The Storm's Own Son (Book 3) (4 page)

He thought about the meaning of something that neither of them had discussed. She was a woman who had an inborn gift of understanding, of speaking with the spirits. And she had said, as had the Hand of the Prophet, that he was both a man and a spirit. She looked up at him with intense eagerness, hunger even. Her lips parted.

She thrilled as he slid his hand along her neck, her cheek, and back into the shadows of her hair. He slipped the fingers of his other hand between her parted legs, and she moaned.

He curled his fingers within her, and whispered. "If I am spirit and man, united in one, then there is another kind of union of them both, when I am with you and inside you,"

"Yes," she moaned, "I wish I understood… but it's natural and right, to us."

He smiled as he teased inside her, "We are each true to our natures."

"We are…" she whispered.

Talaos slid his fingers out. He moved with between her legs, strong yet with gentle care for her hurts, and entered her. She gasped and thrilled with a sudden, breathtaking intensity of passion. He took her, bodies in union, and minds intertwined with the mystery of each other.

~

The hour was late. Before him, in the council hall of Avrosa, were assembled all the key commanders in his now sprawling allied army. For all their differences, Talaos thought it had been a productive gathering.  The commanders were now talking among themselves, itself a good thing after hours of discussion driven from the top, but now it would be his task to set them in a common direction. He took a few moments to survey and consider them.

There was Adriko, his friend and old commander, now a sworn retainer under the old laws that guided so much of the lives of fighting men in Hunyos. The catlike mercenary, adaptable, opportunistic, yet honorable and relentlessly competent, was a living testament to both the seriousness with which the soldiers of Hunyos took their oaths and laws, and the flexibility with which they applied themselves to situations as they emerged.

In the Republic, thought Talaos, where there had been no serious war in forty years, a new one would likely lead to a great many things being sorted out the hard way. Here in Hunyos, that kind of sorting, of what worked and what didn't, of the weak from the capable, had been happening relentlessly for two generations. There were many implications to that.

The other officers, before him, were examples of that sorting in progress.

Kurvan; his first friend and supporter among the original leadership of the army, had adapted himself to answering to a man who'd been a new recruit at the bottom ranks of his army not so long ago. The freewheeling and practical-minded hillman warlord fought with reckless courage, and led with canny skill. He'd be in the forefront of any battle.

Aro; the sharp-mannered general of his league of towns, in his segmented armor and red cloak. He'd been the first to understand what was wrong with the behavior and beliefs of the Prophet's followers. He was a skilled and clear-eyed organizer, with a keen tactical mind.

Tescani; the hard-eyed mercenary warlord was, as always, bristling with weapons in his heavy armor. It had taken Talaos a long time to realize that Tescani had been supporting him from the beginning. The warlord had said he saw Talaos as the main chance, but how far that went was, even now, a mystery. Tescani's troops were as disciplined and dangerous as he was.

Lurios; the polished, coolly arrogant officer had proven his capability at the pass, and his loyalty during the fighting in the streets after Sanctari's death, yet in many ways he remained an enigma to Talaos.  The Aledri troops were iron-disciplined, and growing more so under Lurios.

Mordvan; the tall, lean tribune in the red-brown of Teroia had come to his position as the last man standing, with his general dead and his senior tribune still bedridden and unconscious after nearly dying during the assault on Avrosa. The soldiers of Teroia were disciplined and capable. Talaos hoped Mordvan's loyalty was matched by capability as a commander.

Drevan; Talaos's friend since the battle of the pass, the short, energetic cavalryman was leader of Megasi's forces here only due to the disgrace of every officer above him. On the other hand, he had proven himself at the pass, and he and most of the black and purple uniformed Megasi men were eager to wash away the shame of their former general's cowardice.

Ordias; the best thing that could really be said for the stout, brown-clad and suddenly risen captain from the League of Padra was that he was definitively untainted by Dromno's treason. Talaos thought the troops of that league, after so much dissension, were probably the weakest of all his forces. But, time would tell.

Megaras; the trim, intense, black-haired man was, at thirty-two apparently the youngest ever to wear the silver breastplate and gray uniform of the General of Avrosa. He'd been a junior tribune prior to being purged for opposition to the Prophet's ascendancy in Avrosa. He would likely have been marked for death had not Talaos overturned everything, and in turn was now intensely loyal. Thus far, he'd proven competent and eager to do whatever he could for the cause. With an army that Talaos was building as fast as possible, he hoped he'd promoted the right man.

Maxano; the aristocratic General of Kyras, in his white, black, and gold, was probably the most surprising of all the commanders here. He'd switched sides and given up his post as senior commander of the enemy army, risking all on the rightness of Talaos's cause. Word was that Maxano was a very experienced, capable general, and his discontent at answering to inexperienced philosophical zealots had greatly contributed to his defection. Talaos intended to try to avoid the mistakes of the Prophet's emissaries.

Ilirios; the stout, older, general of the city of Mileno, in his silver segmented armor and purple-red uniform, seemed an unlikely defector as well. He certainly showed no fanaticism for Talaos's cause, but it had been the very fanaticism of the Prophet's emissaries that repelled him to begin with. By all accounts, he was a competent officer.

Gavro; at the battle of the pass, in his then blood-stained green cloak and battle-scarred armor, the tough General of Imperi had ordered Talaos's death at all costs. Now, they were together fighting against a greater foe. It was strange that many of the cavalry who’d fought with such grim mercilessness on both sides, including men who'd stabbed him atop the pile of their fellows’ corpses, were here now ready to chance their lives with him. Talaos felt honored to have such fearless men of war at his side.

Hadrastus; the towering, fair-skinned, bronze-armored General of the League of Five was half Jotunheimer. He might well be, through some long-ago foremother, his distant kin. Of all the men in the army, he had the most unusual reason for loyalty, and Talaos wondered what might come of the tale of the Summer Kings. If he was the heir of such, he intended to live up to it. Talaos thought Hadrastus had certainly proven his fearsomeness in battle.

Beyond the senior leaders were massed rows of tribunes, chieftains, and captains. Together, they made a large and unwieldy group, assembled by happenstance. It would be his job to forge them into a cohesive leadership. Talaos was thankful that some of them had decades of experience to draw on. His powers and decisiveness had carried things a long way, but tomorrow would be a large scale battle, and these commanders' depth of experience would be key to victory.

In total, the army had twenty-one thousand men ready to take the field tomorrow. There were four thousand light cavalry and nearly a thousand heavy, five thousand irregulars and hillmen, and fully eleven thousand heavy foot. He had built a large force of Avrosan militia centered on his old Hounds. They were at the ready, but most of them had other duties tonight.

Talaos considered the strategic situation. There was a great deal more he'd learned from Maxano and the others. The alliance of Idrona and Kyras had taken a chance in concentrating their forces here in the far south so quickly after their victory at Drenic. They'd intended to catch Sanctari between a still untaken Avrosa and their own forces. To do so, they'd left Teroia and other hostile cities and towns threatened, but not besieged, in between.

That said, they still had forces further north, besieging Drenic and several smaller towns allied to Teroia. One of the Teroian-allied cities up there, Kossos, was apparently a major center of the Prophet's faith. That would present problems. With Avrosa cleared, the enemy cities of Idrona, Etosca, and Savaric were the remaining others where the Prophet was strongest.

After Drenic, the enemy fleet had been unable to follow up with any decisive victory at sea, and the two fleets had continued their ongoing stalemate until the great storm had thrown them both into chaos. Maxano hadn't word on events after that.

He thought as well of the larger means of war available to him, and the goals. Hunyos, much like the Republic, had wealth founded on crafts, manufactories, and trade. In the Republic that wealth had been turned to many ends, including art, literature, philosophy, and science. Here, such things had, to an increasing degree, been neglected in favor of the study of war.

That focus on war meant he had many experienced commanders, and brave, disciplined soldiers. But so then did the other alliance. An evenly matched war of such men could drag on a long time, and ruin the country in the process. If they could win this battle, Talaos thought it likely the unity of the other alliance would continue to fracture. That would open new opportunities he'd need to exploit by means outside of battle.

The unity of his coalition was itself fragile, as were all such things in Hunyos. He might now be the leader of this army, but the army itself had no unity beyond him, and several of his commanders represented cities that were, at this moment, fighting on the other side. He intended to follow through on his sweeping statements about fighting for a Hunyos free of the Prophet, and that shared purpose might keep them together for long enough.

From there, what?

Would the Living Prophet invade to support his allies? He wasn't known to have much of a fleet, but that could have changed. What about old Dirion? If the Prophet was powerful up there now, what might come of it?

In the end, there were still too many unknowns. Now though, it was time.

He'd appreciated General Sanctari's gift for short, decisive speeches, and hoped to emulate that approach himself. He stood up and raised his right hand for their attention. In the disciplined tradition of Hunyos, they promptly quieted.

"Commanders," he said, voice deep and clear, "Tomorrow we begin a war like no other in the history of Hunyos. Here, wars have been for land, property, gold, or honor, gained by one and lost by another. Now we face something that would take them, and much more, from all of us together. For our cities, our kin, our freedom in this wide world, our oaths and our honor, we will fight against those who have none.  For each our own, we will fight.

"We've made our plans," he continued, "and in the hour before dawn, we will begin."

He extended his right hand in welcome and expectation.

"Commanders, are you ready?"

To a man, generals, warlords, tribunes, chieftains, and captains rose.  As one, they saluted. Talaos returned their salute, and regarded them with pride and brotherhood.

4. Decision

They readied for battle under a blue sky. Before them, on the plains to the west, waited the enemy. Behind them, to the east, lay Avrosa and the sea. Here, under cover of the artillery, were arrayed twenty-one thousand men. Talaos stood watchfully, ready to give the command.

Overnight, he'd sent out thousands of militia and civilian volunteers to fill in the outer trenches and traps, while leaving the inner in place, and to collect the sharpened stakes. They’d gone in dark clothes and without torches. The enemy must still have had some idea something was amiss, but by their inaction, they’d demonstrated they hadn't understood on what scale.

The traditional arrangement for armies fighting on open plains was to have heavy infantry in the center, screened by a front line of irregular skirmishers, heavy cavalry as a strike or enveloping force to one side or the other, then light cavalry and more irregulars on the flanks. The enemy was arranged in exactly that manner, with their fifteen hundred heavy cavalry to the north, on Talaos's right.

Upon discussion with his commanders, Talaos had opted to try something different.

Leaving aside militia, the enemy outnumbered them by four thousand. Talaos had fewer heavy cavalry, but after the battle of the pass, Adriko's nighttime raid, and the unequal distribution of successful defectors, he had far more light cavalry than the enemy.

On his far right to the north, beyond the end of the enemy formation, he had Tescani. The warlord’s disciplined and armored troops were ready fend off encirclement or to take the hammer blow of the enemy heavy cavalry. Tescani's troops carried pikes for this battle, and were trained to use them. Beyond them, extending north and east to the coast, were embedded thousands of sharpened stakes culled from the trenches. It wouldn't stop a patient approach, but would disrupt formations and make cavalry maneuvers difficult.

Next to Tescani were Drevan and the Megasi infantry, eager to regain their honor, even if it meant taking the brunt of an enemy attack. Left of the Megasi troops were somewhat less than half of the combined allied light cavalry. Their job, however, was not to fight on that flank at all, but to do something he hoped the enemy would not expect. Behind them were Ordias's troops from the League of Padra, reinforced by half of the allied heavy cavalry. Left of the cavalry on that side was his main center force of heavy infantry.

Chosen for their discipline and reliability, Lurios and the Aledri spearmen held the right flank of the main force. After that came Ilirios with defectors from Mileno and the League of Five. Megaras and the Avrosan troops stood at the very center. To their left were Maxano and the defectors from Kyras, then Mordvan and the Teroians. On the left flank of the main body stood Gavro, with the tough troops of Imperi. Behind the main force waited a reserve made up of troops from Aro's League of Mesion Hill, and the other half of the allied heavy cavalry. Talaos had given General Aro himself overall tactical command of the army.

In front of the main body was a screen of irregulars, far lighter than that of the enemy army. Left of the main body, at a pivot point, towered the giant Hadrastus and with him a picked group of the biggest and most heavily armed and equipped soldiers from among all the units of the army.

On the far left of his army gathered an unusual force, separated by a gap from the rest. It comprised Adriko with more than half of the light cavalry, Talaos himself with his Madmen and his Wolves, and hidden in remaining sections of trench line, swarms of Kurvan's hillmen irregulars. Small groups of the stealthiest hillmen, experienced hunters and trackers, had crept out in the last hours before dawn and taken up hidden positions further out, among the fields and farmsteads. There they waited for the right time to show themselves.

He had Avrosan militia on the walls, manning artillery under the direction of Theron and his engineers, and more ready behind the walls as a secondary reserve if things went badly. Most of his Hounds were now either in the Avrosan army or militia, but some still stood ready in secret, to lead the resistance if the city should somehow fall.

As the two armies faced each other across the level plain, Talaos surveyed the enemy.

When still expecting a siege, they had partly completed their own trench lines. They now had their heavy infantry set up defensively behind the central parts of those trenches. Behind the main body of troops, archers and siege artillery stood ready to fire over the ranks. Talaos thought that together with the trenches, it made for a powerful defensive position, from the front.

The enemy's large body of skirmishers, including mercenary and hillmen irregulars, were arrayed in front of the trenches and were no doubt intended precisely to draw his own main force piecemeal against that defensive front.

Then there were the Avrosan exiles and the remaining emissaries of the Prophet. The fighting men had, it appeared, been integrated into the enemy army, but the civilians had gathered before a new House of the Prophet, a tent at the center back of the enemy army, between the main body and the distant baggage train. Talaos had little idea what they could do in the absence of the Hand, but he'd seen their communal power enough times to know better than underestimate it.

He had hoped the Avrosan exiles would leave for friendlier places, but was not surprised they'd chosen to stay, no doubt in hopes of shortly reclaiming the city.

Maxano and the other former enemy commanders had said there were supply columns and small units of reinforcements on the way, but no additional large bodies of troops coming by land. The location of the enemy fleet, however, was a significant question. From the beginning of the war, the enemy’s navy, though smaller overall, had benefitted from better unity, as it centered on Idrona, the greatest maritime power in Hunyos.

To guard against an unwelcome arrival, the ten ships of the Avrosan navy, bolstered by six commandeered merchant ships, patrolled the waters outside the harbor. They were heavily armed with fire ballistae, but had been stripped of marines to reinforce the army.

Talaos considered the various possibilities, but knew it was his task to keep the enemy guessing at what he might do, not the other way around.

He wore a new breastplate, one in darkened steel with the clouds and thunderbolts of Avrosa embossed in silver. His decorated cloak as dictator, gave an easy way to spot him in the crowd. Honor had full quivers of javelins in place of saddlebags.

Talaos considered the clear blue sky overhead. It would have to do.

His army was ready. He chose the time. He gave the word to prepare.

Messengers sped on fleet horses to Aro and the other key commanders.

Adriko was nearby. He glanced over at him. The other gave a mirthful look in reply.

"Not a bad little get together," said Adriko, "though our guests don't seem to understand they've overstayed their welcome."

"Hopefully, we can help them remember."

"Steel does wonders to jog the memory, or at least the head," answered Adriko.

"And they'll have plenty of it, shortly," added Talaos with a harsh smile.

With that, he turned to the Madmen behind him. They were all mounted and ready, though Vulkas seemed less than thrilled to be on horseback again. On the other hand they'd found him what was probably the biggest warhorse in the city, so at least he ought to keep up with the rest this time. Of the others, Epos was notable for having a heavily armored horse in the style of Tescani's elite cavalry.

Firio balanced in his old spot at Larogwan's back, though some bemused engineers had rigged him a kind of standing saddle to replace his precarious perch on saddlebags. He wore and carried a vast array of daggers and darts on his short, thin frame.

Two of those daggers had been carefully considered gifts from Talaos: the twin lightning daggers of the Easterner assassin. They'd been made by a magus in service to the Prophet, but in the manner other enchanted weapons, they had permanently imparted power of their own. If there was any lingering power of the Prophet over them, he couldn't feel it, but it would show soon enough in battle.

As would a great many things today.

"Ready, men?" Talaos asked with a grin.

"As I'll ever be," replied Vulkas. Even so, he had a look of grim eagerness on his face.

"I sure am!" grinned Firio, almost dancing with energy as he stood on his perch.

Larogwan laughed, "Aye, and who am I to keep Firio out of the fight?"

Kyrax snorted. Epos and Halmir nodded.

Imvan, on a horse with no less than four quivers of arrows, gripped his bow.

Talaos, who'd been marking the time in his mind, paused.

He raised his right hand.

"Now, men!" he shouted, and motioned forward.

As they started slowly forward, the enemy's light cavalry spread out into a thinner line for envelopment, with irregulars forming up behind. However, Talaos had something else in motion. Since he had first given word, the light cavalry on the right flank of his own army had been filtering away, a rank at a time, and galloping to the left behind the infantry ranks.

The enemy must now be realizing what was happening, he thought, but they'd waited too long to react. His light cavalry from the right flank filed into their appointed places with Adriko on the left. Their old place on the right was taken by Ordias's troops.

When everyone was together, Adriko's force sped up to a trot. The catlike mercenary officer now had more than three times the cavalry of the other side. With his soldiers, he began to ride out beyond the end of the opposing line. Behind them, Kurvan's hillmen came pouring out of their hiding places in the trenches, howling ferocious war cries.

Talaos, the Madmen, and the Wolves now maneuvered to their own appointed place, to the right of Adriko, toward the junction point between the enemy's flank and their main body of heavy foot. Toward, but not directly at.

As they rode, Halmir made a smile at the clear sky. He then raised his spear and spoke, "This sunshine does not matter. For today, you are the storm, Talaos. As are we all."

Facing them, far away, the enemy light cavalry and irregulars on the flank watched the change in the situation. Being soldiers of Hunyos, they took on grim expressions, at the ready.

On the far left, Adriko's massive cavalry force sped into a gallop. They readied javelins and bows.  Adriko brought his weight of numbers and speed to bear at the thin, vulnerable far end of the enemy line. Behind him, and behind Talaos, hordes of hillmen howled as they charged. Talaos could hear Kurvan himself, on foot with his men, roaring an off-key song about dead enemies, lively women, and barrels of honey mead.

Close by to his right, the chosen men with Hadrastus advanced slowly. The outnumbered main body and the right wing of Talaos's army stood their ground as ordered, outside the deathtrap of the enemy's trench, shield wall, skirmishers, archers, and artillery.

Talaos focused his mind on the task ahead. He had seen that his power was at its greatest during storms, and had noticed the strange synchronicity between his desire for a storm, and the presence of one. But at the pass, and elsewhere, he'd seen he could do much even without a cloud nearby. And today, there was not a one in the sky.

Halmir had been very right; today he would be the storm.

The enemy cavalry wheeled to face Adriko's larger force. Talaos had much to do, but first he would interfere with their plans. He held the reins in his left hand and drew a javelin with his right. He focused his will and intent. He summoned his power. He poured it into the weapon. Ahead was the inner edge of the enemy's light cavalry. They were still far off, beyond the range of even long bows. There was an officer there. He drew back his arm, and cast.

With a crack like thunder, the javelin shot across the plain. It struck the officer in the center of his chest and flew out his back in a spray of blood and electricity, then went on into the stomach of a rider behind. Both men fell off their horses, dead. The cavalry nearby reacted by separating from the main body to face Talaos.

Behind the opposing cavalry, enemy irregular infantry gathered; mercenaries, skirmishers, and hillmen. They were far outnumbered by Kurvan's forces. Further off to the left, Adriko swept his force in good order around the end of the enemy line.

Galloping ahead with the Madmen and Wolves, Talaos looked for another enemy officer. He saw one, several ranks back among the cavalry. It was the plain-clad general who'd said 'Praise be' when the Hand of the Prophet had arrived. Talaos drew a javelin. Again he focused and poured power into the weapon. He drew and cast.

The javelin arced across the plain. It neared the enemy general, and was answered by a flash of green light. However, the javelin pierced the protection of the Prophet and struck the general in the ribs with a gout of blue-white lightning. The man lived for a moment, clutching at the javelin, then slumped in the saddle with smoke pouring from his mouth and nose.

Two hundred cavalry in front of him, bereft of senior officers, still organized as best they could. They charged his way with lances lowered and javelins drawn. Behind them ran mobs of irregulars on foot. Further left, the main enemy cavalry force, a thousand strong, bravely formed a line to face Adriko's four thousand.

Far out on the plain, enemy irregulars moved in squads and loose companies to consolidate and prevent Adriko from flanking their army. Some of these came under attack as they passed isolated farm buildings, ambushed by Kurvan's hidden troops. Meanwhile Kurvan's main force of more than eighteen hundred hillmen swarmed forward.