Princeps’ Fury

“And when this is over, Aquitaine is going to look like the man who created an orderly retreat out of a rout.”

“Not to quibble,” Gaius murmured, “but Lord Aquitaine is the man who created an orderly retreat out of a rout.” He shook his head. “I’ll give Attis this; he always understood that the strength of a High Lord-or a First Lord, for that matter-is in the hearts and minds of those who support him.”

“The sword,” Ehren said. “He’s using it to hold a firecrafting together. He’s giving them courage.”

“Mmmm,” Gaius agreed. “Rhodes was powerful, in a personal sense, but he never saw any further than the ends of his own fingertips. No different than Lord Kalarus, really, except that Rhodes was more intelligent and had more dangerous neighbors.”

“Far more dangerous,” Ehren said. “So much so that Rhodes’s life was the price of said neighbor’s allegiance.”

The First Lord smiled, a wintry expression that meant nothing. “The Citizenry has been blind to the threat the Vord represent, certain they would be easily overcome. That arrogance was as dangerous to us as the Vord. After tonight, it will no longer be an issue.” He glanced up at the rumbling sky, where the rain continued to fall more and more thickly, and added, his tone wryly amused, “One way or another.”

Then he staggered and fell to one knee.

“Sire!” Ehren said, starting forward.

The First Lord coughed, the sound horrible and hollow, over and over, each one wracking his entire body with clenching motion.

Ehren knelt beside the old man, supporting his weight when Gaius’s balance failed again.

After a moment, the fit of coughing passed. The First Lord shuddered and leaned wearily against the young Cursor, his head bowed. His lips looked blue, to Ehren, his face pallid and grey.

“Sire?” Ehren asked quietly.

Gaius shook his head and spoke in a rasp. “Help me up. They mustn’t see.”

Ehren blinked at the First Lord for a heartbeat, then slipped one of Gaius’s arms over his shoulders and rose, helping the older man to his feet.

Gaius leaned against the battlements for a moment, his hands spread across the cold, wet stone. Then he drew in a deep breath and straightened, his features composed, as the Aleran forces returned to Ceres.

Aquitaine’s sword burned more and more clearly, until he and the men he had gathered around him, some two hundred or so Citizens and Knights Aeris, sailed over the walls of the city and down into the streets beyond, heading for the rally points where the Legions had already planned to gather before withdrawing. The cavalry was not far behind them, their exhausted horses running hard as they streamed back toward the city.

Aquitaine himself, instead of accompanying his men, soared up to the tower, cutting his windstream with masterful timing, landing like a man who had decided to hop over the last step in a stairway. He nodded once to Ehren, transferred his sword to his left hand, and saluted Gaius, putting his fist to his heart.

Though the fire of Aquitaine’s sword was out, the metal still glowed and hissed with every raindrop. His armor, elaborate, beautifully made lorica, was crusted with a thin sheath of ice across the shoulders and upon the bracers that covered his forearms.

“It’s working,” Aquitaine said shortly. “Their wings can’t handle the ice.”

“Naturally,” the First Lord replied calmly. “We’ll fall back to Uvarton, cutting the causeway every mile as we go.”

Aquitaine frowned and turned to stare back out toward the south. “Their greatest advantage is their mobility, their flight. We should move forward with every legionare, now, and take them head-on.”

“Their greatest advantage is the ability of the Vord queen to coordinate their movements,” Gaius countered. “If we march our men out there into the dark and the storm, it will be a hopeless mess. The Vord will have no such disadvantage. We retreat. More of our reinforcements will meet us every day.”

“As will theirs,” Aquitaine said. “We should hit them now, hard, try to thin them out.”

“If need be, I’ll ground them again, Your Grace.” Gaius’s eyes hardened. “We retreat.”

Aquitaine frowned steadily at Gaius for a long moment. Then he said, “This is the wrong move.”

“Were I a young man,” Gaius said, “I would think so as well. If you would be so kind, please notify the other High Lords. Sir Ehren, please take word to the Crown Legion and to the First and Third Imperian.”

Ehren and Aquitaine both saluted the First Lord. Aquitaine simply stepped up onto the battlements and dropped off the tower. The roar of his windstream came up to them a beat later. Ehren turned toward the door, but paused, looking back at the First Lord.

“Are you going to be all right, sire?”

The First Lord, his silver hair plastered to his head by the rain, stared down at the valley to the south and shook his head slowly. “None of us are going to be all right.” Then he glanced at Ehren and jerked his chin in a sharp gesture toward the door. “On your way.”