Page 56 of Never the Roses

“Then we must leave it intact,” the prince insisted. “Alter the plan, Stearanos. I insist. I’m certain your genius is up to the task.”

Stearanos slowly sat again. He couldn’t tell the prince no, but this couldn’t possibly work. “Your Highness, I am gratified by your faith in me, but the citadel is the center of the queen’s power. All of her mages and sorcerers are located within it, with sorcerers dedicated to protecting these key positions…” He started to rise again and the prince waved him down irritably.

“I’m aware of the key positions, Stormbreaker,” he bit out.

“I apologize, Your Highness,” Stearanos replied, willing himself to find a way through this. “With those sorcerers safe within the citadel, we can’t hope to win any of those key positions. We have to take the citadel before then.”

“The entire point,Your Eminence”—Mirza ground out the title, as if highly doubtful Stearanos had earned it—“of this conquest is that Sorceress Oneira has retired and vanished, likely never to be found again. Probably dead.”

Stearanos fought to school his expression, to give nothing away, much as he wanted to say something likenot so dead or vanished as you might think.

“The Southern Lands are undefended,” Mirza continued. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be doing this at all.”

Admiral Bartolomej cleared his throat. “Your Highness, while the absence of the sorceress Oneira makes this conquest possible, Queen Zarja still commands a considerable stable of sorcerers, mages, and other magic-workers. His Eminence is correct in his strategy—in fact, I’d call this the keystone of his strategy. Unless those sorcerers are neutralized, we cannot hope to deliver the victory Your Highness so richly deserves.”

“The Stormbreaker is better than any of them. He can ward our forces from their attacks. Use storms to break them,” Mirza added with a laugh.

“Your Highness,” Stearanos said, trying to govern his temper, and setting his teeth against the misconception. Few people understood the origin of his nickname, but most knew he was no weather mage. “I am but one man. I cannot be everywhere at once and my power isn’t unlimited. And, while I can ward our forces against direct magical attacks, I can’t ward against indirect ones, such as the very earth being turned against our armies.”

The crown prince visibly fumed, looking around the table for support and, judging by his reddening face, finding none. “I don’t care,” he snapped out finally. “The victory celebration will be at the citadel, with a parade of our forces, and Queen Zarja in chains. Figure out a way to make that happen or I shall assume that you are not the best my father has to offer as he’s promised me.”

The prince strode out, slamming the door behind him, leavingthe tableful of generals, tacticians, sorcerers, and Stearanos in silence. “Did Mirza just threaten to tell Daddy on us?” Admiral Bartolomej inquired of no one in particular.

They all, except Stearanos and the admiral, looked about nervously. Stearanos had warded the room against sound and Admiral Bartolomej had worked with him long enough that they trusted each other utterly.

“Admiral Bartolomej,” Stearanos asked after scrubbing a hand over his face, “is there any way to assail that beach with the citadel intact?”

“With Sorcerer Gürsel watching over us and sinking my ships with his hydromancy?” Admiral Bartolomej shook his head. “I ran up against him before, you know, and I’ve read the war records. No navy has succeeded against him.”

Exactly as Stearanos knew, but it had been worth posing the question.

“Neither can my foot soldiers make any progress on land while Sorcerer Tlaloc is able to open up chasms under their feet. As you noted, Eminence, he can swallow entire armies between one moment and the next,” General Khanpasha added soberly. “We might as well drown them all at sea on the way there as attempt that.” He sighed and looked to Stearanos. “Is it at all possible you could take out these sorcerers personally, without us attacking the citadel?”

“Duels?” Stearanos replied. “I could defeat any of them in a duel, but they’d never agree to such a confrontation. They have no incentive to face me, particularly knowing they have no hope of defeating me. In addition, Queen Zarja has no reason to receive any diplomatic overtures, especially ones suggesting sorcerous duels they’d have to know they can’t win.”

“Not duels,” General Khanpasha corrected. “Stealth. Assassination. Could you do that?”

“No,” Stearanos answered definitively. “First of all, Zarja would have passive defenses in place to respond to any kind of attack, and those alarms wouldn’t be subtle or quiet, so stealth isn’t feasible. Second, I have no way to travel there except physically, nor to enter the citadel without a major working to break the citadel wards, which, again, would not be stealthy.”

“There’s a rumor that the sorceress Oneira could do that,” one of the younger tacticians volunteered. “The tales say she could penetrate any ward, put an entire castle to sleep, and pick off anyone she chose, leaving them dead for the others to find when they awoke.”

“Or kill them with their own nightmares, even awake!” put in another with gruesome enthusiasm.

“Oneira is an oneiromancer,” Stearanos said with a touch of irritation. “I am not. I cannot do what she does.”

“Then maybe we need an oneiromancer,” the first tactician replied defiantly.

The circle around the table burst into laughter, gratifying for Stearanos’s slightly bruised ego.

“Young man,” Admiral Bartolomej said with plenty of condescension, “all the world has sought an oneiromancer of Oneira’s abilities. There are none. She was one of a kind, a formidable foe.” With a wry smile, he glanced at Stearanos. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually kind of miss her.”

“Weallkind of miss her,” General Khanpasha said in his gravelly voice. “At least,” he added, “in theory. Had she not retired, we wouldn’t be facing this ill-advised conquest. Despite His Eminence’s excellent strategic plan, even with it unaltered, we’ll suffer tremendous losses. Our victory is by no means guaranteed and, if we do win, we’ll be faced with defending two huge territories, separated by an ocean, with our forces decimated. Any ambitiousruler out there will be tempted to nibble at our edges and we’ll be spread too thin to stop them.”

He gave Stearanos a long and weary look. “The previous détente saved us from this. No one was willing to pit you two against each other. I hope none of you will report me for a traitor, but is there any way to find Oneira and convince her to return to her queen’s aid? His Majesty will retract his declaration of war, in that case.”

“But will Mirza?” someone quipped.

“Daddy will handle his restless prince,” General Khanpasha replied without looking at the wit, his gaze focused on Stearanos. “Uhtric wants an easy victory, not a protracted and losing enterprise. Not even for his son will he risk what he has now. Your Eminence?” he prompted.

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