City of Blaze (The Fireblade Array) (43 page)

“Yes?”

She hesitated at his harsh tone. “If you please, lord-captain, I wish to ride with you until you go to battle.”

What was this woman drinking? “You may not. Go back to the caravan where you belong.”

Aval looked indignant. “But you take your benay-gosa into battle. Isn’t that obscene? If she can go then I should too.”

This was just what he needed; a nosy noblewoman who followed Artemi’s every movement. How to cover this one up? Vague, he’d have to be very vague. “Artemi will be kept safe. And if I see you near any of my lines I will have you forcibly removed, and sent back to wherever you came from!”

He turned Tyshar away from her and galloped back to the throng of army uniforms.

It wasn’t long before the column got moving again. Morghiad felt alone without her riding beside him. He could sense that she was some way back in the line, feeling embarrassed about something. Probably the men were teasing her, as they liked to do. He hoped it wasn’t about last night. After all, many of the soldiers enjoyed the company of their wives on these outings, that’s why they brought them. Snow began to fall heavily from the low clouds, obscuring the view of the pass ahead. This was a dangerous situation for an army not used to such conditions. If the rogues were based up here they’d know how to use it better than he. Morghiad did not want to be surprised by them. He wanted that element for himself. He’d have to cheat. He turned his head to the two cloaked and hooded men riding behind him. “Ride to Beodrin and tell him to get this cleared two miles ahead of us.” One of the men nodded and galloped back in haste.

The sensation of Blaze Energy filtered through him from Artemi and, simultaneously, he felt it burst out behind him. Before him, the snow parted as if it were a giant frosted veil moved aside by some unseen hand. Tyshar’s ears pricked forward. There was no doubt the animal could sense it, perhaps he could see it. They pressed through cleared lands, deeper into the pass. Within six miles they would come across numerous markings on the map which no one could quite understand. Various theories had included castles, wells or volcanoes. Morghiad was inclined to think it was whatever they’d least like it to be: caverns. Everyone had been trained for fighting in confined spaces, but it was still the nastiest situation to be caught in. And if the rogue army had a wielder with them they’d be trapped like rats in a hole. Artemi had come to him at a very opportune time. Four riders came into view ahead, the scouts.

The captain rode forward to meet them. “What news?”

The men looked between each other nervously. The blond one spoke first: “We found their tracks, lord-captain. The army is big. Possibly bigger than we are.”

“I don’t need analysis. Give me numbers,” Morghiad growled.

The short, square tracker spoke next: “We think maybe fifteen-thousand, my lord.”

The kahr clenched his jaw tightly. He should have gathered reinforcements, contrary to his father’s wishes. But a big army was not nearly so manoeuvrable or so fast. They would never have caught up to the rogue men with swollen ranks. And the professionals were so much better against mercenaries... assuming that’s what these men were. He had brought them this far and had to push on. The captain knew though, in order to limit unnecessary casualties, avoiding any engagement altogether might be the better option. “Right. What else have you learned about them?”

The blond man looked nervous. “These men have... disappeared.”

Morghiad’s emerald eyes blinked. “How?”

“We followed their tracks to the edge of a cliff. They simply ended there. No bodies at the bottom.” The tracker’s horse twitched, sensing his rider’s unease.

The kahr thought for a moment. “Did you check the cliff face for caves or openings, hidden trails?”

“Of course, lord-captain. We couldn’t see anything. We’ve left the other four there, searching for more clues.”

That was a mystery. Still, no army could simply disappear, and certainly not one made up of fifteen-thousand men. He needed to be cautious. “Fall in, men. Tell what you know to the lieutenants, but don’t start a panic.” He turned to the men behind. “Halladin! Go and tell the wagons to stop here. They must travel no further into the pass.” Morghiad had a very bad feeling about the storm he was leading his men into.

They reached the cliff on a double-quick march once the wagons had been dispensed with. Morghiad had the men stop quarter of a mile from the edge so that they didn’t end up in some sort of horrid massacre. Artemi was somewhere in line in Beodrin’s battalion, but he could feel through her fire that she was desperate to leave it and join him. She would have to stay there, though. He wasn’t about to risk her in an area where an army had gone missing without explanation. Further, the other four scouts hadn’t ridden back to meet them, which was concerning. The kahr gathered Silar, Jarynd and Hunsar together to survey the cliff. They galloped up to the edge and inspected the trails that led over it. Hundreds of footfalls were evident in the snow. Some of them had belonged to horses. There were even tracks of wheeled vehicles, possibly chariots. All simply terminated at the edge of the cliff. There was no sign of the four missing scouts. Morghiad took a handful of snow and threw it over the precipice. It fell, as it should have done, straight to the bottom. “Feel anything odd, Jarynd?”

The wiry man shook his head. There was no sign of Blaze having been used here. The amount needed to hide an army would have left some sort of mark. Artemi tugged at him in his mind, her flame burning ferociously. No, he wasn’t going to bring her out here. Would there always be a mental battle of wills like this? Morghiad examined the view from the cliff again. He could see for miles across the Kemeni peaks, probably to the city of Tordhani on a clear day.

He kicked at the snow in frustration and re-mounted Tyshar. “Let’s go back, lads. This may be a case of waiting.” The four of them ambled back to the army deep in thought. Morghiad tried to think through every myth and tale he had read which involved missing armies. Some spoke of castles hidden in Blaze Energy, one had described cloud of stones and another mentioned animal disguises and moving trees. But none had talked of cliffs! The soldiers were gossiping away furiously when he returned, news had spread quickly about the mystery. By now Artemi was hammering at him for attention. The kahr had no choice but to search her out, and there was time now, in any case. He followed the heat of her fires to her position, deep inside the ranks with Beodrin. Her dark eyes had lost their usual warmth, and glittered wildly at him. He could not help but appreciate how excellent she looked in black and green, though he had not come to moon over her – this was business.

“Use me to explore the geology,” she demanded before he could speak.

The men around seemed to accept her tone to him as normal. Perhaps that was an allowance they made for
the queen
. If anyone else spoke to him like that they’d be in some serious trouble. Evidently Artemi had detected his annoyance at her address, as he felt a pang of guilt from her. But she suppressed it quickly, and then all he could sense from her was the warmth of her love.

“Give me your hand,” he said. It couldn’t hurt to have a look.

Morghiad had come to accept that he had indeed become addicted to handling Blaze Energy from her. He had never felt so alive as when the fire of it tore down his arms and through his torso. It was part of the fury that had made their love making so... rapturous. It ripped into him now, pulling at the fibres of his being, trying to burn him from the surface of the Earth. He closed his eyes to sense the world around him. He could feel the condensation of the horse’s breaths on the air, the stamping of thousands of hooves and feet upon the ground, the soft touch of snowflakes as they teased the ground. Morghiad reached further down into the earth. He found a sort of fault line that ran parallel with the cliff in front of them. It ran vertically through the stone. The kahr looked deeper still. The entire, hole-filled cliff was sitting on something. It was...

“A pillow of water,” Artemi said.

Morghiad opened his eyes and nodded, releasing her hand. “Thank you, my heart.”

He turned his horse and rode it back to the front of the lines. “Broad reach, men!” He ordered. This was utterly crazy. But if a bigger army had survived it, so could his. The hooded and cloaked soldiers arranged themselves into lines only a few men deep, but many men wide. “Forward, one-hundred paces, double-time!” His voice echoed between the peaks.

The entire Calidellian army marched forward at some speed over the fault line. As they did so, the captain began to feel the earth tremble. “Faster!” he yelled. More soldiers sprinted onto the vast block of stone, causing it to undulate. He sighed with relief when they’d all made it over the fault line. The ground continued its gentle earthquake for a moment after they’d all crossed and then, slowly, it began to sink. The entire cliff, with soldiers on top, descended below the floor of the pass, drawing down small avalanches of snow at the edges. Vast walls of rock rose above them until they were level with what had been the cliff bottom, and then even that rose above them. They descended into the bowels of the Kemeni Mountains themselves.

Morghiad ordered the men to have swords at the ready as they dropped. It was fortunate that they heard him over the noise of scraping boulders. Whoever that rogue army was, they would be waiting to trap him when they hit the bottom. Assuming there was a bottom. Artemi’s flame kicked and jumped from the considerable amount of exhilaration she was experiencing. That girl did seem to find thrills from of the strangest things. Eventually the descent slowed and a vast, fire-lit cavern came into view. The captain did not like caves in the earth. Why couldn’t it have been a nice tunnel to the outside world? He was surprised to find that no enemy waited for him. That was curious. Where were they all? When the floating stone stopped he ordered the men to offload sharply, which they did with appreciable smoothness. Once empty, the great cliff rose behind them slowly again. Morghiad took in the new surroundings as quickly as he could. The vast cave split into two branches ahead of him. The entire thing had been hewn by hand many centuries ago by the look of it. Vast drawings of hunters and rulers adorned the walls in a style he wasn’t familiar with. It certainly wasn’t Kemeni. Sadly none of the murals or numerous scratchings on the floor looked like a map. This was a time when he could really do with the knowledge of a hero of legend.

Someone had been down here recently enough to light the lamps, and he had to assume they knew he was here now. If they hadn’t come for him here it meant they must have a better trap for him elsewhere. Blazes, how he hated caves! He wanted to keep Artemi a secret for now, so it was best he avoided using her for sensing what lay ahead until he became desperate. They might not feel her, but with all these hidden niches they could see her. The cliff stopped moving behind them, bringing about a deathly silence. “Alright men. Luna’s battalion with me. Rest of you stay here for now.” Over nine-hundred men surged behind him in a flurry of black and green. He moved towards the left exit of the cavern and sniffed at the air. Having spent years living in that twisted warren of a castle, he knew the smell of old cavern air against new. The left exit smelled old, very old. “Round to the right, men.” The band trotted into the right exit. It smelled much fresher. They came through to another open cavern. A narrow bore at the top let in a thin bar of light. “Just like home,” he whispered. The sound echoed around the stone walls. “Sorwyn and Talonfor, fetch the rest of the men. We may have to do this in steps.” They nodded and vanished back into the blackness of the tunnel.

The army progressed cautiously through the network of caverns, Morghiad choosing an uphill route where he could. They passed through chambers that could variously be described as meeting rooms, theatres and practice halls. Every one was empty, and this only served to heighten the suspense. The captain feared that, through a lack of knowledge of the caves, the enemy might find a way round to the back of his men and take them unawares. To combat this he placed the weaker soldiers in the middle, and his best men at both ends. Much to her disapproval, he put Artemi in the middle also. The kahr stepped up to the entrance to another wide tunnel. He could smell dampness through this one; lots of water. He motioned for the men behind him to be quiet. They were excellent at that; at times Morghiad was very proud of his army. The kahr was doubly proud of the speed at which they’d dispensed with pinh-covered blades in favour of poison-free ones. At first he and the lieutenants had led by example, but then more and more men had imitated them. Soon, he hoped, it would be a practice that was looked-down upon. He could sense a great deal of tension rising in Artemi as he moved forward. The captain took her emotions as a caution; if the legends about her were right, her instincts were usually reliable.

He trotted to the end of the tunnel. There was light; lots of fire light there. Then he saw faces in row upon row, several-hundred yards away. An entire army poised to cut him to pieces. And he had nowhere to run. “Forward, men. Narrow round!” He shouted at them. The rogue army ahead surged forward to meet him and he drew his sword with a roar. He had to get his men as far in as possible to give them the best chance. As he drew close to the enemy he noted their faces has been daubed in black mud, presumably from the caves. Tyshar dashed through the shallow stream of water that lay on the cave floor. Behind the blackened army he could see a castle of red stone. A fortress. In a cave.  His sword slashed through the first three soldiers he met in a single swipe. They’d placed their worst fighters at the front, leaving their best to meet his men once they’d grown tired. Morghiad cut down soldier after soldier, the motion becoming so repetitive that he lost all sense of time. The Calidellian army fought with superior skill to those first soldiers, and made good progress through them. Dimly he could sense that Artemi was fighting hard as well, and sweat had broken out upon her brow. She would have enough skill to be safe for now. A tall, muscled man with ancient eyes came to face him. Morghiad knew better than to underestimate him and flew at the vast man with all speed and strength. His foe reacted with lightning rapidity, evaded his strike and slashed Tyshar’s girths. The horse screamed, knocking soldiers down left and right with kicking hooves.