“Do you often burn things when you get angry?” Urake watched as Arken unclenched his fists with a concentrated effort and began popping his knuckles vigorously.
“Don’t know what you are talking about.” It was a feeble lie, but Urake didn’t argue. He simply slid a plate over the browned spot on the table.
“Niman accepted my job offer. We are going to be behind Reigns’ lines and fighting the war behind his back. Are you interested in using your Gifts or going back out on guard duty?”
“My cousin says that you saved his life before you died.”
“It makes sense I suppose. Gifts often run in the family. I was wondered why you hadn’t called me a murderer yet.”
“That boy that runs around with you, he Gifted too?” Arken ignored Urake’s comment.
“He is. Niman and another one that will probably be joining us are also. Is that a problem?”
“I don’t care. I just want to kick Reigns’ arse.” Arken’s statement wasn’t quite uttered in enthusiasm. It was more like a notice of intent.
“I would be happy to have you join us. Be ready at the cave entrance tomorrow morning and pack for cold if you haven’t changed your mind by then.”
“Na, I ain’t bothered by cold.” Arken rubbed his hands one last time before returning to the last remnants of his breakfast.
“One other thing, Niman seems to have made a couple enemies. Seeing as he is going to be your comrade in a short while, could you keep an eye on him?”
“Sure thing. They had it coming. What those rat bastards did was wrong.” Urake glanced up and noticed that Niman had disappeared and the men in question had also vanished. Arken was still busy with his food so Urake excused himself and went in search of Aleest. The youth was found in the stables napping on the back of the relatively mean looking warhorse called Elmet. He awoke and slid down as Urake approached.
“You can’t tell me not to come. Em’risi tried.”
“Why do you want to come with me?” Expecting a straight out denial, Aleest frowned at the unexpected question. Urake figured that if the Princess couldn’t argue Aleest down, then he himself had little chance of success in the same endeavor.
“None of these soldiers like me. The horses can tell by the way they talk around me. They think that I… cheat? No, that’s not the word. Think too much of… no that isn’t it.” Aleest furrowed his brow as he sought the elusive word for a moment. “Presume! They think I presume on Em’risi’s kindness. You were kind to me and Emeck is nice. I like him.”
“So you want to come with us because you like us. I should tell you what that entails. We are going to start by climbing over the Garoche Heights. After that we will be traveling around the Braebach and fighting a war. We won’t be sleeping in proper beds very often and we can’t afford to take rest breaks every now and then. We cannot slow down to accommodate a slower member of the party. If you slow down, you will be left behind.” Urake laid out in detail every hardship that they might encounter while Aleest listened silently.
“So… I'm not afraid.” Aleest’s response reminded Urake that Em’risi had failed at this task only an hour previously.
“You should be.”
“Well, I'm not.”
“You are as stubborn as an ox.”
“Mules are more stubborn than oxen.” Urake found himself glaring at the unfazed lad.
“If you join my group, you have to do what I tell you to do without question.”
“I will do anything you want me to, except stay behind.”
“Why you little… I ought to…” Urake trailed off in the middle of his threat when he realized that all the horses in the stable were prancing around nervously. Elmet snorted angrily and chomped at his restraints while looking like he wanted to trample Urake into the ground.
“I'm not a weakling. I will pull my own weight.”
“Fine, but we won’t be on horses and you had better keep up.”
“I will find a way.” Urake shook his head and walked back towards the cave. It was clear that Aleest was stubborn and refused to be moved. There was nothing that he could do to dissuade the lad.
“I saw Skeln again!” Emeck’s telepathic message assaulted Urake’ senses as he broke into a run towards the cave. He snatched a burning torch from a startled soldier before barreling into the cave. He nearly ran into Emeck a moment later running at top speed. The lad ended up slipping and falling flat on his face. His torch went flying and the two soldiers in the immediate vicinity fell to cursing before they realized Urake was there. They hushed and departed hastily a moment later.
“What…? Where did you sense him?” Urake helped Emeck to his feet and began brushing him off.
“No, I saw him!” Emeck spit a little blood and wiped his mouth with a muddy sleeve. Spitting again he tried to find a clean patch of clothes to remove the mud.
“He was in the cave?” Urake was confused. He was sure that he had been throughout the cave and felt he would have recognized Skeln if he had seen him among the soldiers.
“No, not in the cave. I didn’t see him. It was one of the guards on sentry duty that saw him and I was seeing through his eyes so I saw him.” Emeck accepted the rag that Urake offered and wiped the mud away from his mouth. He had a split lip, but wasn’t more much the worse for the wear.
“One of these days, someone is going to get offended.”
“No, he won’t remember. In fact, he didn’t even notice.”
“That isn’t what I meant. Where did you see Skeln?” Urake returned Emeck to the important topic.
“This way. It will be faster if I just show you.” Urake followed as Emeck led him through the camp towards the Garoche side. He pulled Emeck up short when they reached the edge of a clearing. He could hardly believe his eyes. There his long lost son stood clad in furs, tanned, lean, with longer messy hair, and restrained by a couple sentries while Redzyn talked. Urake was about to step forward when he began hearing the conversation.
“What is your name and what were you doing alone coming out of the Garoche?” Redzyn was interrogating the Skeln.
“My name is Cero and I'm a trapper. I was just coming down from checking one of my trapping lines. I didn’t do anything wrong so just let me go, please.”
“You seem awful young to be up there all alone, plus you don’t have any furs or traps. We had a deep spawned storm earlier so it must have been a blizzard up on the hill. How did you survive that?” Redzyn stepped back and queried as he scrutinized the boy curiously.
“I'm not young. I will be fifteen this coming winter and I got to feed my ailing mother. That storm is the reason that I had to leave my traps and furs up on the mountain. The new snow that fell was too deep to carry them through.”
“So… what do you trap for?” Redzyn seemed to be buying the story.
“Mostly small fur bearing animals like minks and fox. I can sell those for more. I trap some rabbit and other game animals also for food, but I usually keep their skins. What would you trap for?” Skeln asked innocently as Urake tried to figure out where his son had learned to lie.
“I have always wanted a nice big cougar or bear pelt, but… I will be the one asking the questions! Your accent isn’t from around here. Why might that be?” Redzyn scowled at the detainee.
“Not surprising. My mother came from a big town in the midlands. She made me speak proper.”
“Humph. Could be. I'm going to let you go, but I advise that you don’t be coming back through here again.” Redzyn motioned to the sentries who released Skeln’s shoulders.
“Can I have my rock back?” Skeln refused to move when the sentries tried leading him back out of the camp.
“What rock?”
“Some round river rock that he had on him when we searched him for weapons.” One of the sentries volunteered answer to Redzyn’s question.
“Where is this rock?” Redzyn sounded tired of dealing with the issue and wanted it to go away.
“They threw it away. They h
ad no right. It was mine!”
“Listen boy. Don’t push your luck. I am only letting you go because you remind me of a lad I used to know and because of your sick mother. Now get out of here and take your damned rock with you!” Redzyn turned and began stomping away when Urake, wearing his hood, entered the clearing and raised a hand that caused the sentries to stop with Skeln in tow.
“I wouldn’t let him go just yet.” Skeln flinched and began peering intently at the shadowed face when he hear Urake’s voice, thrown as it was.
“And why is that?” Redzyn paused and glared back at Skeln.
“Because he hasn’t told you a single truth.”
“How would you know that?” Redzyn caught sight of Emeck before continuing. “Your assistant tell you that?”
“No, Colonel Redzyn, meet my son Skeln.” Skeln was the hardest hit by the revelation. He fell to his knees and gaped at the unhooded Urake.
“Damn, he definitely took after your side of the family and took me for a fool. Explains why he reminded me of Skeln. Soldier, get that blasted rock and there had better not be a single scratch on it!” The sentry addressed sprang into action leaving his companion nervously seeking an excuse to escape.
Chapter Five: Intrigue
Events had not been following the plans that Reigns had set in motion. The King’s untimely death had come as a surprise. The Princess’ subsequent disappearance had only disrupted the plans more. As Reigns sat in his study looking at the array of intelligence reports on the table before him, his mood steadily soured. Crein had promised that the Princess would be dead, but had then reported that a group of his best assassins had been found dead along the road to the Outlands. They had apparently met their ends in a brief pitched fight at the hands of dozens of men.
Reigns cursed the fact that Balinor had managed the escape right under his nose. A couple of the city guards that had been on duty that night languished in the dungeons and could rot there as far as he was concerned. Ten more were already in the prison graveyard. The rest of the guards had been part of the plot. They were the ones that Reigns wanted to torture the most. These guards had quietly finished their guard shift before disappearing, presumably to join Balinor’s rebellion.
Reigns called it Balinor’s Rebellion because he could not picture Em’risi as anything in the way of a leader, let alone sitting at the helm of a rebellion. She was merely there to give Balinor a claim to power and probably to inspire the men to his cause with an actual Royal to swear loyalty to. It would be crushed soon enough, royal or no.
The documents on the table were all the intelligence reports gathered concerning soldier movement. Reigns like to keep redundancies in place in case he were to find himself in these very same circumstances. The military reported on the people and Reigns’ personal spy network reported on the military. A portion of each group overlapped the other as was evident with the high ranking military officials that belonged to Reigns’ spy network. Now that he was reviewing the documents, he realized the signs had been present for months as the plans fell into place. If Reigns hadn’t been so distracted chasing after the Asgare and the rumored Dragon Lords, he would have noticed the telltale discrepancies. Ranking officers that had stopped giving precise reports but instead began giving generalized reports of troop movements before having gone missing in action. The new officers that had been left in command were inept and failed to report that the absent officer had taken a sizable amount of troops with him. There had been defections all over the Braebach Empire.
Where they had gone was the question. This was not difficult to ascertain. The only troop movements besides the ones that Reigns himself had ordered were all moving north or east, but mostly north. Since there was no army assembled outside Shienhin, then it was safe to assume that they were likely to be somewhere else. It did not take much to guess that the rebels were massing in the Outlands because the assassins had been found dead along the only road into that region.
Grinding his teeth in annoyance, Reigns stood and walked to the window. The rebel’s couldn’t have chosen a better place to hold, if that is what they meant to do. The Garoche Heights were impenetrable to an army. The Badlands were unpredictable while the Sand Sea was dry as a bone and filled with ever shifting sand. Both of those options might be viable for a moderate fighting force to move through although each had their own unique problems. Only infantry could make it through the Badlands because of the broken terrain meaning that they would be too slow of a force to manage a surprise attack. Calvary could make the journey through the Sand Sea, but long gone were the hardy breeds of desert horses that the sand tribes used to breed. The big horses that were throughout the army would never survive unless they had adequate drinking water. Wagon to carry such water would never be practical in the sand. The coastline was another option but there was still the problem of drinking water and the terrain in places was reminiscent of the Badlands.
With a surprise rear attack nearly out of the question, Reigns was forced to think along the lines of a full out frontal assault. The unknown number of troops hiding in the Outlands complicated issues; however, the fact that Reigns had just sent reinforcements to the southern army made matters even worse. He had one document detailing an outbreak of dysentery that had been plaguing the men. Patrols were forced to move more carefully because of the fact that the Elves were now acting on the offensive. There was even a report of a daring assault on the main camp by a band of Elves. Damages had not been exceedingly heavy but a couple dozen men had been injured or killed before the human archers were able to get into range. At that point the elves had simply retreated and picked off whoever followed them. All signs pointed towards the Elves finally doing more than killing any who stepped into the Elder Forest.
Reinforcement were needed in the south, but there was the rebellion problem that, if not settled quickly, would become a festering thorn in his side. Reigns could send the garrison at Cercha north, but that was not a very large garrison. It would not be equal to the task. The other option was to call up the nobles and their vassals. A portion of the Shienhin garrison had been ordered to prevent any travel to or from the Outlands, but they were only a few dozen strong. Until they were supplemented, there was no opportunity to make a move on the rebels.
Reigns decided that the houses would be called and directed to send troops to retake the Outlands. Reigns’ own men would of course be in charge of directing the war effort. Balinor had proven himself to be a capable general during the Clan Wars so it could be a little tricky dealing with him although with the noble houses, there should be more than enough to overwhelm even a genius tactician. To that end, Reigns decided to monitor the war effort closely from Shienhin. It was only a short travel so he would never be far behind events as they unfolded.
The other problem that needed dealing with was to ensure that Balinor would not profit from having stolen the Princess. He currently had the advantage with the common people of fighting in the name of someone that had earned their admiration. Even as a victor, Illiad had been gracious to the defeated houses and offered them much of their lost lands and power in exchange for swearing loyalty to the crown. This generosity had been a thorn in Reigns’ side for much of the last thirty years. Em’risi had somehow endeavored to set up a couple kitchens to feed the poor in Shienhin over the last couple years. Reigns had quickly squelched these, although people had acquired an adoration for her despite how little had been done.
If he couldn’t have Em’risi dead, there was one other option that Reigns intended to exploit. Both Illiad and Lyerash had been born and breed from the northern regions of the Braebach. His agents had been out for the last several days collecting any girl about the Princess’ age that bore even a remote resemblance. The last of them had been brought in today and were waiting for him below. They had been carried in the black carriages so no one but him and his agents knew where they were. Even the people outside the castle gates had no clue. This was crucial if the subterfuge was to work.
The last one held more promise than all the rest with her dark blue eyes. From a few feet distance her long eyelashes shadowed them enough make them look purple in color. No one but the servants would be that close anyway. She huddled timidly against the far wall so it was unlikely she would encourage any closer acquaintances. The girl could have been Em’risi’s twin if it weren’t for the slightly straighter hair or a couple fingers less of height.
“She will do.” Reigns had seen enough and turned to leave the dungeon.
“My lord, what do we do with the rest?” The jailer asked while nervously dry washing his hands.
“Do what you want. They can rot in those cells for all I care.” Reigns had more important things to think about. Things like how to make a farm girl into a princess in less than the time it would take before the people demanded to see their new queen. Speech would be one thing. Regal manners and mannerisms would also be a must. It wouldn’t do to have her clomp around like she was still on a farm.
Chronicles of Den'dra: A land on Fire Page 7