‘Commander Turen,’ said Losara, appearing so quickly he made the goblin start.
‘Yes, my lord?’
‘We will make camp, for now. Spread the word. Find Roma, inform him also. Re-position our front line here, where we stand.’
‘Er …yes, my lord,’ said Turen, looking uncertain. That uncertainty would be echoed elsewhere, but there was nothing Losara could do about it. For now he would just have to be the Shadowdreamer, obeyed without question.
As Turen scuttled off, Tyrellan cast Losara a quizzical look. Meanwhile Lalenda moved towards him, others parting way for her. What had he made her? he wondered. His queen?
‘What has happened?’ she said eagerly.
‘You two,’ he said, ‘I wish to speak with you. In private.’ He waved his hands, and from the grass issued up shadows, to enclose them in darkness. Only a few small cracks above let in a little light.
‘What is it, lord?’ said Tyrellan.
‘Bel stands in our way.’
‘Then why not freeze his heart where it beats and be done with him?’
‘Because if Bel dies …then I die also.’
Tyrellan took the news in stunned silence, while Lalenda frowned her displeasure at once again being reminded of this obstacle in their path. Losara knew she was still hoping desperately for the upper hand, even more so since her recent prophecy. He felt a twinge of annoyance that fate had even brought it to her. What possible purpose did it serve?
‘We are part of the same soul,’ he went on. ‘That is why I cannot let the shadowmander run free while Bel is near – I cannot risk that it will take him. And while he possesses the Stone of Evenings Mild, I myself am powerless against him.’ He sighed. ‘He stands in our way.’
‘So,’ said Tyrellan thoughtfully, ‘this is why you wished to be so hasty? To sweep across the land before Bel could get involved?’
‘Yes.’
‘We could never have achieved that. With an army of this size, one does not dodge.’
‘Perhaps not,’ said Losara, ‘but I wanted to get a head start, at least …put the shadowmander to good use before it became too problematic.’
Good use? he thought, remembering the scattered bodies at the Mines.
A sliver of light coming in through a crack travelled slowly over Tyrellan’s black-orb eyes. ‘There are uses for it still,’ he said.
Losara was surprised by the harshness of his tone. Should I be? he thought. Had it been insensitive to openly doubt the strange construction they had tethered to Tyrellan forever? The First Slave had lost much freedom in its creation, at Losara’s request, yet here Losara was saying he lacked conviction of its worth.
‘Of course,’ he said.
Lalenda blinked, her anger focusing, and looked at him determinedly. What thought had steeled her?
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Plenty of uses. Why don’t you circle Bel in the dead of night? We know how fast you can go, and Jeddies is not well defended,’ she glanced at Tyrellan, who gave a brief nod, ‘so you would not have to take anyone else with you. Just you, Tyrellan and the mander – set down on the outskirts of Jeddies and watch it fall. By the time Bel realised what was happening, it would be too late.’
Losara wasn’t sure if he admired her zeal or not. He knew he could do with some more of it himself, but it was disturbing to see his once-timid lady so bent upon carnage.
‘The idea has merit,’ said Tyrellan approvingly.
Losara felt internal resistance, and tried to work out why.
‘It’s just one town,’ he said. ‘We cannot take all of Kainordas that way.’
‘Another loss will dispirit the enemy.’
Losara pictured the mander running amok once more, knocking down homes and ripping out whoever it found inside – not soldiers this time, but a town population. Old people, young children – it would not matter to the creature. The thought sickened him. But he could not tell them that.
I believe in what I‘m doing , he told himself instead. If I don’t, it will be done to us, and that I do not believe in.
‘And if Bel rides after?’ he said. ‘He has a mage, and could be in Jeddies quickly if I struck there. He would force us to retreat, and if we weren’t fast enough, the mander might even find him first.’
They fell silent, seeming to run out of arguments, though Losara knew he was frustrating them.
‘The soldiers,’ said Tyrellan eventually, ‘will wonder why we do not attack our greatest nemesis while we have the chance, as he stands before us with only a single mage to guard him. The talking will have begun already.’
‘Yes,’ said Losara. ‘I am aware of that.’
‘Ho ho!’ came the voice of Grimra, booming in the enclosed space. ‘What be this? A party and Grimra not invited?’
‘How did you get in here?’ said Losara. He had sealed the shadows so that none could pass without permission, even invisible ghosts.
‘Through them little cracks,’ said Grimra. ‘Grimra can squeeze tiny when he needs. But not for chatting is he coming, rather for the bringing of news. The Kainordans, they be getting very close!’
Losara gave a wave and dispelled the surrounding shadows. All around, the eyes of his soldiers were trained northeast. Roma appeared by his side and really, Losara thought, he should have included his Magus Supreme in the conversation he’d just had. He would fill Roma in quickly, he decided, as soon as he had a chance.
‘Master,’ said Roma. ‘The enemy is arriving.’
‘I ordered this place here to mark our front line,’ said Losara, gesturing at his feet. Bel had chosen the distance for him, by setting up where he had. Losara wanted Tyrellan to be at the head of the army, not imprisoned in the middle, and thus the rest had to be moved back.
‘It takes time to move so many, lord,’ said Roma. He spun and shouted, ‘Hurry up, you louts! Stop ogling our new neighbours and fall back!’
Soldiers began to bustle and mill.
‘I am going to have a look,’ Losara told Tyrellan and Lalenda. ‘Stay here for now – this will become the front soon enough.’
He dissolved and sped through the grass beneath tramping feet. Re-forming at what was left of the original front, he stared out across the field.
Soldiers on horseback were riding towards Bel, led by a large man with short grey hair. Behind them came the rest of the Kainordans, a sea of glimmering blades and armour. Zyvanix wasps whirred through the air in golden swarms, and further back Ryoshi Saurians steered enormous scorpions, while groups of the snake-like Syanti slithered. Their ranks stretched for a long way, and Losara knew he was looking at an army larger than his own. Once they stood collected together, he imagined it would boggle his mind. And to wish them all dead …
Lalenda landed next to him.
‘I don’t want to have to give you orders,’ he said wryly, ‘but it would be nice if you respected my wishes once in a while.’
She said nothing, but stared out at the enemy as if hate alone could slay them. The grey-haired man was speaking to Bel, who was gesturing to indicate a line on the ground.
‘Looks as if he’s working out his front line too,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ said Losara. ‘While he stays there, neither of us can move against the other for the same reason – the mander lies between.’
‘So,’ said Lalenda, ‘the two greatest armies the world has ever seen will not fight each other?’
‘Not yet,’ said Losara.
•
For the rest of the day Kainordans arrived, spreading out and back from a front that mirrored the shadow’s own. Tyrellan watched, incensed that the enemy was able to set itself up so leisurely. This secret of Losara’s was an immense tactical hindrance. At least he now stood at the head of their own troops, no longer trapped in the belly of the army by the necessity of maintaining the mander’s distance from Bel. As for the mander itself, it patrolled the land between, relentlessly trying to find a way through its barrier. A stalemate again, akin to the stalemate that had existed for millennia. The two enemies so close to each other, yet neither daring to cross the threshold.