favorite weapon, he thought with a grim smile.

  The two fronts of stern-faced men moved towards one another, and then collided, and in that moment, Theus experienced true war for the first time. It was like the battle aboard the Swaigg, the ship on which he had been captured, wounded, enslaved, and sent to Southsand. But the battle in Great Forks was different.

  Theus used his staff to block the mighty sword swing of a Southsand soldier; the metal core of his staff gave it the strength to withstand the powerful blow, and then Theus pivoted the staff to strike the man in the temple, knocking him unconscious, while Theus turned and swung the other end of his staff at the Southsand soldier to the right of his first victim.

  On the Swaigg, the battle had been confined by the borders of the ship, and the number of fighters had been limited by the size of the crews. As he fought in Great Forks, it felt as though there were no boundaries – he could sense that fighting was taking place far to his right and far to his left, as well as in front of him and behind him. He had to be on guard for attacks that might come from any direction.

  And the number of fighters was far, far, far greater that the number who had battled on the ship. Theus alternated between spans of time when he swung his staff wildly to defend himself from rains of blows that fell in rapid succession around him, and other moments when he seemed to stand in a brief island of inactivity, as wounded and dead bodies littered the ground around him and no one else stepped into the space.

  He fought with adrenaline and force, often besides a soldier or two or more from Greenfalls. Sometimes, as the battle progressed, he found the blue uniforms of Great Forks soldiers beside him, helping him as he helped them.

  And then he found a moment of astonishment, after an hour of the vicious combat, as the forces of Southsand were clearly losing and shrinking into a smaller core of desperate survivors, when he found that he was fighting alongside Trey, his friend the weaver’s apprentice, as the young man clumsily swung a sword and managed to stay alive.

  “Theus! By all the gods, it’s good to see you!” Trey managed to gasp out the words despite his exhaustion, as the two of them fought against a trio of Southsand soldiers. “Where did you come from?” he asked.

  “I came with the men from Greenfalls,” Theus answered.

  As they spoke a squad of Southsand soldiers erupted out of a melee in front of them and charged directly at the two young friends.

  Theus used his staff to defend himself, and then tried to help the overmatched Trey, and as he did, he received a stabbing wound in the thigh, one that made him momentarily drop to one knee before he raised his staff and struck his attacker with deadly force beneath the chin.

  And then the encounter seemed to evaporate. Theus heard cheers, and looked around to see that there were no more of the Southsand forces left on the field.

  “Theus, are you okay?” Trey asked. He bent and offered a hand to help the wounded boy up.

  “It’s not a bad wound; I just need some material to bandage it,” Theus grimaced. He drew his knife and cut cloth from a dead man’s uniform, then wrapped and tied it around his leg.

  Together, they slowly walked towards the knot of leaders from the two successful forces; Theus limping due to his leg wound, Trey’s slow pace revealing his exhaustion.

  “We were very, very lucky you arrived,” the leader of the blue-clad Great Forks forces was explaining to the Greenfalls leaders as Theus and Trey walked up. “We got cut off from our main force, and had to retreat in a different direction, as you saw.

  “The main encounter is going badly – the invaders have a magician who is dealing out terrible punishments to our people. This group here didn’t have a magician – they just had so many more fighters than we did,” the Great Forks man explained.

  “And then you arrived out of nowhere somehow, already deployed before anyone even knew you were coming to the battle! That shifted the momentum,
however you did it,” he said. “And seeing those flags, the Greenfalls flag and the other one, those were like prayers being answered!”

  “We brought a magician of our own!” the captain of the Greenfalls forces spoke excitedly. “And the flag is his – the flag of Limber.”

  “Limber is a fairy tale,” the Great Forks captain began to protest.

  Theus gathered in the sunlight above the group, then made balls of light appear to dance over them.

  “Limber is no fairy tale, not anymore,” he spoke up, as the eyes of the gathered officers turned to look at him.

  “You’re a magician from Limber?” one of the Great Forks officers asked. “You don’t even look old enough to be a recruit.

  “You should see the way he uses that staff of his,” a different Great Forks officer responded. “I saw him out on the battlefield, when he saved my life with his spinning and swinging and chopping of that hunk of wood. He can be a recruit in my squad anytime.”

  “The magician they have is powerful,” Theus spoke up. “He’s more powerful than I am; I can’t defeat him.”

  He saw the slump in the shoulders of the men who were listening to him. He was telling them the truth; he knew he had to.

  “But I can keep him occupied; perhaps long enough for your forces to change the course of the battle with their forces. And perhaps I can keep him so focused on me that an archer of yours can use an arrow to put an end to him,” Theus suggested.

  “I can turn invisible again, and get close to him, while the rest of you fight the way men are supposed to fight,” Theus told them. “Give me a head start, while you get organized, and I’ll go distract him from the battle for the city, and make him engage in a battle with me.”

  It was a frightening proposal, and Theus felt the bile rising in his throat after he said it. But it was the only way to try to win the war in Great Forks. Already, Theus could see that the invaders from Southsand had captured a larger portion of the city’s territory than he had expected. They had penetrated far inland from the waterfront, and that success had to be due to the works of Donal.