The Vastness

by Hausladen, Blake;

  Avin and the priests caught up to us.

  “We have come to the right place,” I told everyone. “They are working with the ones who took the children. They have fled below.”

  Natan kicked in the door and we hurried inside.

  The space has not changed. It was dark and lined with tables. I knew where to find the stairs, and Natan got his men moving down.

  “It’s safe,” Natan reported up. “Hurry, Emi. You must tell us which way to go.”

  I raced down the stair, Avin and his priests in tow. They became reluctant as we navigated a cluttered cellar and met a stink at the top of a long and narrow stairway. At the bottom we found the men waiting in a tunnel of old stone. It twisted away in three directions.

  “Which way?” Natan asked again, whispering this time. I closed my eyes tight and tried to recall exactly where the priests had gone. I found them, no more than a stone’s throw away, moving fast to the east. I pointed down one of the passages and the boys hurried forward.

  I’d been away from the Warrens too long. The stink got into my nose and when I opened my eyes to see the remains of a bloated rat in a corner I vomited. One of Natan’s men had a waterskin, but washing out my mouth didn’t help much.

  We hurried on and the darkness made it dangerous. One of the men almost stumbled into me.

  “Be careful,” I said to him, and he made it his mission to make space behind me.

  The route was hard to follow as it turned along one stinking old tunnel and then another. The sewer trenches were dry and grown over with ugly moss. They must have been from before the Warrens became the home of Bessradi’s churls. We found caved in sections, and places where fresh digging had been done.

  “This is a new route,” one of the priests said. “They have been working on this for some time.”

  “Keep your voice down,” Natan whispered back. “We don’t want to spook them. You are keeping us well back from them, Emi?”

  “Yes. They haven’t noticed us yet, that I can tell.”

  The smells got worse for a time, and we saw a bit of sunlight as the route moved alongside what could only be the deep trench that ran down the center of Sewer Road. We turned away from this new stench, thankfully, and I was happy to trade the smells for darkness.

  “Where are the children?” Avin as we trotted down a straight section. The run winded me and it took some time to calm and switch my view of things.

  “The children are part way across the river. There is a way beneath. We are going to have to cross to the far side if we want to stop them. I don’t think you are going to make it back to the fortress in time, Avin.”

  He huffed and scratched at his temple. “Rahan will have to make do without us. Let’s keep moving.”

  Quiet and nervous, we crept through the old twists of tunnel deeper and I had to watch where I was going as we moved down and down. It got warmer, and entered a long straight tunnel. It was made of the same dark gray stones as Tin Bridge and felt older than the world. There were no gaps between the huge blocks and only the thinnest moss grew in the smooth corners.

  “The children are on the far side now, and the priests are just ahead of us—very close. They have stopped. Shroud your lanterns. I think they can see us.”

  The tunnel was cast into darkness, and the dim glow of the lantern’s carried priests became visible. They were close enough I could hit them with a stone and were looking right at us.

  “Get them,” I said.

  Natan tore the cover off his lantern, and I shut my eyes as he and his men charged down the tunnel. The priests fled for a moment before coming to a halt. My eyelids flashed purple and the freemen stopped moving. Avin yelled and then a blazing light shocked me back. A hot crackle tore at me ear, and the threads of all three priests and most of Natan’s men were extinguished. The fiery light vanished and the cold stain of death began to spill toward us.

  “What happened?” I asked but knew before I opened my eyes.

  Bits of the priest that had exploded burned upon the walls and floor. The stones around the spot were charred black. Natan and his men had been torn apart, and a blackened limb was rolling to a stop at my feet. Natan struggled to sit up against the wall. He was torn and covered in blood. Smoke and a cold cloud of spent souls wafted toward me.

  Avin stepped back. His priests pled for their lives and fled.

  “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” I said. “I swear.”

  “It is okay, Emi,” Avin said.

  “Don’t use that tone. I don’t need to be soothed. I need you to heal Natan and the rest so we can keep going. They children are not far now.”

  “Emi, we have done all we can do. You are too angry. We must withdraw and recover.”

  “No, I will not. I am not leaving those children to be taken. We go forward.”

  The severed forearm at my feet began to burn.

  “Please, my goddess, be calm,” he begged and fell to his knees.

  “I am calm!”

  The tunnel rumbled as though Earth was laughing and dust rained down from the ceiling.

  30

  General Evand Yentif

  The 81st of Autumn, 1196

  “You are right, this is madness,” the captain whispered to me as we looked down at the river and Yarik’s dam. “We have to put a stop to this.”

  At the center of the tower’s battlement, Rahan and Blathebed stood with many of their senior officers around a table as though there was nothing at all for them to be worried about. The rest of those I had convinced waited in the courtyard below.

  The fortress had been alive after our victories along the Kuetish road, but the glow had faded after our retreat from the palace wall. Yarik’s dam was all but done, and Rahan’s fortifications were not ready. A thousand blocks of rectangular stone had been delivered to the site. The slope was in shambles. The hill facing the dam had been raised and a high tower built over it, but the tower’s gates were unfinished and the wall to its left and right did not meet the river’s edge. Scaffolding covered the slope, and I saw nothing but our doom. Rahan’s plans had been too ambition.

  Across the river, the banners of the eastern arilas—Yarik’s versions of them—had gathered as if they mean to cross and convene a meeting of the Council of Lords. We had delayed them, but they were ready to sweep our annoyance aside.

  While we watched, Yarik’s workers pushed another boulder into the gap. It fell out of sight and crashed into rocks below instead of splashing into water. Our archers took their shots during those moments, but the casualties would never concern Yarik.

  “You must confront Rahan,” the captain said.

  “It is time,” I said and marched us back to the table. The conversation there stopped. “He will cross tomorrow, brother. We must get you out of the city.”

  “Nonsense,” was all Rahan said as he continued to examine a map.

  “Your secrets are maddening. How did Barok put up with you?”

  He did not respond.

  “Can I not convince you to withdraw? Whatever you are trying to build, your time to finish it has expired.”

  “The day is not over.”

  I looked at the evening sun. “Yes. It is.”

  “Very well, Evand. I have run out of patience. Shall we go speak with them?”

  “What? Speak to whom?”

  “The officers you have gathered against me. You have called them together below, in case you failed to convince me.”

  “We are not against you. We are trying to save you. You must abandon the city and this madness with the Warrens. You must make your way east to Kuet. You could winter there and join the northern armies when they move south in the spring.”

  “It is almost time, anyway,” Rahan said to Blathebed. “Best to do get this part out of the way now.”

  They started down, and I was left to follow them out onto the lawn. I expected fifty men to be waiting for us below, but found only a pair of captains and three lieutenants. I was not sure if we w
ould be enough to pin Rahan down and tie him to a horse.

  Rahan stopped there and looked at me.

  “Brother,” I said, “We cannot defend the river. Yarik will cross. You must order the 5th to withdraw. A horse awaits you.”

  “You disappoint me.”

  I was not interested in his disappointment and took a step toward him. His guards began to move as well.

  A clamor of voices rose behind us and we all turned. Captain Benjam was there, yelling at a guardsman on his way up from Talley Bridge.

  “What is all this?” Rahan said.

  Benjam could hardly keep himself together. “Emi is gone. So is Avinda. They rushed off into the Warrens.”

  Rahan became as angry as the captain of scouts and turned on the messenger. “When? Why?”

  “They are chasing after something. Avinda promised to be back in time.”

  “The time is now,” Rahan said.

  “Time for what?” I asked.

  He did not respond and turned a circle as if studying the air and the earth for answers. The he called for Captain Benjam and spun on the man as he rushed forward. “Are your scouts in shape?”

  “Always. They are the finest—”

  “Get every man you along the river. When I return I will want a full report from each station of everything. They can miss nothing. Go.”

  The captain sprinted toward the barracks tower, and Rahan turned toward us. “Blathebed, the 5th is ready to march out of the city?”

  “My lord, they are, but—”

  “Yes or no answers will do from all of you for the rest of this today. Take your command across the bridge, through the Warrens, and south on the road to Kuet as planned. Be ready for the word to turn them around. Your move will have to be the fastest ever managed by men in blue so guarded the route and keep it clear. If you are late, we will be lost.”

  “Rahan, what is all of this?” I asked, but he grabbed my arm and hauled me down toward the boathouses. The rest rushed as ordered. He moved faster than royal garments ought to allow and outpaced his guards. I would have tackled him to the ground if I could have gotten hold of him. We arrived at one of the great sheds and found Admiral Sewin aboard a fast galley with a ready crew. Rahan hurried us aboard.

  “What are you doing here?” Sewin asked but saw Rahan’s anger and came to attention. “Your orders?”

  “Make way with all speed. Do not signal the others until I give the word.”

  Rahan found a place near the prow as the ship surged out. I made it up behind but was kept back by a wall of Hemari.

  I paced back along the rail. I was in the dark again, my brother excluding me from his plans. Did he not trust me?

  “Now, my lord?” Sewin called and Rahan told him no.

  We moved under Talley Bridge beneath the withdrawing 5th. The sound of dismay at the sight of our retreat was loud along the wharfs.

  A line of heavy barges at anchor there caught my attention. They were near twenty in number and loaded with heavy stone or gravel.

  “Now, Admiral,” Rahan called, pennants went up, and the barges began to pull up anchor.

  Useless devices and madness—I’d had it. I started back toward the prow, and got ready to shove my way through Rahan’s guards.

  He waved me on. “You’ll like this part.”

  My step shuddered, but I kept moving and took a spot at the rail beside him. The river ahead of us was cleared of all boats, as if he’d ordered it.

  “You meant to flee?” I shouted, “After all that, we are sailing away?”

  Rahan pointed me north to the wide river running south along the wall and a second set of heavy barges at anchor a distance along it. He signaled to Sewin and new pennants went up. The barges lumbered out into the current, and it seemed nothing else was going to happen until one of the lead barges drifted into a bank and was struck by the second. The side of the first caved in and the ungainly thing rolled. The loads of stone tumbled into the water and both barges were dashed to pieces.

  The scene defied comprehension. The long line of barges behind the first two began to crash into the wreckage. One after another, they came apart with a tremendous crash and dumped their loads. Three more smashed into each other along the open channel on the right side and crumbled into a soup of timber and gravel. A rolling collision followed as the rest were drawn into the smaller and smaller channels. The last four turned sideways and busted apart in sequence.

  Another pennant went up as Rahan signaled, and from the west bank of the moat, a thousand men stood up with tools and baskets and started toward the wreckage. They attacked the spot where water poured through, filling the gaps with earth and stone.

  “Another dam? Rahan? Why?” I asked, “Why block this section of moat? Yarik has no boats.”

  “Admiral, make the turn,” he called.

  The drums beat another savage rhythm, we swung around, and the current hurried us back into the city.

  “You are mad,” I said.

  “And you are a small-minded ass. Your behavior is the reason I have excluded you from my plans. I’d hoped your success attacking the palace wall would have warmed you to our efforts, but you have no love for the people we fight for.”

  “That was no success. We bloodied a few Hurdu and retreated. It was a useless fight. And what I see here is nothing but madness. You hold onto an illusion. The Warrens will not save you. You must withdraw. No good will come from defending these people.”

  “You are as foolish as you are arrogant. I will give you until we return to the arsenal to tell me what I should do when we arrive. If you cannot see my plan by then, this ship will be your funeral pyre.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  He turned away from me and went below with his guards.

  I was shaking—all muddled and jumbled as though I was a guardsman facing a man with a sword for the first time. Words banged around in my mouth, and my guts spun.

  Sewin and his crew would not look at me, as though I was somehow the guilty one. What in the hell had I done wrong?

  My hands seized the rail as if I was at risk of falling.

  I’d attempted a coup.

  I’d defied my brother and tried to move his officers against him. I should be dead. Ten times over, my brother should have killed me. I’d been a threat from the moment I appeared in Bessradi. Yet here I stood, asked to solve the riddle of his madness instead of wearing a dozen spears.

  Sewin called out, “the rest of the barges are making the turn south.”

  We were back beneath Talley Bridge, and the arsenal loomed before us. This would be the day that I died. I saw the line of overloaded barges make the turn.

  Why had Sewin called out? Rahan could not hear him below. Had he said it for my benefit?

  My shaking got worse. It moved up my arms and into my shoulders.

  Think, damn you. What is this madman’s plan?

  The second set of barges had gone south. Rahan had also gone south with Emi on that fool’s errant to rescue those conservancy priests. Were they responsible for the sickness of the mind that plagued him?

  No. They were as removed from Rahan as I was. They served no purpose whatsoever as far as I could tell. The Chaukai could make every magic they could and better.

  So why had Rahan gone south that day?

  The only thing down there was the bottom end of the river that ran along the south wall. Did Rahan mean to dam it as well? Idiot. Yarik had no way to attack us along either waterway. He would attack us across his dam.

  I looked back at Sewin. He was taking his time making the turn into the arsenal.

  Again, for me?

  Wait. The dam. Rahan knew enough about the river and the mechanics of water that it was wondered if his mother was a fish.

  So, where would the water go? Wrong question. When would it go?

  Rahan wasn’t trying to defend against Yarik’s crossing with his ridiculous construction. He was going to dump the tower into the gap and attack.


  The galley thumped against the pier.

  “Attack,” I shouted and leapt toward the gangway. Rahan beat me there and started down. He turned to face me.

  “You mean finish the dam tonight and attack.”

  “When?”

  When?

  When?

  When?

  I froze. I was being a captain, not a general.

  “During the dark of night. After Yarik sees the 5th retreating and camps his army for the night.”

  I stood up to search for Blathebed, but the boathouses blocked the view. “To the tower,” I said and almost started moving. Rahan was in my way. His expression had not changed.

  I struggled to settled, and he watched me as I lowered my arms. I began to understand his anger. “I’ve been acting on half of the picture.”

  “A tenth at best. You are a blunt instrument and your understanding of generals is flawed. Captains are butchers. They are moving components. Generals stand. Generals are the art—if such a word could ever be used to describe this brutal theatre.”

  “A butcher?”

  “Yes. You are a butcher, a proper killer. I owe my crown to your mad feat of murder upon Priests’ Field, but I have a thousand killers now. For the rest of this day you will walk ten paces behind me. I will not hear you. No one will notice you dancing around or throwing your arms up each time you make a realization. You will listen and you will watch. You will feel each moment when you hope I will send you to attack, and you will know why I send someone else instead. You will retire from the field when the day is done without saying a word, and you will wait in your quarters until the next time I summon you.”

  He walked away and his guards followed his slow pace up the hill. My limbs twitched.

  Hurry, Rahan, damn you!

  He did not. He strolled up, and I was forced to pace along after him with nothing to do but look around.

  I began to notice, though, that he was not simply walking. I great many things were going on at once. I didn’t understand half of them, and I slowed with each I saw.

  Rahan nodded to a galley captain waiting with a gang of freemen, and they withdrew. A priest in yellow signaled to him from atop the wall. A man from Kuet stood off amongst a throng of workers and auxiliaries. Had I seen him before? Was he waiting on some signal from Rahan as well? Benjam and another captain waited for him at the top of the lawn. Scouts rushed behind them, delivering report after report before rushing back as fast as they had come. Upon Talley Bridge, a guardsman sat upon an unburdened Akal-Tak. Perhaps he was waiting on an order to race after Blathebed?