Bloodstone - Power of Youth (Book 3) (33 page)

The three men looked at each other and drank.

“Shiro and I get to lead the next fight. We’re going to do much the same thing to Antzen in Teryon,” Anchor said.

“Then we fight Histron in the spring,” Lotto said.

Anchor nodded. “Then it’s on to confront Daryaku before his power destroys us all.”

That silenced all three of them. At least Anchor now held a weapon of Emperor Daryaku that was used against the Dark Lord three times. He hoped the mist warriors were very important weapons of Dakkor. He had to have destroyed at least fifteen of them. He shuddered to think if he had been by himself. Lotto’s quick thinking had saved both Princess Sallia and Princess Restella.

Anchor didn’t know how to take Sallia’s reaction to the attack. This time he really did save her and Lotto had been the one to be repelled by the dark mist. He thought he might be even up with Lotto, but then Sallia threw Unca into the picture. Why?   Anchor threw up his hand and pushed it away. He had to banish such thoughts from his mind. His thoughts were more suited to young suitors, not a war commander. His hopes about any kind of a relationship with Sallia fell closer to the certainty of rejection.

Shiro and Lotto looked at Anchor strangely.

He shrugged his shoulders and gave them both a sheepish smile. “Just wool gathering. Thinking about how I could have acted differently.”

After a few moments of awkward silence, they stood in Sallia’s sitting room and returned to Histo.

~

Sallia opened her door to apologize to Anchor. She shouldn’t have blurted out for Unca when he had saved her from those horrid sorcerers. They had left. Sallia ran her tongue over her teeth. She grabbed a pillow and sat down on her bed and leaned over, letting a tear or two drop to the rug.

At Crackledown, she thought she had put everything together and now? Even though she had been saved by Anchor, she had all but rejected his actions. What would Lotto and Anchor think of her now?

“Princess?” She heard the king’s voice.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and rose from the bed, smoothing out her dress. The king and queen stood at the door to her apartments.

“Come in. Please. I’ll tell you what happened.” She proceeded to tell them of the mist, the sorcerers and her rescuers.

“I would like to meet this Anchor. I seem to always miss him,” King Goleto said. “He seems to rise among the other two wizards. Lotto, the Ropponi and Anchor. Besseth’s future seems to be in their hands.”

Sallia agreed with him. “Duke Jellas helps.”

The king laughed. “He’s there to make sure the details are attended to, but it’s those men who are saving Besseth.”

“Restella has her role,” said the queen.

The king nodded, “I know, I know. She has been an excellent general, if she didn’t scare her officers so much. I’m glad to have her in the field. Here it’s been less than a week of your break and you’re still in the thick of it. I’m glad they weren’t after me.” King Goleto shivered. “Jane and I have had our share of horrors in this war with Daryaku. I wish he’d just go away.”

“I can see you’re still upset with it all.”

Sallia nodded her head. She had to push through her own personal feelings. “I’ve been invited to breakfast with Mander Hart and Anna. I’d like to let them know what’s happened. Although it’s still early and a little more sleep sounds very good.”

~~~

Chapter Thirty

~

T
he dining room reminded Sallia of Unca’s house.
Anna seated her as soon as she arrived.

“We have already heard many things today. Success in Histo and a sorcerous attack on the holders of the Warstones?”

Sallia nodded as a servant served a savory porridge. “I can’t give you any news about your friend, Kenyr, but Lotto would have said something. There was a night attack and Lotto said that the Dakkoran forces were obliterated. Some time after our victory, sorcerers, using some kind of magic I don’t understand, tried to grab Shiro’s Sunstone, my Bloodstone, and Restella’s Moonstone. They were simultaneous. Anchor had picked up a Dakkoran officer’s sword that had been enchanted. The mist would not let steel pass, but the magic in his sword allowed him to cut the sorcerers down. They just disappeared.” Sallia clutched at the pouch, now in a pocket of her dress.

Anna reached over and patted her shoulder. “You’ve had too many traumatic experiences, Sallia.”

The princess fought off tears. She wanted to be here with friends who didn’t demand anything of her. Crying into her pillow for the rest of the day didn’t appeal. She took a deep breath and lifted her chin. “I have to rise above it. It takes practice.”

“A life of practice,” Mander Hart said. “It never stops. I took a different path.”

“We did. Mander could be a courtier, trying to avoid all emotions, but he didn’t want to ‘practice’ as you call it. I’m afraid that you don’t have a choice.”

Sallia smiled. She could tell both of them understood. She couldn’t step down from her role as heir and walk away.

“Let’s talk of other things,” Anna said. With breakfast finished, they went into the sitting room. As they talked about life in Beckondale, someone knocked on the door. Their servant answered.

“A messenger,” the servant presented an envelope to Mander.

“Lotto and Kenyr have returned and are debriefing the king. My presence is requested. Why don’t you spend the rest of the day here, Sallia? I can let King Goleto know.”

“Please do,” Anna said.

Mander collected his hat, cloak and gloves and left after kissing his wife.

“So. There is more than the brush with wizardry that is upsetting you, isn’t there?” She beckoned Sallia to join her on the sofa.

Sallia appreciated the proximity. She took a deep breath and told her about her encounter with Anchor.

“He intrigues you?”

She nodded. “He’s still a mystery man, coming out of nowhere. He rose from an inept swordsman to the Marshal of the southern alliance. He saved Lotto, Shiro, Restella and me today. He had needed an enchanted sword, but you should have seen him.”

“Oh,” Anna pursed her lips. “Do you like him?”

Sallia looked across the room at the fire. “I do and I like Lotto as well. They are both special men.” Sallia felt uncomfortable talking about Anchor and Lotto, but she couldn’t go on bottling up her feelings.

“But Anchor?”

“He might be a little more special. I think about Unca helping me rule the Red Kingdom.” Every time she visualized addressing an audience, she held the hands of both men. That had to tell her something. Sallia appreciated Anna just letting her talk more.

“You can’t let Anchor just hang like that. Write him a letter. Letters are good.” Anna smiled.

“I stopped writing when the fighting started in Learsea. I didn’t want to distract him.” Sallia didn’t want to tell her that, at the time, she drew more to Lotto as he interacted with Duke Jellas. Anchor had always been at a distance and she had never really had an extended conversation with him.

Anna put her hand on Sallia’s. “He might just need the distraction. It doesn’t help that he isn’t close. A romance is never practical during wartime. I know.” Anna talked a bit about her relationship with Mander and his unpredictable disappearances.

“What about Lotto?” Sallia said.

“You’ll see him often enough. It helps not to mention yearning for other men’s advice to either of them.”

Sallia sat back. “I think I understand.” Suddenly Sallia missed her mother. She had never confided in her mother, always putting her at arm’s length or farther. She spurned her parent’s out of spite. Sallia no longer felt the anger that drove her as a teenager and as a very young woman. Her parents had given her everything and it only drove her away from them. She never doubted their affection. Unca had said their last words were that they loved her.

She would have doubted that, even if they had spoken to her directly that she would have rejected the sentiment before her escape from Foxhome. Where had she changed?  The burning inn was the start. People’s lives depended on her and she had to put aside her selfishness to save them.

Unca hadn’t treated her as a princess, but as a person. That seemed to have affected her more than she realized. He repelled her like everyone else to that point. She had to rely on him to survive, just as she had to accept the fact that Anchor and Lotto had done the same thing.

The old wizard had been like the father, she’d never let the king be; Anna the mother she rejected as well. Anchor and Lotto? She didn’t think of either as brothers and that was her dilemma. She needed to understand herself more before she could make sense of everything.

Anna had just let her think. She had become such a good friend.

“We can talk again later. Let’s sneak into the market and buy something fun!” Anna said, interrupting her thoughts. Sallia welcomed the distraction.

~

The pyre had just started when Shiro, Lotto and Anchor had reached Histo. Lotto went to find Kenyr and see how the return of the Valetan troops proceeded. Anchor wished him well, but he didn’t appreciate Lotto’s words in front of Sallia. He said as much to Shiro.

“Don’t worry about it. We are all under a great deal of pressure. Him more than most. Lotto’s relationship with Restella is difficult to say the least. I think he thought they would draw closer once the Moonstone linked them, but…”

Anchor rubbed the back of his neck. He understood stress as well as any other and perhaps that had increased his sensitivity. He had been up since long before dawn and now his body began to ache, even after his unintended nap. He had driven the pain away and it came crashing back. His calf began to ache even more.

“Let’s go back to Tassleton and fight our own army,” Anchor said.

“I may return for the night,” Shiro said grinning.

“Feel free, my friend. You deserve it.”

~

The night’s sleep and the hot breakfast that followed took care of most of Anchor’s pain. His calf still hurt, but Chika’s healing left a light pink scar to go along with all of the others he was collecting. He dressed in clean clothes and called for Anter.

“We need maps of Grianne. Shiro hasn’t yet returned, so let’s get started.” Anchor pulled out a large sheet of translucent vellum and spread it over a map of southern Teryon. The two of them worked out the size of the Antzen’s camp and the surrounding area. Anter had an excellent memory and with Anchor’s recollections, they had the fields of battle defined.

When Shiro showed up, they found that he didn’t remember much about the camp due to his injury.

“I want men in the woods ready to deal with those who flee.”

Anter gulped. “No quarter?”

“Do you think they will give you any?” Shiro said.

“I don’t know,” Anter said. “We like to think of the Five Duchies as united.”

“United they will be, after this battle. I do see your point. More men in the trees to disarm the deserters, then” Anchor looked at Anter, who nodded. The boy had heart and a little compassion might go far in restoring peace to the entire south.

Anchor assigned Leef to help Tishiaki in the north, so he brought in Baanth who approved of the plans and concurred with Anter’s concern about the rankers.  “Just remember, there will be battle mages and everyone is exposed as magic is thrown about.” They both nodded. “Let’s talk to our allied commanders.”

Shiro took four Ropponis with him to the two ducal palaces and returned with more officers. The plan went through another vetting. It seemed they were all comfortable with the overall strategy. They would execute it at dawn in two days time. Anchor had to assume that Fellon wasn’t the last traitor in the Learsea army or in the duchy forces, but even a bird wouldn’t make it to Grianne by the time they arrived.

None of the troops were told of the details until the night before when Anchor briefed all of the officers down to the rank of sergeant. Some seemed a little uncertain after being teleported from their bases.

Anchor could feel the nerves of the men. He’d now been through enough real battles to recognize the signs.

“Make sure that just before you are teleported with your troops that you remain silent. If there are any people about, take them as prisoners to be released after the fighting starts, unless they are the enemy.” He smiled and got some grins back. “No looting of the dead, this time.” Anchor thought of his sword. “But you can appropriate weapons. For this battle, it’s better to take prisoners than lives, but don’t let sentiment kill you or your men.”

Anchor answered a few questions and told all of them to sleep as well as they could. Tomorrow would be a long, taxing day. He met Shiro in the map room before they turned in for the night.

“Good speech,” Shiro said as they walked back to their quarters. “Now we see how the southern alliance fights.”

“I’m not worried about the rankers. I’m worried about a soft officer corps and battle mages. Trees are a blessing for attackers, but if there are battle mages blowing them up, they become a killing ground.”

“Do you doubt Colonel Baanth’s abilities? I think the man is up to the job,” Shiro said as he shuffled the maps around on the table.

“We have two principal assets, the Learsea troops and the Red Rose. Learsea has no real battle mages in their infantry. They all go into the navy and Anter told us that the Hovitz’s mages are lazy and fight from the rear.”

“Put them under me, Anchor. Right now you’ve got them with their armies. Assign them to my Red Roses and I can make them effective,” Shiro said. “I’ll have them take out the camp. If we come in from the south, where there are fewer trees, we can push them your way.”

Anchor followed Shiro’s eyes. A new order of battle came to him. “Poor Unca never had the opportunity to totally change a battle plan,” Anchor grinned. “We have until dawn. I won’t really miss a night of tossing and turning in bed.”

~

The smell of the sea was the first thing Anchor noticed as he appeared with Anter, Baanth and Shiro. The Ropponi bowed to Anchor and disappeared to join the Red Rose, forming to the south. He had spent the last hour transferring Learsea troops and Red Rose troops who couldn’t teleport.

He gave a few reminders to Baanth and let him join the clusters of troops still popping up on the former training field of Shiro’s band. The lightening of the dawn crept up the sky to the east, pushing up the canopy of stars. Vague black shapes turned into clumps of men and then Anchor could see their features.

“Reporting for duty,” Lotto said. “I brought Chika along.”

Anchor didn’t ask them to fight his fight, but two powerful wizards might tip the course of this battle. “I imagine that Shiro knows.”

Chika disappeared and a few moments later reappeared. “He does now. We are to stay with you.”

Shiro knew that Anchor wished he had a wizard at his side and now he had two. Both experienced in battle. “I’d like you to stay by me and deploy where we need you. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dakkoran wizards will be working with the enemy. Anter?”

“Yes, Marshal,” Anter said.

“I’d like you to meet Lotto Mistad. He worked with Shiro in defeating Duke Happly and in Prola where he personally killed the Prolan king in Mountsea. He has other exploits, but those should be enough. Chika is Shiro’s second in command. Stay away from her staff, it’s lethal.

A messenger ran up to Anchor. “Colonel Baanth says that all units are in position.”

“His exact words, please.”

“Uh, he said to the effect that the battle lines are as solid as they’ll ever be. Damned Bintzians. I think that’s all.”