Tests of Blood - 29. Chapter 29

Lord Mekeal Ashkevron had the look of almost every Ashkevron that had ever lived. It was almost like the gods had created a mold called Ashkevron and stamped out every newborn child in the family from the same mold. Sure, there were exceptions, and over the years the average height of the Ashkevron mold had increased, but by and large all the Ashkevrons looked alike.

The men were broad-shouldered, almost stocky despite their height and had square faces with prominent lines. Their semi-curly hair ranged from the darker shades of brown to an almost glossy black and most of them had brown or hazel eyes. Almost to the last one of them, male or female, they had the same broad, hooked nose that stuck out of their faces.

His father, Lofar had a similar nose, and while Dalen’s was long, it wasn’t as broad and didn’t have the familiar hook just an inch below the bridge of the nose. His cousins had often teased him the first few years that he wasn’t a true Ashkevron without the hooked nose that they all suffered from.

Another trait of the Ashkevron family was that most of them were very long-lived (unless they were Heralds or Guards, and those usually died sometime before they were forty). Mekeal Ashkevron’s hair had started collecting gray hairs when Dalen was just entering training for his mage gifts. It wasn’t uncommon for the heir of Ashkevron to have to wait until he was in his fifties before assuming the stewardship of Forst Reach. If any of them had ever been impatient, they had never really shown it or tried to ‘hurry’ the process along. Instead, they had waited and then usually marked their assumption of the stewardship by adding on to the building of the keep itself.

Sure enough, as Dalen stepped through the Permanent Gate, his Companion walking behind him, he could see the scaffolding of new construction along the southwestern edge of the keep. Once it had been built as a place of defense, but that had been well over a millennia ago and dozens of generation of Ashkevron men adding on to the keep had made it probably the least defensible building in the kingdom.

Unless you thought about an invading army getting lost inside of it for fifty years as a defense, and it was entirely possible that would happen. In fact, Dalen seemed to remember the Armsmaster and older cousins talking about how if they were ever invaded (unlikely since Forst Reach was a fortnight away from the western border now), then the family would hide inside the keep and pick off the invaders as they wandered around inside.

“Welcome home, nephew.” Mekeal said with a welcoming expression on his face as Dalen led his Companion towards the older man. They shook hands, and Mekeal pulled him into a full hug that was greeted by cheers from the assembled family and retainers.

“Thank you, Uncle.” Dalen replied as the hug broke. “I am sorry to hear about Grandfather.”

“He went the way he wanted.” Mekeal said with a shrug. That was another thing about the Ashkevrons. They didn’t argue with fate. They just shrugged and bore with it through good times as well as bad. “Congratulations on being Chosen at last.”

“Thank you.” Dalen smiled. “Now I have to do the official part, I guess. The Crown requests, with all due respect, permission to bring forth a company of Guards and bivouac them on your lands.”

“As Lord Ashkevron, I give my consent.” Mekeal said formally and Dalen turned to give a wave at the Gate. With the signal, Blake, now dressed in full Whites came through the Gate with Radev at his heels. After them came another dozen Heralds, including three Trainees in Grays and then the first of the Cavalry units began coming through the Gate, four abreast. Dalen knew from their practice routines that it would take approximately a half-hour for the five hundred cavalry Guards to come through, followed by the fifty-troop foot unit that was acting as guards for the supply wagons, and the team of four full Healers and their six Trainees.

“Impressive.” Mekeal whispered as they watched the soldiers come through the Gate. Mekeal had been expecting them because Heralds had come through the previous two days and discussed all the pertinent details. “Did you really invent this Permanent Gate? It is going to revolutionize how things are done. Think about a system of them set up and moving cargo from one place to another. The locomotives will be out of business within a decade!”

“They will never replace locomotives.” Dalen said evenly. “They take up too much power to operate for extended periods. This Gate will have to be rested for a day after this troop movement.”

What he didn’t say was that this was really the fourth troop movement the gate had made in the past two days. His father had requested additional troops for the assault on the Menmillith forward base, in secret of course, since his plans were that as soon as they finished off the Menmillith threat, Valdemar Guards would turn on and destroy the Haighlei troops. Dell had argued against it, along with most of the Heraldic Circle, but Dalen’s voice had carried his father’s arguments towards a grudging acceptance.

Jadev was still sore about that since the Companions had also opposed the idea, but Dalen had even gotten their grudging agreement that the betrayal of the Haighlei was for the best. Leaving those troops to turn around and kill more Valdemaran Guards later was not fair to the Valdemarans. A compromise had been reached, that the Haighlei commander would be given the option of issuing a bond promising his surrender and return to Haighlei without any further involvement in fighting, and that none of his soldiers would return to bother Valdemar again. Only, his answer would have to be given immediately so that the Haighlei troops would have no time to prepare for an attack.

“Still, in an emergency they will be able to deliver wonders.” Lord Mekeal Ashkevron said as the last of the support wagons lumbered its way out of the gate. As always, Forst Reach was prepared and in short order the south field was cleared of all the newcomers that had arrived.

“Yes, they will.” Dalen agreed. “When we have time to build more of them. Don’t expect more to come anytime soon, though.”

“No, of course not.” Mekeal said as he began walking towards the keep itself. The man was one of Dalen’s uncles, in fact the oldest brother of the six, including Lofar. One of the brothers was shaych and had adopted a little girl from an orphanage in nearby Highjourone, the largest Valdemaran city in the area. Lofar was the only other brother with just one child, and of the three daughters, all of them had at least two children already, and it seemed like several times a year there was news of the birth of another cousin. Already five of his cousins had started adding their own children to the mix.

Fortunately, Forst Reach was not a small place, although it remained focused on its agrarian roots, as well as its horse-breeding past. Most of the ‘farmers’ in the area were actually Ashkevron offshoots that had taken small grants of land when they started their own families. Those that didn’t want to be farmers, ranchers, or horse breeders would leave Forst Reach, most often with a fat coin purse and would seek their fortunes elsewhere with the good grace of the family.

Those that didn’t succeed often came back much humbler, and found that farming wasn’t quite so bad after all.

“I expect that you will not be surprised to hear that news of your exploits in Haven have reached this area, and not just from those Heralds that King Dellinar sent through here a few days ago.” Mekeal Ashkevron said with a slight frown on his face as he led Dalen into the keep itself.

“Yes.” Dalen said with a nod. “We’ve had reports the events of that day have been spreading like wildfire, and wonder of wonders, most of the stories are actually fairly accurate.”

“You can thank those bards and their presses.” Mekeal said as Dalen realized that they were essentially walking alone now, and he recognized the direction. They were heading to the ‘walk’. It was rumored the ‘walk’ had been built nearly eight hundred years ago and was accessed through a closet full of cleaning supplies. Every few centuries, the set of trees that screened the narrow walkway were cut down and replanted.

“Citrus trees?” Dalen asked as he followed Mekeal onto the porch and saw the row of new trees.

“The old ones were dying, and so we thought these would be nice.” Mekeal said with a smile on his face. “Iliana likes the citrus fruits when they are in season, so she will only have to reach a little bit for one.”

“Already making your mark on the keep.” Dalen stated with a small smile that was returned by his Uncle.

“As you are on Valdemar.” Mekeal said with a grunt as they reached another new addition, a small table of exquisite glass with a metal base. There were three chairs at the table, which was flush with the ancient stone balustrade, and a pitcher with five cups was waiting for them. Dalen’s Uncle walked to the table and poured two glasses of a fruit juice before placing the other cup opposite of where he sat down. “Our other guests will be joining us shortly, but I wanted some time to talk with you alone.”

“Okay.” Dalen said with a shrug as he took his seat and began to sip on the juice. It was a tart apple juice, likely from the orchards that one of the more distant Ashkevron cousins had planted on their lands to the north and west. “This is good.”

“It is.” Mekeal agreed. “At least we will have enough of it to last the winter, thanks to my refusal of the tax your mother placed on our people.”

“You made the right choice.” Dalen said gently. “We are facing difficult times, but we must put the people of Valdemar first.”

“Yes, we do.” Mekeal said sadly. “Too bad your mother does not see that fact, and that my brother is supporting her.”

“He is not for much longer.” Dalen said firmly. “Soon the business in the south with the Menmillith invaders will be taken care of and King Dellinar will appoint my father to be the Lord Martial.”

“So, men bearing the Ashkevron name will be holding two important posts in Dellinar’s Exile Government.” Mekeal said with a sigh. “Even if I acceded to their demands I fear they would still not leave us alone here.”

“No, they wouldn’t.” Dalen agreed. “I am sorry, Uncle.”

“Why?” Mekeal asked with a shrug of his shoulders while still holding his cup in his hand. “Did you cause these Haighlei bastards to come into our lands and start having their way with our people? There is more than enough blame to go around, nephew. Do not add more to your own plate than you deserve.”

“Be that as it may…” Dalen began but his uncle cut him off.

“You have enough to deal with in setting the situation to right.” Mekeal said. “Let us start off with this proposal of the new King’s. You have, of course, seen it and are probably here in part to convince me to give it my support.”

“Yes, and you have already received the King’s invitation to join the Council.” Dalen stated calmly.

“I have.” Mekeal frowned. “I will not leave Forst Reach, even for a short period of time during this crisis. You know your Uncle Joshe of course. He has helped me as my assistant while performing the Seneschal duties for Forst Reach. I have made him my Seneschal, but I think he will do better on Dellinar’s Provisional Council, and I hope the King will consider him for the Seneschal position as well.”

“The rest of the kingdom’s nobles will complain that Ashkevrons are taking over.” Dalen said with a little laugh and then he went sober. “The people on the other hand just might see this as a good sign.”

“What do you mean?” Mekeal asked.

“When I was approaching Haven in disguise, I was aided by a farmer and his boys without their knowing who I was at the time.” Dalen explained with a wistful smile. Jak and his boys had helped make some of the arrangements for the rescue before they had headed home. He had also verified that they had made it home safely. It was the least that he felt he could do for them. He continued his tale, relating the impression Jak had of the Ashkevron family, an impression that Bards and Heralds had confirmed as being common amongst the general population.

“We’ve always enjoyed strong support from the locals in our area.” Mekeal said after Dalen had finished relating his experiences. “It makes sense given that most of them are related to the main family in one way or another after centuries of huge Ashkevron broods. We don’t have to worry about our line dying anytime soon.”

“No, we don’t.” Dalen said with an ironic smile. “It is more than that, though. Our family has always looked after the interests of our people first, just like the Valdemar family line has always done. Sure, we’ve had a few dunderheads in the Ashkevron Lordship position, but they are few and far between. Even they knew to take care of the people first.”

“True.” Mekeal said carefully. “I do not look forward to the near future though. This place is far from the defensible keep it was when it was built, and we have thousands in the nearby farms and villages that we cannot protect when the Haighlei arrive.”

“They are not going to risk angering the local populace by burning their farms and villages.” Dalen said confidently. “This is an attempt at showing force. If they can make you back down without a fight, it will help their position.”

“What are they after?” Mekeal growled. “I’m not talking about their rounding up mages and other Gifted. That I understand. What do they think they are doing with their troops here? Are they trying to turn Valdemar into another of their provinces?”

“I think their goal is to get a government in place that will accede to their demands without making them fight.” Dalen answered. “The Plebiscites will give them that with their election. If we can change that around though, make the Haighlei realize they are not going to get what they want without a fight, maybe we can make them leave without a great deal of bloodshed. The fighting in Burnham was bad enough. Civilian casualties were far too high, and it has all but guaranteed the Haighlei won’t have an easy time in the south. With any luck, a relatively bloodless confrontation here at Forst Reach will have the same result in the West.”

“I doubt it, nephew.” Mekeal said with a frown. “They are more entrenched here just after the last few months. Except for the heavy taxes on produce and livestock, they haven’t made too many waves. You know the people further out west have always distrusted mages and they see no problem with controlling them to prevent another set of Mage Storms in the future.”

“We will have to make it clear to them that allowing the Haighlei to take over our kingdom is not a good solution.” Dalen said flatly. “The Heralds have always worked to make sure there are not things like Mage Storms created by the misuse of magic.”

“That’s just the thing.” Mekeal said. “The Heralds have been fading in their importance to the kingdom for the last two generations. There are fewer of them and their traditional duties have faded as our population increased.”

“Which is why we are changing the scope and practice of the Heralds in this new Charter.” Dalen responded. “It will keep them relevant in the years to come.”

“What it won’t do is assuage those who believe the Heralds are keeping control of the Kingdom for their own benefit.” Mekeal argued. “Many people out here have accepted the lies about the Heralds being another tool of the nobles for maintaining control.”

“The people behind those lies are the same that were kicked off the Council for corruption all those years ago.” Dalen growled. “They bear a grudge and are using their financial resources to propagate their lies. In the end, the truth will win out.”

“I hope so.” Mekeal said as he finished his cup of juice and looked over Dalen’s shoulder just as Dalen felt two more people coming onto the balcony. Both were mages, powerful mages and he turned around, readying his defenses as a sharp spike of fear swept through him. The thought that his own family had betrayed him faded though when he saw the two figures approaching.

“Sorry for our delay in arriving.” The first of the two figures said as Dalen and Mekeal both rose to their feet. Dalen felt his mouth dropping open in surprise and shut it with a snap as he took in the sight of two Tayledras standing there on the balcony.

The first one, who had spoken was a man of indeterminate age with long white hair flowing down his back and dressed in robes that shimmered in half a dozen iridescent colors. Dalen almost had to put a hand over his eyes to shield it from the reflected light off of those robes to see the other, dressed in robes of deep blues and greens. The second mage was also male, and his white hair barely reached his shoulders. He was definitely younger, although most likely he hadn’t yet seen his thirtieth birthing day.

“Greetings.” Dalen replied in Tayledras as the two mages regarded him with neutral looks of appraisal.

“I see our friends in k’Chona were correct.” The first mage replied in Tayledras before switching back to Valdemaran. “You look like you were dropped into the middle of a node for half your life.”

“It felt like it.” Dalen replied with a smile and turned to give Mekeal an explanation.

“They explained to me the story you told their mage from k’Chona.” Mekeal said before Dalen had spoken a word. “It’s why I didn’t ask where you’ve been all this time.”

“Oh.” Dalen said in surprise as he turned back to the two Tayledras. “I am Dalen Ashkevron.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Dalen k’Ashkevron.” The first Tayledras said with a smile and a nod of his head. “I am known as Moonscream k’Treva and this is Feathertouch k’Vala. We were sent by the Clans to find you and discover your secrets of the Permanent Gates. When you arrived we studied this terminus of the Gate and are quite impressed. It was expected that the Gate would upset the normal weather patterns but there was barely any impact on them at all.”

“Not here, but back at Burnham we have two Heralds with a great deal of experience in weather-working who are calming the local patterns there.” Dalen said. “It seems the impact is more serious at the source of the Permanent Gate instead of at its destination.”

“Interesting.” Moonscream said with a nod of his head. “We would appreciate being able to study the Gate itself at some point in the future.”

“I will make sure you have the opportunity.” Dalen said as they crossed over to the table and Mekeal poured another round of fruit juice for all of them.

“Ah, yes, I do love this.” Feathertouch said softly. His voice was almost like a light brush on the ears instead of a loud presence like Moonscream’s. The difference between their voices was striking. “I think k’Vala will have to negotiate for some trade items just to keep me in supply, if we can get the rest of the clan to forgive Valdemar for its betrayal on the Dhorisha Plains. I fear our Shin’a’in cousins will never forgive you though.”

“It was not what we would have preferred to have happen.” Dalen said sourly, sensing a chasm between Valdemar and some of its greatest allies.

“After your visit to k’Chona, a meeting of all the Adepts from all the Clans was called.” Feathertouch said gently. “Many wanted us to cut all ties with Valdemar. How could we trust you after your betrayal in the south? Still, k’Chona reminded us of the wonder of your Gate, and of the fact that you at least bothered to return the body of one of our own, and promised to share the wonders of this new knowledge with us, as is only proper.”

“Why did your father leave the battle and pull back your forces?” Moonscream demanded in a louder voice that sounded angry and Dalen drew himself up, tugging at the hem of his white tunic.

“My father was drugged by someone he trusted.” Dalen said. “He would never have willingly left the battlefield.”

“Your mother.” Feathertouch said gently and Dalen had the feeling he was being played by a pair of experts who had perfected their two-prong approach to questioning other people. Being as these two were from different Tayledras Clans, he was surprised they were working so efficiently together.

“My mother.” Dalen said, addressing Moonscream. “She was deceived into believing it was the best course for Valdemar. Now she is trapped by her own machinations and Valdemar finds itself the new front in the war that was being fought down south.”

“The war there is not over.” Moonscream’s voice boomed angrily. “All the Clans have sent teams of mages and scouts, all that could be spared, really, to aid our Shin’a’in cousins. Then we learn of an army marching against k’Sheyna only to have it disappear on us.”

“It was pulled back to Valdemar when King Dellinar and I managed to make things a little more difficult for them up here.” Dalen said quite firmly. “It is our intention to throw them out of Valdemar, and to return to our duty of aiding our greatest friends, the Tayledras and the Shin’a’in.”

“We will take your word for that, Herald.” Feathertouch said after looking at Moonscream for several minutes. It was obvious they were conferring mentally and Dalen kept his shields up firm so they would not think he was trying to eavesdrop on them.

“It is my word as a Herald, as Heir, and as an Ashkevron.” Dalen said with conviction.

“Any of the three would be enough, but all of them together makes your word more than enough.” Feathertouch said gently. “Our Shin’a’in and Kaled’a’in cousins down on the edge of the plains have enough strength to hold the Haighlei at bay through the winter, but food there is scarce at the moment.”

“I have promised them food from our stores here.” Mekeal added from behind Dalen with a hint of reproof. “I hope the King was not expecting us to also feed the rest of the Kingdom.”

“No.” Dalen said. “We have enough from the Holderkin farms and some of the northern and eastern sectors to make sure Valdemarans survive the winter. If you have enough here to help our allies, track the value of what is sent. The Crown will pay for the aid.”

“Even the most angry will see that as a good omen.” Feathertouch added with a nod and reached out to touch Moonscream’s hand gently. “Will you not?”

“We will.” Moonscream said roughly. There was a great deal of anger emanating off of him, but it was receding slowly.

“Moonscream’s lover was one of the people killed when the Valdemar left the field of battle and the Haighlei ended their truce.” Feathertouch added and Moonscream stiffened.

“My deepest regrets.” Dalen said in Tayledras and Moonscream nodded one more time.

“As you might guess, we were sent for many reasons and not just to learn the trick of your Permanent Gate, although that is important.” Feathertouch continued. “Having Permanent Gates at our command will greatly ease the burdens of our duties. Gating is almost constant now as we move people and supplies from one Vale to another, and to the battlefront. We have learned that the Haighlei have an inferior form of Permanent Gate at their command, bound to the life of some of their Adepts. They use these to move their troops around.”

“We didn’t know that.” Dalen said with wide eyes. “I am surprised they would ‘risk’ that magic given their stated aims.”

“A week ago, we laid an ambush for them behind k’Leysha Vale.” Feathertouch said, referring to the Kaled’a’in settlement on the northeaster edge of the Dhorisha Plains. It was the place where Dalen’s ancestor Herald-Mage Elspeth had first learned magic with mages from the k’Sheyna Vale. When k’Sheyna moved to a new Vale, they had left the old Vale semi-active and allowed the k’Leysha to settle there. From what Dalen had learned, it was now part city like the Kaled’a’in home of White Gryphon, and part Vale. The place had become a common meeting place of the three sundered segments of what had once been the Kaled’a’in tribes during the time of Urtho.

“A team of Tayledras scouts on Shin’a’in battle steeds were able to sneak through the Gate before it closed.” Moonscream’s voice boomed with pride. “The scouts were a mix of fighters and combat mages. They found the mage who ran the Gate and killed him, escaping back through the Gate before it collapsed with his death. They learned some very interesting things.”

“I would imagine.” Dalen said with a disbelieving shake of his head.

“The Gate they were using was located in a small city in the northern edge of the Haighlei Empire.” Feathertouch continued gently. “The place was crawling with troops as far as our scouts could see.”

“Our scouts were also able to bring back prisoners for interrogation.” Moonscream added with a frown. “A few were Haighlei soldiers that were most uncooperative. They were sent back to their gods fairly quickly and painlessly. We could not risk the enemy knowing that we have begun learning some of their secrets.”

“The others were slaves.” Feathertouch added. “They were from different kingdoms that had once belonged to the Alliance. We brought back six in total. Two were from Ceejay and one was from Ruvan. Another was Rethwellan and one was Jkathan.”

“The other was from Karse.” Moonscream added in his loud voice. “All of them died within two days despite our best efforts to keep them alive and free them from the magic binding them.”

“They were bound by magic?” Dalen asked in alarm.

“Yes.” Feathertouch answered. “It was quite strong and even our most advanced magic did little except prolong their death. We were quite taken aback by our failure to save their lives, but it would have done them no good to have left them where they were, and all were eager to tell what they knew once we had freed their tongues from the spells binding them to silence.”

“What did you learn?” Dalen asked anxiously, leaning forward from where he stood and almost growling with impatience when both Tayledras took another sip from their cups before answering.

“You must understand that what we learned has given us great pause.’” Feathertouch’s voice was gentle but filled with a great sense of worry. Dalen could feel the worry coming from both of them.

“We are not soldiers.” Moonscream growled loudly. “Yes, we have the best scouts you will find anywhere, and we are vicious fighters as are our cousins, but we do not have armies like your kingdoms.”

“No, we have always been more solitary in our nature.” Feathertouch continued. “Even during the Mage Storms and our aiding of Valdemar during the Ancar War, we operated largely independently. Each Vale gave in accordance with its nature and its resources. Each Clan of the Shin’a’in gave what they could as well. We operated towards a united purpose, but each in our own way.”

“That has been our way since the fall of Urtho.” Moonscream added. “The Goddess gave us each our tasks to perform on our own. The Vale in k’Valdemar was the first new Tayledras Vale created in all the time since Urtho’s death. Our population has always remained relatively stable, even since the reunion with k’Leysha and the Kaled’a’in.”

“We cannot hope to withstand entire armies.” Feathertouch said with a sound of pure fear in his voice. “In Urtho’s time, it is said the Kaled’a’in answered his call out of kinship and love, but also because the Clans knew they could not withstand the armies of Ma’ar without help from the armies that Urtho was amassing. It was as much out of love for him as self-preservation that we sided with them.”

“After what we learned from our raid into their land, and the betrayal by Valdemar with its armies, we feared we might have to flee into the far North in order to survive.” Moonscream added. “This city our people went to, it did not exist a decade ago. It has been built with slave labor, all bound to a single Adept mage.”

“In the kingdoms of the South, a new class of mage has risen within the ranks of their priests.” Feathertouch added and Dalen’s heart was beating wildly at the news. “We have always been told the Priests of the Black Kings abhor blood magic, but now they use it lavishly, tying their slaves to their strongest of mages with blood rites the like of which we have never seen before.”

“They do not kill their victims like the blood mages we have known and always hunted down.” Moonscream’s voice was more terrifying now because he spoke in an almost normal volume. “Instead they use blood magic to tie the slave to the mage so the mage can use them to draw power. They use this to create their Gates and to support their armies.”

“It makes them more powerful not only in magic, but with their masses of people they have entire armies that have not yet been used against us.” Feathertouch said. “The slaves we freed spoke of war against the entire continent, not just our little part, and they said their campaigns elsewhere were going better than their conquests here. When the Haighlei finish off the kingdoms and Empires to our east, they will be able to concentrate their full power on us.”

Dalen winced at the sound of his cup hitting the balcony floor as it slid from his numb fingers.