The Pinnacle Of Empire (Book 6) (37 page)

“Get back here, fool. This veil will deflect Memlatec’s energy probe and give us time to escape.”

Morphenius shuffled back near Xthilleon.

When he completed the spell, the wizard grabbed his assistant and all but dragged him down the tower steps. “Grab a bag and throw in as much food and water as you can get into it. Hurry.”

Xthilleon shoved Morphenius toward the larder then turned into his own room to pack supplies and a spell book. At the brooding tower door, Xthilleon waited for the idiot, thumbing his fingers on a griffin’s tail in the doorframe.

“Where are you? Get out here! We’re running out of time.” Xthilleon cracked the door. The winged army was now flying over Castilyernov Varnakak, the flinik descending with their clutched soldiers before the fortress gate. He looked back for Morphenius. The oaf trudged forward, stumbling once with his heavy pack.

“We’ve no time to haul all that. We must move fast. Dump half that.”

When the oaf set down the bag and opened it, Xthilleon saw the man’s most treasured possession, a stuffed animal.

“Fool!” Xthilleon screamed. He bolted to the bag, threw the stuffed animal as far as he could and then dumped a third of the other contents. Glaring, he shoved the knapsack at Morphenius then rushed for the portal. The wizard cracked the door again, peeking out, scanning the army beginning to form up on the plain before the besieged castilyernov.

“Come on, you stupid oaf. We must get away while Memlatec is focused on the battle, before he begins to notice my energy trace.”

Morphenius shuffled forward but glanced back at his lost treasure.

“Stay close to me.”

Enveloped in an invisibility veil, Xthilleon ventured out with Morphenius close behind. The two moved silently around the tower and west around the army to the forest beyond. They made their way north through the forest, eventually stopping beside the swamp at the foot of Urgenak Forest.

“This should do. The concentration of foul energy wafting from this source should mask my presence even from Memlatec. Make camp on that spot of high ground. Build us a shelter.”

Morphenius started a fire and got out food to cook.

“Put out the fire, you fool. We’ll have no fire just in case Memlatec does trace me this far. No need to draw his attention. We’ll eat the food as is.”

Morphenius looked at the raw meat in his hand he was about to skewer. Xthilleon saw the frown and, angered, shot wizard-fire, blasting the flesh out of the oaf’s hand. The chastened servant said nothing but picked up the smoking, well done meat and offered it to his master, who sneered. The oaf shrugged his shoulders and commenced to brush off the dirt as Xthilleon turned away.

“This place has possibilities,” the sorcerer mumbled, looking around at the fetid swamp where even the scent of sulfur from bubbling pools burned his nostrils. “Possibilities indeed.”

* * *

With Boktorian and his supporters locked up, Tottiana moved to take control of the city and establish her authority over the ragtag defenses at her command.

“General, I know the recruits are raw, but they’ve trained for some time now. They comprise most of our defense force. Bring the garrisons in from the fortresses guarding the roads into the valley. They’re veterans at least. We’ll integrate them into the new legions to give guidance and support to the recruits. We’ll only defend Engwaniria itself. We must hold out until Saxthor can return with the legions from the south.”

“Majesty, perhaps we should take our stand at the fortress guarding the road from the northwest. If that fails, the men could retreat here to the city,” the general suggested.

“With all due respect, General, you’ve been in charge of Engwaniria’s defenses since my father’s time. The position has been mostly ceremonial. You’ve never been engaged in battle, so you have no more experience than I have.”

The general nodded.

“We’ve two and a half legions to defend the city against an approaching enemy army of an unknown number of veteran legions. They know, as do we, that the city is poorly prepared to defend itself. They’ll be bent on storming and taking it before troops return from the south to defend it. The outlying castilyernov is too small to offer much resistance. It can’t house enough troops to hold off the enemy long and, once under siege, it’s not likely we could get the defenders back here to defend the city. We’d be further reducing our defense forces by splitting them. We’ll withdraw all the garrisons immediately here to Engwaniria and have the veterans direct the recruits in the defense of the city walls.”

“As Your Majesty commands.” The general bowed and withdrew to implement the empress’ orders.

*

Two days later, Tottiana watched as a terrified farmer who’d stubbornly remained at his farm, raced into the city. Even from the city’s edge, Tottiana saw the look on his face. She knew at once what news he brought. As the farmer rushed to Ossenkosk to see the empress, Tottiana donned her crown and went to the throne room.

“Majesty,” the gasping farmer said. “The enemy’s entered the imperial valley. You can see them from the walls. They’re at the valley’s rim just beyond the fortress on the northwestern road.”

Tottiana glared at the man. She turned to the general at the dais’ edge.

“General, sound the trumpets to initiate final defensive activities. Seal the gates. We’re now officially under siege. We must hold out until Saxthor returns with his legions. How long do you think it’ll take the emperor to get here?”

“I’ve no idea, Majesty. We don’t know how far south the army marched before Saxthor discovered the invasion at Mendenow was a ruse, or even if he knows it now.”

Tottiana struck her most regal and rigid pose. “We must hold out, General.” When she left the throne room, she went immediately to Helgamyr and broke down. Helgamyr stared open-mouthed at the window.

* * *

As he stood beside the abandoned fortress at the imperial valley’s rim, Emperor Nindax looked down on his army marching past down the road to surround Engwaniria. He’d never seen the fabled imperial valley and the imperial capital’s unimaginable splendor with its gleaming golden spires and rich blue tiled roofs. Like shining jewels rising from the city’s crown of white marble walls, the sight was breathtaking.

“I never believed the stories of the city’s magnificence. This will all be mine,” Nindax said to his senior officers surrounding him. He swept his arm in an arc encompassing the valley. Engwaniria shall be renamed Nindaxia and will be my new capital. We’ll take the city. We must take it without delay. Be sure the troops know not to damage the city itself unnecessarily.”

“Imperial Majesty, if we’re to take the city quickly, we can’t spare the buildings,” a general said. His skittish horse stamped around.

Nindax turned slowly to the speaker, narrowing his eyes. “I said you will take the city at once
and
avoid damaging the city itself. No tunneling, no catapults hurling stones, and no fire bags. We shall seize your property and sell it to pay for reconstruction of Engwaniria’s damaged property in such an event. Do I make myself clear?”

“Understood, Majesty…Imperial Majesty.”

The exhausted Senoshesvasian army trudged down the road and began surrounding Engwaniria, where no enemy troops had set foot in the imperial capital’s history.

For two days, the Senoshesvasian army marched around and around Engwaniria, intimidating the inhabitants while searching for a weakness in the defenses. In her suite high in Ossenkosk, Helgamyr pushed away Endaquac and slapped her hands over her ears.

“I can’t stand the sound of those drums!” the dowager moaned, pacing around the room. “Why won’t they stop?”

“Be careful what you wish for, Majesty,” Endaquac said.

“What can you mean?” Helgamyr jerked back, staring at Endaquac.

“I mean when they stop, they’ll have positioned themselves to attack.”

“You’re just trying to frighten me,” Helgamyr said. She glared at her maid and rushed out of the suite to find Tottiana.

*

Tottiana was on the balcony of her suite high in the palace keep’s central tower, watching the ribbon of hostile legions flow around the city.

“Will this never end?” Helgamyr asked. She rushed up to her daughter.

“It will end all too soon, Mother.”

“Endaquac and now you too, you’re both trying to frighten me.”

Before Tottiana could respond, a startling blast from a distant trumpet blared. The undulating ribbon surrounding the city halted in unison. The enemy legions turned to face the city walls. Everything froze for an instant and then a sudden burst of activity revealed a ring of ladders rushing toward the walls. On a gate tower below, the Powterosian commanding general shouted something to his troops, another trumpet blared, and a shower of arrows flew like a gigantic fur collar from the city walls onto the advancing troops. The ring of ladders shuttered for an instant then resumed their rush to the walls.

“These ramparts were made for a display of power,” Tottiana mumbled. “They weren’t built to withstand a siege.”

“Look there,” Helgamyr said. She pointed to where a ladder had slapped against the wall and the enemy troops were advancing up to the battlements. “Our untested soldiers are panicking already.”

Sporadic volleys of arrows shot from the parapets. More ladders slammed against the ramparts. Spots of panic broke out among the unseasoned defenders. Helgamyr could see the general rushing here and there, trying to regain control of the defenses.

“This is pitiful,” Tottiana mumbled. “These farm boys mean well, but they’re not prepared for this. The few veterans commanding them are all that’s keeping them on the walls.”

“We can hold out, can’t we?” Helgamyr asked. The sweet iron scent of blood reached her nose as the smashing of metal on metal assaulted her ears. She stared at Tottiana, who said nothing but seemed to wilt watching chaos sweep through her soldiers. She scanned the horizon to the south. “The legions won’t make it here in time, will they Tottiana?”

Slumped, Tottiana shuffled back inside the suite. She pulled her heavy state robe over her gown like a shroud and started for the door.

“I’m going to the throne room. Get Augusteros and Engwan and meet me there.”

“I warned you that beast would be our downfall,” Helgamyr said through pursed lips. She left for the nursery, grumbling. “Saxthor again, he’s the cause of all this. If my Engwan were alive, Nindax would’ve never dared attack Engwaniria. And where is her precious Saxthor now in this crisis? No one knows… just what I expected.”

* * *

Nindax looked down from his vantage point at the valley’s rim as his troops began overrunning the city walls.

“Who’d have guessed we could seize the heart of the Powterosian Empire so easily?” Nindax asked. “General, when they surrender, the army will not enter the imperial palace until I arrive. The exception is the cohort charged with securing the Crown of Yensupov. No harm must come to the empress.”

“And the dowager empress?” the general asked. Grinning, he glanced at a fellow officer.

“Keep that infernal woman away from me, understood?”

Nindax’s eyes focused on the general, who snapped to attention, the grin gone.

“Understood, Imperial Majesty.”

“They don’t seem to have much appetite for battle, do they? We see our troops are already overrunning the warehouse district there at northwestern gate. Prepare for our grand victorious entrance. It could be before nightfall. No, we’ll wait until midmorning tomorrow so our new citizens can have a better look at their new master.”

“Is that the Velstorbokkin crown prince on the wall there?” an officer asked. “He’s saying something to the Velstorbokkin auxiliaries, and they’re hesitating.”

“General, there’s an army approaching behind us from the northwest,” an officer reported.

“An army? The legions we left behind to destroy Shinnadda weren’t told to join us here,” Nindax said.

“I don’t think it’s our legions.”

“Not our legions? Who else could they be? You don’t suppose old Nemenese has sent a force to snatch spoils after our victory.” Nindax laughed then noted his solemn officers. “What is it?”

“The standards bare Emperor Saxthor’s insignia. Some have Neuyokkasinian arms,” the messenger said. He bowed his head.

“Neuyokkasinians… coming from the northwest, impossible.”

“What’s that whooshing sound?” the senior general asked. “It’s coming from the south.”

“How should we know,” Nindax said. “An army from behind us, now noises from the south… what next?” He noticed a guard turning pale. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Imperial Majesty… I was guarding a merchant back in the Great Dreaddrac War when last I heard that sound…”

“Yes, yes… get on with it.”

“That’s the wing beats of a dragon…a really big one!”

Nindax paled. He looked from officer to officer. “A dragon? There hasn’t been a dragon south of the peninsula in living memory.”

“Well, there’s one coming now,” the guard mumbled.

A brilliant flash approaching on the southern horizon grew rapidly. The great wings flapped ponderously as the gigantic beast flew toward the city.

“It
is
a dragon!” Nindax shouted. “Could Xthilleon have sent that thing?”

Closing in on the beleaguered city, the dragon’s golden brilliance seemed a winged sun. Nindax noted panic sweep through his troops. A few at first, then more and more raced back down the walls, running for any cover they could find.

The golden dragon’s head whipped back, shrieking a terrifying scream. Flames flared from his nostrils. His long neck and tentacled head shot down in a line, pointing to the chaos around the city. As he circled over the invading troops, Nindax saw Yamma-Mirra Heedra’s rider whipping his sword in the air. The dragon dipped down and shot flames over the heads of fleeing soldiers. The first of his troops ran past Nindax without acknowledging his presence. They headed back toward Shinnadda and the Senoshesvasian border. Many passed a lone soldier approaching the emperor, standing with mouth open, staring at the rampaging dragon and rider.

“Imperial Majesty,” the trembling, tattered soldier said.

Nindax jerked around, looking down at the man on his knees. “What is it now?”

“Imperial Majesty… the enemy has taken Varnakak. The Wizard Memlatec enlisted the flinik and the foodoo to his cause. The flinik flew the Powterosian army over the mountains to lay siege to our capital. The bugs bombarded it from the air, the foodoo attacked from the east, and the enemy troops, from the west. Our meager force couldn’t withstand them. Our capital is lost.”

“I’ve lost two capitals in one day,” Nindax mumbled, watching whole legions fleeing past his tent. The clattering of shed weapons grew thunderous as they swept on by. They rushed on not, slowing for Bodrin’s force in the distance.

By midafternoon, Nindax and his officers stood alone before his tent. When Saxthor was sure all the enemy troops were gone, he landed. The emperor stood beside the golden dragon, dazzling in the setting sun. The Powterosian general, accompanied by Ossenkosk’s palace guards, rushed up, hesitated, then cautiously marched around the dragon to stand on Saxthor’s other side.

Nindax’s generals glanced at their stunned, defeated emperor. They stepped around him and, kneeling respectfully, deposited their swords at Saxthor’s feet while keeping their eyes on the golden dragon. The palace guards took the officers into custody. Yamma-Mirra Heedra smashed his mighty tail across the ground, and it shook. Nindax himself then stepped forward, bowed, and extended the hilt of his sword to Saxthor, who took it with a slight nod. Nothing was said.

As Nindax moved to join his generals in custody, Yamma-Mirra Heedra flicked his great tongue and shrank down to a tiny reptile. He jumped up into Saxthor’s hand and curled around his finger, turning once again into the dragon ring. Nindax’s mouth gapped open.

At nightfall the next day, the five Powterosian legions, rushing from the south, arrived and secured Engwaniria.

When Saxthor had seen to the legions’ dispositions and arranged confinement of Nindax and his generals, he rode back into the city on a great white stallion. The city’s whole population turned out to cheer him. Working his way through the throng, he looked up at Ossenkosk and saw Tottiana standing imperiously on the grand balcony, waving to her victorious husband.

* * *

The next morning Saxthor sat on the golden phoenix throne before a packed audience hall.

“Be it known throughout the empire that peace is restored. Boktorian, step forward.”

The former chatra shuffled forward, his chains clanking on the floor. He collapsed, trembling and prostrate, his head pressed to the floor.

“Boktorian, we granted you amnesty upon our ascension to the throne. You retained your rank and esteemed office, though you served our former enemy. You served us well until this war, but your treason, endangering the imperial family, is unforgivable. None the less, taking your former service into consideration, we shall spare you execution. You’re exiled for life to Senoshesvas. Your estates are confiscated to compensate those who have suffered through the invasion you supported. Be gone. Should you be seen within the empire again, you’re to be executed upon the spot.”

Boktorian bumped his quivering head on the floor three times then stumbled to his feet and, bowing once more, turned to the guards that stood ready to escort him into exile.

“Be it known throughout the empire that former Governor Hedrak of Mendenow has treasonously plotted to overthrow our throne and joined in this war with our enemy, Nindax. Hedrak has fled the empire. He is henceforth exiled from the Powterosian Empire upon pain of death. Like Boktorian, if he returns, he’s to be executed upon the spot.”

“Nindax, step forward.”

Nindax advanced, standing erect, defiant, and indifferent to his chains.

“Nindax, you have grievously attacked our province of Mendenow and the Castilyernov Shinnadda, costing our citizens death and suffering. For this you should be executed, but we’ll allow you to live and retain your throne. Your empire is dissolved. Your title will be Prince of Senoshesvas only. Your standing army is limited to two legions, purely to maintain order. Senoshesvas must pay war reparations for damages incurred in this invasion.

“Further, a Powterosian ambassador will reside in Varnakak, without interference, to monitor your activities there lest your ambitions exceed your abilities again.

“The Kingdom of Velstorbokkin is henceforth restored to a sovereign monarchy with King Nemenese its king. All Senoshesvasians are to leave Velstorbokkin within the month. Velstorbokkin’s army is also limited to two legions, purely for defensive purposes.

“And let it be known that our new allies, the flinik and the foodoo of the Senoshesvasian Mountains, shall hold exclusive title to those mountains. No further encroachment by Powterosians or Senoshesvasians will be tolerated. We honor the flinik leader, Tenamektrin, for his courage, leadership, and assistance in this war. He will be most welcome and honored at this court at any time.”

Guards led Nindax from the hall as a messenger in Neuyokkasinian uniform broke through the crowd. He dropped to his knees, trembling.

“Imperial Majesty, Graushdem has seized Talok. Hoya alone resists; it’s under siege!”

“Repeat that,” Saxthor said. He felt a surging flash of rage. The dragon ring was hot on his finger.

“Emperor Grekenbach has overrun Talok Tower. His legions control most of Talok Province and are now besieging Hoya. He’s believed to have proclaimed Talok a new province of the Graushdem-Sengenwhan Empire.”

“Viceroy Vicksnak, what do you know of this?”

“I know nothing of it, Imperial Majesty,” Bodrin said, approaching the dais. “All was well when I left Neuyokkasin with the army.”

“Take the Neuyokkasinians by river to Tarquinia and then by ship to Olnak. March to relieve Hoya at once. General, take the eastern imperial legions back across the empire as well.”

“Even traveling ship, it will take time to reach Hoya, Majesty. Can Hoya hold out that long?” Bodrin asked.

Saxthor again felt the ring on his finger burn and squirm. “Perhaps not,” Saxthor said. He rose; Tottiana followed, and the new chamberlain clacked his staff. The court bowed as the emperor and empress exited the dais. Bodrin followed.

“Saxthor, we can’t reach Hoya in time to break the siege,” Bodrin said.