The Fireseed Wars

III

Great King Lysandros stood atop the inner keep of Vert-Baltor, the highest point in Baltor Town, surveying his latest conquest. Bodies of slain Baltori soldiers lay scattered across the tower top, some hanging between the crenellations of the tower walls with their helmets askew. Plumes of black and gray smoke rose from burning buildings and temples to join the dark clouds hovering above the town. The air was filled with the smells of burnt fireseed, singed flesh and burning wood. Here and there he could see tiny pockets of horsemen in their red and yellow Harphaxi colors searching out the last resisters.

Baltor Town had been sacked and the survivors had been chased out of town by the Zarthani Knights. They had left on foot, by mule, on horseback and by carriage, for those few who could afford such luxuries. The Baltori refugees had been joined by fifty thousand or more Nythrosi civilians run out of Nythros City when the Grand Host of Styphon left. It was a human wave rising up to wash over Thagnor City, which was already filled to the bursting point with hundreds of thousands of Hostigi and the surviving Thagnori.

Let Kalvan feed his neighbors and the siege of Thagnor City will be that much shorter. He laughed out loud.

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Captain-General Demnos asked.

"I was just thinking of the consternation in Thagnor when some eighty thousand to a hundred thousand outlanders suddenly appear at their gates."

"The Usurper Kalvan prides himself on his kindness and fairness to friends and those in need. Even his enemies, when he can afford such. It is a good strategy, although it may also provide him with a few thousand more recruits for his Army."

"Gun fodder, for the most part," Lysandros said with a smile. "We ripped through the Baltori army like a knife blade through a sow's belly!"

"True, sire. But we did outnumber their army ten to one and fought with better arms, as well as fireseed weapons, rather than crossbows."

"Truth, Demnos, and we destroyed the Army of Baltor totally. They no longer exist as a disciplined force. Their dead lay strewn in piles by the hundreds behind their town walls. Kalvan is welcome to their deserters and wounded; if he can make soldiers of that defeated rabble, then he truly is the son of Galzar, not Dralm!"

Demnos hastily circled his scorched and dented breastplate. "It is not wise to jest at the gods' expense, Your Majesty."

"Faagh on all the gods. They are all creations of the greedy priests who wish to tax us so they may live without toil or work. Styphon's House being the worst of the lot!"

"Your Majesty, the very stones have ears even here in this gods-forsaken land of ice and misery."

"You're right, old friend. You are the only man I can trust in this entire Host. But I am weary of the jabber of old women and cowards who hide behind priestly robes. Someday, and may the gods hear my words, I will take an army and burn that foul nest in Balph right down to the foundation stones!"

Demnos forehead wrinkled. "Please Your Majesty, watch your tongue before we are overheard. Even our own men will betray us for Styphon's gold."

Lysandros, still high on bloodlust, took possession of his thoughts. "Speaking of treasure, we must have taken a hundred thousand ounces of gold and five times that amount of silver! And Baltor was poor pickings compared to Nythros. By Yirtta's dugs, these Middle Kingdom treasuries hold more gold than that held by all five Great Kings! I wonder how much gold the Morthron Treasury might yield?"

"I fear that is only for the Morthroni and their gods to know," Demnos answered. "They are the allies of Grefftscharr and as such untouchable."

"For now," Lysandros replied, with a grim smile. "The Morthroni have already been more trouble than they're worth. Prince Eythart squawked to the Sky-Palaces of the Gods when he learned of our plans to push the refugees through his Princedom. I almost wish he would have refused us passage. Maybe we will sack Morthron Town after we demolish Thagnor City. Our alliance will Grefftscharr will be of no further benefit once the Usurper is dead. It would be a short siege, I believe, and most profitable."

Demnos laughed. "Yes, and let Theovacar cry into his beard!"

"He will not forget the Grand Host, by Galzar! I wonder if the legends about the Treasury of Grefftscharr are true?"

"We do not have the supplies and support to besiege Greffa City," Demnos said, "although it is a tempting morsel."

"If Thagnor falls quickly, we may have time to make a slight diversion into Grefftscharr. "With all the gold in Greffa City in my coffers, all my troubles would be over. Regardless, we will take enough gold from Thagnor to fill several wagons."

Demnos nodded. "Is it fair that most of this gold will find its way to the Great Treasury of Balph?"

"Not by my leave. I swear by Galzar we will not leave this miserable land without half of all the gold we have collected."

"But, Your Majesty, Styphon's House will never release it to you."

"Even though it was won by Our leadership? Are We not strong enough to take what is Ours? But enough of these questions, we need to celebrate this victory! Small as it is. Do you know of any taverns that haven't been burned to the floor boards?"

Demnos nodded. "I put men to guard over one such for our use, sire. It has a picture of a one-eyed bull and a bunch of scribbles in their foreign tongue."

They wound their way down the tower passageway and through the old castle until they were back in the streets of the city, where they picked up a squad of silvered guardsmen. The stench of death and smoke was overwhelming and Lysandros was glad that the wine shop was only a block away. Drunken soldiers careened through the narrow streets, some carrying booty, others dragging young girls. Most of the older women had been released or killed by their rapists.

Sacking towns is a bloody business, Lysandros thought to himself as he stepped over the dead body of an older man, who'd been stripped naked of clothing and possessions with only his slashed boots left behind-too tight to remove. From his gaping mouth it was obvious he was the owner of a full set of teeth, which meant he must have been a rich man. Some soldier was now dressed as a nobleman in clothes that wouldn't last the campaign. Yet, such actions were good for morale: besides, who was he to stop the boys and their fun?

Inside the tavern the air was clear of any smoke but tobacco and the stale but clean smells of spilled wine and ale. Lysandros was on his second goblet of wine, when his co-commander entered the tavern.

"There you are! Celebrating already?"

"Don't be so glum, Aristocles. We won!"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"What do you mean, 'maybe not'?"

"Our scouts have just returned from the Thagnor border. The Hostigi are turning away the refugees by the thousands."

"They're not taking them in? The very Sky-Palaces must be in danger of falling!"

"No, it's not by the Usurper's orders. It appears that Kalvan is not at Thagnor City, but Queen Rylla rules the kingdom in his stead."

"Oh, that one," Lysandros said, nodding knowingly. "She has a heart of ice such as my own. This Queen ordered the deaths of everyone in the Phaxosi princely line, including women and babes in arms. She'll not care a crabapple for some Ulthori ragamuffins. If I didn't have her twin as my bride, I'd take her to the marriage bed after Kalvan has been beheaded and her brat put to the sword!"

Aristocles shook his head in disbelief. "It's a good thing Roxthar is not around to hear you speak such."

"We are all better off for his absence."

Aristocles nodded.

"What I want to know is: where in Ormaz's name is the Usurper Kalvan?"

"That, Your Majesty, is the question of the hour. We will have to set additional scouts out to see if they can find his Army. Leave it to him to come up with some ruse or trick that will give him the advantage of surprise."

"Then we will be twice wary. He would not have stripped Thagnor City bare of soldiers, leaving his wife and brood at our mercy. Not if I know that man. At most, he may have an army of some ten thousand strong. With all the trees leveled for twenty marches around Thagnor City, there is no place to hide an army large enough to do us damage. Nor can he move by sea as the Grefftscharrer Navy holds the straits of Thagnor in the north and we have sacked Baltor Town. Our alliance guarantees that the docks of Morthron Town will soon be ours. Kalvan will have no haven for his Navy; they will be tied up at Thagnor City until we torch every ship and boat. Like Port Ulthor, Thagnor City will be burned to the ground."

"Do not count the Usurper out, Your Majesty. He has made pacts before with barbarians and with the aid of one of their great warlords almost sacked the Order's headquarters, Tarr-Ceros. What if Kalvan returns with a barbarian horde of half a million or more? Such things have happened in the past."

Lysandros sneered. "We will scythe them down like weeds in a garden with our guns and muskets. Once we have his City in thrall we shall destroy it and kill everyone inside. The memory of their terrible deaths shall be a warning to usurpers for all of time."