Mordraud, Book One (76 page)

Rucon
ran off with a couple of his men. They had to hurry. The sick soldiers had taken Dunwich’s order well, responding with unconditional faith in his words. They really must admire him immensely... More than he’d ever imagined.

‘
If they knew I’m merely quarantining them while I wait for a better idea...’ he thought sullenly. Then he remembered another problem. Even more pressing than the other perhaps.

“
Rucon, WAIT!” he cried to the head guard, who got his men to carry on while he turned back. The section captains were leading the ill away, organising them in units. They endeavoured to bide their time, to ensure the tents would already be empty upon their arrival.

“
What is it, sir?!”

“
Call together fifty or so of your men, I want your best... And we’ll make for the mercenaries’ sector,” Dunwich told him in a glum shadow of a voice. “And bring all the torches you can find.”

***

Deanna was seated on the sill of the window looking out over the villa’s rear courtyard. It was open and let in the acrid odour of the fires lighted outside the town’s perimeter. They hadn’t burnt out since the first day. She’d fastened a scented handkerchief around her face to combat the stench, but it wasn’t particularly effective. The flames echoed on the walls of the houses, and the flickering reflected off the window panes. It was hard to sleep at night, with that dancing crimson halo. But what affected her most was that it was extremely uncomfortable to stay lying down with that swollen round belly.

There
wasn’t long to go now. She’d got to the point of suffering every slightest strain. Her legs were puffed up, her back couldn’t hold her on her feet for long, and she was always famished. Many foods she’d never been fond of, such as liver or horse steak, now had her craving them. And she was much more willing in bed. Only with Adraman, since Mordraud hadn’t come home for a good while. She was rediscovering her husband – something she’d never ever imagined possible.

Carry
ing a child was a strange experience.

Larois
called on her often, and helped her with small everyday chores. Which amounted to practically nothing, as Adraman was always extremely thoughtful. Instead of delegating her care to the staff, he’d thrown himself headlong into his new role of expectant father. He even made meals for her. Sometimes he got his work out of the way in the morning, while she was still asleep, so he could devote the rest of his time to her.

She
’d got to the point, during the first few days, where she could no longer stand the sight of him. But it hadn’t lasted long. Adraman was such a solid and secure figure that he instilled in her a peace she had never known. She’d rediscovered a man who, once he’d hung up his guise of soldier and nobleman, was definitely not at all bad.

‘
Instead, Mordraud...’ she mused as she stared at the rooftops moistened by the glow of the bonfires. She missed his hot-headedness, his energy, the embarrassment he felt every time he had to talk to her, and that vanished when he descended on her. He was similar to Adraman in some traits. Which didn’t help her get him out of her head.

“
Is everything alright?”

Deanna
turned and lowered her handkerchief to smile at Adraman. In his hands was a tray with a steaming teapot, and two cups.

“
Come inside, it’s not good for you to breathe that air.”

He seemed fa
r more tense than normal. Deanna knew he didn’t like his work now he no longer managed the front – in fact he detested it. Hardly surprising, since using soldiers to clear the fields of corpses was a foul task. And keeping order in the town was even worse. Adraman loved Eld, and seeing both the fief and its people reduced to that state was gnawing away at him. But he was usually good at concealing his suffering.

“
You seem worried,” she asked him, as she poured a cup of herbal tea. He did the same and smiled, with little conviction. He didn’t want to talk about it with her.

“
I’d like to know what’s upsetting you so much...”

“
They’re rather... unpleasant matters,” he replied. Deanna stayed silent and stared at him, until Adraman understood he wouldn’t be getting out of it all that easily. He gave in to her stubbornness in the end.

“
The plague’s worsening.”

“
How much?” inquired Deanna, concerned. The news reaching them from the countryside had already been tragic for months.

“
We’ve had our first cases here in town...”

“
What’s Eldain going to do?! Have you discussed it?”

Deanna
picked up on a flash of unexpected unease in Adraman’s eyes. The pestilence seemed to be not the only preoccupation troubling him.

“
Is something wrong with Eldain?” she asked.

“
I’m worried about him. I’ve never seen him so... so...” Adraman could not even get the words out, for his anguish. Deanna took his hand and waited for him to recover. “It’s as if the Long Winter never released him... He’s weary, drained, and says things I don’t understand.”

“
What does he say?”

“
I’m certain you won’t like this one bit.”

“
Try me anyway,” she returned.

Adraman
took another sip of tea and went on in a wisp of a voice. “He says I need to get ready.”

“
For... what?”

She realised she didn
’t want to know any more, but it was too late.

“
I don’t know... It could mean many things.”

“
You don’t have to go off again, do you?!” Deanna’s voice was broken and squeaky, as if driven out by her contracted stomach. “He won’t want to... attack?”

“
For love of the Gods, I really don’t know!” Adraman exclaimed in distress. “It’s a nightmare out there, Deanna... Even if the Long Winter’s over, the situation hasn’t at all straightened out as we’d hoped... We might not make it through the winter, if Cambria decided to invade right now!”

“
Don’t say that even as a joke!”

Her flimsy and fleeting peace creaked menacingly. Her fragility pushed to resurface and gain control.

“You mustn’t worry, darling.” Adraman got up and kissed her. “It’s all in hand for now... I shouldn’t have spoken to you about this business – it’s merely my speculation...”

“
But I want you to tell me everything...” she murmured, with tears in her eyes. “Because if you have to set off again one day... I...”

“
I’m not going anywhere, believe me. Eldain has taken me off the front. He told me I can stay home... at last.”

Adraman
smiled tenderly, but didn’t share the full conversation. Eldain had hinted at something else. That her husband was too old to live on a battlefield. That Eldain didn’t want to see him burnt out and sucked dry far from home. That he should savour a spot of tranquillity for once. He’d practically ordered him to stay at Deanna’s side. His life as a soldier had come to an end along with that accursed winter.

He was happy he
’d received those instructions. But he couldn’t erase certain things from his memory so easily. His men, the decisions to take, the constant danger of committing a mistake. He was still a soldier, but he struggled unsuccessfully to forget this. For he was very much one of Eldain’s men, beyond any other futile desire of his own.

Deanna
wept quietly, her cheek resting on his chest.

“
I love you, Adraman...”

“
I love...”

Her voice faded
. Adraman thought she’d dozed off.

In the room
’s silence, he heard a drip patter on the floor. Then another. He placed a hand between his wife’s legs, automatically, striving not to let panic overcome him.

Fresh blood. Gushing.

“FOR LOVE OF THE GODS!” he wailed, terror-stricken. “ADRINA! ADRINA!”

Noise in the hall. Footsteps on the stairs
.

“
HELP! SHE NEEDS HELP! SHE’S NOT WELL!”

Deanna
could hear these sounds muffled and far-off, as if through a heavy blanket. She was no longer in her lounge. She had no belly.

She was naked, and stained with
blood from head to foot.

Around her, only rubble.
Eld was in flames.

Before her,
two men in armour, as tall and hulking as tree trunks. They were playing with a newborn baby. Tossing it to one another. Punching, hitting and slapping it.

Hands
grabbed her from behind, throwing her to the soaked ground strewn with innards and lumps of charred wood. Something penetrated her, and burnt like acid.

N
obody could help her. Because she knew they were all dead.

“
ADRAMAN!” she yelled voicelessly, but no reply came. Her son cried and moved his tiny arms broken by the blows.

They
’d abandoned her. They’d left her on her own forever.

“
MORDRAUD!”

***

‘Deanna...’ Mordraud mused sadly.

Since the fighting had finished, he
’d had too much time to think about her. And about his family, and his brothers. Gwern, Dunwich, Eglade. The Stranger. Not that he had anything better to focus on. The Rampart was in such a crippled state as to leave no refuge for the imagination.

The
soldiers were decimated by the epidemic. Whole battalions had departed, fleeing the areas hit by illness, without following specific orders or planned strategies. It was a chaotic migration, fuelled purely by the fear of having to die. The Allied forces were in shreds.

The only meagre consolation
was that the Imperial Army didn’t seem much better off. Since the Long Winter had come to an end, the battles could be counted on one hand. Six months had gone by, and now another winter was on its way. Despite the warmth, the clear sky and the abundant season, the soil had yielded few fruits, and the pestilence and famine stood together as the new war fronts. Those soldiers who were still alive and in vaguely good health had some hateful and repulsive duties. Protect the food sent from the Allied territories in the east, isolate the contaminated villages and smother the constant uprisings. Practically nobody was thinking about the front now. The war against Cambria seemed over.

But
if it all started up again suddenly, then that really would be the end. Of everything.

‘
Maybe that’s why Eldain has called a general assembly...’ Mordraud pondered, while, with Berg and a couple of section captains, he crossed the fiefdom’s drawbridge. It wasn’t the customary meeting at the front, which he’d attended only twice. This was something bigger. He represented the assault regiments, since Adraman had handed over command of the Rampart operations to Berg.

A lightning career, his, helped along by
Adraman, but especially by a spate of events he had survived within the span of just a few years. The Battle of Fire. The Long Winter, even if he certainly wasn’t to credit for its dismantling. The plague.

He hadn
’t seen him in a long time, he considered. Rumours told of an Adraman in family-father version – incredible to believe for all but the man himself. They’d talked much, during the long days of snow and cold in that accursed winter, and Adraman had often confided to him how much he wished to spend some time with Deanna, live with her, and at least attempt to salvage what little still remained of their marriage. Mordraud hoped he’d succeeded. Adraman deserved it, after an entire lifetime of sacrifice.

“
Will Adraman be there too?” he asked Berg as they dismounted from their horses to proceed on foot through the streets of the fiefdom. Many other captains had already arrived, journeying from every station on the front. The war had condensed on the Rampart in recent years, and it was often forgotten how precious the work was by the other units positioned along the line of conflict. It was also thanks to them if Cambria had never managed to penetrate their lands.

“
I don’t think so. I heard his son was born, a few days ago.”

“
Really? It’s a boy, then...” Mordraud answered, showing little apparent interest. Instead, inside his stomach was in tumult. They were speaking about
his son
. Thinking about him was a torture he was yet unable to bear. He hadn’t the faintest idea what being a father could mean, yet by contrast he was fully tasting the suffering of being one while nobody could find out. Of not being able to cradle his own son in his arms. He didn’t even know what they’d called him. He hoped it was at least a fine name.

“
Deanna had a few complications, but the healers say she’ll pull through,” Berg informed him. “Believe me, I was also in a sorry state after that battle against the Imperial Lances and look at me now... They’ve made me as good as new!”

Mordraud
nodded, gazing elsewhere, struggling not to show how much he want to race to her to see how she was. But he couldn’t. He wasn’t sure he’d hold out when faced with her and his son together, with Adraman at their side.