by Guy Antibes
With a little training and encouragement, soldiers created their own slings. They received thousands of balls distributed in pouches. All soldiers practiced using slings with pebbles that they picked up along the way. Quite a few men, and even women, were already proficient, having used slings in their youth, both Shinkyan and Imperial troops. Satisfied that the army had multiple tools at their disposal, Pol fidgeted. He would still have to do something more when they approached the enemy army, and he had in mind a solo Seeker mission.
His wristband lit up. Pol wondered who beckoned him. Gula wrote in Zasosian that the Winnowers in Daftine were finally defeated by the Zasosian army fortified with Deftnis monks. A portion of Landon’s guard were with them already in Galistya, heading for the border between Baccusol and Boxall, where the two armies would link up.
Miraculously, the monks and the Zasosians suffered no deaths, although Gula and the other healers were exhausted from making repairs to their bodies. Landon now had a rune book, so Gula could transfer information to him.
Pol wrote a message at the next stop.
Landon,
Grostin is dead, a victim of Winnower torture. I don’t know all the details. I left Borstall to Amonna, now acting Queen of North Salvan. I will be glad when this is all over.
Pol
At least his brother would have the first notification of his brother’s death from a family member. Pol didn’t know how Landon would take the loss, but he imagined that Landon would be happy that Amonna took the throne. Of course, Pol knew more details, but that would be for a face-to-face meeting, hopefully.
He looked forward to seeing Gula and Akil again, as well as the Deftnis monks. Pol turned in his saddle. Jonness traveled with the Shinkyan horses some distance behind him in the same army. He’d tell him that Deftnis monks made it safely through the Southwestern part of the Winnower Civil War.
“What did you say to Landon?” Shira asked.
“Grostin is dead, and Amonna is Queen.” Pol shrugged. “He doesn’t need to know the awful details yet.”
“I’m glad Grostin isn’t around to plague you anymore, but even he didn’t deserve a death like that. His image still haunts my dreams,” she said.
Pol didn’t need to dream to be haunted by the vision. He looked at his wristband. “No scouts that are linked to my book have reported in,” he said.
Pol sent a message to the other armies. The scouts had not returned after leaving in the early morning.
“We can’t send out scouts alone, anymore,” Pol said. “I’m sure the Winnowers captured or killed them.” Pol worried about the rune books as much as their deaths.
A few hours later, his wristband lit up, and a scout’s page glowed, but all he saw were lines drawn in the dots. The enemy had finally found a rune book, and they had an inkling of how to use them if they used the lodestone stylus to darken the dots. Their advantage might diminish sooner than later if a smart magician figured out how the rune books worked.
The other scouts pages likewise had scratched-out lines and scribbles. None of them returned. Pol guessed that the Winnowers had their own Seekers locate the scouts. If that were the case, the enemy had covered a lot of ground with magicians as they cast their net for Imperial scouts.
Pol had many soldiers, as well.
“We will send larger parties in the morning to make contact with the enemy,” Pol said as he wrote in his rune book that evening. “Slings and magnetic arrows and weapons will be needed, but also magicians who can place shields on minds.”
The next day, the scouting parties clashed with clusters of Winnower forces. These forces had protective wards, but not the exploding ones. Midday, a scouting party returned with a captive.
Pol found the man put to sleep. He checked for a Winnow Society medallion, but he saw the man did not have one as he lugged him to a sitting position against a wagon wheel. Pol put a truth spell on him before he eliminated the sleeping tweak.
The captive’s eyes widened when he woke in the midst of the Imperial army.
“Where are you from?” Pol said, sitting on his haunches.
“East Huffnya,” the soldier said.
Pol put his hand on his head and found the ward with brown stripes. A quick removal would kill this man. “I’m going to remove the Winnower mind-control.”
“My masters haven’t done such a thing to me,” the man said.
Under the truth spell, Pol had to accept that the man believed what he said. The Winnowers were so full of deceit, he thought. He eliminated the ward and the man began to swoon a bit.
“Do you still think you weren’t under the Winnower’s spell?” Pol asked.
The man glared at him as his wits returned. “Do you think I’m happy about this?”
“About what?” Pol said as calmly as he could.
“I’ve been lied to. My countrymen were lied to. We die for a false cause.”
The outburst surprised Pol. “What do the Winnowers promise?”
“Peace, prosperity, freedom. They stirred up my mind. I’ve seen just the opposite in the army.”
“What can you do about it?”
The man made a face and turned away. “Nothing. My friends and countrymen will die for nothing.”
Pol looked the captive in the eye. “Not all of them have to die if you tell us what you know.” He didn’t tell him he was under a truth spell.
“I’m just a soldier.”
After shaking his head, Pol put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “You’re not just a soldier if you were in the scout groups. What were your orders, and what happened to our scouts?”
“We had magicians with us who can tell where people are.”
“It’s called location,” Pol said.
The man nodded. “Location. We have teams strung all along the rear with the purpose of catching your scouts…”
The man went on to tell how the Winnowers captured the scouts and the strange books one of the other soldiers had found. Pol did not tell him what the rune books did.
“What about us? How many soldiers do the Winnowers estimate are in our army?”
“Ten, fifteen thousand?” He looked at Pol and shrugged. “Those are the rumors. Your army doesn’t look that large,” he said as men continued to advance past them.
“Are the Winnowers going to turn and fight us?”
The soldier’s eyebrows went up. “How did you know?”
“It’s a possibility that we’ve thought of.”
After nodding his head, the captive said. “They aren’t ready yet.”
Pol smiled. He would rather hear the man refer to the Winnower army as ‘they’ rather than ‘we.' “Ready for what?”
“A secret weapon. We don’t have it in our army yet.”
Obviously, the secret weapon was exploding soldiers. “When do you think you’ll get it?”
“In a few days. Until then we continue to march west, keeping our distance from you, and then we’ll turn and attack.”
“How many soldiers in the army that left Borstall?”
“Ten thousand,” the man said, “but they were joined by us from Tarida. We doubled their size.”
“About twenty thousand march to reinforce the Winnower army confronting the Imperials. How many fronts will the Winnowers fight on?”
“Fronts?”
“Too many men will fill a battlefield to overflowing, so armies break up and fight in large groups.”
“Oh,” the captive said. “I don’t know. I’m just a soldier.”
Pol had heard enough. He didn’t know what to do with the man.
“Are you going to head back to the Winnower army if given a chance?”
The man shook his head. “Not after this.”
“I won’t put a weapon in your hand, but are you willing to help us in a non-combatant role?”
“I am.”
“We have a special herd of horses, and I’ll put you under the command of a Deftnis monk. His name is Jonness, and he is very, very compe
tent. He may ask you a lot of questions. Answer him truthfully, and you will get along with him.”
“I like horses,” the captive said.
“Good.”
~
After soldiers had escorted their captive back to the Shinkyan herd, Pol messaged his Generals for a meeting at the end of the next day, since the columns were approximately half-a-day away from Pol’s central position. The larger Imperial scouting parties closed with the enemy scouts, who fought or ran away. They encountered no explosive soldiers. They found no evidence of the Winnowers turning back, but Pol did not think that meant anything at this point. Once the Winnow Society army ahead of them turned around, it would not take them long to engage.
The Generals arrived, dusty from the cross-country rides. Pol gave them a chance to rest for a bit, and then they sat around a folding table filled with maps that Paki had taken from Borstall Castle, with Queen Amonna’s permission.
“We are here,” Paki said, putting a stone on the map. The Redearth contingent is here, and the General Biloben’s forces are here.”
Pol had the former captive brought in. “Can you tell us where you left the Winnower army that left Borstall?”
It took the man a little time to get his bearings. “Probably here. They were still moving west. That could change at any time.”
Pol nodded. “Thank you. How is your new job?”
The man grinned. “I’ve never been around such smart horses before. It’s like they truly appreciate humans for helping them.”
“You can return. Thank you for your observations.”
After the captive had left, Pol turned to the Generals. “He didn’t like being controlled when he found out. I’ll bet most of those men out there don’t know. We will have to kill too many of them. Any Winnower magician is to be killed immediately. They are the evil drivers of this rebellion.”
“They are arrogant,” Biloben said. “Magic doesn’t conquer all. Even they realized they needed common soldiers to carry out their plans. Being in exactly the same position as that young man who just visited us, the Winnowers don’t deserve to live. They will revert to their malicious ways given a chance.”
The General could not have uttered a better reinforcement for what Pol had just said. He looked down at the map. “Unfortunately, we don’t have an accurate idea how many men are in the Borstall-based Winnow Society army, but we certainly outnumber it. I’m inclined to change our marching order. Long columns are not conducive to defense. Any ideas?”
General Axe shook his head. General Nokima looked down at the map. Biloben, however, rubbed his chin.
“Three armies, three columns. What if we split into five or six armies of five thousand and ride in columns five or six abreast. Many of our forces are mounted, so we can change our formations quickly.”
Biloben followed his own thinking, but the General came up with an appropriate operational strategy before Pol had thought of a solution. Biloben asked for paper and a pencil and sketched out possible formations.
“We’ll have to keep everything simple since we won’t be able to practice,” Biloben said. “The armies are broken down into specific units, including infantry and cavalry. Ten units per army of five hundred riders. That will enable us to move blocks around on multiple fronts.”
“What about the Shinkyan horses?” General Axe said. “What do they do?”
Pol heard a suggestion from Demeron. He had to smile. “If the soldiers have the explosive spells, we remove the Shinkyan horses’ shoes, and they can bowl right through any infantry. If we want to be prepared, we can start taking them off tonight. Demeron’s thoughts, by the way.”
“They will stay with my army since we are the smallest. Any objections?” Pol said.
Biloben laughed. “How can I object to such a sublimely simple idea? Good for Demeron. We can march with two units abreast. That will be a front line of ten that can be doubled easily. Five times ten is fifty horses across. With rune books in the hands of each unit commander, we can assume any number of formations. Pol, will you direct the formations?” Biloben said.
“Not me,” Pol said. “I have other things to do. I think Biloben, General Nokima, General Fanira, and General Axe should decide between them.”
“Biloben,” Axe said. “I don’t have the strategic flair.”
“I don’t have the experience of such a massive battlefield,” Nokima said.
“Biloben, you are the Supreme General, then. Each of you have part of the leadership that the armies need. So work together, and you can make excellent decisions together after consulting each other through your rune books. I will leave it to you to work out the details. Fadden can run one of the smaller armies,” Pol said. “Don’t include me. Continue to plan,” Pol said as he walked out of the tent. Shira followed.
“What are you going to do? Take on the Winnowers by yourself?”
“There is a huge army out there filled with people following the compelled vision of the Winnowers. I propose we attack them with magic. We can eliminate mind-control on a large scale. If we can turn the officers like we did the scout, we won’t have to worry about the Borstall part of the Winnower army. Our biggest challenge will be dealing with so many enemy soldiers.”
Demeron poked his nose into the tent. My Shinkyans can help organize the crowds.
Pol laughed. “Instead of men herding horses, horses will herd humans, is that it?”
After a long slobbery snort, Demeron nodded his head and withdrew.
“So we have volunteers. I thought we’d be using the Shinkyans to scare our enemy.”
Fadden cleared his throat. “I think that’s what Demeron was getting to,” he said.
Pol nodded, while the rest laughed.
“We’ll want to move slowly, so the army doesn’t feel threatened,” Pol said.
Ako raised her hand. “Why don’t we do what we did in Borstall and what you just did? We sneak into the enemy camp and remove the wards and mind-control from the officers.”
“I’m ready to do that,” Shira said.
“It will be dangerous.”
“We are in the middle of a war,” Fanira said.
The infiltration team was much larger this time than when they had invaded Borstall. Getting through the Winnower pickets would present a problem for those who could see wards, so they split up into large groups with those who could see wards among each set of spies. Those who could not see wards would put soldiers to sleep rather than kill them.
They rode ahead for about five miles. Pol looked at the enemy camp and saw a sea of tents. This did not look like an army on the move. He stopped them at the first ward. The Shinkyan horses would keep the others from wandering across the wards. Pol and Shira led a group that included Fadden and Ako.
They spread out and sent out the tweak to eliminate mind-control. It worked for one hundred paces, so they repeated the spell several times before Pol spotted an officer’s tent. It was a little taller than the surrounding ones, just like the main army to the west.
He slipped inside after Fadden and Shira put the occupants to sleep. Wards controlled the three officers sharing the tent. The process continued through the night until most of the huge camp was finished.
The groups re-assembled and rode back to their side before dawn began lightening the sky. Pol collapsed on his bedroll.
Shira walked in. “What’s next? Do the same thing with the Winnower army that faces the Emperor?”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“When do we leave?”
“Just Demeron and I,” Pol said. “I need you to command one of the armies. You’re as experienced as the others.”
She grunted. “So what happens to me if you fail?”
“You’ll kill a lot of men who don’t deserve it if our attempts to change the minds of the officers fail. I’m going for the head of the Winnowers.”
“Like you did in Zasos?”
Pol nodded. “I have two reasons. I want to save
Imperial lives, and I want to make sure those who tortured Grostin pay for their actions.”
“You never really liked Grostin.”
Pol shook his head. “I hated Grostin, but I tried not to. However, no one should be treated the way he was. No one. Can you imagine the twisted kind of mind that would cut off a person’s limbs and then keep him alive through magic?”
“Revenge is not in you.”
“It’s…I must be truthful. It is part of what motivates me, but I can set that aside. I’ve done it in the past,” Pol said. “I don’t want to put anyone else in the position of being captured by the leaders of the Winnow Society.”
“If you’re patient, we will fight our way from both sides of the Winnowers and collapse on the leaders,” Shira said.
“At the expense of thousands of lives lost. I’m leaving as soon as I gather my things and remove Demeron’s iron shoes.”
“I’ll help you.”
“I was hoping you would,” Pol said. He took her in his arms and hugged her. “I may not come back this time.”
She looked up at him and put her hand to his face, looking intently into his eyes. “You will. I have faith in you.”
“I will take three rune pages. One linked to Biloben, one to Malden, and one to you. If I’m captured, I’ll erase the wards.”
“If anyone is capable of that, you are,” Shira said. She put her arms around him and squeezed.
~~~
Chapter Thirty
~
P ol finished tucking some food in his saddlebags and filled his mouth with bread. Shira looked on with an unhappy expression. “You are deserting me,” she said.
Pol nodded with his cheeks full. He washed the bread down, gulping down water from his waterskin. “Queen Isa knows that you can have Redearth if I don’t come back. I assume you won’t be living in Shinkya?”
