Jabone smiled now and nodded his head. "That's right she did. When she isn't busy you should tell her that you remember. She felt very silly doing it, and only did it at all to humor me. It will do her heart good to know she wasn't talking to no one."
To Kasiria's back somewhere near the edge of the camp she could just make out young Tarius's voice as he told a story. She found the sound of his bardic voice put her at ease, it was something normal in what was anything but normal circumstances.
It is the calm before the storm,
Kasiria thought.
Hellibolt had spent most of the day casting wards around the camp that would warn them if the Amalites got near them and even stop their progress for a few minutes. Still he'd found the time to find her and talk to her, which was always more disconcerting than it was helpful in her opinion.
She'd just been standing huddled against one of the fires because there had been a chill in the morning air when he'd popped up in front of her. She'd had her sword out of its sheath and was damn near on him before she realized it was only Hellibolt.
"Dammit Hellibolt," she had said, resheathing her sword.
"The sword does want you. It makes you quicker. I see I shall have to pick a greater distance away from you in the future," he said with a smile.
"You could try just walking across the camp to find me. What's wrong?" Kasiria asked.
"Why does anything have to be wrong?" he asked.
"Because you're here to talk to me and whenever you are you usually want to tell me something I won't understand or something I'd rather not know."
"Maybe I just wanted to say hello. I mean we are traveling together off to fight the same battle."
"Good morning then. I'm off to get breakfast," she started past him and he grabbed her arm.
"All right, you were right, I do have something to tell you that you probably won't understand and don't want to hear."
"Then tell me now so that I can spend the rest of the day trying to figure it out and worrying about it," Kasiria said.
"Jabone's sword. It will serve you well, it will protect you, but it also wants it's revenge and to redeem itself for the years it spent in the hands of the Amalites. To wield it will make you a Great Warrior but it will also take its toll.
You
must wield
it
, you must not allow
it
to wield
you
, unless a time comes when it knows more than you do."
And then of course he was gone, and she
had
spent the entire day trying to figure out what he meant, and still wasn't any closer.
"What's wrong?" Jabone asked, no doubt because of the look on her face.
"Oh Hellibolt, he spit out some garbage this morning about my sword."
"Don't disregard the wizard, Kasiria. My madra says he's very wise and very powerful."
"Yes, well she can be as confusing as he is and . . . She actually understands him." She looked back to where Tarius was talking and they really should be listening. Kasiria couldn't very well interrupt her to ask if she might know what Hellibolt meant, and surely not with Hellibolt standing right there. She glared at Hellibolt; he could just tell her.
Then sudden enlightenment struck her as she remembered Jestia's dilemma concerning her dream. Surely the same law applied to wizards. He couldn't repeat a dream or it would come true. He was older and therefore wiser than Jestia and he had found a way to warn them without telling them what he'd seen. If only she could figure out what his words meant. She went over what he'd said again and got stuck in the same spot she had all day.
I must wield the sword, I must not let the sword wield me unless it knows more than I do. What does that mean?
Then she turned all her attention to Tarius who was laying out the plan that she and in fact all of them had been working on since before they'd even left the Kartik. It was an elaborate plan and she had listened carefully when Tarius had warned that the more elaborate a plan was the more likely it was to fail. However nothing else was likely to work at all.
She saw Jena standing close to Tarius, her hand on her arm, and a cold chill went up her spine as an unwilled thought entered her brain. Tarius wouldn't live a day without Jena and visa versa. They were that tied to each other. A big chunk of the Marching Night would be going into the caves and many—perhaps all—might never be coming out again. If even one thing went wrong when they were all under ground, they were doomed. The plan
was
extremely elaborate and depended on everything going exactly as planned.
No mistakes. What were the chances that with a hundred people going into a cavern filled with thousands of blood-thirsty Amalites that no one would mess up? Especially since they'd be going in with basically no previous knowledge of the layout of the cave.
"Excuse me Tarius," Kasiria said, and found all eyes on her. "Perhaps we should send in a small scouting expedition into the caves to tell us more about them."
Tarius nodded. "I have thought about that, but we are running out of time. Every day we sit here we risk detection, losing the element of surprise. Besides, what if our scouts in the caves are found out and killed? Then we will have most certainly lost the upper hand. No, we must go into the caves as a small army. And when we leave the caves our men must be in position to attack, and whatever is left behind us—or following us—will be killed."
Kasiria just nodded. So everything had to go exactly according to plan and . . .
well she is
Tarius the Black so if it can be done she will do it.
She looked at Jabone. His eyes were fixed on his madra, his expression . . . well just like hers. They were ready, their souls prepared for the battle.
"I can cast Katabull eyes on those of us that aren't Katabull," Jestia was saying at a question asked by Tarius. "The real problem is that we don't really know whether even the Katabull are going to be able to see in the cave."
"I don't understand," Tarius said. "We are Katabull. We can see in the dark."
"Or do you see in the near dark?" Hellibolt asked. "There is never a complete absence of light out here and that is what the Katabull use to see. Down there even in the day time there is a complete absence of light unless they burn candles during the day—and why would they if they are nocturnal?"
"Perhaps so that they can get around. I mean if they were attacked down there they would need to see," Tarius said.
"But you can't count on thatl Blind people learn to walk around their gardens and homes, and if we cast some sort of light spell . . . Well then we might as well bang on a pot and let them know we're there," Jestia said.
Tarius nodded, understanding this dilemma they hadn't previously thought of. "I still say, if it really is that dark down there they might keep some candles lit. I mean it's all well and good to learn to find your way around in the dark, but they can't believe themselves completely safe from attack and if attacked knowing where stationary things are in the dark wouldn't help them. I mean they aren't so different from us that they don't have bodily functions, and they can't see in the dark and . . . well if they were to be attacked without any light they'd be as lost as we would be. If there were even a few candles—any light source—we should be able to see fine." She pondered that for only a second. "If there's not, we can easily see when humans can see nothing. Could you do a light spell with so little light that the Katabull alone would be able to see?"
"I could," Hellibolt said, "but I would have to work on an incantation." Both Hellibolt and Tarius looked at Jestia who took a deep breath and let it out.
"I don't know degrees of light. I'm not sure I have that much control over my magic right now. Maybe I could but where would we test it before the caves? And I don't think testing it when we get in the caves would be a very good idea." As if to prove her point a tea pot and cup appeared floating in the air just in front of her. "Well, damn," she said with a sigh, but then she drank from the cup of tea that the pot poured and then handed it to Ufalla who just took it smiled and drank it down. "Anyone else?" she asked with an air of resolve.
Young Tarius held out his mug and the pot filled it. "Thanks," he said to Jestia. He must have noticed everyone looking at him because he just smiled and said. "It's really good tea."
"Kasiria," Tarius the Black said and Kasiria snapped to attention looking at her. "What are your thoughts?" Kasiria couldn't imagine why she was asking her. Tarius must have read her expression because she said, "Your father is the king, you are a representative of the crown and you're academy trained."
Kasiria watched with a certain amount of joy as the two generals her father had sent with his troops glared at her and obviously expected her to defer to them—which she wasn't about to do.
"I think what you've said about breaking into two groups and going in at different openings makes sense but further I would have each of the two large groups go into the cave in squads of ten, waiting for a hundred before the next squad goes in. That way it will be hard for the enemy to pin us on each side and if there is trouble immediately fewer will be in the caves to be fodder."
Tarius nodded, an impressed look on her face, and Kasiria felt pride well up inside her. "And that way if we find an infant we can have one of our men bring it to the group just behind us and so on 'til the infant is out of the cave. I'm assuming there will be guards just inside the entrances. We must go in and take them out as quietly as possible . . . " and from there they just planned on and on every detail of the battle that lay before them.
* * *
"Why?" Ufalla asked, curling herself more firmly against Jestia in the small tent they were sharing. Jestia was like holding a board she was so anxious.
"I just don't like having so much riding on me and my abilities when . . . Well I keep making tea. What if I mess up?"
"You won't mess up, Jestia." Ufalla kissed the top her head and wondered that Jestia still smelled so good after days on the rode and camping in the woods. She smelled like her perfume and smoke.
"Honey, quit smelling me and really listen to what I'm saying," Jestia said in that perturbed tone that Ufalla was sure she'd someday find annoying but that for now she still thought was cute.
"I am listening."
"No you aren't," Jestia turned in her arms to face her. "At the very least you aren't thinking about what I'm saying. If I make even one mistake we could all be killed."
"Jestia my love, if anyone makes any mistakes we could all get killed. It's not going to happen."
"How do you know that?" Jestia asked.
"Because we are the Marching Night, Jestia. The Marching Night doesn't make mistakes."
"You really aren't worried at all?" Jestia asked in surprise.
"I really am not. You know we mere mortals dream, too. Don't forget it was Jena's dream that saved us. I've had a wonderful dream, Jestia, of you and I getting married. It was exactly how you wanted it to be and you were more beautiful than ever and I didn't feel silly at all. Now that can't happen if either one of us are dead so . . . I'm not worried."
Jestia immediately relaxed in her arms. She pressed her face against Ufalla's chest. "Did you really dream that?" she asked in a whisper.
"I did."
"And was I really more beautiful than ever?"
"Well, you never looked better in clothes," Ufalla said. Jestia laughed moved and kissed her on the lips.
"You wouldn't lie just to make me feel better?"
"I would, but I'm not," Ufalla said.
"If even one thing goes wrong . . . "
"It won't, and if it does we'll fix it."
Jestia nodded and snuggled against her again. "Ufalla you will stay by my side tomorrow?"
"Jestia, I will stay by your side for the rest of this life and my next."
Harris had stayed behind to command the Kartik troops that would be sliding in behind them to surround the hive, and Jabone had told Kasiria, "They have always fought side by side, so Madra feels almost naked, but his leg . . . He would slow us down in the caves."
She had watched with baited breath as Jabone had moved to fill the place at Tarius's side. Kasiria had almost protested when Tarius had taken him inside the cave opening with her, and Kasiria's heart had all but stopped until they both walked out and rejoined the group. When they did she was already the Katabull.
"Looks like you're getting more control of that," Jestia whispered to her.
"No, I was just that scared," Kasiria admitted. "I still have no control over when I change."
Tarius and Jabone reached them then just as Radkin and Rimmy who would lead their troop into the other entrance did.
"There were only two guards and there are candles lit. Not many but enough so no light spell will be needed. Also, at least this passage appears to be man-made, carved out not a natural cave," Tarius said
"Ours was natural at least in part. It has been widened but also only two guards and lit by candles. More than enough for Katabull to see," Radkin said.
The hill and the area surrounding it had few trees-probably because the soil was very shallow being a bare sprinkling over a layer of rock. Tarius noticed that there was little deadfall and imagined that they picked it up as soon as it fell to be used for heat and cooking within the hive. In the new dawn she could easily make out—but probably only because she was looking for it—several patches of brush that were probably placed strategically to camouflage air holes and door ways on the hill. She pointed these out to a couple of her men who would be staying behind as spotters and said, "There isn't much deadfall to burn but it looks like they might have actually supplied the wood for our fires. Especially if we shifted some of it from the holes we want them to use to the ones we don't." The man nodded.
Tarius looked at Hellibolt expectantly and Hellibolt moved some ahead of the group. Just feet from the hive he raised his hands into the air and began his incantation, "Follow the music, children. Follow the tune. Children under eight, oh children under eight rise up, be quiet, walk but don't awake. The morning air awaits. Crawl out, crawl out from out of your holes. Only the young and not the old. Follow the music. Hurry don't wait. Follow the music your freedom awaits."