by Guy Antibes
Moments later, Trak looked down at a force of over one hundred mounted men fleeing from the flyer.
“We can herd them, I think,” Trak said. “I used to herd sheep with village friends when I was younger.” He changed direction and flew past the riders pounding the ground with a few pulses of lightning that prevented them from entering a forested area. “We will stop them here.”
Trak stopped the flyer. “Shield, please.” He lowered the flyer to five stories, and then unsheathed his sword, sending very short pulses of lightning into the riders. His bolts hit men and horses. A number of them went down until, finally, the riders turned back. Trak lowered the flyer and made sure none whom he injured survived with previous injuries.
On he went, harrying the Kandannan cavalry until they returned to the retreating army. Trak took the flyer up to twenty stories and hovered high to observe the withdrawal.
“You can release your shield,” Trak said.
“My power ran out. It’s been gone ever since they headed back.” Tembul sat down on the flyer, cross-legged, and continued to observe the retreat. “Are you going to push them all the way back to Kandanna?”
Trak shook his head. “I don’t have to be here to do that. Sirul and you can keep them honest. They should only need a reminder now and then, and you can manage that, can’t you?”
“I can,” Tembul said. “But I’m supposed to be minding you.”
“What is more important to Torya? Getting that army on the other side of the mountains or watching me head towards Espozia?”
Tembul laughed. “You grow by leaps and bounds, youngling. I will find you in Santasia once the army is gone.”
“We will be leaving tomorrow. Right now, I can barely generate a magician’s light,” Trak said.
They gradually moved behind the army. Stragglers got a reminder that Tembul and Trak followed them. By nightfall, the army couldn’t be seen from their elevated vantage point.
Trak ate more than he intended to, but Honor kept nagging him to eat more. She didn’t seem disappointed to be losing their Toryan companions.
“You’ll see your Valanna again,” she said. Trak knew she attempted to lift his spirits.
“I fell into the river and nearly drowned the last time we were together,” Trak said. “Why would she want to see me?”
Honor looked at Trak with narrowed eyes. “She would like to see you again. I can feel it.”
Trak laughed. “I can’t feel a thing, since you shoveled so much food in me, I’m numb from head to foot, except for my fat stomach, and that aches. I’m going to bed.”
He retreated to his bedroll. Honor was getting too close to his real feelings for Valanna. He knew he was still infatuated with her and didn’t want to talk about it. What could he do anyway? Once he finished up in Espozia, he had to head back to Kizru to rescue Able.
Why did his life have to be so infuriatingly complicated? He had so much to think about, but he’d do that tomorrow on the way east and north to join Senior Dalistro’s army.
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Four
~
“Back over the river?” Sandy said. He sat sideways at Colonel Mirona’s dinner table with his legs crossed and fingers tapping on the map spread before him. “Can’t they make up their minds?”
The Colonel laughed, which surprised Valanna. He rarely did, but she suspected that both men had no problem laughing at each other away from military duties. “While you were gone, I met two very interesting gentlemen. They came in on a flyer.”
“Who came? Why didn’t you let them stay long enough so I could meet them?” She stood and paced while the others talked. Her leg still stiffened up a bit if she didn’t. At least the week they stayed in camp gave time for the leg to heal. She now could stand as long as she wanted, which was good for flying, but sitting down for long periods made her thigh hurt.
“Both foreigners with funny names. Asem, Ahem, something. He said he was a Warishian. His skin was darker than your normal Santasian. Thin with dark hair and dangerous looking. The other’s name was Bow… no Neel.” The Colonel laughed. “Pestlan names. His last name was Cardswallow. Can you believe that?”
The names made Valanna clasp her hands together with excitement. “I know them both. Are they truly gone?”
“Dropped in on us on a flyer, left messages from General Niamo, and took off back over the river. They left me with a single page of orders.” The Colonel raised his arms, and then dropped them in exasperation. “The General didn’t bother to explain his entire battle strategy to me,” Colonel Mirona said. “It’s easy to see that he will need our little army to support his operations. We’ll know more when we cross the river and move our army to this point.” His finger plunged down and touched a hilly area to the west of the Halgo River, a tributary of the Glazia that had cut a wide valley from the south.
“What are we to do?” Valanna said. She felt bad she couldn’t talk to Asem or renew her acquaintance with Trak’s father.
“We are to watch for rebel movements all along the way. Nullia and you will be flyer scouts. This time magicians will accompany you for shield protection.”
“I’m all for that,” Valanna said, rather relieved to have someone else in the flyer with her this time. Nullia would be thrilled. Neither had gone on a flight of any distance since Valanna’s injury.
An officer put his head in the tent. “I am sorry to disturb you, Colonel, but we have a development.”
“What now?” The Colonel wiped his face with his hand.
“A good-sized army approaches from the east.”
He turned back to the officer. ”How large?” He looked down at the map. “East, you say? That’s unexpected!” Mirona’s easy-going manner had abruptly disappeared. “Valanna, take Nullia with you and verify what this man has told me.”
“We’ll get aloft immediately.”
“See that you do,” the Colonel said, showing a face filled with worry.
~
Valanna moved the flyer while Nullia directed her towards the east. There were enough men to stir up enough dust to see the end of this new army.
“That’s far enough,” Nullia said. “We are just above them. I’ll shield us.”
Valanna walked around to the front of the flyer and gazed down at the army, which had stopped to set up camp for the night. She grasped the railing and looked down at the troops.
“What’s that?” she said, while looking at a number of mounted men riding out from the vanguard of the column waving white flags. They looked up at the flyer.
Nullia broke her pose and joined Valanna at the railing. “They want to parley with us? Should we?”
Valanna rubbed her lips together and wondered what to do. She went to her pack and withdrew a white tablecloth that they used during their break on the ground.
“We should,” Valanna said. She took a deep breath and waved the tablecloth. “Let’s hope they honor a parley. We’ll land a few hundred paces away from the army and let the riders come to us.” She withdrew the cloth and patted the long knife strapped to her calf. Nullia and she weren’t exactly defenseless, with or without the knife.
“Set a shield while we descend,” Valanna said.
“It’s already up,” Nullia nodded her head towards Valanna and the flyer began to descend.
Nullia kept the shield pose while the riders with the white flags trotted towards them. Valanna and Nullia stayed on the flyer, ready to move up if attacked.
Valanna felt her palms sweat. Her face flushed with tension as she waved the tablecloth one last time and let it drape over the railing of the flyer.
“That’s far enough,” she said when the riders were close enough to hear her. “What do you wish to say? Colonel Mirona will not surrender.” The Colonel had orders to move across the river in any event and would be about to do so while they were this far east.
“We are not rebels,” one of the men said. None of them looked like magicians, Valanna thought. “The East ha
s no quarrel with the Santasian Council and plenty to worry about with Master Riotro of the Magicians Guild. We have information concerning his collusion with the Norland government.”
“Why haven’t we heard of this?” Nullia said to the man.
“One of Misson Dalistro’s spies escaped from Norland and brought us this information a few weeks ago. Rather than send a messenger, we decided to muster an army. Most of our men are former army.”
“How many?” Valanna said.
“More than three thousand. We scoured Northeast Santasia for fighting men.”
That would make the combined army five thousand strong… no longer the Colonel’s ’little army’.
“Do any of you know Colonel Mirona? He commands the army some leagues ahead of you.”
One of the men moved his horse a step forward. “I know him well.”
“Then come with us,” Valanna said. She felt increasing the army’s size well worth the risk.
The officer dismounted and walked across to the flyer. “You want me to go up there?” he pointed upwards, “In that?”
“We can visit the Colonel in less than two hours, or do you want to spend a hard day in the saddle?” Nullia said. “She’s Valanna Almond, and you can call me Nullia.”
“Captain Liasta, at your service.” He gave them an uncertain grin and saluted. “I’ll tell Major Hustria what you intend to do and get my things.” The Captain ran back to his horse and talked with the Major for a moment and rushed back. “We should go and return before the army breaks camp tomorrow. Can that happen?”
Valanna pursed her lips. “We will make it happen. Do you have any magicians in your army?”
Liasta shook his head. “We wouldn’t let them come. The Major doesn’t trust them. He left them behind with instructions to protect the East.”
“Do you trust magicians?” Valanna said as the Captain tied his bags to one of the railing posts.
He colored. “I guess I’ll have to, won’t I?”
Nullia nodded. “Are there enough good magicians to keep the bad from taking over while your army is gone?”
“Don’t worry. Any rebel magician has long since left eastern Santasia.”
With that, Valanna performed the lift pose, and they were headed west towards the Colonel’s forces with, hopefully, very good news.
The Captain gasped. “It is amazing. The view. It’s like being on a mountaintop.”
“Better,” Nullia said, smiling. “Tell us about yourself, Captain.”
He chuckled, more to himself than to the women. “I’m a carpenter. Family trade. I served in the Santasian guard when a young man and rose to Lieutenant before my father finally succeeded in getting me back into the family business. The Ozitzan Rebellion, which is what we call it, appalled most of us in the East. We all began to train to defend ourselves from the rebels, but no one came.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“We found much the same kind of thing while we traveled north from Mozira along the Eastern edge of the plains. The Loyalists knew about the Kandannans and found more resistance in the west,” Nullia said.
“You didn’t fight anyone?”
Valanna said, “She didn’t say that. We fought in one major action and skirmishes along the way, but nothing seems to have happened along the eastern coast.”
Liasta nodded. “When the spy came, we couldn’t sit and wait. There is no way for the Norlanders to invade us from the sea or from the mountains that ring Santasia in the north, so we decided to offer ourselves to the Loyalist cause. As we said, we are mostly retired army. Most of the officers share a story similar to mine.”
“Can you fight?” Nullia said.
“We can indeed, but don’t count us as bloodthirsty. We fight for freedom. According to the spy, Riotro’s plans are to use Santasia as a slave state to share between Kandanna and Norland. He intends for Santasia to feed both nations and run the country, establishing rule by magicians.”
Valanna furrowed her brow. “Can’t Norland and Kandanna just buy whatever they need from you?”
“Why buy when you can take? That’s how they think. Riotro’s got them convinced to help him absorb the country to use as he will.”
Nullia nodded. “I can see him doing that.”
Liasta’s eyebrows rose. “You know him?”
She smiled grimly. “I am a Purple in the Espozian Magicians Guild. I’ve known Riotro for years. He has always pursued his own agenda. I suppose the Guild is too small for an ego his size.”
“That’s about what I heard,” Liasta laughed. “What are your stories?”
They spent the rest of the trip talking about their war experiences. Valanna thrilled Liasta with her Warish spy stories and her encounter with Prince Nez. She found that she could set aside the past well enough by talking it out now that she had so many more experiences in her memories.
~
“Lieutenant Liasta!” Colonel Mirona said as he walked up to the group of people surrounding Valanna’s flyer. “Why are you here?”
“He is in the army that your scouts found,” Valanna said. “They are allies, not foes.”
The Colonel grinned. “Now we have something to work with. Come in my tent.” The Colonel looked around at the bustle of an army moving out. “Valanna Almond told you that we were on the move?”
“No,” Liasta said. He looked a little confused.
“Good for you, Valanna,” the Colonel said. He turned back to Liasta. “We are heading into battle with the main forces on the other side of the Glazia. If you agree to join us, we will split your army. We will leave half on this side, taking our place as a stopper to keep rebel forces from infiltrating the East, and the rest of you will join my little army and head for what is probably a decisive set of battles. Come, I’ll show you. Your timing was excellent, we were just about to break down my tent. The army is just starting to cross the Glazia.”
Back in the tent, Valanna observed the Colonel move little pieces of wood on the map and instruct Captain Liasta on his strategy.
“I leave it to your commander to split the forces. You’ve a battlefield promotion to Captain, then?”
Liasta smiled, sheepishly. “I do.”
“Keep it. I need officers. You will join my staff as a liaison with your commander and the forces that will stay on this side of the river. We won’t wait for them, but I expect them to travel more quickly if they are in two units.”
“Yes, sir,” Liasta said.
“Return to the Far Eastern army, I call it that because I’ve been fashioning us as the Eastern army, and give them their orders. They can camp here until you hear otherwise. I expect action within the next two weeks. Is that sufficient?”
“It is, sir.” Liasta saluted.
“Valanna will take you back to your army. Dismissed.”
She followed the Captain out of the tent and returned to her flyer. Nullia waited with a small crate. “Something for us to eat on the way,” she said.
The day was ending and Liasta commented on how amazing the lengthening shadows looked fifty or sixty paces above the ground.
They reached the Far Eastern army just after dusk. Liasta presented written orders from the Colonel to his commander.
“There is a better place to cross the Glazia than where the Colonel’s camped,” the commander said. “Our split force will use that and meet up with the Eastern army directly from the east. I will command the rest of the army and will take over his camp and await further instructions.” The man sighed. “Finally to fight in a war after all of these years. I look forward to it.”
“Be careful of what you wish for,” Valanna said. “War isn’t a nice thing.”
“You’re right, of course. But I fight for a cause, and that softens the horrors of war.”
Valanna didn’t agree with him, but kept her thoughts to herself. If the horrors of war were the price of freedom, then she would live with it, but she hadn’t seen any soft edges yet.
~~~
Chapter Twe
nty-Five
~
Rasia spotted the army, much larger than the Kandannan force, on the horizon. The men moved slowly, like a great herd of cattle. Trak flew over their heads, and the soldiers waved to them.
“No novelty,” Honor said. “That means they are used to flyers, and since they aren’t attacking us, that means friendly flyers. Hopefully Ben and Neel are waiting for us.” Honor waved back down to the troops.
“That huge wagon towards the front,” Rasia pointed with her finger, “Perhaps General Niamo rides in front of that.”
Trak shrugged his shoulders, although he was positioned facing the back as he usually was, pushing the wind out from his hands, propelling the flyer. “Lead me on,” he said. He looked down at the soldiers. Their gestures seemed like waves coming up and going down behind them as they proceeded.
Take us down, here,” Honor said. “They are making room for us.”
As the flyer settled down, Trak recognized Garono Dalistro.
“Senior Dalistro, it’s is good to see you after so long. Is Misson around?” Trak didn’t see Valanna anywhere near, but he wasn’t going to ask after her to the leader of the Loyalists.
“He is far ahead. His delicate condition finds the dust of travel abhorrent.”
Trak picked up on Garono’s wry humor.
“We have good news.”
“This is Trak Bluntwithe?” a large man in a fancy uniform asked.
“Trak, this is General Adolphus Niamo, and he would be pleased to hear your news.” Garono’s eyes twinkled just a bit.
“Well?” Niamo said. Trak saw no humor in the man’s face.
“We have turned back a Kandannan force of five thousand or so.”
“Neel told us they were coming. When do they arrive?”
Trak shook his head. “You don’t understand. They aren’t coming at all. We destroyed most of their magicians and officers, throwing rocks from our flyers, as well as lightning bolts. We asked them for a parley, but the remaining officers broke the truce and we destroyed them.”
“You destroyed them?” Garono said. He clearly didn’t believe Trak.