Joel Shepherd - Haven

“Would my young friend with the wounded arm have anything to do with that decision?” Sasha teased her in Saalsi, yet with real interest.

“My path and his coincide,” Yshel admitted.

“Or perhaps entwine?” Sasha suggested. And she could have sworn that even in the fading light, she saw the serrin girl blush.

At the column's head, Sasha found a gathering of captains, village headmen, and a few lords. No one seemed to know who was in charge. All seemed greatly relieved to see Sasha as darkness fell, and the column continued through undulating fields. Sasha ordered scouts and cavalry to fall back, to give warning in case they were approached from the rear by Bacosh cavalry. None disputed her order. Sasha did not think a threat from behind at all likely-an army the size of the Army of the Free Bacosh (or whatever they were calling it now) was exceptionally difficult to manoeuvre at night, particularly in lands where the night was owned by forces hostile to their presence. Some lanterns and torches were brought to the head of the column, and some others lit further back, or carried by roadside sentries on horseback. Cloud and occasional rain made for a dark night, yet so long as the column held to the road, all would be good for now.

Rhillian arrived from across black fields in a rush of hooves and reined in at Sasha's side. “The Enoran Steel has encamped at a river ahead,” she said. “If you march all night, you should be there in the morning.”

Sasha nodded. “It's a good road. I think we can forgo one night's sleep. Why have the Steel stopped?”

“We hear there is some dissension. Some commanders say that with the Regent's advance halted in Shemorane, the advantage is with the defenders once again.”

“Idiots,” Sasha muttered. “The Enorans beat us, but they were mauled. I'll reckon the Rhodaanis are even worse after they lost. The Regent still has more than a hundred thousand, and I'll bet further that Koenyg will attach the northerners to that army as a new heavy cavalry formation. The Steel remains massively outnumbered, and the land here is perfect for cavalry and flanking manoeuvres, which takes their artillery out of play-their biggest advantage.”

“The previous plan was to head for Jahnd,” said Rhillian. Sasha nodded, having suspected as much. Jahnd seemed more a place of legend than a real city. No one knew precisely how old it was, some speculated a few centuries, others far longer. It lay on the far bank of the Ipshaal River from Enora, on the Saalshen side of the border, in the foothills of the Ilduuri Mountains. It was the only place in serrin lands where humans lived, a city that had long been a refuge for humans escaped across the river from the tyrannies of their kind.

Serrin, quite predictably, had been unable to reach consensus about sending such humans back to persecution and murder, yet were unwilling to allow humanity free range within Saalshen. So they had established a city on a tributary of the Ipshaal, within which those humans had made a colony. Over the centuries, that colony had grown into a large city, about which far more fantastic tales were known than facts. What was undisputed was that the city had been called Jahnd. In Enoran, the word meant “haven.”

“And Saalshen is happy to be holding the last defence of the Saalshen Bacosh on serrin land?” Sasha asked.

“Saalshen's opinion is unknowable,” said Rhillian. “If by Saalshen you mean me, then yes, I think the option is best. Jahnd is protected by the Ipshaal and the Ilduuri Mountains. And we both know that the Regent shall cross the Ipshaal in time, whether we lead him there or not. You've seen how he cleanses these lands of serrin, and any trace of Saalshen's influence upon humanity. He seeks to purify humanity of us. Jahnd shall not be allowed to stand one way or another. And once Jahnd falls, Saalshen lies before him.”

“How are Jahnd's defences?”

“It is protected on three sides by mountains…not a perfect defence, but rough terrain and favouring the defender. It has walls, which serrin told the earliest humans were not necessary, yet those humans had suffered persecution, and were terrified that their old lords would cross the Ipshaal and attack them. So they built high walls, to defend against an attack that never came. Until now.”

“And how do we cross the Ipshaal?” Sasha asked. “Boats could move the army, but it would take many days, and the Regent shall be on our tail again shortly. And I haven't seen any boat that could navigate a river and be large enough to transport catapults.”

“We have a way,” said Rhillian, with a smile in the dark. “Forgive me that I do not tell you. We have not even told the Steel, save for General Rochan. If the Regent knew, I doubt he would allow his priests to delay him so long in Shemorane. He assumes the Ipshaal an impassable barrier to us, and I would rather he stays thus misinformed.”

“A way,” Sasha repeated, thinking hard. Boats, she supposed. Very big boats. The Ipshaal was a very big river, far too wide and strong for any bridge. Surely such large boats were possible. “I look forward to being surprised.”

“You have only seen Tracato,” said Rhillian. “Tracato has its amazements. But Jahnd is something else again.”

Dawn broke upon wet fields and dripping trees. Mist lay across gentle hills, and the night's rain made puddles by the roadside. The light was ghostly, and Sasha felt she was riding in a dreamworld between waking and sleep. In her exhaustion, it did not seem real, what she had led her people to do. Only when the morning cleared, as the sun burned away the mist, did she see a sight that made the previous day real again.

Across a ridgeline of hills, silver ranks of soldiers gleamed in the sun. It was the Enoran Steel. Along the column, men remarked upon sighting them. Some sounded concerned. The last time the men of Lenayin had seen that sight, more than a quarter of them had died.

Sasha looked about for the serrin guides who had accompanied them through the night, and found none. Suddenly, Sasha doubted. Had they been set up? Was this merely a ruse, to lure them all to their deaths? Surely not; the Army of Lenayin was a great asset to a desperate people-not merely a depletion of the enemy's ranks, but a significant increase to their own. But still the doubt remained.

The Steel's formation demanded a reply. Sasha had not seen Damon all night, so she gave the orders herself. Again, none refused her, and word passed loudly down the column.

The army flooded from the road onto the fields opposite the Steel. There was a gentle incline, and it was not a good position. Sasha felt uncomfortable with it, and by the looks several captains, lords, and other seniors gave her, she knew she was not alone. She waited by the road, on what was becoming the far right flank of the army's front line, and watched the lines extend. Bedraggled they were, and tired, and recently humiliated, and even more recently divided and rebelling. Yet still they presented a formidable sight-many thousands of men, and thousands more cavalry, perhaps eighteen thousand by the latest count. They were, man for man, the most fearsome fighting army in Rhodia, and surely even the Steel armies of the Saalshen Bacosh could not dispute it. Sasha looked at the ranks of gleaming steel atop the opposing ridgeline, and thought that surely, beneath those shining helms, Enoran soldiers were also recalling the last time these two armies faced each other, and remembering that familiar chill of fear. Every other army they had faced had been defeated. Most had been routed, and a few, utterly destroyed.

But not this one. This army, out-armoured, out-weaponed, outnumbered when one accounted for the talmaad , and against the most devastating barrage of Enoran artillery, had nearly won.