He had ceremoniously knighted Lord Alam’s eldest son and appointed him to command a portion of Alamie’s troops on the campaign to western Alamie, thereby making certain Lord Alam would not experience a change of heart once the army had departed. In western Alamie, they found only the devastation left behind by Arwyn’s army as they had marched south on Avanil. Farms and villages were burned, livestock slaughtered, fields of crops razed
and trampled to the ground. Western Alamie would not soon forget Lord Arwyn, and when the Army of Anuire reached the capital of Haes, Duke Flaertes did not need any prodding to declare in favor of the emperor.
The Army of Boeruine had not paused in their march to lay siege to Haes, but they had laid waste to every town and village in their path, and the capital was jammed with refugees and wounded who had lost their homes and come to their lord to seek refuge and redress. What Lord Tieran had not been able to accomplish by diplomacy, the Archduke of Boeruine had accomplished with the sword. Duke Flaertes acknowledged Michael as the rightful ruler and gave him half his troops.
They had then made haste from Haes toward Dalton, and when they crossed the border into Avanil, they found even more destruction. Scouts had been sent on ahead and they returned to report that the two halves of Arwyn’s army had reunited and had laid siege to Avanhold, Lord Kier’s castle. When Arwyn learned that the emperor’s army was on the march to Dalton, he had given up the siege and crossed the border into Brosengae.
He had declined to offer combat to the emperor, but his purpose had been accomplished. He had punished Flaertes for failing to take his side against “The Pretender,” as he referred to Michael, and though he had been forced to give up his siege of Avanhold, he had destroyed much of the city and had decimated Lord Kier’s inferior forces.
Michael had chafed to pursue him into Brosengae, but Lord Korven had convinced him that it would be unwise. Their troops were tired from slogging through the marshes on the failed campaign in Coeranys and the long forced marches across the Heartlands. Moreover, Arwyn had torched the fields and killed all the livestock at the crofts around Dalton, much of which was still in flames, thereby rendering the emperor unable to reprovision his forces.
And to make matters still worse, the Manslayer had waited until the Army of Anuire had crossed the border into Avanil and then launched a series of savage raids against the beleaguered Duchy of western Alamie.
Michael had to send out parties of rangers to scour the countryside for available provisions, then turn back to give aid to Duke Flaertes in his attempts to stop the Manslayer’s depredations.
When the army finally returned to Anuire after the long and disastrous campaign, the troops were utterly worn out. Many had fallen in combat with Rhuobhe’s elves, while others had succumbed to sheer exhaustion, hunger, and disease. It was then that Michael had vowed he would never again fail to come to the aid of loyal vassals because his troops could not arrive in time. And remembering their journey from Tuarhievel to Anuire, he had struck upon the idea of marching through the Shadow World.
Ever since, the Army of Anuire had fought almost continuously as Arwyn’s forces struck out across the Heartlands and sporadic rebellions broke out throughout the empire. No sooner would the emperor’s army have to respond to one of Arwyn’s forays than another outbreak of warfare would erupt elsewhere in the empire. The goblins of Markazor launched an assault on the human holdings in that embattled province.
Osoerde was attacked by sea raiders from Ghamoura. The gnolls of Chimaeron,
Bos
emboldened by the internecine conflict in the empire, launched repeated raids against Coeranys, causing the recalcitrant Duchess Eugenie to appeal to the emperor for help in repelling the invaders.
“Let her stew in her own juices,” Lord Korven had responded when the dispatch rider from Coeranys arrived in Anuire, bearing the call for aid. “We lost a lot of good men in those miserable swamps and now she wants our help? The gnolls may gnaw on her bones for all I care!”
“No, Lord Korven,” Michael had replied. “I understand how you must feel, and I must confess that under other circumstances, I would share your views. However, I must think first of the empire, and if we could not bring the Duchess Eugenie back into the fold by marching against her, we shall do so by marching to her aid. Recriminations will not serve our purposes, however justified we feel they may be.
In the long run, it is the end result that matters. The empire must be whole again.”
So they had marched to relieve Coeranys, only this time, they had taken a portal through the Shadow World. Futhark, who had led them through the Shadow World on their return trip from Tuarhievel, was once again their guide. For a time, he had incurred the resentment of the troops, for they had mistakenly thought at first that marching through the Shadow World was his suggestion. Futhark had not complained, but Aedan had noticed that the troops were surly and abusive toward him, which had prompted him to correct their misapprehension.
When they found out that it was the emperor’s idea, they were still unsettled by the notion, but no one questioned it thereafter. By then, Michael had turned fifteen and had been on each and every
