Chương 134: Garrison Law

The rain filled the silence between us. Nobody moved. The field commander's ring still flickered around his forearm. My sword sat half-drawn. The Iron Cross Knights had spread behind me in a loose crescent, blades visible, Mana Blood darkening the veins at their throats. Hexenzeit soldiers surrounded us. Regular Army behind them. We had six wrecked magi-cars and fourteen people. I watched the commander's jaw work. Watched his eyes cut toward the captains flanking him.

Nobody wanted to start a fight between the Iron Cross and House Hexenzeit in front of the whole camp, with Wolkenmark scouts watching from the sideline. The voice came from the southwestern perimeter.

"Stand down." Every head turned. A woman in military uniform walked through the gap between two command tents. She wore an insignia I recognized. Magical Army. Goldkrieger. Rain plastered her raven-black hair down. A scar along her right cheekbone. Iris. She stopped ten paces from us, planted her boots in the mud, and spoke to the army.

"I will not participate in this action." The words carried across the command camp. The field commander turned on her.

"Lieutenant. You were ordered to reinforce the southern cordon."

"And now I'm not." A ripple moved through the officers. A captain emerged from behind the nearest tent with his helmet under one arm and his beard dripping. His eyes jumped between Iris and me.

"Iris," he said, low and careful.

"Don't do this."

"It's already done." The field commander's ring brightened.

"You are refusing a direct order during an active field operation. I will have you in chains by morning."

"You can try," Iris said.

"But you'll need to explain to the Magical Army tribunal why you chained a Goldkrieger for correctly interpreting Imperial garrison law." That stopped him.

"Garrison law," the commander repeated. Iris stepped forward.

"Imperial Code of Military Deployment," she said.

"Title Three, Section Twelve. The Magical Army and the Regular Army may be deployed within Imperial territory under two conditions. They may enter where no titled nobility holds jurisdiction, or where the ruling nobility has been formally overwhelmed and has requested Crown intervention through established channels."

"Kaltbach has a titled lord. He is standing in front of you. He has not requested Crown intervention or been overwhelmed, and he arrived with his own soldiers under his own authority."

"That title is days old," the commander snarled.

"The petition hasn't even received the Crown seal—""The mission order is signed by Prince Varen." I spoke without raising my voice.

"Authority was granted before I left the capital." The hooked-nosed captain stepped forward.

"This is absurd. We were here first. The operation was authorized by Hexenzeit command."

"Hexenzeit command does not hold title over Kaltbach," Iris said.

"Duke Roderich commands the Magical Army. He does not own every piece of dirt between Hexenzeit and the Wolkenmark border. If you want to dispute the barony, take it to the Parlament. Until then, this is Lord Kaspar's land, and you are standing on it without his leave." The field commander's ring guttered. From the realization that the woman in front of him was right, and that every Regular Army soldier within earshot had just heard her say it. Two hundred witnesses at minimum.

Men and women who answered to the Crown, not to House Hexenzeit, and who could repeat every word she had just said. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Arrest Iris, and the Magical Army tribunal had him within a week. Keep the siege, and every death behind those walls landed on House Hexenzeit's name. The commander spat into the mud at my feet.

"You want this shithole?" He wiped rain from his jaw with the back of his hand.

"Fine. It's yours. The revolt and every starving mouth behind those walls. Yours." He turned to the officers.

"Pack the tents. Pull the cordon. Every man, every mage, every cart and crystal back beyond the boundary markers by dawn." His voice went flat.

"We take our dead with us." He turned back to me. Stepped close enough that rain from the brim of his cloak dripped onto my shoulder.

"Roderich will hear about this before your horses are watered."

"I know."

"He will not be happy."

"He hasn't been happy with me since I was eight years old." I held his gaze.

"This won't be the last time I give him a reason." The commander stared at me for three long seconds. Then he turned and walked into the command pavilion without another word. The camp broke. Tents collapsed. Wagons turned. Supply crates went onto mule-drawn sleds. Officers barked orders down the line and the cordon peeled away from the town. The Regular Army detachment lingered longer. Their sergeant found me near the wrecked lead magi-car and saluted.

"Sir. Our orders came through Hexenzeit command. If the operation is dissolved—""Your orders are dissolved. Fall in with the withdrawal column. Report to your own chain of command when you reach a garrison."

"Yes, sir." He saluted again and was gone. Within an hour, the field around Kaltbach began to empty. The heavy ruts from artillery wagons filled with rainwater. Tent stakes left divots in the mud. The only evidence of a thousand soldiers was the churned earth and the lingering stink of wet canvas and horse dung. Henrik appeared beside me.

"That went better than I thought," he said. Dorn stepped out of the second magi-car's wreckage.

"The drive crystals are dead in four of the six vehicles," he said.

"We have two that might start. The rest are scrap."

"We won't need them inside the town."

"Are we going inside the town?"

"In a moment." I turned. Iris stood where the command pavilion had been. The stakes were pulled. The canvas gone. She occupied the bare patch of mud with her staff across her back and her arms folded. Behind her, a dozen soldiers waited. Her squad. They stood in a loose cluster, watching their Goldkrieger for the next instruction. I walked toward her. Iris watched me approach. Her eyes moved across my face, my hair, the breadth of my shoulders.

"Thank you." She shrugged one shoulder.

"I told the truth. Imperial law is Imperial law. The field commander knew it. He just didn't expect anyone to say it out loud."

"You could have stayed quiet."

"I've seen you fight elves, Kaspar. I wasn't in the mood to watch you fight Hexenzeit soldiers too." The rain eased slightly. Just enough that I could see the ridgeline to the north without squinting. Iris unfolded her arms.

"I almost didn't recognize you."

"The hair gives it away."

"The first time I saw you, you were a boy who couldn't swing a twig without his arms shaking."

"I had good teachers. And you've changed too. Third Circle, right?" Iris tilted her head.

"Goldkrieger. I worked five years for it."

"You earned it."

"I did." A beat.

"So did you, from what I hear." I stepped toward the town.

"I'm building something, Iris." I met her eyes.

"I could use people I trust. I'd be honored to have you." She held my gaze. Then she exhaled.

"I'd say yes." I waited.

"But I can't. Not yet." She shifted her weight.

"I signed a contract before the promotion came through."

"What contract?"

"An expedition." Her mouth compressed into a line.

"The Ministry approved it months ago. House Hexenzeit has been pushing for it since before the Grenzheim assault. We're just waiting for the Academy to give the final authorization."

"Where?" I asked.

"Near Grenzheim," Iris said.

"The dungeon expedition your house has been trying to reopen since the first one failed. Ironic, isn't it?" The corridor came back. Wyverns and dragons. They have no idea what's down there.

"How many?" I asked.

"Full expedition force. Hexenzeit military contingent. Academy research teams. A Sixth Circle Mage. Multiple Fourth and Fifth Circle officers." She ticked them off on her fingers.

"I'm attached as geological support. Earth mage for tunnel assessment and structural reinforcement." I clicked my tongue. I needed to find some way to stop them. Or go with them. The expedition was a disaster waiting to happen. The wyverns, the red dragons, and whatever waited past the second gate were enough. There was also old-world technology down there.

Ancient systems and ruins that could hold something useful enough to change the Empire before Elara, Varen, Roderich, or the Academy could put their hands on it.

"After that, if your offer still stands, I'll find you."

"The offer stands." Iris reached out and gripped my forearm once. A soldier's gesture.

"Good luck with the mutants, Baron."

"Good luck with the expedition, Goldkrieger." The corner of her mouth pulled up. She turned. Her squad fell in behind her. I watched until the last crimson shoulder patch vanished into the gray. Then I turned toward my people. I reached into the rear compartment of the lead magi-car. I found what I'd packed in the capital. A white flag. Three meters of bleached linen, stitched to a collapsible ash pole. Big enough to be visible from the wall at four hundred meters. I assembled the pole. Locked the joints.

Let the white fabric unfurl in the rain. It hung heavy and dripping. Henrik looked at it.

"A town that just killed twelve soldiers, expelled the Imperial magistrate, and petitioned a foreign republic for annexation. You know they might shoot us."

"They might." Dorn drew himself up.

"I'll carry it."

"No." I hefted the pole onto my own shoulder.

"They need to see the man holding it." I started walking. Behind me, Henrik, Dorn, Lena, and the others fell in. Kaltbach's boundary wall grew larger with every step. Figures appeared along the top, bows drawn. At least one shape with wings folded tight against a dark coat. I kept walking. At two hundred meters, a voice carried from the wall.

"STOP THERE!" I stopped and planted the flag in the mud, held the staff vertical, and let the white fabric speak for itself. Then I filled my lungs with Mana Breath and let my voice carry across.

"My name is Kaspar. Baron of Kaltbach. I sent the army away. I am here to talk." The figures on the wall didn't move. Then the gates began to open.