Haven: A Trial of Blood and Steel Book Four

by Shepherd, Joel

  Damon swallowed hard. “You counsel me to attack your closest allies? The family of your wife and son?”

  “Damon. Brother.” Koenyg's hand tightened with unexpected strength. “All that I have ever done, I have done for Lenayin. I tried to unite a divided land. I thought the north was central, and the rest should be made more like them. I still think it. But that is not to be, and now you must unite Lenayin your way.

  “Let nothing stop you. No weakness, no fecklessness. No elder brother intimidating you, even beyond the grave.” He smiled. Damon struggled to hold his gaze. “Let not even the love of your other siblings stop you from doing what you must for your people. I never did. Not even when it caused me such pain as these arrows can only imagine.”

  It hurt. Damon looked at Sasha, as she wiped at tears. She knew what he meant. Damon did too. They had never been friends, but family was not friendship. Family was family, even in hatred and feud. As leaders of nations, they did not always have the luxury to put each other first.

  “Myklas lives,” said Damon. “Wounded, but recovering.”

  “Sasha told me,” said Koenyg. “It is good.”

  “Kessligh thinks to let the wounded live,” Sasha added. “To send them across Saalshen, to see what they attempted to destroy. A new convert is a more powerful believer than one born to the faith, he says. To gain thousands of such men, and send them back to their homes in the Bacosh after some years amongst the serrin, could be a strong example to others.”

  “A good idea,” Koenyg whispered. “Myklas is fortunate. I should have liked to do that myself, had the talmaad's aim been less accurate.”

  “I should have liked you to fight on our side from the beginning,” Sasha retorted, attempting stern reprimand. “I should have been proud to fight alongside all of my brothers.”

  “For a moment there, you did.” He clasped her hand. Sasha nodded, mutely. “Damon. Two last things. Promise me you shall look after Lenayin as I have said.”

  “I shall,” said Damon. “I promise.”

  Koenyg sighed a little, and looked relieved. He gazed up at the grey sky above. “And promise me that you will not leave. I would not like to die alone.”

  “I shall stay,” said Damon, and sat properly upon the grass to do that. “And I shall never forget that you made me who I am.”

  Koenyg managed a smile, recognising a backhanded compliment. But he liked the irony, it was clear. “I shall see Father again,” he said dreamily.

  “And Alythia,” said Damon.

  “And Krystoff,” said Sasha.

  “And hopefully,” Koenyg added, with fading strength, “none of the rest of you, for quite some time.”

  King Koenyg Lenayin died gloriously upon the field of battle, surrounded by his siblings and the bodies of his enemies. By his death, a new world was born.

  It was more than a year before Sasha returned home to Lenayin. But return she did, at the ripe old age of twenty-two, and breathed the crisp air of early winter as she rode with friends along an achingly familiar stream, icy with the white dust of recent snow on the ground. Two years away from home was a long time, she reflected as she rode.

  More than half of that time, it was astonishing to think, had come after the great victory at Jahnd. Kessligh, as soon as the victory was complete, had begun pushing for attack and reconquest, as Saalshen had done following the invasion of King Leyvaan. Many had protested. Losses were severe, they'd said. The survivors were exhausted. The lands that Kessligh proposed to conquer were vast and powerful, even now that the cream of their warriors lay dead upon the field. Most wished to return to the Saalshen Bacosh, reclaim what they had lost, and begin rebuilding.

  But Kessligh was adamant. The Saalshen Bacosh, he said, can rebuild no faster than its enemies can. Matters remain fundamentally unresolved. Perhaps you will have a decade of peace. Perhaps a generation. But soon, inevitably, the forces that had driven this invasion would lead to another, fought by men for whom this great defeat was but a distant tale. It had been so close this time, when the Regent had captured artillery and hellfire. Inevitably the knowledge to build such things would spread, as it was already spreading in Petrodor, as he, Sasha, and Rhillian could attest. The next time, they'd be back with artillery and hellfire of their own, and affairs would be even worse.

  Empire was the solution, he'd said, and the serrin had protested. But not so loudly this time, shaken by events, and the realisation of just how close things had been. Rhillian was firmly on his side, as was Errollyn, the two serrin to emerge from the war with the most ra'shi of all the talmaad. They would follow Kessligh, they said, though few believed that what he claimed was possible.

  Firstly, Sasha had returned to Ilduur with the survivors of the Ilduuri Steel. Those numbered about half of the men who had accompanied her, though that was a considerably better number than the Rhodaani and Enoran Steel had ended with. A good number of talmaad accompanied her—Errollyn and Aisha amongst them, and Rhillian, who had been found relatively unharmed in Koenyg's tent after the battle.

  On the way back through the Saadi Maal country, they'd gathered a great many older Steel veterans and new volunteers. At Andal itself, they found the city risen to oppose them with a strong militia, yet it folded meekly when they realised what little chance they had. Sasha told them all that things would change. She sat with senior Ilduuris and serrin, and hammered out plans for a new council to replace the Remischtuul, for independent courts such as Rhodaan had made, and for the rebuilding of the Ilduuri Nasi-Keth.

  The Ilduuri Nasi-Keth would be run by serrin now, brought in from Saalshen. It was the only way to ensure the nasty tendency of Ilduuri isolationism did not reinfect the Tol'rhens, and turn the Ilduuri Nasi-Keth against the very ones who created them. For council elections, no former members of the Stamentaast or other, tainted organisations need apply. New Steel volunteers would be armed, and left to garrison Andal. All involved in the previous uprisings against the serrin would be punished. It was colonisation, pure and simple, and far more heavy-handed than Maldereld's two hundred years before.

  Many protested to Sasha that it would not work, that Ilduuris would never accept it. They didn't need to accept it, Sasha had replied. So long as there was force enough in the Steel, and in the talmaad who reformed the Nasi-Keth and occupied Ilduur, the rest of the population could shut up and like it. The Steel would be back again soon, and in force. Any more trouble while they were gone would only lead to reinvasion and large-scale killings to make her present punishments seem mild. And then she'd gone, before the winter snows blocked the high passes, and marched north to Enora.

  Enora had been a joy. Townsfolk had showered them with gifts and flowers along every road, and village choirs sang for them at every stop. They'd passed this time through Aisha's home village, and Sasha had met her serrin mother and human father, and heard wonderful tales of Aisha at age five, arguing with a local priest at communion about how the Gathering Prayer should be pronounced in Larosan.

  They'd collected more veterans on the way through, and a great many young volunteers for the Steel. Many local serrin and part-serrin also volunteered for the talmaad. Yasmyn had asked why local human women could not volunteer for the talmaad as well, since light cavalry seemed a task serrin women did well. The Enorans said they'd think about it, but Sasha wasn't holding her breath.

  Rhodaan was just as welcoming, though by now wet and cold with winter. At Tracato, the armies had mustered once more, Rhodaani, Enoran, and Ilduuri Steels together, with the Army of Lenayin and Carlito Rochel's Pazirans as well, who were cut off from Torovan and had stayed to fight. All had gathered many volunteers, and more poured in every day. It took a long time to train a soldier of the Steel to standard, and longer still to gather the means to provide and pay for them all, but Kessligh did not need them for battle, but rather for the occupation that followed.

  In spring he took the Steels north into Elisse, and finished in a few weeks what the Rhodaani Steel should have finished al
one the previous year. Elissian Lords either surrendered their powers or died, along with their armies. Elisse had lost most of their remaining forces at Jahnd, and Kessligh judged that if he sent enough force, he would barely need to fight at all. Most surrendered, and he left garrisons of serrin and volunteers behind. Lords and nobility likely to cause trouble were rounded up and taken to Saalshen. When Kessligh left Elisse and headed west, the Saalshen Bacosh provinces numbered four, for the first time since Leyvaan's fall.

  Damon had been concerned about trouble in Lenayin, once news of events in the Bacosh reached them. But as Kessligh had pointed out, the only way home to Lenayin lay through either Larosa or Algrasse. In the end, it was Larosa. And of course, it always had to be.

  This had been a real fight. Larosa had lost enormous manpower at Jahnd and was in disarray with the deaths of many lords, to say nothing of Balthaar Arrosh himself. But facing the loss of everything, the nobility had rallied in great numbers, and mustered all available men upon the field of battle. Nearly one hundred thousand gathered on the fields near Sherdaine, a force considerably larger than what attacked them.

  But now they faced Kessligh, commanding three Steel armies replenished by retired veterans who knew this game well, a large mass of talmaad cavalry, Pazira, and the diminished yet still formidable Army of Lenayin. Also, they were back to the old days now, when the righteous side had all the effective artillery, and the feudals had none. It had been another slaughter, this time entirely one-sided, and Larosa had fallen to the Saalshen Bacosh.

  Kessligh then pointed out to Damon that, if one looked at the map, Algrasse was also between Lenayin and Larosa. Damon had shrugged, and said, before a grand dining hall in Sherdaine full of Lenay and Steel men, “Why not?” All had cheered.

  Algrasse had folded meekly, making the Saalshen Bacosh six provinces strong. The Army of Lenayin bade farewell, taking the Pazirans with them, and returned home before the northerners became truly restless—already there were reports of fighting on the borders, and northern lords refusing to accept the new, traitorous, pagan-demon-loving king. Sasha had been persuaded by her Ilduuris to stay around for the Tournean campaign at least, as Tournea promised to be the challenge that Algrasse had not been. Tournea, word was, had made frantic arrangements with southern power Meraine and westerly Rakani, to join forces and make a very big stand upon Tournean fields.

  This they had done, with another force of more than a hundred thousand, but this time far more cunningly applied. A victory was won by the invaders, but a far less decisive one, with losses incurred and regrouping necessary. And then, inevitably, some of what Rhillian drily called “peace-mongers” had come from Saalshen bearing news of deals and agreements with Meraine and Rakani that would remove the necessity for further bloodshed, and Saalshen's already alarmed uman'ilen (as the great philosophical minds were called) went over Rhillian's head to declare that the talmaad would not commit to further conquest unless such proposals were carried out in full.

  Kessligh and Rhillian complained, but there was little they could do—Tournea, Meraine, and Rakani were formidable enough that invading them further without talmaad support would be unwise, particularly in the precarious state of readiness that the Steels still found themselves in, and without Lenay support. Besides which, serrin volunteers now comprised a large part of the occupation force in Elisse, Algrasse, and, most worryingly, Larosa, and Saalshen was even threatening to withdraw support there also.

  Sasha had left then, wishing to be home before the next winter, and not wanting to be mired in Tournea, enduring Kessligh's frustration as endless negotiations with scheming feudals served only to preserve a force within humanity that would be far better exterminated for good. And so, Kessligh observed wryly, the well-meaning men and women of peace in Saalshen laid the foundations for future bloodshed and suffering, by ensuring feudalism's survival in the southern Bacosh. But in truth, he was not too upset—Elisse and Algrasse were small additions, but Larosa was an enormous prize. It needed now to be transformed, as Rhodaan, Enora, and Ilduur had been transformed, two hundred years before. The task was enormous, and if successful, the remaining feudal provinces would be no match for its wealth and power in years ahead.

  But neither, somewhat worryingly, would be the other Bacosh provinces. The same old Bacosh problem—Larosan domination—reared its head again, yet in a different guise. Rhillian, however, had only laughed at the prospect. “If the next generation's largest problem is a wealthy and serrin-loving Larosa wielding too much power through its elected councils,” she'd said, “then I welcome them to it.”

  Sasha had thought it all a rather grand invasion and expansion of empire, whatever the wise heads of Saalshen thought. She was proud to be a part of a conquering army that brought freedom to the peasantry and promised to end the bigotry and hatred of the serrin that had led to these awful wars in the first place. Two centuries before, Rhodaan, Enora, and Ilduur had been transformed vastly for the better, and now Elisse, Algrasse, and Larosa would be too. She hoped. It would be an awesome task, requiring the labours of countless men and women, human and serrin alike, and a great deal of sacrifice. Free nations were hard to build, while tyrannies came easy. But if there was ever an endeavour that was worth the cost, this was surely it.

  Staying a little longer had been tempting, but she had plans for Lenayin, too, and Damon needed her support. Besides which, she desperately wanted to go home.

  She'd not taken the direct way home, however. She'd stopped first in Pazira, in the foothills of her native Valhanan, and called upon Duke Carlito and his family, and the Lenay garrison Damon had left there. The garrison was not especially large, but the message it sent the King of Torovan, better known as Patachi Steiner, was simple—hurt Pazira, and your reign will end. Pazira was now surrounded by hostile Torovan provinces, and a very hostile king in Petrodor, but even the king did not dare ignore the threat of Lenay invasion.

  Damon could quite likely not deliver on his threat, given instability in Lenayin, but King Steiner was a merchant, and knew what constituted acceptable risk of profit and loss on his accounting pages. He would wait, and watch Pazira and Lenayin with a beady eye, if for no other reason than the death of his heir at Jahnd, Simon Steiner. Sasha's brother-in-law. Sasha would regret the losing of brothers for as long as she lived, but she would never regret the losing of this brother-in-law, whatever pain it caused her estranged sister Marya.

  Politics and threats aside, she'd enjoyed Pazira immensely, and the hospitality of her friends the Rochels. Family Rochel were patrons of Lenayin now, like it or not, as was Pazira. Well, if Saalshen could have an empire, however reluctantly, why not Lenayin? But she kept the thought to herself.

  Also in Pazira, she'd reclaimed her beloved Peglyrion, whom she'd been scared might not remember her. But he'd practically trampled her at the stables, which made her cry, to the amusement of all. Riding up the slopes of Pazira to the Valhanan border astride her favourite horse was serendipity. Doing it in the company of such friends was even better.

  Errollyn was with her, knowing well that she'd need him, in more ways than the personal, in what lay ahead. He'd been to Lenayin briefly, loved it, and looked forward to settling down for a while somewhere far away from cities and crowds, while still doing something important. As Saalshen's senior representative in Lenayin, he would certainly be doing that, even were he not based in Baen-Tar, the traditional location of such ambassadors.

  Aisha was also with her. For what Sasha was planning to start, she needed not only serrin, but scholarly and educated people. Aisha was every bit the part, and Aisha loved Lenayin with a passion that rivalled Sasha's own. Linguistically, she opined, Lenayin was the most interesting place in all of Rhodia and, with what Sasha now attempted, had a greater potential for cultural amazements than even the newly expanded Saalshen Bacosh.

  Yasmyn also came, following the formal ceremony that made her Sasha's uma. She was old for a new uma, and Sasha young for an uman, but Yasmyn had recog
nised that the only path for a woman in her position to gain the authority and respect she desired in Isfayen was through the Nasi-Keth. Sasha did not know if these motivations were the most desirable, yet if that was what it took to gain converts in Lenayin, she would take it.

  There were many she left behind in the new Saalshen Bacosh whom she was sad to leave, yet happy for all the same. There were her precious, brave Ilduuris, five of whom also rode with her now, two of those with families sent for from Ilduur itself. It was imperative, all had agreed, that Ilduur maintained contact with Lenayin, and with Sasha in particular. Sasha thought it imperative for emotional and political reasons. The men who rode with her had fought with her in the Steel. Two had been wounded and could no longer serve, and all knew construction and masonry from their civilian lives, one of them to an exceptional degree. She needed lowlands builders with grand skills to fulfill her dreams, and best of all, as Ilduuris they knew how to build in mountains.

  Kessligh, she had no doubt, would spend several more years as commander of the Steel armies, yet she thought it likely that the Steel's fighting days were done, for a while at least. He'd been so long in Lenayin, required by the Nasi-Keth to be so, yet he'd always yearned to see Saalshen. He'd have the chance now, and Rhillian had offered to take him herself, to learn and see, travel and talk, to all the places that had been largely forbidden to humans for as far back as anyone remembered.

  Certainly he'd travel back to Lenayin at some point and see how she was faring. Whether he'd finally settle here, or there, as his years finally began to catch up with him, she had no idea. He'd rather teach, she knew, but it was nice to see him finally getting the respect he deserved, and she had no doubt they'd eventually build far more statues of him in the Bacosh than of her.

  Rhillian was the person Kessligh had appointed to put the whole Saalshen Bacosh back together, in its new, enlarged form. The wise heads of Saalshen, reappearing now that the serious work was done and frivolous concerns could rule serrin minds once more, were displeased by this, but what her own people found disconcerting in her actions only recommended her more to human eyes.