Captured Imperial Encampment
Major Lucia, Commander of the 4th Tanaoi Battalion.
I paced around the Imperial tent, filled with books and velum missives and reports. Great chests that a more civilised people would fill with treasure but the Imperials filled with papers that had long since served their uses. I sighed, sitting at a chair and table far too small for me and hunched over a letter splattered with the watery Imperial ink.
I preferred the Ink bricks that Her Majesty created. With them you only added enough water to wet a brush or quill rather than tiny bottles that tipped over at the slightest push. I licked my lips and pinched the tiny quill in my hand, leg bouncing as I carefully scrawled the letters onto the paper.
A line of writing done, I set the quill down and got to my feet and began to pace once more clenching and unclenching my hands and easing the tension that filled my gut whenever I had to write something. I glanced over at my Queen, her eyes closed and ears twitching now and then as she shifted in her sleep. Her mouth opened slightly as she drew in breath.
I felt something like awe and failed to resist the compulsion to stalk over to her cot.
She seemed so at peace, totally at odds with the intensity she showed at every waking moment. I found myself reaching forward to brush a lock of hair from her face before pulling my hand back as if it had touched fire as Tanya began to blink herself awake with a frustrated groan.
"Good afternoon your majesty." I said, raising to my full hight as she squinted up at me.
"Major, do you have a report for me?" She said, reaching for a water skin with boiled water inside as she liked it.
"After you were put to bed we managed a full headcount, we suffered six hundred minor wounded and two hundred killed or seriously wounded." She nodded along as she took long sups of her waterskin. "Of the enemy we scarcely managed to kill one thousand of their number, what few captives were taken were offered to our enslaved Sisters to exact their right of reprisal." Rightfully so. May their blood fortify the spirit of the living. "We have failed to shatter their horsemen in the field my Queen. I beg for your forgiveness but they still outnumber us."
"Forgiveness is unnecessary, inflicting casualties to their cavalry forces was never a priority objective and was never reasonably within our capabilities." She drummed her fingers on the desk and took up the report I was working on with an unreadable expression.
"The Imperials will just regroup." I stated.
"Yes." Her sharp eyes flicked to me. "They are a well trained and mobile formation. Highly motivated due to being the sons of veterans and merchants. The Equites will rapidly regroup but we have accomplished our objective. The baggage train is captured and thus any operations in the area the Equites engage with are diminished, they will grow hungry and unable to act soon enough. They can push south to reinforce the city but by the time they arrive they will be starving and exhausted." Tanya hummed quietly as she considered the matter.
"Or they could push north to rejoin the main Imperial force and thus cast away any advantage gleaned from their rapid advance." Tanya continued. "Or perhaps they will go east and raid the various Imperial settlements and smallholdings for grain and meat. Perhaps they will even gather enough to continue to operate but that will take time and we will have moved on by then." I considered her words and found little fault in them. Our Queen had a queer mind for war that befitted one so blessed by Emroy, there were few who could claim not to love the thrill of battle and bloodletting but Emroy was beyond such things.
The Mad God represented war in its totality, from the raiding of farms to the stockpiling of warchests, to the recruitment of soldiers and the marching of thousands across endless battlefields. Emroy was the God of war in all of its forms. I could not hope to understand the pure form of war itself just as any who do not dedicate themselves totally to the worship of Duncan could understand the secrets of Steel and Mithril.
There was a dangerous and enticing madness behind the deadly calm of our Queen. One that had taunted my dreams and nightmares since the day she had drank from her sister's skull and claimed the Tanaoi in its totality. She had not gloated or celebrated nor had she wept for the lost life and Storge. She had simply concluded her first conquest, war itself, without condonation, without condemnation.
She cocked her head at me as I stared into her eyes and I quickly looked away, face burning with shame, perhaps. I quickly returned to the subject at hand.
"But these are the threat to our flanks as you have said many times before? Is it not wise to force battle again. To do away with these Equites now and not be harried by them later?" She nodded and drank again from her waterskin as I spoke.
"Perhaps it would be best to remain here and destroy in detail the Cavalry, but it will require time and many women to do so. Most casualties in a battle are not in the battle itself, but in the routing of an enemy, as they run they are cut down or surrender. except in the cases where Lepus do battle of course." I grinned at that, it was quite true that the Lepus fought more fiercely than most. It was not uncommon for Lepus warbands at odds with each other to slay each other to the last woman in battle. Humans, Orcs and especially Goblins however would skirmish until their spirits were overwhelmed and flee if just a few of their number died.
"With their horses many can flee the battle before they are cut down." I stated.
"Exactly." Tanya agreed. "Their mobility prevents us from getting any single conclusive battle. It is best that we move on as quickly as possible, we will take the freed Lepus to the migratory encampment and integrate them among our number before marching on Kontia... Enya must be made aware that her blockade of the city must continue for perhaps as much as a week longer without support." She again began to drum her fingers upon the table.
"Can we not send a company or two ahead to Enya? With the horses we have captured we can furnish two full companies with two horses for every woman." I pointed out.
"That is a fine idea." Tanya nodded. "It will perhaps require a reformation of two companies... Bring to me any woman who has ridden a horse, I intend to inspect the equipment we have captured."
"As you will, my Queen." I offered her a salute and received one in turn as I set about her orders. Glad to have an excuse to be done with the frustration of writing.
Captured Imperial Encampment
Tanya, Queen of the Tanaoi.
By my reckoning we had done well in the battle. The total estimation for the enemy forces numbered around twelve thousand cavalry. At least eight hundred of them had been killed with a few hundred taken captive during the battle itself and more had been killed into the following day as my army secured an area of roughly ten miles around the encampment to forage from. I was unfortunately unable to capture the commander of this force and the captives did not have any important intelligence to share so I had provided the captives to the freed Lepus slaves to do with as they pleased.
I had been indisposed for around fourteen hours due to exhaustion brought about by Mana deprivation. Even now my reserves were limited, yet another stark reminder that I was not half the mage Degurechaff had been.
Putting nostalgia out of my mind lest I weep for lack of chocolate in this life I turned instead to the loot taken from the camp and from the dead and captured Cavalrymen. Such an inspection had required that I travel through the camp to the tents that had been earmarked for the loot to be stored and sorted at.
It was rather uncomfortable to see Lepus bow at my passing or weep with joy at a mere nod. But I had seen the traumas inflicted by the horrors of trench warfare on the minds of young men. When someone is so beset by an uncaring grim reality any hope becomes such a balm to the spirit that it would often overwhelm otherwise rational people. What the freed Lepus had suffered was not the same, but the damage done to them was similar.
When I reached the camp stockpile I was impressed with the quality of the traveling equipment and the amount of supplies the Imperial force had brought with them on the backs of the Lepus slaves but then again this force was no doubt made up of Equites.
They were the equivalent of the middle class in Saderan society, sons of wealthy merchants and veterans who had enough money to purchase their own equipment and thus receive a better posting in the Legions then a normal Plebeian as well as greater pay. I understood that they each had three or four votes each due to their social class in the Imperial 'Democracy' The Equites were also possessed of a fearsome reputation in the Empire as very competent fighters who had impressive discipline.
I did not know the truth of such claims but I did not doubt that they were well trained and a capable formation. More Lepus had died in the battle then I would have liked even if the result was better than expected. If the Wyvern Knights had actually managed a strafing run of my army I doubted that the casualties would number less than a thousand.
On the subject of the Wyvern Knights. While the Wyverns I had killed were being butchered for meat, scales and bones the corpses of the Knights themselves were also recovered and dragged back to camp. They had died when their mounts crashed into the earth, unfortunately damaging their equipment but what was recovered was rather interesting.
The Wyvern Knights were not clad in armour, but cotton, leather and furs. Bundled up enough that moving in such clothes would be awkward. They even possessed crystal goggles sealed with wax making them look more like arctic explorers than 'knights'. They also possessed a half face mask with a large cut gemstone pulsing with arcane energies that would rest over the mouth.
I had assumed that it would be a form of oxygen generating stone to allow the Knights to operate comfortably at higher altitudes but instead an examination of the enchantment showed that the stone did little but draw in as much air from one end as possible, heat it up slightly and push it out the other end.
I was unsure what the exact intention of the mask was and neither of the Knights were exactly in a state to inform me themselves. One of the masks was broken regardless and I could not think of a use for the second but it would no doubt hold some monetary value. A stone that would pull in air from one half and push it out of the other had a dizzying number of use cases and while the rune had been cut into a gemstone for a good reason, if I had the right materials I could likely copy the design at the very least.
The Knights were also draped in chains that they would use to attach themselves to their Wyverns and to the long lances that I could only presume were used against other Wyvern Knights. In truth the equipment they possessed was interesting, with several maps and writing implements that would be added to my collection. But there was little else of practical use. The weapon they employed was obviously the Wyvern itself and they would do little except fill the bellies of my army.
The Equites on the other hand were quite the prize. Their armour was not uniform but all of them were possessed of chain or plate chest pieces with enchantments and a steel sword. Several of the pieces had been utterly destroyed, most notably the people struck by cannonball had their armour's enchantments fail so utterly that the crystals stabilising the enchantment had burst and were worthless.
As I left the tents holding the looted goods I found that Lucia had arrayed four hundred women from a dozen companies in front of me. I doubted that so many of the Tanaoi knew how to ride and care for horses as they served more as food for Lepus than a beast of burden. But I inspected them, casting off the younger soldiers who were clearly lying gloryseekers. With the remaining three hundred Lepus who I had no doubt had many who were not honest about their experience with horsemanship I fitted them with the best of the Equites armour. Steel and chain plate, two horses each, steel blades and enough grain to last two weeks for women and their mounts.
They were formed into brand new companies and sent out to ride at full speed to Kontia and support Enya's blockade and inform her of the events she was not privy to.
With Enya's reinforcements attended to I turned to the task of readying the camp to be picked up and to return to the main migration. It was not a simple thing to relocate over eight thousand Tanaoi soldiers and another six thousand freed Lepus slaves that had already been marched half to death. It would take me days at the very least to rejoin the main camp and to then move them south to Kontia together.
I ordered my officers to assemble all of the over eight hundred sergeants in the army. Moving this many people would begin and end with them after all.
Defeating the Cavalry force had offered us time, I did not intend to waste it.
Tanaoi Migratory Camp
Art, Man of the Tanaoi, 3rd Husband of Queen Tanya.
The work was never finished. I set aside my quill, blunted and near useless from the sheer amount of use she had suffered after the Wyvern attack. Stocks needed to be checked, wounds needed to be catalogued, responsibilities needed to be re-delegated and all of this required reports.
Endless reports. I might not have seen anything beyond the thick canvas and leather walls of our tent since well before the attack. The system my wife had established meant everyone with a degree of responsibility in the Tanaoi would have some document that would reach me or would speak to one of our guards relaying some information in voice that the guard would struggle to relay to me. I would have the task of deciphering the scattered mass of information into a cohesive whole so that we could make the correct decisions about what must be done.
I had long found amusement at how my Queen lamented that there was no single way to spell a word or that many women did not have the temperament for the quill nor the inclination for art. I smiled fondly, remembering times when I would respectfully tease my Queen and how she would allow it, to all the world our wife was harsh but we knew the truth.
It did not make up for how she would work us to tears however! I rubbed my hand, digging a thumb into my palm to ease the tension and received a sympathetic look from Colla. Taking a break from the many reports I still had to summarise I bounded over to my chest and pulled out some bundled vellum bound with a silk cord.
With my treasure in hand I returned to my desk and set aside anything that could damage or ink the precious works and plucked from the bundle my favourite work. It was as stunning as when I had first laid eyes upon it, the most precise and bold brushwork I had ever seen, each word filled with meaning and emotion. Ulaid of the Pomi was truly unparalleled in his mastery of the brush and the word.
I gave voice to the poem. Letting it fill the tent with Ulaid's lament as Colla and Enna took pause from their own work to listen. My cheeks wet as the words passed my lips for I could not sing by half what the work demanded. But my spirit was bolstered as Enna and then Colla joined their voices to mine, they had studied the Man of the Pomi's work as well as I had.
We three sang as one until the final verse where my fellow husbands gave me the honour of ending the piece. I felt reinvigorated as the final word was spoken and Ulaid was honoured when the tent was filled with the harsh sound of clapping.
I opened my eyes and felt my cheeks flush with shame as Cato drew his hands together in applause. I looked at the floor and balled my fists at the indignity of a human hearing a voice meant only for the Queen and her most favoured companions.
"I am honoured." The old human spoke as I noticed that Furea was at his side. "To have beheld a voice such as yours. It is fine enough that it should be heard in the great amphitheatres of the Empire yet my people would question that such sweet sounds should be found beyond the civilised world." He sighed as I stared scandalised at the rancid man who would give my voice to the mob.
"Do you take me for a whore?!" I spat. Cato looked shocked and I was reminded at how debased the Saderans were.
"I apologise, I meant no disrespect." Cato quickly replied and bowed his head. I got to my feet and was to berate him again but Colla wrapped his arms around me and held me to him, easing the poison on my tongue.
"You are without grace Cato, as ever you think yourself more capable than you are." Furea chided Cato and the Human looked angered enough that it soothed my own fury at the idea that my voice should be given freely to humans and all many of other races of the empire. I was glad that I did not have to bandy words with the Human, Furea was the first husband so the responsibility should fall to him anyway.
"I indeed know I know nothing but shame me not for I seek to understand." The Human snapped, turning to Furea who stepped forwards with his ears low and a grin on his face.
"Seek forever." He spoke softly as Cato huffed and crossed his arms.
"You have returned, where is our Queen?" Colla called out, distracting from the confrontation.
"She has gone eastwards to challenge an Imperial force. We have returned to slow the march of the camp so that her army can join us when she has shattered the humans in the field." Furea responded. I squeezed Colla's hand at the news of our gentle Queen going into battle.
"But what of Enya's force? She blocades Kontia and was expecting the rest of us soon?" Colla asked.
"Our Queen intends to dispatch reinforcements to Enya before she returns to this camp with her army. The good Brigadier will have the men, ah, excuse me, women to maintain the blockade of the city before our arrival." Cato rushed to answer Colla's question before Furea, ignorant or uncaring as to the disrespect in doing so.
"Tell me Cato." Furea said with quiet fury in his voice. "Why is it that you betray your own race so? Know that our Queen's favour for you is petty and she has no true love for you. You are useful and know that regardless of what service you offer she shall not lay with you when we hold domination over her heart. She has bore my children and shall never carry yours." Colla, Enna and I stared at the furious Furea and the red faced Human not daring to speak.
"Do you think of nothing but base eros Lepus? I do not betray my race but seek to save it, to save all races! I do not work tirelessly at the edge of civilization so that I might bed a woman! You needle me endlessly for nothing, fool! My love for our Queen is not base and physical but the love one has for a champion. The love one has for a cause!" Cato sputtered as Furea advanced.
"So she is a tool to you? Nothing but a means for your plots and delusions." Furea accused.
"As I am a tool for her so that she might know Sadera! What right do you have to question me? To even speak of love? Where were you when she was cast out! You did not follow her into exile as others did, you slipped into the bed of the old Queen to save your own sk-." Furea silenced Cato, moving swiftly to clasp the Human by the throat and lift him to his toes as the Human grasped Furea's wrist and fought desperately to bring air into his lungs.
"Speak not of things you know nothing about." Furea warned Cato before letting go of his neck, allowing the Human to fall at his feet gasping for air.
"I... ugh." Cato cleared his throat and slowly pushed himself to his feet. "I serve Tanya because Sadera is sick, it is poisoned and dying. When she walked out of the Steppe and spoke of what could be, of what ought to be. How could I not serve her. She who had not seen the world but for the endless steppe had a vision that while misguided in some places was unmatched by my peers!" Cato glared at Furea as Enna gave both him and Furea a skin of wine.
"I find your presence tiresome, begone to your duties and leave us in peace human." Furea dismissed as Cato glared at him before thinking better of speaking more and left the tent. With the human gone Furea sighed and slumped down into a pile of pillows.
"I will prepare a bath." Enna said, taking up his out of tent clothes and donning them as I made my way over to Furea.
"Will she be okay?" I said quietly as Furea pulled off his headdress and gloves.
"She has her weapon Art, if she is confident then it is not our place to doubt her but to pray for her victory." I wanted to believe Furea as he ran a hand through his pale white hair that ran down his shoulders. But it seemed so reckless, so hopeless at times.
"Tell me what has transpired while we have been gone." Furea requested as he began to undress fully.
"There was a Wyvern raid, they caught us by surprise so we did lose some supplies, mostly Ropes and clothing that was being stored as well as broken tools that were to be reforged." I made to get up and present my report but he planted a hand on my shoulder and nodded.
"Any wounded?" He asked, ruby red eyes as brilliant and sharp as they ever were.
"There were some slaves wounded and killed but not many, the drills to prepare people for when the knights attacked worked. But we did not manage to bring any of the beasts down, only wound them it seems, as they only attacked twice before withdrawing when our slingers were arrayed." At my words he nodded and got to his feet.
"We have done what we can for now. We put our trust in the plan of our Queen. Trust in her to attain victory here and at Kontia." I tried to find faith in his resolve but it was a fragile thing. I returned to my desk and took up the poems of Ulaid and took the bundle to my chest, sealing the works safely away. Within the confines of the wood and iron box they would be protected, they would be safe.
I turned my mind away from worries and towards grooming, I arrayed a number of scents and perfumes that had been offered to our Queen from the loot taken from the Saderans. tending a fire with peat bricks cut from the wetlands to the west that would warm the water for the bath. Soon Enna returned with a train of fresh water and we readied ourselves for the pleasure of our wife.
Captured Imperial Encampment
Tanya, Queen of the Tanaoi.
Bronze was well regarded by the Lepus even if it was scarce on the steppe compared to iron. In a battle any weapon be it iron, copper or bronze would be damaged by the incredible strength of the Lepus the weapon would need to endure. With a bronze tool a blade could be hammered back into shape and sharpened again with ease while an iron implement would have to be entirely reforged.
There was little issue with the availability of minerals as the vast steppe was flanked by mountains that were rich in iron, copper and tin as well as many other mineral deposits. Copper and tin mines were scattered about the expansive territory of the Lepus but these were worked by slaves on a seasonal basis, normally in preparation for small tribal wars rather than in a continuous and productive manner.
Bronze was easy to work and maintain and held a shine that was well regarded by the tribes of the steppe. The weight to strength ratio was hardly an issue for the Lepus who were naturally strong and enhanced their strength further still with a subconscious use of body reinforcement formula, something that I was quite frankly baffled by.
It seemed highly improbable that any species would develop the capacity to cast a specific spell via evolution alone. Sadly none of the Lepus, even ones who practiced magic themselves knew about the formula or how the Lepus had come to use it. It was a subtle thing and I only noticed it as I knew exactly what to look for. But regardless of the murky history of my people it was another element in the popularity of the heavy bronze plate armour that was favoured. That such plate armour was practically impossible for other races to make use of due to the sheer weight of the armour was a point of petty pride for the Lepus.
In truth bronze was roughly comparable to low quality iron and thus the only real advantage iron offered the Lepus was the logistical ease of mining and working it. Something the tribes simply had no drive to take advantage of. There was never such an excess of Lepus bodies to put mass produced weapons to work in tribal conflicts.
It was easier to take weapons from Centaur or Goblin tribes, or from other Lepus when required.
That would have to change. But for now, every battle, every raid offered us Imperial arms and armour that while often of questionable quality were superior to Lepus works. But for a force of Equates? There was little that was useless here.
Not just iron, but steel. Swords and buckles and chain vests. At times rare instances of plate armour such as pauldrons or gauntlets, helmets and bracers. These were pieces of equipment that were vastly more capable than anything we could produce but had the weakness of simply not being made for the Lepus.
Anything made for human legs was uncomfortable to use at best for the Lepus due to longer, thicker and slightly differently shaped feet with Lepus naturally walking on the balls of the foot rather than the heel. Most Lepus also had fur on the backs of our upper arms and shoulders. My own being particularly thick and fast growing and making armour hot and uncomfortable when worn.
I mused upon the difficulty of using the looted equipment, despite the necessity of doing it as I picked up a steel helmet. It was frustrating, deeply frustrating that the most valuable piece of armour was so difficult to design for the Lepus head it was nearly universally discarded.
With the Lepus ears not residing on the sides of our heads but higher up and sticking out like that of a rabbit, helmets were simply not used. I had made many experiments with cutting holes in helmets to accommodate Lepus ears but they had all compromised the functionality of a helmet enough to make them pointless.
I had not lost hope for a Lepus standard issue helmet but such a design would not come soon. I sighed and threw the helmet upon a pile of metal intended to be scrapped into something more useful such as spearheads or one of the many thousands of nails and tools that were consumed by the migrating horde on route to Kontia.
I looked out at the once Imperial Camp that was now a flurry of activity as it was packed up ready to be carried back. The Imperial Equities force still existed and was reforming but we would be gone before they were a threat to us again. Hundreds of Lepus were jumping, running and getting used to the new Imperial Equipment they were assigned and would soon depart on horseback to Kontia.
With the sound of a horn carried across the rolling hills the first battalion began to move back west, burdened by months of Imperial supplies. Yes, while I had not utterly crushed the Imperials this was very much a victory.
But there was still so much to do.
Over one thousand miles southwest of Kontia.
The forest was still, birds silent and the world held its breath. Between old trees and new growth stalked a nymphlike maiden. The slight girl hummed as she planted one boot before the other on the firm dirt road. Her left hand drumming at the shaft of the halberd resting on her shoulder with a discordant beat.
Without warning her jaunty walk ceased and she stared blankly into the air for a moment before groaning.
"That far?! I just got here! Ugh, fine." She shook her head and turned about from the road and began to run eastwards. Leaving the wood and bound for the steppe.
And the forest sang once more.