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.