The End of Surrender, page 7
part #4 of The Stalwart Link Series
“Is it Andar?” Rygen asked as she investigated Leo’s expression. “Did you feel something from him?”
“No, and I don’t think I will until I’m in the other realm.”
She frowned.
When they arrived at the capital, the Analyte princess was one of the first to greet them. She looked around frantically for Andar. Leo’s heart lowered an inch at having to deliver the news.
“What happened?” she asked.
Siki’s father was right behind her, but he didn’t seem to notice that Andar was missing. The king was one of the many people there who cheered with their fists in the air, with nearly the entire population of the Analyte capital surrounding him.
The noise was deafening. Leo might’ve been able to scream over it, but he didn’t have the strength to shout such terrible news as Siki studied his face for clues.
Finally the din fell to an excited murmur. Siki’s eyes glistened. She wore a pained expression that looked ready to break with a wail.
“He’s still alive,” Leo began with the good news. “At least I think so. He must be in the other realm.”
“The other realm?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Why?”
“The wisdom tree was too strong for him to destroy. He had to break the link holding it in the light realm, allowing the rift to pull it into the dark realm, and Andar couldn’t escape the pull.”
“How do you know he’s still alive?”
Leo was tempted to lie to her, to tell her that the stalwart link was there but faint.
“I…have to believe it.”
The voice of Dasfis turned Leo around. “By the gods, you’ve all done it!” he announced to the mass of soldiers. “A great feast will be prepared. It’s time to celebrate!”
Cheers arose as Leo watched his father limp over to Dasfis with Mavrim and Erisena at his sides.
“We must speak,” Darren told the Analyte king.
“What’s wrong, Darren?”
“My eldest son.”
The cheeks of Dasfis reddened as he glanced around for Andar. The spark of excitement was gone from his eyes as he focused on Darren again.
“He was taken by the rift,” Darren said. “I have already spoken with all human troops. We are returning to Jatn now. Whether or not we can take back the city, some of us will go into the rift with Leo, to find Andar.” He seemed to be hinting at something, and Leo figured out what it was. They didn’t have enough troops to take on the barbarians on their own. They needed Analyte soldiers.
And Dasfis sarding better deliver. We came all this way for his people, and now my brother is in the dark realm.
“We will speak about that soon,” Dasfis said. He turned to a small group of men and women awaiting an order and spoke to them in Analyse. They hurried off.
“When?” Darren asked.
“The feast will be ready soon enough. We will eat and talk.”
Sternly, Darren said, “Tell me now you will send your troops with us, and then we can speak about feasting.”
“Darren, there is much to speak about.”
“I just want your word on that. Then you will have my ears for anything else you wish to discuss.”
Dasfis scowled up at the larger man. “My people have just finished a long war against this rift. I understand your urgency to leave for Jatn, but I’m sure even your troops need some time before the long journey home. Rest. Eat. Give me time to discuss this with my advisors.”
Siki stood by silently as she stared at her father. Leo couldn’t discern her thoughts. She wore a look of shock that had not changed since he’d delivered the news about Andar.
Darren’s thoughts were obvious, though. He glowered at Dasfis as if he might raise a hand in anger. Leo felt none the different. They had come all this way and sacrificed for Dasfis. This should be an easy decision if he cared at all about the alliance they were creating together.
“Darren,” Erisena said. “We will discuss this later. Let me speak with my king for now.”
Darren had a breath as he considered her words. “Fine.”
*****
Leo didn’t care to improve his sour mood. The abundance of delicious food just reminded him of his brother’s struggle to survive. Leo couldn’t stomach much of it.
He sat with Rygen in silence. The royal table was emptier than before, with only three seats filled by the Meplr family. Siki and her brother sat on either side of their father. The prince seemed to be enjoying the celebration as much as the rest of the Analytes, indulging in food and wine with a smile that only deepened as time went on. The king seemed like a different man entirely as he had his fill. There was something gone from his eyes. It took Leo some time to realize that it was the spark of determination that Leo was used to seeing there. There had been purpose behind the monarch’s every choice, every look. Now he just appeared like an overdressed citizen overwhelmed by the celebration.
A servant was pouring the king’s fourth cup of wine when Darren stood. He started to limp over as if he might scold the king for drinking so much before their meeting. Leo was about to jump up and stop his father, but Lane got there first. She said something to him that softened his features somewhat and eventually persuaded him to sit back down across from Leo.
Dasfis seemed unaware as he drank in gulps, wine running down his cheeks. Siki watched in disgust as he slammed down the empty goblet. She left the table without a look back. Dasfis didn’t seem to notice.
Leo didn’t know what Erisena had told Dasfis before the feast, but it didn’t look as if the Analyte king had any intention of helping anyone with their issues now that the rift was destroyed. Leo felt words bubbling up as the urge to stand and shout at the king soon became too difficult to ignore.
Just when he was about to do it, Rygen took his hand.
“Hey,” she said. “Look at me.”
He was hovering over his chair. But he turned away from Dasfis to focus on Rygen. She was so beautiful, her large gray eyes putting him at ease.
“We have to wait for the meeting,” Rygen said.
“He’s going to be too drunk to hold his head up,” Leo argued, though the fight was already draining from him as Rygen held onto his hand tightly.
“Then we will recruit his troops while he snores. Erisena is on our side. She will help us convince the Analytes.”
“Are you sure? The whole reason she went west and recruited my father was to destroy the great rift. The only way she saw it happening was with the support of the human king, which now we can see was true. But with the rift gone, why would she care about human affairs any longer?”
“Because she knows Andar. She wants to help him.”
Leo looked around and found Erisena drinking with a group of Analytes he didn’t know.
“She doesn’t seem too worried about what we need to do in Jatn.”
“It’s a long trip to Jatn. She just wants to celebrate now. There is plenty of time to prepare afterward. We should celebrate as well.”
“But—”
“I know it doesn’t feel right with Andar in the dark realm, but what else can we do right now? Starting a fight with Dasfis is only going to lose his support. Look, even your father’s eating.”
Leo watched as Darren ripped a huge chunk of meat off the leg he was holding.
“He’s always eating if there’s food nearby. It doesn’t mean he’s any less angry than I am.”
“What would Andar tell you to do right now?” Rygen asked.
Leo sighed. She was right. He should try to enjoy himself, but the thought of his brother advising him on the matter did remind him of something.
“The letter,” he said. “Andar made me promise to give it to Siki if something happened to him.”
“After the feast,” Rygen said.
Leo nodded.
But as the feast was coming to an end, to Leo’s surprise, Dasfis stood and suddenly announced, “Darren, we will meet now.” Shockingly, he spoke without a drunken slur. “Follow me to my throne room.”
*****
Leo was glad that King Dasfis had allowed anyone to attend the meeting. Keeping affairs open and accessible was part of the Analyte culture, but Leo had still assumed that Dasfis would meet with Father alone. It would be easier that way to convince him to leave without Analyte troops and without violence. Perhaps the king really did have good news for them.
Chairs had been set in rows. Dasfis sat upon his throne, which was raised on a dais, with his son on one side and Siki on the other. The princess had red eyes as if she might’ve been crying, but she had a hopeful look now as she glanced at her father when he wasn’t turned her way.
Every leader of the human army was there. Leo had gotten to know all of them well. His father seemed to be in command, even with the presence of King Mavrim Orello. Leo didn’t know the ranks of everyone, or even if they all had specific ranks, but Lane Writhe was another commander. She and Erisena seemed to be about the same age, perhaps barely thirty. But Leo had seen troops older than them following their orders without hesitation.
Leo didn’t know the names of the many other humans in the room. When Leo had first come here under the command of Jarrel Marks, there were three armies in the territory.
The human army, a force in its entirety of fifty thousand troops, had to send half of its soldiers to Analyte land to assist in the destruction of the rift, and Leo had come here with them. The Analyte army was far fewer in numbers. But the smallest army of all consisted of the rebels with Leo’s father, Lane, and Erisena.
The majority of the twenty-five thousand human troops had gone back to fight the barbarians when a messenger came with news of their attack, though Jarrel Marks had remained in an attempt to steal the gold of Dasfis. Leo and his brother had stood against Jarrel and his loyal troops, but it was Darren who’d finished Jarrel off. Leo didn’t know what had happened to that army after they lost the battle and left. They might’ve joined Mavrim’s son, Gavval Orello, in marching back to fight the barbarians, or they might’ve scattered.
Here in Analyte territory, the remaining human army and the rebels had joined together under Darren’s command. Mavrim had conceded leadership to smooth out the transition process. But Leo knew his father didn’t care to lead. He only did it because he knew how. And he was a sarding great leader.
But now their combined forces were tiny in comparison to the human troops heading west. Leo’s friend Edward should still be among them. Other mages who’d trained with Leo were there as well. He wondered just how long it would take them to reach the human capital. They would no doubt leave Jatn to the barbarians, so there was no telling how many of the savages would still be there when Leo arrived.
Even if every Analyte soldier here joined Darren’s army, the barbarians in Jatn would probably outnumber them. Leo didn’t know exactly how many troops were left here, but he would soon find out in this meeting. One thing was certain to him. They needed the Analytes to have any chance at taking back Jatn. Otherwise, getting into the rift might require a more clandestine approach, which was likely to be even more dangerous.
Leo had more than just Andar to worry about. Leo’s aunt might still be alive in the city. Gartel, the bookbinding guild master, could be there as well and require aid. The best way to save everyone would be to drive the barbarians out.
“Sire,” Darren began, “if there is any truth to Gavval’s previous statements about the barbarians, then they outnumber the human army already there in the west. There are likely to be fifty thousand of them, possibly more.”
“Or possibly less,” Dasfis interrupted. “Most of them probably left Jatn already to defend the capital.”
“They would need at least five thousand to keep the city from uprising against them.”
“You can’t possibly know that number.”
“I do because I lived in Jatn for a decade,” Darren replied sternly. “I know the city well, sire. And while I do not claim to know barbarians, it does seem clear that their intention is to hold Jatn and the capital. If they wish to do that, they will have more than five thousand troops there. As you know, we only have five thousand troops combined.”
Dasfis stood. “You insult me to ask for every single soldier!”
“I did not ask, nor would I.”
“Gavval might attack us as soon as you leave,” Dasfis snapped. “He could be hiding in the northwestern mountains, waiting to take our riches and doom my people.”
“Our scouts watched his troops for two weeks. He is a hundred miles away by now. He is not a threat to you anymore. With the rift destroyed, nothing is…until later.”
Dasfis raised an eyebrow. “What are you implying?”
“I’m implying that you might doom your own people if you do not help us.”
“Is that a threat!”
Erisena stood and said something in Analyse. The king eyed her.
“It is not a threat, sire,” she said in common tongue. “Please let me explain.”
He glared at her.
“What is happening in human territory right now will come to an end. Either Gavval will defeat the barbarians or he will lose. No matter what happens, both of them are a threat to our people.”
“Our people,” he repeated snidely. “You say that as you stand with the humans.”
She looked sad as she took a breath. “It hurts me to hear you say that, my king. Everything I’ve done since I’ve left my home here has been to destroy Jaktius Perl. I would’ve given my life to see the rift collapse. Now that it is gone, I rejoice, but the victory is bittersweet. Andar Quim did what no other mage could do. He destroyed it, but not without risk to his own life. He willingly allowed the rift to take him to the dark realm. His father and brother fought together with other loyal humans here in our territory, distracting the kasigerr, so that Andar could be successful. The rift is destroyed, but our allies need our help now. They came all this way to help us. We dishonor them and ourselves if we do not give them the troops they need to take back Jatn and rescue Andar.”
Leo heard the murmurs of a translator relaying the message to many of the Analyte councilmen in the front row seats. One of the older men stood up when the translator was finished. He spoke in Analyse with a proud tone. The hard expression of Dasfis softened a bit by the time he was done.
Darren spoke. “We would never ask for all of your troops. We know you need men to rebuild your cities and keep the peace between your people. But this alliance that has begun between us is in jeopardy now. If you do not help us, we may fail. This is not a threat, sire, but a fact. If we fall, then your people could be doomed. We have two thousand five hundred troops left, just like you do. We lost five hundred men in the battle against the kasigerr, just like you did. We’ve suffered much of the same consequences that your people have. We are united now. We are aligned. Give us one thousand five hundred of your troops to keep that alliance and give us a chance at survival.”
Dasfis seemed to be in thought for quite some time as he sat forward on his throne. He spoke with his advisors as Leo waited nervously. Eventually he asked Darren a question.
“We ask that half of FLip’s followers stay with us to help us rebuild.”
Darren frowned. “I can’t speak for FLip.” He glanced at the young blond man seated toward the back of the throne room.
The leader of the devout, and the grandson to KRenn Trange, stood as everyone turned. Leo knew that the young man was a few years older than Andar, but he didn’t look it. He had the young face of someone who didn’t know battle and hoped never to find out. But there was no denying that he and his many followers had been invaluable to the rebels. They hunted, gathered, and prepared by using their livestock to provide nearly all the food needed to sustain the small army of rebels. Even now, after the rebel army had grown, FLip’s large group of mostly middle-aged men and women seemed capable of providing everything an army needed.
It seemed wrong that Dasfis wanted them for his Analyte people. FLip was once a prisoner in Mavrim’s castle. He had been captured after his father refused to aid Mavrim in the battle against Leo’s grandfather—the battle for Halin and the rift near the city. It was the same battle where Dasfis, a young king at the time, had betrayed Leo’s grandfather, DFaren. He had been hung later, by Mavrim’s order, all because of this betrayal.
However, Leo had been able to look past all of this when it came time to destroy the rift. Mavrim had changed. It was he who freed FLip from the castle, nearly killing himself in the process of lifting FLip out with a link that very few people in the world could maintain.
Dasfis, on the other hand, could still be the same king he was over a decade ago. He had cared only about his people back then—and about destroying the rift that threatened their lives. Now that it was gone, his request for FLip to help rebuild the Analyte civilization made it clear just how little Dasfis cared about the rebel army.
“King Dasfis Meplr, I am honored by your request,” FLip stated.
From the few times Leo had heard the young leader speak, he always seemed to exaggerate titles and honors. He was once believed to be a prophet; he was said to be KRenn Trange reincarnated. Both were proven to be false, and the rumors had stopped circulating. But he and his people still believed that the gods were behind their actions. Whatever he decided now, he would claim it to be the will of the gods.
“I know your people need my people,” FLip continued. “But the rebels need us even more. You will survive without us, but they may not. It’s by the will of the gods that we continue our journey with them.”
“Then one thousand five hundred troops is too many to send off,” Dasfis said quickly.
FLip looked abashed before he sat back down.
“It is the minimum of what we require,” Darren urged the king.
“You will have to make do with one thousand. I need all the rest of my able men.”
“Please, sire,” Erisena pleaded.
