by D. H. Aire
Lord Tane rushed down the stairs once his old mage said, “It’s really her. Not an illusion.”
“Janielle!”
“Uncle.”
Farrel held her tight, “Please bring the lady proper attire… she feared being tracked.”
“Oh, dear,” Lord Tane said, “See to bringing her a robe! Now, you, who are you and if those aren’t the finest warehorses I’ve ever seen, I don’t know horse flesh.”
“The name’s, Farrel, I’m seeking a ship to take us back to Hollif. My family has a horse breeding farm… My father and I came seeking some horses bred in Lyai. We traded nearly all our belongings and all our coin for this pair.”
“I commend you on your choices. They are amazing. But what happened to your father?”
She sighed, “His heart… it failed him soon after we started to return. I could not afford to both return with his body and keep these fine mounts that he wanted to see us breed.”
“I’ve a robe for the lady!” called out a woman with one of the guards trailing her.
“She saved my life, Uncle. If she hadn’t found me out there, Kolter’s men certainly would have.”
“Milady,” the woman said, offering the robe.
#
The tracker peered over the hill and saw the city gate close. He hurried back to Kolter’s guard captain. “She’s in Tane.”
“There’s nothing we can do then,” one of their men said.
“Perhaps, there is,” the captain replied, knowing it was unlikely they could slip into the city without a lot of scryers and mages to help them.
The tracker looked at the river and the harbor filled with far too many ships, “I’m not leaving without Lady Hayden.”
The captain nodded, “That’s not where our honor lies.” He looked into the faces of his men, no few of them old ones, who has served Lord Hayden’s father.
The men stared at him.
“You took an oath as I did.”
#
“General Winterhil!” the scout shouted as his steed arrowed toward him through his troops.
“What do you have for me, lad?”
“It’s ugly, General. They’ve hundreds of dead and wounded… and from what I saw of how they are fighting… the units fight without any cohension. Its as if they’ve no command structure.”
“They’re used too used to getting scrying orders,” Winterhil muttered. “No veteran Legionnaire commanders who have fought in the last Northland incursion.”
He turned to young messenger riding along beside them, “Think you can find Lord Thomi?”
“Yessir!”
“Tell him to make his troops presence felt. It’s time to offer Lord Tane the possibility of reinforcements.”
“Yessir!”
“Lad, he’s likely to ask what I’m up to… Best you don’t know. Understood?”
The messenger was little more than a boy, who was delighted to have a steed beneath him. “Uh, yessir.”
“What are you waiting for, off with you!”
With a delighted grin, off he raced.
Chapter 34 - Another Human Mage
Kolter paced the Lord’s study, the room he seemed to haunt most. “I must have her back! If they haven’t caught up with her, she must have reached Tane by now. I’ll order the army to besiege the city.”
“Milord, the last message we received said your troops are engaged with the Tane.”
“And, by now, they should be driving Tane’s soldiers to the river’s edge.”
“But we don’t know that… and what of your plans to… threaten the Empress and demand Lord Hayden’s return.”
Kolter nodded, “That will wait. Winterhil will not dare move his troops, particularly with the scrying network down.”
The mage was careful not to disagree. Kolter’s last confidante had tragically slipped and fallen from a castle parapet.
#
Yel’ane turned her head, burying it in Lawson’s shoulder as they came upon the first bodies. “The Tane do not seem to be accounting for themselves well,” Lord Rian said.
Sergeant Grigg and several of his veterans were riding back toward them. “There are dead Haydenese studded with arrows across the hill.”
George frowned, his eyes closed, his staff across his lap. Lawson helped cover Yel’ane’s eyes as the staff glowed. “Scan,” he muttered.
:Acknowledged.:
The scan rebounded.
:Unable to comply.:
Opening his eyes, George said, “We’re effectively blind and I’ve no idea why.”
Overhead Raven shared a bird’s eye view. A rather grisly one considering all the carrion birds circling, preparing to feast. ‘Want me… scout?’
“Stay close,” he whispered in reply, “you’re our best chance of learning if we’ve unexpected company trying to sneak up on us.”
Squawk.
“Smart move,” Se’and added.
Thomi rode over to them, Walsh trailing after. “I can’t sense Amira at all,” Thomi said.
Lawson glanced up at the sky, “There’s something I could try.”
George looked up. “Let’s hope Mother does know best.”
#
Lawson demanded privacy and space. The command tent was put up and the flaps dropped closed. Re’ut said to Yel’ane, “He planning to bond Legionnaires?”
“Uh, you know how he dotes on his ‘components?’”
She nodded.
“They help him talk to the moon.”
Lawson looked up from setting out his components, each of which was set in protective wax. “I don’t talk to the moon.”
Yel’ane shook her head, “But—”
Le’ann chuckled, interrupting her, “That’s good to know since there’s no moon right now.”
Lawson glanced at her, gesturing, “It talks to a rock, which is about yea big. It just happened to be near the moon the last time we talked.”
They stared. Yel’ane slowly smiled.
George cleared his throat, “Ahem, ladies, you know I’m a human mage?”
They nodded.
“So is he.”
Frowns, except from Yel’ane who crossed her arms, “Lawson’s important… our House is going to be very important!”
Lawson muttered, “I’d settle for a quiet house safely under sixty feet of earth.”
“You’re place big enough for them?” Se’and asked.
“Hmm, George, what do you think? Would a quiet corner of Old Hydro do?”
“You’d have plenty of artificial sunlight, if a shade different than they’re used to.”
The Cathartans stared at Lawson.
Yel’ane went a bit pale.
Se’and gave them a look George knew rather well.
“What? I don’t think you’ll like dining with trolls.”
Lawson grumbled, “George, you told her about the neutrabutter? Look, I admit it may be, well, an acquired taste. But it’s nutritious.”
“I don’t doubt it,” George replied.
Re’ut and Le’ann looked at each other as Lawson turned and proceeded to build a sort of ceramic box, filled with an assortment of his components, big and small. He checked it twice and sighed. “According to the Holy Manual this should not work, you know.”
Nodding, George shrugged, “I’m well aware of that.”
He pulled out a carefully wrapped jewel. Yel’ane said to the others, who, doubtless, were reconsidering having married a troll, “That’s magic.”
“Yeah, pried from the hilt of an elvin sword that… was made as an offering to Mother. All save this.” He put it atop his box, which instantly began giving off a soft hum. George frowned, seeing Lawson’s right eye twitch. “The Holy Satellite’s not in range yet… This could take a while.”
George nodded, then turned to the uncomfortable looking group of Cathartans. “How about a Q and A session.”
“What?” Le’ann muttered.
“Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about trol
ls… from a friend of the family.”
Lawson swallowed, “Please, George.”
Yel’ane frowned, “Uh, anything?”
Se’and groaned, “You’re in for it now, Je’orj.”
“Just about,” he replied, hedging.
“Within reason,” Lawson added. “Within reason.”
#
Yel’ane swallowed hard, “Uh, I’m in for it now, aren’t I?”
“Yes,” Re’ut said, glaring at her. “If we’d known…”
Her Sisters looked a bit stunned. “Will we really need to live underground?”
“It’s really quite nice,” Lawson said, frowning.
“Very tall ceilings in most places,” George offered.
“But the girls…” Le’ann muttered.
Lawson stroked his chin, “I don’t think you have to worry about them marrying a troll.”
“We’ll have to find them a suitable apprentice engineer,” another suggested.
Lawson glanced at George, who shrugged, knowing how well a human colony was going to go over in certain quarters one day. :Protector is most definitely going to need, literally, a small colony,: Staff said.
George knew how important Lawson was, not just because he was smart, but because he was short for a troll.
Se’and shared, ‘His Sisters haven’t really believed Lawson’s lived in the Great Waste.’
Yel’ane was wringing her hands behind her back.
Lawson frowned, then his right eye twitched. He hurried back to his box and set his hand over the jewel, which suddenly glowed. “Assistant Engineer Lawson to Questor. Requesting imagery of the entire area.”
“Working…” came a clipped voice that startled even Yel’ane, who had half-heard it before.
Staff flared. :Got it.:
“Thank you, uh, Mother,” Lawson said.
“Introduce me…” the clipped voice said.
Lawson’s right eye twitched. “What? Do you want to talk with the Chief Engineer?”
“Introduce me to your apprentice.”
Yel’ane gasped.
“Uh, I think she means you… here, give me your hand.”
“Huh?” she muttered, glancing at her right hand, which he hastily grasped.
“Come closer, we need to lay your hand on the jewel… She wants an impression.”
Stepping forward, she set her hand down beneath his on the glowing jewel, then felt a tingling. ‘Apprentice Engineer Yel’ane, I claim you as ship’s crew. I have watched you and your Sisters, who will need a solid grounding in mathematics. Will you help teach them?’
I don’t think Re’ut, Le’ann, or the others, she thought, will particularly appreciate my, uh, teaching them anything.
‘It is not they I seek as additional apprentices.The children are more adaptable and Lawson has already begun their training, which you have great aptitude for, Apprentice Engineer Yel’ane.’
Oh.
‘Do you accept posting to my crew?’
I… what’s that mean?
:If I may explain, Protector?:
‘Please, Staff.’
Her eyes suddenly sparkled. Knowledge filled her… I accept.
A moment later, she gasped, lifting off her hand as Lawson watched her carefully. “What did you accept?” he asked.
“I’m apprentice engineer of Questor.”
He nodded as the Cathartans, to a woman, looked confused.
“There is a limit to what I can teach you so far from home,” Lawson said.
“Uh, that’s not going to be a problem,” Yel’ane replied.
“It’s not?”
“Old Hydro isn’t,” she answered, “going to be suitable for us… The observatory has long been abandoned. Only children can even reach it, though, it’s supposed to be off limits.”
He stared at her.
“Mother can work with us in sim… Sir.”
He blinked. “She downloaded to you?”
“She sure did something.”
The box went dark.
George nodded, “Now that that’s been decided, I need to have a chat with Thomi and the Legionnaires. We’ve a lot of company to the south of us.”
He left with Se’and and Lawson saw Re’ut take an angry step forward, “We are honor bound to you, Milord. Yel’ane, did you suspect we would go to live in the Great Waste?”
She swallowed, “He and Greth told us who they were. En’sta and the others told you, too.”
“So, when you claimed your boon, you knew he would take you home with him one day?” Re’ut asked.
“Uh, I knew it was a possibility.”
“In other words, you tricked us!” Le’ann shouted.
“Stop that!” Lawson shouted. “You think this is all her fault?”
“Isn’t it?” Le’ann said.
“And you’ll be taking my daughter with us… all the girls! Or is your home some fabled oasis in the Waste?”
“Not in the way you’d understand… Life will be… difficult for all of us.”
Yel’ane sighed, “So, yes, it’s all my fault… I’ve managed to establish the House of Lawson and wrangled all of you into marrying him. You think those little girls are your kin, alone? Well, I’ve been mother and sister to them for months. I buried Sisters, when you, what, were safely on a ship sailing from Catha, while all your little Sisters and daughters, I dare say, fled on foot, knowing the other Houses expected to steal us as their own.”
They stared at her as she threw off her livery and began loosening her bodice. “Well, Lawson blithely offered all us girls to be a father to us… I don’t care that he’s a dwarf troll. He’s the kindest, sweetest, smartest man you’ll ever know.” She pulled down her bodice, “And he’s a very hard hand… Now take me over your knee, Milord. I deserve it. I really, believe me, deserve it. Because I’d do it all again.” She stood in front of Lawson. Half turned and knelt, offering him her butt. “Make them good ones.”
He stared, then glared at Re’ut, “This what you want? Really?”
“Oh, yes,” Re’ut said, arms crossed.
“Uh, yes and no,” Le’ann said, looking at her Sisters, who were nodding. “She’s the Lady of the House… at least for now.”
Yel’ane had tears in her eyes. “Spank me! They’ve done worse with snide words that flayed my soul! I know I’m a screw up.”
He raised his hand, lowered it to her hip, staring at her backside. “Apprentice Engineer, Lady of this House, as you call it, I think you’ve humiliated yourself enough for one day… Ladies, I’ll not hold you to your oaths… Oh, don’t misunderstand me; the girls are going with me, when I return home… Mother wants more engineers, rather short ones. Yel’ane really has been those girls’ mothers and protectors. I’ve seen it… Get out of here; keep people away from this tent until I say otherwise.”
Yel’ane made to rise; he kept her where she was. “Go, ladies.”
They exited.
“Uh, you aren’t going to punish me?”
He looked at her. “No.”
“What?”
He winced, “Get dressed.”
She frowned, looked at him, wondering why he was half hunched over the box.
“You need help?”
Swallowing hard, he said, “Just get dressed. I’ll be out after I’ve put the components away.”
She stood straighter. “I, uh, think I can help with that.”
“I can handle it. Now get moving.”
She hesitated. “No. Ready to change your mind?”
“Argh.”
#
Re’ut rode up, “Learned your lesson?”
Yel’ane blushed, “Not exactly.”
She shook her head. “I hope you can’t sit down for a week…”
“I wish,” she muttered back, with a glance back at Lawson’s face as he rode behind her.
Lawson muttered, “Don’t say another word. Not a word.”
She gave the faintest of smiles. She still smiled, though, dreading havi
ng a long talk with Lady Se’and. She had a lot of questions… a lot.
#
“How long before we catch up to them?” Thomi said, drawing rein, to await George’s riding up, while Walsh, his ogre’s height and stride, helping his lope alongside.
“Three hours, eleven minutes at our present rate of speed, barring any significant change of direction on their part,” George heard himself say.
“Rider coming out of the west!” someone shouted on the column’s flank.
“One of ours! On a battle steed!” another shouted.
Thomi began to turn his mount as Walsh said, “Wait.”
Sergeant Grigg rode out, met the rider and brought him back,
“Lord Thomi, Sir. General Winterhil sent me with a message for you…”
Chapter 35 - Marshall General
The major lay on his pallet in his cell in the Headquarters stockade, cursing himself for a fool. His cellmate glanced at him, “Well, you managed to get them supplies, Sir.”
“Yeah, and what price is my family going to pay?”
“The men will have warned them.”
“And found themselves accused of whatever trumped up charges Graymantel’s toadies can think of… I can only hope.”
There was a commotion down the hall, “Out of my way!”
“You can’t come in here!”
“My orders say different!”
“Stand aside,” a gruff voice ordered, “Or you’ll find yourself gracing a cell, courtesy of the Empress.”
“But…”
“The keys!”
The major sat up. His companion went to the warded bars, “Hey, what’s going on?”
The former sergeant smiled, “Major, you’ve been recalled to duty.”
“What?”
“Your orders are to send down supplies to Bastian and bring up as many refugees as you can.”
“Graymantel actually ordered that?”
“Sadly, he’s been relieved. Marshall General Lord Sianhiel made the order with the concurrence of the Highmage.”
“You’re joking? Lord Sianhiel, Marshall General? The Highmage, here? Do you think me a fool?”
“Lord Sianhiel’s bane sword to Graymantel’s throat makes that rather unlikely, Sir.”
“Major,” the gray haired veteran said, keying the door’s warding, which opened with a loud click.