“Please Chass,” Sajani said smiling.
The large wolf gracefully complied just as Doc Cutter also entered the tent. Doc was an average vykati in just about every sense of the word. He was a gray wolf of average vykati height, so just barely taller than any of the humans in the room. He did have slightly higher than average intelligence. “Did I miss anything?” he asked politely.
“And it hasn’t done anything since?” Tess asked Ginger.
“No,” he responded coolly. “I’ve tried a few times, but I think they must have to do something on their end for it to work.”
“Do they know where we are?”
“All they would have seen is my face.” He sounded a little confused by the question. The spark’s metallic cat was rubbing its head against the blank screen.
“Right, but is there any way they can figure out where we are from this thing? It seems to me that if they can find it to talk to us, they can find out where we are.”
“I’m not sure it works like that exactly. It does something with sound waves, a little like a tuning fork in some ways, so it just broadcasts out a sound in all directions.”
“But can they tell what direction?” She was sounding a little urgent and Ginger still wasn’t sure why. Her concern caught the attention of the cat, which jumped down off the communications area and tried to rub itself against her legs.
“I suppose,” he said thoughtfully.
“And would the sound get quieter the further it is away?”
“Well, yes, and it would respond to the curve of Terah as well…”
“You need to turn that off, Ginger,” she said with certainty. The cat meowed.
“I need to run a few more tests…”
“If they can use that to find out where we are, we can’t leave it on.”
Slowly he began to understand. While they might not be able to know exactly where they were like he had originally thought she meant, they would be able to follow the sound waves… He began turning a few switches and dials. The light under the screen went dim. “Ok,” he said after a moment. “I think it’s off.”
“You think it is?”
“I think so. I can check it against the other vehicle in a moment.”
“Let’s do that,” she said quickly. “Although it’s probably too late.”
There could have been a lot more to smooth out, had Sajani not been so forgiving. She’d seen officers like Major Fagen plenty of times during her service in the army and understood how grueling it could be for someone like that to measure up in a military structure. It wasn’t that she felt like that excused the major’s behavior and she did nothing to counter Colonel Hene’s veiled statements about disciplinary action against the officer, but she also wanted to move forward and that meant concentrating on the refugees, not petty side squabbles.
The situation with the refugees was worse than she thought it would be. She realized that these people had traveled a great distance, often at the cost of proper food, shelter and clothing. The feet of most were worn and bloodied from walking the distance unshod and there were a few who had to be moved by cart or the grace of others.
A vykati with tan colored fur and carrying a small human girl in his arms called out to her and she cautiously approached him. His clothing was in better shape than many of the others and he looked like perhaps he’d traveled less far. “Food, gentle lady,” he said weakly. “It’s not for me, but little Narse here. She is so weak and so tired. I promised her mother…” he began coughing uncontrollably.
Doc Cutter ran up to them and placed a hand on the little girl’s forehead. “She’s got a fever,” he said with a little hope to his voice. He gently forced her mouth open to look inside and pushed up her eyelids to get a better look into her eyes. She didn’t fight him at all. Placing his fingers beneath her wrists, he took her pulse and then watched the skin as he released her. “She’s very dehydrated. I’ll need something to put water in…” he began glancing around and looked hopefully at Sajani.
“Sorry Doc,” she said quietly, shrugging her shoulders. She turned to Chass and said, “Find a barrel, a crate, anything.” The large wolf started off.
Meanwhile, Doc Cutter had spread out a blanket he had borrowed from the vykati and began casting. Food appeared on the blanket, enough to feed quite a few. Sajani picked up some and began passing it around. She was worried that the people would crowd them, but most were too weak to move much, having given up just enough energy to get to the outskirts of the city. All were grateful for what she gave them and none asked for more.
Chass returned with a large barrel under each arm. Doc Cutter cast a spell to fill them both with water and cupped his hand to bring some to the little girl. She drank very little, but Doc spilled the rest over her body. “Hopefully we can get the fever in check. I’m not sure if she’s sick or if it’s just a reaction from lack of water.” Chass handed him an old military tin cup. No one was sure where he got it from. Doc filled the cup and handed it to the vykati refugee. “Keep giving her the water a little a time,” he said carefully. The man nodded. “And make sure you get some as well. You’ll need your strength. I’ll be back in an hour to see if that fever has broken.”
So. they went from place to place. Sajani and Doc had healed all they could and when they were out of healing for the day, they still made their way through the masses doing what they could. Doc and Chass had both sacrificed their uniform tops to be cut down for bandages. There were many more to treat. She took a break at one point to meet up with Ghenis to find out what he’d learned about the blockade against the refugees.
“They don’t know that there’s a plague,” he told her. “But there is a fear that the elves might have caused one. Rumors travel faster than refugees. Until they know for sure, they are blocking off the city. They will not stop them from passing around, though. They are welcome to continue their retreat as long as they don’t enter the city itself.”
“They’ve probably already been through many cities.”
“Yes,” he said. “These are the ones who left in the greatest hurry. We’ll see the better prepared ones in a couple of days, if you plan on staying around.”
She wasn’t sure what she planned. While, originally, she’d hoped to gather information, the state of these people was such that she didn’t dare bring up past terrors. And she wasn’t sure what they could tell her that Ginger wasn’t already working out from the captured vehicles. If she stayed here, she’d be tempted to just continue to help.
“There she is!” It was Tess who interrupted her thoughts. Her and Ginger were rushing towards them. “Thank Indira we found you. We need to head out soon!” Ginger nodded in support. So did his cat, who was up on his shoulders.
“The elves know where we are. We need to go before they arrive.”
Sajani had been staring at the screen for a few hours. They’d left as soon as they could muster everyone and their gear—about twelve hours and just as night was falling. Doc stubbornly stayed with the refugees almost the entire time. Then they started their move to the north, most on foot, hoping that if the signal on the vehicle was on, it would lead the elves away from Xahusha, if they were even tracking them.
She hoped that the screen would come to life again. Then she could be sure they’d tracked her away from Xahusha and could start making her way to the enemy. There hadn’t been much information from the refugees. Many of them hadn’t even seen any direct military action: they fled because they heard what was coming and didn’t want to wait to see what might happen.
The vagrants who had seen something, gave conflicting reports. One thing that was disturbing to Sajani though—there was no mention of anything like wizards. What they described sounded like magic, but if it was, then it was magic that all elves were capable of summoning. Possible, she thought, but not likely. What was more likely was that they were using machines and their machines could not be stopped by Terahn magic or weapons. They resisted spells, and bullets didn’t scratch their
surface. Direct cannon fire did some damage, but it usually took many hits before a vehicle was disabled.
And this is what I’m up against, she thought with a bit of despair. Her chances were slim to begin with she knew. This enemy had reduced one of Terah’s largest military powers to rabble in less than a month. The idea is just to slow them, she said to herself. She could feel what she called resolve and Simon called stubbornness rising within her. Benayle said it was the one thing he noticed about her mother, the few times they’d met before she died. The wolf leader called it will and said that it was the greatest gift a parent could give to a child—the will to fight, the will to keep going, the will to succeed. I will do this. I don’t know how, but I will. I will force it to happen.
A speck of light appeared at the center of the screen and Sajani quickly motioned for Ginger to come over. “I think it’s about to do something.”
The spark jumped onto a chair next to hers and began moving dials on the console. “Yes,” he said quickly, “You’re right.” He reached over and pushed a button near the screen and it came to life.
Sajani didn’t wait. “Elf military, this is Lady Sajani, the Copper Wolf. I want to speak to the commander of your forces.”
The elf woman on the other end looked surprised, but turned the screen to face a tall, elf man with high cheekbones and harsh features. He spoke and the first woman translated for him. “This is General Sestus, Lady Sajani. It is, indeed a pleasure to meet you.”
“I believe in fair warning, General Sestus.”
“Fair warning my lady?” Her comment seemed to catch him a little off guard.
“Yes, you have attacked the sovereign nation of Zenache.” She waited for the translation to go through.
The general smiled at her. “A pre-emptive measure, I can assure you. They were a threat to Therfass, and we will not tolerate any threat to our sovereignty.”
“And what do you consider a threat to your sovereignty? Zenache did not have the means to fight back.”
“Any nation not under our rule is a threat to us, my lady. We will not stand by and wait for that threat to materialize.”
She hoped that there was a lot more courage in her voice than she felt. Suppressing the urge to swallow hard, she continued, “I don’t make idle threats, General Sestus. I carry out my promises.”
The elf laughed when that was translated for him. “Vharkylia was not a match militarily for Zenache and you think you can make a difference against us? My dear lady, you are no more a threat to us than the fleas on your own scruffy hide are a threat to you.”
“Tell that to the squad you sent to kill me.” There wasn’t much to mark that the statement hit true. Sestus’s jaw dropped only slightly and if there was any change to the color on his face, it didn’t show through the screen, but she knew it gave him pause.
“You think I believe that you managed to destroy a squad?”
It was her turn to smile. “I think you know we have their vehicles. And I think you know that they never returned.” She glanced over at Ginger who was still working on the console next to her.
“Accidents happen, Lady Sajani, and sometimes they even favor the less fortunate.”
“I’ve always found that fate favors the prepared, and so to give you the best odds—I’m not alone this time and we’re coming for you. Turn back to Therfass now.”
General Sestus laughed when he heard the translation. “You better have all the forces of your tiny world at your back, if you even plan on surviving, Copper Wolf. “
“Consider yourself warned, General Sestus.” She glanced over at Ginger again who motioned to her to keep talking.
“Warned, perhaps. But I hardly see the need to take you seriously.”
Sajani smiled and waited a moment.
“Is that all?” General Sestus said impatiently.
She looked again over at Ginger, who nodded quickly.
“Yes, General Sestus. I just want to make sure you remember my face. I’m sure that I’ll remember yours.” She threw the switch to turn off the screen and looked over at Ginger once again. “You got it?” she asked.
Ginger beamed. “Oh yes!” he said in a high-pitched squeak. “I can now give you a definite direction and a decent guess at distance.” His automaton cat leaped up on his shoulders and rubbed its face against his cheek.
“And you’re sure they can’t hear us anymore?”
“Yes, my lady.” Ginger said with the total confidence she wished she’d felt during her prior conversation. “We’re listening only, not talking. They know where we are now, but once we move, they’ll have no idea. “And,” he said, hardly able to contain his excitement, “There’s a lot more of them I can track as well.”
“What?”
“I’m not sure how it worked, but once we made this new contact with them, a whole lot of signals showed up. Give me a little time and I think this thing can tell you what they are and where they’re going.”
“That’s amazing!” she nearly shouted.
“Yes, it is.” Ginger said with equal enthusiasm. “I’d love to the meet the spark that came up with this stuff.” The cat meowed in agreement.
Chapter Five:
Zenache
The travel through Rhidayar was slow and uneventful. To avoid the constant flow of refugees, they kept off the roads, which wasn’t a problem for the hovering transports in most cases, although the thick underbrush and heavy foliage slowed them occasionally. What slowed them the most was not having enough transports for all the troops. She’d considered picking up a couple of wagons, but there wasn’t a consistent way to keep horses fed. Tess suggested a steam carriage, but not only was the cost prohibitive, Sajani was reasonably sure they wouldn’t be able to maneuver them off the roads like she planned.
The troops took it all in stride. She rotated through everyone, except Ambassador Ghenis and Doc Cutter, to make sure that there was one day of riding for every two days of walking. Some had to ride outside of the vehicle, but with how hot and humid it was, that was considered a privilege. They usually only traveled for about eight hours a day with an hour break in the middle. This left them time to forage for food in the evenings. The jungle had no shortage of game or water. Each evening they put out the two barrels they carried with them and each morning they left with both full of fresh rain water.
She had managed to get ahold of some rations before they left, but she planned on saving those for an emergency. It was better to keep getting what they could while traveling. Ginger and a soldier named Tenner, who seemed to be somewhat mechanically inclined, used the evenings to work on researching some of the elf technology. It was a slow and arduous process that Sajani was glad to leave to someone else. Benayle liked to pretend he understood things like that from time to time, despite having no aptitude for it. The Copper Wolf’s aptitude was identical to his, but she felt no need to pretend.
The route was simple enough. She stayed in the jungles surrounding the Varkyl Mountains and then circled around on the west side of Vidava. Rhidayar troops were massing around the major cities, even as people fled from them. They rarely ran into either on the path they were taking and when they did, it wasn’t much of a problem to pass them. The soldiers and civilians had never seen transports like theirs, and in many cases, were too panicked to care.
It was a walking day for her, Tess, and Chass. They were scouting ahead in an attempt to find the best route for the transports. It usually meant just traveling straight forward and making sure the green flag attached to Chass’s back stayed in sight, but occasionally it meant having to replace the flag with a yellow one while they searched for a way around a fallen tree or large rock. At first she wasn’t sure how the transports would handle the occasional stream, but it had no problem just hovering over water. It made Sajani wonder if they could also be used as boats.
Sajani tried very hard to make sure that she didn’t become complacent while scouting. She stressed to her soldiers over and over the importance of
staying vigilant, even though they were still passing through supposedly safe territory. Ginger was doing his best to keep them updated on enemy movements, but there still seemed to be a substantial learning curve on the foreign equipment.
But just because she knew not to do it, and just because she constantly reminded others not to do it, didn’t mean that she was immune to it herself. It was the same brown, green, blue pattern day after day after day and on this particular day, she was having a lot of trouble keeping her concentration up. It wasn’t that she’d failed to get enough sleep. It was that she was finding herself somewhat blinded to things on the outside as she kept concentrating more and more on what she was thinking concerning the days to come.
Because of this, she had no idea why Tess had suddenly told Chass to change to the red flag to warn the others of a possible unknown situation. She glanced over at Tess with a slightly confused look on her face. The former sergeant had the presence of mind to not chide the lady about her lack of observation, but instead just calmly pointed straight ahead.
Sajani didn’t even need to step forward to see it now. It was hidden a little behind the undergrowth, but the item in question was a very bright yellow tarpaulin hung over a rope strung between two trees to form a makeshift tent. She could smell the acrid scent of the remains of a fire as well, now that she put her mind to it. They were all holding quite still and listening carefully when a very deep male voice started booming out a song in the common tongue. There was a very heavy Zenachen accent to it, but the voice was well tuned and had the support that could only come from some formal training.
I went looking for beer in Rhidayar.
In Dargaleck I went looking for rum,
But at those places they only had water.
If I wanted a drink I had to go home.
Sajani glanced back at Tess and Chass, both of whom were wearing very confused looks on their faces. She shrugged and then pointing once to herself and then toward the shelter ahead she started cautiously moving forward to get a better look at what was going on.
Wolf's Pawn (Sajani Tails Book 1) Page 9