Rapp couldn’t believe he’d trusted the scheming republican for his entire life. Rapp couldn’t believe that the large and jolly diplomat was now an enemy of the realm, that he’d sided with the Kurakin.
Rapp entered the palace’s great hall without a glance behind him. He started right in on his work.
“Prepare the guard to march, we leave in the morning.” Rapp turned and glared at the city guard’s commander.
“Yes, sir.”
“Split the palace guard as well, I want the honor guard with me.”
The commander of the palace guard nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Rapp.”
King Rapp turned slowly. He’d heard his mother’s heels approaching across the entrance hall floor but had hoped she wouldn’t interrupt them.
“Do you really need to march off to war immediately?” The sadness still hung behind his mother’s eyes, but now it was directed towards him.
Rapp was now king. He didn’t need his mother’s approval anymore.
“Yes.” Rapp made to turn back and continue ordering his military leaders into action, but his mother spoke again.
“Your father marched off and didn’t come home.” The queen’s voice broke. Julia stood behind her with wet and red eyes as well.
“I won’t lose this war like father would,” Rapp said. The bite in his voice didn’t make him feel any better, but he needed to show strength and confidence in front of the soldiers around the royals. “I will crush Leberecht. I will crush the Kurakin traitors. And then I will march west and defeat General Duroc and send the Kurakin back to their frigid place in the world.”
The queen’s mouth opened but she didn’t speak. She knew there was nothing else she could say.
Rapp turned back to face his commanders. Speaking these words was helping to calm his nerves. War would solve everything. “You’ll get your peace, Mother. We’ll just need another war to get there.”
Chapter 18
An army’s true test doesn’t begin until facing an unbeatable foe.
The Ascended One’s Maxims
Verse Seventy
Lauriston
The drum of the horses pounded relentlessly.
Lauriston’s back screamed out for a reprieve, but none would come. They had to keep galloping and get farther into the forest and away from any Kurakin who came to investigate the sounds of the fight.
Lauriston had to get his men away.
Lauriston stole a glance back and saw the group was still with him. Those who were uninjured rode upright and strong. Some held the reins of empty horses, whereas others were hurt and struggling and hunched over the necks of their horses, barely holding on.
Lauriston couldn’t make the injured go much farther. That realization was creeping up from the back of his mind. But he also knew he needed to put more ground between them and the Kurakin and the Scythes who were surely still on their trail.
For a short period, Lauriston had almost forgotten about what tracked them. The wolverines would surely have their scent now; there was plenty of blood to go around back there. The hawk would be flying again soon, too.
Lauriston would cut east now. No sense in trying to gain ground moving north in the open area so close to the Broadwater. It was too dangerous.
Doubt.
It was Lauriston’s least favorite feeling, but one he was becoming all too familiar with.
He’d led his men too close to the Kurakin army. Now he would need to push his men to get them to safety and right the mistakes he’d made leading them.
Lauriston snapped his reins and his horse picked up even more speed. They needed to get deeper into the forest.
The light of the day died quickly. The forest canopy grew thicker and evening became night almost instantly.
Lauriston finally reined up and the pounding of hooves stopped. He dismounted and felt his legs shake against the ground. They felt weak and hollow, but there was no time to sit down and rest. His work was far from over.
One soldier fell from his horse. A shout came through the gloom of evening. Lauriston couldn’t see who’d fallen. Bodies scrambled to help the man and Lauriston was relieved to hear the man cough on the ground. He was breathing, at least.
“Clear out.” Lodi’s voice was calm and steady. He was at the soldier’s side in a flash and knelt down to help him.
The group stood around the scene. No one moved. It was like a dark painting with the features smeared in shadow.
Lauriston had to get the men to action.
“Quatre.” Lauriston forced his voice to be steady like Lodi’s.
“Sir.” Quatre stood up from next to Lodi and approached the marshal. He favored one of his legs.
“Are you hurt?” Lauriston said.
“No.”
It was clear the general was in pain, but his eyes told Lauriston not to press the subject. Quatre was more worried about the others than himself.
“Get a group to water the horses. Give me a count on the mounts and their status.”
“Yes, sir.” Quatre nodded and took Lauriston’s reins from him and limped away.
Lodi had the fallen soldier rolled over on his back now. Most of the others were standing still and watching.
“Mon.” Lauriston looked directly to his left to where the old general stood.
“Sir.” Mon’s words were muffled. The old general stepped closer to the marshal and Lauriston saw his face was bloody from a broken nose.
“I’m fine,” Mon said quickly after seeing the way Lauriston looked at him.
“Are you sure?” Lauriston could see blood running freely from the old man’s nose.
Mon looked Lauriston directly in the eye with a hard glare as a response.
“Okay then,” Lauriston said. “Gather the soldiers who don’t need care and set a watch. Focus on the western path we just traveled.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I want plenty of warning if we were followed.”
Mon moved off and started pulling men into motion with him. Finally, Lauriston’s troop started to come out of their stupor.
Soldiers moved to help each other. Lodi had the fallen soldier up in a sitting position to drink water. Elisa knelt next to them and held the canteen. A soldier close to Lauriston dropped to the ground and leaned against a tree.
It was one of his sharpshooters. Lauriston took a step towards him and knelt.
“Are you hurt?”
The sharpshooter shook his head. “Never better.”
Lauriston handed his canteen over for the soldier to drink. When the man leaned his head back to drink, Lauriston noticed the cut on the side of his head.
Lauriston looked behind him. Lodi had moved on from the fallen soldier but was attending to someone else. Lauriston reached into his back pocket and pulled out his field kit.
“You’re cut.” Lauriston shifted over to the man’s side.
“You sure you’re trained for that, Marshal?” The sharpshooter chuckled.
Lauriston smiled as he tore apart a strip of gauze for the bandage. “No, but you’re stuck with me until Lodi gets over here.”
“I guess I’ll trust you.” The sharpshooter smiled and shifted his head so Lauriston could see better in the dying light.
The bandage was easy enough to apply. Lauriston would have Lodi look at it later to see if it needed to be replaced.
Lauriston moved on after ensuring the sharpshooter was comfortable. Two more soldiers leaned against a tree nearby. One had what looked to be a couple broken fingers on his gun hand and the other had a black eye that was already swollen shut and turning purple.
Lodi would be needed to set the first soldier’s fingers, but Lauriston knelt to look at the other’s eye. He relieved the swelling by making a short cut just above the eye. It would make seeing clearly for the next day’s ride easier on him.
“Sir.” Quatre approached Lauriston as he finished stitching up the soldier. “Horses are in good condition. We’ve actually picked up a f
ew extra. Big Kurakin mounts.”
“Good. Thank you, Quatre.”
“We’re feeding them now. We’ll be good to keep traveling when we need to.”
That was good news. Lauriston thanked Quatre again and let him go off to finish the work. The uninjured soldiers were starting to unpack their tents now. It was fully dark and the troops were just shadows moving about on the outskirts of Lauriston’s vision.
Fatigued threatened to take him as the day’s adrenaline finally wore off. He’d have to fight it off. It would be a long time before the marshal could sleep.
* * *
“The injured can still travel.” Lodi sat in the dark and sorted bandages. “They can all fight too, if needed.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that.” Lauriston could barely see Lodi’s face in the dark. The soldiers were finally still and trying to find rest around them.
The forest floor was covered in blackness. The creatures of the forest were silent, as if holding a vigil for the men Lauriston lost.
The marshal took a deep breath.
“What are our casualties?”
He’d been holding the question inside but couldn’t wait any longer. He thought he knew the answer. He’d seen the bodies at the scene of the fight. He’d felt the holes in the men and seen the riderless horses that remained with the group.
“Ange and Jerome from your sharpshooters.”
Good men. Veteran soldiers.
Lauriston closed his eyes but held his other emotions in check.
Lodi continued. “Three guardsmen and one of Desaix’s scouts.”
Lauriston nodded. He hated to have left their bodies bare and open on the ground, but he’d had no choice. Sometimes a general had to make tough choices.
“Are you okay, Lar?”
Lauriston opened his eyes. Lodi’s question surprised him. He could only see an outline of the Lakmian’s face, but the concern was clear from his tone.
“Yes. Only tired.”
“I’ve never seen you dwell on a loss like this.” Lodi continued to sort his medical supplies while he talked. “We’ve been in worse scraps before. Bigger battles.”
Lodi was right. Three Bridges. Klostern. Ice Fields. Those had all been worse fights, far bloodier than a thirty-soldier scrap in the woods.
Then why did Lauriston feel defeated?
Because Erlon was already lost.
“I’m okay,” Lauriston told Lodi. “Only tired.”
Lodi wrapped a pile of bandages up and stuffed them into his bag. He nodded but Lauriston knew the Lakmian well enough to know that there were more questions he was holding inside.
Lauriston wasn’t okay and Lodi knew it. His friend chose to respect Lauriston’s silence, though.
The marshal needed to answer questions for himself. This group deserved a strong leader. One who didn’t second-guess his own decisions. Or lead them too close to the enemy and get men killed.
Lauriston shook his head.
“We’re here for you, Lar.” Lodi stood up with his bag. “If you need us.” The Lakmian walked off to go check on the injured soldiers who were still awake and left Lauriston alone with his thoughts.
It had been his decision to travel north before cutting east into the forest. He’d kept them close to the Kurakin. He’d allowed them to run into that hunting party.
But a general couldn’t dwell on the past. Lauriston had been through this part of war before. He’d lost friends in battle.
His focus needed to be getting the soldiers away from the Kurakin instead of mourning. They needed to get away from the Scythes that surely had their trail now.
Lauriston could do that task, but as full night fell on the camp and the silhouettes of his soldiers faded and became only blackness, he couldn’t help but dwell on his decisions that had led to this situation. This was his fault.
The empire was dead. The army was dying.
And Lauriston was their leader. A leader of the dead. A leader of nothing.
* * *
The next day was overcast and gray. A chill ran through the forest and every man wrapped a cloak tightly around their shoulders as they rode.
Lauriston didn’t make the men gallop, but kept up a brisk pace. He was content with their progress east and allowed a stop for a brief lunch at midday.
His thoughts still lingered on the fight and the larger war and his decisions. He coped by focusing on the tasks at hand, on the flight from the Kurakin and ensuring they weren’t followed.
Flashes from the fight in the creek bed still came back to him frequently. He had to ward them off.
“Lar.”
Lauriston turned from feeding his horse to find Mon behind him.
“Have you talked to the Brunian?”
Lauriston had completely forgotten about the man they’d saved. He looked around at the group and found the Brunian still with them. The man stood away from the Erlonians towards the back with his horse and huddled under the Kurakin coat they’d taken off a dead soldier and given him.
“No,” Lauriston said. “I haven’t.”
“Perhaps you should. Find out exactly what happened to him.”
Lauriston had been so concerned about getting away from the creek that he’d forgotten the questions surrounding the event.
Why had a Brunian been running through the woods hunted by the Kurakin? They were supposed to be allies.
“I’ll go talk to him. Thanks, Mon.”
“He helped with the watch last night,” Mon said as Lauriston walked off. “Seems like a decent fellow, for a Brunian of course.”
Lauriston walked through his men and approached the Brunian. The man stood when he realized the marshal was coming to talk to him.
“Marshal,” he said with a nod.
“You know me?” Lauriston stopped a few feet short of the Brunian.
“Of course.” The man smiled. A Brunian accent always made words more elegant-sounding somehow. “You’re famous even among your enemies.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Lauriston shrugged. “Sorry for not checking on you earlier. Are you hurt? Need anything from us?”
“No, I’m fine. Thank you for saving me.”
Lauriston nodded and waved the thanks away. Brunians were always said to be too polite and formal. Lauriston needed to get straight to the point. “Why were your allies chasing you?”
The Brunian’s smile fell away. He wrapped his coat tighter around his shoulders and Lauriston saw the familiar look of a man turning in on himself to protect from memories. Lauriston was very familiar with that feeling at the moment.
Maybe he needed to be more tactful in his questioning.
“What is your rank?” Lauriston said. He’d start with an easier question instead.
“General. I was with the Fourth Army, marching with King Charles and the Wahrians.”
The Brunian continued with the story then. His tone was steady and he talked slowly, as if reading the events from a history book. Lauriston didn’t stop him and let him talk it all the way through, even when he got to the truly unbelievable parts involving Duroc and the Kurakin.
The Wahrian king had been betrayed by Duroc. That didn’t surprise Lauriston as much as the next part.
Duroc had hanged King Charles. He’d murdered a foreign leader.
And now the Horde turned to attack their former allies.
None of this made sense.
The Brunian finished and Lauriston stayed silent in thought. He turned to look at his remaining men. They rested and ate and fed their horses and talked with each other.
Lauriston didn’t sense any ruse behind the Brunian’s story. He’d been betrayed and the Coalition that had opposed Erlon for a decade now fell apart.
This betrayal was good for Erlon. Lauriston’s enemies now fought each other and the Brunians would need Erlon to help fight the Kurakin if they hoped to survive.
Lauriston could work with that. The world turned brighter under the overcast skies of the day. Hope
returned to Lauriston’s mind. He was surprised at how quickly it reappeared. But he now saw a path forward.
Lauriston looked across the camp and saw Mon talking with Elisa and sharing a piece of his trail biscuit with her. Mon had reminded Lauriston to talk with the Brunian while Lauriston had been drowning in his own thoughts. The old man hadn’t lost sight of the larger war. He had helped guide Lauriston back towards a path they could fight on.
A marshal couldn’t be selfish. A marshal had to lead no matter what the situation.
And he had to be positive. He had to find the road forward on the campaign.
Even after a mistake, Lauriston had to be positive and encourage the men and lead them on. He would have to do that. He would have to push on.
He looked back at the Brunian. “Thank you.”
“For what?” The general’s eyebrows raised.
“Telling me everything.” Lauriston nodded and scratched at his chin. “The war has changed now.”
“It certainly has. I’m not sure exactly what it means, though.”
Lauriston smiled. “Me neither.”
He turned back to look at his group of Erlonians. They would push through this and find a way to keep fighting. There was nothing else to do.
“Thank you, General. I don’t know what your story means for us exactly, but we’ll figure it out. We’ve got to,” Lauriston said. “The war has changed; we may actually be allies now, if our countries can stand the thought of it.”
The Brunian nodded and pulled his coat tighter around his body as a wind blew through the camp.
Lauriston left him and returned to thinking on their next steps. They needed to find the Erlonian army. They would have to outrun the Scythes. From there, they’d have to find a way to fight. Maybe even form a new alliance with the betrayed Brunians.
That was still a long distance away, though. First things first.
“Mount up,” Lauriston said to the entire group. “We’ve got more ground to cover.”
The orders felt stronger to Lauriston now. He was more sure of himself. He caught Mon’s eye and got a nod of approval.
Lauriston mounted his horse and turned back to the eastern path. He started down the trail and his men fell in behind him, the Brunian general included. They had a long road still in front of them. But the soldiers would push through it and Lauriston would continue to lead them onward.
The Fall of Erlon Page 21
