Book 5, Chapter 32: Night On The Horizon

Standing on the slopes above the field, we watched the Laemacians build their encampment.  I couldn’t tell if they were spreading out to demoralize us, or if they simply required the space, but their tents stretched and stretched across the plain.

For our part, soldiers had dug fortifications into the hills, emplacements for the ballistae, and crossbowmen.  Because of their range, Morry decided to put the ballistae above our ranged regiments.  We would keep the archers beside and behind our phalanx line, closer to the frontlines.  Phalanx holding the only paths we’d left to the enemy.  If the spikes and pit traps and excavations worked, that is, and forced their soldiers to advance upward along our choosing.  If they did that, perhaps we stood a chance.

But they could also advance slowly and fill those in under our missile fire.  That might drain our reserves.  Of course, we’d also be hitting them with ballistae and whiskey.

I wondered how they’d respond.  It was my first siege and I had no idea.  Looking up at the sky, despite my black birds circling, I couldn’t help but think how much I’d rather be watching this as a movie than experiencing it firsthand.

It was late, the day ending.  Hidden by clouds, the blurry, orange sun fell behind the mountains, leaving them a deep and dark red before quickly fading to purple as dusk overtook us.  I was grateful for the night coming, for it pushed off the battle until tomorrow.  One more night of freedom for me.

One by one, campfires lit up over in their camp.  “Am I mistaken or are those fires spread out further than their tents?”

“It’s an old trick, Princess.  To make their army appear bigger.”

“Absurd that they’d use such tactics,” said Carlisele.  “They’re already larger than ours by a good number.”

“It may yet have an impact on our troops, especially the villagers.”

“You think they’ll attack at night?”

“No real need for them to do so.  They’re probably readying for us to carry out such an attack, though.”

“Us?”  I turned to the big man.  “Why would we leave our higher position?”

“A nighttime raid might make all the difference to a smaller army.  But, yes, I agree, not a good idea for us.  Better to continue preparations here as are left.”

“We’d also better get the soldiers rested.”

“Have the peasantry do most of the work?”

“The crossbowmen?  We’ll need them in good condition tomorrow, too.  I don’t know.  I don’t know.”

“Not much else to see now,” said the big man.  “Let’s also get some rest, Princess.”

I gripped the reigns tightly, ever more tightly, but he was right.  It was like turning away from impending danger - closing your eyes as the bear rushes toward you – and I didn’t like it.  But Morry was right.  There was little point in staring at them all night.

“Yeah.  You know, I am a little peckish.”

“Peckish?”

“I could eat.  Let’s get supper ready.”

“I think Brin has something planned for you.”

“It better not be spider.  I’m damn well sick of spiders, let me tell you.”  Plus, I agreed not to kill anymore.  I wondered if that included avoiding eating them.

In the fading light, I couldn’t be sure, but the whites of his teeth showed behind a probable smile.  “No spiders up here.”

***

Unlike my first encampment, the horses here weren’t kept in stables.  Rather, we kept them by our own tents.  I wasn’t sure if that was because this camp was less ordered, Carlisele paid less attention to royalty, or because we were under more danger and it was better to have our mounts close at hand.  We set the saddles on a log nearby, patted our horses, and left the stablehands to feed and groom them.

Brin wasn’t around when we got back to the fire.  I picked up a jug of ale that was sitting for us, waiting desperately, as jugs are, for me to pour it.  And I did, for myself and Morry.  “You know, one thing keeps bothering me.”

“Other than the large enemy army sitting at our feet?”

“The mages haven’t attacked me since the battle.  I expected them to show up, try to kill or capture me.”

“Capture you?”

“Yeah.  Aisu wanted me to surrender.  I don’t know why, didn’t ask.”

“Maybe to have a nice chat about the weather?”

“Ha!”  I took a drink and something scratched against my mouth, moving.  “Blach!”  I quickly spit out the ale, “yuck!”

“Something wrong?”

“A beetle or something.”  Wiped my mouth.  “Gross, that was gross.”

“It’s better to cover ale jugs, that’s true.  Brin probably got this out.  The servants wouldn’t make such a mistake.”

“Oh, I can still feel it on my lips.”  I tried to look into the cup, but it was dark, angling it toward the fire.

“Mine didn’t have any bugs.  Yours is probably safe now.”

“Yeah?”  Taking it to my lips, I kept them mostly shut and slowly let the ale enter my mouth.

“Unless yours got all the bugs.”

“Morry!”  I dumped it on the ground.  Poured more in, only slowly and against the firelight and didn’t see any dark blotches in the stream.  Probably safe.  Wiped my lips again to get the feel of the legs off.  Yuck.  But better than spiders!

“They probably can’t find you.”

“The spiders?  How’d you know I was thinking about that?”

He straightened up, cocked his head at me, “No, Princess.  Mages.  They haven’t shown up to fight you, so they probably can’t find you.  It is a big land after all, and we’ve been constantly on the move.”

“Maybe.”  Where I’d come from, you could just use mobile data, street cameras, to find people.  If you knew how.  Someone always knew where you were, even if they didn’t know who you were.  I guess that biased my thoughts.  “Ever since we crossed the river, though, we’ve mostly kept to main roads.  I’d have thought those would be watched.”

“They might not have the manpower.”

“Morry, they consider me the biggest threat to existence.  They have the manpower.”

“Then they don’t know you like I do.”

I sorta smiled and held my cup up to him.  Sipped carefully.

“We should consider you under observation.  They simply haven’t attacked because they’re waiting for the right time.”

“I wonder what the right time is.”

“That’s knowledge I don’t have, Princess.  None of your companions are a hinderance to them.  They’re not waiting for you to be isolated.”

“Not unless they’ve suddenly grown ethical standards.”

“Something else then.”

“Alright, no time for sitting by the fire and moping with Morry.”  Brin walked over to our campfire, looking clean and pretty, blond hair tied back, dark blue dress past her knees, lace around her neck and wrists.  “Come!”

She turned on her toes, went into the tent.  “Uh, looks like that’s my cue.”

The big man grabbed my wrist, “be careful, she is, if anything, more dangerous than the mages.”

“Make-up and dresses.”

He smiled.  “Decidedly.”

***

I entered the tent suspiciously.  Usually it’s dresses with Brin, but I beat her to it, and was wearing them daily now.  So there had to be something else.  “Yes?”

“Time to, how did you put it, doll you up!”

“What?  Why?”

“Because tomorrow the armies meet.  Don’t you remember, Cayce?”

“You want me to parade around the camp at night?”

“No!  Well, yes, in a manner.  We’re going to pass out ale, like before.  To honor the memory of Thomler.”

Thomler.  My backstory brother.  I hadn’t thought about him in a long time.  “And Sapphire, I guess.  The last time we did this, she helped.”

Brin’s blue eyes looked up from the make-up she was holding, “She tried to kill you, Cayce.  You want to honor that?”

“Uh, right.  Yes.  I don’t really think about that part of her.”

Brin shook her head, “I’ll never understand you.  Ok, sit!”

I did and she began brushing my hair.  “We shouldn’t pass out too much ale tonight.  It may be a serious battle tomorrow.”

“If only we had ladies in waiting.”

“If only.”

“We could have brought my cousins, you know.”

“You really want to bring little girls to a battlefield?”

“I guess not.  They’re not much younger than we are, Cayce.”

I put my face into my hands.  “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Brin.”

“Hey, this’ll go faster if you don’t move too much.  Anyways, you’ll stop the Laemacians.”

“I could go turn that entire valley into lava.”

“Is that how you want to stop them?  Ok, lift up your head.”

“I’d rather they just went home.”  I pulled my face out of my hands and that took real work.

“Maybe the emperor will agree with you.  We’ll make you so pretty, he’ll be smitten.”

“That might be worse.”

“Worse than killing all those soldiers yourself?”

“You know, from this distance, we might not even hear them.”

“Screams carry further at night.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have to see them.”

“Doesn’t molten rock give off light?”

“You really know how to complicate things.”

“Ok, let’s put some blush on you.  You’re looking pretty pale.”  She came around and pulled up my chin, “We are not giving you to Otholos.”

***

I ended up in a red dress, with red blush that somehow didn’t go badly with my dark olive skin, but it did, somehow, bring out the purple in my eyes.  Where I came from, I’d scare children.  If they knew anything about demons.

Otherwise, I admired her handiwork.  The girl in the mirror was exotic and dangerous and . . . “Brin!  Pink on my eyelids?  That kind of wrecks the whole dangerous allure thing.”

“It’s cute!  I didn’t want you scaring all the soldiers away.”

“Hey, how come you never let me put make-up on you?”

“Gods, Cayce, have you ever applied make-up to anyone?  Even yourself?”

“Ok, yeah.  I’d probably turn you into a clown.  Anyways, you look very nice in that blue dress.”

“Red and blue, I did it for the contrast.”

“What am I going to do without you, Brin?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I don’t know.  I just have a not great feeling about tomorrow.”

“Ale,” she patted my cheeks.  “We’re going to give the soldiers ale.  Concentrate on that for now.”

“That’s second on the agenda.”

“Second?”

“We have to exalt your father first.”

“Ok, but maybe not tell him about Lord Tread just yet.  That’ll dampen his night.”

***

The archbishop was with Carlisele and his generals when I walked into the command tent.  I cocked my head.  “Shouldn’t I be invited to your battle plans?”

Carlisele rose, “Princess Cayce, won’t you join us?  We weren’t discussing battle plans, but the messages we’d received from my wife and Hafthon.”

“And what to do on the morrow, where to put the regiments,” added his general.

“Ah.  So, battle plans.  Should I get Morry?”

Ghevont stood up, “A pleasure to see you again, Your Highness.  You don’t appear dressed for a military meeting.”

I blinked a few times.  Nicely, I hoped.  “Your Excellency, you are correct.  Lady Brin and I are just about to pass out ale to the troops, give them our blessing, uplift their spirits and all that, but before I thought it best to come and exalt Earl Carlisele here to duke.”  I turned around to Brin, who was somehow quietly standing behind me.  “Hey, could you . . .?”

“I’ll get Morry.”  She rolled her eyes, “and Tread.”

***

“You exalted the messenger boy to earl?  The messenger boy?”

I folded my arms.  “He was a knight and not a messenger.  And before that, a chamberlain.”

Carlisele stared at the ground in disbelief.  “A fifteen-year-old chamberlain . . . to a princess.  And now an earl.”

“I’m sixteen, my lord.”

“Anyways,” I threw happiness into my voice, and a nice little smile, “if you’d take a knee, we’ll get to making you a duke.”

“Shall we fetch a stableboy or perhaps a serving girl to give my earldom to?”

“If you wish.  You have anyone in mind?”

From behind, Brin whispered harshly into my ear, probably loud enough to carry, “I implored you not to say anything, Cayce!”

Looking around at the archbishop, generals, captains and others, all staring at me and our argument, I said, “Excuse me a moment, gentlemen, Lady Brin.  Earl Carlisele, come with me.”  It was becoming a habit, but I slipped my arms around his left, led him a bit away and out of the firelight.  “Your daughter has a crush on him, ok!”

“What does that have to do with the granting of title and land?”

“I didn’t want to break their hearts.  You know.  Uhm.  Tread’s very capable.  He was responsible for organizing the castle you now sleep in, supplying the smithies with metal, the army with food, arranging my schedule and . . . he’s done a lot of reading since then!  Histories, laws, uh, other books,” ok, I was possibly making that last bit up, but now seemed the time.

He finally looked into my eyes, “Princess Cayce, you don’t go around exalting boys just to please my daughter.  Even if he is good at being a chamberlain.  Now he has to lead an army.  Make sure his peasants don’t get eaten by monsters, pillaged by bandits.”

“Other boys his age were given earldoms and duchies of their own.  The damned Barclay boy was a duke!  And Bechalle, at age sixteen if I recall correctly.”  I tapped my foot.

“They were damn well raised and educated for the role!  And look how Bechalle turned out.”  He held his hands up, “I . . . apologize.  I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It doesn’t matter.  What’s done is done.  Carlisele, tomorrow we might all die.  What does it matter if I’ve finally given those two permission to talk to each other like equals?”

“Where did you give the boy land?”

“Near my castle, between it and Yohstone.”

“You better keep him near until he learns how to rule.  It’s one thing to have permission to organize supplies and another entirely to grow villages and hamlets, protect them, and lead men in war.”

“Alright, yes.  I’ll keep him close.  If we survive the battle and the kingdom’s still intact.  You have my word.  Now, can we please go back over there and make you a more powerful man?”

***

I passed another boy, skinny and tall for his age, couldn’t be older than fifteen, a mug of ale and he could barely look me in the eyes and I wondered.  How much was his life worth.  One Laemacian?  Two?  They apparently outnumbered us slightly more than three to one.  Was his life worth three Laemacian soldiers?

“Thank you, Princess,” he said.

Brin corrected him, “It’s ‘Your Highness’ when you see her for the first time.  ‘Ma’am’ or ‘my lady’ after.  Now run along and enjoy your ale.  For tomorrow-”

“Don’t say it, Brin.”  I smiled at the boy, touched his arm, “You will be ok tomorrow.”

He bowed nervously, muttering out, “Ma’am,” and hastily backing away, then rushed off.

Three for every one of him, that would have to be my countrymen’s worth for me to kill all the Laemacians.  Yet in the doing, I’d also be saving Brin, Tread and Morry.  And, unfortunately, my evil inside voice said, Carlisele.

His worth was probably a negative value.  At least, that’s how I felt before yesterday.  And just before exalting him.  Yet, how different a man he seemed when faced with impossible odds.  If we survived, he really was the duke I wanted to rule the former Barclay dukedom.

Shaking my head to clear these thoughts, I said to Brin, “Let’s not fill their heads with morbid quotes from long ago.  Let’s give them one last good night.”

Brin tilted her head, smiled sadly, “Tomorrow is a terrible day.  For you especially, Cayce.”  She moved in close, “maybe you should, you know.”

“What?  Maybe I should what?”

“With the big man.  If you like him that is.”

“Brin!”  I pushed her away, “you were doing so good getting my mind off tomorrow!  Let’s just hand out ale, ok?”

“Aright, ok, but maybe it’s your turn for rules for thee and not for me.”

“There’s nothing so annoying as a new convert.”

“What do you mean?”

“Or a person who just lost their virginity!”

“Cayce!  We just talked!”

The line of soldiers waiting gasped, and some chuckled.  “I’m available, ma’am,” ventured one brave soldier.

“Well, all you get,” I shoved the mug into his hands, “is ale.”

“And a kiss for luck?  Ma’am?”

I restrained myself from sighing, forced a smile and then felt the smile warm me up, kissed him on the cheek for too long a time, holding him there, and whispered in his ear, “All luck to you, brave soldier,” and enjoyed the man’s embarrassment as he somehow swaggered back to his fellows.

The baritone voice of the archbishop rang out as he walked toward us, wearing his religious garb, “It seems as though you ladies need a chaperone.”

“Your Excellency,” I smiled and winked at Brin, “exactly whom I wanted to safeguard our virtue as we provide ale to the soldiers.”

“Let me see,” he took the cup out of Brin’s hands, drinking some.  “Yes, yes, this is ours.  Excellent choice, Your Highness.  Allow me to help distribute it.”

We’d been moving the ale wagon from the back of the encampment to the front and were now getting nearer and nearer the downslope of the saddle, and the ranged regiments, sarissae phalanx, and sentries there.

“Most kind, Your Excellency,” said a soldier, who stumbled away from the archbishop, out of reverence or misstep, I couldn’t quite tell in the dark.

But I had questions.  “Tell me, Ghevont, have your deities ever spoken to you?”

“Through their texts, certainly.  And in my prayers, I can feel their presence.  Speaking of such, you should join us for midnight prayers tonight, as we can never know how tomorrow’s battle will progress, my lady.”

“The wizards, they think I’m a deity.”

He froze, mid-passing out an ale, the soldier took it, and the priest turned toward me.  “Wizards are naïve in these matters.”

“And that’s why I wanted your opinion.”

He laughed.  “I, too, am naïve in these matters.  Princess Cayce, here you are bodily before me, passing out ale to your soldiers, and worried about the coming battle.  These are not things that concern the gods.”

“If a holy man cannot answer me my questions, then who am I to speak with?”

Brin leaned in and whispered, “Perhaps we shouldn’t discuss this in front of the men?  You’re making them nervous.  And it’s just weird.”

“Can you pass out the ale for a moment?”  I finished my own cup, handed it to Brin, and slipped my arm into the archbishop’s, walking off with him a little ways out of earshot.

I couldn’t help it, this whole world was strange, and I was the stranger in it, and the words fell out of my mouth, “The ravens and crows and foxes, they all watch me carefully and aid me.  Bring me food!  Protect me from danger.  Grass and herbs and flowers sprout from the ground when I cannot control the magic within and inside, oh inside, I am a raging tempest seeking release upon this world!  I fear for tomorrow, Ghevont.  Though those men aren’t innocent and are a danger to everyone I hold dear, it cannot be moral for me to kill them all.”

“Princess . . . Cayce,” he led us a little further away from the torchlight and then, stopping and facing me, took each of my hands in his, “you are a young lady, too young to be given these awful powers, but you are a girl maturing into womanhood.  You do not need, indeed cannot, take on the responsibility of the gods.  You-”

“I’m much, much older than I look.  I-”

“And yet a girl stands before me, confused.  Can you hear the prayers of the living?  Do you know where the dead rest?”

“No.  Such things are beyond me.”

“What you have become is a mystery.  It’s true the gods are mysteries, too.  Despite or perhaps because of all they have taught us, but the two do not equate.  The mages should never have burdened you with such claims, you have more than your share of difficulties.”  He swept his arm across tomorrow’s battlefield, “Especially now.”

I looked into the older man’s eyes, “And should I?  I could prevent the battle, melt the valley below us and kill every last man there.  Doing so would protect us.”

“Ah,” he smiled and sipped on his ale, “it’s true that I’d like to live into next week.  If only to have more ale.  As would all the men here.  And many I’m sure have counseled you to use your awesome powers and do just that, remove our enemies thusly.  Duke Hafthon admitted such in his message.”  He paused, looking up at the sky, and then back at me, “Let me instead ask you what kind of kingdom you would rule?  Your actions set the precedent for how the commonfolk will live, how the nobles will treat them, perhaps even how a husband treats a wife in their home.  Will you kill all your enemies because you can?  What about those who oppose your ideas?  Your rule?”

 “I’ve never used force, only argument, in dealing with the earls.”

“And you had the Barclay family hanged.  Their children.”

“No, I didn’t!  I was unconscious then.  Why am I talking to you, what do you know anyways?”  Shaking my head, I moved to walk away.

But he held more tightly my hands, “And would you have hanged them, had you been conscious?”

“No!  Not the children, not . . . not Sapphire.  None of them, Ghevont, not even the dowager.  That’s not me.”

“Why not?  They betrayed you.”

“Because Sapphire didn’t know what she was doing.  She wasn’t in her right mind.  The children were innocents who should have been protected.”

“The soldiers beyond are not innocent and they know what they’re doing.  Now can you eliminate them, their threat?”

“It shouldn’t be possible to kill so many with so little thought!”

“But it is, and you are a ruler and rulers have ever had this power over their subjects.”

“No, you have it backwards.  The state cannot have, damnit Ghevont, society must be a greater,” I closed my eyes, organized my thoughts around my world’s justification for laws, “a greater moral institution.  Better than any individual can be.  Because if it cannot, we are all made less living in it.  And I am the head of state and so cannot be allowed to use revenge and killing to solve my problems.”

“And this is why, my lady, you are not a deity.  You struggle where the gods would not.  And why you cannot kill those men so easily.  It’s one thing for men to fight and kill defending their homes and families and an atrocity for a god to simply end our enemies’ existence.  In fact, I believe your struggle is what gives your choice moral good or evil, where the gods cannot have such judgments laid against them.”

“You’ve simply put the choice back on me!”

“It could only ever be so, as you are the only one who can make this choice.”

“If I am not a god, then what, what am I?”

He gave my hands a little squeeze, a little shake, “A young woman of immense power becoming a good ruler.  The kingdom will survive this.  I know it will.  And it will be all the more powerful because the men will earn it through their own actions.”

“I honestly don’t see how.  Not with our numbers.”

“Come.  Let us return to raising the soldier’s spirits.  Perhaps later, we can pray together and meditate.”

Tearing my gaze away from so many, many campfires down in the valley below, I looked at the archbishop, tried to smile, and said, “Well, if not those, let’s at least have another ale.”