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Chapter Nine
I rolled my eyes. “I am the War Mage, Ecaeris,” I told her. “Queen Diandeliera.”
“You’re Fae,” she considered me, undaunted by my old war titles. An unusual woman, I thought. She had the delicate prettiness one thought of when one thought of mankind princesses at all, the fair skin that spoke of being sheltered from the sunlight, but there was a determination in her eyes that defied her birth and species. This was a princess who would lead her army from the front. I decided that I liked her.
“Yes.”
“Bane of Nerith,” she repeated what Daerton had said. “You fought with Aurien in the war against Phimion.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes went to Aurien who, dragon-like, had lost interest in the conversation, and stood caught in his own thoughts, his gaze fixed distantly. He would remember every word said in his presence, for all his appearance of inattention. She looked back at
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We moved to the section of the camp where the camp followers were situated. Women held babes on their hips whilst they stirred pots over the fire, and small, grubby children wove in between the basic A frame tents. Prostitutes and wives of the poorer soldiers intermingled with servants and the various trades that supported all armies. A blacksmith worked a sword over an anvil, his sweat running black down his face and his muscles standing out impressively against skin scarred with the burn marks of his trade. “Let me guess,” Daerton said. “Mummy and daddy found out about the half-Fae bit on the side, and demanded the little princeling marry the pure-blood as per plan, but no one thought to let you know in advance of the invocation. So now the War Mage is mad and gone stomping off to the camp where the half-Fae bit is to have her revenge, but Aurien put a stop to it?” “Mostly,” I gathered some ash from a fire into a pouch. “I mean Ashara no harm. Akyran has always bee
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I wiped my sword clean on the cloak of the corpse of an enemy soldier and reviewed the skeleton army I had amassed. I checked my pouch. I had enough components for another casting. “Inmithus mancitem!” I saw the soldiers that picked through the dead for armour and weaponry dance back as the corpses of their enemies expelled their flesh and rose as skeletons. “Tell Ruelke she can add two hundred odd skeletons to her tally,” I said to Leongrad. “She’ll be happy about that,” he agreed. “They probably don’t eat much.” I laughed - my laughter sharp edged. I saw Aurien land, and the soldiers called Diandreliera’s name in triumph, as she again raised Intuin Desparen in salute of the victory. We left the strongholds sieging, not interested in taking them, and instead occupied the next large town along the road. The residents welcomed us, greeting Diandreliera as the True Queen. Narayan managed to arrange a bath for me in one of the private hou
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I sent the skeletons onto patrol between us and the river that framed the city and castle as the camp set up. “The bridges are set to collapse,” Daerton told me. We both looked to the sky as the golden dragon winged down to land. Aurien shifted into man-form as soon as Diandreliera had dismounted. He walked alongside her to the tent that had been set up for them as if his golden hair were not the only thing he was wearing. “Take a good look, Ecaeris,” Daerton muttered to me. I grinned at him. “As if you wouldn’t look if it were a female dragon walking naked through the camp. I’ve never met a dragon that’s hard on the eyes.” “The same could be said for the Fae,” he replied. “Which is why I am so pretty, it’s the Fae blood in me. Back to the bridges, however.” “It’s not unexpected,” I pointed out. “No. There are any number of solutions. The question is which one?” “Hmmm,” my hand closed around the locket. “I think it depends on w
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“Looks like you’ve already done the fun part,” Akyran sat next to me. I tossed the first rock back into the river before taking up the second rock. “Cloth soaked in children’s tears,” Daerton watched with interest. “That’s some serious spell casting.” I threw the next rock into the river. “It needs to be.” “So, we’re creating a dam,” Daerton observed. “The bank is going to be slippery.” “I will dry it.” “You will need… ah,” he glanced at Akyran under his eyelashes. “I guess you have that in ready supply.” “Yes,” I murmured. “What?” Akyran looked between us. “I need some of your blood,” I held out my hand. “My blood?” he repeated but placed his hand in mine. I stabbed his finger with my dagger point, and he exclaimed. “- Ecaeris,” he protested. I squeezed his finger, to get the blood to bead, and then let it fall onto a cloth I held ready. When I released his hand, he put his finger in his mouth and sucked it. “T
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“Shit, Ecaeris,” Leongrad defended my injured side. “Fall back and seek a healer.” “I can still fight with one arm, and spell cast,” I dismissed the suggestion. “I am fine.” “You have a -ing arrow through your shoulder!” he replied. I saw the flash of dragon scale overhead as Aurien cut through the night sky, and the screams of the enemy soldiers beneath his fire. We were at the castle walls, the chemin de ronde thick with soldiers, arrows falling swift and fast. I threw up a ward, and the arrows suspended just above Leongrad’s head. He looked at me, wide eyed. I heard my name yelled behind me and recognised the voice as Akyran’s - he was fighting his way through to me. I turned, instinctually, centuries of training responding, and plunged back through our soldiers, to come to his side. He caught me and hunched over me as a volley of arrows struck into the shields of the soldiers that guarded his person. “Ecaeris,” his face was shadowed by his
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The water was bluer thank Akyran’s eyes and sparkled like it was scattered with diamonds. I watched another ship move into the bay. The port and city were busy with traders moving in and out. A strange place, this, I thought, watching the movement from my perch in the open tower window. Isolated and surrounded by a deadly desert, the people who had colonized this spot had been foolhardy and determined. They had come from further inland, following the fertile land off the riverbanks until it disappeared into the ocean. The people were brilliant and deadly, like the environment. Their clothing was brightly coloured, finely woven, and designed for the heat of this land. They wore their wealth in gold heavily around wrist and throat, and their weapons in plain sight to deter thieves. Life came and went quickly. The Fae Courts intrigues did not hold the brutality of these beautiful and charming people, who would take a hand for a theft, and an eye for a trespass.
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The forest had been planted by the Fae although it was no longer held by them, and the trees were thickly trunked and gnarled of roots, though thinly dispersed, the humans having taken the smaller trees and bushes to burn in their fires or build their ugly little houses with. The undergrowth was deep and spongey underfoot, fetid with rotting leaf matter and bat guano. More strongly, the smell of the creature seemed to steam in the night. The smell was difficult to place, a little like citronella, but more acidic, singeing the hairs in my nostrils and itching the back of my throat with its wrongness. Phantom caught my eye. His white hair and skin glowed in the night as if the man were a fire-fly, lit with an inner luminescence. He tugged the hood up over his hair, seeking to disguise himself, but the man had never been meant for the shadows – before the curse he would have glowed amongst others of mankind for his beauty, and now he glowed for its corruption. H
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A skeleton rat skittered across the road before me, disappearing into the shadows. I paused, surprised that one still survived. Vienthrey was frosted as I strode through streets that layered memory of war against present time. There was no sign of the war that had waged here now, it existed only in my mind’s eye. The streets were all but empty, the residents seeking the shelter and warmth of their homes as day turned to night. There was a storm coming, the clouds over the city were heavy. The cobblestoned streets were slippery with ice underfoot, and the chimneys in all the houses streamed smoke. I heard the dragon roar and lifted my face to the sky to watch Aurien wing in towards the inner courtyard. Getting a last flight in, I thought, before he became snow-bound by the storm. The tavern was easily found, the light and revelry from within spilling out as a man left. He looked at my company with alarm, glanced over his shoulder at the occupants of the tavern
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