Tales of the Five Kingdoms

Gara, Warlord of Thandor (Part One)

Contains HEAVY SPOILERS for THE EMPRESS SAGA, up to and including MAGE SLAYER

Seventh of Sun, Imperial Year 1342

One Year Before the Fall of Shan Alee

    It no longer mattered how treacherous the road would become, no matter how much blood remained to be spilled, there was no price Gara would refuse to pay if it brought freedom to the Continent. Her life for her people. Her soul for her clan. Her heart for the fallen. Gara would even see these most precious of things fall to dust if it meant no other would ever feel the weight of a collar around their neck.

    This price, however, might have been asking too much.

    "Nope!" She crumpled the sheet of parchment and lobbed it into the face of the Irdish mystic sitting across from her at the table. "No more."

    Vaan kept his face impassive as the paper ball bounced off his forehead and came to rest on the packed-dirt floor of Gara's hut. His gray skin, white hair, and long beard gave him an appearance to match his personality. Bland. Boring. Lacking any color or passion of any kind.

    "Chieftess..." Vaan sighed tiredly. "It is imperative you become literate."

    Gara turned on the floor to face away from him. She looked over her shoulder and showed him her petulant tongue as a reply.

    A bass note rumbled from deep in Vaan's throat while he uncrumpled the parchment and pressed it flat. Gara's tutor didn't approve of what he called her childishness.

    "You are no dimwit, Chieftess," Vaan scolded. "I have taken my measure of your intelligence and find you exceptional. Therefore, you have no excuse. Learn how to read, you shades-forsaken fool!"

    Gara scowled over her shoulder. "No male has ever spoken to me as you do. With good reason." She spun back around and braced her hands on her knees. The low table that separated them was the only shield Vaan had against her fury. "I've led war parties into the lands of our hated enemy. I've slain arcanists. I've communed with God and bear His mark as His blessed saint. I've choked the life from our Aleesh oppressors with my bare hands! And, you dare speak to me of what I must do?"

    Vaan gave her a flat look. "You're seventeen, girl. Get some perspective."

    Gara's eyes widened with outrage. She bolted to her feet and kicked the table aside.

    Vaan closed his eyes and sighed. He did that often. "Let me put it this way. Do you wish to know of where the Rubies will strike next and when? Would you find value in which routes the Amethysts transport the captives taken from Thandor back to the empire?"

    "Of course I would," Gara shouted.

    Vaan opened his eyes and scowled up at her. "Well, you will find that the Aleesh conceal information like this most cunningly in these things called books."

    Gara scoffed.

    "Other things as well," Vaan said in his most cajoling tone.

    "Such as what?" Gara snapped. She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to look at him.

    "The secret to forging steel, for a start."

    Gara felt her ear twitch. Aleesh steel made for far better weapons than the wrought iron blades her clan's smiths produced. If she could arm even a portion of her warriors with steel...

    Be cautious, the voice of God whispered. Those who overreach unerringly fall prey to their own ambition.

    Gara heard the wisdom in the words of God. It was a wisdom long held sacred by the Thandi clans. Find one's place, the place at the pinnacle of one's ability, and be content. This was the right and duty of all Thandi.