Passing Through Darkness- The Complete Cycle

by Malcolm McKenzie

  Now the tears pattered onto the tabletop, one by one. “No. I was going to do it. He only lived because the demons betrayed Yoshana before I got to him.”

  I goggled. Her laugh was awful, a cracking sound like an animal in pain. She gulped more cider and took a long, ragged breath before she went on.

  “While I was hunting Grigg, she sent a mercenary force to cause an incident between the Source and the Green Heart. It worked, but it was a suicide mission. The captain of the mercenaries was a woman named Jylen. She was maybe Yoshana’s only real friend, from when Yoshana had disguised herself as a normal human. But Yoshana needed to sacrifice a pawn in her game… and Jylen was a pawn.”

  I remembered Roshel telling me that in Yoshana’s world, you were either a player or a piece. I shuddered.

  “So the Green Heart and the Source were skirmishing and I was stalking Grigg. With the Heart distracted on their northern border, the Shield started pounding them, crushing their defenses, with the Hellguard in reserve. The Heart couldn’t hold, fell back, fell back again. Seafields fell without a fight, and for the first time Yoshana had access to a port west of the Rat Shoals. It was all going perfectly.” A smile as fragile as ice crossed the brunette’s beautiful face.

  “And then the demons told Yoshana to push across the Paint.”

  It was my turn to swallow hard. My gut clenched in a knot of dread. I had grown up in Goat Hill, on the western bank of the Paint River. My parents had sent me away before Yoshana’s legions arrived. I’d reached my thirteenth birthday, and the custom of the Select was for children to leave home at thirteen. Spreading out made us harder to exterminate, and the Select were not a popular race.

  I didn’t know if my parents had fought at the Paint, but all Select trained in the martial arts - again, it made us harder to wipe out. I didn’t know if they’d fought, or if so, if they’d lived.

  “Were you there?” I asked. It came out as a kind of croak.

  “Everyone was there.” She hadn’t noticed my reaction. Her eyes were turned inward. “The demons wanted Yoshana’s troops to ford the river. Which was heavily defended. Yoshana is - Yoshana was ruthless, but not wasteful. She didn’t throw her armies away. She wanted to consolidate her gains, plan some new trick. But the demons weren’t interested in preserving the Shield’s armies. They saw us as shock troops, to be used up. When Yoshana refused to advance, they found another tool they liked better.”

  She took another long drink of cider, saw her mug was empty, and refilled it. “There was another Overlord, Rakat. Yoshana thought she’d killed him getting to Karst, but he’d survived. We’re hard to kill, you know.” Again that brittle smile.

  “A lot of the Overlords held a grudge against Yoshana from the coup, even though she was one of us. Maybe because she was one of us, and we’d been taught for generations to avoid ambition. When the demons put Rakat in command, half the army turned and followed him. And that’s when we found out the demons hadn’t been turning over all the Overlords to the Shield. They had their own half breed troops. More than we did.”

  She was completely lost in the past. I doubted she could even see me. “So there we were, camped on the Paint. Grigg and the Green Heart defenders on the other side, half of our own army and a company of enemy Overlords behind us, pinning us up against the river. So what does Yoshana do?”

  If it had been me, I probably would have seen how much of the army I could smuggle down the Paint on rafts under the cover of darkness, but that wasn’t Yoshana’s style.

  “She changes sides. Goes and makes up with Grigg, all is forgiven, and suddenly it’s the demons facing two armies simultaneously. Neat as if she’d planned it all along. You should have seen it, Minos. Grigg, well, you’ve seen him fight, and his men loved him. The only warrior more impressive than Grigg, who could outfight him and had troops even more devoted, was Yoshana. The two of them together… they were like fire and storm.”

  Roshel’s eyes were shining as she continued. “Grigg’s troops forded the Paint in the night and took the demons’ army from behind. Rakat’s forces were butchered - not to mention Rakat himself, because even we can’t recover from being chopped into little pieces. There was only one problem.”

  Only one?

  “Maybe Yoshana hadn’t totally trusted me to get rid of Grigg. So she’d sent a crew of veterans along with me. In the confusion, not all of them got the message that the mission had changed. One of them stabbed Grigg in the back.”

  “Well, like you said, you can heal from a lot with the Darkness in you.”

  “But not quite from this. When Yoshana found him, he was dying. It took everything she had to save him.”

  “There’s an ‘and’…”

  “And while she was doing it, one of Grigg’s partisans found his leader dying on the ground with an Overlord kneeling over him, so he did what any right-thinking soldier would do.”

  “He stabbed Yoshana.”

  “He stabbed Yoshana. Put a spear right through her heart. Well, like I said, we could survive a lot of things, but not that.”

  “Except…”

  “Except she did. We didn’t realize. It was chaos. There were Grigg’s partisans, Green Heart regulars, Shield troops loyal to Yoshana, Shield troops loyal to Rakat, Darklanders. The losses were staggering, on all sides. The Darkland Overlords didn’t go down easy.”

  My stomach clenched again. Would she even know about two Select serving in a different army? Of course not. I suddenly realized that Grigg very well might. But Grigg was gone.

  “Then, on the third day, she rose again.”

  “You’re not serious? The third day?”

  “Actually, it was about a day and a half, but in the official version it was the third day.” And now Roshel’s familiar, knowing smile was back. “She was always good at symbolism.”

  The Overlord went on. “She came to us in a white robe, not her armor. Who knows where she found it. She said God had raised her up to be his sword against the demons and the Darkness. That God could use anything, even the Darkness, even her, to do his will. We believed her. At that point, we had to believe in something.”

  I nodded. I understood the power of belief.

  “She called the ones who followed her the Darkness Radiant, because even the darkness is radiant in God’s sight. But the soldiers most devoted to her called themselves the Knights of Resurrection, because they served a messiah who rose from the dead.”

  “And then you came north.”

  She shook her head. “West, first. We weren’t really sure where to go. The demons’ army was shattered, but they had more men coming. Some of the Green Heart soldiers and partisans joined us, but most didn’t, and some were carrying a grudge. We had thousands of hardened, loyal veterans, but no state to provision or house us. Grigg thought we should go west of the Monolith, beyond the Barrier Range, and gather strength. We recruited as we went. But before we got to the Muddy, we started to hear how weak Stephen was.”

  “And Yoshana decided you could take over the Source.”

  “You pretty much know the rest. So now that you’ve got the background of who hates who and why, we can start looking at the pieces on the board.”

  The pieces on the board. Tens of thousands of living, breathing men and women, reduced to counters on a map. Roshel had perhaps learned the lessons of her messiah too well.

  “Let’s take a break for today,” I said. “I need to let it all sink in.”

  I sat and stared at the Ermel Clock. The floating hour hand was a bit past three on the golden, outer track. In a few hours it would be at six, where the golden outer circle of day met the silver inner circle of night. And we would pass back into darkness.

  How had Grigg and Roshel and Yoshana ever managed to work together? It must have been the most volatile love triangle in human history. I shivered. I was lucky to have traveled with them and lived. God really must watch over fools.

  I looked up to the sky and mouthed, “Thanks.”

 
Time passed. The clock ticked on toward four. Time was indifferent to my plans, or lack thereof.

  I smelled Father Juniper’s pipe before I heard or saw him. He settled on the bench next to me. “Something up?” he asked.

  “Just thinking that I’ve been part of something huge and terrifying and I’m only now realizing how little I understand it.”

  “Ah. As your friend John Dee might say, that’s the beginning of wisdom.”

  We sat in silence for a while. I said, “I’ve just heard more of Yoshana’s story from someone who was there. I still don’t know if she believed she had a vision from God, or if it was just a cover to mask her ambition.”

  “I don’t know if she knew. I would have bet pretty heavily one way right up until she gave you her sword to cut off her head. I suppose there was no conflict between those motives, until the very end. She was complicated. But then, humans generally are, and whatever else she was, she was human.”

  I nodded. “That’s true enough, but it isn’t helping me with the question of whether to launch a campaign against the Hellguard.”

  “I believe you’ve discussed that with Father Roric?”

  “I did, yes. That wasn’t very helpful either. Prophetess is dead set against it. Roshel, who’s probably the top military leader we’ve got, insists we have to. And I’m the idiot stuck in the middle. I don’t like going against Prophetess, but from what Roshel says, the Hellguard will hit us eventually. At a minimum, we’re going to need a defensive alliance with the Green Heart. But the longer we sit around, the more likely our army’s going to fall apart. I think Roshel’s right. I think we need to hit the Hellguard while we can.”

  The bearded priest blew a cloud of smoke. “It sounds like you’ve decided, then. Hopefully the honor and prestige of being commander in chief of this vast legion isn’t weighing too heavily on your thinking.”

  “What? No!”

  “Good.”

  Honor and prestige? Honor and prestige had gotten me a limp and an ugly scar across my face. But somebody needed to lead a united army against the Darklands and the Shield before they took another shot at us. By luck, fate, or the will of a truly whimsical God, that someone was me.

  Tess and Roshel were standing on opposite sides of the map table when I walked into the headquarters room the next morning. The air between them was so charged that I nearly turned around and limped back out.

  Tess left instead, without saying a word.

  “She doesn’t understand,” Roshel said.

  “I should talk to her.”

  “What are you going to say?”

  What indeed? Maybe Roshel was right. Maybe Tess would be easier to convince once we had a strategy. In any event, I had no case to make that I thought she would accept, and so I took the easy path. I let her go.

  I heaved a sigh and plopped into the chair next to the Overlord. “Fine. Let’s talk troop deployments.”

  Roshel poked a green rectangular tile with a long pointer. “Good. Now, understand everything I’m about to say is out of date. But let’s start with what we know about the Green Heart.”

  “How is that relevant? We’re not planning to attack them.”

  She sighed and shot me an exasperated look. “I can’t believe Yoshana lost a war to you. They’re the key to this campaign. If they keep the pressure on the Shield in the south, we have a chance. If they turn on us, we don’t. Look.”

  She rapped the green rectangle again. It was near the border between the Green Heart and the Source, just south of the Shining River that divided the two states and flowed into the Muddy.

  “That force shadowed the Darkness Radiant the whole time we were in Green Heart territory, and it didn’t stop when we crossed into the Source. I guess they weren’t sure what our intentions were. Our best guess is it’s due south of Stephensburg now. That’s about three thousand men.”

  A brigade, more or less. Slightly smaller than the units Hake and Lago had brought to the Battle of the Cleansing. I saw Roshel’s point. The force wasn’t large enough to seriously threaten Stephensburg or Our Lady, but it could wreak havoc with our supply lines once we moved against the Darklands.

  She continued, “Most of the Green Heart’s troops are still in the southeast, though, drawn up along the Paint, facing down the Shield’s troops.”

  She rapped more green tiles. “The Heart had over thirty thousand regulars at their peak, but they took heavy losses in Yoshana’s campaign against them, and some defected to us after the Battle of the Paint. I’d guess they’ve got no more than twenty thousand effectives left. Minus the three thousand up here and another three thousand or so in garrison and at border defense posts, that’s no more than fifteen thousand facing the Shield. They had almost twice that with their militias for the battle, but they can’t have kept militia troops mobilized this long. Those guys will have gone home. So figure three thousand on our border, fifteen thousand on the Shield’s. You see why it matters now?”

  “I get it. They’re tying up the enemy for us - unless they decide to make a run at us instead. How many Shield troops are they facing?”

  “Good question. Since neither side has made a move in two years, let’s assume they’re pretty evenly matched. The Shield started with a bit less. Took fewer losses in the campaign, but we took more into the Darkness Radiant. I’m guessing the Shield’s total troop strength is less than twenty thousand, plus whatever the demons are bringing to the party. Most of them will be massed on the Paint.”

  “And we need to keep it that way.”

  “Exactly. Also don’t assume for a second that Gurath’s stupid or lazy. He’s a three hundred year old military commander with total mastery of the Darkness. We were counting on Yashuath’s assassination setting him back and I think it did, but he’ll have his own plans. And he’ll know Yoshana’s dead.”

  A shiver ran down my spine. For the first time it really sank in that I’d beheaded humanity’s best defense against the Hellguard.

  “Suddenly this is all feeling a lot more urgent.”

  “Good. Because Gurath’s sitting somewhere doing the same thing we are, except I bet he knows a lot more about us than we do about him.”

  We decided to send BlackShield Jarl Lago as ambassador to the Green Heart. As a convert to Tess’ mission, he was eloquent on its importance. He was a senior military man, a figure who commanded respect. And the Monolith didn’t share a border with the Green Heart; he would appear more disinterested than General Hake or a representative of the Source’s military.

  We decided that a company of his troops would make a good showing and serve as an adequate guard, without looking like an invasion force. Fortunately, he still had the cavalry company that had made my life miserable at the Battle of the Cleansing. They’d make better time than infantry.

  “I am honored, Judge Minos,” he declared. “Then Prophetess has given her blessing to this venture?”

  I really thought about just lying to him. It would make him feel better. Instead I said, “She hasn’t said no.” Which was true, more or less, in the sense that I hadn’t asked her. But how could a peace mission be a bad idea?

  “How could a peace mission be a bad idea?” I said to Tess that evening as we walked under the trees.

  “It’s not, obviously.”

  “So you agree that Lago should go speak to the Senate of the Green Heart and propose an alliance.”

  She stopped and shot me an exasperated look. “How about you stop treating me like I’m an idiot. Proposing a peace treaty between the Source and the Green Heart isn’t at all the same thing as proposing that we gang up together on the Darklands.”

  “What about a mutual defense treaty…”

  “Minos.”

  “Tess, the demons will invade again. It’s in their nature.”

  “You know that?”

  “I saw what they did to their slaves in the Darklands. I know how they use women. I know what Roshel told me about their plans and before you ask, yes, I believe her.
”

  Tess sighed. “I never said I didn’t. Although you might keep in mind this is a woman who tried to murder me in my bedroom. But I don’t doubt the demons and the Darkness are a threat. What I’m saying is that my mission wasn’t to stop them.”

  “Let’s sit.” There was a stone bench nearby. We sank down onto it. “Couldn’t your mission change?”

  She put her hand on mine. “Of course it could. But it hasn’t. Not yet, anyway. And I’m not going to start a crusade that could kill thousands without the Lord’s guidance.”

  A dozen angry, unhelpful retorts bubbled up and mercifully died before reaching my lips. Was her original mission really a message from God, or just a hallucination that had somehow sucked in thousands of followers desperate for a cause? Was she going to just abandon those desperate followers now, so they could go back to slitting each other’s throats? Would God finally get around to sending her another message after the Hellguard had butchered their way through the half the human nations?

  I said nothing and squeezed her hand instead. The beginnings of wisdom, Dee would say.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “What? I didn’t say anything.”

  “Exactly. And you don’t agree with me. So what are you bottling up?”

  So much for Dee’s wisdom. I chose my words carefully. “If we do nothing, the Hellguard may attack. I don’t know that will happen soon, but I expect it will. Roshel pointed out they’ll see an opportunity with Yoshana gone. What’ll happen even sooner is our alliance will start to fall apart. Without a purpose, Lago’s men and Hake’s and Roshel’s won’t stay together, and they were all fighting each other not long ago. They could be again tomorrow.”

  “And what do you want me to do about that?”

  It was my turn to heave a deep sigh. “I need you to be Prophetess for them.”

  “So you can hold them together.”

  “Somebody has to, Tess. I guess that’s me.”

  “I’m not going to endorse this crusade, Minos.”

  “Can you at least not condemn it?”

  Her eyes hooded as she retreated into her own thoughts. After a time, she offered, “I won’t say anything against it, Minos. But I’m not saying anything for it, either.”