Crimson Valley

by Hausladen, Blake;

  “Do you know how to make more like yourself?”

  “No. It cannot be done.”

  “Your presence argues otherwise. A thousand like you who can kill Hessier with a touch of their hand is a force we could count upon to fight him.”

  “I will consider no such a thing. The price I paid was too high.”

  He let the matter rest there, but I did not trust his expression.

  Uncle Kiel pointed a crooked finger at Mika.

  “The Nuar have never answered a call to arms. They have relied upon exemptions granted by the church for generations. There isn’t a family more hated along the entire gulf. No man in Aneth will stand with them.”

  “They will come if I call,” Sikhek said. “Deliver a message to them and their men will come with better magic and steel than the rest of Zoviya combined.”

  I found myself nodding and growled at the world for the choice it presented me. I could not stand to listening to him talk one moment more.

  “Tayler will write your message,” I said, pointed my officer at him, and added, “All of you will stay upon the beach and see that the Yud do not wander. If they want their boats when they get to the Bessradi River, they will have to carry them. I trust you to organize this. I’ll send Chaukai to escort you to the meeting if the Nuar agree to come.”

  He bowed without reply, and his poise angered me. I’d left him to die, and here he was, doing things as though we were on the same side.

  Sesmundi was convulsing when I returned, and the news fell hard. Hopeful farmers and fishermen bowed their heads and looked south with fear. Few of them had been over the mountains. None were ready to abandon the homes they had fought so hard for.

  I was standing upon the battlements of the keep, watching beaches turn black from the spill of humanity across them, when Tayler handed me Sikhek’s letter.

  Master Maison,

  The time has come for the Nuar to repay their debts. Present yourself to me and the Queen of Aneth, Soma O’Nropeel upon the top of the Anethean tithe road three days hence where you will place yourselves under her command.

  Minster Sikhek Vesteal

  “Minister? The arrogance of this man,” I said.

  “The Nuar will be some trick of his,” my colonel said.

  “I know,” I replied.

  Sikhek kept his word, the Savdi-Nuar replied that they would attend, and on the appointed day a pavilion was raised at the top of the pass while a million terrified people made ready to move.

  62

  Minister Sikhek Vesteal

  It was well before the dawn when Soma’s colonel collected Mika, the redhead, and me from the Yud camp. The refugees had spread up the beach south of Sesmundi and along the banks of the Smoke River, almost up to the tithe road. Our Chaukai escort was grim, and they spent as much time eyeing me as they did the fog-shrouded Yud. The winds had calmed overnight and a fresh layer of ash from Mount Sesson had settled over everything. The gray layer was damp with dew and it made the unhappy camp look like a foul graveyard. They needed to be moving before they got any ideas.

  They led us up the tithe road toward Suttony Pass while the rising sun lit the green peaks that crowded it. Soma’s yellow pavilion upon the crest of the road blazed like it was touched by magic. She stood in center of the road flanked by ready contingents of Chaukai, gray cloaks from Thanin, and a group I guessed to be from Dahar.

  I tried to enjoy the view, but the coming encounter made it impossible.

  “Stay close to me today, Mika, no matter what happens. I am going to need your knife.”

  “Who is making trouble?”

  “We are.”

  We reached the top of the slow crest. The sun had not touched the far side of the pass, and the long scrubby approach was still shrouded in thick fog. We dismounted and started toward Soma.

  Her gaze was fixed upon the coast and the hazy rows of boats and ships being hauled up toward the tithe road along every river and beach from Walsemi to Sesmundi. Soma had not shared any of the reports from the fast ships she’d raced south, but Geart’s faster beasts could not be far away. Some of our boats could be portaged through the pass by then, but not the ones still arriving from Dahar, and certainly not the lumbering hulk that was Soma’s grand ship. It had been hauled into a log-trundled scaffold they apparently intended to roll all the way over the pass and down to the Kaaryon and its river. I thought its survival improbable and the effort to move a marker of Soma’s arrogance. Such a ship was a tool at best and it would never serve its purpose again.

  More worrisome, for those who decided to care about such things, were the camps being established along the tithe road where the throngs of refugees would find their meals along the way. The Yud has not begun to mix with their northern neighbors yet, and the camps seemed a bad place for recent enemies to break bread.

  Barok would thank me for turning Geart away from his darling wife. I could not be expected to save everyone.

  “The Savdi-Nuar wait below for your signal,” a Chaukai said as we joined Soma on the road.

  Mika whistled down, and a group of men emerged from the fog. Each was covered in tattoos and mismatched brown clothing. Soma’s soldiers and allies snorted and shook their heads.

  Maison led two of their numbers up to us. They embraced me and Mika and we kissed each other’s hands and cheeks.

  “If I may, Queen Soma,” Mika said. “This is Maison, my father, and Senior Acolyte and Elder of the Savdi-Nuar. Maison, this is Queen Soma O’Nropeel of Aneth and King Sepsion of Dahar. You all know Minister Sikhek.”

  “Dear Minister,” Maison said to me with a deep bow and then to Soma and the unassuming king, he said, “We know what moves against you and share your impatience to see them destroyed. We may dispense with the preliminaries, if that would suit you.”

  “Yes,” Soma said with visible relief and led us all inside. “My officers have questions about your road.”

  The space was dark despite the direct sunlight, but the layers of silk drapes kept out the ash. The table was spotless, as was the single map of the Sesmundi tithe road Soma pointed them, too.

  “Such a thing to see here,” Maison said. “My grandfather made this map.”

  The Chaukai officers opposite him glowered as though they’d been practicing. “It’s a very poorly made,” Colonel Graves said.

  “It was not commissioned with men like you in mind. When Ulsar Kiel commissioned it, he was not concerned with the correct location and shape of each river, peak, and coastline. It was made to advertisement to Alsonelm that the tithe road to Aneth was straight. The trade that flowed along it made Sesmundi what it is today.”

  “Are all mapmakers such miserable liars?”

  “We all have masters. What can I tell you my grandfather’s map cannot?”

  “We have eyes on its meandering, but not its soft spots or gaps. Are there places where the ground will be too soft for our ships?”

  “No,” Maison said. “Its foundations will not disappoint you. Your ships will also enjoy the baked clay west of the pass. You will be able move all your lighter craft in parallel upon it, though your people will want for water. It is a bit salty.”

  Graves traced his finger along the long line of the Jivillion Mountains south of the Crimson Valley. “Are there ways over the mountains south of here the beasts could use to get in front of us?”

  “Not unless they can scale our walls.”

  The men from Aneth and Dahar all crossed their arms at him.

  “Walls?”

  “Mount Karikur and all the peaks around it belong to the Savdi-Nuar. None of you have ever cared to climb them, and it is perhaps best you have never tried. Over the centuries we have carved the high valleys and passes into sheer walls, and our towers upon the mountaintop can see from Sulma to Sesmundi. Suttony Pass is the only route over our mountain north of Havish.”

  Dahar’s king, already distraught before the meeting began looked ready to draw his sword. “Towers upon Mount Karik
ur? You have been looking down on my lands and offering no help as the Yud snatched our wives and daughters away to Cyaudi? You are a liar or a villain.”

  “We are what the Conservancy requires. Today we move to save you. Judge that as you will.”

  Soma spoke over the rising tide of voices. “By all accounts your family is insignificant. Now you brag of walls and an army. What can you bring to this fight that we could possibly rely upon?”

  Maison looked to me, and I motioned for him to speak. His eyes met mine and it was a hard thing hold my tongue as my most guarded secret was offered up.

  They would all thank me, one day. I liked being the hero.

  Maison cleared his throat and said to them, “Sikhek has long required that we maintained a regiment of pikemen and singers enough to hold back the touch of any rogue Hessier who might try to claim the valley. Today that army marches here and is in your command, Queen Soma.”

  The air swirled with resentment and anger.

  “You are most welcome,” Soma said and proved herself a nimble queen when she stepped around the table to embracing Maison and kiss his hands and cheeks. The rest could not manage the old ways of friendship and bowed low to him instead.

  “Tell me what you require,” Maison said in earnest reply.

  “Call your army here. The east must escape and needs your strength to do so. We have moved the ships of the fleet up onto the tithe road and have prepared everyone for the long march west to the Bessradi River.”

  “Why not use the ships to flee up coast?” Maison asked her. Mika seemed as embarrassed by the useless question as Soma was annoyed.

  She managed a polite reply. “We have food enough for ten, perhaps twelve days. Nowhere north of here along the coast will have food enough for us, especially beneath the ash of the broken mountains. Alsonelm and the Kaaryon are where we must go or the Yud will starve.”

  “Some will not want to try the road.”

  “There are ships enough for any to go where they are able,” Soma said. “But none may remain here and none can do back the way they came.”

  “I’ll go north,” the redhead said, and I was surprised she would leave me. “Very well,” Soma said to her. “Take those with you who would do the same.”

  “You’ll not stay with me?” I asked.

  “Do you have any coin left?” She asked me before she turned. The room eyed me as she started out, looking for a hint of embarrassment they could cherish. They would get none of it. I focused on what I had in store for Soma.

  “Very well,” Maison said. “We will hold the pass until you are clear and then withdraw back to our valley.”

  Soma turned to me. “You contemplate victory.”

  “Unless you are willing to reconsider my last request, I do not believe that we could do anything more than slow Geart down. The best we can hope is to retreat into the Crimson Valley and draw him in. There are mines in the valley, as you know, that might keep his attention while you and your people escape.”

  Soma’s expression soured with each word I spoke. “Everyone out.”

  The King of Dahar and Maison were slow to move but relented. Mika did not budge and was the last person left in the dark tent. Soma eyed her.

  “I don’t answer to you.”

  She turned to me, and said, “I do not trust you. You mean to capture Geart and make the Hessier your servants once again.”

  “No. I mean to kill him, and you are going to help me.”

  “You suggested once that my power be given to others. I will not be party to the murder and sacrifice necessary to make further demands upon the White Mother. We must find another way to defeat him.”

  “She is awake now and her enemies are close. It would take very little to get her attention.”

  “I will not sacrifice anyone.”

  “Very little blood needs to be spilled. You need not be her only priestess. We can to draw him into the Crimson Valley and slaughter his beasts until he has exhausted whatever Vesteal blood or bones he holds.”

  She shook her head. “I cannot allow you to retreat into the valley and risk that Geart take hold of you. If we cannot get south to Dia, we must move west and join Barok.”

  “I will not be taken. Should he force his way into the valley I will retreat into the cavern and drop the mountain on us both. I will kill him or bury him.”

  “No,” Soma said, and turned to look at the map.

  Mika had not moved. To her I said, “Gag her.”

  Mika leapt in and landed a solid punch to Soma’s stomach and swept her onto her back. The spry girl was on top of her in the same motion, jammed a cloth in her mouth, and pressed a dagger against her throat.

  I knelt next to her. She managed one straight jab that split Mika’s lip but could do nothing after that except struggled to catch her breath.

  “Try to kill me,” I said to Soma and extended my bear arm for her to grasp. “Try to rip my soul from my body.”

  She thrashed and the knife drew a red line upon her throat. Mika got hold of her hair, pinned her head to the earth, and pressed the point of the knife into her eye socket.

  “I’m right here,” I said and waved my naked wrist in front of her face.

  She snatched it, and I was struck by the full weight of power. It was a flaming fist that burned the Shadow from my body and everything nearby. I collapsed forward, almost lost consciousness, and worried that I’d underestimated her.

  But I did not die. The earth around us was scorched black and purged of the Shadow. Only the Spirit of the Earth was there.

  “I will kill her,” I said to the bear earth. “I will take your vengeful daughter from you if you do not give me what I demand.”

  The spirit filled the tent—filled the valley. ‘Vile beast, begone!’

  Her words tore through me. I was lying flat on my back with Soma’s nails digging into my wrist when I managed to say the rest.

  “Great spirit, I demand you gift to the Savdi-Nuar the same power you gave to your priestess Soma O’Nropeel.”

  Mika slumped sideways like an untethered puppet and the presence of the Spirit faded. I struggled to my knees while Soma tugged the gag free and rolled Mika off of her.

  Soma’s voice was reduced to an angry gasp. “Get out.”

  I wanted very much to be moving, but could not find my legs. Mika managed to stand. Soma took up the fallen knife, slashed Mika’s face, and kicked her hard toward the tent flaps.

  “Get out,” Soma screamed and Chaukai exploded through the tent flaps.

  I was a dim and stumbling creature when I was hoisted up and thrown out onto the road. Those outside reacted first to Mika’s bloody face and then violently when they saw Soma’s wound. I was struck several hard blows. No one moved to help me. The Savdi-Nuar were all lying on their backs or clutching their knees.

  Hands snatched me up while Soma slapped away those trying to tend to her.

  “Quick order, eyes west,” a voice cried above the din and the Chaukai aimed their weapons down the road. A red glow had replaced the morning mists and black shapes swirled beside the road.

  “You did this,” Soma screamed to me. “Who are they?”

  “The slaves who built the tithe road and Crimson Valley,” I said. “I burn them in piles along the road over the many years it took to carve the pass and unearth my cinnabar. We are standing above the largest mass grave in Zoviya.”

  The seething forms began to move up the slope toward us.

  “You devil,” Soma said, cleared her throat, and spat at me. “You have stolen the Earth gift. Do you mean to murder me as well?”

  “Your death here would be accidental.”

  The rock beneath the seething black forms began to glow, and a wave of heat washed up the slope. All around us, other fiery forms began to rise and set fire to the trees and brush.

  “We are surrounded,” someone yelled.

  “I hate you,” Soma said.

  63

  Queen Soma O’Nropeel

/>   The 61st of Spring, 1197

  The ghosts spewed black ash while the blue light of desperate Chaukai songs kept our burning flesh alive. Their mouths worked, moaning as they drifted closer. Their anger and misery throbbed, and their heat pressed us down. They were in torment.

  Through their sorrow I caught glimpses of their lives—separated from their family, worked to death, murdered for sport. The more terribly they had suffered the stronger Sikhek became. The tithe roads were veins of misery that poisoned the very earth.

  All by Sikhek’s design.

  I wished that he was a simple man or Hessier that I could kill him. Instead he stood, serene in the blue light of our magic, a proud author of his private powers. He thought himself noble.

  The pavilion caught fire as we collapsed into a smaller circle at the top of the road.

  “Ma’am,” cried Graves over the bawl of the ghosts and keening of songs. “Hessier below them to the west, ma’am. We are betrayed.”

  A column of bright metal and tall pikes advanced behind the mass of wraiths, as if driving them toward us. I reached out with all of the White Mother’s present fury, took hold of every soul within my reach, and tore the Shadow free of them.

  The Chaukai’s song surged and then began to fail, while the armored column remained unaffected.

  “They are not Hessier,” Sikhek said to me. “This is the army I promised you.”

  He looked like he wanted me to thank him. His conceit had no rival. I wanted no part of his designs. The last of the Chaukai blue lights faded away, and the heat crashed in upon me.

  “Get away from me,” I screamed above the clamor.

  The moaning ceased and the wall of fiery ash withdrew as though they were ships at my command. My head spun and my ears rang. What was this? I began to feel the wide circle around us, the vast place blasted free of the Shadow by the flames. The White Mother was close. Did I have some hold over the dead where She was strongest? I reached out as I had done a thousand times to mend souls, but instead of working to braid the light and the dark, I pushed. My touch pushed them like a wind, and they withdrew further.