The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (31 page)

“
So what happened to
your robe?” Donkor asked me.

“
Cougar attack,” I
answered.

“
Those girls can be
rough in Kay Julis,” he replied.

Cathy giggled and I looked confused as
we reached the door of the command centre. Inside, a short man
headed towards us with a purpose. He was no taller than Cathy but
his hard face and muscled body made you pause and consider there
was something more to this guy than you’d first think.

He looked at me and smirked. “Moumno.
It’s been a while.”

“
General,” I bowed
slightly.

“
I owe Donkor a
hundred gold,” he said. “After you disappeared last time, I figured
you had your fill of the forests of Nesqa.” He turned to look at
Cathy. “Balendar nobility too. Good to meet you, my Lady. General
Zuberi Kobo, at your service.”

“
Lady Sandra
Middleton, likewise, General,” Cathy said.

“
What brings you
here?” General Kobo asked.

“
War,” Cathy
smiled.

Chapter
27

War. It wasn’t until Cathy had said the
word that its meaning sunk in.

Everything we were
doing was to prevent an all-out war across the continent. Failure
in our mission would result in the destruction of Balendar’s
leadership and army, leaving its citizens vulnerable to
enslavement. With Balendar out of the way, Nesqa wouldn’t have a
chance.

Never before had the
weight of the world fallen on my shoulders with such force. The
more I thought about everything, the more I froze up. It had been
fun earlier but now that things were starting to get serious I
began to doubt our chance of success. The plan, such as it was, was
ludicrously simple: walk into Scert’chak and kill Desroche. There
were still too many unknowns to answer. For one, how would we even
get into the capital?

Cathy, however, was a rock. She
remained calm and collected as she and General Kobo discussed the
upcoming battle. Not once did she seem fazed by the amount of
responsibility we had. She was either the greatest actress of all
time or actually believed we could pull this off.

“
We still have the
matter of the camp on the border,” General Kobo said, drawing my
attention back to the conversation. “We’ll need to deal with it
swiftly.”

“
I’m free tonight,”
Cathy responded. “Give me a group of your warriors and the camp
will perform a disappearing act the likes of which you’ve never
seen before.”

The General smirked. “Donkor, assemble
the Jaguars.”

“
Yes, General,”
Donkor said cheerfully, running out of the fort.

“
The Jaguar warriors
are our best fighters,” the general explained. “Fast and agile, but
more importantly their hide armour protects against projectiles.
It’s not a Nao hunting party, but they’ll buy you time to take down
the Mages.”

“
That’s all we need,”
Cathy said. “Thank you, General.”

“
You’re welcome, my
Lady,” General Kobo said, pressing his fist to his chest. “Come
back from this fight. I’d hate to not see you out on the
battlefield when things get more interesting.”

“
Like I’d miss that!”
Cathy smiled and turned to me. “Let’s go gather our troops,
unusually silent advisor.”

I chuckled and followed her out of the
command centre. “That went better than expected,” I said.

“
You’ve got that look
on your face again,” she said, stopping me.

“
Which one?” I
asked.

“
Like you’re worried
about something,” she answered.

“
Hard not to get a
little worried about what is coming up,” I replied.

“
True, but you’re
thinking too big,” she said. “You are making it larger than it
needs to be.”

I chuckled. “It’s kind of hard not
to.”

She smiled. “Yes, but
you have probably thought this was a ‘death or glory’ style battle,
when in reality, it’s much simpler. If, and I mean IF, we are
unsuccessful, Balendar and Nesqa will simply fall back and regroup.
People aren’t stupid enough to stick around and be killed fighting
a losing battle. As for us, we simply disappear into the forest of
Ghanlar. No matter how many Evenawks they send at us, you will
still find a way to hide us because you’ve had an entire childhood
to perfect that skill.”

“
Calling me a coward
again?” I smirked and crossed my arms.

“
I called it a skill,
didn’t I?” she answered playfully. “The point I’m making is that
this isn’t as bad as you imagine it and you need to stay focused.
Maybe find a different reason as to why you are fighting this
battle. Maybe something personal. Ask yourself, why are you
fighting this battle?”

“
Because we need...”
I started.

“
No,” Cathy
interrupted. “Why are you fighting this battle? What are you hoping
to get out of it?”

“
Do I need to get
something out of it?” I asked. “Can’t I do it to help
others?”

“
Well that’s a given,” Cathy replied. “But for every action
there is an effect on you
and
the world around you. Preventing
the enslavement and destruction of the world is big, but it isn’t
personal and you need that personal connection. It’s the only thing
that will keep you focused on the most important part of this
fight; staying alive.”

“
Cathy,” I started
softly, “I’m not going to rush into this and get myself
killed.”

“
Aren’t you?” she
asked. “This battle will need a hero and you want to be it, but I
want to make sure you don’t sacrifice your life foolishly. The
world needs heroes for tomorrow as much as they do for
today.”

“
You’re really
worried about this fight, aren’t you?” I asked, pulling Cathy
closer to me.

Cathy chuckled but tears formed around
her eyes. “With everything I’ve done, you’d think I would be ready
for anything but...I’ve never been scared by the thought of losing
another person.”

“
You looked so calm
and collected,” I started, trying to figure out what I could say.
“I didn’t realise.”

Cathy wiped her eyes. “Stupid emotions.
I know what I should be doing and feeling but they keep sneaking up
on me. Sorry.”

“
You’re right,” I
said, getting an idea. “I need a personal reason for this fight and
I think I have it. I fight so we won’t have to go live in the
forest anymore. If we do this, people will have to accept me, even
if I am a Mage. This means no more having to hide and we can rejoin
society. I fight, so we can have a life after this.”

She hugged me tightly. “Sounds good to
me.”

“
Kairu!” Donkor
called out, rushing towards us. Cathy broke away from the hug and
turned away to hide the remaining tears in her eyes. Donkor looked
at both of us and smirked. “The Jaguar warriors are ready for
battle. Did you need anything from the armoury before we head
out?”

“
Actually, yes,” I
said. “I need a suit of armour. Something to protect the chest and
back, but still allow me to turn my skin to scales.”

Donkor’s eyes lit up. “I’ve been saving
you something for a while. I think you’ll like it.”

*****

The armour Donkor had saved for me was
close to what I had hoped. A light, animal hide chest piece covered
the vital organs, hide shorts that cut off at the knees and sturdy
hand crafted boots. There was enough bare skin on my arms and legs
for my Harden Skin spell to work effectively and enough armour to
keep me protected against weapons. If I wasn’t dangerous before,
people better watch out.

The only thing I
turned down was an animal pelt that draped over the head, shoulders
and back. It was beautiful to look at but completely unneeded and
would only get in the way of the pack when it became time to travel
out of Nesqa.

Donkor’s Jaguar
warriors wore identical armour to me, but with the addition of the
jaguar pelt around them. The pelt had been reinforced to protect
against projectiles like General Kobo said but I couldn’t imagine
how hot that whole outfit must have been. Once we were out in the
jungle though, they ran like the wind and almost blended right into
the trees around them.

The Evenawk camp was heavily fortified
with watchtowers and the start of a wooden wall circling around the
tents and small buildings. Unlike the camp outside of Szwen, the
Mages in charge would be constantly on the lookout for any sign of
aggression by Nesqa. It was fair to say that there would be a
greater number of Evenawk troops as well. Far more than the twenty
Jaguar warriors who accompanied us.

“
What’s the plan?”
Cathy asked. “I take it you’ve been working on another dance
number?”

We had settled in at the edge of the
forest and were checking out the surrounding area. Like the outpost
we had just left, it stood in the open with no tactically
advantageous position from which we could strike. No matter what we
did, we would be seen doing it.

“
Not enough berries
in me for that,” I replied.

Donkor chuckled. “Is that going to be a
great story when I hear it?”

“
Yeah, you’ll like
it,” I answered.

“
It will have to be a
traditional march right up the gut,” Donkor said, getting serious.
“The Jaguars have the speed advantage to get into the camp
quickly.”

Cathy shook her head. “We’d be attacked
from every direction and wouldn’t last long at all. We’ve been
using a tactic to draw the enemy out of the camp and into the
forest. It will force the sky archers to land to get a clear
shot.”

“
But drawing them out
is the problem,” Donkor said, rubbing his chin. “Would they simply
abandon their camp to attack us in the forest?”

“
Yes,” Cathy
answered. “Part of their brainwashing is over aggressiveness. Whip
them into a frenzy and they would follow us to the bottom of the
ocean.”

“
Which is why we will
hybrid both of your ideas,” I said. “There’s nothing we can do but
fully charge them, get them interested in us then strategically
retreat back to the forest. If we’re lucky, the Mages will see
through our plan and chase after the Evenawks to stop them. We can
pick them off easily then.”

“
Nesqians aren’t big
on retreating,” Donkor said, looking thoughtful, “but they are big
on winning fights. Give me a moment to explain it to
them.”

“
See if you can find
anything to use as cover against those archers,” I said. “We’ll
need the armour once we’re back in the forest.”

Donkor smirked, nodded and head off to
his troops. Cathy turned to me and smiled. “We’ve been using the
same plan a lot recently. How long before they learn and adapt to
it?”

“
We don’t leave any
witnesses,” I said. “We can keep using it until it doesn’t work
anymore.”

“
Desroche would be
pretty cheesed off if he found out how easily his troops were
duped,” Cathy said. “We should totally tell him.”

“’
Cheesed off’?” I
asked.

“
Old slang from a
different age,” she said. “Don’t worry about it. Are we sneaking
around the battle to take the camp down ourselves?”

“
Not this time,” I
said. “Our friends don’t know how to group Illusion the army. It’s
going to be an old fashioned hack and slash and I figured you
wouldn’t want to miss that.”

Cathy smiled. “You sure know how to
treat a girl.”

“
I’m in a league of
my own,” I replied sarcastically.

“
Plus it has been a
while since I cut someone in half,” Cathy said
excitedly.

“
You mean yesterday?”
I asked.

“
Yeah, but if I don’t
decapitate one or two people a day I get all funny feeling,” she
answered, completely serious.

“
Okay,” I said, a
little afraid. “Good luck with that.”

She burst out laughing. “You think by
now you would know when I’m pulling your leg but I can still get
you.”

I saw Donkor
approaching and turned to him. He was smiling as if he could see
something awesome, but quickly told us that the troops were ready
to march. I turned to the camp once more. “Any luck finding
something to shield against the arrows?” I asked.

“
A couple of logs we
can split open and use to protect our heads,” Donkor said. “They
don’t call it a rain of arrows because they’re wet.”

“
Not your best joke,
my friend,” I said, turning back to him. “Let me lead the charge. I
can throw up a barrier to deflect the arrows. Save us from getting
all...grub covered.”

“
I think that’s my
new favourite idea,” Cathy said.

Donkor nodded. “Lead the way then.”

“
Be ready to call the
retreat,” I said. “It needs to be perfectly timed. Too soon and we
wouldn’t get everyone’s attention. Too late and we don’t have
enough men to fight off the troops.”

“
You can count on
me,” Donkor said.

“
I know,” I replied.
“It’s good fighting with you again. Just like old
times.”

Donkor smiled his childish grin and
turned back to the forest. He waved his arms and the Jaguar
warriors emerged from their hiding spots and drew closer.