The Storm's Own Son (Book 3)

by Anthony Gillis

  Then Kurvan made a grim, dark smile, and growled in a harsh way that reminded Talaos that, friend though he was, the warlord also made a terrible enemy.

  Kurvan went on, "We stopped 'em all right! Had to crack a lot of heads to do it. When those were dead, we sent the rest north. They were singing prayers for your death. The people left in Ipesca are definitely on our side."

  Talaos saluted him with a fierce smile of his own. "Well done. One city and one town clear, now only thirteen cities and a hundred towns to go."

  "You're a ray of sunshine, Talaos!" growled Kurvan. Then his eyes turned to Talaos's new companions. He scratched his craggy chin.

  "Kurvan, this is General Auretius, who was a commander in the army of the Republic during the war with Dirion."

  "Dirion!" answered Kurvan, eyeing Auretius's armor and white hair. "I was a boy when you were fighting that war. Thank you for getting those bastards' boots off our necks. Guess it didn't help 'em that pretty much every city, town, and clan in Hunyos refused to send our armies to join theirs. Dirion pulled so many of their own men away to fight you, they didn't have enough to stop us when we started killing their tribute collectors."

  Auretius nodded. Kurvan gave him a solemn salute, then turned to eye the three armed beauties on their horses. He made a low, quiet whistling sound, then looked curiously at Talaos. "Talaos, now you've got madwomen to join your Madmen?"

  Miriana shouted back in a sprightly voice, "We're his wives!"

  Kurvan burst out in a huge, growling laugh.

  Talaos was caught by surprise by Miriana’s words. The thoughts they conjured up were anything but domestic, and he suppressed a very wicked grin. Sorya flashed a sudden surprised glare at Miriana, then recovered and managed a smirking lopsided smile. Katara gave no reaction except a slight, thoughtful nod of her head.

  The men elsewhere were moving into place, and now things would require his direct attention. Talaos raised his right hand, and all around silenced. "Officers and standard bearers of Avrosa and the allied army, form up to depart! Bearers of the maces, The Three, Madmen, to me!"

  As the Madmen scrambled to join him, he noticed happily that the girls he'd sent to Imvan gave the beaming young hillman patriotic kisses before departing. He smiled, rode forward and took his place in the growing line. At the front were the Wolves, then the Madmen. Firio sat backwards on his special saddle behind Larogwan, and gave Talaos a merry grin. Talaos himself was next, flanked by the mace bearers. Behind him were Sorya, Katara, and Miriana, then the commanders and the standard bearers. After them rode a large body of aides, messengers, and musicians with trumpets and drums.

  Talaos raised his right hand again, then motioned them all forward.

  They rode out of the gates as crowds cheered them from the city and to the vast body of soldiers assembled on the plains beyond. All around, soldiers were packing up tents and supplies. Porters from among the prisoners helped load pack horses, then hoisted loads on their own backs. Scouts already rode ahead. As they went forward, commanders and messengers rode out to units, and others joined his command group.

  The vanguard of cavalry under Adriko, three thousand strong, began to ride. Talaos and the command group rode behind them and past the waiting troops. Hadrastus and his five hundred shock troops then took their place behind the command group. Next, the lead elements of heavy infantry under Lurios filed into place. They marched in good order with uniforms and round shields in the colors of many cities and towns.

  They rode on, north up the road, as the rest of the army completed preparations to join them. Behind the main body would be the baggage train, and then a rearguard of three thousand more cavalry. Swarms of hillmen and irregulars walked in scattered groups on either side, with the larger part of them inland, on the left under Kurvan.

  As they advanced, a storm gradually gathered ahead of them. It rolled slowly north on an upper wind. Sorya and Katara looked up at that storm with surprise. Miriana beamed. Soldiers throughout the army watched those clouds with awe, but without surprise, for they knew their commander.

  Talaos himself felt a moment of grim, harsh, vengeful pride. He smiled, with eyes blazing bright blue-white, and hints of power crackling around him. The Prophet had sent three sorcerers and six warriors to kill him with a mob of thugs at their back. Now, here he was with nearly forty thousand, the largest army fielded in the Westlands in forty years, marching to war against the Prophet.

  Hunyos, all of it, was before him, and he would sweep it from south to north.

  ~

  The vast camp sprawled out across the plain under the fading light. Behind them to the south stretched the line of hills, and before them the road ran north to the crossroads, with its routes to Teroia and Aledri. Irregulars patrolled the perimeter on watch, while beyond it numerous random camps of hillmen made any quiet approach unlikely. At its center the camp was organized like a town, with rows of tents like houses. Tescani had suggested the idea of using the stakes from around Avrosa to make a palisade perimeter. Talaos had approved the idea. They'd supplemented the stakes with a shallow ditch, and so their town was a fortified one.

  In the very center, the black, purple, and gold allied command tent sat surrounded by standards and banners. In front of it spread a cleared square. Smaller personal tents for individual commanders stood elsewhere around the square. Talaos had raised his personal tent in a spot directly opposite the command tent, near his close companions like the Madmen and The Three.

  However, he now stood in front of the command tent itself, facing a group of chosen volunteers. He’d organized them into teams of three. Each consisted of an Avrosan civilian as his personal representative, and two representatives of the allied army. One military representative in each trio was from a city or town in the alliance of Teroia, the other from the alliance of Idrona and Kyras. All of them watched as he spoke.

  "Some of you can expect friendly welcomes in your home cities, and others likely not. Presenting such a broad, united front will show the honesty of our position, and that may sway some. Even so, you are taking a great risk, particularly those of you whose cities are now in turmoil. Anyone who wishes to leave may now do so. All who remain will make oath."

  None of them left.

  Talaos administered the oath, leading them with words in the old form. "I swear on the honor of my soul to spread word of the liberation of Hunyos, and to call upon those for whom I bear message to cast away the faith of the Living Prophet and expel all who follow it. I am prepared to die in this task."

  All present, more than three hundred of them, made the vow with him.

  Then Talaos presented each of them with a copy of a message he'd had drafted. The messages each opened with a general call to throw off the faith of the Prophet, a series of arguments against what the Prophet's followers were doing in Hunyos and a suggestion to administer and enforce an oath of loyalty in the form he'd used in Avrosa.

  The latter part of each message was tailored to its target city or town, discussed known specifics of its situation, and depending on what those were, gave promises or warnings. If the first part of the messages was a velvet glove of appeal and reason, the latter was an iron fist of force, and to free those places already in the grip of the Prophet, he was prepared to use both.

  Once all were handed out, he walked among them and gave each the military handshake. As he took each messenger's hand, he put forth a bit of power, and that messenger showed the slightest flash of light in his or her eyes. While each was small, the cost to him in total was great. However, his power replenished far faster now, and he bore it lightly. When it was done, he returned to the front of the tent and concluded, "Now, each of you will need neither sleep nor rest for the next several days. You will go on foot in your trios, by whatever route is expedient, but different trios will not travel together. Now, be ready."

  They saluted him, and he returned it. He raised his right hand, and then motioned for them to go. They filtered out of the square in various d
irections, one trio at a time. Talaos returned to the command tent and readied to discuss plans with the senior leaders for some hours. After that, he planned to return to his tent for a time and use his sight.

  ~

  The hour was late. Talaos sat alone in his tent on a small folding chair. He had a narrow folding cot bed, much as Sanctari had used, a chest for papers and other small items relating to command duties, and a rug for a floor.

  He sat quietly and focused his mind. It was more difficult tonight, as he had a great many concerns. Still, he continued seeking clarity. He could see, sense, his tent around him, then his Wolf Adrus, on guard outside. Through inner sight, the man’s wolfish air seemed more pronounced. His short black hair and stubble framed high cheekbones, a strong nose, and piercing, alert eyes that gleamed in the torchlight as he stalked the perimeter.

  The darkness of night affected Talaos’s inner sight less than it did his outer, and after a time, he began to perceive the wider camp. Then he swept his gaze in a circle. To the south, toward Avrosa and Ipesca, was greater clarity, but to the north the mist, the shadow of the opposing will, had grown denser. He wondered at the sheer power of the Prophet, who could shroud vast regions of the world around him, and at how far the Prophet's own sight must reach.

  He considered that, whatever the Prophet could see, it still must have limits. Otherwise, he, Talaos, would be long dead. With such extraneous thoughts, his focus of mind weakened, and he returned to things closer at hand. Miriana’s circle of clarity had grown with each passing day, and within its reach, sight was easier. Something was odd though. It seemed to be shifting, moving. No, he thought, Miriana was moving.

  She was moving his way, and would soon be at his tent.

  With that, his focus failed, and his inner sight ended. He looked around him. There was a shadow, quietly creeping just outside the back wall of his tent. He smirked and made quietly for the spot, prepared to pull up the side of the tent and pounce. Outside, he heard a playful whisper.

  "Nice try!" Miriana teased, "But I see you… in my mind, and I… Aiiieee!"

  There was quick motion outside as Miriana was scooped up by someone much larger and stronger. Talaos rushed to the tent wall, pulled up a section of it, and looked outside. There, his quick-thinking guard, perhaps not as easy to see with inner sight as Talaos, held her like a rabbit. She was unsuccessfully trying to escape. Adrus looked at Talaos, humor sparkling in his eyes, and waited for instructions.

  "Send her in," he smiled.

  Adrus brought Miriana around to the front and none too ceremoniously dropped her to the rug inside the entrance. Then he saluted Talaos with a grin and returned to his post.

  Miriana looked up at him from her position sprawled on her back. She had on put her skirt and top of the Western Isles, and had tightened up the long braids of her hair which now splayed all about. Her white cloth top had gone loose, half baring a breast. She was propped up on one side by an elbow, and her legs bent up at the knee, spread wide.

  Talaos sat in his chair and laughed. "You might want to leave the stealth to Sorya."

  She arched her eyebrows, propped up another elbow with her chest perking upward, then replied, "I saw you coming, and that was my goal."

  "How is it," he smiled, "that you can be the woman and prophetess testing her power against the Living Prophet himself, and yet the girl sprawled on the carpet before me?"

  "Being very young, as everyone reminds me, helps," she replied innocently. "But are you so different? How are you the master of the storm with lightning in his eyes, the commander of this huge army, and yet the sarcastic man who enjoys teasing everyone?"

  "You could always find some nice, polite, normal merchant," he replied with a smirk.

  "All right, I don't want normal, and I might like the teasing," she laughed, gazing into his eyes and absently pulling her skirt higher up her smooth, fair legs. "But, I'm not a girl, am I?"

  "No. Thanks to me," he answered, arching an eyebrow.

  "Thanks to you, I've been thinking of that night ever since… and whenever I could, hiding away at night to think of it in private, sometimes till my fingers got tired," she added, turning over onto her stomach and peering up at him with her big eyes. Her skirt was pulled up high enough to leave the end of her bare, pert cupped bottom peeking out. She spread her fair prone legs wide apart.

  "Are you doing that on purpose?" Talaos said with a smirk and raised eyebrow.

  "No!" she replied with a pout. "Well, maybe a little. I have really missed you."

  "Miriana, come to me," he said in an offhanded tone, sitting comfortably.

  She squirmed forward out of her skirt and propped herself up on all fours. The hair in one of her braids came partially loose and fell half over one of her eyes. She peered up at him and crawled forward the short distance to his chair. Then she kneeled back, sitting on folded legs and nude below the band at her breasts.

  He put a hand to her cheek, and she thrilled to the touch.

  "Still no fear," he smiled.

  "No, not with you," she answered, eyes adoring. Her voice became a bit deeper and more womanly, "Or what I really mean is, I master my fear with you. You are danger itself, but you're my protector."

  Talaos untied the knot that held her top in place, and it fell from her chest. She shivered with expectation, and her full, high, firm breasts heaved above her small waist. Her pink nipples were hard, and as she leaned forward, they almost touched him.

  "And here you are, naked before me," he smiled.

  "Naked before you, and before the lightning in your eyes!" she said, watching them with fascination. "I don't understand why so many people are afraid to look at them. I could stare into them forever."

  He raised her chin, and her lips quivered. He leaned forward and kissed them.

  Then, like a sudden fire blazing into light, she threw her arms around him and kissed him, over and over, lips roaming his mouth, then his neck and back again. He gripped his fingers in her hair, tilted her head to the side and kissed, then bit her neck. She gasped.

  He stood up, feet planted on either side of her knees, with his body immediately before her. He pulled his tunic up and off. He felt her hands at his hips. She pulled his undergarments off, slipping them to the floor. He looked down.

  Miriana was staring at his erect hardness, fascinated as if seeing one up close for the first time, which he realized, she was. He smiled down at her.

  "I was never this close, never like this, when you made me a woman," she said, as she reached to touch him gently with her fingers.

  He thrilled. She gently, tentatively, kissed the end of it and peered up at him from under her long lashes and through wild, loose strands of hair. He ran his fingers along her cheek. She experimentally ran her tongue along his shaft. He moaned. She beamed proudly and slipped her mouth around the end. He took her gently by her hair and pressed himself deeper in her mouth. She gasped in surprise, then relaxed, taking him deep.

  Talaos began to thrust in her mouth, slowly and gently at first. He looked down into her luminous eyes, and she gazed up into his as they blazed with lightning. A hint of mischief appeared in her eyes, and she twirled her tongue around him. He laughed and released in her mouth. She reacted with a start, but didn't pull away as she swallowed. Then she smiled. He pulled out, and she licked her pouting lips with a kind of triumphant smile.

  Then he gently pushed her back, onto the carpet. She beamed at him, radiant with joy and expectation. She ran her hands wildly over his body as he spread her legs apart. She kissed his chest and neck with eager, intense desire.

  He gripped her hard in his arms, kissing her ear, neck, shoulder, and nipple, then biting his way back up them. He felt her skin prickle as she moaned, then screamed with delight. She met his eyes again, and he could see the luminous power in hers.

  With a teasing smile on his lips, he slipped two fingers inside her.

  "Oh!" She gasped as he curled and thrust in her with his fingers, hard and fast.
She screamed and released. He felt the juices flow over his hand.

  Then he pushed her legs back and up, resting on his shoulders. She looked surprised for a moment, but immensely pleased. He thrust himself inside her, hard and pounding deep. He held her petite body tight with one hand while bringing the other between her legs, playing with her as he thrust wildly inside.

  Moaning and gasping, she released again.

  Talaos thrilled with the raw power and pleasure of the moment. There she was, this beautiful young woman beneath him, fair and delicate. Yet not so delicate, for he could sense her own power, the radiant clarity, like light, that shone from her, growing ever stronger. Miriana, woman and prophetess. So unlike him, yet his kindred soul. His lover. His love. His.

  He unleashed inside her, and she screamed, releasing with him.

  Then, without pause, he turned her over; her smooth, fair little body on all fours again. He kneeled behind her and thrust furiously as she screamed in ecstasy, releasing once more. Roaring with primal, furious lust, he unleashed in her again as she screamed and joined him.

  Talaos pushed Miriana to her stomach with her legs spread wide. He thrust deep inside her, pressing her beautiful, curved hips hard to the carpet, and the hard ground beneath. He pumped and thrust and pounded her as she released, over and over. She made small panting gasps. He took her furiously with bright-burning eyes, unleashing in her again and again.

  Then at last, he paused, and kissed her neck as she lay there panting.

  He turned her back over.

  As he did so, he sensed something.

  She smiled, eyes otherworldly and piercingly intense. A visible light shone in them.