When her father finally came to see her, it was a welcome relief from the narrow circles of her thoughts. She opened the door, her uniform rumpled and hair unbound, and found him standing between the guards. Jirina coughed and tried to smooth her shirt.
“Sir,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I don’t see how you could have been,” Kudro said. “May I come in?”
“Of course.” She stepped aside, and he closed the door behind him.
“Something’s happened,” he said, with typical bluntness. “Monsters are headed for Drannith. A lot of monsters.” He shook his head. “Calling it an army of monsters might not be much of an exaggeration.”
“Monsters don’t form armies,” Jirina said. “They don’t work together.” She remembered a bat-thing lifting a snake so it could get hold of Vermilion…
“They don’t. They don’t communicate with humans, either. A lot of rules seem to be getting broken.”
“You think Lukka’s involved.”
“I thought he was involved from the beginning. As of this morning, our scouts’ reports have confirmed it. He was seen in the middle of this horde, riding on the back of a dinosaur.” Kudro blew out a breath. “Just as I feared from the beginning.”
“Was there anyone with him? Any other humans?”
“As far as we can tell, no,” Kudro said, giving her a strange look. “Needless to say, this is the greatest threat Drannith has faced in recorded history.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“If we meet this army at the city walls, the destruction will be immense. They will break through by sheer weight of numbers, and while we would triumph in the end, we might lose most of Drannith in the process. The losses would be unacceptable. And Lukka knows our defenses intimately. If there’s a weak spot, his monsters will find it.” The General straightened up. “Therefore, the Coppercoats will meet him and his forces in the field. It will doubtless increase our losses, but that is the price we all agreed to pay to keep Drannith safe.”
Jirina nodded. “It makes sense. But why are you telling me all this?”
“Because you’re coming with us.”
“You can’t be giving me a command,” Jirina said.
“Of course not. After your performance on the Citadel steps, I can’t be seen to show you the slightest favor.” Kudro rubbed his hands together, as though trying to wipe away the blood. “And everyone knows you and Captain Lukka were engaged. You’re suspect twice over.”
Jirina gave him a bitter smile. “So what good am I?”
“You and he were engaged. He sent that monster to keep you safe. It seems safe to assume that he still has feelings for you. Those feelings are a weakness, and we will exploit it.”
Of course. Having despaired of her as an officer and an heir, her father planned to make a final use of her as a weapon. “And if I refuse to participate?”
“I had hoped that your duty to Drannith would make you accept that this is the only honorable course,” Kudro said. “However, your agreement is not required.” He fixed her with his gaze, eyes hard. “I do not want to drag my daughter to the battlefield in chains. But I will if I have to. If it will save Coppercoat lives.”
“That,” Jirina murmured, “I don’t doubt for a moment.”
***
From his perch astride the head of the long-necked dinosaur, Lukka could see quite a long way. The river Magra curled in the near distance, a thread of reflected sunlight cutting across the dull, dry plains. A few islands, speckled with trees, stood out in the middle of one of the river’s lazier curves. Beyond it, a hundred tiny gray threads ascended, each rising from a separate campfire. Lukka could see tents, set up in neat rows, with supply wagons parked wheel-to-wheel behind them. Sentries lined the riverbank, and portable crystal warning systems glowed a steady, arcane green.
The Coppercoats had taken the field. Of course they have. Lukka knew as well as anyone that the defenses of Drannith, as formidable as they were, were not the core of the city’s defense. Given enough time, any wall could be overcome. Teams like his old companions in the Specials, venturing out to hunt down monsters before they came close enough to threaten the walls, were the keys to protecting the city.
Now Kudro had turned out half the garrison to stop him. Perhaps ten thousand soldiers, the largest force the Coppercoats had put into the field for generations.
And it’s all so unnecessary. He wished the old man was in front of him, just for a moment, so he could grab him by his too-tight collar and shake him. I’m trying to help, you blind fool. An army of monsters, under the command of a human—what possible better way could there be to keep the city safe? No Coppercoat ever need give their life again. He recalled Gedra, Gox, and Nik and swallowed hard. Why should they? We’ll have monsters to die in their place.
He knew in his bones it was the right answer. And it means I can go home. But, at the same time, he knew General Kudro. And that man will break before he bends.
“I’ll give him a chance,” Lukka said aloud. He’d been doing that more and more, talking to the monsters as though they could understand. “But only one.”
He closed his eyes and sent his thoughts out into the army that followed him. The monsters walked or flew or hopped or rolled, all side by side, all bound to his will. The ground shook as they approached, and they left a swath of destruction through the plains that stretched for miles.
Now he gave them precise instructions. It was tiring, much more so than the simple “follow me” orders he’d assigned so far. But the minds of dozens of monsters pulsed back at him, acknowledging their instructions. Lukka leaned back against the dinosaur’s pebbled skin, watching the river slowly approach, and smiled.
***
Jirina had hoped that the march might provide some opportunities to slip free of her unofficial prison, but General Kudro, of course, had planned for all eventualities. During the day, she rode in the company of Colonel Bryd’s personal guard, escorted on all sides by grim-faced men who responded to her conversation in monosyllables. In the evenings, she had her own tent at the edge of camp, spacious by army standards, but watched by a pair of sentries.
She’d barely seen her father. Whatever he intended for her to do, he wasn’t going to bother consulting her about it.
I shouldn’t just go along with this. But what was the point of resisting, if he would just drag her with him in chains? And, anyway, am I so certain he’s wrong? Whatever she believed about Lukka, he was certainly on his way to Drannith with an army of monsters at his back. Maybe father was right all along.
She was settling in at her folding camp-table for a late dinner—back to trail rations, hooray—when there was a sound from outside, a thump followed by a quiet sigh. Something like the beginning of a shout was followed by another thump and then the rattle of a sword hitting the ground.
Jirina shot to her feet, hand automatically dropping to her own sword only to find that it wasn’t there. Her father hadn’t given her any sort of weapon, of course. Bloody hells. She grabbed the tin knife and fork from the table, hoping they’d be better than nothing.
The tent flap opened. Jirina wasn’t precisely sure who she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t a teenaged girl in leather and pink fur. She was dragging one of Bryd’s guards in with her, and she waggled her eyebrows conspiratorially at Jirina.
Behind her came an older woman in green, with a bow over one shoulder and a quiver on the other, carrying the limp body of the other guard. Jirina recognized her as Lukka’s companion from the forest ambush and the fight at the Ozolith and realized that the other girl had been at the Ozolith as well, alongside the pink raccoon-monster. The pair of them set the guards down gently, and the older woman bowed to Jirina.
“Who are you,” Jirina said, feeling a bit ridiculous as she leveled her fork, “and what are you doing here?”
&nbs
p; “I apologize for our manner of entrance,” the woman said. “Your sentries will be all right, I assure you. We had an urgent need to speak to you, and they seemed disinclined to allow it.” She put a hand on her chest. “My name is Vivien Reid, and this is Brin. You are Captain Jirina, yes?”
“I am.” Jirina lowered her fork. “You were with Lukka.”
“I was,” Vivien said. “He spoke of you often.”
“When did you last see him?” Jirina said. “Do you have any idea what happened at the Ozolith?”
“Perhaps we should sit,” Vivien said, then glanced at Brin. “And keep our voices down. It would not do to be discovered.”
Jirina took a deep breath and sat at the little camp-table, while Vivien settled herself opposite. Brin sat but soon bounced up again, wandering the tent poking at things and humming to herself.
“I should tell the story from the beginning,” Vivien said. “I met Captain Lukka the day he tried to escape from Drannith. In fact, I was instrumental…”
Vivien went on in calm tones, though Jirina’s breath caught in her throat. The meeting with the winged cat and the discovery that the Ozolith was driving monsters toward Drannith. Her own brush with the fugitives in the forest. Meeting the other bonders and pushing toward the great crystal formation.
“Are you a bonder?” Jirina interrupted.
“No,” Vivien said. “My interest in the situation is…complicated, but rest assured my goal is to excise this alien power from the Ozolith. I believed Lukka shared that goal, and we thought getting him in contact with the crystal was the best way to achieve it. We succeeded, though we were engaged with its guardian nightmares.”
“We were winning until you and your hunters showed up,” Brin said. A flash of pain crossed her expression and she glared at Jirina. “Abda’s dead because of you.”
“We talked about this, Brin,” Vivien said gently. “Captain Jirina didn’t kill Abda.”
The girl crossed her arms, sulkily.
Jirina met Brin’s gaze. “You have every right to be angry with me,” she said. “The hunters would not have been there if it wasn’t for me. Your friend might still be alive. I…thought I was acting for the best, but in the end that’s no excuse.”
“See?” Brin turned to Vivien. “I told you there’s no point in talking to her. She’s one of them.”
“We both thought we were acting for the best,” Vivien said. “We were both wrong.”
“What happened?” Jirina said.
“Lukka touched the Ozolith and…communicated with something inside it. The power it held, to control the monsters, made its way into him.”
“And twisted him,” Jirina said. Father was right all along.
“I do not believe so,” Vivien said. “He is still Lukka. But your city has banished him and driven him into the wilderness, and he is angry.”
“He talked about using the monsters as Drannith’s army,” Brin said. “I thought he understood what it meant, to have a monster for a partner, but I was wrong. He thinks they’re just tools.” She hugged herself. “None of the bonders would work with him after that, and then he tried to just take our monsters.”
“We had…a difference of opinions,” Vivien said. “Since then, we have not dared go near his army.”
“Hells.” Jirina rubbed her eyes. “So what do you want with me?”
“I still want to rid this world of the imbalanced power the Ozolith has granted Lukka,” Vivien said. “But the more immediate priority is to prevent more bloodshed. You are the one person I can be certain Lukka will talk to, and you have influence among the Drannith forces. Surely you can broker some kind of agreement. I believe Lukka would be willing to dismiss his army if you and Drannith could accept him back.”
Jirina gave a hollow laugh. Vivien cocked her head.
“You disagree?”
“Oh, I don’t disagree,” Jirina said. “Except for the part where I have any influence with Drannith. You may have noticed I’m more or less a prisoner here.”
“What?” Brin said. “The guards–”
“The guards are to keep me in as well as anyone else out,” Jirina said.
“I understood that you were the daughter of Drannith’s general,” Vivien said. “Lukka certainly described you as having considerable authority.”
“I used to,” Jirina said. “But father thinks I’m a traitor to humanity, the same as Lukka. He doesn’t trust me anymore. The only reason I’m here is because he thinks he can use me as a hostage or something. If you want influence, you should talk to Colonel Bryd.” She chuckled again. “Only don’t, because he’d have you arrested on the spot.”
“That is…a complication,” Vivien said. “I had hoped…”
“I hear people moving around,” Brin said, rushing back to the tent flap.
“Shift change,” Jirina said. “You have to get out of here. Take the guards—hopefully Bryd will assume they fell asleep or something.”
“We’ll handle it,” Vivien said. “I will try to contact you again. In the meantime, if there is anything you can do–”
“I’ll do it,” Jirina said. “But don’t expect miracles.”
***
There was some shouting outside when the guards were found, but nobody came in to bother Jirina about it. Lacking anything else to do, she went to bed early and was thus reasonably well rested when Colonel Bryd strode in unannounced not long after dawn the next morning.
“Get up and get in uniform,” he said.
“What’s going on?” Jirina said, yawning.
“Your boyfriend has asked for a parley. The General wants you to be there.” The colonel gave a withering glare. “Be outside in five minutes.”
Fortunately, getting dressed in a hurry was a skill all Coppercoats learned in basic training. Jirina pushed out through the tent flap into a chill, overcast morning, flanked by a pair of Citadel Guards. She was unsurprised when Bryd kept her waiting a further five minutes before he came to collect her. They passed through the camp, soldiers eating breakfast in front of their tents, murmurs following in Jirina’s wake as they always did these days.
The northern edge of the camp was up against the river. The bank was lined with a dozen portable ballistae, all of which were now cocked and loaded, overlooking the slow-moving stretch of water and the small islands about midway across. Beyond the big weapons, a couple of longboats were being readied, and General Kudro was waiting with another score of heavily armed Citadel Guards.
“Jirina,” Kudro said.
“Sir,” Jirina said woodenly.
“Walk with me,” Kudro said. Jirina dutifully followed, away from Colonel Bryd and the guards.
“The colonel tells me Lukka’s requested a meeting.”
“He has,” Kudro said. “Claims his intentions are peaceful.” He snorted. “As though monsters are capable of peace.”
” “It might be the truth,” Jirina said, thinking of what Vivien had told her. “Lukka never asked for this power. We drove him to this. If we offer to let him return–”
“Do you take me for a fool?” Kudro snapped.
“Then why agree to the meeting?”
“Because Lukka apparently thinks I am a fool,” the General said. “Which I am happy to take advantage of.”
“And you want me there for what? So you can threaten me to get him to submit?”
“I considered it,” Kudro said. “But Lukka would never believe I would hurt my own daughter.”
Lukka obviously doesn’t know you very well. Jirina kept her anger off her face. “Then what do you want me do?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Kudro pulled a sheathed dagger from his belt and held it out to her. “I want you to kill him.”
***
The guards rowed the longboats out into the river, oars splashing gently. The morning mist was slo
wly burning away and the clouds were shredding, promising a sunny day. As Lukka had promised, no monsters were in sight on the opposite bank, except for a single long-necked dinosaur. Behind them, the ballistae stood sentry, ready to fire at the slightest sign of treachery.
Jirina touched the dagger in her belt for the hundredth time. General Kudro hadn’t even waited to hear her answer.
“Lukka is more likely to trust you than anyone else,” he’d said. “If he lets you get close, you have the opportunity to end this at a single stroke, before any of his monsters can intervene.” She shivered at the memory of his hard, dead eyes. “This is your last chance, Jirina. Do this and everything is forgiven. You will be a hero. Fail and even I will no longer be able to protect you.”
Protect me. She grit her teeth. Is that what you’ve been doing, Father?
Lukka’s dinosaur bent its neck, and he slid off its head onto the little island. The monster turned ponderously in midstream, water splashing around it, and lumbered back to the far bank. Kudro gave the commander of the guards a nod, and the two boats slid ashore, crunching onto the sandy beach. Citadel Guards spilled out, in heavy armor, cradling crossbows. Once they’d formed a perimeter, Kudro and Jirina disembarked as well.
He’s a mess, was Jirina’s first thought. Lukka had lost weight, and his battered uniform hung off him like a scarecrow’s rags. His close-cropped beard was getting long enough to curl. But there was something in his eyes, a kind of manic energy. His scabbard hung empty, but strapped to his arm he wore a short, hooked blade, which looked like something he’d scavenged from Mzed’s hunters. Jirina touched the hilt of the dagger, jaw tightening.
The guards spread out, surrounding Lukka, who seemed unbothered by the crossbows trained on him. Kudro strolled over to face him, with Jirina following behind like a dutiful subordinate. Lukka spared a grin for the old man, but Jirina felt his eyes on her, drinking her in like a man dying of thirst.
“Sir,” Lukka said. His hand came up in a salute, thumping on his chest.
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