Theodosius Valkorion's Arc

Chapter 5 of 22

The map on the table had not changed since the envoys rode out. Theodosius stood over it with a fresh report in his hand. Scouts had counted foreign columns moving on the border road, weeks earlier than Heinrich had guessed. Three columns. Twelve thousand banners. They would strike the western passes before the harvest was in. Heinrich came in with the courier still behind him. He set a second report beside the first. "They didn't wait for the seal," Theodosius said. "No." "How long to the passes?" "Twenty days. Maybe less." Theodosius traced the ridgeline with one finger. Two narrow roads through the mountains. He could hold both with four thousand men if the ground was chosen well. He could not hold them against three times that number. Not without more spears in the line. "I need the provinces," he said. "Every lord who hasn't pledged. I need them under one roof and I need them to kneel this week." Heinrich's jaw set. "They won't come for a letter." "Then we don't send a letter." He called for the elven capital's old audience hall to be opened. White towers, blue glass, spires the province lords had visited as boys under his mother. He sent riders out that night with the new banner rolled behind each saddle, the pale blue star and the white lotus. The message was one line. Attend the crown within seven days, or the crown will remember who did not. By the sixth day, seven of the nine had come. Two had sent excuses. Theodosius set the audience for the seventh morning under the tall vaulted arches. He placed two hundred legionaries along the walls in white enamel, black star visors down, spears grounded. He did not speak from the throne. He walked the floor. He named each lord in turn. He named the roads through their lands. He named the number of foreign riders on the border. Then he drew the star-marked blade and set the point on the tile. "Pledge now, and your men march west with mine. Refuse, and the passes fall, and after the passes, your keeps." The first lord knelt. The second followed. By noon, seven pledges were sworn on the blade. The tallies came to Heinrich at the side door. Six thousand additional spears within three weeks. Enough to hold both passes if the march was clean. Heinrich read the count twice. "You have your line." "And the two who didn't come?" "One borders the western pass." Theodosius sheathed the blade. He had the men to hold the mountains. He had also told every wavering lord in the empire that absence would be read as treason, and one of the absent lords sat on the road the foreign columns would take. If that lord opened his gates, the six thousand new spears would arrive to find the passes already lost from behind.