Only when he and the boy were safely in their meager hut, sitting around the fireplace with his wife and infant daughter, did the man dare believe he was truly safe. This time.
As Cerah spotted the spires of Senchen in the distance, she asked Tressida, “Can you see the port? Are the ships there?”
“Where else do you suppose they would be, silly?” asked the dragon, hoping that by keeping her tone light she could help her match-mate avoid the same foul humor into which her husband had fallen.
Slurr rode at the head of the marching army on an orange krast, with Ban on a much smaller light blue animal beside him. She had flown low over him several times to try and draw him out, but he didn’t feel much like talking, he’d told her. After her third attempt, he’d politely asked her to stop, telling her that Tressida’s great form flying so low was scaring the krast. After that she’d kept her position above him, followed by the full flight of wizards and the riderless dragons who overflew the rearguard. She wished he’d stop blaming himself for Surok’s decision to go to Kier, but she knew him well, and knew that he took the position to which she’d appointed him very seriously. Though he’d initially told her he did not feel qualified to be General of the Army, he was now fully just that, and held the lives of his fighters tenderly yet firmly in his hands. She knew he was fearing for Jessip, and the defenders of the Two Sisters, as the central cities of Kier were now called, since Reeze, the former third sister, was no more.
“He seems to be speaking with Ban,” Cerah said, ignoring Tressida’s comment. “That’s good, I suppose.”
“He does not believe he’s failed Ban,” Tress answered. “It’s you he believes he’s let down.”
“But I told him not to feel that way! The stupid lug! Why does he torture himself?”
“For the exact same reason you did when we first came to Niliph. You are the defenders of Quadar. You may be the Chosen One, Cerah, but Slurr is every bit as vital to the safety of our Green Lands. You both carry the weight of Quadar upon your shoulders, and that,” she said, “is a heavy, heavy burden. It has been a long time since you’ve called him that.”
“What, Lug? I call him that all the time.”
“Not Lug. Stupid,” said the dragon softly. “You know that is not true, Cerah. Slurr is brilliant.”
“Of course he is,” she said, almost dismissively. “But he is so damn stubborn.”
“There’s the egg calling the dragon oval,” Tressida said.
“What? What does that even mean? Your quaint dragon expressions are sometimes lost on me, love,” she said in reply. There was a hint of laughter in her mental voice, just as Tressida had hoped there would be.
“I was trying to gently point out that there is no one drawing breath on the Green Lands who is more stubborn than yourself. There I’ve said it.”
Cerah playfully swatted the dragon, laughing out loud as she did.
“Ouch! Match-mate abuse! I shall tell Parnasus.”
“Parnasus cannot hear you, dilly-head.”
Tressida laughed at hearing Cerah call her by that childish name, one that Cerah’s younger siblings often called one another. “I shall impress upon Dardaan that you are a wicked little girl, and need to be spanked!”
“I’m not sure that’s a concept he will understand,” Cerah argued, her spirit lightening almost without her realizing it as the two of them continued to banter back and forth.
Below them, the front of the column had reached Senchen, and was marching to the docks. Cerah knew that both her brother Martan and, now, her father were among the warriors, as Jerund had come with a large detachment from Harundy to join the main force. The remainder of her family was still in the port city on Illyria’s eastern coast. It both comforted her and worried her to have the adult men traveling with her to Kier. She would rather that her entire family was elsewhere. Somewhere safe, she thought. But then she realized there was no longer any such place on Quadar.
She flew on ahead of them, and spotted the Marta, the flagship of the armada. Renton was standing on the pier, next to the gangplank that led on board. As she slid off Tressida’s back and approached him, the warriors were already beginning to load themselves onto the vessel. All along the water front other ships were taking on passengers as well.
“Greetings, Cerah,” he said as she approached. He held his arms open and she accepted his embrace. “I have been worried about you since Thresh.”
“I am fine,” she said simply. “It is not I who needs your concern right now, it is your former deckhand.” She quickly told him all that had happened and explained that Slurr was bearing the responsibility for the miscalculation.
“The general is very gracious with his warriors,” the sailor said, scratching his close-cropped salt-and-pepper beard. “Far less so with himself.”
“Don’t I know it,” Cerah answered. As they talked Slurr stood directing his soldiers to head toward the various ships. He made every effort to show his people no trace of the guilt she knew he felt. He’d often told her that she could not let her followers know of her own self-doubt and reproach, which he’d many times had to help her work through.
“Perhaps we’ll talk more of my husband later,” she said at last. “But now we must talk about Kier. I need you to chart the fastest course east that you can.”
“West,” he answered.
“Pardon?”
“We’ll sail west, back the way we came. The trades through the channel between Sejira and Oz Qanoti will get us to Kier days sooner than if we head east.” When Cerah continued to look confused he laughed and said, “You do know the world is round, don’t you?”
Cerah burst out laughing. “Of course, I see!” she said. Illyria to Sejira to Kier is shorter than Illyria to Rethmira to Kier!”
“Very good. Your geography instructor should be commended.”
“Well you can commend him yourself when next you see him on Szalmi’s back.”
“Kern was your teacher?”
“My father did not place much value in sending his daughters to school. But Kern spent more than a little time with me and all my sisters seeing that they knew enough about the world in which they lived to at least make them more attractive to potential suitors. He always told my father that ‘an empty-headed girl will fetch far fewer and less worthy beaus than one with a trace of incisiveness.’”
“Well you are anything but empty-headed,” the Admiral said. As they continued talking, Slurr walked to join them.
“Good to see you, general,” he said to his friend.
“It’s always good to see you, Adaan,” said Slurr. He was the only person who called Renton by his first name, and indeed was the only one Renton would allow to do so.
“So, are we to be cabin-mates once more?” the sailor asked Slurr.
“It looks as though we shall, though I had not anticipated a sea voyage so soon,” the lad answered.
“The fortunes of war rarely turn as we would have them,” Renton said, placing his hand on Slurr’s shoulder.
In the time since the army had first sailed to the Frozen South, the admiral had been able to increase the size of his fleet to the point where the soldiers no longer had to travel in the horrid conditions that had characterized that voyage. Quarters were still less than spacious, to be sure, but were not cramped to the point that sickness ran through the ranks, taxing the wizards who then had to counter the illness or nurse them back to health.
Though the process of loading the entire army aboard the many ships took longer than Slurr wished, in actuality it went quickly and efficiently.
The army had marched hard from Trakkas, as had the units from Xaxar and Harundy which had hurried to join it, and the voyage would provide all the warriors with some much-needed respite, especially considering what he anticipated was waiting for them on Kier. Cerah watched him as the final preparations were being made. He spoke calmly to his captains, and even managed a laugh or two, but she could see the lines around his perfect blue eyes w
ere deep with concern and she knew the mirth was forced. As she looked at his face, the same face that filled her dreams every night, she could see that the war was aging him. He had only recently turned nineteen, still a boy by most anyone’s reckoning. But his visage was becoming careworn and he looked far older. Had she not learned to control herself, she would have hated Surok anew for this fact alone.
“Cerah,” he said, startling her from her reverie. “I think Ban should fly with you. He’s hale and hearty, but I’d rather he stayed above the waves, and not packed onto the ships.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “It will give me more time to get to know him.”
“He is quite a character,” her husband said, offering her the first smile she’d seen directed her way since they’d left Trakkas, but even this betrayed as much sadness as it hid. It did not carry the joyous, carefree brightening of his face that she so loved.
“It is a little more challenging moving the warriors from Senchen than it is from Harundy,” Renton said, “as the harbor is much smaller. But we’ve done well. We can set sail at your command.”
Ban had joined them and Slurr explained that he’d be flying with Cerah. He climbed onto the dragon’s back, quite easily, Cerah noticed. Perhaps we’ll make a rider of him yet, she thought.
“Admiral, let’s move,” she said.
“As you wish,” he replied, now from the deck of the Marta. All around the gangplanks were being pulled up and anchor chains could be heard rattling.
She hopped up behind Ban, and said, “Well, little brother, are you ready to see Kier?”
“Yes. I hear it is one of the greenest of the Green Lands,” he said.
I hope when we arrive that is still the case, thought Cerah as Tressida took flight.
Part II
Confrontation
15
The General’s Despair
All those humans, left behind, thought Surok. How delightfully their blood would have cascaded down my arms, across my chest! My Silestra and their sons could have feasted until they could cram no more man-flesh into their bellies.
But that idiot boy has taken his toy soldiers to the plains of Kier, and the witch, if she is not already with him, will be soon. I do not imagine for a moment that imprisoning her in my former home will keep her away for long. So many things conspire against me! First her piddling magic. He touched the scar that ran down the front of his body, where Cerah’s spell had cut him. It still hurt, but he found the pain stimulating, and he dragged a claw across it to heighten the sting.
I did not believe her paltry powers could even touch me. I was wrong. But it amounted to little more than an irritation. I will yet bask in the dark beauty of her suffering. For though the wizards may have found their “Chosen One” she is not the savior they believe her to be. Even the turncoat doubts her, he thought, glancing to his left, where Zenk and Balthus flew a sizable distance behind him.
She should have frozen to death on the mountain! Why would the Mother send her armor to the lair when she dressed her in the black shroud? Of all places! Why not to the bottom of the sea? Why not into the caldera of a spewing volcano? So many things conspire against me!
Surok glanced below to the water and saw his black ships. He had summoned them into existence, watched them form, one ebony, pitch-covered board after another, rising from the icy waters, not three hundred miles from the bay where the foolish humans had anchored their boats when they climbed to find his lair empty. He laughed at the thought of the witch’s face. It sounded like thunder tearing the sky in half.
On the decks and in the holds of the huge vessels were crammed the whole of his army. One hundred thousand creatures of darkness. Never had he allowed the vermin to know the full strength of his forces. Never, until now.
It is time to rid myself of this troublesome horde! If they have gathered on Kier, thinking my forces are greatly diminished, then I shall unleash every beast that I command, and will wipe them from the surface of my planet once and for all. When they are gone, and I no longer have to deal with them flitting from one place to the next, harassing my myrmidons and slowing my progress, I shall begin to take my time. I shall truly begin to enjoy myself. We shall pass leisurely, like a shadow over a green field, and my children shall feast upon the ever-dwindling numbers of the pitiful creations of the Mind from Above. And when they are extinct, I shall let my offspring feed upon the Mother’s tiresome karvats. How much grander are my Silestra! And how proud their sons! To think that human blood flows through their veins as they rip and devour their own half-kin!
Again Surok’s laughter divided the gloom that followed wherever he traveled, splitting the air around him. He saw the wizard cover his ears at the booming, and that made him laugh even harder.
Eventually there will be nothing left for them to eat. They will turn upon each other, the strongest consuming the weakest, until at last even the mightiest of my creatures will wither and starve. And as they writhe in agony at my feet I shall smile down upon them, relishing every instant of their suffering.
And then at last there shall be only me. I will have wiped every trace of the weakling Sky Mind’s work from the planet. And here I will remain for eternity. Alone on a rock made desolate by my hand.
It will be glorious!
As he soared across the sea on the mighty Orzo, Surok saw the continent Rethmira to the north. Soon, he thought as he continued on course. He had chosen to bring his forces to the sparsely populated Kier via Rethmira’s southern coast, and thereby not have to come close to Melsa. Although the day would come when the wizards, too, would be exterminated, Surok did not wish to approach their homeland yet. The Sky Mind’s influence on that place was offensive to him.
Surok thought now of the paltry Army of the Light. How their eyes will open wide! How their mouths will gape in horror! My full legion, marching to squash them, as I, the mighty Surok, fly above, allowing Orzo to kill the dragons even as the grieving wizards still sit atop their plummeting corpses! Ah, but I shall give special attention to the two wizards who grieve me most. Parnasus, who stood beside his master as the fiend incased me in the blue prison that slowed my conquest by a thousand years! And Kern. Though he is little more than a minor irritation, it was he who identified the witch, and brought her to Melsa. These two will suffer greatly.
And then I shall face the witch herself. On my terms, and in my time. Orzo will make short work of her precious golden worm, and I will snatch her out of the sky, and slowly pull her apart, dining upon every scream, and then dining upon her flesh itself!
Surok’s excitement was too great to contain. For the next hour Zenk kept his hands tightly clasped against his throbbing ears, as Surok’s laughter was unceasing. The demon sent lightning from his clawed fingers, just for the joy that watching it tear through the clouds gave him.
A hundred miles to the north, people living on the shores of Southern Rethmira shut and locked their windows, and drew closed the shutters. The distant storm they heard was far fiercer than any they could remember, and should it change its track, they prayed they could keep the interiors of their houses dry and their roofs intact.
The Army of Quadar had been at sea for three days. As the second watch came on duty across the many ships of the Armada, Renton relinquished the helm of the Marta to Krigar, his long-time first mate. After a thorough walk around the ship, he was satisfied that everything was in order, and he retired to his cabin.
There he found Slurr, seated at the rough table on which Renton kept his sea charts and logs. The lad had been there since they’d left Senchen, refusing to come outside, even to talk to his wife, who repeatedly flew down and asked Renton about his state of mind. He was drinking a tall tankard of rum.
“Slurr, that grog is supposed to be for the entire crew! At the rate you’re going they’ll taste not a drop of it.”
The general, who was staring intently at a scar on the table’s ancient woodwork, did not look up. “I’ve left plenty,” was all he said. H
e pointed in the general direction of a small cask, which Renton shook. It was nearly empty.
Renton pulled a chair alongside Slurr’s and sat next to him. For several minutes he said nothing. When Slurr neither looked at him, nor even acknowledged that Renton was there, the admiral lost his temper. Grabbing the sleeve of Slurr’s shirt, his shook his friend forcefully. “Damn it, Slurr! This is not good! You cannot stay holed up in this cabin and drown yourself in grog! We have another handful of days at sea before we reach Kier. By then you will have drunk yourself into a coma! What then shall I do? Bring your lifeless body to your wife to heal and exercise the poison from your blood? I cannot even carry you, you great lout! It will take three men to drag you from this table.”
Slurr didn’t stir. Renton, frustrated beyond his boundaries, reached out and roughly slapped the large lad. Finally, Slurr looked up from the table, his heavily-lidded eyes narrowed to angry slits. “I should break your neck!” he growled.
“Do it! Beat me! Kill me, I don’t care. Just get off your pathetic ass, man! Do something! What good could you possibly think will come from acting like this? Do you think your self-destruction will send Surok back to Stygia? Or to the Frozen South? For the love of God, Slurr, what’s done is done! So your plan backfired. So what!”
“’So what?’ Are you mad or just stupid, Adaan? My brilliant tactical mind put in place a plan that not only did not see our enemy fall into our hands, but sent him to the other side of the world.”
“It was a good plan, Slurr,” Renton said, his voice softening. “It just didn’t materialize. So you will confront Surok’s fiends on Kier instead of Illyria. Perhaps that is better. There are far less people on Kier to be caught up in the fighting. Do you think yours is the first plan to fail?”
Slurr looked unsteadily at his friend, but did not answer.
“Do I have to remind you of another strategy which failed, far more disastrously than yours?”
A Single Candle Page 23