“How many people did we lose?” Ava asked, shivering from both the cold, and the thought of being burned alive.
“We lost eleven,” she said sullenly.
“Only eleven? Then where are the others? There were more prisoners than this when our group was captured.”
She looked sick as she said, “I didn’t include everyone in my plans to escape.”
Ava raised an eyebrow at that. “Why?”
“I took one of Pa’s biggest lessons to heart. I tried to read people. The plan didn’t take that long to put together. But making sure only the right people came with us was what was important.”
“Right people?”
“Many of the prisoners would have either gotten word to the Geneshans of our escape in the hopes of winning favor with them, or they just wouldn’t want to leave. Many couldn’t believe that the free food and drink would end in our deaths.” She paused. “A few others were in poor health and we don’t have a good way to care for them. It was hard to leave them behind.” She looked up. “Do you think Pa would have done the same?”
“I really don’t know. But he’d be proud to know how hard the decision was for you. I am too. You did better than I could have done.”
Myra’s demeanor brightened some.
Ava looked around the cave once more, then changed the subject to something lighter. “You never said how you found this place.”
“Abigail.”
“Abigail?”
“Dinah said her connection to animals was getting stronger so I convinced her to let me test it. Turns out Abigail can do quite a lot if she tries hard enough. I had her direct any creature that would respond to her to look for some place near the river where we could hide. A couple days ago, she found a river rat creeping into this place. I thought it was perfect. The smoke and confusion covered our escape, and we destroyed our tracks to the river. If anyone still finds them, they’ll think we either tried to swim to the other side, drifted downstream, or drowned. No one will expect us to hide so close to camp.”
“And the one person who could have found us was the Master Sorcerer.”
“Who’s dead.”
Ava gave Myra a hug. “Tyrus would definitely be proud. I know I am.”
“Thanks.” Then she stepped back with a look of interest. “Tell me about the sorcerer.”
Ava recounted the details, making sure to say how well Zadok did. “Kid surprised me. He didn’t hesitate with the guard or the sorcerer.”
Myra glanced over to where he slept while Damaris looked after him.
Ava continued. “Doesn’t really seem to be affecting him mentally. At least for now. He’s got more mettle than I gave him credit for.”
Myra grunted. “I guess we both take after Pa in our own ways.”
“Your mother was no slouch either. Tyrus would have never been with a woman too scared to act. The fact that Lasha left everything behind and moved to a strange land for the man she loved should say that she wasn’t one who frightened easily.”
“You’re right. The more we go through, the more I see how strong she was.” She sighed. “I miss her.”
“I do too.”
Footsteps sounded above them. Everyone’s heads turned upward as Geneshan voices sounded near the opening at the top of the hill. Myra gestured for everyone to remain calm and quiet. After a few moments the Geneshans left and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, especially Ava.
The spell held.
Ava asked. “What do you think our next course should be?”
She felt weird asking the question. After all, wasn’t she supposed to be in charge?
But she watched the way Myra stepped into the question, opening her mouth to answer rather than shying away or deflecting back to Ava.
Look at her. This was it. The thing that pushed her to act, to step up and lead when needed.
Ava had no intention of fully relinquishing command. However, it was good to know that she didn’t have to shoulder that burden alone. She found herself starting to trust Myra as she had her brother.
Myra said. “I thought we’d stay here until the Geneshans leave. We managed to grab enough food and water in our escape that we can hold out for several days, though I doubt we’d need to be here that long. After that, we should probably keep heading north for another couple days before turning east and then trying south again.”
“Why can’t we just head south? If we get away from the river, we shouldn’t run into many other forces.”
“Not necessarily. I learned that there are more smaller forces out and about than we had thought. They’re coming from all over. Some are just a few squads like the one that had Chadar and Galya while others are a couple hundred strong.”
“Who’d you learn that from?”
“Chadar and Galya. They understand Geneshan better than most. Had to learn it so they could expand their trade routes. They put themselves in positions to overhear a lot of the officers talking. The rest came from snippets brought in by others, especially Beulah.”
“She worked at the Soiled Dove, right?”
Myra nodded grimly. “She was always very persuasive with the customers. Had them leaving tips for everybody, even those they didn’t bed. That’s a skill that comes in handy.”
Ava remembered that hard focused look she saw in Myra from across the river.
When she gets determined, she gets determined.
“Anything else interesting that you learned?”
“A few things. Only one you’ll care about.”
“Which is?”
She finally grinned again, the first since she hugged them after entering the cave. “Pa’s winning.”
Ava couldn’t hid her eagerness when she asked, “What have you heard?”
“All sorts of things. A force of several hundred were destroyed. Nothing left but a massive crater and the bones of the dead. Then there was this battle where over fifteen hundred died. Wiped out just about everyone, but a few stragglers. No quarter was given. There’s been a bunch of skirmishes and smaller battles since then and Pa’s army is winning them all. Convincingly.”
Ava beamed with relief, then pride. He should have led the army during the Geneshan War. The thing might not have taken ten years to resolve.
“What are the Geneshans saying about it?”
“Some are shaken, but not many. They keep saying that the army they’ll field at Hol will be so large and powerful, it will destroy the one Pa is attached to with ease.”
“How many will they have at Hol?”
“Twenty thousand is what I kept hearing.”
Ava spat. “Twenty thousand? Balak had what, twenty-five hundred? Curse the gods.”
“Yeah, the odds won’t be good,” she said nonchalantly. “Even if Balak gets reinforcements, I doubt he got that many.”
“You don’t seem as concerned as I’d expect. Zadok rubbing off on you?”
“Maybe. But I know numbers don’t mean everything. And based on the snippets of strategy I’ve caught, I can tell Pa is the one in command. That’s partly what’s gotten some of the Geneshans shaken. They can’t plan for what the army will do next. The strategies are never the same.” She smiled again. “Pa’s going to keep his promise.”
If anyone could keep it with everything stacked against them, it would be Tyrus.
Myra gave Ava another hug. “I’ll be back. I just need to check on a few things.”
Ava studied her. Myra had taken control of planning their escape, and had already thought about their next several steps. As her niece moved about the cave checking on people, people looked at her much differently than before. They admired or respected her.
And she’s checking on them not because I told her to, but because she knows she needs to.
She’s leading. Ao-be-damned, Tyrus, how about that
?
CHAPTER 34
Ava waited with her back to their group. She kept her attention mostly on land, trying to detect any irregularities while occasionally casting a look to a set of trees Damaris had gone behind.
Myra had insisted on interrogating the recently captured prisoner alone. Ava refused. She didn’t have an issue with her safety. The prisoner was bound, and Myra was armed. Ava’s issue was with the idea of Myra interrogating anyone. All she kept thinking about was what Tyrus would say if he knew.
Ava had interrogated most other prisoners herself as of late, but doing so left their group vulnerable to detection since it became more difficult to work a spell while trying to probe someone for information.
Especially with so many of the enemy crawling about.
Though their band had been on the run, struggling ever forward, they had garnered a fair amount of news from the enemy. It had not been their intention to become a small company, but a lack of supplies after escaping the Geneshans forced them into becoming one. They began to attack smaller enemy units in order to steal their food and water. She was glad Tyrus had trained them in basic tactics and fighting after leaving Denu Creek, something she had continued as best as she could on the road.
With Myra’s contributions in strategy, Ava’s sorcery, and others in the group stepping up, they managed to avoid the larger Geneshan forces, while taking out smaller squads roaming about. They had not lost one person in five straight ambushes, yet they gained enough supplies that most everyone carried at least a light pack of food and other essentials.
After each ambush, Ava questioned one or more of the Geneshans in the hopes of gleaning information about troop movements or more specifically about recent battles. Twice they managed to coax information out that was clearly a sign of Tyrus’s handy work.
I wonder if Balak finally handed the reigns over to him.
She looked to the woods again, concerned about what was taking Damaris so long.
I wonder what Tyrus would say about me using her?
Thankfully, I won’t get an answer to that any time soon. She paused in her thoughts, sullen. Perhaps never.
Myra was certain that Tyrus would return to them, but Ava was not nearly so confident in his promise. She was supposed to keep Myra and Zadok safe, and most importantly, get them to the Southern Kingdoms.
It seemed that each day ended with her further from each of those things.
They had been captured, on the run, involved in dangerous situations, and forced to fight and kill Geneshans. To top everything off, they were so far north that she wondered why she even bothered keeping up the appearance of heading to the Southern Kingdoms. Perhaps she should just accept the inevitable and head to Balak’s army. At least then when the artifact went off that final time, they’d die with friends and family.
If they’re alive.
She shook away that thought yet again.
Ava fidgeted aimlessly as she tried to stretch herself and work a cold spell while maintaining the other spells meant to conceal their location. The new spell was completely different in nature which is why she practiced it so earnestly, hoping that the challenge might spark a greater connection of sorcery to draw on. So far, she had to admit, her practice had paid off. The effort also took her mind off some of her worry.
“Still not back, huh?” asked Nason, coming up beside her.
Myra was a few steps behind him.
Ava grunted. “Clearly you have a knack for observation.”
“Laugh it up. Just trying to start a conversation is all.”
“Then say what’s really on your mind,” snapped Ava.
She hadn’t meant to take that tone with Nason, but she was growing anxious while waiting on Damaris. She was glad that he knew her well enough not to take her response personally.
“I don’t like her out there by herself.”
“That’s not what’s really on your mind. You’re not upset so much because she’s out there by herself, but because of what she’s doing.”
“Well, yeah. I should have gone instead.”
“No offense, Nason, but you don’t have the stomach for it.”
He looked hurt, but didn’t deny the accusation.
He’ll fight and pitch in. And I’m sure he’d do anything for his kids, but what’s needed when questioning the enemy is something else entirely.
“Tyrus wouldn’t like this,” Nason finally added.
“No, he probably wouldn’t.”
“Is this really the best that we can do? Forget about me, some of the other men could have done it instead of Damaris.”
Ava shook her head. “Funny how none of them stepped up to volunteer, isn’t it?”
He sighed.
Killing a man in battle is one thing. Willing to hurt someone when they’re unable to do you wrong back is another thing entirely.
“I take your silence as concession?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He clicked his tongue, then snorted. “You know, you always had a way of putting me in my place back when we were kids.”
Some of Ava’s anxiousness fell away. She started to grin. “So why break tradition now?”
He chuckled, but stopped as Myra pointed and said, “Here she comes.”
Damaris’s face was set hard into a frown, but not necessarily grim.
Did she not have to go far to get what she needed? Or did she not have the guts to go far enough?
Ava hoped for the former.
“Well?” Ava asked when Damaris neared.
“Bad news. We’ve got several sorcerers on our trail.”
“What?” Ava sputtered.
“Apparently our activity the past few days has drawn some attention. The group we just took out was scouting us for a larger one about a half day behind. Their mission is to eliminate us before turning toward Hol. They’ve got a Master Sorcerer tracking us.”
Ava swore. “What? How in the name of Ao did so many of them survive when I nearly died after the first eruption?”
“It gets better. That group isn’t alone. Several more are coming our way as well. At least four small companies, all with a sorcerer of some magnitude and numbers bigger than ours.”
Ao-be-damned. Multiple sorcerers, including a master, and a few hundred enemy soldiers. Can we ever catch a break?
Nason said, “We can’t be that big of a nuisance.”
“You sure?” asked Myra. “We’ve killed over sixty of their men since our escape.”
“But in comparison to the hundreds they have chasing us, it doesn’t make sense. Especially when they’re trying to converge on Hol.”
Myra worked her jaw. “It does if they think we’re part of Balak’s army.”
Ava raised an eyebrow.
“Pa keeps winning. They’re looking into every single angle and not taking any of it for granted. They wonder if our presence isn’t part of some larger, more important plan. To them, it’s better to eliminate us now rather than us come back later to haunt them.”
“That’s a strong possibility,” said Ava. She addressed Damaris. “Well, you got a lot out of that one. Even if it wasn’t what we wanted to hear.”
Damaris shrugged. “Didn’t really have to do much either. He was eager to talk. Especially about his god, Beel. He wanted to let me know that Beel was angry and we were going to be punished. He told me all that other stuff because he said that having the information now would only make us suffer more before our deaths.”
“Lovely,” said Nason.
He looked over his shoulder to where his kids stood around Zadok, sharing some dried beef.
A grim stillness hung over them.
The hard decisions are only beginning.
“All right,” said Ava. “If we have an army that’s half a day behind us, we need to get moving. Thoughts?”
&
nbsp; Myra met her eyes. “We should head north.”
“North?” asked Nason, turning back around.
“Yes,” Myra answered.
“I thought the idea was to avoid the Geneshans, not to keep heading to where more will be.”
“The idea is to stay alive. Those behind us know what paths we have to take to get south. The routes they’d least expect us to use are those that go north. Any army already ahead of us won’t be as concerned with our movement as they are with Balak’s army.”
Damaris cleared her throat “So we’re going to head north, then turn away after those pursuing us decide it isn’t worth following us because they’ll miss out on the big battle at Hol?”
Myra shrugged. “That’s possible. Doesn’t seem like them to give up on us though.”
“It isn’t,” said Ava.
“Then what will we do?” asked Nason.
Myra met Ava’s eyes. “We could join Balak’s army. At that point, it will be our best option for protection.”
Or a surer way to die, Ava thought, considering the odds Balak would be facing soon.
Myra stared outward patiently. Ava knew her niece thought she was going to dismiss or bad mouth the proposals.
Molak’s rear, how can I? Why not just head that way? Tyrus will be pissed beyond all belief. Liable to kill me for taking his kids to such a dangerous position. But he’s also liable to hug me for getting to see them again.
“Ao’s teats, why not?” said Ava.
Eder came running up shouting. “Ava! We just killed a Geneshan scout about two miles back. We’ve got an army on our trail.”
“Sounds like that army is closer than the Geneshan said,” said Nason.
He, Damaris, and Myra raised their voices and shouted orders to move out double time.
Ava stopped the cold spell she had been attempting and instead put all efforts on strengthening her concealment spells.
Resurrected Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book Three Page 31