The Fireseed Wars

Jephros rode off, shouting "Fire!"

The batteries' guns sounded like rolling thunder and for a few moments Phrames was temporarily deaf. The stone watchtower fell apart, stones and men flying every which way. A couple of Thagnori heads rose above the parapets but quickly went down when the riflemen opened fire. The second volley took down the watchtower base and a good portion of the City Wall with it. There was no mortar between the joints, making the wall especially vulnerable to massed gunfire. Great King Kalvan would change this, put good mortar between the stone, build strong bastions and earthworks and make the walls two to three times their present thickness.

Jephros returned. "Shall I give the order to advance?"

"Not yet, Captain. I want to smash a big enough hole to march twenty men abreast. That will give the Thagnori something to quake in their boots over!"

II

This part of Hostigos is as bare of life as the moon, Sirna thought to herself as the spring-less carriage bounced over the dirt path that passed for a road in eastern Hostigos. Now that the Great King's Highway was behind them she really missed it. Outside the carriage, there was nothing but burned fields, collapsed barns and an occasional sun-bleached skeleton of a man or cow.

So this is what Kalvan means by total war. The small towns and villages were all in ruins, many of the buildings torn to the ground. It would be a long time, without massive outside investment, before this blasted landscape was brought back to life-if ever. Even the forests were mostly burned or destroyed, their blackened limbs stretching skeletally towards the sky. The last living things she'd seen had been a horse party of white-robed Investigators with a squad of Styphon's Own Guard. What are we going to find when we get into Sashta and Beshta?

Sirna was sharing the coach with Queen Lavena, who hadn't said more than a few words the entire journey. Lavena appeared as cold as ice; it was hard to believe that she was even distantly related to Rylla. True, she was the spitting image of Rylla, but she had none of Rylla's warmth. When Princess Nicla of Nyklos had complained of stomach pains at the last stop, the Queen had dumped her and her daughters at the partially rebuilt way station to wait for the next coach to Harphax City. They might be stranded there for half a moon or more with only the station attendants and a few guards for company.

All Sirna knew was that she felt completely isolated and far away from Phidestros' arms and her friends among the Iron Band. It was popular knowledge in Hostigos Town that she was Phidestros' mistress and she wondered if that was why Great King Lysandros had ordered her to remain behind and escort his wife to Harphax City. Is this Lysandros' way of punishing the Prince for all his success on the battlefield, or is it because there was no one else to chaperone his new Great Queen back to Harphax City? It was a long journey over a barren wasteland and the new Queen had no friends either in Hostigos Town or in Harphax City.

Phidestros had left with his army to return to Greater Beshta a half moon before the Grand Host had departed along the Nyklos Trail to follow King Kalvan and his refugees. They had enjoyed a bittersweet parting, then she had been forced to wait patiently at Prince Sthentros' palace until Queen Lavena finally made her leave-taking from her father. The Prince hadn't wanted his daughter to depart, since he had few subjects to rule over and no one in Hostigos he trusted. Two of the men he'd brought with him from Harphax City had already left by coach.

No promises had been made between her and Phidestros; she wasn't sure what her position would be in the Prince's Court once they arrived in Besh Town. Sirna did know one thing; she wasn't cut out to be anyone's permanent paramour, even a man as attractive and virile as Phidestros. He could put that in his pipe and choke on it if that's what he thought the future held.

The carriage dropped into a particularly deep pothole and the Great Queen went "oomph."

"Are you all right, Your Majesty?" Sirna asked.

"I've survived worse," Lavena said. "The journey my father and I made out of Hos-Hostigos last winter makes this look like a stroll through the palace grounds. It's the baby I'm worried about."

"Baby!" Sirna interjected before she realized that it might not be a proper topic for conversation.

"Yes, I'm with child."

"So soon? You were only married two moons ago."

Lavena nodded. "Lysandros didn't want to leave me until I was sure. That way if he is killed in battle there will be an heir to the Iron Throne. Besides, this is my third time with child."

"I thought you were childless."

"I am. I thought Grefftscharrers were sophisticated? Here we have the Priestesses of Yirtta to handle such things."

"Of course, we have our Mothers of Freya to take care of indiscretions in Greffa."

Lavena sighed heavily.

"Do you miss him?" Sirna asked, although she couldn't imagine the Queen replying in the positive.