by S D Huss
“What!?” Illya screamed, completely shocked at the new and disturbing revelation.
Katrina laughed intensely. Grasping her sides and falling into the water of the bath
Illya folded her arms across her chest and shook her head in disapproval.
“You know that isn’t funny. Tell me the truth.”
Katrina finished up her laugh, wiping a couple of tears out of her eyes.
“No, I’m kidding. Of course, they have penises,” She said, still stifling some giggles.
Illya’s face cracked, and she broke out in laughter as well.
◆◆◆
“Achoo!” Daniel sneezed.
“Spirits keep you.” Delmos said, in a response similar to “Bless you”
“Thank you, Del, someone must be talking about me,” Daniel said, hefting a wooden sword in his hands.
“Maybe it’s my sister asking for the merciful Great Spirits to hurl a stone from the beyond and crush you. She would rejoice.” Delmos said.
“Thanks…”
“If it's any comfort to you, my friend… I would mourn.” the Dae said, exaggerating a bow.
Daniel chuckled to himself and brought his weapon up in a readied stance. The cadets of the Vul De Rah officer’s course, or Proistem, had been quickly excelling in all areas of their expected curriculum. Daniel had found himself at a significant disadvantage, however, when it came to the blade.
“Keep your guard up!” Yelled one of his instructors, watching him take another hit to the side of his head.
“Shit!” Daniel said, trying his best to block out the pain. “That was a cheap shot, asshole.”
“If by cheap shot, you mean whooping your ass is like snatching sweets from a Dae toddler? Then yes, it is cheating for someone like you to step into the ring with me.” Delmos twirled his weapon playfully.
“Really? You weren’t that smug when I bashed your face in during the trial of Doxo. Where was all this fancy skill then?” Daniel retorted.
“Ahh… details… oh well. I’m getting my licks in now, aren’t I?”
Daniel continued his great effort and failed each time. It was maddening how quick the little bastard was. Still, though, it seemed much easier than it had when he first began to learn the sword. His reflexes were improving, and his strength had to be held back on just about everything he did.
After the session, the cadets were ordered on line and told to return to their living quarters immediately. Some of them protested this, as they usually were given an opportunity to eat their evening meal before returning. This brought swift and brutal responses from the instructors.
As they turned to march back, one of the instructors grabbed Daniel by his arm and pulled him out of the formation.
“Come here, cadet.” He said, without his usual gruffness.
Daniel obeyed him and followed him to where they held a Cro’kan for him.
“Hego Agron has requested your presence at the keep.” He said. Handing him the reigns.
“You know how to ride one of these?”
Daniel paused for a moment. -Agron wants to see me? Maybe something with Robert… did they find a way back home?- he thought to himself
Daniel entered the Throne room and saw that it was full. There was shouting and chaos as many of the nobles and warriors shot slurs and insults toward one another.
He was looking for Katrina in the crowd when he saw Avria standing next to Hego Agron, and his human friend standing next to her. -Of course, she’s up there…- He thought.
“Daniel!” a familiar voice called through the noise.
He turned to see Oros striding towards him. “I am glad you are here, my friend.”
He clasped Daniel’s arm in the now well-rehearsed warriors greeting.
“Oros! Good to see you again, it’s been a little while. What's going on here?” Daniel gestured around the room.
Suddenly the Dae prince’s face went solemn. “It seems that an expedition that to the south was attacked and slaughtered… Lord Veol was butchered and left to rot under the sun… and…”
“Wait a second…” Daniel said, his memory working to pull the name. “Veol was in charge of Robert’s expedition to the Spirit Forest… you mean that--”
“Yes, it would seem that something has happened to your friend. However, we did not find his body among the dead, so there is still hope that the Rexunii have captured him.”
Daniel’s mouth hung open at the revelation. “The Rexunii?” he asked. “You mean that clan to the south?”
Oros nodded and looked to his father, who sat in deep thought on his throne, seemingly ignoring the loud room around him.
“Enough!” Avria called out, her voice booming and bringing silence. She turned to Agron and bowed.
Agron stirred for a moment, then stood to address the room.
“My fellow nobles… warriors… and Dae of the faith. This is a crisis indeed, and I can understand why there is a call for action and blood. Lord Veol was--”
“My son!” called a noble, cutting him off. “He went out there with one of those demons! And lost his head to the blasted Rexunii”
Daniel could see tears in the noble’s eyes, he was stricken with grief and lashed out at the Hego.
“Lord Sumander will watch his tongue!” Avria shouted. “We mourn for the loss of your son, but he was a warrior of Lokkadonia and a hero of Vul De Rah. He knew the risks of this life when he took the red.” She took a step to the side of the Hego. “You will remember yourself.”
Murmurs began to echo through the hall and Agron shook his head in disappointment. “This is not the first time they have tried something like this. You all remember their last king, and his campaign for conquest when they tried to slaughter the Sabree to the East. Their king is dead… and a new one has risen, looking for blood… our blood!” Agron began pacing, looking down at his fellows. “They are oppressors and murderers, my friends, and have robbed us of one of our favorite sons…” His eyes turned to Lord Sumander. “I mourn with you, brother. I will carve the eyes out of their king for what they have done. Raiding parties are one thing, crossing our borders to harass villages and burn crops… but to openly attack and kill our warriors is an act of war! This must be repaid!”
He turned to Nasha, who stood at the front of the crowd. The Female warrior bowed her head. “Nasha, you will bring your warriors to meet at Vul De Mar… petition the king for permission to repay this act of violence against us, in full. Tell him that I am doing this merely as a courtesy… and will attack them on my own whether he approves of it or not.” He turned again to the crowd, with anger in his eyes. “I have lost confidence in King Yomin’s ability to see reason, and you all know why.”
He gestured to Katrina who stood beside Avria. “It is because of these humans that we are under siege. Not only from the Rexunii to the south, but from within, the King has proven his incompetence by siding with mortals. Look around you, friends, and see that the Espi-Dae have abandoned us… foolish Dae who wallow in corruption and decadence while the rest of us pay their way. Well, we do not need the guidance of mortal cravens.” He pointed his hands to the ceiling of his hall. “When we have the guidance of the spirits themselves!”
All eyes looked above to see a gargoyle-like creature perched above them. Gro’ak nodded in approval at the words and slowly sank into the side of the dome roof he was near.
There were gasps of surprise as the attending Dae saw the spirit make its exit. Many of them had never seen a spirit before, let alone one as well-known as Gro’ak.
Follow up statements were made by Agron, and the call to war was resounding. After that, the nobles and warriors in the hall exited, but Oros made sure to keep Daniel with him. The human had been very silent for the duration of the speeches, not quite sure how to grasp the loss of his brief friend.
Katrina sat in a chair in one of the Hego’s many meeting rooms. Oros, Boros, Avria, and Daniel were all there. -Just like old times- she thought to herself, fe
eling the pang of anguish in the absence of Robert. When she heard about the attack, overwhelming guilt struck her. The last time she had really spoken to him was in a terrible argument.
“Kat…” Daniel said, walking up to her. “They don’t think he’s dead, there could be some hope.”
“Hope for what? They burn him alive? You remember what they tried to do to us?” She clenched her fists. “We have to get him back, Daniel… I’ll never forgive myself if we can’t…”
Daniel put his arm on her shoulder to comfort her the best he could. She could tell he wasn’t the best at it, but she appreciated the gesture. Katrina put her face in her hands and let out a sigh.
“So, what do we do?” Boros said, walking to stand next to Katrina. “Father wants to go to war, in retribution for the attack on our warriors; but how does that help us get Robert back?”
“He knew the risk when he left,” Avria said. “He stood in the throne room before all of us and accepted that the dangers would be there. We cannot go galavanting around near the Rexunii territory and not expect the same ill fate to fall upon us.”
“I’m not afraid of a Rexunii raiding party,” Boros said boldly. “I’m not afraid of any one of their fledgling little warriors.”
Avria shook her head in disapproval, then looked pleadingly to Oros. “Please help me talk some sense into this little fool. Have you heard what has happened in the last five years in Thule? Their warrior-king?” She glared at Boros’ look of defiance. “This is a Dae who carved the Rexunii elite out of their places of power and cast them into the flames. Who stood before the might of their clan and wiped out all who opposed his ascension. You can sit here and say what you want about fighting a warrior like that and call them weak, spitting baseless insults, but the reality of the situation, little boy, is that they are formidable opponents. So we can’t make any mistakes… otherwise, our clan will fall.
“You are speaking as though he is ascended or something. If he had killed a spirit they would have come down on him with the full might of their power.”
“Boros.” His brother Oros said sternly. “It is time for you to shut up now. Avria is right.” The words brought silence to the room, it was the first time any one of them had heard Oros openly agree with Avria. Boros looked at him in shock.
“We absolutely must tread carefully. The Rexunii have been trying to appeal to the High King for many, many years to get him to force us to release the Doulos. A young and hot-headed king like Alektor will be more prone to act rashly. And we have to think as to why they would strike at our little expedition so directly.”
“They wanted to get Robert…” Daniel said. “It was a planned and coordinated attack. Much more so than any of the raids in the South. Am I right?”
Oros nodded his head in agreement as he replied. “They knew he was there and had sent a formidable warrior to confront Lord Veol. He alone should have been enough to fend off a force of forty or fifty warriors. With this in mind, I find it unlikely that they would harm him seriously in any way. They went to capture a human, and now they have him.
The room was silent for several moments.
“Unless they intend to trade him to the Espi-Dae for their support…” Avria said, bluntly. “A new king with a chip on his shoulder against us, and a new opportunity to gain favor with the Torre’. The High King has little power in his land, and the Espi-Dae are attempting to rally support against Hego Agron for openly disobeying them.”
Oros pondered at the thought. “You… are probably right Avria… that does make sense. It would give him the High King’s blessing to attack us without fear of retribution. Which means it's a fight he thinks he can win.”
“I appreciate that, Oros,” Avria said. “But it is a fight he THINKS he can win. I will assure you that he will not. With you on the battlefield? Even Gro’ak would feel fear.”
Boros scoffed at the compliment. “Alright… that’s enough of that. Let's go back to when you both never agreed, and Avria never complimented my brother, because I find it disgusting.”
chapter 22
Daniel sat on his bunk in the cadet living quarters. He had his pack between his legs, and it was half full of extra clothing and pieces of equipment. His training group was preparing to go beyond the borders of Vul De Rah to conduct war games with the whelp battalion of the common warriors from the Egeiro. Each cadet would be given a small platoon-sized force of twenty to compete against each other to win, by taking control of a keep in the center of the training area, and defending it against attackers until the time ran out. Whoever maintained control of the objective would be deemed the winner, and be given special privileges. This was one of the few times in the Lokkadonian military social structure that a high noble family could accept a lesser noble as a squire and basically adopt them. It was a great way for lesser families to gain prestige and raise their station, something that Daniel cared very little about, considering his current relationship with the Hego and his children.
Daniel sighed, putting another pair of trousers into the pack. His mind had been racing after hearing the news of Robert and seeing its effect on Katrina. He hadn’t known him very well but still felt obligated to do what he could to get him back. The Rexunii had captured him and had been doing God knows what to the man. The thought was chilling; having had to fight for his life already in this world, Daniel could only imagine how he felt now in captivity. Oros and Boros had reassured them that they were formulating a plan to extract him, and any move that was going to be made would include Katrina and Daniel. The problem was time. They had no idea how much of it they had before something terrible happened. Oros said that the Lokkadonians have a reliable spy network in Thule, and would often receive messages from them using the Dunamis. The method was called voice throwing, and only Dae-Jin were efficient at doing it. There were some examples of Dae-Leu employing a similar method on the ocean, and Dae-Voh using crude versions, but over vast distances on land, wind was the best way. Until they could effectively develop a plan that was within the boundaries of the law under Agron, they would have to wait.
Katrina could not wait and was entirely capable of doing something rash and stupid if things took too long.
“Hey, Dan!” Delmos said, abruptly entering the room and startling the human.
“Jes-US! Delmos, you have to stop doing that. It’s starting to piss me off.” He said, standing to greet his friend.
“Well, that’s why I do it. It’s the small things in life, don’t you think?”
“Is it time to go already?” Daniel asked, just piling the rest of his equipment into the pack
The Cadets were led out of Vul De Rah by their instructors and brought to a large encampment to the west of the city. There, they were broken up into teams and assigned a war-group. Daniel recognized this as something similar to a platoon from his time in the military, but there were several differences. The structure of a platoon in the Marines was broken into three squads. Each squad sported a squad leader who had three fire teams under his command. Each fire team had a team leader who cared for three other marines. The breakdown was designed to ensure that there were small unit leaders delegating and working for the betterment of the platoon on every level. The war-group in Lokkadonia had a much simpler breakdown, two groups of ten warriors, each led by a senior warrior, who answered to a single lieutenant.
“Listen up lordlings!” called an instructor. Daniel recognized him as the training commander who had spoken to him after his bout with Kholek. “This training exercise will be monitored by some very influential houses in Lokkadonia, so don’t make too much of an ass of yourselves.”
He paced between three groups of cadets. All were classes of nobles expected to become officers in the Lokkadonian military caste.
“There are sixty of you here today.” The commander continued. “I will break you up into groups of three. From there, you will speak to one another and learn the weaknesses and strengths you all possess. Determine a war-group lieutenant, a
nd the rest will act as senior warriors. This is a four-day exercise, so you will have to work together to take care of your whelps. Feed them, discipline them, and make sure they are taken care of.”
He lifted his hand out to the side and an instructor placed a dulled bone blade in it.
“These incisors are harmless… but all have been augmented to receive a Dae’s dunamis.”
He focused for a moment, and the blade began to swirl with a visible green energy. This brought gasps and murmurs from the surrounding Dae.
“They filter your energy into weapons that will cause immense pain when you are struck. This is the extent of Dunamis you will use in this exercise! Remember, we are testing your ability to lead… not your power. There will be plenty of opportunities to test that before you graduate.”