Warlords Rising (28 page)

Trying out her best smile, Becca greeted, “Hello. What’s
your name?”

“O-omid,” he stammered out.

“Where are you from, Omid?”

“R-rurick,” he managed, looking more alarmed at this
question than the first one.

“Are you?” she asked, genuinely happy to hear this. “Would
you like to go home?”

He looked at her as if she were saying something to him in a
foreign language, even though she had deliberately spoken to him in his native
tongue. “Home?”

“Yes, home. We left Rurick protected so it could not be
reconquered.”

“That was your doing?” another, younger soldier blurted out.
As soon as he had spoken he clamped his mouth shut, appalled he had said
anything.

She turned her smile to him in reassurance. “That was us. We
were worried about the city being conquered while we were gone. We’ve been
trying to find where all of the people went. We want them to go home again.”
Phew, that had been close, but she’d managed to think of all the words she
needed to explain.

Omid stared at her hard, face like carved stone, his dark
skin making him look like smooth obsidian. “What do you want?”

“Magicians to be free,” she answered simply. “Khobunter to
be free. Help me.”

“What you want,” another, older soldier said, “is not
possible.”

“No,” his brother soldier sitting next to him denied slowly,
“I think it is. They defeated us in an hour. Less. There’s only five of them. Commander
Danyal follows them. They have
dragons
. I think they can do it.”

Feeling like she’d connected to at least one person, she
held out her right hand to him, grasping it firmly when he took it. “Swear to
me loyalty. Do that, and you can go home.”

The man looked wistful. “Truly?”

“My word as a Riic.”

The suns flirted with the top of the horizon, sinking slowly
and heralding the night. Trev’nor was so tired that he was flopped next to
Garth’s side and tried very hard to not just fall asleep right there. How long
had it been now since he’d had a full night’s sleep? Three? It was hard to
remember. Today alone would’ve been exhausting in anyone’s opinion as he had
either flown, fought, or walked around talking to soldiers the whole day. This was
the first time he had been able to go horizontal.

Trev’nor hovered in that realm belonging to flying elephants
and incredibly punch-drunk sleeplessness, in that dicey area of giggling like a
child or crying. The only thing that distracted him from doing so was the
mesmerizing feel of stubble scraping along the rocky soil under him. He wanted
to sleep. Desperately wanted to sleep. He couldn’t, of course, there was too
much turmoil for his brain to shut off. While they had divided up the enemy
soldiers by hometown, and spoken to them about returning home, there were still
people to organize and decisions to be made before they could call it quits.

He nuzzled into the ground a little harder. Nice ground.
Undemanding. Smooth and rough in equal measure. Smooth, rough.

Smooth.

“Trev, why are you nuzzling the ground?”

He didn’t open his eyes as he responded to Becca. “I like
it. It likes me. Mutual kinda thing.”

“Uh-huh.” The exhaustion was clear in her voice, bleeding
into her words, but still she tried to stay light and teasing. “Hey, Nolan, I
think Trev’s lost it.”

“He’s done more magical work than the two of us combined for
three days straight,” Nolan pointed out, the words accompanied by the crunch of
gravel as he walked over. “Of course he has. Trev, you do realize that your
magical level is getting too low?”

Trev’nor cracked open one eye to stare generally upwards.
“Noooo, you don’t say.”

“Sarcasm, sure sign he’s gone over the edge,” Becca intoned.
“Trev, you’re hereby banned from doing anything magical for at least a day.”

She had a funny idea of punishments. That sounded like bliss.

Fortunately for everyone involved, Trev’nor had an amazing
dragon that knew when to let his mage sleep and take over. “Work done?” Garth
asked them.

“Mostly.” Nolan dropped like a sack of potatoes and grunted
at the impact. The grunt sounded like relief. “We’ve sorted through the leaders
and put the dangerous ones all in a separate holding area. The others are clear
that they can go home, they’re not part of the military anymore. A lot of men
are happy about this, actually. Some of them haven’t been able to go home in
six years or more.”

That didn’t sound right to Trev’nor. He prodded his brain
back into working order long enough to force out a question. “How many of
them?”

“About four thousand.”

“Trexler must live in a constant state of war-ready,
otherwise why keep all of those troops on hand?”

“It does tell you something about his neighbors, doesn’t
it?” Nolan agreed. “Either that or he’s one of those paranoid people that
over-prepare. Commander Danyal reports that the warlord left about two thousand
troops back in Trexler that will need to be taken care of as well. He suggests
having the commanders and captains that joined us ride in on dragons to be
visible for the troops and the citizens, show them that they’re on our side. He
hopes this will lower the casualties when we take over.”

“How many were there this round?” Trev’nor couldn’t help but
ask.

“Sixty-two accidentals, which, while not great, could have
been higher. There are also three-hundred seventy-four soldiers who refuse to
surrender,” Becca said quietly.

“Ah.” The three fell into quiet contemplation as the weight
of the lives lost and the lives yet to deal with fell on them. Unable to handle
the emotional stress, Trev’nor went back to nuzzling the ground.

At some point, who knows when, he fell asleep. He awoke
feeling more than warm—almost hot and sweating—with the smell of dragon
strongly in his nose. Blinking, he tried to stretch and failed as his arms were
trapped, legs tucked up into each other. He blinked again and found that there
was a whooshing noise in his ears that he knew well at this point. Was he
flying?

Lifting up his head, he glanced around and saw nothing but
blue skies and the occasional cloud drifting by. Garth had him firmly tucked up
against his chest, like a sleeping child. “Garth?” he called loudly.

The dragon cocked an ear his direction. “You awake?”

“Just now. Where are we going?”

“Trexler.” The dragon had a rumble in his chest of amusement.
“You not wake up earlier.”

Ah, hence why Garth had just picked him up and flown off
like this? Just as well. When Trev’nor got truly exhausted, he became
impossible to wake up unless he had at least twelve hours of sleep. “How far
away are we?”

“Not far. Look.”

He turned his head more and craned upright into a
half-crunch and found a city sprawled out below. Trexler easily contained a
population of sixty-thousand. It had huge walls all around it, wide enough for
at least four carts to ride side by side on top. The city seemed crammed to the
gills with houses on the inside but there was not one permanent building
outside of the walls. That, too, told Trev’nor something about the neighbors of
this province. People didn’t feel it was safe enough to live outside of the
walls for any length of time.

The architecture didn’t seem all that different. It was the
same type of stucco he’d seen before, thick mud walls that kept the suns and
heat out, tiled roofs. The only variation came from the colors, the city painted
like a rainbow of every possible color. It was bright enough from here to seem
garish.

There was a lot of activity in the streets below. Trev’nor
got a better look as they flew over the city itself. They had ninety dragons
with them, each dragon carrying soldiers or prisoners in their claws. The
guards below were up in arms about that. The citizens were racing for cover.

Trev’nor understood their nervousness as he rather shared it
at the moment, although for an entirely different reason. If he had lots of
solid earth under him, or was securely strapped into a saddle, he could handle
his phobia of heights. But resting in a dragon’s claw while flying hundreds of
feet off the ground? Not so much. Panic started to clog his throat and he had
to fight the urge to latch onto Garth’s nearest claw for dear life.

“Do not worry, fledgling,” Garth rumbled at him. “Will not
drop you.”

That didn’t really do anything to reassure his taut nerves.

“If I fall,” Garth continued, amused—because of course
dragons didn’t understand fearing heights— “I will hit ground first.”

“Garth, no offense, but that’s not reassuring. You’re not
very squishy. Landing on a bunch of scales will not be softer than bedrock.”

The dragon gave a gravelly bark of laughter.

This good-natured bickering stopped as Garth back-flapped
hard and brought them into the center of the city. Trev’nor caught a glimpse of
banners hanging off the side of the building and didn’t think it was any
coincidence that Garth chose to land on the warlord’s castle.

Trev’nor gratefully dropped out of his dragon’s clutches and
put his boots back on solid rock. As he did so, he looked around and saw that
all of the mages had been dropped off on the balcony, although only some of the
dragons chose to linger. While the ledge was thick and wide, it could only
support two dragons at a time, and the others chose to branch out and perch on
the adjoining walls instead. Other dragons swooped in long enough to deploy
troops and prisoners in the middle of the courtyard before taking off again,
heading off in all different directions. Trev’nor assumed Nolan was directing
who went where. They weren’t asking for orders, and there wasn’t any sign of
confusion, so this must have been worked out beforehand.

A man sure did miss a lot while he sleeping.

The unfortunate guards on the wall or in the courtyard below
scrambled to form up and then stopped dead as they were faced with their own
countrymen and how to fight several dragons at the same time. They never had a
chance to figure out the answer before Azin stepped forward and collected their
weapons and shields with a sweep of her arm, throwing them all into the air.
Trev’nor expected her to gather them all into a pile like last time, but
instead she let them hover, blades down, directly above the men’s heads.

Dragons were bad enough. But to be threatened by your own
sword? It was a soldier’s worst nightmare.

“Commander Danyal, if you would,” Becca requested. Trev’nor
couldn’t see her, Garth was between them and blocking his view, but she didn’t
sound at all nervous. Conquering cities was becoming familiar to her. Trev’nor
wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not.

Commander Danyal must have been riding with her on Cat, as
he stepped immediately forward and cleared his throat. In a booming voice, he
announced, “WE ARE THE CONQUERERS OF TREXLER. WE HAVE THE WARLORD IN CUSTODY.
IN ONE HOUR, WE WILL SIT IN JUDGMENT FOR HIS CRIMES. ALL WHO WISH TO WITNESS
ARE WELCOMED.”

That said, he stepped back.

Trev’nor blinked. Was that it? Stepping around Garth’s, he
asked, “Shouldn’t we say something more?”

“Oh, Trev, you’re awake.” Becca looked more than a little
windblown, hair in a messy braid over one shoulder, growing circles under her
eyes. Still, she seemed perky. “Have a nice nap?”

“I did, yes.” And boy had he needed the sleep. “Is that all
we’re going to say?”

“What more do you suggest?” the commander asked him.
“Announcing your names, that you are conquering Trexler, what your demands
are?”

Trev’nor thought all of that was a given. “Well, yes?”

“But if we do that, we sound like every other conquering warlord,”
Becca explained. “Which we want to avoid doing. We want to give a different
first impression.”

“That this is more about the removal of a bad ruler than a conqueror
muscling their way in?” Trev’nor stated, feeling his way through the concept aloud.
“Smart. Hopefully that works.”

“Nothing to lose by trying.”

Commander Danyal turned sharply left. “I need to get down to
the main level and start organizing things.”

“I’ll take you down,” Trev’nor offered. He swirled some of
the rock forming up the wall into motion, building a small platform with it.

Danyal did not appreciate this offer at all and he eyed the
rock like it was poisonous and would bite him. If he could have refused, he
would have, but doing so would send the wrong signal to everyone watching.
Trev’nor recognized the stubbornness for what it was and bit down a smile as he
escorted the man onto his moving stones. “I won’t let you fall,” he assured the
man softly. The weirdness of repeating what his dragon had just said was not
lost on him, and he smiled at the irony.

As they descended, Trev’nor took advantage of the height to
get a bird’s eye view of the situation. It got confusing quickly as everyone
was in the same uniforms, but what it looked like was their troops were taking
advantage of the confusion and general dragon-induced panic to subdue Trexler’s
troops. Anyone that tried to put up resistance was quickly taken down, and it
was so isolated that no opposition could get any momentum.

Surprise attacks, when executed right, were a beautiful
thing to behold.

The commander stood at military parade stance the entire
trip down. For his sake, Trev’nor made the landing as smooth as silk and
pretended not to notice Danyal sweating. Before he could step away, Danyal
caught his arm. “Raja. I had a thought on the flight here.”

Trev’nor was all ears. This man understood Trexler far
better than he did, after all. “What is it?”

“You said that not all of the magicians in Tiergan were actually
magical. What are the odds of it being the same here in Trexler?”

“Very good. The odds don’t seem to change much no matter
what land you’re in.”

“Can you take some of my soldiers and go free the slaves
here? Then bring me all of the ones that are not magical. I wish to prove this
point in the trial and it will be easier if I have living proof in front of
me.”

The original plan was for the mages to be silently subduing
threats so that the trial and execution of the warlord wouldn’t be interrupted.
But Trev’nor didn’t think it would really take all of them to manage this. Azin
and Becca alone could keep this castle from being re-taken. That didn’t even
include the dragons. “I can do that, yes. Who do you suggest I take with me?”

“Captain Hadi and his team.”

“I’ll do that.” Trev’nor silently applauded this
conversation. It was the first time that Danyal had taken the initiative with
them, which was exactly what needed to happen; otherwise they wouldn’t be able
to leave Trexler and continue on. “Bring them back here?”