Dark Healer (An Empire Falls Book 1)

by Harry Leighton

  “It’s rather doubtful he’s been ordered here by the Emperor or the senate. It’s only really just got big enough to merit action and at the speed they move it would be months before anything would be done,” Daeholf said.

  “You’re not wrong there. The senate very rarely does anything decisive. There are exceptions though,” Trimas said.

  “It won’t be forever,” Daeholf said.

  “Maybe not,” Trimas said.

  Alia raised an eyebrow at Zedek. He saw and shook his head faintly.

  “So maybe his reputation for sticking to the rules is undeserved then,” Daeholf said.

  “Oh, not at all. It’s very unlikely he’d do anything to risk his stock with the senate,” Trimas said.

  “So why is he here then?” Zedek said.

  “I don’t know. I’d expected him to have settled down to care for his son,” Trimas said.

  “His son?” Daeholf said.

  “Yes, a sick young boy. Not really up to doing much of anything. It was wearing on Garrow.”

  “His son’s not sick,” Alia said.

  “You must be mistaken,” Trimas said.

  “The General’s son is not sick,” Alia stated.

  Trimas gave her a very confused look.

  “Are you sure?” Daeholf said. “Trimas is very rarely wrong on imperial history or the players involved.”

  “The General’s son is not sick,” Alia stated firmly.

  “What makes you sure?” Trimas said.

  “I talked to the foragers, remember. One of them had been riding with him.”

  “How did you get them to tell you that?”

  “Men like to talk if you point them in the right direction,” Alia said with a shrug.

  “You’re a dangerous woman,” Trimas said.

  “Thanks,” Alia said.

  “If Garrow’s son is riding, and I’m sure you’re right about that, then he must have been cured somehow,” Trimas said.

  “Oh hell,” Daeholf said.

  Trimas looked at him for a second. “Oh hell,” he said.

  *****

  Karina,

  I can only apologise for not writing sooner. The years have passed quickly, though most days I wear them badly. I can only hope they have been kinder to you.

  I deeply regret the distance between us. You are blameless in that, it is entirely down to my discomfort with what happened and distress at my own part in it. In many ways I have been running from the past over the last thirty years and every time I saw you it would have reinforced my guilt at what Marlen and I did. It brings me joy to know that you are alive, and, I hear, well.

  It saddens me that the first time I have tried to contact you is to ask for your help but I find myself in exceptional circumstances. I've found him.

  He has grown twisted and powerful over the years and is a danger to both himself and everyone around him.

  I miss how close we all were, but what he did then and particularly since is unforgivable. I have seen firsthand the results of his experiments and they have shaken me to my core. He needs to be stopped and I fear that I cannot do that alone.

  I have companions with me, stout people, but the situation here is getting out of control.

  You may have heard rumour of rebellion. Well it is all true. There is an Imperial Legion camped in our midst and the people have risen up to confront it. I fear that battle is imminent and what the consequences may be.

  What scares me more is that I think Marlen is involved. The picture is not clear but it looks like this rebellion may be part of some scheme. To what end, I don't know, but the cost to the people will be horrifying.

  So I ask for your help. You were always the wisest of the three of us, having a talent for prising out the meaning of events and turning them to your benefit. I need that now. Maybe if we can track down and stop Marlen in time, a catastrophic war can be averted.

  Know that you have ever been in my thoughts.

  Your Obedient Servant,

  Jonas

  "You can't finish it like that."

  "What? Oh. You shouldn't sneak up on an old man, it's bad for my heart," Jonas said, looking up from his position sat at a desk and seeing Alia reading over his shoulder.

  "Never been able to in the past, you really must be concentrating."

  "Yes, well, I don't write many letters."

  "That's obvious."

  "How so?"

  "You can't finish it like that."

  "Why not?"

  "You're not particularly obedient for one."

  Jonas gave her a stare.

  "Well you're not."

  "I was when I knew her."

  "Knowing you, I doubt that."

  Jonas sighed. "Maybe I'll change it then."

  "It's a terrible way to end a letter if you were close anyway."

  "We were."

  "Then it's a terrible way to end a letter."

  "It's difficult."

  “You really are bad at this aren’t you?”

  "So what do you suggest then genius?"

  "Strike the line. Leave it as the line above. Ever in my thoughts is nice. Girls like that stuff."

  "She's not exactly a girl."

  "Oh? You're not about to say something derogatory are you?"

  "No, of course not. But she's older than I am for a start."

  "Wow. Old then."

  "Careful now."

  "Regardless, ladies like that stuff."

  "How would you know?" Jonas said pointedly.

  "Ouch. Do you want my help or not?"

  "I don't remember asking for it actually."

  "Doesn't matter. You need it."

  "You're like her in some ways you know."

  "Given the little you've told me, I'll take that as a compliment."

  "Do," Jonas said with a smile. "Though it wasn't quite what I meant. You both think you know better than I do."

  "I'll defer to you on bounty hunting, otherwise obviously," Alia said with a grin.

  "And cooking," Jonas said, deadpan.

  Alia sighed. "Okay, cooking too. But you’re terrible at writing letters.”

  "Alright, I'll take that line out. But that’s it. Now please go and bother someone else."

  *****

  Larly thought he had seen lots of people before. He had been to events in great halls when rows of the rich and powerful had lined up, he had been in the market square when the traders had been cleared and people had stood in more rows. He thought he couldn’t be impressed.

  Today, however, he was overawed. Not only had he ridden out to catch sight of the soldier camp, but now he was on the crest of a hill looking down as thousands of people were slowly gathering themselves into something that might, if given time, be called an army.

  The call had gone out for a rebellion, for people to gather, for them to unite and eject the army. Larly and the rest of the rebel council had written it to appeal to the vernacular listener, which was their way of saying farmers and peasants. What none of them had anticipated was quite how many people the city and the country could disgorge, and what they looked like as they formed up in the valley below.

  “Impressive, isn’t it,” Lavine said as she rode up beside him.

  “They seem busier than ants.”

  Thousands of people, slowly forming a perimeter, camp areas, field kitchens, units to patrol, to police, to fight.

  “How is the organisation going?” Larly asked.

  “The council has recruited the most able organisers we can find, and has sent orders through them. We will have our army soon enough, the rest is the harder part.”

  “The rest? We have to fight a legion.”

  “Perhaps, that might not be the hardest part.”

  “No?”

  Lavine nodded. “We need a camp which is free from disease, or else we will die of the bloody flux before the legion have a chance to attack us.”

  “Oh, yes, of course.”

  “We need a supply chain which wil
l provide food and tents for the army, or we will be too weak to wield weapons, and could simply be left to fail.”

  “That also makes sense.”

  “And, of course, we need weapons, armour, what we can tie together.”

  “Now you’re making me feel silly.”

  “I am aren’t I? We need a lot more than forming into neat rows and marching to meet the legion. We need an economy.”

  “So is it all in hand?”

  “It would be moving more easily if we had been able to liberate all the gold from the bank, but what you provided has been valuable.”

  Larly kept nodding. This whole thing felt like a slight by Lavine. Was she angry he’d failed in his promises to produce the wealth he’d been in control of? Hardly his fault.

  “At least the gold will be there when we come to rebuild the city.” That sounded good.

  “I will concede that point. Many ways it can be used if we can just repel this legion.”

  “We better get going, it must be nearly time for our meeting.”

  “Indeed.”

  They rode down, and passed through the rebels. There wasn’t anyone obviously wealthy, but many, many people obviously enjoying a change to their back-breaking monotony. People who spent all day following oxen were buoyed by digging latrines. They’d have been mortified normally, but with the hope of freedom intoxicating them they didn’t mind.

  “Don’t you get a great feeling about all this?” Larly asked.

  “Yes, hope. Change is within our grasp.”

  Larly opened his mouth to reply, but was shocked as they passed a man who stood straight up and saluted them. He wore a sword at his belt, and looked stern. Larly didn’t really know what he was doing, but he tried to salute back.

  “Who was that?” he whispered a way past.

  “There’s a lot of retired soldiers who have come to our camp. Somehow a rumour began that everyone with military service would be summoned.”

  “I take it one of us started that rumour.”

  “Yes. Makern.”

  “Wise man.”

  A tent rose ahead of them, and as they left their horses with grooms they entered to find a table had been placed in the middle and the rebel council had gathered around it.

  “Just in time,” the chairman said with a hint of reproach. “Now, we have two pressing issues. The first concerns veteran soldiers who have come to our side.”

  “That’s an issue?”

  “No.”

  “Are we expecting spies, saboteurs!”

  “No Gaken, no.” The man seemed to be hyped up, the chairman thought. Perhaps they should stop him being so excited. “We need to know what to do with them.”

  “Stick them in the front rank?” Lavine suggested.

  “I propose,” Julen said, leaning and putting a hand on the table, “that we spread the veterans out among the rest of our troops and get them training them all as fast as possible.”

  “An interesting idea.”

  “I hoped it would be. If we spread them, we increase the training we have put into practice.”

  “Can foot soldiers train other people?” Marken wondered.

  “They have been through training so … I believe they can reproduce it.”

  “Agreed,” Larly said, hoping to swing doubters. “We will stud our army with veterans and it will hold together better.”

  “That was simple enough,” the chairman said, “now for the complicated part.”

  “I’m sure you have a plan,” Gaken said.

  “Larly has a plan. We are here to discuss it.”

  “Oh?”

  “We need someone to command the army. We have thousands of people being fed and trained and equipped, but no one on this council has any practical experience in battlefield command. And we’ll be on a battlefield soon enough, unless everyone wants to hide in the woods until the army magically vanishes.”

  “So we need a commander. We are being reinforced by veterans… Don’t we have a readymade command structure to use?”

  “We do and we don’t,” the chairman confessed. “We have lots of sergeants and corporals, but we don’t have a general.”

  “You could do it!”

  “Thank you Gaken,” the chairman replied, on the verge of banning Gaken from talking any more today.

  “What is Larly’s plan?”

  “Why don’t you explain Larly?”

  “There is an element of risk to this. But one of my clients could be what we’re after. In the hills to the north is a retired imperial general.”

  “What?”

  “He eschewed the capital, the servants, the parties, and retired here anonymously to live like his men would have.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Completely. I think he might come and help us.”

  “That’s a hell of a risk, putting some failed general in charge of us. What if he lets the others in, marches us right into hell!”

  “He didn’t fail. He survived, until he was pensioned off as old and a younger man put in charge. He’s still able, and no doubt pissed off.”

  The chairman took over. “Larly approached me with this information before we sent the proclamation out, but I was hesitant to make a proposal in case that failed. Now, however, we have an army forming, and it would be justifiable to recruit a leader with the troops present. So, we need a vote, do we ask him for help?”

  “I want to hear his history before I vote,” Lavine demanded. “I want to be sure this man has the right experience.”

  Larly was definitely annoyed now. “Who else are we going to ask? He’s an imperial general. Even a bad one still knows more than we ever do, or than we can summon out of the peasants out there.”

  Lavine ran her tongue around her mouth until she made a decision.

  “I agree. Go and ask him.”

  “Okay, everyone, show of hands?” Every one was raised. “Good, now we must decide on a deputation.”

  *****

  Larly was pleased, but also a little annoyed. On the positive side, his idea had been accepted and he was riding to meet the general he had ferreted out. His concern for the leadership of the army had been welcomed, his solution had been accepted, and he was going to make it happen. Brilliant. Perfect.

  On the down side, they’d sent Gaken along with him.

  Oh the man was perfectly accomplished in his career, and would probably know how to butter up a general with a reputation he might not want to lose, but the odious grovelling wasn’t what Larly wanted to present.

  They were an imperial council, giving orders, forming an army. They were not there to beg.

  Well, not blatantly.

  They had ridden north through the people flocking to the rebel banner, but had turned away from those roads a while ago and were on a trail cutting through woodland. Around any corner now a house should appear.

  The ride was peaceful, the woods were quiet, and when that corner finally appeared they not only rode into a clearing with a large wooden home, but a view which was fantastic.

  “I can see why he picked here,” Larly said, wondering if he’d misjudged the man’s attachment to peace.

  They tied their horses up on a bar by the stable block and walked slowly to the door.

  “Here’s where we win or lose,” Gaken tried as a confidence builder.

  They didn’t need to open the door, as the resident did that himself. Inside was a tall man who might have had the facial features of a seventy-year-old man, but he had the toned upper body of a soldier.

  “Did we interrupt you?” Gaken asked.

  “I was exercising. Clearly something neither of you do.”

  “A very good idea, we really should.”

  “He’s Gaken, I’m Larly, could we have a few minutes to talk with you please?”

  “I suppose you better come in, but if you’re wasting my time I will kick you out and go back to something more important. Like exercising,” Storn said, motioning them into the building.<
br />
  The home was comfortable, not ostentatious, and they walked through to a seating area.

  “Talk.”

  “I am a banker from the city. I oversaw your account, and I was able to work out you used to be a general in the imperial army.”

  “Did I?”

  “Yes, you’re General Storn. A long list of triumphs, only a few black marks.”

  “And you have evidence of this?”

  “None. But, and it’s a big but, I did read as much about you as I could from the chronicles. You faced down bad odds on multiple occasions, you were cunning and you were honest.”

  “History has treated me well then.”

  “Yes, you are a legend,” Gaken said.

  “And you are an idiot. I don’t want to hear you talk again. So, Mr Larly. You know who I am, presumably because of my pension arrangements. Have you come to apologise for the fact some of my savings are trapped in the city?”

  “Not in so many words.”

  “Oh, you have delivered my savings to me. They’re outside?”

  “Again, no.”

  “Perhaps you should tell me why you’re here.”

  “I am a member of the rebel council. We are organising the people of this region into an army, which will expel the legion and establish our own rule. We have thousands of men and women ready to fight, and we are organising a sustainable force.”

  Storn raised an eyebrow. “And?”

  “I am here to offer you official command of the rebel army.”

  “I see. Command. Repel a legion with farmers? You think it can be done?”

  “I think you can do it, General.”

  “Did you know, Larly, that no one from the legion, or the imperial forces, has been to see me? To ask for my assistance or knowledge? It is like I don’t exist to them.”

  “They don’t care for people, er, sir.”

  “No, no they don’t. And yet within moments of the call to rebellion being proclaimed I received your letter asking me to lead your army.”

  “Our letter?”

  “So I have already made my decision.”

  “Yes? Yes?”

  “As long as Gaken is nowhere near me, I will take full control. But I mean full. What I say goes. If I tell farmers to dig shitholes, they dig them. If I tell them to charge at a unit of armoured, screaming soldiers, they do it. And if I hang someone for breaking those orders, I do that too. I run this army, and your rebel council run the politics and the aftermath. Okay?”