The Grand Crusade (56 page)

Isaura slowly nodded. “To free the Oromise?”

“Yes.”

“But what if the Norrington kills you?”

“I have taken precautions. If he does, other forces will swing into play and the Oromise will yet be freed. If I stop him, if I make him hesitate, then I will be in a position to tap that power and release my Masters. The coming together of the DragonCrown similarly gathers power, though much less. I will need less, however, as the Crown will allow me to turn the dragons on themselves and destroy them. Once they are gone, the power needed to free my Masters will be much less.”

“What if the Norrington never makes it here?”

“I have his child. It will do.”

Isaura forced herself to smile. “Oh, Mother, I am so happy. I have been worried for you. Now I know nothing will go wrong.”

Chytrine’s face brightened. “Very good, my daughter, I am glad you are no longer worried. Now, I must to work. I wanted you to know the end is nigh. I will call you to me when I need help. Farewell.”

“And you, Mother.” Isaura turned and fled from the tower, raising the hem of her skirts so she could race down the curved steps. All her mother had said sped her along. Her mother was insane; of that she had no doubt. What might have once been a true desire to prevent the south from subjugating Aurolan had long since been warped by the Oromise. Her brief experience with the Oromise, and her knowledge and respect of dragons, led Isaura to the conclusion that she did not want the former again controlling the world.

At the base of the tower she found Hlucri lurking in a shadow. “There you are. Pull together all the things we have been hiding away for our escape.”

Thesullancirinodded. “And Sayce?”

“I will get her.” Isaura exhaled sharply. “We need to head south and quickly. If we don’t, my mother’s plans will bear fruit, and the world will become something we never wanted to know.”

Ferxigo shifted her shape to make herself as small as possible before she knelt at her mistress’ feet. “It is as you said, Mistress. Isaura has taken the prisoner and headed south.”

“Hlucri is with them?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Very good.” Chytrine smiled, her teeth now all dragonish pegs. “Of course she had to be the one to betray me. It’s in her blood. She will always help the Norringtons. And she failed to understand me when I told her of potential. One Norrington coming against me constitutes power. Two, for Sayce will not stay behind, merely amplifies it. She seeks to stop me, and all she does is empower me.”

Ferxigo risked an upward glance. “She will be able to find them?”

“Oh, yes, with the spell I’ve given her, she will find them. You will give her a two-day head start, then you will head south. You will bring me Sayce and the Norrington. You will slay all the others.”

“What about your daughter?”

“I have no daughter.”

“I understand, Mistress.” Ferxigo pressed her forehead to the ground. “Shall I station troops at the pass?”

Chytrine paused, then nodded. “Alexia will not get past Nefrai-kesh, but might he come at me, too, you wonder?”

“No, Mistress, he would not betray you.”

“No, but if he did, to have three Norringtons converging

” Chytrine’s smile grew. “Then perhaps even the Oromise would bow to me as you do.”

“As well they should, Mistress.”

“Indeed, pet, as well they should.” The Aurolani Empress nodded slowly. “Go and prepare your troops. Be swift in your mission. The sooner you succeed, the sooner our future will become reality.”

A lexia listened to the Murosan refugee again explain what it was she’d seen asl’tshe fled south. The woman claimed, and markings on her mask confirmed, 1 1 that she was from Caledo. She had fled the capital when it fell to the Aurolani. With her family they had swung south and then west. They remained in the countryside, holed up in a cave, until the thaw came, when they decided to move west to see if Zamsina had fallen.

“It had been destroyed, just melted down to nothing by dragonfire.” Her voice took on the monotone of someone both weary and numb. “Everything had been burned down to the foundations. Looking at the city from a hill was like looking at a hedge maze from a tower. Southwest of there, though, that’s what we saw that we had to tell you.”

Alexia gave her a smile. “Please, I know you have told your story many times, but I want to hear it.” As she spoke she moved to the maps others had provided, based on the woman’s testimony and that of her family, all of whom had been separated and interrogated. Their stories matched, and once she had told it again they would be gathered together and housed in one of the outlying estates near the town of Notirri.

If what she says is true, just over twenty miles from here, Nefrai-kesh has gathered an army that will destroy me. Part of her wanted to scoff at that idea, since the dream she’d allegedly had posited a final battle in Sebcia. Had things shifted such that Chytrine was abandoning the artifice of following the dreams, or was Nefrai-kesh not following his mistress’ plan? Or was her plan just to get Alyx thinking she knew the dreams would be played out, and subsequently she would underestimate the enemy?

“I am not good with numbers, but my son counted banners. He said there

were almost a hundred of the little banners and six of the big standards. That’s what my husband said you called the big ones. He fought Chytrine back in the old days. My son said there were eighty of the small ones, but I couldn’t count them.“

Alexia glanced at Crow, who frowned. Eighty small banners would amount to eighty legions, or eight thousand of the enemy. The larger standards would represent regiments, and six of them tallied close with the legion banners. The extra legions were just reinforcing legions. Though Alexia commanded nearly half again as many troops, other factors would make the Aurolani seem superior.

“We couldn’t move during the night, but we did see a lot of fires. They were in the hills southwest of Zamsina, making battlements and building a fort. They might have been using slaves from the area. We didn’t see any hunting parties, but my son said he could see men working with them. Men would have to be slaves, wouldn’t they? They wouldn’t work for her unless captive, would they?”

Alexia shook her head, but kept looking at a rough map of the fortifications drawn by the son. Nefrai-kesh had laid out a square structure where the southwest corner was higher than those of the southeast or northwest. The lowest corner could only be reached through a narrow valley between two lines of hills, which were steep enough to stop anyone riding up and out of an ambush. And if there ever was a place for an ambush, that was it. Getting siege machinery through the valley would be nigh impossible, and then it would be all but useless since there weren’t any walls to pound down, just revetments and ditches.

What disturbed Alexia about the fort is that Nefrai-kesh was putting himself in the position she had described her own forces occupying as an Aurolani force came against her. It beat itself to death through repeated assaults, and even though breaching that low northeast corner had let the Aurolani into the fortress, a solid counterattack had driven them back in defeat. Her forces sallied through the breach and slashed at the Aurolani rear by racing out through the valley and around to the southwest, where they overwhelmed the flank and rolled up the Aurolani forces.

In her supposed dream, the eleven thousand troops she had inside could have easily managed that. They’d been facing twenty thousand Aurolani and there was her current problem. Fortifications such as those described would be sufficient to let an army hold off one twice its size, perhaps even three times its size. And if the Aurolani had dragonels, they might well be invincible.

“I know you want to know if they had dragonels. I saw them at Caledo and heard them. I thought my ears were going to bleed. I didn’t see any. I didn’t see any digging of the type my son says they would have to have done to use them. I don’t know.”

“That’s fine.” Alexia did turn this time. “We will be able to figure that out before we get there.”

Arimtara approached the woman and squatted. She breathed out a white vapor, within which appeared the image of a dracomorph. “Did you see anything that looked like this?”

The woman shrank back at first, then her eyes narrowed and she peered at it. “No, nor anything like you, but there were so many people there I could not tell. There weren’t any Gyrkyme there, either.”

Peri smiled. “AnyaraftiP.”

“I saw nothing flying there. And after seeing dragons, I was looking.”

“I’m certain you were.” Alexia came over and helped the woman from her chair. “Outside you will find a lieutenant who will take you to your family. Thank you for your help.”

The woman nodded, then smiled. “You will free our nation, won’t you?”

“Of course we will.”

“And rescue Her Highness?”

“Without a doubt.”

The woman seized Alexia’s hands and smothered them with kisses. “May the gods bless you in all things.”

“Thank you for your help.”

Arimtara guided the woman along to the door being held open by General Pandiculia. The Salnian warrior closed it behind her. “Gratitude just for a promise. How interesting.”

Alyx shrugged. “Hope is all she has now. That, and her family. I gave her more hope. What she gave us, on the other hand, isn’t very hopeful.”

“Hopeful, no. But helpful, yes.” Crow walked over to the map of the fort. “Her son and husband agree on the nature of the fort. The son’s lame, so he never could join the army, but has a keen interest in history. He was specific about many of the regimental standards, and very specific about seeing new types of soldiers in the ranks.”

“I know. They sound like the things Resolute saw in Loquellyn.” Alexia shivered. The information about Loquellyn had been sent viaarcanslataand was sketchy at best, but mentionedturekadineandnyressanüas being two new creatures Chytrine had sent into the field.

Peri looked at the map. “There is one thing I don’t understand. The fort is strong, and with the numbers described, we would have a hard time defeating it. But there is a flaw in the fortress. There is no source of water. Even if they were to dig wells, they could never get enough to sustain their army. Why would you have dreamed of puttingyourarmy in such a place?”

The princess smiled. “I did it by accident. When I had described things to my cousin, I told him of a couple battles and said there were more. The Crown Circle pressed me for details on all of them. I started to recall ancient battles and give details. This situation is really a battle in Valician history during which a Jeranese army managed to trap some Valicians in a fortress and wait them out. I’d always thought the Valician commander was a fool, and had been mulling

over how he could have won. In my haste, I put myself in his position, and offered a possible solution. In reality, the northeast corner fell when thirsty soldiers could not defend it.“

“So, that is what we do, then? We surround it, lay siege, and wait?” Crow stroked his beard. “Itisone solution.”

“Yes, but only if Nefrai-kesh is an idiot, and we both know he isn’t.” Alexia tapped the map with a finger. “If we surround the place and he has more troops in reserve, he falls on us and we’re done.”

Crow nodded. “Agreed, but if we go hard and fast at the fortress, we are going to lose a lot of people.”

“I know that is a problem, too. All he has to do is wear us down, draw us out. Erlestoke has reported that an army is coming to Oriosa. If it stops and backtracks as we chase Nefrai-kesh to Caledo or Sebcia, we are caught between two armies and crushed.”

General Pandiculia frowned. “We could use my army as a screening force to the east, but I doubt we would hold them off for long. Still, the warning you’d get would be useful.”

Alexia nodded. “In whatever we do, your army is going to be crucial.”

Peri gave a small cry of annoyance. “We can’t ignore Nefrai-kesh’s army because then it would just pour down into Saporicia. We have to attack him there, on a ground of his own choosing.”

“Exactly. To us it may look like a poor choice. To him it’s what he wants.” Alexia sighed, then narrowed her eyes. “I try to guess what he knows, he tries to guess what I know, and so it goes.”

“And the killer will be what neither of you knows.” Crow shook his head. “It’s pretty clear we’re never going to know enough, so we just have to stumble on ahead in ignorance.”

“Yes, my love, exactly.” The princess hugged her arms around her belly. “And hope that what we don’t know won’t hurt us too badly.”

After enchanting theturekadineto row, Resolute had retired to the ship’s cabin for rest. His sleep came easy—easier than it had in over a century. While his homeland had been nothing as he remembered, just setting foot on it and having slain the enemy there had given him some peace. Not enough for him to abandon his quest, but sufficient that he could imagine his struggle might someday see an end.

The sun was dawning by the time he awakened and headed up to the wheeldeck. Down on the oardeck, where the undeadturekadinepulled at the oars with a tirelessness that no living creature could match, the Norrington stood unmoving. Qwc slept on his right shoulder. The stone creature seemed not to notice anything around him, yet Resolute had the distinct feeling that had one of theturekadinedone something unexpected, it would not get past him.

Up near the prow, Kerrigan stood with Oracle. Resolute looked over at Trawyn, who was taking a turn at the wheel. “Has Kerrigan slept?”

“No.”

“Have you?”

She turned and looked at him. “No. I couldn’t sleep with our crew rowing.”

Resolute frowned. “They will be no problem. They’ll get us to the Ghost March.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had one survive long enough to wonder. If they are still vital, I’ll have them jump into the sea. I owe that much to Tagothcha.”

The Loquelf princess turned and looked forward again. “I never approved of what some of your Vorquelves did in getting yourselves enchanted in that way.”

“It wasn’t your choice. We decided we had to do it, and there were still Vorquelves around who could perform those rituals.”