230 Chapter 230

Astraka sat in his command tent and listened to the scout report, unexpectedly an elf. He knelt before the Duke, ignoring the human guards as he made his report. "...And that is what I found, Duke Astraka."

"I see, so they did get around us… they must have ranged very far, we will have to extend our lines… but if they don't want us to bring our own supplies, we will have to take their own." Duke Astraka remarked in an offhanded way.

He then looked to the guard at his right hand, the command tent was what one would have expected, a fine chair for the leader, nothing for the rest, a wooden table that could be assembled and disassembled with ease thanks to its mobile legs, a map of the immediate region, and tan fabric from which a few glowstones hung from small strings to light the dim room. "Give the elf enough for three days' travel and send him back to his unit."

"Three days…" The guard asked, half dismayed at the command, his hand tensing around his halberd.

"He may have to take a circuitous route to get back alive." Astraka explained while he stood up.

The elf raised his eyes in shock at the evident generosity, "Th-Thank you, My Lord."

The elf was gone with his escort a moment later. "Get the army moving." Astraka said, "Pack up camp, and put the word out to the other commanders, we're going mobile now, no more large encampments."

His guard, true to form, was also a senior leader in his own right, and the metal of his expensive helmet clinked as he took a step back as if to withdraw from the order. "My Lord, are we not going to open our supply lines again?"

Astraka shook his head. "And face Gustav Montagnés in open battle? With tens of thousands of paladins and squires? Absolutely not. Our army isn't seasoned enough for that. The North is a hard place, Count Richan, a very hard place. Demihuman incursions, year round training, we haven't a prayer against the army they can leverage against us. Not as we are. That is why I went to the Queen of Frost for help. Giving up elven slaves, opening up trade, these are minor concessions for victory."

"Sire…" Count Richan was a vigorous, powerfully built young man, broad as a farm boy and a talented warrior with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, and a long confidant of Duke Astraka.

"You heard me, Richan." Astraka said, "The slave rebellion proves we can't hold them, we should have just used short term criminals or even paid workers… keeping elf slaves around just so the mining magnates could keep their labor costs low… How many hostages do the elves have to keep us 'honest' now?"

"Many." Richan remarked and drew his lips tight across his face.

"Exactly. Getting them back will seal the deal with the rest of the nobles, remaining friendly with the elves for when they abandon us-" Astraka laughed when Richan's mouth opened and no sound came out.

"Of course they're going to abandon us. We enslaved their men, raped their women, used them like toys, I have no doubt at all that they'll go over to the Queen of Frost as soon as they can." He pointed at the places on the map the reports came from. "They're ranging farther away than they need to in order to support us, I thought at first it was because they didn't like humans, but look at the path they're taking." He traced his hands along the paper, "Directly to the Queen of Frost… well… indirectly, but nonetheless they will intersect if nothing changes. When they do, we'll lose our scouts, but I think we will get back their hostages."

"Duke Astraka… perhaps you should be the King, not Prince Caspond…" Count Richan said it with a smile, but the Duke shook his head.

"No. I'm not interested in Kingship, I want only what is best for my country, and Queen Calca's rule… it is proving a poor fit for all of us, North and South alike. If she concedes to her brother, I'm happy to go back home and rule in peace for the rest of my life." He said and stretched his arms out once. "Now, get us moving, we're going to start hitting towns for supplies, Gustav may have cut off our supplies, but he can't go south, it's far easier to defend than to attack, meanwhile we can go everywhere. He's expecting us to try to take that position back, instead… I'm going to move on Prart. Take it by surprise, and all the supplies they have, and then go east. Let him chase us down if he wants, we'll be long gone by the time he realizes what I've done."

"My Lord is as clever as ever." Count Richan's grin was big on his face and his steps were quick, long, and confident as he left the tent to give the Duke's orders to the army.

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Kelart watched her Queen depart with the foreign King, and inside the breast of the second most powerful woman in the Roble Holy Kingdom, a heart tore in two. But she kept her face stoic, stern, and strode on steady steps as measured as any dancer's until she was at the head of the table. "Matters of state keep the Queen occupied with our King," she said while standing ramrod straight and holding aloft a crystal goblet of dark wine. She smiled brightly when eyes turned to face her while her own torn open heart turned to ashes in her breast.

Her hand raised the crystal chalice and held it out as the nobles both new and… the few surviving old, raised their own and stood on their feet, "We drink to the new future of our nation, from the ashes of this war will rise a phoenix, and may we all rise with it!"

"May we all rise!" The noble men and women of the Holy Kingdom, many of whom came from the senior ranks of the military, and others from the wealthiest merchants, all shouted their toast in unison, and meant it.

'My Queen… I hope he is gentle with you… as I would have been… and treasures you… as I would have. I hope-' She killed the thought, screeching in pain like a madwoman in her own head, stabbing the thought over and over again, she could not wish for him to love her Queen, or for her Queen to love him. 'It was never going to be.' She told herself, and began struggling to let go, like a drowning woman clinging to a rope, and deciding she would no longer try to pull herself to safety… only to find that she was tangled up in it and couldn't let go even if she wanted to.

'It will all work out… for the Kingdom… for the Kingdom… that's what matters…' The brown haired young caster told herself, and told herself, and told herself, crying inside while holding her crystal glass so tightly that it cracked between her fingers as she, and all of the other nobles new and old alike, got thoroughly drunk. Slumping over their tables or under them, for very, very different reasons.

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"Come on… let's get you to bed." Illyana said to the thoroughly drunk human. She rose, a little unsteady on her feet, but compared to Skana, who slumped forward with glassy eyes and swaying back and forth in her chair, she may as well have been the most graceful of dancers.

"How're you shober… sober?" Skana sounded out the question and let out a little hiccup. "I knows we drank same shtuff."

"I've been drinking liquor since before your great great great grandmother first got into some fermented apples." Illyana said with a silvery, slightly drunken laugh. "An elf could even drink a dwarf under the table by the time they're my age."

She went over to the pretty human companion, stood beside her, and then crouched down, "I'm not as strong as you are, so I'm going to have to walk you." Illyana explained while Skana nodded along. She put one of Skana's arms over her shoulder and then put her arms around the woman's waist, then stood her up on her feet. "Just try to walk with me as best you can."

Skana did as the elf wanted, she tried to move her feet, "No fair… cheatin by bein sho long livin… could drink you unner the table ifn I had time… jus time…"

Skana's glassy eyes fixed on the elf as they walked, or rather, staggered into the bedroom of the expensive suite, "Sorry… real sorry…" Skana mumbled as the elf got her over to the bed and flopped her down.

"For what?" Illyana asked while she began to undo Skana's boot laces and pulled them off the woman's feet and tossed the brown leather to thud down on the floor.

Skana abruptly lurched and vomited both the earlier meal and the wine out onto both herself and the bed.

Illyana sighed, and Skana said it again, "I'm sorry… I'm sho sorry…"

"It's just vomit, it's nothing I haven't seen or… made before." Illyana said with a good natured laugh before going over to where the the washbasin sat and dampening a cloth, she returned and wiped the brown fabric over Skana's face and then wiped up the vomit stain off of the fur of the bedding as best she could, ignoring the chunks of half digested meat and bread and the foul sour smell before dumping them into the chamber pot.

She wiped her hands clean, Skana was still repeating the same three words when Illyana returned and began to undo the laces of Skana's vomit stained shirt, "Come on, stop apologizing for… whatever it is, and let's get you taken care of."

Skana's body was hard to the touch, harder than Illyana expected. The drunken woman cooperated as much as she could, "Come on, I'm not going to leave you soaking in your own vomit all night." Illyana said and slowly pulled the steel-like arms out of their sleeves, "How on earth are you so… strong?"

Skana laughed, "Dunno. Dancin. Play fightin… shwords, pretty good… got mish Shalbedo to show me shtuff when you were out… hurt like 'ell…"

"Oh." Illyana replied, it seemed strange for a woman who so proudly and often proclaimed she cared for nothing but pleasure. "Was it… for fun or…?"

Skana shook her head and flopped back on the bed, heedless of her bare breasts heaving with every deep breath, "Cause I like you…" She said, and drifted off to sleep, leaving Illyana behind with more questions than answers.

"Strange girl…" Illyana laughed and recalled how many of her past 'clients' were thoroughly drunk, and how to treat them. She rolled the human onto her side and ignored the sound of snoring when it began to cut like a double headed saw through a tree trunk. 'Alright, so I won't sleep great tonight, at least 'I' won't have a hangover in the morning.' She managed one more laugh at herself before running her hand over the glowstone by the bed, and plunging the room into darkness before drifting off to sleep beside her companion.