Theodosius Valkorion's Arc

Chapter 10 of 22

The two traitor lords were in chains before dusk. Theodosius watched the last one led out of the audience hall, then turned back to the map. The western pass keep still sat empty on it, marked in fresh ink. A hole in his line. Enemy columns were nine days out. Without a hand he trusted on that keep, the breach he had blown in the north wall became a door for the men marching toward it. "I need a castellan there by the end of the week," he said. "Not a courtier. Someone who will hold a broken wall." Heinrich stood at the map's edge in his white officer's coat. "Every lord within reach is either pledged to the pass line or under suspicion. Give the keep to one of the five and you hand him leverage." "Then not a lord." "A soldier, then. Someone with no province to bargain with." Theodosius already had the name. "Send for the Red Reaper." Heinrich's mouth tightened. "Thraxes bleeds his own men to hold ground. The province will hate him inside a month." "They can hate him standing." General Thraxes arrived the next morning still in road dust. His white and blue armor showed the red at the shoulder that marked his rank. He did not sit. "You want the keep," he said. "I want it held. The north wall is down. The tower is rubble. Twelve thousand foreign spears in three columns will test it inside two weeks." "How many men do I get?" "Your legion. Eight hundred more from the capital. The great cannon that took the wall goes with you." Theodosius set his hand on the map. "Set it in the breach. Aim it down the pass road." Thraxes studied the map a moment. "The wall stays down, then. I fight from the gap." "Yes." "Cheaper than rebuilding. Uglier to look at." He shrugged. "Fine." "You take the keep as castellan in my name. Not as lord. You hold it until I recall you." "Understood." Thraxes glanced at Heinrich. "You'll hear complaints. Ignore them." He left within the hour. Theodosius watched the column form in the yard: white enamel armor rank on rank, black four-pointed stars across every visor, the new banner going up at the head, white lotus on a pale blue star. The polished cannon rolled behind them on its carriage, gold scrollwork catching the light. Oxen took the weight. The gates opened. They moved west. Heinrich stayed at the window until the dust thinned. "He'll hold it." "I know." "And the province will send petitions within a month." "Let them." Theodosius drew a line on the map from the capital to the pass and stopped his pen at the keep. The hole was closed. The line ran clean. "Now we meet the columns in the field."