Semper Indomitus: Book Five of the Fovean Chronicles

  The Fovean Chronicles

  Book Five:

  Semper Indomitus

  By Robert W. Brady, Jr.

  It is not to job of the savior to save you. It is your job to choose to be saved.

  The Fovean Chronicles

  Book Five: Semper Indomitus

  © 2017 by Robert W. Brady, Jr.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying or through a retrieval system without the express permission in writing of the author, except by a reviewer who may publish excerpts as part of a review.

  ISBN: 978978-0-9861961-2-6

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover art: Giusy D’Anna

  First Printing

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Dedicated to Glastonbury, CT

  This was a good place to grow up, once upon a time

  What Went Before:

  Spoiler Alert: This will reveal what happened in the Intermission series

  It is included because of the stand-alone nature of that series

  Daddy’s Girl:

  In Indomitus Sum, King Angron Aurelias played a great feint: he provoked The Battle of the Foveans against Eldador in order to ensure that Randy wouldn’t be in the capitol, and then used the Eldadorian Central Communications spell system to infiltrate the palace and capture Lee Mordetor, Randy’s daughter by Shela.

  Lee and Hectaro, the son of Duke Hector Gelgeldin and temporary Wolf Soldier guard to the Princess, flee through the portal opened by the King, after Lee has contaminated the spell. The world believes that Lee is dead.

  In fact, she finds herself in the void between worlds, not just with Hectaro but with the traitor D’leer, the Uman sergeant of her personal Wolf Soldier guard. She’s found in the void by the Druid Vedeen, and Vedeen helps to guide her back to Fovea.

  Unfortunately, ‘back to Fovea’ doesn’t mean Eldador, but the land of Conflu, where an Uman, an Eldadorian and an Andaron stand out like a sore thumb. Lee now has to find her way East back to Eldador, past Confluni cities, through mountains, down rivers until she finally achieves Wisex and safety.

  Along the way, Lee has to develop her fledgling skills as an Andaron sorceress, teaching herself and risking the black mind. Lee finally realizes that Earth is her patron god, and His elements are hers to command.

  Lee has to make hard choices, dancing on the fine line between a growing girl and an established Princess. As she grows, she comes to realize that command is about more than giving orders, that her father’s co-dependence with his Wolf Soldier guard is a strength she’ll need to cultivate. As well, there is a time to be ruthless, and a reason to give orders that cost lives.

  One of those lives is D’leer’s. The Uman falls from an ox cart they’ve stolen and is crushed under the wheel. Lee doesn’t have the power to save her, and they have the following conversation:

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Lee shook her head. Hectaro was already forcing Jing Wei back into the cart. “I’ve done nothing for you,” the Princess said. “I’ve simply stopped the pain.”

  “And for that, I thank you,” D’leer said. “As much as any Wolf Soldier could ask of a Mordetur.”

  A tear rolled down the side of Lee’s face. “Why, D’leer?” she demanded, finally. “Why betray us? What did my father do to you, that you would turn his daughter over to the King of Trenbon.”

  D’leer sighed. She looked to the west, then back to Lee, and finally took her hand away from the other’s shoulder.

  Looking into the sky, away from Lee, she said, “The first service of a Wolf Soldier is to Lupus,” she said.

  “Lupus seeks to rally all of the Fovean nations under his banner. He’ll rally them by taking all of the ports on Tren Bay. I learned this – as a part of the inner circle, as one of his most trusted guards.

  “For one with a Man’s years, it seems a good plan,” she continued, and then licked her dry lips. “But for one with an Uman’s gift of Life, the problem doesn’t come with the taking of the land, even the keeping of it. The problem comes with the prize such land is – the others who would step in on Lupus’ accomplishment.”

  “You mean the Uman-Chi?” Lee asked, referring to the long-lived descendants of the Cheyak. The Uman-Chi King was almost one thousand years old, and for members of their race to live to seven hundred was not unheard of.

  D’leer shook her head. “Angron Aurelias surely believes he could step in after your father’s natural death. If he lived another fifty years, five decades is nothing to an Uman-Chi.

  “But your father is the instrument of the god War,” she said, “and the god War is a capricious god. We Uman know that the race of Men is not his favorite.

  “At least,” she said, her voice becoming more of a croak as her life’s blood left her, “not the race of Eldadorian Men.”

  Lee straightened. In the ox cart, Hectaro had bound Jing Wei’s hands and feet, and was tying her by her hair to the hand rail, braiding it so it would take another rescuer long minutes to release her.

  Lee had studied the gods as a part of her tutelage. She knew, while the Elder gods, Adriam and Eveave, even Earth and Water, Power and Desire, were usually more interested in the furtherance of Life’s children, in fact the children of Power and Desire, War, Destruction and Chaos, tended to serve themselves, and saw all living things as tools, and nothing more.

  Somehow, D’leer had foreseen War’s machinations weren’t in Lupus’ best interests, and serving him meant betraying him, delaying his goal of a united Fovea.

  A Fovea would be so easy to hand off to another, if War willed it. Especially after a weakening war.

  Lee stood as a final sigh left the injured Wolf Soldier’s body. She’d called D’leer a traitor, but perhaps D’leer had been the most loyal Wolf Soldier of all.

  Lee brings this back with her to Wisex, where she learns that her father is waging war on her Andaron cousins. From there she’s redirected to the capitol, Galnesh Eldador, by Nina of the Aschire, who has left Eldadorian service.

  Not Your Father’s Eldadorian Empire:

  When Lee leaves Eldador, someone has to step in, and that someone is Duke Tartan Stowe, son of the old King, Glennen.

  Normally this would have fallen to Duke Hectar Gelgeldin of Galnesh Eldador, however Hectar has fallen to Angron Aurelias’ attack.

  Tartan immediately has problems with the Supreme Commander of the Wolf Soldier guard, J’her. An Uman, J’her has been answering to Lupus alone for over a decade and has no plans to stop now. He’s made it clear that he’s not going to just let Tartan walk in and run the capitol, and he’s certainly not going to surrender the guardianship of Galnesh Eldador to Tartan’s Angadorian Knights.

  Since the attack on the capitol, Central Communications is down. Tartan has to send carrier pigeons and fast riders to the Emperor for his orders and to notify him of the loss of his daughter. In the mean time, he has to deal with a wealth of people who may want to further his ambitions or to kill him for them.

  Enter Tartan’s old friend, Jean, who helped him before the Battle of the Vice. Jean is willing to spy for Tartan if Tartan will help her only son, Lurien. Lurien will masquerade as a foster child from a wealthy Volkhydran family, and Jean as a maid working in the kitchen. Tartan will explore Lurien’s strange ability to communicate with animals.

  Lurien turns out to be a crippled child with a cl
ub foot and long black hair. He carries a dagger and has a propensity for black clothes. Lurien himself has a perpetual, cat-like expression and no social skills, leaving many people offended in his wake.

  As members of the Free Legion stop by Galnesh Eldador, Tartan learns that Jean is, in fact, Genna and her son is Lupennen, the Emperor’s second child after Eric. It is uncovered that Genna is in fact a Rooster, a sect of the Bounty Hunter’s guild that doesn’t except the deal with the Emperor to end the war between them. Genna had accepted an offer from Tartan’s wife to capture Shela and her children, however when that failed, Tartan finds out that the newer contract was for his own assassination.

  Tartan puts Genna to death, then finds out from Lupennen that she was pregnant with Tartan’s child. Tartan hires the Bounty Hunter’s guild to execute his own wife.

  The story ends with Lupennen returning with Lee and Hectaro, and then guiding Tartan to break one of Blizzard’s ‘unbreakable’ children, ‘Forgotten Son,’ and with Tartan becoming engaged to Lee, in order for him to keep running the Empire out of Galnesh Eldador while Lee moves on to Volkhydro.

  Prodigal Son:

  When Randy first came to Fovea, he met a girl named ‘Aileen’ and fathered a child with her. This is the story of that child.

  Aileen named the child Eric, and she protected him from the knowledge of whom his father was. Eric went to good schools and received the sort of education that a wealthy commoner would expect. Much like his father, Eric has a real temper, he’s a tall blonde with blue eyes, and he’s clever. When his mother tells him the truth on her death bed, Eric, who has already found the Zarshar sword, leaves on a journey to find and confront the Emperor.

  He runs into Vulpe and Nina instead. He rescues his brother from other Volkhydrans, and the two become friends. Nina sees his fighting style and immediately realizes whom this must be, but doesn’t say anything. She begins a romantic relationship with Eric.

  The three become a part of the invasion of Andoron by Eldador. Finally, Eric comes to the decision that he can no longer be a part of it. After several ‘near miss’ attempts to meet his father, Eric instead takes the Andaron side and meets Waya Daganogeda and Chesswaya, his half sisters. Chesswaya also realizes whom he is, as does Karel of Stone. The two girls help Eric to find his place as a hero of Fovea as he organizes the defense of Chatoos.

  Finally, Eric meets his father face-to-face on the battle field, and gives Randy the two letters which he wrote to Aileen after he’d left her. Vulpe, believing that Eric had tricked him the entire time, attacks Eric and gives him the Mark of the Conqueror before Eric can break Fury, Vulpes sword.

  With this mark, there is no question whose son Eric is. He is the spitting image of his father.

  Randy’s reaction is draw the Sword of War on his son. The two fight and, when they finally cross swords, there is an explosion. When the smoke clears, Eric is wearing a white question mark turned upside down on his armor. He is a member of the Daff Kanaar.

  Prologue:

  The troubadours sang of the battle of Chatoos, in Andoron, as troubadours will. A difficult victory for the Eldadorian Empire; the Andaron tribes unified to protect their capitol as the Andaron tribes never had, and met the Emperor and his son on the plains, and there was a fight.

  And the troubadours sing of a meeting between the Emperor, Lupus the Conqueror, and his lost son, Eric of Mir, a Viscount, who had united those tribes against his father and who met him on those plains, a black sword in hand.

  An Emperor

  With hair of gold

  With sword in hand

  On morning cold

  His son did meet

  Upon the land

  Of Andoron

  In Battle grande

  Did strike a pose

  Did pull a sword

  Did meet the same

  As battle roared

  And knownst to him

  By witchy wife

  Did cross his sword

  With younger self

  And father there

  And son with him

  Did sword and steel

  The battle dim

  And ground it shook

  And wind it blew

  ‘Till even sure

  The gods, they knew

  That here it come

  Arrived at last

  The Emperor

  Had met his match!

  And son he stood

  A Fovean stranger

  Known then anon

  The Holy Avenger!

  Chapter One

  The Holy Avenger

  Theodore Roosevelt once said, “At the worst, if he fails, he at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

  That thought ran through my head while I watched the white flags rise over the unconquered portion of Chatoos. I felt more than heard the cheer that rose up from my son, Vulpe’s, Regulars as, group by group, they realized it and received the order to stand down.

  They were Vulpe’s troops, but there was no Vulpe. He’d left the battlefield after he laid the Mark of the Conqueror on my other son’s, his brother’s, cheek and broke his own sword.

  Daggonin, one of my Colonels, stood silently to my left, next to a broken map table and surrounded by armored Wolf Soldier guards and the tattered remains of our blue-and-white command pavilion. He was waiting for me to give the order that I’d given after victory, so many times before.

  “Withdraw the Aschire,” I told him, referring to our purple-haired archers, pressing the walled city from the West. “Send out sweepers to clear caltrops between us and the city walls, and assign two Millennia to occupy the city.”

  He made a fist over his heart, our salute, and turned on his heel to one of the young men who served as messengers between Command and our active units.

  Millennia, divisions of 1,000 warriors and a Major, broken down each into 100 Centuries commanded by a Captain, each of these into 10 squads including a sergeant, commanded by various Lieutenants.

  The key to my success that no one seemed to understand: a rigid infrastructure and relentless training. When I’d been distracted hours before, the command structure healed itself and the warriors kept fighting. When a unit needed to be redeployed or engaged, commands moving up and down the chain kept it coordinated with the rest of the army.

  Even in the worst chaos, in the thick of battle when it all went to hell, we kept order, and we pushed on, and we won. With other Fovean armies it could take longer to stop the battle than to start it. Warriors on both sides died needlessly after victory was decided.

  In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for one side to surrender and, before the fighting stopped, actually turn the battle around and win.

  It all felt like ashes in my head. No, I hadn’t failed greatly here, if you looked at winning and progressing and growing more powerful as ‘not failing.’

  My son, Eric – that was another story.

  “Your Imperial Majesty?” I heard behind me.

  I turned and saw Nina of the Aschire in her usual black leather, her bow and quiver over her shoulder, a few scratches and blood smears on her body. Nina had been the nanny for three of my kids, the three I knew of, since my daughter Lee’s first birthday.

  She was married to Eric – my son through Aileen, the first relationship I’d had in this world, seventeen years ago. She had a few years on him, but really that wasn’t uncommon. I couldn’t imagine why she’d waited around after Eric left with whatever part of the Andaron tribes he could salvage.

  “You haven’t called me that in a long time,” I said to her. I wanted to give her a hug, but my armor was bloody.

  “I’m not a part of the household anymore,” she informed me. It was true – Lee and Vulpe didn’t need her, Chawnee had her own nurse maid and, with a husband, it was simply time for Krell’s daughter to get a life.

  I sighed. This day was starting to really suck, much as it was a tremendo
us military victory.

  “Your Imperial Majesty,” she repeated, “I spoke with Princess Lee.”

  I nodded. “Before she died?” I asked. Lee had fallen in the attack on my capitol city, Galnesh Eldador, months earlier, when I’d thought I was winning the Battle of the Foveans in Volkhydro. There was another non-victory: I’d destroyed the combined Fovean armies with Vulpe while King Angron Aurelias of Trenbon used his magic to enter my palace and capture my daughter. She and the son of one of my Dukes, Hectaro, had killed themselves instead of giving him a hostage.

  “No, your Imperial Majesty,” she said. “I spoke with her two days ago.”

  I felt my eyebrows rise. My wife, Shela, should be hearing this, but she’d had an encounter with two other daughters of mine that I didn’t know I had: Dagi and Chessa, the latter a powerful sorceress in her own right, and both of them the daughters of the Andaron women I had violated during my coronation as King, fifteen years ago.

  They’d left with Eric. You’d think that I would have stopped them from doing that, but another big surprise is that Eric was a member of the Free Legion, just like me. Much like with Karel of Stone and Dilvesh, The Green One, we hadn’t invited him in. Something had happened and the mark just appeared on his chest.

  I couldn’t raise a finger against Eric if I wanted to, not that I did. Fortunately, that worked both ways. Once the white question mark, turned upside down, appeared on his breast plate, he had to stop resisting me in Chatoos, and the Andaron defense pretty much fell apart.

  Hell of a kid who could organize that much, that fast, with groups of people who preyed on each other as a past time. Especially after the repeated ass-whippings I’d laid on them as a people over the years.