„I will use your speed as I used it in the Autumnal Nomaduc,“ Brynn answered. „I must keep a watch over that army, and use your speed to ensure that my forces within To-gai are apprised of their movements.“
„I am a scout?“ the horrified dragon asked. „I could sack a city without you! I could - “
„And so you shall!“ Brynn promised. „When there is need. For now, this night, I need your speed. Fly me to To-gai, great Agradeleous. Let us find Shauntil’s army.“
Agradeleous stood quiet for a moment, staring at her. Then he nodded, seeming somewhat appeased, for the time being at least.
Soon after dark, Brynn felt the wind on her face as she and the dragon soared high and fast over the plateau divide and into To-gai, across a distance and terrain that would have taken her army a week or two to traverse.
The dragon went up high in the sky, and the fires of many villages could be seen dotting the landscape.
And the fires of a great encampment, a huge glow, showed far in the north.
Brynn urged the dragon that way, and Agradeleous soared off at tremendous speed, the ground rolling along below them. The glow grew and grew as they neared, and only then, from that high vantage point, did Brynn truly appreciate the might that had been assembled against To-gai. And from the
i the dragon slowed suddenly, and then went up even higher, she knew Agradeleous, too, had come to understand.
Tne dragon’s head snaked around, his face moving close to Brynn. „You • h to attack?“ he asked, and she sensed, for the first time, a bit of a in Agradeleous’ great voice.
Brvnn shook her head, not even trying to shout loudly enough for the dragon to hear her in that deafening wind.
She spotted a second glow, then, farther to the north, and she prodded Aeradeleous, and when he looked back, she pointed it out.
Brvnn knew what the second encampment was before the dragon even flew past it. It was a band of To-gai-ru, likely a sizable chunk of the army she had left in the country. It all sorted out for Brynn at that moment. The Behrenese were in pursuit of the To-gai-ru, were hot on a trail they would not forsake.
Brynn scanned all the dark steppes, looking for some answers.
She got an idea from a third set of lights that she marked, not the fires of an encampment, but the smaller glows typical of a settlement. She banked Agradeleous down to that area, a few miles south and west of the Behrenese army, and did a low fly-over.
An outposter settlement, she recognized. Perhaps her army had been heading for it before the arrival of the Behrenese warriors.
On Brynn ‘s urging, the dragon set down some distance away, and the woman slipped from his back and stood staring at the lights of the out-poster settlement. She understood well the choices here before her, and didn’t have to glance back at the mighty dragon to understand the horrors of those choices.
But she could not let her army be caught and destroyed, not if there was anything that she could possibly do to prevent it.
„You were angered that you were not involved in the last battle,“ she remarked.
Agradeleous’ long neck snaked his head around, to come up right beside her, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
„The village,“ Brynn explained. „Destroy it. Let the flames fly high so that the Behrenese army can see them.“ The woman found her breath coming in short gasps as she finished, for she could hardly believe the command - no, not the command, but the permission - she had just given to this most terrible of weapons.
The dragon’s great head swiveled about to regard the settlement, and he issued a low, horrible growl.
„ You will ride?“
„I will stay here,“ the woman replied, and she felt as if she was acting the part of a coward. But what good would come of her accompanying Agradeleous on his rampage? Would she be able to save a single outposter? Would she wish to?
Any contemplation at that time was moot, anyway, for the dragon hadn’t waited a second. He leaped up and his great wings beat the air, launching him away.
Within a couple of minutes, Brynn watched Agradeleous’ first pass over the sleepy outposter settlement, a low strafing run, his fiery breath running a line of destruction the length of the settlement.
He did a series of stoops and fire-breathing runs, and the cries of the terrified, doomed outposters filled the night air. And then the dragon fell upon the village, dropping down, all claws and teeth, beating wings and smashing tail.
Brynn looked away and lowered her gaze, second-guessing herself with every heartbeat.
It went on and on, and then the sounds began to quiet, as more and more voices were forever stilled, and then Brynn noted another sound, that of running horses.
She turned around to see Agradeleous gliding down beside her. Past the dragon, the woman saw the high fires, burning bright - brightly enough so that the Behrenese army would have to take notice. Those horses were likely the typical trailing scout cavalry of the main army, a small and mobile force.
Brynn motioned for the dragon to lower his head so that she could climb atop him. „I believe that some of the soldiers have come to investigate,“ she explained as she scrambled on. „I do not wish them to report that the town is destroyed.“
Agradeleous loosed another of those low and angry growls, and leaped away once more, and in no time, Brynn was above the burning, ravaged city. To the north, in the glow of those flames, the flyers saw the forms of the Behrenese cavalry.
Brynn lifted her sword and sent forth its fiery blaze, and Agradeleous swooped down from on high. Some of the stunned Behrenese soldiers shrieked in horror, others even managed to wheel their mounts about and start away.
But it didn’t matter. There were only twoscore of them, and not a one had a bow in his hand.
Agradeleous destroyed them.
Back up in the night sky, Brynn and the dragon saw much commotion about the distant Behrenese camp and knew that the invaders were already trying to break down their bivouac and prepare for battle.
„Fly past them, high and to the side,“ she instructed the dragon.
„Let us fall upon them!“
„No!“ Brynn screamed. „No! They are ready for us, for you. Past them, I say, and put me down to the side of the To-gai-ru force.“
The dragon growled, and Brynn could feel him stiffening with frustration they flew past the Behrenese army. But Agradeleous, somewhat sated by i (jgstruction he had wrought that dark evening, obeyed her command.
Less than twenty minutes later, Brynn, flanked by the sentries she
had met at the perimeter of the To-gai-ru encampment, walked in to speak
iith their commanders. How pleased she was to find old Barachuk among
„We have heard that another great city has fallen!“ the old man said, trembling with excitement, tears streaming down his face, after he and Brynn had shared a great hug.
„Pruda,“ Brynn told him, told all of the many who were then gathering about her. „The city is ours, though we will leave it behind us, as we left Dharyan.“
„Is the Chezru Chieftain to suffer no permanent losses?“ asked one of the other men, a scowling giant of a man, with dark eyes and many battle scars.
„He has suffered many already,“ Brynn replied. „And many more will follow. The Chezhou-Lei are in disarray, those who did not die at the Mountains of Fire and in the two conquered cities. He has lost many, many warriors, and suffers the weight of thousands of refugees, streaming down the roads from the west. He has an invading army running loose about his kingdom, while his army, a great force, chases ghosts on the To-gai plain.“ She looked back to the south, where the fires of the distant, destroyed outposter settlement were still sending a glow into the night sky. „And one outposter set-dement,“ Brynn finished. „My attack there has turned the Behrenese army.“
„They have pursued us doggedly for several days,“ Barachuk explained.
„Then I have given you some time to widen your lead on them.“
<
br /> „What force did you bring with you?“ the scowling giant man asked. „Enough so that we can do battle with the Behrenese army here and now, and finish this?“
„If I had brought the whole of my force with me, I would not do battle with the Behrenese army,“ Brynn replied. „Let them continue to run over the empty ground, to meander futilely in To-gai, while I rain destruction inside Behren. Stay ahead of them, I beg, and lead them ever farther westward and northward, into the foothills of the mountains.“
„And when are we to fight?“
Brynn shrugged and shook her head. „Every day that you take them further from Behren gives me two days to convince the Chezru Chieftain and his people that this war is folly. Pruda has fallen, and we have many more cities in line.“ She stared hard at the man as she spoke, and it was obvious to her that he was not enjoying her answer. She understood well enough; he was a warrior and wanted nothing more than to do battle with the Behrenese, whatever the odds. In looking around him, Brynn saw that many others seemed to share his sentiments.
„You will get your fight, my friend,“ Brynn promised. „On the ground of our choosing, at the time of our choosing.“
„Not soon enough,“ the warrior replied. „I will see every dog Wrap Onf of my homeland, or dead on the grasses!“
„Hold faith in us, in me, I beg of you all,“ Brynn said. „Each conquered city will grow my army, as both Dharyan and Pruda already have. Wear thi force thin. Make them long for home. Send out smaller bands around them if you can, and destroy any supply caravans. Attrition greatly favors those defending their homeland. The Behrenese soldiers hate this land because they do not understand it, and if you are cunning and quick, you will make them hate it all the more. Watch their numbers thin as hungry soldiers give up and run away.“
„Not one will get out of To-gai alive,“ the scowling man declared.
Brynn walked up to him. „What is your name?“
„I am Tanalk Grenk of Kayleen Kek,“ he declared, and Brynn stepped back, her eyes widening, at the mention of her old tribe. And at a name that seemed familiar to her.
„I was of Kayleen Kek,“ she said, and the man was nodding, and looking past her. She turned and noted a nodding Barachuk.
„I remember you,“ Tanalk said, „though you were but a child. It pleases me to see you again.“
Brynn turned back and put her hand up on the large man’s strong shoulder. „Take the fastest and strongest twoscore,“ she said to him. „Lead them against the caravans. Strike wherever you can, and as hard as you can. Live off the bounty of the land, as you - as we all - were taught, while the Behrenese stumble and starve.“
A wicked smile widened on the large man’s face and he nodded slowly.
A tremendous roar rumbled through the night, from somewhere out in the distance.
„I must be away,“ said Brynn. „Back to Behren, back to our kinfolk army, now in the conquered city of Pruda. I will return as I can, if I can. But whether any of you ever see me again, I beg of you to hold fast the old ways of the To-gai-ru, and to deny to your last breath the will of the Behrenese conquerors.“
A great cheer went up about her, with many weapons brandished high in the air.
She let that cheer echo in her thoughts behind the veil of wind as she sped back to the east that night, past the Behrenese army that had broken camp and begun their march to the burning settlement. She and Agra-deleous went past that settlement, and a dozen more beyond, down over the plateau rim and across the wavy, blowing sands.
She knew the danger of the situation, knew that these early victories would likely be the easiest, and knew all too well that one day soon, those cheers of hope might well turn to cries of despair.
But so be it.
r -nil had not started this war - that had been done by the Chezru , . £tajn more than a decade before. But she meant to fight it until her dy-reath, if need be. That grim determination was her only defense nst the awful images and sounds of that dying outposter settlement, gut so be it.
chapter
Exacting a Promise
P
agonel found Brynn at her morning ritual of bi’nelle dasada, something he thought quite curious, for he had not seen the woman performing that exercise in many weeks. She seemed very earnest about it, though, falling into the steps and movements with an intensity beyond anything he had previously witnessed from her.
He knew then that she was using the dance as a shield of some sort, burying emotions behind a wall of discipline.
He found her robe nearby and took it with him, then approached her as she danced.
She looked at him curiously when she saw him, for he knew better than to disturb this ritual!
Pagonel continued his earnest approach, and tossed the robe to the nude woman.
Brynn caught it and stood there for a long while holding it and staring at Pagonel. Then, suddenly feeling very naked indeed, the woman wrapped the robe about herself and continued to stare. „What do you know that so troubles you?“ she asked.
„What I know does not trouble me,“ the mystic calmly replied. „The looting of Pruda is complete, with supplies packed, treasures hidden, and one cache sent to the south with the contingent, as you ordered, to go and hire whatever mercenaries they might find, including fierce pirates. What I know tells me that the war progresses better than we could ever have hoped. It is what I do not know that troubles me.“
„About Merwan Ma?“
„About Brynn Dharielle.“
Brynn studied him intensely, and he moved right up to her, then began walking about her, staring hard. „You cannot hide, you know.“
„Am I trying to hide?“
Pagonel smiled at her sarcasm, but his look went serious almost immediately. „Tell me of your return to To-gai last night,“ the mystic bade her.
found the Behrenese army chasing our own, with the cunning To-leading them far to the west,“ Brynn replied, with too much calm by el’s estimate.
And so you hide from me, and I have no lights to reveal your shad-“ the mystic said. „But does your dance truly allow you to hide from
Se Brynn snorted and waved him away. „You speak like a fool,“ she said,
and snorted again. gut that last chide was cut short by a sudden gulp of air, a sudden pang
f overwhelming guilt. Brynn turned away quickly, trying to hide her horrified expression from the mystic, but Pagonel was there, right beside her, lifting her chin in his strong hand so that he could look deeply into her moistening eyes.
„What did you see?“ he asked softly. Brynn tried to turn away, but he held her firmly. „What did you do?“
„They would have caught up to our fleeing force,“ the woman blurted suddenly. „Their great army! They would have overrun Barachuk and the others in short time. I had to widen the lead until the terrain favored our forces.“
„You set Agradeleous upon the Behrenese,“ the mystic reasoned.
„Not the army,“ Brynn admitted. „They were too strong, even for the dragon. But there was a village nearby, an outposter settlement.“ As she finished, she fell into Pagonel’s arms burying her face against his strong chest.
„You set the wurm upon the village?“ he asked, and he felt Brynn’s nod against his chest. The mystic pushed the woman back to arm’s length.
„Agradeleous burned it to the ground. None escaped, I am certain.“
Pagonel nodded, both knowingly and sympathetically. „I once asked you if the price was worth the end,“ he reminded. „Are the horrors of war - of any war - worth the end result of freedom for To-gai? You believed that they were. „
Brynn paused a moment to reflect upon that conversation, and upon the resolve that she had shown for so long, weighing against the black doubts that fluttered all about her. „That was before I was handed the power that is Agradeleous.“
There was a logic in that statement that was hard for the mystic to deny.
„Yet it was your army
, and not the beast, that destroyed the Pruda garrison utterly and overran the city,“ he did remark. „Surely the destruction here was great, as was the stench of death in the air. It is not so different.“
„That was honest battle, man against man,“ Brynn countered. „With the village, it was… it was just slaughter. „
„And how do you plan to prevent that in the future?“ came a melodic voice to the side, and the two turned to see Juraviel and Cazzira approaching.
„Why do you not tell me?“ Brynn snapped back at him, quite harshly. ‘You brought this beast upon me, this scourge.“
„You presume that I could have stopped Agradeleous if I had wanted,“ the elf calmly replied. „When the dragon determined that it would leave its dark hole, I had no power to convince it otherwise. But I did bring it to th cause of freedom - that is something, at least.“
„Is it?“ Brynn asked, pulling away from Pagonel to stand before Juraviel „In using the beast, am I - are we - any better than the Behrenese who con quered To-gai? Or are we worse, since we have loosed upon them a power that we cannot truly control?“
„A question for each of us to ask,“ Juraviel replied with a shrug. „But know this as you seek an answer. The beast is out, and not I, and not you can put it back in its dark hole. Will you now wage war against Agradeleous? How many will you lose, and how lost will be your cause?“
Brynn looked back to Pagonel, but the mystic had no answers for her.
„I could not prevent the rising of the dragon,“ Juraviel went on. „But was it not better that I flew him to the south and distinguished his enemies as the Chezhou-Lei and not the Jhesta Tu? Is it not better that Agradeleous’ destruction is aimed at the oppressor instead of the oppressed?“
Brynn sighed and looked at the elves and the mystic helplessly. „I feel the weight of a responsibility too great.“
„Yet because you bear that weight with compassion, the artifacts of the Library of Pruda remain intact,“ Pagonel pointed out. „You have not indiscriminately loosed the power of Agradeleous upon the Behrenese.“
Transcendence Page 47
