Equa, capital of the Respublica Universalis Equestrica, 27 BC
Smart Cookie chewed thoughtfully on her baked-in pie.
“So you say this Senate guard claimed to represent the authority of the Senate?”
Clover nodded and swallowed the rest of her own pie. “So he said.”
“And he asked you if your mentor left you anything?”
Clover nodded again.
Smart licked her lips. “Did he seem sincere? Is there a possibility that he was an impostor?”
Clover shook her head. “Seemed to genuinely believe what he was saying to me.”
Smart shrugged. “Odd,” she said, “as one of the two praetors, I usually know everything the senators have going on between them. It is quite impossible this guard of yours represent the Senate majority, but I imagine it might possibly be…”
She stopped and looked around the small plaza where they were sitting on a bench and eating.
“…vrasic a splintchelli oba mor tourug a Senacht vousich ou maltise uhpp te puhpp choot.”
The use of Old Earth-Ponyish surprised Clover. She translated it in her head, silently thanking her master for recommending her to learn all three pony languages.
“…a splinter group from a certain clique in the Senate advocating a violent response to a certain fiend.”
She leaned in closer to Cookie. “Who?”
Her friend stood up and stretched.
“Sorry, Clover, I have to go now. I will ask around and try to find out about who this guard of yours is working for.”
With that, she trotted away over the plaza in between ponies and carts dragging up large amounts of dust that had settled one the ground. Clover sat and watched the middle-aged mare she had become friends with on the very first Hearth’s Warming Eve almost twenty years ago disappear in the crowd. Then she looked down on the name Cookie had written in the dust with her hoof.
“Celestia preserve…” she whispered, and quickly brushed the name away with her hoof.
Clover got her first eerie feeling of alarm bells ringing when she noticed that the door to her home was half-open, despite her leaving it closed an hour earlier.
She swallowed and carefully pushed open the door completely, her horn glowing with a knock-out spell she just held back.
“H-hello?” she asked into the dark hallway, but got no answer.
Carefully she checked every room for any signs of other ponies, but to her relief found none. A second later, she realized that that might mean the intruders had found what they were looking for. She scurried up to the first floor, where her master’s bookshelves were emptied across the floor and desk. Too her horror she noted several illustrations and notes corresponding to things she had seen through the medallions. Hopefully whatever it was her master wanted her to see through them was not written down anywhere else.
She had a creeping suspicion what it was…
She turned away from the door and continued down the short hallway, hopping over a tipped commode. At the end of the hallway was the toilet. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she balanced on top of the seat, trying to reach for the small polished wooden box she had placed on a shelf just above the door to the little room. Then she rolled her eyes at her own stupidity and used her magic instead.
The box came floating down in front of her face, and she breathed a sigh of relief as it opened to reveal its still-present contents. Realizing she had to finish watching the memories soon, before somepony else found the amulets, she pulled out the third one from the box.
Part III - Through Water And Earth
29th day, 7th moon, 17th year of the reign
Only a quick and harmless journey they said. Nothing out of the usual expected, they said. Damn those pegasi sons of mules, I will swear they knew this storm was approaching. The waves are twelve ponies tall, for Celestia’s sake! I feel like every internal organ in my body is about to come hurling out my mouth. Damn them all.
30th day, 7th moon, 17th year of the reign
I staggered across the unstable deck and virtually threw myself against the rail, throwing up uncontrollably into the dark and foaming sea.
As I finished, I heard a laughter behind me over the howling of the wind. I swirled around and lost my balance, falling right in front of Admiral Íppo. He extended a hoof and helped me up, still laughing.
“You getting anywhere on growing those sea legs, landlubber?” he said with a grin.
I glared at him angrily, but he did not seem to take notice.
“I thought you said the passage would be easy, Íppo.”
He shrugged. “Just a little bit more trouble than expected, nothing we are not able to handle.”
“The waves are tall as houses, in Celestia’s name!”
A lightning bolt struck in the distance, and Íppo had to yell his answer to me over the thunder. “We know what we are doing! Return to your cabin, Marlin!”
He wandered off down towards the bow, and I followed him in an erratic pattern as I tried to keep my balance.
“You pegasi move clouds all the time! Why has it not occurred to any of you that you could clear out the storm?!” I asked as he stopped at the rail on the other side of the ship and looked out into the storm.
“You still here?” he asked in annoyed tone, before answering.
“The wind blows from the southwest, Marlin.”
I blinked a couple of times unsure how to use this new information. “Uh…”
Íppo did not face me, but I guess he rolled his eyes at that point, judging by the tone of his next sentence.
“You are supposed to be a magic expert. How do you think pegasi can interact with clouds while other kinds of ponies make squishy red stains when we drop them there? The use of magical spells work by manipulating latent magical force, right?”
I nodded, realizing now why this salty sailor was an educated and appointed admiral and not the brute military stallion I had mistaken him for.
“And if we say that using magic to accomplish something creates ripples in this field like water in a pond, where and when does the ripples stop?”
“When all the energy is dissipated, usually when it hits the shore.”
Íppo kept staring into the dark, keeping the rain out of his eyes with a hoof. “Why?”
I hesitated. “Er… because the ground is denser than the water and hence absorbs the energy better?”
“And so it is with magic. When clouds pass over inhabited areas where unicorns use magic, they are denser than the air around, and absorbs magical energy disturbances that move upwards. Somehow this repels pegasi bodies. Your friend Oropédio has postulated that pegasi have an inherent magical force that…”
A lightning bolt struck to the south and illuminated the sea. Suddenly Íppo’s head moved in a way that made me guess he had raised his eyebrows. When he spoke again, his tone was grave.
“In any case nopony lives to the southeast, so we cannot interact with the clouds. Now, if you will excuse me…”
He turned and ran across the deck, grabbing hold of a pony I guessed was his second mate.
“A new tack!” he yelled into the pony’s ear to be hear over another bout of thunder, “North-northeast! I want the sail fully extended!”
“In this weather?!” the younger pegasus yelled back.
“And get the soldiers below deck on the oars, all of them!”
“With all due respect, sir, these waves will flood in through the oar ports and we may break several-“ the second mate protested, before being cut off by the Admiral.
“Shut up and do as I say! And signal the other ships to do the same! Move!”
I looked over the rail and soon saw three rows of oars extending from the sides of the ship. I had completely forgotten that I was aboard a trireme, not an ordinary sailing ship like we used in Unicornia. Another thunderclap brought my attention to the horizon, causing me to scout for whatever the Admiral had seen. I saw nothing, save what might have been an unnatural movement in the water. I decided to ask him instead.
“Íppo!” I called out as I struggled over to him.
He turned to me. “Marlin! Get your things from your cabin! It may be past midnight, but you might still get a swim before the day returns!”
“What is wrong? What are we fleeing from?” I asked, slightly distracted by the fact that a ship had pulled up to our side, having a yelling conversation with the second mate.
The Admiral did not seem to take notice. “Have such a landlubber and outlander such as yourself heard of Skylla?”
“Who?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by loud screams and a horrifying crack. We spun around and saw the bow, the back and the mast of the other ship disappear into a foaming sea as a curtain of water hit the surface after being shot up into the air just seconds earlier.
We were all too shocked to say anything, but the second mate’s “Shit!” summed up at least my personal feelings fairly accurately.
The Admiral closed his eyes and mumbled. “Luna, master of the skies and protector of the night, deliver us, your faithful servants…”
I shook him gently. “Admiral! There is no time for that! What just happened to that ship?”
“…we who are but innocent fishermen hunting our enemies to feed our kin, trying to create a life for ourselves through the work we do. So I beg of you to spare these good…”
I slapped him over the face with my hoof, causing him to stop and blink a few times.
“Oh, yes of course. We have t-“ he managed to say before one of the sailors screamed. Everypony turned and looked around for him, but he could not be found anywhere on deck.
“What was that?!” I yelled.
“There is no time!” Íppo yelled back, “Go down below and get the rowers up here! All hooves on deck!”
He virtually threw me towards the hatch that led to the lower decks. I hurried down to the upper of the three decks, where my little cabin was located in a corner. I quickly grabbed my books and amulets and stuffed them in my saddlebags, before heading out to the main rower area.
“You all have to get on deck!” I called out to the pegasi soldiers, who looked confused from me to somepony I assumed was the deck commander, standing over by the mast.
He frowned. “What was that?”
I galloped over to him and had just opened my mouth when cracking sounds and several yells turned our attention to the starboard rowers. All their oars had disappeared out the openings in the hull, save for a few broken pieces whose previous users held in their hooves and looked confused at.
I looked back to the deck commander. “You have to get everypony u-“
I could say no more, as the entire world exploded around me.
I groaned and stood back up. To my horror the entire deck was almost empty, save for a dozen or so rowers who disappeared screaming one by one in blue-green flashes of scales, eyes and teeth that came crashing through the hull before disappearing again. Similar crashes and screams could be heard from the decks below me.
I felt as frozen, completely unable to process the shock. As if in a trance I put my hoof to a small red spot I could see on my muzzle. I assumed it was blood, but I could not feel any pain, so I turned to the deck commander to ask if I had a nosebleed.
His headless body wheezed and appeared to take two steps towards me, before collapsing at my hooves and sending another squirt of blood in my direction. That finally broke the spell.
I jumped behind the only cover large enough to hide me, the mast going through the center of the room. The hull on the other side only had a few holes, meaning that I could not be seen from that direction.
A low growl, or rather an ear-rattling growl that was supposed to be low, brought my attention to a shiny bronze shield one of the rowers had left leaned to a rower bench. In it, I could see the horrifying reflection of a yellow lizard eye as large as my head, scaly dark blue and dark green skin, and an upper row of teeth as long as my front leg.
Then the tongue came. I stood on my hind legs and squeezed by back against the mast as a split snake tongue as wide as both my legs searched around in the air right in front of me. One of its tips was less than half a hoofwidth from my eyes. I closed my eyes and forced myself to suppress my heaving breath and thumping heart. At that moment I was certain my death was seconds away. But then the tongue disappeared.
I stayed in my awkward position up against the mast for several minutes before peeking around it. I could only see the stormy sea. I let out a relieved groan and staggered over to the stairs.
On the deck everything was chaos. Ponies ran back and forth, covered behind various debris, or leaned up against the rail, grasping… pieces. I found the Admiral in an argument with the second mate, who had gotten most of the feathers in his left wing ripped out and was bleeding quite a bit.
“We have to abandon ship!” the second mate yelled.
The Admiral shook his head. “Let us not make any rash dec- Marlin? You are alive?”
He had noticed me hobbling by a group of injured soldiers from the rowing decks.
“I am not totally sure!” I called back, “I feel like I have seen the inside of timberwolf.”
“We thought there was no way anypony else could survive that pummeling the lower decks got.” he said as I came up to him, “That group over there only barely made it out with heavy injuries because they were already on the way out.”
“Well, apparently I did. Would you mind explaining me what exactly just tried to k-“
I was interrupted by a flurry of movement as the second mate started galloping towards the rail as the Admiral tried to grab him.
“Stop, you damn idiot, if you try to swim y-“ was all Íppo managed to say before the second mate leaped into the sea.
Within seconds something grabbed his leg underwater and threw him screaming up in the air, before being cut short as he was snapped out of the air by a head that quickly retreated back into the foaming sea.
The Admiral gritted his teeth, but now I decided I had to know what that thing was.
“I am sorry for him, Admiral, but would you mind telling me what that… thing is?”
His answer was interrupted by a nearby lightning strike that illuminated a horrific tableau for me. At least fifty of the fleet’s ships were within my field of vision, and at least seven of them were reduced to sinking husks without any sign of life aboard. An eight had the most frightening beast I have ever seen climbing up the side of its hull, its two dozen heads snapping at a frantic crew that tried to fend it off with whatever weapon they could find. Some attempted to fly away, but were snagged out of the air by the heads.
“Hydra.” I whispered.
I had seen hydras before, of course, with my master on excursions. Large, vicious creatures. But this… thing was three times larger any I had seen. And whereas normal hydras were yellow or brown swamp creatures with three to four heads, this blue-green demon had more than a score of heads.
“What is that abomination?” I yelled to the Admiral over the booming thunder, “How can a hydra grow that big?”
“Sea hydras are far bigger,” he answered, then moderated his voice as the thunder died down, “up to double the size, usually. But this particular specimen is Skylla, the Grandmother of Hydras, as we call her. Supposedly she is centuries old. She used to live in a cave by a maelstrom down south, growing fat on the crew of ships that tried to avoid the whirlpool. But eventually ships learned their lesson and stopped sailing there, sending her prowling this water for a new meal.”
He looked over the fleet. “And it appears we have brought her the feast of her life.”
An officer came up to us. “Sir, we need to give orders for the fleet to scatter, to minimalize casualties.”
The Admiral shook his head, “No. Then our forces will be crushed as soon as they make landfall. We need to stay together.”
I looked worried at them. “Will we even make it to shore? If that thing continues to attack ships at its current pace, we will all rest on the bottom of the sea hours before we see land.”
“Not in this ship, that is for certain. Large holes in the side of the hull that let in water like strainer tends to be bad for ships. I would say we have twenty minutes before we meet a watery grave. In the best case scenario, sir.” the officer, who I guessed was the quartermaster, said.
Íppo looked long and hard at the monster in front of us, then the stormy skies above us, and sighed.
“Get another ship over here to evacuate the crew and the remaining rowers. And get me my sword.”
As another trireme pulled up on our port side, I watched the Admiral undress. I was surprised that see that he wore his chest plate underneath the red tunic he had been wearing, but he only responded to my inquisitive look with a shrug. “Always prepared,” he said.
The officer came back with an elongated bag in his mouth, and gave it to Íppo. He pulled out a short iron sword, and placed it so that he could hold it firmly with his wing.
“Xiphos,” he said as if that would explain what he was doing, “short iron sword, easy to hold in your mouth and use in close quarters combat.”
I frowned. “And… what exactly will this excellent sword do against a six-floor murder-beast, again?”
The other ship dropped a gangplank over to our rail, and the officer took his cue to begin leading ponies over it. The Admiral and I walked slowly towards it.
“Several years ago, when the father of our current Commander was in power, Master Oropédio and myself were tasked with investigating ways to divert lightning from tall buildings, masts, and pegasi in flight, all of whom inexplicably were more susceptible to be hit by bolts. We failed. However, Oropédio discovered that ponies wearing iron objects were far more likely to be struck by lightning in flight.”
I looked from him, to the hydra, to the sword, to the hydra again, and to the mast of the ship, then back to the Admiral.
“No…” I said in an annoyed tone and with a grimace, “there’s no need to do that. We can work something out.”
He shook his head. “No. There is not enough time. Somepony has to do this, and it has to be either me or you. None of the other back-country bumpkins on this ship could be entrusted with such a task. Of us two, you are certainly the most important for the expedition our army is facing.”
“No, I am not,” I protested, “the Commander just brought me along to…”
My voice faded upon the realization that the Admiral might not approve of my true role.
“…to spy on us.” he completed, “I know. I am not an idiot. I know that you were placed on this ship to watch me for any signs of insubordination. However, while I may not agree with the Commander on everything, I respect his authority. And wherever our stallions are going, they will need a leader with authority. Keep him safe, Marlin.”
Leaning to the rail beside us was a young pink mare with a bright scarlet mane, staring glass-eyed into the air. The Admiral glanced at a bandage around her waist before turning to a pony I vaguely recognized as the ship’s doctor, who was just on his way up on the gangplank.
“Hey, Potamus! What is wrong with her?”
“There are pretty pixies in the trees…” the mare stated in an unclear tone.
The doctor flapped up on the plank with his wings. “Sorry, Admiral. She got a nasty slash in her side, and the other wounded had already exhausted my supply of sedating herbs. So I gave her a small dose of amanita.”
The Admiral’s brow furrowed. “You gave somepony psychosis-inducing mushrooms in a small, confined space such as a ship?”
The doctor made a face. “Umm… Yes. I told her to only take a nibble every two hours, but she ate the whole thing in one bite.”
Íppo groaned and tapped himself repeatedly on the forehead with his hoof, before pulling the mare up in a standing position.
“Hey! Watch it, peasant! You are… you are… running you hooves all over the queen of… of… I cannot remember…” she protested.
He sighed and placed her left front leg over my shoulders. “Here, take care of Athena here until you get ashore. She is special to me.”
I looked at him one last time. “Are you certain you want to do this?”
He nodded once and pushed me in the direction of the gangplank.
We got aboard the other ship as the fourth and fifth last. After the last pegasus the gangplank was lifted, and I could see Íppo at the steering oar, setting a tack towards the ship Skylla was attacking.
Although partially obscured by the tall waves, I could see the flagship ram into the other ship.
I was distracted by a soft nibble on my right ear. “Hey, you, stop doing that!”
My female companion giggled like a little foal. “You are… You are kind of cute, you know? Like… you should like… totally meet my uncle. He is like, like this sort of, like big shot. What is the word? Like admirable, you know, just different.”
I turned to the doped-out mare. “Admiral?”
She nodded, but followed up with an “Ooh, pretty lights!”
I saw the reflection in her eyes and heard the blood-curdling scream of the hydra, but I did not actually witness the happening myself.
However, I turned in time to see two smoldering ships go down with a whiff of burnt flesh in the air.
We saw no more of the hydra until we hit shore.
Currently I am in a tent outside the coastal Horthine city of Chlimíntrismapolis. No, I have no idea how to pronounce it. Anyway, my reason for being here is a bad flu I caught during the storm. It has constricted me to this tent for about two-and-a-half score hours, and while I am feeling better, I will likely remain in this tent for several days more. It annoys me greatly to be stuck here without knowing anything about the battle for the city or which way the wind is blowing for the campaign in general. Hopefully no news is good news.
4th day, 8th moon, 17th year of the reign, outside Chlimíntrismapolis
Bukefalos poked his head into my tent. “How are you doing, Master Marlin?”
I moaned. “Felt better, but…” I rolled out of the makeshift bed and onto my feet, “…I can walk. Do you need me for anything, Bukefalos?"
He made a motion with his head as if to follow him, which I did.
“We are leaving. Somepony will come pick up your things, but right now the Commander needs you on a boat headed upriver.”
I looked across the thousands of sleeping pegasi and hundreds of tents towards the silvery snake of the Gordan River on the other side of the camp, now pink-tinted from the sunrise. For the first time I got a good view of the small city on the side of it.
“It sounds like we are in a hurry,” I said.
He nodded, and found a small clay tablet he had been taking notes on.
“Indeed. How much do you know about our current situation?”
I shrugged. “Practically nothing. The only ones who have visited me in the tent have been the doctor and the mare that brings me food.”
He held out the tablet. “Take this. You can read as we walk.”
As we crossed the wakening camp, I used my magic to hold up the tablet so that I could read it, only interrupted a second while I grabbed a cup of water to drink from a table.
“Hmmm…” I said as I finished reading, and took a sip of the cup, “287 ships made it to shore, 29.700 soldiers in fighting condition upon landing, 345 lost in the attack on the city… Looks surprisingly good, all considered.”
“In no small part due to the heroic sacrifice of Admiral Íppo, if we go by your report and the statements of a certain sergeant named Athena, the ship’s quartermaster and its doctor.” Bukefalos said as we stopped for a marching platoon that was crossing our way, “We were able to hit the shore as one force in the early morning. I believe you arrived later, after the first assault, is that so?”
I nodded as we started moving again. “Yes. About four hours after sunrise. I was only allowed a quick digression to the Commander’s tent to deliver my report before being sent to my tent.”
“Well, the Hortinians did not expect us, luckily. We were simply able to swarm over their defense wall. The city fell within hours. We almost immediately started gathering…”
He paused as we reached the top of the riverbank, and I could see hundreds of straw boats with sails.
“…these. Fishing boats from all over the area. The Horthinians are mobilizing up and down the coast. They will be upon us within the week. So we are leaving behind a garrison of three thousand and then hurrying on with the rest of the army. The advance guard left before dawn, and currently the Supreme General Staff is being evacuated one by one, escorted by their personal guard vessels. The main body of the army will move out in two hours, followed by the rear guard at noon.”
I raised an eyebrow as we approached a small pier with several of the straw boats attached to it. “You really have planned this all out in excruciating detail.”
Bukefalos laughed. “We are the most militarized culture in the world, Marlin. We never leave anything to chance. Our contingency plans have contingency plans.”
At the end of the pier was General Kouaga, discussing something with a few of his soldiers while a number of others were loading supplies onto the vessel behind him. He looked up when he heard me and Bukefalos approach.
“Ah, Bukefalos! I understood from the Commander that our… guest will be accompanying me on my vessel?”
Bukefalos made no expression whatsoever, but I could sense that there was a certain tension between the two of them.
“You understood right, Kouagka. He is your responsibility now. Have a nice journey.”
With that he turned and started to walk away from us, but Kouagka raised his voice.
“Does the hornhead need anything special, Bukefalos? Do we have to perfume his grub or anything?”
“Nothing,” Bukefalos said over his shoulder, “but please, Kouagka, the Commander asked you to keep the racial slurs to yourself, remember?”
“Does it look like the hornhead cares?”
“Cut it.” Bukefalos said with finality.
Kouagka sighed and turned to me. “Well, looks like it is you and me now, hornhead.”
“I can hear you!” Bukefalos yelled from a distance.
18th day, 8th moon, 17th year of the reign, upper Gordan River
I stretched in the tenth sun I had seen since coming aboard that accursed boat. The whole time, hardly anyone in the crew spoke to me at all, Kouagka included.
Today, however, I was tired enough of this seemingly never-ending trip to approach him, and went aft to do so. The only cover in the small vessel, he had appropriated this area for his maps and sleeping blanket. The other eight soldiers aboard and myself slept under the open sky. In any case it was far better than the cramped conditions on the other boats.
He looked up from the map he was studying when I approached. “You want something, hornhead?”
“Yes. How much longer will it take before we hit land and stay there? This boat is driving me mad.”
“Just a few days now. Luna knows I need it, too…” he sighed.
“Could I ask you a question, sir?” I tried, sensing that he might be more willing to talk than usual.
He shrugged. “Fire away.”
“The night of the… hydra incident, I was talking to Admiral Íppo about why your pegasi did not simply clear out the storm.”
Kouagka raised an eyebrow. “I assume he gave you the full lecture? Yes, we need charged clouds, and yes, that is why we allow the hornheads in Pegasopolis. It is the only way of maintaining the clouds, stationary and capable of carrying weight.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, that was what I was thinking about. I wondered if the lack of clouds in this land was the reason why the army does not simply fly where it is going.”
“You hit the nail on the head, hornhead. We could not possibly fly all the way to Horthium in one stretch, and…” he motioned towards the hills and mountains visible beyond the riverbank, “those mountains are chock full of spies and scouts. In this desert-y environment, there are almost no clouds, and without clouds to rest on, we would be jumped the second we landed to make camp. By traveling by boat, we are hard to find and still move relatively fast.”
I looked over the wale and down on the docile brown shapes resting by the shore. “The crocodiles still worry me, though.”
General Kouagka stretched and laid down on his back, his head leaning against the wale. “You worry too much, hornhead. We are perfectly safe as long as we stay out of… the… water…”
He paused as his eyes followed the shaft of the arrow that had buried itself into the straw right next to his face.
“Oh, dragonturd.” he stated.
Three of the pegasi aboard, two stallions and one mare, fell over almost instantly with several arrows jutting out of their bodies. The rest covered behind the wales.
Kouagka hid under the map table together with me, until he found a shield behind a basket of weapons, which he used to cover himself during a crawl forward to the prow. There he turtled himself in, with only his head poking up above the edge of the shield.
From my low position under the table I could not see the archers on the shore, but I could see arrows slowly turning the straw deck into something looking like the skin of a porcupine.
“Sir, Hortinians!” one of the soldiers yelled.
Kouagka rolled his eyes and ducked under an arrow. “Oh? Why thank you, I had not noticed that.”
I dared to poke my head out from under the table. “Sweet Celestia, this is horrible! Is there nothing you can do about it?”
“Well…” Kouagka started, as three arrows bored themselves into his shield, “you could start by throwing those baskets with bows, arrows and strings over here.”
I turned around and found what he asked for. The items were quickly distributed along the wales. One of the soldiers nodded to Kouagka once they were all done.
“Okay,” he said with a single nod of his own, “get ready.”
All the soldiers placed arrows on their strings.
“Pick your targets…” Kouagka said.
The soldiers peeked over the edge, apparently looking for targets on the riverbanks.
“Stand up!”
They all did.
“Fire!”
Five arrows were released, and I could hear several groans and one scream from the right bank.
“Duck!” Kouagka yelled, and the soldiers narrowly evaded another swarm of arrows.
This process was repeated several times, until the arrow fire had subsided enough for Kouagka and myself to stand up on the deck without much risk of getting shot.
Kouagka yelled of his lungs’ full power. “Order! Maintain order and return fire! There are five hundred of them, maximum! There are thousands of us! Keep order and closed ranks, and stick to cover!”
I could now get a better view of the situation. A small group of Horthinian soldiers had apparently hidden themselves on either side of the river, and had used the tall riverbanks to position themselves optimally for firing at our boats.
As I looked down the river on the hundreds of boats behind us, I could see two things; one, the ships were being attacked all along the river, placing the number of attackers at least in the low thousands, not the five hundred Kouagka claimed; and two, an odd flare in the distance where the river turned around a cliff.
I turned and looked ahead of us, and gasped when I saw the advance guard a few minutes ahead of us in full flames. I swirled around again and saw the orange flare get bigger, as if it was coming closer or moving up along the boats.
“General!” I called out, “The Horthininans, they are setting fire to the boats!”
“What?!” he said as the first burning arrow slammed into the side of the boat.
The next few seconds were just incoherent chaos of yelling ponies and flames.
“Calm down! Use your helmets to get water from the river, you undisciplined foals!”
The Commander’s voice thundered from a few boats behind us. All the soldiers aboard did as ordered, quickly putting out the small flames before they were able to spread too much.
General Kouagka breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank Luna, if the straw had not been wet the crocodiles would have had toasted ponies for breakfast.”
“Speaking of crocodiles,” I said, “where did they go?”
Kouagka followed my gaze to the left bank. It was empty save for the odd Horthinian still standing. I observed they looked very much like earth ponies, but then I noticed the river. A dead pegasus was floating face down with the current, three arrows jutting out of his or her back. Then there was a glimpse of teeth and scales, and the body was gone, a red cloud in the water marking where it had been. The whole thing reminded me frighteningly of the experience with Skylla.
Kouagka let a long breath of air out through his nostrils, and tensed his jaw. “Patos, put on your armor.”
One of the soldiers, a violet stallion only wearing his helmet, lowered his bow and looked irritated at us. “But sir, it is so warm, and if I fall into the river, how am I supposed to swim with that on?”
“If you fall into the river without your armor, Patos, the crocodiles will- Mira!”
The last mare on board, who had been the closest to the prow on the starboard side, had interrupted Kouagka with a whimper. As we turned to her, she looked down with big eyes on the arrow stuck just above her left front leg. She tried to support herself against the wale, but on that part of the boat a lot of the wale had burnt away due to a fire arrow, meaning she just tripped over it and into the river instead.
Two of the soldiers lifted their bows and fired at the Horthinian who had taken the shot, while the rest of us stormed over to the wale.
The mare was ineffectually trying to grab a hold of the sailboat, smearing the hull with her own blood in the process.
Patos leant out over the wale and tried to get a hold of her, but could hardly touch her hooves.
The General turned to me with a hopeless look in his eyes. “Have you ever wished you had digits like a griffon, hornhead? If I got a gold coin for every time I wished for that, I-”
“Then you would have seven gold coins, sir,” Patos interrupted, “But if you could perhaps lend a hoof here, we could keep it at seven.”
Kouagka bit his lip and nodded, before leaning out next to Patos to attempt to get ahold of the mare.
For a moment it appeared as if they would make it. Then she suddenly disappeared under the surface with a panicked look and a gargle. The two stallions leaning over the edge looked completely dumfounded for a moment, until the water started to boil with activity.
The next few seconds passed as if time itself had been slowed down. Something slammed against the hull in what seemed like a long-winded thunder, my hoof moved infinitely slow towards Kouagka, one of the soldiers slowly spelled himself through the words “Watch out!”, and Patos pulled back… and then the General fell overboard.
I managed to get a leg around his waist before he hit the surface, but he tumbled around and his lower body broke the water. For a second I thought I would drop him, but then Patos leaned over again and got a hold of Kouagka as well. We pulled him up just as one of the crocodiles below snapped its jaws together right beneath him.
We fell onto our back on the deck, laughing like maniacs out of relief. I took a deep breath, and looked still smiling over to Kouagka.
Strangely, his face did not show relief. Rather, it was shock and beginning pain.
I frowned and followed his stiff gaze until I gasped. We had not pulled him up fast enough. His right hind leg was almost completely gone. Patos and I just stared at the wound and the piece of ragged bone poking out of it, but one of the other soldiers had more wherewithal than us.
“Tourniquet! The General needs a tourniquet!” he yelled, spurring a flurry of activity among the soldiers.
Kouagka looked at me and smiled sheepishly, before his eyes rolled up into his skull and he slumped over like a bag of flour. Seconds later two soldiers placed a tourniquet on his leg stump. Patos put his ear to Kouagka’s chest and listened.
“He still has a pulse!” he announced triumphantly, “Just hang in there, General, we know you are a fi-“
We all shook as something bumped hard into our hull again. The crocodiles could smell the blood.
“We need to do something about those… monsters!” one of the soldiers exclaimed.
I sighed and turned towards the rear of the boast, facing the vessels behind us. I could see several of the closest ones also had a problem with the crocodiles. So I closed my eyes.
Even ponies of the inferior- sorry, I should stop using that word, it is just a habit amongst unicorns I have been used to all my life. Even ponies of the other races are aware that unicorns can, with a bit of training, sense the use of magic and even other unicorns themselves, within a small vicinity. However, fewer are aware that everything around you is also sensed through magic. Everything carries a different magical charge, meaning that even if the ground you are standing on is not as shining bright as magic and magic users in the sight-touch hybrid that a magical scan feels like, you can still differentiate it from a tree with a bit of training. Miners in Unicornia train heavily in this field, as it enables them to sense underground lodes of materials of a density differing from the surroundings.
Under my master I had trained extensively in sensing. I was encouraged to experiment with combining the passive ability with an active spell. In fact, at the time of his untimely death I was working on a pet project that would let a pony’s subconscious do the sensing, and then have an automatic attraction spell literally pull the user’s horn gently towards precious stones.
Now, I faced the far easier task of identifying the crocodiles in the river from their surroundings. I could count almost three-score living creatures larger than ponies in the river. I could, at once, both see them move around and feel their heartbeat and the blood pumping in their bodies. Magical sensing and scanning was, as usual, highly disturbing.
However, I had no time to worry about that. Instead I focused on maintaining the six-hundred paces field of sensing while I used moving spells to freeze the crocodiles in their paths. Then I opened my eyes. Now holding every crocodile still, I could divert my power to lifting them.
The heaviest thing I had ever lifted up to that point was a boulder my master used to make me move around. The total weight of these crocodiles was at least five times heavier.
I groaned of exhaustion as the spell tapped energy from my body, but I was able to lift the creatures out of the river and over the masts of the boats. Several gaps could be heard. With a final burst of energy I tossed my head to my left, and the crocodiles were sent flying into the distance.
The boats were totally silent. I turned to my gaping crewmates. I realized this was my chance to say something clever. Something that would be remembered long after I myself was gone from this world.
“Hi.” I managed to say, before fainting.
“Sta- er… Marlin! Wake up!”
“
Huh?” I said, before realizing who was talking to me. “Oh, hi, Commander!”
“Hello Marlin,” the Commander replied, “nice beard.”
I felt my face with my hoof and realized I had not shaved since leaving Pegasopolis, leaving me with a short black beard.
“Why thank you, Commander,” I said, “but could I ask you something?”
“What is it, Marlin?”
“With all due respect; why are you lying on top of me?”
The Commander snickered. “I am not. I am holding you.”
I frowned, and noticed that my weight was indeed resting on his hooves rather than on the deck of the boat. The boat. Kouagka.
“Alex, General Kouagka is heavily injured!”
He nodded grimly. “I am aware of that. I got two of my best stallions to evacuate him on a stretcher.”
“Is that why you came aboard the boat?” I asked.
“Partially, Marlin. I assume it was you that taught the crocodiles to fly? That was damn impressive, I must say. Anyway, the other reason I came aboard was that I ordered everypony into the air. We have to fly as far away as we can before the Horthinians are able to deploy an army to stop us.”
I stretched. “Well, thanks for personally telling me. Could you get a stallion or two to come pick me up and carry me with them?”
“There’s no need.” he answered, “I already am.”
It took a few seconds to realize what he had answered. Then, I noticed hundreds of pegasi above and beside us look as if flying, without visibly moving. Finally, I looked down. The ground seemed like a toy world dozens of miles below.
I screamed like a little filly and crawled up on my carrier’s back, between his wings.
“By Luna!” the Commander exclaimed, struggling to maintain his course, “Stay still! You are heavy enough as you are, if you are not going to move around as well!”
“We- W… are in the air…” I stuttered.
The Commander rolled his eyes. “You do not say?”
I was still trembling like a puddle near a hydra’s footsteps. “We must be millions of hoofwidths off the ground, in the air, for Celestia’s sake!”
The Commander snorted. “More like forty thousand. I swear to Luna, if you have an accident up there on my back I will teach you to fly the hard way.”
We flew in silence, in my case shivering, for several more minutes before a young and slender cyan stallion in light leather armor flapped up on our right. One of the Commander’s personal guards flew a little forward to position himself between us and the stranger.
“Commander Alexálogos; Corporal Zoros, with the forward scouting division,” the leather-clad stallion introduced himself, “I come here to inform you of something we have spotted ahead. A plain that is higher in one end and surrounded by mountains and gorges on three sides. It is the perfect defensive position, and we can rest and reorganize there for several days before the enemy spots us.”
The Commander thought for a second. “It does indeed sound interesting,” he concluded, “I think I will follow up on that. Return to your division, Corporal, and tell them to await us at the plain. Make sure the surroundings are combed thoroughly for scouts.”
Zoros nodded and disappeared.
The Commander turned to General Ariegois, who banked over from our left, probably wondering what the scout had said. “Ariegois, we have a potential campsite. I want us to go in low. At my dive, everyone will enter a sixty-degree north-northeasterly approach vector towards the third valley to the right of that snow-tipped mountain. Got it?”
Ariegois nodded and slowed down, allowing the rest of the army to catch up with her. I turned my head and only now appreciated the magnificent sight almost thirty thousand pegasi in shining bronze armor was. I could see the General zip up and down in the large… flock, spreading the order. At that that time I realized that something the Commander had said bothered me.
“Wait,” I said, “did you just say dive?”
“Hold on tight, Marlin!”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit…”
26th day, 8th moon, 17th year of the reign, Unnamed Plain, ca. 240 miles west of Horthium
For a unicorn used to the temperate forests of northern Unicornia, the sun-scorched grassless plain in the mountains were like something out of a horrible nightmare. My hours were spent virtually knocked out, lying on a divan in my tent, waiting for the sun to dip below the horizon so that I could enjoy the temperate evening for an hour or two before the bone-chilling night set in, leaving me huddled under a blanket.
This evening I looked woebegone at the meager ration of dried grass and stale bread I had received; most of our rations and equipment that could not be carried in flight had been abandoned with the boats. I was lucky; there were only five tents left at all. Most of the army nestled around hundreds of campfires, lighting an entire section of the plain like a half-hearted reflection of the starry skies above.
I would have probably enjoyed the view from my relatively comfortable position on a carpet right outside my tent opening, if I had not been so distracted by my work with the alicorn spell.
“Let me see… …Crossing magical auras… …I need a mantra that puts the mind of the caster along those tracks…” I mumbled, chewing on some dried grass and scribbling in a scroll with a small wooden pen through my magic, “…what if… …No… …No, not clear enough… …From many to one… …No, there would be no way to integrate the magical field… …But what if I bounce the auras back and forth through a magical field transition between two subjects… …Yes, that should neutralize the unique individual aura signatures, allowing for eased absorption… …So… …Aha!”
I underlined From one to Another, Another to One several times. “I am a genius! I must say, Starsw- er… Marlin, you are truly one of the most gifted unic-“
I stopped and coughed heavily as I had breathed in a cloud of dust from a pegasus landing at a sharp angle right next to me.
“Hey, watch it! Try not to get sand in my ink, eh?” I yelled angrily at him, but the dark figure just groaned and staggered towards a tent, the Commander’s to be exact, a little up the gentle slope we were camped at, clutching his side. As he approached an untended campfire a few paces from the tent he collapsed.
I dropped what I had and galloped up to him. “Are you okay? Hello?”
He did not answer, but I could, as I approached him, see why he behaved so erratically; an arrow to his shoulder. I rolled him around on his back, and to my surprise the flickering light of the fire revealed the scout leader I had seen in the air a few days earlier.
I searched my mind for the name. “Zoros?”
He coughed, and I saw blood trickle from the corner of his mouth. I wondered about why for a second before I noticed a second, broken arrow protruding from his chest near the esophagus. It was a wonder he had been able to fly at all.
“Alexálogo!” Zoros gargled, “Tell him… Tell him that the Horthians are coming… Pass to the southwest… be here by dawn. All scouts there… gone.”
“Hang in there,” I said, standing up, “I will get help!”
“Nooo…” Zoros wheezed and touched my leg with his hoof, “…Tell… him!”
I bit my lip and nodded. “Okay. But then I will get you some medical attention.”
He nodded weakly and closed his eyes, smiling contently.
The tent opening was not covered, so I marched straight into the tent where the entire General Staff were arguing over a crudely drawn map of the plain.
“Commander.” I stated out in the air, “Hortinians are marching through a pass to the southwest. They will be here by dawn.”
Silence fell over the room, and everypony stared at me, even the guards stationed just inside the opening. Ariegois was the first to speak. “What? How do you know this, outlander?”
“A severely injured scout just landed outside. You might want to take a look at him, Surgeon General.”
Hippokrates nodded and disappeared outside, only to return almost immediately.
“Sorry, Commander, dead as a doornail.”
The Commander cursed. “Now we have no idea how many they are. Will General Kouagka be able to take to the field tomorrow?”
The Surgeon General shook his head. “We had to amputate most of his remaining leg, but he still caught a nasty bout of fever and gangrene. Recovery might take months, even if he does not die.”
Commander Alexálogos turned grim-looking back to the map table. “Okay, it seems we might have a few problems around sunrise. We will have to reorganize our battle plans. I will take personal command of the right flank, while Paltó will be reassigned to the left flank to cover for Kouagka. Hippokrates, you will oversee communications and make sure the battle plan is followed. You are authorized to adapt the orders if necessary.”
The Generals mumbled some affirmative words, but the Commander was already caught up in the battle plan. “Horthinians usually keep their commander behind a single line. If we wheel the right flank forward in a sweeping maneuver, they will be forced to turn their line into a wedge to protect their commander and meet our lines. The center will hold fast with pikes, while the left flank will separate after the attack on the right, those armed with spears extending their line and wheeling around to touch the right flank and enclose the enemy, while the archers will hang back to deal with any encircling movements. Meanwhile the rear guard has to make sure our formation is not disru- Yes?”
The Commander had been furiously moving his hoof around the map to illustrate his point, but it stopped simultaneously with his words when four roughed-up soldiers entered.
“Sir,” one of them said, “Third Patrol. We just spotted a very large Horthinian force by the edge of the plain.”
The Commander nodded. “We are aware of them, soldier. Do you have a count?”
The soldier hesitated. “We could not get too close, but by calculating the number of companies we reached around 60.000, camp followers not included.”
The generals in the room sent each other worried glances, but the Commander seemed dispassionate. “Nothing we cannot handle. Any idea who the general is?”
A short, whispering discussion erupted between the soldiers. After a minute or two the youngest of the quartet stepped forward. “I believe I saw somepony who had a large shiny hat, sir, riding a chariot pulled by two Horthinian stallions.”
The Commander frowned. “A shiny hat? Like a tall metal crown about twice the height of your head?”
The soldier nodded eagerly, and the Commander threw him a small clay token from a nearby bag.
“You have done good, soldiers. Take this to the food tent and you will get a double serving of wine.”
The soldiers bowed and disappeared. The Commander waited a few seconds before grinning.
“Yes!” he exclaimed, boxing in the air and dancing a little victory dance.
“What is the matter?” Hippokrates asked.
Pallas answered before the Commander. “Xenon III. The god-king of the Hortinian Hegemony himself has come to crush the invaders.”
Silence ensued, but I could see a new shine in the eyes of several of the generals.
“A god?” I asked, not wishing to ask directly for an alicorn.
Luckily the Commander understood what I really asked for. “No, just a slightly taller Horthinian of royal blood with a fancy crown. The Horthies revere him as a divine ruler, though.”
Pallas grinned. “We cut off the snake’s head, and the body will wither. We will be able to march on Horthium with no resistance whatsoever if we can get that big son of a mule!”
The Commander hit a small bell with his hoof, and almost immediately Bukefalos appeared as if from thin air.
“Everypony, I am aware that it is not fitting to sell the fur before the manticore has been felled, but we may all be dead by tomorrow evening, so tonight we feast!” the Commander exclaimed before turning to Bukefalos.
“Bukefalos, is the entertainment ready?”
Bukefalos nodded and went outside. Within minutes we could hear soft song and the thrum of a lyre.
“What a heavenly voice,” Strivó Paltó remarked.
“It is Lyra, the best lyre player in Pegasopolis, and the only unicorn with us except for Master Marlin here,” the Commander explained, “but now, here comes the best in food and drink…”
Five servants carrying plates of fruit and wine decanters on their wings entered.
“…and finally, some dancers from a village south of here!”
Three large Horthinian mares entered. They were taller than any of us, and with their colorful full-body dresses and ornate fabric headgear that only revealed the eyes, they actually looked a bit frightening at first. However, when they started dancing a jumping and swirling dance on their hind legs that sent the dresses spinning like multi-colored flowers, I think nopony in the room could help but feel a little hypnotized. The next hours are just a colorful blur to me.
I yawned as I trotted through the dark back from the Commander’s tent. Most of the campfires were dying now, leaving the camp almost invisible. I noticed my throat was pretty dry, and realized I had hardly had any wine.
Instead of fumbling my way back to my tent I instead made my way in the opposite direction, to the creek that serviced the camp as drinking water source. I found it when I accidentally stepped right into it.
I leaned down and grimaced at the smell. Hippokrates had ordered the latrines dug as far as possible from the creek and forbidden baths upstream, but the water still had a bitter taste I’d rather not think about.
My head bobbed up as I heard two familiar voices whispering out in the dark somewhere behind me. I held my breath to hear better.
“…will doom us all if he carries through with his plan, Hippokrates. We cannot let him do this! He must be stopped!”
“I understand that, Strivó, but killing him? Are there no other options? Could we talk to the others?”
“No. My word is nothing against his. Not even yours is more respected. We have to confront him and stop this madness by any means possible.”
“If you say so, Strivó, but I still…”
They disappeared back into the darkness. I searched with my ear and caught one last sentence fragment.
“…should strike as soon as we reach Horthium, it would be the best…”
I shrugged and made a mental note to talk to the Commander about what I had heard another night. Then I stretched and returned to my tent. I figure I will need a good night’s sleep.
27th day, 8th moon, 17th year of the reign, Unnamed Plain, ca. 240 miles west of Horthium
The two armies stood positioned in long lines of units, staring each other down. I sweated like a pig inside the bronze armor and plumed helmet they had given me. The whole place had a stench of all sorts of bodily excretions; and a lingering smell of fear.
I found it quite odd, smelling fear was something I thought only animals could do, but here I could make out a distinctly unique kind of sweaty musk.
My fascinating observations on smells were interrupted by the Commanding galloping up to the front a few units to the left of the place Hippokrates and I were standing, just behind the main line.
Alexálogo started speaking. “Greetings on this fine morning, everypony. I hope you have had a good night. You are probably expecting some inspirational speech, but right now I am too eager to start piling corpses to hold some sappy lecture about freedom and honor. Just know this; you are strong and capable warriors, and if everypony does their part, victory will be easy. You are the best soldiers in the whole damn world, and the enemy knows this. In fact I think I can smell them all the way over here.”
“Actually that is Thessalia, sir, she really had to g- Ouch!” a male voice yelled from the sixth row or so.
“Epirus, I swear to the gods I will smash your face into the gravel if you say one more word!” a female voice said angrily from somewhere near the same position.
“I will pretend I did not hear that,” the Commander continued, “but in any case; trust you orders and remember your legacy. We may dance with death this day, but we leave her with the enemy!”
A rousing cheer erupted as the Commander lifted a horn and blew a short toot that meant “March”. The army started to move down the gentle slope, towards the enemy.
Order carriers hurried back and forth, and Surgeon General Hippokrates would redirect them to the right wing of the army, always keeping one or two back in case they were needed. I noticed the sword dangling at his isde, and decided not to tempt fate by inquiring about the conversation I overheard the night before. I watched the developing battle instead.
The plan worked like clockwork. The right flank used its ability of flight to crash into the Horthinian left flank from above, while the center trapped them with long pikes in a phalanx formation. The Horthinians wheeled around to face the threat to their left, leaving their right flank exposed to an extended line formed by the pegasi left flank.
After merely twenty minutes of combat the brown-clad Horthinians were trapped in a bronze-shining pincer movement that kept tightening.
Suddenly another message bearer came galloping wheezing up to Hippokrates and me.
“Flanking attacks…” he gasped, “…tell the rear guard to brace towards south…”
“Marlin?” Hippokrates asked.
I noticed the lack of rested message-bearers, and understood what he asked. “I am on it,” I answered, and ran off.
The rear guard looked bored and hot. There were just a few hundred of them, standing in four rows and facing backwards, unable to see the battle. General Ariegois stood nearby and looked just generally irritated. However, her mood seemed to lighten when I told her about the flanking attack.
“You hear, that, boys?” she said to the soldiers, “Sounds like we might see some action after all. Form up to repel an attack from the south! You can go, Marlin.”
I listened and started walking along the back of the line when suddenly somepony grabbed me and pulled me inbetween the soldiers.
Only here, stuck within a mass of sweating bodies in the half-darkness of a shield wall with spears pointing out, did I realize that my borrowed armor looked like the one used by today’s rear guard company.
“I am sorry, but I have to go,” I tried to explain, “I do not bel-“
“Shut up!” somepony yelled, “Hortheheads charging us! Brace!”
I caught a glimpse of movement between the shields before something crashed into the wall in front of me.
After a few minutes of confused movements between the various soldiers, the shield wall suddenly collapsed in front of me, sending several charging enemy warriors screaming at little defenseless me. In sheer panic I blindly fired a shockwave spell in front of me.
It was super effective, sending enemy soldiers flying and tripping. I raised my own eyebrow in surprise at the effect of the spell, but many of my fellow and enemy soldiers stopped fighting completely and just stared blankly at me.
A few enemy soldiers began to run away, but were stopped at one word from somepony I assumed was an officer. The officer stood silently ad looked at me for a few moments, offering me my first good glimpse of the foe.
The Hortinians looked like ponies in most respects, but were far taller and slightly less muscular. They also had mostly drab brown and grey colors compared to the bright pastels of ponies. The reason their soldiers looked brown at a distance was the leather armor they were wearing, with a form of grey turban on top of their heads.
The officer, who I had guessed was just that due to his professional behavior and decorated armor, apparently finished measuring me up and down, and drew his sword with his teeth. Then he charged at me like an insane pony.
However, before he could reach me he suddenly collapsed like a sack of flour. A small trickle of blood ran from his punctured eye socket. I stared dumbfounded at the arrow for a few seconds before I noticed the cheers around me.
A flying force of several hundred pegasi peppered the retreating Horthinians with shower after shower of arrows. It was the backup from the left wing that had arrived. Suddenly I was yanked back out of the line again.
General Ariegois frowned at me. “Marlin? What are you doing in my formation, all blasting away with magic like that? You are not even armed, for Luna’s sake!”
I stood back up and looked around me. Apart from Ariegois, the Commander and about twenty of his guards, including Pansy, stared at me in confusion.
Ariegois opened her mouth as if to admonish me, but the Commander tapped her on her shoulder.
“There is no time, Aria. We have to pursue immediately, or this temporary advantage will slip between our hooves.”
The General nodded and released a piece of armor that covered her wings, looking expectant at the Commander.
“Xenon retreated with is personal guard and a few of his officers,” he explained when he noticed my confused look, “the main army has
surrendered and the flanking force is being dealt with, but we cannot let the King get away. I will take my personal guard and General Ariegois and pursue him ahead of our army.”
“Let me come with you,” I asked, “I really want to see this ‘god’ up close.”
The Commander shook his head. “We will fly.”
“Not a problem. One of the sub-spells I worked at integrating into the… spell I told you about gives the caster wings.”
The Commander raised an eyebrow. “Really? A winged unicorn… that would certainly be something…”
“Behold,” I said as my horn flickered to life with a blue glow, “the mighty…”
A small explosion of light made everypony cover their eyes.
“…winged unicorn!” I finished, flapping up in the air with my new wings. It took me a few seconds to understand how to keep my balance, but I kept up appearances.
Strangely enough my audience was not gasping in awe at my majestic wings. Airegois was frowning, while the Commander and several guards looked as if they tried to contain convulsive laughter.
I frowned for a couple of seconds before I made the connections and glanced back at my wings. The pretty butterfly wings shone in the sun.
“Damn it.” I exclaimed, realizing the spell might take some work still.
14th day, 9th moon, 17th year of the reign, somewhere west of Horthium
We are almost upon our foes. We found Xenon’s chariot today. The thing was made for quick combat movements, not long journeys such as this. Axel broken straight off. There are tracks of about six Hortinians leading away from here.
The Commander has ordered us to make camp here. The soldiers have made a nice fire from the wood in the chariot. Turns out gilded wood burns as well as ordinary.
We expect to see the enemy- no, the prey within two days from now. My apologies for this short entry, I am busy training with a neat dagger Ariegois gave me.
16th day, 9th moon, 17th year of the reign, ca. 7 miles west of Hortium
“Are you sure it is him, not a mere decoy to throw us off the scent?!”
The Commander had to holler over the howling dust storm that had been pounding us for the last fifteen minutes.
“I am sure, Alex; he matches all depictions, the Horthinians have left coins with his picture to compare and even the crown as proof!” Ariegois yelled back.
I examined the sorry mess that had been Xenon III of the Horthian Hegemony. His yellow coat had been stained red by blood from the smashed pulp that was the right side of his head. One of his eyes was missing, most likely ripped out by a bird shortly before our arrival. The fact that the body was as intact as it was meant he had probably not been lying there more than an hour or two.
“Poor bastard,” I called out, “left here so close to the safety of his city, all alone here on the ground, in the mountains. I wonder why they did not even bother with burying him.”
Pansy noticed the wind had lessened, so she answered me in a normal tone. “They wanted us to find him. His companions knew they would never get out of here with us in the back, so they gave us the one we really wanted. I suppose these courtiers were not the most religious ty-”
She stopped and stared over my shoulder. One by one the others followed her gaze, so I followed suit.
A curtain of dust from the storm disappeared in front of us, granting us a glimpse of the lush green farmland beyond the mountains, and in the distant horizon; a small city that was shining with what must have been hundreds of metal… something.
The Commander whispered something under his breath. I stood close enough to the hear the last word.
“…Horthium.”