The Storm's Own Son (Book 2) (13 page)

The man in the robes began to incant something.

More of the Wolves poured from the alley into the street, and at the squad of guards at the front of Dromno's formation. Epos, silently and precisely, moved past the fight to face the long column behind Dromno. The soldiers in the front ranks watched Epos with surprise, but advanced.  An arrow from Imvan pierced one through the chest.

Talaos lunged for another attack. His short blade scraped Dromno's armor, and there was another green flash. Dromno parried Talaos's long blade aside with his own, and gave a shove with his shield with such surprising strength that Talaos balanced by leaping back several feet.

Dromno shouted, almost as if curious, "You actually immune to lightning?"

As he spoke, the robed man aimed his thunderbolt rod toward Talaos. A booming, cracking noise filled the street, and a great gout of electricity arced from the rod to Talaos. It had a green-white color very unlike the blue-white of Talaos's lightning. Talaos felt nothing. He laughed as he whirled back toward Dromno.

"Oh well, damn," muttered Dromno, leaping backwards with his guard up.

The man with the concealed face spun and stabbed forward. His dagger pierced the chain shirt of a Wolf with a green-white flash. The Wolf toppled backwards with a smoking hole in his chest and score marks radiating from the wound.

Halmir twisted and brought his axe down toward the masked foe's skull, but the latter twisted again with a flickering of the air around him, and the axe went wide. The others stabbed and sliced, but always the man with the concealed face was just out of the way.

Dromno spun and sliced his green-flickering sword around at Talaos's neck. The latter dodged and parried with his short blade. Dromno brought his shield forward and forced Talaos's long blade aside. Talaos aimed a sudden kick and sent Dromno flying backwards.

Epos, using sword and shield with methodical, merciless precision, cut down a man to his left, then to his right, then spun and stepped sideways with his sword through the open-faced helm of a third foe. The others, dozens at the head of the long column, pooled up across the road, hesitant to step forward. Then one fell with
Imvan's arrow in his eye.

The robed man held his copper rod. The end with the thunderbolt now looked withered and spent. He flipped it around, and at the other end was a cap in the form of a smiling, bearded face with an open mouth. Faint greenish-white smoke or mist began to pour from that mouth.

"Kill that sorcerer!" shouted Talaos, as he parried another attack from Dromno.

At the front of the line, the Wolves were getting the better of Dromno's guards.

One of the Wolves facing the masked man disengaged, and leapt at the sorcerer with sword ready for a disemboweling strike. The ghostly mist blew into his nostrils, and the Wolf stopped in his tracks.

The masked man dropped low, and in a fluid turn, brought his dagger into the thigh of the remaining Wolf facing him. There was another blast. The Wolf's leg blew apart above the knee and he toppled. There was no blood from the blackened, cauterized wound.

Talaos continued to dodge Dromno's swift sword and shield combination attacks. At last he saw his opening. He flipped and spun, landed directly behind his foe, and brought his short blade under Dromno's breastplate in a kidney strike. There was a flash of green light, but it was fainter this time. Dromno turned, at the ready.

Talaos stepped and spun again, keeping out of his foe's reach and guard, and made a second strike.
The short blade pierced Dromno's waist near the spine, and the general lurched over, roaring in pain. Talaos leapt high and brought his long blade down, cleaving Dromno's head from his shoulders. Blood sprayed all round as the body fell.

As they fought, Epos ran a foe through at the groin, dodged, and sheared the sword arm from another in a spray of blood.  Imvan picked off two more with arrows. But now the others at the head of the column, dozens strong, charged all at once.

Halmir and Larogwan dueled with the masked man. They moved and struck and moved again. The latter avoided every attack, but his own attacks failed to pierce their defenses. Then suddenly, the masked man tensed, lurched, and turned. He tried to strike with his dagger, but fell instead. As he fell, a dagger became visible, lodged in his back, precisely where it would reach the heart.

Behind the dagger crouched Firio, looking annoyed.

The sorcerer incanted in an eastern speech, and the pallid smoke spread.  The Wolf standing transfixed, with ghostly mist flowing into his nose, grew pale, then seemed to wither and collapsed to the ground. Tendrils of smoke reached towards others nearby.

Halmir snarled and threw an axe. It glanced from the sorcerer with a green flash. A brief moment later, Larogwan threw an axe of his own, and it lodged firmly in the sorcerer's head. The green smoke dissipated. More Wolves raced back their way, with corpses of Dromno's vanguard behind them. Talaos leapt to Epos's side, even as the enemy surrounded them. He spun with blades scything and two of them fell dead in mists of their own blood. He snarled. Many more came behind to take their place. A howling roar rose all around.

"The Hounds," smiled Talaos.

Both sides paused for a moment as dozens of armed Avrosans converged from alleys and side streets around Dromno's column. With them, here and there, were more of Talaos's Wolves, and a few handpicked men of his own from the rest of the army.

Talaos shouted to the foes in the front ranks. He recognized a few of them, and wondered if any had been in the crowd acclaiming him as a warlord. Many were not from Dromno's own League of Padra. Seeing Dromno's handpicked men together like that, he could see an unusually high proportion had beards.

"Soldiers of the allied army!" he shouted at them in his deep clear voice, "General Dromno is dead. He died on his way to kill a fellow commander and fellow men of our army. Do you want to follow him to a traitor's death? An army will soon be upon us. Lay down your arms, and raise them at the right time against the enemy."

There was silence. Then a man, an ordinary soldier among them, replied, "You're our enemy Talaos, you blasphemer."

"Murderer of the pure!" shouted another.

"Friend of sinners!" hissed a third.

"Destroyer of the House of the Prophet!" yelled another, as more voices rose behind.

Talaos listened with rising intensity in his spirit. He'd had enough. He replied in an echoing voice that carried over theirs, "Have your opinions, but lay down your arms, or die!"

Someone from the massed ranks hurled a spear at him. He snarled, whirled, and cut it down in midair with his short blade. Light from his eyes flashed on the blade before him.

Without another word, he leapt to the attack, and with him, all around, charged his Madmen, his Wolves, and his Hounds. Like wild, savage hunting beasts they leapt on their prey. Talaos spun, cut, and stabbed. The Madmen at his side ripped through their foes. Further back, the followers of the Prophet fought against the ring of Hounds around them. They held their own back there, but Talaos's numbers grew with more from the streets beyond, and theirs shrank.

Talaos turned to Firio and Imvan, weaving and stabbing in the shadows.

"Withdraw. Spread the word around the city. Now is the time."

1
1. Taking

Talaos made his way through the darkened city with an ever growing body of men behind him. Troops from the army, his Madmen, Wolves, and Hounds, and masses of Avrosan civilians walked with torches and drawn weapons. His greater preparation, no doubt helped by experience as a gangster, had made for a bloody but swift victory by his allies on the streets.

Reports were that the remaining followers of the Prophet were going into hiding. Behind him, he heard talk of various kinds. There was curiosity about what was coming next, exultation of victory, and among the Avrosans, talk of the Storm Lord. Someone among them shouted that he, Talaos, was the Storm Lord reborn.

He'd have to put a stop to that, and soon, but ahead of him was the Aledri camp.

"Looks like Nissas might've wanted to move a bit faster," said Larogwan cheerfully.

Kyrax, who'd joined them, replied, "Unless he was hoping for Dromno to do his fucking dirty work for him, then reap the spoils."

"Those are two possibilities," added Talaos, "though there are others."

They continued on through starlit streets. Their numbers grew. The buildings on either side were largely dark, but faces could be seen from many windows as Avrosans who hadn't been part of the fighting peered out at the marching men.

Ahead, the light of the torches and lamps of another sizeable body of men could be seen approaching from a major intersecting street on the right. Talaos and his men readied their weapons. He had hopes as to who it might be, but this night, anything could happen.

"Well this looks like quite the cheery gathering!" said Adriko, rounding the corner with a long column of troops behind him, "with happy news for General Nissas, I imagine."

Talaos laughed, "Just spreading the good word, in our way."

Adriko made his way through to join Talaos at the head of the main column, while shouting orders to his officers to get his troops organized with the others. Once he'd settled in, Adriko glanced back at large burdens being carried by a group of men with Vulkas.

Vulkas noticed, and shouted, "Hoi, Adriko! We have some gifts for Nissas."

Their former commander smiled, and replied casually, "They look extravagant, under the circumstances."

Ahead was the area near the walls where the Aledri troops, more than two thousand in
total, had commandeered some commercial buildings as their headquarters and camp. It was brightly lit. Nissas had thrown up barricades across most of the streets around, and soldiers of Aledri were on watch there and on rooftops. Opposed to them in the shadows of surrounding streets beyond were scattered groups of Avrosan civilians and allied irregulars.

Also, at certain main surrounding intersections alongside the Avrosans, but in much better order, were companies of heavily armed mercenaries.

"What the..." growled Kyrax.

"Ah, that's interesting..." began Adriko.

Talaos tried to process what he was seeing. He knew those troops, and that good order.

"Tescani!" he shouted.

As if in answer, there ahead was the mercenary warlord, on a horse heavy with barding, with a squad of steel-plated men around him. Tescani hailed him with a raised hand, and rode up.

"Evening, Talaos," Tescani said in his low, gravelly voice.

"What convinced you to join the cause?" asked Talaos lightly, though quite pleased.

"I always keep an eye for the main chance," answered Tescani, with cold eyes and a hard face. "Right now, that main chance is you."

Talaos took that in, and decided to consider all the implications later. Then he replied, "So you're why Nissas stayed bottled up when it counted?"

"With help from the Avrosans you pulled together," replied Tescani. "Even so, we might not have gotten here in time except they were having some kind of trouble in the Aledri camp."

Talaos smiled thoughtfully, and turned so that he could face both Tescani and Adriko, then he spoke. "And we've got some more trouble for them. The Madmen, Wolves and I are riding up to have a talk with the Aledri sentries."

The others nodded, and Talaos rode toward the largest barricade, one that had a sort of gate in it.  The men on watch shouted, and more Aledri troops, a full company, marched at the double from around a corner. They took up a tight defensive formation just behind the gate.

"Hail!" called Talaos. "I need to speak to General Nissas."

A young c
aptain shouted back, "Warlord Talaos, are you here under terms of peace?"

"I am, and I remind you that we all are, as part of the same alliance," replied Talaos.

"I will send a messenger to ask him," replied the officer.

There was a quick discussion between the Aledri captain and the men around him, then a runner started to speed off. However, hardly had he done so than Nissas himself appeared, riding with a group of officers and a column of soldiers.

The General of Aledri made his way to the gate, drew himself up in the saddle, and gave Talaos a cold, expectant glare, as if waiting.

Talaos shouted to him, "
Nissas, now is a good time to rethink your choices."

The other did not answer.

"And," continued Talaos, "I've solved the mystery of General Sanctari's murder."

With that, Talaos motioned, and Vulkas walked forward with his squad of men carrying the cloth-wrapped burdens. They unrolled them on the ground before the gate. There were the corpses of Dromno, the robed man, and the man who'd had the concealed face. Then, Talaos's men placed certain items in presentation before the bodies.

"Do you see that?" asked Talaos."Take a look at that dagger, and the matching tattoos on that man with the robes, the Eastlander magus, and the copper rod which was his."

Nissas sent men forward, who brought them back for his inspection.

Talaos continued, "Look at the man in the loose fitting clothes. He wielded that dagger, which if you'll note, is the twin of the one that killed Sanctari. See that  he is also an Eastlander. After a good deal of asking around, I was able to establish that his sash means he is from some order of assassins in the Eastlands. Does any of this put things together for you, General?  Now, time for you to establish where you really stand."

Nissas examined the items, rode forward with his officers and two guards past the gate to examine the bodies. He then sat back up in the saddle
and  looked Talaos in the eye.

"It seems," said Nissas, "that I have been played on all sides, by rash fools like you and Kurvan, by ambitious scoundrels like Tescani, and by traitors like Dromno and Lurios."

"Lurios?" replied Talaos, shocked by the mention of that name.

"He refused to obey my orders to join me in seizing you, and cost us enough time that Tescani there arrived. He's under arrest at the moment, though I'm sure you'll change that."

"You can still change things now, Nissas. We have a war to fight," said Talaos.

"I will give you my answer shortly," said Nissas. Then he turned in the saddle to face his officers around, "Officers of Aledri, I hereby order you to stand down, no sooner than thirty
minutes from now, and then convey Warlord Talaos and such men as he wishes to accompany him to my offices."

Then the G
eneral of Aledri rode back into his camp, accompanied only by his two guards.

Talaos looked around him. The Madmen looked uncertain.
Tescani's face was a steel mask, and Adriko put his fingers thoughtfully to his chin.

Time passed. Talaos spent it giving orders and organizing his men. Messengers came from Kurvan and Aro that they'd taken control of Dromno's men, and that Dromno's remaining officers had professed ignorance of any plots.

At last, the time arrived.

An Aledri captain rode forward, saluted Talaos, and then turned again. Talaos followed with the Madmen, two squads of his Wolves, and Adriko. As they passed through the fortified neighborhood that comprised the Aledri camp, he could see the soldiers looked grim and watchful. Some lowered their heads as he passed, but many others saluted.

They reached a large building, the headquarters of a consortium of merchants, now in use by Nissas and the Aledri command.  The doors were open, and the guards there had a different expression. Sadness. Talaos left most of the men outside, and went in with the Madmen and Adriko. There was a well appointed entrance hall of marble, brass, and tile. They passed from it back to a hallway with smaller offices on either side, and a larger one at the end.

The door at the end was of decoratively painted and inlayed wood. A guard stationed there bowed his head, and opened the door. Talaos entered the office. There on the floor in front of a gilt-painted desk was Nissas, lying with his own sword through his heart, and his right hand still at the hilt. His tunic and cloak were blue, in the color of his city, but they were now drenched in red. Around him, several officers of Aledri either kneeled nearby, or sat, slumped miserably in chairs.

Talaos looked at his now dead foe, the man who'd opposed him time and again since his actions during the taking of the city. He thought of the choices he'd made, and those that Nissas had made. Now, he thought, time to make better ones. He lowered his head as he surveyed the fallen General of Aledri, and raised his arm across his chest in salute.

The officers in the room looked at him with wonder amid their solemn misery.

"Release Tribune Lurios," he said to them. "He is in command for Aledri now."

The Aledri officers looked surprised. They paused, and some glanced doubtfully around. Then, one by one, they raised grim salutes to Talaos.

~

Outside the Aledri district, a delegation of well-dressed Avrosan civilians arrived. There were some Talaos knew well, a number he hadn't seen before, and three in the dark gray tunics, but not the gear or armor, of the disbanded Avrosan army. With them were two figures that surprised Talaos.
Liriel, and Milo the musician. The latter was sitting on a stretcher.

Liriel walked towards him, wearing her red dress. She had put kohl around her eyes, and red paint on her lips. With her was an old man in rich but rumpled dark blue clothes. She spoke. "Talaos, I hope you don't mind that I've been a bit busy tonight. This is someone you should meet, though you may have heard of him."

"I'll guess that you've been busy for a while before as well. Thank you," smiled Talaos, as he took her hand. She returned the smile, and their eyes met. He felt it, like a bit of lightning of its own. But he had much to do. He squeezed her hand, then released it. Then he turned to the man, who raised a hand in greeting. Talaos thought he knew him by description.

"I am Akaros," the man said. "Hail and greetings, Warlord Talaos."

Talaos raised his own hand, "Hail and greetings. Akaros... formerly of the council?"

"Until I went into hiding during the rule of the Prophet's followers, yes."

"Then welcome back. How can I help you?" replied Talaos.

"You are doing a fine job of that thus far,
Warlord, despite the manner of your arrival," answered Akaros in an eloquent voice. "But I understand your meaning. First, thank you for saving Milo, a great composer and musician here in Avrosa... who paid a price for his interest in the music of the Prophet. There is more, though, much more."

Talaos nodded as Akaros went on. Nearby, Adriko sat in his saddle looking amused, and Tescani watched with sudden, calculating, interest.

"We, the men and women who have joined me here tonight, are most of the remaining prominent citizens of Avrosa who'd opposed the Prophet. I doubt any of us would have been left in another year. We... and I... wonder what you plan to do with us, or rather our city."

"I'm merely one of several remaining commanders in our army," answered Talaos.

"You seem to be the one who matters now. But regardless of the views in your army, many people of Avrosa believe you are the Storm Lord reborn, and here to save our city again. Many have followed you already, and now more await your word."

"I am not the Storm Lord," answered Talaos, firmly, "though it is possible I have some connection with him. However, it is true that I am of the storm. It is with me, and it is within me. I did not come here to save Avrosa, but to fight the Living Prophet."

Akaros spoke, his eloquent voice rising in intensity, "Then if not the old Storm Lord, you are still the new, and whether or not you came to Avrosa to save us, in fighting the Living Prophet, you have done one and the same."

Talaos listened as the man continued.
Then he replied to Akaros with sudden intensity in his own voice, "So be it. Our fight is the same. I will help you, and I will help Avrosa."

Looks and whispers passed among the Avrosans, and made their way to Akaros.

Tescani nearby, leaned forward in his saddle, intensely focused on what was unfolding.

Back in the crowd, voices shouted, "The Storm Lord!" and, "Offer it!"

Akaros lowered his head in thought, then raised it with a fierce, earnest expression on his age-lined face. He spoke again, his voice loud, powerful, yet clear, as one long accustomed to public speaking, "Warlord Talaos, many in Avrosa see you as our savior. By their wish, by your actions, and by the soldiers at your command, Avrosa is at your feet."