by H. M. Clarke
‘Motta?’
‘Yes, she says that she and Holm have some interesting news for us.’
‘Interesting? Is that all she said?’
‘Yes.’
“What is wrong Harada?” Oded asked, placing a hand on Harada’s shoulder to get his attention.
“Hold on a moment,” Harada muttered and pointed by way of explanation ahead of him. He could now see the blue form of Motta flying towards them.
‘Samar, ask Motta to report. Is there something we need to know about those men beneath us?’
After what seemed a very long moment, Samar began to relay Motta’s words.
‘The group below are ours. They are under the command of Captain Vosloo. Lieutenant Peana had sent them back to report directly to Colonel Oded. But they did give us some other news. Kral and Peana have found Kalena!’
‘They’ve found her? Where is she? Is she with the group below?’
‘Holm wants to talk to you in person Harada.’
‘I bet he does. That gap in the trees below near the road looks big enough for two Hatar to land. Tell Holm and Motta to meet us there.’
‘Yes, Harada.’
“Oded, we may have some good news for a change. Holm and Motta are ahead of us and they say that Kalena has been found.”
“She has?” The Colonel’s voice sounded both excited and relieved.
“The group below us are Captain Vosloo’s men. They have been sent back to report directly to you. I am going to land below so that I can talk with Holm, the group on foot should reach us there and you can take their report.”
“Thank the One we came across them before they came under the eyes of those at Fort Foxtern,” Colonel Oded said. “Though I have a feeling this will be news that Prince Garrick will not be pleased with.”
“You can count on it.”
Harada saw Motta begin to descend to the clearing below and he gave the command to Samar to have her land to meet him. He gave orders for the rest of the wing to stay in a holding pattern over their location and to keep an eye out for any unfriendly folk that might be around.
Samar slowed her descent and landed daintily on her feet in the clearing not far from Motta. Holm was already descending from the blue Hatar’s shoulder and before Samar had settled, both Harada and Oded were already unbuckling their security Straps. Holm stayed back until Samar had tucked in her wings and her riders had dismounted.
“Holm, what news?” Harada called, waving the flyer towards him. Oded rushed to the road to await the company of men.
“Wing Commander Harada, you’ll hear this first hand from Vosloo’s men. They have found Kalena, except that she doesn’t know she’s Kalena. She thinks she’s someone else. And she has an Ice Tiger brother. Oh! And she is now the Queen of the Ice Tigers.”
“Wait, What?” Harada could not help the frown that washed over his face as Holm’s words rushed over him.
Holm stopped and drew a deep breath as if to calm himself. But Harada could see the restrained excitement held at bay in Holm’s taunt frame.
“Kalena is found but does not remember who she is,” Holm started again though slower this time. “She was found by the Ice Tigers who took her in and gave her another name, which I can’t remember at the moment. Anyway, something happened and Kalena became the new leader of the Ice Tigers. And now the Ice Tigers and the Arranians are going to war with each other.”
“The Arranians are fighting with the Ice Tigers?” Harada looked at Samar who just tilted her head in that annoying way that the Hatar’le’margarten had when they did not want to admit that they did not know.
‘Motta confirms Holm’s words. We’ll hear the same from the group coming down the road towards us.’
“Wing Commander, do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”
Harada tried to hide his smile as he slipped a hand into his belt pouch and pulled out a wrapped wad of jerky.
“Here, this should take the edge off.” Harada tossed him the food.
Holm deftly snatched the packet from the air and quickly unwrapped it.
“Thanks, Wing Commander,” he mumbled before tearing into the jerky.
“Holm, did the men say why Kalena, Kral and the two Hatar aren’t with them?”
The Flyer nodded and quickly swallowed the food in his mouth.
“Yes. They, along with Lieutenant Peana and some of his men have gone to Daegarouf to talk to the Pydarki. I also forgot to say that Captain Vosloo was missing, the Lieutenant is looking for him.”
“Vosloo’s missing? So, we find one and then lose another. Oded is not going to be happy about this.”
“Well, he’s not missing anymore. This group of men has found him. The Captain is traveling down the road with them.”
Harada shook his head and Samar let out a rumble from her chest as if she was laughing.
“Holm, you really need to work on your reporting style.”
Holm Lunman just nodded as he had gone back to gnawing on his piece of jerky.
‘Motta says that Captain Vosloo will give a report to Oded, but the information on Kalena will need to be gleaned from the men. Vosloo was away while Kalena was with them.’
‘What do you think about the news that Kalena is the Queen of the Ice Tigers?’
‘Motta confirms that that is what the men had told Holm. The Ice Tigers look to Kalena as their leader and that the Ice Tigers are going to war with the Arranians. The Tigers blame them for a lot of the killing that has happened to their people.’
‘They do? We’ve killed Ice Tigers as well, does that mean they will come against us as well?’ Harada mused.
‘Maybe, or the Ice Tigers could just think that the Arranians are responsible for all of their deaths.’
Harada could hear the noise and then low voices through the underbrush from the direction of the path. The group of men had met up with Colonel Oded on the trail. He leaned back against Samar’s shoulder to wait while the two Hatar talked privately among themselves. Holm moved to lean next to Harada, giving Samar a hard scratch around her wing join by way of compensation. It was a place that was an inconvenient spot to put a head or claw to so Samar did not mind.
Without saying a word, Harada plucked another packet of wrapped jerky from his pouch and handed it to Holm. Holm took it and eagerly tore the wrappings from it.
The sun had visibly moved a whole finger’s width across the sky before the sounds of moving bodies came towards them. Harada and Holm pushed themselves away from Samar’s side with Holm quickly brushing away jerky crumbs from his jacket front to make himself presentable.
Slowly, Harada saw men leading horses coming towards them. At their head, he recognized Captain Vosloo and Oded.
As Oded and Vosloo entered the clearing, the Coloenl gestured for Harada to move with them to one side, out of direct hearing of the main group.
Once the three of them were sure of their privacy, Oded turned to Harada.
“We’ve caught them this time. We’ve got them. Inman is a dead man.”
Harada’s eyes widened at Oded’s blunt words and his eyes flicked to Vosloo to gauge his reaction. The man showed no surprise.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Tell him, Frazier.”
The Captain drew a deep breath, uncomfortable about something, but nothing related to this news.
“My men and I have discovered that there are some traitors lurking in the Suene Empire. We have witnessed with our own eyes Justicars meeting with Arranians along one of the Northern passes. My men have uncovered that there is a rogue Arranian group working on traitorous actions to their own country and that this is the group working with the Justicars. Prince Garrick and the Emperor need to know this.”
“Do you have any physical proof of this treachery?” Harada asked.
“My Sergeant is carrying a packet captured from one of the rogue Arranians, and some of my men recognized some of the Justicars at the meeting as coming from Fort Foxtern. One of them was V
idean Tsarland.”
Harada’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. That was the last name he expected to hear.
“Harada, we need to send word back to Garrick immediately. He needs to get ready for this so that he can stop things from progressing to outright war,” Colonel Oded hissed.
Harada thought a moment and then decided.
“I’ll send Holm and Motta with the news and the packet with orders to report only to Prince Garrick.”
Oded nodded. “We’ll return to Fort Foxtern with Captain Vosloo, who will report to me and Inman that the Arranians are massing only because of the Ice Tigers and not us. Make no mention of treachery until we hear back from Garrick. I want to see what his reaction is.”
Oded turned to Vosloo. “Then, once we get a moment to ourselves, you can report to me the reason you left your men in the first place.”
CHAPTER THREE
“You believe men not skilled in spy work when they tell you that the Arranians and the Ice Tigers are not Allied?”
Harada watched as Justicar Inman stopped his pacing to address both Colonel Oded and Captain Vosloo. Harada stood back by the door, an insect beneath the notice of the Justicar. Captain Jerant sat down in a chair behind Inman’s desk, just as beneath the Justicar’s notice as he was.
“I believe what they tell me they saw with their own eyes,” Vosloo snapped back.
Even from his position, Harada could tell from Vosloo’s tone and stance that he would prefer to be reporting to the man who on paper is supposed to be in command for Fort Foxtern. Not a Justicar.
“The camp of Ice Tiger dead? Done a few days ago?” the Justicar snorted. “That work was not done by the Arranians. That nest had been cleared out by Jerant’s men.”
“What?” Oded could not keep the surprise from his voice, as he turned to look at Vosloo.
“They killed a group of Arranians in retaliation. Why would they do that if they were allies?”
Inman shrugged. “How would I know what goes through the mind of a beast.”
Harada noted that Jerant moved uneasily in his chair, but made no effort to speak. Inman was making sure that all knew who was really in charge here.
“Our intelligence states that the Arranians are massing to attack us and that they have an Alliance with the Ice Tigers. We will keep our troops ready to act against any form of Arranian or Ice Tiger aggression.
Harada gritted his teeth. His father should have officially announced Garrick’s control of the armies by now. The fact that he hasn’t as yet must be due to Felian’s work. Harada fervently hoped that his brother was making headway in cutting her down.
“If the Arranians were going to attack us, wouldn’t they have done it already? Now would be the perfect time since only a small part of the army is stationed in the pass. Their forces could punch an entry here with ease and minimal losses.”
Inman scowled, and then resumed his pacing. The man was agitated. And annoyed. He was not happy about being questioned and contradicted.
“When Prince Garrick takes control of the Northern Armies, he will not look favorably on those who did not prepare adequately.”
Colonel Oded made the implied warning implicit in his words. Harada could tell that the man was frustrated, but bringing Garrick’s name into this atmosphere could only make matters worse.
Inman paused in his pacing, one foot balanced on his heel, hesitating on completing its step. If Harada didn’t know any better, he would think that Inman felt fear. Strange that even the mention of his brother’s name would cause that reaction. Maybe Felian and her cronies are not as secure in their position than they first thought. Father must still be loyal and listening to his son.
Then an unnerving thought entered Harada’s mind. Maybe the reason Garrick’s command had not yet been announced is that their father wanted to keep him in the Capital. Maybe their father was not as under Felian’s control as they thought. Maybe…Maybe’s are cloud dreams. Not real until they happen.
The Justicar’s foot abruptly fell to the ground and the man continued his pacing. The scowl that crossed the man’s pale face showed plainly his annoyance to his reaction to Oded’s words. But the man gave no answer to the Colonel.
“Captain Jerant and I will only act upon intelligence gathered from reliable sources.”
“Are you inferring that my men are not reliable?” Vosloo’s voice was not raised, but the threat in it was unmistakable.
“I am inferring that they are not trained to know what they are seeing.”
Oded placed a warning hand on the Captain’s shoulder and the retort that was boiling on his lips was swallowed back like bile.
“Until we have this information verified by our own intelligence agents, we will continue to operate as if the Arranians are planning on attacking us. You are dismissed.”
Harada bristled at the casual dismissal of the Colonel as if he were a common infantryman, but the Colonel said nothing. He grabbed Vosloo by the upper arm and they both turned and left the room. Harada fell into step just behind them and closed the door as they exited.
No one spoke a word as they walked past the fort buildings back to the army encampment that skirted around the rear of the fort. As soon as they arrived back by their tents and campfire, Vosloo exploded.
“What in The One’s name just happened?”
Oded raised his hands. “Not so loud Frazer,” he hissed. “Even here there may be unwelcome ears listening in.”
Vosloo visibly took control of himself though Harada could see that his fisted hands were held tightly at his sides.
“What just happened was a confirmation that what you witnessed in the pass is connected to the Justicars here at Fort Foxtern,” Harada’s voice sat low in his throat.
“So, the traitors ARE working with the Arranians.”
“So it seems.”
Oded sat down on one of the large logs arranged in a circle around the fire. Harada followed suit and, after a moment’s hesitation, so did Vosloo.
“I hope Holm doesn’t have any trouble finding Garrick. Felian’s feelers might be more extensive than we thought,” Oded muttered.
“Holm can be quite resourceful when he wants to be,” Harada answered. “And Inman gave me the impression that Felian’s power might not be as strong as we thought.”
Oded cocked his head and gave Harada a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think their control over Father is as absolute as they would like it to be. I think that the reason Father hasn’t made Garrick overall commander is that he wants Garrick close to him.”
“You got all that from Inman’s pacing?” Vosloo’s disbelief was plain in his voice.
“And from what he didn’t say,” Harada finished with a small smile.
“Either way. It still doesn’t diminish the danger we are in at the moment. It seems that the Justicars here want us to go to war with Arran,” Oded said.
“And the Ice Tigers want to go to war with Arran as well,” Vosloo said slowly as if thinking on the issue.
“And the Arranians are going to war with the Ice Tigers. Not us.”
“Unless something is done to provoke them.” Harada shot up from his seat.
“Vosloo, do you think that was what that meeting in the pass was about? Arranging a confrontation to start a war?”
Frazier Vosloo started to nod. “It makes sense. Our rogue Justicars and those Arranians are wanting to stir a fight between everyone.”
“So, why did you take off from your men?” Oded suddenly asked.
Harada sat back down on his log as Vosloo started to reply.
“Our camp was attacked by something. At first, I thought it was Ice Tigers but it turned out to be something quite different.”
“Different? What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say that there is more in these mountains to worry about than just the Ice Tigers. It looked like a giant demon hound and it’s saliva ate everything it touched. One tried to get into the tent
of my Lieutenant… I decided that I would track this thing myself. Don’t ask me why I did that. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do, and for some reason, I felt this animal was somehow linked to the Pydarki, just as I think the Pydarki are involved with Kalena’s disappearance.”
Harada jerked back in surprise, not quite believing what he had just heard from Vosloo’s lips. He saw the look of startled surprise come over Oded’s face as well.
“What makes you think the Pydarki have anything to do with this? It was more likely an Arranian Spellcrafter. Except that the Ice Tigers somehow got to Kalena first before the Arranians could.”
Oded quickly recovered himself. “Yes. Holm told us that the Ice Tigers are no friends to Arran, that they are fighting each other in the mountains. I still cannot believe that Kalena is now their leader…”
“But as their leader, the Ice Tigers will not be attacking us. I notice that you did not report that to Inman.”
Harada leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, waiting for Oded to respond.
“No. I didn’t. But it will be reported to Prince Garrick.”
“Do you believe that if you had reported to the Justicar that the Ice Tigers were now being led by a Hatar Kalar that he would have sent men out to actively kill any Ice Tigers they found?”
Oded nodded. “He would do it in an effort to kill Kalena. He can’t have a fly in the ointment spoiling their plans.”
“Just as he is the fly in our ointment spoiling ours?” Vosloo said drawing both men’s attention back to himself.
Oded looked back at him but said nothing.
“Did you end up finding your monster, Frazier?” Harada asked to cut the stilted silence.
“No. I saw no sign of it once I lost that initial trail, but I swear I could feel them watching me.”
Harada raised an eyebrow at the vehement emotion in Vosloo’s voice.
“That thing came into our camp looking for something. Or someone. I want to know why.”
“Instead of finding your monster dog, you found a small group of your men,” Harada said, trying to get the conversation back on track.
“Yes. And we watched and listened to those traitors as they waited for their Arranian accomplices. Their talk as they waited incriminated them as surely as if we had seen them meet with the bastards themselves.”