The knight, the dragon and the necromancer. Daert dilogy-1

— That's unnecessary, — Vittoria threw in briefly, cocking her chin.

— What? — the marshal stared at her.

— Finding out what happened to Velonda is a good idea, — the necromancer explained. — But there's no need to go to the Separatist camp now. Take care of our troops. Keep the soldiers on alert. Position several companies of infantry at the edge of the camp. Tell soldiers to load the wagons with supplies and tents and ammunition.

— Are we leaving?

— Not yet, milord. But you don't think Auguste will be idle at a time like this, do you? Hurry, and I must make some preparations. — Turning on her heels, the red-haired donna retired to her tent. She did not call Rosa with her.

In the camp of the Black Guards there was growing that perfectly organised turmoil which is possible only among military men. Rosa and Jeanne slipped quietly back to their quarters to keep out of the way of the soldiers, and began to pack their belongings. Their belongings were already mostly in the travelling trunks.

— This is the last chance, mistress, — Jeanne said suddenly, pulling the tent flap closed behind her.

— To what? — The girl didn't understand.

— Get out of this story. — The black-haired warrior took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face her somewhat roughly. — Some of Auguste's soldiers have seen you, but you're unlikely to see them again. If you wish, we can leave the camp right now. I'll get you to Daert in one piece. I'll take you further if I have to, even to Iolia. You have relatives there, don't you?

— Oh... — The young sorceress lowered her gaze, making no attempt to free herself. — It's all right, Jeanne. I don't want to run away.

— Then tell me why.

— Because... — Rosa found the strength to raise her head, to meet the guardswoman's gaze. — Because I'm needed here. Yes, at first I was just interested in watching. I stayed here out of curiosity. That's all. But now... You see what's happening, don't you? War is a terrible thing. But this is much worse. What's happening now will affect the whole world. A town burned down. The whole thing, maybe. In seconds. How many times can it happen again? What else have the portals brought us? Donna Vittoria may be the only person trying to stop... what's happening to the world. I want to help her.

— It was confused and rambling. — The warrior unclenched her fingers, letting go of the girl. — But sincere. So we play the game to the end?

— To the end, — Rosa nodded to her, smiling weakly.

— Your father and mother are overseas, as I recall. What about the family business? — Jeanne asked as they began to remove the laundry from the beds. — The Granchi trading house?

— I had almost nothing to do with it, — Rosa shrugged. — I've had magic since I was about eight. My mum and dad decided right away that they would let me study for my own pleasure. If I became a great scholar or an archmage at court, it would be a great benefit to the family. And they're planning to make another heir. They promised to return from their voyage with a brother for me. I don't go near the books for a snake's spit. But I can ask for as much money as I want, my parents believe in my discretion.

— Good. One less problem, — the bodyguard constitutionalised, tamping the rolled blankets into the trunk with her knee. — Lots of money and little responsibility. Why not get into adventures, yes.

Rosa didn't answer, her cheeks flushed for some reason. She mumbled something unintelligible under her breath and concentrated on her belongings. Half an hour later their tent was almost empty, the women sitting on the locked chests, pushing them closer to the exit. Rosa buckled her amulet belt and potion flasks on her chest, Jeanne put on her armour. They waited in tense silence until they heard the trumpets singing again. First in the distance, in the separatist camp, and then nearby.

— Well, at least they didn't make us stay awake until dawn, and thank you for that, — Jeanne muttered as she stood up. Outside, they saw the marshal hurrying to the command post, surrounded by his retinue. The streets of the camp were lit by torches and flaming braziers, columns of soldiers marching somewhere, magic lanterns swaying on tall poles above them. The tents around the commander's tent were being hastily dismantled.

— What's going on, milord? — Rosa asked as she caught up with the commander. She saw Donna Vittoria beside him, carrying a stack of papers under her arm.

— From the signals, it looks like a surprise attack, — De Cotoci replied, not looking back at the girl. — But it's not the posts by the river that are making noise, but the sentries to the east.

They reached the stakes at the same time as Don Marius. The young knight jumped to the ground and bowed quickly. The young knight jumped down and bowed quickly:

— Milord.

— Have you had a look round from above? — Without wasting time on greetings, de Cotoci asked.

— No, just flew over here.

— Then assess the situation and report back.

— Will do, milord.

— I'm coming with you! — Rosa rushed to Toad. — Jeanne, wait here!

Don Marius did not object — he gave the girl his hand and sat her in the saddle behind him. After checking that she was well strapped in, he lifted the dragoness into the sky. She didn't spiral up, but flew straight east.

— Minerva is coming round! — said the knight, shouting into the wind. — You have done well, signora!

— Not so much... — the young sorceress wrinkled her nose, remembering the sharp fangs in the girl's mouth. — It could have been better. But there was no one to practice on....

They were prevented from continuing their conversation by an explosion rumbling to their right.

— Demons! — growled the young man, throwing Toad onto the wing. A couple more bursts blazed where the dragoness had just been.

— What's that?!

— They're coming from the ground! Our own artillery.

A quick shadow flashed among the stars, followed by another. Rose pointed her finger at them:

— Look!

— Auguste's dragons, — Marius gritted his teeth and forced the winged pet to move in jerky, constantly changing course. The bombs were now exploding above the rebel camp, and the silhouettes of the royal dragons were flitting between the powder clouds. Before the girl's eyes, three of them dived down through the thick barrage of buckshot. They landed somewhere in the centre of the separatist camp. A few more dropped over the eastern edge of the camp. Something unimaginable was going on there — tents were ablaze, torches and lamps were flickering. Something exploded on one of the cannon batteries with a rumbling sound, scattering burning fragments in every direction. Magic shields, lightning and jets of flame flashed. And across the fords of Shaanta, columns of troops were moving in dark masses, without lights. Three or four cannon fired indiscriminately at them from the forward fortifications.

— Let's go back, — the knight decided. The Toad made a semicircle and ran back. As soon as it touched the ground, Don Marius slid down and sprinted for the command post. Rosa joined him half a minute later. The panting young man was already reporting to the marshal:

— ...somehow brought in troops from the east and hit De Velonda's mercenaries. Total rout, saw no sign of resistance. A few dragons have broken through to the Separatist defence. Auguste's main force moved across the river, meeting no resistance. Our position will be reached in three quarters of an hour or less.

— If we move to the river now, we can stop Auguste on the bank, — de Cotoci said thoughtfully, tweaking his mustache. — Send a few companies to join de Velonda's main force to restore order and turn them east and north. Then, perhaps...

— Perhaps we will be defeated not in an hour, but after dawn, — Donna Vittoria finished in his place. — Our cooperation with the Separatists is at an end, milord. They have done as much good as they could. We will have to act alone from now on.

— Abandon our allies? — The warlord's cheeks set in jaundice.

— Oh, leave it, — the necromancer curled her lips slightly. — The De Velondas have never been allies to us. Temporary partners. If Auguste had recognised the duchy's independence, they would have given him our skulls the same day. But their soldiers... yes, soldiers shouldn't die so foolishly.

The red-haired donna held out her papers to the commander:

— Send messengers to de Velonda's main camp. On behalf of General Monvant, tell the officers in companies and battalions not yet engaged to abandon everything and withdraw westwards with the Black Guard. Doubters will be shown these orders.

— They're fake, aren't they? — The marshal frowned, shuffling the sheets like cards. As far as Rosa could tell, the text was the same on all of them.

— Of course, — Vittoria nodded with a grin. — I've had the general's seal and armorial paper for a long time, and it's not that hard to forge handwriting and signatures if you've worked in the royal court for years. You get the hang of it. Besides, hardly anyone would look closely, given the circumstances.

— Good, and where are we retreating to? — De Cotoci handed the papers to one of the adjutants.

— Towards the mountains to the west. — The red-haired donna waved her hand spectacularly. The lenses of her glasses glinted red, reflecting the light of the fires. — There we can fortify ourselves, there we will have the support of... real allies. My plan is in motion, milord. It will take time to rekindle the flames.

— The demons would eat you up with your plans, milady. — The marshal seemed about to spit under his feet. But he restrained himself and began to give orders to his aides. Vittoria approached Rosa.

— Are we really going to leave them? — The girl asked, looking into her mentor's eyes.

— Do you feel sorry for General Monvant, the Heir de Velonda, and other people you don't know? — The necromancer raised her eyebrows. — They are victims of their own ambitions. And I've just taken care of the common soldiers. We'll take as many with us as we can. We need the soldiers, we don't need their commanders. It's time to get serious, my dear. The preparations are complete. Do you need a horse, or will you ride Toad?

— On the Toad, — replied the girl without hesitation.

— Good. — The necromancer adjusted her glasses. — Stay close to our hospital. Let people see you around the wounded more often. They'll be in the centre of the convoy, with the refugees.

She left without adding anything else. The young sorceress looked back at Jeanne. Warrior shrugged her shoulders:

— Isn't that what you expected from the donna? Think of a better way to get the chests on the dragon.

Toad, with three riders on her back, did not immediately take her place in the ranks — she passed company after company until the rearguard appeared. From her saddle Rosa saw a wave of riders in cuirasses roll out of the gloom and rush into the empty camp, crushing the tents that had been left behind and toppling the braziers. The rear guard turned in a line, pointing their lances, and the cuirassiers swept through the bivouac, crashing into a dense forest of steel tips. The horse neighing mingled with the crack of breaking spades and the cries of the wounded. Having lost a dozen men, the cavalrymen sprinted back, melted back into the darkness. A minute passed, another, but there was no renewed attack. Perhaps Auguste's cavalrymen had found easier prey or were looting. The rearguard infantrymen were on a par with the dragoness, and only then did Toad move forward, trying not to overtake them.

The Black Guard left without the roar of trumpets and the thunder of drums, folding their banners, extinguishing their lights and hiding their magic lamps. Behind them, the Separatist camp blazed. The southern horizon continued to smoulder. King Auguste the Strong was celebrating victory this night, but the civil war in Daert was just beginning....

"When a person you look up to commits a questionable act in front of you, the biggest mistake is to make excuses for it. It is much more sensible to accept it as it is and realise that you will never be a copy of someone else".

The Witch-Queen, "Memories," Volume Two.

Part Three. Light from tomorrow

"At the end of the first volume I wrote that quotations from sacred books are a vulgar device to confuse the interlocutor or reader without actually saying anything. Yet I will quote one here. These are words from the Book of Fire, about the tribulation on the eve of the Last Judgement. "And the third part of the seedlings shall be taken, and it shall turn into a dry wind. And the third child shall be taken from every one that is born — and they shall become dust. And there shall be weeping in all the earth. Bones and dust in the churches. And in the cities silence, and ashes on the throne." During the war years many people remembered these lines, seeing in them a similarity with what was happening. They still do. But I can safely say that there is no question of any prophecy. After all, the Day of Judgement never came, and the losses amounted to considerably more than a third of the country's population...".

The Witch-Queen, "Memories," Volume Three.

Chapter 15

The village had been looted recently, but there were no corpses to be seen. It was unlikely that the looters had bothered to bury them, but rather that the villagers had escaped in time, with their livestock and some of their belongings. A couple of houses on the outskirts had burned down, but there were enough survivors to house the headquarters, mages, and hospital under a roof. The rest of the troops camped around the village.

The Black Guard marched fast all night and part of the day. Only when the infantry began to exhaust themselves did Marshal de Cotoci order a halt. It was risky, but the men needed rest. In addition, Vittoria hoped to collect more ducal troops fleeing from the battlefield. Already on the way to the Guard joined several companies of shooters and pikemen, a hundred light horsemen and even one cannon under the command of a head wounded and terribly angry mustachioed bombardier. Listening to the torrent of scolding, Rosa realised that the mustachioed man and his cannoneers had made their way from almost the centre of the camp, driving off the pursuit with a cartridge shot.

But that was not enough for Donna Vittoria. She sent all her cavalry to search for other survivors. Don Marius flew to Toad to look for survivors from the air. The staff officers were hastily reorganising the army, taking in new units. In the midst of all this Rosa felt superfluous — even in the hospital she found no work, because the wounded fleeing most often abandoned. Together with Jeanne, she spent the whole day at the headquarters, watching the people streaming towards the Guards' camp — military detachments under banners, small unorganised groups, loners without armour but with weapons. All those whom the patrols had managed to intercept and direct in the right direction. The companies that retained their banners, commanders and most of the soldiers were temporarily assigned to the Guards regiments, while the others were distributed among the existing battalions to make up for the losses. Fugitives also brought news — often contradictory. But dozens of confused accounts and patrol reports were adding up to a coherent picture. The rebel army was defeated, its commanders captured. King Auguste had crossed the river in person, and many had seen his banner in the captured camp. A strong detachment of the royal cavalry has gone south, deep into the duchy, the rest of the army is still standing on the banks of the Shaanta. The rebels who retreated to their capital are doomed. But the Black Guard, which has moved westwards, is not being pursued, apart from small outposts.