They stopped for the first long rest about noon, men and women tending to their horses and getting some rest as they themselves ate. "General Flyn wants to try to maintain a pace of forty thousand lances a day for the cavalry," Mari explained to Alain. "That's tough, but should be manageable, and should get us to Tiaesun in a week. The supply train and the infantry will be trying to maintain about twenty thousand lances a day, so they'll fall behind as we march. The infantry and supplies on the ships should easily keep pace with our cavalry and be there before us for the attack on Tiaesun."
"General Flyn knows the art of his profession just as you know that of the Mechanics and I of the Mages," Alain commented. He saw the banner of Tiae approaching among a small group of riders. The figure of Princess Sien was easy to spot in the lead.
“Greetings, friends and allies of Tiae!” Sien called as she rode up and dismounted.
“You’re in a good mood,” Mari observed, smiling for the first time that morning.
“We’ve had a good omen,” Sien said, gesturing to an officer who had also dismounted nearby. “Hasna of Trefik has rejoined Tiae’s army. She was but a captain when the kingdom broke, but she held together the remnants of the army long enough for many citizens to escape the ruin of Tiaesun. I have made her a colonel in the new army of Tiae.”
Alain’s gaze on Sien sharpened as a gray shadow passed across it. Why would his foresight warn of this hero of Tiae? The feeling of the warning was odd. Not of immediate danger, which always showed as a black shadow, but of something else.
Hasna stepped forward with an agility at odds with the signs of age she showed. Or perhaps, Alain thought as he looked closer, she had been marked less by age than by many years of stress.. She was not young, but not as old as she appeared.
“These are true friends of Tiae,” Sien told Hasna, waving toward Alain and Mari. “Lady Mari and her Mage.”
Hasna saluted, her expression showing formal politeness, but Alain caught a flash of resentment in Hasna’s eyes that anyone not a Mage would surely have missed. “You have returned to serve the princess?” he asked, deliberately seeking an answer that would reveal Hasna’s loyalty.
“Yes, Sir Mage,” Hasna said, not pausing before replying or showing any other sign of deception in her words or manner. “I serve Tiae again. I serve only Tiae.”
He felt it again, a vague sense of warning. But what in Hasna’s words foretold danger?
“I’m happy to meet you,” Mari said. “We’re doing all we can to help the new army of Tiae become strong enough to defend your kingdom, and we welcome your assistance in that.”
Alain once more saw Hasna’s unhappiness, though she hid it well. “Tiae’s defenders have long fought alone,” said Hasna, a truth which Alain thought might explain her resentment that aid had been so long in coming.
“Hasna will be with us when we retake Tiaesun,” Sien said proudly. “The final defender of Tiaesun will be among those who reclaim the capital city of Tiae.”
After Sien and her escort had left, Mari eyed Alain. “What? The way you looked at Hasna seemed a bit intense.”
He tried to think how to best answer her. “I felt vague warnings from my foresight. It was not a warning that she was a direct danger to us, but something related to her perhaps.”
“Tiaesun?” Mari asked. “Could it be that retaking the city might expose us to some particular danger?”
“It may be, but I could sense nothing further,” Alain said. “I do not know what the warning meant.”
“When you get a chance, ask some of the other Mages,” Mari said. “Without mentioning Hasna’s name.”
“I will do so, but because the Mage Guild elders have discouraged any study of foresight, I doubt that the other Mages with us will know more than I do.”
General Flyn kept the army moving at a punishing pace through the day, halting for the night only so that humans and beasts could sleep where they stopped.
The next day, as the army neared the borders of the areas already pacified, Flyn and Sien sent out most of the cavalry to range widely along both sides of the road. Throughout the day Alain and Mari heard the rattle of distant gunfire as the cavalry overran startled bandit camps and freed towns and villages from any petty despots who had been ruling them in the absence of central authority and protection.
The column of infantry following the cavalry shrank a bit as they marched, detachments of troops being left behind in the larger towns as garrisons. The citizens of Tiae were amazed to see armed men and women who wore uniforms and acted as defenders and protectors rather than predators. Alain noticed that Mari always perked up upon seeing the gratitude of the people finally liberated from the anarchy that had plagued the Broken Kingdom for so long.
Forty thousand lances a day pushed the men, women and horses to the limits they could sustain. By the time the column stopped for the night not far from Tiaesun, even Alain was feeling worn out.
“The warlords occupying Tiaesun may well have heard we’re coming,” Flyn told Mari as they sat in the darkened camp chewing on cold rations to avoid kindling fires that would warn of their presence. Alain, having endured worse conditions, listened half to Flyn briefing Mari and half to the grumbles of tired soldiers bedding down near their mounts. “But they won’t expect us so quickly, so they won’t be prepared when we show up at dawn.”
“Are you sure they’ll run rather than hole up in buildings and fight?” Mari asked.
“We’ll be coming in from the north, with the routes heading south from Tiaesun apparently clear,” Flyn said. “The thugs who make up the armies of these warlords don’t want to die. They’ll run.”
Everyone was roused in the darkness well before dawn. By the time the sun began to rise, the army, arrayed for battle, had reached the Royal River. On its far bank lay the battered old capital of the former Kingdom of Tiae.
The branch of the great southern river that flowed past Tiaesun was both wide and deep. It formed a formidable obstacle to travel, as the bridges that once spanned it had been destroyed during the wars that broke the kingdom. But among the ships that had sailed south from Pacta Servanda were several towing barges with segments of bridges atop them. The night before the army appeared, the barges had been lashed together to form a floating passageway across which the cavalry stormed. Mixed in were Mages ready to provide their own form of special weaponry and means of getting through obstacles if needed, while Mechanics followed ready to employ their own weapons or fix those of the others.
Alain felt a thrill of excitement as the horses thundered across the wooden planks making up the surface of the floating bridge. He held his horse back a bit, knowing that Mari would not ride ahead on her own, so despite her frustrated glances at him Alain kept them near the center of the cavalry column as it split to head for the two nearest gates, both of which had been damaged too badly in earlier battles to serve as barriers now.
Each gate had been guarded by a few gangsters who collected “taxes” from anyone using them to enter or leave the city. Faced with a flood of cavalry, the brutes took to their heels. None of them made it very far as citizens of the city, waking to see soldiers flying the banner of Tiae riding into the city, hurled objects at the warlords’ followers to hinder them until they could be ridden down.
The cavalry had to slow down once inside the city walls, their horses needing a break after the charge and the roads hazardous from the same sort of uncollected debris and garbage which had plagued the streets of Minut. Alain heard deafening cheers erupt near the other gate and knew that Princess Sien had ridden into the city.
A small group carrying swords and clubs stumbled out of a building, roused by the noise. They took one look at the oncoming cavalry and ran.
Mari pulled out her far-talker. “Calu. What are you seeing?”
Alain looked up to where the vast wings of a Roc swung lazily over the city.
“It’s like looking at shockwaves spreading out from the two gates,” Calu called back from hi
s perch on the giant bird. “Citizens spilling out of buildings, and the various bad guys taking to their heels. The news of the attack is moving faster than you guys are.”
“That’s all right,” Mari said. “We knew that would happen. Is anyone forming defensive lines or gathering into units?”
“Nope,” Calu said. “Most of the people I can see from up here are just gathering in the streets and looking to the north where the cheering is coming from. The rest are running south individually or in small groups. Looks like…yeah, I think the ones running by themselves won’t get too far. The crowd seems to be jumping them when they realize what’s happening. Oh, your ships are in position and blocking the mouth of the harbor. I saw some people running toward boats but when they saw your ships they changed direction and started heading south, too.”
“Is there anyone on horseback or in carriages or wagons?” Mari asked.
“A few, yeah. I’ll ask Mage Alera to circle over them.”
“All right. We’ll watch for that, but don’t get too low. If anyone in this city has firearms, it would be one of the bosses. And their guards might have crossbows.”
“Got it. See us? There are six or seven riders below us, and two wagons.”
“Make sure they keep heading south when they leave the city,” Mari ordered. “We might have to chase them down if they head too far east instead.”
Alain urged his horse forward, staying with Mari as the cavalry was slowed further by the surviving population of Tiaesun crowding into the streets, faces lit by joy and enthusiasm. The intensity of the emotions surrounding him dazzled Alain and he tried to maintain his focus. But no danger threatened this time as the cavalry forced their way through to the great plaza of Tiaesun, which was so large that the diminished population of the city could no longer fill it.
Another column of cavalry entered the plaza farther down, the banner of Tiae and the royal banner flying side by side. Mari headed that way, Alain and several cavalry serving as her guards following as closely as they could.
He had never seen Princess Sien so happy, as she greeted her people and accepted their cries of allegiance.
Mari rode up to Sien, saluting the princess with a broad grin. “Princess Sien, I know your birthday isn’t for a few weeks yet, but I wish to present you with the city of Tiaesun as an early present!”
“You are too kind!” Sien shouted back over the noise of the crowds. “Tiae is forever in your debt, my friend Lady Mari, daughter of Jules in truth!”
Colonel Hasna brought her horse close to them. “The scum are escaping to the south. I will take our cavalry in pursuit.”
“No need!” Mari called. “Hear that?” Far to the south, the rattle of rifle fire could be heard. “Last night the Dolphin and some of our other ships landed an infantry blocking force far enough south of the city to be out of sight. All of the warlords and their followers fleeing that way are going to run right into that force.”
“Half of our cavalry are bypassing the city,” Alain added, “and will head south to pin those fleeing against the blocking force. Few should escape.”
“Tiae had little to do with saving Tiaesun, it seems,” Hasna said.
Mari did not need Alain’s help to see the unhappiness in that statement. “That’s not so. We couldn’t have done it without Tiae, and if my army had entered this city without the army of Tiae alongside it, the citizens would not be celebrating. This is your victory as much as ours.”
Sien bent a sharp look on Hasna. “I am told that before the kingdom broke, Tiae made much of its own pride and desires and cared little for the feelings of those outside our borders. As a result, when our own strength failed, Tiae had few friends willing to join their strength with ours, and we have paid a terrible price for that. I long ago vowed that should true friends appear, I would not disdain or turn them aside out of a desire to stand alone. No man or woman stands alone. Nor does any country.”
“I understand, Princess,” Colonel Hasna said.
Alain detected no falsehood in the words, but he wondered just what it was that Hasna understood.
Those concerns were forgotten over the rest of the day, however, as Alain and Mari had to focus on gaining full control of the city, preventing the civilians’ celebrations from getting out of hand, restoring order, and sweeping the nearby countryside for criminals who had escaped Tiaesun. Many people kept pressing close to see and to touch the daughter, and Alain had to watch every one of them, constantly on guard for danger. This time, though, Mari had apparently blindsided her enemies with the speed and direction of her attack. No assassins materialized.
The next day, Alain grew increasingly exhausted from watching every person who came within sight of Mari as the crowds around her grew. Word had gone around the city that the army of the daughter had made the liberation of Tiaesun possible, and everyone seemed to want to thank her personally. The only break of sorts came during a ceremony that Princess Sien held at midday, where she declared the Broken Kingdom formally reborn and pledged to protect the people of Tiae.
After that, Mari and General Flyn toured the encampments of some of Mari’s soldiers. Now it was Mari who seemed intent on personally thanking every one of the men and women in her army.
“How much longer until we take on the Great Guilds?” one asked, to murmurs of assent from those within earshot.
“Many of you came with little or no experience as soldiers. All of you are still learning to fight as an army,” Flyn said. “An army with more Mechanic weapons than anyone has ever carried, with Mechanics and Mages providing direct assistance during the fights. You’re making remarkable progress, but campaigns like this one are teaching us all how to best use these forces so that when we confront the Great Guilds directly we can beat them.”
“We’re showing the world that a place without the Great Guilds controlling everything can exist,” Mari added. “I know you’re all impatient. It’s been so long that the Great Guilds have ruled this world. We almost have Tiae pacified, so that our bases and the families of those of you who brought your relatives here will be safe. And what the general said is very true, especially about the Mages and Mechanics who work alongside you. You know how remarkable that is.”
“The rainy season will strike any day now,” Flyn added. “You’ll all get to rest a bit except for dealing with flash floods.”
“Will it be another year?” a second soldier asked, looking disappointed.
“Less,” Mari said confidently. “When we hit the Great Guilds, they won’t stand a chance. Our Mages will protect you from the Mage Guild’s attacks, and our Mechanics are already making better devices than the Mechanics Guild.”
“What about after, Lady? My family came with me. My children are learning Mechanic arts in your schools. Will Tiae be open to us?”
Mari smiled. “Princess Sien has told me that anyone from my army who wishes to stay in Tiae may do so.”
As they walked away from that meeting, Flyn cast a questioning eye on Mari and Alain. “ ‘What about after’ is an apt question, Lady. I admit that when I first met you I was filled with hope but also worry. How could even the daughter prevail in a fight against the Great Guilds and their common allies? But now I lead for you an army the likes of which this world has never seen, one whose strength grows by the day as new volunteers arrive and new weapons are delivered. What will become of that army and those weapons should you succeed?”
Mari turned a troubled look on Alain. “I can’t just tell everyone to go home, not with their weapons.”
“It’s something we have to think about, Lady,” Flyn said. “You’re dealing with the Mechanics and the Mages, who are finding new ways to live. But the commons in your army will be an immensely powerful force. It can’t simply be dissolved on the day the Great Guilds yield.”
“Will it not depend,” Alain asked, “on how victory is achieved? What the state of the world is at that time? Once the Storm is defeated, we will face a world such has never existed on De
matr. Perhaps we must wait to see the form this world takes before making such decisions.”
Flyn nodded, but he also looked troubled now. “Lady, I know you well, and Sir Mage, we have become close. Were you anyone else, I would be greatly worried about what someone with so much power might attempt.”
“General,” Mari said, her voice sharp, “I have made it clear from the first that I have no desire for power.”
“I believe you, Lady. I know that you would act only in pursuit of what you consider to be the greatest good. But you have learned that power is necessary to accomplish one great deed. Can you be certain that you would never yield to the desire to accomplish another if you had the means?”
Mari paused, her expression somber. “I have my friends to keep me honest. I have my Mage.” She looked at Alain. “My Mage knows that he can always speak the truth to me. About anything. If I ever push him aside, General, then you should worry. But that will never happen.”
Alain nodded to Mari, keeping his expression solemn. He should have perhaps smiled at her confidence in him, but her words stung in ways that Mari could not guess. My Mage knows he can always speak the truth to me. Except about his vision of her perhaps mortally wounded, the vision Alain was determined to keep from coming to pass. Asha had convinced him to keep that secret from Mari, but the deception often troubled Alain.
Two days later the rains began, the legendary rains of southern Tiae, which gossip in northern lands claimed were so heavy that the fish became confused where water ended and sky began, swimming past people who could reach out and grab them.
Mari had wanted to head back north to Pacta Servanda, but Alain and General Flyn had convinced her to stay at longer at Tiaesun, where she was close to Princess Sien and far from assassins sent by the Great Guilds. Alain had said finally won the argument by pointing out one of Mari’s own greatest worries. “I know you wish to be where you feel you are needed, but if you are always needed, then you will always be needed.”
The Servants of the Storm Page 15