Fire Angels

Chapter 21 Part 1 The occupation

It was two weeks after our taking of Beenac and I was sitting in one of the tower rooms of the fortress of Beenac and looking out over the wide golden plain beneath. Everywhere I could see small figures cutting swaths through the ripe wheat. Lady Julia's Army of Liberation was bringing in the harvest in preparation for a siege.

Shortly after we had arrived, Lady Julia, with the smiling Patriarch looking on, had formally announced her candidacy for the throne. Any who did not support her were encouraged to leave. Few did and Ren Daniel and the other mages were still with us. Since then the fortress had been preparing for a siege.

The Duke had not moved from Lammerquais, but he had sent a negotiating team. Moria was now divided into three parts, with the Duke holding Central Moria, Lady Julia holding the sparsely populated South and the Patriarchal troops still holding Northern Moria. Since the Patriarch had pledged his support to Lady Julia, the North technically belonged to her, but in reality the question of who ruled Moria was unresolved and would remain so till one of the players took the initiative. The only movement was the tiny trickle of central and northern Morians who daily came to Beenac to join Lady Julia's army.

The Klementari were no longer with us. Their eyes were too firmly focused on Ernundra, which was only three days ride from Beenac, to linger in the fortress. They were already beginning to dig in in the Red Mountains and rumor had it that sometime soon they would begin an assault on Sanctuary.

The split had not been an amicable one.

Lady Julia had begged them not to go and when all else failed she had screamed at Symon. They say red heads have hot tempers and "they" spoke true of Lady Julia.

"You told me I would be Queen," she had screamed, looking as if she was about to bear down on Symon like a fireball.

"And so you shall be. But we must return to Ernundra now. We cannot sacrifice one foretelling for another. Will you come with us?"

"The Duke will take Beenac and then what will I have?"

"Then our ways must part," he said.

"You promised me. Do not leave me Symon," she shrieked "I need you. The Duke will eat us alive."

But he was gone from the room without another word leaving her to weep and rage and then with surprising speed to dry her face and assume a calm and queenly pose again.

I knew how she felt. The night before I had asked Symon when we were moving on to Sanctuary and he had said, "There is no we, for you are not coming with us."

It was like being slapped in the face. I could only gasp and say why not to which Symon told me that they did not want to take the effort protecting me.

"I'll protect myself," I cried. "What do you mean effort? I can help your cause."

"We do not want to you to come. It is better if you stay here in the fortress where you will be safe. You are too big a prize for the necromancer."

"I can help," I cried, hurt by being referred to as a mere thing. "I want to put my powers to some use. I want to see this necromancer gone. Linked with the other mages, I could give my power, I could make a difference."

But I knew as I said it that the Klementari would have asked for my power, had they wanted it. They had their own way of doing things and I was not trained in it.

"You can help us most by not leaving the fortress and not being caught," snapped Symon. "Ever since you came to Moria, we have had the added burden of protecting you when all our hearts were aimed at Ernundra. Do not further hinder us now by insisting on coming with us."