Wolf's Pawn (Sajani Tails Book 1)

by Chaaya Chandra

  “I do believe that would just enable the enemy to capture more at once. This at least takes up their attention on the small things.” General Sestus countered. “And we do larger convoys with behemoth support on the really important things.”

  Colonel Frack wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  “There are only two things you need to understand, colonel,” the general said amiably.

  “And what’s that sir?”

  “The first is that the wolf will not attack the shepherd as long as there are outlying sheep he can easily devour.”

  That didn’t sound too hopeful for the colonel’s supplies—supplies he was ultimately responsible for. “I’m sorry sir, but I’m not used to losing so many sacrificial lambs. We still need to keep our troops supplied.”

  “Yes, colonel and know that if the decision was all mine, you’d be losing a lot less.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “The second thing to remember, my fellow officer,” Sestus continued, “is that someday we’ll retire and have to face the civilian side of this war. And when I do, I plan on building myself up by tearing down every one of those damned politicians who had the audacity to tell me how I should do my job.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I let them fail, so they better know how much they need me.”

  Colonel Frack wasn’t sure how to respond to that either. He had no political ambitions and was more than a little surprised that Sestus entertained any.

  “Don’t worry, my friend. The depot is almost up and then we’ll be able to plan our convoys ourselves, without any bureaucratic meddling.”

  It was called a terminal, but what it really was, was a large tent. Powerful air conditioners were attached to keep it from getting too hot and they did their job too well. It wasn’t very hot outside, but the sun was shining directly on the ceiling of the terminal and that would heat the inside of the tent very quickly. It was just a little frigid, but not unpleasant, unless you tried to fall asleep. As soon as your body slowed down just enough to drop off to sleep, the cold would set in and it forced you back awake again.

  Anace had been there for many hours waiting. She hadn’t been able to sleep on the transport that had taken her here and that had been a twelve-hour ride. She had no idea how long the debriefing had taken or how many different ways she’d been asked if she could lead them back to the Copper Wolf—Sajani and her crew were already packed up and ready to move when she was set free.

  Before that, she’d walked for several miles through the forests of Zenache to the road and then followed that road until she came to the check point. It was going on her second day with no sleep. They only risked two flights daily and both were reserved for medivac. The nice transportation officer who had greeted her and checked over the paperwork for her flight had very politely informed her that it wasn’t uncommon to wait two days to catch a flight, but that if she ended up waiting more than a day, she would be welcome to take the next supply convoy going north.

  Right now, she didn’t care how or if she moved—she just wanted some sleep. Sleep. Yes, that was what she really wanted. The world around her became a pleasant blur as she found her eyes closing on their own and sleep started to overcome her, but just as it was about to finally remove her from consciousness, she found herself shivering and awake again.

  “Anace? Is that you, darling?”

  Or maybe she was asleep. The voice was one from her childhood—one from the other world and the people who had died there. She opened her eyes and recognized her Aunt Gena standing before her with a puzzled look on her face. She was wearing a military uniform and the rank of a major. “Aunt Gena?”

  The two embraced and both said at the same time. “I thought you were dead!”

  “I’m so sorry, my dear Anace.” Aunt Gena said while still holding her close. “If I knew you were alive, I’d have come to you right away. The first I heard of you being in this awful place was when the command chaplain told me you’d been killed in action.”

  “Captured,” Anace said quickly.

  “I know that now.” The two were still embracing and unbeknownst to either were starting to draw a little bit of attention. “I made a pretense of needing new equipment from the main warehouse that I’d have to hand select and jumped on the next transport convoy to here, hoping to catch you. I’m so glad I did. It must have been horrible.”

  Anace wanted to answer, but her aunt didn’t give her a chance. She pulled away from the embrace, looked the former prisoner straight in the eyes and said. “We need to talk, but not here.” She pointed down to the two equipment bags that Anace had been sleeping on. “Are these yours?”

  Anace only had time to nod before Aunt Gena picked one up, placed it on her back and handed the other to her niece. “I have some quarters reserved while I wait for my flight. You won’t be flying out before I do, so we can wait there.”

  “There’s quarters available? If I’d known that…”

  “Officers’ quarters, dear.”

  “Oh.” That did explain why it hadn’t been offered to her.

  Her aunt led her out of the terminal door and just a little way down the makeshift street outside of it. Down one more side street and they arrived at…another tent. It didn’t even have a proper door, just a flap, but it was cooled on the inside without being as frigid as the terminal had been. Anace’s equipment was unceremoniously dropped on the floor right next to two bags that were most likely the ones her aunt had brought with her.

  On the way, Aunt Gena had informed her that once she returned to the command center with the parts she had requested, she’d be returning almost immediately to Therfass for a final time. “I took a civilian job in the capital. General Sestus doesn’t know it yet, but there won’t be anything he can do about it. I’ll process out at the same place I’m going now. Then we’ll both be free of this place.”

  There wasn’t much to the tent. It was a standard military issue that had a basic house-shaped frame that canvas was strapped over. Standing was possible inside, as was a little bit of motion. It held two cots and a small writing desk with a chair.

  Aunt Gena was almost as bad as the officer at the debriefing. No sooner had the two settled onto opposite cots than she said almost impatiently. “You were captured by the crew of Sajani, the Copper Wolf. Tell me all about it.”

  “To be specific, like they demanded at my debriefing…” she paused slightly hoping that her aunt would realize that she was having to repeat the same story over and over again. If she did notice, she didn’t say anything. “…I was captured by Sajani herself, and not her crew.”

  Anace went on to explain what had happened. At first she was hesitant to tell her aunt, who was an officer in the elf army, about the more personal side of what had happened. In the debriefing it had all been about the number of soldiers present, what the soldiers were doing, the location of the enemy camp, any identifying unit information, the time she’d left, and what equipment the enemy had.

  The officer who had interviewed her was harsh when she was vague on times (it had been a long walk) and locations. He also apparently didn’t like what she had to say about equipment. (“It was ours. She commandeered it.”) And so Anace had been cautious about what she said and careful to make sure he understood that what information she did have was very imprecise. It wasn’t that she was intentionally hiding anything. Sajani made sure that there wasn’t much for her to know.

  But Aunt Gena seemed so intent on knowing all about it and after so little sleep, Anace didn’t have the mental strength to say no to her last living relative. She talked on for hours more, breaking only to drink some water and to answer the few vague questions her aunt asked. There was never any indication of how the older elf perceived all of it or how she viewed the pirates who had held her niece captive.

  She did express a little disappointment that there wasn’t much to tell about the “spark” that worked for Sajani and she seemed a little touched by how well Ghenis had tre
ated her, but aside from that, when Anace finished her tale, she didn’t know if she had just found a new coconspirator, or if she had just betrayed the people who had treated her so well. She waited to see her aunt’s response.

  It wasn’t what she expected. “I’m sorry to have kept you awake, but I just had to know more. I wanted to make sure that you were ok. Get some sleep now, my dear.”

  But Anace knew she’d sleep better if she could have one small, nagging question answered. “What do you think of the pirates, Aunt Gena?”

  There was complete silence for a long moment. The older elf kept the gaze of the younger and would not release it. “I’m not sure what I think of them yet, but I do know that I’m also not entirely sure that what we’re doing is right. These people don’t appear to be anything like our old enemy. And the way they treated you seems to confirm that.”

  The two continued to look each other in the eye—neither sure what level of commitment the other held. Aunt Gena broke her gaze first and opened up the top of one of her equipment bags. She pulled a book from it and tossed it over to her niece.

  It wasn’t a book written in any language that Anace knew. The title was in strange lettering that seemed harsh and square compared to normal elven script. But the title held her attention for only a moment as her gaze fell on the black and white illustration under it. She recognized the main figure there easily: it was Sajani or at least was very much supposed to be. The ponytail she kept her hair in and the armor, although it was missing a bit in rather odd places, were surprisingly accurate. There were at least a couple of other things that were way out of proportion. Sajani was swinging from a rope onto the top of a moving behemoth. “What is this?”

  “It’s a book that was making the rounds with our linguists. It was printed somewhere in Zenache and written by a Fenther Black, who claims to know Sajani well. You mentioned a Zenachen there named Fenther, do you think it’s him?”

  Anace almost blushed. From what little she’d heard, “Yes, most likely.” The cover seemed to make it more likely. “Can you read it?”

  Aunt Gena laughed, “Not enough to make any sense of it. I’m just learning their alphabet. But the title is Sajani and the Behemoths of Gold.”

  Anace laughed. “Am I in there?”

  “I’m not sure, but I hope not. Sestus would have a conniption. Is that really what she looks like?”

  “Um…” Anace wasn’t sure how to say it to her aunt.

  “That’s what I thought.” Aunt Gena said crisply. “It’s what she looks like in some man’s fantasy.”

  “Yes,” Anace agreed. “Her armor is much more practical and she’s more…”

  “Realistically proportioned?”

  The younger elf blushed. “Yes.” She wouldn’t have been embarrassed at all talking about this to someone other than her aunt.

  “It will probably sell more copies in Therfass this way.”

  Anace was shocked by that. “In Therfass? How will it get there?”

  “I’m not sure, but the word is that at least a couple, already translated into elvish, have been sighted there. General Sestus is demanding that the Senate take swift action and destroy all copies, but so far, they haven’t really said anything about it.”

  Anace laughed and then yawned.

  “I hear that he’s made to look rather stupid.”

  And that was the last thing that Anace heard as she finally fell asleep.

  Benayle yawned. The warship that Fort was showing them was impressive and far from boring. The gnome, Fillo, who would be the one to train Sajani and her crew on its use, managed to keep things interesting, if nothing else. But he’d been in these caves for over two weeks now and it was getting high time to return home.

  Fort smiled. “It’s fairly technical, but unless you’re working on one, you don’t need to remember all this. I promise I won’t make you pass a test before you can take it with you.”

  Benayle nodded. “I enjoy things like this very much and I’m very impressed with the magic that it uses. That invisibility thing… what did you call it?”

  “It’s not really invisibility, so we call it cloaking. It obscures and makes it hard for people to see clear features.”

  “Yes that,” Benayle said with a hint of fatigue still in his voice. “I think that will help Sajani a lot.”

  “People will think they’re seeing a cloud or a flock of birds or something,” Fillo piped in. “And it won’t show anything at all on high elven radar.”

  Benayle had no idea what the last part meant, but he smiled and said, “That will be especially useful.”

  Fort laughed out loud. “We’ll get her secured and ready to ship. She should fit just fine on the dirigible you’re using. No one but you, Simon and Fillo will know what it is by the time we have it packed. Did you have any other questions about it?”

  “How many wolves is it going to take to fly it?”

  “It takes a minimum crew of 10, but it’s designed to hold up to 30 more for ground or ship to ship missions. We found them very effective for moving troops into hard to reach places. The fercar really hated this model. They knew it as the ‘stalker’ class.” Fort told him.

  “And what did you call it?” Simon said, still in a state of awe.

  That brought more laughter from Fort, who seemed to be predisposed to laughing. “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I don’t remember. Once we found out what our enemy was calling it, we adopted the name.”

  “Must be one you used a lot,” Simon said.

  “Yes. While there were many upgrades and changes on other war machines, we didn’t find we had to do many changes, outside of advancing our magic and runes, on this one. If I remember right, it didn’t originally have a shield rune, but once they got cloaking to work, they added it. I got my start as a sailor on one and eventually commanded one myself.”

  “Worked your way up from the bottom, huh?” Benayle said with a little admiration in his voice. “I know how difficult that can be.”

  The compliment brought a broader smile to the one that was already on Fort’s face. “I wish we could build one of our carriers for you, but we haven’t been able to rework the runes for one yet.” The high commander was beaming in evident nostalgia, “The one I commanded before my injury could hold twelve of these stalkers. The fercar would lose their shorts if they saw one of those here on Terah.”

  Simon looked to be on the verge of hyperventilating during the description of the carrier. “How splendid it must have been to see one of those cresting the horizon.”

  There was a nod of agreement from Fort. “Even better to be at the helm as the sun rose behind you, but yes.”

  “You said it would fit on our dirigible. I thought we were just flying it back over,” Benayle said.

  That made Fillo burst into giggling laughter. “She’s not really built for that.”

  The smile on Fort’s face got a little broader. “She can stock provisions for a full crew for up to a month, but her top speed is not that fast. You’ll be better off on the dirigible—and safer.”

  Safer? That worried Benayle more than a little. “Safer than?” he prompted.

  “Terah’s oceans are much more violent than ours were. Our shipwrights aren’t sure how your tides will affect some of the runes.”

  “Makes sense,” Benayle lied. It was an air ship, not an ocean liner. What did tides have to do with it?

  Fort laughed again. “If there’s nothing else you need to know, we’ll start getting her stripped and secured for her journey. I have some packing to do myself, if I’m to meet you in Vharkylia.”

  “I’d give you a big welcome if you people weren’t so secretive.”

  No response came from the elf.

  Benayle looked over at Simon, who had watched the whole tour in misty-eyed silence. The vykati had no idea what that was about. The conman simply nodded and so the wolf leader told Fort, “Bring it around for us.”

  As he was turning to leave however, he couldn�
�t help but notice that something crucial was missing from the construction site that would make it very difficult to transfer the ship over to the dirigible—there was no sky. “How do you get it out of here?”

  “Well, not through the gates you entered by,” Fort replied reassuringly.

  The gnome spoke almost too quickly, “There’s a passage not far from here that opens right out to the ocean. We cloak it too.”

  Benayle turned to Simon. “Ready Mr. Francis?”

  “Ready, Mr. Ramisa.”

  Ok. He had deserved that. The two made their farewells and walked back out of the elven complex. Just as they were passing through the final gate, Benayle caught movement in his peripheral vision. He turned to face the motion and noticed that Simon had apparently seen it too.

  Prince Rameum walked from behind a nearby stairwell and greeted them. “Good evening gentlemen. I’m surprised to see you here. I’d have thought that you’d be getting ready for the farewell gala that Empress Rosa is holding tonight in your honor.” The dwarf approached them and shook their hands.

  Benayle wanted to say, “Didn’t plan on going, myself,” but Simon interrupted him.

  “We’re on our way now to get ready, but Benayle likes to get out and away from the busy city every now and again. We were told this was a fairly out of the way and safe place for that.”

  “That it is,” Prince Rameum said cheerfully. “Although, I hope it won’t be that way for too much longer. The last of the measurements were just taken. I’m looking to expand some hotels and restaurants out this way. I’m even testing the waters to see if there’s any demand for vykati cuisine, what do you think?”

  “I’d try a vykati pastry shop, if I were you,” Benayle suggested truthfully. “I’m not sure the dwarven palette is ready for our more exotic spices.”

  “Ugh,” Prince Rameum made an expression of disgust. “Wheat flour and sugar? Too light and sweet. I was more thinking along the lines of lots of meat with few vegetables and a healthy amount of curry, aniseed, and masala.”