Chapter thirty-two

Ortia

The Proconsul summoned a council of war.  She invited General Aurelian, along with the Proconsul of Monurbis, Bellis, and Euphorbia, the leader of the Orbiverdi[1].   Marthian also asked Campanula to come in as meeting secretary. She wasn’t as competent as Viola, but it would be good experience for her.

They used a room in the Perclivius Memorial Building, an old merchant’s warehouse that had been renovated by the last Dictator of Ortia during his brief tenure.  Perclivius had been Marthian’s sworn enemy but he was now dead, and in death he had been exceptionally brave, and so it was safe to placate all his remaining supporters by rebranding him as an immortal hero.

The council sat round an oak table which had been brought from the Proconsul’s palace. It was much smaller than the one that Perclivius had used (and that was now being used in the garrison canteen) and squarer which led to a more intimate atmosphere, but still allowed Marthian to sit at the head. After all the problems that she had had recently with asserting her authority; along with the fear that the Emperor, if he ever came, might well strip it from her; she wanted to establish the formal hierarchy. 

They started off by discussing the threat from the Crimson Flame Knights. Nobody had heard of them and this turned out to be a rather dispiriting conversation: discussing unknown knowns is always a bad idea. In addition, Marthian had sent Gaius off with some of her precious mail paper, and he had been able to tell them exactly how big the opposing army had become – thirty thousand and rising. They all now worried about how he would get home.

‘So, things look fairly grim’ said Marthian. She turned to Aurelian.

‘Do you have details of the strength of our forces, General?’

Aurelian shuffled some papers in front of him on the table, but everyone could tell that this was just buying him some breathing space.

‘About three thousand troops excluding veterans and auxiliaries’ he said

Marthian frowned and gestured for him to give her the manifests. She scanned the lists cursorily and then put them face down on the table. There was nothing more to be said.

‘What about the city wall? How is that?’ she asked

‘It’s improving but it’s just a wall now’ replied Aurelian ‘except for the foundations – they’re still Dwarven Magic. However, I don’t think that that will help us against an army more than twenty times our size’

‘No’ said Marthian bleakly ‘I’m sure it won’t’

Bellis fidgeted in his chair. He was a very old elf and he had spent much of the last nine hundred years living rough alongside the Orbiverdi in the forests and mountains, hiding from Whitecloak and his hordes. He was a proconsul without a province – the Tlaxacans still held Monurbis, which Bellis had ruled before the Second Tlaxacan War. 

‘What about the Lady?’ he croaked – although a pure bred elf he now had a hint of the pleasantly musical Orbiverdi accent.

‘She is weak, but recovering’ explained the Proconsul. 

All the council members looked at a gap in the table and at the space where the missing member should be.  Marthian knew that she would have to explain the obvious absence.

‘I invited High Priestess Julia but she said that she could not venture out while the Lady was still healing’

There was a collective sigh of apprehension. They all relied on the Lady to help when the city was in mortal danger.

Marthian sat back in her chair and scanned the council. She caught Euphorbia’s eye. The squat little humanoid creature looked back at her with her loyal green eyes.  These were the newest citizens of the Empire and they were very welcome.

Euphorbia’s people were thinkers, and they had learnt, first of all, how to cast off the Tlaxacan curse of bondage from themselves, and second, rather later, how to rid it from others. They had saved Ortia from a Tlaxacan horde and had more than earned their place in the Empire.  

‘How fare the Orbiverdi, Euphorbia?’ asked Marthian.

‘We are strong’ responded Euphorbia, ’and our ranks are swollen by those of the newly freed kinaam that have elected to stay with us’

Aurelian jumped up enthusiastically.

‘So you must have a massive force!’ he said

Euphorbia looked sad and troubled at the same time.

‘There are a only few thousand of us, although that is many more than we had before. However most of the un-cursed returned to the lands around Huatalacan and we know nothing of their fate. Many more died of course, before they could be saved, or retreated back with the human acolytes and have gone beyond our reach’

She waited for a second for the disappointment to diffuse through the room. 

‘Also’ she said softly but firmly, ‘we are pacific people. We have not come through the shadow of the Curse only to reinvent it. We will happily lay down our lives in passive defence but we will not raise our hands against a fellow thinking thing, however evil’

Aurelian groaned – he couldn’t help himself. Everyone looked at him disapprovingly and so he tried to cover up his disappointment with a cough. Marthian gave him one of the best of her many withering stares.

Euphorbia stretched her legs out in her chair trying to find a more comfortable position. None of the races derived from the kinaam, the cursed minions of the Cloaks, were at ease on chairs. Rem, a Plains-dweller, and no lover of elven civilisation, would simply have sat on the floor, but the green eyed Mountain People were keen to adapt to the ways of the culture that they had joined.

‘So we will help in any way that we can but we will not resort to physical violence’ Euphorbia continued, ‘we have some other skills, as you know’

‘We need to be cautious about your people anyway, Citizen Euphorbia’ Marthian said carefully, ‘the Knights are very likely to see you as kinaam. It might be best for you if your people retreat to the mountains when and if the Knights arrive. We know that you are very good at hiding from the enemy’

Euphorbia looked briefly very crestfallen, but all she did was nod. Marthian had no way of knowing if her remarks had offended her, but she felt that she owed it to her new citizens to try to protect them.

‘We can stay to help if you desire it’ said Euphorbia, with a faint pleading tone in her voice that was too subtle for Marthian in her full proconsular flow.  She shook her head.

‘No – you’ll be much safer in the mountains’ she commanded, believing that this was best for everyone.

The proconsul did not look back at Euphorbia long enough to see her expression. If she had then she would have seen the hurt in her face – the look of a proud and willing patriot whose offer of help has been spurned. 

Aurelian saw this look out of the corner of his eye, but felt unable to contradict what amounted to a direct order from the proconsul.  

‘So, how do you assess our position, General?’ asked Bellis, clearly eager to change the subject. Aurelian was happy to oblige.

‘We can’t resist them for long. Not without losing a good proportion of our remaining troops’

There was a prolonged silence during which everyone tried to think of something constructive, or at least comforting, to say.

‘What do you propose to do, then, proconsul?’ asked Bellis, eventually

‘We may get help from unexpected sources’ said Marthian, ‘and possibly even from the Emperor. Viola may well succeed’

‘How do you know that these Crimson Flame Knights do not have the Emperor’s blessing?’ asked Bellis, ‘perhaps we can ally with them?’

Marthian’s lips narrowed to a thin line. She tapped her fingers briefly on the table in front of her.

‘I think that is most unlikely’ she said ‘surely the Emperor would have mentioned it in his letter if he wanted us to receive such a force. I think it much more likely that these are rogue barbarians disguising their desire for land and glory as imperial enthusiasm’

‘As I said’ repeated Aurelian despondently, ‘we can’t resist that size of army’

‘But we have right on our side’ said Euphorbia in a surprised voice, ‘so surely we will prevail?’

Marthian just prevented herself from snorting.

‘I think that won’t save us, sadly...’

Everyone considered the future rather grimly.

 ‘We will have to start negotiations of some kind’ continued  Marthian, ‘we might be able to slow things down if we drag them into protracted legal wrangles’

Aurelian shook his head.

‘What if they just ignore the legal niceties?’

‘Then we’ll be no worse off…’ 

Aurelian folded his arms

‘I think we have to protect the city at all costs – and that may mean giving in to some of their demands…’

‘Which ones are you willing to give in to, general’ asked Marthian sourly. 

 ‘We can promise them free passage on the condition that they do not come inside our walls’

‘Free passage to where?’ asked Bellis, ‘Monurbis? The Mountains?’

Euphorbia looked up, fear flickering across her face.

Aurelian, who had not thought beyond his own city, suddenly realised what Bellis meant. Marthian’s thoughts raced past his slower ones.

‘Proconsul Bellis is right – they have no more right to Monurbis than they do to Ortia. I believe that their entire expedition is dangerous, unwanted and illegal. We should resist it in any way that we can’

There was a murmur of assent around the table from everyone except Aurelian. He got up hastily.

‘If that is your order, ma’am, then I have no more use here. I must go and prepare my troops’ 

Marthian looked at him, briefly. Their eyes met but neither of them desired the contact. Marthian indicated that the others could leave and they all stood up and bowed to her. She spoke to them as they made their way out of the hall. 

‘We have been threatened before and we have survived. I see no reason why that should change just because of a threat from fanatical barbarians’

 The council went their separate ways, solemn and disquieted. Aurelian patrolled the walls angrily; Marthian went in search of the most pedantic lawyers; Bellis went to his room to have his afternoon nap; and Euphorbia walked out to a grove on the outskirts of the city, knelt down next to an orange tree and began to pray.

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[1] The Orbiverdi – a people derived from Tlaxacan kinaam; Imperial citizens and worshippers of Quiena; they live in the mountainous regions north of Monurbis.