Chapter 1 #2
He leaned on a cane as he walked, his left leg dragging slightly as he stepped in front of Tallu, shielding his men with his injured body.
Commander Rede followed behind him, one hand stretched out toward Saxu’s weak side, as though ready to catch the high general.
When he was in front of Tallu, Saxu slowly lowered himself to the ground, his forehead pressing against the compacted leaves and dirt.
“I have failed you, Your Imperial Majesty.”
Commander Rede inhaled sharply, a quick gasp that he muffled by falling to his own knees, forehead pressing against the ground. Unevenly, the rest of the men did the same. My heart clenched, my jaw along with it.
Tallu looked over the men, and in the bright electric lights of the camp, stark shadows cut across his face, making his expression even more severe.
He raised his chin but swallowed whatever he was going to say.
“Inside,” I murmured.
Tallu’s head turned just slightly, enough that I knew he had heard me. He exhaled and said, “We will speak inside.”
Tallu strode past the bowing men, and, although he wore the clothes of a Dog, the shadows followed him like an invisible royal cloak. Asahi and Sagam were so close to him that they might as well have been actual dogs at his heel.
When Tallu was inside Saxu’s tent, the high general struggled to his feet, Commander Rede leaping up to help him rise.
Steadying himself, Saxu took a deep breath before blowing it out and limping back inside the tent.
I looked out over the men, and saw Lerolian picking his way through the crowd, until he stood next to the Kennelmaster.
“We found tents that were not filled with soldiers or electro mages, but instead with servants and ministers,” Lerolian said. “It was not all of the servants in the Mountainside Palace, not even close. They speak more freely than the soldiers, and they spoke of a great loss.”
I lowered my voice, leaning toward the Kennelmaster. So far, he had proven himself as loyal as he claimed, but this would be another chance to check. If his findings were the same as the blood monks’, it would be some proof of his good intentions.
“See who was in the camp,” I said to the Kennelmaster quietly. “If there are any who are not soldiers, they may be more willing to speak on what happened without General Saxu’s approval.”
The Kennelmaster nodded, taking Gotuye with him as he walked through the camp. Despite his wheezing breath, he was moving more fluidly than he had after his initial injury.
After he left and the rest of the soldiers rose, going back to their tents or their duties, I pushed aside the flap and entered General Saxu’s tent.
Inside was exactly what I expected for the practical man. There was a large table with chairs around it for a meeting with his commanders, and a small cot cordoned off by a hanging curtain. Unexpectedly, I saw a small shrine with statues of the animalia on it.
Tallu sat at the head of the table, General Saxu to his right and Commander Rede standing at attention behind him. Sagam and Asahi were on either side of Tallu, two dark statues whose masks hid their feelings. I walked around the table, taking a seat at Tallu’s left.
General Saxu nodded to me, before returning his gaze to Tallu. “My failure cost you the Mountainside Palace and the Imperial Capital.”
He paused there, his gaze fixed on the wooden table, his jaw clenched a moment before he exhaled a long breath. He licked his lips, and Commander Rede jerked into motion, crossing to a small sideboard. He filled a metal cup with water from a jug and placed it in front of General Saxu.
Saxu didn’t even touch the water, his fingers fixed in a triangle, even as he pressed them into the wood. His head was bowed, as though he was trying to make a formal bow even while seated.
Finally, after the silence had stretched as tight as a garrote, Tallu spoke. “What happened?”
Saxu took a deep breath, his fingers still pressed tightly on the wood.
“You were betrayed. Someone in your household alerted General Bemishu and General Kacha that you had abandoned the Mountainside Palace and the capital. Bemishu took the city to keep our attention there, and, despite our fortifications of the palace walls, Kacha found a way to pass through them. They were inside before we even realized it.”
I thought of the secret passages that Tallu and I had used to travel around the palace. How likely was it that some servant had discovered them as well and told the generals of them?
“We lost too many men.” General Saxu paused, clearing his throat before he continued.
He reached for the water and hesitated, but Tallu nodded and Saxu took hold of it, drinking deep before placing the cup down.
“We fought our way out of the palace, although there were forces behind and in front of us, because we knew you needed to be warned and you needed as much protection as could be mustered. I have lost your city and your palace. My incompetence has cost you your greatest stronghold.” General Saxu took a slow breath.
“I am ready to pay for the offense with my life at Your Imperial Majesty’s word. ”
The silence in the tent was so profound that the wind fluttering the tent flap was as loud as a shout.
Tallu looked down, his lips flat, and I knew exactly what he was thinking.
If he let General Saxu end his own life, if he let the last general loyal to him sacrifice himself, then Tallu’s loss was almost guaranteed.
Generals Bemishu and Kacha would divide the nation by their preference, but their alliance would be uneasy. The Imperium would be over.
And yet I could see what would happen as clearly as if it was already done.
The inner Imperium would be stable, that stretch of land around Heron Lake and the river that fed it, the original territory that had once been all the Imperium was before greedy, ceaseless war had expanded its borders.
It would be easy to divide and provide a cool detente between the two generals as they each turned their attention to their preferred targets: Kacha would set his eyes on Ristorium to the north and Krustau to the east, while Bemishu would focus back on the Ariphadi goblins and their endless expanse of desert.
If I saw it, then Tallu already knew; Tallu already recognized that the loss of one man was a guarantee of his lifelong ambition to end the Imperium, even as it cursed other nations to endless war with two generals no longer yoked by the emperor’s whims.
It would also mean Tallu’s death. We had no chance of traveling a continent at war and finding Spider.
Traveling anywhere would risk Tallu’s immediate death at the hands of Kacha and Bemishu, yet if we didn’t, the curse would kill him and his brother, a child who didn’t deserve the fate given to him any more than my husband did.
“You are willing to die because of your failure?” Tallu asked.
The words were a late winter frost, freezing an already cold land, leaving nothing behind and killing off whatever new growth had dared sprout before the northern winter was done.
“I deserve it,” Saxu said quietly. “I underestimated Kacha. He knew that weakness and exploited it. While Bemishu attacked the city, I sent men to fortify it, turning our defenses in that direction. Kacha knew that I would not expect an attack from him from within the walls of the Mountainside Palace. I thought he would attack from the direction of the city or from the direction of Heron Lake with all the men he had gathered to his cause.”
“Because you assumed he would want the honor of besting you on a battlefield,” Tallu said thoughtfully.
“Because he has hungered to beat me face to face. Because a sneak attack inside our own walls led by only a few men only proves that he could not best me with our two armies clashing directly. It was my own hubris to assume his desire for glory would outweigh his desire for victory at any cost.” Saxu’s words were full of self-recrimination, but I could already hear the strategy in them.
“What would you do differently, if you faced him again?” I asked.
Tallu glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes, and I kept my expression neutral, a blankness I wasn’t sure I pulled off.
“I would not assume that he is the same man I have met so many times at the war table. I believe that losing his position and the grievous injury Your Imperial Majesty punished him with has changed something inside him. He no longer fights as a man whose pride outstrips common sense, who wishes to win with some semblance of honor. Now he fights as a man who would prefer winning by whatever cruel methods are necessary, perhaps even preferring those methods.” As he spoke, Saxu’s shoulders relaxed, his tone became more thoughtful.
He had spent the entire ride from the capital city considering what he could have done differently, what he would do differently next time.
“Explain yourself,” Tallu said.
Saxu raised his chin, meeting Tallu’s eyes.
“In order not to raise the alarm, General Kacha’s men slaughtered dozens of servants, women and children that we had hidden deep inside the palace for their own safety.
It was an unthinkable act, a cruel act. Not one worthy of an imperial general.
” Saxu reached for his water cup, twin lines forming between his brow as he considered his next words, his fingers just brushing the metal cup before drawing back.
“General Kacha has always shown a streak of cruelty against our enemies. But that was against our enemies. These were imperial citizens, sworn to loyalty to Your Imperial Majesty.”
I remembered the story Kacha had told me of how he had forced Velthuil into his service. Kacha had driven Ristorium civilians into the ocean, their desperation so great they would rather die than submit to whatever he had planned for them.