by Guy Antibes
Asem rose and nodded. Unfortunately, he felt more tired than he wanted to. “We will meet in front of this tent at dawn?”
Neel nodded as he picked up his new clothes. “Until then.”
The night chill had just begun to settle in about the camp. Asem shivered while he jammed his hands in his pockets and sought out the tent where warmth of a different kind waited.
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Three
~
Tembul motioned for Trak to move alongside him. The pair sat far above the moving army, except this time, their flyers lay grounded behind them. Rasia, Sirul, and Honor labored to set up their camp at the inaccessible top of the small mountain that overlooked the northern tip of a mountain ridge that intruded on the western edge of Santasia’s great plains.
“They now turn east and we haven’t been able to do anything but observe,” Tembul said. “Do you have any ideas?”
Trak’s decision not to use killing force against the army marching below them had been respected by his companions, but now that the army turned towards the Loyalist forces, he grit his teeth in frustration. He gripped the rock ridge that hid them from the sight of any scouts far below.
He sighed. His friends hadn’t pushed him at all. He wondered if he insisted that they spent the rest of time on the top of the mountain, would they do just as he asked? So far that’s what they had done, but it appeared that the stark reality of soldiers marching to kill others created a deep uncertainty within him.
Trak didn’t accept cowardice as his reluctance to kill. Whenever he had to act, he acted, but Trak feared his questioning mind would restrain his movements and that could cause the death of him.
‘Grasp the nettle.’ Able had taught him that, and Neel heartily agreed. With his problem of inflicting pain and death, the nettle hurt him, in his mind and in his soul. He sighed.
“What was that for?” Tembul asked.
Trak blinked his thoughts away. “I’m trying to come up with ideas. Perhaps it’s time to drop some boulders.”
“That isn’t the entire strategy, is it?” Tembul gazed out at the advancing column. It now began to stretch forward into the plains.
“No. We stage it,” Trak said. As he fought off his fears, Trak’s thoughts had come alive with alternatives. “First, we drop some small rocks to get their attention, and then we kill their officers.”
“But won’t the army just march past us?”
Trak swallowed…hard. He had made his decision, and now he would have to live with it. “Without leadership? Do you think common soldiers will take the initiative if there are no officers to guide them? I don’t.”
Tembul whistled. “What about your desire to save lives?”
“I’ve come to the conclusion that in a war, the decision is often how many lives you save and who they are. What happens if this army turns around and retreats back into Kandanna. Will the Toryans engage them if they don’t attempt to move south across the funnel we made?”
“Oh, I see. They can move forward and die, or retreat and live. Something like that?”
Trak nodded. He felt like a piece of him was already dead and in his past, but he didn’t know what it was. “Exactly like that.” He wiped a tear from an eye. “They will only turn if they truly feel threatened and words won’t do that, will it? The officers who would command the soldiers to die for them will be the ones to pay. We will save the lives of the rank and file. Riotro is treating Kandannan soldiers just like mercenaries. We will just make the cost to continue higher than the cost to retreat. Are those enough ideas?”
Trak wanted Tembul to contradict his claim, but Tembul accepted his logic. Trak sighed again. “We might as well get started now.”
“Are you all right?”
“No, I’m not. This isn’t something that I want to do, but it is something that I have to do,” Trak said. “Honor can move her flyer, and Rasia and Sirul can drop rocks in front of the column. They will mill around for a bit, and then you and I will drop a big one, right on their officers.”
“Without warning?” Tembul said.
“Do you think they have wandered onto the Santasian plains by chance? We don’t need to give them a warning.” Trak pressed his lips together as he backed away from the view and stood straight, walking toward their camp. He thought he walked to his doom and felt a hundred years old.
~
Honor looked disappointed in him. He took her aside to some rocks and sat her down.
“I have thought for days on what I must do. You may call it finally taking responsibility for my actions, but I don’t. I have to make unpleasant choices, either way. Letting the army go means Riotro wins, and if that happens, Santasia will be enslaved. Do you doubt it?”
Honor shook her head. “So what you have decided is that the Kandannans don’t have as much right to live?”
Trak appreciated her stand. He needed to talk his feelings out, since Tembul had just blindly accepted his decision. He wished Neel and Ben were still with him, but his aunt would have to do. “No, they don’t. They have invaded Santasia. They have allied with Riotro. If we kill their officers, who are the ones who have made the alliance, then the rest of them will leave. At least, we give them the chance.”
“You don’t seriously think you can stop six thousand men, do you?”
Trak looked away from his aunt and took a shuddering breath. “I know I can. It would be an unpleasant and maybe even an evil act, but I could pick them off using my sword and pulsed lightning. If we drop rocks on them, they can run out of the way, and that disrupts them, although the officers must die.”
Honor fidgeted with her hands. “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?”
“Are you willing to drop rocks on them?”
She paused for a long while and looked up into the sky, shaking her head. “It’s what we’ve become, isn’t it? The times make soldiers of us all, as repugnant as it is.”
“That’s the way I feel, but I must move forward. I’ve been struggling with this, thinking I just might be a coward, and in a sense, I have been. But that’s not me. I will carry the sorrow of what I do in this stinking war with me for the rest of my life, but I will act.”
“And so will I,” Honor said, her words barely a whisper. “You’ve learned well.”
“Some from you, Auntie,” Trak said, giving her a bit of a smile. He took her hand. “Neel and Ben are fighting with us on another front. Able is captured and in whatever prison they have in Kizru… I only hope he’s being fed well. Valanna, she’s fighting as well, in her own way. I don’t know where that is, but I’m sure Misson has her doing something productive. It’s time for us to do something productive, as well, rather than following behind the Kandannan army like puppies.”
Honor stood up. “Let’s fly.”
“Let’s fly,” Trak repeated, helping Honor to her feet.
~
Trak looked down at the Kandannan army. The morning sun hid the two flyers from the oncoming column. Honor’s flyer was filled with rocks the size of a head, ready to roll off the flyer and down onto the front of the column. Trak rode a large boulder. There were plenty to choose from just below the craggy mountain promontory they used as their base camp. He waved Honor forward.
When she maneuvered the flyer above the column, Sirul and Rasia began to roll destruction down from twenty stories. As soon as the rocks began to fall, Sirul stood and created a shield for the flyer. Trak waved for them to stop.
Spikes of lightning and thin columns of fire spat up from below. Most of them fell short of the flyer but a few harmlessly splashed against Sirul’s shield. The rocks continued to pelt the mounted troops at the head of the army.
When Tembul spotted the most ornately dressed horseman riding back through the line, followed by other officers, he maneuvered his flyer so that it matched the speed of the horsemen. Trak soon followed, flying the huge boulder. He matched their speed and moved a bit past them. Tembul followed close behind.
Trak broke the spell and dove for the wing on Tembul’s flyer. They had used the same technique time and time again in the past weeks sealing off the south pass and making the funnel in the north. Trak created a shield. There were fewer magicians heading back and he leaned over to see the rock shatter amongst the officers. Shards of rock spread twenty-five or more paces in a deadly circle.
He swallowed hard and left to lift the next big rock.
They worked throughout the morning. Towards the end, Honor switched off with Sirul, shielding a single flyer and Trak’s big boulders as they rained havoc on the Kandannans.
Exhausted, they rested in the afternoon. Honor took a flyer out and verified that the army had stopped for the rest of the day.
After night fell, Trak, Honor, and Tembul flew over the army in the dark. This would be an execution, pure and simple, Trak thought. They skimmed over the army who had stretched their camp along the side of the road.
He had seen enough camps to know where the officers had set up their tents. Generally, they were clustered in the middle of the camp so that a sneak attack wouldn’t be able to make it through the rings of soldiers to the commanders. Flyers made that practice obsolete, at least in Trak’s mind.
They floated above the larger tents and open areas. Trak and Tembul looked down at the army while Sirul maintained the flyer’s shields.
“Over there,” Tembul pointed. “Magicians?”
Trak let the flyer drift far above their target. “They are. No armor. The Kandannan magicians seem to favor dark red and black robes.” He readied his sword.
“Make a physical shield, Tembul.”
The Toryan added his shield to Sirul’s. Trak drew his sword and began to pierce the night with thin shards of the sun, pelting down on the magicians and their tents. Trak used the sharp edge of the blade to sight his targets. He lost count at fifteen magicians down or disabled.
“Now the officers.” Trak said. The officers were massing with swords drawn. That tactic might not even survive the night, he thought, as he first used bolts of fire that smashed into the ground, and then shot lightning down at the men who were surrounded by fighters.
“It’s time to go,” Tembul said.
Trak nodded in the dark and moved them back to their camp. All three of them collapsed onto their bedrolls as soon as the flyer set down.
Honor stood above Trak. “Success?”
Trak put his arm over his eyes and laid back. “If by success you mean did we kill lots of Kandannans?” He nodded his head. “We were very successful. We won’t have to worry about a score of magicians and more officers and men-at-arms than that. We will see what transpires tomorrow morning. As for me, I need to sleep.”
Trak woke not much later and lost the contents of his dinner that had tasted just fine before he took off for his nighttime foray. It left a vile taste in his mouth. He lit a magic flame and found a waterskin and took a deep draught only to collapse again on his bedroll. Nightmares filled his dreams for the rest of the night.
When the dawn began to define shapes around him, Trak rose and started a fire. Soon all five of them surrounded the warmth of the blaze and broke their fast before the eastern horizon was tinged with a golden rim.
They took their flyers up in the air. The Kandannan army looked disorganized. Soldiers clustered around campfires while Trak led the other flyer over the magician’s quarters and then over the officers’ tents. All were burned to the ground. Men were laying the bodies out in rows.
“Fifty in the officer’s area,” Sirul yelled over to them.
“More than that are in tents being tended, I would imagine.” Tembul said.
Trak headed back to the magician area to count bodies. The soldiers had yet to order that part of camp. Trak counted at least thirty bodies, and that included the ones that were seen within the outlines of burned tents.
“More rocks,” Trak said. “We need to make them realize they will be punished if they move further east.”
Tembul nodded and looked at Trak with some concern. “You are right about that. Are you up to a parley?”
A nervous stomach brought Trak out of his wind pose. “I need… you mean I should talk to them?”
“Do you want to keep dropping rocks on their heads and killing them with your pulses of lightning?”
Trak thought. “No.”
“Then we parley. We can fly ahead of their column, shielded of course, and meet with them.”
How could he talk to people he had just tried to kill? No, he had just killed?” His stomach flipped, but he took a deep breath. “A parley will save lives?”
“That’s the purpose,” Tembul said.
Trak took the flyer and set it down about one hundred paces from the front of the camped army. He stepped off and Tembul and Honor soon joined him.
“Set your shields,” Trak said, drawing his sword. They slowly walked towards the soldiers.
“What language do you speak?” Tembul said in Toryan. “Toryan? Santasian? Pestlan?”
A man walked up. “I speak Toryan, although I am Kandannan. What do you want?”
Tembul laughed. “To stop killing you, of course. Call your current leaders to a parley. Plant a spear where you stand. We will withdraw to our flyers and wait. Don’t take your time,” Tembul said.
They returned to the flyers and waited for long minutes before three horsemen emerged from a line of soldiers, flanked by a man and a woman on foot, wearing dark red robes. The magicians were obviously ready to pose. They stopped at the planted a spear.
“Now it’s your turn to talk,” Tembul said to Trak.
Trak sputtered, but realized he had to do this.
Tembul and Sirul alternated posing for the shield as they continued forward and stopped ten paces from their enemy.
“I am Trak Bluntwithe of Pestle fighting on behalf of Santasian and Toryan forces. Who are you?”
“Major Garlik, Major Hanlok, Captain Bistak of the Kandannan army. Magician Kenlik and Magician Bukoj of the Kandannan Magician Corps, allied with the Santasian Magicians Guild. We were told you wish to parley?” The man smirked at them.
Trak nodded his head. He exaggerated so the magicians wouldn’t mistake his movement. “We can destroy your army before it reaches the Loyalist forces. It looks like we’ve destroyed a large percentage of your officers and magicians. You can turn around and go back to Kandanna without further loss of life. Your choice,” Trak said. He wiped his sweaty palms on his trousers.
Major Garlik said, “It is nice of you to warn us, but I am committed to continue forward.” The major spit on the ground. “Kill us if you must.”
“You reject our offer?” Trak said.
The man laughed. “Do you not have eyes? Do you not have ears?” He raised his hand and a flight of arrows rose up from the army and bounced off the shields that Tembul and Sirul maintained.
“The parley is over?” Trak said. He had to make sure.
“Of course it is over. Kandanna doesn’t negotiate with children.”
Trak raised his sword. “Now I feel justified to renew our hostilities.” He shot lightning pulses towards the magicians. The lightning sparkled against the magician’s shields, but the force of Trak’s attack knocked the two magicians onto the ground. Since their shields would be gone, he was able to kill the magicians before they could assume new poses, and then dispatched the formerly-shielded officers. He fought off the nausea caused by what he had done. “We will continue this until your army is destroyed!” Trak said to whoever listened. The soldiers eyes betrayed their fear. “Who wants to die next?”
The soldiers who had lined the road to view the parley began to turn and bounce against those behind. Trak began to send pulses overhead and killed the few that ran towards them with weapons raised.
“I don’t hate them. I don’t hate them,” Trak kept repeating as they slowly moved forward.
“I think that is enough. Let’s fly overhead,” Tembul said, breaking the advance on the enemy.
When they were high above the retreating army, Trak shuddered and lost his breakfast over the side. It fell into the mass of soldiers below. His nerves had gotten the best of him.
Trak flew at Tembul’s instruction while the Toryan sent an occasional fire bolt into the retreating army, and Honor did the same from her flyer. His bolts barely made it into the crowds, while Honor’s bolts were much stronger and splashed into groups of men, spreading more chaos.
Honor signaled for them to return to their vantage point.
“I can’t do any more,” she said. “Even with the pulses, I am past my limit.”
Trak felt tired, but he had more magic in him. “We can look at their retreat from our camp,” he said.
They all took waterskins and food with them to look down at an army falling back in disarray.
“I didn’t know you could punch through shields like that,” Honor said.
Trak shook his head. “The shields held, but the force of the bolts knocked them over, so they couldn’t keep their poses. Since they were exposed, I took care of them first…” Trak took a drink of water and shook his head again, “…and then the officers had no protection.”
“That flight of arrows that the officers ordered would have killed any unshielded soldiers. You did the right thing,” Rasia said. “I would be a dead woman if that were a Colcanan parley. Shields would be frowned upon and not used. Makes me happy I’m a living exile, for once.”
She seemed a bit too happy to Trak’s way of thinking, but Rasia had no compunction about taking the life of a deserving victim. Trak realized that he had taken steps to become like her, as much as he hated to admit it. He hadn’t hesitated to kill those in the Kandannan parley, but at least he had made sure his enemy considered the parley over. It made him feel a tiny bit more justified.
“Uh, oh,” Sirul said. He jumped up and babbled in Toryan.
“A large party of riders has left the main force,” Tembul said.
Trak looked out where Sirul pointed below. “I can still do damage,” he said. “Who wants to join me?”
“Let’s go. I’m about at the end of my strength, but if you can get us there, I can manage a shield,” Tembul said.