Chapter 4: Sash Fortress

None of them had really ridden before, but the animals seemed docile enough at the relatively sedate pace at which they were moving. It had been two days since the encounter with the Ankylan riders, and they hadn't encountered anything else intelligent. Xander rode the largest mount, the one that had been the sergeant's. If the large beast had any problems supporting Xander's ten-foot frame, it didn't display them, though Xander's feet nearly touched the ground.

Anya rode behind Xander, and Willow and Dawn doubled on the second-largest mount. The three alternated who got to ride alone every couple of hours. At the rear rode Spike, watching for signs of pursuit. It had taken a while for any of the spooked creatures to allow Spike near them, but they were well trained. Spike and Xander had settled into riding like those born to it, but the three girls hadn't ceased complaining since they acquired the animals, which truly were a blessing. On the first day, one of them led the party to a watering hole with bushes growing fruit that Dawn would eat. They had packed enough into a jacket to last her a week if she ate carefully. Xander himself hadn't felt hungry since he'd eaten those berries days before, and seemed to get by fine on a cupped handful of water.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Xander wondered at the command role that had fallen on him, he was surprised by it. But even more surprising was that he seemed to fill the role competently! He made a mental note to ask Willow or Anya about the effects of the demon-mantle he had assumed and the curse.

He was broken out his of reverie by Spike near shouting "Riders trailing us! At least thirty." Xander could see thirty or so riders appearing on the hill they had just crested. "Come on! If I suit up I should be able to take out at least half of them and then-
"Spike!" Xander broke in, "you ride on with Dawn and Willow. Anya, to me. I have an idea."
"What? You just expect me to-"
"Please just do it, Spike," groaned Xander. Probably only to protect Dawn, Spike did actually go. "Anya," Xander said, "you need to demon up." Without comment, she quickly resumed her demon form. As the riders neared, he counted thirty-one Ankylans: three groups plus the survivor from the first. He raised his left hand, palm out, like he'd seen the sergeant do before in salute, as the three sergeants approached with the survivor. All saluted.

"My lord," began the first sergeant in an amazed tone, "we had report that a Chaos General was travelling with three retainers and was attacked by a Vantal." The sergeant looked to the survivor. "I scarcely believed any of it my lord, save 'til I saw the remains of the group that had been attacked. My lord, is... is all well?" Without preamble, Xander replied "All is well sergeant. I slew the Vantal. But I am most concerned that a soldier would desert his superior n the face of peril." Xander's tone was without emotion.

The sergeant looked to his equals who promptly dismounted, dragged the survivor from his mount, and broke his neck. Xander winced inwardly, but without comment he said "I will require five fresh mounts and supplies, sergeant." The sergeant nodded and selected the five best mounts among the thirty-one. All three sergeants gave their animals. The supplies were placed on the fifth. "Good" was Xander's only reaction, as he remounted on a new animal he overheard was called a 'krus'. "Remain here. My retainer will return shortly with our old krus." He held up his palm.

All three sergeants raised their palms, the first saying "Yes, my lord. Thank you, my lord." Without further comment Xander rode away, Anya in tow. When they reached the others Xander asked Anya to return with the tired animals. She complied, and when she returned with the fresh mounts, Xander exploded in laughter and near collapsed in his saddle from sheer relief. Laughing, he said,
"I can't believe we got away with that!" Anya blinked.
"You – you mean you didn't know what you were doing was right?" she asked incredulously. He grinned.
"Hadn't a clue." That wasn't exactly true, but he wasn't going to tell her yet that all his pseudo-soldier memories had returned. Anya looked taken aback as Willow and Dawn grinned openly.
"Why – you – no – good," Anya accentuated each syllable with a punch to the ribs, "Al – ex – an – der – La – Velle – Har – ris!" Xander winced as he rode wondering if it was really necessary for Anya to spend so long saying his name.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They rode without incident for the next few days, finding more food for Dawn. On the third day, they came in sight of a fortress, and twenty Ankylan riders greeted them. "My lord," said what Xander's pseudo-soldier memories told him was probably a captain, "welcome to Sash Fortress. We would be honoured to host you." This captain was far more disciplined than the first sergeant. It was none of his concern what a general's business was unless the general decided to make it so, lectured his pseudo memories.

Anya and Willow had assumed demon shapes and Anya cast a spell making Spike and Dawn appear as Ankylans to all who saw them. "Is your lord not going to greet me himself?" asked Xander of the captain.
"My lord," responded the captain, "Colonel Sash is currently campaigning in Mesu against the Seshni raiders. I command here in his stead." The captain seemed disgruntled that he wasn't also off campaigning in this 'Mesu'. Quickly the captain said "Your accommodations are being seen to, my lord. May I ask how long a duration the General will honour us in his stay?" Xander mutely gave a slow shake of his head. The captain continued as if nothing untoward had happened. "The latest reports from south of Chaono Lake are Colonel Sash's study" said the captain as Xander heard Willow speaking in his mind.
{Xander, we need to find out as much as we can about Ri'Oth. Ask to go to the Colonel's study.}
"Sure, Will" he replied aloud, forgetting that it was unnecessary with Willow's mental link.
"My lord?" asked the confused captain.
"Nothing, captain," Xander quickly covered, "continue". The captain immediately resumed his stiff posture.
"The reports, my lord; shall I have them fetched from the Colonel's study?" Xander pretended to consider it.
"No, captain. I think I'll go to the Colonel's study myself." If the captain was surprised by the order, he didn't display it. He quickly summoned a servant, who he ordered lead them to the Colonel's study. He excused himself with a salute, explaining that he had necessary tasks to perform. He was leaving when Xander heard Willow in his head. Xander called after the captain, "I do not wish to be disturbed." The captain nodded with an acceding
"My lord", saluted again, and exited.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The short, green-skinned servant led them to the study and left without a word, which surprised Xander, considering how the officers behaved toward him. Once inside the large, dusty room, Willow and Anya resumed their human forms, the latter lifting the illusions from Spike and Dawn. "Gee, Xander. You're handling this whole 'milord' thing really well", praised Willow.
"Yup, he's great", chimed Anya as she hugged Xander's enormous torso. Spike cocked an eyebrow at the praise and shook his head, but Dawn joined in by telling Xander how much he rocked as a demon.
"Yeah," nodded Xander, "I am the man... or in this case I am the big, freaky antler-monster."
"Xander," said Willow seriously, "you're gonna have to stay the way you look though. That's the only reason we got this far." Xander frowned.
"Geez, Will. I was just about to ask Anya if she could make look normal again. Its like you read my mind." Willow grinned and Xander looked aghast. "Hey, stop that!"

The exchange ended when Willow caught sight of a bookshelf behind Xander. She wordlessly took a book and began excitedly reading. "Look at that," said Xander, "you can take the girl out of the boring, creepy library, but you can't take the boring, creepy library out of the girl." Willow looked up, frowning. "Alright," said Xander, raising his hands and then opening a book, "I'm working."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The five read as much as they could of the books, attempting to gather as much current information about Ri'Oth as they possibly could, Willow far outpacing the others. It was Dawn, however, who discovered a large, folded map tucked into one of the books. "Hey guys, look what I found," she chirped, holding up her prize, "It's a map, I think." Spike leaned over the unfolded map.
"You're right, Niblet. Look, this is where we are," he said pointing to a small dot with the almost unreadable words 'Sash Fortress' scribbled beside it. "Looks like that mist way back is a permanent feature," he said indicating a black crescent on the map titled 'MistWall'.
"Man, look at the size of it," exclaimed Xander, "it must be hundreds of square miles. If Dawn didn't know where to go, we could still be wandering around inside it right now." He scratched his ear saying, "I wonder what caused it."
"Or how long its there" added Dawn. At that, Willow snapped her fingers to gain everyone's attention.
"I know why the MistWall is there. According to this," Willow nodded toward the book she was holding, "there are two clans of Ankylans in Ri'Oth. The Buntine and the Seshni. It says that the Buntine went over to the worship of Deetai from Estyarth around a hundred years ago, and the Buntine leaders lured the Seshni army into a massive trap, that they thought was a mission to destroy their natural enemies, the Chaos Soldiers from Chaono. But before the Buntine and Chaos Legions could annihilate the Seshni host and invade the Seshni Plains, the Seshni god willed the MistWall into existence. It doomed any who entered and blocked off the quick invasion route to Seshni .So, by the time the Buntine and Chaos Legions reached the Seshni Plains, through the borderland; Mesu, reinforcements from Ka'ad and Great Demm strengthened to rout and turn back the invaders.

"Since then the Buntine and Seshni clans of Ankylans have engaged in a decades-long bloodfued that usually takes place in Mesu." She pointed it out on the map, just north of their position at the north of Buntine Springs. "With almost constant reinforcements from Chaono for the Buntine and from Ka'ad for the Seshni, neither clan has managed to break the deadlock in all this time." She looked up from the book.
"Go, Will!" said Xander and Dawn almost at the same time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They took the map and some of the books to the quarters they were given for the night, during which they sifted out as much relevant information as they could. Apparently, Xander's form as a Chaos General meant that he was without peer in rank in the western continent, and had maybe only twelve to fifteen equals in the vast lands of Chaono. Adversely, should Dawn sense Buffy's trail led to the east, toward the Seshni Plains or beyond, Xander's form would lead to immediate attack from all sides.

They gleaned that the south-west of Mesu was currently under the control of Deetai's forces, but the Seshni were making leeway and becoming bolder in their raids and attacks of Chaos and Buntine garrisons, sometimes even attacking as far west as the southern tip of Chaono Lake.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dawn had sensed Buffy's trail was northerly, so tomorrow they would be going into Mesu, Seshni raids or not. Willow had wanted to stay in Sash Fortress a few days longer, but Dawn was insistent. Xander placated Willow by suggesting she take whatever books she wanted and he would have the captain provide them with another krus. It seemed to work.

The following morning, they remounted their rested animals and rode north, the others once again disguised by Anya's spell, Willow no longer bothering to shape shift into a demon form. They had taken two krus from Sash, and now everybody had their own mount. It was on hers that Anya rode up to Xander, leaving Willow and Dawn speaking behind and Spike scouting the rear. "Xander," she said.
"Yeah, An."
"I meant to ask this before but you listened to what that book Willow read said about the 'MistWall', right?" Her tone was quiet and vaguely confused. He replied in the affirmative. "So you heard what it said about it being doom for all who entered?" He nodded. "Then how come we're fine? Shouldn't we have been doomed? And for that matter, if Buffy was there when she came to Ri'Oth, shouldn't she have been doomed, too? Not that I want her to be doomed, or us for that matter. But in the old days, if you were doomed, you were doomed!" Xander shrugged.
"Well, honey, I guess they don't make dooms like they used to."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They didn't want to stop again, so they avoided the sister fortress of Sash; MorCastle, just inside the Mesu border. As Xander was posing as a general they had to avoid any chance of meeting someone with the authority or stupidity Xander added, to question them. Dawn led them in a generally northeasterly direction for the next five days, and when they passed a small lake the map told them was called Uskique, they knew they were halfway to Chaono Lake, where the field reports told them that Colonel Sash amongst others, were based.

"That's the sodding last place we want to be", said Spike pointing out Chaono Lake on the map during a short rest from riding.
"Yeah," agreed Willow, "we should avoid going there unless absolutely necessary. From what I've read of the authority system here, a general would be at least expected to identify himself to a colonel, and it would be really strange for a general to keep a colonel in the dark about anything." Scratching his face, Xander asked
"Willow, you said that there's like, maybe fifteen other guys who equal me in rank, right?" She told him that was true. "My soldier memories are telling me that this Mesu is some massive front in a enormous war for Estyarth's and Deetai's forces, even if it wasn't obvious from what we've read. So, its reasonable that maybe half these guys are somewhere in Mesu at any one time. Now, this place is huge," he said indicating Mesu on the map, "so its fairly safe to say that these guys would be thinly spread. Also, the field reports say that Colonel Sash is in command of the camp at Chaono Lake. If we had to go there and I showed up with a legitimate name, y'know a general who isn't in Mesu, but who Sash hasn't met, I could say almost anything as long as it was plausible. Hell, I could say I'm taking command!"
"Yeah, let's not do that," said Spike.

"Will," asked Xander, "are the names of the Chaos Generals in any of the books you took from the fortress?" She solemnly shook her head. Smiling suddenly she said,
"It's a good thing I memorised all the names before we left."
"Will, you are the goddess of all things boring book- related, and that's just one of the reasons why I love you." Anya frowned unhappily.
"What about me, Xander?" she asked tartly.
"I love you too, An." She hugged him and said
"Oh, that's all right then." Dawn was theatrically pretending to be sad until Xander said,
"You too. Dawnster." Then she smiled and hugged him as well. Xander looked up from the hug and saw Spike. At Xander's smirk, Spike delivered the most evil look that has ever been given from one sentient being to another.

As well as some 'Master General' whose name wasn't mentioned, there were eight Chaos Generals currently not in Mesu, one of who was from the border of far distant Modalstiar. They settled on him. "So," announced Xander, "if we're stopped by anyone I'll give the name 'Lord General Ver-Tal of Metash', okay?" Then Willow said,
"But let's do our best to avoid this Colonel Sash."
"Yeah," said Xander, "Spike, much as I hate so very much to admit is right. Chaono Lake is the last place we wanna go." Dawn, who had been silent throughout this conversation, now spoke
"But it's where we're going."