Conflict and Courage
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CONFLICT AND COURAGE
Candy Rae
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SMASHWORDS EDITION
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Conflict and Courage
Copyright © 2013 Candy Rae
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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Conflict and Courage is dedicated to my father, Robert Crawford. I miss him still.
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Artwork Copyright © 2010 Jennifer Johnson
Proofreading by Irene Rixson, Auchterarder, Scotland
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Vadath
Chapter 2 - Rtathlians of the Lind
Chapter 3 - Vadath
Chapter 4 - Argyll
Chapter 5 - Rtathlians of the Lind
Chapter 6 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 7 - Vadath
Chapter 8 - Nadlians of the Larg
Chapter 9 - Vadath
Chapter 10 - Argyll
Chapter 11 - Vadath
Chapter 12 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 13 - Vadath
Chapter 14 - Rtathlians of the Lind
Chapter 15 - Vadath
Chapter 16 - Argyll
Chapter 17 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 18 - Argyll
Chapter 19 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 20 - Argyll
Chapter 21 - Vadath
Chapter 22 – Interregnum 1
Chapter 23 - Vadath
Chapter 24 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 25 - Nadlians of the Larg
Chapter 26 - Vadath
Chapter 27 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 28 - Vadath
Chapter 29 – Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 30 - Vadath
Chapter 31 - Argyll
Chapter 32 - Vadath
Chapter 33 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 34 - Vadath
Chapter 35 - Nadlians of the Larg
Chapter 36 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 37 - Vadath
Chapter 38 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 39 – Interregnum 2
Chapter 40 - Kingdom of Murdoch
Chapter 41 - Vadath
Chapter 42 - Rtathlians of the Larg
Character Lists and Glossaries
CONFLICT AND COURAGE
PROLOGUE
The story so far:
In the twenty-fourth century, a convoy of seven spherical deep-space vessels set out from the main space facility that sat in permanent orbit over a dying Earth. Six were directly bound for a colony world light years away.
The seventh ship was different. Although the World Coalition Prison Ship Electra would eventually head for Riga to drop off the much needed heavy machinery, tools and transport vehicles, it would first make a detour to another, less hospitable planet, where it would unload its animate cargo before rejoining its sister ships. The Electra’s animate ‘cargo’ was made up of some of the vilest criminal classes on the planet.
The journey of the seven ships should have taken twenty years. The living quarters on board were extensive. The colonists spent the time training for their new lives in the ship sections designed for that purpose and were looking to the future with a great deal of optimism.
Twelve years out from Earth, disaster struck.
The seven ships plunged one by one into a huge cosmic storm and only two survived. One was the World Coalition Colony Ship Argyll with some eight thousand colonists and crew on board, the other the WCPS Electra, carrying twenty thousand male convicts.
Independently of each other and against all odds, both ships endeavoured to find and safely land on a planet that could sustain human life.
Unknown to the humans, they were not the only sentient life forms inhabiting this strange new world.
Wolves and War, Volume One of Planet Wolf recounted what happened during the first year and a half after the cosmic storm.
Where the WCCS Argyll landed lived the Lind, a peace-loving species with a highly developed culture and oral tradition. These colourful inhabitants of the northern continent broadly resembled the wolves of Planet Earth but had the size and build of thoroughbred racehorses. They lived in family units within their packs and were ruled over by elders, the Lind called them Elda, defending their pack-mates and lands against the frequent southern incursions.
Where the WCPS Electra landed lived the tawny coloured Larg. They were heavier in build than the Lind, more like carthorses in stature. Theirs was a warrior-based society, based on the survival of the fittest.
The humans had stumbled into an eon’s long war between the Lind of the northern continent and the Larg of the southern continent.
On the eastern coastal plains of the northern continent and watched by the Lind, the colonial families built their homes and began to cultivate the land. Eventually the Lind decided to make contact with these visitors from outer space and twelve Lind secretly persuaded twelve children to run away with them so that they could find out more about the newcomers and to warn them about the Larg.
The twenty-four realised that they could communicate telepathically with each other and lifelong bonds were formed. These bonds, one human and one Lind, became known as pairs, vadeln, or vadeln-pairs.
The colonists sent out a search party to find the missing twelve and after a long chase the searchers reached the pack’s home and were reunited with the children.
There they learned of the existence on the planet of the convicts from the Electra, that their continent was in grave danger of invasion from the Larg of the south and that the Larg had allied with the convicts.
A delegation of human and Lind returned to the human settlement to warn the colonists. An alliance was formed between the colonists and the Lind to combat the danger. More humans and Lind became vadeln-paired.
Meanwhile, in the south, the crew and families of the prison ship Electra tried to escape the convicts, fortifying a natural hill, which they called Fort. In a violent and vicious attack the convicts overran them, slaughtered the men and took the women and children prisoners. Only a terrified trio managed to escape.
A few months later, thousands of convicts and Larg invaded the north.
The Lind army waited for the Larg on the wooded heights above the coastal plain where the WCCS Argyll had landed. The Larg attacked these heights, to be met by lines of Lind, aided by a regiment of human infantry and a small cavalry force made up of paired human and Lind called the Vada. The northern army was close to defeat but, with a supreme effort and many losses, they managed to force the Larg to flee.
The convict army attacked the human settlement and broke through the perimeter defences. Street-to-street fighting ensued. The superior numbers of convicts over colonists forced the latter back, but then word came that the Larg were retreating and the convict army was forced to flee with them, not being able to hold on without Larg support. They escaped back to the south, taking some female prisoners with the
m.
Despite the losses, the north rejoiced at their victory. The alliance between colonists and Lind was formalised, the continent being split into three, in the west the Lind, in the east the humans in the country now named Argyll after the spaceship that brought them to the planet and in the middle, the joint lands inhabited by both species.
But the southern threat continues to be an ever-present one; Aoalvaldr, the defeated Larg commander, has vowed undying revenge and retribution.
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The Battle of the Alliance was over. The southern armies had fled.
The armies of the north dispersed, the Lindars returned to their rtathlians, as they called their pack-lands, jubilant that the largest Larg incursion within living memory had been fought off. No Larg kohorts were marauding through the continent, killing all in their path.
The Lind knew the reason for this unparalleled success, Susyc Ruza Jim Cranston and his Lind Larya. Commanding the northern armies, Jim had introduced revolutionary tactics and drawn the disparate Lindars into a cohesive force never seen before.
Before mankind had arrived on Rybak the Lindars of the individual packs had tended to fight in isolation, thus allowing the Larg kohorts to punch through gaps in their lines. The Larg had been unable to penetrate the tight ranks on the hill above the battle plain and when they had tried to outflank the Lindars, Jim had ordered the reserves to tackle them where they least expected it. Never before had the Lind had any reserves with which to surprise their enemy. The small cavalry force that had turned the tide of battle was to become a permanent fixture and would be called the Vada.
Jim Cranston was a tactical genius. He had outflanked the out-flankers.
Jim knew that although the battle was won, danger from the southern continent had not gone away. The north must prepare for the future, preparing for the day when the southerners, both convict and Larg, returned. Both he and the more thoughtful of the colonists realised that with the arrival of man, the entire coastline was now under threat. No longer would the Larg need to attack over the chain of islands that connected the two continents. Now that the Larg had made alliance with the convicts there were other methods which they could utilise to reach the northern continent, boats came to mind immediately and Jim had a very good idea of the type of people who would be aboard these boats.
Jim’s answer was simple, train everybody to defend themselves and also recruit more men and women to the infantry and the Vada.
Not all the colonists were happy about their children setting out to join an army which was training for the invasion Jim Cranston felt sure was coming.
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CHAPTER 1 - VADATH
“I don’t see why you’ve got to make up your mind immediately Brian,” said an exasperated Janice Randall, “your fourteenth birthday was only yesterday. There’s plenty of time to decide.”
Brian looked down at her. His height had shot up over the last few months and Janice was built on a diminutive scale, unlike him and his elder brother Louis.
“I have thought about it Mother,” he said in a soothing voice, “and I want to be a member of the Vada. Sofiya agrees. I spoke to Louis.”
“Did he encourage you?” asked Janice sharply.
“No he didn’t. He said that I was old enough to make up my own mind.”
Janice sighed. Louis had returned from the Battle of the Alliance a most self-assured young man and although only sixteen years old, had matured beyond belief during the campaign, sobered forever by the sights, smells and deaths on the battlefield. He and his Lind vadeln Ustinya had chosen to remain with the Vada, a valued member of the surviving two hundred and twenty pairs who made up the cavalry arm of the northern army.
Louis was not present at the family’s daga, or home, hidden amongst the leafy trees that were pack Afanasei’s rtathlian, having departed some days previously with the Vada’s advance party, intent on building at least rudimentary cabins in the wooded area chosen by the them as their permanent base before the winter snows appeared.
Janice Randall had accepted her eldest son’s decision with a feeling of unease. The Vada were the shock troops of the northern army and would certainly be in the forefront of any battles of the future. She was most displeased that her youngest son had decided to follow in his older brother’s footsteps.
“They will not attack again for a long time, years maybe. Francis McAllister says that we will be mostly training and patrolling the coasts. The Larg were well defeated and will think twice before trying again, but we have to be ready for them. I want to help defend you and the girls. Joining the Vada will let me do this. I tried to get Francis to take me last month but he said fourteen was the youngest he would train.”
“At least he has some sense,” Janice muttered to herself.
Susa Francis McAllister and his Lind Asya commanded the Vada and had led the vadeln-pairs to bloody victory during the battle. The Larg had been close to victory until Francis and Asya had led the charge of the Lindars. It had not been without cost, a full third of the Vada had died.
Young Thomas Wylie and his Stasya, famous for being one of the original twelve youngsters who had paired with the Lind during the first months after landing, had died on the battlefield, although barely fifteen years old. That he had disobeyed strict orders to remain behind the front lines with the other teenagers was neither here nor there. He had died and his Lind Stasya had death-wished shortly afterwards, refusing the medical aid that might have saved her. She had not wanted to continue without her Thomas.
An only child, his parents had been devastated by his death, although Janice had heard that his mother was expecting another baby. The extended Wylie family had left domta Afanasei for the southern coast, there to set up the first fishing facility of the joint lands, the large expanse in the middle of the northern continent that was inhabited and ruled equally by human and Lind.
Absently stirring her cooking pot, she watched Brian walk over to the table and sit down beside his three little sisters and her adoptive daughter Tara, now thirteen years old. Janice frowned. Young Tara was another casualty of the war, but in a different way.
As usual, Tara sat picking at the food on her plate. She looked tired and drawn; she wasn’t sleeping well, the dark hollows beneath her eyes mute testimony to this. Janice made a mental note to ask Tara’s Lind, Kolyei about her. She wasn’t responding to any of her adoptive mother’s overtures at all.
Tara had been the youngest soldier of the northern army and had been forced to defend herself when a kranj of Larg had broken through the allied lines. A battlefield was not a place for children but it had been thought that she would be safe with the army’s communications unit.
Thinking of what the child must have gone through brought Janice’s thoughts back to the subject of Brian. His announcement that he would be leaving with Francis McAllister and the remaining Vada after the impending conference had shaken Janice to the core. For the life of her though, she couldn’t think of anything she could say to change her son’s mind. Children grew up fast here.
I can’t stop him going, he is of age.
Tara pushed her unfinished plate of zarova stew away and looked up at her adoptive mother. Mature for her thirteen years, she was wont to think much and Janice returned Tara’s sympathetic smile with one of her own. At least Tara would remain with the Randall family for a time. After what the girl had experienced in the last year, she did not think that she and Kolyei would choose the Vada as their future.
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Francis McAllister, vadeln-paired with Asya and commander of the Vada belched as he sat back on the comfortable couch in Jim and Larya’s daga after their evening meal.
“Conference tomorrow,” he said, “then the last of us can get off to the stronghold.”
“Doesn’t it have a name yet, this stronghold of yours?” asked Jim with interest.
“We haven’t even discussed it, truth be told. Some of the Lind are calling it Francis and others Asya.”
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“You’re joking surely?” laughed Jim.
Francis looked affronted. “It does have a certain logic to it. They do after all call their packs after the incumbent pack-leader. I suppose Asya and I are pack-leaders of a sort and they have some difficulties with the human need for permanent place names. As far as they are concerned, the place is who lives there and it is they who are important, not the place itself.”
“It will be interesting to listen to what they have to say about our proposition for a name for these joint lands of ours then. Larya chuckles to herself every time I mention it.”
“I don’t understand why. It seems a perfectly reasonable name to me.”
Larya, who had been dozing in the corner with one ear open, whined in amusement.
“I think,” she started to say, a wicked gleam in her large blue eyes.
“Don’t you dare,” cried Jim in alarm.
“I do dare. It is big joke. Asya will find most amusing.”
“What?” asked Asya, looking at her dam, her tail wagging nineteen to the dozen.
“What I think is good name for where we and the humans to live.”
“Tell me,” Asya ordered with a sly glance at Jim.
Francis too was enjoying Jim’s discomfiture.
Jim groaned aloud. He knew what was coming. Larya had been teasing him about it for weeks.
“Jimsland,” Larya announced with glee. “It good human word.”
Asya gruffawed, appreciating this astonishing proposal.