by Vance Moore
"Come on, Barrin. Your reinforcements from home are arriving at the landing field. You should be on hand to meet them. In fact, you better carry the welcome." Teferi snatched up wine and a fruit bowl and shoved them to Barrin. The wizard rose slowly but did not protest. Anything that lightened Teferi's mood was welcome.
The passengers began to disembark, and Shalanda, aide to Barrin's wife Rayne, was the first to touch ground. She was tall and garbed in rough clothing. Her skin was a deep brown and her features were weathered by exposure to the elements. Her hazel eyes widened in recognition, and she walked toward Barrin with her hands outstretched. The old wizard saw the woman behind her and handed Shalanda the food and drink as he walked by.
Rayne embraced Barrin, and they held each other as the rest of the passengers flowed around them. Barrin hugged his wife fiercely, nuzzling her dark hair. He felt younger as he looked at her. Appearing only in her thirties, Barrin wondered at the decades of love they had shared and the centuries that would be theirs. When they finally turned their eyes from each other, only Teferi still stood on the field. The planeswalker looked envious for just an instant before he stepped forward to clasp Rayne's offered hand.
"I am happy to see you, Rayne," Teferi said as he let go of her hand and gestured that they should enter the offices.
"You should have come to Tolaria more often, Teferi," Rayne replied as she grasped Barrin's hand.
"You know that I prefer to take Urza in small doses if possible," Teferi replied as they arrived at the strategy room.
"Urza is rarely there, Teferi," Barrin explained. "My wife and I manage Tolaria. In fact, this is the longest I have been off the island since we battled the Phyrexians for it." Barrin pulled out a chair for his wife. He stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. He could feel the tenseness in her muscles from hours in flight, and he massaged them. Rayne trembled slightly at the touch of his hands but reluctantly considered the maps and unit markers on the table.
"Barrin and I have been discussing a land campaign to the east," Teferi explained. "A counter invasion, so to speak. Barrin tells me that you will be ferrying equipment to support a Tolarian army in the field. When can we expect the first wave of forces?"
"We should see them arriving within the week." Rayne was oddly evasive, her eyes looking at the forces displayed and the long lines of advance that the two men had penciled in.
"We will have some difficulty integrating with League forces. As you can see, it will take weeks to concentrate the army on the frontier." Barrin reached for the list of towns and garrisons that would house the forward units even as he wondered what Rayne was hiding.
"Just what forces are you bringing?" Teferi asked.
"Two great dirigibles will be landing here. One with a cargo of light runners, the other with a load of power crystal and parts to help feed your own artificers. That's all." She seemed embarrassed to say it, and Barrin was stunned.
"Surely you mean that this is only the first flight, my dear?" Barrin asked. He thought of the tens of thousands of war machines stored on Tolaria and the terrible weapons that he had helped construct.
"There may be a few ornithopter flights of students, but the two loads of materials are all for now. The dirigibles will withdraw for a season, so you won't have them for transport," Rayne answered quietly and began to move a few unit markers on the board to represent the Tolarian forces.
"Why did Urza send so little?" Teferi wondered aloud.
"Urza considers all of Dominaria, not just a single continent. He has sent the equipment and students that he could spare." Rayne turned from Teferi and finished moving a last few markers.
Barrin tried to explain Urza's actions as he had so often over the years. "Teferi, I'm sure Urza has excellent reasons for what he has done-even as you have focused your attentions west and in the naval campaign." Barrin pointed at the coastal and river cities on which Teferi had lavished most of his attention.
"We are just beginning to realize how many troops and machines we will need to cover the frontier without committing any to combat. I am sure that his priorities will change once a clearer picture of our need is available." Barrin had counted on elite squads of war machines to head the offensive and provide him with an independent command.
"Teferi," Rayne said, "it is growing late, and it was an exhausting trip. This is also the first time my husband and I have met in months. Give us this night for reunion and leave the war for tomorrow."
"Of course." Teferi bowed to the couple as Barrin rose to escort his wife to his quarters. But even Barrin's joy at seeing Rayne after all this time couldn't drown his disappointment at the support he had received from home.
"Why did Urza send so little?" Barrin asked later. A lamp was burning on the nightstand beside his bed as Rayne unpacked her things. He could think of no reason for Urza to provide so little. He hoped that his wife could explain what was happening.
"I was never even able to speak to Urza. He reappeared on Tolaria in the middle of the night, read your dispatches, and ordered the limited reinforcement. He left before news of his arrival even reached me." Rayne shoved his clothing to the side of a wardrobe and began hanging her robes. Barrin watched as she integrated her things among his.
"If Urza isn't on the island, then what are you doing here? Who did he appoint in your place to oversee the academy and the factories?" Barrin could think of no one that he would trust to replace Rayne and her expertise.
"Urza gave no orders-I came on my own," Rayne answered simply as she pushed a large trunk of her things to the side of the room. Barrin's chest of drawers was too small to allow her to unpack more. She turned and set herself for the coming response.
"What! You left everything on a whim? Just picked up your luggage and came?" Barrin knew from bitter experience how vast and consuming the responsibility of command could be in managing Urza's extensive operations.
Rayne's reply was calm but as implacable as any juggernaut. "Do you really think that I would leave you alone out here knowing how little support Urza sent? That I would stay behind safe while you and the students I encouraged to volunteer went off to fight a war?" Rayne gazed with love but more than a little exasperation at her mate. "Besides, how can you possibly coordinate missions from this airbase, work with Teferi as an advisor, lead a detail of artifact troops, and maintain the intricate systems the Tolarian war machines require?" Rayne stopped to smile. "The academy will survive on its own. Most of the real work has been completed, and the remaining students and scholars are doing mainly maintenance. Everything is going as Urza planned-except for this war." Barrin was visibly softening his resolve and coming to see the situation the same way Rayne did. "Whether you like it or not," she continued, "you need me to take charge of the artifice I just delivered. You can't do it all by yourself."
Barrin knew when to concede a battle. "You're right," he said finally. "It's just that the next phase of the war is so uncertain. I spent months focused on building and supporting this airbase. All that work, yet I am certain that this has just been a sideshow to the real war."
"As I said to Teferi," Rayne reminded as she sat down on the bed beside him, "leave the war for tomorrow." Barrin kissed his wife and forgot the world outside their room.
Chapter 10
Barrin and Rayne spent nearly a week together, but it went by very quickly. Soon the two of them were sucked into the madness of the war in Jamuraa.
Teferi came into the map room where the two Tolarian scholars were working. "I'd like to introduce you both to a good friend of mine. Barrin, Rayne, this is Jolreal, affectionately known here on Jamuraa as the Empress of the Beasts." Beside Teferi stood a tall Jamuraan woman in ornate purple and green robes and a finely crafted headdress of feathers. She was very tall and slender and carried herself in a regal fashion, befitting her title of empress. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. Teferi has told me much of you over the years." Jolreal bowed to her new acquaintances.
"Yes, well, let's leave
the stories of my schoolboy antics until later," said Teferi, looking at Barrin and coughing into his fist. "Jolreal has agreed to do some scouting for us," he said, changing the subject.
"My friends make excellent spies." Jolreal lifted both of her arms, and from behind her robes stepped two gray wolves. The great beasts moved casually around their empress, and then they lay down at her feet, looking like tamed hunting dogs but with tremendous fangs.
The sudden appearance of the wild animals startled Barrin, but their passive nature soon calmed his fears.
"It seems that you have things well in hand," said the old wizard. "With such creatures on our side, we will easily fill in the gaps in our intelligence."
"Yes, Jolreal will be able to report on all the Keldon movements on the eastern perimeter, but Northern Jamuraa is a very big place, and even with her help, we still won't be able to cover all the land that we need," conceded Teferi.
"One of the Tolarian dirigibles is bringing in forty fast runners," Rayne interjected. "They aren't numerous enough to stiffen the army, but I believe they are the fastest light machines on the ground. Perhaps we could use them to fill in the gaps."
"I am a mistress of beasts, Rayne," Jolreal explained. "What do I know of maintaining artifacts? No matter how cleverly made your machines are, they will break down. Who knows how many would be stranded behind the Keldon lines?"
"Well then," Rayne said, crouching down to stroke the head of one of the wolves, "I will use them to fill in the gaps." She stood and placed her hand on Barrin's arm, silencing any objections her overprotective husband could raise. "I brought students from the academy as well as machines, and I can maintain the runners under any conditions," Rayne said with confidence. "You'll have no one stranded under my care."
"But why go yourself?" Jolreal asked quizzically. "Surely there is much you can do here?"
"I will not ask my students to do something I will not," Rayne said with intensity. "I have sat in an office too long, and it is time to see war's face."
*****
Jolreal was impressed when she saw the machines that Rayne had ferried over to the League. The runners were bipedal, with the long legs of a running bird, and like a bird, each machine had a set of wings, but these wings snapped out of long depressions on each side of the runner like giant sabers. A battery of twenty bolts peered forward from the machine's torso aimed by the runner's sensors and the rider's direction. But to Jolreal, the most impressive aspect of the runners was their grace and economy of motion. Even fully loaded with a pilot and supplies of every sort, they accelerated smoothly, bounding and turning sharply. As rapidly as the deadly birds of the north, they covered ground in long lopes that outdistanced horses. The runners' sensors placed their feet faultlessly, and their speed over broken ground was unmatched. Jolreal shared Rayne's confidence that outrunning Keldon cavalry was not a problem. As long as the scouts weren't encircled by terrain or enemy forces, they would be able to escape.
Rayne felt only a little trepidation as she and her aide, Shalanda, readied themselves to ride out with Jolreal's scouting party. Barrin exited the building where he and Teferi conferenced when in camp, and he approached his wife.
"You are determined to do this?" he asked.
"Yes, my love," Rayne replied. "You fight where you can, and I can do no less." Barrin only grasped her hand and pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist.
"Come back to me," he whispered. Rayne saw the other scouts leaving and followed.
"I'll see you in three weeks," Rayne called as she followed Jolreal into the eastern wilderness. Who knew what the Keldons were doing and who was stationed in the east?
One thing that was not out east was people. Within hours of leaving camp, the scouts began running across destroyed and abandoned property. It was a depressing look at the failure of the League to protect itself, and Rayne grew more depressed as they pressed farther east. A week of riding and still they saw only the leavings of the enemy.
"Where are the Keldons?" Rayne asked Jolreal.
The empress could only shake her head. "The signs all point to them drawing back and to the east," Jolreal stated. "Perhaps they are massing deep in their own rear area."
"Then perhaps we should turn north?" Rayne opinioned.
Jolreal shook her head again. "There's a chance that the Keldons might be advancing farther east. My other scouting parties can cover that area. We can afford to check the possibility."
The land grew rougher, and there were more and more trees. The scouts still sped over the landscape, detouring around isolated stands of trees that impeded their rapid passage. The runners sped around the obstacles and began to head north, looking for the enemy. What finally stopped them was the fresh sign of Keldon passage.
*****
Jolreal followed the tracks slowly, watchful for members of the enemy party. On foot, the empress sent her power into the forest, trying to taste the passage of warriors and their beasts. The forest seemed distant and the flow of its power chaotic and confusing, but the signs of the enemy were plain enough. Rayne and the other scouts waited at the edge of the forest wall.
"Wait here while I scout ahead," Jolreal had ordered as she dismounted. The enemy had entered a path leading through trees. The path was narrow and almost lost among the giant forest trees. The Empress of the Beasts raised her hands above her head as she had the day she met Rayne. In the distance, along the path Jolreal had found, several sets of eyes appeared. She nodded and turned back to the rest of the party. "Now hide yourselves out of sight in the tree line and be prepared to run if necessary. We'll rendezvous at last night's camp if we are separated."
Jolreal stalked the trail, moving in and out of the forest, keeping out of sight as much as possible. Forests and jungles had always been her natural home, and she had friends here as well as in other places. Only minutes later she came across the Keldons.
It was the smell of the guard's leathers that alerted her. The odor of sweat-stained hide wafted from the warrior and revealed his presence even though he was hidden from sight. Jolreal slowly moved through the trees in an arc until she was behind the sentry. The Keldon sat behind several bushes in a small depression. Anyone coming up the path would have been spotted and the alarm given. Jolreal signaled for her animal escort to stay out of sight, noted the alertness of the guard, and continued carefully toward the main party. Soon she saw them.
A huge tree had toppled, knocking down several others on its way and creating a tangle of logs and smashed brush. There were thirty men in the temporary camp. Half seemed slaves from their ragged clothes and fawning manner as they served the warriors taking their ease. The Keldons sat in a series of small groups, conversing as their servants packed the camp.
A hundred feet away, the party's riding beasts milled as saddles were slung onto their backs. Horses and mules accounted for most of the beasts, but three huge goatlike creatures stood to the side. They were six feet at the shoulder and massively muscled. Armed with heavy curled horns, the rest of the animals nervously kept their distance. She had heard that Keldons in the far north rode such beasts. Colos, they were called. A warrior saddled them, pushing slaves out of the way as he separated the saddles from the rest of the gear. One group of fighters broke up and went into the forest. A Keldon passed within a few feet of her as she lay with stilled breath. The party was preparing to leave, and the sentries were being fetched in. She needed to get closer, to hear something. Like a snake she slid over the ground, moving slowly nearer to the men of the camp. Hidden behind a huge root, she could make out the low voices of the seated warriors. Her knowledge of Keldon was limited and laboriously acquired, but she could follow the talk.
"This great beast is not here," a voice said forcefully. "We are being dragged away from the advance in a futile quest for glory."
"And the statement of the elf prisoners?" another voice countered. "These beasts stand guard over ancient ruins. Perhaps the ancient heroes lived here millennia ago. Can you imagine stand
ing on the streets where our distant ancestors lived and fought? Can you imagine the respect that would flow to us from the army and Keld? This would make us known in every cradle house and in the Witch King Council. It is worth missing the first few battles of the new offensive."
The only reply was a snort of disgust.
Jolreal carefully moved so she could see the speakers, but the warriors were standing up and moving toward the mounts. They knew something about the timing of the new Keldon offensive. She must learn more. Jolreal watched the warriors pulling themselves into their saddles. Slaves finished packing the last of the gear and threw it onto mules. A few minutes to let them ride on, and Jolreal would go back for Rayne and the others. It was vital that they capture one of the Keldons. A breeze blew over her, and she shivered slightly. The gap in the trees overhead allowed the wind to dip toward the ground.
Jolreal tensed, her blood beginning to race. There was something in the air, some odor. The Keldons and their slaves rose in their stirrups, their heads held high like dogs smelling the wind. The horses, mules, and colos breathed in the air as well. Like stallions to mares in heat, they began moving, their riders pulling briefly at the reins but soon losing themselves in taking deep breaths.
Jolreal's mouth watered as she inhaled the intoxicating odor. It took all her will to lie there and not look for the source of that delicious smell. She concentrated on her mission-find the Keldons and bring back information. But the Keldons were riding off, their noses questing for something. The colos shouldered their way to the head of the party and off the trail into the forest. Warriors and slaves jostled after them. Keldons swore as their fawning servants ignored their orders to clear a path. Jolreal followed the fragrant lure, dragging after the party she spied upon.
Everyone rode into the trees, spreading out as riders and beasts ignored everything in their rush. Jolreal was in the open now. She ran after them, still trying to use cover as her mind fought to overwhelm her instincts. She stumbled over roots and depressions, her usually invisible trail looking like the passage of a drunkard. The Keldons should have outdistanced her but each warrior and servant fought to pass by another, and the whole party began to string out. Jolreal raced to the side to get a better view. The colos and their warriors stopped in front of a soaring tree. The smell that had been so overpowering intensified as the warriors dismounted and tore into the trunk. The bark was ripped, and mushroomlike growth grew in giant clusters up the vertical slashes. The wounds continued high past the heads of the mounted men and the warriors drew swords to cut more of the spongy flesh free.