Chelka shook her head again.
“What a name. So complicated,” she said with a sigh. “I’m pleased to meet you, good Orpus.”
Two days later Edmath and Chelka went walking in the west garden with Orpus Lengbyoi creeping along behind them. A horn sounded from the outer walls and bells rang throughout the palace grounds. Edmath had known it was coming. The summons of the imperial army had been sent forth. Chelka was to be First Saale for Marnaia Hayel’s army, and Edmath would be her second.
“I do believe that is the call. We will leave within the hour.” Chelka didn’t look at Edmath as she spoke.
She wore a light short riding coat but nothing heavier. Her stethian hung in the sheath at her belt and her hair was tied back to keep it from interfering in battle. More Roshi forces under a Minister General named Eberal Bullosto had crossed the border at speed along with a legion of Palatani mercenaries from the south. They had joined a group of rebels in southwestern Wesser. High Emperor Loi had ordered their advance on Naren Peninsula and Diar stopped, and Marnaia Hayel had been happy to obey with an army composed mostly of her tribe’s elk riders.
They rode out of the gates of Diar before noon and began the march to meet the enemy. Along the way out of the city, he saw the faces of his mother and Zuria in the crowd. The war could be long or short, no one could be sure. Edmath watched the columns of troops move from his perch in Orpus Lengbyoi’s branches.
The men and women of this force were mostly of the Elk and Bear Tribes, though the Moth Legion had detached a company of pikes as well. The greater bear cavalry in the column beside Edmath rode animals of such size that they easily came up to the level on which he sat in Orpus Lengbyoi’s branches. Just hearing their breathing made him glad he would be behind them when the battle began.
At first Chelka rode ahead of the army with the other Saales and the War Empress, but eventually, Edmath and Orpus Lengbyoi caught up. The tree found that if it pulled more of its ghostly roots out of the ground there was less resistance when it moved forward. Gliding past the columns at an increasing pace, they found themselves beside the greater elk carrying Chelka on its back along with a royal lancer. The elk tribe soldiers held their heads high as they rode and their animals were much the same, staring ahead with proud brown eyes.
That night, he and Chelka shared a tent, though they agreed on immediate rest to keep their strength up. The army would move out at dawn again and the sound over five-hundred elk breathing within a mile radius soon became loud to Edmath. His nerves were holding alright, for the little he had expected them to do. He had never wanted to go to war, even in the service of justice.
Survival arts came to him with too much difficulty to be useful in the past. After training with Brosk and Razili he thought himself a bit better at them, but not by much. Even so, he would be no match for a real soldier without magic. His sleep was full of dreams, but none of them were pleasant. He tried to forget them when he woke the next day and found Orpus Lengbyoi waiting outside his tent flap.
“I was standing guard,” the tree told him. “I do not sleep, you know.”
Edmath blinked blearily and shook his head in wonder. He had not thought how much endurance the trees must have to carry on like Orpus Strodusial always had. In some ways, he’d thought of the old tree less like a person and more like a carriage with no animals. It occurred to him that Orpus Lengbyoi’s speech had made Edmath consider the tree a person immediately.
“Of course you don’t,” he said.
The column moved toward the base of Naren Peninsula. They traveled down the ancient road that led that way for another four days. On the fifth day, the road turned rough. The army turned and struck out in the direction of the Roshi’s marching path. Eagle royals reported on enemy movements regularly. Chelka passed on the reports of the scouts to Marnaia Hayel and the Bear Tribe’s general, Cersun Palanse. Early on the seventh day she and Edmath were dressing in their tent.
“The Roshi are of the Fox Tribe.” Chelka fastened on her leg guards and finished tying back her hair.
Edmath buckled on his stethian and sword and glanced at her.
“Do they have miraches?”
Chelka picked up the notes she’d take on the report. “Luckily, no. They are led by Eberal Bullosto, a fox royal in possession of a family of seven fox-kings.”
“How can there be so many fox kings?” Edmath laced up his boots and started toward the tent flap.
Chelka checked over the notes, her brow furrowed. “They are not royals, but greater foxes, with seven prehensile tails each.”
“Still, they are likely no match for our greater bears and the land levoths.”
“Likely not.” Chelka bent over and pulled on a boot. “I’ll tell you, though. They are almost certainly much faster on their feet. The news gets worse. Buro Vonta, a bear noble from our very nation is quite possibly allied with them along with his own force.”
“That is strange. I thought only the Worm Tribe had rebelled.”
Chelka shrugged with one hand as she fastened the straps on her boots with the other. “Vonta is one of Kassel Onoi’s old friends. He is simply supporting his claim to the sphere. Let’s go. They are no more than a dozen miles from here. The War Empress and her advisers agreed to meet them at Abitton Creek last night.”
Finally, Edmath thought. He had the worst nerves of anyone in the camp. He did not live a life of violence in the same way a soldier did. Even his magic was not suited for battle, especially without a stethian. Plants and battlefields, he thought, plants and battlefields do not go together.
He walked out into the misty morning and then helped Chelka break their little portion of the camp before climbing up Orpus Lengbyoi. He took his seat in the top branches. The sturdy tree may well have grown a few inches since they had begun the march as he felt taller than ever despite their position at the bottom of a pass with a small stream flowing down it.
They moved slowly down the pass but well and truly came out of it by noontime at which point the small stream had grown wider. Abitton Creek, Edmath figured. This is where we fight, somewhere on this small stream. Despite the overcast sky, the air was warm, sticky already. Edmath climbed higher when he saw a banner in the distance, a flag with six stars on it.
“Roshi,” he said. “Do you see that, Orpus Lengbyoi?”
“I see it, Edmath.” The tree’s trunk hummed as Edmath had learned it did when excited or nervous.
“Don’t worry,” Edmath said, and stared at the army emerging from the mist in the distance. “We will be fine as long as we stick together.”
The Fox Tribe army emerged first, arraying themselves in squadrons along the creek. A hundred yards or so further to Edmath’s right, the lesser bears of Buro Vonta’s troops arrayed themselves, though there were many fewer of them than the greater foxes that the Roshi rode upon. Edmath turned to look to his left, and a bizarre sight greeted him. Men riding great flightless birds with long red wattles came forward to join the Roshi battle line.
Edmath scowled. The men drew longbows and lances from the birds’ harnesses. Chelka looked up at him from her greater Elk’s back.
“Palatani mercenaries on greater roosters,” she said. “Buro Vonta hired another local company of them, but just wait. One moment.” She pointed into the center of the Roshi line. A fox rider and a single greater bear came forward bearing a white flag of truce hoisted from the bear’s back, followed by a half-circle of other greater foxes. “I’m going with the War Empress to meet them.” Chelka gave Edmath a grim look. “We’ll see what they have to say.”
She leaned forward and said something in the ear of the lancer she rode behind. In turn, the lancer spoke to the greater elk, and the animal trotted up to the place where War Empress Marnaia Hayel and the huge Bear Lord, Cersun Palanse sat upon their respective tribal animals.
Edmath couldn’t quite make out what they were saying after the point when Buro Vonta called a greeting to Cersun Palanse in the bear language. The two
men clearly knew each other already. Buro’s expression betrayed surprise to see the other general at all. After a quick exchange of bows, the slender, red-haired fox lord, Eberal Bullosto said something that brought an expression of disgust to Marnaia Hayel’s face. The War Empress replied with a few curt words.
Guiding his bear closer to the edge of the water where the War Empress’s greater elk stood, Buro Vonta said something that drew a loud shout from Eberal Bullosto. The War Empress waved her hand in Chelka’s direction and the elk she rode turned and closed with the end of the Zelian lines.
“Array for battle. Follow your commanders,” Hayel called to the leading squadron of greater elk.
Chelka said something Edmath couldn’t make out to the lancer guiding her elk. The creature carried her closer to Edmath and Orpus Lengbyoi. “Ed, stay behind the line. This battle will be fierce, but not long.”
“Take care, my dear.” Edmath slipped a striker ring from his pouch and put it on his finger before drawing his stethian.
With a silent glance at the ground as Orpus Lengbyoi started moving again, Edmath struck to test the current. All the magic flowed slowly toward the space between the two armies. Edmath drew in as much of it as he could and opened another tear before making the sign of the branch. Buro Vonta and Eberal Bullosto rode back toward their separate formations.
Edmath watched as the squadrons of greater elk spread out before him. The formations wheeled to get into position with lances and bows bristling from every great hairy back. He had heard at least two-hundred of the massive creatures made up Marnaia Hayel’s personal force, and the rest were gathered from a regular legion. Each of them had two soldiers on its back.
Chelka rode along behind the first line, stethian flaring with fresh light and tears opening where she struck the air. Behind the greater elk, the two squadrons of greater bears moved up, and after them, the lesser elks and then the infantry. In total, the War Empress’s army might have a third again the size advantage over the Roshi force. Edmath began to worry about the fierceness of Roshi skills. The battle could be bloody.
Then, the bear tribe soldiers and their animals along with Buro Vonta broke ranks and retreated from the Roshi’s right flank.
Beneath the gray sky, Edmath squinted and saw Eberal Bullosto at the fore of his fox cavalry stare with terrified surprise at where the bear cavalry had once protected his force’s flank. Edmath furrowed his brow. He was unsure what the War Empress and General Palanse had told Buro Vonta, but he was grateful for it. Buro Vonta’s forces joined the other Zelians against the Roshi.
The rooster riders on the other flank were the first enemies to retreat after the Zelian cavalry charged. In fact, their departure from the battle was almost immediate. Mostly surrounded by a ring of elks and bears, the fox cavalry lost badly and surrendered before Edmath could reach them. Except for the Palatani’s and a handful of fox riders who escaped the ring, the battle was a complete success.
Only a handful of Zelians had a fallen and the Roshi were taken prisoner all the way up to Minister General Eberal Bullosto.
Chelka explained what had happened to Edmath after the battle. “Lord Vonta thought the High Emperor died a week and a half ago. He supported his old comrade’s claim to the throne out of misinformation, but he is only brash, not stupid. When he found out his grace was still alive he ordered his troops to pull back. The Palatani were only mercenaries in his pay. The Roshi’s victory meant nothing to them. We got very lucky.”
Edmath could tell even as the arrangements were made to sell the Roshi back to their Minister Regent. As it was, the war was too new to execute them, and their disgrace could keep them from fighting again anytime soon. A detachment of infantry was given the task of taking the prisoners to the border forts while the rest of the troops marched on toward the Worm Tribe’s crown city of Niniar.
They arrived on a plain to the south after two more days of marching. They lit late-night campfires on the hill leading down to the seaside where Niniar lay. As Edmath and Chelka pitched their tent on the ridge leading up to the crest of the hill he wondered if the Worm King would be better prepared here. As if in answer to his unspoken question Cersun Palanse arrived nearby on his brown-furred greater bear and dismounted.
He approached and assured them that the next fight would not be as easy as the previous battles.
“We will have warriors enough to invade the city in the morning. Columns move by night,” he said. “I fear the Crab Tribe army has already set up their camp around Fort Ash. If nothing else, they will be difficult to shake from their position.”
Edmath remembered the Roshi crab soldiers from reading about them in his bestiary. They were one of the few human-animal combinations in the entire world, along with the Enchiel. As the flames began to rise from the great piles of wood and bark the troops had gathered, three massive shapes moving at the edge of the Roshi Camp. He started when Cersun Palanse spoke from behind him.
“Crab kings. They are the greatest weapon of the tribe, much like a single-race levoth, but even larger and more dangerous. We are lucky our own levoths will be fresh for the fight. Fortune and Serem be with us tomorrow.”
Edmath stared at the great creatures moving in the night. Their shells reflected light from the sliver of moon that hung among many stars. He picked out men sleeping on each crab king’s broad shells. Cersun Palanse moved off through the camp.
Surely the crab army would be their greatest opposition the next day. Besides Ursar Kiet, Edmath could scarcely think of a more fearsome opponent than a royal crab warrior with so many of his animals around him. He scarcely noticed Chelka rise from her place by the fire and walk over to him.
She crouched down beside him and followed his gaze into the darkness. Her hand fell onto his shoulder, making him shift slightly to look at her. She gave him a smile.
“You know, I think it’s a little more comfortable where it’s warm.”
Edmath glanced at her and then shook his head.
“I think it is. I only wish I cared at the moment. I mean, General Palanse doesn’t seem to mind the chance of being killed.”
“Do you, though?” Chelka sat down on the grassy slope. Nowhere in her face could he see even a shadow of humor. “I know I do.”
Edmath almost smiled at how similar Chelka’s train-of-thought seemed to his.
“Me too.”
Chelka crawled closer to him on the grass and kissed him on the cheek. When she withdrew he looked in her direction only to see her stand back up.
“Come rest soon. We are to strike Fort Ash at dawn.” She rose and then walked off toward the tents.
“Of course, Chelka.”
He looked back at the campfire before slumping back onto the ground. Orpus Lengbyoi approached him silently from the opposite direction. The tree’s voice was soft.
“Edmath, what is the matter? I have never seen you so sad.”
Edmath sat back up and looked at the tree. The glowing blue points and ring of the seal pulsed, dimming then brightening.
“You haven’t been around too long.”
“I know I am inexperienced, Edmath, but don’t be sad. I can’t see how this works. Your wife loves you and you are never alone.”
“Of course, that is the problem.” Edmath got to his feet and walked over to the tree. His voice fell to a whisper as he stood under the seal. “Say, Orpus, you are lonely, are you not?”
The tree’s seal pulsed thoughtfully in the darkness.
“For my own kind, yes, but the soldiers are company, and so are you.”
Edmath sighed heavily, feeling a weight in his throat.
“Now, Orpus Lengbyoi, would it worse to never have a person that cared for you, or to lose someone who cared for you so much it hurt both of you sometimes?”
Orpus Lengbyoi propped up its back with a pile of ghostly roots and leaned over Edmath, seal pulsing alternately with dimness and light.
“I think, Edmath, I understand,” it said. “You fear to lose Che
lka in the battle.”
Edmath laid his hand against the tree’s smooth trunk and smiled wryly.
“Yes, Lengbyoi, I fear to lose Chelka. That is why I came to where I am now, but I also fear to lose you.” Edmath felt overcome with weariness as he leaned his head against the trunk of the Orpus. A pair of roots slipped up from under the earth and bore him up over the ground.
“You are sleepy, Edmath. Let me return you to your wife now.” The rough wood pressed against his cheek. Edmath wondered if Lengbyoi knew how much the feeling comforted him.
“Thank you, Lengbyoi. I do hope I am wrong to be afraid.”
The battle plan for the day was as complex as anything Edmath could remember from his Saale studies. He and the other Saales, including Chelka and the newly arrived Tusami Gesa and Morior Lem would accompany Marnaia Hayel’s elk cavalry in their attack on the flank of the crab soldiers that protected Fort Ash.
Cersun Palanse would attack the opposite flank, closer to Niniar, while Doshi Kurium’s eagle cavalry landed inside the city itself.
In the center of the line, the Moth Legion and Sullian Bovet’s citizen army would advance with pikes in support of ten land levoths Cersun Palanse had brought with the army from Diar.
Oresso Nane had gone with the sky levoths to attack the port from above, making way for the sea levoths carrying Ahenesrude Naopaor’s troops.
The coordination of the entire battle would be done with signal fires on the hill, in Fort Ash, and in the city. The first fire on the hill signaled the departure of the air levoths and the second, the charge of the cavalry.
The key to the entire plan was to capture or kill Kassel Onoi, who would almost certainly be inside the walls of Fort Ash with his elite guards and his Roshi advisers. The role of the vanguard to storm the fort had been given to Cersun Palanse’s force in the most likely situation. Edmath knew that meant the Saales would be responsible for a large part of the fighting within the walls because the greater bears could only go so far inside.
Spells of the Curtain Volume One Page 22
