Eternal Beasts

Chapter 27: Mistakes of the Past

Only hours after Nikeera and Wren had jumped into the Danath, Seth watched with narrowed eyes and folded arms as more denai soldiers arrived with the telltale winks of magical portals opening and closing. He then turned to the waiting war leaders of the denai regiments so far that had answered the Blessed Mother's call in the last couple of days.

Jeremiah, Bithra, Matthew, Ezekiel, Ruth, Magdalena ... A good dozen. If his intelligence about the Denai was correct, it was their entire western command. And, according to them, the other commands were gathering themselves to also make the journey. Which meant, before the week was through, they would have over four hundred thousand denai soldiers mustered before the last City of Stone to defend it. As they had the other cities before.

Yet, this particular muster was much more significant, especially after the fall of Murias over a thousand years ago. Because this time the Denai and the Tuatha Fáil were not allies. If given the choice, the Denai would've left the elves of the fortified valley to their own devices when the attack came. The blended people were no longer willing to sacrifice their men and women to keep yet another fortified valley from falling because the Tuatha weren't willing to do the same for them.

No, the Denai weren't here for the Tuatha. They were here for the Blessed Mother. And faith and belief gave strength, courage, and resolve over and above being an ordinary soldier. So, even if the Tuatha abandoned their posts and let their citizens run panicking through the defenses, as they did in both Murias in the south, and Gorias in the east, effectively preventing the denai defenders from holding key locations throughout the valleys, here the Denai would fight on. Fight on in Nikeera's name. Seth looked down, his expression thoughtful. It was an advantage they had to utilize, with the Tuatha of Findias already abandoning their defenses.

Which brought his thoughts to his own branch of the Tuatha, the Lucht Taistil. There, beside the gathered war leaders of the Denai western command, talking in low voices amongst themselves, were the gathered pathfinders of at least eight of the major Lucht Taistil encampments. In addition to himself, there was the Tuatha Fáil-favored Enoch, Mordecai the northerner, Zachariah, who patrolled the western coastline, Phineas, who covered a good chunk of the southern portion of the continent, Luke, who patrolled the eastern coastline, Gideon, Joshua, and Nathanial who, in parts, patrolled the vastness of the Kasidian along with Seth's own Ketha Encampment.

In total it was nearly two hundred thousand Traveling Folk gathered together for the very first time in the long history of the Lucht Taistil, counted as it was when they split from the Tuatha Fáil at the end of the First War of Balance, over ten thousand years ago. Of course, not all were combatants; the pathfinders would have to find somewhere safe for their vulnerable populations. Which meant their combatants were over a hundred thousand souls. Add that to the close to seventy thousand battle-hardened denai soldiers represented by the twelve regimental commanders that now stood before him, and they had a significant force already here.

"We need to be about preparing the defenses, Seth," Mordecai rumbled, a big tuathan with shoulders as broad as a yoke. "Twenty six more days then the Harbinger filth starts crossing the Synn, moving right over the territory my encampment was patrolling." A ripple of tension went down his jaw. "We should be there to meet them at the river. Not standing on Esdraelon's blasted plateau, looking down at Findias and wondering if the shut-ins plan on joining us."

"You know they won't, Mordecai," Zachariah grimly pointed out. "Despite the fall of their cities, Aaron is still clinging to the delusion that his walls will keep the Tuatha Fáil safe."

"The truth is closer to the fact that Aaron has a standing army of less than ten thousand men," Enoch pointed out. "Barely enough to man the fortresses around his throne city. Little yet man the valley's other fortresses, or the wall castles. And those soldiers are mostly ceremonial. A determined torith child can walk through them with almost no resistance."