Guardian of Heaven and Earth
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New Yogo
Part 2 - Transcending Death
Chapter 1 - Homecoming
Chagum hadn’t been home in two years. His eyes passed over the mountain streams and the lush green forest in the spring sunlight. It looked like many places he’d seen in Rota, but everything seemed greener now: more vivid and alive.
The sun shone on the new leaves of the trees and left dappled patterns on the ground.
“You can see the smoke from here,” Kahm said. Hagu Muro had ordered Kahm Musa to keep Chagum safe, so Kahm rarely left his right side. Lieutenant Karon belonged to the Rotan army and rode on his left.
“According to the refugees from Shirogai, the Talsh attacked the fort near their city five days ago.”
Chagum nodded. “The people camped at a place not too far from the city. Let’s try to find their camp and stop there for the evening.”
Karon and Kahm nodded.
After the army had set up their tents near the burned-out Shirogai, Chagum was able to spend some time alone. He wiped off the grime and sweat of the road with a clean, wet cloth, then changed his clothes and got into bed.
Chagum was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. The army camp was loud. Chagum listened to the camp sounds and stared into the darkness.
I’m finally home.
Chagum had wanted nothing else for more than two years, and now, he was finally here--back in New Yogo. Prince Ihan had kept the promise he’d made many years ago and agreed to Chagum’s proposed alliance. With Kanbal and Rota united, they could form a wall to protect the northern continent against the Talsh invasion.
Chagum sent messages to Ihan via the hawk of the leader of the Kashal. The man was named Sufar; the hawk was named Shau. Sending messages that way was three times faster than sending them overland. If Prince Raul learned of the Kashal’s extra abilities, he would likely capture or eliminate them as quickly as possible.
Chagum wondered how much his home had changed in his absence. He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. He lay back on his bed and thought about everything that had gotten him to this place.
Chagum had arrived in Jitan at the head of an army of fifteen thousand cavalrymen. Prince Ihan knew he was coming; he’d received the message via Sufar’s hawk. News of the large army spread to the southern clan lords, and from there to the Talsh spies who were operating in Rota.
The southern clan lords, especially Lord Suan, were beginning to understand that there was no way for them to win in this war. King Yosam was deathly ill, and they could not support Prince Ihan, whom they detested. But Talsh also didn’t have their best interests at heart.
Prince Ihan was also shrewd. The southern clan lords had started the civil war, so King Yosam had signed a decree that condemned them as rebels and traitors. All the official soldiers in the King’s army, including those stationed in southern Rota, were automatically conscripted to fight for the north. Soldiers who chose to fight for the southern clan lords would also be considered traitors to the nation. Since King Yosam was too weak to fight on the battlefield, Prince Ihan commanded his armies in his stead.
At first, the King’s decree caused great confusion all over the nation. Eventually, Prince Ihan imposed order and split the army into three groups. Twenty thousand men were held in reserve to pacify Rota and keep the southern clan lords under control. Five thousand men were sent south to the border with Sangal to reinforce the Yogoese army there. Fifteen thousand were given to Chagum to command in defense of his homeland. King Yosam supported Prince Ihan in everything, and vice versa, so he wrote a letter for Chagum proposing an alliance with New Yogo, addressed to the Mikado. The words in King Yosam’s letter pierced Chagum to the heart.
If your nation falls, the rest of the northern continent falls with it. To save Rota and Kanbal, New Yogo must be saved first. I have heard that the Talsh command an army of two hundred thousand men, but the men mustering on the Sangal peninsula number scarcely sixty thousand. My scouts inform me that thirty thousand of these have been commanded to invade New Yogo. They cannot commit that entire force to invasion. Sangal’s islands are not fully pacified; Talsh will be forced to hold many men in reserve to maintain their grip on them.
If we fail to defend our nations, we will become like Sangal, consumed by their cruel oppressors. In tarzu, one player may turn many other pieces to his own side. Players win through overwhelming the enemy’s numbers.
I beg you to heed the words of your son, Crown Prince Chagum. Together, you have the ability to change the fate of the world.
Prince Ihan read through the letter, then commanded Lieutenant Karon to accompany Chagum. Karon was thirty years old. He was a clever man and a skilled military strategist. He’d proven himself useful immediately by working through all the logistics required to march a force of fifteen thousand men to New Yogo.
Prince Ihan wasn’t committed to saving New Yogo, exactly. He was more concerned with the Talsh threat and civil war in his own land. Still, he was willing to help Chagum to the best of his ability, for his brother’s sake and the sake of the continent.
The King of Kanbal’s forces, which also numbered fifteen thousand, were of of a similar mind. Their leaders were Kahm and Hagu Muro, who were both King’s Spears. “We’ve committed our army to your cause to defend Kanbal and the king,” Hagu Muro said. “If the lands below the Misty Blue Mountains are threatened by hostile enemies, it makes sense for our army to repel them before they can reach our country’s border.” He scratched at his thick beard.
As he spoke, Chagum got the strange sense that Kanbal, Rota and New Yogo had, for all intents and purposes, had become a single nation with a single will. All they wanted to do was defeat the Talsh. Kanbal and Rota had already joined forces. All that was left was to convince New Yogo to join the alliance. Chagum rode to his homeland with an escort of three thousand men selected from both the Kanbalese and Rotan armies. The five thousand men sent to reinforce the Sangal border were already through Nabal Pass, far to the south. Prince Ihan had also deployed the Rotan navy to protect the coast.
Prolonging the war would be dangerous, and not just for obvious reasons. Talsh was an incredible sea power. With New Yogo invaded and destroyed, the continent’s main source of food would be unavailable. If southern Rota fell under Talsh command as well, it was likely that all the armies would starve. Other supplies would be short, too, if trade routes were cut off by sea.
Chagum learned of New Yogo’s crushing defeat at the Tarano Plains via a message sent by Sufar. Thirty thousand Talsh had engaged twenty-five thousand Yogoese in fierce combat, but the battle hadn’t lasted long. Talsh casualties, including both injuries and deaths, numbered something like eight thousand. Yogoese deaths and injuries were three times that. The few surviving soldiers retreated to a fortress to the south, following the imperial highway.
The imperial highway led directly to Kosenkyo. The enemy would soon be at the Mikado’s doorstep. The Talsh army had bypassed Shirogai and the merchant cities completely, intent on capturing their target.
Prince Raul had sent messengers to the imperial palace in Kosenkyo. Like Prince Ihan, Prince Raul employed many spies, like Hugo Arayutan, who had captured Chagum and brought him to Talsh some years before. Sufar guesses that the spies had already reported all of the city’s weak points to Prince Raul.
For your foolish act of pointless resistance, I could order your family’s palace burned. Maybe I’ll have the soldiers cut your mother’s ears off and sever all of your little sister’s limbs while you watch and listen to their screams. You have no way to defend them—or yourself. New Yogo knows nothing of war.
Prince Raul had said that to Chagum when they’d met. Chagum thought of his mother and sister and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if he was too late to save the palace.
Chagum dreamed of men on horseback clomping through the wilderness. He heard their horses snorting and their tack jangling as they moved. Suddenly, they were all on the ground: horses, men, and tack all: all dead. None of them moved. He was the only one left.
The next day dawned gray and cheerless. Cold mist soaked Chagum’s boots through. Scouts returned from the fortress near Shirogai to report on the situation there.
The soldiers in the fortress had surrendered long since; there was no sign of the Talsh army anywhere. “We should ride out today, Your Majesty,” one of the scouts said in a grim tone.
“Why?” Chagum asked. “It’s raining; won’t our coats and equipment be ruined?”
“The equipment is made to withstand bad weather,” the scout said. “But you should push past the fortress before the rest of the army passes through. There are things there that would be better not to see.”
Chagum swallowed in alarm, then shook his head. “No. I will advance with the rest of the army and see the fortress. I understand that it may be terrible, but they are soldiers that were wounded or killed in battle. Seeing them is a matter of honor.”
Chagum rode up to the fortress flanked by Kahm and Karon. The first thing he noticed was a terrible smell. His heartbeat faltered for a moment. The smell was complex, but the overwhelming scent that reached his nose was that of rot. He heard birds calling out softly to one another in the worsening rain as he advanced.
The fortress was not as bad as he expected. It was worse. Corpses lined the street or were piled up haphazardly in it. A flock of crows was startled by the advancing riders and flew off in a panic.
Kahm made a strangled sound in his throat. One of the riders in front of them rapidly dismounted and vomited onto the street.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have come after all, Your Majesty,” Karon said. He was very pale.
Chagum’s overwhelming emotion was not disgust, but rage. He removed his helmet without saying a word, then removed his shuma face covering from his saddlebag and put it on. He kept his grip tightly on his horse’s reins, one-handed.
The street was full of nothing but corpses, so he had no desire to advance, but he gritted his teeth and made his resolve. He patted the neck of his horse to soothe it, then rode through the sea of dead that surrounded him.
Some of the bodies nearest the walls of the fortress wore Talsh armor. Men were stuck full of arrows like pincushions. Others had died when burning oil or tar was poured over their heads from above.
“I thought we were fighting the Talsh,” Karon muttered. “Isn’t their skin ruddy and somewhat darker than ours? But many of the men wearing Talsh armor look Yogoese, don’t they?”
“They are Yogoese,” Chagum said. “Talsh conquered Old Yogo a long time ago. And those men,” he said, pointing to others on the battlefield, “are from Orm. I recognize the design on their armor.” There were almost no recognizably Talsh bodies. Nearly all of the enemy dead were either Yogoese or Ormese.
Chagum stopped his horse, swallowing heavily. “This is what happens to the people who are conquered by Talsh. They’re sent off to die and eaten by crows. We can’t let it happen to New Yogo.” Tears fell down his cheeks.
“What did they die for?!” he yelled. “Tell me what the point of all this was!”
Karon gripped Chagum’s shoulder. Chagum wiped his tears away and sat up straight. He turned his attention to the shattered gates in front of the fortress.
Inside the fortress, all of the corpses belonged to New Yogo’s army. They’d been burned, stabbed, dismembered…many bodies were scattered in pieces. The remaining walls that still stood were black with remembered fire. Some corpses had been burned to ash, leaving only bones behind.
Though the sight before him was terrifyingly grim, by some mercy, Chagum seemed to have lost his sense of smell. He felt like all his senses were dulled and that he was seeing in black and white. His hands, feet and neck were all freezing cold. His armor felt heavy. It was hard to breathe.
All these men had died because of his father. His father had not prevented it. He’d done nothing to stop it.
Chagum advanced a little farther, then looked over his shoulder. His escort trailed after him like a line of ants. He trembled all over and clamped down on himself, trying desperately to keep still.
The Talsh army was ahead of them now. How many days behind were they? And when they caught up, wouldn’t the Talsh army do the same to them as the soldiers here? Chagum shut his eyes tight and ordered himself not to think about it. He felt like the fog was soaking the corpse smell into his bones.
He remembered something that Shuga had told him once, so long ago that he thought he’d forgotten. Your Majesty is the child of a god. You must never come into contact with anything impure, so that your soul will not be corrupted and polluted by the ugliness of the world. Your father is not a person, but a god, you see. He is the pure soul of our entire nation, and the source of New Yogo’s great pride.
Is it possible for the soul to be corrupted by the sight of something like this? Chagum thought.
Chagum looked up at the sky. A hawk flew far over his head, but it was coming closer fast. Chagum extended his arm so that the hawk could land. It was Shau, Sufar’s hawk. He beat his wings a few times, then settled onto his perch. Shau was a maro hawk. Their eyes were far better than humans’. Sufar claimed that maro hawks had the best eyes among birds. He would know; as leader of the Kashal, he could attach his spirit to that of animals and control their movements, though only with the complete trust of the animal involved. Sufar had trained many hawks over the years, but Shau was his favorite.
“Sufar? Are you in there?” Chagum asked.
Shau let out a short, high-pitched screech. There was a message in Shau’s talons, secured by metal fastenings. When Chagum opened it, he saw a message in Rotan as well as a detailed map.
“You’ve already scouted this place?” Chagum asked.
Shau screeched again.
“Did Sufar send us something?” Karon asked, riding up to Chagum’s side. “What is it?” Kahm also rode up, looking askance at Chagum.
The message was a report from Sufar. Chagum scanned it, then said, “The army that attacked this place is already fighting at Yazuno’s fortress. After Yazuno falls—and it will—the Talsh will be able to enter Kosenkyo without further resistance.” He paused. “That’s not all. The force that Prince Ihan sent southward to reinforce the border was attacked by an army of twelve thousand Talsh soldiers before they could get there. Ten thousand Talsh troops resupplied at the Tarano Plains and are already heading for the capital.”
Kahm looked over Chagum’s shoulder at the map Sufar had drawn and frowned. “The Talsh army marches from Yazuno to the west and the Tarano Plains to the east,” he said. “Kosenkyo will be attacked from both sides.”
“Sufar writes that only a few hundred men attacked the fortress we’re standing in. The rest advanced past the fortress with the rest of the western army before the battle was even over,” Chagum said. “The western army numbers something like twenty thousand men.”
And the eastern army numbered ten thousand. Kosenkyo would be attacked by thirty thousand Talsh soldiers. Chagum closed his eyes and thought for a moment. When he opened his eyes, he faced Karon and said, “We have to move. If we don’t beat the Talsh to Kosenkyo, it’s all over. We can’t rest until we get there.”
Chagum looked down at the map in his hand, which was slowly being soaked by the rain. Kosenkyo looked like a beast trapped in a net. The combined Rotan and Kanbalese armies had to break through that net before it closed completely shut. He rolled up the map and handed it to Karon. Then he stroked Shau gently on the head and say, “Thank Sufar for me. I’m very glad you’ve agreed to lend us your eyes.”
The sound Shau made was almost like a cheep as he spread his wings and launched off of Chagum’s arm.
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