by P. M. Biswas
Table of Contents
Blurb
Chapter One: Encounter
Chapter Two: Return
Chapter Three: Alliance
Chapter Four: Mission
Chapter Five: Sacrifice
About the Author
By P.M. Biswas
Visit Harmony Ink Press
Copyright
Earthstone
By P.M. Biswas
The Wanderwood is an accursed place, where treacherous elvish folk dwell in the shadows and trick any trespassers into wandering forever.
Or so the legends say.
Tam doesn’t expect to be the one to prove them wrong.
Orphaned by the Great War against the evil King Danis, Tam is determined to fight as her parents did, even if she has to lie about her age. When Tam sneaks into the army, however, her first battle doesn’t go as planned. Instead of returning victorious, Tam is gravely wounded. When she staggers into the Wanderwood in a feverish daze, she assumes she’ll die there.
She doesn’t.
Something saves her—or rather, someone saves her, someone with leaf-green eyes and cool hands and distinctly pointed ears. Perhaps the elves can be negotiated with after all… and perhaps they can be allies in the war against Danis.
But centuries of mistrust will be hard to let go.
Chapter One
ENCOUNTER
“THIRD TIME’S the charm,” Tam muttered to herself as she snuck into the barracks. “Well, fifth time. Or is this the sixth?”
Wonderful. Tam was talking to herself, which meant she was nervous. She had to snap her mouth shut when two soldiers strolled past the corridor where she was hiding. Tam ducked into a cobweb-ridden corner to stay out of sight. She had an intimate knowledge of the barracks, having all but grown up in them, and that knowledge was now benefiting her.
The tragedy was that Tam had to do this at all. How unfair it was that she had to creep about like an interloper! She only wanted to serve her country, to serve Astaris. It was baffling that she was barred from doing so. This was her home. How could she not wish to defend it?
Brushing off the cobwebs now clinging to her hair, Tam slunk out of the corridor and into the laundry room, which stank as odiously as ever. Piles of sweaty, bloody unwashed clothing teetered next to a giant vat full of boiling water. It was into the vat that the clothes would be emptied. Steam filled the chamber, worsening the stench of all those filthy uniforms, lending the smell a dampness and a mustiness that had Tam wrinkling her nose.
A matronly woman in an apron stirred the vat. She moved her oar-like wooden stirrer in slow, even circles. The soapy water grew murkier with every stir as blood and dirt sloughed off the uniforms floating in it.
Nobody was bothered by the fact that the stains never quite went away, as long as the uniforms didn’t reek. Eventually the stains would merge into an indistinguishable darkening of fabric, turning tunics that had once been white a gradually deepening brown. Most of the soldiers just pretended their uniforms had been brown to begin with. It was better than picturing all the other bodies that had marched and fought and bled in them, and it was easy to ignore the faint, ever-present whiff of sweat and gore if it was accompanied by the stronger, sharper scent of soap.
Soon the woman was conveniently occupied with lifting the dripping clothes out of the vat and placing them into buckets.
Tam sprang into action.
She inched past the nearest pyramid of clothing and began extracting a used uniform from the bottom of the largest pile. The uniform had sticky blotches on it, blotches whose sources Tam had no intention of guessing. Her nose wrinkled even further at the prospect of wearing that, but needs must.
This was the most progress she’d ever made in her plan to sneak into the army. Her pulse raced as she donned the cloak of an infantry soldier atop the blotchy shirt. Tam was a tad smaller than the cloak’s previous wearer, but she didn’t have the luxury to linger and select a cloak that fit her perfectly. She had to leave before the noonday hour, when a slew of servants would enter the laundry room to take the washed clothing out to dry.
Tam was backing out of the laundry room, her heart in her throat, when—
“Halt,” boomed a familiar voice behind her, and Tam winced. It was Borik. Why was it always Borik? He was the commander of the spear-wielders and had an uncanny knack for locating Tam. “Are you Tamsin?”
“I have no idea who or what that is,” Tam said in an exaggerated, low-pitched alto, huddling into her oversized cloak and making as if to leave. “But I have places to be. Things to do. Wars to win. Goodbye.” Before she could escape, however, a hand landed on her shoulder, heavy as a boulder. “Oh, bug—”
Borik flipped off her hood.
“—ger.”
“I knew it. I’d recognize that tiny form anywhere.”
“I’m not tiny just because I’m short,” Tam shot back, since there was no harm in being herself now that her cover had been blown.
Borik glared down at her from what felt like five thousand feet above her head. “That is the very definition of tiny, you foolish brat.”
“You’re as huge as a mountain. Everyone’s tiny to you.”
“You’d be tiny to an ant.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny.” When Borik lifted Tam by her cape and began carrying her out of the barracks, she squawked, “I can walk!”
“Yes, but I don’t trust you to walk out of here and back to your dormitory in the children’s quarters.”
“I don’t belong there,” Tam said indignantly. “I’m not a child.”
“You’re seventeen. In the eyes of the law, you are still a child.”
“The law is pointless.”
“As are your repeated attempts to break into the army. Is this the fifth attempt?”
“The sixth,” Tam said sullenly. “Maybe. Did hiding in the mound of chicken bones left over from the kitchens count?”
Borik snorted. “If the royal kennel’s dogs hadn’t leapt upon it and exposed you, you would’ve been carted out of the fortress walls to be dumped outside with the rest of the city’s garbage.”
“That was the plan.”
“To be thrown out with the garbage?”
“To get beyond the walls so I could tag along with the last platoon dispatched to scout the border.”
“And what a success that was,” Borik said dryly. “Clearly, you are gifted in the subtle arts of espionage. Forget the armed forces, you should be inducted into the queen’s spies.”
Tam decided to go along with this fantasy. At least it was a fantasy in which she was useful. “According to you, I’m tiny, so I’d be the perfect spy.”
“Except for how, despite being tiny, you can’t snoop worth a penny.”
“You don’t get paid worth a penny,” Tam retaliated.
“I’m a soldier. I get paid in glory. Not that glory puts food on the table. Why do you want to be a soldier again?”
“Because my parents were soldiers. Because we’re at war. Because I’m sick of staying in the children’s dorm and languishing like some noble damsel, when I could be out there, fighting with you. Fighting with the only family I have.”
Borik paused, as if unsure how to respond to Tam’s passion. “Wars,” he said finally, exhaustedly. “There are always wars. Our war, the Great War, began when you were a child and may still be raging when you have children. King Danis of Norvald is our enemy and will remain so until his death—but it is rumored that he does not age as men do, and we have no means of discovering what dark magic he is using or how to defeat it.”
That was true. Danis was unnaturally powerful and nobody knew why. If it wasn’t for the alliance Astaris had with Axenborg, the land that lay between Norvald and theirs, Astaris would’ve been wiped out
ages ago. “I don’t see how that’s relevant to—”
“What if we never vanquish Danis? What if this war never ends? What difference does it make, then, whether you join the fight today or tomorrow?”
“But that’s why the army could use me,” Tam said mulishly. “It’s because the war is never-ending that we could use every single combatant. Spare me your lectures on military history. They do the opposite of dissuading me.”
“I thought they might.” Borik sighed. “Not even Astar Himself could dissuade you.”
“Exactly! So don’t even try!”
Borik groaned in exasperation. “You haven’t finished your training yet. At this point all you’d do if you enlisted would be to get killed.”
“Excuse me? I was the champion spear-thrower at this year’s festival!”
“A festival is not a battlefield. And a fixed target eighty yards away is not the same as a moving target on horseback, approaching you at breakneck speed with a broadsword leveled at your throat.”
Tam swallowed. That sounded terrifying.
And thrilling.
“Ye gods,” Borik said wearily. “All I’ve done is encourage you, haven’t I? Whatever ideals of heroism you have, you overeager bear cub, bloodshed isn’t as adventurous as you imagine it is.”
“If I’m a bear cub, does that make you my mother bear?” Tam asked innocently. “You are as big as a bear.”
Borik ruffled her hair fondly. “Quiet, sprout. I’m reporting you to the queen.”
“What? Why? You’ve never reported me before!”
“Because I’ve come to believe that she’s the only person capable of stopping you.”
“Traitor,” Tam accused, shrugging off Borik’s treacherous, hair-ruffling hand.
“Aye, aye. I’m a traitor beyond redemption. I hope you’ll forgive me for keeping you alive.”
Tam stuck out her tongue. She’d be damned if she let Borik get between her and her ambitions.
Even if Borik did reclaim the cloak from her before he let her go.
“You’re as tricksy as an elf,” he said. “Give that back.”
“But the elves are evil,” Tam complained. “And I’m not.”
“No, you’re only mischievous. Sometimes that’s worse.”
“How is it worse?”
“It’s harder to predict.”
Tam beamed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Don’t,” said Borik tiredly. “Please don’t.”
THE TRAINING grounds were hazy with kicked-up dust, but not hazy enough to entirely conceal the figures battling therein. The swirling eddies had coalesced into a semitransparent curtain, a glittering, sandy veil that shifted with the breeze, alternately hiding and revealing the sparring soldiers. The clouds of dust glowed, golden-hued in the midday sunlight, which slid like the brightest, sheerest of silks over both flesh and steel. A fine powder coated every person and object on the grounds.
Still, all that dustiness was preferable to the miserable sloshing and splashing that accompanied sparring in more rainy weather. Tam favored summertime in general but especially when it came to training. The heat made her sweat and thirst and ache, but it was worth it. In the summer she struggled twice as much against her own fatigue as she did in cooler conditions, and got sore twice as quickly.
It was satisfying. Pushing herself always was, and Tam invariably pushed herself to the limit. At each sunset Tam dragged herself back to the dorm, drained but victorious, sporting her new bruises like medals. She was the only trainee among the soldiers’ children who went to the training grounds every day, from dawn till dusk, despite it not being her duty to do so.
As Tam was not yet an official recruit, she wasn’t obligated to train, nor was she allowed full use of the training equipment. All Tam could do was train on the relative outskirts of the grounds, adjacent to the barracks, under the watchful eye of Borik or whoever happened to be the training supervisor that week.
Tam would have to tolerate this unbearable wait for another year. She would have to tolerate being a second-class trainee before she could call herself a soldier.
In order to sate her appetite for combat, Tam trained as brutally as she could, but the harder she trained, the more frustrated she became with her status as a child. It was clear to her that she was competent, devoted and able-bodied. Years of training had broadened her shoulders and corded her arms. While she was short, as Borik never failed to remind her, her physique was respectable. She did not differ overmuch from any of the younger soldiers deployed abroad.
Not being permitted to use the studded shields or the moving dummies was a disadvantage, but Tam compensated for it as much as she could by using the stationary dummies and the painted targets. Tam could now hit the bull’s-eye on any target within a hundred paces, and could use both underarm and overarm techniques to strike a dummy at every crucial anatomical point—the eyes, the brain, the heart, the lungs, the groin, the abdomen, and the major arteries in the limbs and the neck.
It had taken Tam an eternity to develop her upper-body strength to the stage where she could lodge her spear inch-deep into the solid wood of a dummy’s skull, and she was still working on embedding it even deeper. The spear was a weapon that required brute force as much as it did skill, and in order to build muscle, Tam hefted sandbags for an hour each morning. She hauled them around the mile-long oval of the training grounds, aiming to complete an additional circuit every six months. It was arduous, ceaseless labor, but Tam persisted at it.
It was a pity that she wasn’t permitted to spar with her practice spear, which bore a yellow band at its base to signal to any potential opponents that she was underage—and off-limits. Tam had endeavored swapping out her spear early on in her training, but given how notorious she’d become at the training grounds, she was easily recognized… and easily patronized. She had yet to find a regular sparring partner. Only Maryada, Borik’s deputy, was of the opinion that it was safer for Tam to learn sparring with a qualified partner than it was for Tam to go haring off to spar with another teenager and wind up injuring them both.
Or it could just be that Maryada enjoyed picking on Tam. That was more likely.
“Greetings, hatchling,” Maryada called out from the sparring circle, where she was overseeing the spear unit. She was sitting atop the circle’s low boundary wall, one leg hitched up to her chin, her spear beside her and a knife in her hand. A knife with which she was cleaning her teeth.
Tam set down her sandbags. Her arms shook as she did so, and Maryada noticed, her eyes crinkling in amusement.
“Look at the hatchling’s half-formed wings,” Maryada cooed, and the spear-wielders collectively turned to smirk at Tam in that infuriatingly affectionate way they had, like elder siblings mocking a younger sister. “Look at how they tremble.”
Tam clenched her jaw. “I’ll teach you how to tremble, you lumbering, flatfooted—”
“Now, now, let’s not get personal.” Maryada hopped down from the wall and swaggered forward, her knife put away in its belted sheath and her spear held aloft. “If you’re that eager to prove yourself, show me what you can do.”
“Oh, I will.” Tam grabbed her own spear and pointed it at Maryada. “Prepare yourself.”
“Prepare yourself, she says,” sniggered Dale, the sprightly spearman who had once been a swordsman, and frankly, shouldn’t he keep his mouth shut about the business of real spear-wielders? “What should the deputy prepare herself for, Tammy-Wammy? The featherlight taps of your puny spear? It’s practically a toothpick.”
“Hush, Dale.” Maryada smiled sweetly. “Her spear’s been cut down to her size. She can’t be expected to handle a proper spear.”
“It’s your spear that isn’t proper,” Tam retorted. Maryada’s spear was double-ended and as thick as the branch of an oak. It probably weighed five times as much as Tam’s spear. Which defeated the whole purpose of a spear, as far as Tam was concerned.
“That’s because I’m good enough to
request a custom weapon from the royal armory,” Maryada said. “Perhaps someday, you might…. No, I doubt it.”
Ticked off as Tam was, she was itching for a tussle. That, and it’d get her some much-needed sparring experience. “Do you ever quit jabbering, or are we actually going to fight?”
Maryada twirled her massive spear as lightly as if it were a twig. “Try not to get hurt, hatchling.” Then she pounced.
If only there was a possibility for Tam to get hurt—not because Tam wanted to get hurt, but because it would be a mark of respect signifying that Maryada was sparring with Tam as an equal. Despite all her posturing, Maryada was being careful with Tam, and ten minutes into their match, Tam still didn’t have so much as a cut on her. Borik must cut himself more while shaving.
Fed up with being condescended to, Tam strove to get out of the seemingly endless grapple Maryada had trapped her in. Sweeping a kick at Maryada’s shins, Tam managed to duck out of the grapple and land a hit, but it struck Maryada’s spear with an impact so jarring that it rattled Tam’s bones. Maryada, however, was unperturbed.
“Aw,” Maryada drawled, “that tickles.”
A crowd of spectators had gathered around them. The sword and archery units clustered around the sparring circle along with the spear-wielders, and they erupted into a cheer at Tam’s near miss.
Was Tam that pathetic? Was she such an underdog that the soldiers would cheer even her mistakes?
Incensed, Tam jabbed at Maryada again and again, but even she could feel how ungainly her footwork was when compared to Maryada’s. She had taunted Maryada with it before, but it was Tam who was flatfooted.
As if that wasn’t already humiliating, Maryada’s ongoing commentary was annoyingly accurate. “You’re unbalanced,” she said. “Spread your feet wider apart when you brace for a collision. Guard your solar plexus with your opposing forearm, as you have no shield. Yes, like that.”
“Ouch,” Tam grumbled as Maryada landed an irritatingly glancing blow on her. An enemy would not have held back like that. Tam should, by rights, have been unconscious in the dirt.