Kyrax managed a face between a scowl and a grin, "To Talaos, the youngest, fastest risen, most fucking unlikely warlord in the history of Hunyos!"
"To Talaos!" cheered Firio.
"Aye!" said Imvan.
"Don't let it get to your head," grinned Vulkas.
"A mighty life..." mused Halmir.
Epos simply and silent gripped Talaos's arm in a military handshake.
"Now men, back to it," said Talaos. "We each have our part to do. Firio has the Hounds ready to unleash. Imvan, you have a little urban scouting to do. Adriko should be here soon with news of his own. In the meantime, let's talk about what we each have to do..."
~
The harbor glittered in the moonlight. Ships sat at anchor on the quays, each now with two squads of guards carefully assembled from multiple cities and towns. Talaos could see them below, from his vantage point on the balcony. Some of those men were from Adriko's troops, and now in his service as warlord. Others, secretly, were among his Hounds.
"Brooding?" asked Liriel, next to him. The spirals of her black hair blew in the breeze.
"Yes, and plotting," he answered with a note of sarcasm, though both were true.
"I want to thank you for everything," she said, watching gentle waves lap the docks.
"I couldn't let them do that to you, or to anyone," he replied.
She turned to look at him, "I know why I hate the Prophet and his believers, but you've never told me why you do."
"The Prophet sent three sorcerers from the Eastlands to Carai to kill me. They whispered things that made it clear the Prophet wants me dead. "
"The Prophet... the Prophet himself?" Her eyes widened, but she drew close to him.
"So it seems," he replied, feeling her presence, and his own conflict inside.
"Then why come here, to Hunyos?"
"Because my war is with the Prophet, and his followers are here."
"Talaos..." she whispered, drawing still closer, "you've picked quite a war."
"Yes. I have to go soon," he replied, though he could feel the warmth and energy of her, and was not eager to part from it.
She added, "I think you are right about what is coming. The spirits tend to stay away from people and places associated with the Prophet, and they've been distant tonight. Talaos, I..."
He turned to face her. Her eyes looked into his, and her lips were half-parted.
She put her hand on his armored chest and whispered, "Please survive this."
Talaos smiled, took her hand, held it for a moment, then stepped back.
"Stay safe," he said, turning to leave.
~
They waited in the shadows of the alley. For a brief moment, Talaos imagined himself back in Carai. It was certainly familiar enough, and though the scale was larger, the stakes were still life and death. With him were Firio, Imvan, Larogwan, Halmir, and silent Epos. Vulkas and Kyrax stood watch at The Waverider commanding the greater part of Wolves, and ready to take the hammer blow, should it come.
The rest of the Wolves, the stealthier among them, were with Talaos, and other places nearby. All across the city, small groups of soldiers of the alliance, and of secretly armed Avrosans, were roaming the streets. He also knew other groups of soldiers, and Avrosan followers of the Prophet, were doing the same. Many of those, the other side, were slowly converging on The Waverider.
In the streets as well, and not far away now, he knew General Dromno was coming with a body of handpicked men. There were rumors of Nissas organizing his own men in the section of town that comprised the Aledri camp.
Talaos heard marching feet. Firio, dressed in sooty blacks and grays, his face and hands smeared with ash, crept low to the pavement and peered around the corner. He quickly withdrew, then rose to whisper in Talaos's ear.
"Dromno. Two hundred men at least. A man in cloak and robes with them, holding a copper rod. Another man with face covered and a silver dagger."
Talaos in turn drew the Madmen close and repeated the news, and then they to the Wolves. They waited. A squad of soldiers passed, in uniforms of several towns. Then Dromno appeared, with others at his side, as Firio had described.
Dromno was heavily armed and armored. The second man wore white robes. His green-trimmed cloak was thrown back around his shoulders, but the hood was pulled low. The copper rod in his hand had an end carved in the form of a thunderbolt. The third man wore loose baggy, tan pants and shirt, a white cloth wrapped around his head and face, and a long white sash belt trimmed in green script. Talaos recognized the script as that in the Prophet's books of rituals.
Firio threw a dagger straight at Dromno's throat.
Talaos threw a knife at the man in the robes, right into the opening of his hood.
Imvan loosed an arrow at the man with the covered face.
There was a flash of green around Dromno. Firio's dagger stopped, and fell to the ground.
The same happened around the man in the robes.
The man with the covered face caught Imvan's arrow in midair.
Dromno twisted around, looking surprised, then smiled.
"The Prophet protects the righteous," Dromno said in his farmer's voice, as he drew a sword that flickered green along the blade. Green light glittered in the depths of his eyes.
Talaos leapt to the attack with blades flashing.
Behind him came his Madmen and Wolves.
Dromno spun with his shield up and his green-flickering sword held low. Talaos whirled with his long blade around the shield, and short blade ready to parry. Dromno moved with sudden speed, blocking with the shield and stabbing his sword past Talaos's guard. Talaos leapt backwards. A faint green light swirled all around the general as he moved.
Larogwan, Halmir, and three of the Wolves were upon the man with the covered face. They moved with coordinated attacks, swords high and low. The foe whirled and spun with superhuman speed and fluid grace. Every strike missed him.
The man in the robes began to incant something.
More of the Wolves poured from the alley into the street, and at the squad of guards at the front of Dromno's formation. Epos, silently and precisely, moved past the fight to face the long column behind Dromno. The soldiers in the front ranks watched Epos with surprise, but advanced. An arrow from Imvan pierced one through the chest.
Talaos lunged for another attack. His short blade scraped Dromno's armor, and there was another green flash. Dromno parried Talaos's long blade aside with his own, and gave a shove with his shield with such surprising strength that Talaos balanced by leaping back several feet.
Dromno shouted, almost as if curious, "You actually immune to lightning?"
As he spoke, the robed man aimed his thunderbolt rod toward Talaos. A booming, cracking noise filled the street, and a great gout of electricity arced from the rod to Talaos. It had a green-white color very unlike the blue-white of Talaos's lightning. Talaos felt nothing. He laughed as he whirled back toward Dromno.
"Oh well, damn," muttered Dromno, leaping backwards with his guard up.
The man with the concealed face spun and stabbed forward. His dagger pierced the chain shirt of a Wolf with a green-white flash. The Wolf toppled backwards with a smoking hole in his chest and score marks radiating from the wound.
Halmir twisted and brought his axe down toward the masked foe's skull, but the latter twisted again with a flickering of the air around him, and the axe went wide. The others stabbed and sliced, but always the man with the concealed face was just out of the way.
Dromno spun and sliced his green-flickering sword around at Talaos's neck. The latter dodged and parried with his short blade. Dromno brought his shield forward and forced Talaos's long blade aside. Talaos aimed a sudden kick and sent Dromno flying backwards.
Epos, using sword and shield with methodical, merciless precision, cut down a man to his left, then to his right, then spun and stepped sideways with his sword through the open-faced helm of a third foe. The others, dozens at the head of the long colu
mn, pooled up across the road, hesitant to step forward. Then one fell with Imvan's arrow in his eye.
The robed man held his copper rod. The end with the thunderbolt now looked withered and spent. He flipped it around, and at the other end was a cap in the form of a smiling, bearded face with an open mouth. Faint greenish-white smoke or mist began to pour from that mouth.
"Kill that sorcerer!" shouted Talaos, as he parried another attack from Dromno.
At the front of the line, the Wolves were getting the better of Dromno's guards.
One of the Wolves facing the masked man disengaged, and leapt at the sorcerer with sword ready for a disemboweling strike. The ghostly mist blew into his nostrils, and the Wolf stopped in his tracks.
The masked man dropped low, and in a fluid turn, brought his dagger into the thigh of the remaining Wolf facing him. There was another blast. The Wolf's leg blew apart above the knee and he toppled. There was no blood from the blackened, cauterized wound.
Talaos continued to dodge Dromno's swift sword and shield combination attacks. At last he saw his opening. He flipped and spun, landed directly behind his foe, and brought his short blade under Dromno's breastplate in a kidney strike. There was a flash of green light, but it was fainter this time. Dromno turned, at the ready.
Talaos stepped and spun again, keeping out of his foe's reach and guard, and made a second strike. The short blade pierced Dromno's waist near the spine, and the general lurched over, roaring in pain. Talaos leapt high and brought his long blade down, cleaving Dromno's head from his shoulders. Blood sprayed all round as the body fell.
As they fought, Epos ran a foe through at the groin, dodged, and sheared the sword arm from another in a spray of blood. Imvan picked off two more with arrows. But now the others at the head of the column, dozens strong, charged all at once.
Halmir and Larogwan dueled with the masked man. They moved and struck and moved again. The latter avoided every attack, but his own attacks failed to pierce their defenses. Then suddenly, the masked man tensed, lurched, and turned. He tried to strike with his dagger, but fell instead. As he fell, a dagger became visible, lodged in his back, precisely where it would reach the heart.
Behind the dagger crouched Firio, looking annoyed.
The sorcerer incanted in an eastern speech, and the pallid smoke spread. The Wolf standing transfixed, with ghostly mist flowing into his nose, grew pale, then seemed to wither and collapsed to the ground. Tendrils of smoke reached towards others nearby.
Halmir snarled and threw an axe. It glanced from the sorcerer with a green flash. A brief moment later, Larogwan threw an axe of his own, and it lodged firmly in the sorcerer's head. The green smoke dissipated. More Wolves raced back their way, with corpses of Dromno's vanguard behind them. Talaos leapt to Epos's side, even as the enemy surrounded them. He spun with blades scything and two of them fell dead in mists of their own blood. He snarled. Many more came behind to take their place. A howling roar rose all around.
"The Hounds," smiled Talaos.
Both sides paused for a moment as dozens of armed Avrosans converged from alleys and side streets around Dromno's column. With them, here and there, were more of Talaos's Wolves, and a few handpicked men of his own from the rest of the army.
Talaos shouted to the foes in the front ranks. He recognized a few of them, and wondered if any had been in the crowd acclaiming him as a warlord. Many were not from Dromno's own League of Padra. Seeing Dromno's handpicked men together like that, he could see an unusually high proportion had beards.
"Soldiers of the allied army!" he shouted at them in his deep clear voice, "General Dromno is dead. He died on his way to kill a fellow commander and fellow men of our army. Do you want to follow him to a traitor's death? An army will soon be upon us. Lay down your arms, and raise them at the right time against the enemy."
There was silence. Then a man, an ordinary soldier among them, replied, "You're our enemy Talaos, you blasphemer."
"Murderer of the pure!" shouted another.
"Friend of sinners!" hissed a third.
"Destroyer of the House of the Prophet!" yelled another, as more voices rose behind.
Talaos listened with rising intensity in his spirit. He'd had enough. He replied in an echoing voice that carried over theirs, "Have your opinions, but lay down your arms, or die!"
Someone from the massed ranks hurled a spear at him. He snarled, whirled, and cut it down in midair with his short blade. Light from his eyes flashed on the blade before him.
Without another word, he leapt to the attack, and with him, all around, charged his Madmen, his Wolves, and his Hounds. Like wild, savage hunting beasts they leapt on their prey. Talaos spun, cut, and stabbed. The Madmen at his side ripped through their foes. Further back, the followers of the Prophet fought against the ring of Hounds around them. They held their own back there, but Talaos's numbers grew with more from the streets beyond, and theirs shrank.
Talaos turned to Firio and Imvan, weaving and stabbing in the shadows.
"Withdraw. Spread the word around the city. Now is the time."
11. Taking
Talaos made his way through the darkened city with an ever growing body of men behind him. Troops from the army, his Madmen, Wolves, and Hounds, and masses of Avrosan civilians walked with torches and drawn weapons. His greater preparation, no doubt helped by experience as a gangster, had made for a bloody but swift victory by his allies on the streets.
Reports were that the remaining followers of the Prophet were going into hiding. Behind him, he heard talk of various kinds. There was curiosity about what was coming next, exultation of victory, and among the Avrosans, talk of the Storm Lord. Someone among them shouted that he, Talaos, was the Storm Lord reborn.
He'd have to put a stop to that, and soon, but ahead of him was the Aledri camp.
"Looks like Nissas might've wanted to move a bit faster," said Larogwan cheerfully.
Kyrax, who'd joined them, replied, "Unless he was hoping for Dromno to do his fucking dirty work for him, then reap the spoils."
"Those are two possibilities," added Talaos, "though there are others."
They continued on through starlit streets. Their numbers grew. The buildings on either side were largely dark, but faces could be seen from many windows as Avrosans who hadn't been part of the fighting peered out at the marching men.
Ahead, the light of the torches and lamps of another sizeable body of men could be seen approaching from a major intersecting street on the right. Talaos and his men readied their weapons. He had hopes as to who it might be, but this night, anything could happen.
"Well this looks like quite the cheery gathering!" said Adriko, rounding the corner with a long column of troops behind him, "with happy news for General Nissas, I imagine."
Talaos laughed, "Just spreading the good word, in our way."
Adriko made his way through to join Talaos at the head of the main column, while shouting orders to his officers to get his troops organized with the others. Once he'd settled in, Adriko glanced back at large burdens being carried by a group of men with Vulkas.
Vulkas noticed, and shouted, "Hoi, Adriko! We have some gifts for Nissas."
Their former commander smiled, and replied casually, "They look extravagant, under the circumstances."
Ahead was the area near the walls where the Aledri troops, more than two thousand in total, had commandeered some commercial buildings as their headquarters and camp. It was brightly lit. Nissas had thrown up barricades across most of the streets around, and soldiers of Aledri were on watch there and on rooftops. Opposed to them in the shadows of surrounding streets beyond were scattered groups of Avrosan civilians and allied irregulars.
Also, at certain main surrounding intersections alongside the Avrosans, but in much better order, were companies of heavily armed mercenaries.
"What the..." growled Kyrax.
"Ah, that's interesting..." began Adriko.
Talaos tried to process what he was seeing. H
e knew those troops, and that good order.
"Tescani!" he shouted.
As if in answer, there ahead was the mercenary warlord, on a horse heavy with barding, with a squad of steel-plated men around him. Tescani hailed him with a raised hand, and rode up.
"Evening, Talaos," Tescani said in his low, gravelly voice.
"What convinced you to join the cause?" asked Talaos lightly, though quite pleased.
"I always keep an eye for the main chance," answered Tescani, with cold eyes and a hard face. "Right now, that main chance is you."
Talaos took that in, and decided to consider all the implications later. Then he replied, "So you're why Nissas stayed bottled up when it counted?"
"With help from the Avrosans you pulled together," replied Tescani. "Even so, we might not have gotten here in time except they were having some kind of trouble in the Aledri camp."
Talaos smiled thoughtfully, and turned so that he could face both Tescani and Adriko, then he spoke. "And we've got some more trouble for them. The Madmen, Wolves and I are riding up to have a talk with the Aledri sentries."
The others nodded, and Talaos rode toward the largest barricade, one that had a sort of gate in it. The men on watch shouted, and more Aledri troops, a full company, marched at the double from around a corner. They took up a tight defensive formation just behind the gate.
"Hail!" called Talaos. "I need to speak to General Nissas."
A young captain shouted back, "Warlord Talaos, are you here under terms of peace?"
"I am, and I remind you that we all are, as part of the same alliance," replied Talaos.
"I will send a messenger to ask him," replied the officer.
There was a quick discussion between the Aledri captain and the men around him, then a runner started to speed off. However, hardly had he done so than Nissas himself appeared, riding with a group of officers and a column of soldiers.
The General of Aledri made his way to the gate, drew himself up in the saddle, and gave Talaos a cold, expectant glare, as if waiting.
Talaos shouted to him, "Nissas, now is a good time to rethink your choices."
The Storm's Own Son (Book 2) Page 13