Page 64 of Golden Queen
The soldiers returned just before dusk.
When word of their arrival reached me, I ran out onto the wall-walk again to see them crowd through the gate. They rode triumphantly, and I quickly caught sight of Bryce Mandelian atop my Artaxian stallion at the head of the column.
The baron was sitting straight in the saddle, but the horse's flanks and legs were splattered with dark mud.
I met them at the stables, finding the baron in Etreyiu's stall, personally toweling him off.
When he saw me, the horse made a pleased sound and reached his head towards me.
I caught his muzzle between my hands and leaned my head against him.I'm glad you're okay, my friend, I thought, hoping he could somehow know my mind.
"This horse!Dear gods,princess, this horse is a wonder!" Baron Mandelian said as he saw me. "He fought harder and more skillfully than any warrior on the field."
"Who did you fight?" I asked and saw some of the awe flee from his eyes as though memory of the battle had just returned in full force.
He shook his head. "I cannot say, Aelia. I have never seen creatures nor beasts like that before."
My blood seemed to chill as I studied a fleck of that dark mud on Etreyiu's muzzle and considered that it might not be mud at all.
The baron stepped closer and lowered his voice. "I don't know why I’m whispering. It will be all over the city within an hour. They were not men, not elves, nothing I have ever encountered. Their skin was gray as though rotted, and the stench from them was a horror. They rode hellish beasts that looked like dogs but were the size of horses."
My heart pounded as he continued. "There were only a hundred or so, and we would have been able to take them on our own, but the dragon riders came. They made it so that we did not lose a single man."
Io fought for my people, I realized. He had been on that field, and he had protected them.
"The prince tried to take one of them—to question him, but the foul creature ripped his own heart out of his chest rather than be captured," Bryce added with an incredulous shake of his head.
He studied me before adding, "Fates, Princess, I have terrified you."
I narrowed my eyes. "I would be an idiot to not be afraid, My Lord, but I need you to tell me everything. Did they speak the common tongue? What weapons did they use? Did they have any armor that would place their allegiance with Penjan?"
"Follow me," he said.
He led me out into the courtyard, where a wagon sat covered by a canvas tarp. The smell was horrible—rot and filth so bad that it gagged me. I noticed that the soldiers were all standing a fair distance back from it.
Bryce handed me a handkerchief, and I held it over my face as he pulled back the edge of the cloth, just enough so that I could see.
I turned away quickly. They were dead things, dead for more than just the hours since the battle. These creatures were rotting corpses.
"Necromancy," I said, taking several lurching steps away, trying to get a lungful of clean air.
"Dear gods, you're right," Bryce said, wonderingly.
I heard his footsteps behind me. "They...they cut a path through the godsgrass all the way from the coast, Aelia. I never put much store in the whole idea of the grass protecting us, but dear gods," he said again, his voice rising in alarm, "they cut a path from the coast for those creatures to cross."
"So, what were they doing then? Testing our defenses as my uncle believed the ships off the coast were here to do?"
"I don't know. Perhaps that is all it was—a test to see how we would react. But if it is necromancy, then you can be assured that Penjan is behind it. They are the whole of the dark continent now that they have taken Arkyl."
"Have you had any word from my cousin?" I asked, suddenly terrified that the small party of soldiers he traveled with might encounter a band of those dead things in the godsgrass.
"I have not," Bryce said, his lips a thin line. "But I sent a bird to the Point. We have decided to form an enclave in the city chambers to decide whether to summon the fyrds."
An enclave in the city chambers meant all eleven eldermen must be in attendance, and they must decide unanimously to act without any influence from the crown. It was a process that could last anywhere from five minutes to five weeks, as they argued the merits of bringing their respective armies to the capital.
I left Bryce in the courtyard and began to make my way back to the castle, feeling like all the world had grown unsettled around me.
A cheer went up behind me. I turned to see the soldiers in the courtyard had their arms and faces raised as they shouted triumphantly.
