The Fireseed Wars

II

Nythros was surrounded and the brass guns and bombard stone throwers were taking big chunks out of the walls. The siege work is going well, Lysandros decided. Clouds of fireseed smoke from the big guns rolled over the Grand Host columns like fog banks. The last Nythrosi sortie had been three days earlier and the entire party had been slaughtered. Already ten siege towers had been built and enough timbers were cut and trimmed for another five or six.

The only failure of their initial attack was that they had been unable to catch the Nythrosi Navy napping. Most of the Navy had been out of the harbor during the initial operation and they had only been able to burn a score of ships, most of those at dock. The rest had escaped and, in daring night time sorties, were ferrying in supplies and armaments to the defenders. However, the raids were decreasing since a score of the Host's guns were mounted as shore batteries. Unfortunately, this prolonged the siege by decreasing the number of guns they were able to use for bombarding the city walls.

Enough riflemen were scattered along outside the walls to keep the Nythrosi off the parapets and so far the Host's casualties had been low. This is no Rathon City, Lysandros thought, with its guns, bastions and earthworks built by Kalvan's engineers. Any time now the Nythros City States will fall into our hands like an over-ripe apple. It's too far from Harphax City to properly govern so I'll graciously allow Aristocles to set up some sort of Styphoni-administrated government.

Then we will hunt down the Usurper, defeat his army and cut off his head. Maybe take his wife as a prisoner and bring her back to Harphax City in a cage to be hung from the City gates. Or, better yet, dress her in rags and have her serve my wife as a slave…

Lysandros' musings were cut short by the bark of Investigator Roxthar. The Investigator was accompanied by Grand Commander Aristocles, whose face was tight with anger and barely contained rage.

"What's wrong?" he asked, as the two men rode up within hearing distance.

"It is time for me to leave this dismal place," Roxthar declared. "My work is needed elsewhere. All are heretics in this wasteland!"

Good, go! was Lysandros' first thought. The mad Archpriest was a hindrance and a liability to the expedition. It was through the Investigator's efforts that the Grand Host was under the Ban of Galzar. Worst of all, Roxthar complained constantly about the lack of work, or butchery, as Lysandros saw it. Or was spouting moon-calf nonsense about Styphon that was enough to turn anyone's stomach, or-even worse-broadcasting complaints about his and Aristocles' incompetence in regards to capturing Kalvan and his subjects.

"What's the situation?" he asked Aristocles.

"The Archpriest received a letter from Lord High Marshal Xenophes recalling him to the Five Kingdoms to aid the Grand Master in his subjugation of Great King Demistophon. It's a direct contravention of Styphon's Own Voice's orders. I am in command of all of Styphon's servants among the Grand Host. I will not allow him to disobey Anaxthenes' orders!"

For a moment, Lysandros felt like a convicted criminal being torn apart by horses pulling in two different directions. He was in command of the Grand Host, but Styphon's House paid all the accounts. He could not afford to offend Aristocles, but if he had to he would. The Host's very survival depended on Roxthar not bringing his Investigation into the Middle Kingdoms. He certainly could not allow Aristocles to dictate orders to his person, or he would lose all credibility as commander.

"This misguided servant of Styphon has refused to allow me to leave with my command!" Roxthar cried.

Beyond the Investigators he'd left behind in Hostigos, Roxthar had four Temple Bands of Styphon's Own Guard and several hundred of his white-robed cohorts. No one, including Aristocles would be saddened by the departure of the Investigators, but the Temple Guard was necessary to keep some of the shakier troops from deserting.

Roxthar was fuming, but Lysandros had an idea. "Let me talk with the Grand Commander in private and we shall come to a decision."

They trotted their horses over to a small copse of trees. "What's your idea?" Aristocles asked.

"You do realize that having Archpriest Roxthar along on this military expedition is much the same as having a fireseed wagon trailing the Grand Host with a lit fuse, don't you?"

The Zarthani Knight commander nodded.

"What you may not know is that my Chief Intelligencer has reliable information that Archpriest Roxthar plans to Investigate all captured Urgothi prisoners for their belief in false gods."

"What?" Aristocles asked, as the blood drained from his face. "That course is madness! The Urgothi here have their own Pantheon of Gods, but many are similar to those we worship in the Great Kingdoms."

Lysandros nodded. "To us, maybe, but not to the Investigator Roxthar. To this madman, there is only one god-Styphon!"

"But this is true lunacy, Your Majesty. If we allow Roxthar to Investigate the Urgothi of Nythros, we will open Hadron's Own Pit. Who knows what further devils and demons will spill out?"

"None that we want to see, I can assure you of that," Lysandros stated. "But it is clear that allowing the Investigation to operate here will turn everyone in the Middle Kingdoms against us! We will not only have to defeat Kalvan, but every other ruler. Not even King Theovacar, if we allow Roxthar to begin his Investigation of Heresy, will be able to overlook such impiety. If Roxthar wants to leave for Hos-Agrys, let him. Otherwise, let us cut his throat like a mad dog and kill all his Investigators, too."

"I swore an oath to Grand Master Soton that I would not murder Roxthar and I swore that I would keep him out of the Five Kingdoms. I cannot break my word."

"Would you rather break the back of the Grand Host?" Lysandros cried. "You will have to break one of your oaths, or I will do the deed myself. I know what the Grand Master would do now, were he here. Soton would send Roxthar on his way with a spear up his mount's bung hole to hurry him along! Things have changed since he left. We have not been able to catch up to Kalvan's forces. We are now facing at least one, maybe more, winters in this frozen land. We need to make allies here, not turn everyone into enemies by blaspheming their gods and torturing their citizens.

"If we allow Roxthar to Investigate the Urgothi, we have given Kalvan the greatest gift we could give him! Can't you see that, Dralm-damnit!"

"Yes!" Aristocles said, nodding. "You are right. For our own survival, I will have to allow Roxthar to leave. Maybe Soton will understand…"

"Of course, he will!" Lysandros cried, slapping his second-in-command on the back. "The Grand Master strikes me as a man who knows the difficulties of command and the price of dealing with priests. Let us leave it to Soton to slip a dagger between Roxthar's unholy ribs."

Aristocles nodded. "I fear you are right. Roxthar is a liability the Grand Host can no longer afford. I must send a letter to Grand Master Soton and the Inner Circle telling them of our decision."

"Do it," Lysandros answered, "but hurry. Blame the decision on me, if you like. Tell him I wanted to kill the madman and you convinced me instead to allow him to leave! Now that we agree on what to do with Roxthar, we have to consider our own predicament. With all our recent losses of soldiers, we badly need to find an ally against the Usurper Kalvan. I suggest that King Theovacar might be worth approaching."

The Grand Commander paused to pick up his pipe and fill the bowl with tobacco "As far as King Theovacar goes, why don't we offer him Nythros City as bait. We will have no use for the City once our work here is done."

"Excellent," Lysandros said with relief. He'd thought of that idea himself, but was afraid that the Order might want to hold onto Nythros as a base of operations in the Upper Middle Kingdoms. "I will leave for Greffa after Nythros falls. I will bring Tneovacar the Koynig's head as a present along with a thousand barrels of fireseed and five hundred arquebuses."