The Ivory Knight

Chapter 28 part i

PART III

They stood by the thousands, every face solemn and determined. Clad in plate or mail, with lances, spears and swords by their sides, the troops of Dale regarded Adeleina and Damien silently. 

Adeleina let loose a sigh that was half awe, half intimidation. "This is it, then? That's all of them?"

Damien scowled, shielding his eyes against the sun. "Did you expect more? Every lord in Dale has responded to the call for arms with the best men they have. What you see may very well be the largest army the Eastern Kingdoms have seen since the division of the Querus Empire."

Adeleina pinched her lips together. Damien had grown snappish and irritable in the months that had passed since his crowning, understandably. It was a rare occurrence to see the king outside the castle walls. Damien spent his hours poring over maps, diagrams, and old tomes on warfare written by kings long dead. He surrounded himself with his lords and counselors, spending long nights locked away in his conference chambers. 

But the months were over, and Adeleina now stood in front of an army. Her army. Staring into the burning horizon, Adeleina could almost imagine that the cohorts of soldiers stretched on forever, like a vast expanse of ocean.

Damien, curt though he was, was right. Adeleina knew firsthand that the soldiers she was seeing now were good-- some were the best she'd ever seen. She had trained with some of them, even partaking in the occasional spar, and her own sword had been knocked out of her hand more times than she cared to admit. 

"Which one is mine?" Adeleina asked. "Tomorrow we leave, and you still haven't assigned any of them to me."

Damien raised an eyebrow. "None of them are yours," he said.

"What?" Adeleina scoffed, aghast. "None of them?"

"You are far too valuable, you know." Damien watched the horizon. He didn't meet Adeleina's eye. "I'm not putting you in charge of anything-- let alone yourself. I've assigned a separate squadron to escort you by a different route. Once we gain the castle and capture Alecsander, you will be seen safely to the castle."

Adeleina inhaled, struggling to maintain her composure. Damien, the fool. Did he really think her so incompetent? True, she had never seen real battle, but had he not seen her swordwork? Her command of weaponry? Her pure skill, her grace? 

"You're jesting," Adeleina scoffed. "You can't be serious. Me, valuable? What makes you think I'm more important than any of you? And yet! You will leading cohorts, while I let a dozen of your men take me somewhere far away, safe from the real fight." Her nails dug into her palms. "It's my fight. This is my castle, my land."

For the first time since she and Damien had stepped out to evaluate Dale's army, Damien looked at Adeleina. His face was shadowed; Adeleina could read nothing. 

"It's for your own good," he said finally. "For the good of Corandell, you will not fight." He was watching her, and she was watching him. Each waited through the long ensuing silence, and Adeleina's nails dug further into the flesh of her hand. 

Adeleina said nothing, refusing to concede. Finally, Damien turned away and nodded sharply to his general, his second-in-command. 

"Break!" the general barked. The call rippled through the front lines, each cohort's commanders repeating the order. The army scattered, each man to his own, and the evaluation was over. 

Adeleina turned away, but not before she caught Damien's eyes returning to the horizon. He did not watch her leave.