The first life of tanan, p.11
The First Life of Tanan, page 11
Brakkas turned and whispered instructions to one of his Captains before turning back to the negotiator. “I’m Commander Brakkas. Tell me, Abbot, what do you propose?”
Several dozen soldiers ran toward the woods while the negotiator made the offer the Abbots had prepared. By the time he was done speaking, the men were returning from the woods carrying armloads of dead wood. They piled it around the Abbot’s protective circle and began setting it on fire.
“Your offer is rejected,” said Brakkas. “Drop your shield and tell me everything you know about your Abbot fortress. I will let you live.”
The Abbot negotiator knew that he was dead regardless of what he did. He turned and motioned to the runners to go and then turned back to Brakkas and looked him in the eye. The smoke from the ring of fires was seeping through his bubble and he coughed. He could feel the heat. The Komisani soldiers were laughing.
The Abbot pulled a knife out of a sheath attached to his belt. He placed the tip of the knife carefully over his heart. His father had given him the knife twenty years earlier. He’d been a boy then, living in Panna. His father was proud that his son had become an Abbot, but died several years later. He was glad his father hadn’t lived to see what Komisan had become.
He looked at Brakkas through the smoke. “I would rather die with honor than live as a coward,” he said, and then he plunged the knife into his heart.
• • •
Two days later, the only surviving runner sprinted into the valley and ran straight for the tower where a group of Abbots gathered to meet him.
“Two thousand of them,” he said between panting breaths. “They killed the negotiators. Get ready.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Komisani rangers were scouting Jesera a week before the army was spotted on the plains. They spent a week watching the Abbots, making detailed maps of the valley and gathering information for the assault.
Just before dawn on the day of the attack, three Komisani rangers moved quietly across a field toward the house of the Abbot they believed to be Soama, former Abbot of Port Billen and accomplice of the murderer Tanan. When they reached the house, one of them knocked softly on the door and called out, “Soama! Come quickly!”
When the Abbot opened the door, the Rangers rushed in. Two of them pinned Soama to the ground and the third closed the door behind them. His hands were tied, and then they stood him up. Two of the soldiers held him while the third held the point of his sword to Soama’s throat.
“You’re Soama?” the soldier asked.
“Yes,” said Soama, a mix of anger and fear on his face.
One of the men held a rag over his mouth and nose. Whatever it had been soaked in smelled terrible and made Soama feel tired, like he’d had too much to drink.
“You make one little noise,” said the ranger, “and I will saw your head off with this sword.”
The Ranger cracked the door open and looked out before opening it all the way. The other two walked Soama out. The door was closed and the four men walked casually across the field and into the tree line.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Abbots watched from tower windows and from various locations around the village as the Komisani army entered the valley from the East side. They marched out of the woods in two columns and formed up into platoons.
Brakkas’ command group were the last to enter the valley. Brakkas jogged to the front of the assembled Komisani, Legion men leading less well trained volunteers.
The Commander raised his voice so that everyone would hear, “Men of Komisan! We have travelled far to rid ourselves of the treacherous cult of the Abbots. They are murderers! They are arsonists! And they are traitors against you, against me, and against our King!”
The soldiers roared their approval.
“Take no prisoners and show no mercy, for they shall show none to you! We will wipe these treacherous masters of the dark art of magic from the earth right now, today!”
The men roared again, and a horn sounded. The Captains yelled “Charge!” and led their platoons forward.
The Abbots had no command structure. Two Abbots were stationed in the library and all the doors had been secured. If the battle were lost and the Komisani made it into the tower, each of them would speak their set of words, triggering the ten fire globes and incinerating the Jesera Valley.
Abbots were positioned around the valley in various places. They had no training for combat, but most of them carried knives and one hundred of them carried fire globes. Their goal was to kill as many of the Komisani as possible with each one. If they could do enough damage, perhaps the Komisani would retreat.
Mixed in with the Abbots were all the farmers in the valley, armed with scythes and machetes. The farmers’ wives and children were in the tower.
Tanan stood near the monastery with his father and Figis. Each of them held a fire globe, and Anin had his knife. Figis was also holding a knife, but he wasn’t sure how much good it would do him. They saw the army start to move and heard the sound of the horn fill the valley. They knew it was time.
Platoons of men rushed into the valley. Brave Abbots rushed forward to meet them in fields, ready to throw their fire globes. Balls of light soared, and trigger words were shouted. Screams of aggression turned to screams of horror as entire platoons of men were engulfed in magical flame.
As the first wave of fire globe proves successful, more Abbots moved forward to engage the Komisani. The Legionnaires were trained to attack in formation and there was some confusion when men started to panic and break ranks. More fire globes were thrown amid the confusion and hundreds of Komisani died as the air around them became fire.
Half of the Komisani army was dead before the ranks broke entirely and chaos reigned on the battle field. Abbots who had already used their globes tried to fight the Komisani with knives and were cut down. Some Abbots threw their fire globes and ran. Fiery explosions punctuated the battlefield, and a smoky haze soon floated over the entire area.
Some Komisani were running around the sides of the battle field to flank the Abbots or get behind them. Figis saw this and went running around the tower to try and cut them off. Tanan saw him throw his fire globe, which killed an entire group of the Komisani.
The battle was moving closer to the tower, and Tanan was choosing a good target for his globe when a crossbow bolt flew past his head, narrowly missing him. A second bolt followed, striking him in his left hip. It was just slightly more than a grazing shot. The bolt almost passed completely through him.
Tanan screamed in pain and looked down at the feathered end of the bolt, which was just barely sticking out of him. He reached behind himself, grabbed the front end of the bolt and yanked it through. The wound felt like fire tearing through his body, but it wasn’t bleeding too badly. He would deal with it after he dealt with the man who had shot it.
Looking up, he saw a small group of crossbowmen through the smoke, reloading their weapons. Tanan threw his globe at them, screaming the trigger words as it left his hand. One managed to fire his shot, wildly, before the globe struck the man next to him, consuming all of the men in fire.
He saw another group of soldiers running toward them, and pointed, yelling to his father, “Throw it!”. There was a thump and Tanan turned to see his father had fallen to the ground. There was a crossbow bolt sticking out of his right eye.
Anin’s fire globe slipped out of his hand and rolled across the cobbled walkway they had been standing on, coming to a stop when it reached the edge and fell into an empty flower bed.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Tanan heard a scream of pain and turned to see a Legionnaire pulling his sword out of an Abbot who had been armed only with a knife. The soldier looked at Tanan with a smirk and moved toward him, ready to kill again.
“No!” screamed Tanan and rushed toward the soldier, blind with rage. The soldier was so surprised at Tanan’s action that he didn’t even raise his sword. Tanan slammed into the soldier, driving the man back and knocking him down on his back in the middle of the cobbled path. Tanan landed on top of the man and let loose an enraged scream right in the man’s face.
He was lost in anger and grief. The air around him crackled with energy. He pulled that energy into himself. Two more Legionnaires were rushing toward him. In a split second, Tanan created a protective bubble and expanded it, hard. The soldiers were sent flying backward, broken. The man beneath him was pulverized to a bloody paste. His armor was flattened with him inside it.
The world was a blur around Tanan. He stood and walked toward the first Komisani he saw, sending a ball of flame into the man. The man exploded, the sudden intense heat splitting him apart from the inside.
There were soldiers everywhere Tanan looked. He walked across the battlefield and killed every Komisani he saw. He waved his arms with each strike, channeling massive amounts of energy into the hearts and heads of Komisani soldiers. Men exploded, sending streamers of flaming gore flying across the battlefield. All Tanan could see through his red haze of rage were the men who had killed his grandfather. These were the men who had killed Jelak. More men erupted into flame. The men who killed his father.
Komisani erupted in flames as fast as Tanan could shift his focus from one target to the next. As one man fell, Tanan was already sending killing fire into the next. Any soldier that Tanan laid eyes on was dead. They were running to get away from him, but Tanan didn’t stop killing.
Then he saw the Commander of the Komisani army, screaming orders to the retreating soldiers.
Tanan walked toward the man. He was about to unleash a firestorm when he felt a hand on his chest and looked down to see Figis looking back at him.
This didn’t make sense. Figis? Why was Figis standing in front of him?
“Tanan,” said Figis, his voice sounded distant, and too calm for this place. “Stop.”
Tanan shook his head, trying to understand what was happening. “Figis,” he said. It was a statement, not a question.
“The battle is over, Tanan. Stop.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Tanan blinked a few times. There were hundreds of dead Komisani around him. He was covered with blood and worse. He was suddenly aware of the pain in his hip and the awful smell of the battlefield. Figis was saying something he didn’t understand.
The Legion Commander was thirty yards away, staring at him. Tanan stepped around Figis and walked toward the Commander, who started to back away slowly. The fighting was done. Injured men were making sounds that Tanan had never heard. Komisani were fleeing the valley. They had never faced an enemy who could fight back.
“What is your name?” asked Tanan as he walked toward the Commander.
“I am Brakkas, Commander of the King’s Legion,” said the man, mustering his courage. He saw what this boy had done and he knew he was about to die. He wouldn’t die whimpering like a coward.
Tanan stopped ten feet from the man. “My name is Abbot Tanan.”
Tanan looked out across the battlefield and gestured toward a large area where there were no bodies, living or dead. When Brakkas looked to where Tanan was pointing, Tanan caused an immense ball of flame to erupt on the faraway spot. It produced a sound like a lightning strike and sent a gust of hot air washing past them.
Brakkas looked at Tanan and waited for the fire that would consume him.
“Carry this message to your King. Tell him that Tanan, son of Anin, grandson of Lindelin, and Master of the five schools of magic commands him to recall his soldiers. Tell Dannap that if he fails to obey my command, if I discover even a single Komisani has left your island, I will come to Komisan. I will walk into his palace and I will turn him to ash. Repeat what I said.”
“Y-you are Tanan,” the man stammered. “Son of Anin, grandson of Lindelin and Master of the f-five schools of magic.” Brakkas repeated the message back.
Tanan pointed to the East, where the Komisani had entered the valley just an hour before. “Leave this place.”
And then Tanan turned his back on Commander Brakkas and walked away.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Tanan and Figis walked around the valley, visiting every area that had been effected by the battle. One of the Abbots they spoke with noticed Tanan’s wound and insisted on healing him.
The battle had taken place primarily in a large field on the East end of the valley, but small groups of Komisani had also attacked from the sides and from behind. Figis organized a group of Abbots and farmers to start digging a mass grave on the far east end of the valley. Tanan and a few other healers started searching for wounded survivors.
There were a lot of dead, but thanks to the fire globes, most of them were Komisani. One of the Abbots Tanan was working with found a Legionnaire who was badly burned, but still alive. Tanan had never healed more than a minor wound, but he tried to heal the man. He harnessed energy from the air around him and put it into the most powerful healing spell he knew, laying his hands on the soldier’s body and chanting. The man’s wounds were too severe and Tanan wasn’t able to heal him, so he did what he could to numb the man’s pain and stayed with him until he died.
In all, they found twenty-three Komisani that they were able to heal. They sent the men out of the valley as a group, giving them the same message that Tanan had given to Brakkas.
By the end of the day there were twenty-four Abbots that were either confirmed dead, or could not be found and were assumed dead. Soama was among them. Some Abbots had been caught in the radius of the fire globes, and there were so many bodies that were burned down to black bones that they couldn’t be identified.
Over the next several days, the men and women of the Jesera Valley dug graves. Seventeen for the Abbots and farmers who had died, and one mass grave for the remains of the Komisani. The seven missing Abbots were given funerals, and markers were placed even though there were no bodies to bury. The mass grave was filled in and marked with a circle of stones.
Nobody in the valley came through the battle without losing someone they cared about, and they all grieved for those they had lost.
• • •
A month after the battle, spring was in full bloom and the valley was greening up. It was sunny and warm. Gardens and fields were being planted and people were beginning to recover from the emotional drain of the battle. The new graveyard, just west of the tower, was being heavily seeded with flowers.
The Abbots were sending out patrols to insure that the Komisani were gone. There was no sign of them within a week’s walk in any direction. Once planting was done, they would send a group of Abbots to check along the coast to be sure that the Komisani had indeed left the mainland. Everyone in Jesera desperately wanted the war with Komisan to be over, but they would be vigilant.
Another Abbot moved into Soama’s house and Tanan took Soama’s books and some of his other possessions. After Anin had been killed, the house felt empty. Tanan spent most of his time out of the house helping rebuild the damage that was done during the battle.
Tanan completely tore up the area of the walkway where his father had been killed. He dug a ten yard wide pond on that spot and rebuilt the path, splitting it so that it wrapped around each side of the pond and continued on the other side. He carried pink and white water lilies from the far west end of the lake and transplanted them in the pond.
When there was no more repair work to be done, Tanan started working on his book about offensive magic. He agreed with Figis that the book needed to be written, so he would spend a few hours each morning at the far west end of the valley practicing and perfecting offensive spells. Then he spent time each afternoon writing down what he learned.
He knew that his actions had saved Jesera, and he had been thanked for what he’d done by a hundred people, most notably Gowrand, who went out of his way to tell him that he had done the right thing. Tanan didn’t feel bad about what he’d done, but he never wanted to have to kill like that again.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Four months after the battle at Jesera, a group of Abbots arrived from the monastery on the northern edge of the great desert. They had travelled through the eastern Lataki plains and spoken with several Lataki tribes along the way. The news they brought was disturbing.
The Komisani, while avoiding the northern and western plains, were actively hunting down and killing Lataki in the east. The Lataki, with their spears and animal hide clothing were no match for the Komisani, who had steel armor and weapons. The Lataki had no chance.
Tanan heard the news from Gowrand, who said that he wasn’t surprised at the actions of the Komisani and was afraid more drastic actions might have to be taken. Tanan went directly to the newly arrived Abbots and heard the information first hand. Then he went to his house and packed up his things. He took his book of research to Figis, along with a few personal items, and asked the old Abbot to store them until he returned.
Figis tried to persuade Tanan to stay, but he knew that his arguments were falling on deaf ears. He agreed to store Tanan’s things and urged his favorite student to exercise good judgment when dealing with the Komisani.
He stopped to see his friend Cartos, who was the unofficial map maker at the monastery. Cartos gave Tanan a copy of a map of the Lataki plains, asking Tanan to improve it if he could.
Tanan left the valley where he had lived for so many years. He had come to Jesera an angry eleven year old boy. Now he was nearly twenty and a Master of the five schools of magic. He was still angry, but it wasn’t the vengeful anger he’d carried as a child. Now he was angry because he knew he had to do something terrible, and he didn’t want to do it. But it was something no other person in the world could do. He had to find the Komisani army and kill them. And then, he had to pay a visit to King Dannap and make good on his promise.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
The Lataki plains were vast and Tanan had to walk the length of them. The journey would take weeks.
