Lady of trelin, p.1
Lady of Trelin, page 1
part #5 of Katrina Baker Series
Lady of Trelin
A Katrina Baker novel 05
Author: D. L. Harrison
Copyright 2018. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Afterword:
About the Author
Other books by D. L. Harrison:
Book Description
Chapter One
The six horseless wagons rolled along the wide stone tunnel. There was a dwarven driver in each one, with four dwarven warriors riding along with the cargo. Twenty-four dwarven warriors in total to escort the wagon train to Magehaven where the weapons would officially be turned over.
Our charge, Mage Marchioness Lynn Darish rode on the rear wagon, while Gerard and I followed on our horses.
The ceiling, and the tons of mountain’ stone above us still felt oppressive to me, I never did get over that uneasy feeling, but my spirits were up since I knew we’d be out soon. Just one more night at the rest area, and a few hours tomorrow morning, and I’d once again feel the sun on my skin and see the real sky. I could hardly wait, because I knew even though the mission was quite successful, the weight of the stone above me had made me rather whiny and anxious the last week, even in my head.
I supposed Bryce had given me reason as well, but he’d been banished from Belirith days ago, and was no doubt plotting my downfall, or at least a way to make my life a living hell. I’d decided not to worry about it, Enid was a dragon, and just as alien in nature as the Dwarves. But… she was also a child in many ways, and had been worth saving. I wouldn’t regret doing that.
I was also worried about our ultimate destination, and what would happen when we got there. We weren’t sure if we’d get all the way north to Ironcastle before the army of Jendas made it through the pass. It added risks, such as losing our shipment of weapons to the enemy if we had really bad timing. For instance, if we arrived at Ironcastle right as it was overwhelmed. Something we couldn’t allow to happen, and it was also the reason for the dwarven warrior escorts, until human soldiers could take over guarding the weapons in Magehaven.
There was a good chance Jendas was aware our mission was successful already, since Lynn sent a message to one of the king’s mages in the capitol. One of their spies in Magehaven had already set up one ambush on our way to Belirith, and they’d be sure to try and stop us from getting the weapons even as far as Magehaven if they could help it. I wasn’t too worried about that, their spies would be limited in the type of ambushes they could set up so far from home and the support of their own military.
Still, even a blind rat could find food, I’d take it seriously and continue scanning ahead with my powers all the way home. Arrogance leads to stupid mistakes.
Regardless, I wasn’t sure what I’d do myself when we got there. War was an ugly and absurd thing, and there were valid arguments for joining or trying to stay out of it. Honestly, I leaned toward joining, Trelin hadn’t started the war, and was defending against invasion, which meant that’s what I would be doing, defending the lives of Trelin soldiers, farmers, and everyone else south of the mountains.
War may have been absurd, but evil men who threw away lives in ambition to expand their power had to be stopped. If Trelin had been the aggressor I wouldn’t even consider helping, but that wasn’t the case.
I also knew that doing that would change me again, no matter the reason or justification. I’d never killed before I arrived on this world, and I was a completely different person now. I didn’t flinch at bringing justice to murderers, rapists, and bandits, as well as the evil races, but after killing in a war where the soldiers, or at least some of them, were simply tools of evil men instead of evil themselves, I honestly didn’t know how that would change me.
Anyway, I’d decided it was long past time for me to read the last two books on Trelin and Jendas. It made sense to read them together, since they were one kingdom centuries ago before the split. Maybe it would help me understand why the two kingdoms were so at odds even to this day.
Gerard pulled his horse closer, grabbed my hand, and I squeaked as he pulled me into a kiss.
Stormy neighed in annoyance at being so close to the other horse, but we managed to stay on our steeds as he kissed me breathless. When he released me, the horses naturally parted four or five feet.
“What was that for?” I asked a bit breathily with a ridiculous smile.
Gerard said, “This mission has been hard on both of us. You looked a little grim.”
“Yeah, if I don’t get you alone soon, I might explode. Just over two days?”
Gerard grinned, “Yes, as soon as we get to Magehaven our charge is on her own.”
I bit my lip teasingly, and said sultrily, “Duty is such a harsh mistress.”
Gerard snorted, “Behave wife. This is hard enough as it is.”
How was that fair? He’s the one who kissed me and started the whole flirting thing, so I did what any well-bred married lady of eighteen would do, I stuck my tongue out at him.
He laughed.
Stormy, being even more sensitive and smarter than other horses, thanks to being modified by a witch, picked up on my lighter mood and started to prance outrageously. I reached forward to rub and pat her neck, and murmured affectionate nonsense under my breath.
I loved my horse, and I’d have to remember to ride her often enough. I’d been all the way south in Chilik to the northernmost point above Jendas, to the eastern dwarven mountains and the western elven forests. Technically, I supposed I wouldn’t need to ride very often, I could get around the whole continent now just teleporting.
Of course, there would also be times like this one, where teleporting wasn’t an option. I couldn’t teleport tons of steel, my powers weren’t that strong, which was the only reason we weren’t already in Ironcastle with the load, and instead looking at a week’s travel on the road.
That was okay though, I didn’t mind the travel as long as I could find a bath or two along the way. Which reminded me that one of these days, when I had a spare moment, I’d look into running water and plumbing. I knew that wouldn’t be easy, there was a lot of infrastructure involved in something like that, from the water towers down to the sewer system. I wouldn’t be as easy as just putting in a tub and pipes.
It probably wasn’t worth the effort just for me, I had aqua-kinesis, and could pull the water out of the air itself for a bath. But the common people of Trelin would live longer and healthier lives if I could somehow convince the king hygiene was important enough to make the effort.
I shook my head, plans for the future. First, I needed to take care of other things, like the war, and getting a house in the first place.
I smiled as the wagons pulled off into the same rest area we used on the way in, like an outpost of sorts. I knew it was just three hours or so away from open sky, and looked forward to seeing the noon sun tomorrow. The dwarves let us use the small stone shacks, while they set up mobile tents and the like near the small underground lake and stream.
Once I had Stormy settled in the small stable, we joined Lynn in one of the shacks and we shared an evening meal before Gerard went to the other shack, and we got ready for sleep.
I had plans to stay up late that night though, and summoned the books on Trelin and Jendas.
Chapter Two
I’ll admit, I did a lot of skimming, and it still took me about four hours. Both books were thicker than the other three had been combined. These histories were far more complete and went into a lot of detail including noble genealogies. No doubt because they’d been taken from accounts written by other humans, where the histories of Chilik, Belirith, and Gwienidd had been taken from an outsider’s human perspective.
Turns out, the combined kingdom name was Trelin. Jendas was the name of a ducal household. They were connected by mage gates, which were used by the nobles and mages at times, but not as often as I’d once assumed. The king of Trelin, including Jendas at the time, had always been based in Magehaven.
For all intents and purposes, Duke Jendas ruled north of the mountains, merely taking his queues and directions from the king, but was generally left alone to run things as he saw fit. The Duke’s nobles had the avenue of appealing to the king, but that was very rarely done.
For many centuries, everything was just great, minus the politics normally found in such things. The elves and dwarves left the human kingdom alone, and Chilik did nothing but small raids on the southern border. The king involved himself in expanding the villages and city south of the mountains while safeguarding that border, and the Duke to the north e
The human kingdom of Trelin flourished on both sides of the mountain pass.
The first problem happened after the first major invasion from Chilik, led by the powerful witch Idrianna. Trelin had never faced something like that before, and for the first time in the history of the Trelin Kingdom, the king called on his duke for soldiers to help fight off the kingdom’s enemies.
The duke dragged his feet. Wars were expensive after all, and he was a greedy man who was busy building up his power, wealth, and separate kingdom in all but name. Eventually, he caved and sent soldiers to Magehaven through the gate when he realized if Magehaven fell nothing would stop the hoard from making it to his dukedom.
I’m paraphrasing here, but that pissed the king off. Once the dust settled, he sent all of Jendas’s soldiers down south to help rebuild. They of course obeyed their king, being clueless toward the power plays taking place. Then the king sent his own troops through the portal north to administer proper chastisement of the duke, and to claim half his crops to replace what Idrianna’s army had set afire on her way north.
That was basically the start of how Trelin splintered. Over the years, the Dukes of Jendas pushed back as hard as they could, but eventually one of them decided he should be king of his own land. They were tired of supporting their king to the south, to no benefit of their own. It happened during the third great invasion from Chilik, led by a powerful mage.
While the king’s eyes were turned south, the Duke of Jendas got together with all his nobles, and planned sedition. His nobles didn’t like sending tax monies south either, so they agreed readily enough. It was far more complicated than that, some of the nobles were loyal to the king, and it included betrayals, blood spilled, and coercion, but in the end, they didn’t fight the duke too hard on it.
The duke then destroyed all the mage gates, to prevent the king from easily sending his forces north once this latest enemy from Chilik was dealt with. Then he started to build Merrikeep on the north side of the pass, just in case the king decided to send troops the hard way.
Without the troops from Jendas, that invasion hit particularly hard and the king had no choice but to focus on rebuilding what forces he could, and rebuild the southern villages again. He couldn’t afford to send troops north.
Once that sunk into the former duke’s head, now the King of Jendas, he decided he had all these troops, while Trelin was suffering and trying to rebuild, with a much depleted force. Jendas ordered the mages to rebuild a gate, which he planned to send troops through, why rule Jendas, when he could rule both?
One of the mages betrayed him however, and the king got word of this second betrayal, and he destroyed his gates before the mages in Jendas could finish. This angered the duke and he ordered his troops through the pass.
The king was already weakened, and should have fell easily as the troops came down from the north, but the Jendas troops underestimated the danger of the Tor river and the creatures in it. The duke’s forces attacked Torbridge with half their soldiers, and the other half which was supposed to cross and flank, died in the waters.
I wasn’t sure if I believed that or not, no one could be that stupid.
Regardless, Trelin somehow held them back at Torbridge, and broke the invasion. It took years, but they fortified Torbridge into an almost unassailable bastion, and then retook the north all the way to the pass, where Ironcastle was eventually built.
There have been several invasions attempted since that break up, but Trelin always prevailed, if not at Ironcastle, then at Torbridge.
According to the books, Trelin never tried to invade north into Jendas.
Reading between the lines, it wasn’t because Jendas was bad, and Trelin was good. That was far too simplistic a conclusion to be drawn. The truth was most likely because Trelin had a constant evil enemy on the southern border, and always had to be ready for the next major invasion. Jendas had no natural enemies at one of their borders, and enjoyed peace, so human nature being what it was, they kept attacking Trelin to expand their new kingdom out of some misplaced anger or ambition.
It was a mess, and I’d skipped over several conspiracies, but then human history usually was, a mess I mean.
It was also a little worrying. I’d changed things. I’d helped change the balance of power on the continent. My mother, Havoc, now the Goblin Queen, was in control of Chilik and as long as she lived Chilik wouldn’t invade again. Hopefully. For all I knew, Sia the artificial intelligence would take over when mom died, and the evil would be controlled forever. There wouldn’t even be any more raids. That was a good thing of course, but it would have other impacts I didn’t intend.
As Gerard once said to me, humans were kind to each other when they had the threat of a common evil enemy just to the south, but when they were safe they tended to find trouble of their own.
Chilik’s transformation had freed up a lot of resources, and it wouldn’t take much time for the kings of Trelin to cotton on to that fact. Perhaps Alexander wouldn’t, but eventually one of Trelin’s kings will no doubt try for reunification as well, by the sword, just as the current king of Jendas was attempting right now. I wouldn’t be participating if anything like that happened in my lifetime.
Hopefully, I was just being pessimistic. But human ambition and my lifespan being what it was, I doubted it. So, I’d come to the conclusion the split was no surprise, nor was the cause of it. Ambition, money, and power on the part of the aggressor was the reason for all betrayals and wars. This world was no different from mine that way.
All I could do was try to keep the innocents safe and make things better, because that was my ambition and who I chose to be. A defender when I could, and a punisher when it was required. I’d never heard of a superhero fighting in a war, but if that’s what it took…
Chapter Three
Exuberance, exhilarated delight, and lighthearted giggles. I felt like I’d just gotten out of jail or something, not that I knew what that felt like. It was a total rush, and I felt on top of the world.
We made it outside mid-morning, and after a quick mental scan and check that we were safe and alone, I’d patted Stormy on the neck and told her to stay with Gerard. Then I flew up into the sky like a rocket. I might have even done a few twists and flips, as the sun warmed my face and body, while the crisp air filled with the scents of trees, grass, and the outdoors filled my lungs.
The never-ending dread that had been hovering over me since I entered the dwarven kingdom was gone. I felt light and free as I flew in circles around the caravan of wagons, looking ahead with my eyes and powers, still vigilant, but also light and free.
My husband was smiling up at me and shaking his head, I couldn’t help it. I was a grown married woman, but I was still young, and I loved to fly. Add that to the weightlessness of not having all that stone over me and I was constant grins as I flew around, scouted ahead, verified the rear, and just enjoying the heat of the sun and the cool breeze against my sun-heated skin as I flew escort over the caravan.
I didn’t want to come down, the freedom of it was thrilling and I was elated. For just a while that morning, Jendas, the mission, war, all my plans for the future as a super, a paladin, and a wife and someday a mother, both uncertain and happy, fell away. Nothing mattered but the scent, sounds, and sun, the freedom of being outside. I reveled in it, and played in the air like a child. Sometimes, the mind just needed a break, and for the two hours before we stopped for lunch, I did nothing but fly, enjoy being outside, and lived in the moment.
I’m sure no one was surprised, that it was my stomach and food that brought me back to earth. I was still smiling though, as I sat with Lynn and Gerard and ate our meal. The taciturn dwarves kept their distance, that wasn’t really a surprise. I’d liked our guides Holmarra and Sanath well enough, and there’d been mutual respect, but they truly didn’t ever open up to us, not really. It was simply the social differences of our races.
But there’d been respect on both sides, and that had been enough.
Still, I had another idea. Maybe it was better for the three races not to mix so much, and butt heads along the fence line. But maybe something like an international bizarre, a few weeks a year merchants could get together and sell products from all three races. Maybe one day I’d see if I could make that happen.
