Sunday 16 March 2008

Shift, Chapter 9

TRIUMPH!

For the glory of our great nation, our most wise and magnificent King has forged anew the alliance with our sister nation Arrozale. United once again with our Kingdom, this will bring wealth, power and the true glorification of all Peoples! We enter this fellowship afresh, lead by the banners of our King, stepping bravely forth into an Age of our own making!”

Ketch, Lai. “Triumph,” Silveteran National Press. 1

***

The wind howled through the city, lashing at the walls of the castle and setting the candles flickering wildly in their holders. A crowd had gathered in the round room, delicately avoiding looking directly at the tableau set out on the massive central stone table. With a resounding clang the metal door sealed firmly behind them, causing the group to fall silent.

“Good evening. Please take your seats.”

Penry strode through the middle of the gathered people, stopping at the largest chair, set directly opposite the entranceway.

“Sit. It wasn’t a request,” he repeated, in a more acerbic tone. The people hurriedly scrambled to their places, whilst their King stared morosely at the scene depicted on the table.

“The way I see it, we have three choices,” he began, tapping one finger on the map set before him. “Callania, Daiiroda or Gentrare.”

There was a soft generalised murmuring from around the room.

“Ideas.”

The King sat down, steepling his fingers, but not taking his eyes from the moulded map spread across the table.

“Callania is the easiest approach. It is weak to the South,” Klint growled from the King’s right, running a finger across that gently undulating section of the map.

“But Daiiroda is less technologically advanced,” a woman interjected from across the table. “They’re also our grain basket. Silvetera wouldn’t survive two winters together without it.”

“True enough Lady Helma,” Penry replied evenly, “But that was before we acquired the plentiful options offered to us by Arrozale.”

“Fish!” Helma spat, wrinkling her nose, “I suppose sacrifices are part of the nature of what we are undertaking.”

“Sacrifice?” the King replied, with slight amusement colouring his tone. “There will be no need of that. We need not offer Daiiroda any reason to stop its profitable trade with us. Indeed, we may offer them some very good reasons why it would be wise to not upset us.” He smiled at this thought and the room briefly hummed with low-key appreciation.

“Gentrare ought not to be attempted,” a man interjected from the left of the King. “It has a mountainous approach to our north, plus some very tight defence systems.”

“Geirus, we wouldn’t need to take the southern entrance if we can open a more northern route,” Helma replied hurriedly, standing up and leaning across the table to tap the easternmost edge of Daiiroda.

“You suggest a dual assault of Daiiroda and Gentrare?” Geirus replied cynically, crossing his arms defensively.

“With control of both those nations, Callania and even Aetyorthiri would not dare defy us!” she replied, retaking her seat with a slightly triumphant air.

“Have you ever entered Daiiroda from the south?” a quiet voice interjected into the silence that had followed Helma’s statement.

“As you well know, Kunil, I have never seen the need to leave my own city,” she replied savagely, glaring at the small man. “This has always been my home and the home of my ancestors before me.”

“Bloodties aside, I believe you were going to make a point?” Penry cut across Helma, looking directly at the slightly flustered Kunil.

“Well yes, sire,” Kunil continued, swallowing nervously. “It’s all swamp to the south. There’s not even a trading route that way. Well, not a trading route as such. Although some traders…”

“So what you’re saying,” the King interrupted quickly, sensing this was the extent of the man’s point, “it’s not the geographically sensible choice. Which leaves us back with General Klint’s original suggestion; Callania.”

There was a pause as the room considered their response.

“Then it is settled,” the King said in a finalistic tone, tapping the border between Arrozale and Callania. A small smile flickered across his features.

“To war.”

***

23/2/4376

No sightings. Moon waning. Cloud cover.

24/2/4376

No sightings. Moon waning. Clear skies.

25/2/4376

No sightings. Moon waning. Cloud and rain.

26/2/4376

Movement sighted south east. Unexplained. Messenger dispatched. Top alert. Moon New. Cloud.

Volan Fort Watch Tower Log for 4376, no. 53-56.

***

“They’re coming for us!” Urlof bellowed above the uproar in the town square as the crowd screamed their questions at him. “Don’t ask me how or why! You can stay and fight. Or you can run and make sure you run fast! They’re coming! And they’re coming much faster than most of you can run!”

The crowd heaved as one chaotic mass and then began to spread as various shapes began breaking away and running in human and shifted forms.

“Run then!” Urlof called above the pandemonium, “But I fight!” A roar greeted this statement as a fierce-looking section of the masses congregated around the man, bellowing their support.

“What do we do?” Srynia shouted to Riarna, struggling to stay together amid the moving chaos.

“Find our parents!” Riarna called back. “I don’t know what else we can do,” she added with slight despair.

Grabbing hold of her sister’s arm, Riarna pushed and squeezed her way through the throng, desperately searching for those familiar faces.

“Maybe they’ve gone back to the farm,” Srynia shouted, pulling her sister to a stop. “We said we’d meet back there after the meeting. We’ll never find them in all this!”

“We’ll check. If they aren’t at home, we’ll come back here again,” Riarna replied, looking around them anxiously.

Still holding on to each other, the sisters broke free from the crush of people, dashing down the street and leaping the fence into the commons.

“Shift,” Srynia stated, whilst the two paused momentarily to draw breath. Riarna nodded and quickly merged form into a cheetah.

“Not fair!” Srynia laughed, to her own surprise. “Something I can keep up with please!” she added more seriously.

With a slight shake Riarna shifted larger until she took on the form of a horse. Srynia quickly joined her in shifting and the two set off at a fast canter.

“Sorry!” Riarna snorted to her sister in horse, “Got carried away.”

“We’re not all multi-totemed shifters,” Srynia nickered back in remonstrance.
Riarna shook her mane and broke into gallop, racing her sister across the closely-cropped commons.

***

For the Attention of Her Royal Highness, Queen Aleyn of Silvetera.

Dear Aleyn,

I am sending this message with an urgent appeal for you to reconsider the hostile actions you are taking against my country and my people. I can not believe that you would sanction this violation of our borders without the manipulation of your husband. However, unless you intercede on our behalf you will forever hold equal blame in my eyes and in the eyes of the world. You alone have the political sanctions, however unwilling you may be to use them. You alone have the power to call an end to this violence.

If not for the sake our Kingdoms, then I must also appeal to our friendship, which I had believed would endure to the end. The years that have kept us apart, I did not believe would erase the bonds of kinship that we have held dear since children.

I will keep this message brief to speed its journey to you.

My love and sincerest hope, as always,

Elerina

Queen Elect of Callania.

***

With a clatter of hooves, Riarna and Srynia came to a halt in the courtyard and quickly shifted back into human form.

“What’s happened here?” Srynia asked in a dull tone, taking in the devastated scene before them.

“Lets just find our parents,” Riarna replied firmly, striding towards the house. She paused when she reached the kitchen door, partially ripped from its hinges and hanging at a tilt across the entrance. The broken glass of the windows crunched under her feet as she carefully propped the door open and stepped into the desolation within. Srynia suddenly pushed past her sister, clambering over the broken furniture to a far corner of the room.

“Mum?” she cried, pulling back some of the wreckage to reveal Deleha crumpled on the floor.

“Sry?” she croaked in reply, gasping and struggling with every breath.

“What is it? Where are you hurt?” Riarna asked, rushing over to join Srynia at her mother’s side.
“Chest,” Deleha gargled, clutching at her front. “Crushed. Too much… damage. Can‘t… shift.”

“No! We’ll get you a medic. You’ll be fine!” Srynia replied urgently, clasping Deleha’s shoulder.

“Where’s Dad?” Riarna asked suddenly, looking about the room.

“Not here,” Deleha replied painfully. “He went after… them.” She coughed and then moaned quietly, deep in her throat.

“Where did they go?” Riarna asked, looking out across the fields, their usual herds panicked and scattered. “Mum?”

“Mum?” Srynia repeated, shaking her very lightly.

Deleha lay rigid, her mouth wide, drawing in deeper and deeper breaths, unable to exhale out again. With a sickening pop sound, her body flinched suddenly and then went still, her eyes looking distant and unfocused.

“Mum?” Srynia repeated, more desperately, shaking her increasingly harder.

“We have to find Dad,” Riarna said calmly, with only the slightest tremor in her voice. “He might need our help.”

“But we have to help Mum! We have to get her to the medic! I think she’s stopped breathing…”

“There’s nothing more we can do. She’s already gone!” Riarna replied almost angrily, turning away from having to look at the scene.

“Gone? She can’t be gone! She’s not gone!” Srynia insisted stubbornly, clinging to her mother’s body.

“Dad’s out there! Alone! Fighting who knows how many of whatever they are. We have to find him!” Riarna replied, grabbing Srynia’s shoulder.

“But we can’t leave her!” Srynia wailed, her voice becoming thick as tears began cascading down her face.

“Come on! We have to go!” Riarna stated firmly, dragging at her arm.

“But…”

“Now!”

“Not without her necklace!” Srynia wrenched her arm away from her sister and leapt to her feet,
backing away as she did so. “I will not leave it to be taken by thieves!”

Riarna gazed steadily at her sister for a long moment and then nodded. Srynia ran out the room and returned some minutes later, clutching a gold necklace with an unusual pendant attached to it. Riarna was crouching by Deleha, whose eyes were now closed and her body laid neat and flat.

“Do you want to wear it?” Srynia asked her sister, holding the pendant out to her. “She always said it was an heirloom for the eldest daughter.”

“Living a few more minutes on this world hardly makes me the eldest,” Riarna replied with a wry smile. “You wear it.”

Srynia fastened the chain around her neck, the pendant dull against her skin, indicating its extreme age and wear.

“We’re going to have to track,” Riarna said with a glint of resolution in her eye. “Wolves I think.”

“I’ll try,” Srynia replied doubtfully, “I’ve never inherited as much of that from Dad as you have. I was always more…”

“If you get tired, shift totemic, I’ll keep up the tracking,” Riarna replied quickly, cutting off her sister’s line of thought, seeing her eyes drifting towards the body laid out to their side.

“I’ll do what I can.” Srynia walked quickly to the door, her voice heavy, her eyes streaming with tears again.

With a final glance at their mother, Riarna followed her sister from the room, shifting quickly upon reaching the outside. Her wolf senses were instantly overloaded with the strength of the smells assaulting her nose, but the trail was soon made easy and clear to her. With a snarl, she set off in the ground-covering lope of the wolf, her sister bounding to keep up to her side.

3 comments:

Jom said...

I'm really enjoying the pace and the dynamic way the story moves from different points of view.

Nothing shakes up a story like a good old-fashioned invasion! Talk about a high body count.

On the subject of the name Shift though, I must say I'm a fan. I think it's very subtle and sums up a lot about what's going on in the story.

Quoth the Raven said...

Oh, now look what you've done, Dyl, you tit. Now there's war. Good job.

Interesting that Riarna is multi-totemed, and pretty sad that Deleha's dead - mostly because they were upset about it, though. I wasn't so bothered myself, but I think I've just never forgiven her for the whole, "What? You accepted a baby from a dying woman? No! We can't afford it so you should have left it to die!" thing when you first meet her. Not a winning philosophy.

Whereas I like Willan (if that was his name? I can't quite remember), so I'm hoping he's fine.

Steffan said...

Hurrah, I'm all caught up, and can finally (and very cheekily) say - you should write more now.

Anyway, wow - what a lot of war, and what a lot of characters have died in the last few chapters. Still, looking forward to seeing where this is going.

And I agree with Jom, as I mentioned before - Shift is a great name. Each chapter shifts in time, the characters all shift around different locations, not to mention the more obvious meaning - it's a good name.