The Barclay force had taken almost a week to return ho from the encampnt where I’d first arrived, when we’d divided our armies so long ago. Lacking wagons, were on track to make it in five days. We’d traveled along the tree breaks, sotis along the high passages of dirt roads, sotis not.
If I could recapture this kingdom and make appropriate strides toward peace with its neighbors, I was thinking the next thing I’d steal from history would be road building. It worked for the Romans, it’d work for . Speed had been key for both Alexander and the Romans, though through different ans. I wondered, then, if the Gauls had ever dismantled the roads, knowing the advantage they conferred the Romans. Or perhaps they were used as ambush points. If you know where your enemy is traveling, it might be a good idea to intercept them there.
We weren’t ambushed. Probably our enemy didn’t know we were coming. They would soon after we crossed the bridge, I was told. One more day to get to the bridge. Almost to our main targets, then, the Ketzillian invaders.
I looked across the endless plains, admiring the vast potential of this duchy, but wondering why they were empty. The breadbasket for the kingdom already, but capable of supporting a much larger population. Turning to Duke Treleal, with whom I’d been riding, trying to get to know the man, “Why aren’t there more towns and villages out here? The land seems perfectly suited to farming.”
“Expansion takes ti and people. If you’ll forgive , the wars have drained too many young n who could otherwise be building towns and villages.”
“There’s nothing to forgive. I’m beginning to understand that. It is my hope, my lord, that after driving the Ketzillians out of the kingdom we can enter into agreents with the various states.”
“A war to bring peace.” He sighed.
“I’m sure it’s a song often sung.”
“All too often.”
“In your estimation, what’s causing the constant wars?”
“If you’ll allow to be blunt.”
“Of course.”
“Your father’s ambition to expand the kingdom into Ketzillian land.”
“Wait. Are you saying my castle is on their land?” Ugh, I could be entering endless war rely by retaking what I thought had been my family’s.
“The Ketzles claim all land west of the Dernam River.”
“Oh. But isn’t the castle my family’s castle? For two generations now?”
“Yes. I’m not saying the Ketzles are correct in their claims. But it was your grandfather who built the castle with the intention of capturing more land. These wars, Your Highness, have been going on for so ti now.”
“They certainly predate .”
“Every new king, queen in your case, my lady, thinks theirs will be the last war. Peace, they all promise peace. I’d like to see it.”
“Do you think the Ketzillians will negotiate in good faith for a cessation to hostilities?”
“That’s the rub, isn’t it? Peace takes two parties and dedication. War requires only one.”
“Well, my lord, we do have the advantage. In weaponry, I an.”
“Begging your pardon, but I’m not so sure. Our soldiers, your soldiers, once were brothers. They didn’t want to fight. Our lines collapsed quickly because of this.”
It ca out of my mouth before I could stop the words, “Were you at the sa battle I was? My sarissa and cavalry crushed your lines.”
He looked off to the side, “Yes, of course.”
“Alright, I’m sorry, I’m being insensitive. Your point is that the Ketzillians will fight differently, harder?”
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“Insensitive? Not a word often admitted by a monarch.”
“The Ketzles, my lord. How do you see the battle going?”
“Well. Their accomplishnts worry . They did best your father, your brother. Now I’m being insensitive.”
“Perhaps the truth isn’t comfortable, but it is what it is. Yes, they did. And that worries you?”
“They can amass very large armies, my lady. What most worries is the magical advantage. You’ve been able to conscript all the mages for your army, leaving the duchies and earldoms lacking. If they manage to best us in this arena, we will lose all our protection, and the kingdom will fall, and every village, town and hamlet.”
“Right. It always boils down to the mages. Never mind the weapons. That’s an unfortunately good point, my lord. One that I don’t have an answer to. If you do, please share it.”
“With luck, their army remains divided between the south at Dernamouth and north at Yohstone.”
“Bechalle managed to destroy one of their armies at the river crossing.”
“Yes, I’d heard.”
“And if it were you leading the Ketzillian armies?”
“I’d consolidate them. Especially the mages.”
“I hope they don’t think like you do.” It would an we’d lose. At least the magical advantage, if not our lives.
“Great minds think alike, yet simple minds seldom differ.”
“In that case, my lord, we are riding to our deaths.”
***
“Reese! May I have a mont?” I’d ridden down the line, looking for the head nurse. She was near the end, the hospital staff and pack animals bringing up the rear of the army as our enemy lay only in front of us. No wounded, for we left the few we’d had to convalesce at the Treleal Duchy.
“Of course, Your Highness.”
“I ca to apologize. You saved my life and I treated you so poorly! I am very sorry for my behavior.”
“Sotis, it happens. A patient will co out of the healing trance in a terrible mood. In your case, it was because your generals hanged children. Anger for that is not sothing to apologize for.”
“I am apologizing for misdirecting my anger to you, Reese.”
“Accepted.” She looked at from her horse, “And forgotten. Please don’t worry, Princess Cayce. I’m made of tough stuff.”
“Of that I have no doubt! I believe you are the hardest working person in this army.”
“It’s a sad fact if that’s true. For it ans that many have been injured and dying. Tell , what are your plans after recapturing your castle?”
“That’s a difficult question. Maybe a simple question, honestly, but a difficult answer. I’d like to sign treaties regarding our borders to produce peace.”
“I thought you were going to follow in your ancestor’s paths and attempt to take Ketzle.”
“I’d rather not. I’m not sure how to obtain peace, though, without war if the Ketzles and the Laemacians won’t agree to it. I an, I guess there’s always marriage.”
“If our neighbors won’t agree to cease hostilities with you when you have a kingdom, what makes you think they will when they have your kingdom?”
“Huh. That’s a good point.”
“You may have a stronger position in bargaining with an army at your back than a mattress.”
“I definitely do not want to be bargaining from the bedroom. Trust on that!” Alright, I couldn’t wait and had no subtlety, “Reese, I have to ask you a delicate question.”
“Your Highness?”
“Did you, uh, see . . . anything strange? Unusual? When you were healing , I an.”
“Princess Cayce, I’ll tell you what’s strange. That your heart didn’t beat for a long ti. That you sohow woke up capable of speech and that you’re riding a horse right now. These are strange.”
“I think it must have been beating, my heart, but just so faint you didn’t notice.”
“When I’m healing soone, the magic brings an awareness of the other person. It’s like I’m inside, directing your tissues to knit, holding off on cholic humors and bile, bringing the blood in little by little.”
As she spoke on these matters, I was thinking that if only I could teach her about cells and the immune system. Then I worried she saw for the imposter I was.
“When I first healed you, you were fourteen. A confused girl, the weight of the kingdom thrust on your shoulders. Now you’re a young woman. Sure, I’ve seen the scars myself, even heard the rumors.”
“Rumors?”
“That Bechalle was corrupting you, turning you into an avatar of so god or demon, or trying to steal your youth.” She looked with her sharp features, as if reading my feelings, “But what I saw, whom I know you to be, is none of those things. I know the wizards are filling your head with nonsense, trying to make themselves important, off hunting esoteric stories that nobody rembers or cares. You’re a young woman, Princess Cayce, and you’re still confused but also full of guilt. You’re mistaking the enormous responsibilities of the kingdom with bla for its atrocities.”
“You didn’t see any, ah, magical change within ?”
“Your Highness, is there sothing you want to tell ?”
My mind stumbled then, thinking ‘yes!’ and shutting down that thought. All I could get out was, “Uhm, sorry, distracted, what was that?”
“You rode here to speak with . What are you looking for?”
“I think I found it, honestly. And thank you for being so kind.”
“I have a stressful and tireso duty, my lady. And if I am the hardest working person in the kingdom, then surely you are the second.”
“Reese, thank you. You’ve lifted my spirits sowhat and settled my angst.”
“A pleasure. Now, tell , if I may be intrusive, which of the suitors did you find most exciting?”
“W-what?”
“Gossip, Your Highness. I’m digging for gossip.”
“Well, uh, the trouble with these boys is . . .” It was enjoyable to see Reese laugh and smile and we chatted the day away, largely at the expense of the would-be suitors’ antics and varying levels of maturity.
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