by Guy Antibes
“How many armies will engage Covial?” Pol said.
“Three. North Salvan, Taridan, and an army raised in eastern Boxall.”
“How many total troops?”
The sentry looked at Pol and shrugged.
“Guess how many troops,” Pol said.
“Ten to fifteen thousand.”
Pol nodded and put the man back to sleep. “If he speaks the truth, we have to hurry to Covial.”
“What if there are more?” Shira said.
Pol held up his hand. “Demeron find us. There are horses coming.” He took Shira’s hand and ran away from the camp. As they ran, Pol said, “Demeron, tell the other spies to retreat, now.”
Pol heard Demeron’s hooves, and as they mounted, he heard the enemy riding. Pol counted thirty men heading directly for them.
“Go directly west,” Pol said. “Maybe they will think we are from Redearth.”
They did not have the time to use the rune book if Demeron could communicate with all the horses, but three were out of his range. They stopped just long enough for Shira to write out ‘retreat.' Pol’s wrist glowed in the dark, so the Sisters knew it was time to withdraw.
The horses stopped to find the sentries and then split up.
“They are looking for us in the woods,” Pol said. “We continue to head west and then directly south to the bridge.”
With more messages sent to the spies, the attempt to capture them had given them the opportunity to stop the Sisters. Only one had engaged and learned that there were three armies.
“You didn’t need your invisibility,” Shira said as they finally halted, waiting for the Sisters to return.
“And a good thing. They were able to detect the sentries going down. The mind ward might have been modified to send a signal to the magician who places it.”
Shira nodded. “Perhaps they had wards in the forest that we couldn’t see.”
Pol smiled. “I suppose you can bury wards, can’t you? I didn’t think of that. There were none out in the open.”
“Can they locate?” Shira asked.
“Possible. If that’s the case, there are few who can, since the other Sisters didn’t experience a counter-strike.”
Shira frowned. “If they can locate, then they can track us all the way to Covial.”
Pol tweaked a location pattern as far as he could and barely detected a few dots towards where they encountered the sentries.
“No one is following us,” Pol said.
The first Sister showed up and reported. While the other Sisters were arriving, Pol continued to monitor the space around them. He sent the Sisters to the bridge. There were three more to show up, and in less than an hour, with the sun barely pushing up from the horizon, the rest of them arrived and galloped to the bridge.
The army had support troops ready to dismantle the bridge from the northern segments to the southern edge. Pol thanked them for their work as he trotted across last, behind Shira.
His foray into the enemy camp had been a failure. None of them was able to penetrate far, but at least they came back with a better idea of who they faced. Now he wondered what plans the other West Huffnyan armies had made.
The Shinkyan columns had one more river to cross before they headed east to Covial.
~
The walls of South Salvan’s capital jutted up from the surrounding buildings outside the wall. Pol noticed workers demolishing structures close to the battlements. Pol liked Covial, except Tishiko and Kitanga spoiled his enjoyment of the city’s unique architecture. The vast Shinkyan army marched behind him. They entered through the Southwest gate into Covial proper and would be exiting to the Northwest, the same gate that Pol had used when headed for the Tesnan army nearly six years ago.
The Winnowers had not crossed the river yet. Pol wondered if their foray had given the Winnower generals pause. He would have to communicate with General Biloben once he reached the city. He hoped General Nokima’s Shinkyan army had met up with him by now. Biloben might have a better reason why the Winnowers would risk fifteen thousand soldiers taking Covial, so far from any other strategic city.
The soldiers marched through Covial to cheers from the citizens.
“It’s quite a bit different than when the Bureaucracy’s forces had to walk the city streets dressed as Imperials,” Shira said.
Pol watched the crowds. “Maybe it’s momentary behavior. When the war is over, the need to fit in might return.”
“When the war is over, anything can happen.”
Pol looked over at Shira. “I know what I want to have happen,” he said.
Shira smiled and reached with her hand. Pol took it and squeezed. “We are the best of allies,” she said.
Pol nodded.
Fanira rode to Pol’s side. “It’s time to say goodbye, for now.”
“Are you certain you don’t want to meet Queen Isa?”
“I hope there will be time for that, but I need to tuck my children into bed.” She saluted and led the soldiers down a different road.
“Remember when Horker’s lieutenant did that, taking the Tesna soldiers out of the city? I guess history repeats itself.”
Pol smiled. “Not always, and when it does repeat, circumstances are generally a bit different. At least that’s the way it is in the Imperial histories Farthia Wissingbel made me read.”
Pol led Shira to the side of the road. He watched the soldiers pass him, giving them a Shinkyan-style salute many times. Paki, Fadden, Ako, and Nirano lined up on the other side of Shira. Shira waved to them as they called out to their princess.
A messenger slipped a note to Pol, followed by two servants providing a fruit punch to drink as they waited. A little later, the same servants returned with water for the horses.
The sky began to darken as the supply wagons rolled past. Pol led them towards the castle that loomed at the end of the next road.
“That was hard on the horses,” Shira said.
“I know. Marching is hard for the troops,” Pol said.
You did the right thing, Demeron said. The horses I talked to appreciated you and me thanking them for their trek from Redearth.
“I stand corrected,” Shira said. “Amble agrees with Demeron.”
“I have to admit I read about a Baccusol General doing the same thing to inspire his troops,” Pol said.
“See? You can lead, if you put your mind to it,” Fadden said.
“I suppose so,” Pol said. Fadden had told him during their travels on the Volian continent that he was meant to lead, but Pol had always fought it. Now, he did not have a realistic choice if he wanted to keep the Empire together for his stepfather.
“There you are. I expected you for an early supper, but now it won’t be so early,” Queen Isa said, standing on the other side of the Castle Covial’s gate.
“We have brought reinforcements.”
“Your reinforcement dwarfs our standing army,” Queen Isa said. She waved her hand in front of her face. “We can talk about that as you eat. Come in. My people will take good care of your horses.”
Servants showed everyone to their rooms. Pol stayed in a suite he had not used before. Clothes were waiting, and in less than an hour, they all sat in the Queen’s Little Chambers. Pol remembered them as the King’s, but South Salvan did not have a king, at present.
Queen Isa sat at the head of the table with Pol and Shira on her left and right. She had food brought out when Paki came in last and let them eat for a bit before starting a conversation. Two Generals and Horker joined them.
“We have ten thousand armed men,” Queen Isa said. “They are billeted in the city and on the south side. General Trefort has a unit training Covial residents in arms. He started two years ago with the citizens outside the wall.”
“I didn’t know that,” Shira said.
The Queen laughed. “Well, you do, now. We spend tomorrow going over how to coordinate the attacks. We have rune books, but we need to talk about what we can do with them,�
�� she said.
“Tomorrow has to produce a working strategy. Once the Winnowers see an army as large as theirs defending the northwest access to the city, they may decide to attack before any more reinforcements arrive.”
“Did you strip Redearth?” the Queen said.
“We didn’t take a single Redearth soldier. There are five thousand trained fighters ready to repulse anyone coming in from the west, plus a herd of Shinkyan fighting horses.”
“Good. I have four thousand along the eastern border. They are all battle-hardened, fighting Grostin’s army for the last four years.”
They continued to talk about potential troop placement. Pol, Fadden, and Shira had hours of conversation with Fanira on troop deployment, and if they didn’t come to an agreement about what to do, the Shinkyans could fight on their own.
Pol was ready to retire when a servant ran in. “Sappers to the south. The buildings outside the wall are on fire.”
Queen Isa’s face hardened. “Come with me.”
They followed her around the castle to the southern side and looked at the conflagration below them.
“That’s a diversion,” Pol said.
“How can you be sure?” General Trefort said.
“Where are the support troops? Where are the soldiers fighting through the flames? I would deploy soldiers in the city to watch for more of this. We fight an enemy that can make a man do anything.” Pol turned to the Queen. “How are you doing with lodestone weapons?”
“We have swords, pikes, and arrowheads by the bushel inside lodestone-lined barrels. We also have boys with slings equipped with lodestone pebbles. Most of those are the sons of soldiers.”
Pol nodded. “We will leave you to maintain your city and prepare for an invasion tomorrow or the next day,” Pol said.
Back in his rooms, Pol magnetized the weapons he had brought with him into the castle. They would be ready to fight at a moment’s notice.
He broke out the rune books and began simultaneous conversations with Malden Gastoria, General Biloben, Akil, and General Nokima. They all talked until early in the morning. Biloben and the Shinkyans were two days from linking up. An Imperial detachment had destroyed the remnants of the Winnower army in West Huffnya.
Landon had injured himself in the fighting, but he would survive. Gula had taken personal care of him. The Daftinians were difficult to fight with their protection spells, but the Zasosian warriors helped tip the scales.
Pol wanted to leave the castle and join his troops, but his eyes were drooping. He needed to be fresh the next day.
He woke in the early morning and decided to walk the castle corridors. After arming up, he looked out the windows at the courtyards as he moved through the halls. The guards nodded to him.
A glance outside stopped him. He saw the flickering of flames in the stables. Pol didn’t know how to navigate down to the ground, so he opened a window, created an air pillow, and floated to the courtyard. He hadn’t done such a thing since he escaped from the Placement Bureau with Traxus’s wife, Sura.
He ran to the stable and found men fanning the flames. Pol pulled out splinters and began to stop those closest to the fire.
Men looked back into the darkness and saw him standing alone. They attacked him. Pol threw a pitchfork at one of the men, but the implement bounced off his shield. He pulled out his Demron sword.
“Stop!” he said, noticing the bodies of stable hands. “Demeron, break down the stalls and escape!” he yelled.
You don’t have to tell me that. We will save the horses. There is a back door we’ll remove, Demeron said. His horse was much calmer than Pol was.
The men advanced with smiles on their faces, thinking that wards protected them. Pol faced eight men armed with swords, knives, and torches as he heard wood splintering over the roar of the fire.
Pol tweaked a focused wind that blew the torches into the faces of the men. The protection wards did not protect against natural fire. As those men began to cry out, Pol engaged the rest. He danced his way through the fighters, not hesitating to use sips of magic to defeat them. None of the men was particularly adept.
The fire began to creep up the walls, but Pol knew the tweak to smother flames, and soon the stable filled with smoke. Men finally ran past him, carrying buckets.
“The burning stopped,” one said to Pol.
Horker joined him, dressed only in a pair of slippers and a pair of trousers. He rubbed sleep out of his eyes.
“We need to pull out those that are dead. I’m afraid the enemy killed the stable hands,” Pol said. He found a rag and dipped it in a water bucket that a man had brought in for the fire, and then Pol cleaned the blade and sheathed it.
The dawn brightened up the scene. The stable remained intact except for the stalls and doors that the horses had destroyed. Demeron stood at Pol’s side as he looked down at the long row of bodies. Fourteen men and boys had died, but two still lived. The stable master identified the dead. Only six of the bodies were unknown. The others had worked in the stable in the past year.
Horker returned with news of other fires, but the citizens were able to quench most of the conflagrations. Four fires still burned in the city.
“Set fires in the squares,” Pol said. “Show the Winnowers how successful they’ve been with smoke drifting all over the city.”
Horker grinned. “Good idea.” He ran off to get the misdirection started.
Pol sat on his haunches in front of one those he had spared. Healers sutured a long cut up his back. He put his hand on the man’s shoulder and saw the ward. This time he took some time to examine it.
In addition to the three brown lines, this one had blue spots at the end of each line. What could they do? Notify the Winnowers of the warded man’s death? Pol wouldn’t have time to know until the former stable hand awoke. Even then the injured man might not have any idea his mind had been controlled.
Shira stepped to his side and took his arm. “Are you all right?”
“No. I am very tired. I’m afraid I won’t get a good night’s sleep for a while.”
“And a good thing,” Queen Isa said as she walked up to join them. “My guards said you jumped out of a third-story window to save my stable.”
Pol smiled. “I didn’t fall if that’s what you’re concerned about. I used a little magic to cushion the ground.”
“Can you teach anyone else how to do that?”
Pol frowned. “I haven’t. Should I try?”
“Don’t you think it would be useful?”
Putting Shira and Loa and a sack of air and transporting the three of them away from the Magicians’ Fortress in The Shards came to his mind.
“It is a taxing spell, but we can try.”
“Then try.”
~
Pol didn’t have time to teach magic tricks to magicians, but after breakfast, he showed the Sisters and Queen Isa’s magicians how he tweaked an air pillow and let it gradually deflate as it took him down to the ground. The demonstration impressed them all.
Nirano, Paki’s girlfriend, and the Queen’s Magician were the only ones who could manage anything close to what Pol had done. They both had trouble holding the air pillow while they descended from standing on a table to the floor.
“You know the principal, so now you can practice,” Pol said. “It’s time to coordinate our forces.”
They spent the rest of the day going over various scenarios. The Blue General joined them in the afternoon. The Winnower forces gathered on the other side of the river but did not make a move to cross. Fadden suggested pickets for a few miles up and downstream past Covial’s east and west boundaries.
After coordinating rune books and force deployments, Queen Isa took them up to the tallest tower and let them see the Winnower forces gathering.
“I would say closer to ten thousand than fifteen,” General Trefort said.
“They probably think their protection spells will make up any difference,” Pol said.
“Eve
ry fighter in the field will have magnetic weapons.” Trefort pointed to catapult emplacements. “We have iron balls getting magnetized for the catapults, too.”
Pol did not know what else they could do until the enemy made a move. He looked at the field with his hand up to his chin, rubbing the stubble while he concentrated.
“How can we use the Shinkyan horses to our advantage?” he said.
“I have horse armor. We can make more. They can run through the city streets outside the wall in groups and trample the soldiers. The armor is front-facing, so they’ll have some protection.”
Pol looked some more. “That is one thing. We could hold them in reserve for flanking maneuvers, as well. I don’t want Covial residents injured if the horses turn down a street where the enemy isn’t.”
Queen Isa patted Pol on the shoulder. “Why don’t you see what your horse would rather do?”
Pol rubbed his eyes. He should have thought of that. “That is an excellent idea.” He called to Demeron and stepped away to a corner of the Queen’s war room to have a conversation.
“Demeron doesn’t want armor. The horses would rather be their own unit in the open field. They can more easily disrupt the enemy’s horses that way.”
“They can do that?” General Trefort said.
Pol nodded. “Shinkyan horses can do a lot of things.”
They stopped for dinner. Horker assured Pol that he had teams of soldiers monitoring the city streets for disruption.
“Send them our way, and we will shield them from being controlled. Queen Isa’s magicians can learn how to shield. Right now that is more important than air pillows,” Pol said, smiling at Queen Isa, who winked back at him. The woman was pragmatic enough to accept Pol’s comment.
After a night with reduced enemy activity, Pol dressed in armor. “It’s time to see to my troops,” he said to Queen Isa at breakfast in her study.
“Duke Pol, you have your sovereign’s permission.”
Pol bowed to her. “I can’t thank you enough for Redearth,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for a more perfectly-sized domain.”
“You don’t want to rule Eastril?”
Pol shook his head. “Handor and his father can do that. I’d rather be ready to help than be the one requesting it. I’ve got to get back to my army and get a sense for the battlefield.”