Chapter 134

“Knights not wielding swords,” Aden muttered again, and his lip pulled into a sneer. “Where will they point those swords, if they don’t lay them down?”

Swords were granted only to protect the citizens. For those that gave up that duty, they were unnecessary. And without swords, there was no longer an army – and all citizens would fall back under the protection of the Duke of Winter.

If Elo’s knights had forsaken their duty, what did they intend to do with their swords?

He wouldn’t think about changing the traditions of the winter. As the Duke of Winter, he was meant to hold them tighter than any. But his thoughts were changing, perhaps a bit of the warm region had come into him. He would no longer ignore the danger.

The Elders from Blue Nos and Green Mille had said he hadn’t done his duty properly. But those that didn’t raise their swords to defend their own could say nothing to him.

“If Elo requests resources, I will grant them, but not to the point of being overly generous. And one more thing,” he said. “Investigate the Milton.”

“Majesty?” Idith blurted out. Aden shot him a glance, and Idith regained himself. The name had simply surprised him.

Milton.

It was a tribe that had been forgotten in winter region for 500 years. There was no reason to remember them. In a place as unkind as the winter region, with its harsh winters and monsters, there was no value in remembering an extinct enemy.

“What should I learn about them?” Idith asked cagily.

“Their abilities,” replied Aden

The Molly tribe could use magic. Yesters could move faster than anything in the winter region if they have a cold northern wind. But what of the Milton, supposedly gone so long ago?

“Their eyes were fully violet. Very dark violet.” Idith recalled.

The man that Ilyin saw in the foresight.

The Milton tribe was supposed to have been made extinct by the Duke of Winter a few hundred years earlier for being too great a threat. No one had seen a Milton in centuries, but records of them remained. They were known to look much like humans. And they were known to have foresight.

“But about their ability to look into the future, ” Aden said. “Learn how they did it.”

“Yes, majesty,” Idith said, bowing. “And what will you do with the Yesters?”

That was another problem that needed consideration. Aden nodded approvingly at his aide.”

“We can’t leave them unattended,” Aden said thoughtfully. “There is someone that can see the future among them.”

If Elo and Mille had really allied with Yesters as Rippo claimed, it meant Elo tried to give its stronghold to Yesters deliberately. Unlike the Yesters stronghold, reachable only by narrow valleys, Elo’s territory was connected to Biflten mansion on flat ground. Yesters could move and populate quickly – if they could occupy Elo, they would have an excellent staging area. They had to drive them out quickly.

Idith had yet to hear about Rippo’s claims of someone with foresight among the Yesters. His eyes opened wide at Aden’s statement, then narrowed as his quick mind caught up to his master’s.

“You think it’s a Milton?”

He hadn’t been present when Aden had fought the violet-eyed being, but he’d listened carefully to the report of the Delrose knights that had been with him.

Something that looks like a man.

“It’s an assumption,” Aden said matter-of-factly. “And get ready to destroy the Yesters’ camp.”

That meant another campaign just after the last. A look of worry crossed Idith’s face.

“Are you alright, majesty?” he asked. “The knights are able to swap out but you…”

Aden waved away his concern.

“There will be no serious battle,” he said. The weather was colder, and the situation was still troubling if the Yesters and Molly were indeed working together. But the threat was at least manageable now, thanks to Ilyin’s foresight of the second army of Yesters.

“The number of Yesters must be down hard since they lost both their main army and their second army,” Aden said. That meant they must not have enough forces to guard their camp. They’d gambled almost their entire army on the capture of Elo – as though someone with foresight had told them they would succeed.

But how did they just pass through Elo’s Wall? And could whatever allowed that also be what altered Ilyin’s foresight? Was that how the foresight had changed? These were the questions Aden hoped an investigation of the Milton could answer.

He tapped his desk idly as he thought out loud to Idith.

“The number of Yesters must be severely diminished. But they’re still dangerous,” he said.

“They wouldn’t want to be extinct either,” Idith commented.

The blue light of divine power lightly flashed briefly in Aden’s hand. He gave the cold smile of the Duke of Winter.

“We won’t chase the Yesters that fled the camp,” he said. Depleting their numbers would be good enough. Aden’s goal was something else.

“But the Mollys with them won’t be able to follow at the Yesters’ speed. Them, we can take.”

He was ready to whittle down every threat.