“In Faeland. I sent the rest to aid M’Tek,” I admitted. Lore stared at me without blinking for a moment, and then she broke eye contact and stood from her chair, pacing nervously. “M’Tek basically begged for any help we could offer her.”
“Deus help us all!” Lore said under her breath switching from Noge to Fae with a glance behind her at the opening to her tent. “The day M’Tek asks for Vilken help is the day Faeland is on the brink of falling.”
“I agree,” I said gently.
“If I’d known,” she said, shaking her head. “I’d have abandoned Nogeland and headed south to her,” Lore whispered. “Faeland is the key to this continent,” Lore observed. “If these savages are able to take Faeland, Nogeland can’t stand. Our southern border is indefensible. Do you think the other half of my army made it through to offer her help?”
“I have no way of knowing,” I replied honestly.
“Exactly how many did you send her?” she asked sharply.
“Lia is leading three divisions of about seven thousand each,” I replied.
“You sent my daughter into that bloodbath?” she snapped. “Have you gone mad? What were you thinking, Pet?”
“I was thinking my cousin needed help,” I replied. “You must realize, your daughter doesn’t think the way other people do. She sees all the variables at once.”
“That may well be, but M’Tek is the greatest general who has ever lived,” Lore whispered. “If she can’t hold these savages off, how do you imagine Lia will fare?” I clenched my fists.
“It was Lia’s strategy that won the western coast of Baneland,” I replied. “She has an uncanny intuition for strategy.”
“What about the southern Baneland coast?” Lore asked. “The last communication I had from M’Tek was about the boats she saw burning in the Murky Ocean.”
“That was our doing,” I replied. “We tricked the Head Takers and gained an advantage,” I confessed.
“How?” she asked, watching me carefully. “Did you treat with them?”
“No. Their tongue is completely indecipherable to my ear. No. I noticed a weakness they have and exploited it,” I replied. “They’re highly vulnerable to intoxicants,” I explained. “I allowed them to seize enough torppa to kill ten thousand people, and then I waited. I had previously noticed they worship whatever savage gods they hold dear during a blood moon. They celebrated the first of the tetrad before I realized the significance, but the second, I noted. When we had the third blood moon of the tetrad cycle, they celebrated by drinking the torppa they’d stolen. We attacked in the early hours of the morning, slaughtering them in their drunken state,” I admitted. “I don’t claim it was an honorable victory, but it was a victory.”
“I couldn’t care less about honor at this point. Survival is all that matters now. Where’s your nearest storehouse?” Lore asked.
“An hour’s ride due east of Saranedam,” I replied.
“It would be a mistake to draw the fighting so far inland,” Lore replied, thinking aloud. “And to get to that storehouse we need to skirt the Abyss Canyon. It would take from five days to a week, depending on the weather. Do you think it’s worth it to try your tactic again? Will they celebrate the same way?”
“I believe they will,” I replied. “The final blood moon of this tetrad sequence will occur in seventeen days,” I explained. “This is an opportunity. In fact, I think you should draw the Head Taker forces inland, away from their supplies. I’ve arrived by a roundabout route. They don’t know my army is here. If you draw the Head Takers inland, I can lead my three divisions in from the northeast, the east, and the southeast. I’ll trap them from the back, cutting off their supply line, and preventing them from retreating to their ships. When the time comes and they make themselves vulnerable during their celebration, we can attack from every angle, encircling them and slaughtering every last one,” I said evenly.
“You believe this tactic might be successful again?” she asked.
“No savages survived the massacre on the shore of the Murky Ocean during the last blood moon. There was no one left alive to warn the other Head Takers. They have no idea how their brethren died, and may not even be aware they’re lost,” I explained. “We burned every corpse, and every last ship. It’s as if those savages simply vanished.
“All right, Pet. I’m convinced. Honestly, I have no other ideas at this point,” Lore admitted solemnly. “I don’t like drawing the fighting so far inland, but it’s really all I can do,” she confessed. “We’re cut off from our own supply lines, and they keep attacking, slowly picking us off. If I skirt the territory they’ve taken along the coast and turn inland, they will follow. They’ll believe I’m running scared, and want to finish me.”
I stood and leaned over the map in front of me, moving my cup of berrywine aside as I studied the terrain.
“My warehouse is here,” I said, pointing to a scorched area in the map. I tore a corner of the map off and turned it over, drawing the landscape of the area that had been burned away, detailing the location of my warehouse. “This torppa has been laced with woodrose, so it should be highly effective if they drink it. You’ll have to warn your soldiers of the effect,” I said. “And if you retreat all the way to Saranedam Palace, you should be well fortified. Also, you’ll have led the Head Takers into the Pale River Valley. They’ll be trapped with my army at their flank. Even if they don’t drink the torppa, we may have enough numbers to take them from such an advantageous position.”
“You missed your calling, my friend,” Lore said as she gazed at the map and my drawing. “M’Tek misused your abilities. You’re a born general.”
“I’m a born politician, Lore,” I replied. “You’re a far superior general. I’m calculating in a different way. I think M’Tek saw that.”
Lore smiled at me and lifted her cup to her lips. After sipping her wine she placed the metal cup down on the map. She sighed and dropped her head forward, raising a hand to cover her face.
“You can’t imagine how desperately I need to hear her,” she said softly. “Just for a moment. If she’d come north, maybe, I’d get an echo of her.”
“What do you mean, hear her?” I asked. “Not even a Fae Lemu has such good ears.”
“I hear her thoughts, Pet, not her voice,” Lore replied raising her head to look at me. “Haven’t you ever wondered how she always knows when I need her?” I reclaimed my metal cup, but only held it loosely in my hand as I waited, fascinated for the answer to that puzzle after so many years of wondering. “Haven’t you ever pondered how I knew she lived, all those years while the witch held her? Any sane person would have believed her dead.”
“I’ve pondered,” I admitted. “You actually hear each other thinking, then?” I asked. “How? Is it magic?”
“Of a sort,” Lore replied.
“Can you give Lia and me this gift?” I asked.
“You don’t want it, Pet,” Lore said softly. “You’re like M’Tek in many ways. She spends a great deal of energy keeping me out of her thoughts. She doesn’t want me to know, every time she finds another woman attractive, or remembers a past lover, or when she thinks I’m behaving like an idiot. I didn’t sympathize with her until I had to hide the truth about what had happened to Lia. That effort exhausted me,” she admitted. “I had to be hyper vigilant for almost two years to cloak that knowledge. It’s better to keep your mind whole, and your privacy intact. I know my daughter well. She’d work through every crevice of your mind before you realized what was happening. She’d know of every past lover, as well as the details of our shared history. You’d be exposed, and she’d like me even less than she does now.”
“Why would you think Lia would do that?” I asked.
“Because that’s what I did, when M’Tek was in that coffer. I went through every moment of her life. I knew she wouldn’t want it, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed every memory I could draw from her, simply to remain whole,” Lore replied. “Lia is a great deal more li
ke me than either of you realizes. She didn’t only inherit my nose and hair. She was made from me, with a few brilliant flashes of M’Tek thrown in.”
“You’re wrong,” I argued. “Ania’s more like you.”
“Ania’s a true mixture of us, though she’s always tried to emulate me. Lia struggles against our similarities, but as with any truly well-bred horse, the blood will out,” Lore replied, smiling at her comparison. “Why do you think you fell so deeply in love with her so quickly?” Lore asked. “Your heart recognized her, the same way M’Tek’s recognized me after having been in love with Sarane.”
“Lia and you are not alike,” I said more firmly. Lore smiled, and something in her expression struck deep within me. I shoved the weak possibility that Lore could be right from my mind. “How close do you need to be in order to communicate with M’Tek?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I don’t know, exactly,” Lore replied, a look of concentration on her face, as if she were pushing the boundaries of her mind to find M’Tek. “This is the first time I’ve ever been so far from her. I think if I could get across the border into Faeland I’d be close enough.”
“Then it’s not possible yet,” I observed. “There are forty thousand Head Takers between here and the border.”
“If not more,” Lore agreed, turning her attention back to the maps in front of her.
We worked on my plan over the following week, readying the soldiers for the flight into the interior of Nogeland. Finally, Lore set off with her truncated army. I began to worry for her the moment they were out of my sight, but there was no remedy. We had to wait.
Two days later I set out with my three divisions in pursuit, intent on clearing the coast of the stragglers who had not pursued Lore’s army. I left one division just north of the first boat my scouts found on the coast, with instructions to take the ship and burn it. With the remainder of my force, I continued southward. Two days ride east of Saranedam palace I separated from my third division, sending them to the northern rim of the rocky coast with instructions to kill any vulnerable Head Takers along the way and burn their ships. My three divisions were all to commence movement on the Pale River Valley three nights before the next blood moon.
With my second division, I scoured the coast, killing the small bands of Head Takers I found roving. We managed to burn seven ships while we waited for the blood moon. On the night of the blood moon all three of my divisions merged. My military was reunified at the mouth of the Pale River Valley. In the distance I saw thousands of small bonfires, indicating to me that the savages were worshiping their gods. I hoped Lore had managed to lose my torppa to them, but there would be no way for me to know for certain until the attack commenced.
I signaled Lore to let her know we were in position, and saw a single fire on the ridgeline over the Head Takers’ camp ignite in response. Lore’s signal could easily have been missed, as it was nearly imperceptible in the distance beyond the thousands of other fires burning at the camps for the Head Takers’ celebration, but I detected the signal, and ordered the charge.
Within moments of reaching the tents, the sounds became overwhelming, shrieks and howls piercing my ears as bodies flung against Reika’s sides, knocking us sideways as savages sliced at us with their knives and threw spears at us. I hacked at every Head Taker within range of my sword, as did my good Vilken soldiers. For hours the night was filled with screams of rage and anguish, and the sound of bodies being hacked apart.
Both Reika and I were completely covered in blood by the time the rose hue of dawn stretched across the Noge sky, and yet I was still busily hacking apart my enemies. My thigh was injured, and my shoulder held the broken off tip of a spear, but I kept my focus, severing heads and limbs with fixed determination, as I sliced my way through the savage horde. By noon we had slaughtered nearly forty thousand Head Takers. The horses were charging through piles of corpses, and very few of the enemy remained to be killed. We went through the tents, killing the last of the injured savages cowering within.
By evening, the fighting was over. I’d sacrificed almost three thousand soldiers to this foreign attack, and Lore had lost more than five thousand, but we’d killed a nation of Head Takers. The ground was soaked with their blood, the mud red and foul under our boots. Even the air was thick with the scent of blood, while every one of us wore the gore of our enemies splattered across our faces.
Before we could rest, we had to gather the corpses. We had about a third of them in various mounds by nightfall. The following morning we stacked the remainder. Lore had sent soldiers to Saranedam to retrieve flammables, and so very quickly, the mounds were burned, and the Head Takers were no more in Nogeland.
What remained of Lore’s army joined with mine for the long ride along the coast, as we scoured for more ships. We found only one ship that my Vilken soldiers had missed, and Lore quickly had it in flames. Lore sat a different horse that day, a tall stallion with bright designs painted on his white coat. Though he was skinny, I admired the lines of the animal, his straight legs and delicate head.
“Have you chosen a new mount?” I asked her as she stared with fixation at the burning ship. I was aware that Lore was extremely particular in such matters. Lore’s fevered gaze shifted from the burning ship to my face.
“I believe he belonged to their general,” Lore replied in a gentler tone than I’d expected. “Before I killed the savage who rode him, the man seemed to be trying to explain his own importance and worth. Of course, I couldn’t understand a word he spoke. He pounded his chest with one fist and said ‘Chief Hosakan’, or something similar. I severed his head in the next moment, so I’ll never know if he was actually their general. Savage or not, he had an excellent eye for horseflesh. He only needs a little fattening,” she added, patting the stallion’s neck. “I can’t wait for M’Tek to see him.”
“What will you call him?” I asked.
“Bruutan,” Lore replied, grinning. It was the Old Noge word for savage. “I think it fitting, considering the stallion’s origins.”
“I agree,” I said, allowing my gaze to shift back to the burning blue ship, as it began to break apart.
-CH 22-
We rode southwestward toward Lareem Palace as we raced for M’Tek and Lia, in the hopes of reinforcing the Fae and Vilken forces fighting off these Head Takers in southern Faeland. I desperately wanted word that my loved ones were still alive, but as we crossed into Faeland, and Lore still couldn’t hear M’Tek’s thoughts in her head, a foreboding sense of doom began seeping through me. I feared that our attempt to save my cousin had cost me the person I loved more than my own life. I couldn’t allow Lore to observe my dread, as every hour we rode deeper into Faeland brought her closer and closer to losing the feeble grasp she held on her sanity.
It was just after we crossed through the Rygrad Mountain Pass that divides northern Faeland from the south that Lore finally felt M’Tek. She halted Bruutan abruptly and bowed her head, seeming to listen intently. When she raised her head again, and glanced over at me, there were tears in her eyes. “They’re still alive, Pet, but we must hurry,” she whispered sharply. Lore rubbed her face briskly and commanded what remained of her army to move faster.
In response, I commanded my own three divisions to keep pace with Lore’s small contingent. Lore wanted to ride through the night to reach M’Tek, but I knew my soldiers needed rest. Lore pleaded with me to keep moving, using my anxiety over Lia’s wellbeing to drive me on. I made what I knew was a foolish military choice in allowing her to persuade me, as exhausted soldiers are far less effective. Still, my soldiers kept moving through the night.
We arrived the following morning to a horrific spectacle. The bloodiest battle I’d yet to witness raging before me. Reika was quivering under me, and prancing, ready for flight. Horses and soldiers were screaming in agony as the sounds of bones and soft tissue being shattered, hacked at, and torn apart, came at me from every direction, along with the thundering of hooves. The smells of bloo
d, rotting flesh, urine and feces pervaded the air around me, gagging me. Broken and chopped apart bodies of warriors and horses littered the field in massive numbers. It was more than my mind could make sense of, that vivid horror, stretching out to engulf me.
As for strategy, there was none to be discerned. Even the well ordered Fae elite cavalry had broken ranks. Pure chaos reined, as the Head Takers outnumbered the Fae, Noge, and Vilken soldiers already on the field, two to one. The only move was to surround the fighting and press inward, hacking at the enemy. Without a moment of rest, or even food, or a clear plan of attack, I led my three divisions into battle. With our number, and the six thousand Lore still led, we brought the numbers to about even.
In that battle, for the first time in history, a Vilken host fought side by side with both Noge and Fae warriors. Desperate from the start, I struggled to find Lia on the field. I saw Lore on her brightly painted stallion as she drove her small contingent forward. They did far more damage than their numbers warranted, as she sliced through the Head Takers’ army, dividing it. M’Tek was on the opposite side, so I couldn’t move in to assist her, and still I couldn’t find Lia. I plowed into the thickest of the battle, hacking away at the savages, hoping I might inflict as much damage as possible before I was inevitably brought down. Within moments my soldiers were beside me, encircling me in an effort to protect me from my own rash actions. I had to struggle to get out into the fight again.
By evening the battle was winding down. The bodies of horses and warriors so completely covered the field that navigating through was difficult, but most of the Head Takers were dead. My own force had been decreased by a third, I realized, as I quickly took in the numbers still standing or mounted. I finally saw Lia in the distance across the battlefield. She was on Khol, running down a fleeing Head Taker. I watched as she raised her sword and cleanly hacked the warrior’s head from his shoulders. She was so focused on pursuing another fleeing savage that she never looked up to discover me watching.
A Fortunate Woman (Fortune's Favor Book 2) Page 37
