The chief of the Irrvedah studied the two messengers and then nodded toward the master of its household. "Call a meeting of the clan masters. We will attack now while this Uhe expects us to discuss this blasphemy." Tocchah faced the messengers. "Before you do that, behead and burn these two traitors."
Once the household guards removed the messengers, Tocchah looked upon its chief of servants. "Yatim, the messengers said that a new Law of War has come from the God of the Day Light. When Aakva speaks to you does the god talk of this new law?"
Yatim held its hands before its face. "Great Tocchah, for more generations than our oldest has the mind to recall, the Irrvedah has followed Aakva’s laws. As consequence the Irrvedah has had peace and plenty. Now comes this plunderer and murderer, Uhe, who comes to take from us what Aakva has denied the Madah for their wrongs. There is no new Law of War, Tocchah. There is only the will of this predator, Uhe. Aakva will protect the Irrvedah as we destroy those who have broken the god’s Law of Peace."
Tocchah, then, stood and held its hands out toward the masters of the Irrvedah. "Go to your clans and have them arm themselves. We shall meet three days hence at the crossing of the Western Road with the Great Cut Road on the Plain of the Gods. From there we will march west until we meet this Uhe and its band of robbers. There we will remove this blight on the Law of Peace."
On the evening of the third day, as the scouts reported the approach of Tocchah’s army, the workers of metal presented Uhe with its black knife. Uhe took the knife, tested its edge, and proclaimed it adequate. Juka Li, the chief of the metal workers, said, "Uhe, I pray that all your enemies will fall before your new knife."
Uhe studied the blade, wrapped the knife with hide, and thrust it behind its sash. "I have no doubt, Juka Li, that I will find it useful." Uhe dismissed the metal workers, then joined Conseh deep within the Darker Wood to wait for the attack. Long after Aakva hid its face behind the western mountains, they looked through the trees and saw Tocchah’s army approaching on the Western Road. "Our murders mount, Uhe," said the first warmaster.
The chief of the Mavedah said, "Then, Conseh, have your denve close on Tocchah and take its clans down. Perhaps if we spill enough blood this night, the ones we challenge in the future will be less eager to throw themselves into harm. Leave only enough of them alive to bring the story of the horror to the rest of the Irrvedah and to the Diruvedah. Make certain they understand that Tocchah was first offered the opportunity to surrender, that the blood that will soak the Western Road is not my price but Tocchah’s."
Conseh studied Uhe’s face and said, "You see them before you now: the blood, the bodies?"
"I see them now, Conseh. I never see anything else. Go now and fulfill my vision."
Conseh moved with its undermasters to the edge of the wood where the First Denve was already concealed. The first warmaster waited until Tocchah’s tribe was compressed to only six abreast by the narrowing path through the trees. When most of Tocchah’s people were in the narrows, Conseh bellowed its command, "To battle! Death to Tocchah!"
The First Denve hurled its spears from the north edge of the wood. Nuvvea’s Second Denve, from its concealment along the edge of the southern wood, threw its spears at the same instant. With spears thrown, both denve raised their axes and closed with those left on the road.
After the axes were done, there were a few of the Irrvedah left. They were taken over the Western Road from one end of the narrows to the other and back again. As they walked among the bodies, torches would shed their light upon a face, and then another. Once all of the faces had been seen, Uhe knew that Tocchah’s face was not among them. The leader of the Irrvedah had escaped.
After they had walked the bloody trail and had seen the dead, the surviving Irrvedan soldiers were set free to carry the story of Uhe to the world.
Uhe’s vision of battle served the Denvedah well. The Tsien Denvedah would take the land and the denve resting would turn over the acquired land and its spoils to Kessu’s Third Denve, while the Fourth under Birula would move up to secure the land taken by the next thrust. Yaga and Daes would then bring the Fifth and Sixth Denve up to relieve the fighters, secure the land, and distribute the spoils.
The Denvedah filled itself upon fruit, cake, and grain, and the death drums of the Mavedah ceased their beat. Instead the drums beat an ever-quickening cadence of victory. In nine days Uhe and its warmasters stood upon the crest of the Black Mountains.
As far as Uhe could see toward the east, there was crest following crest, a seemingly endless land of mountains. Once more they waited for Aakva’s light to come at their backs. As they waited, Conseh pointed toward the east. "Uhe, your plan calls for more warriors than we have. The Irrvedah is huge. Should we occupy the great valley from here to the Akkujah and call that our land, leaving the Irrvedah the rest?"
Uhe studied the mountains. "If Aakva bakes this valley with its fire next, what then? We will be forced again to fight, except that the next time the Irrvedah will be better prepared. I will never again condemn us to a patch when there is a world. We do need more soldiers, more denve, though."
Uhe turned its gaze from the mountains and faced its warmasters. "Conseh, Nuvvea, when your warriors fall upon the Irrvedah, you will capture alive as many of them as you can." Uhe faced Daes. "Their children will be sent to the Sixth Denve to become future warriors."
Shifting its gaze from Daes to Conseh, Uhe continued. "The adults captured will be told of Aakva’s new Law of War, and of the ordeal that proved this law true. You will tell them, as well, of the Battle of the Darker Wood Narrows, which has a lesson of its own. Tell your captives that they may become a part of this new tribe, the Denvedah, and by so doing they may serve the new law." Uhe looked at Kessu and Birula. "Place the captives first in the Third and Fourth Denve. Should they prove loyal and fit, then move them to the Tsien Denvedah, Then as we move forward, we shall grow in numbers and strength."
The warmaster of the Third Denve, Kessu, remarked: "Would it not be easier simply to make the Irrvedah slaves? Under guard, they could take the burdens of supply upon their shoulders, thereby relieving Mavedah for service toward the front."
Uhe slapped the face of the warmaster. "Know this, Kessu! As there are worse things than war, there are things worse than eating one’s young. We fight to be free. We do not fight to make slaves."
Kessu then demanded, "What, then, shall we do with those who do not die in battle, but who also refuse to serve the Denvedah? There will be such, Uhe. What shall we do with them?"
Uhe turned until it faced toward the west and the Akkujah Mountains. "Beyond those mountains, Kessu, are the barren wastes once ruled by the Mavedah." Uhe lifted its arm and pointed there. "Should you capture those who refuse to serve Aakva’s Law of War, head them toward the Madah. Say to them that they are now vemadah: outcasts. This will be their new place, and it is a fitting place for those who will fight for neither the Irrvedah or the Denvedah."
Facing its warmasters once again, Uhe said, "But also tell them this: if the time ever comes that sees the water, grass, and game return to the Madah, the Denvedah will come to claim that land for the Sindie, the people of the world. Never again shall one tribe starve because of a boundary, tabu, or law while other tribes live in plenty. We are the Sindie: one people. But one’s place in this people is no birthright. It is a value to be earned. Tell them these things that I tell you and then let them choose."