Empire of Bones

by Christian Warren Freed

  Knowing would solve a great many issues but Badron detested being in their presence. His skin crawled each time the Dae’shan opened his mouth. How much hatred and venom could a single being contain before becoming consumed with his own fires? Badron briefly considered enlisting Grugnak and the Goblins to help take down the Dae’shan but the swarthy cave dwellers seemed intent on serving their dark masters. Frustrated, the deposed king of Delranan could do nothing more than stare off into the ocean and wish.

  His thoughts turned to his daughter. Maleela was the unwanted child. The killer of his wife, her mother. Inadvertent as it might have been, she ruined all of his plans for life. He knew, without wanting to admit it, that he’d never have acted on his urges of conquest. Rogscroft would still be standing and Stelskor would still be an unspoken rival trapped on the far side of an imposing mountain range filled with the hostile Pell Darga. No harm would have befallen the north. Of course he had no way of knowing the depths of events unfolding around him.

  Amar Kit’han never told him of the Dwarf rebellion the Dae’shan had incited. Or how an entire clan of Dwarves had fallen to the darkness. He didn’t know far along the quest to reclaim the Blud Hamr was, or if any of the heroes still drew breath. Fifty thousand battle-hungry Goblins were coming to change the face of the north for all times. The kingdoms of Men would fail and darkness would sweep across the world. All it required was a spark. A spark Badron had unwittingly lit when he ordered the Wolfsreik to march on Rogscroft.

  He never regretted that decision. Stelskor had been a constant thorn in his side for decades, more so than his own brother. The two might have begun as friends but their friendly rivalry turned into jealousy, at least on Badron’s part. He wanted access to the central kingdoms of Malweir. The trade benefits would enhance his coffers and increase his standing among the ruling class. Rolnir’s betrayal robbed all that. The former king of Delranan was forced to slink away from his conquests and back into his own kingdom without getting caught. He’d been hunted all the way out of the capitol city to the coast and would assuredly be hunted from the moment he arrived in Delranan unless they found port somewhere along the coast that wasn’t being guarded.

  The possibility was narrow. Much of the coast was filled with barren crags incapable of landing anything larger than a fishing vessel. Forests of thick pines blanketed the land for leagues inland, providing more than adequate protection against prying eyes. It would also conceal any spies, making the crossing dangerous. Badron wasn’t concerned with danger. It was the one constant that had been in his life since he attained adulthood and took the crown from his father. He relished the opportunity to engage in deceit as well as the occasional battle. The sad reality was he wasn’t prepared for either. He’d run his gambit but fell short. Now armies from three kingdoms were actively hunting him. Reaching Chadra Keep was going to prove more problematic than anything he had done up to this point.

  “We’ll make landfall by tomorrow night if this storm blows out instead of in,” the captain mentioned idly.

  His black hair was thinning and matted to his head. His beard had fragments of bone and worse burrowed all the way down to his chest. His eyes were hard and never stopped watching Badron. Thoughts of robbing the monarch and dumping his corpse into the frigid northern waters entertained him from the moment he agreed to contract. A Man like Badron wasn’t worth much in ransom so the captain would have to make do with robbing whatever he could take and be done with it.

  No fool, Badron knew exactly the sort of Man he’d hired and fully expected to be confronted before making landfall. He grinned tightly. The captain didn’t know the Dae’shan was lurking below decks, clinging to the shadows and gathering information. He didn’t think Amar Kit’han was finished with him yet but couldn’t trust to complacency. Badron already had plans of his own. The moment the captain made his move, it would be his final on Malweir. Grugnak and a small contingent of Goblins were prepared to take over the ship, leaving just enough crew alive to pilot them ashore.

  Badron nodded absently, his mind exploring the different possibilities ahead. “Have you a place large enough and secretive enough to put us in?”

  “Aye. The coast is rocky but there are small bays and draws capable of landing our boarding craft. I’ll get you back on dry ground no problem, so long as you pay what you promised,” he added with latent threat.

  Typical. Thieves always think of their purses before their necks. “You’ll be paid in fullfor your services, Captain. All you have to do is get us there without being spotted.”

  He dismissed Badron with a flip of his hair. “Shouldn’t be too hard. Delranan doesn’t have a navy, nothing worth worrying about that is.”

  A problem I am going to have to remedy when I regain the throne. Men like you are the scum on the bottom of my boots. “We’ve never had great need for one. Who needs to worry over pirates or raiders when I have a ten-thousand-Man army at my fingers?”

  The captain laughed. “Had. Last I heard those Wolf soldiers had gone over to the enemy and left you high and dry with this pack of gray skins. Seems a damned shame for a king to lose everything and get left with the scraps.”

  “Circumstances don’t stay the same for very long,” Badron replied tartly. “The day is fast approaching when all of the north shall fear my name again.”

  Hiding his concern, the captain played off Badron as being arrogant. “Words don’t win kingdoms. Your enemies are lining up to have a go at your throat. Delranan is a dark place these days. Lots of evil deeds and folk moving about. What with the plague I’m surprised there’s anything left worth owning.”

  “What plague?” Instant concern sparked his attention.

  “You hadn’t heard?”

  Badron shook his head. “Tell me.”

  “A few weeks back there was a terrible plague that swept through the kingdom. I heard it began in Chadra and pushed outward. Hundreds died in the first few days. Thousands more in the following weeks. Between that and the rebellion I’m guessing a large portion of the population is lost.”

  Badron felt true pain in his heart, though he refused to show it. He’d given Delranan his life only to see it all fall to ruin. He listened as the captain explained all that had occurred since the war in Rogscroft began. It seemed almost too surreal despite everything he’d done and been through. He truly was the ruler of an empire of bones. Images of fields of sun-bleached skeletons haunted him as the captain talked. He didn’t know what to do. How to make it all better. Life had spiraled out of his control.

  He still had the ability to change it all. To reclaim the stolen glory in the name of his family’s honor. Delranan would be great again. He’d raise another army, more powerful than the first. Any who’d oppose him would be swept away like flotsam on the tides. A new dawn was approaching, one in which the house of Badron would awaken and find itself strong. Killing Harnin was but the first step.

  Badron walked away while the captain was in midsentence. Waves crashed against the hull as the ship drove closer to Delranan and the new front of the war.

  * * * * *

  Grugnak spied the conversation from his bolt hole just under the quarterdeck. Too much sunlight and the natural revulsion exhibited by the crew all but confined the Goblins below decks. Being back in the gloom comforted many, Grugnak included. He’d been away from the Deadlands for too long. Walking amongst Men in the open chafed at his instincts. Goblins belonged in darkness. It was the purpose of their existence. Any opportunity he found to return to the darkness was a welcome respite.

  Badron’s words echoed in his mind. The Dae’shan never bothered explaining their purpose or reasoning. Grugnak didn’t care. He’d been given the opportunity to travel unhindered into a kingdom of Man to plunder and kill as much as possible without reprisal. It had been grand for a time, until the wolf soldiers turned on their king and persecuted the Goblins. Now they were both hunted. Badron lost his army while Grugnak’s was all but destroyed. There wasn’t enough time left in h
is life to extract the necessary amount of revenge. Still, the Goblin commander had a special dagger reserved for Badron the moment he was no longer necessary. Silently, patiently, the Goblin listened, watched, and waited.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Ingrid

  “Another seventy-three fighters came in during the day,” Orlek announced gleefully before downing a mouthful of almost brackish ale. “That brings our fighting strength close to two thousand just in this quadrant of the kingdom.”

  “Two thousand won’t be enough once Harnin marshals his full force and marches on us,” Ingrid replied almost too quickly.

  Two days had passed since the successful string of ambushes on Wolfsreik supply trains. Two days in which she’d gotten nearly no sleep. Fears of being discovered or worse, betrayed, prevented her from thinking clearly. She saw enemies lurking behind every building and in every shadow. It had happened before. She harbored no illusions that it wouldn’t again. Treachery had become the currency of the realm.

  Ingrid bore her share of the blame. Abandoning Inaella at her greatest moment of need had been a sound tactical decision but poor from the humanitarian point of view. True, she fully expected the former leader of the rebellion to succumb to the plague and pose no further threat, but finding Inaella in the employ of Harnin One Eye was almost too much to bear. Ingrid couldn’t help but believe she’d created more of a problem than solution.

  Harlan frowned from his seat beside the fireplace. Boots propped on the back of a rickety chair, he was kicked back, trying to regain some of the warmth stolen from a long day’s ride across Delranan. His thoughts centered on warm ale, semi-edible food, and the middle daughter of the local crofter. Everything else prevented him from enjoying the night. “You should look at the positive rather than the negative. Our rebellion is growing. You’ve successfully taken it out of Chadra and into the countryside. There is no way Harnin can crush it without committing much more than he has available to the field.”

  “Harlan’s right. You need to relax,” Orlek seconded. “This new phase of the rebellion is just starting. You might not realize it but there are a lot of people depending on you to keep them alive until winter breaks.”

  “I never wanted that responsibility,” she protested.

  In truth she didn’t. Ingrid was content with her daily life, leaving the politics of the moment to those who knew better. Unfortunately those people didn’t and the kingdom plunged into complete chaos. Anarchy spread like a wildfire until nothing of the old Delranan remained. It fell to people like her to pick up the pieces and try to make a better life. Life that wasn’t coming as long as Harnin was on the throne. Becoming a hero didn’t interest her. She was a simple Woman trapped in turbulent times.

  Orlek set his drink down and leaned forward to look her in the eyes. “Ingrid, good people don’t get the choices the rest of the world do. They either stand up for what’s right or they get trampled underfoot while evil rolls over them. What hero in any story every wanted to be one?”

  “Hard times make heroes,” Harlan practically echoed. “Like it or not you have people looking to you, just like you wanted when you saved the rebellion from Inaella’s lead. Mothers, children, the old and the sick are all looking at you to save them. It’s too late to turn back. Leave the past where it belongs. I say if you can’t change it don’t bother worrying over it.”

  She hung her head. Difficult decisions seemed to be flying at her faster than she was capable of dealing with them. “What must I do?”

  “Honestly? Do what your heart tells you. It will lead you to the only possible conclusion more times than not,” Harlan said with a smile in his voice. He reached into his faded jacket pocket and produced a short stem pipe already packed. The strike of the match sizzled through the common room they’d adopted as their base of operations during their stay in Fendi. Soon the smell of earthy tobacco drifted across the room.

  Ingrid frowned. “You make it all sound so gallant, so graceful. Too many people have died fighting this rebellion. Few of them were on my shoulders until I assumed command. All that follow from this point forward will be mine to bear as well. When have you ever been held accountable for so precious a gift?”

  Harlan’s light-hearted demeanor soured. He turned towards the cackling fire and said no more. Some pains were still too close to speak of.

  Orlek ran a hand through his hair and slammed his palm on the counter. “Damn it, Ingrid, what is this? You took control of a dying group and have produced numerous victories. You almost singlehandedly turned this war around and gave our people, your people, hope again. Now you want to take it away for the simple reason that you can’t handle it? That’s childish.”

  “How dare y…”

  “I dare because you’re giving me no choice! This is your war now, Ingrid, not Inaella’s. We will either win or lose by your decisions. Now stop acting like a spoiled child and be the leader you were always meant to be.”

  Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment but she kept her mouth shut. There were times when a proper dress down was appropriate. This was clearly one of them. She replayed all she’d said and done in her mind and, in retrospect, came to the conclusion that her actions since killing her first Man two days ago had been excessively selfish. Orlek and Harlan were both right. She was a leader now whether she liked it or not.

  Ingrid’s first action was to deploy her forces to achieve maximum effect. Harnin wasn’t going to be content with staying around the capitol. Any logistical problems could be resolved by breaking the forces up into small units with enough supplies to sustain a prolonged effort in the field. Getting them to where they needed to be to cause maximum havoc was another issue altogether.

  The rebellion sorely lacked wagons and horses, even after their successes raiding the supply trains. They needed more of each if they were going to cover large areas of ground in a timely, effective manner. Time was a luxury she didn’t have. Word had come in just that morning that Harnin was moving out into the countryside. It wouldn’t take long before they realized what had happened to their supplies and would come looking for the responsible party in force. That left her with one inescapable conclusion.

  “We must prepare to leave Fendi,” she said unexpectedly.

  “So soon?” Harlan asked. His gloom seemed temporary, having already faded. “This is still a secured location.”

  Golden hair danced around her face as she shook her head. “Not for much longer. Harnin will be heading this way much sooner than we’d like to believe. Word should reach Chadra Keep in the next few days of their losses and it won’t take a genius to realize our general location. He has enough forces to circle this entire portion of the kingdom and tighten it around us. Unless we escape to the next fallback position before he can act we’ll be trapped.”

  “The implications suggest a measure of error,” Harlan said. “We spread our initial attacks out in a wide enough pattern to keep him guessing. The only way he’d know for certain which part of the kingdom to look would be if we had a spy in our ranks.”

  “Which we must assume we do,” Ingrid countered firmly. “Many of us were loyal to the crown and the Wolfsreik at one point after the war began. Harnin will have loyalists emplaced within our camp just as we do in his. Or at least had until Lord Argis was discovered.”

  Argis’s loss hurt more than any of the current leaders were willing to admit. He’d provided key tactical advantages to fighting the Wolfsreik while bolstering support for the rebellion. The executed lord was the singular greatest asset Ingrid could have ever hoped for, and Inaella had squandered him to the point where Harnin took his head on the Keep’s walls in front of the populace. Yet another reason to despise that Man. I vow to take his head the same way he took Argis’s.

  “I don’t see how anyone this far out could be loyal to the crown,” Orlek told her. “Most of these villagers never had deeply set loyalties to Badron. They paid their taxes and did their part for crown and kingdom but much preferred being left alone,
forgotten by the king. This is a simple life out here.”

  “Simple or not I wouldn’t put it past anyone to accept his offer for the right price,” Ingrid answered.

  Harlan exhaled a thick plume of bluish smoke. “How do you propose we discover the truth? No one in their right mind is going to admit being a spy in the middle of a war. That’s instant execution.”

  “We leave it alone for now. Break the fighters up into small groups with missions so far apart they couldn’t possibly exchange information. Tell on the group leaders what their tasks are and where they need to go and make each believe theirs is the primary objective. Any spy will be forced to work three times as hard to get word back to Chadra Keep.”

  “While giving us time to learn their identities and remove them,” Orlek finished. Where Ingrid and Harlan, to an extent, were reluctant when it came to killing, he bore no such hesitation. He’d killed more than his share and intended to keep doing so until the war ended. Only then would he find peace. He hoped.

  “Exactly,” Ingrid confirmed. “I want you two to pick twenty Men and Women. Good, strong candidates or heads of family if there is enough. Each one will be responsible for a specific area of Delranan and have one hundred fighters at their command. Our first order of business is the disruption of their supply lines. Once they are harried to the point of keeping their precious supplies at home we can focus on taking out their smaller outposts and bases. Most of Harnin’s efforts are concentrated to the east. He fears Badron’s return and rightfully so. The deposed king had ten thousand soldiers at his disposal, paling Harnin’s forces by more than two to one, combat losses notwithstanding.”

  “Come on, Harlan, old friend. She wants us to go back into the cold,” Orlek said glibly.