Kalor, Sache, Dalmin and Arth had shown a clear preference for being with their own people, so were fairly scattered about the camp. The only alteration Ongwin made was to bring the small group of Cyrenic folk closer to the centre of camp, so Kalor wasn't too far from the centre of action and was near where Dase and Brue shared quarters close to Maren.
Sarehl left Kasan to help settle in Kalbeth. He followed Ongwin, who wished to show him the other pavilion expressly set up for the Strategos as a command centre. It was next to the large pavilion Ensore used every day in his capacity as Marshal and it was there Sarehl found him, seated quietly, his brow thoughtful and eyes staring at the ground. He glanced up when Ongwin and Sarehl entered, his calm gray eyes lighting on his friend with affectionate delight.
"Sar," he said, rising and crossing to the entrance, his hand out.
"I've been showing him where he can set up headquarters at each stop we make, my lord," explained Ongwin.
"This man's a treasure," responded Sarehl with a grin at Ongwin, his hand clasping the Marshal's for a long minute. "He's no idea how much space he's given me to spread. That could be fatal, Ongwin, because I'll use every last bit."
"There'll be someone to help with each move," replied Ongwin with a twinkle. He turned to Ensore. "Excuse me, my lord. There are things to attend to." Tactfully, Ongwin withdrew.
Ensore stood still, his eyes again scanning the tall figure. Conscious of the regard, Sarehl spoke.
"Am I so changed from when you last saw me, Ens?"
"Yes," said Ensore on a smile. "You were still essentially convalescent when we saw you go. Dase has seen you since and told us how well you were, but I admit the change comes as a shock. Now you're mated again, you've filled out, your limp's less pronounced, the scar's so faint I have to look for it and you're healed, my friend."
"Not quite," admitted Sarehl, his arm going round the Marshal. "I struggle still to accept much and I doubt the hurt will ever go away where my family are concerned."
"That, Sarehl, is understandable. Until we can see them the uncertainty won't go away. Sit, my friend, and drink a toast to our reunion."
"Willingly," murmured Sarehl, sinking into a chair and lazily watching his friend pour wine into goblets.
"You'll have noticed Dase's had another spurt of maturity," the Marshal observed, handing a goblet to Sarehl and indulging himself with a long drink from the other. "He's proving himself a very good leader and now has men under his control although he remains under Ongwin's aegis. He's developed into a fine young man, hasn't he?"
"Aye," said Sarehl, "he has. You said some of the intensity's gone from him. You've mentioned that in letters, several times."
"The lad told me about his time with Kaleb, so I've encouraged him to talk freely about Lute. He speaks of his twin with sad resignation, Sarehl, but the pain's absent. I've told him he must have hope. I believe that."
"You've been Dase's salvation, Ens."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Ensore, startled into spilling his wine. "Damn!" He looked up to see serious black eyes study him. "If it hadn't been me, it would've been someone else."
"I doubt it," disagreed Sarehl, suddenly chuckling and raising his goblet in a salute. "To friendship, Ens."
"Likewise, my young friend."
There was a long silence, then Ensore said, "Maren's done well by young Brue, hasn't he?"
"The lad's grown so I scarcely recognised him. I've missed the growth with them all," added Sarehl, on a wistful note.
"Will Brue leave Maren and his wife now?" Surprise shone in Sarehl's eyes at that and he ran a hand over his beard.
"Gods," he muttered. "I hadn't thought of that. What do you think?"
"He's not my younger brother, Sar, but if he was I'd leave him where he is, just telling him, of course, that he can come and go with you and Kasan as he likes."
"He seems to thrive with Maren."
"He does."
"Then I'll follow your advice."
"How wise of you," approved the Marshal, with a glint in his eyes. "I imagine it's me who'll continue to follow your advice for some time to come, so I feel I must try to equal the balance from the first." He saw the answering smile in the dark eyes. "I've had little opportunity to study the little fellow but Dase assured me, as he rushed past with the child in his arms, that Kalbeth's in his father's image. You wrote that he was, my friend. Is it still so?"
"Yes," said Sarehl promptly. "I sometimes think I'm talking to and looking at Bethel, Ens."
"And?" asked Ensore gently, his eyes not leaving the younger face.
"It hurt," acknowledged Sarehl. He gave a sigh. "I didn't realise how much until Kaleb told me it was affecting the lad. I'd never do that to a child of Bethel's."
"You don't need to tell me that," said Ensore quickly, drinking steadily. "It would open a wound that goes very deep. I'm not sure how I'd cope in the same circumstances. Not very well, I suspect. And now?"
Sarehl sighed again, but there was no trace of melancholy in the deep voice, just a lingering emotional hunger only Bethel's return would satisfy. Ensore understood that and his sympathy was always near the surface.
"I'm learning to accept that Kalbeth isn't Bethel, that he's an individual in his own right who deserves the love and respect I gave his father. I've come to care for that little fellow as though he were my own."
"Lucky Kalbeth," said Ensore.
He met Sarehl's look and knew their complete understanding, established long cycles ago, was intact and that the mutual affection had merely deepened through absence. It was as if the time apart had never happened. Both knew much left unsaid was best that way and didn't need to be spoken. Both were silent and pensive in the way of old friends, utterly at ease with one another.
It was Ensore who stretched one leg, than another, his hands up behind his neck. He saw Sarehl's quizzical look and grinned, saying, "I was up late, my friend. There's much to do."
"You've worked miracles, Ensore," observed Sarehl. "I haven't been round even a tenth of the camp, but it's truly staggering how much you've done. The army looks formidable."
"It will be," agreed Ensore, upending his goblet and raising an enquiring eyebrow at Sarehl as he did the same. "Have you finished?"
"Not quite," grinned Sarehl, watching Ensore top up his goblet.
"I refuse to talk military matters so early upon your arrival," stated Ensore. "There'll be more than enough of that to come."
"True," murmured Sarehl absently, stretching out his long legs comfortably. "It's just so comfortable being back with you and away from all that damned protocol. Did you know what you were sending me to, all those cycles ago?"
"I had an idea," chuckled Ensore. "If anyone could handle it, I knew it would be you."
"Thanks for nothing," muttered Sarehl, his grin widening. "Have the Elban troops arrived yet?" Ensore held up a hand.
"No army, Sarehl. That comes later."
"Aye," mumbled Sarehl. He gave Ensore a sideways glance. "You think well of Kasan?"
"Sarehl, she looks very like our mother, though she won't remember that. I think that's what threw Eli because he only recalled a girl. She's matured into a very lovely young woman."
"She can be very Dahkilan," mused Sarehl, on a deep chuckle. "Like her brothers she has a decided will, clear ideas, a wonderful sense of the ridiculous and she handles me most adroitly. She's come to know me very well."
"Mates and dear friends do," answered Ensore, noticing the wry twist to Sarehl's lips.
"I don't think it would be easy to hide anything from that one," replied Sarehl. "She has a shrewd mind, just like her eldest brother." Ensore laughed, then spoke very seriously.
"You have our gratitude, my friend. She's deeply contented. Sar, she's not a girl anymore. Eli and I have to come to terms with one we remember only as that. It's not easy being dislocated as we all are, is it?"
"No," answered Sarehl. "And she's having our child, Ens."
Surprised gray eyes met wicke
d black ones, the Marshal momentarily bereft of words. He swallowed from the goblet hastily and very deeply, twice.
"That," he managed on a weak chuckle, "will throw Eli. He was saying, just before, that there's still much of the child in our little sister." He saw searching eyes study him. "What is it, Sarehl?"
"You're quite content with Kasan and me? Though your sister's very dear to me, I know our mating's unequal." Ensore rose to get more wine and brought the skin back to where Sarehl sat.
"Ease your mind on that once and for all, Sarehl," he said calmly. "Neither Eli nor I could've wanted her to be with any other. The question of status is long past relevance and not worthy of future discussion. You're our brother and that to me is all that matters." Sarehl looked hard at his friend, doubt still in the dark depths of eyes that were eloquently expressive.
"And the Curule?"
"What about them?" asked Ensore blandly.
"How will they look upon it?"
"I've no idea," responded Ensore placidly, "and I find I care even less."
"That sounds very like the Chamah-Elect," murmured Sarehl provocatively. "I'd forgotten how much one gets from tone, Ens. That's missing from letters."
When Kaleb and Kalor entered the pavilion, they saw the two men as they were in the forest cycles before, felt time roll back, and joined them. Though they were pleasantly relaxed, each man knew this was merely a respite as the southern army now drew uncomfortably closer and menacing dark clouds hovered across the world of Ambros. The northern army was now a cohesive entity but it was untried. Time was running out. A confrontation was inevitable and the northerners had to win. There was, now, no alternative to looming battle.
******
GLOSSARY.
Abylon – dragon on Ice Isle
Adept – senior Conclave member
Aelkin – Indariol of the Shadowlands
Ahliah – Prince of Kyaran
Alleghy – Elite Haskar
Almin – Acedar
Amril – Autoc's dragon
Ancient One – Bene
Asok – leader of the steppefolk/Sinhalien
Asokin – son of Asok
Autoc – Yarilan mage
Bene - Yarilan mage
Benhloriel – name contracted to Bene
Bensar – Elite Haskar/ Warlord's Second in Command
Bethel – son of Alfar and Melas
Blach – southern sorcerer
Brue – son of Melas and Bruno
Burelkin – Shadowlander title for Bene
Carok – son of Soji and Leontok
Cartok – state north of Samar
Chlorien – daughter of Melas also known as Myme Chlo
Chloronderiel – revered ancestor of the Shadowlanders/The Patriarch
Choja – Sophysun of the Wildwind Tribes
Chojoh – Sophy of the Wildwind Tribes
Correc – Vaksh/Churchik warrior
Daxel – known as Dase/twin son of Alfar and Melas
Dramas – Bene's dragon
Eli – Ensore's brother
Endorion – Ambrosian Keeper of Knowledge
Ensore – Chamah-Elect/Marshal
Esok – Elite Haskar
Floronderiel – ancient Shadowlander city
Gariok – Warlord's bard/Dominik
Goldlas – Ice Crystal dragon
Gnosti – little people of the northwest
Guardians of Ambros – the Rox
Harth – dragon
Indariol – Aelkin of the Shadowlands
Indigo – Capital of the Desert Wildwind Tribes
Jaden – Reader/Seeker Post-Level Three
Jaim – Gnosti/son of Disah
Jochoh – son of Choja
Jonqi – daughter of Luton and Soji
Kalbeth – Bethel's son
Kaleb - Healer/Reader-Seeker
Kalor – Cyrenic
Kasan – Ensore and Eli's sister
Kel – leader of mercenaries
Kone – Churchik warrior
Kher – Elite Haskar/Warlord's Third in Command
Kosko – desert lord
Kyaran – kingdom in north Ambros
Krynn – Capital of Kyaran
Leon – Adept of the Conclave
Leontok – son of Asok/ mate of Soji
Lodestok – Warlord/Saratquan
Lokar – Post-Level Four Reader/Seeker
Luth – Churchik friend of Bethel's
Luton – known as Lute/twin son of Melas and Alfar
Malekim – mage from Yarilo
Manas – Churchik warrior
Maren – Sushi cavalry Captain/Brue's guardian
Marshal – Ensore as head of the northern army
Mishak – slave boy given to Bethel
Mishtok – Head of the Conclave of Reader/Seekers
Monseignore – title for the Mishtok
Nakron – Duke of Sushi
Nikos – Rox
Ongwin – Dahkilan soldier/statesman
Ortoriol – Shadowlander name for Autoc
Otto – King of Kyaran
Ostika – Capital of the Gnosti
Paramon – Ortokian State Representative
Pic – Slave/guard at the Keep
Rox – Guardians of Ambros and Yarilo
Sagi – mate of Asok/Seer
Saratquan – warrior lord of southern city-state
Sarehl – eldest son of Melas and Alfar/Strategos
Sarssen – Third ranked warrior - Tempkar/Churchik/Yazd
Sasqua – Churchik/Bethel's mate
Seignore – Adept of the Conclave
Setoni – Adept of the Conclave
Soji – daughter of Elite Haskar Alleghy/mate of Luton/Leontok
Strategos – Sarehl
Sushi – large northern Duchy
Sven – Churchik warrior/son of Alleghy
Taki – capital of Sushi
Them – Churchik warrior guarding Soji
Ustomi – ruler of Cartok
Valshika – Lodestok's premier southern city-state
Warlord – Lodestok
Wildwind Tribes – Desert people
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