death's knight 22

 

Chapter 22

 

Kaz stood on a dam with Protasion.

“So, this is one of a number of pools there to fill with spate water in the wet season and after the snow melts in the north, to be released gradually, rather than have the water potentially flood the lower lying part of the city,” she said.

“That’s it,” said Protasion. “Which is why we have a dry river course below us and another dam to release it back into the river.”

“So, whilst that part is dry, if a number of tunnels were dug in the sides, and tunnelled under the camps of the besiegers, and the water was then let in....”

“We’d have to mend the holes again before spring,” warned Protasion. “But it would be very unpleasant for them to be undermined and fall into mud.”

“We’d better avoid the latrine pits, though. We don’t want that washing back into the river.”

“No, or we’ll be fighting cholera, too, it comes from contaminated water.”

“You are a fount of knowledge, Protasion. Use your engineering to draft the course of a couple of tunnels to cause them maximum misery.”

“It’ll be a pleasure.”  He shivered. “It’s got suddenly very cold.”

“Even more miserable for wet men,” said Kaz.

 

oOoOo

 

Allenna Dren, one-time high priestess of the temple of Selen in Mesolimnos, now chief chaplain and war council member to the besieging forces, was nonplussed.

“My goddess, I know nothing about children,” she confessed. “I joined the cult to avoid being married off as a tool for my family’s ambitions, though of course I stayed for all the right reasons,” she added, hastily. “It would be an honour to care for your divine child, but I don’t know how...” she regarded the child on her bed with misgivings; the baby appeared to be a few months old.

“Get some peasant woman to see the feeding her and cleaning up after her and teaching her to control bladder and bowel,” said Selen. “As to the rest, you can slap her or pinch her or do as you like, train her to be angry and let loose her powers. My heroine is bringing cold weather supplies and a replacement garrison, and you can hand Chionea over to Thea Drex when she comes.”

“She is no true noble, my lady,” said Allenna.

“Why would I care about the petty divisions you mortals make amongst yourselves?” said Selen. “It is a means of controlling those outside of my priests, and those of my minions who consider themselves to be important for their petty names. I care about real power, and you are one of my powerful priestesses. Bring her up unhappy and angry and snowing on the enemy.”

“Ah, I understand,” said Allenna. “The child is a tool.”

 

oOoOo

 

The trógling miners were glad to get underground out of a bitter wind which felt as if it carried spite and anger with it.  They used cantrips as props on their journey, and gently undid them as they returned. Kaz, less skilled, watched, and felt a hit of power and sudden burst of prayer from one of the four miners, who had been too close to the prop he had just removed, and was buried. Without thinking, Kaz pulled her body after her spirit into the shade of the tunnel to reach him, her spirit passing through the fallen earth. She exerted her will on the earth to push it away, and picked up her semi-conscious worshiper to carry his body as well as hers to safety, calling for a healer.

 

oOoOo

 

“There is a new god, near my daughter!” cried Selen. “I must guard... no, the presence is gone from the confines of my temple.”

“Did you imagine it, or was it the powers of your own daughter?” asked Daze.

“Oh! Yes, that may be it, a spike of power as she grows,” said Selen.

 

oOoOo

 

“Eh, Kaz, what did you just do?” asked Protasion, as the trógling, one Zarn, was rushed to the Halls of Healing, protesting that he was fine, now.

“I’m not quite sure,” said Kaz. “Someone who gives me power needed me and I had to be there so I sort of was. I think if I tried to analyse too hard how I did it, I wouldn’t be able to.”

“Happy apotheosis, your goddness,” grinned Protasion.

Kaz poked him.

There was a chime.

“Why not when it happened?” said Kaz, puzzled.

“You had to accept it?” said Protasion. “Oh, there it goes again. Your mother-in-law is an enthusiast.”

“I love her, though, for twisting my curse to let me be with Alethos, even if we do have to wait,” said Kaz.

 

oOoOo

 

In the Selenite camp, a priest of Librax named Fordus Arnth went glassy-eyed.

“Behold! A new goddess is born, and it shall mark the beginning of the end!” he intoned, then shook his head. “Did I just say something?”

“You said that a new goddess is born, and that it marks the beginning of the end,” said Allenna. “You meant Chionea, of course?”

“Who?” said Arnth.

“Our goddess’s daughter, you dolt!” said Allenna. “You meant that she has come enough into her powers to make winter come this far south, didn’t you?”

“Oh, if you say so, high priestess,” said Arnth. “I thought it was something to do with shadow, and... but that’s ridiculous, too small and weak.”

“She’s growing all the time,” said Allenna, who found it unnerving. “And she will cast a shadow of snow clouds over the sun.”

 

In the temple to Solos, Erytheon Sun-Toucher stiffened.

“Behold! A new goddess is born, and it shall mark the beginning of the end!” he intoned. “Did someone write that down?”

“Yes, sir,” said the lay-member assigned as his guide. “‘Behold, a new goddess is born, and it shall mark the beginning of the end’ is what you said.”

“Remarkable,” said Erytheon. “We live in interesting times.”

“What... what does it mean?” asked the youth, one Epiphio.

A smile touched the lips of his tutor.

“It means we have a chance of winning, my boy,” said Erytheon. Erytheon loved his god dearly but he had also started worshipping Fate. And she sometimes gave him more insights even than those he had for himself. And Erytheon could see further with his blind eyes than many keen-sighted people could see. And it may be said, further than his own god, who was bound to his own path. Erytheon blinked rapidly.

“Behold, the child of winter must receive love to melt the snow,” he added.

He let the boy write it down, without mentioning that he remembered that one, as it came from a direct communication from his new goddess. She was cheating again, even as she had suggested that he make his interpretation of prophecy sound like a prophecy when he had been privileged to meet the Daykaz.

Erytheon had never had so much fun in his long life.

 

oOoOo

 

It rarely snowed as far south as Mesolimnos, but the snow clouds piled up and the wind wailed and howled, like the voice of an unhappy child.

“This isn’t natural,” said Harkon. “This is more like the weather I grew up with.”

“Then teach us to handle it, and to live with it, not fight it,” said Pythas.

“The wolves will be invaluable,” said Harkon. “They helped us rescue trógling in the snow. We need to take wheels off carts and put runners on, as sleds, and inscribe warming runes inside those used for people, and to make sure everyone knows how to ritually soak thread in their own blood and sew a warming rune into their clothing. It will last many days, maybe weeks, where a warmth spell lasts an hour, or at best, with the highest level, twelve hours.”

“Movement glyph on the hearth will move the warm air about a room,” said Kaz. “But it really needs to be laid by the priest of a wind cult.”

“We can see to that in the Halls of Healing, and the Warming House which has been set up in the former temple to Selen,” said Pythas. “I am sure the Windies... uh, the Knights of the Clear Starlight... will be happy to further desecrate her temple.”

“What is a problem is that it will now be hard to go and fire the steppe,” said Harkon. “Unless you have any tips for flying in this muck, love?” he appealed to his wife.

“If you’re confident to do it without me, then use the hero path between temples, and go to the temple you set up, dear,” said Thyella.

“Of course,” said Harkon. “You won’t come?”

“Matter of courtesy between gods,” said Thyella. “Because it isn’t an emergency to bargain for.”

“Of course; one cannot break protocol,” nodded Harkon. He shivered. “I swear I can hear a child wailing in that wind.”

“It sounds like kin of mine,” said Thyella, worried. “I don’t know why I feel that, but I do.”

“Erytheon pronounced that the child of winter had to be loved,” said Pythas. “He said something about it being his path to take as he was now expendable.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” said Kaz.

“I didn’t, either,” said Pythas.

 

oOoOo

 

“I need you to write a letter for me, and guide my hand to sign it,” said Erytheon to Epiphio. “Address it to Pythas, Lord and Priest and Commandant of Alethos, and give him formal greeting.”

“Pythas, sir? Not Lord Chrysandion?”

“Pythas. Chrysandion will not know to whom to show it. Now, say that I am of sound mind, and full of years, and it is my will that all my possessions should, in the case of my death, go to Epiphio, my guide and apprentice, and that it is my desire that Epiphio should not seek to be a Sun-Seer; and that it is my orders that Epiphio should not follow me on my path of destiny.  Say that I must prepare the child of winter for godparents, and that I will be going at the time Lady Fate deems best to be a diversion for her main tool, the Daykaz.  Write, Pythas, old friend, if all goes well, I will aid your young charge, and for my reward will spend an eternity shagging three women in one. And put it like that; he’s a soldier.” He paused as the youth’s pen stopped writing. “Don’t hesitate, you don’t need to understand. Pythas may explain it if he feels like it. But I want this in order, and I need it written out fair, with a lawyer to stand beside you and read it out for me to sign, before the time comes. Write also, Lightning strikes best at the heart of winter.”

There was a gulp from the boy, and the Sun-Seer reached out to cup the lad’s face in his gentle hands, and place a kiss on his forehead.

“Why must it be you?” asked Epiphio, through tears. “You have been a father to me.”

“It must be me, because I only have one prophecy left to give, and it must be given to the right person at the right time, and in the right place,” said Erytheon, gently. “I go willingly to lay aside my earthly flesh to help save us all. I am now no further use to the temple and as such can do my duty one last time.”

“But I do not want to lose you!”

“You will not,” said Erytheon. “You will leave this temple if, or when, it becomes apparent that I am not coming back, and take refuge with Pythas. He will take care of you whilst you learn about Moraia, Fate herself. She will teach you how to unravel prophecies past and present, and you will write a master work about the prophecies of the age of the blood moon and its destruction.”

“I... I do not know enough! Do not leave me!” the boy panicked.

“A part of me will be with you always,” said Erytheon. “You are as a son to me. Go and write it out neatly, and get me a lawyer. Then I will be ready. And in the month or so before I have to leave, I promise, I will spend time with you.” He smiled. “I have always known I have a destiny, but I have never known what. And now I do know, it is as if a great weight has been lifted from me. I am at peace as I have never been.”

“There is an odd light in your face, sir,” ventured Epiphio.

“It is the light of truth,” said Erytheon.

 

oOoOo

 

Pythas read the letter brought by the weeping boy, notarised by an attorney at law of Polos, and called in those who were involved.

“It is one of my kindred, then,” said Thyella.

“I do not want anyone to die just to make my task easier,” said Kaz, distressed.

“I fancy he has reason to believe that his sacrifice will make your task possible,” said Pythas. “And then he gets to be your father-in-law.”

“He will leave glyphs for me; I am sure of it,” said Thyella. “A diversion indeed. Harkon, you will accept this child as ours?”

“If any chaos taint can be removed by Alethos,” said Harkon. “Or I fear it will start over again.”

“This, I agree,” said Thyella. “I fear that the ice spirit with whom my brother was so enamoured was tainted; or Selen herself, in disguise.”

“We have time to prepare and plan for this,” said Harkon. “And my first job is to make the relieving force miserable, and delay them, so that we have no heroine of the cult here before the solstice.”     

“Timing is everything,” said Pythas.             

 

death's knight 21

 

Chapter 21

 

“We need them to be on their way before we enact scorched earth on them,” said Harkon, patiently to Thyella. “Once they’ve committed, they won’t pull back. And we want them miserable. Spending all their energy trying to find something to forage; the Selenite way is to live off the land, and be damned to those from whom they steal. Once they reach the lake, they will have fish, but they are not going to be happy, being used to a mix of fish and meat, and the herds will vanish into the hills. Dovrynuk, which they call Megagora, is marked as a city on the map, but though there are a few temples there, it is not occupied all year round, and is readily emptied. There are warehouses there, but tunnels into them will empty them. I think the Selenites will sail their troops up river, and some will come all the way across the Great Lake to Agaropolis, and then march to relieve the troops already here; and the others will sail to Rhinopolis. I’d take light ships past Rhinopolis and portage overland to Lake Olo, and through the river to Lake Ena, but I grew up with the concept of portage. They can’t go through the strait directly into Olo, because there’s a forty-foot drop. Or rather, they’d have to go up a waterfall into Olo.”

Thyella sniggered.

“Do they know that? It just looks as if the lakes join on the map.”

“I don’t know. But I imagine so. We can’t assume the enemy to be that ignorant.”

“I can cause some rain, if not as much as my mother. Shall I rain on them?”

“My most precious darling! Please do!” said Harkon, sniggering.

“It’ll be easy after setting the plains on fire,” said Thyella. “I can use the ash in the air to form drops around them.”

“I’m glad you did not decide to hate me forever,” said Harkon. “I could imagine spending the rest of my life being rained on by my own personal cloud and being made to dance with little thunderbolts, and all inside a promise not to harm me.”

“Oh, now that would be spiteful,” said Thyella. “Mind, I could imagine Zeandine doing so if she had the ability. But what can a goddess of Spring and lust manage? Secalia hasn’t even the brains to imagine wanting revenge, all she can do is grow rye, which when all is said and done is just a special kind of grass, even as Tritica grows wheat, Hordea grows Barley, and Avena grows oats.  They all sprang from Zea together when she gave birth to a single ear of grass and each developed into a different grain, and Zea planted them, and they grew each one into a goddess dedicated to that grain. Including Poacea, true grass, Cypera, sedge, and Junca, rushes. There are others whose names escape me; but I don’t care enough to remember.”

“I love you,” said Harkon.

 

oOoOo

 

“Send the barges upriver with the winter supplies, the men can march or ride,” decided Thea Drex. “That way the barges can carry more. We need more healers to deal with the diseases a besieging army suffers, as well as the marsh fever. They can go in the boats. When they reach the great lake, they can requisition other boats there to cross the lake with the barges, carrying half the men to Agorakome, and the rest to Rhinopolis. The men will have to requisition carts in Rhinopolis and Agorakome to go the rest of the way.”

“You are slipping, my lady,” said General Orgeron Cass. “There is no reason that the ships should not bypass Rhinopolis and go through a narrow strait to the lake named Olo, and thence through a riverine connection to Lake Ena and closer to their destination.” He stabbed his finger at the map.

Thea smiled a brittle smile.

“Have you ever seen that narrow strait, General?” she asked.

“No, but the map is clear enough,” said Cass.

“But it does not tell the whole story,”said Thea. “If you had been there, you would know of the great cascade from Lake Olo into the Great Lake. It’s quite a sight. But with the best will in the world, a boat cannot sail or be rowed up a sheer waterfall forty feet high.”

“It is not marked on the map,” said Cass, accusingly.

“It does not need to be marked on the map,” said Thea. “Anyone with serious pretensions to military ability, who would use the lakes for travel, scouts the terrain first. Your father could have told you; he was a more than adequate soldier. But you are a general on the back of his name”

“I have always suspected you killed my father; you were just a skinny gladiatorix when he took you as his lover, bought you out, and advanced your career in the military.”

“I was fourteen years old, the same as you,” said Thea “And I could make a good case proving that you killed your father for refusing to ‘let you have a go’ with me. Your father was, at least, a consummate soldier, and I learned a great deal from him as I acted his adjutant. Fortunately, he died after I had learned everything I could from him.”

“I did not kill him!” Cass squealed.

“You would have done if you had been in his bed,” said Thea. “But I can prove you did, and you only suspect that I did. I have your letter to your cousin where you wrote, ‘So often I have dreamed of killing my father. Now he is dead and I do not know how I feel.’ It could be read as a confession. And who would be believed? I am not that skinny child, any more. I have power, and contacts. You have cronies and sycophants.”

“I can tell people that you all but confessed to me to killing my father!” said Cass.

“And I would show proof that you were trying to escape me showing that it was you,” said Thea.

“I worship Thanos! A truth god!”

“Worshippers of truth gods have been known to lie before,” said Thea. “You are only an initiate. I am only going through plans with you because you are the Empress’s lover of the moment.  Presumably you are better in bed than  your father; but the Empress’s power is as nothing next to that of the high priestess of Selen. And the Empress’s consort admires me, and frankly, he has the brains in the palace.”

“You are not even properly noble,” said Cass, resentfully.

“You forget; I was given my second name and lands when I foiled a plot against the Empress, and killed Callax Drex,” purred Thea. “His name and goods were ceded to me for standing in front of the Empress, taking a sword meant for her, and killing her would-be assassin. And I am the only heroine of the cult. The nearest we had to a hero was Ralthur Kron, and he appears to have gone apostate. Now ask General Erlax Sorn to come in; he is a lord and priest of Thanos, and capable of working with the grownups.”

Cass left, muttering about jumped-up second tier families. Thea sneered. She held the name and goods of a first-rank family because of her actions. Erlax Sorn was a double glyph-level because of his actions. Ralthur Kron, however shocking his apostasy, had risen to governor of the city states because of his actions, and his excellent military record. Thea held little respect for the social hierarchy of the empire. She was the only holder of the surname Drex, because she had declined to adopt any of the women and children of Callax Drex’s family, so that they were all sold into slavery in different places, even as all males over the age of twelve were crucified.

She welcomed Sorn when he knocked, and entered, and showed him the map.

“Isn’t there a difference in height between lakes Olo and the Great Lake?” he asked.

“Yes, a forty-foot falls,” said Thea.

“What’s the terrain like before reaching the falls?” asked Sorn.

“Rocky,” said Thea. “You were considering portage from one lake to the other?”

“It crossed my mind,” said Sorn.

“I don’t think it can be done,” said Thea, contemplatively. “However, if you want to send a scout ahead to assess the lie of the land, I’ll be guided by you. It’s not a decision we have to make until we reach Rhinopolis.”

“Thank you, my lady; I will send someone right away, if I may be dismissed; I can see no flaw in your plans otherwise.  We will plunder the villages of the plainsfolks for immediate supplies, of course?”

“And to add to our long term supplies,” said Thea. “They are always rebelling; it will do them no harm to go hungry over the winter, and maybe lose some of their number to disease and famine. It will at least subdue them.”

Sorn did not grimace; it did not do to show the Heroine that one found her chillingly cold. But then, thought Sorn, who would not be cold when captured at the age of seven or eight, trained to be a gladiatorix, and initially put in the arena as a comedy turn – until the comedy turn had systematically ripped apart animals and gladiators pitted against a young girl.

 

oOoOo

 

Harkon observed a rider set out from Selenopolis, and the barges being loaded on the wharfs on the riverside.

“They plan to sail or otherwise take ship upriver then; and presumably continue into the Great Lake,” he said. “That’ll be interesting; the season of rains will put the river in spate, and at times there’s a bore, I believe.”

“Well, that should make them seasick, if nothing else,” said Thyella. 

“Ships are made of wood,” said Harkon. “If struck by lightning, they would burn to the waterline. But I should not ask you to do that. It is too direct an action.”

“But there is no reason I cannot teach you the spells of cloud travel, flash in lightning, and throw lightning bolt, if you will worship me just a teensy bit as my favourite priest.”

“I thought you only had female worshippers?”

“Not amongst the plainsfolk, where they assume I am male,” said Thyella. “So, there is precedence. And I don’t even make them wear curly wigs and false bosoms.”

“Just as well; I’m not up for it,” said Harkon.

“Harkon... no, I don’t need to ask,” said Thyella. “Because I know you love me before you thought of asking if you could use my powers.”

“Besides, we’ll go together,” said Harkon. “And you will just move away so you can say with perfect truth that you did not do anything to the plains or the boats.”

“Such casuistry!” sniggered Thyella.

“But necessary. It is understood that the gods will back their tools, and support the pieces on the board, but should not perform any overt actions personally as yet.”

“The Trickster has done so; I think it was he in the guise of Sky Griffon who brought the egg,” said Thyella.

“Undoubtedly; but we cannot prove it, and moreover, he is expected to cheat. But if the rest of the gods move personally too soon, it will spell disaster. I don’t know in what way, but Fate would not permit Alethos to be with Kaz too soon, remember?”

“I fired lightning bolts at him to discourage his ardour when Rynn kicked him,” said Thyella. “I am more disciplined than my brothers.”

“Good,” said Harkon. “Kaz... well, she has become my little sister.”

“And she must be in the right time in the right place on the solstice,” said Thyella. “Which is why we are worrying about disturbing the approaching armies now, so they are still disconcerted as the solstice approaches.”

“Exactly,” said Harkon.

“And once you have fired the plain, I am sure one of my mother’s priestesses can be persuaded to make it rain on all that burned earth as the Selenites go up river. If necessary, it can rain for weeks.”

“I find the concept of the Selenite discomfort fills me with no disquiet at all,” said Harkon. “I wonder if that single rider was to set up way posts.”

“Or arrange for ship-building or requisition on the lake,” said Thyella. “Those barges are full.”

“Perhaps they mean to march the men but keep apace with them with barged provisions,” said Harkon. “It is a compromise which works.”

“And horses don’t like boats,” said Thyella.

“They don’t,” agreed Harkon. “They’ll have to embark them at some point, unless they are going to go via the trade route, and I don’t see that happening.”

“Well, let us return home for a while, and you can do a little bit of worshipping,” said Thyella.

“Oh, my love, I do worship you. I worship this bit....” he kissed her lips, “And this bit...” he kissed her collar bone, “And this bit....” as he worked his way down.

There was some wonder at the lightning in a clear sky.

 

death's knight 20

 sorry to be late, I could not sleep for ages, it was so hot. 

Chapter 20

 

 

Thyella and Phaedros had left Kaz, Rynn, and Hraazaz when they emerged from the temple.

“Harkon needs us to add advocacy,” said Thyella. “And he’s hurt so I want to go to him.”

“It’s a routine journey back to Mesolimnos,” said Kaz. “Though, I must say, heroic travel would be useful.”

“You need to concentrate on lifting your body with your kormajeia and carrying it,” said Thyella. “It’s a question of practice.”

“And I am relying on Thyella, because I haven’t mastered it yet,” said Phaedros.

Kaz did not say so, but she hoped she would be able to manage things a little more quietly than Thyella.

“Dear one, I suspect you should consider practising merging with shadows, and moving from shadow to shadow,” said Alethos.

“Good idea,” said Kaz. “I will doubtless exhaust myself, however.”

“There was a plaintive request not quite made in that.”

“I will want a nice Alethos-shaped cushion to sleep on and have nice dreams.”

 

oOoOo

 

 

Thea Drex was not a woman who believed in dreams, especially not the sort of lustful dreams for unattainable men which entertain many a girl through her puberty. Thea had foresworn men to turn herself into a fighting machine for her goddess, and when she looked at a man, it was to assess his ability as a soldier under her command. She had slept with such men as made her path easier, and who could get her into a position where she might prove her worth on her own merits, and they had an unfortunate propensity for dying after she had moved on. This was not entirely Thea’s fault; she did not go out of her way to kill them, at least, not after the first two, whose bedroom activities had disgusted her so much that she wanted to obliterate them. Thea, however, carried an unfortunate chaos taint of being bad luck. Bad luck never fell to her, but it did blight those to whom she was close. It had taught Thea not to ever become fond of anyone, and to subjugate any carnal needs in her duty.

Thea was, therefore, unaccustomed to waking up panting and needy from the dream about the handsome warrior, with the exotic features of the far north. A broad, muscular man, who carried his musculature well, being tall, with blue eyes accustomed to laughing, and neatly cut beard and moustaches, not wild like most northerners, but tamed as many noblemen of her own kind trimmed their face furniture. He was a man who one might see was accustomed to command, and a momentary aberration of thought had Thea wondering whether he could command her.

Thea was herself one of the northern folk by birth, brought to the empire as a child slave, and earning her way up in the world as a gladiatrix and then general, earning a second name. This dream was some half-forgotten memory and of no account. The Empire was a place where even slaves might rise, if they were clever and determined, and gave themselves to the worship of the red moon. Thea was both clever and determined; and could remember little of the gods of her ancestors.

She put the dream to one side, and rose to perform her usual exercises; and worked on banishing the handsome face when it intruded on her thoughts.

There was trouble in the city states and it was time for the empire to put them down properly. She studied the map of the city which had instigated most trouble, Mesolimnos.  The main map merely showed it to be on a river between two lakes, which should not have caused a problem at all to the besiegers, but a runner had returned with a map drawn using the familiar spirit of Allenna Dren.  Such things were never entirely satisfactory as spirits saw in a different way, but it was easy to see that a siege was close on impossible, since the city stood not on the river, but on a number of islands which lay in a braided waterway, all joined by broad, heavy bridges.

They would have to build or requisition enough ships to make an effective watergate above and below stream of the city as well as get troops round to the west of it.

What Allenna Dren’s familiar could not see were that the heavy bridges also carried sewer tunnels, as the city fathers of Mesolimnos had provided for the disposal of sewerage into the swamp, rather than into the river; and that as well, there were huge numbers of storm drains to deal with the rain on low-lying islands, and that the storm drains ran to secondary water courses rather than adding to the spate of the river on which the city ran. Though the Solosi were in charge of law, it had been the military engineers of the Alethosi who had built the city, including lock gates, run-off pools, emergency water venting channels, and a defensive design which was second nature.  Adding the trógling familiarity with underground places was a bonus. And there were fewer islands than there had been, since spoil from the mines in the mountains of Kyrios had been used to build up foundations and build land, and some of the broad streets of the city had once been bridges. And trógling found uses for the caissons of their one time piers, and merged stone to keep water from seeping into the spaces left where once had been arches.

“Maybe in winter, when it ices up,” muttered Thea. The runner had also brought the unpalatable news that half the besiegers were suffering the fever and ague from the bad marsh air; but winter, too, would cure that.  And there was a prophecy about a long winter.

 

oOoOo

 

Selen chuckled as she joined her brother.

“You stink of that barbarian god,” complained Daze. “What has he got that I do not?”

“Dominion over winds and clouds,” said Selen. “Oh, grow up! I took what I needed, nothing more. I absorbed that silly little bitch of an ice spirit, and took her powers, but I can’t use them fully save locally. I used her appearance to gain his seed My daughter with Ombros will be able to spread cold and ice even as far as Mesolimnos, and keep it there.”

“But how long will we have to wait?”

“Patience! You know that the children of major gods grow fast; look at that little idiot, Phaedros, whose development you stunted; I wager few of his companions know he is only seven years old, and with chaos, I can speed things up. She will be born on the waxing moon this month and be able to help this very winter with wild childhood talent. If she is ill-treated she will react with producing snow and cold. I sense that this solstice will be significant.”

 

oOoOo

 

The Alethosi could do little but prepare for the likelihood of a more sustained siege. Chrysandion Lightspear, Lightfather of Solos, scoffed at first, but Harkon had proved reliable, so he listened, looked at maps Harkon showed him, frowned, and ordered that outlying farmers be brought into the city with their produce and stock for the winter, housing them on the banks of the Red River, inside the stockade thrown up in case of enemy incursion. Many hands willingly built housing for them, and the Solosi took charge of one seventh of all grains, to be held and rationed as needed, buying it from temple funds. It had been a good year for crops, and the farmers were glad to get a fixed rate when they had feared a glut rate; and Harkon was not alone in thanking Zea for her bounty and praying devout thanks to her at the harvest festival.

“We have prophecies too,” said Chrysandion. “This one was ‘make the most of Zea’s bounty for you know not when you will need it; let all rejoice when the lost daughter returns, and know that it is time to garner one seventh of all.”

“Well, that’s clear enough,” said Harkon. “Mycota is returned from the underworld, and restored to her father,  so she’s the lost daughter returning.  I’m going to take some watermen down to the swamp away from the sewerage and gather cat-tails; you can dry the root and make it into a nutritious flour, or bake it as a vegetable.  And better whilst it’s fully flavoured and fat, than half withered when we really need them towards spring.”

“You really do move in some exalted company,” said Chrysandion. He sounded half wistful.

“And we were on our way to the sun court seconds ahead of Tor himself, and I was not displeased to have missed him,” said Harkon.

 

Harkon was much relieved when Protasion led his party, including the new tróglings, into the city, having sailed straight down the lake.

“Those high toróg – who were they?” demanded Protasion. “None of the little guys is able to give me a coherent answer.”

“Remember when the Toróg tried to heal the first curse, which produced only great toróg, because their ceremony involved pre-curse high toróg women all of one clan being impregnated by a single high toróg who serviced his sisters and cousins? Well, that was one of them. Or it may have been both, and because they were twins they were symbolically one. The toróg don’t talk about it, and small wonder. I don’t know if they were the last surviving male high toróg, but if they were, I’m not about to lose any sleep over us having killed them.”

“I can’t believe I managed to wound one!” said Protasion.

“Oh, you’re nicely on the hero path yourself,” said Harkon. He thought, rather than saying, that it would be just as well to have several near-heroes, if Selen sent her heroine, Thea Drex, against the city states. “And I know what to do.  I need Thyella.”

“Yes, Harkon, but do get a room,” said Protasion.

“Oy!” said Harkon. “I need her tactically.”

Thyella appeared at Harkon’s side with a light fizzle.

“Are we going spying?” she asked.

“No, well, yes, but I need to go and see a man called Kurihor,” said Harkon.

“I know him. He’s a leader of leaders amongst the plainsfolk,” said Thyella.

“Can you drop me down in front of him?” asked Harkon.

“If you wish,” said Thyella. “It may be an odd conversation, mind you; they think I’m male.”

“Which is why I suggested you dropping me in front of him, not trying to explain who you are,” said Harkon. “I want to offer him a couple of trógling miners to make underground caches for their grain to hide it from the Selenites.”

“If they set fire to the grass – or I do with a storm and lightning strike – they can claim their grain burned,” said Thyella.

“Brilliant,” said Harkon.

 

oOoOo

 

Kurihor jumped when a sizzling lightning bolt landed in front of him and became a figure he recognised.

“Harkon? I thought you were Alethosi, not with the Sky Horse,” said the rebel chief.

“I have an alliance with Pieran,” said Harkon.  “I come with a suggestion and a proposal.”

“Speak; I am listening,” said Kurihor.

“The empire is going to be marching men around both sides of the great lake,” said Harkon. “They’ll expect to live of your people’s food.”

“We can only carry so much as we melt into hidden valleys,” said Kurihor, “But I thank you for the warning.”

“Wait; if I provide you with trógling miners who will create underground caches for grain and hay, and some passages for escape, will you permit the firing of the plains to deny fodder to the Selenite army?”

“Permit? I’ll light fires myself,” said Kurihor. “Can this really be done?”

“Let me consecrate a temple to Alethos, and you will have your trógling,” said Harkon. He had prayed, and Alethos had been willing to permit Kaz to lead trógling, holding her hands, to use the hero’s path between temples.

It was why the Selenite temples in Mesolimnos had been formally desecrated, their bound spirits driven off or destroyed, as soon as they had been expelled for the second time. There was no room for Thea Drex to turn up in the middle of the city. Battling the powerful bound spirits of temple guardians had been a job for those questing for herodom; and to the chagrin of the Solosians, it had been a team of dedicated Alethosi who had taken on the job, lifting more than one of them closer to their goal in ripping the spirits for their power and glyphic association, to deny them to the enemy.

 

“Right; where do you want it?” asked Kurihor.

“Somewhere the Selenites don’t go?” said Harkon.

“Oh, a god of death will not mind our burial grounds,” said Kurihor. “Come this way.”

There were spirits guarding the place of the dead; and Harkon nodded to them respectfully. He pegged out the shape of the death glyph and dug out the shape, cutting his palm to bleed at each point, and setting the iron sword he had brought for that purpose at the centre.

“Let there be a structure put over this, where trógling can live when they are not setting up your caches,” he said. “I have volunteers who will ride with your people to other clans and do the same for them, across the plain from the trade road to the lake.”

“And when will they come?” asked Kurihor.

“As soon as I go back and begin to collect them,” said Harkon, calmly, who knew with certainty that he could walk the hero’s path.

“Not that sassy one, please,” said Kurihor.

“She will bring some, but she has her own duties,” said Harkon.

He saluted Kurihor, and walked through the sword embedded in the ground, and out into his own temple’s sanctum.

“I do love you, Alethos,” he said.

“You are an excellent hero of mine,” said Alethos.

 

Shortly after, trógling in pairs started arriving on the plains, with veils over their faces to guard against the still bright autumnal sun. A female saluted Kurihor.

“We met when you weren’t crucified, though I don’t suppose you remember all of us who guided you,” she said. “I am Arrag, initiate of Alethos, and I am leading the miners here. Let us know where you want us and we will hide your grain. It’s up to you to hide your cattle and other lifestock.”

“The plains are folded, there are places to hide,” said Kurihor. “It’s carrying grain and fodder with us that is a problem.”

“You will have to send sorties to collect it,” said Arrag. “I cannot guarantee to dig passages before they are needed, but we will do our best. I also pay worship to Zog, lord of dirt and stone. He is part of the shadowsphere now.”

“You do as seems best,” said Kurihor, who had not followed a tenth of that and did not plan to get involved in godly politics in any case. “What pay do you want?”

“A place to live and our keep and needs until the job is done, and acceptance,” said Arrag.

“That is easily promised,” said Kurihor. “You have our gratitude for keeping our meagre crops from the enemy.”