Chakran was the source of energy and willpower for the priests of Cartharia. It was practiced more commonly in Arinford -- they'd had four or five Chapels per large city. Priests did everything from heal the injured to investigating criminal activity to administering punishments. It was a hard path to walk on, even if you believed.
Will surmised that Janice had stopped believing in herself. Instantly, his heart went out to her, one of his subjects. He wanted to offer some sort of comfort, but he didn't know what he'd say. He'd never been religious. He had no idea how it would be to lose something so meaningful in your life.
"I'm sure you'll recover," Will said.
"Perhaps," Janice said, quite dismissively, "But manipulation aside, I'm a good shot. Most of my squadron were archers."
Will nodded.
"How are you alive?" Sean asked suddenly. He was staring intently at Will. It almost felt violating, the way his eyes fixed on the young prince's.
"I ask that every day," Will admitted, "I don't know why the king hasn't executed me yet. It would strike a lot of low morale in the Arinford troops."
"Everyone already believes you dead," Janice said, "He must have some sort of plan worked out."
"If he does," Will said, "I wouldn't be surprised. Have you met him?"
Sean and Janice both shook their heads. Will shivered a little, "He has a way of making you think he's a good man," the prince said.
Both Sean and Janice grimaced.
"They won't keep us here forever though," Will said. "Sooner or later, they'll be back, and it'll be off to marching block."
"No," Sean said.
Will blinked, surprised. Janice looked a little shocked herself. They both stared at Sean. "No?" Will repeated.
"No," Sean said again. He walked over to two of them and crouched down on their level. "I want to tell you something, Prince William. You too, Janice."
"What's that?" they asked together.
Sean suddenly smiled. The expression seemed to light up his entire face, and Will could see what man he must have been on the battlefield. He looked confident, strong, and a bit terrifying.
"We're going to get out of here," Sean said.
Will realized at once this wasn't just some empty platitude. Sean genuinely believed they'd make it out alive.
For the first time in a long time, Will felt hope.
THREE
Then Sit Still, my Soul
COMMANDER ARTHIMUR STINI LET OUT A CURSE as he once again nicked himself shaving. He tossed the small, sharp blade down with disgust. It was such a minor thing to find himself upset at but he couldn't help the anger and revulsion that welled up alongside the blood on his chin.
"Sir?"
Stini let out another curse as she looked up to see who was approaching. It was Rose Kalles. She was a short, attractive blonde woman with a lively personality. Normally, he was quite fond of her company.
Today, she looked uncharacteristically serious as she stared at him, "Are you alright, sir?"
"Just a cut," Stini said, unable to stop himself from sounding sour. There was no way his men would take him seriously with his face full of shaving cuts. But he couldn't keep his hands from shaking. He needed a drink.
Rose looked at him for a long moment and then decided not to ask. She was a smart girl. Instead, she cleared her throat and began, "Sir, we need to talk--"
"I know."
Rose tried to hide her surprise. This irritated Stini more than the shaving nick had. "Do you believe me blind, Kalles? I see all of you huddled up, talking at night, when you think everyone else is sleeping. Don't you think I know what you're saying?"
"No, sir," Rose said quickly. Her face had turned a bright pink. "I didn't mean that. I just thought... well, I know that we... we weren't talking about... we just..."
Stini let out of a snort of disgust, "Get a hold of yourself, Kalles."
Rose stopped talking immediately. Stini saw she was close to tears. This didn't make him feel any better. On the contrary, he felt a little disgusted with himself. "Go back and tell them I'll be right there. Go on, run back."
Stini waited till she'd turned and fled before grabbing his shirt. He wiped his face with it and then slid it over his head. He was a tall, muscular man, but not a very neat one. He'd never cared much for his appearance.
He took his time cleaning up his small accessories. He spared a glance in the direction Rose had gone. He could see a small group gathered there. There were only three of them. Rose Kalles, James Luther, and Aeliana Jehryme. His men.
When he could put it off no longer, Stini stood and strode over to where they were waiting. He looked between their faces. Of them all, only Aeliana looked determined. She'd always been the strongest, the most determined.
"Commander," she said, lifting her hand in a salute. Stini waved the gesture aside. He wasn't a fan of formality.
"I suppose now would be a good time to fill me in on your little discussions?" Stini said, cutting directly to the heart of the conversation.
Everyone exchanged a glance. To his surprise, it was James that spoke up, "We think it's time to move again, sir."
Stini arched his brows, "You want to move," he repeated with a slight frown. He'd already guess this was what the conversation was about, but he tried to seem surprised to buy himself more time to think.
James nodded.
"Where would we move?" Stini asked. "Where would we go?"
"Back to the shore," Aeliana said, leaning towards him. "Then home."
Stini let himself laugh. He ran a hand over his now smooth face and shook his head wearily, "Home. You know we can't go home, Jehryme. You know why."
"There could be more ships by now," Aeliana argued, "They could have gotten more. Arinford might have taken the shore back. We don't know."
Stini stared at her till Aeliana looked away. They both knew the idea of Arinford taking back the Lamonte shore was not a realistic one. The last time they'd ventured that far north, there had been several thousand soldiers waiting on the sandy shores for any Arinford ships or men.
There had been Arinford ships on the other side, holding Lamonte off. It was a stalemate; none could send enough ships to escape the cannons and attacks that the other side had set. Soldiers were forced to go through the mountains if they wanted to enter the opposite kingdom.
Besides the Golden Sea, the mountain range was what connected and separated Lamonte and Arinford. They were tall and unyielding, treacherous to climb. Since most of the mountain tops were part of winter states, they were also extremely cold.
It was hard on both sides of the war to send men back and forth across the ranges. Lamonte was a lot larger than Arinford though, and had more men they could afford to lose.
"We can't stay here, Commander," James said. "The troops are starting to get nervous. We've been here too long."
Stini sighed, "And where would we go?" he repeated, "Don't you think I notice how the troops are, Luther? Kalles? Jehryme?"
He looked back at Rose, who'd been quiet so far. She didn't meet his eyes. Aeliana shot her a sharp look. In return, Rose offered a small, helpless shrug.
He shook his head, "There's nowhere to go. We're stuck in Lamonte, and you get to deal with that too. You think I like it?"
"Our men are calling us cowards," Aeliana said. She leaned forward again, her voice taking on the pushy, plaintive tone she was so well known for, "They have no respect for any of us, and they're sitting in camp and saying we're cowards."
Stini almost laughed again. He caught himself before he did and offered Aeliana small smile. She didn't return it. He cleared his throat and reiterated the thought that had sustained him so far, "Better a coward than a corpse."
"We could look for other troops," Rose said before Aeliana had a chance to retort. "There have to be more men in Lamonte. Somewhere."
"There could be," Stini allowed. It wasn't as if the thought hadn't crossed his mind, "We don't know, one way or another, though. We only know how hard it
is for Arinford to send men across the mountains. If there are troops, they'll be far and in between. Should we tromp around Lamonte searching for them?"
It had been just over six months since Malevus went missing. Without her leadership, Stini hadn't known what to do. He sent most of their division to the castle with the intent of taking Sullivan out. They never returned. Weeks passed before runners came back with the news.
The news of their deaths had been a large strike in morale. What had happened after had been even worse. Men had come at night to take out what remained of their camp. They were extremely out-numbered and out-matched.
Stini had done the only thing he could think of in the situation. It might have been cowardly but it had saved their lives. He'd gathered the men that he could drag away from the battle and they'd fled. There had been a little over a thousand of them that survived. Since then, they'd lost at least two hundred men.
"You're our Commander," Aeliana said, "You have to decide what we do, Stini, but we need to do something."
"I didn't want this position."
"It doesn't matter," Aeliana said loudly. Her eyes were fierce and unyielding. "It doesn't matter if you chose this position or you ended up with it out of sheer bad luck, but you are our commander, and you need to start acting like it."
Stini looked away from her. He knew she was right, but he didn't want to say the truth. He didn't know what to do. The cave they'd ended up in was large and spacious. It only allowed for a few men and women to leave at a time, which made it ideal to protect. There was wildlife nearby, and a stream less than half a mile away that provided clean water.
It was the cave that Stini had found when he was still a lieutenant, under Matilyn. She'd ordered him to find a place for their camp to move while preparing to attack the castle.
The back of the cave was large enough for thousands of people, but the entrance was small. Matilyn had ordered it widened but that had been before she was attacked. That was before her and Alice Cori had been tortured.
Cori's death had struck a nerve in him. He'd been close to her; two people, both outsiders, both fighting for Arinford. Somehow, it felt as though it should give them immunity from death. As if they'd already paid their debt for the war. But in the end, it hadn't mattered where they were from. She'd died anyway.
They'd been in cave ever since finding it. Part of Stini hoped they could stay in it till the war was over. He was tired of risking his life, and watching people he cared about die. He was tired.
He sighed.
"Lamonte holds the shore," he said, "There's no point in going to the mountains either. Even if we could skirt around their lines, there's a good chance we'd be lost in them, and freeze or starve before we made it across. We're aren't outfitted for return. Arinford is not an option right now, as much as we'd like to go home."
"We don't want to make our way around Lamonte, hunting for Arinford," he continued, "It would be a waste of our time and we don't know the countryside well enough to be safe. We start tromping eight hundred men out and about in enemy territory, we're going to end up dead."
He paused, thinking. He'd been thinking for a while. It wasn't something he enjoyed, though. Sometimes, he'd wake up in the morning, covered in sweat, his chest hurting, and his heart pounding. He didn't like it, but he had thought on what could be done. "There is something, though," he said, "There's something we can do."
"What is it?" Aeliana asked impatiently.
Stini looked over at Rose, ignoring the others woman, "Go gather the troops, Kalles. I have an announcement to make."
Stini stood in front of the troops, head held high. Eight hundred men. His men. He'd had more than that in his Charge when he was only a lieutenant, but somehow it felt like more now. It was as if these men were larger.
He cleared his throat, "Six months ago, we sent men to kill Richard Sullivan. They failed."
There was a murmur at this, an unhappy murmur. Stini nodded to his troops, "I know," he said, "It hurts to talk about. It hurts to think about, but it happened. They're gone. Our brothers and sisters in arms are dead. Matilyn Malevus is dead."
"I'm nowhere near the commander that Malevus was," Stini said, "I'm nowhere near the commander that any of those officers would have been, but I'm what you've got."
There was another murmur in the crowd at this. They were confused. Stini just stared at them, waiting for silence.
"Finding this cave wasn't an accident," he said, "You all know that. This was where we were going to attack Sullivan's castle from. Then our Commander was attacked and tortured. Lieutenant Cori was killed."
He was bringing back memories that none of them wanted to think about. He could see anger building on their faces. It was a good sign. He needed them to be angry.
"We've been in here for months. Some of you call it cowardliness - oh yes, I know what you've been saying. I know what you've thought, how you've been feeling."
There was shame on a few faces. Stini made a mental note of who those people were. Later, they could come in handy.
"So, enough of cowardliness. Enough of hiding. You want to get back out there? Fine. We'll get back out there. But we're not going to go out fighting the way Lamonte expects. We're not going to march to the castle and get ourselves killed the way the rest of them did."
He glared at them, "We're not throwing our lives away."
"What then?" a voice called from the back.
Stini looked at the girl who'd shouted. He spoke directly to her, "We were once called the Lost Brigade. It's never been truer than now. We are Lost. We are Forgotten. But we can use that to our advantage. We can make Lamonte fear us."
"How?" the same girl asked. Claire, he remembered now. That was her name. He gave her his most winning smile.
"We're going to destroy their villages," he said, "We're going to kill their women, and their children, and we're going to burn their homes and crops to the ground. We're going to attack people who have no chance at fighting back and who least expect it."
There was silence. People stared at him, as though he must be joking. He saw Rose's white face in the back. Aeliana whispered something into her ear, and they both frowned and looked forward again.
"You think it's wrong?" Stini asked, lowering his voice, "you think it's evil? Don't deny it, I can see it in your faces." He paused and then spat out, "You are cowards."
He was breathing heavily now, another anxiety attack building but he couldn't stop now that he'd begun, "You're all cowards. Too afraid to do what must be done. To afraid to break away from your honor and your morals. Hah! Lamonte takes your women, he rapes your mothers and sisters. He slaughters your sons!"
"You want them to fear us? You want them to leave Arinford alone? Then we stop letting them fill their ranks with soldiers. Make their people scared to send recruits over to Arinford. Make them realize for every soldier that signs up to fight, a dozen women and a dozen children will die."
He snapped his mouth shut, chest heaving. He looked over them and saw pale, still faces. None of them were arguing.
"You are my men," he said, striving to be calm, "But if any of you can't stomach this, leave now. Takes supplies if you need them, but get out of this cave. Make your own way home."
"That's a death sentence," Claire said.
His anger had drained away. He felt only that deep sense of weariness and a tightness in his chest. "If you don't wish to fight with me, pack up and go."
Nobody moved. Stini nodded and then turned, walking away.
FOUR
The Safety and Health of this Whole State
"COME WITH ME TO THE MARKET," ROBERT said once Penny had opened her door to his incessant knocking.
"Why?" Penny asked.
"Because I asked you to," Robert said with a smirk.
"You know," Penny said, "I don't think I've ever taken orders from you, Robert. What makes you think I'll start now?"
Robert shrugged, "You've been cooped up in your house since we spoke on the beac
h. I know you must be going stir-crazy. I have some stuff to do. I want company."
Penny let out a dramatic sigh, but she couldn't deny the truth of his words. She was getting tired of spending every second in the manor she'd shared with Kenneth. She glanced behind her at the table. Her breakfast was just about finished anyway.
"Alright," she agreed, "Sure."
Robert nodded, and offered her an arm.
"So gallant," Penny said, a bit dryly. "Are you turning into a gentleman, Robert?"
"Erin has that affect on me," he said.
Penny laughed. "How is she, anyway? I haven't seen her or the baby in sometime."
"They're doing well," Robert said. "They just like to stay in. Erin doesn't like to take Jocelyn to the city."
"Can you blame her?" Penny asked.
Robert shook his head.
"Now I know why you want my company," Penny said. "You're lonely without them. I never thought I'd see you turned into a kept man, Robert."
"Oh Pen," Robert said, "You have no idea."
This time, they both laughed. They walked to the market on foot. Penny had horses, and a carriage, and enough servants to take them, but she preferred the walk. It had been a few days since she'd gotten to stretch her legs and inhale the sunlight.
She'd been avoiding the market in the last few months, trying to forget about the state of Valishna. It all came rushing back to her when they began to walk through it.
There had been a time when it was full of life. Now, the stores were empty, shops closed down, and hardly any cart business out on the streets. She closed her eyes for a minute and could almost see the ghosts of the people who'd once made their lives in the market.
Children used to come and laugh and run and play. Adults would keep one eye on them and the other on the various people who roamed the area. Everyone had been friendly -- Valishna was a welcoming town.
She couldn't pretend long, though. As they walked past several seedy looking men, selling necklaces off the corner, Penny saw graffiti artists had taken the opportunity to paint abandoned buildings and benches.
Revolution (Cartharia Book 2) Page 3
