by Eric Lewis
By the barest of margins the wagon rumbled through the gate and the timbers scraped against the back wheels as it squeezed past. Not being suicidal, the sentries didn’t dare try blocking the path of the stampeding beasts.
“We’re out!” said the carter. “We made it!”
The other man craned his neck back overtop the shifting mountain of loot. “Uh,” he said, “not quite.” Before the gates closed entirely they slowly reversed and opened again, and a pair of riders came surging out. The man tore off the heavy tunic with the gold braid and whipped it back and forth over his head. “Hey! Hey, help! Now!” He seemed to be shouting at no one, and the wagon plunged on. Just as the horsemen caught up with the fleeing thieves and drew long swords to hack at their necks, the woods came alive.
* * *
They were just blurs among the foliage, nothing anyone would notice while atop a charging warhorse. One rider pitched backward as though he’d hit some invisible wire. It was as much shock that felled him from his saddle as the arrow buried in his ribcage. The horse pressed on oblivious while he tumbled down with a shriek.
Another arrow aimed for the second rider but grazed the horse instead. It bucked and threw him, but he rolled then scrambled to his feet while the wagon gained distance. He dashed behind a tree on the side of the road. From his vantage point he watched the other rider moaning and bleeding profusely. “Help,” the other rider tried to cry, sending blood gurgling up into the air. “He—”
“Sorry friend,” whispered the other, “ain’t goin’ out there.” There was a rustle in the woods across the way and a grim young brute shambled out holding a strung bow. He was dirty, shaggy and clad in a tunic that could’ve been green or gray or brown depending on the light. He crept over to the dying man, knelt, pulled out a long knife and hesitated a bit before opening his throat. Engwara’s agents were right in their own backyard. The surviving rider backed away, careful to keep the wide oak between him and this preternatural killer.
He bumped into something. He jumped, spun around and gasped.
“Good day,” Ulnoth said politely, then bashed the man across the nose.
The man staggered back then swung his sword in a wide arc. But the growth was old and gnarled, and the tip of the blade bounced harmlessly off a low-hanging branch. Panicking, he dropped his weapon, turned and fled deep into the woods.
Ulnoth trudged up the steep hill, almost bored with the affair. At least you can eat fish in a barrel after you spear ’em, he thought. Is it just me or do they get dumber every time I meet one? Perhaps it was just his bloodlust was waning. A terrible thing to consider, for what else would he do if that were so?
The fool was nowhere to be seen. “Holed up and hid, eh? Smart choice,” he said quietly. “Hmm….” He scanned the hillside. The growth was sparser here; he couldn’t have gone far. To his left a broken twig gave a hint to his quarry’s direction. Ulnoth followed it and found a stand of broad trees in front of him. No sound came from any of them but…his eyes shot to a tiny movement. Ulnoth smiled.
A shadow, quivering. His victim was well-hid but the angle of the sinking sun marked his shadow lancing out from behind the tree. There. Ulnoth wasn’t bored anymore.
Later the search party would find the rider, arms and legs broken, but shockingly still alive. His chest had been laid bare, and into it was carved a crude sketch. Ants and various woodland critters had nibbled away at the flesh but one could still discern the outline of a great crested bird in flight. A heron, it sort of looked like.
* * *
Nandine sat on the ground under a rocky outcropping, hugging her knees and biting her lip to stop its trembling.
“What’s wrong?” Alessia asked. “Didn’t it work?”
Nan looked up at her, red-eyed. “Oh, it worked. It worked. Just in time. You couldn’t have made the poison stronger? My tits are still swollen.”
“I guess I could’ve put more in. But it’s a tricky thing, understand. Too much and it could even be fatal—”
Nan tossed her hands up. “Oh, well then! Stupid me, can’t have that.”
Alessia knelt next to the girl. Nan flinched away at her touch. “What happened exactly?”
“Nothing. The stuff just took a while to work, that’s all.”
Alessia swallowed the lump in her throat. “It’s not an exact science out here in the wilds – I had to do some guessing. You didn’t have to…?”
“No. It was close though. It was…ugh. Those hands all over me, in me. It was horrible. Don’t ask me to do anything like that again. I’ll fight ’em. I’ll fight ’em all face to face and go down swinging. But not that, ever again.”
“I’m sorry.” It sounded ludicrous like the nothing it was, but Alessia couldn’t imagine what else to say.
Nan wiped a tear away. “No, I am. I volunteered. It just kind of hit me all at once. We did it though, didn’t we?”
“You did.”
“You should’ve seen us – it was brilliant.” She smiled now. “Right out from under their fat ugly noses.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Alessia. “I’m sure you’re as sick of cod as I am.”
“And I’m sick of these clothes. Burn ’em – I can still smell his stink on me.”
A rumbling interrupted her ruminations and the wagon clattered across the forest floor toward their latest campsite. “Idiots. That racket’s sure to give us away! You could hear it in Thoriglyn.”
Corren ignored this. “Hey doctor, next batch of puke powder you mix up you think could actually make it, you know, work? We barely got away!”
“Don’t call me doctor,” Alessia fumed. “You know how hard it was to scrape together those ingredients? Look around – this isn’t exactly the university apothecary.”
Corren hitched the horse team to a tree and rescued a wobbling crate from the top of the wagon. “Oh no, you can’t fool me. I saw you mix up that witch’s brew. You only used half of what you had. You held back.”
Alessia’s face went beet red. “Fine! Have Ulnoth make it next time. You can poison the whole damn world. I told you I won’t kill if I don’t—”
“You almost got us killed! I suggest you decide which side you’re on, sister.” He paused to glance at Nan. “So what’s wrong with her?”
Shaking with frustration, Alessia was saved from her lack of a retort when Ulnoth also came trundling into the camp with Dannek in tow, making almost as much noise as the wagon. “Whoop! How was that for a rush? And lookit that haul! We’ll eat for weeks and then some. Proper eats this time.”
“Glad you had such fun,” Corren said. “Am I the only one takes this seriously? I’ve seen deserters crucified. It’s not pretty, and I doubt they’d be half so kind if they catch us.” He looked at Dannek, whose face was turned roughly the same color as his tunic. “You all right?”
“Oh, he’s fine,” Ulnoth said, clapping a hand on the lad’s back and sending him stumbling forward a pace. “First kill’s all. Scary with that bow, too. My shot went wide and it came down to knife work. Not that I’m complainin’ mind you—”
“All right,” said Alessia, “enough. I’m getting a headache.”
“Their search party ran right by us,” said Crander. “Won’t take ’em long to figure out we gave ’em the slip, come back here and start beating the bushes.”
“Meaning we keep moving, as usual. Any ideas for a destination?”
Ulnoth had one.
Chapter Fifteen
Gifts and Purchases
When Taurix arrived outside Carsolan with a thousand men at his back, it caused a bit of trepidation. Riots broke out, and a number of ships were set alight when they refused escape passage to the wrong people. Morning saw more than the usual number of bodies floating in the harbor.
“Let them panic,” said Engwara when told of the unrest. “The more dramatic when he turns and pledges
to me. You’re certain that is his true intention, yes?”
“Oh, yes,” replied Vinian. “I had his courier to Thoriglyn intercepted. The message within his gilded box was…unsubtle in its meaning, to put it mildly.”
“Good. If those doors open and he tries to murder me I’ll be rather upset. To put it mildly.”
The doors in question were tiny one-man gates built into the greater gates to the city. When they did open Vinian followed Engwara through, one pace behind and protected on all sides by Ludolphus and his hand-picked bodyguards. She spared a moment to look upward, and all along the battlements townspeople pressed in to watch. Word of the meeting spread like wildfire and even the city garrison couldn’t hold back that deluge.
Probably expecting to see their queen gutted, she thought. They very well might if there really is a double-cross in the works.
Engwara led her ring of protectors out from the walls. Before them a vast sea of gray and brown and frowning men stretched away in both directions. Directly ahead, impossible to miss, loomed Taurix, standing still as a statue.
After the small gate clanged shut behind them there was complete silence but for the crunching of ground underfoot, a light breeze off the harbor, the queen’s slow breath. Closer, closer. At a distance somehow unconsciously agreed upon by the principals of both sides, they halted. Taurix took a few paces forward and Vinian felt the tension spike. Here was the architect of all their ills, and perhaps their only salvation.
He pulled off his helm. “So,” he said, “here we are.”
Engwara’s mouth twitched, whether in irritation or amusement Vinian couldn’t be sure. “Is that what you planned for your first words to me?”
“Honestly, I expected to get shot down by some cocksucker up on them walls before I got the chance. So I didn’t really think on it too deeply.”
In spite of the gravity of the moment Engwara laughed, and the sound echoed off the walls to the consternation of the spectators. “So sorry to disappoint you, my lord.”
“Oh I’ve had a lot of disappointment lately, as you well know. Used to it.”
“I’d say it’s time to redress that. Our deputations have worked out the details, I believe? There’s only one thing left.”
Taurix eyed her a moment longer, perhaps wondering if it was too late to change his mind.
“Join with me,” the queen said, “and help me put an end to this supreme stupidity once and for all. You know we can do it. You know it’s the right choice.”
“Choice? You gave me none. But that’s past. Pharamund. I wanna hear it from your royal lips. He’s mine?”
She nodded. “All yours. And the Marches besides.”
“Well then.” He drew his sword. Ludolphus’s men closed tighter around Engwara but held their peace otherwise. Taurix chuckled. “Touchy lot.” He bent to one knee, grimacing as his joint flared. And like a pebble dropped into a calm pool the great mass of his men did the same in a wave expanding outward. Vinian looked on with probing suspicion, watching for reluctant troublemakers who didn’t follow quickly enough. Taurix offered up the blade to Engwara. “All that’s mine is yours to command. Let gods and men witness, from now until death I serve Your Majesty in all things.”
Pretty words, Vinian thought. Certain he spoke the same before Pharamund. She watched Engwara take the heavy gray weapon in one hand. In a slight departure from custom, she turned toward the walls and hoisted it aloft. The cheering nearly swept the party off its feet. Is that support they’re proclaiming, or just relief? When it began to die down Engwara turned back and extended the sword to Taurix once again. He rested his huge craggy hand atop hers over the hilt, and it was done.
“Nice touch,” he said under his breath. He rose at his new lady’s beckoning and sheathed the blade.
“The people demand spectacle, after all. And now may I present the mother of this union,” she turned to indicate Vinian, “my spymistress.”
Vinian made a sarcastic mockery of a curtsy. “Pleasure to meet you again, my lord. Sorry about your sentry.”
Taurix grunted. “You. I can see why you like to work in the night. If I’d known you were so pretty I’d have tried to kiss you instead of kill you.”
“Your sword’s keener than your wit, Taurix.”
“My! But the women of this country are uppity, aren’t they?”
“And,” Engwara continued, “I’m sure you know General—”
“Ludolphus.” He rolled the name over his tongue, savoring it. “Luuudolllphusss. Aye, by reputation.” He stepped closer, and the two elderly men stared each other up and down like two graveyard dogs. “Led me on a merry fucking chase, you did.”
Ludolphus visibly gnashed his teeth. “It was no trouble – I needed the exercise. Delighted to make your acquaintance at last.”
“Indeed. Your Gr— I mean, Your Majesty, in our negotiations I made mention of one small indulgence…?”
Engwara sighed, nodded once. Without warning Taurix sent a right hook square across Ludolphus’s jaw. The stunned general stumbled back into the arms of two bodyguards behind, and the rest moved to tackle Taurix.
“Stop!” Engwara shouted. Angry rumbles erupted from the wall. “Hold! All of you, hold. I’m sorry, general, he wouldn’t submit until I agreed to give him one blow at you. I thought it best to keep it a surprise.”
After regaining his balance Ludolphus spat blood into the ground and nodded. “A wise choice, Majesty. But certainly you’ll grant me the chance to return it.”
Taurix grinned. “You’re welcome to try. Anytime.”
“That I leave between the two of you,” Engwara said quickly. “But later. For now, come, my new Lord Taurix – show me what I’ve bought today.”
* * *
“That was fun,” said Vinian as they emerged from the stuffy conference chamber.
“Don’t be snide. Taurix has brought some good ideas with him. We’re just lucky Pharamund didn’t put them to use first.” Engwara snapped her fingers and her body servant appeared and began to work at the knots in the queen’s neck.
“Oh, yes. Burn all the ports, put bounties on every man wearing red, disembowel the nobility…actually I sort of like that last one. But mostly it’s as I said before – there won’t be anything left to win.”
“Ludolphus didn’t seem to have any complaints,” Engwara said.
“He hasn’t said anything all day. He’s just pouting. Was that smart, embarrassing him in public like that?”
“High politics, my dear. It’s too often a matter of finding the least bad of many unpalatable options. Ludolphus may brood, but he understands that.” Tension eventually oozed away from the queen’s joints, and she waved the servant away. “Besides, I have a little project for you. Bit of a mystery, like.”
“Intriguing,” said Vinian, not the least bit intrigued.
“I assume you’re still snooping on my scout reports from the Carsa offensive?”
“No,” replied Vinian with a scowl. “No time what with all the security for today’s entertainment. You know I had to have the families of the ballista men taken hostage to make sure no one got itchy when Taurix’s horde showed up? The paperwork on that alone—”
“Fine, whatever. Short version, there’s something going on along the river valley.”
“Something?”
“Follow me.” They wound through the hallways of the palace until reaching Engwara’s private apartments, where carved snakes gave way to fresh roses and fragrant floor rushes. The hot bath she’d ordered drawn up awaited, and the queen wasted no time in throwing off her layers of royal finery and sinking into the big brass cauldron. “Oh, that’s better. Over there, on the desk.”
Vinian sifted through the small pile of reports. “These all describe a series of….”
“Disappearances,” Engwara finished. “Supply trains, men, officers, whole
squads. Just up and gone without a trace.”
“Desertions,” said Vinian with a shrug, “that’s no mystery.”
“My first assumption also. But all in the same area, all at once? Quite a coincidence.”
“Certainly not bandits.”
The queen gurgled and spit as she luxuriated in the tub. “Common bandits wouldn’t be so organized or so meticulous in covering their tracks. You’ll find no eyewitness reports there.”
“Partisans of Pharamund then? Some kind of…I don’t know, killer rangers.”
“An excellent deduction. Or it would be if not for rumors from the other side – of the exact same thing befalling his forces.”
“What?” Vinian found herself bereft of words, now genuinely intrigued. “I….”
Engwara sat up in her bath with a grin. “Like I said, a mystery. My lords and officers in the field are confounded. They’re starting to blame it on Chthonii and forest ghosts. I need someone with a brain to tackle this. That’s why I’m sending you.”
“Sending…me?”
“You leave as soon as my business with that banker is concluded. I’m granting you a writ of full authority to act in my name, and don’t pretend you won’t enjoy that.”
“But I assumed you’d need me to help with Taurix, the planning—”
“Ludolphus can manage. I need you out there. Right now it’s little more than an annoyance, but whatever it is we’re dealing with – deserters, bandits, or hellsent Chthonii – it must not be allowed to interfere with our plans, whatever the cost. Understood?” The queen had that look in her eyes that said it was pointless and more than a little dangerous to resist. Letting go and casting herself into the tides of fate, Vinian relented.
“Understood, Majesty. I guess I’d better go pack.”
* * *
“Pleased to see you again,” said Engwara, though her expression betrayed the lie. She received the banker, as before, in her tower chamber, though there was little need for secrecy at this point as the banker had already docked in Carsolan’s harbor. Vinian now attended at her queen’s right hand, and this time she kept Carthagne on his feet.