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Chapter 28

She found herself riding with the rest of her unit somewhere near the middle on either side of a supply wagon. Once again Jabone was on the other side of the wagon. Tarius's orders. She didn't even pretend that she hadn't put them here because it was the safest place for them to be and she had ordered Jabone to ride on one side and her on the other so that they wouldn't distract each other.

Behind her Jestia and Ufalla were having one of those discussions that were only really tolerable when you were having it with your own lover.

"No, I love you more," Ufalla said.

"No I love you more," Jestia said.

"I've loved you longer and therefore more," Ufalla said.

"Ah but I became queer for you therefore I love you more," Jestia countered.

"You were always queer just too ignorant to know it," Ufalla said, and from the change in the tone of their voices they were either escalating into a real argument or getting ready to tether their horses to the supply wagon and crawl under the tarp to get a little.

"I can't for the life of me understand why Tarius thought it was so important to separate me and Jabone but she thought you two weren't a distraction to each other and everyone around you," Kasiria said, turning in her saddle to look at them. For answer they just looked at each other and then laughed, rather proving her point. "Really, if anyone needs to be separated it should be you two. Do you ever think of anything but . . . Well whatever it is that you two do?" And she never should have said that because Jestia was only too glad to tell her—in detail—just exactly what they did, which Kasiria decided was much more distracting than just riding beside Jabone talking to him, because there were a couple of those things she and Jabone could do and hadn't yet and now all she could think about was doing them. "Jestia," she said when she'd had about as much as she could take, "could you please talk about something else, or better yet not talk at all?"

"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen," Ufalla muttered. When Kasiria turned to look at her, Ufalla was red in the face though it was hard to say whether the discussion had embarrassed or aroused her that much. No doubt she hadn't tried to shut Jestia up for the same reason Kasiria hadn't at first because of course letting Jestia know that what she was saying was embarrassing or annoying you only made her want to talk about it more.

"I don't understand why you act so chaste. I've heard . . . We've all heard you and Jabone going at it, and have you ever even made love in human form?" Jestia read the expression on Kasiria's face. "That's what I thought. You become Katabull every single time, so don't pretend to be all prim and proper. If you weren't completely consumed with your lust for him you wouldn't change."

Kasiria looked at Ufalla to confirm what Jestia said and Ufalla smiled broadly back at her. "She's right. Most Katabull don't change form every time they do it. Of course sometimes they start out that way or they change because they want to, but a forced change—that's rare."

"What exactly are you implying?" Kasiria asked, glaring over her shoulder at Jestia.

"That you're every bit as over-sexed as we Kartik sluts. You just don't like to talk about it," Jestia said.

Kasiria started to get mad and then she looked from Jestia to Ufalla and laughed. "No one on this planet is as oversexed as you two freaks. And that whole 'who loves who more' thing, well that's just about enough to make a battle-worn soldier throw up their lunch. Again I must say, I can't believe that Tarius separated Jabone and I and she let Eric and Tarius ride together and left you two riding together." They were too quiet and she knew why. "She separated you as well didn't she? One of you traded places with Eric or Tarius."

"You know, Kasiria, you don't always have to do everything you're told. Tarius is a huge hypocrite. Who is riding beside her right now?" Ufalla asked.

Kasiria started, "Your father and . . . "

Surprisingly it was Ufalla who interrupted with, " . . . Jena. She is riding right beside Jena as they have done most of their lives. And do you know why? Because I do," Ufalla said.

"Why?" Kasiria asked curiously.

"Because she doesn't trust anyone else to protect Jena, that's why. She keeps her close. She always knows where Jena is, and she certainly finds her a distraction, so she's a hypocrite. She's going to separate us from our lovers while she rides with her thigh rubbing against Jena's. Well I don't trust anyone else to protect Jestia, so I'm riding with her."

"And I don't trust anyone else to protect Ufalla," Jestia said with conviction.

"Oh bull, you mostly just want to be together and . . . " She looked over at where Jabone was riding and sighed. "It's my turn. One of you go ride over there and send Jabone over here."

"No," they both said.

"You two are so selfish," Kasiria says.

Jestia looked at Ufalla and said in a shocked voice, "So says the girl who I risked my very life to save."

"Where's the appreciation the respect?" Ufalla asked with a wry smile.

"Exactly my point," Jestia said.

So Kasiria rode with them the rest of the day listening to their idiotic "I love you more" argument interrupted occasionally with graphic descriptions of what they wanted to do to each other. When they finally stopped to make camp she ran, grabbed Jabone, and dragged him off into the woods.

* * *

Tarius stood beside the fire warming her hands though it wasn't cold it being late summer now. Still the warmth felt good on her hands. She watched Jabone and Kasiria coming back into camp holding hands and giggling, and since they were both now in their Katabull state she knew exactly what they'd been up to. "Look," she pointed them out to Jena who stood with her arms around Tarius's waist her head resting on Tarius's back. Jena raised her head then lay back down with a chuckle.

"Let them ride together, Tarius."

"Do you think they'd be any less likely to run off and couple before we can make camp if I did?"

"I think they'd be 'distracted' by each other if you put one on one end of our troop and the other on the other," Jena said.

"The others already ride together," Hellibolt said.

Tarius looked at him and for the hundredth time wondered just what he was doing here. Persius had gone back to the palace stating that he was too old to fight a battle, especially some strange cave battle. She thought it more likely that he felt uncomfortable being around so many Katabull because her people, her mate, and her son made no pretence of how they felt about him. As Persius had prepared to leave Hellibolt had come to her and insisted on coming with them, and though she was more than happy to have him she still didn't know why he wanted to go. He rode on one of the supply wagons as horses didn't like him. He stood rubbing his haunches, so obviously not even a cushion and his magic could stop his butt from hurting after riding all day on a rough wagon. Hellibolt quickly declined the chair that had been offered by one of her people when he'd walked up. What are you doing here? Tarius thought, watching him.

"Perhaps an old wizard would like a chance to relive his glory days as well," he said in answer to her unasked question. Tarius smiled and nodded.

"This cave, it will not be like any battle I have fought. These things they are not like us, not like any of us. They are eaters of human flesh. I had set up sentries around Port Sagal to make sure that none of the Amalites would be able to get through to go to the hive and warn them, but none so much as tried. Grey Noke, it was a Jethrikian settlement in the territory but the smaller villages they had hit first, the wagons they'd stripped, those were mostly Amalites. What do you make of that, Hellibolt?"

"That age hasn't made you any less sharp my friend," Hellibolt said. Then he seemed to think for a minute. "They are followers of the Amalite religion no doubt, but a splinter group even more fanatical than the others. I believe they broke from the original group long before the Great War started. They probably started out as heretics in their own religion and now as time has passed they see anyone who lives outside the hive as being a heretic and only they are the true believers."

"So they are exactly like the Amalites only they even hate other Amalites."

"Precisely. As the Amalites' religion has been stripped from them they would have seemed less and less like brothers and more and more like prey. What you have said, what the others said and what I have seen in my own head as much as proves that this people's entire society depends on cannibalism. I imagine they went underground to escape, yes, but not our armies searching for and killing out pockets of Amalite all through the territories. They hid long before that. As we all know, the Amalites believe there are only their gods, that only their priests can interpret what these gods say, and that they must be served in only the way they are told to serve them. This probably had some relatively small difference in what they believed or in the rituals they wished to perform. The difference wouldn't have had to be very big in our eyes. In fact, we might not even be able to understand it. So they went underground to avoid persecution from other Amalites.

"People hiding underground, well food would be scarce. I mean they couldn't very well raise it. They'd have to comb the woods at night looking for what they could hunt and gather. Fields, herds of any kind would give them away. As you know a large group of people hunting and gathering in the same area for many years, a group growing in numbers, the food would have eventually become scarce. They probably started out eating their dead and then that escalated into eating the dying, then the infirm and the old. I imagine their priests told them their gods condoned it. As we know, when pressed the Amalites' gods suddenly condone any number of things . . . "

"Their gods aren't real; the priests run the people through the religion."

"Gods are only as real as people make them, Tarius. You're a bright woman—you know that. Priests convince themselves they converse with gods and see visions. They have to believe the crap they spout or the people won't. That's beside the point. Eventually they just started hunting people instead of animals. Think about it; people are easier to hunt."

"It's terrible," Jena said with a shudder against Tarius's back. "I never thought they could be any worse than what we faced before."

"I'm thinking smoke them out, or close off their air holes and entrances—somehow suffocate them," Tarius said.

"There will be children in there, Tarius," Jena said, a disapproving tone to her voice.

"And any over eight would surely be ruined—hateful things you'd never be able to make human. Even younger than that may be too late. They are a cult of death. I think it might be kinder to just kill them all. Who knows what hell these children have lived through?" Tarius assured Jena.

"If we miss even one air hole . . . and how would we know how much air they have in there? Caves can be strange things drawing water and even air from the other side of the earth. With enough people they would eventually tunnel out. Are we to just leave a force there forever?" Hellibolt said. "I agree that everything over eight must be killed, but surely children younger than that should at least be given the chance to see if they can live normal lives."

"And then will you be the one to kill them if they can't?" Tarius asked. "I think it would be kinder to kill them all and safer for us to find some way to just kill them all in the hive, poison or gas or . . . "

"Babies Tarius," Jena said in disbelief, moving away from Tarius' back to face her. "Small children who've never had any choice about what they eat or how they live. They should have the chance to live in the sunshine, to eat real food. They should have a chance."

"I know what you're saying, Jena, but why put our children, our people in danger for them, when they may be damaged beyond curing?"

"I agree," Harris said. He had walked up and was now putting wood on the fire. "What would you do with all these babies? Who do you think would want to take in an Amalite brat who'd cut their teeth on human flesh? Surely there is some magic that could find all the openings. Then we could plug them or put so much fire down them they would cook in their cave."

"We could find homes among the rehabilitated Amalites of the territories for the children," Hellibolt said. "I can not condone killing the children with the adults. Anything under eight should be spared and I know of no spell that would show all the openings."

"I know one," Jestia said, walking up to the fire with Ufalla, "but I'd have to be in the cave to cast it. You build a fire—doesn't have to be big—and then tell the smoke to find all the holes. Then someone just needs to be watching for the smoke to see where the holes are."

"If we knew where the openings were we could start fires in some and have our men waiting at the others and when the smoke drove them out we could kill them," Tarius said.

"And the children would all die from the smoke or be killed in their mother's arms when they ran out with them," Jena said, glaring at Tarius "Surely not even you, Tarius, can just have us discount these children as casualties of battle."

"Not even me!?" Tarius was immediately hurt and agitated. "What is this then, Jena? You make it sound like I weekly go out and slay babies. I did not create their hateful religion. I am not the one who pulls my people under the earth and has them eating their neighbors. I didn't put these children in danger. Their parents, their priests did that."

"I'm sorry, Tarius, I know you're only trying to make sure that we take as few casualties as possible but . . . I also know that if you try just a little you can find some way to do that without killing the children," Jena said appealingly. "Tarius, you are the greatest war lord who has ever lived, but more than that you are also the most just person I have every known. I have seen you make the impossible happen many times. Please try to think of some way that we can save these babies."

Dammit, she knows me too well. She could have screamed at me all day and I wouldn't have budged, but when she asks me . . . When she insists on saying over and over again not to kill the babies. I was a child when the Amalites came and killed everyone but my father, when they tried to kill me and someone unrelated took me in. I was near dead and traumatized in unimaginable ways and she just took me to Montero and fixed me body and soul. It's the Amalites' way to kill the innocent towards their own ends. My ways can't be like theirs. Dammit they're right. I have to save the children if I can, and Jestia can only cast the spell from within the cave so I don't have a choice. What Kasiria said before she even woke from the healing sleep is right. We have to scout out the caves. Dammit, it's insane. I wanted to keep my people out of the caves if I could, but it can't be helped.

"After we reach Pearson Garrison, resupply, and pick up the Jethrik troops there, we will travel on six days," which is what she figured it would take with so many men on foot, "'til we are no closer than a half day's ride from the hive . . . " Tarius started but was interrupted by Jestia.

"But we don't know where the hive is."

"I'm sure I do. I'm sure it's the goat mounting the horse." They all laughed at her and she grinned when she realized what she had said. "It's the small hill against the big one; I'm sure of it. Anyway when we are . . . "

"What if you're wrong?" Jestia asked.

Tarius looked at Ufalla smiled and said, "You poor, poor girl." Ufalla smiled and shrugged, then Tarius continued as if Jestia hadn't interrupted her. "I didn't want to but we're going to have to go scout out the caves. We'll scout out the area first and make sure I'm right about the location of the hive. Then when our scouts come back and we know for a certainty where they are I will gather the Marching Night and we will go into the caves. We will go in when they are sleeping—which I believe will be in the daytime. We will scout out the whole of their complex. Just before we leave Jestia will do her spell to find the openings. We will have spotters all around the hive to mark the openings when the smoke shows itself . . . " Kasiria and Jabone walked up to them then and they were human again so they'd obviously gone hunting. "While we are scouting the caves we will work on getting the children out. Hellibolt and Jestia, you will have to come up with some sort of spell."

"We'll need far more than one," Jestia said.

"Half way through the day the rest of the troops will move up to surround the front of the hive. Our smoke spotters will make fires on the back side of the hive over all the openings they find there so that they will have to come out the front of the hive and face our forces in their entirety.

"What if we aren't out yet?" Jestia asked.

"If we aren't out by then it will be because we have failed to extract the children from the hive and are dead," Tarius said.

"See, I don't like this plan Tarius," Jestia said.

"Jestia," Ufalla said glaring at her, "shut up!" she commanded. To Tarius's astonishment Jestia looked hurt and fell silent.

Tarius smiled and went on. "It's just the skeleton of a plan. We will work on it over the next few days. I'm not going to lie. This is going to be a difficult battle especially if we are going to try to save the children in the hive."

"I have a spell that will work on the children," Hellibolt said. "The problem may be that it will work on all the children, not just those eight and under."

"That's good. We want to save all the children," Kasiria said.

"Not if they're over eight," Jestia said matter-of-factly.

"Why not?" Kasiria asked.

"Older than that they will have seen too much. Everything they will have been taught will be set in stone. No one would ever be able to turn them, to fix them. They will be too far gone, too twisted," Hellibolt answered. "I'll work on the spell and see if I can make it more age specific."

"How do you know that after eight there is no saving them? What has told you this?" Kasiria demanded. Tarius sighed. perhaps this was why the Amalites didn't allow their women to fight at all and the Jethrik had only allowed it grudgingly. Jethrikian women brought their emotions and sentimentalities to the war table, insisted on worrying about babies and children and then argued over what constituted a child instead of just accepting that distasteful things sometimes were necessary to win a battle.

"Even I know that you can not change a child's personality after eight," Tarius said.

"How?" Kasiria demanded.

"I just know," Tarius said.

"But how? Who told you this? What if you're wrong and . . . "

"We are taking a huge personal risk to save any children from the hive. Saving the children takes a difficult task and makes it almost impossible," Tarius said. "This is war. War isn't glorious and it isn't tidy. You often times have to do things you'd rather not do. As war lord my first concern always has to be winning the battle, then it is the safety of my troops, and only after that do we even start to consider anything else. I will not argue with you, with any of you, over things I find to be unimportant. For me it is a huge concession to agree to extract any of the children from the hive, it puts us at great risk. An unnecessary risk when our main goal is to kill everything in the cave. This is danger we wouldn't other wise be in, but I have listened and agree. I can not condone killing the innocent with the guilty, but it is my belief that any child over eight will not be worth saving, can not in fact be saved. Furthermore they will be big enough to attack us if we try to 'save' them. A spear head in your stomach is a spear head in your stomach whether it is in the hand of an old man or a child. If I am wrong, then their blood will be on my hands and I will accept that as well. Do you think my job an easy one, Kasiria? Maybe even an enviable one?

"I have been for most of my life the warlord of kingdoms. The decisions that have been mine alone to make have affected multitudes. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I have lost many friends who died because of decisions I made, my orders that they followed, even when I had made no mistake. When I made a mistake many people I loved paid with their blood. I will take a chance on being wrong about these children long before I will put us in any more danger to save them. First we must win, we win when everything in that hive, every living thing that might go on to spread the Amalite curse is dead. Second, we must take as few casualties as possible. Then if we happen to save any of those wretched children then we have surpassed ourselves. Anyone who doesn't have the stomach for what must be done may stay at Pearson Garrison." Tarius turned on her heel and stomped away from the fire through the camp and towards the woods.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Kasiria said, "I didn't mean to make her mad."
"You didn't make her mad," Jena said, frowning at the fire then looking in the direction Tarius had gone. "The situation upsets her because she doesn't like the idea of children as casualties any more than you or I do. She knows, though, that no matter what we do some will die, others will have to be killed, and we will all be put in danger we would not otherwise be in trying to save any of them."

"It's the sort of thing no person should have to face—human-eating demons living in the earth," Hellibolt said. He looked at Kasiria. "No one wants to believe that a child of nine or ten can be ruined beyond repair but I assure you that from all I know it's the truth. Think of yourself at eight. Other than physical changes, how much have you really changed since that time?"

"And she thought," Jena's voice caught in her throat and she took a deep breath, "we all thought that we had gotten rid of them. Now there are many of them again and their religion has perverted them even further."

"And it's my father's fault they're back because he ignored the threat 'til it was too big to be ignored—something he has made a habit of. And he isn't here with us now to face the danger because he's a coward," Kasiria said with real venom.

"He was not afraid to fight," Hellibolt assured her.

"No it's worse than that. He was too cowardly to face all these people who know what he did. He rushed back to the castle where he can pretend that he never did anything wrong and that no one knows because away from the Katabull he can forget all those things he wishes not to remember."

"You're awful quiet," Jena said to Jabone.

"There is nothing to say. Madra is right, she's always right. That doesn't make you or Kasiria wrong, doesn't make any of us feel good about a bunch of little kids getting killed. Battles, your battles, were between combatants, not like this."

"We have done battle in towns before, with children in harm's way. We just don't talk about that fact. No battle is ever as clean as the stories make them sound," Jena said. "Who would enjoy such stories as the day a toddler ran in front of Rimmy's horse during a battle and was trampled to death? Or how about the story of an old woman coming at me with a pitchfork and me cutting off her head?"

"No battle has ever been like this one will be," Hellibolt said.

"Should I go after Madra?" Jabone asked his mother.

"No, I'll go after her. I was just letting her walk it off a minute." Jena smiled then took off in the direction Tarius had gone, walking at a leisurely pace.

"I'm sorry, I should have held my tongue," Kasiria said to all those assembled.

"She was only angry because earlier she'd had almost the same argument with Jena, and Tarius had already given in to Jena," Ufalla said. "Tarius didn't want any of us to have to go into the caves. Then Jena pointed out that there would be children in there, something I don't think Tarius had even considered and then . . . Well Tarius had to change her plans."

Kasiria was pleased Tarius had changed her plans to accommodate Jena. At least those stories were true—in all things Tarius took Jena's council.

"I still think it's daft," Harris said. Then he took a deep breath, let it out and said, "Yet I guess if we had just found a way to kill them all in the hive I'd be having nightmares of babies crying the rest of my life."

Ufalla looked down at Jestia and asked, "Do you think that you and Hellibolt will ever be able to cast enough spells to pull this off? There is no possible way to do it without magic."

"So, am I allowed to speak now?" Jestia asked, glaring at Ufalla.

"Oh, Jestia for all the gods . . . You kept interrupting the Great Leader," Ufalla said in disbelief.

"I was just trying to help," Jestia said, and Kasiria was astonished to see that Jestia actually looked hurt.

Kasiria noticed only then that Hellibolt wasn't there. She wondered just where he'd gone and what he was up to. "Is Tarius mad at me?" she asked Jabone in a whisper. "I just . . . Well it seems so wrong to me."

"My mother was right, Madra isn't mad at you, you just happened to remind her of what she was mad about," Jabone said solemnly. "It's a terrible thing even if things work out for the best and I think . . . Well I think you should stay in Pearson Garrison and we can pick you up . . . "

He stopped talking no doubt because she was shaking her head so violently. "No, this is my fight too, Jabone. More my fight than it is yours. I am going."

Eric and young Tarius walked up then, "So what's going on?" he asked.

"We're all going into caves with thousands of angry Amalites," Harris said simply.

Tarius just smiled. "That will make a great story."

* * *

Jena found Tarius on the edge of the camp looking out at the woods.

"No one understands," Tarius said, proving once again that she did always know where Jena was. Jena slid up to her and took her hand.

"It's not that we don't understand. It's that you aren't saying what we want to hear."

"It isn't what I want either, Jena. I didn't create the situation. Those hateful bastards," Tarius ran her free hand through her hair.

"You'll do the best you can. No one expects more than that."

Tarius laughed then, though she obviously wasn't amused. "Yes they do Jena, you know they do. Even you do. You expect more of me than I can produce. I can not make a miracle. I can't take us down into those caves and even say that we'll all come back out again much less rescue a bunch of children, infants. We need total stealth to even think of pulling this off, and how keep a hundred warriors in armor quiet much less the Nameless One alone knows how many children? How do we get them out without waking the whole of the hive?"

"You don't have to do it alone, Tarius. You have many good people with you and a powerful witch and wizard both willing to use all they have. We will do the best we can. I'm not worried, Tarius, my dreams are sweet. Come on, come back to camp with me. I can smell that dinner is almost ready. You'll get something to eat, I'll give you a back rub, we'll get some rest and tomorrow you will have even more answers. You always do."

 

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