Book 6: Chapter 27: - Old Friends and More Plans

Book 6: Chapter 27: - Old Friends and More Plans

“A fire?” Edeya frowned, peering beyond the parapet, over the rough ground to the distant milling throng of the undead.

“Yeah, a real horror of a forest fire. Something you’d never wish to see happen, except for maybe if your forest was full of zombies and shit.” Victor leaned against the smooth black stones on one elbow and looked at Edeya with a wry smile. “What do you think?” He’d been standing on the ramparts, watching the undead for hours. Valla had gone off to write in the Command book, hoping for an update from Rellia or Borrius. Sarl was busy with his lieutenants, Kethelket was scouting with a few of his Naghelli, and Lam was sleeping—catching up on a few nights of inadequate sleep, as she’d put it. Edeya, though, had been keeping him company.

“I . . . I think it sounds too easy. Do you think they’ll burn?”

“I don’t know, but I’m betting if we send the Naghelli south, over the horde to the edge of the forest, then have them light it up, fan it with some magical winds . . .” Victor pantomimed flames burning with his fingers wriggling in the air and then blew on them. “Whoosh! I bet we can cut down the number of undead outside our walls.”

“But the forest . . .”

“I mean, fires happen, right? It sucks, but the forest will recover. Don’t some trees need fires to make their seeds sprout?”

Edeya’s blue dragonfly wings vibrated rapidly for a second, shedding thousands of little motes of light, and she blushed. “Sorry! I’m still getting used to how expressive my wings have become!” Victor just grinned at her, and she continued speaking rapidly, “It’s true; a forest will recover from a fire. A normal fire. I hope whatever flames the Naghelli Pyromancers can summon won’t prove too destructive.”

“Let’s put it this way—that forest is never going to recover if Prince Hector wins. It’ll become a dreary, dying, horrible place.”

“A fair point, Legate.” Edeya smiled, and Victor marveled at how good she looked. He’d never have recognized her if she had shown up looking like this back in the mines—her wings were twice the size of the runty things she’d had before. She was a good deal taller and far more filled out; her forearms, protruding from her rolled-up uniform sleeves, were wiry with muscle.

“Have you had a chance to practice with Kethelket?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, never mind. I guess he’s been pretty busy, and so have you. I asked him to work on your spear skills with you.”

“You asked . . .” Edeya’s eyebrows turned down, and her newly blue eyes turned stormy. “You asked a Naghelli to teach me to use the spear?”

“Not teach you to use . . .”

“Do you know how insulting that is to a Ghelli?” Her voice had grown shrill with outrage.

“No, I guess . . .”

“I will not take lessons from Prince Kethelket!” Her eyes sparked with blue Energy, and Edeya turned on her heel and stomped away.

“What the hell?” The abrupt display of fury completely took Victor aback. Hadn’t Edeya been one of the more reasonable ones when it came to accepting the Naghelli? What was the deal with her eyes flashing with Energy? Was it something to do with her new bloodline? The more Victor thought about it, the more he felt that was the answer to the puzzling outburst. He considered how his Quinametzin bloodline sometimes rose up in him and made him say something or act a certain way. Maybe some Cobalt Wing ancestor of Edeya’s had a real problem with Naghelli, and she was unconsciously channeling her. “Or him.” Victor shrugged.

He looked out over the clearing toward the forest again, watching the shifting, aimless, uncountable thousands of undead. How long did they have before some baron of Hector’s showed up and took charge of the horde? How long before these undead were pouring through a shattered wall, flooding the keep with their bodies, overwhelming the Ninth? They needed to do something. He had half a mind to jump out there and start going to town with Lifedrinker, killing as many as he could before his Energy ran low, and he had to retreat. Wouldn’t that work? If he killed a few hundred or even thousands of them at a time? The answer was that it depended on how much time they had.

“Yeah,” he grunted, starting for the stairs, nodding to the soldiers he walked past, “time to quit wasting time.” A young woman with bright yellow hair saluted him with wide eyes, clearly having heard what he said. Victor winked at her and hopped down the steps, five at a time. “Sarl!” he yelled.

“Sir!” Sarl replied, startling him; he’d been standing near the base of the stairs.

“Can you get ahold of Kethelket? It’s time to do something about this horde.”

“He’s within the keep, sir. Something about updating the maps in the Command book.”

“Can you grab him and Valla? Also, get Lam—wake her if you need to. We’ll meet in my house in fifteen minutes.”

Sarl didn’t waste time with words. He slammed his fist to his chest and then hurried to the keep. The two lieutenants he’d been speaking to looked around with blank expressions, clearly wondering what to do now that Victor had interrupted whatever they’d been up to with Sarl. He nodded to them. “Go on, then. Practice with your weapons if you don’t know what else to do.” He strode across the courtyard and into his house, only to almost smash face-first into Edeya. She’d been heading for the exit when he stepped in.

“Victor, I . . .”

“You okay?”

“I’m sorry! I don’t know what came over me! I got filled with such anger when you mentioned the . . . you know.”

“You can’t say it?”

“I don’t want to! Something in me really, really doesn’t like them.”

“It’s your bloodline, I’m guessing. Did you have a vision when you advanced?”

“Yes! An amazing experience! I walked in the Blue Deep when the world was new. I . . .”

“Hold up!” Victor held up a hand, chuckling. “I want to hear about your vision but come sit with me. The others will be here soon, and we might be interrupted, but I want you to know that I get it. My bloodline changed me a little, too.” He laughed and walked past her to the long table, where he pulled out the chair at the right end and sat down. “Sit down.”

“Please tell me you aren’t going to try to fight the whole horde all alone.” Valla ran her fingertips over the nape of his neck as she passed, sending an electric shiver down his spine. She grinned at him as she sat in the chair to his right.

“Not exactly.” Victor waited for everyone to sit down and give him their attention. “We’re going to start a forest fire, a real motherfucking inferno of one.”

“Mother . . .” Kethelket shook his head, eyes wide with disgust.

“Not literally! Relax, listen. Kethelket, how many Pyromancers are among your people here?”

“I’m not exactly sure, but at least,” he looked up at the ceiling, and Victor could see his fingers moving as he silently counted, “thirty. At least thirty of my two hundred have fire affinities. Some much stronger than others.”

“And you have a similar amount with air affinities?”

“I’d say so, yes.” Victor could see him connecting the dots in his head, putting together what Victor was going to ask of him. “There may be some problems with this plan.”

“Yeah, I figured I might not have thought of everything.”

“You want the Naghelli to fly past the undead and light the forest afire?” Sarl nodded enthusiastically. “I like it. They seem to burn well, the undead.”

“The mist is thick in the woods, and it seems to hinder flames. My casters were mentioning it after the battles the other day, but . . .” Kethelket stood and paced about while Victor watched, waiting for him to finish his statement. “We may be able to mix some potent alchemical accelerants. Yes. I believe Vussa and Holn have what we’d need. May I speak to my people?”

“I have an alchemist with four assistants in my cohort. I’m sure they can help.” Sarl also stood.

“Well, shit, I didn’t have to explain much at all. Okay, go try to make a plan—keep one thing in mind for your logistics: When you’re ready, I’m going to ride out and try to get the undead to chase me on Guapo. I’ll lead them deeper into the woods.” At his words, Lam, Valla, and Edeya all groaned. “What?”

“I was simply waiting to see how this plan would involve you risking your life. When you mentioned the Naghelli, I was hopeful that you’d decided to let some others carry part of the burden for a while.” Valla sighed heavily after speaking, and Victor saw Lam nodding along with her.

“You don’t think I should do that? They can’t catch Guapo . . .”

“Can Guapo truly charge through tens of thousands of undead?” Edeya held her face straight, but Victor could hear the laughter in her words.

“Well, I’m sure he could get through a lot, and then I can leap and hack, and, well, you guys know I’m pretty resistant to fire, right?”

“Forgive my dissension,” Kethelket had been nearly out of the room when Victor spoke up, but now he walked back to the table, “but I feel you should be at the keep in case this other baron you mentioned shows up. He may already be en route, and the fire may not deter him, not if he’s as strong as your prisoner indicated.”

“Well, I guess . . .”

“Additionally,” Kethelket continued, “I have some plans to lure the undead further into the woods. My people are quite adept at baiting foes.”

“All right, all right.” Victor waved a hand toward the door. “Don’t let me slow you down. Let’s make this happen.” He turned back to the table as they left. “Any word from Borrius?”

“They’re lying in wait, but the scouts Kethelket left with them report an army approaching. They only counted two thousand, and Borrius is frothing at the mouth with anticipation.”

“That’s what I’d hoped. I bet Hector thinks the main army is here. He either split his forces or sent the only nearby army he had to try to take Old Keep. I bet it’s option number two. I think Borrius and Rellia will be able to push south and claim another territory with hardly any resistance.”

“You really think this forest fire idea is going to work?” Victor could always trust Lam to speak her mind.

“I feel confident that it will at least partially work. We’ll still have fighting to do here, especially if this Karl the Crimson asshole is on his way. Which,” he paused and summoned a bloody rag from his dimensional container, “brings me to my next question. Do you guys think I should eat this now or save it?”

“Oh, roots! Is that a heart?” Edeya recoiled; she knew about Victor’s strange ancestral habit, but she’d never seen him in the act.

“I’m not gonna eat it here, relax.” Victor sent the organ back into his ring. “I like to be in my titan form first anyway.”

“Will it leave you insensate? Is it like a racial advancement?” Lam didn’t seem bothered at all.

“I’ve eaten a couple of potent hearts, and both times, I lost myself to some kind of vision, but only briefly.”

“Is that heart more or less potent?” Lam looked from Victor to Valla as though she’d keep him honest.

“I think it’s less potent. A lot of tough pendejos had to work to bring the wyrm down, and our very strong friend killed the Night Brute Prince.”

“I’ve never heard . . .” Edeya started to say, but Lam interrupted her.

“Then eat it. You might as well have every advantage.”

“I agree, Victor.” Valla reached over and put her cool, soft palm atop his knuckles. Edeya’s eyes nearly shot out of her head as she looked from Valla to Victor and back again. She opened her mouth, but Lam punched her in the shoulder, and she closed it.

Victor stood up, accidentally knocking his chair over behind him, and nodded to the three women. “Right. It’s settled, then. I’ll eat this thing right away. That corpse-crafting dude could be here at any moment.”Ñøv€l-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.