Princeps' Fury (Codex Alera 5)

"Thank you," Ehren said quietly.

He turned away to look out the inn's window as the physician retreated.

Retreat seemed to be in fashion.

A muffled voice came from the First Lord's room, and the guard opened the door. Gaius strode out, clean from his time in the healing tub, dressed in fresh clothing. He moved with brisk purpose, but Ehren fancied that he could see the frailty underneath the calm surface.

"Sire," Ehren said, as Gaius walked over to him. "You should be in bed."

Gaius regarded him steadily for a moment. "I would be better off. Alera would not."

Ehren bowed his head again. "Yes, sire. At least you should eat something."

"There's no time for that, Cursor. I want you to collect the latest intelligence reports and-"

"No," Ehren said in a firm voice. "Sire."

The two guardsmen glanced at each other.

Gaius arched his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"No, sire," Ehren repeated. He planted his feet and looked up at the First Lord. "Not until you've eaten something."

Boots treaded on the stairs, and Captain Miles of the Crown Legion appeared. He was a stocky man of medium height and build, his plain steel lorica dented and nicked with use, and he wore a similarly unadorned, functional, and well-used sword at his side. He sized up the situation in the hallway as he came to a halt, and saluted sharply to Gaius.

"Sire," Miles said, "the defenses are prepared, and the Crown Legion stands ready to serve you."

"Good to see you, Captain," Gaius said, his eyes never leaving Ehren's. He smiled, very slightly, to the young Cursor and inclined his head to such a slight degree that Ehren thought he might have imagined it.

Gaius turned to Miles. "I was just about to take some... breakfast?" He glanced at Ehren.

"It's more like lunchtime, sire," Ehren supplied.

"Lunch," Gaius said firmly, nodding. "Join me, and we'll discuss the defenses."

"Yes, sire," Miles said firmly.

Ehren bowed slightly to Gaius as the First Lord returned to his quarters with Captain Miles. Then he went to see to it that food was brought up to the room before Gaius changed his mind.

It was only after he was several steps down the stairs that he realized the import of Gaius's words, and realized what was happening. Ever since Ceres, Gaius had been retreating from the Vord-and for the last several days, Aleran forces had barely put up any resistance at all. But the Crown Legion was Gaius's single most trusted and capable force, and would certainly be present in any decisive confrontation with the enemy. If the First Lord had sent the Crown Legion ahead to prepare Alera Imperia, it meant that Gaius never intended to prevent the Vord from reaching the Realm's capital.

Gaius wasn't being driven back by the Vord.

He was luring them forward.

If the retreat had been such a terrible strain on Alera and her Legions, it had to be pushing the Vord's resources, too. Savage and deadly as they might be, the Vord still had to eat, and they apparently needed their croach as food. By forcing them to stay on the move and in pursuit of the Aleran forces, Gaius was also keeping them ahead of their supply lines, advancing far faster than the croach could grow.

Meanwhile, the Crown Legion was preparing Alera Imperia herself for battle.

Gaius was drawing the Vord into the most vulnerable position he could arrange for them, tiring them with the campaign-only to prepare to turn upon them at the high point of his power, the heart of the Realm, Alera Imperia.

It was the gamble of a desperate man, Ehren thought. If Gaius won, he would crush the Vord strength in the Realm. If he lost, the center of Aleran commerce, travel, and government would fall with him.

Ehren hurried forward, to get the First Lord a solid meal.

Chapter 30

The taurga rolled east at their lumbering trot, crushing the miles beneath their cloven hooves.

"I still don't understand," Kitai murmured, close to Tavi's ear. She rode behind him on his taurg, her arms around his waist. Even carrying the two of them, their taurg was less burdened than any of those bearing one of the Canim, and led the group in fine spirits-which was to say, it tried to toss them off every mile or so. "Why do we keep traveling east when we know the queen we must destroy is to the south?"

Tavi grinned and called back to her, "The best part about this plan is that I don't have to explain anything to anybody."

She slipped a hand under his armor and pinched him hard on the flank. "Don't make me hurt you, Aleran."

Tavi laughed. "All right, all right." He glanced back down the line of taurga. "The Shuaran warriors are engaging the Vord to the south of us. We're going to ride around the main area of engagement, come in from the side."

"And encounter less resistance from the Vord," Kitai said.

"Or interference from the Shuarans," Tavi said. "It isn't as though we can expect every officer in the field to know that a group of Narashan Canim and Alerans-"

"And a Marat," Kitai said.

"And a Marat," Tavi conceded, "are traveling on a special, secret mission with Lararl's approval, even with Anag here to explain things. Simpler and faster if we avoid them."

She frowned. "Tell me something."

"Hmm?"

"Has it ever struck you as strange that the Vord never seem to notice you and me when we are near them? How they simply accept our presence unless we directly oppose them?"

"When we fought them in the tunnels beneath the capital, you mean," Tavi said. "I thought it very strange, yes."

"Did you ever wonder why they did so?"

"Oftener and oftener, the past few days," he said.

"I think it is because we were responsible for waking them," Kitai said. There was gravity in her voice.

"When we went down after the Blessing of Night, you mean," Tavi said, his own tone growing more sober. "We had no way of knowing what was going to happen."

"No," Kitai said. "But it does not change the fact that the first queen stirred after we stole the Blessing from the center of the Wax Forest. That it emerged and tried to kill us that very night."

"Until your father threw a big rock at it."

Kitai let out a low laugh. "I remember."

"In any case, it isn't as though they all ignore us. The queen I fought under the Citadel certainly saw me, and was more than willing to fight." Tavi chewed on his lip. "Though the lower-intelligence Vord, the wax spiders and takers and so on, haven't ever attacked me unless I attacked them first. It's almost as though they think we're other Vord, somehow, until we start getting rowdy."