Legon spoke. “Umbra, Ankle, please take Rachel to her room and make sure she gets the rest she needs.”
They left the room without a sound, breathing out a sigh when the doors thumped shut.
Rachel slept most of the day, but Ankle and Umbra did not leave her side. All that night they stayed with her. In the morning, Laura came in with the captain of the ship that had taken them to the North.
Rachel was up. “Thank you all for the kindness. Laura, where are Legon and Sasha?”
Laura pursed her lips. “I don’t know. They are busy, but I’m sure they will come by and visit.”
At that moment, Opes entered the room, erect and formal, his eyes puffy and red. By his appearance, Umbra assumed that they’d spent the night meeting in the war room. She stood at attention, as did the ships captain, taking their cue. Ankle did the same.
Opes stood next to the bed and glanced at Rachel, his face softened in sadness for the briefest moment, and then he was back to business. “Umbra, you are to take Ankle back to Manton. After that, your squad is to go north to the town of Noris and scout the countryside and coast. Look for enemy entrapments and note any place that will make a viable beachhead. Captain, you are to remove the jump crystal from your ship and report into fleet command for immediate deployment.”
Rachel looked worried. “Opes, what’s going on?”
His face again softened just a bit looking at her. “The Pawdin Empire is going to war.” He turned and left the room. As the door closed, Umbra heard the city-wide announcement telling all military units to report for deployment, and announcing that the Empire was now in a state of war.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Going Off to War
“People often think that mercy stays justice's hand, but what they fail to see is that oftentimes, it is mercy that turns justice loose on the wicked.”
-Diary of the Perfectos Compatioa
Sasha looked up from the journal she was reading when she heard the door to her study close. In the entrance, Edling stood nervously playing with the hem of his blue shirt.
“Hello Edling, how are you?” Sasha asked.
Sasha adored Edling. She’d had a crush on him for years, one that her guard and his family were sure he shared, but he never acted on his feelings. She didn’t honestly see a relationship ever developing between them. After all, she was aging, where he was not.
On the bright side, the scenery won't change at least,
she thought.
“I was wondering if you had a moment, I know you’re busy and all,” he said, still acting oddly.
“Sure, do you want to sit down?”
It didn’t look like he was sure, but he sat anyway.
What is going on?
She thought. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts. “Look.” He stopped. “I’ve heard that you will be going with your brother… off to war,” he explained, “and… and I just wanted to talk to you before, you um, ya know, go running off into battle.”
“Ok, what’s up?” She tried to sound bright.
Up to this point, Edling had been uncharacteristically looking down and fidgeting, but he looked up at her now, a look of fear and determination on his face. “I love you,” he stated.
He what? “Sorry, you what?” She asked, confused.
He wasn’t looking as determined now. “I love you. Look, I know that I’m an Elf and that you probably want someone you can grow old with. But for the last few years you’re all I can think about. I said to myself that I would lose interest and that it wasn’t a good idea. The fact is, you are going off to war, and well, I might not see you again…”
“Really? You want to be with me?” she asked. “I mean, my bother and guard and, well, your parents said you liked me, but I didn’t think anything would ever happen…”
He looked up and said, “My parents?” then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Yes, I want to be with you, I have since the first time we met.”
“This whole time?” He nodded and she laughed. “This is too perfect,” she laughed.
He looked confused. “I’m sorry…”
She laughed again. “Don’t be sorry. I’m crazy about you, it’s just… it’s just that we have both felt this way for years, and never did anything about it.”
He smiled. “Seems pretty stupid, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, it does,” she agreed. “I’m taking off the rest of the day,” she announced.
“Are you sure you can?” Edling asked.
She laughed again. “Nope, I’m swamped, but if my past experiences with the Iumenta are any indication of the future, I don’t want to risk losing any happiness before I die.”
“Way to be positive,” he said dryly.
* * * * *
It was late in the day, and Legon and Iselin were just finishing up dinner when Sasha came bounding into the dining room. “Edling loves me and we spent the day together and we kissed and it was so much fun,” she gushed, then stopped at the looks she was getting.
Legon chuckled. “About time, I was wondering what he was waiting for.”
Iselin gave him a look. “Sash, that’s great! I’m so happy for you,” then looking back to Legon, “You can’t rush love.”
Legon smiled up at Sasha. He was so happy that he was having a hard time containing himself. Connected as they were, she could sense that.
“Legon, someone wants me… can you believe it?”
His voice was thick. “He has always wanted you, but I’m happy you know now too.” Why had it taken so long for her to see that there were those that did want her, Legon didn’t know. Maybe if she had, something between her and Edling would have happened a long time ago, though it was unlikely. She was mortal and he wasn’t, but that didn’t matter now. All that mattered was his sister finally realized she was someone worth loving.
* * * * *
Sara looked down at the map that had been resting on her living room table for the better part of a week. She looked at her husband. “Why Noris? And why by sea?”
Keither walked over next to her to look down at the map. He pointed to the town of Noris on the map. It was on the north side of the Kayloose’s inlet to the sea.
“You need to keep in mind how the Cona Empire is laid out and also that at one point Noris was more centrally located.” His finger traced the Kayloose. “The first thing to understand is that east of the Kayloose is where almost seventy percent of the Cona Empire’s food comes from. This land is wide plains, but it gets a good amount of rain, and there are many lakes and rivers. Most of the people in these areas live in villages or co-ops. Food goes in one of a few directions, either north to the Iumenta or northland lands, south to Coreum or west. The vast majority of it ends up at the Kayloose. The river has lots of cities, towns and villages along its banks. I assume you noticed that in Salez the river is much wider and slower than say, by the town of Kayloose.”
Sara said she had, and Keither went on. “And it becomes more so. It’s deep enough and slow enough that it’s littered with barges. These barges move food along the river to Noris.”
“Yes, I know, but why Noris?”
Again he pointed at the map, this time to Salmont. “We grew up in the Laetuc Mountain Range. It goes north into the Impa lands. These mountains split the northern part of the Empire. Around the capital they are more like hills, but then they become higher and more densely forested north of that. Salmont was also in a high density area. We were the only town in that part of the mountains. There are a few other little valleys that people live in, but needless to say, you can’t transport goods through those mountains. South of the Laetuc, the landscape turns into rolling hills. You can move goods across it, but not as effectively as with the barges. Also, intelligence reports show that transportation along land routes is getting nearly impossible without spending a significant amount on security.
“So you see, Noris is the best option. If not, you have to send goods north and then back along the coast, and with almost eighty percent of the population living along the coast…”
She got it. “If you take Noris, you destroy supply lines.”
“Right, furthermore, if I know the Elves, they are going to play to their strengths and use their Navy to wreak havoc along the coastline, so no going to the sea for food. The coast will be where most of the fighting takes place, and up the Kayloose River. The Cona Empire will have no choice but to move goods across land and in order to do that they will have to pull men from the front line to ensure said goods like food make it to their desired destination.”
Sara could see it now. Cities would be under siege, but wouldn’t be able to last long knowing that there was no support coming. On the flip side, once a city was taken, the resistance would be able to ship food in from the sea.
“Won’t Noris be hard to take?” she asked.
“Yes, knowing its importance, and seeing an attack coming, the Cona Empire has the vast majority of its fleet anchored there right now. The human resistance has no chance of defeating that fleet, so the Pawdin Empire will be taking care of most of that. We will mostly be sending transport ships and providing bodies to go ashore once they clear the path.”
* * * * *
Umbra hugged the ground, taking the western edge of the formation. It was overcast tonight, which was making for great cover. On the northern side of the town of Noris were high cliffs that fell straight to the ocean. The other side of the Kayloose was hills. Not that it mattered—the river was close to two miles wide at this point.
“Spread out. Look for anything that we can hit that will help out the landing parties,” she ordered.
The other seven dragons spaced themselves out, covering as much land as possible as they glided over. Spells looking for everything—wards, concealed bunkers and personnel—were activated, but they tried not to use too much magic; stealth was key. There were a ton of Ascended in the area, which Umbra had to admit added a little excitement. Here she was gathering information and the filth would sometimes fly right overhead and never see a thing. Noris itself wasn’t all that big, but it was connected with several other towns. She wrapped around the cluster of towns looking at the harbor. It was inside the rivers and rock banks protected it. That way would not work for landing parties. To the north of the town there was a stretch of beach where some of the smaller fishing boats would come ashore with their catches. The water was deep enough that the landing vessels could run themselves aground and drop off their passengers.
The beach wasn’t all that far from the town’s wall. Umbra eyed the large wall around the city. Just inside that wall were ballistae, trebuchet, catapults and all other manner of defenses. With that wall in the way, they would take heavy casualties trying to enter the city. Everyone would be sitting wide open on the beach. Even if the Ascended that were going to take part in the fight managed to take control of the skies before landing parties made it… Making another pass she looked at the gate. It was there to allow the fishermen into the town, and it had a wide opening. Towers were on either side of it, but if that gate were to be open…
An idea came to her. “Ok, it will be light soon, we’re out of here,” she said, preparing to rendezvous with her squad. She was anxious to get back to base.
* * * * *
Barnin was doing a last check of his gear, with a sullen Samantha sitting on a chair watching him. He glanced at her. “Are you angry with me?”
She scoffed. “At you? You’re doing what you’re supposed to, I’m mad at this war.”
He breathed out. “We have to do this, if you saw…”
She waved her hand. “Not angry at our side, I’m angry that we have to go to war at all. I wish the Elves would have killed the Iumenta off two thousand years ago and saved us some trouble. Or that humanity would have been smart enough to not let the Iumenta take over in the first place,” she said angrily.
“I know, babe.” His hands tightened. Never before had he felt this way before going into combat. He knew it was because this time he would be gone for a long time and he wasn’t sure if he was going to come back. “Look, after this is, after this is over I promise that we can find some quiet place and, and never have to think about this again.”
Sam looked up at him. “You promise you’re coming back?”
He nodded, but that wasn’t going to cut it. He could see. “Yes, I promise.”
“Good. If you don’t, I’m going to raise you from the dead and kill you again,” she threatened.
There was a knock at the door. He went to go answer it. Ankle stood outside. “Sir, we have new orders. We are going to be on a special assignment.”
* * * * *
Legon finished up the last thing he had to do before leaving. He walked out to the terrace, gazing down at the bay, its water sparkling. Most of the house fleet was already on its way to meet up with the main force. Only a handful of ships remained. Iselin, from behind him, wound her arms around his waist, placing her head on his shoulder.
“Do you think we will see it again?” she asked.
He turned his head. “What, the bay? Yeah, I do.” He squeezed her hands, pulling her arms tighter around him. “I am planning on standing here with you looking out on this bay for many thousands of years to come,” he said, kissing her cheek.
Someone cleared their throat behind them. Legon looked to see Emma. “Emma, what can I do for you?” he asked.
“Um, well,” she seemed to gain her confidence. “I want to go. I want to go with Sasha. I promised that no matter what, if I ever saw her again that I would never leave her side. Well, and now that she is about to go off to war, I have no intention of backing out on that. We both know what she’ll say, so I was wondering if maybe you could kind of order me along.”