As they had approached, Cerah could see the dark, swirling clouds far to the south. They were so far off that they might have been confused for a normal storm. But they had been seen often enough that even at this distance there was no mistaking them for anything other than what they were: Surok’s boiling signature. Still, Cerah thought, in the time since they were spotted they should have moved much closer.
Her confusion was compounded by another situation which had been bothering her since before the army had left Senchen. She felt as though an illness was coming upon her. She felt a fatigue that sleep did not seem to banish. When Tressida had last made her a meal of brazed fish, she had been unable to eat it, even though she had loved the taste of it when Tress had first fed her in this manner. And she had experienced repeated waves of nausea, the first of which had occurred when she’d heard Slurr retching off the side of the Marta. Although she’d thought little of it that initial time, similar episodes had been occurring since, all without the prompting she’d thought brought that occurrence on. Yet another one of was upon her now.
As Kern and Parnasus spoke with Jessip and Puul, Cerah hung back. Russa, who had set Barbini down near Tressida, noticed Cerah’s distress and came to her.
“Are you unwell?” she asked.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Cerah answered. “I’ve just been feeling a little off for a few days. It comes and goes. Just a little green.”
Russa, who, like Kern, was very skilled in healing magic, looked into her eyes, and put her hand on Cerah’s forehead.
“Russa, don’t fuss. We have more demanding worries. I have already cast a healing spell upon myself. I expect this will pass soon.”
Ignoring her protests, Russa continued to examine her. She pressed on her skin, watching as the color returned to if after she removed her fingers. Then she let her hand slide down to Cerah’s abdomen. As she did, her eyes opened widely. A smile moved across her face.
“What?” Cerah asked. “Why are you smiling?”
Russa took a step back and said, “You are right. This ailment will pass. In about nine months.”
“Nine months? I’m not that sick, Russa. I’m…” Cerah stopped in midsentence as understanding dawned upon her. “Nine months,” she said again. “Russa are you saying…”
“I am sure you would have preferred the timing of this to be different, but a baby in the womb does not worry about evil spreading across the land. It comes when it wishes.”
“Baby? Russa… I’m pregnant?” Cerah managed to keep her voice in a strained whisper as she asked the question. She had considered many causes for her discomfort: exposure to the illness of another, some bad food, perhaps. She had not entertained this possibility at all. She and Slurr hadn’t even been together since before she’d been pulled into the nether reaches. But now as she thought back over the past month she realized that she’d been feeling different for almost all that time. She even remembered that last night of intimacy, when he’d come home to her from the Frozen South. As she lay, basking in the afterglow, the warmth that spread through her body had been richer than usual, more intense.
“Oh, by the golden Next Plane.” Her mind raced. This was wondrous, blessed news, but even as her spirit rejoiced, she saw the many complications it would present. It would not do for the Chosen One to become sick to her stomach in the middle of a battle. And if Slurr knew she was carrying his child, he would not even allow her into battle. Prophecy or no, her Rock would protect her like a snarling randa guarding its young, as he always had. She turned to Russa.
“You must not tell my husband,” she told the young wizard, who had been unable to stop smiling. “And you must stop looking so happy! The enemy approaches. If you do not stifle that grin, people will think you’ve lost your reason!”
Still she could not help smile herself. “I have thought many times about how wonderful it would be to sit beside the Central Flame and watch with Slurr as our children ran through the Elder’s Village, disturbing everyone with their loud laughter.”
“Laughter is a disturbance all wizards welcome,” Russa said. “Still, I will keep this news to myself. I can understand your reluctance at making it known, especially now.” She pointed to the south as she said this.
Cerah took a deep breath, both in hopes of quelling the nausea and of clearing her head. She had to focus on the situation at hand, she told herself. She turned to walk to where the wizards were meeting with Jessip, and ran headlong into Tressida. The golden dragon stood, her eyes blazing with joy. Her long tailed swished back and forth wildly.
“Bwah! I’m so happy!” she blurted into Cerah’s mind.
“Calm down, Tress. Even though no one can hear you but me, that tail of yours speaks volumes!”
“How can I be calm when you’ve been given such amazing news? A child! My beloved is going to be a mother!”
“You are sworn to secrecy as well!” Cerah told the queen.
“Who would I tell?” laughed the dragon.
“With your giddiness you’ll tell everyone! They may not hear you, but to be so joyful even as Surok approaches will seem out of place. People will wonder.”
The dragon turned and looked at her own tail. As it continued to wag, she lifted her hind leg and stepped on it. “That is the only way I’m going to be able to stop,” she said.
Despite her desire to disguise her own happiness, Cerah laughed out loud. “You are such a silly girl!” she said to Tressida. “Now please, let me pass! I need to speak with my counselors!”
Tressida moved aside, but as she did her tail began wagging once more. Cerah pointed to it as she walked away. “You’re going to knock someone down!” The dragon once more stepped upon the long appendage.
“That’s better,” Cerah said.
As she approached the wizards she saw confusion on their faces. Kern turned as she drew near and said, “Jessip reports that the clouds have come no nearer than when they were first sighted. They should be filling most of the southern sky by now, not just remaining a strip on the horizon. Surok’s army has never moved slowly.”
“We know the creatures do not spend as much time getting off their ships as our warriors do,” agreed Cerah. “Renton tells me that given the reported location of the clouds, it would appear Surok has chosen a point on the southern coast that will mean the longest overland approach that he could have chosen.”
A moment later Kern raised a hand to his temple. Yarren, the only wizard who remained with the armada, reported that the ships had arrived at Hallar and were rapidly unloading. “The army will be here in a matter of several hours,” Kern said, much to the delight of Jessip.
“Even if Surok’s monsters run until their hearts explode, they cannot cover that distance before your forces join ours,” the defending unit’s commander said.
Russa now joined the others. She did not immediately recognize her friend, as she had not seen Jessip since sharing an ale with him during the early training of the warriors from Kier. Despite the course of the conversation, she blurted out, “Jessip! You are wasting away to nothing!”
The formerly rotund man patted his mid-section and smiled. “Constant worry coupled with unfamiliar physical labor can do wonders for the waistline,” he said. “Don’t worry after me, pretty Russa. I am well.”
So, his middle shrinks, while mine prepares to grow large! Cerah thought, chuckling inwardly at the irony. In her mind, she heard Tressida’s unbridled laughter. She unconsciously placed a hand on her stomach and rubbed it. Russa caught the gesture, but said nothing.
Parnasus said, “It is not necessarily good news that Surok approaches slowly. I fear that a slow march means a horrid death for anything living in his path.”
“There are several homesteads between here and the southern coast,” said Jessip. “They are spread out, and represent only a handful of lives, but alas they are completely undefended.”
“It is not just human life that Surok wishes to exterminate,” the First Elder said gravel
y. “He will destroy their livestock as well.”
“Probably their crops also. Probably all plant life,” Cerah added. “I sense he derived much pleasure from what he did to Stygia. The swath he will cut as he marches north now will leave a long scar.”
A look of great despair fell over Jessip’s face. The thought of his beloved continent being laid waste was grievous.
“There is only one answer,” said Cerah. “We must march south to meet him. I would not have him become a giant scythe, cutting across Kier, leaving nothing behind.” She looked to the sky again, not to view Surok’s clouds this time, but to estimate the time until darkness fell. “It will be nearly nightfall by the time the Army arrives. We will begin the trek as soon as it does. Jessip, break camp. We will need every warrior at the front.”
The man nodded. “As you say,” he answered. “I don’t suppose there’s much point in defending the Two Sisters, only to let Surok come unhindered to them. Besides, the people have all left for the caves.” He ran off.
Cerah slid her arm around Parnasus. “Walk with me, Elder,” she said to him.
They went together to an area that was relatively quiet, and sat together on some soft grass.
“Even if he wishes to uproot every acre of grain and tree,” she said to the ancient wizard, “he should be moving faster. Tell me, in honesty, why you think he tarries.”
“I think back to the misinformation I planted in the Stygians’ weak minds,” he began. “We told them that the bulk of the army had already left for Kier. By the time the news would have reached Surok, he’d assume we had a significant head start.”
“So he thinks the full army is already here?”
“I believe he does. Therefore, there is nothing to be gained by racing north at the breakneck speed that has characterized his movement in the past. He will bask in the delight that utter destruction affords him, taking his time to savor it. We robbed him of the same in Illyria.”
“Then we will gain the advantage of surprise. He will expect us to set up a wall of defense around the cities. He will not know we advance. My spark is hidden from him. I no longer allow him to know what I’m doing.”
“Yes. We have always met him in or near places of dense population. Even if he thinks our coming to Kier was a foolish blunder, he’ll not anticipate our making another.”
“Wait,” said Cerah, lines of concern showing on her face. “Do you think that marching to meet him is a mistake?”
“I do not. But he will. There are significant tactical advantages to defending a city, and he will assume we are taking them. Doing other than what he expects, however, gives a far greater ascendancy.”
“As much as razing Kier will please him,” Cerah said, “facing me with his full army will make him even happier. He did not enjoy confronting me when we met Between. But with the comfortable cloak that his minions provide draped across his shoulder, he may feel differently about a second encounter.”
“You mention his full army,” Parnasus said. “I hesitate at bringing this up, but it occurs to me that we do not actually know the size of that force. When we have battled his monsters thus far, they have always come on no more than thirty ships. There are hundreds of vessels in our fleet. I doubt he would go forward knowing this without a military of equal, or greater, dimensions. By now he knows that our warriors fight valiantly, and that our tactics have adapted to the composition of his battle force. As horrid and fearsome as his army is, we are better soldiers.”
“You believe he marches with superior numbers?”
“That is my suspicion.”
“I could send a flight of riders ahead to reconnoiter, but I don’t want to tip him off that we are coming. He still has Zenk with him, and I do not doubt that the tick-worm will have cast spells of magic detection. Even if our wizards manage to get close enough to scout the army and remain unseen doing it, Zenk will know of their presence. No, I think it’s better to march with the full flight escorting. It will offer us no advantage to know the size of his army. I have anticipated that he will have many warriors since the night I saw the vision of the slave women, the monsters gestating within them.” Cerah again unconsciously touched her own midsection. “We will be throwing everything we have at him. If he outnumbers us, there’s little we can do about it at this point.”
“I agree,” Parnasus said.
Cerah was silent for a moment. Finally she said, “Elder, you have never questioned my decisions or contradicted me, even when I’ve erred. The same is true of Slurr’s choices.” It was a statement of fact, but Parnasus heard the question attached to it.
“I spent many months teaching you all that I could,” the wizard said. “But during that time, I learned as much from you as I taught. I learned of your innate wisdom. I learned of your ability to think on your feet and adapt quickly to unexpected changes. And most telling, as time passed I learned of your special connection with Ma’uzzi, which far outmatched that which any wizard has known. All share it to some extent, but the bond I saw in you eclipsed all others. And I saw much greatness in your husband as well. No, Cerah. I have never felt the need to turn your hand. You are young, and you have had only a relatively short time to deal with the fact that it falls to you to save Quadar. But you follow Ma’uzzi’s will and you lead the Free People with His love.”
“And you feel that same way about this decision?” she asked.
“This choice carries far more advantages than any alternative. I am in complete agreement with your determination.”
“Very well, then,” Cerah said. “When the army arrives, we will strike out at once. We’ll march through the night and attempt to head Surok off as far south as possible.”
“Excellent. I would suggest, then, that you eat something in the interim. Your strength is more important now than ever.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
The wizard’s violet eyes sparkled. “Cerah, you have become a great and mighty wizard, and you have surpassed me in many areas. But I have been walking the Green Lands of Quadar for over a millennium, and in that time I have grown strong in my craft as well. One of the skills I long ago developed was the ability to detect life. It has helped me many times to root out foes or to rescue friends. I can sense within my spirit the presence of a living thing. Even very new life.”
Cerah’s face flushed. “Then you know.”
The First Elder chuckled. “Even more than you!”
“More? How so?”
“You know that a child grows within you,” he whispered. “But in my spirit’s ear I have heard two heartbeats!”
“Twins?” Cerah said, almost too loudly. She held her hands to each side of her face. “This grows more fantastic by the minute.” She thought of her own siblings. “Twins run in my family. There is Tal and Michu, and my father has twin sisters, both of whom have had twins themselves. Great Ma’uzzi! I shall grow as large as a house!”
“A house with many hidden rooms of your own,” Parnasus said, alluding to Kern having more than once said the same about her husband. “Although they won’t remain hidden for long. Let’s us pray to Ma’uzzi that this conflict ends soon. Your husband will not likely stand for a wife great with child going into battle. Chosen One or no.”
“No, he certainly will not,” she agreed. “Very well, I’ll try to find something to eat that does not turn my stomach even more that the flipping it’s already doing. And Elder…”
“You don’t even have to ask. No one will learn the blessed news from me!”
Zenk had grown somewhat used to the barbarism of Surok’s creatures. He had watched them feed upon humans many times, and had witnessed their boundless cruelty, even to those they did not eat.
But even he found himself taken aback at the ferocity with which they moved across Kier. In a span of just fifty miles from the coast, they had come across two sizable farms. As he hovered in the sky above he watched aghast as they slaughtered every living being, from human farmer to pet banth. They se
t fields of crops ablaze, as well as houses, barns and granaries. They uprooted ancient trees and poured poison into streams and watering holes. Zenk looked over his shoulder at the vast strip of charred land behind them, and despite his own fell nature, shuddered at the sight of it.
For the traitorous wizard, the decision to seek out and offer his services to Surok had been the result of his desire to eliminate Parnasus and the witch-child that his nemesis had mistakenly elevated to the stature of Chosen One. He wanted the two of them out of the way, so that he could assume the role of First Elder and move the wizard race upon a course that was more to his own liking. The time for service to the humans of Quadar was ended. He would see the humans, who he regarded as far lesser beings, serve him. Him and the wizards who turned to him for guidance. No longer trapped on Melsa, they would again move freely upon the Green Lands, but as masters, not as drudges.
He now saw, however, that Surok intended to leave no life behind him. There would be no humans to serve the wizards, and there would be no Green Lands upon which to spread out. Though he wanted Parnasus and the girl no less dead, he did not want to see Quadar burn.
However, he could conceive no way to prevent that from happening now. Surok would not listen to him. The Mouthpiece had told him more than once that Surok cared nothing for his opinions, only for the information he offered. Surok wanted to know the lay of the land and the places where human meat could be harvested. He did not care about Zenk’s desire to rule the wizards. Surok wanted the mages gone as much, or more, than he did the humans. All Free People were to be exterminated. And now it was clear the Ma’uzzi’s beloved blue and green world was to become a smoldering black stone, barren, unable to support life, had any life remained.
More than once since they left the black ships, the ferocity of the monsters had brought laughter to Surok, who flew ahead of Zenk on the enormous Orzo. As always, the thunderous sound of it caused Zenk to cover his ears. Lighting flew again and again from Surok’s clawed fingertips, igniting fields and forests. The scent of blazing wood and smoldering flesh reached from the ground to the high place where Zenk flew.
A Single Candle (Cerah of Quadar Book 3) Page 27
