The Web of Iron

Chapter Nineteen: In the Service of Iron

Days had passed, and Kiyora was not happy.

For one thing, she'd spent those days negotiating with the trees. Trees who were very, very put out after centuries of neglect. It couldn't even be called negotiations. She walked among them, speaking with them, struggling to get them even to acknowledge her. The plants of this land had a spiteful twinge to their minds. It had been grown in darkness, and when she talked to them, she got a painful buzz.

In the meantime, Raka held regular meetings within a manor at the center of the village. That was right; they were in a village. They had moved there. Kiyora's head had been shaky; things just seemed to breeze by. The meeting room was large and circular, with a balcony looking out over the plaza. At the center was a table with maps on it.

Kiyora listened to petty discussions of one thing or another. Then something caught her interest. Something about giants and a village named Calacosh.

"Shouldn't we be doing something about Calacosh?" asked Kiyora suddenly.

"Calacosh has already fallen," said Rubia. She had shed her red dress and replaced it with gray armor. "It is right in the path of a potential Einheroth invasion; in any case, several cults sprouted up there. The presence of religion cannot be tolerated. Since we cannot trust them not to betray us, we have designated them a low-priority territory."

"Nice, why don't we just pull the legs off an insect while we're at it," said Kiyora. Then again, if the insect was Rioletta...

"We don't mean to be cruel, Kiyora," said Raka, sounding hurt. "We simply have no choice. The Iron Kingdom has few resources these days. We have to make hard choices. Calacosh has repeatedly violated our laws and been caught creating cults."

"To which god?" asked Kiyora, feeling dead.

"Does it matter?" asked Raka. "One god is much the same as another."

"Speaking as a god, I find your attitude insulting," said Kiyora.

Raka sighed. "Elranor. Some missionaries landed a dozen years back. They attempted converting the populace. Despite our best efforts, the cult has hung on. And it's appeared in a lot of different places now."

"You do know you're talking about one of the most powerful religions in the world, right?" asked Kiyora. "I mean, even I know that."

"It isn't important right now," said Raka. "Rubia, how is your end of things proceeding?"

"Quite well," said Rubia. "I've put out a call for mercenaries. With any luck, the Iron Kingdom should be able to gain a force of minotaurs to come to our aid soon. And you, Raka?"

"Training the militia is going well," said Raka. "My idea is for my soldiers to each instruct ten people in the basics. Once they understood that, they moved on to teach ten more in the basics. The original trainers moved on to a new group. And so on and so forth.

"This way, we'll have a large force of conscripts with basic training. Their numbers should make up for their lack of quality."