Liqaria, 6th – 7th Eighthmoon 3045
Ren’i had thought himself too shaken to doze off again, but he was asleep within minutes from laying down. Hawk kept watch at the tent’s mouth. He’d taken one glance at the dark circles beneath Ren’i’s eyes and stated that he’d better go and catch some more sleep.
”You’re sleeping in my tent,” Hawk said in a voice that left no room for protests. ”I’m taking the next watch. I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
Ren’i had only resisted out of habit. The thought that Hawk was keeping an eye on him was a relief. He was the only one who knew about Ren’i’s dreams, and though Ren’i didn’t say it out loud, he trusted Hawk’s judgment more than anyone else’s in the group. It was already afternoon when he woke. If he’d seen new dreams, he didn’t remember them, at least.
They continued the journey as night fell, Ren’i’s belongings lighter than before. His sleeping bag was history, but at least his clothes and backpack had survived the flames, and no other sign of the night’s events beyond some soot stained his furs.
Linnee and Sava took the lead with Blueleaf as they exited the forest for the snow-covered Mori steppe. Blueleaf had been right: there were hardly any hiding places in the plains besides the odd tree and low hillock. The soldiers unsheathed their swords and Ren’i felt the air quiver occasionally when they sent out their thoughts, searching for signs of life. A gloomy silence told him that they were safe for now.
With only an hour to sunrise Hawk put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.
”Look,” he said and pointed towards the brightening horizon. Ren’i squinted. The clouds stood still in the calm air, but something dark was moving against them. Smoke.
”I believe we’ve found our target,” Ren’i said darkly. ”Halt!”
The temporary camp they set up as morning dawned was in the shelter of those sparsely growing trees. The barrenness of the place unnerved Ren’i. Snow had built up thickly against the trunks and the landscape had started becoming hilly, but there was very little to hide them from view otherwise. They made no fire and split the group in two unanimously: one half would sleep while the other kept watch.
”We take no risks this close to an enemy encampment,” Ren’i said as he prepared for the first watch with Linnee and Sava. The air steamed from the cold as he breathed. ”Blueleaf, you’ve been here before. How far are they, approximately?”
Blueleaf thought. ”The war camp itself was some ten leagues away when we were here last, but there are several smaller units near the camp patrolling the area. They’ve set up camp within a few leagues of the main encampment.”
”Infantry patrols? Cavalry?”
”Both. The mobile units seem to mainly ride horses.”
”Makes sense,” Linnee murmured. ”Kooris don’t generally thrive in Seiye’s climate.”
Ren’i nodded. ”Don’t bother unpacking. We’ll set off in the afternoon, find a vantage point on a hill, and begin our return journey as soon as we’ve seen enough. Let’s not give them a chance to find us.” He slapped the left fist against his chest, expression unusually grave. ”Rest well. We’ll rouse you in four hours.”
His dreams were restless, and he saw his own nervousness reflected from the others’ faces. No one spoke as they ate the leftovers of yesterday’s hunting for breakfast and packed their tents. It was still light out when Blueleaf started leading them up a narrow, rocky pass to the hills. Ren’i clutched the hilt of his sword convulsively, every sense strained to the extreme as if waiting for enemies to materialise behind rocks, but the only thing slowing them down was the cruel blowing wind, which just worsened the bite of the cold.
Daylight waned fast as they climbed. Blueleaf was panting as hard as the others, but they never slowed down, not ever resting to catch their breath. Their face bore a look of grim determination, and though there were few landmarks in the snowy terrain for guidance, they walked on with certainty, as though sure of the way.
Sava exchanged a look with Ren’i and Linnee. There was no doubt the akheri scout knew where they were taking them. They could all feel the same, the presense of a myriad living creatures in one’s consciousness, coming closer all the time. They did not need to use ashay to feel it.
Demon blood attracts all members of their species, Ren’i remembered his father saying a long time ago. The effect was the time, regardless of how little or how much demon blood you had in your veins. The small, utterly Kishan spark at the back of his mind that had been unwilling to accept Liqaris were the same people as they faded with each step, and Ren’i could read in his soldiers’ eyes that they felt it, too.
When they reached the summit the sun had dipped below the horizon, bringing with it a winter’s night with its rapidly plummeting temperatures. The air was blurry with vapour as they caught their breath.
Blueleaf crouched down by the edge, from which they had a dizzying view of the caldera below. Ren’i and Hawk took their places on Blueleaf’s right.
One edge of the valley was bordered by the coastline and the shoals, similar to the one against which the Liqarian navy had ground itself to dust two years ago. At first all Ren’i could make out were a dark mass and the flames of a hundred outpost fires, and for a moment he thought he was watching an enormous city from above. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark, until he at last understood what he saw was real.
Darkness had nothing to do with it. Black Liqari tents covered the valley in its entirety.
”Pissing fucking hell of Merenos,” Ren’i swore. The rest of his words caught in his throat.
The edges of the camp seemed to waver and change shape as the patrols moving around the outer rim rode at a steady pace, soldiers leaving and entering their shifts. It gave the camp the appearance of one gigantic creature of a thousand of heads, undulating restlessly with every breath it took.
Ren’i’s hands balled into fists as he forced himself to calm down. The army was much bigger than anything he’d pictured even in his worst nightmares. His eyes went back and forth as he counted. The formation differed from the Kishan camp layout, which made the task more difficult. The Liqaris were in a circular formation split into triangular enclaves at regular intervals, the enclaves further divided into smaller zones. Narrow pathways shot between the zones like arteries. Precisely in the middle of the camp stood a cluster of large tents in a circle, much taller than the rest.
Hawk exchanged a brief glance with Ren’i. His usually expressionless face betrayed the same shock as all the others’.
Denae cursed quietly, wind whipping her hair. ”How many of them are there?”
Next to her Moonstone was gaping at the enemy army with her gray eyes wide, a hand clapped in front of her mouth.
Ren’i was quiet for a moment until he was done with his calculations. ”About forty five thousand, I’d say.”
”Give or take, yes,” Linnee confirmed.
”The Eight have mercy on us,” Sava muttered.
Ren’i nudged Hawk with his elbow and bent closer to him, pointing at the enclave in the centre of the camp. ”Can you tell what the flags on those tents look like?”
Hawk’s eyes gleamed in the dark. ”Yellow and black. Can’t make out the pattern.”
”Square, with serrated edges?”
”So it would seem.”
”What does that mean?” Denae asked.
”Only the highest ranking commanders carry that flag in the Liqari army,” Ren’i said. ”The yellow and black of Liqaria, the six stars to symbolise the six military districts. Liqaria is namely a federation, but its states are called military districts, and each of them is headed by a war commander, each with their own armies.” The chilling breeze made him shudder. Just a couple of years ago the very thought of war with Mitae’s homeland had seemed distant. ”If they’re carrying that flag, it means we’re facing the united army of the districts.”
”In other words, they’re throwing their whole might at us,” Linnee summed up. ”The military districts are semi-autonomous. They rarely cooperate. The power balance between the states shifts so often in the Liqarian senate that their war commanders pass their time solving internal conflicts.”
”The navy is the only exception. It owes no allegiance to any military district. It is – was – its own unit, with its own rules.” Ren’i bit at his lip, thinking feverishly.
The union was unnatural. Liqari war commanders guarded the honour of their own districts so jealously that he’d never believed them capable of cooperation without seeing proof of it with his own eyes.
Darkness swallowed the valley and them once the last rays of the sun had sunk beneath the horizon. They were a subdued bunch as they followed their own tracks back to the plains in the constantly worsening wind.
They couldn’t find their way back to where they had camped previously, not even with the aid of the cat-eyed akheris. The wind had only grown stronger, and the thick snowfall that had started towards the night had covered their old tracks completely. The night’s cold bit painfully with no shelter from the wind. Ren’i had pulled the hat more firmly over his ears, and only his face peeked out between the thick furs. Ice had begun forming in his lashes and beard.
”We have to find shelter and fast,” Blueleaf yelled to the wind after they’d been progressing at a snail’s pace for nearly two hours.
”No way,” Ren’i yelled back. There were only a few meters between them, but Ren’i could barely hear their voice. ”We’re too close to the Liqaris. We can’t camp out in the open!”
”We can’t keep trudging around forever, either. At this rate we’ll end up going in circles.”
Ren’i swore quietly. He’d hoped they would reach the forest before dawn and put enough distance between themselves and the enemy before setting up camp, but he knew that Blueleaf was talking sense. Exhaustion was evident on each face, and they were advancing so slowly that they had no hope of getting any further before they’d rested.
”Over there,” Ren’i said and pointed at a tiny hill that could only just be seen through the flurry. ”We’ll erect the tents behind it. Let’s try to get out of this blasted wind.”
The tents were already partially buried in snow once they’d set up their camp. Moonstone’s face was so frost-bitten that her skin was red all over, and even Linnee and Sava, who were used to the long, cold winters in Hol Saro, were shivering visibly. Ren’i looked from one face to another, weighting their options.
”I’m taking the first watch,” he said finally. ”We’ll switch every two hours. There’s always two people on watch at the same time. Keep an eye on each other, and make sure neither of you dozes off, even for a second. If the other starts looking drowsy, keep them awake, even if you have to kick them once a minute. Falling asleep is a death sentence in this weather, understand?”
”I’ll keep watch with you,” Hawk said immediately, but Ren’i shook his head.
”No, you won’t. You’re about to drop off where you stand,” Ren’i said. He slashed the air with his hand when Hawk opened his mouth to protest and snarled in unusually rough tones, ”no objections! I’ll need you and your eyes tomorrow if we want to find our way out of here.”
Hawk met his eyes and bit back his complaints upon seeing the look on Ren’i’s face.
Moonstone intervened. ”I can take the first watch with you. I’m too tense to catch any sleep just yet.”
”Are you sure?” Ren’i asked.
The chubby, stout akheri woman had kept up with the others admiringly well, though she was no hunter like Hawk or Denae. She’d been lost in her own world after they’d descended from their vantage point, but there was a gleam of resolution in her eyes that Ren’i hadn’t seen there before. Moonstone nodded.
”I can handle a couple more hours,” she said.
”All right. Linnee, Sava, you’re next. We’ll wake you up in two hours.” Ren’i thought for a moment. ”We’d best make a fire. There’s no surviving this without something to warm us up.”
”Is that safe?” Blueleaf asked, voice heavy with worry.
”Fire’s not visible at a distance in this blizzard, and we do have to warm up before our next undertaking.”
Sava gathered their ashay while Linnee used her own to cover the presence of magic from any Liqaris potentially surveying the area, and at last they did manage to light a fire, despite the raging storm. Its warmth came as a relief. Ren’i took off his mittens for a little while, stretching out his hands towards the campfire until the worst numbness in his fingers started to abate. He hadn’t even noticed just how stiff his limbs had grown during the long evening hours, which validated Blueleaf’s concerns. They would all have collapsed in the snow before long without rest and heat. Ren’i hoped that even some small fraction of the latter reached inside the tents.
Moonstone huddled on the same side of the campfire with him, the one spot the wind could not reach as easily. She took a long dagger and a whetstone from her belt and started dragging it along the dagger’s blade. This was the first time Ren’i saw her pull out the weapon from its sheathe, and despite his weariness he watched curiously as she worked. The blade was translucent, its edges uneven, almost ragged, like roughly hewn stone.
”An unusual weapon, that,” he said. ”I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
She didn’t lift her gaze from her work. ”I’d be surprised if you had. It’s made in old akheri style – or Om-Varian style, to be precise.”
She spun the dagger in her hands with deft fingers, sharp eyes searching for even the smallest defects that were invisible to Ren’i’s eyes. Finally, she seemed content with the outcome and held out the dagger towards Ren’i.
”Since you’re so intrigued,” Moonstone said.
Ren’i took the dagger and turned it around cautiously. The light reflecting off the blade gave it a pearlescent shimmer. The edges had been shaped, apparently on purpose, uneven as an unpolished crystal. It was neat work: the blade was perfectly symmetrical despite the numerous planes. Ren’i tried its edges with a finger and grinned.
”Pretty, and sharp as anything,” he praised. ”A jagged edge like this must hurt when cutting skin. What on earth is this material? I’ve never seen its like used in any weapons.”
”Hardened quartz.” Moonstone smiled at his bemused expression. ”There are big quarries in Om-Var that used to produce large amounts of rock crystal and other quartzes. Metals have replaced the use of quartz in tools and weapons, but the skill to work quartz is still well-known in my home town.”
”Ah.” Ren’i had a hunch where she’d gotten her name. He gave the dagger back to Moonstone. ”Beautiful work.”
”Thanks. I made it myself.”
”Yourself?”
Moonstone’s smile widened. ”My spouse is a metalsmith. He helped me with the hilt, but the rest is my own doing.”
They didn’t talk more. Ren’i could feel how heavy his lids were getting, and was relieved when Linnee and Sava took their places, letting him finally crawl into a tent. He wrapped himself up in the sleeping bag without bothering to take off his furs or boots, and was asleep within minutes.
The sound that tore him out of sleep’s gentle embrace was that of steel against steel.
”To arms!” Linnee’s familiar voice bellowed. ”To arms, all of you! They’re here!”
Battle cries mixed with the howling of wind along with Linnee and Sava’s voices, battle cries that Ren’i did not recognise. His heart hammered as though answering their call, and he was out of his tent within seconds, belt attached around his hips.
He only had a moment to process what he was seeing when a soldier in a helmet ran towards him, sword raised. Ren’i parried the strike instinctively, feeling the sheer force of it pushing him back. There were two yellow, vertical lines painted in the soldier’s black breastplate. They shouted in a language Ren’i could not understand, and Ren’i saw black-clad figures appearing from the storm. He struck, parried, struck, parried without having the time to think: hands and feet moving as though on their own while adrenaline pounded in his veins.
Around them the others were fighting for their lives. Moonstone’s dagger flashed as she fenced with a tall Liqari. Sava was fighting alone between two soldiers, sword dancing in the air dangerously, and one of the soldiers collapsed, head shorter than before. Sava did not even slow down as they continued fighting the other soldier.
Ren’i felt sweat pouring down his forehead. The Liqari soldier fought ferociously, answering Ren’i’s every strike with force, and he knew they both were serious. Suddenly an arrow came flying through the air, then another; both found their mark in the soldier’s midriff. The soldier stiffened where they stood, fist clutching the arrow jutting from their belly, and fell on their knees. Blood wet their gauntlets, and two heartbeats later they were laying in the snow on their side, immobile.
Hawk was by the corpse within seconds. He tugged the arrows off the fallen soldier and yelled, ”there’s more coming!” He’d drawn his bow and sent a new arrow flying before Ren’i had even managed to turn around.
The ground trembled and a white horse came gallopping straight at them, all four legs sending snow in every direction. Ren’i grabbed Hawk and pulled him down just as an arrow came whistling through the air. It sailed over them in an arch. Ren’i rolled around, spitting snow out of his mouth and reaching for his fallen sword.
”Hawk! Shoot them!” he yelled, pointing at the rider pounding towards them.
Hawk had already crawled back on his knees. He pulled another arrow from the quiver and sent it flying so fast that Ren’i barely saw his hands move. The first arrow missed the rider’s shoulder by mere centimetres and the rider lifted their own bow, targeting Hawk. Hawk’s second arrow found its mark and sunk in the rider’s armpit before they’d had the chance to draw their bow. The soldier fell with a loud crash. Their foot was still stuck in the stirrup and the body dragged behind the steed for a long while, which sent the horse prancing and whinnying in panic. Linnee and the Liqari soldiers battling her rushed out of its way at the last second.
Hawk shot one of the soldiers fighting Linnee before they had to chance to assault her again. Ren’i hefted his sword and sprinted straight at the group of three soldiers that had Blueleaf surrounded. They were only just managing to keep the Liqari strikes at bay, but Ren’i could tell Blueleaf was limping. Ren’i roared, feeling the hum of the protective spell against his skin when it slashed one of the soldiers on the underside of the calf. Their cry was cut off short when Blueleaf struck from the other side.
Dark blood spurted from another soldier’s mouth when the tip of a sword jutted from their belly. They collapsed face first and Sava emerged from behind them, the front of their coat shining red.
”Where did these devils come from?” Ren’i shouted, blocking the last remaining soldier’s attack.
”I don’t know!” Sava shouted back. ”We were just about to switch guards when they attacked!”
The soldier opened their mouth and yelled something to their remaining companions. The shout died suddenly when Sava and Ren’i took them down as one.
”They were yelling something about magic, if I understood correctly,” Sava said, frowning.
”You understand Liqari?” Ren’i asked.
Sava shook their head. ”The Meril-An dialect shares some words with the Liqari tongue.” They bit their lip. ”They were yelling the same thing as they attacked us. Something about magic. Or tracks, I think.”
”Tracks?”
”Maybe. I’m not sure.” Sava hesitated. ”They made it sound like they’d followed our tracks here, but I doubt we’ve left any in this storm.”
Ren’i stared at them. A chill that had nothing to do with the weather slipped inside his stomach.
”Perhaps they meant tracks of another sort,” he said slowly. ”You don’t think that fire the other night…”
Linnee’s shout pulled Ren’i back to reality. Sava helped Blueleaf back on their feet while Ren’i started sprinting towards a group of five Liqaris who were combatting Linnee, Denae and Moonstone some distance from the others. His shoes slipped in the blood-slicked snow as he narrowed the distance between himself and the others. Linnee’s face was contorted with a grimace as she kept two soldiers away from the akheris, sword slicing the air wildly and by some miracle parrying each strike, but her movements were slowing down. Denae was clutching at her side, a light akheri sword in her other hand; she wasn’t even in her dayclothes.
Heart raced all the way in Ren’i’s throat, beating to the same, desperate rhythm with every step. If he didn’t make it in time, if any of them died… The thought tore at his insides. He roared at the bottom of his lungs and lifted his sword into a frenzied slice when one of the soldiers noticed him and turned. Sword clashed against sword at such force that it sent sparks flying. The sound of it made Ren’i’s ears ring, and he felt the strike in his bones.
The soldier shouted something, and Ren’i had no difficulty guessing meaning. Though the helmet gave the soldier’s voice a hollow, metallic echo, he could make out the word ’Kisha’ clearly.
”Your highness!” Linnee yelled. Her sword clanged off the other soldier’s shield. The Liqari’s sword found its mark and left a long gash on her upper arm. She grimaced through the pain and prepared to strike back when an akheri arrow sunk deep in the Liqari’s neck.
Ren’i felt the squeezing in his chest ease by a notch. ”Hawk!”
Blood pounded in Hawk’s ears as he ran over bodies and drew his bow again. The second arrow deflected from the shield that one of the Liqaris lifted to shield themself, the third sunk in the calf of the Liqari battling with Denae. Hawk’s muscles were begging for mercy, he felt it with every movement, but he could not stop.
The Liqaris had clearly realised the odds were now against them. Ren’i and Linnee surrounded one of them and blocked off their escape route. They assaulted the Kishans fiercely, without care for the fact that they were already at a serious disadvantage.
The fight was short but ugly. Two soldiers were down and the third fought for their life when the other two remaining soldiers made a run for it. One of them knocked Denae out of the way and she fell in the snow, swearing. When Moonstone pulled her back up the soldiers already had gained a several meters’ headstart.
”Ren’i!” Hawk bellowed. The arrow he fired after the soldiers reached nowhere near them in the whipping wind. ”They’re getting away!”
Ren’i glanced at Linnee, whose face had paled.
”If they get close enough to the camp…” Linnee didn’t finish the sentence.
”I know,” Ren’i grunted. He shouted over his shoulder, ”Blueleaf, you’re in charge! Grab your things and make for the land bridge at once! Don’t wait for me!”
”What?”
Ren’i didn’t stay and wait for a response. His legs moved almost on their own as he took off after the soldiers, sword clutched in one hand. There was no room for anything else in his mind; he had to catch them before they got so close to the camp that they could send out their thoughts and call for reinforcements.
”Ren’i!” Hawk yelled after him, but Ren’i didn’t so much as glance back. Hawk stuffed the bloodstained arrows back in the quiver, arranged his collar and glanced at Blueleaf one last time. ”Get them out of here. I’m going after him.”
”Hawk—”
Hawk was already in motion before Blueleaf or anyone else had managed to open their mouths, braid flying in the wind.
”Hawk, come back! Nightsong’s going to kill me—”
”Let him go! We don’t have time for arguing,” Sava’s tense voice cut off Blueleaf’s complaints. ”You heard what his highness said. Hurry!”