Boria was now several days and forty leagues behind the Stewardess and her host. They had left behind the modest trappings of civilization in Eskar and traded them for the pristine and rugged splendor of the northern frontier. To the east, a jagged chain of snowy mountains rose into the cerulean sky. The hillsides had turned green with fresh young grass that had only recently sprouted in the absence of the deep winter snow that had blanketed these lands only weeks before. Forests of pine and majestic Aesling cedar covered much of the land in patchy blankets of deep, dark green while patches of spring crocuses and daffodils flourished in the meadows. Far to the west, at the bottom of this great valley, the Atari River wound sinuously in the hazy distance - marking the northwestern extent of the Illyrican Empire and the beginning of the lands of Atar. With the fringe of the Atar in sight, Helkha knew that they had nearly arrived at their destination: the fort at Abkehr.
Helkha turned in her saddle to survey the army walking behind her. Stretching across this long meadow was a mass of warriors some 4,000 strong. Their spearpoints were pointed into the sky, catching the sun's rays in a scintillating array of flashes. Some of the spears had been affixed with flags that flapped vigorously in the wind; celemworm banners depicting either the Night Mother's rose sigil, or the wolverine crest of Boria. These decorated spearshafts, Helkha knew, belonged to the three-dozen or so sergeant yeomen in command of a regiment. The vast majority of this lot were comprised of peasant levies who could scarcely afford a spear, but there were some soldiers in this army - mainly folk from the north of Boria - who were equipped and skilled with bows.
"I wish we had more bowmen," Helkha remarked to Baronet Galakhad, who rode right alongside her at the very front of the army. "If this western horde attacks Abkehr, we will sorely wish for archers who can rain arrow volleys down over the walls."
"We have about 500 archers; not as many nor as skilled as I would like," Galakhad admitted. "But they will be numerous enough to make any attacker think twice about making an attempt on the walls. Not to mention the 400 Narzads that have joined us," the Knight-Commander turned and gestured to the cavalry formations riding along the flanks and rear of the massed infantry.
"Then the attackers will simply lay siege to the fort, and I doubt Abkehr's granaries and stores are sufficient to hold out for a prolonged siege."
"Let them lay siege, milady," Galakhad declared. "Regent Master Ai has pledged to commit 5,000 of his own forces to Abkehr's defense. They are a fortnight behind us at the latest. They will relieve Abkehr if a siege should occur. And if they should fail, then the combined armies of all of Illyrica will be brought to bear on this Djaam menace. No incursion will be allowed any farther than Abkehr."
"Assuming the collective might of Illyrica is not already committed against Lesmania," Helkha added.
"At the very least, we shall have support from Doma and the other northern domains. Regent Master Ai has wisely kept much of his forces in reserve here in the north. They will be sufficient to repel any attack."
"Mother willing," Helkha added.
The Borian host marched another two leagues northward, following the crude dirt road through the great old-growth forests of the imperial hinterlands. Helkha and Galakhad led the army down this road, walking betwixt huge cedars who had been fully grown a hundred years before the Night Mother's empire was ever thought of. The Stewardess, raised on the windswept plains of Boria, was unaccustomed to such an enclosed environment - perhaps unsettled as well. On the Borian plain, one could see anything approaching across the rolling plains from a league or two away. But with these great trees spreading forth in every direction except directly forward and behind and the dense understory brush - surprisingly opaque despite still being bare from winter, Helkha was unsettled by how easily an ambush could be laid here. Not just by this mysterious horde coming from the west across Atar, but the indigenous northerners of this land. The Empire's rule over the remote hinterland was tenuous at best, and there were yet many northerners who were still hostile to the Night Mother's servants. Hostile enough, perhaps, to waylay Helkha's forces as they crossed through the forest. She pressed her heels into the haunches of her horse, beckoning her steed - and the army following it - to move that much faster through the forest.
"Not so fond of these trees are you, milady?" the Knight-Commander noted with a reassuring smile.
"Not at all," Helkha admitted. "I miss the Borian plains, Galakhad. I miss how open it is out there, where you can see everything around you. The mountains, the hills, the wind rippling through a thousand acres of grassland... I miss Vadigar."
"Old Boria," Galakhad concluded. "The way things used to be be, before we were cooped up in Rasthomig and Eskar, tasked with turning it all into an imperial simulacrum. That is what you miss."
Helkha gave a nod.
"Do you miss it, Galakhad?" The Stewardess asked. "Old Boria?"
"How could I not? You were but a child when Old Boria became what it is today, but I am nearly twenty years your senior. I was old enough to remember life before the arrival of the empire and after. Those were simpler, happier times, without question. But, these are better times.
"We do not squabble and fight incessant wars over grazing lands as our ancestors did. Now, we fight to protect the entirety of our homeland and toil to improve the lives of our countrymen. It has been a little over a decade since the empire came to Boria, but think of the progress we have made. The lives of the common men are longer and healthier. The serfs harvest a surplus of wheat and potatoes so that they do not starve in the winter as they had before. Boria is now inhabited by craftsmen and merchants who enrich our people and our land. But most of all, we serve the Night Mother and thereby earn her blessing and protection.
"It is natural to miss the simplicity of childhood, milady. Likewise, we pine for the simpler times when Borians ruled themselves. But just as we mature in our older age, the Borian people have matured. I recognize that life is better serving the Night Mother, even if it does not always feel that way. It is a heartless man who does not miss old Boria, but it is a fool who wishes to go back."
Helkha rode in silence for a time, considering what Baronet Galakhad had said. But before she had another opportunity to speak again, she saw the forest suddenly give way to a vast clearing. An area a quarter of a league around had been completely stripped of its ancient forest, replaced by an expanse of half-rotten stumps erupting with all manner of mushrooms. In the middle of this emptied land was a stronghold ringed with a palisade wall rising fifteen feet high. Guard towers were fashioned from planks cut from the ancient trees felled around the fort, atop which small catapults were affixed. In the middle of the wooden fortifications was a keep built from native stone. From the battlements, banners flapped in the wind bearing the rose sigil of the Night Mother. At last, the Borians had arrived at Abkehr, and judging the multitude of guards gathering atop the palisade ramparts and the battlements - Abkehr's garrison knew it as well.
At Galakhad's order, the Borians formed ranks and the mounted Narzads joined Helkha and Galakhad at the front of the army. Synchronized bootfalls rumbled across the clearing as Helkha, Galakhad, and the Narzads led them up to within a hundred feet of Abkehr's southern gate. Galakhad raised his palm up, signaling to the yeoman sergeants to halt. At once, the Borian army halted, trading stares with the garrison of Abkehr looking down upon them from the ramparts.
"Friends and fellow servants of Mother Night," Galakhad called out to the guards standing above him. "I am Baronet Galakhad, and I am joined by Helkha, Stewardess of Boria in lieu of Exarch Vadigar; and the levies of Boria. We have traveled for many days from to reinforce this settlement against the purported threat from the west. I bid you to let us through the gate and feed these men, and that my lady Helkha and I may hold court with Exarch Errocas."
Without response, the solid timber gate was winched open before the Borians. As the gate opened, Helkha and Galakhad saw a grizzled man, with a salt-and-pepper beard and mane grayed more by the pressures of combat than age. He was tall with broad shoulders accentuated by the pauldrons of his plate-and-mail cuirass. Flanked on either side by a cadre of what Helkha recognized as Stromist honor guard, the man standing on the opposite side of the gate's threshold scanned over the Borians with gray eyes before ultimately deciding to swagger over to Helkha and Galakhad.
"So you lot are the reinforcements?" He said, looking across the Borian spearmen with those stern gray eyes. "How many are you? Three, four thousand?"
"We bring 4,120 levies and 380 horsemen from the Narze to assist in the defense of Abkehr," Galakhad reported.
"Less than 5,000 men in reinforcements, hmm? It seems I'm not the only one who isn't terribly concerned by this approaching army I've been warned about."
"Not at all, good sir," Galakhad said. "We are merely the first of the reinforcements to arrive. Regent Master Ai has dispatched another 5,000 men to Abkehr's aid."
"I didn't need anyone's aid."
"Who precisely are you?" Helkha snapped, clearly irritated by the man's lack of respect.
"Ah, I've never introduced myself. I am Marshal Dulas, serving commander of Abkehr until Lord Errocas returns."
"And where might Errocas be?"
"On an errand from the Mother herself."
"I see," Helkha acknowledged. "In any case, I regret that this was not the support you had anticipated, Marshal. But this is all that Boria could spare. We in Boria are unsettled by the news of this army approaching from the west."
"I hardly see why," Dulas replied with the characteristic nonchalance he had in the presence of everyone but Errocas. "Abkehr has seen plenty of attacks from Atar. And yet, here we stand."
"This is not another Atari border raid, Marshal. If the rumors out of Atar are true, we face a much more formidable enemy than any force that has come out of the Realms of the Red Witches," Helkha explained.
What exactly are we up against, then?"
"Allow us inside, and we will divulge all we know."
Dulas gave a nod, and turned to his Stromist guard. "Escort these soldiers to the barracks, see that they are fed, and show them to where they may pitch tents or be quartered. I will go with the Stewardess and her knight and let them speak their peace." With that, Dulas beckoned the Borians into fort Abkehr.
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