The end of surrender, p.28
The End of Surrender, page 28
part #4 of The Stalwart Link Series
It was night when he finally could escape to his room, but it was too late to do anything fun. At least he looked forward to seeing his brother, even if he didn’t get to see Siki today. He tried the door handle, but it was locked.
Strange. Leo wouldn’t lock it if he was inside.
Andar unlocked the door and opened it to find the room empty. A lamp was lit on a desk, next to a note. He recognized his brother’s neat penmanship.
“Andar,
I’m spending the night in Rygen’s room. I hope you have a wonderful birthday.”
He could almost feel his brother hinting at something. Perhaps he had expected Andar to come back earlier? There might be a gift in the room somewhere.
Andar looked around for quite some time and didn’t find anything. Somewhat discouraged, he got into bed.
He awoke sometime later to someone entering his room and closing the door. He would sense if it was Leo. Whoever it was locked it behind them.
“Andar?” she asked in a soft whisper.
His heart raced. “Siki.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t knock, but I thought I could give you a surprise. I wish you a happy birthday.”
“Thank you.”
She stood near the door, just a silhouette in the dark. Andar wanted to jump out of bed and grab her before she might leave.
“Well,” she said as she shuffled.
No, don’t go.
“I’ve missed you,” Andar said. “I’m glad you’re here now.”
He could almost see the smile on her lips through her tone. “I wasn’t sure.” She took a few steps toward his bed.
Andar got up and lit a lamp. He just had his undershorts on, but he wasn’t abashed. He turned around to see that Siki had on a robe. She was so beautiful that it hurt him not to touch her. Her piercing gaze bore into him. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from her lips. She moved aside the thick strands of violet hair that had fallen down in front of her face.
It suddenly became very clear just why she was here. No one knew that she had entered his room tonight.
Except Leo and Rygen, but they won’t tell.
It was hard to breathe as she came toward him.
“I can’t forget about you,” she whispered.
“This will only make it harder,” he said.
“I don’t care—”
Their lips rushed to meet. Siki clutched his back as their lips came together, then her hands moved up to fist in his hair. He became lost in the passion, his heart beating so wildly he felt faint. She pressed herself close against him, then exhaled sharply when he moved his lips down to her neck.
“Careful…not to make a mark,” she whispered through gasps of pleasure.
She reached down and took hold of his hard manhood, forcing a gasp out of him now. She kissed him as she moved with skilled hands.
He feverishly stretched her robe over her shoulders. She helped him by wriggling and then taking it herself. When it was nearly free, she let it drop.
Andar picked her up. She wrapped her legs around him as he carried her to the bed.
He set her down, their lips finally parting as he drank in the sight of her naked body. He had imagined her many times, but even he was astonished at the sight of her full bosom.
“Skyfire and ash,” he said.
“Shut up and come here.” She pulled him down on top of her.
She kissed him eagerly as she pulled down his undershorts. Their passion was so overwhelming that neither was able to take this slowly. They moaned in succession as he thrust inside her, Siki throwing back her head and arching her back.
She gasped in pleasure, but it sounded like she was trying to speak, so he stopped to look into her eyes.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too.”
He put his lips over her mouth as he moved more deeply inside her. She let out the first of many muffled screams, as they tried not to wake their neighbors.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Leo saw his brother in the morning at the great hall. Andar had a smile stuck to his face. His eyes lit up when he saw Leo. There were many people eating around them, not much privacy, so Andar motioned for Leo to meet him outside in the garden. Leo had a feeling he knew what his brother wanted to talk about. They walked out and stopped in the middle of the garden.
“Did you tell Siki?” Andar asked, still grinning.
“Tell her what?”
“That I wasn’t going to initiate anything.”
Seeing how happy his brother was, Leo proudly answered, “I did. Well, I told Rygen, who told her.”
“And Siki said she would be visiting my room?”
Leo nodded.
“So your note…you knew?”
“Well I didn’t know exactly what would happen, but I had a pretty good guess.”
“This is terrible,” Andar said with a toothy grin. “Absolutely terrible. I can’t believe you told.”
“Um.”
“This could ruin her marriage to the rich Analyte dolt.”
“You don’t seem too displeased.”
“Because I can’t possibly be displeased right now!” Andar said with a massive smile. “But later, this will feel like some version of hell for both of us.”
“No one has to find out.”
“That doesn’t matter. Siki doesn’t want to go back.” It didn’t seem possible, but Andar’s smile stretched even wider.
Leo chuckled.
“It’s not funny,” Andar said, looking as if he might laugh himself. “This is going to end badly.”
“Maybe it doesn’t have to. Siki can stay with you, and Dasfis might be able to convince the family of the ‘rich Analyte dolt’ to donate coin to their cause anyway.”
“That’s the best I can hope for.”
“So…should I stay with Rygen tonight as well?”
“Most certainly. Be discreet about it, yeah?”
“I will try. I’m not exactly as sly as you are…usually, not right now.”
They noticed their father walking toward them.
“I forgot to thank you,” Andar muttered quickly to Leo.
“I wasn’t sure you were going to.”
“I owe you. You rescued me, twice, and you helped convince Siki to initiate. I wouldn’t have asked for any of those things. In fact I did ask you not to tell her, but I’m glad you did. I’m glad for everything you’ve done for me.”
“You would do the same for me.”
“I would.”
Their father stopped in front of them. “Have the two of you eaten yet?”
They shook their heads.
“Why not?”
“We were about to,” Andar answered. “Don’t tell me there’s another long council meeting today.”
“Yes,” Darren answered to Andar’s dismay. “It will be starting soon, so you should eat now.”
He groaned.
Leo said, “Actually I think I could use Andar’s help.”
Darren looked skeptical. “With what?”
“I think I’m close to a discovery.” Leo glanced at the wisdom tree across the garden.
“What kind of discovery?”
“That’s the problem with discoveries, isn’t it?” Andar asked rhetorically. “We never know exactly what they’ll yield.”
“That’s not true at all,” Darren said to Andar’s surprise. “Many scientists know exactly what they are expecting when they are working toward a discovery.”
“But we aren’t scientists,” Andar argued. “We are mages. What we do with Artistry isn’t based on science but feeling.”
Darren asked Leo, “Then what do you feel might happen with more time in front of the wisdom tree?”
Leo didn’t want to answer, and Andar had a feeling why that was. He tried to think of something as an excuse for his brother, but his father spoke first.
“The two of you always have secrets. When you were young, I let you keep those secrets because I didn’t believe they endangered you. But this is different. I appreciate that both of you want to win this war and are willing to make sacrifices for that to happen, but I am still your father and your commander. Any risks you are prepared to take must go through me. Understand?” His raised voice made Andar and Leo hang their heads.
Darren took a breath. “I’m sorry. You both know that I care very much about your safety?”
“We do,” Andar answered for them.
“That’s why I’m scared when there’s something you’re not telling me. You have both taken risks, especially you, Andar, and you’ve made it through all of them. But that doesn’t mean you are invulnerable. I remember what it felt like to be young and powerful. I was an officer in my father’s army with thousands of men at my command when I was just seventeen. I will never forget the feeling of leading them into battle thinking that nothing could happen to me. It is a dangerous feeling. Do you both understand this?”
They nodded.
“You must include me in your plans now if you are to stay safe,” Darren concluded.
Andar glanced at his brother to find Leo already looking back at him. The stalwart link told him that Leo disagreed with their father.
What do you have planned? Andar wondered.
Suddenly it dawned on him.
He took a chance and tried to speak for them again. “I think Leo knows that,” Andar told their father. “And like me, he would choose not to be safe if it brings us an advantage.”
Leo nodded. “I wasn’t sure how to word it, but that’s it.”
Darren let out a slow breath.
Andar said, “Think about it as if we were not your children. Wouldn’t you encourage us to take a risk to ensure victory?”
“But you are my children!” Darren nearly shouted.
Leo put up his hands. “I would never guarantee that this ensures victory, but I believe it will greatly help.”
Darren gave him a pointed look. “It’s time you tell me what’s going on.”
“Well…”
But Leo didn’t go on.
“It’s a portal, isn’t it?” Darren assumed. “One from here to Halin.”
Leo looked nervous as he answered. “Yes, I’m nearly certain I can make one.”
“Were you ever going to tell me? Wait. It doesn’t matter. You’re telling me now.” Darren sighed and sounded more himself afterward. “Tell me more.”
Hesitantly, Leo said, “I’m close to opening one. I’m pretty sure it will work, but it can only be done one time.”
“Because you only have one testing stone,” Darren assumed.
Leo looked frightened as if he assumed their father would take it. He nodded.
“Let me have it,” Darren said.
“Why?” Leo asked as he turned away.
“Because I know exactly what the two of you are planning! You will open a portal and Andar will go inside. I don’t know what you think you can accomplish as one man inside an enemy city, Andar.”
“Hey, I didn’t even know of this plan until right now!”
“I was going to go in,” Leo said to Andar’s surprise.
“You?” Andar said.
“I was going to wait until we were about to attack,” Leo explained, mostly to their father, with a few glances at Andar. “I would try to start rebellion from within and set fire to something as a distraction.”
“Leo,” Andar lectured, “that is a terrible plan.”
“It is not!” Leo argued, his tone reminding Andar of something easily forgotten about Leo. He was only fourteen.
“You have no idea where in Halin the rift will open,” Andar explained. “It could put you right in the middle of a group of them.”
“It won’t. I’ve been looking at maps of the city. It will lead to a place where the barbarians are unlikely to be.”
“How could you possibly assume that?” Andar wondered.
“It’s true,” Darren said. “The wisdom tree in Halin is near a cavern on the edge of the city. The cavern is useless now with its Tisary having been depleted years ago.”
“Don’t tell me you agree with Leo’s plan?” Andar asked in shock.
“Of course not. They will recognize him as soon as they see him. Why, Leo, would you volunteer for this?”
“Because,” he said.
They waited.
Deflated, Leo said, “Because I wouldn’t want to put anyone else at risk.”
“That is the wrong reason to do anything in war,” Darren said. “Noble, but wrong. When there is a task, the best person for that task is to be chosen.”
“Which is me,” Andar said. He kept going as his father opened his mouth. “I am sly, unlike Leo, and I would not be recognized by the barbarians, unlike Leo. I also have a better capability of defending myself than anyone else in this army.”
“Andar—”
“You just said how it’s wrong to make anyone else do a task when there is one person better for it—”
“Andar!”
He stopped.
“I agree,” Darren said to his surprise. “You are the best person for this task, but we are going to do it my way, with careful planning, all right?”
Andar was suddenly nervous for the immense risk that going into Halin alone posed to him. He had figured his father would talk him out of it. Now he had Siki to lose.
He swallowed and asked, “When would it be?”
“I don’t know yet. We don’t have an advantage right now over the barbarians. The longer this goes on, the worse our position to take the city. We will talk about this more later. For now, help Leo make sure he’s ready.”
“So it could be soon?” Andar asked.
“Possibly.”
*****
Andar spent every day of the next week looking forward to each night, when Siki would visit him. Unfortunately, she had to leave after a few hours to avoid being caught. He wished they could spend the whole night, as well as their days together.
He couldn’t get her out of his mind. In the rare moments when he saw her around the castle, his heart always jumped. They shared smiles as they chatted here and there, the passion of their nights always fresh in Andar’s thoughts. He had a feeling from the spark in her eyes that it was on hers as well.
Leo didn’t need much help from Andar to open a portal. Soon he reached the point where he could no longer practice without actually drawing out the Taesitry from the testing stone or from the cocoon around Andar.
Andar had some fear that something might happen to him after it was removed, but they spoke to Erisena about it at length and she seemed confident that nothing would change.
Fortunately Darren no longer brought Andar into the long meetings with the other officials. Darren spent most of his time instead outside the castle, overseeing the training of all the new recruits. Andar had taken to joining him. He was surprised to find out that all of these new faces knew who he and his father were. Not only that, they seemed well aware of almost everything the Quims had done. It made more sense to Andar later, when he overheard a group chatting while they were resting after a practice skirmish. The rumors they shared seemed endless.
Not only did they talk about the Quims, but they spoke of Mavrim and Richan’s old rivalry that had led to Mavrim leaving the castle in secret to help close the great rift. Andar didn’t know how much any of this was true, but he was fascinated by the details these troops in training shared, especially about the late prince. Andar felt guilty that he had forgotten about the man. Mavrim had not brought up his dead son in the chat they had before the first council meeting or in any of the other encounters Andar had with the king. Apparently rumors had spread that Mavrim was glad he was dead. The king now favored his granddaughter, Fyra, and his daughter-in-law, Karlinda.
According to rumors that Andar assumed were true, Mavrim’s son had abused Karlinda after she had been forced to marry him. It was in retaliation of her violating the trust she’d been given, when she’d used it to release DVend and his sister from prison and arranged horses for them to escape. Now Mavrim was glad his son was dead because the king had changed, while his son had refused to do so.
Andar felt even more guilty that he hadn’t thought of his aunt in some time. It seemed obvious that Rizan planned to use her in some way if she wasn’t already dead.
As Andar got to know these men better, a few of them approached with rumors about him and Siki. They’d heard that they were in love. Andar denied it but was baffled, for he knew Siki would never tell anyone, except maybe Rygen. She would never speak of it, except maybe to Leo, but he had never had a problem keeping his mouth shut. That was Andar’s issue.
“I wish,” was all Andar would say when someone brought it up. “Have you seen that woman? Skyfire and ash.”
Usually it earned him a few chuckles, and they would drop the subject. A few others pushed, though, bringing up that he was often seen enjoying her company during meals.
“She’s a friend,” he would tell the man as seriously as he could. “Haven’t you heard what we’ve been through in Disetel? There’s no way two people could go through that without them caring about each other afterward.”
But he stopped using that answer when one man told him that he hadn’t heard the story and wanted Andar to tell it.
There was a buzz in the air toward the end of the second week. It seemed that word was going around that soon they would attack. There had been no signs of the barbarians coming to discuss peace or surrender. Richan had sent scouts to climb hills around the city and see what they could inside Halin, but none had come back. They were presumed dead, most likely ambushed. The walls of the city worked strongly against them.
Andar was glad when he saw his father in the great hall during supper time. Darren was speaking with Lane as the two of them sat with many of their comrades, everyone of different rank but no one seeming to mind. Andar stood right behind both of them.
“Are we attacking soon?” he asked.
They turned around to face him as everyone nearby stopped to listen.
“Yes,” Darren said. “We will be leaving tomorrow.”
Andar lost his appetite. He could see that everyone who heard shared the same feeling, none interested in their food anymore. Only his father continued to eat calmly as if nothing had changed.
