The Destroyer Book 2 (30 page)

“Do you even realize what you just did?” He turned and pointed a gloved finger at me. Little pieces of spit flew out of his mouth and dotted the chest of his perfectly arranged uniform

“Yes,” I said plainly.

“Oh really? What the fuck did you just do then?”

“I gave a motivating speech to our troops.” I shrugged and smiled lightly, trying to emulate how Jessmei acted: innocent and charming.

“First of all, that wasn’t motivating, it was disruptive. Second of all, they are my troops. I command and make the strategic decisions. You are just the figurehead to give them hope. Finally, you made it almost impossible to lead them to Brilla. We will need to carefully formulate another speech for you to deliver to them.” He seemed to lose himself in thought as he probably began to piece together a speech that would repair the damage I just inflicted. The other generals shook their heads at me in disapproval and then looked at Maerc. Runir’s face was white as he nervously glanced between the two of us. The relationship between a father and a son was definitely more complicated than that of a father and daughter.

“I am not going to Brilla. So my speech perfectly framed the situation,” I said. It was time to put an end to this.

“What are you talking about?” Maerc stopped his pacing and looked at me with bewilderment on his face.

“I’m not going to Brilla. I am staying here to destroy the Loshers, take back the castle, and save my father. We talked about this a few days ago.” I smiled slightly.

“When we talked about this a few days ago you agreed to go with us to Brilla! You said you would support us!” Runir shouted and the other generals turned at his outburst.

“I lied. I needed time to get the troops behind me. Now they are.” The men stared at me with their mouths opened in amazement.

“You fucking bitch,” Maerc finally said.

“You lied?” Runir asked. The look on his face made my chest suddenly hurt and constrict. It became a little harder to breathe.

“Of course I lied.” I smiled at them. It was all teeth. “I disagreed with your plan, but it was rather clear that I had no leverage. Now I have all the leverage and will be making the correct decisions. Here is the first one: Maerc, I agree that we need to go to Brilla and ask for help. However, neither the army nor I will be making the trip. There is too much work here. Besides, I am not interested in getting caught up in a political game where my inexperience will lead to failure. I’ve prepared these letters.“ I reached into my vest and produced four letters. “This is for the King of Brilla and his Council, the open envelops are copies I made for you to review during your journey. I have chosen a squad of your men to accompany you. You’ll be much more effective at negotiating aid from Brilla than I will.”

I slid the papers across my new desk and the general frantically snatched at them before they fell off the edge.

“Weatan, we need a detailed survey of the existing farmlands in Nia. There has to be someone in the army that has this knowledge and can get us a map. I am going to put you in charge of our long term supply train. Understand?”

Weatan was probably twenty years Maerc’s senior and had proven himself as a powerful warrior who helped train Greykin’s generation. The older man looked suddenly confused and stepped toward the tent flap, then realized what he was about to do and stopped himself. He glanced toward Maerc for instruction but the general still stared at me in disbelief.

“Yabar, you will be in charge of documenting the supply chain of the Losher army. I’ll need to see where they are the most vulnerable within the week so we can start strategizing our offensive maneuvers.” The man had practically been born in the military and his skin looked like aged leather. He crossed his arms and smirked at me.

“Corvan, I need to figure out where to stash this army. I know that you have contacts with traders and have been responsible for most of the road patrols for the last ten years. You’ll be acquainted with the best places to keep us concealed.”

“You’ve gone on quite enough, Nadea.” Maerc gained some of his composure back and was chuckling lightly to himself. I remembered the many times I shared family meals with the man. He was as much of an uncle to me as the king. However, I had my kingdom to save and while Runir's father may have thought that he was doing the same thing, his plan would only tie our army up for precious months.

“You are done. Go back to your tent. We’ll put together a nice speech for you to say to the troops tomorrow. I can forget about this mistake you have made.”

“Guards!” I screamed. Before the five men realized what was happening, four soldiers stepped through the back and front flaps of the massive command pavilion. They already had their swords drawn and wore full chainmail.

“Where are my guards?” Maerc asked with a tint of syrupy fear.

“They’ve been put in charge of packing for your journey. These are personal guards from my father’s keep, like me, they didn’t agree with the trip to Brilla. There are a dozen more of my men outside your tent, but I didn’t want to cause a scene.”

I sat back and stared into Maerc’s eyes. The anger slowly turned into hatred and I wondered if there would be blood on the floor. My warriors already had their blades ready, but the generals were gifted swordsmen. Julliar was known as one of the best duelists in the kingdom, and if he was present they might have actually drawn. I didn’t know where Runir would have ended up in that brief struggle, and thoughts of losing another one of my loved ones made me play my game quicker.

“Corvan, Yabar, and Weatan, you are dismissed. I’ll need an update on your progress this evening.” I turned to look at the three men. They glanced at Maerc, then at Runir, then at the guards.

“I’m not going to repeat myself,” I said coldly. Fear slowly crept into my stomach and I tried to hide it from my face.

“Yes, Duchess,” Weatan said quickly before disappearing through the tent flap. Corvan and Yabar saluted me and then made a quick exit shortly after the older man.

The tension still remained in the tent.

“You made an agreement with us,” Maerc hissed through his teeth.

“Do you serve Nia?” I asked angrily.

“Fuck you! You half-blooded bitch. You are the only one that needs to be questioned that way. You aren’t even human. You aren’t even of royal blood; you’re one of the monsters we are trying to fight. I will walk out of this tent, then tell them who your father really is!”

“Are you finished?” I asked. The pain in my leg caused my vision to blur but I kept my face and voice from revealing this weakness. This whole operation had been such a gamble and I was nearly spent.

“No.” He looked at the surrounding guards. “Do you know she isn’t your liege’s daughter? She is some Ancient spawn he found in the Teeth Mountains. Did you know?”

My guards didn’t answer. They just stared at Maerc like statues of death, swords drawn, waiting for me to command them to life.

“Are you finished?” I said again calmly.

Maerc didn’t say anything for almost a minute. His blue eyes stared at me in cold hatred.

I matched his gaze and intensity.

Finally, he broke.

“Nadea, what are you doing? We need Brilla’s help; they’ve been in alliance with our kingdom for over fifty years. This was what the king wanted! There is no way that the men you have here can stand against Losher’s forces. It is suicide.” The anger faded from his voice.

“I already told you that I agree with you. That is why you are going. No one can do it better than you. I will cut off as many pieces of Losher’s army as I can. By the time you get an army from Brilla, our main force will return from the North. Then we will crush what Losher armies remain and take back our castle.” I glanced to Runir. “You can go with your father, but I think we would both prefer that you stay here. I need your help managing the army, and he’ll want you to be around to prevent me from doing something ridiculous.”

The blonde man turned to look at his father. Maerc nodded.

“You can ride with him out of the camp if you wish. I have your bodyguards and a squad of soldiers ready to receive you. You should make it to Brilla in less than three weeks. I’ve detailed the process to communicate with me in one of the letters.” Maerc nodded. The anger was gone from his face completely now and only sadness remained.

“How did you do this?” the general asked quietly. I stared into his eyes and saw the glassy sheen on their edges. I let out a long sigh and started to feel regret. Maerc loved his country as much as I did, he would gladly sacrifice his life if it meant that Nia would continue to exist. He was a proud man, intelligent and steadfast. If we had seen eye to eye, it would have been a great partnership.

“I could do it because you thought you beat me. You thought you had information that would ruin me if someone found out. You thought I was ashamed of it and that I had something to hide.” I looked at Runir. “You thought I was an injured and broken girl that you saved from certain death. But most importantly, you underestimated how much I love my father and want to murder Nanos for his betrayal.”

Runir nodded as he considered my words.

“I should have done what the king’s letter told me to do and killed you.” Maerc spat out the words in desperation. “I love your father too, the king as well. They wouldn’t have wanted this. They specifically ordered me to execute this plan.”

“It is too late to negotiate. You wanted to persecute three days ago. Now it is my board. Have a safe and productive trip to Brilla. When you bring their army up in the spring you will have cooled off and we can work together again for the benefit of our country.” He tried to get another word in, but I held up my hand “You are dismissed, General. You as well, Commander.” I nodded to my warriors and they inched closer to the two blonde men. They got the point and exited without looking at me again. The pair of guards behind them followed them out the front door.

“The general might try to do something stupid,” one of my men said.

“If he does, then kill him.” The words came out of my mouth; I felt my breath give life to them. But they were cold and dead on my lips. Like someone else controlled my voice. Someone with hair the color of blood and eyes that glowed silver.

“What about Runir?” he raised an eyebrow. My father once told me that sometimes being a leader meant making the kind of decisions that no one else could make.

“Let’s hope he doesn’t do anything stupid,” I said.

I meant those words with all of my heart.

“This isn’t going to end well. Is it, Brother?” Thayer whispered through ragged breaths that came steaming out of his mouth in giant puffs.

“There are only thirty of them.” I looked at him sideways with a smirk. He grunted but didn’t smile.

That’s when I knew that we probably wouldn't escape.

We were cut off from the rest of the escapees, almost fifty miles north of where our temporary campsite lay secreted away. We had spent the last year pushing in this direction, trying to put distance between us and the Elven clan that created us. Unfortunately, I hadn’t correctly judged the tenacity of our former masters. They did not want any other Elven tribes capturing my friends, so they sent five hundred warriors in pursuit. I didn't realize that Iolarathe’s tribe was one of the largest and most powerful within a thousand miles.

I hadn’t realized that they were the first to be testing human magic. If the other Elven tribes learned of us, the news would spread like a lethal virus. More Elven families would start experimenting, and there would be a disruption of Iolarathe’s family’s push for dominance in the land.

“They have been relentless. Perhaps they know it is you and me?” Thayer slowly peered down the cliff wall. The snow had been falling for two weeks, the world was painted with white.

“We will have to move out when night falls,” I whispered. My body convulsed and shivered for a second. It was fucking cold and it had been almost a week since either of us ate. We had discarded most of our clothing during the chase to throw off their trackers. They brought dogs with them this time, but I knew that my enemies' sense of smell was on par with ours. I doubted that they even needed tracking beasts, but the animals were expendable and handled the colder weather easier.

Now we only had our undergarments and weapons left. There was little else to discard to throw the hunters off of our trail.

“What do you think about just going down there, killing as many as we can, and then calling it a day? I’m sick of running Brother. Let’s be done with this. It is a good day to die. We gave it our all. We just were not meant to be free.” I heard the hopelessness in his voice and the emotion began to leak into my own soul.

“Fuck that. You don’t die until I tell you. You swore you would follow me until the end. The end is us living free, in our own home, farmlands and cattle stretching out as far as our eyes can see, with no worry of these bastards chasing us anymore. We just have to evade these fuckers, get back to the camp, flank them, and finish them.” I sighed in relief and warmth flooded my body. I said the words with such conviction that I actually believed them. This was good, because I wasn’t going to be able to make anything happen unless I believed it first.