By the Red Moon Part 56
An abandoned and severely damaged space inside what had been the castle of Aries was set aside as the meeting place for the Alliance Commanders to sit and discuss their next course of action. As the last to carefully enter past the collapsed rubble remaining in the main hall, the prince and the officers of the Sanq kingdom made their way towards the empty seats at the head of the table along with their steeds.
Swallowing roughly, Duo did his best to not pay attention to the surroundings. What had no doubt been beautifully colored flags and portraits were tattered shards of themselves drifting on the breeze that entered through the large hole in the wall leading to the outside. Blood that could not be completely washed away stained the dark brick throughout the space and large pieces of furniture including the table were the soldiers were gathered were either cracked or completely shattered.
This had once been the grand home to the good king and queen who had perished in the attack. Neither wanting to run, they stood in defiance of Dekim and his dark army to the very end when they were cut down holding onto one another during their joint execution. Hearing of their torturous last few days was enough to make anyone's stomach churn. Now standing in their castle, it was all that the braided teenager could think about.
"Duo!" a woman's voice cheered. It was all the warning that he had before he was nearly knocked over as someone leapt up to hook their legs around his waist and their arms around his neck. Stunned and just trying to stay upright, the prince held onto his greeter and blinked his wide eyes to find the grinning face of Gloria only inches before his own. "It is so good to actually see with my own eyes that you are alright."
Still shocked as the werewolf nuzzled his shoulder with the side of her face, the prince met the amused eyes of his lover and caught the very subtle gesture of his head.
Glancing over to the table where the Commanders were gathered, he noticed the flash of jealousy in Mueller's eyes before the dark-skinned soldier did his best to look disinterested in what was happening. For their parts, Wufei and Anna were doing their best to not laugh outright when they also caught the look.
A wide smile on his own face when he realized that this was exactly the reaction that the crafty girl in his arms was after, Duo held her in a tight embrace and told her sincerely, "That is largely in thanks to you, Gloria. Thank you for delivering me safely to the city line as you had promised." Though he had stopped actually watching the pair, Mueller still looked as though he was about to spit nails.
Finally unlatching herself from the prince, the blonde werewolf winked to her friend with a sly smirk before rejoining her sister and brother-in-law at the middle of the table. Shaking her head, Adodera rolled her eyes at the girl's antics but affectionately patted her head all the same. Gloria giggled to herself when she caught the object of her affections staring at her. Quickly turning his head away, the Virgonian fought the brightening of his cheeks.
Taking his seat at the end of the table, Heero nodded to everyone sitting around the table and opened with a polite, "Good evening, everyone." His hands folding on the table, he took a deep breath and announced, "While I would very much like for us to take time and enjoy what we were able to accomplish by regaining Aries, I believe that you all would agree that we need to discuss the possibility of moving out again as soon as possible."
Every head around nodded in agreement. Much as the other officers all would have enjoyed a break, no one wanted to simply sit and wait for Dekim's soldiers to regroup and attack them as they basked in the glory of their victory.
"Really, there are only two options as far as we are concerned," the Alliance Commander stated. "We can either pull back to the south and lay low as we had been, or we discuss the next city that we will try and liberate." Gazing around the room, he called, "All in favor of standing down, raise your hands."
Not a single hand raised and the air was filled with knowing snickers. Any good soldier knew that it was always best to strike while the iron was hot, especially in a case like this. Having expected that, Heero smirked and nodded, "Very well, then." He cast his cobalt eyes over to Wufei at his right and requested, "If you would, Lieutenant Chang?"
The swordsman reached down to his satchel to remove and open the large map of their corner of the world that he had stowed away. Showing all of the terrain from mountain ranges to forests and rivers along with every country of their massive continent, the finely knitted scroll was stretched out flat on the table surface.
Dropping the tip of his pointer finger on Aries in the near perfect center of the map, Yuy stated, "As you all can see, we have several cities surrounding the north that could potentially be our next target. Most of the cities are three or more days out. However..."
Slowly dragging his finger over the images of treetops to signify forest stretches moving straight east, it came to a stop over the picture of a city and its hand-written name. "We could reach Cancer in less than two. The proximity between that land and this is why Dekim's army was able to take them one right after the other."
"It would make the most sense to just go there next," Commander Scott Lewis of Leo voiced. As all of the eyes around settled on him, he shrugged, "I say we take the path of least resistance when it comes from moving city-to-city. We will chew up less resources and energy to do so." Voices rose up to back the sentiment. Grinning widely at having the support of his fellow soldiers, he nodded firmly, "So, Cancer it is."
Just beyond the hole in the wall, the sound of shifting, falling brick and a squeak of a cry filled the air to end any and all quite discussions taking place in the room. Looking over, the soldiers stared outside with wide eyes.
The first to look back and meet their steed's attention, Anna gestured with her head to the opening after whoever had apparently been listening in. Quickly standing, the blue-purple dragon craned his long neck until his head was no longer in view. "Hey! Ingier stop!" the startled voice beyond the wall cried.
Instantly recognizing the voice, Duo blinked in surprise as he and the equally shocked soldiers around watched Ingier's large head slowly creep back into the hall with a certain queen hanging from his mouth by the back of her emerald dress.
Blinking in surprise as he rose to his feet, the prince frowned, "Sylvia?" The teenage girl bit her lip with a mortified look on her face when she met his violet eyes. Around the table, the men were leaning in and whispering with their narrowed eyes on the small royal.
Quickly standing, Anna told her steed, "Good work, Ingier. Let her down."
A pleased smile on his closed mouth, the dragon wiggled as his tail thumped along the floor. Happily obliging his rider, he lowered and released his captive when her feet touched the ground to pull his head back. Lightly running a hand over her scaly friend's muzzle, the archer kept her blue eyes on the queen of Libra as she brushed the back of her dress and gazed to all of the faces wearily.
Stepping up to the girl, Duo rested his hands on her shoulders and asked quietly, "Sylvia, what are you doing here?" A few of the men behind him grumbled and he turned back to shoot them a warning glare. "She's my friend," he warned. "I know that I am an exception to the rule that royals are normally not allowed into the meetings of knights, but you will show her the same respect that you show me."
Throughout the room, eyes widened and jaws fell as the Commanders sat back in surprise at his comment. Amongst the most taken aback were Mueller and the werewolves. Beaming with pride in the meantime, Anna turned to her husband and 'brother' to whisper, "Spoken like a true prince." Both Wufei and Heero kept their gazes on the braided teenager and nodded with their own proud smiles.
Her own wide eyes blinking, a wide smile spread across Sylvia's face. Suddenly feeling more assured over her presence, she straightened and mouthed a 'thank you' to her braided friend.
Turning to meet the stares of the other soldiers, she bowed her head and said sincerely, "I am very sorry to have been listening into your conversation. Since it has been pretty clear that we will be moving forward to reclaim the northern lands from Dekim, I was curious at to where we might be heading."
After a pause, the queen commented, "I agree that we should continue with our push, however, I hope that I do not offend any of you by saying this but I do not believe that Cancer should be our next point of interest."
Voices rose in laughter as the men of the southern hemisphere pointed at the girl and shook their heads to their comrades. Clearing his throat loudly, Duo shot a heated glare at them that silenced their banter at once.
"Well, no offense to you, my lady," Commander Lewis replied as he raised his hand. Clearing his throat to fight back his snickers, he questioned, "But what does one as young and inexperienced as you know to be able say such a thing?"
Biting her lip, Sylvia's eyes fell on the head of the Alliance as her uncertainty returned. Heero rose to his feet and approached her with a small smile. Pausing before the girl, he reassured, "It's alright, your highness. I am always open to any suggestions that may have been overlooked. You have my interest and the floor is yours."
The blonde grinned and stepped over to towards the map on the table as Wufei and Anna stepped aside for her. "My father, Treize, was-" cutting herself off, Sylvia kept her eyes on the scroll and corrected, "is a brilliant strategist. He studied wars and battles for years to become quite the scholar on tactics and shared much of his knowledge with me. I have been able to step back and apply those lessons to our situation."
Slowly taking an interest at that, the officers of the southern armies leaned their heads towards the queen. "There are many reasons to why Cancer is a bad call in where we should head next," Sylvia continued as she raised her head to her audience. "For one, as close as it is, that city is the obvious choice to where we could move next."
Pointing to Cancer on the map, she stated, "Dekim would have it filled with as many soldiers as he can spare. Even if we beat them to Cancer, they would be waiting for us to be on the move when we would be the most vulnerable. Our location would quickly spread throughout the remaining ranks that were sitting and they would mount a force to which we would be at their mercy before we could liberate the next target."
Eyes widened anew around the table as the men quietly discussed the account amongst themselves. An impressed expression on his own face, Heero nodded, "That is a very valid argument."
Stepping up to stand beside Sylvia, the Alliance Commander focused on the map. Perhaps Cancer was close to Aries, but it was also out of the way for days from any of the other lands. That would give the dark army more than enough time to launch a crushing ambush against them. In the end, their offensive would be short-lived. "Where would you move our next chess piece?" he asked, glancing from the corner of his cobalt eyes.
Without hesitating, the queen pointed to a city in the northwest and answered, "Cygnus. It is five days out, but look..."
Lightly tracing along a fine line that traveled from Sanq down through the image of her suggested location, she informed, "The river runs downstream as far north as the Sanq kingdom and branches off into streams that reach countless lands in the north. Rivers make for excellent means of resource transportation. I would stake my life in saying that this is one of the biggest ways Dekim is replenishing his armies in the kingdoms that he has taken."
Dumbfounded, the soldiers around leaned in closer to see that there was, indeed, a link from the northern river that would eventually reach Cancer and dozens of other cities. And every one of them had overlooked that detail because of the excitement over their win in Aries.
Straightening herself, Sylvia declared to the Commanders, "If we take Cygnus, we could effectively begin a slow starvation of more troops and other necessities. They would never think us to go so far out of our way to attack there, so it is sound to also believe that they will have a thinned out hoard there. We could see even less resistance than what we came up against here."
"All while at the same time, we would be weakening the armies that we would have to meet up later at the other sites," Heero thought aloud in little more than a breath. Turning his head to meet the deep blue eyes of the young girl as the conversations taking place rose in volume, he squeezed her shoulder and smirked, "Brilliant. Your father taught you well and I am sure that he would be proud."
Her eyes growing, Sylvia's face glowed with a bright smile. "Thank you," she whispered sincerely.
Leveling his fellow Commanders with a sternness in his expression, Yuy announced, "We rest for the remainder of today and tomorrow before we leave for Cygnus at first light the following morning. Spread the word to the rest of the men."
Nods spread around the table in agreement as the soldiers got to their feet and began to filter from the room. On their way past the queen, they smiled and bowed their heads out of respect, apology and appreciation. Promising to have their fellow werewolves informed of their next move, Alex, Adodera and Gloria followed the officers.
Giggling, Sylvia spun around and threw her arms tightly around Duo's neck. The prince chuckled and returned the tight hug with a whispered, "Great job, girly."
As two royals pulled away, Anna smirked and addressed the queen, "It is very good to see another female make such an impression on the other knights here. Good for you to hold your ground." Ingier made it known that he felt the same when he moved his large head in to lightly nuzzle Sylvia with the side of his snout.
Lightly patting the steed, the girl laughed, "Well, what I did was nothing like what Duo has accomplished," she grinned and turned her attention to the braided teenager. "You handled yourself wonderfully back there. I cannot wait to tell Lady Une how far you have come along with your confidence in your authority. Even I was not about to speak up to those men the way that you did."
Heero reached his lover's side to wrap an arm around his shoulder and commented, "I am impressed as well. You set them right before I had the chance to intervene. For a second, I actually felt like I was watching your father."
Violet eyes widening, Duo muttered in disbelief, "Really?" When he faced them, Wufei and Anna smiled as they nodded their heads enthusiastically. Rubbing the back of his head, the prince gave an embarrassed smile and shrugged, "Maybe I am starting to get the hang of this whole 'prince' thing, even if I still have a ways to go."
"Well, this certainly was a big step in the right direction," the swordsman complimented. Taking a deep breath, he peered over to Nataku as she walked up beside Ingier and suggested, "There is much work that needs to be seen to in preparing the men to move out in a couple of days. We best get to that."
In agreement with that sentiment, the small group headed out of the castle along with their steeds. And for the remainder of the evening, Duo had a sense of euphoria over feeling that much closer to being the leader that his father was.
Maybe there really was hope for him after all.
* * * * * *
The spell was not nearly as complicated as Duo had imagined that it would be. The compliments of both his light and dark magic in this one casting certainly helped.
When he opened his eyes, he smiled widely in finding the shining colors that hovered in the air just beyond the northern volcanoes of Aries to stretch out to the east and west for as far as his eyes could see. The sight reminded him much of the Northern Lights of the Arctic in the world where he grew up, only these brilliant, shifting hues fell from the heavens to touch the ground where his spell was laid.
Brushing his hands together, the prince smirked to his friends behind him, "That should do it. If anyone working for the Keeper attempts to cross that border, they'll be killed instantly. It should be able to hold up until I take it back down." When presented with the challenge by Catherine to see if he could find a way to protect the city and all of the southern lands, he was excited when the simple solution had come to him.
A proud grin spreading on her lips, the fire-starter clapped her hands and complimented, "Wonderful job, Duo. I only wish that we could see the looks on his soldiers' faces when they reach the wall. It really is a marvelous piece of work."
The sound of a wolf howl had the group turning their heads to watch as a familiar, white wolf ran onto the scene. Adodera. Following the meeting of the Commanders the day before, the werewolf had journeyed further north to gather word from the lookouts that had headed out to spy on the dark sorcerer's men. It had been a day of waiting for those still in Aries.
Spotting his wife, Alex let out a deep sigh of relief as his shoulders sagged. Waiting for her to come to a halt before them to shift into her human form, he walked up to her so that they could embrace tightly. "Good to have you back, love," he greeted as he pulled back.
Gloria folded her arms and snorted, "My dear brother, you act as though you were worried that she would not make it back. You know as well as I do that she is the fastest one out of all of us and would never do anything so foolish as to allow herself to be killed by the likes of Dekim's beasts." Still, she shared a quick hug with her sister for her own quiet reassurance that she was alright.
Once the girls had their chance to reunite, the silver werewolf asked his wife, "What word have you received from our scouts?"
Her transparent green eyes scanning the group that was gathering close around them, Adodera informed, "There is a clear course that we will be able to take to Cygnus. Dekim's men are days away from any point along that way, and so we would not need to worry about running into them. We should have an update on the city itself as early as tomorrow when we head out."
Trowa whistled through his teeth and shook his head. "I really need to learn how to speak wolf," he snickered. "You were not kidding when you said that your communications are much faster than the system than my fellow scouts and I have." He was rewarded with appreciative smiles from the werewolves for the sentiment.
Focusing on Adodera, Heero stated, "I would like to go over a map with you to go over the way that we would need to take." The white-attired young woman bowed her head respectfully. "As for everyone else," the Commander began as he looked to his friends, "Rest up before we leave in the morning."
* * * * * *
The spell was every bit as complicated as Dorothy had expected it to be. There were many elements that needed to be weaved into the web for it to accomplish what she wanted.
When the sorceress lifted her head from the floor of her spell room, a sinister smile tugged her mouth. Yes, it had taken much time and energy on her part, but it had all been worth it in the end as she felt and 'saw' her masterpiece. It was much greater than anything she had brought about before thanks to her dark magic.
Finally, it was finished. The glowing symbols on the walls, floor and ceiling around her disappeared to surround her in pitch darkness.
"It is time," Dorothy breathed. Feeling the gust of a wind that flowed through the closed door behind her, she giggled.
TBC...
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