The morning was usually greeted by the shouts of troops heading to train at their allocated spots upon the Ganidan Plain. On this particular day that wasn't the case, the voices heard across the camp were feminine and melancholic in nature. Departure from the Ganidan Plain and back to their homes should have had them brimming with joy but in this case their departure was stained by the knowledge of the inevitable doom to come. The touch of death was within the horizon, drifting ever closer to the Talisi camp and the King wasn't going to run away or hide from it. This however, did not mean that the women were to share the same fate as the men. They were to go and tell the Talisi Green Army's story, to tell of all they've witnessed and await the ending of the tale to reach their abodes and strike the final nail on the coffin of their hope.
Rehny had expected a huge number of the Talisi Green army to accompany the women on their journey home. It wasn't a degradation of the Talisi army's image but rather an assumption born of what he'd witnessed of the Talisi on his campaigns against them thus far. He'd been shocked when no Regiment had volunteered to take the women home, choosing instead to stay and advertently die by their King's side. Gans had been moved by the army's gesture but the women still required an escort. The King had gathered the Captains and asked them to choose the youngest and the frailest in their Regiments and have them escort the women back home as a courtesy to the crown.
A thousand had been selected and were set to march the previous day but at the last minute they'd gathered before the King's tent and petitioned him to revise his order. "With all due respect, my liege, but we ain't going nowhere! We know what's coming and shall not miss out in the songs that are to be written about you. We will stand beside you here and at the golden halls of Tabrimas." A young slim man with a pointed nose and large ears had led the selected escorts in their defiance. King Gans couldn't turn away the young inexperienced men whose sole purpose was to die in a blaze of glory by their King's side. One could see it as insubordination but Gans had claimed. "Who am I to dictate how a man should die? If they want to die by my side, who am I to stop them?"
King Gans had found himself in a pickle. On one side there weren't any willing to accompany the women and on the other side his daughter, Princess Tari, had stubbornly refused to leave her father to his death. She was to ride out two days prior and had evaded the stable master's call, disappearing in the morning and appearing during the night. Tari was a stubborn woman who believed something had been done to her father to drive him towards such drastic measures. But hadn't something been done to the King? Rehny recalled Ishar's hand on the King's chest, his violet eyes glowing amber.
Rehny walked in the direction of the Telinete's recurring bellow for the third time in the last three days. The beast's cry had been continuous over the past couple of days and Rehny at first had taken it as an omen, the beast could after all tell when blood was about to be spilled. He'd been surprised that first time to find a crowd formed at the outskirts of the tents, Ishar standing at their front, cheering while looking out towards the open Ganidan Plain where a solo rider rode the Telinete Rhino.
"The Chosen one's mate." A veteran soldier had pointed out that first time as he stood beside him while Rehny struggled to squint above the heads of the crowded Talisi. There was a touch of pride in the veteran's voice, Ishar's choice of a Talisi woman as his mate had pleased all save the Princess Tari whose aggressive campaigns against Ishar continued to fall on deaf ears.
Now as he arrived at the southern outskirts of the tents he found the crowd thinned, mostly soldiers stood looking out at the Telinete and its rider. The women who'd accompanied them in their gawking were busy packing and preparing for departure. The small crowd parted effortlessly for him, his name was known throughout the camp. He'd expected hate and violence to be his companion as it had been during his first day in the Talisi camp, now he was treated with indifference and mild curiosity. Whatever threat he'd posed had been negated by the fact that the King had surprisingly spoken in favor of him, besides, everyone was going to die anyway. The acceptance of the inevitable had had the Talisi army focused on savoring their last moments other than wasting it on him. Rehny found that he oddly belonged among them.
Ishar, Princess Tari, Mairek and Edda stood in a line further away from the crowd and closer to the distant rider. Princess Tari in a white dress faced Ishar and gesticulated wildly with her hands and as Rehny came closer her words reached his ears, "... and you expect me to just give in like everyone else? You will suffer for what you've done to my father! Suffer for what you've done to the Talisi women and to myself. Did you know that the women have to venture back home alone now? Traveling without an escort until they reach the first town where the King's signed writ would have the town's guards serve as escorts! Hence lowering the security of each town passed until the last woman arrives home! You've single handedly destroyed Talisi's security structure..."
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Rehny came to stand beside Tari, she turned her head to look at him while the rest remained staring off into the distance where the Telinete ran in wide circles. Tari's momentary pause was seen as opportunity by Edda.
"Rehny, what do you think Vayin's strategy will be? Can he divert a fraction of his army to venture far east and loop around to transverse the hills bordering the Plain so as to intersect the women as they traveled home?" Edda asked. She wore dark green leather armor same as him. Rehny preferred leather armor, it weighed less than metal armor though one still did tend to sweat a lot in it.
Rehny stood taller than them all. It was easy for him to meet the Remu woman's large brown eyes as she lifted her head to him from across those between them. "Vayin's army works on order, they work as a singular organ coordinated by Vayin Vigon. He uses hand signals, word of mouth, horn blasts and colored flags to communicate with his army's entire structure of rule and hence there is an order to how Binoria goes about with combat. It has worked for the past five hundred years so I see no way Vayin will change it now. The Binorian Legions never fracture, never separate. The Legions fielded together move as a body, each playing their part according to the King's will."
"What purpose serves fielding a hundred legions? What part does a hundred Legions play?" Mairek asked without turning to him. The young man gave off an air of one with unimpeded knowledge. It was as if he knew the answer of what he asked but only posed the question for the benefit of another. Mairek's leather armor fit him well, as if it was fashioned just for him.
"Total annihilation." Rehny answered and all heads except Ishar's turned to him.
Tari turned to the Kolotian with tears on the brink of cascading down her face. "Ishar, please, go talk to my father. Change what you've put into motion only so we can have a chance to survive." Ishar didn't face her as she pleaded. His eyes stayed on the rider who inched closer to them with each loop of the Telinete's run. Ishar was shirtless, his gold shirt tucked to the waist of his black breeches and dangling the length of his thigh.
"Rehny, what chances have we of Vayin showing mercy after fielding a hun-" Mairek didn't finish.
"SHUT UP! YOU AREN'T THE ONE BEING ADDRESSED!" Tari's tears dropped from her chin. Mairek didn't turn to look at her but Rehny thought he saw a sly smile appear and vanish on the Talisi lad's face. There's a tale here.
"She's crying." Ishar suddenly said. Eyes still fixed on the rider upon his Rhino.
"Of course I'm crying, I'm crying for the Talisi and the animosity that is to befall them due to your actions. I'm crying because-" It was Tari's turn to de interrupted.
"He wasn't referring to you." Mairek said with his arms crossed upon his chest.
Tari turned in the direction of the rider.
"She knows all that we have started to become will not see its completion for I shall die before tomorrow's end. She knows I'm going to die and there is nothing she can do about it for the rules do not allow her to be part of what is to come." Ishar said, Rehny got the feeling that the lad was just airing his thoughts, addressing nobody in particular. "'One last ride, alone.' Is what she asked of me. To feel the wind tug at her hair and the ground shake with Carrot's passing. It was a lie of course, she just wanted a place to cry. A place far from me. To cry at the injustice of the Gods. To cry at my failure to approach her during the many times I'd hidden and watched as she fetched water. To cry at the withering of our flower's love before its bloom. She thinks she is alone in her grief, yet Carrot tells me everything." The Telinete bellowed with Ishar's conclusion and started heading in their direction.
A long silence ensued as they watched the rider approach. "I am going to Central Talisi at noon," Tari punctuated the silence. "I will tell my brother of what you've done, Kolotian. My father's death will be on your head."
Ishar slowly turned to Tari. His eyes lacked the usual cheer Rehny had become accustomed to seeing in them. Instead the mad gleam that accompanied the cheer was the only thing that remained. "Tell your brother that the time has come for the Centala flowers upon the Plain to taste the blood of a Binorian King."
"You're a mad man." Tari said and turned to walk away. Rehny met Edda's eyes and could see affirmation regarding Tari's words painted upon her face. Ishar failed to see the impossibility of what he intended, and so did King Gans. Lives were going to be lost for the sheer need of accomplishing the King's insane objective. Chances of winning the battle let alone killing Vayin Vigon were the same as that of the full moon showing beside the sun. It was possible but each belonged to its own realm and reality rarely negated the arrangement. Still, Rehny wasn't going to step away from the opportunity of crossing swords with the man who'd taken all that he'd ever cared about. If Ishar and Gans were insane then he should be counted among them too.
The Telinete came to a stop before them, the rider's sclera were bloodshot, her eyes fixed on Ishar. She sniffed and descended by lowering herself down the Telinete's carapace and hanging for a moment before letting go and dropping the remaining distance to the ground. Ishar was by her side in a second, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing tight. She let out a sob, unable to maintain her intended air of indifference. She clung to the Kolotian and beat at his back with the occasional curled fist. She tried to form words but couldn't as her voice broke with every uttered syllable. Ishar maintained his hold on her through it all and she relented in the end, digging her face into his shoulder while shaking with uncontrollable sobs. Rehny turned away from the sight and walked back to camp, his heart heavy with the memory of someone far away.