Guardians of Magessa (The Birthright Chronicles Book 1) (26 page)

"We wouldn't have noticed if it
wasn't for the magicians here," Lemin countered. "Sure, we would have
noticed tomorrow, but they think that damage is already done. With the armies
of the country headed to Saddun, we would have to send messengers to find them
once we realized what was happening, a process that would take days. As I said,
their plan is all about speed and surprise, and in this case,
misdirection."

"So, let's say that I subscribe to
your theory," the Grand Admiral of Saddun said. "What then?"

“If that is indeed the case, we won’t have
to worry about the city,” Josiah commented. “We could probably take all of the
soldiers here with us without concern of a repeat attack.”

“That is not a good idea,” an elfin
general said. “The three thousand men will be sorely missed at the battle;
however, if any renegade dwarves wander back this way, we need to have a force
here, however small, to beat them off.”

“In either case,” Lemin said, “the
messengers will have the academy send dragons here as well as to the battle.”

“So let me get this straight,” Wellter
interrupted. “I will take my soldiers around to the front of the dwarf army
while the humans here and the ogres that are coming will attack at the rear of
their army, leaving only a force of three thousand to defend Saddun. While we
are moving into position, two messengers will be racing to the academy in
Belvárd to get us air support. The academy will send dragons to both the battle
and here to Saddun. We can attack the dwarves while they are sandwiched between
the marsh and the mountains. The terrain will compress their battle lines and
prevent them from circling around us. Two large armies, one elfin and the other
from Magessa, are coming to this city, so when we defeat the dwarves, we should
move to Belmoth to defend it against any attacks. This position will assure
Magessa’s defense for the moment until we can sort out the situation.”

The next hour was spent ironing out the
details of the campaign. Josiah found most of this very boring and wished that
he was in bed. Only one part of the entire meeting interested him—the point
when it was decided who would go to the battle and who would stay in Saddun.
Lemin volunteered his cadets to guard the city. There were no people
enthusiastic enough to undertake the responsibility so several companies of
soldiers were ordered to join Lemin’s cadets. It was suggested that Josiah’s
soldiers should also stay in the city, but Grand Admiral Wellter would not hear
of it. The cadets' performance in the last battle had been so exemplary that
the idea of them staying behind was quickly discarded. The discussion turned to
other details, and Josiah listened, but did not participate. The only other
detail that he caught was when the army was supposed to leave the city.
Everything after that was a blur. He vaguely remembered walking from the grand
admiral’s headquarters to his tent and telling the legion’s watchman what time
he wanted to be awakened. The last thing he remembered was falling into bed.

The next morning came much too early for
Josiah. He was awoken by one of his men, and as he sat pulling on his boots, he
realized that he had only gotten a couple hours of sleep. Slowly he stood to
his feet, stretched, and stepped out of the tent. His four remaining captains
were lined up in front of him, and to their extreme right was Cirro. He was
holding Josiah’s sword and armor, as was his custom. He approached Josiah
quickly and started to help him into the equipment, but Josiah silently refused
the help and performed the task himself. When he had finished, he took the
sword from Cirro and strapped it around his waist, straightened, and looked at
his captains. His attention was immediately drawn to the fifth empty spot.

“Yesterday’s battle was brutal to
us," he said after a moment of consideration. "Our ranks have been
diminished to such an extent that we no longer have enough soldiers for five
companies. The soldiers from Captain Terza's company will be redistributed to
replenish your ranks. Keep in mind that we will be fighting alongside soldiers
of the highest caliber so be sure to control your soldiers in such a way that
would bring honor to Gatlon and Magessa. The army will be leaving in an hour.
You are dismissed.”

******

Senndra yawned and raised her head from
her pillow. Pain immediately flooded her skull, and she fell back onto the bed.
Shaking her head to clear the mental fog, she slowly slid her feet over the
edge of the bed and sat up. Every bone in her body ached, but she wasn’t about
to let that stop her from getting up.

“You okay?”

Senndra slowly raised her head to see
Vladimir sitting on the bed opposite hers. He was dressed in his cadet uniform,
and though it was a little tattered, he looked fairly presentable. Senndra
looked down at her own clothes and realized for the first time since she had
awoken that she was dressed in her battle uniform. Though her armor and weapons
lay on the floor at the foot of her bed, the rest of the outfit was as she
imagined it should be. Her clothes were torn and dirty, and the left leg of her
pants was split up to the knee. She remembered the wound in her leg, but
strangely she felt no pain there. Painfully she bent at the waist and used her
hands to probe the skin on her leg for the wound.

“You won’t find it,” Vladimir said.

“What?” Senndra asked as she sat up.

“The wound on your leg,” Vladimir
answered. “Some of the elfin magicians came through here before they left this
morning and healed many of the major wounds. I used to have a broken leg, but
they fixed it up just fine,” he finished and gave his leg a pat.

“So the elves came in here before they
left,” Senndra repeated. Suddenly her eyes flew open in realization. “They came
here before they
left
? Where did they go?”

“After the dwarf army,” another voice
answered. Senndra turned to see Timothy approaching. “What are you doing,
Vladimir? Telling her just enough to answer the questions? If I were you, she
would have already known all about that.”

“Then tell me about it,” Senndra said.

“The majority of the army is chasing down
the dwarves before they get to Belmoth,” Timothy began, but Senndra interrupted
him.

“Belmoth?” she said. "Because that
would give them an easier entrance into the country!"

“That's what we think,” Timothy agreed.
“Since Belmoth has not received news of our attack yet, the dwarves will be
able to take them by surprise. Plus, all of the armies of Magessa are probably
rushing here in answer to our messengers, so Belmoth will be a prime target for
the dwarves.”

“So who’s chasing them?” Senndra asked.
She slid down to the foot of her bed and began to strap her greaves on.

“The elves and some three or four thousand
men,” Timothy answered. “Rumor has it that an army of ogres will arrive here
tonight, and they will be sent to aid in the battle. Speaking of which,”
Timothy said, directing his next statement to Vladimir, “we just got a part in
this battle.”

“Yes!” Vladimir yelled as he jumped up
from the bed on which he was seated. “It’s about time. So what are we doing?”

“You and I are going to be messengers,”
Timothy answered.

“Messengers?” Vladimir spat in disgust.
“What kind of a job is that?”

“A better one than you might think,”
Timothy answered. “The alternative is to stay here in Saddun in case of another
attack. Besides, there’s a reason they need a magician on this assignment.”

“You’re starting to make it sound exciting,”
Vladimir said. “So where are we going, and what message are we carrying?”

“You might want to sit down again before I
tell you,” Timothy said. “We are going back to the academy and taking a message
for help.”

“
The
academy? As in the one in
Belvárd?" Vladimir asked in disbelief. "And what help do we need now?
We already won the battle.”

“If you would stop interrupting, you would
find out sooner,” Timothy answered. “We have to get to the academy and tell
them to send dragons to reinforce our armies in the upcoming battle with the
dwarves.”

Vladimir nodded then suddenly froze.

“How long do we have to make the journey?”
he asked. “That battle is going to happen a long time before we can reach the
academy, unless…don’t tell me that we’re going over the mountains.”

“And running the whole way too, so you’d
better leave most of your things here,” Timothy said.

"Why running?" Vladimir asked.
"We have horses; why not ride them? Wouldn't we travel faster?"

"Horses can't cross the
mountains," Timothy answered. "If we rode, we would have to go around
the bottom of the range, making the journey almost three times as long. Running
will be slower to be sure, but we'll get there sooner this way."

“You know, I think that I might want to
stay here instead,” Vladimir said.

“Okay,” Timothy responded. “I should be
able to make the journey by myself.” He turned and started to walk away, but
Vladimir ran after him.

“You know what? I just changed my mind. I
think that I want to come with you.”

“Then get ready,” Timothy said. “We leave
in an hour.”

“Right,” Vladimir said and dashed out of
the barracks, presumably to pack some belongings. Timothy waited for Vladimir
to disappear through the door before turning back to Senndra.

“So I found these laying on the ground
somewhere,” Timothy said. He handed Senndra her sword and bow which she laid on
the bed beside her.

“Thank you,” she said, but he didn’t move.
“Was there something else?”

“Do you want to talk yet?”

“About what?” Senndra looked up at
Timothy. As tall as he was already, this was definitely not a dominant
position, something that she would need if this was the argument that she
thought was coming.

“You know what I’m talking about,” Timothy
said. Senndra rose to her feet, but a wave of pain shot through her skull in
protest. Timothy’s next statement was cut short as he reached forward to keep
her from falling.

“Are you alright?” he asked as he helped
her sit back on the bed.

“Yes,” Senndra answered. “Just a little
light-headed from lying down for so long.”

“Well,” Timothy said. “I know you’re
probably feeling like the back end of a horse right about now, but I’m not sure
when I’ll see you again, so I’m not leaving until I’ve said what I have to
say.”

“That’s fine,” Senndra answered. “Just say
it down here where I can actually see you.”

Timothy crouched in front of Senndra, but
to her annoyance, he was still taller. The bed that she was sitting on had to
be as short as possible without actually resting on the floor. She shook her
head and motioned down again.

“Really?” Timothy asked. “You want me to
get on my knees.”

Senndra shrugged.

“Whatever it takes to bring you to my eye
level.”

“Fine,” Timothy said, a slight smile
playing across his lips. He sank to one knee and looked straight into Senndra’s
eyes. “Is this low enough?”

“I suppose so,” Senndra conceded.

“Good,” Timothy said. “I know that you’re
mad at me for not telling you about my being a magician. Even though I had my
reasons, I understand if you’re angry and don’t want to talk to me. I only ask
that you listen to what I have to say.

“I never intended to hurt you or anyone
else by keeping this secret. I don’t know, maybe I should have been more up
front about it. Whatever the case, if you still want to be friends, you need to
know right now that I have more secrets than just being a magician. I have good
reasons for keeping them, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I might tell you
what they are eventually, but as of now, they aren’t things that I want to
share.

“In light of this, I’ll understand if you
don’t trust me anymore, but I wanted to let you know that I never meant to
upset you or anyone else. I hope we can still be friends.”

Timothy waited on his knee for several
seconds, hoping for a response. Senndra was silent, so he stood and was about
to leave the barracks when she spoke.

“Of course I still want to be your friend,
Timothy,” Senndra said. “Under one condition.”

“That depends, what is it?” Timothy asked
warily. He assumed that all hard feelings had been dispensed with, but that was
no reason to agree to something blindly.

“You have to help me stand up without
falling on my face or passing out,” Senndra said. “I’ve been down here for so
long I think I’ll do one or the other if I try to stand by myself.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Timothy
said. He offered Senndra his hand and pulled her to her feet, maintaining the
grip long enough to make sure that she wouldn’t fall.

“Well, you have a mission to prepare for,
don’t you?” Senndra asked. “You’d better get to it.”

“You’re going to be alright now?” Timothy
asked.

“As long as I take it slow,” Senndra
assured him. “Those elves might have fixed me up, but I’m still ridiculously
sore.”