Felanar begins marching toward the city, but first he has to deal with a delegation from Issk.
By that evening the last of the troops that were to land at this time were on shore and setting up camp. Felanar did not order all ships to land, for he wanted several of them to retain their soldiers and serve as a rear guard on the water. If a swift response were needed farther up or down the coast, they could move much more quickly than troops on the ground. Always uppermost in Felanar’s mind was the need to counter any trick that could be sprung upon them. Many days had been spent in Elaria reviewing the maps around Issk and deciding what the enemy could use against them by means of the natural terrain. Where could enemy armies mass that would catch them off guard? Where could a surprise attack cause the most damage? Again and again the elf lords cautioned Felanar not to leave any possibility ignored. Now that he was finally walking along the shores south of Issk, Felanar began putting all those plans into motion.
No movement from Issk was reported by the elves who had set up north of camp. One group of Argan archers was paired with several elf scouts, and it was their job to provide warning of any movement from the north. Issk itself was at the base of one of the northernmost of the Black Mountains, settled in a valley between two of the mountains and at the mouth of the mountain road that formed the northern passage toward Shaabak. Between the mountains and the sea lay a sparse grassy plain upon which the city was built. Then toward the water was a rocky beach and a natural harbor pointing like a finger to Issk. It was the home of the fishing vessels that the fleet had encountered.
Where Felanar had set up camp was closer to the southern passage toward Shaabak. This was the preferred location the elves had pointed out. The path between the two peaks closest to the sea was narrow and steep, and any army waiting in the west could easily attack a force coming down the mountain path. It was such a strategically ideal location, Felanar knew Vélakk would never send all his armies that way. He had to be ready to defend the north as well.
To that end the elves had pointed out a stretch of land where the mountain range ran almost to the water’s edge. By setting up temporary camp here they could force any army approaching from the north to funnel their way through the narrow gap and thus give up any advantage in size they might provide. To the south beyond the passageway toward Shaabak was, at least in summer, a marshy stretch that would be hard for any army to traverse without getting bogged down and serving as easy prey to archers from the north.
In short, they had chosen a stretch of land that allowed excellent points of attack. As Felanar surveyed the land he was pleased to see that the elves had given him good advice and that their maps were accurate and complete. This was a place that could be defended from the north, south and east. To the west, of course, was their exit route should anything go wrong. The ships with troops yet on them remained as a rear guard defense should any enemy ships attack from the sea. But since Vélakk’s ships lay anchored in Dragonmouth Channel, he knew that it would be a long time before they could swing all the way around the island to attack from that direction. So far so good, he thought.
As elves, men and dwarves set up defense perimeters in all directions, Felanar met with the army leaders of men, elves and dwarves and discussed their next course of action. The plan had always been to set up a base camp near the water and then set up supply chains through the mountains that would be protected from attack. As the armies marched toward Shaabak, they would have a clear path behind them that remained in friendly hands. The northern path toward Shaabak led to Issk, far up the coast from their base camp. Any movement along that corridor would be detected long before Issk was reached. If the enemy tried to circle around them, they would find rear guard troops ready to set up a defensive perimeter along with war vessels along the coast. Felanar felt this was an unlikely move by the enemy as this would draw strength away from the city of Shaabak itself and from the walls of the castle. Far more likely it would be that Vélakk would keep his defenses close to him and, if anything, force the people of Issk to attack along the coast.
As supplies and war engines continued to be set up on the coast and along the southern path through the mountains, Felanar made plans to begin the march the next morning at dawn. Birds that had been brought from Elaria were being used to soar high above the land and report any large movement of armies, and thus far had reported nothing. But as night drew closer a guard rushed into the commander’s tent and reported a small group of men from the north had been reported by the scouts as heading to meet the army and would arrive at the northern line in thirty minutes.
“This would be the delegation from the city I expected,” said Felanar as the guard left. “Come, Brendis, Dolen and Dalonír, let us take a guard of elven warriors and meet this group.”
The four leaders and a half-dozen elven archers marched north along the coast toward the group heading in their direction.
“This is not a military unit?” asked Dolen as he fingered the axe in his belt.
“No,” said Felanar, “not military. From the report, it is only four men, not heavily armed or shielded, older in age. This would be the leaders of Issk, such as they are allowed to rule the city. This is a reaction to the word we sent by means of the fishermen this morning. The people of Issk saw this great fleet approach, then turn to the south, evidently showing no interest in the city itself. And by now the word spread by the fishermen have created enough gossip to make the whole city curious about us. If we show them no interest, why are we here? Are we no threat to them as we claim, or is this a trick somehow.”
“They might be approaching us under order of Vélakk,” said Brendis.
“Indeed,” said Felanar, “that is another strong possibility. I suspect there is little autonomous rule of the city and they take their orders from Shaabak. For all we know they wish to have nothing to do with us but have been ordered to, well, it could be anything. Threaten us? Implore us? Question us? We shall see.”
They walked to a point near where the delegation was walking and stopped. The four representatives from Issk were indeed middle-aged or older, appeared unarmed, and posed little threat that Felanar could see. He gave a signal and the elven archers faded back so as not to appear as a threat to the men from Issk. Now it was four men meeting four men.
“Greetings, men of Issk,” said Felanar with as friendly a tone as he could manage. He smiled as he said it and hoped to see it have an effect on the Issk delegation. They stopped walking when they had reached six feet of Felanar and one stepped forward. None of these men seemed as malnourished as the fisherman earlier that day. They were clothed in gray tunics and sandals that had seen wear but were otherwise in good shape. Felanar thought that the leaders of Issk were given better treatment than the workers.
“What is your intention toward our land?” asked the one who had stepped forward.
“I am Felanar, king of Tranith Argan, and once upon a time this land belonged to the king of Argan.”
“Do you come to take the land by force with your armies?” asked the man, as he brushed his gray hair back from his face.
“To whom am I speaking?” asked Felanar.
“I am Ranth, mayor of Issk. These are my deputies.” Ranth swept his arm backward toward the three other men who looked nervously on the discussion.
“Well, Ranth, I want you to know that the army I command means no harm to Issk or to its surrounding lands. We have no quarrel with you or your people, for we have not been harmed in any way by you or your people. As far as Issk is concerned, we come in peace.”
“You are an invading army landing illegally on our shores. You will take our food and we have had bad harvests and cannot afford it.” Ranth looked upset.
Felanar raised his arms in a calming gesture. “We brought our own provisions and plenty of them. You are welcome to send a delegation from Issk and we will share what we brought with your city. We intend to be but briefly on this soil, and we will not damage it insofar as it is up to us. But when you say we landed illegally, there I respectfully disagree. Am I not the king of Tranith Argan, and does not Tranith Argan have an historical claim upon this island that was usurped by Vélakk?”
The men from Issk stirred and murmured.
“It is you who have usurped a land,” said Ranth, “for we have been taught all our lives that the land of Sinar, which you call Argan, belongs to our great ruler and it is you who takes what does not belong to him. Our history books tell the truth!”
Felanar thought for a moment about this new development, but even as he heard the words he realized that this would of course be the way things would be done in this land. The victor creates the history, and the history books tell whatever the ruler wishes it to tell.
“We are not here to discuss history,” he finally said, “though we have scrolls that explain my version of history better than your version. I suspect you cannot provide such backing to your history. But more important than that, I know someone on this land who was alive back when Argan ruled this island and thus knows the truth of what I say, and it is to him alone we turn our animosity. It is with your ruler that we have a quarrel, and if no one else interferes, no one else need be involved or inconvenienced. The only threat you need fear at Issk, and this is the message I wish you to take back to your people, is if you attack my army. Do not interfere, and you will not be bothered. My quarrel is not with you.”
“If you succeed, you will insist on us worshipping you instead of our kind leader,” insisted Ranth.
Felanar sighed. “I will do no such thing. No one is to ever worship me. So whatever nonsense your leader is telling you, I assure you that you have been lied to.”
Again the men of Issk stirred with anger.
“I bring you a message from Shaabak,” said Ranth.
“Give your message,” said Felanar.
“‘Leave now and return to your lands and I will show you mercy.’”
“I seek no one’s mercy,” said Felanar. “Return to your city, do not bother my army in any way, know that we will not seek help from you, and you will be left in peace. This fight is not yours, Ranth.”
“You attack our land, it is my fight,” insisted Ranth.
“Let us return,” said one of his deputies.
“Listen to your deputy, Ranth. Return to Issk. We are not attacking your land, and we do not fight you. You have been lied to, and it is my goal to demonstrate this by my actions.”
“I have given my message,” said Ranth as he whirled around and began marching back north to Issk.
Felanar stared at the retreating delegation for a few minutes. Dalonír turned to him and asked, “Is this according to your plan?”
“I did not anticipate a worshipful attitude toward Vélakk,” said Felanar. “It seems Namonikkar is not alone in using religion to convince a starving people that they are well fed and happy. This makes it harder to reason with the leaders of Issk. I not only have to try to prove what I say is true, the very act of doing so will undermine their belief system and that will cause resentment.”
“We kill Vélakk and they will have no choice but to believe differently,” said Dolen.
“Yes,” said Felanar, “but I do not want a people worshipping me just because I kill their god. This will take time.”
“Still,” said Dalonír, “you have reinforced the message that Issk is not to be harmed. I do not think we need fear an invading army from north.”
“Perhaps,” said Felanar, “but if Vélakk gave the word, they might do it anyway for I think my words carry little weight in this land. I am fighting the very history books they have studied since childhood.”
“Let us return to camp,” said Brendis. “The sooner we overthrow our enemy, the sooner we can start writing new history books.”
They walked back to camp as twilight deepened.
The next morning as light broke across the sky the armies began marching east up the mountain pass. Felanar arranged the troops to provide the most protection and warning possible in this land. The pass was bounded on either side by mountainside too steep to provide threat of attack. Only the elves could easily navigate such steep walls, and it was the elves that Felanar directed to go ahead, above and behind to provide the long-range eyes for his army.
On the path that had been cut through the mountain, wide enough for ten men at a time to march, he directed his Argan troops to march in the lead, followed by the dwarves, the armies from the Golden Lakes, and finally behind them all again in defensive stance the remaining elven troops. Felanar directed several hundred Argan troops and a few elven scouts to remain behind at the shoreline. They were to protect against men of Issk attacking their rear, as well as to provide early warning should Vélakk direct his attacking force down the northern pass to Issk and then up the southern pass to catch them by surprise. The elves were to stay in contact with each other between the groups as well as with the ships offshore who kept an eye on both the sea to the west and the shoreline to their east. Every angle of this land and beyond was being watched as Felanar led thousands of troops on the eight league march to Shaabak.
As they marched they saw no resistance, and knowing it would take a full day to reach the city Felanar thought about many things while keeping an eye on the forward scout elves high above his head. Brendis marched by his side, and Felanar found himself growing to like the High Man who led his Argan guards. Brendis was quietly confident in what he did. His men responded to his command without hesitation. Kara was right to elevate him to this position he thought. Leadership should come from within, he mused, not enforced from without.
Vélakk and Namonikkar used both the whip of forced obedience and the enticement of shared glory of worshipping a god. Their people had little food or land, nothing to look forward to in this life, so their leaders gave them something good to look forward to in a next life. This is a difficult belief to overcome, he thought. If you put all your hope in your leader, how can you be asked to fight against this leader? You are putting your future, all your hopes and dreams, in jeopardy. Would they accept him as their leader if he proved successful in this endeavor? They would recognize his power, surely, but would they really view him as a god?
The thought disquieted Felanar, he the former fisherman who liked the quiet life and never wanted praise, and now thought what it would be like to be viewed as a god. Surely the people of Tranith Argan would never think that, so would he have a kingdom where most of his people thought of him as a king and a few thought of him as a god? Then when they mingled would this lead to hatred and strife between his people?
Still, it had to be said that if a people worshipped him they would be easy to rule. Look at how poorly Namonikkar and Vélakk treated their subjects and yet how fiercely loyal they remained even as they lived in the streets like that beggar woman Kara saw in the Tri Cities with her pitiful child, or like the thin fishermen he recently addressed. Imagine how they would view him when he saw to it that everyone had plenty of bread for their table and the freedom to till their own land. Why he would be a much greater god!
Felanar looked around red-faced at Brendis to see if that man noticed his expression. Brendis stared straight ahead as he marched. Felanar felt silly for thinking to take advantage of people’s belief systems. No, he could never accept worship from anyone. He hated it when his own foster parents bowed to him! He would find a way to curb these false beliefs somehow. Llarand might have some good ideas. Or rather, he thought, perhaps Ravesfel would be the one to talk to these people when it was all over. He was just like Vélakk in nature, and he certainly didn’t want to be worshipped. He could show these people his true nature and yet tell them that he was just a fellow creature who lived and breathed, one with great power, yes, but an ordinary creature nonetheless. Should elves be worshipped because they can talk to animals? No, we all have different natures, but we are all equal in worth. That is what he would prove to those people of Issk.
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