Chapter 11

Shortly after midday, the Baron led them onto a well-travelled rural road running parallel to the east of the mountain where he had indicated the Orensted mines were located. Ludmila, still not quite ready for some other dark imperial secret to be dumped upon her, eyed the nobleman’s warhorse.

“Is my lord’s horse a bonded mount,” she asked, “or are you using magic items to sustain this pace?”

“A bonded mount, my lady,” the Baron answered. “We’ve been together for over twenty years now. I hesitate to ask, but is that Soul Eater yours?”

Ludmila reached out and patted her Soul Eater on the back of its bare skull.

“It’s a creation of His Majesty that was assigned to me for my tasks in the Empire. As far as I understand, summons and created beings can’t be bonded.”

“That sounds about right,” Lord Ward said. “I was curious what the mind of an Undead being felt like, but I suppose that question will remain unanswered. Actually, I’m not sure what sort of house Zahradnik is – I assumed it was of a cavalry tradition like most of Re-Estize, but your riding skills don’t match.”

“We’re Rangers,” Ludmila replied. “Our territory lies on the border ranges south of Re-Estize, but it’s far wetter than the mountains here. And cooler. Horses aren’t of much use when one’s land is mostly dense forests, highlands and mountains.”

A few hours after they came off of the imperial highway, Baron Ward brought his mount to a stop at an empty crossroads. He gestured to the west, where a road made its way through scrub-covered foothills.

“Orensted and its mines are that way,” he said. “About ten kilometres. It’s a large village of about five hundred, managed by a Baron of the same name.”

“If it’s that far away,” Ludmila tried to get a glimpse of anything in the distance, “why isn’t there a village at this crossroads?”

“The road marks the border, for one. There also isn’t enough water here. All of the farmland is lower in the valley you see to the east. The rest is ranchland for horses, sheep and cattle. This is the northwestern point of my demesne – we’ll be at my village in about two hours.”

The Baron urged his mount forward again, leading them south along the road. It eventually curved southwest down the valley, leading through fields freshly ploughed and sown.

“What do you grow here, my lord?”

“Nothing exciting – wheat, mostly. As Count Kurze mentioned, it’s been this way for over a century. We export our goods to Kurze, Kurze exports trades with Karlsheim and Karlsheim sends its taxes to Arwintar. Agricultural produce, ores and men: that basically sums up the contribution of the Wyvernmark to the Empire.”

“From House Zahradnik’s perspective, it’s an enviable position. We could barely export anything and we were in a constant stalemate with the wilderness tribes…speaking of which, how is your relationship with the peoples across the border?”

Lord Ward turned his gaze up the valley, where the winding river eventually crossed into a sparsely-wooded area beyond the cultivated fields.

“I don’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary. If they’re hungry, they raid. Otherwise, they stay out there.”

“At least it’s easy to spot things out here…what races do you have to deal with?”

“Out of the usual ones, Goblins and Ogres. Trolls don’t like the dry, but you can find them in caves that are everywhere and around small lakes out there. Things get nicer the further south you go, meaning it gets nastier in other ways. What we have here are the weaker groups pushed to what they would consider fringe territories.”

“Is there anything one might consider unique to the area? Monsters or Magical Beasts?”

“This is the driest part of the Empire, so you’ll find things that you wouldn’t elsewhere. Wyverns, Giant Scorpions, Greater Canyon Tarantulas, Rust Monsters…”

She frowned at the mention of the potential threat to her equipment.

“As in ‘armour goes poof’ Rust Monsters?”

“You’ve heard of them?”

“One of my friends encountered them on her Promotional Examination this year.”

“Hmm…we did have a group out here for that. My son was leading that patrol; came back in his britches. Who was it that you knew?”

“Dimoiya Erex.”

Baron Ward reached up and scratched his jaw at the mention of the name.

“Ah,” he said after several seconds, “the short girl with the big glasses. I heard she killed them so she should have passed.”

“She did,” Ludmila replied, “though she still considers it a terrible experience. How common are Rust Monsters in this region?”

“…worried that you’ll be running around naked at some point?”

“Yes.”

“They’re a priority for us to get rid of, but they always crawl out of somewhere. If your stuff is enchanted, though, you don’t have to worry about them corroding it.”

That was a relief. Ludmila was beginning to worry over how she would need to explain why she had lost the precious equipment that His Majesty had bestowed upon her.

“How do your patrols usually deal with them?”

“Mages are the go-to. Barring that, we can use Focus Battle Aura to turn our weapons magical temporarily – that way they don’t turn into dust on impact. If all else fails, our spears get turned into staves and we beat them to death with those.”

“Doesn’t that mean the patrol with Dimoiya’s group could have killed those Rust Monsters at any time?”

“Yeah, but they wanted to make the students feel ‘special’. Got their stuff eaten for their trouble.”

Ludmila wordlessly shook her head. Losing that much equipment would have sent most minor Nobles into fits over the expense.

When they came within sight of what Ludmila assumed was Baron Ward’s village, a pair of Imperial Knights rode out to meet them. Like the men of the Second Legion when she first encountered them at the border, they did not falter and break at the sight of the Undead column behind her.

“Captain,” one of them said as they offered a salute. “Welcome back. I may be mistaken, but isn’t this the opposite of what you wanted?”

“I didn’t get anything out of Karlsheim,” Captain Ward replied. “Nothing’s changed, but, as a consolation, I picked up Baroness Zahradnik here.”

“Zahradnik…” The Imperial Knight frowned, “You mean the liaison officer mentioned in the briefing, sir?”

“The same,” Ludmila smiled at his frown. “I suppose consolation is technically not outside the realm of my duties as a liaison officer, but I’m sure I can manage more than that.”

“She’s arrived for an ‘unofficial inspection’,” the Captain told them. “Any of Ray’s men in there?”

“Orensted’s just got a new shipment of liquor, so we’re probably in the clear for another day or so.”

“Good. Go ahead and bring your troops in, my lady. We can get them situated at…hmm, can you set them up around the perimeter of the village? That’ll be sure to scare the piss out of any of Ray’s brats that come out to pester the village girls.”

Ludmila went around to do as the Baron requested while he went ahead to his manor near the centre of the village. A maid was awaiting her when she made her way over to the modest home of the venerable Frontier Lord. The rustic building was close to what she had dreamed of for her family back before the Sorcerous Kingdom came and changed everything.

After dropping her things off in a small room that used to belong to the Baron’s daughters, she joined him in his hall where a table in front of the hearth was set for dinner.

“Do any members of your family still live here with you?” Ludmila asked.

“My eldest son is a Captain in the same division,” Lord Ward answered, “so he comes by every once in a while. I have two other sons: one in the Third Legion and one in the Fourth. One of my grandsons is around here somewhere, as well.”

“It must be nice to have such a large family. They seem quite established.”

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“Some of them more than others. But that’s enough about me. You’ve seen and heard a bit of what’s going on here – have you thought about what can be done? Telling Ray to run naked through the Katze Plains would be a good start.”

She was fairly certain that she could. Because the events were set into motion by Lady Albedo, however, Ludmila had to consider the objectives of the Royal Court. Her assumption upon leaving the Dwarf Kingdom for her assignment was that the behaviour of the Empire as a client state of the Sorcerous Kingdom was being examined. What was going on in the Wyvernmark, however, was distinctly different from the Second Legion’s task in the northwest.

Unlike the regular army groups of the Empire, the Sixth Legion was an expeditionary force: one that would project imperial power beyond its borders. General Ray’s ‘strategy’ represented an ugly aspect of the Empire that would rampage unchecked in the much ‘easier’ frontier of the Wyvernmark.

“I need to get the Fifth Legion up to speed before examining the Sixth Legion’s activities,” Ludmila said. “Anything that goes directly against the Sorcerous Kingdom’s official foreign policy will be stopped. Anything beyond that falls under the purview of imperial law. You mentioned that General Ray was the only one doing this…how far is he along with his ‘plan’?”

“Not very,” Lord Ward replied. “Ray’s being pretty ham-fisted about it. Not that it hurts him. His little ‘battalion’ of thugs is limited by how far they can strike in a day. Tribal populations near the border are sparse: he won’t get the desired reaction out of them and he’s still not confident enough to begin advancing into the wilderness.”

“If the Sixth Legion advances two or three days past the border,” Ludmila noted, “they’ll already have claimed five times more land than the Empire can digest for the next two generations. That doesn’t factor in all of the Empire’s internal frontiers that will be consolidated in that time.”

Baron Ward appeared amused at her assessment. He looked up at the Wyvern head trophy hanging above the fireplace mantle.

“That’s very ‘Ranger’ of you, but the Sixth Legion’s stance is anything but conservative. They want as much as they can get so their share of everything is that much larger. It used to be that being granted a Barony was something only the most accomplished could earn. Now, every one of them is aiming to become the Empire’s newest Margrave. It’s less of a conquest and more of a competition.”

Ludmila sighed. It was so characteristically Human. Consumed by their ambition, they did not care about who they trampled along the way – including their own.

“Have you experienced any tribal retaliation so far?”

“None,” Lord Ward replied. “As I said, populations near the border are too sparse. Ray’s been too intense with his raids. Small tribes are simply obliterated and there aren’t enough being displaced. He’s refining his tactics, though. My Rangers estimate that he’ll be ready to advance south in under two weeks.”

“It feels incredibly ironic that our desire to improve the domestic security of the Empire has whetted its appetite for foreign conquest.”

“That’s just how things are,” the Baron seemed to shrug. “You should understand that as a Frontier Noble. People settle in new lands and it’s a long struggle to get things stable. If they succeed, things start to grow and prosper. When development gets to a certain point, expansion is the next order of business.”

“In Re-Estize,” Ludmila said, “efforts at expansion were limited to what little the local lords could afford. My house only got to that point after E-Rantel was annexed by the Sorcerous Kingdom. Even then, I had sole authority over how that expansion was to be achieved. The existence of the Imperial Army turns expansion into a different animal entirely – thousands of competing interests are involved.”

With the centralisation of power into monolithic national institutions came the ability to achieve more than any single aristocrat could ever hope for. Ludmila once considered this a generally good thing, but she now realised that it had many faults as well. Just as the Imperial Army shielded the Empire more effectively than any one Noble ever could, it could also reach out to snatch up territory and resources with equal impunity.

As Lady Albedo had so potently demonstrated, the will of imperial society manifested in an irresistible wave that crashed into the borders of their frontier. A colossal surplus had accumulated, comprising the excess production, population and military might of the Empire. The nation screamed for this excess to be expended; to expand or die.

Once enough of the pieces fell into place, the excellence of the Sorcerer King’s Prime Minister was made clear. What was happening in the Wyvernmark was an inevitability for any Human Nation that joined hands with the Sorcerous Kingdom. Instead of waiting for the problem to manifest on its own, Lady Albedo had engineered a scenario to examine in advance – an experiment masterfully conducted on the scale of an empire.

Ludmila was unique in her experience as a Noble of the Sorcerous Kingdom. She was a Frontier Lord who exercised her full authority in all of its aspects while staying within the bounds of national policy. That experience would most likely prove invaluable here as she helped the Empire navigate its new reality.

There were key differences in the Empire’s systems, however, which she would need to wrap her head around before she could be constructive in her role.

“I’m not sure if this is a question you can answer, my lord,” she said, “but assuming the Sixth Legion secures a sizeable strip of the frontier, what does it mean for the Wyvernmark?”

“It would depend on what the new land is used for,” Lord Ward replied. “As far as I can guess, the lower valleys will be used for agriculture and limited forestry. Mineral wealth will be the biggest prospect. The waterways aren’t navigable by boat, so a road network will be a priority. The productivity of the Wyvernmark will be redirected to support that expansion until markets reach a new equilibrium. My territory sits at the entrance to this valley so trade will encourage new growth here…we’ll have a town at some point, hopefully.”

“A town for a Barony,” Ludmila smiled. “That’s quite the dream.”

“House Ward has held this valley since the Empire was a part of Re-Estize. I’ll have some unkind things to say to the Emperor if we get left out in the cold.”

“So your main concern revolves around the fact that General Ray is attempting to provoke Demihuman retaliation.”

“The Sixth Legion should be fighting its own damn battles,” Baron Ward grated. “What he’s doing is dragging a whole other army group and innocent imperial citizens into it.”

As much as Baron Ward appeared to be the exemplar of a Frontier Lord, he was also an exemplar of the imperial worldview. A personification of chivalry who put the Baharuth Empire’s interests first and was not bothered by the fact that outsiders were being treated as obstacles or objectives in their aggressive expansion.

“To what extent will the Fifth Legion retaliate if General Ray succeeds in his plan to bait the Demihuman tribes into attacking the border?”

“It depends on the severity of the attack,” Lord Ward replied. “Normally, raids are conducted because a tribe’s territory has been picked clean of food. When our patrols kill the raiders, the tribes have fewer mouths to feed. It’s a problem that corrects itself – no point in risking men over a threat that’s been quelled for another few years. Even if we completely get rid of a tribe, another one will move in so it’s not worth it.”

“That’s a sensible approach,” Ludmila nodded. “Does this dynamic between the border territories and the tribes affect your poaching laws?”

“Yes, hunting is encouraged since it means our neighbours have less to eat. Game competes with our livestock for grazing, so it’s something we do anyway. Doing this makes the Demihumans more aggressive, but it keeps the numbers manageable by patrols.”

“In short, small raids will be business as usual for the Fifth Legion, so General Ray is trying to start a war.”

“That’s right. If a confederation of tribes hits us, dozens of villages will be affected and the Fifth Legion will be obliged to eliminate the source of the threat. Ray’s hope is that we’ll deploy the Undead in order to preserve the lives of Imperial Knights, but having the Fifth Legion throw their weight into the arena suits him just fine too.”

Ludmila shook her head at the callous stratagem being employed by the General. He was willing to risk upwards of a million imperial citizens for the sake of his goals.

“Does the Court Council really have nothing to say about this? Surely there are laws…”

“There are the rules and there are the rules,” Baron Ward said. “Ray is from a border house, but he went the way of a civilian Noble. He doesn’t see eye to eye with us – everything is a political calculation and everyone under his influence is a tool to be used for his personal ambitions. The capital is willing to turn a blind eye to his conduct so long as he produces results.”

“Everything becomes romantic when it happens a safe distance away,” Ludmila muttered darkly. “A victory for the Empire, a tool for imperial propaganda and a place to send all of the poor piling up in the towns and cities. In return, new territory will be gained and its wealth will flow to the centres of political and economic power.”

“Indeed, my lady.”

In the grand scheme of things, the losses suffered by the people of the Wyvernmark were negligible. From the central administration’s perspective, it was a welcome price to be paid for exceptional long term benefits. The problem was that this price was being forced upon one group for the benefit of another. For a Frontier Noble, it was an especially prickly issue.

There was another group that would be paying this price, however. One that the Empire would certainly not consider of any significance: the tribes that they would be taking their new territories from.

It seemed that a different sort of fight lay before her in the Wyvernmark – one that martial prowess or cultural compatibility could not solve. What the Sixth Legion ‘achieved’ in the wilds across the border would set a precedent not just for its role as the expeditionary army of the Baharuth Empire, but also for how the Empire would structure its foreign policy.

That foreign policy could not run afoul of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s. At the same time, she was expected to allow events to run their course. A line would have to be drawn somewhere, but Ludmila still wasn’t sure where it would lie.

A young man appeared in the hall, drawing Ludmila and Lord Ward from their discussion. He glanced at Ludmila briefly before gesturing to one of the maids and taking a seat at the table.

“Where are your manners, Joachim?” Baron Ward frowned, “Don’t tell me that a few weeks with Ray’s Orcs have erased any semblance of civil conduct from your head. Why are you dressed like a milksop, anyway?”

It wasn’t quite as flamboyant, but his attire did resemble that of the attainted ‘suitors’ lying in ambush all over Arwintar. At least he didn’t reek of cologne.

“General Ray sent me to meet someone in Karlsheim, sir,” Joachim replied as dinner was placed before him. “They arrived in the city two days ago, so I’m in a hurry.”

“For someone who’s supposed to be fighting out in the wilderness, word sure reaches him quickly.”

“It’s someone important. The liaison officer from the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

“Why the hell is he sending a Cleric of the Earth God to meet with the liaison officer from the Sorcerous Kingdom?”

“It’s because I’m a local Noble.”

“Oh, sure,” Baron Ward rolled his eyes, “he spends all that time purposely not adding companies led by Nobles to that battalion of his and then he turns to one of us to…what did he tell you to do?”

“Attend to her while she does whatever she’s here to do.”

“Attend to her? The army doesn’t pay you to be a footman.”

“Those are my orders, sir.”

“Is that so? Well, good luck with that, I suppose.”

Joachim Ward cleaned up his plate and rose from his seat, hurrying out of the hall. Baron Ward followed his departure with a sour look.

“What kind of fool Cleric doesn’t notice that their home is surrounded by the Undead…you didn’t hide them, did you?”

“No, my lord,” Ludmila replied.

“People have their heads up their asses all the time,” he grumbled, “but I never expected it from one of my line. Forgive me, my lady, but you may be attending to your ‘attendant’ more than he’ll be attending to you for the next few weeks.”

Ludmila’s gaze returned from the door to the hall and she offered Baron Ward a lopsided smirk.

“I’ll keep an eye on him, my lord.”

“Much obliged, my lady.”