by Roger Bourke White Jr.
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The winter after the Kalnichovs and Turks were driven from my homeland, my people, and I, were hot for revenge. Our lands, our people and the fairy people had all been hurt and insulted by the Kalnichov and Turk occupiers. That crisis and my rescue had organized us, now it was time to take action!
So I argued, but my father had different thoughts. He had seen much in his time as ruler. "You are organized, but so are the Kalnichovs. They are organized and scared that you will do just what you are talking about now. Even as we speak, the Kalnichov's... old and young, conservative and progressive, men and woman, are preparing to defend against a Rostov invasion next summer, and the ambitious ones are preparing a counter-offensive once the Rostov forces are defeated. The likely result of an invasion next summer is a bloody stalemate, and more fighting in the years following. The most likely result of a vengeful invasion is to make our recent victory a hollow one."
"So... we should do nothing?"
"Not nothing. Revenge is a dish best served cold... and best served with some maggots in the steak. We have lots to do to finish healing the wounds our lands have suffered. We should work hard to heal those. While we are working on that, some of the Kalnichovs who are preparing to fend us off will get impatient -- their hotheads are as scared as our hotheads are vengeful. They will begin making hasty plans for their own vengeance while our lands heal and our people get stronger. One of those hasty plans will be to attack us before we attack them. I estimate that two summers from now, they will come again, but the attack will be poorly prepared, and the Kalnichovs will be split on whether to support the attack, or not. The hotheads will come, but once again, they won't have the support of the old family, and no Turkish mercenaries, either. That is a fight we can win, and win solidly. That will be our revenge, and that kind of a fight will give us a lasting peace. The hothead Kalnichovs will be discredited within their family, and the old ones will continue to guard their dark secrets.
"So, we should heal and prepare for an attack, we should not attack." he said.
Once again, my father's wisdom was impressive. The Kalnichovs did come two summers later. At first their attack was fearsome. The Kalnichovs chose to use dark magic as their primary weapon, and the people of the Rostov north border areas were dismayed when they saw they were facing powerful dark magic, and retreated south. But as the Kalnichov army advanced south, their dark magic seemed to lose some "punch" and fearfulness. After the first days, soldiers who were brave and true could stand up to the waves of fear cast by the Kalnichov mages, and fight back for a while. What was happening, unknown to the soldiers or civilians, was the magical forest people were siding up against the Kalnichovs. They were weakening the Kalnichov spells and doing other mischief. It is unusual for forest people to get involved in human affairs, it was testimony to how badly the Kalnichovs had treated them when they had come south before.
At the battle of Balden Springs, the Kalnichovs were encircled and routed. The Rostov army they faced was well equipped, well lead and vengeance -powered. Many Kalnichov leaders were captured. The Rostov army then marched north for Kalnichov lands, and within a week the Kalnichovs sued for peace. The border between the realms was returned to that set at the time of the Pope's Blessing, and all the loot taken during the Kalnichov-Turkish occupation of two years earlier was returned. All-in-all, a very moderate settlement. There were many Rostov people who said it was too moderate, but my father said, "The Kalnichovs should not be the center of our thinking. There are many other things of more importance happening in the world, and it is time for us to move on."
Once again, his wisdom was impressive. I found that I wanted to move on and see more of the world, too. I left my father in charge of the Kalzov valley, and the result of my next wandering is the subject of this story.
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