XXV

She hit him from the side nearly bowling him over, and he didn't have to look to see who it was. Adrian knew that shape that pressed itself against his side, he smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders holding her in tight. Feeling her shake and tremble ever so slightly as she pressed up against him.

“Good to see you didn't go down with the ship sir,” a gruff voice said, and Adrian looked up with surprise to see Torin standing there, a musket strapped to his forearm, leading a horse along by the reins.

“I am pretty sure you were supposed to remain in bed rest for at least a week,” Adrian said, as he rubbed small circles into the small of Isi’s back.

“Tent was needed by others,” he said with a shrug, though a small smile pulled at his lips. “Still I must say I rather enjoyed the show and the fact that you made me a tidy sum of coin today.”

“I made you coin how?” Adrian asked an eyebrow-raising.

“Some of the officers started up a betting pool, most thought you wouldn't make it back, it would seem as though I need to go collect,” Torin grimaced. “Though I do think there will be less to pay out than I had hoped,” he looked at the long row of makeshift wagons carrying the wounded, or in some cases even the dead. “Damn shame that,” he passed over the horse’s lead and hooked his thumb over his shoulder, “was told to tell you to report to the command tent, sir.”

“Are we retreating?” Adrian asked, looking around at the camp, it did look like everything was being broken down and loaded, and what couldn't be loaded up to be taken was being broken and tossed in piles.

“Not a retreat Sir,“ Torin said, giving him a crooked smile, “a tactical withdrawal.”

“I see,” Adrian said as he went to mount the horse, only to find that Isi didn't move. He looked down at her and noticed that she had her eyes closed and was breathing in and out in a rather rhythmic manner, was she? She was indeed sleeping, standing up there leaning against him, he felt a smile on his lips as he looked down at her relaxed face. The white of her hair plastered against sweaty skin. Carefully he removed her from around him and picked her up in his arms, a single amethyst eye flashed open and she looked at him before closing her eyes again and sighing in contentment, nuzzling in closer to him. “Can, can I get some help here please?” he asked Torin who smiled obligingly and used his teeth to undo the strap on his wrist that held the musket in place, leaning it against the earthenwork’s wall and holding his outstretched arms for Isi. Adrian passed her off to him and climbed into the saddle before reaching down and taking her from the sergeant's arms and lifting her into the saddle in front of him. “Thanks,” Adrian said, but the man only waved him off and picked up the musket in his left hand, resting it n his shoulder and not bothering to restrap it to the forearm.

Touching heel to the beast’s flank he used the hand not holding Isi to his chest to turn the beast around and start it off on a trot towards the position Torin had indicated. As he passed he saw the terrible costs of this encounter with the Kurtz empire. Tent after tent was filled with the dead awaiting the mass graves. There was no time to do more than lay them down in shallow watery mass graves, even this might be too much. He closed his eyes and breathed a prayer to the souls of the departed feeling a deep melancholy set in as he saw his countrymen lying there, eyes closed forever. He shook himself and set his jaw after all he couldn't spend time wallowing in loss, he had to act now, he had to be decisive, or he and these men might never make it home. He glanced at the line of men each weary and bloodied and realized exactly what they were now. No longer were they an army protecting their land, now they were a ragged band of men now in enemy territory, the Helheim empire had become smaller this day, even if by only a few miles of relatively useless land. “No,” he said to himself before looking up towards the sky, “this isn't tactical withdrawal, this is a straight retreat.”

Helheim’s army had been routed here on this battlefield, and because of it the Kurtz empire now had a straight shot into the Helheim empire’s lands. He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, this was a siege, just like when he had commanded the Fortress of Marumar, only this was on a much larger scale now, so large the sheer thought of it seemed to cast a shadow over him. He shook himself and let the thought slip, though the shadow it had placed in his mind was still there.

It didn't take long for Adrian to figure out where he needed to be, Emilia was standing atop a small knoll overlooking the battlefield. Adrian road the horse up and pulled up, just outside of hearing range, allowing the command staff that was gathered around her to finish up the rather heated conversation they were currently in. There were three of them crowded in a small circle, arguing with Emilia, no doubt about what they should do next now that the attack from Kurtz had lessened. Sighing Adrian trotted his mount forward, practically pushing one of the advisers, a tall spindly man named Haveni, or at least that was what Adrian would have guessed his name to be. As he approached she looked up and the weariness seemed to melt away a little on her face. She smiled as she looked up at him, a smile that bled through the weariness and was all the more truthful for it.

“There he is, I was beginning to wonder if Isi was wrong and you had been in that ship when it went down,” she said, glancing at the other woman, still sleeping in his arms, there was something different in her eyes, something almost like begrudging respect. “Did you have a pleasant time?”

“Well the view was nice up there, but I have decided I will remain on the ground from now on,” he smiled but it felt a little forced. “Pulling back?” he asked looking around at the camp that was being torn down and loaded up at a frantic pace.

“Yes,” she sighed and leaned over the table that held the maps, resting her hands on either side of the oiled parchment. “So much for my glorious first command.”

“Well, if it is any consolation you did a better job than I,” Adrian chuckled, and a slight smile curved Emilia’s lips.

“We are pulling back to Vaanu,” she said pointing to the location on the map, “And from there we will go to Yakaved and on to Helheim.” she looked up at Adrian, he had watched as she traced the path of withdrawal, and had noticed as she unconsciously avoided a section of the map. Without even trying her finger had gone around the forsaken city of Gual’tor, a detour that would add almost a full two months of marching time for the men. She had never struck Adrian as a particularly superstitious woman, but it would seem as though there were things he wouldn't dare go towards, even if it was only subconsciously. A delay like that could allow the Kurtz, who now apparently had the ability to fly as the raven did, to cut them off.

“It's your command,” he said with a shrug, the motion causing Isi to shift in the saddle, she opened her eyes and looked around raising an eyebrow at Emilia before rubbing the side of her head against his chest like she was a cat before wrapping her fingers up in the cloth of his shirt and then closed her amethyst eyes, clearly not caring about anything besides the fact that she was with Adrian. He smiled and absently ran his fingers through the bone-white hair, brushing one of the sweaty strands away from her forehead. “But if it was for me to decide I would march straight through Gual’tor,” several eyes looked up at him with a measure of alarm but he continued. “We are at this moment outmatched, both in size and in speed, we need to pull back to a defensible location.” No one seemed convinced, so he continued. “Listen, we could fall back to Vaanu, I don't know how many of you have actually been to Vaanu but it is rather well fortified, we could hold there and wait for reinforcements, the issue, however, is that this army will not move like a normal, we need to stop thinking about it as a normal army,” he looked at them, somehow it seemed like he was seizing the command from Emilia, but as he looked at her she nodded.”The enemy will move in ways we cannot,” he sat up a little straighter in the saddle, “They will want to cripple the country as quickly as possible, which means they will be hitting major commerce and perhaps even the Arx, they can assault Helheim directly, bypassing all of our other defenses, we need to bait them pull them into a conflict of our choosing, failing that we will need to get back to Helheim as quickly as possible, we should go straight through Gual’tor.”

“Through Gual’tor?” one of her advisers asked, the incredulity in his voice apparent. “The forsaken city swallows entire army’s whole, they go in and don't come out.” several other people nodded at his words. It was true, when people went to Gual’tor they didn't ever come back out, and this included large forces, though if Adrian was being honest he would attribute that more to the fact that there were likely large groups of bandits in the area, seeing as it was the one place in the Helheim empire where there was no force of soldiers of constables to enforce the law. No doubt more than a few men had fled the kingdom’s justice.

“Indeed,” Adrian said with a smile, “we just have to make sure the damn whitecoats are a more appetizing meal than we are...”