Valerian

Valerian Woodsbane, known also as The Smiling Devil was a Forest Elf and a member of the Black Powder Rebels under the command of Sarah Ythlim. Previously, he was the leader of a scout squad of the Elemental League and a Ranger, but he became an enemy of the League after setting a forest on fire to destroy a conjoined force of the Guild and the Sect.

## Characteristic

Valerian had a thin, aquiline face, pale skin, and a mane of even paler hair, pulled back and tied with a leather strap. Even his eyes were pale—not washed out, but a nearly colorless gray. When he smiled, those around him suddenly found themselves under the scrutiny of a potent personality. Because of his hair and lithe complexion, people often confused him for Sarah when he was cloaked.

## History

### Early Life

Valerian was a commander in the Elemental forces until he was exiled from Wylden. He was their best scout leader until the day he spotted an Imperial column crossing the Roa Sanguine. They came into the Wylden from bonesucker territory - the Sect even provided guides to help the Imperials attack several small sanctuaries. Only Valerian and his handful of rangers stood in the way — far too few, and he knew no troops could be gathered in time. Yet he stopped the invasion by setting the woods on fire, roasting the Imperials and their Sect Elf friends, but he laid waste to leagues of forest - this is what earned him the epithet Woodsbane. He wasn't just exiled, but became an enemy of the League, hunted 'til this day.

Still, even after his exile, a few contacts from the League remained friendly to him - of note is Mending Priestess Themyskis who resided in the canyon-city of Venetia. After becoming enemy of the League, Valerian fled to Varsfield, where he met Sarah Ythlim and was introduced to the Rebel cause, promptly joining it and becoming one of it's leading members since.

### Rebel Thunder

This section covers the events transcribed in the novel Rebel Thunder, set in 419 Tz.

#### Burning of Caero

When the Rebel riders from Khamsin arrived at Caero, Tulwar and Blaize went to the shopping district, where they they found themselves facing a nondescript shop with bundles and dried greenery spread on the shutter. The owner was a wizened old Caeronn, his face wrinkled, the linen of his kilt yellowing. Tulwar said the password to the old contact, who, in turn, asked his servant- Valerian in disguise, to lead the way to the Rebellion's base in Caero.

Tulwar and Blaize followed Valerian to a door standing ajar in the expanse of the opposite wall. Stepping through the entry, they found themselves in a fairly large kitchen. Valerian then revealed himself to Blaize and Tulwar and they became acquainted. In the common room, they found Jon, Harolt, Rikka, and Eginhard seated around the ruins of a generous meal. Two others were also at the table - Sarah Ythlim and Affrem. The Rebels discussed their trip to Caero while eating and also assessing their next course of actions. After all was said and done, Sarah, Valerian, and Affrem then moved off to a table across the room, speaking in low tones.

Next day, in the common room, Affrem had managed to get Eginhard, Jon, and Harolt into some sort of game. Valerian sat off to the side, watching them with an ironic smile. Blaize, who joined them, incquired about Roudi, the bath-girl, so that he could get his medallion fixed - Valerian let Tulwar accompany him on his way to Wensu, the local tinker. When Blaize and Tulwar came back to the inn, the Atlanteans already set fire to the city using Incendiary Golems. Instantly, they faced a phalanx of suddenly drawn weapons and informed the residents that the Imperials are trying to set the city on fire.

Affrem tried to leap to his feet—but failed. Valerian’s foot pinned the Caeronn’s robe to the floor. The fat frog-face, beaded with sweat, all but shouted confirmation of Valerian’s subtle accusation - the tax collector — Ramosi — was going to ruin the innkeeper if he didn't rat out the rebels to the government. Valerian’s smile had gone completely feral as he seized Affrem’s head, moving so quickly. An instant later, Affrem lolled in his chair, a red gorget of blood spreading across his robe from a slit throat. Wiping a knife on the dead man’s linen, Valerian headed for the stairs to get Sarah and Rikka.

The instant she got the news, Sarah was coming down the stairs, pulling a nondescript gray cape around herself. Valerian had also donned the floor-length hooded cloak. Along with smoke, flaming debris were already flying on the breeze, landing all over the neighborhood, setting new fires. Cries of alarm rang out as people’s homes went up. As the fugitives negotiated a kink in the narrow alleyway road, they finally saw why - a three-story house was well ablaze, thick smoke rising from the roof. No bucket brigade could stop the fire’s progress. Despairing wails came from the third floor as well, the window shutters had been thrown open, and a woman stood in the opening, holding two babies in her arms. Flames already flickered behind her, the mother’s voice was raw from smoke, screaming for any help. Sarah Ythlim stopped dead in the passageway, Valerian crashing into her from behind. Sarah was hellbent on rescuing the mother.

The Rebels formed a living ladder - on Blaize's idea - they lasted long enough for the trapped family to make their escape. The desperate construction came apart from the top down. Once the operation was done, Blaize nearly fell flat but Rikka flung her arms around him in exuberance and caught him. After that, they continued running away from the Imperials.

The Rebels’ flight was short-lived - they hardly got a block away down the alley before they ran straight into an Imperial patrol. The guardsmen stood five abreast behind a hedge of spear points - this was no arson squad - these guardsmen had been set out to plug this escape route. They were searching for something - or someone - Sarah, as the Rebels later found out. Fire, meanwhile, cut off the escape route from the back. Two guardsmen came forward to pull the females aside, grabbing their hoods. Sarah’s face and hair were revealed. The one who’d gone for Rikka stepped back, gurgling. Seizing the opportunity, Blaize tore his sword free and charged the line of spears, droppinng to bring himself under the shafts, rolling up to the guardsmen’s legs, and began slashing - he was intent on getting through the line and at the Altem.

The Altem got off one good blast on his brass whistle before Blaize’s blade punctured a lung. Returning whistles came from the distance — other patrols on their way. The pack of Rebels already burst through the gap Blaize had created, Valerian included. Valerian led them on a wildly jinking course through the webwork of alleys. All around them, though, the running Rebels could still hear the whistles - the sound even came from behind them. Smoke grew thick in the constricted passage, and he could see the redness of flames up ahead.

More Imperials came clattering in pursuit — a fresh patrol by the look of it, and they had a live Altem directing the chase. They followed Valerian through another set of zigzags, in the hopes of briefly setting back the pursuers - the alley they ended up in swerved through an almost right-angle turn. When Blaize and Eginhard came round, they found a pair of absolutely blank walls, smoke, and the rest of their party preparing to make a stand. Harolt, Tulwar, and Jon formed a rank across the passage. Harolt, the drover, looked scared, Tulwar looked eager, and Jon looked a little dubious. He’d had to give up his crossbow, leaving him with only a sword. Eginhard grinned wolfishly as he took his place in the line.

Blaize took his place at the far flank against the right-hand wall. They waited long minutes. Valerian’s attempted evasion couldn’t have taken this long for the Imperials to figure out. On the left, Valerian spoke with Eginhard, bringing something out from under his long cloak and putting it in the Dwarf’s arms. In a swirl of black wool, Valerian then joined Sarah and Rikka.

Eginhard then started charging his secret weapon - a lightning gun. Harolt was already past, breaking into a run. So was Jon Bowman — prudence in this case obviously being the better course than valor. Blaize and Tulwar still faced the bend in the alley as a host of Imperials came roaring round, Altems in the front rank. They stumbled a little when they didn’t encounter the resistance they’d expected. Either way, Eginhard triggered the weapon - a spark of blue-white energy sizzled from the lightning gun, striking the wall Blaize had been standing beside moments ago. It wasn’t a full charge, but even so, it was enough to fill the narrow alleyway with the stink of ozone. Eginhard then pushed Blaize and Tulwar ahead of him, into the opening for escape that he just made.

They were coming up on another intersection. Rikka and Sarah darted right into a cross-alley. Valerian, his pale hair streaming behind him, went straight. Still blinking, Blaize pounded after the Forest Elf, thinking it was Sarah instead of the Smiling Devil. Tulwar and Eginhard lagging behind.

#### Escaping the Conflagration

Valerian batted away Blaize’s wavering blade with the back of his hand. Blaize now realized the gray cloak was a bit short on the Elf’s tall, rangy figure, but a quick glimpse after being dazzled by the lightning discharge had been enough to convince him he pursued Sarah. As amazement drained away, Blaize faced new surprise, finding himself relieved even glad that his wild plan had gone awry. Valerian's voice held a note of satisfaction, saying that the Imperials will believe their quarry, Sarah, is heading north. Meanwhile, Sarah is heading south to join Snow.

When Eginhard and Tulwar joined Valerian and Blaize, the Elf continued leading them north, apparently unconcerned about the encroaching fire. The smoke grew thicker as they continued on their way. Blaize could hear noises through the thickening murk—muttered curses, and then a crash. While the others barged in to a building to get some water to help with the smoke, Valerian searched the area until finally he stopped in front of a statue. He pushed against it, and the base suddenly pivoted, revealing the black maw of a hole - Caero has its tunnels that smugglers often use, and they were heading down to one. With that, Valerian swung himself around and began descending. Blaize found himself third, after Harolt. As he clambered downward, he could hear the sounds of flint striking steel. Then light blossomed below. The tunnel ran straight ahead. Blaize simply had to follow Valerian.

After Valerian handing everyone masks to avoid suffocating from the smoke, they continued on. Their light began to fade — the flame of the torch was guttering - after all, flame needs air to breathe. Harolt then stumbled, reaching to catch himself against the wall. He recoiled from the stone like a scalded cat. Hysteria quivered in the Northerner’s voice. Harolt sobbed, but continued onward. Eginhard was the next to trip, falling all the way to the floor. They made the last third of their journey on hands and knees, faces as close to the floor as they could bring them. Somewhere along the way, the heat began to decrease. They had made it beneath the raging fires. Everyone in the group was coughing now, a thick, disgusting mucus emerging to clog the masks they wore. Valerian then snuffed out the torch. They groped along in blackness until the Elf finally croaked, finding a ladder! Eginhard and Valerian then forced the trapdoor at the top open.

They climbed up into a warehouse thick with smoke, but there seemed to be no flames anywhere near. Outdoors, the dustwind tasted like wine when the group let go of their masks. The group walked through empty streets, disheveled, smoke-stained, and wild-eyed. Valerian had wrapped the cloak around himself, pulling up the hood to hide his telltale hair. Shadows were slanting across the streets. The remorseless dustwinds continued to blow in the group’s face - besides grit, it brought new traces of smoke. They continued on through streets grown dull with fading sunlight and clouds of smoke.

Warehouses gave way to tenements, and then, as they came to the first wide street, they suddenly found shining new mansions. One of them was afire, adding to the local smoke quota. A crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle, and some were accepting work on a sketchy bucket brigade that was bringing water to the harried house servants. A couple of grounds servants had abandoned the fight to save the house, running for the stables. One of the menials threw open the door and began to lead horses out. Tulwar led the way to the far wall, grabbing saddles and bridles, passing some on to Blaize. As they headed out, Harolt was leading two horses - whatever the Prieskan lacked in personal courage, he made up for in concern for the animals. They moved as gently as if they were taking an exercise round. The horse Eginhard led, however, kept trying to bite him.

Tulwar tossed his gear to Jon Bowman and took over gentling down the horse still trying to take a bite out of Eginhard. Harolt turned his two horses over to Valerian, then turned to run back into the burning building. All the horses they needed were saddled up when Harolt returned. With that chore taken care of, they mounted up and charged for the mansion gates. The crowd recognized immediately that the riders were not Ramosi’s servants and burst out in cheers. The Imperials turned, stared, and began pushing off from the wall where they’d been lounging. But before the troopers could block the way, the Rebels were past them, riding like mad for the Ceremonial Way and the Northern Gate.

This time, there was no polite waiting in line. They pounded along the street, and anyone who got in the way risked being trampled. From the dodging pedestrians, the gate guards would have to suspect something was up - very few Caeronns left the city just before the gates closed. Blaize could see helmeted heads turning toward him and the other riders. Altems began shouting orders, and their squads started deploying. One Altem stalked forward, his hand upraised - the arrogant fool couldn’t believe the riders wouldn’t obey. Valerian purposely swerved his horse to knock the Altem down. The other Imperials were caught flat-footed. They had neither blocked off the exit with troops nor closed the gates. It was too late for the Imperials - the Rebels galloped through the open gateway. Safely outside, Valerian skinned back his cloak’s hood, letting the guards see that the white-haired Rebel they were supposed to be on the lookout for had escaped — northward.

Valerian's plan of going for the pyramids to hide from the Imperials was foiled when he saw their forces gathering near the wonders of architecture. The troops had apparently been sent out to the Empire’s stone-stealing project at the smallest pyramid. Clustered around the scaffolding that surrounded the cut into the pyramid stood a group of Golems—Incendiary Golems. The hulking constructs dwarfed the robed mages who controlled them and made the Amotep Incinerators in the group look even odder. Disengaging and escaping would be a much longer, more difficult matter.

The Elf now led the group of riders for the edge of the pyramid farthest from the roadside. As soon as the Rebels left the road, the Imperial troops began deploying. Some moved to block the paved surface. Others formed a line to protect the mages. Several Golems began making their ponderous way to the far end of the pyramid. The riders had the longer route to travel, but they could move faster than the Golems. The stony ground beneath them—necessary to support such titanic structures—allowed top speed.

It would be a close thing, but it looked as though the riders would win the race. Then another variable raised its ugly head - an Amotep Incinerator appeared, already at the end of the pyramid. The jet of flame he sent at the riders set their horses snorting and plunging, refusing to go onward. The Golems, however, continued advancing at their thundering, jogging trot. Jon Bowman snarled the order to halt. An instant later, he had his bow ready, and fired. The bolt caught the Amotep in the leg, bringing him down. Another jet of flame vomited out as the wounded man tried to fire back. Jon was just out of range - he pulled his bowstring back into position and set in another bolt.

The Amotep was clawing his way erect with the help of one of the uprights for the scaffolding when Jon fired again. This time, the bolt entered the Imperial’s shoulder, just outside his armor. The hand that had held the nozzle of the flamecaster hung uselessly as the Incinerator fell again. The riders tore through the danger zone. The Golems were coming very close. Blaize was distracted and didn't see the Amotep who tried to seize the opportunity from Blaize’s inattention, wobbling up with the nozzle in his good hand. Blaize went to stab, but was blocked as Tulwar brought his horse over the Imperial. A gout of flame rose up. The horse reared, screaming, then collapsed.

Tulwar flew from the saddle, his billowing Galeshi costume afire. He lived up to his “Windfoot” epithet, landing lightly and rolling to douse the flames. His mount, however, lay where it had fallen, kicking and giving bubbling screams. Scimitar in hand, Tulwar limped to the prone Amotep and administered the finishing stab. His handsome face was starting to blister as he glared up at Blaize, proclaiming that he would make his final stand here and now against the Golems. He aimed the nozzle at the nearest Incendiary Golem - flame poured forth to bathe the oncoming machine, searing Tulwar even as he fired. The construct raised its own huge flamecaster for a countershot and suddenly began to shudder. Tulwar laughed.

The Golem’s fuel tank blew up - the blast was enough to jar Blaize’s horse into a stumble. The scream of overstressed wood was heard and then a crash as at least part of the scaffolding fell. Then came the grinding of stone against stone, a rumble, and finally a roar as the stone the Imperials had intended to steal collapsed in a sort of landslide down the miniature mountain. Maybe some of the Golems might survive that. But by the time they got themselves unburied, Blaize and the others would be leagues away - all thanks to Tulwar's sacrifice.

#### Karrudan's Assassination

Once the deed was done, an uprising began in Down Town, with the Rebel sympathizers armed with black powder pistols and the rare fuser rifles rallying against Lord Scarbro's forces trying to squash the Rebellion's leaders.

Valerian, along with the rest of Sarah's personal guard made a last stand at the Mills of Circumstance, the inn that they were staying prior to the uprising. One end of the open space was packed with Imperials. Scarbro must have committed the bulk of his force to this spearhead, hoping to decapitate the beast of rebellion before it could rear up in full strength. Bereft of leadership from Sarah, Valerian, Eginhard, and Perrin, the uprising would undoubtedly degenerate into a simple riot.

The little knot of Rebel commanders stood behind a horn-shaped earthen breastwork piled up before them. They also had a flag of sorts—a bedsheet painted with a crude symbol. It looked like a shield intersecting a larger, darker circle. The person holding the pole for this improvised banner was Rikka. Attempting to shield her and the others from the gathering Imperial might was a thin line of defenders sheltering behind yet another street barricade. They hadn’t gotten their materials from five minutes of hasty pillaging - large barrels and crates had been moved from nearby warehouses. Heavy wagons had been overturned. Maybe some of the big tuns had come from the inn’s cellars. They’d even dug up the paving stones and heaped earth on their rampart, creating a sort of ditch or moat before the wall.

Blaize then joined the fight, having found an empty place on the wall. The battle array before them comprised a spear wall in the middle with clouds of crossbowmen at the flanks. Heavy bolts flew through the air as the flank parties tried to provide cover fire. The return volley from the Rebels was more ragged—but also more deadly. The bowmen had to stand to restring their weapons. The pistol-armed Rebels could remain crouched under cover, barely exposing themselves to fire. They hurt the guardsmen, all but wiping out those with ranged weapons. Their galling fire slowed the spear line. The Rebels bloodied the advancing Imperials, creating gaps in the line, but those gaps were always filled by men from the rear ranks. Occasional blasts of rifle fire kept the mages too far back to make themselves

People were running now. A great noise came from the Imperials as they surmounted the wall - part victory cry, part animal snarl. And then Sigwold, armed with an axe and a torch, hurled the axe, not at the enemy, but into the middle of the defenses. The blazing brand followed, landing on a pile of black powder barrels. One had been stove open, leaking a trail of black powder...

There was a sudden hiss, and the world vanished in a sudden, brilliant glare. Before them was a crater, blown deep into the surface of the earth. Around it staggered burned, blind, bleeding, and dismembered Imperials.

The Empire’s war machine had abruptly run out of momentum, and then a storm of lead sleeted into the face of the stunned warriors. Sarah and the others had indeed been holding themselves out—not as a sacrifice, but as bait to tempt Scarbro into committing his forces. The Rebel leaders had also been regathering all the gunslingers they’d sent out to spearhead the uprising. Young men with pistols were massing and moving forward, firing as they went.

The Imperial guardsmen, victory literally blasted out of their hands, tried to stand. They were the best-trained, steadiest human warriors in the Land, but human flesh can only take so much. As the withering fire continued, the Imperial ranks wavered, then disintegrated. Still firing into the running fugitives, the Rebels cheered a sight few had ever seen—an Imperial warhost in full retreat. The gunfire slackened, but voices rose in harsh argument. Some of the more hotheaded Rebels screamed for pursuit, eager to settle some more scores with the fleeing guardsmen, but Valerian stopped them before they ran to their death.

Sarah then made a big speech, congratulating the Rebel forces in Down Town and proclaiming the start of Black Powder Rebellion.

***Black Powder Rebels***
 Major characters

***Elemental League***
 Minor characters

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 14
2. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 15
3. ↑ Rebel Thunder (Bill McCay), Chapter 16