33
The Empress was up and dressed in traveling clothes by the time Linna returned. Though the Empress would never admit it aloud, Linna was sure she preferred the tunics and men’s breeches she wore these days over her fancy silk gowns. The Empress had Lord Albert’s big map of the East unfurled upon the table that took up the middle of the tent. She leaned over it, holding back her long, loose red-blonde hair with one hand, tracing the forefinger of her other hand along the map’s surface.
“Ahh, Linna,” the Empress said, straightening when Linna held the tray of porridge and tea before her. She took the bowl of porridge and one of the teas with a grateful smile. “I thought I heard you up and about. You’re like Joslyn that way – always rising even before your Mother Eirenna.”
Linna smiled. She liked it when the Empress compared her to the Commander. “I hope I didn’t wake you, ma’am.”
The Empress waved a dismissive hand. “You never do. I wish I were an early riser like you. My own instincts lean more towards the owl than the lark, I’m afraid.”
Linna glanced at the map. The Empress had placed one wooden block at each of the Imperial Army’s three current encampments. The block to the north and west of their current position was where Commander Joslyn was at the moment, even though the Commander hadn’t wanted to go.
“I am running short on commanders I trust, Joslyn,”the Empress had said. “And whether you want to admit it or not, you were born to lead armies into battle.”
Linna agreed. The Commander did not like to lead, but she was very good at it, better than most of the army officers. Soldiers didn’t like her at first, because they didn’t like being told what to do by someone who was both a woman and a Terintan. Yet it didn’t usually take long for them to grow to respect her. Linna had seen it happen at the palace back in Port Lorsin, and she’d seen it happen again when they were at sea. Ultimately, the Commander had accepted that the Empress was right and had gone north to take up the mantle of leadership with the troops there.
The block in the middle represented the forces of General Alric and Colonel Ollea; they were the “tip of the spear,” the wedge traveling down the Emperor’s Road whose goal was to separate the mountain tribes holding territories to the north from those holding territories closer to the sea. They would be the first part of the Imperial Army to reach Pellon.
The third and final wooden block was the Empress’s current location – well, almost. Technically, the Empress was in the rear guard camp roughly five miles west of where the block sat on the map. The rear guard camp served as a field hospital and a safe haven for the Empress, a place where the Brother healers and Wise Man surgeons patched up injured soldiers before sending them back out to fight. Their camp was also the place where fresh soldiers and supplies flowed in from further west. The camp’s population was like a blacksmith’s bellows, always expanding with an influx of soldiers and supplies arriving from the west before shrinking again as those troops and supplies made their way either to Commander Joslyn in the north, to General Alric along the Emperor’s Road, or to General Ambrose a few miles east. The only permanent residents in the Empress’s camp, therefore, were the Brothers and Wise Men (who constantly squabbled with one another), and the one hundred fifty or so personal guards and soldiers whose sole job in the war was to protect the Empress at any cost.
The Empress sipped her tea and gazed impassively at the map. “Another month at this rate and we could retake Reit,” she said, half to Linna, half to herself.
“Winter will be upon us before then, though,” Linna said. She’d overheard Brother Rennus and General Ambrose telling the Empress as much the night before. They both thought the army should dig in where it was, wintering in the string of villages and towns it had retaken. Then, when the spring thaw came, the army could finish the job of retaking the East.
The Empress glanced over at Linna, a wry smile on her face. “Yes, yes, so everyone keeps telling me. ‘The mountain tribes slow the rate of their assaults in the winter,’” she said, imitating the imperious General Ambrose. “‘Which is why it is our chance to rest our men and strengthen our hold over the territories we have already regained.’” The Empress shook her head and turned back to the map again. “But I think it’s exactly why we should keep pushing east. Ambrose only wants his House back, which clouds his judgment and makes him reluctant to take risks. A bit too eager to trade ‘General’ for ‘Lord,’ I think.”
Linna said nothing; it wasn’t her place to weigh in. She did know, however, that it wasn’t just General Ambrose and Brother Rennus who thought the army should slow the rate of its advance until the spring – Commander Joslyn, General Alric, Lord Albert, and Colonel Ollea had all agreed that they should camp for the winter rather than press on. The Commander had even suggested that the Empress should go home to Port Lorsin for the winter, because otherwise the Empress would run the risk of giving birth while encamped with the army in the East.
The Empress tapped the map. “Reit, Linna. We shouldn’t stop until we take Reit.” She winced and drew a breath, hand going to her midsection as though the baby inside her belly had heard Linna’s thoughts about its future. “And from Reit, we sail to the Kingdom of Persopos.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Linna said agreeably.
The Empress smiled and patted Linna’s cheek.
Though Linna hadn’t been to the East since she still belonged to the tinkers, she still remembered how snowfall on the Eastern plains could incapacitate travel. The Empress was clever, more clever than almost anyone serving her realized, but Linna couldn’t stop herself from wondering if the Empress had ever seen a true Eastern blizzard. If she had seen one, she might think differently about pressing eastward in the middle of winter.
Linna glanced at the wooden blocks on the map, wondering what would happen if a blizzard caught them before they reached Pellon. Commander Joslyn’s troops were supposed to keep pushing south and east until they were positioned just north of the city; General Alric and Colonel Ollea would control the artery of the Emperor’s Road right up to Pellon’s doorstep; and General Ambrose would push north and east until his forces were just south of the city. Like a pincer, the Imperial Army would close around Pellon, squeezing until every last mountain man was expelled. The tribesmen were ferocious warriors, but the Imperial Army had centuries of experience with siege warfare, and the mountain men had almost none.
If they could make it to Pellon and retake the city, the army would have a safe place to shelter for the winter. If. Yet the Empress didn’t even want to stop with Pellon. She was convinced they should keep pushing from Pellon, taking back each square inch of the Empire’s territory until they reached the Sunrise Mountains in the east and the Adessian Sea in the south.
Linna wagered a blizzard or two would change her mind. She wanted to say so, but if Commander Joslyn and General Alric hadn’t been able to talk her into it, what hope did Linna have? To the Empress, Linna was still just a child she patted on the cheek. Just a “little seagull” hovering about. A nuisance creature who happened to be loyal and good with a sword.
“Majesty,” came the gruff voice of one of the guards just outside the tent, startling both Linna and the Empress.
“Yes?” the Empress called.
“Brother Rennus with his apprentice here to see you.”
A slight frown creased the Empress’s face. “Send him in.”
Brother Rennus and his ever-present shadow Udolf entered, stopping just inside the tent to bow deeply and wait for the Empress to wave them forward.
“You’re calling rather early,” said the Empress.
Dark circles ringed both Brother Rennus’s eyes and Udolf’s. They looked like raccoons.
“Brother Udolf and I were up all night with the Quanca Carin corpses we gathered from the last battle,” Rennus explained. It sounded like grim work to Linna, but the Brother seemed excited.
The Empress wrinkled her nose. “Lovely.”
Brother Rennus produced a small glass vial from within his robes. It appeared to be filled with blood. “Empress – it is just as we theorized. It’s not mere shadow-infection. The tribesmen are taking some sort of elixir or potion before each battle. That is why – or at least partially why – they fight with the level of abandon that we have been witnessing lately.”
The Empress straightened. Brother Rennus had her attention now. “Go on.”
“Last week, when the mountain men broke through General Ambrose’s line and made it almost here, to our rear guard camp, none of us could comprehend how they’d done it – our numbers were superior, and the rune-marked daggers were still functioning to separate the infected ones from their shadows,” said Brother Rennus. He shook the vial. “This explains their success. Some formula they are imbibing before battle. It doesn’t give them the kind of strength that a shadow would, but it does provide a temporary euphoria that grants energy and makes them impervious to pain.” He glanced at Udolf and nodded. The apprentice drew back the sleeve of his robe, revealing a long pink line against his pale forearm. “I replicated the formula and gave it to Udolf. When I sliced his arm – and I cut deep into the muscle, nearly flaying him to the bone – he did not so much as flinch. And his rate of healing – without my aid – was remarkable.”
“Brother Rennus,” the Empress said, making a face, “I am not sure I approve of you treating your apprentice like this.”
“I’ve healed him, your Majesty.”
The Empress made a non-committal noise in the back of her throat.
Linna studied the pink line on Udolf’s arm. The apprentice was sixteen or seventeen summers. A summer or two older than Linna. He went everywhere with Brother Rennus, did everything the Brother did. Linna was supposed to be an apprentice, too, but while Commander Joslyn took back villages to the north, Linna was here, fetching porridge and tea for the Empress like a chambermaid.
But your real job is to protect the Empress. That’s why you’re here,she told herself. But she couldn’t stop the stab of jealousy in her heart. The Commander had told Linna to stay in Port Lorsin to protect Adela, but hadn’t that just been a convenient way of keeping her at the palace? Telling Linna to watch over the Empress sounded suspiciously like telling Linna to watch over the Princess. And yes, once the mountain men had gotten too close to the rear guard and Linna had fought alongside the Commander and killed two mountain men herself, but by and large it just seemed that the Commander was doing everything she could to keep Linna away from any true battlefield action.
Udolf caught Linna’s gaze and gave a small smile. Linna looked away.
“So this potion,” said the Empress. “Is it another shadow art?”
“No,” said Brother Rennus. “Their shamans probably think it is, but it is just an ordinary concoction, probably something the tribesmen have been using for many years.”
“With all due respect, Brother Rennus,” said the Empress, “I am glad you and your apprentice have come to understand this, but was it really so newsworthy that it was necessary to come to my tent with this information before I’ve even finished breaking my fast?”