Prologue II

Summer, Year of Four Kings

504th Year of Independence

Vulpine rode across the battlefield, blaming himself for the deaths. Not just the deaths of the men he had killed, but every death in the battle. Every death in the whole war.

The battle had been fought on a cultivated hillside overlooking a major road, the fledgling crops trampled. A waist-high fence halfway up the hillside divided two fields; there the fight had been fiercest, as it was there Vulpine's outnumbered allies made their stand. A couple stands of trees had also formed points of contention.

Triage tents had sprung up where bodies were concentrated heaviest. Soldiers moved through their fallen comrades, collecting spears and helmets from the dead and flagging the wounded for the healers. Some looked up as Vulpine led his cavalry past them, towards the top of the hill.

Vulpine dismissed his men at the edge of camp, then dismounted and continued on foot. He wished he could celebrate the battle by getting drunk with his men, but he had reports to give, and a king to advise.

The hilltop village had been abandoned, its inhabitants fleeing before the army which now camped there. The streets were congested with tents pitched by the better equipped grunts, their worse-off comrades crowding into alleys. The officers, Vulpine knew, had packed into the buildings.

Alcohol flowed through the camp as the men celebrated their victory. Some sang drinking songs, some marching songs; some bragged to comrades or camp followers, boasting of feats of valor in the battle. Many recognized him from his helmet—its rust-red sōmen carved with the distinctive visage of a snarling fox—and applauded or cheered.

Emotions warred within Vulpine. Emboldened by the acclaim, glory and pride assaulted his guilt over failing to prevent the conflict, almost triumphing until Vulpine remembered how much more crowded the camp had been before the battle. He hung his head.

Near the center, Vulpine reached the village's only inn, which high command had co-opted as their base of operations. Four housecarls stood sentry at the door; one of them—Red, a sworn sword of Vulpine's uncle—saluted and opened the door.

Noise and heat assaulted Vulpine as he entered. The room within was dark, with boarded-up windows and the only light coming from a great fire in the central hearth.

Vulpine took off his helmet, revealing greying ginger hair, a short campaign beard, keen grey eyes, and ears like those of a fox. He was not alone in having inhuman ears; nearly half of the celebrating command staff were shapeshifters, with ears and tails like dogs, foxes, or wolves on otherwise human bodies.

A corpse had been propped up on a chair behind the bar, arrows sticking out of gaps in distinctive armor: green enameled kabuto, cuirass, vambraces, and fauld with golden edges, and gilded sōmen and gauntlets. Etched in gold across the chest was a stylized tree, branches and roots each fanning out in a semicircular pattern, together forming a circle. Earl Brisk of Clan Season, warlord, self-proclaimed king.

The leader of the victorious army stood near the bar: Thane Max of Clan Penance, warlord, self-proclaimed king. The dog-eared warlord had been listening to one of his commanders boast, smiling and nodding with wine in hand, but when he caught sight of Vulpine his face split in a more genuine grin.

"There he is!" Max pointed at Vulpine. "Commander of the Fourth Banner, the Flying Foxes, the unit that won the war!"

Eyes turned to Vulpine, full more of envy than respect. Vulpine bowed deeply towards the king, hiding his blush at the attention. "You flatter me, your majesty."

"And so humble too!" The king was flushed himself, wine warming his face. "The rest of these have been boasting of lesser feats than killing the enemy king, but you not only killed him, but ran down his army as it fled."

Vulpine rose and approached the king as an attendant brought him a bottle of saké. "May I speak with your majesty in private?"

"Sure, sure." Max threw an arm around Vulpine's shoulder and they maneuvered their way to a dark back hallway. Noise from the common room seeped in, and Vulpine could hear some commanders holding private celebrations with camp followers in some of the inn's rooms.

"I couldn't destroy the enemy army," Vulpine apologized. "With only two hundred horse archers, I couldn't keep enough pressure on enough of the army to keep them from regrouping, and they had enough foot archers to drive us off." Killing a dozen of his men in the process; no one he knew well, at least, but that was still twelve more men on his conscience.

"Where?" Max seemed less drunk than he had acted in the common room.

"About five miles down the road. My men with experience as scouts estimate they have about four thousand left."

"Which is how many we brought into the battle," Max said grimly. "And we lost so many today. If we hadn't killed Brisk, I'd say we were doomed."

"I'm afraid we're doomed anyway."

"But Brisk is dead. We can offer his thanes generous terms of surrender; hell, he doesn't have a son so we could offer his earldom to one of them in exchange for collaboration. Then with the East secured we can turn West, seize the royal capital, and clear out the pretender warlords in the West."

Vulpine sighed. With the abdication of Sage and a slew of deaths in the years since, the royal family—Clan Solaris—had gone practically extinct in the male line. Now four men fought to make themselves king, under the pretext of making their Solaris wives queen. Back in the day, the royal family's policy of marrying vassals had worked to stabilize the realm and solidify their power, but now it was backfiring spectacularly. It also had a more relevant implication, as Vulpine explained.

"The problem is, Brisk wasn't fighting for his own claim, but that of his wife." Sage's own sister, Serene; Vulpine remembered Sage marrying her off to Brisk to bring him into the civil war on their side. "I'm sure Brisk meant to install her as a puppet—" as Max was doing with his young new Solaris bride "—but with him dead, one of his vassals will set himself up as puppet master instead."

"Damn." Max took a pull on the wine he had taken from the common room. "So, what now?"

"I say march West. With how many men we lost today, we can't continue to prosecute this war on our own, but Adamant's on the back foot. With your help Hale could win the war, which would put him in your debt." Hale wasn't who Vulpine would pick for king, but he was unfortunately the best claimant who still stood a chance at winning.

"Unacceptable. I went from thane to king; I won't go back."

"Your assistance would win Hardy the throne," Vulpine reiterated. "You could leverage that to demand to be made an earl; Marcher Lord of the East in name as well as in fact. That's all you wanted in the first place, wasn't it? Before you married the Solaris girl?"

"That was the plan, but I've grown beyond it. This battle may have broken my ability to go on the offensive, but Eastmarch is the best fortified region in the country; I see no reason I should bow before another king."

Vulpine sighed. Without Max's help Hale might not win, and the war would definitely be longer and deadlier. Max allowed Vulpine a chance to speak further, but halfhearted protests died on his lips. The warlord nodded, then turned on his heel and returned to the celebration. As he watched him go, Vulpine finally opened the saké he had been given in the common room.

Vulpine, changed out of his armor, next found Max hours later, in a corner talking with his aide de camp and court chaplain. Vulpine's uncle Vigilant stood nearby, arms crossed.

The aide de camp was also the king's ex-wife: a short, well-endowed shapeshifter called Joy. Floppy canine ears drooped beside her head, and her curly black hair was put up in a bun. She looked sullen about something.

Thane Vigilant was scowling about something. He smiled when he saw his nephew, as propriety demanded, but the smile didn't touch his grey eyes. The old human had fought in the day's battle, despite his age; he had commanded the left flank, which had broke and almost lost them the battle.

"What's going on?" Vulpine asked.

"I was just speaking with Father Immaculate here about divorcing my wife to remarry Joy," Max explained.

"As I said, you don't need to go through the trouble of a divorce. If, as you claim, your marriage with Justice was never consummated, a simple annulment will suffice." The chaplain's bald head and unwrinkled face gave him an ageless quality, and his voice didn't date him either.

Vulpine cracked a grin despite himself. That explained Joy's pouting; Max divorcing her to marry Justice and claim the throne of Wéa had been her idea, and she had always been a sore loser.

"What are you smiling about?" Joy snapped.

"Nothing." Vulpine smothered his smile. "Er, your majesty."

"Not anymore," she said, while the king said "Not yet. Justice doesn't have to be present for an annulment, right?"

"Neither of you would have to be present," Immaculate nodded. "Or even consent. As court chaplain I have the legal authority to annul an unconsummated marriage with a written decree, but the High Priest of Hadria has the spiritual authority to overrule me."

Max yawned pointedly. "Just go write your decree. Vulpine, what can I do for you?"

The priest took the rude dismissal well, excusing himself with a polite word and a deep bow.

"Actually, it's what I can do for you." Vulpine stifled a yawn, refusing to catch Max's fake yawn. "I was wrong to doubt your decision to found an independent kingdom, and to make up for it I would like to do what I can to help it succeed."

Max nodded approvingly. Joy yawned.

"And I think I would be of most help as an ambassador. Your new kingdom will need allies to deter Wéan reconquest, and I'm sure our Brían neighbors wouldn't mind seeing a weakened Wéa."

And he would do his best to secure alliances, but his true reason for volunteering as ambassador was that he didn't want to be in the country when Hale invaded.

"But you're my most trusted advisor," Max protested. "How will I manage without you at my side?"

Comments like that were another reason Vulpine wanted to leave. He was an outsider, and the local nobility hated and envied the special treatment Max gave him. One such noble was Joy, which actually worked out for Vulpine in this instance.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," she almost purred. She was the second most influential person on Max, after Vulpine, so she had a vested interest in his leaving.

Max blinked in surprise and turned to her. Vulpine nodded in thanks when his back was turned. "When have the two of you ever agreed on anything? Well I suppose if my most trusted advisors are both for it, there must be something to it." Max shrugged. "I hereby appoint you Lord Ambassador to Bría. I'll get you a seal once we're back in court."

"Thank you, your majesty." Vulpine bowed. When he rose, the warlord had turned back to his fiancée. He turned to his uncle, still lingering nearby, and nodded with feigned respect. "Uncle. I should have greeted you by now, shouldn't I?"

"Vulpine." Thane Vigilant returned the nod.

"How's the thanedom?"

"Undermanned." Thousandleaf, their clan's thanedom, was on the border with the Dunia—one of the Brían Kingdoms—and Vigilant had only begrudgingly thinned his defenses to contribute to Max's army.

There was an awkward silence that spanned hours, or maybe just a minute or two. Vigilant tried to break it, starting with a hesitant "Listen—" but cutting off when the chaplain returned, bearing a paper with calligraphic writing and a seal of golden wax.

"Ah, good." Max took the paper from Immaculate and looked it over. "Now could you draft a wedding contract?"

"I would prefer to officiate a proper ceremony." Immaculate actually let a hint of emotion into his voice. Annoyance, Vulpine thought, but he couldn't tell for certain.

"A contract would be quicker."

"Very well, your majesty." And just like that, the emotion was gone.

"Bring it up to my room; we'll sign in there." With that dismissal, Max climbed onto a nearby table and cleared his throat. "Gentlemen!" The buzz of conversation within the common room died down. "I would like to make an announcement. Following the cost of today's victory, I have decided conquering Wéa would not be worth the cost. We march north at dawn, making for Afonford. Also, as I no longer seek the throne of Wéa, I have ended my marriage with Justice and will remarry Joy."

The lords and commanders raised glasses and offered words of congratulations as Max got down from the table, but when his back was turned Vulpine caught bitterness in their eyes.

"That won't go over well," Vigilant scoffed, voice low enough that only Vulpine heard. "We fought for him because he offered us land and money from Wéa, not because we supported his ambitions of kingship, but now he's suspending the conquest of Wéa?"

"Well conquering Wéa was always a long shot," Vulpine reminded him, "and after today's losses it's impossible."

"He's broken his end of the deal. I see no reason I should keep to mine."

Vulpine started to hear his uncle speak treason. "You swore an oath—the other thanes may have just been promised land and money, but you were also promised the position of Royal Marshal." It sounded hollow to Vulpine, defending Max with the argument that he hadn't completely broken his word, just mostly.

"Royal Marshal of a doomed kingdom." Another scoff. "Might as well hang myself now and save Earl Hale the trouble. No, I'm taking my army back home. I thought I should offer to take you with me; you are family, after all. Your mother would never forgive me for leaving you to die with him."

Vulpine looked back towards Max, but he was already across the room, going upstairs with Joy. What was he going to do anyway, rat out his uncle? That would lead to his execution; you don't do that to family, even if you didn't get along with them. Besides, getting himself appointed as a diplomat to be out of the country when it fell was almost the same thing. It would have been hypocrisy.

Vulpine sighed. "I won't tell Max...but I'm afraid I can't join you."

"Do as you wish." With that he left.

Unable to remain loyal to his king without betraying his family, yet unable to stay true to his family without betraying his king, Vulpine found only one path open to him: saké.