that was changing.
But some wars are fought because of pride, and some necessity.
Some, though, are fought because of fate.
Chapter Sixteen
On Sturma, unaware of the future, its people struggled to hold back the tide of invasion from neighbouring Draymar. On Sturma, too far within its borders, forces of a more material nature clashed. The remaining Thanes battled the Draymar to a standstill, but without a rallying figure the war would not last long. The Thanes were too fat, too full of self-importance, to rally anything but instead sat back and watched their men die from afar, defending only what was their own and not the whole of the country.
Slowly, the land was falling apart.
Without a figurehead to lead them, the Sturman would fall, and with it, a once proud country.
Should that happen, Renir would have no country to call his own.
Untouched by the war, Pulhuth sat abutting the ocean, its waves gently lapping the shores in the east while waves of a more immediate nature broke against the surviving Sturman forces holding the tide at bay in the west.
Within its walls, untroubled by rising war, Renir and his two friends waited, and prepared.
The waiting was soon to end. Time moves on.
Chapter Seventeen
While the three men sat in the Upright Horseshoe, supping their evening ale, Tirielle swore soundly.
Her dress was torn, her once long and lustrous hair had become a chain. She had taken the fine blades gifted her by Fenore and the rahkens and cut it away. She didn’t think twice about it. No soul searching, no regret, she just cut her hair off and moved on.
Hair was hair. She needed to appear as someone she was not.
Ahead, the reason for Tirielle’s outburst rode closer still.
Further west and south of Roth’s home scrub and scree gave way to tree and bush. By the time Tirielle noticed the change in the landscape, the drier ground underfoot, the way Dow lingered longer overhead, she looked back and could no longer see where the trees had left…
Sweat dripped from Tirielle’s brow. It was not just the heat that was making her sweat. They were closer to civilisation now and the dangers they faced were different. A patrol of the Protectorate’s forces, quite common but still troubling, approached the armed convoy with their hands upon their weapons.
It was not surprising. She should have thought of it sooner. On the main thoroughfare to Beheth, nine armoured warriors and one rahken stood out somewhat.
Tirielle wiped the sweat clear and loosened her blades in their sheaths.
“Quintal! To me!” she called, sure that the approaching patrol could not here her yet.
The leader of the Sard rode to the caravan and pulled up alongside her.
“There is no need to worry, lady. We can deal with this.”
“And would you fight your way through the streets of Beheth, too?” asked Tirielle, her tone short. Even so, she did not reseat her knives against inside the sheaths hidden in the wide sleeves of her dress.
Quintal merely laughed. “No, Beheth is a human city, with fewer Protocrats. Once there we will use mortal means of disguise, for we cannot hold an illusion for long. But you will note the patrol is comprised of mere tenthers. There are no wizards. This, we can handle.”
“And how do you propose to do so?”
”Merely an illusion, lady. Trust me,” he said with a smile.
He rode out to meet the patrol.
The caravan pulled up while Quintal spoke with the Protocrat force — only one ten, which j’ark alone could probably have bested — and held his hand straight and flat in the sign for parley.
Tirielle could hear their words drifting to her on the dry air, although each soldier wore armour. With her protectors, and the tenthers, all armoured, the sight shimmered in the high suns’ glare. She did not need to see, though, just here.
She heard their words, but what came out of Quintal’s mouth in no way mirrored reality. He told the force they were headed west — when they were clearly on the road south. He told the force that they were travelling merchants, with clothes for sale in Rowan, a town of moderate size to the west, and the Protocrat replied that all was well.
It all seemed to be going well — some magic was at play, Tirielle knew, even though the Sard claimed they knew no magic — then suddenly the seer cried out from her bedroll in the back of the wagon.
Tirielle’s heart leapt into her mouth.
“It is nothing, sir,” said Quintal smoothly. “Merely my child. The heat makes her miserable and crotchety.”
“Ah,” said the Protocrat, “Babies.”
Even Protocrats had children, remembered Tirielle, and males were the same whatever the race — mewling babies were best ignored, and passed onto the nearest woman.
“I pity you,” said the Protocrat, and waved them on.
Tirielle’s heart resumed its normal patter.
Once clear, Quintal returned to her side.
“No magic, eh?” said Tirielle, one eyebrow raised quizzically.
Quintal smiled. “Just a trick, Tirielle. The eye sees what it wants to see, and sometimes the ear hears what it wants to hear. Here, out under the sun, we can give assumption a push. Nothing more.”
“And you are no more than a warrior, I suppose you would have me believe.”
“And your humble servant,” replied Quintal, with a quick grin.
Gods save me from humble men, thought Tirielle.
Chapter Eighteen
Pulhuth’s northern gates stood open, as they always had done. The city had never been assaulted from the north — nothing lay that way but Thaxamalan’s Saw, and whatever hid behind it. The peaks of that giant mountain range, reaching far into the cloudless summer sky, were perennially snow-capped. The guards at the gate thought nothing of their beauty, but were grateful to the mountains, largely because of the cool, blustery wind that whistled down from their heights chilling their skin on what was otherwise a blistering day.
In the wavering distance, across the plains on a little-used track that serviced the northern side of the city, two riders approached. The guard could make out the glint of weapons above their right shoulders, but little else at this distance.
Gradually, watched every second of the way (not because the guard was bound by duty to be observant, but because day in day out there was little else to look at on this side of the city) the riders drew closer, at a gallop.
Staring into the distance all day had given the guard fine eyesight. He gradually made out that the two men were warriors. They rode upright, bore weapons and had stout shoulders. The one on the left, who rode a white horse, was a thick set man with dark skin. His head was shaven. The one of the left, some glinting blade attached to his left arm, wore a full beard and long, unruly hair.
Weapons were of course permitted within the city walls, but these two men had the look of an invading army
