by Anna Logan
“Excellent! Now, your relationship with Yhkon. Am I correct in thinking that when you were in Zentyre getting the wards together three years ago, there was a time when you were not the best of friends? And that you got into some big tussle last year? And now, it’s probably fair to say that you’re not seeing eye to eye about the war.”
“Yes…”
“See! Here you have this close relationship, where you trust and love one another, but you still disagree and you still fight now and again. It’s not perfect.” He smiled in a way that made her feel like she should be smiling too. “You don’t have to have Him all figured out to have a relationship with Narone. None of us will ever have Him figured out. All you really need is the courage and endurance to stick it out.
“We all make it sound like you have to love Him more than life itself, that your heart should be bursting with affection at the mention of His Name,” he laughed, “and it should. In the next life. Right now, in this life, that’s not possible! It’s not!” Mahzin shook his head firmly. “All we have to do now is have faith. And yes, to love Him...but that doesn’t always look like affection. Sometimes all it means is sticking with Him, obeying Him, even when you’re confused or hurt. Just like,” he gave her a gentle smile, “you have stuck with Yhkon at his worst, when affection really wasn’t in the picture.”
He paused a moment. “That’s why we use the word faith. It’s...it’s staying with Him even when He seems to be letting you down. It’s accepting His ways that you don’t understand, it’s obedience...it’s trusting Him, even when you technically don’t. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah…” She nodded, slowly, chewing on her lip. “But how—”
“Aysa! Aysa, are you up here? Hello!”
She got up quickly, wincing, and went to the door. An Elikwai stood panting, holding a slip of paper. “We just received word. Kaydor is taking back control of the major cities, one by one, killing many of our Elikwai in the process. He seems to have acquired a fresh batch of soldiers, we think Irlai may have allied themselves with him. The rate and direction one of his new armies is traveling, they will hit the Wardens and the rest of your team in a couple weeks. And our Elikwai force is rapidly dwindling.”
Talea glanced at Mahzin. He looked back expectantly, and with complete confidence. Alright, Aysa. Just do your best. “Get in contact with Jed Zalders and…” She thought through all the best Elikwai captains she knew. “And Dranin. Tell them I want to mobilize a portion of our army, less than half, and put them in charge of deciding exactly how many, and sending them to support the Elikwai. And…” She balled her fists. Okay, Narone...I guess this is me trusting You. “I’m going back to Zentyre to help the Wardens’ team. I’ll be leaving in an hour, please make the necessary arrangements.”
The Elikwai bowed and scrambled to do as bidden. Mahzin took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Just take it one step at a time. Get a hold of your cause, however simple or small it needs to be, and don’t let go of it.”
~♦~
Zoper hobbled into his bedroom on one leg to find that his uncle was already waiting there.
Kaydor saw the makeshift bandaging—one of Macquinn’s shirts, really—on Zoper’s thigh, soaked through with blood, and frowned. “You said it was a scratch!”
“Well...I didn’t define the depth of the scratch.”
Rolling his eyes, Kaydor headed for the door. “Get your trousers off, let’s get it stitched up.” He disappeared.
Medical attention probably wasn’t a bad idea. Zoper removed his gear and belt with fingers that shook some, and stripped down to his underclothes, laying a towel down on his bed before he sat down. No sense bleeding all over the fine quilt.
Kaydor returned with a medic. His uncle grimaced sympathetically when he saw the wound uncovered—it was quite a gash, halfway down his inner thigh to his knee. “You’re lucky it didn’t slice a tendon, or something more permanent.” While the medic set to work, Kaydor pulled up a chair and sat down.
Better to tell him now, or put it off? He’d probably be upset if Zoper delayed. “I imagine Yhkon would have been delighted if that had been the case. Or if, better yet, he’d cut off my whole leg, as he’s been talking of doing with my head.”
“Yhkon?” Was it his imagination, or did his uncle actually grow a little paler? “He did this?”
The medic poked a needle into his skin. “Ouch!”
“Zoper.” Concern for his pain gone, Kaydor grabbed his wrist. “Yhkon? You’re sure that was his name?”
Zoper squirmed as the medic began stitching, but nodded. “Yes. He made it very clear, he wanted me to tell you it was him. And he wanted to send you my head, said it would settle you on one of many scores. Or something like that, the man talks rather funny, sometimes I—”
“Oh hell.” Kaydor massaged his temples with a weary look. He didn’t often swear, and he wasn’t very good at it, always claiming it was undignified and lazy. “It’s a miracle he didn’t kill you.”
“Thanks for the confidence in my skill as a warrior.” Zoper tried to grin, but it was unnerving to see Kaydor so...rattled.
“I have great confidence in you,” he put his hand on Zoper’s shoulder, “but don’t underestimate Yhkon. I’ve told you very little of all this, I know...but we fought once, when he was about your age. He was already injured and tired, yet I still found him challenging. But I stabbed him, straight through the stomach.” He shook his head. “The kid was here in Aydimor only weeks later, looking for revenge.”
“Oh. Well. Tough to kill, then?”
“Yes. And driven...he would love nothing more than to kill me, and to kill you as my nephew.”
Delightful. “Why, because you beat him in a fight?”
Kaydor’s eyes were distant. Maybe...regretful. “Because I took everything from him.”
It was a vague and unsatisfying answer. Still, Zoper didn’t dare ask for clarification.
Seeming to snap himself from a trance, his uncle eyed the gash on his thigh again. “Was this your first encounter with him?”
“Second. Actually, third. He was among the eight that saved the teenagers from us the first time, when I was working with Dejer. The second time we got out easy—Talea, the leader of the four lightning-throwers, overruled him to let us go.”
“One of the teenagers has more authority than he does?”
“I guess so. He didn’t seem pleased with her decision, but he acts rather like her protector. He and his seven companions may not have any witchcraft or whatever we’re calling it, but they’re excellent fighters.” He shrugged. “Better than we are.”
“But outnumbered. So without the teenagers, you could take them out.”
“Yes. But for now they seem to be staying together. Talea’s gone, I imagine they sent her back to their haven for awhile.”
“Why? I thought she was the leader.”
Zoper bit his lip. It was strange, talking about them as if they were opposing chess pieces. It was far different in person—they were people. People he wished he didn’t have to fight at all. “Well, she took quite a fall and broke some ribs. But she’s also...conflicted.”
“How so?”
He searched for a way out of the question. There wasn’t one. And there wasn’t a reason for him to be trying to avoid it. They are our enemies. “She seems unwilling to kill us. Multiple times, she’s had the opportunity to and she’s let us go.”
Kaydor was clearly interested in the information. The calculation and contemplation was visible in the way his eyes narrowed and his jaw shifted to the side. “Why do you think she’s unwilling?”
“Um...my winsome good looks?”
With an amused glare, Kaydor whacked his arm. “Let’s assume that a girl leading an entire army isn’t going to be swayed so easily.”
“Oh, you don’t think?” Zoper smirked in an effort to keep the lightened mood. “Well...honestly I have no idea why she’s conflicted about it.” Unless it’s for the same reasons I am. He c
ould hardly say that. It was better not to give Kaydor more grounds for suspicion, distrust, or even concern.
“Then if it’s not something strategic or purposeful, it plays in our favor. Good. Maybe the girl has more sense than the rest of her race and realizes that this war is not only foolish, but costly.”
The medic had finished his work and quietly asked if there was anything else they needed. Kaydor waved his hand in dismissal. Once the man was gone, he gave Zoper’s uninjured knee a pat. “This might be an opportunity. When she comes back from her refuge, I want you to capture this Talea, even if you can’t get the rest.”
Zoper’s stomach wrenched.
Kaydor didn’t notice his reaction. “And I won’t put you up against Yhkon again, if it can be helped. First, you need to stay and recover, your men too—they should recuperate. Once Talea is back, hopefully Yhkon’s team separates from them...then we make our move.”
A wave of heat traveled from his gut to his head. He blinked. Don’t show it. Don’t show it. “But uh, won’t his team just rejoin them, as soon as we strike again?”
His uncle smiled. “That’s why we send someone else to keep them busy.”
“Who? None of the Kaydorians stand a chance except by the hundreds, and then they can’t move quick enough to—”
“Not any of ours.” Kaydor straightened in his chair, looking quite satisfied with the plan he was devising. “It turns out that the Asyjgon dislike the San Quawr quite passionately. Not those ruffians that live in the Garney Mountains—the actual Asyjgon, from the Islands of Mulor. They’re something else entirely. They banned the ones that came here decades ago for being too soft.”
Zoper cringed. There was nothing soft about the Asyjgon in the Garney Mountains. Anyone that would ban them as such was someone he didn’t want to meet. “And?”
“They’ve agreed to help us. They don’t have great numbers, but they’re sending over a handful of their elite warriors, with a name I can hardly pronounce. But the word for dragon in their language has a nice ring: monsaer. So I’ve been calling them that.” He rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “From what I hear, they are absolutely brutal and under different circumstances, I wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole. But, they might do quite nicely for our Yhkon problem.”
15
Head of the Dragon
B LAST Kaydor’s thousands of witless minions in their shiny armor.
Yhkon drove Eclipse back to camp hard—their head-start was already slim, he wouldn’t make it smaller by wasting time. The tents had at least been taken down already, but everyone was still moving leisurely, some still eating breakfast. “There’s…” His jaw had already locked up. Wretched speech impediment. Rather than trying to speak loudly and clearly enough for everyone to understand, he got Grrake’s attention and conveyed the news in Sanonyan. His mother tongue was always a little easier to manage.
Grrake reacted instantly and efficiently, as he always did. “Everyone! There’s Kaydorians just two miles out, coming for us. Pack it up and let’s go!”
The campsite went from nonchalant to frenzied. It was an organized frenzy—everyone knew what to do, they’d done it a hundred times and Grrake had drilled it into them during training. He had always believed that the importance of efficiency in simple tasks was overlooked in a warrior’s skills.
They were all on celiths within minutes. Skyve brought his celith next to Eclipse. “How many? The Tarragon?”
“Five hundred. No Tarragon,” Yhkon’s jaw was beginning to loosen, “I think the royal b-brat must still be licking his winds.”
“Yeah, those darn winds.” Tarol shook his head and managed to make his tone mocking even though he had to yell over the sound of hoofbeats. “Getchya every time! One time I had such a bad wind, it—”
Haeric, riding beside Tarol, whacked his head with his bow. “How’s that for a wind?”
Yhkon swore at the impudent redhead in Sanonyan. Gustor heard it and laughed. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“What!” Tarol fended off another whack from Haeric and looked at Yhkon suspiciously. “What sort of terrible things is he saying about me in your high-falutin angry language?”
Grrake quirked an eyebrow. “Angry language?”
“Yeah! Everything sounds angry when you say it in Sanonyan!”
Gustor chuckled. “No, that’s just because Sanonyans say things angrily. We’re all bitter and irritable to the bone. Except Grrake!”
“Would you all shut up?” Larak looked like the exasperated father of a herd of pesky toddlers. “Yhkon, how many? On celiths?”
“Yes, five hundred.” A high-pitched roar drew their attention skyward. Yhkon saw the swooping shadow and sighed. “And dragons, apparently.”
They had left behind the treacherous terrain of the Obsidian Woods surrounding the second military base a week ago, after the last Tarragon attack. In the sparse woods they traveled now, there was no cover from a dragon.
Jaylee gave him a worried frown. “So...how are you wanting to get out of this?”
They would have to fight. He looked over his shoulder, just able to see the five hundred cavalry that followed them. If the wards took out the dragon, they would have decent odds against the cavalry. “Wards! Get that dragon down!”
As they began throwing lightning bolts at the beast, it occurred to him that the dragon hadn’t made any attempt to attack them. It was following closely but not fighting. He pulled Eclipse left, angling off their original course. Sure enough, the dragon sped up to try and cut them off, until Rikky threw a massive orb at its head.
A few more seconds and Yhkon saw the trap it had been chasing them into—more Kaydorians, to the right instead of straight ahead of them, but still in range for the line of archers to take a shot. “Archers!” There wasn’t time for the wards to stop them. They were already drawing back their bowstrings for a volley. Jaylee was close enough that he reached over to push her down and shield as much of her as he could with his arm.
But the arrows never came. Instead, all he saw was a flash of light. Shouts from the Kaydorians—not battle cries. He couldn’t see the culprit, only the constant barrage of electricity that sent the force of infantry and archers running about like madmen, desperate to escape. A brief scan proved that Skyve, Rikky, and Terindi were still with the Wardens, it wasn’t one of them.
Yet one of the Eight was over there wreaking havoc.
Grinning a little despite himself, Yhkon straightened in the saddle and turned Eclipse to face the cavalry that were catching up to them. Their new ally had the foot soldiers covered, they could handle the celithmen. “Let’s go! Skyve, the dragon!”
While Skyve focused on taking down the injured dragon, all eight Wardens, Terindi, and Rikky galloped to meet the cavalry. Resh let out an Irlaish hunter’s war cry, a habit of his even though he didn’t have an ounce of Irlaish blood in his body.
Rikky and Terindi’s lightning bolts and small waves took down a third of the force before they got there. As they came into range, Yhkon let Eclipse steer himself, and took out his bow. The other Wardens did likewise. They split to go around the force, firing arrows and lightning bolts as they went. The Kaydorians scattered to chase them and it became every man against at least two dozen opponents—nothing they couldn’t all handle. Yhkon knew he had at least thirty trailing him. Most of the Kaydorians were chasing one of the Wardens, instead of a ward, knowing that was a safer bet. Except that left Rikky and Terindi free to chase them.
Terindi was tailing the riders that were after Jaylee, Grrake didn’t have very many after him, the other Wardens all looked to be faring fine. That left Yhkon free to deal with his own parade of Kaydorians.
He pulled Eclipse into a tight turn. The nearest soldier wasn’t ready for an offensive move and didn’t have time to dodge—he met Yhkon’s sword. The rest dispersed, though he managed to get another. He shot down two more, before the rest got behind him again.
Just as he was preparing to make anoth
er move, all but one was struck by a series of simultaneous lightning bolts. He easily cut down the last. Littered about the battlefield, the other Wardens and wards were taking down the last of their adversaries as well. He smiled and called, “Those were mine, you know!”
Talea rode up at a trot. “Well you were taking so long about it...I got bored.”
Grinning, he dismounted, helped her off her celith, and pulled her into a hug. “What’d you do, spend an hour in Calcaria?”
“A whole day, actually. Then I had to meet with the council and decided it was better here than with Enisham.”
Yhkon feigned a glare. “Are you speaking ill of my father-in-law?”
“Yeah, the one you despise?” She punched his arm. “Sure am. I get to say whatever I want—I did just save your hides, after all.”
“Ha, I had it completely under contour...roll. Control.”
“Just like your tongue.”
“Blast,” he shook his head with mock disappointment, “here I was hoping you would come back cured of your intolerable sass.”
They were joined by the others, everyone dismounting and crowding around to greet Talea. Jaylee and Terindi both hugged her...and Rikky. With some degree of amusement, Yhkon caught his eye afterward and gave him a stern look. As hoped, Rikky flushed, just a little, and gave Talea a bit more space.
Tarol swaggered in to poke Talea in the ribs, gently and on the uninjured side. “What do you got, magic-healing ribs?”
“No, but clearly you lot are helpless without me,” she flicked his hand away, “so what’s a girl to do?”
“Are you sure you’re ready to be back?” Yhkon knew Skyve’s question had nothing to do with her ribs.
“Yeah.” She nodded to him, with something of an apologetic frown. “Yeah I’m alright. Besides,” she motioned to indicate the Kaydorians, scattered about either dead, injured, or smart enough to pretend, “I knew this was coming. Apparently Irlai has joined Kaydor...which means he has who-knows-how many more troops. He’s taking back control of all the cities that you guys and Wylan’s team cleared, killing our Elikwai. About a quarter of our army are supporting them.” She faced Yhkon. There was still the weariness, even the haunted look in her eyes...that didn’t bode well for the permanence of her conviction. But at least for now, she was just what he’d trained her to be. “I think we need to assassinate Kaydor. With those kinds of numbers, we have no chance against him, army against army.”