We can hope, Khollo said with a shrug. Who knows what we will find there?
Below them, a horn rang out, brazen and defiant. A roar swelled from the massed soldiers and they began to move forward slowly, marching south. Towards the Fells.
Kanin led the way, flying low over the land, looking for hidden ambushes and enemy forces. But there was nothing, just the open lands of the Renlor Basin.
Khollo looked back at the Sthan army, plodding along slowly. Somewhere in their midst were Janis, Hern, and Sermas. The two cadets had insisted on coming with them to support Khollo and Janis. Ondus had been left behind though, in charge of the West Bank while the others were gone. Khollo could see his uncle and friends riding near Relam in the first line of cavalry. Behind and around them was a company of heavy lancers.
It did not take long for Khollo to realize that the journey south would be painfully slow. They were limited by the slowest members of the massive force, in this case, the carts with siege equipment piled inside of them. The young warrior thought back to when he, Sermas, and Hern had ridden at breakneck pace to the edge of the Fells. That had taken the best part of a week. And they had been moving much faster. He did not even want to think about how quickly he and Kanin could have covered the distance alone.
Late in the afternoon, Khollo and Kanin’s endless scouting was interrupted by a horn, signaling the halt. Fearing they had made some error, missed some force of vertaga hidden below, the pair rocketed to the ground, landing in front of the first rank.
“What’s wrong?” Khollo asked quickly.
“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong,” Relam replied, puzzled. “It’s just time to make camp.”
Khollo looked up at the sky. There were at least three hours of daylight left, maybe more.
“It takes a very long time to build a fortified camp for an army this size,” Relam explained ruefully. “Tents to pitch, trenches to dig, stakes to place, horses to tether, food to cook. It’s an absolute nightmare.”
“Oh,” Khollo said, shifting in the saddle. “We’re not going any further today?”
Relam shook his head. “Can’t. It’s one of the problems of moving a large force.”
And this problem cost them an amount of time Khollo would not have believed. Day after day the army rose at dawn and began breaking camp, but even at their most efficient the best the soldiers could manage was striking out two hours after dawn. Then, in the afternoons, they lost three hours to setting up camp. And in between the massive force plodded along slowly, crawling across the Basin.
At this rate, we could have flown to Ethgalin, rested for a few days, and come back, Kanin remarked as they watched the army form up for marching on the third day.
Khollo nodded gloomily. Using a rough map of the Basin and his personal experience crossing the land below, he had calculated that the Sthan army would take more than three weeks just to reach the Fells. Then it was anyone’s guess as to how long it would take them to reach Dun Carryl. The young warrior was beginning to understand why it had taken Relam and his army so long to reach the West Bank, and why the lords had been so reluctant to assemble their forces in the first place.
Day after day inched slowly past. Khollo and Kanin grew increasingly bored with scouting duty and were flying further and further afield in search of something to distract them from the monotony. Several times they left for a few hours to hunt and returned to find that the army had not moved much at all while they were gone.
By the end of the second week, Khollo was more than frustrated by the lack of progress, and he knew Kanin was too. What vexed the dragon most was that every morning they were woken at the crack of dawn by the infernal horn, just to waste two hours getting ready to march. As Kanin observed on more than one occasion, he could sleep until noon, go hunting, and still catch up to the army with no problem whatsoever.
Finally, twenty-six days after leaving the West Bank, Khollo and Kanin joined King Relam at the entrance to the pass that went through the Fells.
“At last,” Khollo muttered under his breath. “We made it. Now we can begin the search.”
“I hate to break it to you, but this part of the journey will probably move even slower,” Relam told the Keepers. “In the confines of the pass, we’ll have to move carefully and keep together, and the wagons will start having more trouble with the terrain the further in we go.”
Fabulous, Kanin observed. I can’t wait.
“And your efforts in scouting the advance and watching our flank will be all the more valuable,” Relam added meaningfully, glancing up at Khollo.
Khollo took the rebuke in stride. “Sorry,” he muttered to Relam. “I know you’re moving them along as fast as you can. But still – ”
He broke off at the sound of rapid hoofbeats approaching. Khollo twisted around in his saddle and looked back. A path was opening through the many ranks of soldiers, and a weary and travel-stained horse and rider were moving forward.
Who is that? Kanin asked curiously. Someone from the rear guard? An outrider?
No, he’s from West Bank, Khollo replied, recognizing the markings on the man’s armor.
The rider reined in and bowed slightly to Relam and Khollo in turn. “Your majesty, Khollo, Kanin: I bring word from the West Bank. We have news from Ishkabur. They have broken the vertaga force and are pursuing
