Authors: Greg Curtis
Chapter Forty Eight
Brunna Nye was a typical dryad town albeit a little larger than most with five thousand people calling it home. Nyma was very glad to be there.
The ride had been hard. Not so much because of the danger as the distress she had felt on her return. She had crossed the Regency safely and quickly enough, after all she knew how to scout and how to avoid enemies. But then when she had entered Inel Ison, she had discovered that things were worse than she had guessed. Towns had fallen. A lot of towns. And though she knew that most of them had been emptied of people long before the enemy had attacked them, still many people had died.
The enemy had paid a price for his crimes. A heavy price. She'd ridden through several battle grounds where the dead numbered in the thousands at least. Her people had used the land to their advantage, knowing where to strike. So narrow passes where the enemy would be blocked in and foothills where they could be attacked from above had become graveyards. They had used a favoured tactic of Erislee's as well and had attacked the invaders from across a swamp. The bog had slowed the chimera as they raced to attack them, leaving them vulnerable to arrows and magic, and then when they drew too close, their soldiers had simply ridden off. They knew the easier paths through the swamps and the invaders didn't. As she'd ridden though that swamp Nyma would have guessed that at least three or four thousand invaders had fallen there.
But it wasn't enough. She'd passed through five towns where the invaders had been on her way to reach the Great Assembly. And in each of those towns the story had been the same. There were bodies. Those she assumed of the defenders who had refused to leave their homes, and those of the raiders. And then there had been fire. The invaders had burnt the towns to the ground.
They had been thorough too. They hadn't just stopped in the heart of the town but had continued to the residential areas. Every dryad town was laid out in the same way. Businesses, the town hall and the stores were always contained in a hub in the centre of the town, while the people lived in a larger ring surrounding the hub. The wise ones who had come up with the layout millennia before called it a wagon wheel. But the invaders had set fire to the hub and then wandered out to the ring and set it alight as well. Then they had killed the animals in the fields and burnt the orchards. There was nothing left for the people to return to.
“Scorched earth” the war masters called the tactic, and it was an apt name. Especially when they'd set fire to the fields as well. She just called it vile. This was her home, her peoples' lands. Many of the dead were her people. And for someone to do such a thing was beyond her understanding. Riding through those towns, seeing the bodies and the ruin, for the first time she had gained some true appreciation of what Harl had endured. Of what he had lost. She understood a little more of the rage he felt.
Finally though she'd reached Brunna Nye where the Great Assembly was meeting and there was no sign of any burning. There were however plenty of signs of fear if not outright panic.
All around her as she waited to be called to stand before the assembly there were people. Far more than there should be in a town this size. Most of them she guessed weren't from Brunna Nye. Some of them looked like refugees. Many were soldiers, town guards and custodians both. All she assumed were waiting to be given instructions. That was to be expected she supposed. Even when the Great Assembly had already been in in session for five long days.
While normally Nyma would spend some time with the other custodians, even though none of them were from her own watch in Ilendigo, she had no time for that this day. For the moment she was both a witness – and so expected to keep herself apart from others until after she had given her evidence – and out of place. She wasn't just a long way from home in terms of leagues, but in terms of everything she knew. None of what she was seeing all around her was normal. None of it was right.
And then there was the fact that she would soon be standing before the Great Assembly. It was Nyma's first time before it, and she was nervous. Even though she knew exactly what she had to say and that her task was only to give the facts. She wouldn't be asked asked to give opinion. Other more learned people could do that. Other more learned people like the rest of the Great Assembly. She was merely a custodian.
Not that the members of the Great Assembly were nobles or lords.
The humans wouldn't understand that Nyma knew. Just as she found it difficult to understand that there were such people as kings and lords in the world. People who were born to positions of power and responsibility instead of promoted to them because of ability and worth.
But then much of the human realms made little sense to her. The people made sense – the ones she dealt with – not the nobles and lords. They were like everyone else. Harl made sense, especially since he gave his work away. He understood a cause greater than himself. He understood that he was only a part of a community, even if he sometimes seemed to talk too fondly about wealth and having a successful business. The life he had had and the life he dreamed of returning to.
But the court and the nobles and the wealthy, they made no sense at all. Why would someone want all that wealth? To live in these grand mansions and castles? To have people serving them as though they were invalids who could not care for themselves? It was wrong.
And then there were their endless gods. Why so many gods? Surely everyone knew there were but three? A family above as below. Just as it should be.
The laws though were what truly bothered her. How was it that a man could be born to create laws for others? Or that any should think such laws just? The laws were for all and so should be created by all. But the humans didn't seem to understand that. Such a simple understanding, yet it was completely beyond them. Clearly humans were a simple people. Some days she wondered how they had achieved even as much as they had. With so many failings it was a wonder that they'd achieved anything at all.
She knew that they wouldn't understand the Great Assembly or that it could be held in a simple town hall that could have been in any of their towns. The humans would have built some massive edifice – a castle maybe, to hold their court. But not her people. That was madness. After all the Great Assembly had to move to where it was needed. Currently it was meeting in the town hall of Brunna Nye, a town happily not that far from her own home town of Ilendigo. When this was over it would be only half a day's ride home.
The humans wouldn't understand the members of the assembly either; the idea that thirty souls could simply be chosen from among the other assemblies that ran every town and village in the realm. While these people were learned, recognised for their skills and their character, they weren't nobles. They were artisans, farmers, soldiers, fathers and mothers, artists. Not one of them had any title. None of them owned any great wealth. They weren't even dressed in finery. They were of the people they served. And that was how it should be.
But what the humans would truly never understand was that Nyma knew none of the members who made up the Great Assembly. Not just because they weren't famous lords and ladies. But because they weren't even permanent members. Those on the assembly were chosen to attend by their people, but only for a short time. For one to three years generally. And after their time was finished they would return to their normal lives. To be asked to sit on the Assembly was considered not an honour but a duty. A hardship borne because it had to be. And no one could be asked to give up the rest of his life simply for duty. Not when there were others who could take up that duty in time.
Humans though would want to do so. They seemed to spend their entire lives trying to achieve things. To gain wealth and status. To obtain a title if they could. For them the thought that someone could reach a position of authority and then simply put it aside to return to his old life was beyond their understanding.
Still, as the wise ones said it was best not to dwell on criticism. Neither of others nor yourself. And that was especially true when she was standing there waiting to give her evidence.
Nyma didn't have to wait long. That was one of the other differences between the Great Assembly and human courts. There was no ceremony or formalities to go through. She would be called forth once the previous speaker had finished and his evidence had been discussed. She wasn't even asked to swear an oath of truthfulness. That was assumed. Instead, when she stood in the middle of the hall before the thirty she was simply asked to speak. So she spoke.
She began with her sister's words of course, and the thoughts of the war masters she travelled with. Words that were already weeks behind the time. A pigeon would have been faster. But a pigeon could only carry so much information and a note could not be judged in the same way a person could. You could not know if the words on a note were fact or guesses. And you could not ask what else a note knew. But both of those things were asked of her.
Nyma told them what she could of the war and of the unexpected turns that had been taken during it. And then when she was finished telling them of that she told them of the attack she had seen. And of what the dying wizard had told her. That at least seemed to raise a few eyebrows among the Assembly. Though naturally they would not tell her what they found so interesting. It was not the Assembly's way to discuss such things with those who gave evidence.
But one thing she did notice. When she mentioned the name Terellion members of the Assembly abruptly started to become more interested, sharing glances among one another as they sat there. They obviously knew the name. That surprised her a little. She had heard it before of course. As she'd travelled throughout the five kingdoms it had come up. He was one of the Circle wizards. But most of her people would not have paid any interest in human affairs. So why would they know his name?
One other thing did occur to her – but not until after she had finished giving her evidence and been dismissed to wait for a decision. It was the lack of surprise. For some reason they weren't taken aback in the slightest to hear that the false temple was suddenly at war with itself. Which she guessed must mean that they'd heard similar stories from others.
After she was dismissed the rest of her day was spent waiting. Waiting for a decision to be made and for any orders she might be given. There were other witnesses still to be heard and deliberations to be made. She wasn't even certain if a decision would be reached this day. Although the Great Assembly had already been in session for five days, and though it was almost unheard of, she guessed that it could become six easily enough.
It was a long wait. The morning dragged through until lunch, and the lunch until afternoon. And during that time she could do nothing but wait and wonder where she would be going next. When she could return to her sister and then to her lover. It was nearly evening when Assemblyman Jarris came out on to the steps to address the people. When finally she and the other people were called back into the hall. Or actually just to its front where they were addressed from the steps. There were simply too many people for them to fit inside it.
“Good people.”
Assemblyman Jarris stood before them, the chosen spokesman for the Great Assembly. He stood straight and firm as he should having been entrusted with the duty. But he also looked distressed, as no assemblyman should ever look.
“Over the past five days we have been meeting. Listening to the reports of the war, and trying to determine the wisest course of action. What towns we need to protect. Which towns we need to evacuate. Where and when and how we should attack. Where we should defend.”
“It has been a terrible task, especially when we have known at every turn that the lives of our people have been in jeopardy.”
“For the most part we have chosen the path of least conflict, choosing to retreat from the smaller towns and villages to save lives, and attacking the enemy only when the numbers and conditions were in our favour.”
“But today we must choose a different path. Today we choose war!”
There was a stir among the people when he said that. Glances of disbelief and even disagreement sent his way. It was a very shocking thing for a dryad to say. But it was still something Nyma had known was coming – sooner or later. You couldn't just keep retreating forever, and harrying the enemy with the occasional strike. Eventually you had to hit back hard. You had to use everything you had. And you had to punish your enemy so they would learn never to do such a thing again. That time had finally come, and much as she hated the thought of war and killing, she agreed with it. After seeing what had happened in the five kingdoms after these false priests had come, she very much agreed with it.