Urake strode over to the wrestling duo when he had decided that the fight had gone on long enough. Reaching down to drag Cero off, he was surprised to find the lad launched backwards into his face. The impact and surprise was enough to knock him to the ground. Springing to his feet Urake, faced an enraged Inadar with a dirt smeared countenance. He raised an arm to stop her when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Cero sped past him and crashed into Inadar again.
Urake retreated until he had found a sturdy staff with which to separate the combatants. When he had the staff in hand, he again advanced. Cero and Inadar were rolling around on the ground wordlessly. When they had separated a couple feet Urake leaped in and shoved Inadar back. Turning to Cero, he found the lad’s reflexes to be faster than he had anticipated. Cero caught the staff and spun to bring a knee into the center, smashing in two pieces. A moment later the remaining piece was torn from his hands by Inadar. Urake fled the whirling fighters. Unable to think of a way to part them without permanent injury, Urake was forced to watch as they wielded the broken poles like swordsmen.
There was quite a ruckus as the staff pieces were brought together with increasing force. Urake’s heart caught in his throat when he saw that Cero was fighting with half his piece. Oddly, a moment later the piece was full sized, but appeared to be made from some bluish crystal. Inadar’s was the next to break, but like Cero’s, it grew back in the space of a few moments. It wasn’t the same bluish color but more like clear ice. The fight shortly escalated beyond using physical weapons to blasting at each other with light.
The air was sizzling with energy when they came together one last time with enough force to shatter their weapons. Urake jumped as a piece whizzed past his ear and another bounced off his side. Picking up one of the pieces, he discovered that it was melting into water. Another fragment was of the same bluish shade as Cero’s weapon had been. This one crumbled and turned to dust when he tried picking it up.
The fight had now reached an intensity that made it difficult to look directly at the combatants. They were smashing waves of energy into each other that made the earth shake. An especially bright flash flung them apart a couple paces, but they were back at it again before one could blink. Urake at last decided that intervention was unavoidable now. Charging into the flashing light, he hoped to grab ahold of one long enough that they could both calm down. When he had reached the edge of the battle field there was a brighter than normal blast. A wave of energy tore through his body, sending him flying towards the barn wall. It exploded a moment before he reached it. Still, he hurdled through a cloud of debris until he hit the ground and rolled to a stop.
Pushing himself up, Urake shook his head. His armor had taken the worst of the fall, but it still wasn’t an enjoyable exercise. He could remember having been passed by Cero who had been twisting in the air so that he hit the wall feet first. That was the reason it had exploded before he had hit it. There had still been plenty for Urake to hit; although, Cero had taken out anything major as he passed through. Looking for Cero, Urake glanced around in time to see his son calmly stepping back through the hole in the side of the building.
“Are you all right?” Cero asked concernedly once he had readjusted his eyes to the gloom inside the barn.
“I'm fine. Tired but fine. You aren’t all right. There is a big gash on your face and I think it is bleeding.” Inadar walked towards Cero with a slight limp. The gash she was referring to was along one of Cero’s cheek bones and was bleeding a bluish liquid. It had hardened into crystalline shards that held the wound together and had almost stemmed the flow by the time she was examining it.
“I hardly feel it.”
“It still looks bad. What is that blue stuff?” Cero rubbed a finger across his cheek and looked at it curiously.
“I'm not sure, but since leaving the dwarves, I bleed this stuff every time I get cut and then it heals quickly. I think it has something to do with how they saved my life.”
“Dwarves? I thought…”
“I said that you know nothing about me. I'm sort of curious, why did you want to fight me so bad? Don’t say it had anything to do with what I did back in the Golden Thistle.” Cero wiped his hand and flexed his jaw as Inadar guiltily looked at the ground.
“I was mad because of what you did to the dragon and because I thought you were a wimp that hid behind your father.”
“My father may be the Asgare, but I grew up fending for myself on the streets of my home village. As for Bani, the only thing I did was hatch him.” Cero laughed and rubbed a knee ruefully. “You pack quite a punch.”
“Aren’t you controlling him?” Inadar frowned.
“Controlling him? That is a laugh. Bani thinks that I am his mother, but that only means that I should be his slave labor. You said that you can speak with dragons. Why don’t you ask Bani?” Cero motioned towards the little dragon that was curled up on his little heap of straw.
“I will and you had better be telling the truth.” Inadar approached the little dragon that was still sitting calmly on his heap of straw as if the entire battle that had raged before him was commonplace. She knelt down and gazed into the deep emerald eyes. A moment later Bani snorted indignantly and stalked over to Cero’s side where he curled up and disappeared.
“He was offended when I asked him if you forced him to do anything!” Inadar scowled at Bani’s last seen location.
“He tends to be quite dignified. I personally don’t think that anyone could force him to do anything he doesn’t want to.”
“Dignified is one way of saying it. Egotistical is another term used for the male species.” Inadar massaged her knee then tested it. When she didn’t feel any pain from it, she brushed some straw out of her hair and tried to wipe her face clean.
“Ouch. No wonder you don’t like me. The unforgivable crime of being born a boy has finally caught up with me.” Cero grimaced then brushed his fingers across the crystalline scab on his cheek. At his touch the crystals seemed to turn to dust and fall away revealing tender new skin beneath.
“Watch it! If you try doing anything to Enthbani, I will be here watching you and won’t hesitate to put you down.” Inadar shook a finger at a grinning Cero. She scowled when he didn’t seem to take her warning to heart.
“So you aren’t going to run away with Torroth like you were planning a few days ago?” Cero laughed when Inadar dropped her jaw in surprise.
“How could you have known that?”
“The Golden Thistle is Urake’s. You can guess that nothing is done or said within those walls that he doesn’t know about.” Cero was still smiling, but Inadar had a cross set to her jaw.
“Where is everyone?” Inadar abruptly changed the topic.
“I'm not sure. Urake was in here when we started. I think the others were posted outside to keep a watch.”
“How did that hole get in the wall?” Inadar had cleaned herself up as best she could without any water and was now walking towards the gaping hole in the barn wall.
“I'm not sure, but I think you threw me through the wall.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I know we were sparing, but other than that, I don’t exactly know. I do know that I couldn’t have done that.”
“I don’t know either. Last thing I remember was you telling me it was all right to hit a girl because you hit me first, then I was standing out there. Come one Bani.” Inadar shook her head as she watched Cero’s clothes move where Bani was pulling on them as he climbed to Cero’s shoulders. He could be seen outlined faintly until he stopped moving. She followed Cero out the new door in the barn but stopped when they met Urake with sword drawn.
“Cero?” Urake uttered the single word question as he looked the two of them over.
“We are all right. What happened to you?” A bruise was already forming on Urake’s jaw and from the stiff way that he was walking, Cero could tell the he was sore for some reason.
“I got startled and tripped.” Urake put Ice Heart away and se
nt a warning glance towards Niman and Arken as they stood watching in astonishment. “I don’t ever want to hear either of you complain about how heavy your packs are. Between this and the stunt you pulled at the Golden Thistle, we will need to be leaving Warton ahead of schedule. You four go back to the Golden Thistle and hope that no one notices their forced nap. I am going to see if Tusul can speed up any. Don’t get into any more trouble while I'm gone.”
Chapter Nine: Intentions
Lortin somberly led the column down the road on his way back to Keom. Ten of his men were dead and another twenty were injured. The opportunity to attack the small camp that was blockading the northern entrance to the Outlands had been too tempting to pass up. They had not been posting sentries, brazenly flew Reigns’ banner, and were seemingly oblivious to any threat that the rebels might pose. The plan of attack had been to sneak into the camp and eliminate as many as possible before the alarm was raised. By Lortin’s estimates, there would have been a weak defense before the element of surprise enabled his men to wipe out the remaining men in the camp.
All had gone according to plan until he had been about to give the order to attack. Apparently one of the soldiers had been emptying his bladder discreetly and had noticed the shadowy forms advancing on his unsuspecting comrades. He had been the first to die, but the warning had enabled Reigns’ men to mount a defense. Something that had worked against Lortin’s men was that there was almost half again as many men in the camp. All of them were trained regulars from Shienhin’s garrison.
The battle had been pitched and at times uncertain. The order to retreat was not feasible considering that the trees were too far away to reach before they got picked off by archers. Forced to remain and fight, they had won by a narrow margin, and even then, only because of one of Lortin’s subordinate’s quick thinking. The archer had found and killed the commanding officer throwing the men into disarray. Lortin had then been able to gain the upper hand. A couple dozen of the enemy had fled at that point, dooming their comrades.
After the battle Lortin had taken inventory of his losses and been surprised that they hadn’t been heavier. Of those injured, most had only been lightly injured. There were five that would be maimed for life so, in reality, he had lost fifteen fighting men, plus however long it would take for the rest to recover. Balinor was sure to be enraged on hearing the report.
There was an upside. There had been three supply wagons that the blockade had seized. One had been from Lortin’s own house, house Eltanin, and the other two had been from house Inarack. The drivers were being held prisoner until word came from Shienhin on what to do with them. The drivers had maintained that they were simply traders, unaware that there were rebels about, and intent on selling their wares to the outlanders. As far as Lortin knew, the fact that the rebellion was being supported by some of the noble houses was not compromised. On top of that, there had been a gold shipment from the taxes paid by the outlanders. Among the loot was several sets of weapons and lightly used armor scavenged from the dead. There had been no prisoners taken so when Lortin had finished loading what he wanted, they had set fire to the rest and retreated back into the forest bound for Keom with their loot.
The walls of Keom were looming across the fields that quilted this side of the river. The city really was imposing from a distance, but it grew less imposing as they drew closer. The walls that were built on the banks of the river still had a solid base, but the parapets were crumbling. There had been a bridge built over the river through a breach in the wall sometime in the past to allow for travel over the river since the drawbridge had long since decayed. Signs of fresh masonry materialized as they approached breach. Off to one side, there was a number of workers building what looked like a new drawbridge. The rest of the wall, through as far as the point where the river emerged from the base of the cliffs, were in reasonable condition as well considering that they were more than a millennium old. No one had been maintaining Keom’s bulwarks for that time, so as it was, it wouldn’t have been surprising if the walls had only been a pile of rubble by now.
Lortin paused before crossing the bridge. On the other side was going to be a difficult briefing with Balinor. That, and he didn’t quite trust the integrity of the bridge. It looked like it had been built by amateurs shortly after the end of the Millennium War. It was a wonder it hadn’t fallen into the roiling waters below. Urging the horse forward, he crossed the bridge and reigned up watching the wagons following closely behind. The bridge held despite creaking and groaning ominously until the wagons were across.
“Lortin, what are you doing back here?” Balinor strode out from behind a stack of crates causing Lortin to flinch. His impatient tone bode ill for Lortin’s fortunes.
“We attacked the army camp at the mouth of the Outlands. Wiped them out, but they got a few of our men. I brought back the three supply wagons and the tax shipment that we recovered and will need a few more men to replace the ones that fell in the attack.” Lortin nodded over his shoulder and let the passing wagons speak for themselves.
“You were given explicit orders to not engage the enemy. How many did you lose?” Lortin delayed responding as long as possible when he saw the dangerous slant to Balinor’s eyes.
“Ten. We were in the process of an ambush when they got warning. They managed to form a defensive, but we overpowered them. It could have been worse, my men acquitted themselves valiantly and we prevailed.” Lortin tried to keep talking. He knew from Balinor’s expression that ten casualties was not going to go over well and that as long as he was talking Balinor wouldn’t be yelling at him. He quit speaking when he noticed Balinor’s expression growing darker and realized that he was digging himself a hole that soon might be too deep to escape.
“Ten men! You disobey a direct order and lost ten men and then have the audacity to come here asking for replacements. If you weren’t the heir to house Eltanin, I would demote you so far that you would have to ask a first year recruit permission to use the latrine. I have had enough of you and your arrogance. You are going to return to duty with twenty men after you finish giving your report to Redzyn. Your task was only to slow the advance of Reigns’ men, not kill them. We want to convince them to join us.”
“But sir, with all due respect, they were traitors. They are following the usurper. The true Queen in here with you.” Lortin dismounted and realized that he had lost the advantage of looking down at Balinor from the horse’s height.
“Traitors! That is what you think that they are? They think that they are following the true princess. Reigns has conjured a look alike for Em’risi and crowned her princess. To them, you are the traitor that is following an imposter. You killed men that were just trying to follow orders and now we are looking worse than ever. Now get out of my sight before I do something that might not be a wise decision.”
“I'm sorry sir. I didn’t know. But sir, twenty men isn’t enough. I will need more if I am supposed to do anything about slowing Reigns’ men.” Lortin shank back a step when Balinor gritted his teeth with a malevolent fire in his eyes.
“Sorry? Tell that to the families of the men who you killed. Twenty men is more than you deserve and will be more than enough for building signal fires along the Sea Wall. Redzyn will assign you men the men after you finish debriefing with him, now go.” Balinor walked away from the shocked young officer without giving him a chance to protest.
He made his way along the wall, inspecting the construction effort while still fuming at the confrontation with Lortin. The few people of Keom were impoverished. Most in the Outlands lived in the small villages where they could ply a trade and pay their taxes. Once Em’risi had recovered from the loss of her father, she had confronted Balinor and made it clear that she was to be involved in all aspects of the war. She had won the people’s loyalty by announcing that the taxes that Reigns had been charging them would be lifted. Balinor could have thought of a dozen ways that the money could have been used to help their position; however, Em’risi had n
ot left any room for him to question her orders. He did agree that the mandatory yearly tax for being alive was simply too much in some cases. These people barely had enough money to pay for food let alone fifty silver for each person in their household. Em’risi had suspended all the taxes instead of just the life tax. There was no longer any tax income from the Outland regions under their control. The gold that he had managed to smuggle out of Shienhin was wearing thin and Em’risi didn’t seem to care.
“Balinor. You are upset. What is it?” Em’risi appeared out of an alley way without the bodyguards that Balinor had assigned her. He curbed the urge to chide her like the innocent young woman that she looked because he knew that beneath those auburn curls and lightly tanned skin was a will that rivaled her mother’s. She had also made it clear that he could offer her suggestions, but never orders.
“Nothing that you should be concerned about. Just some mundane matters that I am required to deal with.” Balinor found himself unable to meet Em’risi’s piercing gaze. He tried to remind himself that he was an experienced general that had been dealing with the King for his entire career, but for some reason, the Princess was intimidating in a way that Illiad could never have been. Those purple eyes could see right through the plate armor and read him like an open book.
“You know that I can tell when you lie. An odd shade of orange to say the least. If you don’t remember, we had this discussion once already. You can’t expect to make me your queen and try to keep me dissociated with the things you consider below me. I don’t have the privilege of only hearing the things that are ladylike if I am to rule.” Balinor did indeed remember that frosty conversation and begged the fates that another one was not forthcoming.
“Lortin attacked the soldiers that were stationed at the mouth of the Outlands.”
“And? Red is a color that usually means that you are omitting something.” Balinor glowered at Em’risi until he lost his nerve and glanced away.
Chronicles of Den'dra: A land on Fire Page 13
