The Breath That Breaks the Stone, page 1
Copyright © 2024 by D.J. Molles Books LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
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The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
Book Cover by Tara Molles
Maps by D.J. Molles, Tara Molles, Kathryn English
ISBN Print Paperback: 9798337761107
ASIN B0DFMTNQBJ
First edition 2024
Contents
Full Map of Eormun
Full Map of Leftland
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
26. Chapter 26
27. Chapter 27
28. Chapter 28
29. Chapter 29
30. Chapter 30
31. Chapter 31
32. Chapter 32
33. Chapter 33
34. Chapter 34
35. Chapter 35
36. Chapter 36
37. Chapter 37
38. Chapter 38
A NOTE FROM D.J. MOLLES
About The Author
ALSO BY D.J. MOLLES
Chapter 1
The Tickers kept up an incredible pace, so Lochled and Kayna had to keep their horses at a trot, and sometimes even a canter, just to keep up.
They’d left the City of the Dawn early that morning, heading arights towards a larger village where they hoped to set a trap for the Fourth Crusade, and lure them away from any Leftlander cities.
Lochled had expected the journey to take them half the day, but the Tickers moved across the terrain so fast and constant that by mid-morning, they’d crossed the fifteen thousandstride to their destination.
Here, the land wasn’t so flat, with circular tracts of forest dotting the hills to either side of a shallow valley. A long, winding stream ran through the middle of it all. The large village sat nestled against the stream.
Sunshine had dispatched five of his Damned to the village, and already the Tenders that lived there and managed the forests were streaming out of their homes, evacuating towards the City of the Dawn.
Lochled sat his horse on one of the hills. Kayna was beside him, and Sunshine stood nearby, glistening with sweat, though his breathing had already leveled out.
Lochled eyed the terrain, feeling the tension growing inside of him. But he felt excitement too.
“It’s a good spot,” he said with an approving nod. Then looked to Kayna. “Any changes to the location of the army?”
She got an irritable look. Probably because he’d asked her three times already. “I haven’t been in communication since last night, and I used my last phial to do it. I’ve no more gest. I’m sure nothing has changed.”
“All right,” Lochled said, frowning. “No need to get toothy about it.”
According to what she’d told him the previous night, the army had encamped a little less than a day’s march from the village they were looking at. Which would put them coming down this valley just a few hours shy of evening.
A lot of things had to go right for the plan to work. But this location was about as ideal as Lochled could’ve hoped for.
“Right, then,” he grunted, swinging out of the saddle to stand next to Sunshine. “Our goal is to hit the vanguard hard and give them enough casualties to piss Gunnar off and make him chase us. But the trick is going to be in getting the scouts to call on the vanguard, instead of just flattening the whole damn village with a barrage from the Battle Plows.”
He leaned into Sunshine and pointed out a taller, flat-roofed structure in the middle of the village. “We put two of your people with stonethrowers on that flat roof there. Now, we don’t want them to spook the scouts too hard, or, again, it’ll be the Battle Plows they call. Just want your people to fire off a few shotstones to make themselves known, and then beat a retreat. That should be enough for the scouts to call the vanguard in, but not enough that they’ll think they need to level the place with cannonstones.”
He eyed the terrain again, then pointed at one of the forest tracts to the left of the village. “The rest of your fighters are going to be in those trees there. When the vanguard comes riding down the valley to rout the village, that’s when we hit ‘em hard. Take as many of them out as possible.”
Sunshine gave him a concerned side-eye.
Kayna translated: “Sunshine wants to know if they are supposed to kill the horses too.”
Lochled restrained a beleaguered sigh. He understood Sunshine’s pity for the poor beasts, but it was like planning a battle with a child that didn’t fully realize that no one was supposed to walk away from this.
“He resents you thinking of him as a child.”
Lochled huffed. “Well, if he don’t like it, he should’ve taught me how to block my thoughts better. Doesn’t matter. We don’t need to kill the horses specifically. We’ll be aiming for the riders. But it’s likely some horses are going to die. There’s nothing to be done about that.”
Lochled looked hard at Sunshine. “Point is this: Hit the vanguard. Kill ‘em all.”
Sunshine took a big, lung-stretching breath. Then sighed it out and nodded again.
Lochled pictured his plan in action, and was fiercely pleased. He didn’t relish the idea of massacring his countrymen. But in his mind, the vanguard was a bit of an exception. They were mostly Steadmen and retainers. Cockabouts and blowholes. Back in the Empire, they’d be the ones that’d patrol the regions for their Chiefs, collecting taxes and typically taking more than their due. And anyone who said shit about it got cut down or strung up.
They were small-hearted men that used their status to prey on the common folk. Men that’d take a widow’s last copper and laugh about leaving her to starve.
Lochled wouldn’t bat an eye about wiping those fuckers out.
“Once it’s done,” Lochled said. “Then we all get the fuck out of here as fast as we can before the rest of the army comes bearing down on us. Have your people retreat once the killing’s done. Move daeside. Don’t cover your tracks—we want them to know which way we went. We’ll regroup at the rally point.”
Sunshine nodded once more, his face taking on a hard caste as he accepted the carnage that lay ahead of them.
Their rally point was another village, about half the size of this one, that lay ten thousandstride daeside of them. They’d evacuate that village once they got there, just like they had with this one, and then they’d shelter there and wait to see if Gunnar would give chase.
“Steady on, then,” Lochled said, feeling his stomach already tying itself in knots. “Have your people get into position. They should drink plenty of water and eat while they can. And stay as relaxed as possible.” He blew out a slow breath through pursed lips. “We’ve got a long wait ahead of us.”
Chapter 2
Sergeant Rony Hirdman was pleased to see that their new Seeker was keeping up. The rest of the squad didn’t have to slow down for him, or take more breaks than usual.
Seeker Timney was clearly pushing hard to accomplish this, and his face showed the strain.
Rony could sympathize. But she didn’t.
She kept the pace hard, and didn’t let up.
About midday, Timney did what she’d seen no other Seeker do in public: he shed his robes. Stuffed them into his satchel, and continued on wearing only a pair of thin, sweat-yellowed breeches. His chest and shoulders were leanly muscled, though he had a bit of a paunch that jiggled as he huffed along. But at least he didn’t complain.
A while after that, they found themselves in a lush valley between rolling hills. A stream meandered through the middle of it, and it seemed to lead pretty much straight alefts by Rony’s reckoning. She thanked Feor for a level stretch of ground and plenty of water at hand.
After traveling through the valley for a while, Rony called a stop. Breathing heavily through her nose, she squinted up at the sun, judging its distance to the horizon by the width of her outstretched hand. It was far past the middle by then.
She looked back at her sweating, panting crew.
Timney was bent over double, hands on his knees, gasping.
She grinned at him. “You’ve done well, Seeker. Only a few more hours to go.”
“Ah, yes,” he said between gulps of air. “Steady on. This all it is, then? Running and marching and running and marching from sunup to sundown?”
“And occasionally wrecking a village,” Taer put in.
Klannoc scowled across the landscape, as though it were all blighted instead of green and fertile. “Hadn’t seen a village all fucking day. You sure you’re heading us in the right direction, hef?”
She frowned at him. “Alefts is alefts. Don’t be a twank about it. I can’t control where the Tickers put their hovels.”
“Still got another three hours at least,” Longfoot said. “Not that I’m overeager to pointlessly savage another village that don’t have no loot in it. But I am getting bored.”
Rony eyed the landscape ahead of them. “Everyone take a few minutes to stretch your legs and refill your waterskins.”
They were grateful for the break. When your life was much as Timney had described—alternately running and marching all day—the times when you got to rest your legs and take a drink were the waypoints that led to your ultimate goal of sitting around the evening fire and eating.
They all drank heavily from the stream, then refilled their skins and set them on the banks. Rony and Longfoot posted a sort of lackadaisical watch, while the others had a quick bathe. They stripped down bare to do it, and didn’t seem to care that Rony was present. She wasn’t really a cully to them anymore. She was just the sergeant. One of the squad.
That pleased her.
Sitting on the bank beside her with his legs stretched out in front of him, Longfoot mopped his head and neck with a soaked rag. “You ready to talk about what happened with Wink?”
Her moment of peace shriveled up. “I already did. What’s left to talk about?”
“You told us what happened, yes. But you didn’t let any of us speak.”
Rony plucked a blade of grass and started pulling it into tiny pieces. “Not much point in it. What’s done is done.”
“True. But I see the way you keep eyeing everyone.”
“It’s my job to eye you lot. Make sure everyone’s in working condition.”
“Come off it, hef,” he said, quietly. “We both know that’s not what you were thinking.”
She looked at him hard. “Oh? Please, then. Tell me what I was thinking.”
“Sootyhell, you’re a pricklebur sometimes, you know that?”
“I am what I have to be.”
“Right again. But you don’t have to carry what happened all on your own. That’s all I’m saying. You keep eyeing us because you’re trying to see whether we’re gonna be sore with you for axing Wink. Am I wrong?”
She sniffed. Spat between her legs. “No.”
“Oh, lookit that, hef—guess I’m not such a halfwit after all, uh?” He smiled, and there was gentleness in it, instead of the recrimination she’d expected. “That’s all I’m trying to say. Maybe, if you’d’ve let us speak, you might’ve come to see we’re not sore with you at all.”
She regarded him for a moment. “Taer was friends with Wink.”
Longfoot scoffed. “Taer’d be friends with a rock, so long as it didn’t tell him to shut his gobber. He was friendly with Wink, because Wink didn’t say much, and that’s just about the only type of person Taer gets on with. But they weren’t friends. Nobody’s friends with Seekers, hef. Can’t be friends with someone you don’t fucking trust. You understand?”
She shifted so she was fully facing Longfoot, their splayed legs framing a diamond of no-man’s land between them. “So no one gives a shit that I axed one of their squadmates in the back of the head?”
“Fah,” Longfoot flittered his fingers. “Just because a Seeker’s attached don’t make him a squadmate, hef. They’re still Seekers, and no matter what, they’re a mighty creepy lot. You did what you had to do to keep the rest of your squad from hanging. And that’s why we’re not sore at you. It’s what we asked of you, idn’t it? After you and Klannoc had your little tousle? We said, keep us alive until we get out of this sootydamned country. That’s all a man can ever ask of his sergeant. And that’s what you did.”
Rony was surprised to feel a great burden she hadn’t even realized she’d been carrying suddenly lift and float away. Felt like she hadn’t been able to take a deep breath, and now it loosened up, and the tension went out of her.
She glanced at the others, now slogging their way out of the stream. They shook themselves off like dogs and set to dressing again.
“What about Timney?” she asked. “Everyone seems to like him. Is he a squadmate?”
“Fuck no,” Longfoot said, rising. “But he did bring us roasted nuts, so…”
They set out at a marching pace from there, following the stream. A path was beginning to be visible. She wondered if it was a game trail at first, but after a while it began to widen, and she realized it must’ve been a footpath for Tickers.
She started keeping a sharper eye on the horizon ahead of them. If there was a footpath emerging, it likely led to something.
Once everyone settled into the pace, Rony let Taer take the lead and dropped back to where Timney was bringing up the rear.
“I know, hef,” he said, as soon as she was abreast of him. “No need to spur me. I’ll keep up.” He was marching with a particular gait that told Rony all she needed to know about what was happening inside his breeches.
“Your thighs rubbing raw?” she asked, somewhat amused.
“Raw was five hours ago,” Timney griped. “It’s my thigh bones rubbing together now like sticks, and I’m pretty sure my breeches’ll catch fire soon.”
“If they do, pass them to Guro,” Rony said. “I’m sure he’ll appreciate not having to strike flint for the signal fire.”
The Seeker tittered, but said nothing else.
Rony kept pace with him.
He gave her an expectant glance.
“You understand why I did what I did?” Rony asked, softly. “To Wink, I mean.”
“Of course. And I said as much, didn’t I?”
She watched him searchingly for a few strides. “Suppose you did. And maybe it’s just that all Seekers talk like every word out of their mouth has a double meaning, but in all your efforts to be friendly and act like you understood, I got the distinct sense that there was something else that you weren’t saying.”
“Well, pardon, hef,” he said, sounding almost hurt. “That wadn’t my intention.”
Rony snorted. “Wadn’t your intention that I picked up on it, perhaps. I’m not daft, Timney. I know the Seekers are pissed that I took one of their own. Then you show up, and you say a bunch of pretty words, but there’s a tone that I don’t like to ‘em, and it tells me that all is not forgiven between me and the Seekers.”
Timney rocked to a halt, raising his hands as though to fend off blows. “Oh, hey now, sergeant. Don’t go painting us all with the same brush.”
She glared at him. “Yes. You’ve gone to a lot of effort to show us how different you are.”
That shut him up.
And it also confirmed something for her: His everyman act was just that—an act.
She leaned towards him, lowering her voice, though the others were already too far away. “Let me make something exceedingly clear to you, and to whoever you answer to, because I sure as shit know it’s not really me, as much as you’d like to cozen me into thinking so.” She held up a finger. “I got one job, Seeker, and it idn’t scouting, or calling on Battle Plows to smash villages.” She pointed that finger at the backs of the squad further ahead. “It’s keeping those men alive. And if I get the barest fucking whiff that you’re going to stop me from doing that job, I’ll do you like I done Wink, and I won’t shed a tear nor lose an hour of sleep over it. Am I clear on that point?”
Timney’s head pulled back as though to retreat from her, but his feet stood their ground. He looked her over, his face devoid of fear. But it had plenty of machinations running behind it. He was assessing her. Readjusting his perspective on her.
“Steady on, hef. Clear as mountain air.”
Rony withdrew. “Good. And whatever it is that you and your kind are up to, Timney? I. Don’t. Care. In a few short weeks, we’ll get out of here, and we’ll never have to see each other again. But until then, keep your head down, do your job, and let me do mine.”
Then she spun and jogged to catch up with the others, tossing over her shoulder, “Get your feet moving, Seeker.”
Ahead of her, the squad came to an abrupt stop.
Taer was up front, his hand upheld to call a halt. His neck was craning, fixed on something far ahead.
