The Radiant War

Chapter 32c

     Three weeks later, the Brigadier was riding at the head of a column of soldiers and dignitaries from a dozen countries making their way towards the nearest area of Radiant territory. On one side of him was Thomas Shanks, the scientist, who looked as though he was still not quite comfortable in outdoor travelling clothes or, for that matter, with being outdoors at all.

     The Brigadier thought that he had the look of an indoor man. A man used to the warmth and comfort of a controlled environment and for whom a cold breeze or a light shower would be discomforting enough to ruin his whole day. Even now, in what the Brigadier thought was a warm, sunny day, Shanks had his collar turned up and the top button of his thick, heavy coat fastened, and the Brigadier had to control his face to keep a smile of amusement from appearing there. He had insisted on coming, though. If mankind was finally about to confront the Radiants and hold them to account for their crimes, then the Hetin folk absolutely had to be represented as well.

     In contrast, Mason Pettiwell, the Kelvon diplomat riding on his other side, was having a much happier time of it. He was a large man with a ferocious shock of red hair and a wide handlebar moustache, and he was one of those people who would happily chat to anyone nearby about anything that crossed his mind. The Brigadier had taken an instant dislike to him, but was diplomatic enough to try to hide his feelings. He wished he would ride further back with the other dignitaries, where be wouldn't have to suffer his grating personality, but as the representative of the Empire Pettiwell seemed to think that he was, in fact, the leader of the mission and that his place was at its head. He seemed to think that he was being gracious in allowing the other two men to ride alongside him.

     The other dignitaries from smaller countries were behind them, each one accompanied by an assistant and a servant, and behind them was a wagon, drawn by four horses, containing a functioning arc oscillator. The hissing and bubbling of its water cooling system was clearly audible above the creaking of wood, the tramping of nearly two hundred iron shod hooves and a couple of low voiced conversations between the men of his military escort. Two other wagons further back carried enough spare parts to build two complete new machines and enough chemicals and acids to keep the batteries supplying electricity for several days, and even if the batteries ran out, the machine could be powered, if necessary, by a hand crank operated by two men.

     They were travelling through Wilterland, on almost the same route the Brigadier had followed while on their way to find a cure for the Princess, and as they went the Brigadier kept noticing landmarks he recognised from the first time. That was the river where they'd stopped to fill their water bottles and into which Spencer had ‘accidentally’ knocked Harper, to the great amusement of everyone except the Brigadier himself. There was the spot where they'd made camp for the night the day after a snake had panicked Cowley’s horse and made it throw him off. As they rode past, he saw a circle of stones where someone had made a camp fire and was almost certain that it had been them. Yes, there was the tree he'd slept under. The one that had dropped a dead branch on his legs in the small hours of the morning.

     He allowed himself the smallest of smiles. The mood had been so different back then. Then, they had been angry at what had been done to their beloved Princess and full of anxiety as to whether their one desperate hope of saving her would succeed. Every word they spoke, every smallest action or gesture, had revealed the powerful emotions seething just beneath. Even he, the Brigadier, had been fearful and anxious, even though he'd taken great care not to let the men know. Malone had guessed, perhaps, but he'd said nothing to anyone. He had always been good at keeping the Brigadier's secrets, and the Brigadier missed him terribly. He’d been offered another batman to replace him, but he had turned the offer down. It would have been unfair on the young man to make him try to fill shoes that nobody else could fill.