The book of the burning

[ChrisGibson]

IN WESTRIAL AND CHYR, THE LONG AWAITED BATTLE BEGINS...

SOUTHERN WESTRIAL

VAHAYAN HILL


They came out of the tent before sunrise, when all outside were tensed for battle. In the years since the Hale and Ayl came folk were of two minds, that magic did not work or that if it did it was from some evil place. But all night there had been nothing but chanting, so sign of magic and no magic as anyone on that dewy hill reckoned magic to be. Only three women chanting like old women praying in a chapel, and coming out shaky legged, not really looking like witches at all, the two of them who were queens looking like girls and one of them heavily pregnant.
As Cedd ran to Isobel, she said, take me to the edge of the hill. I want to see the army.
Cedd did so. Myrne followed and the dark woman, Now came Ethan and Cody, stirring from sleep, Linalla and Eva, looking sly. The archers were in place to rain arrows on the Daumans and in the Dauman camp, men were stirring when Isobel, suddenly stood straighter and shouted into the camp:
“WILLIAM OF DAUMANY, DO YOU HEAR ME? WILLIAM OF DAUMANY! SEND ME WILLIAM OF DAUMANY!”
There was a stiring in the camp below and in time, inot the valley came Richard.
“I am the brother of the King, Richard Aublum.”
“You are not the King, and the King has chosen not to hear me!” Isobel sang down into the valley.
“Well, then,” she continued, “know that I am Isobel Tryvanwy, daughter of Raoul King Sussail and daughter of Hermudis, Queen of that realm and High Princess of Armor. I am the Princess of Sussail, the land you have entered and Queen of all Westrial of which you would invade. I am mother to her next king and all the kings after him. Hear me, this Queen, who bears the blood of Ayl and Royan, Remulan and Armor, I give you this day the chance, the very good fortune, to return to your homes and live, or to, in this vale, die. What… say… you?”
From downbelow there were murmurs and then the beginnings of laughter and again, Isobel cried, “What say you!”
Cedd looked to Anthony and Anthony looked to Teryn. She was magnificent, but how much longer could this go on? They had ships and horses, men behind them and, in the end this is what men knew and what other men respect. A pregant twenty-two year old girl, no matter how royal she might be, was still a pregnant twenty-two year old girl.
“Is that Issa?” a voice called out from the valley.
And now they all saw, riding to his brother, William of Daumany.
“Is this my cousin, little Issa? How like your mother you are! Full of so much bark! Such pluck. Where is your King? Does Cedd send you to do a man’s work? Well, today you will learn what war is. You and all Locress.”
“Then you will not turn back?” Isobel said.
Richard, beside his brother, looked sad, but William laughed, flashing white teeth and though Cedd looked sad, Wolf said, “This was the same look Edmund Kingslayer had on his face moments before my cousin’s lover killed him and I put his head in a bag and sent it to Ambridge. It was the same look, doubtless, he had, when he made his wife to feel so small, she sold him out and placed him in our hands. My master is a man who loves other men, but he was raised by women. The problem with you, your majesty, is that you have been around men so long, for so much, you underestimate your women.”
“Oh, Issa!” William called up the hill, “we will never turn back.”
Queen Isobel nodded her head.
“Then die,” she said.
And it was only as it was happening, that Cedd realized she had not shouted this, but everyone had heard it, and as she stretched out her hand, so did Queen Myrne, and so did the dark woman.
William turned back in fury and he cried to his men, “Enough! Charge!”
But they were not full ready and did not come in order, and those who came were immediately shot by the archers. It was the antics of a poorly organized army playing out below. But it was as the large army finally began to gather itself and come for the hill, that the air began to thicken and, before they had made it halfway up through the small vale, it was quickly covered in impenetrable mist.

mema ek dekak vē da Raven sadahaṭama
mava vē sohoyuriyō vē! "
mema ek, deka, tuna, vē,
sohoyuriyō mava vana atara,
ema diyaṇiya vana gnāṇaya æta

The women were chanting, and as their voices rose and fell, the thick mist, below, seemed to be pulsing.

samasta dæka æta manasikāraya
vaḍā behevin pahata, an̆duru
striya hā minisā saha
ādaravantayangē vē dakvā ihata,
kumarun vē , æta bera

Under the blanket of mists, Wolf could hear the muffled sounds of men screaming, armor clasing, and slowly now, the mist rolled south, past the vale, over the encampment, and further south as cries of anguish arose.

æta maraṇa kaṭayutu rōda hatara,
paha nam, eya duma hā hayavana,
ginnen hā kuṇāṭuva, sadahaṭama
upan æta æta!

While Cedd’s mouth went dry, Prince Ethan said, “They have turned the spirit of warfare inward. Everything they would have put out past us, has been put inside the mist. They cannot escape it. They cannot go outside of it, so everything is turned in.”
Horse neighed in horror. screamed in fear. Young boys cried out in agony, armor clashed. Low moans came up.
“Is the mist killing them?” Cody wondered, covering his eyes and turning away.
“No,” Eva looked on in the first horror she had ever felt. “You do not understand what Ethan is saying. They are in confusion. They are killing each other.”
“It is enough,” Isobel said, at last, looking pale and shaken.
She raised her hand and the others did as well.
The strange woman said, “There must be some left to tell the tale.”
The mist began to float away like soup and, on the hill, they waited in horror for the revelation of heaps of the dead and dying.
Cedd looked on wide eyed.
“Boys,” he said.
As the mist rolled further back, in to Sussail, it revealed death and ruin, a few, in the new light, dropping their bloody swords and blinking in relief, then horror, than belief again.
Cedd shook his head at the slaughter. It had not touched his land, but it slaughter none the less.
“I have the vomit,” Anthony said, his voice hollow.
Myrne turned around, exhausted, and Wolf said, “This was a thing I had never hoped to see again.”
She nodded, and he said, “But this is better than the alternative.”
“Go see to the fields,” the nameless woman said. “Be horrified later. Your Queen has given you a battle, but you must still see to the dead and dying and take your prisoners. Go. Now.”
And as the army of Westrial stirred, the woman added, “King Cedd, you have taken care of one battle, but the men of Solahn are coming from the Severn even now. You must join your brother and the new Queen in defending your westrn border.”
“Yes!” Wolf declared, looking at Cedd, “this is what we came for.”
But Cedd said, “New Queen? Tealora is defending Chyr against her husband?”
“Tealora is not their Queen,” the woman said.
But just now Isobel was coming to Cedd and Cedd said, “My wife. You have saved us. You have… Isobel?”
The golden skinned woman was nearly as white as Myrne, and when Cedd demanded, what’s wrong, it was Eva who gasped, seeing a dark patch on her dress and blood on the Queen’s foot.
Lips dry, and face exhausted, Isobel reported, “I think I’m having my baby.”



YRRMARAYN






It was Anson who moved first. The rest were waiting to follow. As he passed, something came over Sebastian, and he bent, quickly, to kiss the ringed hand of the King, and followed him down the corridors before them all.
Inark was last, and it was she who saw the tree’s silver rain cease, the branches fold up. And then the chamber was darkening, and when she turned and followed them, she could see that the glass walls on either side were dimming, their light growing more and more faint. The whole time they traveled things grew steadily, and peacefully—there was no dread of darkness in it—dimmer until there was sharp shaking and a rumbling.
Iffan laughed and grabbed Ohean’s wrist.
“This is a familiar event.”
They were shaken again, and Ohean said, “It’s not from the Howe, it’s from above.”
Iffan nodded, and they quickened their pace now. The trip through the Howe was more quiet and now Inark could see what they had not seen before, doors in the wall, and as they passed, these doors behind them opened up into dark passages. It was a labyrinth after all, but all of this time they had been given the straight way to the tomb. Because of Iffan, she realized, though it must have something to do with Ohean.
“I built this Howe for times of trouble,” Ohean said. “Only Iffan would be able to open the main way and find the straight path to the tomb. I thought he would return sooner. But the other parts were for men to flee into and there are several openings. Through many invasions, the Howe has been a safe place.”
Now the glass stones were pulsing a very faint light and, ahead of them, even as there was another shaking, Sebastian could see the pinprick of daylight.
“Master,” he said to Ohean, “this Howe is… old.”
“Yes. And you marvel that I had the raising of it.”
Sebastian said nothing at first, but nodded.
“Well,” said Ohean. “I marvel too.”
And then they were out, blinking in the light of early morning, and Inark had caught Iffan’s hand, and wanted to call him Anson.
“Iffan is a better fit, though,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow, kissed her hand and said, “as is Inark.
“”You are hungry,” he looked over Sebastian.
“Sir, I can go without food.”
Anson reached into his back and pulled out a hunk of bread. “There’s water for you too. I’m afraid you’ll have to eat and trot. I know we are needed back in the city.”
And so they began to gallop over the red brown road and all about them the morning grass was a wet green. Under them was the thudding of horse hooves. The sun was rising in a weakly blue sky, but now and again there came the rumbling. But as they rode on their was an energy to the villages that declared something was wrong, and then the city came into light and the smells came to their noses and as they crested the top of the hill, Anson looked down and saw the black ships on the shore, and heard the clashing of arms. Out on the water, white masted ships with the Green Tree, and those masted with the Black Hand were in engaged. Shots were fired from the city walls and off the sides of ships and by now it was easy to tell the Battle of Yrrmarayn had begun.
“To me! To me!” Anson shouted. He had no time to think of it. Those who saw him, had no time to think of disobeying. There was the King, with his diamond sword upraised, on a white horse. And there was his wizard, and there was his squire and… whatever Inark was, And Ohean had lifted up a horn, blowing long and loud.
At the sound of the horn all noise stopped, and then slowly a body formed behind Anson, and with him were many of the Black Riders, and now he stopped himself from grinning as he saw, Kenneth, and beside him, Arvad.
“Your Majesty,” Kenneth said, not missing a beat. “If we go through them like an arrow we can go straight to Phineas’s ship. That will be an end of this.”
“Can we do that?” Anson said to him.
“My Lord, I can.”
“How much time do you need to mobilize?”
“Lord King,” one of the Gold Stars approached him, “if we flank these untrained men on either side, and if you lead us, then Kenneth can do this feat as soon as you say so much as ‘Charge’. It will be like a knife through butter.”
Anson looked to Ohean, who was steadying his horse, and Ohean nodded with a peaceful smile, and then Anson raised his sword, and cried out, and at that, they began to advance through the troops.
It was like a knife through butter, but there was much butter, and the butter had swords. Now, alongside them, Anson saw the Tree folk, and those who were the form and height of elms made quick work of Phineas’s men. Those who were on their side, in their own skirmishes, made way for the King.
There was a tug on Ohean’s cloak, and he looked down to see, on a fat horse, one of the elves with a small ring.
“This is Andvari’s ring.”
“Where are the Hill People?” Inark demanded. “They said they would be here.”
“King Andvari sends to tell my lord,” the small elf said, “that he and his folk are here already, and about to work a feat most wondrous.”
Ohean regarded him carefully, and then he smiled faintly, but just then there was a great shaking and quaking that made him catch his reigns and nearly fall from his horse.
There was a sudden blackness in the sky, and the battlefield was quiet. Ohean felt, despite their progress, the best thing to do would be turn his head for a moment, and see what was behind. Inark had already shuddered.
Rising up from nowhere, stretching his black, smoky wings to blot out of the sun, eyes flashing like red storms and a mouth that swallowed all light, came Mozhudak.

TOMORROW NIGHT, A SPECIAL POST INTERVIEW SEGMENT OF THE BOOK OF THE BURNING

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow the battles really have begun and Isobel is having her baby! This is all very exciting to read! Great writing and I look forward to the post interview segment of The Book of the Burning tomorrow.

 

[ChrisGibson]

VAHAYAN HILL



The Woman, for they did not know what to call her, she had given them no name, came out of the tent, the front of her robe stained pink, blood on her arms.
“More water,” she said, “and assafedeta.”
Wolf nodded and left, and Francis Pembroke stood beside Cedd, both men trembling.
“Queen Myrne said it is a bad birth,” Cedd said, at last.
“And so it is,” the Woman answered, turning to go back in.
Cedd clutched her wrist and she turned around.
“Will she live?”
“I am in charge of her birthing,” the Woman said, fiercely. “She will live.”
She disappeared into the tent where only Myrne and Eva were with Isobel. Ourside of the tent, white faced, Linalla sat beside Adrian who patted her hand as anxiously as if she were giving birth. When a scream came from the tent, Linalla fainted on the crown and Cedd growled, “Remove her.”
Teryn, how had been sitting with Cody, stood up, ashen faced and stopped in mid run for the tent.
“We all just have to wait,” Anthony said.
No noise came from the tent for a while, and then, the sound of a slap, and a baby crying.
“You have a son!” Anthony gripped Cedd’s hand, and while Cedd nodded, he said, “But do I have a wife?”
When more than enough time, or so Cedd thought, had passed, there was another slap and… it seemed, more crying, as if…
“Not possible,” Anthony murmured.
The tent opened and, weary, hair plastered to her face, Myrne said, “Come in, King Cedd. Isobel has given you twins.”
Cedd looked at Anthony in doubt, and Teryn was biting his fist and standing on his tiptoes.
“You know none of us will be able to go in there for a while,” Adrian told him while Linalla, blinking on the ground, tried to right herself.
Cedd went into the tent where the Woman and Myrne were sitting, exhausted on either side of Isobel, who seemed almost ruined.
“She’ll need watching,” the Woman said. “And I will remain with her. She’s lost a great deal of blood, and she was really too exhausted for a single birth, let alone this.”
Cedd looked on with equal delight in horror on his pale wife, who looked almost like a corpse in her makeshift bedpile. Pressed against her naked sides, naked as well, were two infants squalling, black haired like their parents, eyes shut tight.
“I will ride for the village,” the Woman said. “There is still strength in me. These girls must rest. I am going to find a midwife. I don’t think the Queen is too exhausted for feeding them now. She is ill.”
“But she will recover?”
“Yes,” the Woman said, and sooner than you think. But you have to ride west, to join your brother in defending your southwest border.”
“Damn Anson and damn the border.”
“But you are King,” the Woman said.
“Damn the Crown,” Cedd said.
“Remain if you must,” the Woman said, “but send your armies. I ride to town for a midwife.”
“What is it to you?” Cedd ask the black woman as she left, “what happens in Westrial or to Anson?”
“Or your wife for that matter?” the woman looked at him. “It matters a great deal to me. I am Senaye, and you are the King. For now. Be King.”





SOLAHN




Yesterday, they had ridden across the plains a day and a half, hoping to take the beach before Bellamy’s men arrived. Now, what Iokaste had seen from the back of her horse was Bellamy, his banners of black and green approaching the beach even as their armies were approaching. Long before the general or Prince Hektor rode up to tell her, she knew.
“We will fight them here. Our stand will be at Tauman Beach.”
Yarrow nodded.
“Are the men weary?” Iokaste asked her brother from the back of her horse.
“Weary, yes. But there is fight in them.”
“And how long have Bellamy’s men traveled?”
“As long as we,” the General said. “And they are as worn out.”
“Save,” Hektar added, “they were traveling before that from Ensalissa, and that is no close journey.”
No one spoke for a time, and then it was Yarrow who said, “The Queen should say what is on her mind.”
“If we put down tents, and they put down tents we are stalemated,” Iokaste said. “If we engage them right away, the battle is on, plain and simple. Evening is approaching. Wisdom says rest. But how do we know that Bellamy would rest? And see, they are coming closer and closer. I don’t trust my husband’s brother to a truce. In sleep he killed my king.”
“Then you would engage them,” the general said, a predatory smile spreading across her face.
“I would have this done,” said the Queen.
“Then we engage,” General Gahr declared, and she raised her spear in one hand and the shield in the other. She beat them together like the ancient plainsmen. And then swords and spears were clattering and the woman bellowed, “Fair Queen only give the word, and we shall engage!”
And with a nod, Iokaste gave the word, and then, clutching the reins of her horse, General Gahr bellowed: “Engage!”

As the night drew on they lit fires on the cliff above the beach.
“I am a queen,” she said to Yarrow. “And before that a princess. All of my life, all of my wealth, my family name, our nobility, is based on battles. On war.”
She drew her cloak tighter around herself while she watched by torchlight the glint of armor, of bodies striving, and heard the dull clanking of weapons, stifled and surprised shouts of pain.
“The truth is I never thought of that until now. The truth is,” she said, “until tonight I had no idea what battle was. Or that it could last so long.”
“The first clash was magnificent. I was terrified. I was filled with dread for sending young men into battle when I knew I wouldn’t die, probably will not die. But at the same time I felt what I had never felt, this exhilaration at seeing armies clash. When I was a girl, the women at our court talked of the splendor of battle, the might of warriors coming together. Even then I knew they were fools. I didn’t see anything splendid about it. I didn’t know how a mother could send her son to die, could revel in her husband or her brother waging war. But just for a minute I was one of them, one of those aristocratic second rate battle maidens who watches the blood of others shed and rejoices.
“And now it grows weary. When it began it seemed one side would fall back, another would triumph, but now there is just this weary stalemate, this weary and constant locking of bodies and see, there are their torches lighting the sky, and ours as well. And see, we need a victory. We need something. This is the first battle I have ever seen, and when I think how the history of the whole world is written in the blood of battles such as these, I wonder why we live, why breathe? Why go on?”
The wind carried smoke and the smell of blood blood, and the firelight played on Yarrow’s face. Her strong, slim hand touched Iokaste’s, and the Queen folded her hand into that of the enchantress.
“Surely you know that I have seen many of the battle weary ages you yourself only hint at in thinking,” the enchantress spoke, at last. “Year upon year, blood upon blood and violence upon violence. I… I will not tell you of the good things, of the lovely things. I will only say that we go on because we do. The violences of men in this world’s realm are surprisingly endless, and without loss of energy. But these tire quickly compared to the power of endurance. And so we go on. We cannot help ourselves.”
Iokaste almost smiled, but there was a shout and a yelp of pain, and then both women heard running behind them and stood up, Iokaste a little stiffer from the old pain in her leg, from the new pain in her hips. Hektar was coming with a young boy who bore a telescope, its brass glinting in the night.
“Look, my lady, look!” he cried, and handed the telescope to her. “There. Right there on the horizon!”
The Queen raised the brass telescope to her eye and stretched it out. She was quiet a long while and then she murmured, putting it down.
“Ships.”
The time between the time she put down the telescope, and the time the ships were plainly visible seemed a short one, but it could not have been, and over and over, Iokaste turned her gaze from the boats to the battle, desiring that her people see their Queen beholding them, and not lose courage.
“And still, no matter what,” Hektar said, “Solahns die.”
But now the ships were close enough, and Iokaste could see that the masts were black with the red, roaring heads of tigers, the symbols of Banthra.
“These are corsairs,” she murmured.
But they were waving. Or at least a few were waving from the deck, or jumping up and down, and they were not passing the beach but coming closer and closer.
“Hektar, give me the scope,” Yarrow said.
She took it and raised it to her eye and then began to laugh.
“Yarrow?” Iokaste said.
While the enchantress laughed with disbelief, she handed the telescope to the Queen who raised it and then, having focused, froze. She made no joyful noise, but was utterly still. Slowly she lowered the telescope, unable to believe.
“The one waving is that extraordinary kitchen girl. The Mehta,” Iokaste said, “and beside her, in pirate’s garb, is my son.”

MORE NEXT WEEK

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was A great portion! I am glad Isobel made it through what sounds like a traumatic birth. It sounds like she is not out of the woods yet so I hope she fully recovers. The battles seem to be raging on. Who will win I wonder? Excellent writing and I look forward to more next week!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Isobel certainly did come through a lot, twins, magic and semi medieval birth practices make for a rough childbearing. But the battle stops for no man, or woman, or childbirth! Meanwhile, it's not just Isobel and Cedd who had a son, Queen Iokaste learns that Rendan is safe and so is Mehta!

 

[ChrisGibson]

In Yrrmarayn, the battle comes to its climax, and Theone must face Mozhudak, but it is not necessary for her to do so alone....

YRRMARAYN





On the ramparts she stood between Maud and Ronnerick. Last night, while they were sleeping had come the battle sirens, and Theone had quickly dressed and looked from the palace walls to see that, at last there was a battle on the water and ships were lit with fire. While Kenneth and Orem had gone out to fight, Theone had dressed and, still not certain of herself, half commanded, half asked to be taken to the outer city walls to look over the Sea Gate.
What she was being told confused her. The only thing that stayed in her head through the night was when they had sought for Anson and Ohean, and it was reported they were nowhere to be found. In his rage Orem had cursed them both and Inark for good measure, and then he had gone out with Kenneth. Kenneth commanded Arvad to protect Theone and Arvad had blinked disbelieving at him.
“I go with you,” he said.
Kenneth had protested, but the only thing Arvad would say, firmly, was, “I go with you.”
At last, half afraid, but not having the time or the energy to gainsay him, Kenneth had taken Arvad with him.
By the morning a tight ring of defence was drawn about the city and battle was in earnest, the chief armies of Meresell and Golden Height holding Phineas back along with the Black and the Gold. It was difficult and strange to tell them from the Hand, and Theone, on the outer most wall, overlooking the sea, was dependent upon heralds to come frequently and report to her what was happening.
But when the sun was high and day began, a young maid came running to her crying, “Mistress, mistress, the sight is glorious.”
And that was when she and Maud and Ronnerick had mounted a chariot that went over the broad city walls and rolled to midway past the shore, halfway into the plain, and they saw Ohean, brilliant in white and silver and Anson, a King, Callasyl shining in his hand, cutting his bright way to the ships. He was coming closer and closer when again the familiar bomb burst exploded, but it was no bomb, and Theone, with strange terror in her heart saw what she had seen beneath the Throndon, in the land of the Dwarves. Bursting up, fiery whip in his hand, darkening the sky, Mozhudak.

He had leapt onto one of the Essen ships and it shook and cracked as he made his perch. Many men jumped over, what happened to the rest, she could not say. From that perch, beside Phineas’s ship, his whip flicked any approaching. And his bolts blackened the earth.
“Why does he not touch the city?” Maud wondered.
“Do you want him to?” Essily said.
“No,” Maud sounded offended. “But, still it would be good to know if we are truly safe.”
“This city is ringed about with spells, not least of all mine, Nimerly’s and Celandine’s” Essily said. “It can fall, but not as easily as it did before. And not—“ she waved a disdainful figure to the great monster who took up the whole of the deck of a ship. “To him!”
“I hear you daughter of the stars!” a voice bellowed. “I hear you, witch of the woods. Where are you whose voice I hear? Why will you not leave your crystal protection and come to me?”
The voice was a great, sizzling, electric roar, like the crack of the whip. Theone fought the urge to cover her ears and Maud was visibly winded by it.
“Where is that Ohean! Where is that black spider, the wind bird, that witch’s son who dared challenge me beneath the earth? And where is that witch? Come to me! I dare you!”
Theone looked below. The more she peered the more she saw a shimmering border between Anson and armies of Phineas. But now Phineas’s men were coming in closer, hacking her people as they screamed.
“My people,” Theone murmured.
And then she said, “I wonder that this demon who calls himself a god does not call upon me?”
Maud looked at her.
“Ronnerick,” Theone said, “Prepare my chariot.”
The old man’s eyes went wide and Maud said, “What are you doing?”
“I am the Queen. This is my land. These are my people. I have an old quarrel with the Black Hand, and their god. It is time to resolve it. I am going to dress. Prepare my chariot. Prepare it now.”
Though Ronnerick was slow to obey, the squires set to, and she followed them, a maid at her heels.
Maud caught her sleeve and said, “Theone, you know nothing of battle.”
“Maud, you know nothing,” Theone said, “of how much I know of battle. Or do you think I spent my childhood as some pampered thing in a palace? No, I spent it fighting for my life. This will be the last battle. At least for a time.”
“But Orem…” Maud began doubtfully. “Orem commanded you to stay here.”
Theone smiled and shook her head.
“Orem is many things,” she said. “But what he is not, is my lord.”
So saying, Theone turned and prepared to do her duty.
Maud looked to Celandine, Essily and Nimerly who had been silent this whole time.
It was the Lady of the Rootless Isle who spoke at last.
“This is her hour,” Nimerly said. “The Queen has returned and she must go out to meet the monster.”
“But she need not go alone,” Essily said. “I will go with her.”
“No,” Celandine said, firmly. “You have been parted from your sister too long. I will go.”
“Well,” Maud said, with very little hesitation, “If you go, then I will go too.”



MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

Great to get back to this story! It really is reaching its climax and it is exciting! Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

And there will be more tomorrow. Cheers.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Every night, as they had come closer to the city of Yrrmarayn, Phineas had taken Urzad to himself. There had been passion in it, and something of love, but also there was the excitement and of course the building of power. Every day Urzad felt himself thrumming with the power that Phineas built up in him whenever they made union. Today he was three fourths high and one part humming under the grip of Phineas’s hands on his shoulders. What he was seeing and what Phineas was seeing was hard to tell ,and so he stopped. They flowed in and out of each other, and every member of him was erect. This morning when they had come out to the deck from their usual joining, Urzad had been higher than ever, so high his hair stood on end, now the power thrummed low in him, but still higher than ever before, still so that he accepted everything, much the way he would in an hallucination. Still so that when out of the Throndon had risen the Dark One, though there had been fear, there had been amazement, and when Mozhudak, big as a ship, or as a tower, had landed on the Chryan ship, sending men jumping and screaming and, supposedly, many dying in one moment, Urzad had not been terrified. He had not fainted. He had only thrilled, the way his master thrilled.
When the bolts of his whip had landed as lightning on the earth and done away with the Chyran and Westrian men who had come too close, when he had sent those approaching scurrying, he rejoiced. When Mozhudak, the Great and Terrible, had come to their aid, flogging with fire, the Chryan ships, Urzad had beheld this in wonder and was filled with the same praise his master felt, and when Phineas, had in mighty power, drawn a crystal web across himself, and the Black and Gold Riders led by this King who had come out of nowhere, that had been his pleasure too.
And then everyone’s attention shifted. The city of Yrrmarayn was built on four great hills, but the greatest was at the center, the Roston, and there were four concentric walls about the city, the outer one, naturally being the longest and the thickest along which chariots rode, many towered and several gated it was, and the east walls extended out into the water itself, where green algae climbed up them. In the midst of this wall was a great gate and this was the Sea Gate. It was three gates. The first strong and solid opened to the beach and then the next, equally solid opened onto the water and there was a long, narrow, guarded canal through which ships sailed and at last came the barred gate, the Gate of Morian, which lifted up out of the water, and was lifting up now.
When Phineas grew quiet his whole ship was quiet and Mozhudak was appeased, and the armies grew quiet though none but those before the Gate could see what was happening. Out sailed a barge, and on the barge were three women, one bronze skinned with black tendrilling hair and Phineas’s eyes widened with rage as he saw she wore the Beryl, and behind her, in blue, a fairy women as sure as she was anything, and beside her, a red headed woman whom he recognized from gleaning the dreams of Ethan of Vand when he was a prisoner, as the Princess Maud of Thaary.
“Theone!” the woman beside Urzad said. “That is Theone!”
“Who?” the Master of the Hand turned to her.
“Jurgad’s daughter, the one who escaped, whom we sent the Hand after. Only he disappeared. That is her. That is Theone.”
“And she wears our Stone,” Phineas murmured, his hands falling.
But from above, a terrible voice bellowed, “My Stone!”
And when Mozhudak howled, all the ships shook, and there was a great wind, and the barge threatened to overturn. Maud caught the sides, but Theone, small as an insect, reached to her throat and raised the Beryl.
“Star and no Stone am I,” she said.
And though she had not raised her voice, everyone heard.
Now, on the ship, which was for him little more than a raft, the blackened form of Mozhudak lowered. It was terrible, for he was like a cat before a mouse, but Phineas’s mind rebelled against saying he was like anything. Like a great lizard before a bug, like a lion before a kill. He was all of these things, and all of these images folded away, those great, dry, bat wings, folding against his back.
“Star and no Stone and I,” Theone repeated, and whether it was her, or the Beryl no one could say, and all around her the water did not move, it was calm, and it seemed about the three women and the rowers of the barge there was a soft light which Urzad could not stand to behold.
“You have crept beneath my house,” Mozhudak’s voice was not a roar, but this time a deep and a very seductive purr. It filled the earth. “And you have taken what was mine. You have dared to defy my rites, and my symbols and defile my labyrinth with your hands.”
“It was mine long before it was yours. Thou child of filth, thou offspring of the abyss who would be a god, whose only power was ever to maim and twist those things which were not thine. I rebuke you. You cannot come against my city, nor my land. Turn about. Go away. Leave us.”
Now it was evident that the line where Theone ended and the Beryl began had been erased, for this woman was fully Theone, smiling, full of confidence, not at all possessed.
About them the storm raged and some of the ships closest to the walls did what they could not to crash. The woman, Hyrax, who stood on the ship beside Urzad fell over and righted herself on the deck.
“Give to me the Jewel. The Jewel was mine. The Jewel desired by me. Long ago, I sent men into this City for that Stone, and I shall wear my Beryl, my Peace, this day. I shall place it upon my throat and sleep in the Labyrinth of Peace Again.”
“I warn you,” Theone spoke again, and again, though her voice was not loud, everyone could hear it, “Do not lay a hand upon me. In those days I was at peace, but I will not suffer your hands again, anymore than I shall suffer the feet of your servants in all the Land of Ossar.”
Now, like a great tower, like a storm, he rose up, raging, the sky snapping with lightning, darkness descending. Behind Theone, Maud, who could not regret her courage as much as she tried, squeezed Celandine’s hand and wondered what kind of girl she would be if she had simply stayed on the wall.
RETURN TO ME THE JEWEL!!!”
And now the walls of the city shook and those ships which had tried to hold themselves back crashed into the Sea Walls. Men fell from horses. Grass, far off, went flat.
Did he know who she was? Could he understand that as long as she was united to the Beryl she was Elladyl, the Lady Herself? Or did it matter to him? Had he ceased to understand what a Goddess was? No matter.
And because it did not matter, Theone shrugged, and she said, “Well, if you want it, then take it.”
And then there was a great laughter and a shaking and it was like the thunder storm that shakes houses and makes children hide under their bed and he said:
“Well, then I will.”
And slowly, like some pestilence out of the sky, came his arm, and a hand, and it went to the barge, and though some of the young men rowing tried to move to protect her, Theone said, “No. Fall back. This is how it must be.”
Celandine and Maud did nothing. Maud and Theone looked, with absolute fascination and terror into the face of Mozhudak. And then, for a moment that was very like that first time years ago, when she had been sent into Orem’s room, not knowing him, calling him Gimble, afraid, and he had stripped naked before her, and stripped her and was about to enter, she awaited his touch, and she shuddered with disbelief as great fingers hooked about the Beryl, and as they did, up from her came a screaaaaaam.
It was a deep scream from out of the depths. It went all through her and out of her and pulsed through her like light and then it passed out of her and when she opened her eyes she saw that it was Mozhudak. It was the same scream as when Inark had struck him in the land below. But this one was greater, and the Beryl was snapped from her neck, and it was in his hand, but he was screaming with pain, and slowly turning the same burning blue as the Beryl, and then blue white, and then utter white, and then fire and more fire, filling the sky with white, white light, and there was a joyous huming and Celandine, who knew the Star Magic, gently touched Theone.

Star and No Stone am I
Forged in my infancy
On the anvil of the morning
Risen to never fail
Long in black night I travail
I am the light and song
I am the Heart of Elladyl!

And then there was only the gentle snowing of starlight, stars like bright flower petals, and in them, to the open hands of Theone, fell the Beryl, still warm, still humming, In its facets she saw a smiling face and she thought it was her own, but for certain she could not say.


And then the sky was clear, and the demon was gone, and there was a voice, which she knew to be Inark’s, shouting: “Phineas’s web is gone. Quick Anson! Quick to the water.”
In the barge they were hardly recovered, and the noise of battle had begun again. The men on shore were scarely recovered either, and one of the bargemen said, “Your Majesty, where do we go now?”
“To the only place the Queen should be,” Theone said. “Row us to the quay so I can behold the battle.”
But even as they were turning the barge back, Theone saw the sky clouded by something else, and there were also more ships in the distance. As the new made Queen looked up, she murmured, “What in the hell is that?”
“Skyliners,” Maud said. “They do not have the mark of Rheged, but they are Royan, so we have help. As for the ships in the distance… That may be another issue.”

Ohean rode straight to the landing skyliners. Inark galloped after him. When the senior of the ships opened, and Ralph Curakin came out, Ohean leapt off of his horse and into the tall man’s arms.
“Inark!” Ohean laughed, wiping tears from his eyes, “this if Ralph Curakin. There is so much to say.”
They were on a battlefield, and he was aware of this, and yet, here was Ralph and when Ohean saw other ships he understood.
“Wolf is on his way.”

From his horse, Anson was blinking, as he guided the stallion over bodies. He had thought he never wanted to see a war again, and the whole time he had approached it with dread, but now that it was here, there was something he could admit was joy, in the slashing of the swor,d in the felling of an enemy, in the holding of his hand. Callasyl and wih him and the lives of al he had been guided his arm. This was the ancient land, this was the ancient land. This was the land he had always held, and at the very border where Chyr and Westrial met, at the estruary, where some ships even now were escaping down the river into the land of his birth, and he had sent men after them.
“Lord Anson! Lord Anson! I mean, Lord Iffan!”
Sebastian was riding toward them in the space they had made for themselves. “Ships.”
Anson rode after Sebastian, and as they came to the beach, beyond the harbor where Phineas’s ships were gathered they saw new ships approaching.
“What is the emblem?” Sebastian said.
“A golden lion on white,” Anson said.
“For a moment I thought it was Solahn. I thought it was Banthra.”
“No,…” Anson shook his head. “But this is almost as impossible, and I have only seen their ships twice in my life. The Lion Head is the symbol of Zahem.”
Sebastian passed Anson the spyglass and Anson frowned and then smiled as he looked at the deck of the first ship.
“What, my Lord?” Sebastian asked.
Anson passed back the spyglass, shaking his head.
“It is Zahem. And at the head of their ships is Dahlan, their Prophet.”

THE BATTLE SEEMS NEARLY ONE, BUT THERE IS MORE TO FOLLOW. MORE NEXT WEEK

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow so much going on in this portion! I really enjoyed it! The battle seems to be nearly over but it has been very good to read. Great writing and I look forward to more next week!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yes things are coming to an end, but there is certainly still more, and of course, the aftermath.

 

[ChrisGibson]

THE END OF THE BATTLE MY FRIENDS


From his horse, Anson was blinking, as he guided the stallion over bodies. He had thought he never wanted to see a war again, and the whole time he had approached it with dread, but now that it was here, there was something he could admit was joy, in the slashing of the swor,d in the felling of an enemy, in the holding of his hand. Callasyl and wih him and the lives of al he had been guided his arm. This was the ancient land, this was the ancient land. This was the land he had always held, and at the very border where Chyr and Westrial met, at the estruary, where some ships even now were escaping down the river into the land of his birth, and he had sent men after them.
“Lord Anson! Lord Anson! I mean, Lord Iffan!”
Sebastian was riding toward them in the space they had made for themselves. “Ships.”
Anson rode after Sebastian, and as they came to the beach, beyond the harbor where Phineas’s ships were gathered they saw new ships approaching.
“What is the emblem?” Sebastian said.
“A golden lion on white,” Anson said.
“For a moment I thought it was Solahn. I thought it was Banthra.”
“No,…” Anson shook his head. “But this is almost as impossible, and I have only seen their ships twice in my life. The Lion Head is the symbol of Zahem.”
Sebastian passed Anson the spyglass and Anson frowned and then smiled as he looked at the deck of the first ship.
“What, my Lord?” Sebastian asked.
Anson passed back the spyglass, shaking his head.
“It is Zahem. And at the head of their ships is Dahlan, their Prophet.”


Phineas had been so entranced at the defeat and the destruction of Mozhudak by the hands of the new Queen, that he did not immediately notice Anson’s men approaching, Anson’s men cutting down the Daumans and the Black Hands, the Black Star and Gold Star eating up the troops, coming onto the quay.
“The shield,” the Master of the Hand said. “Put up the shield.”
Phineas, forgetting to be angry, immediately raised his hands and Urzad felt a shock, something pulled out of him, but whatever the sorcerer was doing, nothing was happening, and Urzad could see the confusion on his face.
“Her,” Hyrax’s voice was thin and she pointed across the water. “That one, whispering spells.”
“She?” Phineas lowered his hands. “Some witch. Some girl.”
But Inark was standing on the quay and, just now, the barge with their Queen was approaching. But as Urzad turned to see Inark whispering, her eyes caught his and she seemed to be laughing at him. Their eyes were locked together and then she raised her hand and smacked the air, and Urzad’s head snapped back with the feel of the smack.
“It is close in here,” The Master of the Hand murmured. “It is… It is as if someone had lowered a bell over us. It is…”
“It is magic,” Phineas said, and when he turned about, though he could see nothing, he could feel something, and he could see his ships drawing tighter and tighter together, and now they were definitely losing.
“Look, look!” one called, and Phineas saw, off in the distance, the sky darkening and the ships which would approach were falling back. Out beyond them the waves were growing choppy.
Phineas turned back to the shore, and on his horse, sitting still, his brown face expressionless, was Ohean. In his hands he held a string which he was tightening slowly, and with his mouth he was blowing.
Phineas said, in a small voice. “Damn him!”
Then, suddenly, Phineas screamed and the air scratched as he raised his sword.
“Ohean!” he shouted. “Damn you!”
And he was climbing over the sides of the ship, and Urzad was reaching for him, but Phineas said, “Remain here.”
Upon the deck, the Master of the Hands turned to Hyrax and said, “It is time we left.”
She nodded, and while Urzad watched them go down the deck, heading for another of the galley’s lifeboat’s, the Mistress of Women said, “Does the old plan still stand?”
The Master of the Hand stepped into the boat, and Hyrax joined him. He said, “It must. It must.”
But then Urzad turned his attention to the boat where Phineas stood, enraged. The men were rowing him to shore, a fire was in his eyes and Phineas was shouting, “Ohean, bring me to Ohean!”
He scrambled out of the boat as it hit land and battled through men, chopping, blasting with magic, butting with his shoulder until at last he stood before the wizard, wrapped in silver white upon a white horse.
“That is His horse,” Phineas breathed out. “And that is His cloak.”
“He is gone from this world’s realm,” Ohean said, sparing him only a brief look while continuing his work. All about them the screams of battle continued. “And now it is mine.”
Phineas’s voice shook and he said, “Get off that damn horse!”
“And?”
“And fight me.”
Ohean blinked at him, nodded, and then slid off.
“Fine, Corlan,” he said. And as he said it, he flung out the string and made one last blow, and the sky cracked with thunder and out in the distance a storm began. It howled far quicker, and more powerfully than anything Mozhudak had done, and now the air was cool and the sky was graying.
“We will begin the battle,” Ohean said, “Now—”
But even as he spoke, Phineas raised his sword and ran for him, screaming, more like a child than a sorcerer, and as he lowered the broad, black scimitar, Ohean lifted a finger and the sword against Phineas, a hissing snake, striking at its master’s face. Wild with rage and confusing, Phineas struggled to get if off while Ohean, calm, made a winding motion with his fingers, tightening the serpent. Now the snake was a chain of metal and then Phineas, white faced and bound tightly, murmured words and it burned away, a brief fire. He raised his hands, but Ohean raised his as well, and this went on until anyone who saw realized they must have been casting spells against each other, one checking the other. There was an explosion that Ohean leapt away.
“Halt!”
“What? Is it too much for you?”
“You know better than that, Corlan.”
Ohean reached into his cloak and though he did not seem to pull out anything, when he tossed it there blossomed a web of light over them that no one could enter, and as he was casting the edges, Phineas leapt at him with a strangled shout and grasped his throat, beating him, murmuring, “Take off that cloak! I’ll have an end to you. You thief! You would be master,” and he was pummeling him, full of rage, as if they were children, brothers long separated scrabbling about, and as Urzad stood on the ship’s deck lending his strength to Phineas he realized that, in some way, this was true.
Ohean rose up, giving as good as he got, and then Urzad whispered a charm to Phineas and Phineas prayed, “Lend your strength,” and they were saying it together, and Ohean’s eyes widened in shock.
“Yes,” Phineas interrupted himself, “you were so sure,” and as he spoke over Ohean, between his fingers there materialized a gleaming, silver chain, and it was lowering over Ohean, snaking about him and Phineas smiled and said, “Ah, yes, you know that is it. You know there is one spell that binds you. You never learned what bound me. All the time you spent saying that old name, Corlan, Corlan, Corlan. But you never knew what bound it. Or bound the new one.”
All the time Phineas spoke, the chain bound Ohean tighter, and the starry web grew thicker and brighter, Ohean showed no expression, and Phineas said, “Let no one ever say that Ohean Penannyn did not know how to die. I myself, I do not think I could pass out of this world so easily.”
While he spoke, a glittering blade was forming in his hands, but even while it glittered it became black, serrated, the darkest iron.
On the deck, Urzad, who was finishing the spell, who had given the name, who was speaking through Phineas, one with Phineas even now, saw Ohean smile, that foolish smile, and murmur, “You talk too much.”
And then, at the tip of his ear was a sharp blade and a voice said, “And always choose the wrong side.”
And with that, Anson’s dagger went through Urzad’s ear, into his brain, and his eyes crossed, looking at a green eyed King whose face had no mercy, And then Urzad was dead, and noise broke through the silence again. There was screaming and fire, and ship was taken. Zahem, Gold Stars and Black Stars were everywhere and below, on the beach, Phineas blinked in amazement, but Ohean had no time to be amazed. He took the dagger and thrust it in his chest and Phineas stifled a scream, but put his hands to his chest as the lights of the dome died. Now others were coming through, Now Ohean was bent over him, and he was trembling. Blood was coming from between his teeth.
“I… never knew what I would die like…” he said, his eyes terrified. “We didn’t start out as men… I didn’t know I had become one… until now.”
Ohean’s eyes were wide and his face hard, someone was shouting his name and running to him. Above, in the clouds there was an explosion of thunder and now, softly, rain was falling.
Phineas;s hands scrabbled to touch Ohean’s and for a moment Ohean thought of withdrawing it.
All around there were shouts of battle, and Ohean could tell that Phineas’s men had lost. He knew the day was safe. He knew, somehow, that Anson had saved him.
Phineas sat up, spitting up blood and holding the knife deep in him as his fingers and his chest went red.
“Stay with me?” he said.
As the sky darkened and the rain began its heavy fall, Ohean put his hands on Phineas’s head and kissed him.
“Yes,” he said.



THIS BATTLE IS DONE, BUT THERE IS MORE TO COME. TOMORROW, HOWEVER WE WILL RETURN TO GESHICHTE FALLS

 

[CharmedFan28]

Well the battle is done and that was great to read! I did not expect it to end that violently but that’s war I guess. I am glad Ohean and everyone we have grown so close to is ok. Excellent writing and I look forward to more If I Should Fall tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I don't think Phineas expected it to end so violently either. Yes, no Game of Thrones here. The Hero lives at the end.. or the near end.

 

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT: THE AGE OF LOVE BEGINS

SOUTHWEST MARCH

WESTRIAL


Wolf, who knew from firsthand experience that being a king meant going to war while your queen was in labor and hoping you both lived to see the next day, understood King Cedd’s feelings, but didn’t think much of them. And, after all, whatever else their marriage was, he and Myrne were a love match, Blake conceived in a great deal of passion that still made Wolf’s face go as red as his hair to think about it. All knew that Cedd’s lover was Anthony Pembroke, so could this slowness to go to the eastern front be about guilt or about simply leaving Anson in the lurch. After all, no matter how kind he seemed to day, one must remember had at least made designs on Anson’s life. It was because of Cedd that Anson had fled.
Wolf had remained Varayan Hill long enough to see Myrne safely to bed and kiss her on the head, but the moment the battle, or rather the self slaughter of Dauman troops was over, Wolf had sent Kryse of Cleave and Ralph Curakin on ahead with two skyliners. Now he was leaving, and seeing that Cedd had chosen to ride his troops instead, he wondered what was wrong with the King of Westrial.

“We will reach Yrrmarayn in the morning,” Anthony reported as the sky was going charcoal blue. “Let us rest our camp here for the night.”
Cedd nodded and while they were setting up, Prince Adrian sang a song.

WHEN as King Henry rulde this land,
The second of that name,
Besides the queene, he dearly lovde
A faire and comely dame.

Most peerlesse was her beautye founde,
Her favour, and her face;
A sweeter creature in this worlde
Could never prince embrace.

“Who was that woman,” Cedd wondered. “So proud. I am Senaye.”
Adrian looked on Cedd in wonder.
“What, cousin?”
“Can it be that you really do not know?” Adrian said, but clearly he did not, and so Adrian continued, “Senaye is legend. They have called her the Wanderer. She was daughter of Inladeth, Lady of the Rootless Isle, but when it was time for her, she refused and passed her power to her sister, Viviane, preferring to wander the earth and learn. When Viviane’s time ended, her daughter Nimerly became lady and is now. Viviane’s other daughter was Essily, the mother of Prince Anson. Senaye is the mother of Ohean.”
Cedd said nothing to this, and all that could be heard about the camp was the crackling of the fire.
Adrian sang:

Her crisped lockes like threads of golde,
Appeard to each man's sight;
Her sparkling eyes, like Orient pearles,
Did cast a heavenlye light.


Adrian went to bed early, leaving Cedd and Anthony, Cody and Teryn about the fire, and while they sat in the coolness of the evening, another song came on the breeze.


The blood within her crystal cheekes
Did such a colour drive,
As though the lillye and the rose
For mastership did strive.

Yea Rosamonde, fair Rosamonde,
Her name was called so,
To whom our queene, Dame Ellinor,
Was known a deadlye foe.


Two men came into the camp, having moved soundlessly as Senaye the night before. They were cloaked, but when they pulled down their hoods they had the look, partially, of the Itzumi in the north. One had bronze hair and the other hair that was a shocking pink.
“My name is Pol Winthrop,” the older one, though not much older said, “and this is my companion, Connleth Aragarath.”
“What do you seek?” Cedd demanded, and for some reason, despite everything, his penis was stiff as a board. All those around the fire, Cody, Teryn and Anthony as well as Cedd looked on Pol and Conn.
“We are Blue Priests,” Conn said in earnest. “For this is the beginning of the Age of Love, and we have come to give you pleasure.”


He could tell by the little light that came through the tent that it must have been about an hour before sunrise. The little lamp still shone and by it he could make out the ivory form of Teryn Wesley, spread naked beside him, head turned so that only his bronze hair could be seen.
Cedd heard a whimpering and turned in its direction. Pressed to the floor of the tent, his fingers gripping the coverlet, the boy Teryn had brought with him, Cody, whimpered while Anthony fucked him, breath snorting from his nostrils like a bull, eyes closed tight, his smooth muscled body shuttling, his hips slamming against Cody’s white body like a piston. The Blue Priest called Connleth Aragarath lay sprawled on his back, asleep, naked, his cock erect. Cedd went hard at the sight as well, and almost as soon as he wondered what that would be like, he was kneeling on him, mounting him, riding the priest awake. In the end, the same time Anthony had come and was splayed across Cody, Cedd was pressed on the ground, pistoned now, surrendered, battered out of everything by Connleth Aragarath. Cody lay on his side, looking exhausted and hungry and Cedd understood that in the presence of these priests, something strange was happening. Things they would not usually be free to do they were free to do not. He knew, as Connleth Aragarath groaned, clutched his body, and fucked him deeply, coming to climax, that Cody would have him.
While the frail looking boy from Essail was plowing him, Cedd looked over to see Anthony looking sleepy and satisfied while, Pol, so suave, so in control, was on his hands and knees, face up, being fucked by Teryn in the early morning.



As the sun painted the silver white sky with gold, and Pol stood outside the camp with Cedd, the Blue Priest said, “Once I was a common whore, and you may think this is what I am not. But then I learned, Conn helped me, that sex is a teacher. It erases lines which should be erased, it opens the eyes to truths they did not wish to see if one allows the power of sex to work on him. That is what you felt last night. And this morning.”
“Yes,” Cedd said.
“I am riding to Yrrmarayn. I have friends I must meet there,” Pol said. “And doubtless there will be men who need comfort. I think I have learned much tonight.”
“Such as.”
“Conn said we had to come to you,” Pol said. “He was the one that said we should ride all the way to you. I did not wish to. I did not wish to play the Blue Priest last night.”
“Then why did you?”

The king therefore, for her defence
Against the furious queene,
At Woodstocke builded such a bower,
The like was never seene.

Most curiously that bower was built,
Of stone and timber strong;
An hundered and fifty doors
Did to this bower belong:


Cedd remembered the pleasure he had experienced with Pol, not once, but several times.
Pol remembered it as well. He thought, You do not know me. How could you? But I know your brother. He is my dear friend and when we had sex it was love and friendship, and I will always love Anson, and now I have been with his brother, with the man who wished to kill him.
But Pol said, “To teach you, my Lord. Or so that you could teach yourself.”
And then Pol said, “And, if I may be so bold, what did you learn.”
Cedd answered, frankly.
“That I should not be King.”

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

Great to get back to this story. It was nice to see the Blue Priests back and those were some hot scenes! Sounds like Cedd doesn’t want to be king. I am very interested to read what happens. Wonderful writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

SOUTHWEST MARCH

WESTRIAL




The morning after the storm the sky was grey white and the clouds began to separate. Ahead of everyone Teryn rode beside Cody, and how, coming from the east, he saw a band of people, many in fine silks, moving toward the south, just opposite of them. He heard them singing

ahna Ahnar ahna Ahnar
Ahnar Ahnar ahna ahna
ahna Ahnar ahna āmar
āmar āmar ahna ahna.

Ah but they were in Chyr now. Or were they. This was the border country, and they must have been, at any time, going from one land to the other. It seems as if the devotees were going to just miss the army, but if they even saw it, moving slowly, behind, they would not have cared.


ahna Ahnar ahna Ahnar
Ahnar Ahnar ahna ahna
ahna Ahnar ahna āmar
āmar āmar ahna ahna.

“Cody,” Teryn said, at last. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” Cody said, shrugging as they rode on.
Then Cody said, “Why wouldn’t I be.”
Teryn was about to say, “I don’t know, but then he said, “Bcause of what happened. Because of what we did.”
Cody said nothing. Teryn continued. “It’s not something you’ve done before and… I have done things like that. I shouldn’t have let that happen. Not to you. I should have—”
“Look,” Cody said. “I’m not a child.”
“I know you’re not.”
“But you don’t act like it. I’m actually older than you. By three years almost.”
“It’s just that…. I don’t feel young. I feel like I’ve done a lot. And you make me feel, if not innocent, then not like I did. I don’t ever want to drag you into something you don’t want.”
“I am an adult,” Cody said. “My choices are my choices.”
Cody looked tired and a little confused.
“Now, look. I… I haven’t really wanted to talk about what happened. And I still don’t. Not really. But… I don’t really regret it. I don’t want to do it again. I don’t think I could. I felt like I wasn’t myself, and… I don’t like feeling that way or thinking too much about it. But… I don’t really regret it. I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about it.”
“Well,” Teryn said, after a while, “as long as we’re together.”
Cody said, “I didn’t even know we were together. I mean, I wasn’t sure. But… yes.”
They rode side by side, not speaking, only looking at the valley beyond them.
Teryn was murmuring to the song of the disappearing devotees.

Ahna Ahnar ahna Ahnar
Ahnar Ahnar ahna ahna
ahna Ahnar ahna āmar
āmar āmar ahna ahna.

Ahna Ahnar ahna Ahnar
Ahnar Ahnar ahna ahna
ahna Ahnar ahna āmar
āmar āmar ahna ahna.

“They’re going to Westrial,” he said. “This is the new Age, right? The Age of Love? They’re bringing it to Westrial.”
Then he said, “I don’t like the minsters. But maybe I’d go to them. I don’t now that I could be one of them, but maybe I could try. I don’t think anyone has all the answers, but some? Maybe. I felt love there and that’s what they say they are. So it’s not a bad place to start.”
Cody smiled at him kindly.
He said, “No. It’s not a bad place to start at all.”








VARAYAN HILL

WESTRIAL




A raven came to Prince Adrian with the news of Senach’s doings.
“Father sent out ships to tail the Daumans. Any of them who are fleeing from Sussail will be harassed by Senach. And isn’t it wonderful, but your mother is sending troops too.”
“Mother’s no fool,” Linalla said. “She doesn’t want to look bad, and now she knows how things will end. If she would have put herself at risk, I’m sure there’s not a single ship that would have left a harbor in Essail.”
Adrian was about to say that this was a low thing to say about one’s mother, but then he’d been raised by his mother and Queen Bereneice had nothing good to say for her neice.
“Say,” Linalla began, “I was supposed to be going to Essail, but this was to make allegiance against Daumany, and I don’t think Daumany’s going to be much of an issue anymore. And Bohemond was…”
“They say Queen Isobel’s brother is very handsome.”
“He is,” Linalla said. “This is why he fucks everything with breasts.”
Adrian blinked at her, and Linalla said, “After all, he fucked Eva many times. I don’t like him. He’s too old, and I don’t relish being queen in Sussail one day when I could be queen in my own home now.”
“I don’t follow,” Adrian said.
“Then you should,” aid Linalla. “My mother killed my father. That’s just a fact, and though I try to forgive her, I can’t. Why should my eight year old brother be a pretend king when I can be a real queen? I would never have tried it before, but I’ve heard my uncle will be the High King, not that we’ve ever had a High King before. I know Essail and Senach became two kingdoms fighting over having a woman on the throne, but I think they will accept me. With the proper support.”
“I would support you,” Adrian said.
“I was going to ask it,” Linalla said. “I think you would make a good husband.”
“For you?”
“Yes.”
Adrian considered this.
“I would that,” he said, at last.
Then he said, “Would I be King?”
“You will be King of Senach one day.”
“Then I would not be King of Essail.”
“I would be Queen,” Linalla said. “And you would be my husband.”

Isobel sat watching the children sleeping in the shallow basket before them. Black haired and golden, with tiny noses and tiny lips, they were perfect and, once, Myrne began to cry.
“I need to get back to my son,” she said. “I need to be a mother again.”
“Things will be better from now on,” Isobel said, lying on her side. “Now we will have peace in the land. For a time at least.”
“What is all this about Anson being the new king?”
“The High King,” Isobel said.
Then she said, “You are wondering what it will mean for me? For my children.”
“I did not say it so boldly, but there it is,” Myrne said. Then she said, “Well, I’ve got three kingdoms. You can always have one.”
Isobel laughed, and Myrne said “I don’t think Inglad will ever properly be ours, and I don’t think it should be.”
“I am not afraid,” Isobel said. “Whoever is king in Westrial, I am still Queen, and my children are still prince and princess. Cian and Arsennon.”
Myrne nodded her head. She nodded longer than she meant to, but this was in part because she was tired. Isobel finally said.
“There’s something else on your mind?”
“Yes,” Myrne said at length.
The Queen of Hale looked to the tent flap to see if anyone was outside of it, to see shadows moving on the other side. She lowered her voice.
“And when will you tell Cedd,” she whispered, “that your children aren’t his?”

TOMORROW WE RETURN TO GESHICHTE FALLS AND NEXT WEEK, WE WILL CONCLUDE THE BOOK OF THE BURNING, AND OUR ENTIRE ADVENTURE IN WESTRIAL.

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was an excellent portion! I am glad Teryn is looking out for Cody. We all need friends or more who look out for us. So Isobel’s been keeping a secret from Cedd. I wonder if he will ever find out. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

SOUTHWEST MARCH



King Cedd had sent the word that he was on his way. In the end his slow progress had been a blessing, for many of the ships that had escaped the Yrrmarayn harbor came up the estuary to raid the villages of Chyr and Westrial.
As the night came on the end of their second day, and they drew camp, knowing they would reach Yrrmarayn in the morning, Pol played a small stringed instrument, and Connleth Aragarath sang lightly.

While hair adorns my aching brow,
This heart will beat sincerely;
While ocean rolls its briny flow,
So long I’ll love thee dearly.
Oh! tell the secret, tell,
And under seal discover,
If it be I, or who is blest,
As thy pure heart’s best lover.
A simple, youthful swain am I,
Who love at fancy’s pleasure;
I fondly watch the blooming wheat,
And others reap the treasure...


That night, before they slept, a wind swept across the plains, and in the darkness the trees creaked under it. Cedd stood beside Anthony, watching them sway, and then he trembled all over and his body stung with pricks. His mind could not catch up with what he was seeing and he said, only, “The swaying of the trees. The swaying of the trees.”
But Connleth Aragarath, apprenticed in the ways of magic before he had been apprenticed in the ways of sex, said, “No… Those trees are moving. Those trees are leaving their very beds to answer the call of their King.”

Even before Cedd reached Yrrmarayn, he’d heard the word, that Anson was being hailed as Iffan the King Returned, the ruler of Locress.
“And what does this mean for us?” Anthony said. “What? Will he take his seat in Ondres and form his kingdom from there.
“No,” Cedd said. “No, that will not be be the way of it.”


The whole ride was across an open plain and, if not and again they saw ripples in the land as if trees had been dug up, they saw no trees. Now and again, in the distance, Cedd saw a tangle of trees and Solahni or Daumans caught up in them, or a rivulet where a boat seemed as if it had sailed right into a thicket of trees, and through the elms and oaks and ashes moved no more than Cedd had ever seen them do in the past, he was shaken. He remembered the times when Essily had lived in the castle and said, no matter what, Ossar was an enchanted land, and it always would be.
When he came to the city of Yrrmarayn, his armies had already been seen, and though the fields were still strewn with the wreckage of war, the battle was done. Silver armored, Anson came with his troops, and for a time Cedd wondered where he’d gotten such troops until he saw among the men, Wolf and his Hales, Rheged and Chyran troops and troops most strange whom he could not look at for long, who were, frankly, not human.
“Brother!” Anson leapt from his horse, coming to Cedd as if there had never been any difference between them. And Anson was silver and gold, gleaming with a fiery sword at his side and a cloak burning bright.
Cedd slid from his horse and came before his brother. He went to one knee.
Beside Anson was King Osric, and Ohean, looking so like Sanaye, Cedd wondered how he could not have known him. There were also soldiers, obviously Black Stars. But…. Not. And here was plainly Austin Buwa, and some tall, fair man at his side.
“Cedd?” Anson said, “why are you kneeling?”
And Cedd took Anson’s hand, kissed it, and said, “Because you are my lord, and my King.”
And Anson raised him up so that the brothers stood facing each other.
“Then let King Caedmon ever be called King as in days of old, when two men always bore the title, as in the time when our father was King and so were you. Once a king, always a king. So shall it continue to be.”
Anthony prepared to applaud, perhaps intentionally mistaking Anson’s words, perhaps wishing to intend that nothing had changed, but Cedd said to his brother, “I accept the title, as every woman who was ever Queen is still so. But I cannot rule, and I do not wish to. Now I understand. How could you ever be High King unless there were Kings under you.”
He clasped his brother’s hands and kissed them. “You are King over me in Westrial, and so in time shall you be King over all Locress. Take this as my blessing in the last moment I am head of our family. As you once swore yourself to me, though I was too evil to accept it, Anson, you are my lord, and I am your liege.”


The very night Myrne broke down, thinking of Blake, Isobel waited for her to sleep and then called Aidan in to send word to Hale and have the young prince brought to Kingsboro. From Kingsboro he would come to join them, and the next morning, Isobel, Myrne, Linalla and Adrian set out for the city of Yrrmarayn.
In the city, Anson greeted the Queen of Westrial, and Cedd came to her and explained what he had done.
“To be a High King, he must be a King, and he will be ruler in Kingsboro. I have reigned, and my reign is done. I am sorry, my dear, for no longer being King.”
“But there is no need for Isobel to cease being Queen,” Anson said to her. “She is still a princess, and she is still the mother of the prince and princess.”
“And they will not be deposed?” Cedd said to his brother, and Anson said, “They cannot be, for who would replace them?”
And it was then that Ohean looked at the Prince Cian and the Princess Arsennon and said, “You cannot dispossess them, for they are your children.”
Anson and Essily looked at him.
And then Isobel said to Anson. “My Lord, may I have a word with you?”
And Anson withdrew with Isobel and she said, “Forgive me, but only know I did as I saw and what I thought I must.”
“Queen Isobel,” Anson said. “Please speak.”
And then she said, “Shortly after I was Queen I went to Sussail to visit my mother for a time. She spoke of dreams she had had, and they were much like mine. We went to the Rootless Isle.”
“It was in the time when you were isolated on the small island,” Ohean said. “Nimerly and I sent Isobel to you. She was the woman who came to you that when you came into your own, your children would already be born of a Queen and born to the rule of Westrial.”
And then Isobel fell to her knees and she said, “Forgive it, Lord.”
But Anson said, “Isobel rise, there is nothing to forgive."



TOMORROW NIGHT, THE EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK OF THE BURNING

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a well done portion! I like how things are wrapping up. This story has been a real treat! Great writing and I look forward to the conclusion tomorrow!