Soul Under the Mountain (Legend of Reason Series) (11 page)

That was the day it had started. Here and there he would catch her smiling or doing some charming thing to make his heart jump just a little. At first he thought that
her blonde hair just reminded him of his
long-gone love, Lilandra, but he had come to dismiss that idea. W
hile a comparison could be made between their looks, Alana was an entirely different kind of person. She was bold and outgoing. She was quick to fight and good with a sword. She was the opposite of what a woman was expected to be, and yet still maintained her femininity with ease.

Rommus slammed his hands on the table. "Vohl!"

Vohl snapped out of his thoughts. "Yes, Master Rommus?"

"I asked you a question. Didn't you hear me?"

"I alr
eady told you, it would be
ludicrous
if we panicked every time—"

"Not that question. I asked you where and when you saw her last."

"Oh. It was here, in the hallway there as I was locking th
e
door
to this room
yesterday
morning. The sun had been in the sky no longer than two hours."

"And you have seen no sign of her since? There's no note here or some kind of clue she may have left us?"

"No, Master Rommus. I have searched
t
his room and many others many times over. I have visited everywhere in Brinn within walking distance. I have had soldiers from Legion Archenarius search for her as well."

"You were concerned enough to do all that, and yet you say it would be silly to panic? It sounds like you've panicked
."

"I admit that I am alarmed now, but when I told your father to send you to me
yesterday
, things did not seem as
dire as
they do now. I have been panicking about the missing book from the moment I noticed it missing. Alana being gone has only recently begun to trouble me."

Rommus ran both hands down his injured face. "Well, I think we should assume the worst and start panicking. If we find her asleep in a corner somewhere, we can all laugh about how silly we were being. But until then, we consider her in great danger. Finding her is now our highest priority."

"One of our highest priorities
. I have men searching for her as we speak. Another priority is protecting you
. I have received word that Uritus is searching for you and means to kill you. Some of the men from the Legion Archenarius have overheard his plans to find and kill you.
His god Inshae apparently demands your blood.
We must not go anywhere near the Emperor's Hall where Uritus spends the majority of his time.
We must do all we can to avoid him, at least until we can find a way to get your powers back—if that is even possible.
"

Rommus ruffled through some papers on the table. "You really think he's that concerned about me right now? We just worked together to defeat the Triultti and all of their horrible creatures.
Since we have this war to fight,
I sort of considered there to be an unspoken truce right now between us."

"I cannot say what his thoughts are, Master Rommus. All I can say is what has been reported to me while you were at Taburdum. I will say that I think it is foolish to think a man like Uritus will do you no harm just because you were forced to be unwilling allies for a single battle."

Rommus nodded. "I suppose you're right. But with this war going on, he and I both have to set aside our differences for a while. He knows that he cannot save Medora from this invasion wit
hout help from me and my father;
and without his magic, we can do little against the Zidaoz.
There is no telling
what kind of monsters he intends to bring to our doorstep in a matter of days.
And aside from th
ose troubles
,
Medora itself is upside-down
,
trying to figure itself out politically. Half of the nation wants to return to the Medora I grew up in, and the other half wants to experiment with
dangerous
redistributive policies."

Vohl closed a dusty book on the table, sending a little cloud of dust to hover in the
shafts of
fading sunlight. "And while you Medorans are fighting against each other, all of your enemies beset you from all sides. This is truly a nightmare of a storm coming. We have a lot of work to do to save Medora."

Rommus shook his head. "It's not Medora I fight for. Medora is just dirt we have placed marble buildings upon. The marble is just rocks we pull from the earth and carve into shape. I fight for freedom, and that is all. Freedom is worth more than all things in this world combined, and many have lost sight of that fact.
"

"I understand your love of freedom, Master Rommus. It is just as important to me. But I do not think you understand what is truly at stake here. You think of freedom and Medora as separate things. You must know by now that Medora is the last hope for freedom. If Medora falls, the light of the world will go out. This dirt we stand on is where we make our final stand."

"You may be right, my friend. Speaking of making our final stand, I guess we have to make a few things official. The men of the Eighth Legion are already following orders from you, but I think we should give you a formal rank. You'll be my First Captain—if you'll accept the role."

"I am afraid I am unfamiliar with military ranks. Is this a high rank? What are my responsibilities?"

"The Medoran ranks are very simple, unlike the Vindyri ranks. We have the General at the top, and then a Legion Commander for each of the seven-now eight—Legions. Each Commander has several Captains, depending on how many men he commands. Generally
there is a Captain for every 5,000 men. A First Captain
outranks the other Captains, and they will take orders from him.
Under the Captains are Lieutenants, and then there are the soldiers.

"This Eighth Legion is not an official unit of the Medoran military, so there's no way to make anything official.  But since we are sort of making up the rules as we go, I have decided I want you as my right-hand man. Many of the soldiers making up Legion Archenarius are from other Legions, so their ranks are sort of up in the air. We'll have to decide
how to sort that out when we have time."

"But Master Rommus, from the way you describe things, it seems to me that your father will outrank you if you assume the rank of Legion Commander."

"That's right. So?"

"Well is it not a bit strange to have a
mortal man commanding the god of war?"

Rommus laughed. "It's strange to even think such things are possible. The whole thing is preposterous. But I didn't get into this to move up in the ranks and surpass my father. I didn't ask for any of this. I am just doing what I am able to do to help to save the world as we know it. My father is a far superior military commander, and I have no problem at all with him remaining the General of the Medoran Legions—all eight of them.
"

"Pardon my ignorance, Master Rommus, but with seven Legions being split into eight Legions, will it not weaken the original seven? I assume they cannot afford to lose men."

"Yes, it makes a huge problem for everyone.
Tannis and I discussed this matter earlier before I came here. One of the Legion Commanders, Battus Gredda, is working with Uritus, so many of his men
who are loyal to Medora
will be coming over to Legion Archenarius when they can. A lot of them will remain loyal to their Commander though, and that is going to be a real problem very soon. We also discussed getting new soldiers
and forming a militia
. There are plenty of Medorans out there who are not in the army who can be persuaded to join our cause. We're going to have to try to get them involved; especially with the heavy losses the Legions have suffered in the last several months."

Vohl shook his head as he stared at the floor. "It will
be difficult to convince people to join an army that is consistently getting cut in half."

"We don't have a lot of other options, Vohl. I don't really have any power other than the protection my armor gives me. And I don't have an army of magical beasts to throw at my enemies. We need to get the Medoran people informed and involved. They need to be educated on what Uritus plans to do to Medora. Once they know the truth, they will rise up and fight alongside us."

"Let us hope, Master Rommus. But I fear that the nature of humankind is to take the path of least resistance. It is far easier to put up no fight and accept whatever fate
is placed before us than to fight for something
as intangible as freedom
.
The
sharp edge of truth is no match for those who refuse to acknowledge it."

Rommus picked up a book and flipped through some pages. "There's wisdom in that statement, my friend. There are some among us who refuse to admit that things are changing or that the mighty nation of Medora can fall.
It is literally crumbling around them and they still wake up and do the same things they did the day before. They shuffle through their days, with eyes wide open but their hearts and souls are sleeping."

"And how d
o we wake the slumbering masses, Master Rommus? We do not have time to knock on every door and deliver personal messages to every man, woman and child."

"It's too late for that. The older we get, the more set in our ways we get. We're not going to convince those who hate us that their ways are all wrong and have been their whole lives. All we can do is find people who have the same ideals as we do, and reach out to them. With their help, we must drive back our enemies; here on Medoran soil and abroad. It doesn't matter if we can't convince everyone that our way is right; we just have to do what's right
—
with or without them.
"

"You choose to fight a hard battle, Master Rommus."

Rommus chuckled. "You don't know the half of it. I have an idea that just might save Medora—assuming we survive this war and Uritus.
It's going to be hard to implement, but it may be the only way to save freedom as we know it.
"

A door slammed down the hall and startled them both. Another door slammed before they
drew
their weapons. Footfalls could be heard coming down the hallway in a hurry. Both men waited with swords leveled at the doorway.

Chapter
13

Alana gasped when she saw the swords at her throat. "What are you doing? You could have killed me, you idiots."

"Where have you been?" Vohl asked as he sheathed his sword.

"Yeah, we need to talk about that.
Uritus captured me.
He let me go."

"He
let you go
?" Rommus asked.
"Why would he do that? And d
o you know where the book is?"

"Yeah, I know where the book is. He has it again. His men came here. I don't know how they knew where we were hiding out, but three Mages came here
looking for it
. For a second I thought to grab a different book to throw them off, but I remembered that it
was their book to begin with and t
hey wouldn't be fooled. Anyway, they chased me across Brinn. I got rid of the book as I ran, but they
found it after they captured me.
I was
put
in a cell, and Uritus himself showed up eventually. He asked me some questions about the book, and then he let me go."

Vohl stood regally and straightened his jacket. "This must be some sort of trick. This makes no sense. If I were him, I would keep you imprisoned and force the rest of us to come look for you."

"He claims he doesn't care anymore," Alana said. "He says that his main concern now is winning this war, and he knows that you have men loyal to you throughout the Medoran army. He fears that if they break away, Medora has no chance
of surviving this war."

"Yeah, I fear the same thing," Rommus said. "But how does he expect me to believe he's not out to kill me?"

"He said he knew you would have a hard time believing him. He said that releasing me was an attempt to show good faith. He could have killed me, but he didn't want to start any trouble."

"Then why capture you in the first place?" Vohl asked.

"He wanted his book back. The Mages chasing me didn't know I got rid of
it until after they caught
me. He says he doesn't want you coming for that book, and in exchange, he will not try to take back your armor and sword. He says they are yours now."

Rommus banged his knuckles idly on the table as he thought. "
Why in the world would he say all that? What's the trick here?"

"It may be genuine, Master Rommus, but it seems more likely to be an attempt
to get you to lower your guard," Vohl said.

Rommus nodded to himself.
"He would have to know that the effect would be the exact opposite of that. He knows I will be even more alert now. We really don't have time for his games. We have a massive battle on our doorstep, and the largest army ever assembled waiting just outside of our borders."