Warlords Rising (33 page)

“Grass?” An Meiling repeated, sounding scandalized.

“I was raised by the Tonkowacon,” he reminded her, starting
to feel dry drunk. “A blanket of stars and a bed of grass is all we need.”

Li Shen put a hand to the small of his back and steered him
out. “I think we can at least find a blanket and pillow, young warlord.”

Trev’nor hadn’t been joking. In his state, just being horizontal
would be enough to get him fast asleep. “Well, if you insist.”

“We do,” Li Shen chuckled. “Ah, what it must be like to be
young enough to not worry about waking up with a crick in your neck.”

No, he likely would. Trev’nor was just too tired to care. He
followed his host amiably through the dark houses. “Oh, I almost forgot. I have
a full letter explaining everything and a pouch of money for Garth. Also,
separate letters for Vonlorisen, and Shad and Aletha. Can you make sure those
are passed over to Garth when he arrives?”

Li Shen cast him a glance. “You will not stay and meet with
him yourself?”

“Naw, I’ll skip that lecture, thanks all the same. Besides,
if I stay long enough to meet Garth, he’ll keep me for
hours
, and I
don’t have that kind of time.”

“I think you will regret it later if you do not stay and
properly talk to him now.”

“I end up regretting a lot of things, Li Shen. None of them
have killed me yet.” Although Garth might, when he eventually did catch up with
them. Ah, well.

He’d worry about it tomorrow.

Trev’nor had woken and escaped Q’atal before Garth’s
arrival, which he felt a fortunate thing. Becca felt like he would regret it
later, as avoiding consequences never led to anything good, but it had been his
decision to make. They heard nothing from Strae, but they had no way of
contacting the three mages directly aside from traveling up to Trexler
themselves. With the influx of students, they couldn’t afford to send anyone
after them, and the three young mages used that to their full advantage.

They spent two weeks in Trexler, and while it was chaotic,
it was also strangely peaceful. Becca found that the people of the city didn’t
know how to respond to magicians at all, and oscillated between being extremely
polite and letting old habits surface. Sometimes they would say something rude
and cutting to her, then realize what they had done, and apologize profusely.
It was hard, but she was patient with them, as she realized that it was
cultural prejudice that made them react so. Habits were the hardest thing to
break and losing her temper about it would not make anything better.

Trev’nor and Azin spent half their time outside of the city,
working with the soil and making it ready to return to the fertile land it was
meant to be. Once they were done, they turned it over to Becca and Nolan.

Becca spent a good portion of her day training with the
soldiers. She realized in taking Trexler that they were accustomed to fighting
with magicians, but the only methods that the soldiers knew were to use the
magicians like cannon fodder. She wasn’t about to let them go into battle again
with that mindset. Trev’nor dropped in upon request, helping her train, and had
to bite the inside of his lip often to keep from laughing. Becca knew why
without even asking. Her training methods were scarily like Aletha’s, with a
little Shad mixed in.

In between other duties, Nolan snagged them whenever
possible and schooled them on running a country. Fortunately Nolan was a kind
teacher. Ruthless about homework, though. Becca learned more about governing a
country in two weeks than she ever had reading history books at Strae.

At the end of those two weeks, they realized that the city
had settled tentatively into a rhythm with their new leaders. The whole of
Trexler was still feeling the aftershocks of being conquered, certainly, but no
one seemed to mind it much. Between their dragon watchdogs and the new
officials running day-to-day matters, they felt like it was time to move
onward.

Which brought about the question of their northern neighbor,
Riyu.

Becca called for a strategy session with Danyal, Trev’nor,
and Nolan in the newly renovated office. Well, she said renovated, but all they
had done was take out the gaudy art and furniture and replace it with more
sensible choices. Becca was glad to have an office she could work in without
feeling blinded by it. She settled at the head of the table, and waited as the
men joined her. “Well. Let’s start off with problems. Commander Danyal?”

“We are experiencing problems, mostly from people entrenched
in the old ways that don’t want to change,” Danyal started off neutrally.
“However, these are minor complaints and easily dealt with. We have more issues
with too many officials learning their jobs all at the same time. It’s causing
gaps and inter-office conflict.”

That didn’t sound good. “Anything major?”

“No, it’s very minor. Anything major and you would already
be feeling the effects of it.”

Point taken. “Anything else?”

“Sagar seems to be struggling with the new rule more than
Trexler,” Trev’nor informed her, “but when I visited there yesterday they were
making good strides in the right direction. I mean, people were happily melting
down slave chains and selling the ore. I think Sagar was worse off than Tiergan
because it’s closer to Riyu’s borders. It wasn’t as protected as Tiergan. If we
can prove to them that we’ll protect them from Riyu, we’ll have their full
support.”

“That’s what we’ll do, then. Nolan, I assume our dragon
watchers in Sagar are doing fine?”

“They are. In fact, they’re quite happy, as they have all of
that yummy fish in the sea at their disposal.” The way Nolan said this
indicated he had heard All About The Fish, in more detail than he probably
cared for.

“So, anything major enough to detain us from moving on to
Riyu?” she looked around the table expectantly.

“Not that I know of,” Trev’nor denied, “But how did you end
up running this meeting?”

“You want to take over?” she offered, perfectly willing to
let him lead.

“No, no, you’re doing splendidly,” he assured her in grand,
rolling tones. “Carry on, fearless leader.”

“Hmmm.” She stared at him suspiciously, not sure if he were
up to something or not. “To return to my question, nothing major? No? Then
let’s talk about Warlord Riyu. Commander Danyal, what do you know about him?”

“Not a great deal,” Danyal apologized with a slight shrug.
“He’s ruthless. Unprincipled. Greedy. Much like our last warlord.”

Nolan rolled his eyes. “Lovely.”

“Warlord Trexler often complained that he was more clever
and stealthy than a snake in the grass. I didn’t ever meet the man in the
field. Most of my time was spent either defending a city from one of his
commanders or training. I will say that fighting against his men never led to a
good outcome. Even when we won, we lost.”

Trev’nor tapped the table with a finger. “Explain that.”

“We might win the battle, but usually the body count was so
high it felt more like a loss,” Danyal clarified. “It might be different with you
mages in the mix. You’re powerful enough to hit him head on, which we were
never able to do. You might be able to defeat him swiftly enough that he can’t
employ his usual tactics.”

Becca started praying that was the case. “Do you think the
same battle tactics that we used to defeat Trexler will work on Riyu?”

“At least with the first battle, yes. It’s an overwhelming
amount of firepower after all.”

“Then let’s go with the same tactics.” Becca stood so she
could lean over the table and get a better look at the map. “The question is,
which place first? We have two within reach of our territory.”

“Alred Watchtower?” Nolan offered. “I think Jashni is too
close to Riyu’s capital city.”

“I’m inclined to agree.” Danyal gestured to Jashni as he
continued, “We only attacked Jashni once and it went very badly. If you want to
see for yourself how this man fights, how he guards his territories, then Alred
is a better place to attack first. It’s not as large as the sister-cities and
even though it is very well guarded, it will be a better place to try an
attack. The con to this decision is that Trexler always attacked Alred. They
are always prepared for battle.”

“Not as many men deployed there, but also more on guard than
the other cities.” Trev’nor balanced both on open palms, hands dipping and
raising like a balancing scale. “Decisions, decisions.”

“I think we should still hit Alred first.” Becca’s mind spun
with logistics, battle strategies, and what little she knew of the lay of the
land. “It doesn’t really matter if they’re more prepared and on guard than the
other cities. After we attack one, they’re all going to be war-ready, if they
weren’t already.”

“No such thing as an easy target, eh?” Trev’nor said
rhetorically.

“I’m afraid not,” Commander Danyal agreed with what might
have been a sigh. “Warlords, Raja, are we set on this course?”

Becca did a visual check with both of her friends, getting
nods of agreement. “It seems we are. Then, let’s leave two days from now.”

“That soon?” Danyal objected.

“We don’t need to take a lot of men with us,” Trev’nor
explained to him. “The same ones that fought with us before, and the ones that
Becca has re-trained will do. We need the rest to stay at their posts here and
help maintain the orders we’ve given.”

Danyal looked set to argue this but paused, really studying
all three of them for a long moment, then shelved what he was going to say.
“Two days, then.”

“That means that, Nolan? You and I need to get out there in
the desert and make sure that Trev’nor’s hard work doesn’t go to waste before
we leave.”

“You need to do that now,” Trev’nor added firmly. “You leave
the soil baking under the suns much longer, I’ll have to go out and re-do
everything. And that will not make me happy.”

“Right now,” Nolan promised. “Ah, Becca, you have a storm
coming in already, I take it?”

“It’ll arrive sometime tonight. Unless you want me to hurry
it along?”

“Just a tad, if you would. It’s best to water seeds as soon
as you plant them. Hours of delay doesn’t help things grow.”

She gave him a casual salute. “On it. Well, sounds like we
all have our tasks laid out. Meeting dismissed.”

The boys readily stood and left the room, discussing soil
and nutrients and planty-things as they went. Commander Danyal stayed her with
a hand. “My Warlord. About the uniform you requested made for you.”

Becca paused just out of her seat. Actually, what she had
asked for this morning was a uniform that would fit. Uniforms fit males and
females equally well, with some adjustments. She knew that by watching Aletha
steal things from Shad for years. How this had become a custom-ordered item,
she didn’t know. “Yes?”

“The Rikkan and Rikkana have strong opinions about a woman
wearing a male uniform,” Danyal informed her blandly.

“They need to get over those opinions,” she riposted,
fingers drumming unhappily against her thigh. “The rest of the known world has
female soldiers. Khobunter is the startling exception, and I refuse to let it
continue.”

“I had a feeling you’d say that, my Warlord. Your uniform
will be done by tomorrow, as long as you can do a fitting for it today.”

A slow grin took over her face. “You didn’t listen to them
at all, did you?”

“Warlord Becca is
our
military leader,” he stated
succinctly. “It’s only right for you to be in uniform.”

“I knew there was a reason why I liked you, Commander. Very
well, where do I need to go for the fitting?”

“I’ll escort you, my Warlord.”

This was not the first time she had asked such a question
and gotten that as an answer. “Commander, I have learned the layout of the
city, you know?” More or less. “You can tell me where it is. I’ll be able to
find it.”

He gave her that patented ‘she’s being dense but I’ll be
patient’ look that people wore a lot around her these days. “Raya. You are now
warlord.”

For a split second that statement didn’t make any sense at all.
Then it did and she rolled her eyes to the heavens in a silent prayer. “Hence I
need a bodyguard or escort wherever I go?”

“It is proper to have one.”

She eyed him, evaluating the expression on his face and
trying to judge just how far she could push this. “You’re not budging on this
one, are you?”

He gave her a slight smile but didn’t say a word.

So uniforms, yes. Bodyguards, no. Becca decided to pick her
battles. “Very well, Commander. Escort me, then.”

“Yes, my Warlord.” Danyal promptly went to the open door and
waited for her to join him.

As she passed by him, she observed, “You are a stubborn,
stubborn man, Commander Danyal.”

“I have no argument, my Warlord. I will reflect on the
shortcoming later.”

Uh-huh. Suuure he would.