« (Cressiida Ioalovna) »

Cressiida looked up at the priestling who was – with extreem ill grace – serving as a messenger. She tapped the folded message on her desk. “You may inform Lord Heramakos that I will make haste to answer his summons.” Cressiida watched as the disgruntled priestling made his way to the door of her office, “And I’ll probably beat you to it. Now scram!”

As soon as the insolent young man had left, Cressiida stood and made her way briskly through the streets to the Temple. She ignored the hostile looks from the populace as she went.

As she entered the Temple Plaza she heard one of the temple’s criers announce a newly discovered festival. From the sounds of it, Cressiida understood that the festival in question would feature a lot of free booze.

Surprisingly, as soon as she stepped foot in the temple, an under priest scurried over to greet her, offering obsequiously to lead her to lord Heramakos’ office.

She found a worried looking Heramakos sitting at his desk pretending to study a document. To Cressiida it looked like one of the contracts the commanders of mercenary units had to sign.

Heramakos gestured her to one of the better chairs in his office. “You signed this? I note you had doubts. Can you please explain?”

Cressiida lifted one side of her mouth in a barely visible half smile. “It’s simple. That contract puts me at the service of Ancius Paalogus, and not yourself or the Temple.”

She waited patiently as Heramakos stared at her with narrowed eyes. Finally he said, slowly, “But Ancius speaks with my voice. So you work for me.”

“Not according to that,” Cressiida inclined her head indicating the contract. “I understand I was hired by you and the temple, but by the terms of that contract – well I have to obey Ancius Paalogus and not you or anyone you nominate.”

“Hmm... I think I see... Nonetheless you work for me. You will take your unit and scout out what the filthy animal nomads are up to. If they need help against the monsters, provide it, so long as it’s not a lost cause. You may leave.”

Cressiida stood and snapped a salute. “Very well sir,” she snapped. Then she turned and left. On her way out of the temple she diverted to visit Ancius Paalogus. She obtained his confirmation of her latest orders and left to round up her unit.

« (General Leontinus Pelaelagus) »

The army had been marching for two weeks now. They had been averaging fifteen kilometers per day. On the whole General Leontinus was satisfied. Or he had been up to now.

They had passed several towns and cities, and at each the local nobles and adventurers had flocked to his banner. He now had just short of one thousand two hundred armoured cavalry. And his scout cavalry had grown to just over seven hundred. He was still grieviously short of cavalry but he had expected to find the animal nomads here.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Leontinus stared in consternation at the ruins of Fort Victory. He could see several columns of centaurs streaming out of the ruins. They were galloping south, and even more bizarrely, half of them seemed to have riders on their backs. Worse there was no sign of his expected reinforcements.

He watched the leading elements of his scouting cavalry cautiously enter the fort. After some thirty minutes some of them left the fort by the southern entrance and probed after the retreating centaurs. He watched tight-lipped as two of his scouts came galloping back to report.

The lead scout drew up his horse and snapped of a sloppy salute. “Sir, the enemy are gone, but they poisoned the wells with the bodies of those members of the guarrison they killed. The survivors along with many of the um – Mara Feldans berserkers managed to withdraw to the citadel and the enemy didn’t bother them.”

“Any news of the animal nomads?” asked Leontinus.

“No sir. According to the garrison they never turned up.”

“Are the wells salvageable?”

“Possibly, the bodies haven’t been down there for that long sir. Just three days according to the garrison,” explained the scout leader dubiously.

The wells proved to be filled with some kind of semi-animated, fast-growing brambles. Leontinus was forced to fall back to their previous campsite, leaving only a strong guard and most of the army’s labourers to dig new wells and repair the fortifications.

There were sporadic skirmishes between the two armies’ scouts. Leontinus wasn’t surprised that his scouts were coming off worse.

Just over a week later the army was finally able to occupy Fort Victory. They were just in time to receive fresh missives from Lord Heramakos. Leontinus read his orders and – very carefully – filed them, before leaving his quarters and heading for the training ground where he destroyed two training pells.

After delaying as long as he dared, in the vain hope that his cavalry, in the shape of the animal nomads would show up, Leontinus led his host into the southern grasslands.

« (Queen Aldrya & Silvanna Ironhoof) »

The two friends examined the campaign map that was spread out on the table in the middle of the army’s command tent.

Aldrya looked at Silvanna. “There are more of them than I expected. They must have stripped their home cities.”

“Foolish of them. The Empire will have an easy time. Unlike us,” agreed Silvanna.

“Looks like we will have to participate,” sighed Aldrya.

Silvanna chuckled harshly, “I was always going to. You know that.”

“Well yes, but I wish you weren’t always at the forefront. Accidents happen,” observed Aldrya. “Luckily it seems they have finally alienated the Storm worshipers.”

“Huh. And what am I then...” asked Silvanna with mock indignation.

“Well yes dear, oh great Storm Lord,” said Aldrya straight-faced.

Silvanna snorted and looked down at the map once again. “We can win, we will have to make the most of our mobility.”

“Yes, but that places most of the risk on your Khanate, and on us. I don’t like giving the damn trolls a free ride,” huffed Aldrya.

“Don’t worry. There will be a big battle once we’ve bled them. The trolls and dwarves will throw themselves into the centre of the maelstrom. They always do. The danger is if they fail against the Solars pikes,” Silvanna pointed out.

“Fine. I know you’re right, but I still don’t like it. I guess it’s time to go threaten the surrounding cities.”

“True. Well let’s go do that. And the trolls will love scaring the poor little city folk. It’ll keep them occupied until the time comes,” agreed Silvanna. “Did those wicked brambles come from your dungeon?”

“Yes. And a few other interesting items,” smiled Aldrya.