It was early. Not quite dawn. The morning sky slowly brightening, the torches in the courtyard still providing light for a little while longer. We were up even before the roosters. Well, few of us had actually slept.
The lack of sleep didn’t bother at all. Being a young girl deity has its perks. The smiths and apprentices were tired, though. They had to tough it out if they wanted to survive.
“Hey Tread, have soone fetch so whiskey barrels.”
“At this hour, my lady?”
“Not for personally. To keep these apprentices happy. We’re going to be marching all day on top of the night we just had. Whiskey’ll help.”
“If you’re sure.”
“Hmm. I wonder.”
“What’s that?”
“You know what? Load up so wagons with the barrels. All of them if we can.”
“All of them?”
The big man crossed his arms. “It might not be wise to distribute all those barrels to the soldiers, Princess.”
“I’m thinking it might be better used as a bomb. Whiskey burns rapidly.”
“It certainly burns my throat.”
I shook my head. “I keep telling you to add water to it. But, no, not like that. It’s highly flammable. We could put it into clay pots, with a rag on top, toss it into the enemy soldiers. Or just launch entire barrels from catapults. They’re easy enough to build on the battlefield using only wood and rope.”
“Catapults?”
I took the big man by the arm and directed him to our horses, “Oh, you are going to love this weapon.”
***
I was preparing to build a lot of force multipliers for my army. If only I had more ti! Would catapults hurling barrels of spirits stop the Laemacian army? Serce will definitely be surprised when a ballista shoots straight through one of his rhinos. A giddy part of , probably the part that hadn’t slept, wanted to see his face as that happened. Sucks for the rhino, though.
Wagons were lining up, getting packed, so already carrying sleeping smiths. No horse army this ti, we had lots and lots of tools, tal, and people to bring. Hopefully, hopefully, we’d get to the pass in ti.
It’d be pretty bad to arrive only to find Carlisele’s army defeated and enslaved by a triumphant future husband. Significantly less enjoyable than winning a battle with thrown together ballistae and catapults.
Hopefully what we were bringing would make a difference. We had to stop the Laemacian army from massacring the n of my kingdom. And if we defeated them, I’d get my peace.
But, the cynical part of said, forty-three ballistae, the number of tal rods we’d completed, weren’t going to cut it. I guess we’d see. My other options weren’t great. Talk to the guy? lt the entire field into the mantle of the planet? Maybe he’d lose a ga of go-fish to and I’d win my kingdom’s peace.
I sighed. Ok, the lack of sleep was catching up. I had bigger problems, anyways, than an enormous army heading our way. Where were the mages? They hadn’t harassed or demanded my surrender. Why were they waiting?
“You look gloomy today, Princess.”
“Catching up to you, I guess.”
“What do you an?”
“You’re always grim. My turn, now.”
“Hmm. Why don’t you leave dourness to and focus on being a young girl.”
“Well, I would but, you know, the whole leading the kingdom thing. Kinda requires a little maturity.”
“Then we are dood.”
“You jerk!”
“Is that a spider-silk dress you’re wearing?”
“Brin’s fault. She forced it on this morning. But, maybe I should put on my armor. We are heading into battle.”
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“Perhaps. A little too regal for marching. Though it accents your figure more nicely than armor.”
I stuck out my tongue at the big man.
“Cayce! Here you are. Good morning, General Morrentz.”
He grunted in turn.
“Brin, why is your horse with you? You can’t co. Seriously,” I took her by the arm, lowering my voice, “this battle I’m not convinced we can win.”
“All the more reason for to co. If you’re hellbent on marrying the Laemacian emperor, you’ll need with you.”
“You’re not accompanying to the enemy!”
“Well, I will be there to make you as presentable as possible.”
“Young lady, you’ll turn around and go right back to sleep.”
“I’m going to ignore both you and sleep. You need .” She looked over from head to feet, “You look so much better than when you arrived here. Yes, indeed, you very much need my ministrations.”
“Seriously, you can’t co. Your father will be so angry with . Plus, like, you might die. Brin!”
“Either you stop the war there or they capture the castle here. I’m no safer here than I am with you, and I’m coming.”
“I’m going to order the guards to detain you.”
“You do that and those spider eggs will hatch on my command.” She waggled her forefinger, “Don’t tempt !”
***
We rode in a direction I’d never gone before. North and east. The road was well trampled, having borne Carlisele’s army a few days prior.
We didn’t know how far in advance he was and sent ssengers to find out. Hopefully not too far, but also hopefully far enough. Ideally, I wanted their encampnt beyond our borders. It seed to that’d make it easier to parlay with Otholos. We’d be coming from a weaker hand if he was already within the kingdom.
Perhaps, though, I was overthinking things. It didn’t really matter where his massive army encountered us because borders were clearly not sothing he recognized. I’d have the lawyers lodge a sovereignty dispute at the United Nations imdiately.
Passing so thick pine trees, I leaned over Cloud’s neck, spoke quietly to Morry, “You did say that spider eggs don’t hatch in dresses, right?”
“I said that, yes.”
“Ok, whew.”
“But if soone put them there, I suppose they could. No sane person would do that, though. Possibly a disgruntled mistress of the bedroom.”
I looked back at Brin, scowling. She and Tread, riding side by side, were chatting away as if each had a full night’s sleep and we were on a picnic. “She put you up to saying that, didn’t she?”
He grinned, “I asked about it. Figured sothing was up.”
“Let’s set up her tent on a fire ant nest tonight.”
“Princess, you’ll be sharing the tent with her.”
“Oh! I can’t seem to win against Brin.”
“I’m more concerned with you winning against the Laemacian emperor.”
“I’m not sure ‘winning’ is the right word there. Defeating, yes. Besting, sure. But not winning when so many lives are on the line.”
“It’s good you think this way. Good for rulers to think this way, though few do. Otholos certainly does not.”
“Could you do it, Morry? Could you kill a hundred, two hundred thousand n?”
“No, Princess. But you can.”
“You know that’s not what I ant.”
“Killing n I don’t know to save n I do. Yes, that is all I have ever done for my adult life. If I had your power, I would kill just enough of the Laemacians to put you on their throne.”
“I am the official heir, by blood.”
“Exactly.”
“And Otholos is the usurper. I wonder if they’d follow if I removed him.”
“Unlikely. I doubt the commoners in the army are aware of your blood ties.”
“No? People here seem aware of everything I do.”
“How many peasants have you spoken to?”
“Good point. Yeah, sotis the soldiers don’t even recognize . After the wyvern attacked, you rember? One of the soldiers tried to recruit to be their . . . What did he call it? Campy, he invited to be their campy.”
“Ah. It would be a simpler life.”
“Not for , I think.”
“You didn’t have him beaten?”
“No. Uh, I didn’t think . . . about that. Maybe I could ask Otholos’ soldiers if they’d like a new empress.”
Morry laughed. A quick burst, but still, it was good to see him laugh. Then he went back to resting grim face, saying, “You could inform them.”
“Of what I could do? Remove Otholos and then demand their allegiance through threat?”
“In the short term, it might be a good idea. Your choice is a lot easier than this, though.”
“What do you an?”
“Princess, you either stop their army or they kill most of us and enslave the survivors.”
“What do you think our chances are? Have you seen the mountain pass? Can Carlisele hold it?”
“If they don’t have mages, we have a chance. Tell about your new weapons.”
“Ballistae. They’re basically a large crossbow. But with tal and sturdy rope, well-made ones can fling a missile up to a” I was about to say ‘kiloter,’ but caught myself, “a half mile. They’ll stop war rhinos easily.”
“Oh? Then armored n won’t be an issue for them.”
“These ones will be crude, though. Perhaps half that distance.”
“We haven’t done any testing on them, either.”
“You think they’ll fail?”
“They might, but also-”
“You’re asking how I thought them up so quickly?”
“Are these also described in those books of yours?”
I looked away. The vibrant colors of spring had faded into the deep, lush greens of sumr. The grass was tall and blowing in the wind, the trees full and soaking up the sun. But as we rode north, it beca drier and drier, little by little. More pebbles being kicked up by the horses and more and more empty splotches here and there. It seed to as if the land itself was becoming bleak. I worried for what lay ahead.
“Princess?”
“Books, yeah. They’re just big crossbows in the sa way sarissae are just larger and longer pikes. Morry, these weapons are crude. We can design better, sturdier ones later, but it’s not like these were hard to think up.”
“What other weapons are waiting to be let out of that mind of yours?”
“I wish all this fighting was unnecessary. Truly. But I guess it was ever this way.”
“They know we’re weak and want what we have.”
I ant in history, but I couldn’t really tell him that. Endless little wars until soone got the upper hand through advancents or genius, and then they united the divided, fractious states, into empires, through conquest. “If we survive this battle, I’ll show you weapons you’ve never dreamt of. Frightening, terrible weapons and we’ll forge an empire and build a governnt and force peace on the entire continent.”
The big man looked at for a while, saying nothing, then turned his gaze inward, it seed, eyes off into the horizon.
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