Chapter 5
The Frontier
It was late into the night when Fyrn arrived at the small room off the King's chambers. He was so tied he was almost cross-eyed and it felt like a hundred pound weight had been laid over his shoulders. Alairo and King Lydis were waiting on him and both looked up as he entered.
"Well?" Alairo asked.
The King's Own took a seat in a nearby chair and blew out a big breath through puffed checks, "Well, it isn't good. None of it is." He stated plainly. "Hardon is in trouble. This attack is much more vicious then any others. They are using high-powered magic and their troops are seasoned from their past civil war. Karse is waiting for a sign before choosing sides. Of Iftel, there is no word." He closed his eyes in a vain attempt to fight off the headache he was feeling. The king grunted and looked thoughtful.
"I wish I could offer some good news, but there isn't any. There has been a rash of unexpected problems cropping all over the place along the Frontier." Fryn threw his arms up in frustration and then let them fall hopelessly into his lap.
"They just might pull this one off. Does anyone know who they have appointed as their leader?" Alairo asked.
"Not yet. We have very little intelligence in that area."
The king listened to both men before speaking, then addressed his question to Fryn, "Will it do any good to send in the full army? I'd prefer to send as few as possible for if Hardon falls we will need men to protect ourselves."
"I would say what we have sent should aid them enough. I would recommend sending in more only if it looked like the Imperials could be beaten."
The king fell silent once more as he digested the facts and figures. "What of the sorceress? Do you still think letting her go was a good idea?"
"As far as I know, she's fine. Probably at the Frontier by now. I still stand by my decision. She is to wild to hold chained here until we can figure out what to do with her."
"What are we going to do with her?" Alairo asked.
Fyrn shrugged and made an empty gesture, "She could be a Herald if she'd just let us teach her. Elrin was right when he said that he felt she had a huge potential for good. The thing is she bucks every time we try to help her and keep in mind we have no idea who she really is or what her agenda is."
"As far as I have seen, she doesn't present a threat for the moment. I am more worried that whatever adventures she left behind might catch up and have her all over again." Lydis said, "Its not a Foresight vision, just a worry." He continued as Fyrn went to speak, answering his question.
"She did kill a man." Alairo pointed out, "What if that becomes a trend."
"That man deserved what he got, though I do see the danger in it. I am glad to hear that the has child recovered and was Chosen, no less." Fyrn stood up, "These problems will still be here in the morning and I'm about to fall asleep on my own two feet. I say we all get some much needed rest."
"I'd say not quite a days march, if we pushed hard we could make it before nightfall." Shadron said to Dagenheart and Alairus as the three stood on a small knoll and watched thick columns of smoke defile the blue sky in the distance. "Probably a town that got razed. If those is campfires though, there's a mess of them."
"The report we got was that the supply depot wasn't guarded by more then a skeleton garrison – twenty men at the most. It wouldn't be their campfires putting off that much smoke." Alairus raised his hand to shade his eyes from the sun as he spoke.
"Whatever it is, it is damn close to the depot's location. I'd say we ride around it, but reckon that would take up to much time. Be best to split into two groups as we come out of the valley. One of you with each group. Then move up around it like so." Shadron said as he squatted down to sketch out the plan with a stick in the dirt.
Their first assignment had been to escort a small elite force across enemy lines and to the location of an Imperial supply depot that was helping sustain the tattered Empire's assault. Four such sites existed and it was their job to locate and destroy as many as they could. For a week they rode through emotionally bleaker country as evidence of the enemy army's advance grew more evident. Entire villages had been reduced to white ash and sun-bleached bones. Acres of forest had been stripped away and the land was marred by the churning passage of thousands of men and beasts. The main force numbered about seventy thousand men. The largest single army to yet come out of the Empire since the reign of the last True Emperor. Two smaller forces were moving along the main army's flanks; each consisted of roughly twenty thousand men or so the scouts reported. General Harris, her former mercenary commander, had taken her on along with her friends and Alairus. He had replaced her temporary rank with a permanent one of Lieutenant.
The three on the knoll moved back down into the trees surrounding their camp. Elrin, Frickel and the elite troops (there were twenty-five of them) were waiting there anxiously. Frickel was convinced his blade couldn't be sharp enough and continually applied it to a whetstone. He saw the others coming back and popped up off the fallen tree he was seated on.
"So, what's going on?" He asked urgently.
"Smoke almost a days march from here. Lots of it. It looks to be near the supply depot." Dagenheart replied untying her ponytail and shaking the dust and sweat from her hair, then retied it. "I'm going to go forward with a small group and scout out the situation. Elrin will report if we encounter trouble." She checked her saddlebags and secured them.
"I'll take two of the commandos." She pointed to two at random as she spoke. They got up and got their own horses ready. Alairus began to mount his Companion when Dagenheart shook her head. "No way. Elrin being as white as a fresh snow is bad enough. I might be able to risk enough power to camouflage him without alerting any nearby mages. I can't for you two." She protested.
He eyed her for a moment but saw the logic in her words. If there was a mage in the depot, he might be able to pick up on the magic even this far out. He struggled with himself for a moment and then nodded his head once.
When the two soldiers were ready, she led them out at a blistering past. She planned to rest shortly but wanted to be able to out distance the others to give them more advance warning if something went wrong. They raced along until the normal horses began to lose endurance, then she ordered a short rest. She didn't want the horses lathering themselves. After a quick bite to eat, they were back on their way. She used a tiny portion of her personal power to set a glamour around Elrin, then extended her senses to their limit, searching for anything in front of them. They managed to ride a good ways before she sensed trouble or rather sensed a small party of men nearby. She gave the two soldiers the single to halt and trotted forward a few feet. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her surroundings. After a moment she could discern them clearly. Them being six Imperials moving along a road that ran in from the east and met the trail they were on.
::How far back are the others?:: She asked.
::Not too far. I don't think we should bother the Imperials.::
::I don't intend to. I could take them but not without lighting up like a magic beacon.::
"A small band of Imperials is about to cross the road up ahead. We'll hunker down here and wait for the others." And hope that the Imperials didn't turn north and come down the trail at them. She took the respite to get a better view of the smoky towers filling the sky. They were just as thick as before which made her concerned. By now, most buildings would have burned down. There should be less smoke if it was just a razed village.
It was almost half a candlemark before the rest of the force caught up. Dagenheart had pretty much convinced herself that the smoke was coming from the depot, which could mean any number of things. She told the others about the Imperials and her thoughts concerning the smoke. They brainstormed for a moment and decided to stay together as they moved forward. It was still a journey of several candlemarks before they reached a rise in the land that overlooked their target. Dagenheart had gone out to get a better look at the place and this time Alairus insisted on going with her. She didn't put up much of an argument and didn't speak to him while they rode until she told him to dismount and they continued up the rise on foot. The sight that unfolded before them was not what either of them expected. The depot was a wild sprawl that stretched in every direction without a protective wall or ditch. The buildings looked like they had been randomly scattered about and piles of crates riddled the ground between them.
"That's a lot of troops. A lot!" Alairus said staring down the overlook at the supply depot. The smoke they had seen was indeed campfires. "There must be a hundred men down there or more." They were both laying down in the grass to avoid silhouetting themselves.
"Probably more. This is going to tricky." Dagenheart said, frowning.
"Tricky? It's impossible." He blustered.
"Nah, there is potential for diversion here and I'm guessing these men won't be frontline material."
"They out number us more than three to one and they may have a mage."
"Let me worry about the mage, if there is one. We could line up right at the mouth of that hollow there and probably hold them." She dared extend a delicate magical probe into the depot. She felt nothing unusual. If there was a mage there, he was keeping himself well hidden.
Frickel eased up behind her and dropped to his stomach next to her. "Hmm. Looks rough." He grunted.
"Yeah. So much for reliable intelligence." She eased away and stood up.
"No such thing." He said, following suite. As did Alairus.
"You cannot seriously be considering attacking them." Alairus stammered.
"Your first battle, eh lad?" Frickel eyed him.
He nodded shallowly.
"Ever kill a man before?" He asked the Herald.
"No. Never had to."
Frickel snickered, "You ain't fighting next to me."
"You have never seen combat?" She asked him, "I hope your just kidding."
"I have been trained by the best Valdemar has to offer. I can hold my own."
Frickel snickered again. Dagenheart stared at the Herald with narrowed eyes..
::He really has never killed anyone?:: She asked Elrin.
::Not to my knowledge.::
::Well, this ought to be fun.::
Dagenheart sat behind the soldiers on Elrin, the wind whipping through her robes. Ten commandos held the right and another ten held the left. Five were arrayed in the middle with Shadron and Frickel leading. Their formation stood at the mouth leading into a deep hollow about a hundred and fifty yards from the depot. The brushy growth around them made wonderful concealment and would act as a feeble barrier. Alairus was beside her because she didn't want him to lose nerve or his mind and generate a disaster. She had seen men thought to be made of stone crumble in their first skirmish and weaklings save entire platoons. You could never tell what a man will do in combat, especially his first time out.
"When the fighting starts, stay out of my way or you'll get hurt." She said to the Herald. He didn't respond. She sensed fear in him but also a trained will holding it in check.
::I'm going to have to block you out during my casting. I cannot afford distractions and you will not want to see the energy I wield.::
Before a response came she blocked him out of her mind. The soldiers across the way looked little better then an armed rabble, but there were a lot of them and even a poorly trained soldier can get lucky and kill you just as dead as a Shin'a'in Swordsworn. She sent a low-grade spell scampering through the compound seeking anything magical. It came back to her empty. Her concern about them having a mage was dwindling. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the threads of energy she held anchored in her soul. Energies that flowed from the dark and evil realm known to her as the Twisting Nether. She pulled the energies through the threads and began feeding from them like a vampire. The energies were cold and chaotic and fought her every inch. She felt it filling her and she began to shape her initial spell. Something flashy and lethal. A slight tremor began to vibrate through the ground, with a loud groan the earth under the depot buckled and scores of small steam blasts ruptured forth, scolding men and beast alike. Screams filled the air but they were fewer then she expected. She sent a blindingly red fireball straight up into the air trailing a glowing yellow tail. It went up about a hundred feet and then it exploded and crackled with tiny lighting. She was content to let her enemy know her location and come to her.
"Always got to ham it up!" Frickel shouted.
The fireball got someone's attention and officers began rounding up the dazed troops and cursing them into formation. Dagenheart figured she had time for one more heavy spell before the enemy got to close. Again she tugged the threads and molded the tainted energy into threads of white hot power that birthed themselves out of thin air and floated like down feathers. Painful screams filled the air from those unfortunate enough to suffer the strings' touch but her magic didn't slow them down. They charged forward and soon they were close enough that her spell couldn't be trusted not to harm her own men. As she banished the working and resealed the energy threads, she thought for one moment that she felt something weird. Like something brushed against her soul.
As the Imperials hit their line, Dagenheart unleashed a blinding flash that affected anyone looking at her. The first wave didn't last very long. The second fared better but on the third rush, the right broke. Shadron moved from the center with two elites to support the failing right.
"Damn him." She barked. "Alairus, support the middle." She yelled at him. He was not quite in a daze but his fear had grown. "Alairus!" She snapped.
"Right." His Companion shot forward as he drew his sword from its saddle scabbard. She did smirk as she realized that put him fighting next to Frickel. There seemed to be a smaller force forming behind this wave. She closed her eyes and touched as many minds as she could in that formation. She used her magic to flood those minds with unreasonable panic and terror. A dozen men fled the field, screaming in mortal terror. The right was still in bad shape and the left was right behind it. Maybe she had bitten off more then she could chew. She strained her senses and touched more minds and filled them with the same unyielding fear as before. She siphoned more power and intensified it till the minds began to shred with insanity. The men in the fourth wave were screaming and killing each other.
She heard the Herald scream in outrage as he fought off two Imperials. His reflexes were impressive but his panic was about to get the best of him.
"Go!" She yelled to her Companion and reached her hand out as if to grab something. She spoke the words of power and summoned a nether-blade. It formed in her out stretched hand; a glow of dark energy looking more like an axe then a sword. She flung it at one of the Imperial's attacking Alairus. It took him in the stomach and sprayed both Herald and mount with blood. Elrin moved like white lightning, into the fray. Energies snapped and barked around both of them dueling any who attacked. The Imperials fought to stay away from them. Elrin reared and let loose a shrieking neigh of challenge that thundered over the sounds of battle.
The enemy broke and ran for the false safety of the depot. Shadron shouted an advance and led the charge. Dagenheart lagged back with Frickel as both of them sought to catch their breath. She removed the block on her Companion as she panted.
"You still among the living?" Frickel's voice boomed behind her.
"So far. This was a price to costly, I fear. We may have to reconsider our future plans." She told him.
The clean up didn't last long; a fleeing opponent doesn't present much of an obstacle. Dagenheart and Frickel arrived as the commandos began searching bodies and the buildings that had survived her magic. She dismounted as Alairus came riding up looking pale. He didn't say anything to her just gazed at her with haunted eyes. The urge to comfort was powerful but she fought it with everything she had. A distraction arrived in the form of a commando with something to tell her, "Milady, We have found a crowd of Imperials hiding in one of the storage buildings. They act like they are in shock from fear. What would you like us to do with them?"
"We are a small force and cannot afford to keep prisoners. Take care of them and then get some of the guys to go through these supplies and find out what we have."
"Hold." Alairus snapped, "You can't kill those men. We should take them back and turn them over for questioning."
"We still have three more depots out there. We need to hit at least one more to really be effective. We can't drag them around with us. Besides, their minds are mush. They cannot tell us anything."
He looked at her like he was wondering how she could know that.
"Believe me, there is nothing we can do for them but give them the solace of death. Leaving them alive here, in their state, would be the greater of two evils." She stately flatly but the anguish in the Heralds face told clearly of his internal struggle.
"This is wrong." His usually smooth voice was creaky like an old wood floor.
"War is wrong. There are no good guys in war. It's just us and them, now come on. Lets regroup."
They both walked over to where everyone was gathering in silence. She pulled Shadron aside and whispered into his ear. He rounded up one of the surviving commandos and slipped away.
"Well, boy, think your cut out for it?" Frickel asked Alairus, who flushed with irritation. He tried to ignore the merc. Dagenheart could see he was shaken but he had already begun to accept the horror of fighting. Still he needed something to take his mind off things.
"Alright. We have neutralized one of our targets. Alairus, you need to get in touch with our front line and tell them they can begin their assault on the Imperial flank. Tell them we are moving on ahead to scout for the second depot and see that the wounded get patched up." She turned to Frickel, "Any idea how many we lost?"
"Twelve." His face was solemn.
She grunted. That was a price too dear, "Show me where this next depot is." She told one of the commandos, a man by the name of Maestra, as she fished her maps from Elrin's saddlebags. Maestra was a bit scruffy, not a big man and didn't seem like the type that would do any good in a battle but Dagenheart had seen him in action. He was death incarnate and he had a cynical attitude that she approved of. He outlined a location just south of them that sat in the embrace of two rugged mountain ranges.
"They call them mountains but they are more like aggressive hills." He told her, "About a day and half ride."
She grunted again and marked the area on the map with a star and returned it to her saddlebag. The sun had vanished from the sky, leaving only a glow of twilight.
"Make sure we re-supply while we have the opportunity." She told him as she led Elrin off in search of a place to pitch her tent before it got much darker.
"Can I talk to you?" A silky voice asked. Dagenheart didn't have to open her eyes to know her visitor but she did anyway. The Herald hovered in the shadows just outside her pathetic tent. The weak, flickering light of the campfire made his face look like a mask of sinister intentions but it was only a play of shadows.
Dagenheart fought with her anger at being awakened. She was tired, drained and in no mood for company. Yet, she didn't need any more bad blood between them if they had to watch each other's back. She sighed and levered herself up into a sitting position. With a breath she summoned the few candles in her tent to life. She hoped she didn't look as crabby as she felt. Alairus took that as an invitation and came in, sitting down beside the entrance. She had to cross her legs to make room for him; it was a small tent. He fidgeted with his tunic and bit, trying to straighten it.
"Well?" She barked.
"First I just want to thank you for helping me out today." He looked down at his hands as he spoke.
"Don't bother. You would have been able to take them, you were just taking too damn long. Better fix that, it's liable to get you killed."
To her amazement he agreed. "I. . . I was trying to keep from killing anyone. It wasn't working but I didn't want to take a life."
"This is what you wanted to talk about? I'm not a priest. I cannot help soothe your mind if that's what you're here for."
"No." He cleared his throat, "I have news from the front. Kariswood fell yesterday and there is a large force headed towards to Furwood in the north and another moving towards Pendran in the south. The main force has stopped this side of the river and the Son of the Sun is still pretending neutrality."
"Damn Karsites." She muttered, "Is that it?"
"All the important stuff. The Grand Marshall sends his congratulations and the King seems impre…"
"Good Night, Alairus" And with that she snuffed the candles out with her mind and laid back down. After a moment's hesitation, he left her tent without a word.
::Do you have to be so rude?:: Came Elrin's voice just as she was getting relaxed again. By sleeping outside her tent, he had heard every word of the conversation. She wanted him as close to her as possible under these circumstances. Every foot farther away they got from each other sapped more of her power and his.
::I just want to go to sleep and yes, I have to be rude, otherwise I'll never get to rest! Take the hint!::
She felt his amusement but he didn't bother her again.
A candlemark before dawn found Shadron hurling a stale loaf of bread at her.
"Breakfast in bed there Princess." He hollered.
She grumbled and threatened dire curses as she sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes.
"I forgot what such a lovely morning-flower you are." He walked away with a smirk.
She drug herself up and grabbed her robes. She only tied a few of the strings for modesty's sake and then grabbed up a small bucket and went to the horse trough. The water there had just been hauled up from the nearby creek. She scooped out a bucket full and then walked back to her tent. The camp was showing signs of life as men went about their morning duties.
::Wake up, horse.:: She poked Elrin with a magical 'finger'. He looked so content and comfortable sleeping by her tent.
::I hate you.:: His mindvoice was sleepy and warm. ::This hour is unholy.::
She just smiled and began washing herself with the cold water. The touch of it on her skin was painfully refreshing. Bathing is not an opportunity one gets often in the field. Once she was dressed, she went out and started saddling up Elrin.
Just as dawn's rays swept the sky with light, they were all heading out of the massacred compound. They had recovered enough supplies to hold them for another week, including a few bottles of strong wine that somehow managed to stick to her friends' hands. It was going to be a short ride to their next target. Only about a day and a half but Dagenheart wanted to arrive about dusk so they weren't going to push. The ride would have been nice if the scenery had not been so depressing. They came upon a place where the Imperial soldiers had hung a bunch of the local populace. Men, women, children. They all hung like grim ornaments on a solstice tree. Alairus was overcome by the sight and smell and was noisily sick.
"Nothing we can do. Move on." She ordered, unmoved by the horror. It did tell her one thing though. There might be bands of Imperials in the area. The corpses did not look very old. Maybe two days at the longest. She urged Elrin forward and fell in beside Shadron's mare.
"How long has it been since our scouts reported in?"
"A candlemark or so. Why?"
"Keep an eye out. Those bodies weren't that old." She told him.
He looked at her like maybe he had figured that out already. She had Elrin slow his pace until Maestra came up beside her.
"You know this land well?" She asked.
"Fairly." He replied without looking at her.
"Any villages nearby? Settlements, farms?"
"Nah. None that I know of. Those people back there were probably captives."
"And they'd hang their captives why?"
"Maybe they tried to escape or didn't obey orders. Hell, maybe they did it for the sheer mean fun of it. Who knows."
They reached the depot late the next day. The sun was setting behind their target but there was enough light yet to see by. This was radically different then the last. It had a six-foot wall that enclosed it with only one gate on the west side. The outer grounds looked like they were patrolled and every fifty feet stood a crude watchtower atop the wall. The insides of the camp suggested an obsession with order and detail and the troops seemed alert. She couldn't really get a good count on how many of them there were. More then fifty, probably more then seventy.
"I'm going to kill the recon unit that was supposed to have scouted these things out." She growled.
"Them guys over there looks a lot more proficient then the others. I'd reckon they are regular infantry." Shadron voiced, "We could try to take them tonight. Pick the guards off and then rush the camp." He didn't sound real confident though.
"Maybe." She closed her eyes and expanded her senses slowly. She drew back the instant she felt a magical energy.
"Hmm, these guys might have a mage. I don't think he is very strong, certainly not my equal but he could cause problems."
"Be nice to get them outside them walls." Shadron smirked a bit.
"Be real nice. We'll wait till nightfall." She said, turning and sleeking away towards their small camp. When they arrived she gathered everyone together and told them what she wanted them to do. Her plan she kept to herself.
"Why does this sound familiar?" Frickel asked cautiously.
"Because, it is what we did at Nortwen. Why does it matter?" She snapped.
The merc raised an eyebrow, "You do remember what happened at Nortwen, right?"
"That was not my fault and this is different."
"What happened at Nortwen?" Alairus asked.
Frickel went to tell him but Dagenheart didn't give him a chance, "Nothing damnit. Get into postion."