The Black River

Mabinne watched from the bow of the longboat as a Jutlander soldier came to the riverbank on the north side of the river.  The man waved a red flag, five times, then disappeared.  A few moments later another soldier appeared on the south bank and did the same.

Good.  They are in position.

Tillgatt was just around a bend, a hundred paces upstream.  Mabinne waved at the other long boats following her boat upriver.  Wind magic-users on each boat filled the sails and pushed them silently ahead.  In the low forest on either bank, Mabinne knew General Kokko’s men would be slipping towards the town, weapons at the ready.

The longboat rounded the bend.  The trading village lay in view, a cluster of wooden buildings, an arched wooden bridge across the river.  Mabinne leaned over the side of the boat, extended her hand to the water, and froze the river.

She heard a shout from the north side of the river:  General Kokko, bellowing “Into the village!  Put it to the sack!”

The battle lasted only a few moments.  Few of the Ikslunders were able to arm themselves before the Jutlander infantry spilled over the bridge and across the river and joined the other cohort charging from downstream.  Mabinne’s magic-users made their way across the ice and climbed the bank to join them, but the battle was already almost over.

“Follow me,” Mabinne ordered Aalis Pummeroy.  “The shop I seek is this way.”  She had described the shop in detail to her forces; all were under strict orders to leave it untouched.  With the fire-magic user at her heels, Mabinne walked quickly to the shop and pushed inside.

The Ashlander woman Mabinne remembered stood there, behind her counter, as though expecting customers.  “You,” she snarled.  “I wondered, when I heard about Mabinne the Merciless, I wondered if it was you.”

“It was me,” Mabinne confirmed.

“You found someone to remove that collar, then.”

“My captor.  I… convinced him I was harmless.”

The Ashlander woman looked down at something under the counter.  “Port Stronghold?” she asked.

“Me.”

“The soul crystal,” the Ashlander said.  “They do work, then.”

“Yes.  And that is why I’m here.”

“Too bad for you, then.  I have no more.  The two I sold you were all I had.”

“Where can I get more?”

“Those were the only ones I’ve ever seen.  And if I did know where to get more, I would not be telling you.”

“You think so?  Aalis, come forward.”  The Beretanian fire magic-user raised a hand to reveal a blue flame, curling up from her palm.  “You think it will take that much to get you to talk?”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” the Ashlander woman smiled, a nasty smile that bared strong yellow teeth.  “I know a trick or two myself.”  She produced a small bronze globe, about the size of a fist.  There was a small wick protruding from the top.  The Ashlander had a lit taper in her other hand.

Mabinne watched, not quite sure what was going on.

“Goodbye, witch,” the Ashlander woman said.  She touched the taper to the wick and dropped the bronze sphere to the floor.

Mabinne stood for a moment, confused.  Then, the possibility hit her: “Aalis!  Run!”

They fled the shop, barely in time, as a thunderous roar blew out the shop’s walls and let the roof collapse.  Mabinne found herself lying in the street outside.  Her ears rang.  She heard a voice, but it sounded wrong, as though she was underwater…

“Lady Mabinne!  Lady Mabinne!” She suddenly realized General Kokko was calling her, shaking her shoulder.  “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.  Damn!  How is Aalis?”

“She’s stunned, Lady.  But I see no wounds.  She should be well, given some time for her head to stop spinning.”

Mabinne sat up.  Her ears were still ringing, but she could think clearly.  “Tell your men, they have an hour to take personal spoils.  No slaves, we can’t feed them.  Don’t kill anyone you don’t have to; I want word of this to spread.  We will pull back to the coast.”

“As you say, Lady.”  The Jutlander general walked off, shouting at his men.

Aalis lay a few steps away.  Mabinne staggered to her feet.  Her head was spinning, but she managed to stumble to Aalis’ side.

“Aalis?  Are you alright?”

The girl’s eyes opened.  “Gods beneath us, what was that?  Some magic we’ve not seen?”

“I don’t think it was.  The Ashlander, she touched a lit taper to something.  Some thing of the Ashlands, no doubt.  Some alchemical potion in that bronze ball?  I don’t know.”

“Whatever it was, I would like to have some.”

Mabinne nodded agreement.  “Can you get up?  We need to move soon.  We need to thaw the river.”

“I can move.”  Aalis shook her head and lurched to her feet.

Mabinne looked at the wreckage of the shop.  There was no point in trying to look through the ruins, as the roof had fallen flat onto the wreck.  It would take hours to clear enough of the roof’s debris to be able to look through what was left.

Damn, she thought.  Damn it all.  I wanted more of these crystals.

I wonder what it was that Ashlander bitch set off?

Mabinne was not interested in spoils.  Aalis stayed by her side as General Kokko’s men – and some of Mabinne’s magic-users – put the town to the sack.  Several houses and shops were set alight, as was the inn where Mabinne had stayed with Hengist.  Outraged feminine shrieks from some of the houses indicated that General Kokko’s troops were indulging themselves in other ways, as well.  Mabinne frowned at that but let it pass; it was the way of mercenary troops.

An hour later the river ice was melted by Aalis and two other fire-magic users.  General Kokko’s men had taken spoils but had also gathered food.  The longboats were loaded with barrels of salt bison beef and salt pork, earthenware jugs of rendered mammoth fat, bags of yams and onions.  With that done, the longboats turned and headed downstream.  General Kokko’s infantry moved across the country at quickstep.

They were wending their way through the shallow waters near the mouth of the river when one of the magic-users in the longboat in the lead waved and shouted: “Smoke!”

Mabinne stood up.  Several columns of black smoke were rising into the sky, just ahead.

They arrived at the beach to find a disaster.  The twenty Jutlander infantry and four fire-magic users Mabinne had left to guard the Jutlander triremes were dead, and the beached triremes were burning, sending into the sky the black smoke they had seen from just upriver.

General Kokko and his remaining infantry arrived an hour later to find Mabinne and her magic-users engaged in burying bodies.

“What happened?”

Mabinne wiped sweat off her brow.  “Someone attacked the beached ships and our people we left as guards.  There are signs of many attackers; prints in the sand show it was a large force.  They must have fallen on our people from the dunes.”

“Who were they?” the Jutlander general demanded.

“We don’t know.  But I would wager on it being Ikslunders.  Look around.  See if you can work it out.”

“Do you know they had magic-users among them?”

“Yes, of course.  Can’t you see for yourself?  The burn marks on the bodies and the scorched sand.  And there are remnants of ice on some of the fallen.  So, at least two magic-users.  I spent a year among the Ikslunders, remember, and as I know it there are few if any magic-users among them.  See for yourself, but either way, we must move soon.”

“Move?  How?  We’ve lost most of our ships!”

“Walk.  We’ll head south, along the shore, to Beretan.  The longboats will carry magic users that can strike at a distance, to protect against attacks from seaward.  The rest will march along with your men, down the shore.  We must find more ships; we can best do that in Beretan.”

“That’s a three-day march, just to the frontier!”

Mabinne’s temper, already frayed, snapped.  “Have you a better idea?”

Kokko stomped off, muttering.