Westhaven, Rowan Erlking [large ebook reader .txt] 📗

me things are impossible!” He stepped down to a lower step. “We got this far by believing in the impossible and acting on it. And it took a while for me to even convince them to have an alliance with us again.”

He crossed over the room to Lesar and led out his hand. “Lady Sadena, I’d like you to meet Lesar Macom, Cordril. And Lesar Macom, I’d like you to meet Lady Sadena of a noble family of Wingsley Town, the wizard. And Madame Olisa Thera Filianna of Tobi Town, our hostess.”

He then stepped back to allow the ladies to personally greet their new ally.

Looking to Key first, Lady Sadena drew in a breath then approached the tall pale-skinned blue-eyed man who stood quite confidently where he was, waiting perhaps for a proper greeting. She gave a slight nod, keeping one eye on Key as she said, “Welcome Lesar Macom.”

*

“Absolutely insane!” The Sky Lord had ranted for over an hour to his advisors as the military reports came in. Each told of the sudden disappearance of scores of factory workers and supplies—though the reports of human attacks seemed worse. “How is it that they have passed by our notice? Were their bellies not checked?”

“It seems they had modified their spy program,” Minister Mollen said with a lazy drawl to his voice to express his distain for the occurrence as well as those who should have prevented the event. “We discovered those with white scalps, and backsides. Unfortunately they were dead before we could interrogate them. The one we did get alive had little we could squeeze out of him. Only that he was to report in at Barnid and they were to ship him through the forest to meet up with others.”

“General Winstrong, please tell me you have better news concerning your search among the lake men,” the Sky Lord said with bite. He glared down on the elderly man whose hair now had gone almost completely gray.

Gailert felt his joints creak as he walked in front of the leader of his people, bowing as low as his body would allow. “I’m afraid my searches have been fruitless. And they will undoubtedly continue to be since that ersatz Key had been killed. The captains and I agree that the real Key has been alerted to our searches among his kind and has taken measures to hide his people. And since he is a master of disguise, we will not be finding him among the lake men anymore.”

“Blast!” The Sky Lord then went into a series of curses as if that were not enough to vent his frustration. “Then I order Westhaven to stand in a state of emergency. General Winstrong, you are to enter retirement once more and let others will take over.”

Bowing, Gailert felt that such was the best course to take anyway. At his age, searching for Key was near impossible. He was unable to run fast enough to chase after any young warrior. He was already thinking of hiring guards once he settled back down, since the threat was still there. He was too tired for war besides. Returning to Roan to live out the last of his days was for the best in the end. Even his search for his first servant would have to be forgotten. His escaped slave was undoubtedly with the pirates, out of the war and on the seas with that dratted Sea Fisher.

“As for the rest of you,” the Sky Lord said. “To your posts. You are under orders to kill any armed human—peasant, entertainer, or aristocrat. This land is ours. Not theirs.”

*

“The land is ours, not theirs,” the maid snapped at Key as she shoved a plate of meat and fried potatoes in front of him.

The Cordrils were dining at the dinner table with Madame Olisa who seemed transfixed by them. Lady Sadena had gone back upstairs to dress and probably send a telegraph to fetch Callen and Tiler, though perhaps also to call another war council.

“What makes you think they really will fight for us?” the maid asked.

“Not for us, with us.” Key took up a fork. “We’re not using them. They are not using us. It is an alliance. We have a mutual cause—and that is the end of the Sky Children.”

She made a face. “I don’t believe it.”

Tiler marched into the room. He slapped Key on the side of his head. The meat Key was about to eat fell from his mouth and back on to the plate.

“You could have taken me with you.”

Key looked up and smirked, rubbing where he had been hit. “Good morning to you too.”

He stabbed the meat again with his fork.

“You could have been killed out there.” Tiler dropped onto the stool next to Key.

“The Cordrils weren’t going to hurt me,” Key said and shoved the meat into his mouth.

Tiler made a face. “Not that! I mean the b—the Sky Children. The soldiers. They could have spotted you.”

Key just shrugged, chewing.

“And yeah, I probably would have tried to talk you out of it,” Tiler snapped, sticking his face into Key’s. He snatched the plate of food away so he had Key’s full attention. “Not that I would have succeeded. You are so pigheaded when you fixate on something.”

Swallowing, Key reached for his plate again. “Fixate?”

Tiler nodded. “Yeah. Like a man under a spell. And I see you got the same three from last time, though I don’t know those other four.”

Key walked around, trying to reach his plate. Tiler covered it. Tiler then scooped it off the table to hold it out of Key’s reach. “What I want to know is what did you promise them?”

Key stuck out his hand for his plate. “Give it back. I’m hungry.”

“Tell me.” Tiler demanded.

“Not until you give me back my plate,” Key snapped.

Tiler set it down on the table. “Fine.”

“It’s not as if you have to beat it out of me,” Key muttered, going back to his seat. He slid the plate over so he could eat better. “It is not a secret. I’ll tell you the same as I told Sadena. I’m making them new swords. And when we enter the cities for our war, they are going in with us. That is all.”

Tiler frowned. To the Herra man, that deal sounded so fishy. They rarely knew a man or demon without some kind of ambition, and he was about to say so. But Key beat him to it.

“They’re not a unified people, Cordrils.” Key picked up two potato slices. “They’re nomadic with small villages. Lesar told all me about them.”

“And you believed him?” Tiler’s frown deepened.

“Yes.” Key ate the two pieces, chewing them at the side of his mouth, thinking out loud at the same time. “Most of their kind live in the far northwest in Kitai. They prefer to be left alone. But the few that came east are here with a vengeance to kill blue-eyed Sky Children. Though I can’t say if they will leave after this is all over, I do know they don’t care for human politics. Once the war is over, they’ll most likely go back to their nomadic living. Either way, they certainly aren’t organized enough to take over the world like the Sky Children are. That’s why they need us.”

“And why do we need them again?” Tiler asked him, knowing it was the reason Key wanted their alliance in the first place.

Giving Tiler a smile, Key replied, “In the end, we are just not strong enough to fight the Sky Children off by ourselves. Our people are easily frightened, and our stamina is not as strong as theirs. Besides, they seem to cast fear into our enemy in ways that we as humans just don’t. That fear factor will tip the scales. When those Sky Children see Cordrils in our army, they will be so terrified that they will flee from us in droves.”

 

Convincing the other leaders of the army of the alliance was harder than Key had liked. But when they arrived in Tobi—some sneaking in while others literally stormed in and burned out the soldiers at the Tobi military post—he faced each and everyone in that month, listing over and over again the reasons he had for recruiting the Cordrils.

Those from Sundri were against it. Lowman was also firmly in opposition to the idea, with Pattron standing at his side. However, the Sea Fisher and the underlord of Calcumum looked at the idea with an open mind, along with those from Mistrim—and of course the men from the Herra Hills. The Herra men once again begged forgiveness of the Cordrils concerning the fire and death of their two friends. The rest of the council remained split—nearly sure Key had indeed gone too far and ought to be locked up. Only when Lady Sadena spoke up on Key’s behalf during their completely gathered meeting did any of them truly consider it.

“You all know me as the wizard of the Wingsley camp,” she said, looking grave at the roomful of political and military leaders. “I have been respected for years because my gifts have been feared. So I understand a little how these…” she paused, looking at the six Cordrils that stood at the head of the room, with Key next to them, “men must feel under the eye of piercing judgment.”

Those in the room drew breaths in protest that it was not so with her.

“You all know me as a lady of a noble family. And many of you know I ran off to join my friends, Edman, Luis, and Callen to battle against the powers of the b—Sky Children.” She gave another apologetic nod to the Cordrils. They had heard the epithet of ‘blue-eyes’ for some time now, them also lumped in with the Sky Children. They had born it well, though it was clear it did chafe them some.

“But what many of you don’t know is why I do allow this, sometimes, defiant and willful young man influence me so much—the same young man whom many of you are judging to be insane for inviting demons into our midst.”

She gestured to Key.

“When I first saw this young man, he was a mere boy. It was during a battle against the most dangerous Sky Child army of our era. In that battle, I had reached the lowest point of my life. The wretched General Gole had discovered where I had been orchestrating a thunderstorm and had me shot. I nearly died. Up until then, I had a funny notion that I could live forever. But in that moment I learned of my mortality, that wizards can die. It was a good thing for me Edman was nearby. He healed my wounds and took me safely away. But before that, in storm down below, I spied this boy who was bent under the heel of General Gole, a boy who even in his wretched state saved one of our spies when he could not save himself.

“But back then I though he represented us as people, beaten and subdued to the point of complete misery.” Sadena sighed. “And leaving that battle with my wounds, I gave up and went back to Wingsley with the intent to live out my life quietly. I figured I could at least help the refugees survive. We were crushed anyway. Or so I presumed.

“But then I saw this boy again.” She led out with her arm to Key again. He stared at her, as this was the first time she had ever talked about her impression of him with him present. “This time standing tall as a self-declared smith of a lost legacy. Besides surprised, I was amused. I wanted to see how this crushed creature could possibly resurrect himself with a nickname like Key. I found it sadly humorous that those around him seemed to think he was something of a boon. But they stood a little taller than the other refugees in the camp. And the more