Shadows: Book One of the Eligia Shala (27 page)

Captains Manvi, Tessier and Pichot all began objecting at this point. Even they thought this was taking things too far. They had wanted to put one of their Flights with the princess’s Flight to push the numbers at least in the direction of being even, but Raik’s decision had been absolute, and now he was handicapping Shadow Flight even more.

“Commander, that’s hardly fair,” Mikyle Manvi leaned forward, concern creasing his forehead.

“Maybe not,” Raik agreed. “But there’s nothing else I can take away from Shadow Flight to give the rest of you a chance. You’ll all just have to do the best you can.” Although his face remained grave, Jenevra caught the flicker of a smile in Raik’s glance, as the Imperial Captains tried to work out if he’d just insulted them all. “It’s all up to you now, Captain,” he nodded at Jenevra. “We start at daybreak tomorrow. You have until sunset to capture the Emperor. Dismissed.”

“Princess! Captain Couressime! Wait!” Captain Tessier was running along the hallway after Jenevra. Catching up, he fell into step alongside her. In his regular brown uniform today, he looked sharp-edged and intense, with none of the usual indolence that he showed during Court functions. “I’m sorry the Emperor didn’t give you Bortka. I know you probably wanted to go back there. We heard most of the story last night.”

Jenevra’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Really? From who, Captain?”

“We had a drink with your Flight, Princess. The Emperor called us to join him with them. They told us just about everything that had happened … including Theiss.”

“I see. It’s a miracle the Emperor’s letting me out of the palace at all really, isn’t it, much less trusting me to get past three Flights?” Jenevra’s knuckles were white where she was gripping the hilt of the Spirit Sword. “Still, I suppose you were all highly entertained?”

“I think the Emperor is concerned. Not about your ability,” he added quickly. “He’s concerned that you’ll get too involved if you go back up to Bortka. It’s a difficult path for him to walk, Princess. On the one hand, he knows that you have the Flight totally behind you. Maybe too much so!” Tessier’s grin flashed through suddenly. “But, on the other hand, he knows that his wife and new in-laws will never forgive him if anything happens to you.”

“But they know it’s my choice!” Jenevra protested.

They walked out across the practice fields together. Many men from all flights were out drilling and practicing, instructing others, training new recruits. Tessier pointed over the archery field, where Finn Corrigan was working with Farid Jatar, training the men who didn’t have much experience with bows. “Jatar seems to have pledged himself to you. That’s a huge commitment. He doesn’t give his respect easily.”

“He was in your Flight?” Jenevra hadn’t known that.

Tessier nodded. “You really couldn’t have a greater compliment than Jatar’s acceptance. He’s a strange man: wicked with that sword of his, though.”

“It’s because I didn’t lie to the children at the inn.” Jenevra smiled at Tessier’s puzzled look. “I know,” she shrugged. “But it seemed to matter to Farid. His faith means a lot to him, I think; so he respects it in others. I like him. He’s a good man. So is Corrigan; the one with the longbow.”

“Ah, Pichot’s archery champion. We’ve all heard about that, Princess! Pichot was not happy.”

“I think you’d be surprised at how easily I can live with that, Captain.” She turned, walking towards the stables, wanting to know if Master Alvaro had any news about new stock. To her surprise and discomfort, Tessier stayed with her. So far, they had managed to be civil to each other, and had studiously avoided any mention of their last encounter, but how long could that last?

In the stables, everything was pristine. Laio and his friends seemed to be doing an excellent job. The horse’s coats were gleaming, hooves oiled and manes and tails groomed to the point of vanity. Saddles and bridles were hanging by every stall, polished and oiled, ready to go. The newest Imperial Captain was smugly proud as she noticed an impressed Captain Tessier making mental note to have his Flight’s barns spruced up to a similarly immaculate standard. Jenevra stopped at her horse. Scratching at his ears, she fed him two carrots from a bucket of them Laio had begun keeping at the door. The horse nuzzled into her, blowing softly through his nose. “We’ll be going soon,” she murmured. “You can run again as soon as we get out of here.”

“What’s his name?” Tessier was making conversation to distract himself from wishing she’d scratch his ears and talk to him in that same soft voice.

“Name?” Jenevra was puzzled. “Why would you want to give him a name?”

“It’s sort of traditional, Princess. I don’t know a man out there who hasn’t named his horse. Surely you named your ponies when you were small?”

She thought about it and shook her head slowly. “No, I never thought it made sense. Still … if you think I should … what do you think I should call him?”

“Are you making fun of me, Princess?” Tessier was having definite problems understanding where he was with this young woman. He’d seen that most of her Flight regarded her with a level of friendship that would certainly not exist in his own Flight, and she seemed to extend that casual level to the other officers. It was almost as though they all saw her as a little sister, and she treated them almost like brothers. Did she think of him as another brother, like Mikyle Manvi?

“Would I do that to you, Captain Tessier?”

“I suppose Shadow would just be too obvious?” He stepped up next to her, stroking the horse’s nose. “Mist, smoke, cloud? I don’t know.” Closing his eyes briefly, he tried to broach the subject that hung between them like an unseen cloud. “Princess … Captain ….?” He sighed deeply. “I know you probably have other things on your mind right now but, you remember the night you left for Bortka?”

Her face froze. Glacial blue eyes stared at him over the horse’s face.

Tessier swallowed. “I think maybe you misunderstood …”

“I remember, Captain!” she interrupted, embarrassed. “I understood completely.”

“No,” he moved around in front of her, willing her to look up at him. “No, you didn’t. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to kiss you.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” she mumbled looking down at the floor. “Anyway, I have to go. I have a Flight to prepare for your stupid games.”

“Princess!” Tessier groaned. “Would you please just shut up and listen to me? It wasn’t that I didn’t want to kiss you. But with everything that had happened, it just felt like it would have been wrong. You were angry and upset; your emotions were all over the place. I could have kissed you, but I didn’t want you to hate me for doing something I thought you’d regret.”

“Of course I was angry. Ever since I came back, everyone’s expected me to behave as if I never left. I barely know my own family. It turns out I didn’t even know the person I thought was my closest friend—who then tries to kill me!” She stopped suddenly; blushing, biting her lip.

“Captain! You’re back!” Laio’s exuberant voice echoed through the stable, as the two Captains jumped guiltily apart. “We have new horses! Master Alvaro wants you to check them.”

“Right, Laio. Thank you. I’ll be there in a moment.” Jenevra drew a deep breath, turning to Tessier. “We both have Flights to concentrate on. Can we just agree not to mention this ever again, Captain? Let’s just call the whole issue closed.” Jenevra was all business again, although she couldn’t quite meet his eyes. She turned and walked quickly out of the stable, leaving Captain Tessier watching her thoughtfully, a half-puzzled, half-amused expression on his face.

 CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Thumping on the doors of the Shadow Flight’s barracks slightly before dawn, and receiving no reply, Commander Rabenaldt pushed the heavy doors open, permitting himself a brief, satisfied smile before turning back to the men who had accompanied him. “They’re not here,” he announced, somewhat unnecessarily as they could all see the deserted room in front of them. “Mount up while I check on Captain Couressime’s rooms, then we leave for the Plain.” Finding Jenevra’s room empty too, Raik’s day began to feel significantly brighter. Bounding down the Palace steps two and three at a time, he vaulted into his saddle with the energy of a much younger man, eliciting strange glances from his men.

Emerging from the slowly waking city onto the rolling Plain of Salanova, Commander Rabenaldt called his Patrol into formation and gave them their instructions for the day. “We are merely observers, gentlemen,” he called clearly to them. “Our job is simply to make sure that no one in Shadow Flight uses a weapon, and that none of them are too badly hurt during the games.” His face and tone turned serious. “Most importantly, should anyone see Captain Couressime being hurt or handled inappropriately—you know what I mean—you are to step in immediately.” He grimaced, knowing how angry Jenevra would be if she heard that last order. “I very much doubt that we will have that problem, seeing as she’s already several steps ahead of all the other Flights, and she will give you trouble if you try to intervene, but those are the Emperor’s orders.” Glancing towards the horizon, where the sun was etching the trailing edges of the night’s clouds, tinting them with a gilded outline, Raik grinned again, touching his heels lightly to his horse’s sides. “Well, let’s go see if Shadow Flight has already won, shall we?”

From the top of a rocky outcrop overlooking the Plain, Jenevra watched the preparations of the three Flights intending to guard their Emperor. One foot up on a large boulder, she leaned forward, peering down at the milling men below them, shaking her head and making small noises of disapproval. All in gray as usual, the men of Shadow Flight blended into the rock face behind her, talking over their assignments in small groups. Tearing herself away from watching the Imperial Army, Jenevra straightened up, her hands automatically moving to adjust where the twin swords normally were over her shoulders. “I suppose we’d better get on with this,” she said, disgust still coloring her voice as it had the previous night when she’d explained her plan to the men. “Everyone clear as to what they’re doing, and when?”

The men nodded. Gervaise D’Agostino hooked his thumbs through his belt, complaining, “I still don’t like this, Captain. Are you absolutely sure we have to do it this way? It just feels so …” he searched for a word.

“Weak?” Jenevra supplied. “Unmanly?”

“Well, yes.” D’Agostino agreed.

“It is.” Jenevra nodded. “Or, at least that’s how they’ll all see it. That’s why they won’t expect it. We have to exploit their weaknesses, D’Agostino, and play to our strengths. Sadly for them, they don’t know what either of them is. But we do, and that’s why we have the advantage even though there’s over three thousand of them, and only twenty-odd of us. That’s why we’ll beat them.”

D’Agostino held his hand up in resignation. “I know, Captain. I know in my head that you’re right, I just don’t like it.”

“That’s alright.” The princess smiled sweetly at him, reaching up to pat him gently on the cheek. “You don’t have to like it any more than I do. The only thing that matters is that we win. That’s all that ever matters. Idiots can tell you that the way you do something is important but, at the end of the day, the victor is the one who writes the history books. If you lose, someone’s going to make you sound stupid no matter how brilliant or honorable you were.” Shrugging, Jenevra grinned at them all. “I’ve never lost, and I have no intention of starting now.”

“I don’t think any of the Imperial Captains have lost many battles either, Captain,” Brogan countered as they began to make their way down the far side of the hill. “And Captain Tessier definitely doesn’t take defeat graciously.”

“So he must have lost at some time for you to know that, Sergeant,” the princess reminded him. “Anyway, there’s one vital difference that you’re forgetting.” She gave him a wicked sideways smile as he looked expectantly at her. “They’re only men.”

Splitting Shadow Flight out into several small groups, Jenevra dismissed them to their pre-assigned tasks, reminding them all to stick to their plans no matter how hard it was. They disappeared into the early morning mists like wraiths, leaving the princess with two of the newest, youngest men; Alexander, known through the Flight as Sasha, and Simon, the talented blonde swordsman. Signaling silently to them, she led them out along the furthest edges of the rocky hills, almost invisible amidst the gray hues of the dawn; moving determinedly towards the main camp of the three Imperial Flights.

“Ssshh!” A harsh whisper cut through the air.

“Ssshh, yourself, Sasha,” a low voice muttered.

“Captain, please,” a third voice pleaded. “They’ll hear us. We need to get away from here.”

Sergeant Marin, waved his men quickly into silence as he listened for any further sounds in the bushes around them. Beckoning one over, he sent him back to the officers to let them know they might have spotted someone from Shadow Flight. Catching the sounds of rustling ahead of them, he motioned to his patrol to begin tracking.

In a little over half an hour, Captains Tessier and Manvi materialized behind them, along with about another fifty men. Pulling Sergeant Marin back a ways, they began to discuss what was happening. Sergeant Marin confirmed, they were indeed tracking the princess and two of her men; that they were a short distance ahead of them, apparently engaged in a heated discussion of their own. Tessier and Manvi exchanged congratulatory glances.

“Do we know what they’re saying?” Mikyle Manvi asked. “Did you get anyone close enough to them?”

Sergeant Marin nodded. “The princess seems to have two of her less experienced men with her, Sir. I don’t know why; seems pretty stupid to me. But even they’re arguing with her. Whatever she’s trying to get them to do, they don’t want to do it.” Pursing his lips disapprovingly he added, “She must have ordered all the others away. There’s no way Brogan would have left her with those two youngsters if he wasn’t following orders; it’s suicide. Well, you know what I mean, Sir.”

Captain Tessier stroked his fingers along his moustache and down his beard, thinking carefully. “See how close you can get someone, Marin. Let’s see if we can’t find out what her independent little Highness is up to, eh?”

“Are they still there?” Jenevra asked Simon under her breath, as the three of them squatted in a small circle near the rocks. Her back to the Imperial forces, she chanced a swift grin as Simon nodded. “Time to give them what they’re after then.”

Glowering superbly at her, Simon jumped to his feet, waving his hands around as if in anger. “Captain, I absolutely have to protest!” He said loudly. “We cannot stay here, so close to the Imperial forces. We have to get you to a safe distance. Sergeant Brogan said—”

Hands on hips, Jenevra faced Simon, cutting right across him. “Well, Sergeant Brogan isn’t here, is he? I run this Flight, Simon, not Brogan, and we are following my plan. The others should all be more or less in place now, and the last place any of those idiots,” she waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the Imperial camp. “Will be looking is inside the camp itself. They’ll all be busy chasing around the plain looking for us, they’ll never think we’re already inside, closing in on the Emperor.”

“Yes, but Princess,” Sasha tried to help. “That doesn’t mean you have to be here. What if they were to find us? It’ll all be over before it’s started if they capture you.”

“Oh, by all the gods, Sasha!” Jenevra erupted in apparent fury. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that? And they’re not going to find us. Great Tore, Captain Tessier couldn’t find his own backside with both hands!”

Mikyle Manvi choked back a laugh, as Tessier looked indignant, and his men tried to hide their smirks. Sending one patrol back to advise the Imperial forces that Shadow Flight was already hiding amongst them, Captain Tessier’s eyes narrowed dangerously as he turned his attention back to the princess, his sword brushing against Manvi’s as he moved.

The small sound was all the incentive Jenevra needed. Spinning round, she focused a burning blue gaze directly at the bushes. Snapping her fingers at Simon and Sasha, the three of them sprang into action, taking off through the rock strewn paths at a sprint, as Tessier, Manvi and the fifty men of Marin’s patrol lumbered out of the bushes in pursuit.

It was quickly obvious to the men of Eagle Flight that they wouldn’t catch Jenevra and her men on foot. Everyone knew by now of Shadow Flight’s training, and knew that they could outrun anyone in any other Flight, both in speed and endurance.

Thinking quickly, Sergeant Marin had sent ten of his men back towards their camp some time earlier, anticipating that horses might be needed, and within minutes they returned, leading enough horses each for everyone. Complimenting his Sergeant on his forethought, Captain Tessier swung into his saddle, determined to make the princess pay for her comment. Unaware that the object of his irritation was currently watching him from a rocky ledge, making sure he didn’t miss the direction she was headed in, Tessier muttered curses under his breath, much to Mikyle Manvi’s amusement.

“D’you think they saw us?” Jenevra asked Simon and Sasha, as the three of them stood together watching the mounted patrol. Sighing lightly, the princess nodded towards Sasha. “Just give those stones a kick, Sasha. Let’s send up a little dust cloud, just to make sure they find us.”

Laughing as they saw the patrol swerve, changing direction to head for them, the three ran easily across the scree, to the base of one of the first decent sized mountains of the Coural range.

“We are sure this is the right one, aren’t we, Captain?” Simon asked as they began to pull themselves up onto the rock face. “They will know about that path that will take them to the top?”

Jenevra grinned across at them both. “They should do. It’s really well known. They should be there, disgustingly smug at having outwitted us, by the time we reach the plateau. Don’t forget to be nice and angry with me when we get there! Now, get climbing. You’ve got to get there just ahead of me for this to be perfect.”

Blowing strands of hair out of her face as her hands scrabbled for a grip on the ledge; Jenevra peered over it as she hauled herself up. “Thanks, you know a hand wouldn’t have gone amiss there.” She stopped short, cursing, as she straightened up and saw Simon and Sasha being held at sword point by Captain Tessier’s men.