accompanied by grave doubts as to the eventual outcome. Kal-Torak
seemed invincible. Moreover, though it was assumed that his intent
was to strike south toward Tol Honeth, no one could be certain
exactly where he would emerge from the mountains. Thus it was
necessary for the forces of the west to hold themselves in readiness
until Kal-Torak committed himself to battle.
During the eight years of the siege of the Stronghold of the
Algarians, the generals of the west had studied a hundred possible
battlefields and prepared a strategy for each. It was during these
preparations at the Imperial military college in Tol Honeth that it
became evident that Brand, the Warder of Riva, was a tactical genius.
Assisted by the oddly assorted pair who advised him, he devised
tactics that took advantage not only of terrain features, but also of the
contrasting strengths of the widely varied armies of the west.
NOTE:At the time certain discreet inquiries were made as to the identity of
Brand’s advisors, but without success. The man appeared to be aged but
vigorous and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of not only the
west but of the Angarak Kingdoms as well. The woman, a strikingly
handsome lady with a silver lock at her brow, had the uncanny gift of
instantly perceiving the weaknesses and strengths of any given
situation. Although her imperious manner offended many of the generals,
they soon came to respect her intuition in such matters. It has been
widely assumed that the two were Rivan nobles, but sketches of them
made surreptitiously during the extensive meetings reveal that they
have none of the racial characteristics of Rivans. Unfortunately, their
identities are forever locked in the vault of time.
* This is one of those ‘internal footnotes’ I mentioned earlier.
In the early summer of 4875 the Angaraks deployed for the assault
on Vo mimbre. This was the commitment for which Brand and his
armies had waited. Though Tolnedran strategists had long believed
that a second Angarak force would strike west along the South
Caravan Route out of Cthol Murgos and had built a line of
fortifications in the mountains to meet that threat, their fears proved
groundless. As the woman who advised Brand pointed out, ‘Vast
armies cannot fight in the mountains – they require open spaces.
And Torak is too arrogant for subterfuge. He will smash you, not
trick you.’ Thus, virtually at the last moment, Emperor Ran Borune
IV withdrew the bulk of his forces from the eastern mountains of
Tolnedra and returned his legions to Tol Honeth
* This was modified later. Kal-Torak (Torak himself) did have a second army, but it came
from the south, not the east, and it was bogged down in the Desert of Araga by that
unnatural blizzard
Then it was that, for the first time in history’ a huge land army
was transported by water to the scene of a battle, A huge Cherek
fleet arrived at Tol Honeth, and the legions embarked. The swift
Cherek vessels conveyed the legions down the Nedrane, north along
the coast and thence up the River Arend to a point some ten leagues
west of Vo Mimbre. The two-hundred league forced march from Tol
Honeth to Vo Mimbre would have taken more than a week, and the
legions would have arrived exhausted on the battlefield. The
Chereks deposited fresh troops on the north bank of the River Arend
almost within sight of the battle in two days.
On the morning of the third day of the battle, the forces of the
west closed with the Angaraks. The Battle of Vo Mimbre has been
analysed in great detail, and the study of the moves, countermoves,
deployment and so forth will, of course, be presented by the faculty
of the Department of Military Arts and Sciences. For Historians, a
rough sketch is adequate.
Upon a pre-arranged signal, the Mimbrate Knights issued from
the city and attacked the Angarak horde from the front. Then,
when the Angaraks were concentrating on this direction, Algarian
Cavalry’ Drasnian Infantry and the Ulgo irregulars attacked
Kal-Torak’s left; the Tolnedran legions, accompanied by Cherek Berserks,
assaulted his right. Attacked on three sides, Kal-Torak committed
his reserves. Then it was that the Rivans, the Sendars, and the
Asturian archers came upon him from the rear.
The battle raged for hours, and the issue was still in doubt when
Brand issued his challenge to Kal-Torak to meet him in a single
combat. This duel was the decisive incident in the battle. The loss of
either leader would so confound and demoralize his army that the
victory would fall easily to the survivor. In the end, though he
seemed the stronger of the two, Kal-Torak faltered, and Brand,
taking advantage of his foe’s momentary confusion, struck him
down.
The leaderless Angaraks, surrounded and demoralized, were then
systematically cut to pieces by the combined armies of the west.
The few elements which escaped fled back across the mountains,
raised the siege of the Algarian Stronghold and struggled into the
wilderness of the mountain range which marks the boundary
between Algaria and Mishrak at Thull. The occupation forces in
Drasnia withdrew back into Car og Nadrak, and the war was over.
The Malloreans had been destroyed in the battle, and the Nadraks,
Thulls and Murgos were so decimated that they would never again
pose a threat to the west.
It was at this point that Tolnedra’s greatest peril arose. The other
nations of the west, overwhelmed by the enormous victory Brand
had given them, hovered for a time on the verge of crowning the
Rivan general Emperor of the west. It was only through the
extraordinary efforts of Mergon, Tolnedran ambassador to the court at Vo
Mimbre, that this disaster was averted. At length he restored the
balance of good sense, and the proposal was dropped.
In return, however, the western kings imposed a humiliating
condition upon the Empire. While Brand himself indicated no
desire for such a fortuitous marriage, the assembled kings decreed
that the Rivan King should have the hand of an Imperial Princess
in marriage. This, of course, is an absurdity’ since the line of the
Rivan Kings died with Corek the Wise when he was assassinated
in 4002, but the kings were adamant. Thus it is necessary for every
Tolnedran Princess to make the arduous and often dangerous
journey to the fortress at Riva upon her sixteenth birthday and to
await there for three days a bridegroom who will never come.
Ran Borune was infuriated by this humiliation, but Mergon
Pointed out that the combination of Alorns, Ulgos, Arends and
Sendars could easily overthrow the legions and impose their will
on Tolnedra from the throne-room in Tol Honeth itself if they
chose.
In his last act as overgeneral of the west, Brand directed that the
lines of Asturia and Mimbre be joined by marriage to bring the
Arendish Civil War to a final conclusion. It was impossible for even
the brilliant Mergon to head off this wedding, and Tolnedran policy
in Arendia took a disastrous defeat. Since that policy for two
millennia had been to keep Arendia divided and therefore weak,
one can well imagine how the news of the unification of the houses
of Mimbre and Astur was greeted in Tol Honeth. Mergon, however,
advised the Emperor that the Alorns were feeling burly following
the battle, and that wisdom would seem to indicate that graceful
acquiescence might be a course preferable to forced acceptance.
Ran Borune agreed and wryly observed that a united Arendia
might prove troublesome at some future date, but a united Aloria
with an army in the field not two hundred leagues from the gates of
Tol Honeth was all the trouble that he needed at that particular
moment.
The years following the Battle of Vo Mimbre ushered in a period
of economic disaster in the west. The destruction of the Algarian
herds by marauding Angaraks forced the Algars to suspend their
customary annual cattle-drive to Muros in Sendaria for the decades
required to rebuild their herds. The vengeful Drasnians closed the
North Caravan Route against Nadrak merchants, and the Murgos
sealed their border, cutting off all trade along the South Caravan
Route. Thus, in addition to a meat famine in the west, trade with the
east became impossible except along those secret trails far to the
south known only to Nyissan slave-traders. And so it was that,
while it was distasteful, Tolnedra had no alternative but to increase
its trade with the snake people. By virtue of her monopoly of eastern
trade, the unwholesome influence of Queen Salmissra increased
enormously in the west. Dull-eyed Nyissan merchants began to
appear in the major ports along the west coast, and their dealings,
always deceitful, began to color virtually all aspects of commerce in
the west. Nyissa prospered enormously, and the luxury – even
opulence – of Sthiss Tor soon began to rival even that of Tol Honeth
itself.
The recovery from the years of economic depression which