Imstay, Royal Pavilion, Foskos Army Camp

I was asleep with the most beautiful woman in the world in my arms. Then Usruldes made the wooden camp bed sway by leaning on it with his foot.

"We have trouble," he said simply as we both woke up and stared at him. "Please get up. I'll have some tea ready." He walked out. We both dressed as quickly as we could. I was done before Aylem and exited to see an unexpected scene. Usruldes had already shifted the landforms on the sand table to include everything from where we were down to Black Falls and over to Uldlip. Lords Hestyo and Fusso were at his side discussing things with General Bobbo, who was being held up by High Priestess Lisaykos on one side and Captain Tyoep on the other.

Given the look on Tyoep's face, I think a hand-in-hand ceremony is not far off and that sweet girl Kayseo may be gaining an adoptive mother who is less than ten years older than herself. I wasn't worried. I knew the two had already met and liked each other.

Enough gossip. By the less-occupied side of the sand table, the Holy Terror Kamagishi was pacing, with that look she gets when she’s on top of an event about to happen. I was reminded of Emily's strange pronouncements on magic and time manipulation, though I don’t know why because I didn’t understand a word. Fassex was seated at the conference table with a sleeping Emily in her lap. Several captains of the flying cavalry were waiting quietly, already in armor. Usruldes was waiting patiently. I nodded my head for him to start. He bowed an obeisance.

"My Lords and Captains, the King is here so we will now start this meeting. The Impotuan army that was outside of Black Falls," Usruldes began, "finally breached the barrier Lord Skalta haup Black and Captain Sertfos created by flooding the salt pans. The walls of the town have been breached. The garrison pulled back successfully to the inside of the shrine and the shrine has a barrier up. The residents of the city evacuated to the bogs or the hills above Manse Gunndit, as have the residents of the city of Gunndit and the Manse. High Priestess Senlyosart sent all the trainees and younger clergy out of the shrine days ago, so they are safe."

"Now, the bad part: a portion of the Impotuan army skirted the salt pans around the south side of Black Falls, crossed the rift valley, and attacked the trade fair at Uldlip. Our traders were attacked and they defended the camp, which allowed many of the Coyn traders to flee down the river. Some Coyn traders and all of the Cosm from Foskos who defended the trade fair died and the camp was ransacked. The Impotuans looted all the trade goods. They also broke the Convention of Surd when they raped and mutilated the Sea Coyn from Inkalim that they caught,” he paused, “regardless of gender." There were a few gasps followed by an angry and profound silence.

Aylem joined us, wearing a simple yellow dress I don't remember seeing before. It looked good on her. I then chided myself for thinking about the woman I had just made love to in the middle of a discussion regarding the ravages of war.

General Bobbo, straining to keep his head up, looked right at the Queen beside me and addressed the silence. "Great One, I have a plan to delay the Impotuans in their assault of the Shrine of Sassoo." His voice was stronger than I expected, "To make this plan a reality, I do not know if you can fulfill my request and still deal with the Impotuan army across the river from here."

"So long as I take care of your request first, there should be no impediment," Aylem responded. "Once I invoke it, the charm of ultimate defense does not care if there is one soldier or one hundred thousand. Either way, the after-effects should be the same. I will not ask why a man like you, who can not even stand due to your injuries, is out of bed. It speaks volumes about your concern for the people of Foskos. What do you require? I'm sure that whatever it is, given your fertile mind, it will bring great hardship to our enemies."

"Enough white fireballs for fifty mounted fliers?" Bobbo asked.

"General, do you need to see the sand table any further?" Aylem inquired.

"No, not anymore," he said, wondering why the question changed directions. So did I but I also knew that Aylem was a careful thinker. She certainly had a reason, which she then demonstrated.

She grabbed two chairs and brought them to him. Lisaykos and Tyoep lowered him into the first and Aylem put his useless legs up on the second. Then she fetched a chair for herself so he wouldn't have to look up at her while they spoke. Her aim had been his comfort. I hid my shock. I had never seen her act with consideration toward any of my staff before.

Garki, bless him, delivered hot tea to Bobbo, then Aylem. He followed up with tea for everyone else.

"General, I believe we have over 200 fliers ready and able to fly," Aylem said after sipping her tea. "Why 50 pairs of baskets? Why not 200?"

I had to hide my reaction again. I had no idea she knew how many fliers we had ready to deploy. Our flying numbers were currently half that of the Impotuans, which was why we had not run them off yet. Mounted battle mages can stop an army.

"I did not want to demand so much that you would not be able to take care of the army across the river," Bobbo replied apologetically. "I know there are almost three more rotations of those dry tasteless emergency ration bar supplies left in the Shrine of Tiki, but it can't be a happy situation in there, despite Usruldes' deliveries of bread and greens."

Usruldes was delivering groceries to the shrine? I did not know that. When was he doing that? Was that boy sleeping enough?

"General Bobbo, you have always been a most considerate man," Aylem smiled at him. "Wait one moment," she got up and walked out to the open space in front of the pavilion. We all felt a magic event of some formidable magnitude come about. Now, in less time than it took to take a breath, the royal encampment was filled with baskets of Emily's nasty little glass globes of instant fire. Aylem instructed the pavilion guards to drive the curious away since the contents of the baskets were extremely dangerous.

Aylem came back in, swallowed the rest of her tea, and made a grave face. "Well, since no one can relieve Black Falls until we're sure of the safety of Tiki's shrine, I will take care of the Impotuans across the river immediately. I require that someone cast a barrier above their camp to prevent anyone from fleeing on a mount. Holy Ones, will you please take care of me when I'm done? Also, no one is to follow me lest you get caught up in the charm."

"I will cast an overhead barrier. I have already posted a skirmisher line and backed it up with my agents, so no one can escape from the southern end of their camp," Usruldes announced to everyone but Bobbo's surprise. "I will go to meet my skirmish line in just a moment. The barrier preventing your entry into their camp before this morning has fallen in multiple spots. This was achieved through a combination of Tiki's Cure in their salt and sugar supply, and an outbreak of a deadly and strange food poisoning illness that comes with a fever and delirium. The Blessed Emily's initiative to corrupt their food supply has had its desired effect to incapacitate their mages."

Aylem's only reply was a humorless smile of approval. He bowed an obeisance. She strode out without a look back, a determined and grim expression on her face. Then she rose up into the air and flew across the river. Usruldes left on her heels, flying upward to mount a flying eagle in midair.

"Show off," I muttered. Lisaykos gave me a dubious look that I could tell masked her worry for her rediscovered son. I knew she struggled with the mental shift from her 20-year-old conception of an angry and unmanageable boy to the complex adult he had grown into. I wished I could comfort and reassure her in public over the bravery and extreme competence of her son, but could not without destroying his disguise.

The Blessed Lisaykos is one who never lets her feelings show and she has indeed wounded herself by doing so. On such outcrops this realm is anchored. I found it reassuring when my sources informed me she was a doting grandmother. I'm still chuckling inside over the quip she delivered last year to her noisy granddaughters at the Shrine of Galt, that they needed to quiet down because they were at a shrine, not a street festival for the hard-of-hearing. I had a mental image of older citizens yelling into each other's hearing trumpets every time I thought of it.

Bobbo looked as bad as I have ever seen him: pale, hollow-cheeked, and barely able to keep his head up. What had it taken for him to convince Lisaykos, of all people, that he needed to come here to appeal to Aylem for Emily's evil little invention?

"Garki," I ordered, "get the bed in the sleeping chamber made up with fresh sheets." I took the pitcher of hot tea off Garki as he headed to the back of the pavilion and then topped off Bobbo's tea. "I know you prefer beer, but I think your healer would disapprove at the moment. You can use my bed if you need to lie down."

"I'm alright for now," he swallowed some tea and sighed in contentment. "You need to find a way to clone Garki. He is the best you've ever had."

"He was my uncle's discovery," I said with true regret. "Nirirgi was a failed human being but he had an unerring eye for finding good staff. Garki's a good kid. You know he lied about his age?"

"I just noticed the white," Bobbo smiled with just a touch of bitterness. How hard had it been for him to claw his way up the ranks with just intelligence and fighting prowess? He had good battle clairvoyance and a smattering of precog, but that was the sum total of his magic. And now, here he was, horribly injured and maybe never able to fight ever again.

"How is speaking for you?" I asked with concern.

"Speaking is good. Almost everything looks like it may recover except for my left arm, which still has numb spots and my hand doesn't seem to work. Other than my arm, the healing magic of the mysterious Usruldes has left me feeling like there was no harm done." He grimaced, "I currently have no strength, my king, and I fear will never be able to fight as a worthy soldier ever again. I regret I can not help you lead your army anymore." His tone was heartbreaking.

"What's this noise," I flicked his forehead with my fingers lightly. "Your arms wielding shield and axe were a decent tool, but your mind wielding an army is your real value as a weapons master. I can assign battle mages to protect that mind of yours on the field."

Bobbo looked appropriately startled.

I mindcasted Lisaykos. * Is he well enough for me to carry so he can see the mounted cavalry off? It would be good for him and good for the fliers too. *

"I'll come with you," she said to me. "Sister Kamagishi, are you prepared to fetch Aylem when she's done and take her to the Shrine of Tiki?"

Kamagishi was not there.

"She met the queen's griffin a moment ago and they left together," said Fassex, who everyone had forgotten about. The old bat was sitting quietly at the conference table with the sleeping Emily still in her lap. "I believe she is already on it."

---

Aylem, Impotuan Army Camp

I flew to the north end of the Impotuan encampment and had an irreverent thought that I should have had someone to fix my hair so I looked regal and imperious for this rather horrible occasion. I could already taste the stomach acid from my disquiet stomach.

I pulled the hair tie out at the bottom of my braid. I braided it before going to bed last night and now freed the thick unruly curling mane of my unmanageable hair. I ran my fingers through it, thinking the wild woman look might not be a bad one for what I was about to do.

My next irreverent thought was that it was a blessing this charm left me too helpless to move because otherwise, I would have retched out the contents of my stomach up in Yant. I now knew that post-charm nausea was part of the reaction and was mentally prepared for feeling sick after handing out death to so many people. At least it was a painless death, which is more than the Impotuans deserved after they had attacked a third shrine and murdered and raped the Sea Coyn. I did not need to feel charitable toward rapists who would not follow the Convention of Surd.

I needed to offer them the opportunity to surrender. Their force at the northern end of their camp didn't even give me the chance to talk. Just for fun, I caught the first crossbow bolt, flipped it around, and sent it back to skewer the shooter through the heart. That sent several of them running away from the entry point into their camp. Two tried to run north and around me to escape. I didn't want to invoke the charm yet so I incinerated them. In less than a breath, they were ash.

I really hate that smell.

By the time I entered the boundary of the camp, all the soldiers guarding the northern perimeter had fled except for one exceptionally brave young silverhair who brandished his sword at me and demanded I state my business.

"I am Aylem Nonkin, Queen of Foskos, Revelator of Tiki," I loomed over him by a head and a half. For effect, I cast a local breeze charm so my hair would stream out in the back of me and my skirt would billow in the wind. "I am here to demand your unconditional surrender. Go tell whoever is in charge that I will walk through your camp and kill anyone I encounter until I receive your capitulation."

"I don't believe you," he said in his strangely-accented Fosk. "It's just some tall tale that you can kill entire armies."

"Heard from the army that attacked the Shrine of Landa in Yant five days ago? I already destroyed it." I said in a helpful voice and smiled sweetly.

I then used the charm of compulsion on him, and he was shocked that I had the power to force a silverhair to do my bidding. "Go and find whoever commands this dying army and tell them my terms: surrender or perish."

He dropped his sword and walked away to do my bidding against his will. I proceeded forward through the camp, incinerating everything in my path: tents, weapons, willing whores, soldiers. The kidnapped Foskos residents who were abducted against their will to cook and clean and pleasure soldiers I compelled to gather north of the camp so that our healers could attend to them. The flying mounts I left alone since they would be free as soon as their owners died.

I had a bad thought that there may be many of my subjects abducted by the Impotuans inside the camp who might perish once I invoked the charm. So I stopped and cast a compulsion on the entire camp, for any Foskans unwillingly abducted to flee to the north as quickly as possible until they were in back of me. I added a command for them to help one another in their escape and knowledge that time was short. I made sure those who slept were wakened.

Having done all I could to save as many Foskans as possible, I continued my path of incineration southward. I was heartened by tens of women and children running frantically past me. I was disturbed that I began to see Coyn among those Foskans fleeing. I hoped those with shorter legs could get away fast enough before I invoked the charm.

It was one of the only times I was ever fully grateful that I was an overpowered monster. I could see that Impotuans were trying to escape among the fleeing Foskans. I made sure those soldiers burned to death a little more slowly, especially if they had threatened a woman to help them in their attempted flight.

I stopped my progress through the camp when I saw a silverhaired boy approaching in gilt armor and a crimson cape. He might have been all of eighteen or nineteen. That didn't mean I stopped my incineration of any who tried to get past me along a line from the river to the shrine. Any Impotuans crossing that line while I talked with the armored boy turned to ash.

"I am Kisir Ugi, third Prince of the Empire of Impotu. I am told, woman, that you demand my surrender." He was certainly arrogant enough. He even sneered. I was sure at this point how this would go; so I cast stasis on him for a breath and searched the camp for any remaining Foskans. To my joy, I only found two, both injured and unable to walk. I knew this would exhaust me far beyond what I had done in Yant, but I touched their minds so they would not be too fearful and teleported them just to the other side of the north gate into our army camp. I mindcasted the gate sentries as to who these women were.

That done, I released the princeling to enjoy his last few breaths of this life.

"I refuse to surrender, whether unconditionally or with terms," he brazenly stated once he regained his composure.

"I do indeed demand your unconditional surrender for you and all your army," I smiled pleasantly, enjoying the sensation of looking down at him. For the only time in almost thirty years, I released all my precautions that prevented me from leaking my power and frightening everyone around me daily. This boy would experience the full brunt of my monstrous force bearing down on his mind and body.

I confess I did enjoy the arrogant little jerk’s scream as his puny mental power tried to shield his mind from me. I crushed his feeble attempt at casting a barrier with a sniffle of my nose and laughed at him.

"Do you understand the enormity of your so-called empire's mistake now? It is even worse since you have attacked three shrines of gods who care not for nations or borders. Did you not see Galt protect his priestess from your attack? The Convention of Surd exists not for our sakes but the gods' whims. Have you forgotten that in your Empire on the other side of the mountains?"

"You can't kill me," he bargained and demanded and pleaded and whimpered. "I am a prince of the empire. You dare not. I am as royal as you are. I demand appropriate treatment as a prisoner. You don't dare kill me. The Empire will send every army we have if you so much as disturb my hair. You can't. You dare not kill me."

"Hear the judgment of Aylem Nonkin, Queen of Foskos, upon the Prince Kisir Ugi, scion of the soon to perish Empire of Impotu," I made sure my voice would be heard inside the head of every sapient being for ten wagon-days in any direction. "Your armies invaded our realm of Foskos with no cause or provocation. They attacked a high priestess of Galt who had done them no harm. They abducted the free citizens of the Nation of Foskos who they enslaved for menial labor. They broke the Convention of Surd when they attacked two shrines and besieged a third, and when they raped and mutilated the Coyn of the Nation of Inkalim.

"I declare that you and your army will perish this day and that your army in Black Falls will also perish, as I have already caused your army in Yant to perish at my hands, and that your empire will fall by the powers the gods have placed in my hands."

"Thus shall I smite all those who attack my realm," and I invoked the charm. With the casting of it, I laughed without joy as the prince stared in panic, watching his hands vanish in front of his vanishing eyes. Then I walked casually through the Impotuan camp, watching every fading panicking soldier. When I reached the southern boundary and could find no more souls to send to Gertzpul, I looked toward the Shrine of Tiki and mindcasted Foyuna.

* Foyuna, I have freed the shrine from the bullies who surrounded it. You may let the barrier drop and please prepare three rooms for me, Emily, and General Bobbo. I look forward to seeing you soon. *

I felt her happiness and agreement. Then I steeled myself for the immediate collapse and nausea that would come as soon as I dropped the charm. I saw Kamagishi circling me on Asgotl, which made me smile. I waved at them, sat against a tree, and released the charm.