More than half of that time, it was astonishing to think, had come after the great victory at Jahnd. Kessligh, as soon as the victory was complete, had begun pushing for attack and reconquest, as Saalshen had done following the invasion of King Leyvaan. Many had protested. Losses were severe, they'd said. The survivors were exhausted. The lands that Kessligh proposed to conquer were vast and powerful, even now that the cream of their warriors lay dead upon the field. Most wished to return to the Saalshen Bacosh, reclaim what they had lost, and begin rebuilding.
But Kessligh was adamant. The Saalshen Bacosh, he said, can rebuild no faster than its enemies can. Matters remain fundamentally unresolved. Perhaps you will have a decade of peace. Perhaps a generation. But soon, inevitably, the forces that had driven this invasion would lead to another, fought by men for whom this great defeat was but a distant tale. It had been so close this time, when the Regent had captured artillery and hellfire. Inevitably the knowledge to build such things would spread, as it was already spreading in Petrodor, as he, Sasha, and Rhillian could attest. The next time, they'd be back with artillery and hellfire of their own, and affairs would be even worse.
Empire was the solution, he'd said, and the serrin had protested. But not so loudly this time, shaken by events, and the realisation of just how close things had been. Rhillian was firmly on his side, as was Errollyn, the two serrin to emerge from the war with the most ra'shi of all the talmaad. They would follow Kessligh, they said, though few believed that what he claimed was possible.
Firstly, Sasha had returned to Ilduur with the survivors of the Ilduuri Steel. Those numbered about half of the men who had accompanied her, though that was a considerably better number than the Rhodaani and Enoran Steel had ended with. A good number of talmaad accompanied her-Errollyn and Aisha amongst them, and Rhillian, who had been found relatively unharmed in Koenyg's tent after the battle.
On the way back through the Saadi Maal country, they'd gathered a great many older Steel veterans and new volunteers. At Andal itself, they found the city risen to oppose them with a strong militia, yet it folded meekly when they realised what little chance they had. Sasha told them all that things would change. She sat with senior Ilduuris and serrin, and hammered out plans for a new council to replace the Remischtuul, for independent courts such as Rhodaan had made, and for the rebuilding of the Ilduuri Nasi-Keth.
The Ilduuri Nasi-Keth would be run by serrin now, brought in from Saalshen. It was the only way to ensure the nasty tendency of Ilduuri isolationism did not reinfect the Tol'rhens, and turn the Ilduuri Nasi-Keth against the very ones who created them. For council elections, no former members of the Stamentaast or other, tainted organisations need apply. New Steel volunteers would be armed, and left to garrison Andal. All involved in the previous uprisings against the serrin would be punished. It was colonisation, pure and simple, and far more heavy-handed than Maldereld's two hundred years before.
Many protested to Sasha that it would not work, that Ilduuris would never accept it. They didn't need to accept it, Sasha had replied. So long as there was force enough in the Steel, and in the talmaad who reformed the Nasi-Keth and occupied Ilduur, the rest of the population could shut up and like it. The Steel would be back again soon, and in force. Any more trouble while they were gone would only lead to reinvasion and large-scale killings to make her present punishments seem mild. And then she'd gone, before the winter snows blocked the high passes, and marched north to Enora.
Enora had been a joy. Townsfolk had showered them with gifts and flowers along every road, and village choirs sang for them at every stop. They'd passed this time through Aisha's home village, and Sasha had met her serrin mother and human father, and heard wonderful tales of Aisha at age five, arguing with a local priest at communion about how the Gathering Prayer should be pronounced in Larosan.
They'd collected more veterans on the way through, and a great many young volunteers for the Steel. Many local serrin and part-serrin also volunteered for the talmaad. Yasmyn had asked why local human women could not volunteer for the talmaad as well, since light cavalry seemed a task serrin women did well. The Enorans said they'd think about it, but Sasha wasn't holding her breath.
Rhodaan was just as welcoming, though by now wet and cold with winter. At Tracato, the armies had mustered once more, Rhodaani, Enoran, and Ilduuri Steels together, with the Army of Lenayin and Carlito Rochel's Pazirans as well, who were cut off from Torovan and had stayed to fight. All had gathered many volunteers, and more poured in every day. It took a long time to train a soldier of the Steel to standard, and longer still to gather the means to provide and pay for them all, but Kessligh did not need them for battle, but rather for the occupation that followed.
In spring he took the Steels north into Elisse, and finished in a few weeks what the Rhodaani Steel should have finished alone the previous year. Elissian Lords either surrendered their powers or died, along with their armies. Elisse had lost most of their remaining forces at Jahnd, and Kessligh judged that if he sent enough force, he would barely need to fight at all. Most surrendered, and he left garrisons of serrin and volunteers behind. Lords and nobility likely to cause trouble were rounded up and taken to Saalshen. When Kessligh left Elisse and headed west, the Saalshen Bacosh provinces numbered four, for the first time since Leyvaan's fall.
Damon had been concerned about trouble in Lenayin, once news of events in the Bacosh reached them. But as Kessligh had pointed out, the only way home to Lenayin lay through either Larosa or Algrasse. In the end, it was Larosa. And of course, it always had to be.
This had been a real fight. Larosa had lost enormous manpower at Jahnd and was in disarray with the deaths of many lords, to say nothing of Balthaar Arrosh himself. But facing the loss of everything, the nobility had rallied in great numbers, and mustered all available men upon the field of battle. Nearly one hundred thousand gathered on the fields near Sherdaine, a force considerably larger than what attacked them.
But now they faced Kessligh, commanding three Steel armies replenished by retired veterans who knew this game well, a large mass of talmaad cavalry, Pazira, and the diminished yet still formidable Army of Lenayin. Also, they were back to the old days now, when the righteous side had all the effective artillery, and the feudals had none. It had been another slaughter, this time entirely one-sided, and Larosa had fallen to the Saalshen Bacosh.
Kessligh then pointed out to Damon that, if one looked at the map, Algrasse was also between Lenayin and Larosa. Damon had shrugged, and said, before a grand dining hall in Sherdaine full of Lenay and Steel men, “Why not?” All had cheered.
Algrasse had folded meekly, making the Saalshen Bacosh six provinces strong. The Army of Lenayin bade farewell, taking the Pazirans with them, and returned home before the northerners became truly restless-already there were reports of fighting on the borders, and northern lords refusing to accept the new, traitorous, pagan-demon-loving king. Sasha had been persuaded by her Ilduuris to stay around for the Tournean campaign at least, as Tournea promised to be the challenge that Algrasse had not been. Tournea, word was, had made frantic arrangements with southern power Meraine and westerly Rakani, to join forces and make a very big stand upon Tournean fields.
This they had done, with another force of more than a hundred thousand, but this time far more cunningly applied. A victory was won by the invaders, but a far less decisive one, with losses incurred and regrouping necessary. And then, inevitably, some of what Rhillian drily called “peace-mongers” had come from Saalshen bearing news of deals and agreements with Meraine and Rakani that would remove the necessity for further bloodshed, and Saalshen's already alarmed uman'ilen (as the great philosophical minds were called) went over Rhillian's head to declare that the talmaad would not commit to further conquest unless such proposals were carried out in full.