Moonstone, Magic That Binds (Book 1) (31 page)

Silver came in, his arm and leg bandaged. She tried to lift her chin up and congratulate her captain. “Captain Shortwell and you were marvelous and saved the day.” She didn’t really feel up to the compliment, but she had to say it as commander. The debacle gnawed at her insides. Such a failure!  Restella knew better, but relied on Silver and, for once, he had let her down. The disappointment burned deep within her.

He looked at her and for the first time since she had known him, he looked at her with an unfriendly face.

“We lost one thousand men today when it should have been half of that or less,” Restella said. “Men who will never return back to their families, all because of imposing a strategy that the army had never practiced.”

“You made the wrong decision,” Silver said, an unexpected flatness to his voice. The attack must have affected him as much as it did her, but she bristled at his comment.

Restella blinked. Hundreds of lives lost that she caused? She felt anger at the man for having the nerve to dress her down, but Silver quickly doused it. “I’ve taught you many things and I thought that you knew better than to listen to me. You should have changed my recommendation. You’re a good fighter, but a Captain-General you are not. I’m sorry I have to say that, Princess, but…” Silver just shook his head, saluted, and left her alone in the tent. He left Restella speechless at his attack.

He had called her ‘Princess’. That struck her more than a sword in her side. She had lost his respect and, she shuddered, her army had lost too many men, but he had made the tactical recommendation. She won a hollow victory simply because she had superior manpower and officers who took a debacle and did all of the work to keep it from being a rout of her forces. Yet, she was the one who wanted a different strategy and he rejected it.

No other officers visited her that night and Restella couldn’t bring herself to walk through camp. She heard the wails of injured men easily enough through the canvas of her tent.  Again she went to her desk and picked up the pen, staring at its point for what seemed like hours.

The next morning, she called her officers in. “I feel like I should resign and take the train of wounded back to Beckondale, but I won’t.”

Silver gave her an appraising look.  “Not giving up?  I thought honor demanded it.”

She fingered the Moonstone and felt Lotto far to the southwest. Would he feel betrayed by her decision making like Silver, if he knew? Restella couldn’t bear that to happen.

A messenger rushed in. “A bird flew in with a message.”

“Read it, Silver,” Restella said.

“Captain Piroff commands you to send a detachment to the Happly border, Captain-General. Happly is hiring mercenaries.”

Restella took the message and read it for herself. It bore General Piroff’s initials. She knew an opportunity to escape when she saw one.  “I’ll head that unit myself. Silver, I want you to take command of the army and pursue the Oringians as far as you wish. You know we want to hurt them badly, so they will retreat far from our borders.”

Silver stood at attention. “And you? Perhaps you should lead the wagons back to Beckondale?”

She actually felt like smiling. “I will take a few thousand men and guard our southern border. We can assign a lieutenant to command the wounded.” Perhaps she could find redemption in Happly.

“Yes, ma’am, however, I suggest that you assign your Oringian command to Captain Shortwell. He is more suited to commanding a larger contingent of men and harassing the Oringians. I would like to accompany you to Happly.”

Restella wiped a tear-filled eye. “But I am disgraced. Surely you would rather have a command on your own.”

“A battle without a clear-cut victory does not constitute disgrace, ma’am. Happly is more of the kind of territory that rangers operate in. Hilly forests. I ask you to consider my request, ma’am.”

No ‘Princess’ this time. She could use his experience and she did want to be closer to the troops. Silver had been the one to castigate her for bad judgment and now he wanted to accompany her? She felt like she no longer understood him, but she didn’t want to give up on Silver just yet. She owed him too much, and perhaps they’d both have a chance at redemption. “We leave as soon as we can. Call the officers in again.

~

Restella led a unit of fifteen hundred men and that included the two hundred rangers. Captain Silver would command the rangers and her seven lieutenants would take care of the rest. She left most of the supply trains with Shortwell, so they used the captured horses and those of fallen men as pack horses and traveled quickly. They had split up the birds and the spelled coops that drew birds from Beckondale to wherever the charms were located.

The train of injured soldiers carried Restella’s full and honest report of the battle. She clamped her lips at the thought of having her father read that, but she would shoulder the responsibility for losing so many soldiers. She didn’t know if her report would damage Silver’s reputation, but at this point she didn’t care.  The truth was the truth and they’d both have to deal with it.

She didn’t want to lose a field command, but if she deserved a demotion, then she’d take it like a professional. She fingered the Moonstone and knew that she had done the right thing by taking the command to guard the Happly border, but the cost of her recent defeat still burdened her every waking moment.

After ten days, they viewed the short border with Learsea on the other side of the river and rode past the great forest that the dukes of Happly had planted centuries ago to keep the petty barons on the plains of Valetan from invading their country. Her army set up camp by a lake that was fed by a tributary of the Fargo in the mountains two days march into Happly.

Silver announced himself at the door to the tent she had traded with Shortwell. No more large planning tent for her.

“We’ve gone three leagues into Happly and haven’t run across any signs of an army.”

Could Mander have gotten the wrong intelligence? She could still sense Lotto in Gensler, further south. He wouldn’t know. “Let’s go over the Happly map and see what kind of tactics we’ll have to use.”

Silver went to the trunk of maps and selected the tube with a map of Happly. She looked over the terrain. Mountains and small valleys covered the landscape. If it weren’t for the mines, Happly would be a poor domain, indeed, maybe as poor as Histo. They had little farming and mostly citizen soldiers. But if they were to become a belligerent, the duke would need to hire mercenaries, as reported. Perhaps they trained in pockets further in. Where did Duke Happly get the money for an army?

Sleep had eluded her for days. Could she ever rid herself of the guilt of losing those lives? This command hadn’t distracted her sufficiently to forget Oringia. She forced her eyes on the map and found her focus coming in and out. She began to sway on her feet and then fell to the thin carpet floor of her tent.

~~~

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

~

L
OTTO FURROWED HIS BROW.
Something had happened. He followed the thread linking him to the Moonstone and Restella and had a horrible feeling. Something had changed. Restella didn’t feel the same. Could she be hurt? She still soldiered in Oringia. He stopped Morio and closed his eyes. No injury that he could tell, but the link had changed. Perhaps something mental or emotional? He didn’t have any frame of reference other than something had changed the feeling of the link since the last time he had sought her out when he first arrived in Crackledown.

Morio and he rode to within a week from the border with the Red Kingdom.  They had worked for weeks going from village to village, using the road to the Red Kingdom as the central spine.  He felt that the new network would be a valuable resource for the duke.

They stopped at an inn and took off their saddlebags before a boy led their horses to a stable. It felt good that winter had released its grip on Gensler. Traveling in the middle of winter wasn’t enjoyable or fast.

A robust woman hailed them as they walked into the common room of the inn. She plunked a thick book on the bar counter. “New to our lovely little town?”

Morio nodded. “A room, if you have one with two beds.”

The woman squinted at them. “You two look like you’ve lived rough lives.”

Morio shrugged and then beamed a grin at her and placed a hand on his chest. “We look rough, but we are as innocent as babes inside.”

The woman couldn’t repress a smile, responding to Morio’s flirting and waved him back. “Maybe babes who need a change of soiled nappies. I’ll put the both of you down for a room and a couple of baths. It’s that or you can ride half through the night to the next inn in either direction.” She gave Mario the kind of confident smile that a woman in control gives.

Perhaps she’d be another candidate for the duke’s intelligence circle. Lotto would find out soon enough. Much cleaner, the pair descended the stairs to the inn.  Only a few tables were taken in the common room as Lotto and Morio took one at the back.

“Tough men,” the innkeeper said with a pout on her face. She sat down with them. “And yet, both of you look cut from a different cloth than mere ruffians.”

“I would say so, but not having really seen mere ruffian cloth, I’m not familiar with its weave or texture,” Morio said. Lotto had noticed how the man would flirt with a hitching post, if given the opportunity.

She laughed. “You can call me Polla.” She leaned over and cupped her chin in her hand with her elbow on the table. “What is your story? It looks like we’ll have a slow night and I don’t think I’ll be bored around you two.”

Lotto looked at her and felt she could be trusted. “We are scouts for the duke, looking around for eyes and ears.”

Polla batted her eyelashes. “I have eyes and I’m all ears,” she said.

Lotto couldn’t help but laugh at the woman throwing back Morio’s flirtation with some of her own and noticed Morio’s mocking expression. “We live in perilous times and would like the duke to have some less official conduits of information. Innkeepers, such as yourself, talk to people all day long and might catch information that you may or not may find interesting, but, added up with other sources, it might provide insight into what’s going in Gensler and also some idea of what’s happening in the other domains. Would you be interested in sending your observations to a person in Crackledown?”

She looked over at Morio, “I’d like to send my observations to you.”

Lotto tried to keep from smiling but Morio was non-plussed. “Actually, it’s my sister.”

“Of course.” She turned to Lotto, pointedly ignoring Morio. “Are you ready for your first tidbit of information?”

“The Red Kingdom is sending men over the border looking for the lost princess. These are soldiers, not the usual rabble of thieves fleeing from the kingdom that we’ve had in the past.  They haven’t come this far, but I expect them at any time. I hear they are rounding up any women that look like Princess Sallia. They’ve got a wizard with them to eliminate any glamour that might have been placed on her. Word has it that they are heading with a group of captured women to Everwet.”

Morio just sat there, blinking. Lotto now knew him well enough that he seethed inside and with good reason. Such an incursion betrayed the sanctity of Gensler’s border.

“Anything else?”

Polla pursed her lips, sat straight up and tilted her head. “The people on the southern border are concerned that our Duke has not put enough troops down here to protect them. If the Red Kingdom invades they will roll right through the main road all the way to Crackledown—unimpeded with the forts unmanned. They’ll bog down there and won’t be able to move an inch farther north.”

Morio’s eyebrows rose. “Thank you and that’s why we need your perspective.” He laid his hand on hers. “I will personally let the duke know.”

Polla laughed and pulled her hand away.  “You and Duke Jellas?”  She tossed her head and thought for a minute.  “Please let someone know who can do something.  It truly doesn’t need to be the Duke himself.”

A large group of farmers walked in. “Polla! Bring your best, we’ve just raised Esman’s barn and we’re here to drink you out of stock!” The men all laughed.

The innkeeper jumped up. “Our slow period just ended. I’ll make sure you get served first before I start in on that lot… and they will drink me dry.” She grinned and tapped a purse kept in the pocket of her dress. “Got to get to work.”

A serving maid came right back out with two mugs of ale apiece. “There might not be more when you want it.” She curtseyed and ran back to the kitchen.

Morio laughed as he took a long pull of the ale. “That’s not half bad!”

“I think we can trust her,” Lotto said, looking back at the door to the kitchen. “We have to get word to your father.”

“I’ll do that. I’m more concerned about what she said about Histron’s army having a clear shot up Gensler. We have an old strategy to stop him, but I know that Eberlo’s been sitting on its implementation and I don’t think that my father knows anything about border incursions of any kind. I always thought that Eberlo had re-manned the border forts.” Morio’s expression darkened.  “I’ll be heading north at daybreak. You know enough of your way around here to poke further south on your own.” He waved his fingers. “There’s always that magic to fall back on.” He smiled and took another drink. “For now, let’s just enjoy the antics of farmers celebrating. Free entertainment.” Morio sat back and observed the farmers’ yells as a bout of arm wrestling had just started up.

The next morning, as the sun just began to lighten up the sky, Lotto shook Morio’s hand and they departed in separate directions.  Time would tell if their little network of innkeepers would gather sufficient data, but Morio certainly looked bothered by Polla’s comments of the previous night. What alarmed Lotto was the fact that Eberlo might be under the sway of Dakkor or its agents. Gensler could be seriously exposed if he was.  He hoped Mario wasn’t too late in telling his father that the string of forts weren’t manned.