The Fall of the Order of the Star

The Order of the Star was once a mighty force for good on the Arrel Plains. However, over many years, arrogance and greed have replaced the high ideals, and folly has robbed the Order of much of its power. Now, over a thousand years since its founding, a young servant girl will witness the fall of the Order - and will bring about its rebirth.

Chapter One - Death

Shouts from the sentries alerted the grooms, and they rushed out of the stables to receive the influx of horses even as the clatter of steel-shod hooves sounded on the courtyard.

'That'll be the Lord Commander, back from pounding the bad guys again!' Shel grinned at Kiri. He dropped the harness he was working on and scrambled up onto a ledge to peer out the windows, trying to get a look at the returning knights.

Kiri followed more slowly. She felt a surge of resentment towards the skinny redhead. He was a full year younger than her, but at the age of fourteen, he was a stablehand and got to work with the warhorses - huge, beautiful, powerful creatures, veterans of many battles. Kiri, on the other hand, got to clean the floors.

She had finally finished cleaning the knight's living quarters and, because she had been so quick to get it done, she had two free hours before supper. Free, that is, as long as Carren, the head housekeeper, didn't find her loitering in the halls.

So, she had escaped to the stables. Not so much to see Shel - he wasn't that much of a friend, but he was tolerable, and he was about her own age. In fact, he was the only other child in the fortress, except for the knights' children, and she certainly could never hope to be friends with them.

No, the real reason she came to the stables was to see the horses. Kiri grinned as she climbed up onto the stalls' wall and patted the big black stabled next door. The warhorse snorted and bumped his head against her affectionately, almost knocking her off her perch.

'That's...' Shel started to say something before trailing off to stunned silence. He was staring out the window, and Kiri quickly left the horse and shuffled over to see what was so interesting.

Outside in the courtyard, the knights were dismounting with help from the grooms, a group of men-at-arms milling about behind them. So what?, Kiri thought, What's so astonishing about that? Then she realised. Fifty knights had ridden out with the Lord Commander, with eighty men-at-arms behind them. There in the courtyard, the knights numbered less than thirty, with a similar number of foot soldiers.

Many of the men out there bore bandages. Kiri noticed that their armour showed dents and even gaping holes. Even as she watched, a knight toppled from his saddle, hitting the ground with a crash of metal plate.

'Sergeant Firras! Get that man to the infirmary!' A tall man in distinctive green-and-silver armour strode out of the crowd, barking orders. Two soldiers were quickly sent to scoop up the fallen knight. More commands hastened the grooms off with the horses, and hurried the dispersal of the men-at-arms.

'That's not... That's Lord Vayrlan.' Shel's voice was barely a whisper.

'What? But...' Kiri stopped as she realised Shel was right. The armour could not be mistaken, that was definitely the Commander's equipment, the strongest magic armour the Order possessed. But the man wearing it was not Lord Commander Kershel.

It was Lord Marshal Vayrlan, the second in command of the Order of the Star. That was obvious, his greying black hair and beard and his aquiline nose clearly visible - because he wore no helm. So where was the helm that went with the armour? And why was Lord Vayrlan wearing the Commander's armour? And where is Lord Commander Kershel?

The questions running through Kiri's mind were horribly answered when she saw two knights lift a stretcher and carry it towards the inner courtyards.

Although their burden was covered with a cloak, it was clearly a body. By its shape, a headless body.

Chapter Two - Reflections

Kiri furtively glanced around the servants' dining hall. The fortress' workers hunched over their breakfast, mostly silent, the few conversations conducted in whispers.

Everyone was still in shock over the death of Lord Kershel, and no one wanted to start any speculation over what had happened. At least, not in public. Kiri knew that rumours were flying among the servants, but no-one had bothered to mention anything to the little cleaning girl.

Almost all of the servants were present, yet the room could have held three times as many people. Kiri had previously seen this as spaciousness, like the fact that she had her own room - evidence of the wealth and power of the Order.

Now, however, she was remembering the stables. The five huge stone buildings were built to house one hundred horses each, with rooms above for the stable workers and to store fodder.

Last night, the grooms had been able to stable all of the knights' horses in one building.

Each knight had two horses, but even allowing for dead horses, that meant that there were only about fifty knights left in the fortress. Well, maybe sixty, but even so, that was shockingly few for the main stronghold of the Order.

Certainly, there were four other chapterhouses, but Kiri knew that they held only twenty knights each, or forty in the great chapterhouse in the city of Venkenka. That's a total of one hundred and sixty knights in the entire Order, Kiri quickly calculated, when this fortress alone was designed to hold two hundred and fifty. That is, based on the stabling of two horses per knight, and five hundred stalls in the stables.

Kiri was proud of her ability to calculate. Her father had taught her reading, writing and calculation when she was little, and now it came naturally to her. She knew that most of the other servants could barely write their own names, and when she had first come to the fortress, she had hoped that her ability would get her some important post. But no...

The main doors to the hall burst open and a serving man burst into the room, gasping, 'They're not all dead!' There was an instant explosion of noise as everyone in the hall spoke at once, asking for the news.

'What...', 'Where is...','What did...'

'QUIET!,' Carren bellowed from her position at the head of the table. She was a big woman, but more importantly, she held a good deal of power over the servants. Everyone fell silent, and the head housekeeper turned to the serving man. 'Now, Gar, you have some news?'

'Yes,' Gar said, still a bit breathless, 'I've just been over in the men-at-arms' hall, and I've got the full story about what happened.'

He stopped for a breath, and people burst out with more questions, but Carren quelled them with a glare. 'You said they're not all dead. So where are the others?'

'The worst wounded were left behind at the Venkenka chapter-house,' Gar told her, 'Seven knights and thirteen men-at-arms.'

Expressions of relief erupted throughout the room. Kiri felt relief, too, until she remembered her calculations. One hundred and sixty knights plus seven wounded. It made very little difference.

Carren hushed them all again. 'So, tell us, Gar, what happened to them all? How did Lord Kershel die?' There was instant silence. Everyone wanted to hear the answer to that.

'Well,' Gar began, 'It seems the Lord Commander heard tell of an orc chieftain up in the hills north of Teris, north of the river. Seems like the Commander heard that this orc and his tribe were attacking some of the farms around Teris. That's what the Commander rode out to do, put a stop to the attacks.' Many people around the tables nodded at that. It seemed the Commander's mission was well known - but not to Kiri. No-one had told her anything.

'Orcs couldn't beat the knights!,' one woman burst out.

'No,' Gar chuckled, 'The knights stomped those orcs pretty good.' There was a rush of laughter at that, but then they quietened as Gar continued.

'No, what the Commander didn't know was that there were actually three tribes of orcs.' Gasps from around the room. 'The knights were just tidying up when they were attacked by about two hundred more orcs, along with a bunch of ogres and a couple of giants.' His audience moaned. They were really getting into the story.

'Well, the Commander rallies the troops, but they were surrounded and outnumbered. The only way out is to the south, but two giants, fifteen feet tall, are blocking the way. But Lord Kershel, he doesn't hesitate. He charges straight at the giants and cuts off the hand of one of them, then slashes it across its guts. The giant goes down and there's a hole in the enemy ranks. All the knights charge for the gap, aiming to break out.'

There was a murmur of admiration from the servants, admiration for the mighty Lord Kershel and his brave knights. Kiri was dubious though. It sounded as if Gar was embellishing the tale as he went.

'Just as the knights were smashing through the wall of their enemies, two ogres leap forward, one grabbing the Commander, the other going for his horse.' Groans. 'The Commander hacks at the ogres with his axe, cutting one of them clean in half. But before he can break free, the other giant steps up and swings this huge hammer, hitting the Commander straight in the head.'

More moans from the audience. 'But his helm,' Carren broke in, 'The Commander's helm is magic, powerful magic. There's no way anything could smash through that.'

'Nope,' Gar replied, 'but it didn't need to. That giant was so strong, the blow so powerful, didn't hurt the Commander's head none, but tore his neck clean off his shoulders. The Commander's head was still strapped inside the helm when it went flying into the crowd of orcs.'

Stunned silence throughout the room. Gar apparently realised that his description was a bit gruesome, not the way to talk about the Order's Commander. He cleared his throat and hurriedly finished his story.

'Lord Vayrlan managed to rescue the Commander's body, but they had no chance to get his head, or the helm. It was all they could do to save themselves.'

Only silence greeted the end of the tale. Gar cleared his throat and shuffled his feet, suddenly unsure of himself. Carren stared blankly at the table-top. 'So,' she said slowly, 'The Commander is dead and the helm is lost. Another part of the Panoply gone.' She shook her head. 'This is a terrible loss for the Order.'

The silence stretched on several moments longer, until Carren pushed herself to her feet. 'Well, now we know what happened. But there's work to be done, so let's get to it!'

There was a great scraping, as the servants all pushed their benches back and stood, before bustling off to their duties.

Kiri followed behind, thinking about all she had heard.

Chapter Three - Working

A working day always followed the same routine.

Up at dawn, breakfast in the hall, then cleaning the servants' quarters. This didn't take long - the servants' rooms only contained a bed and a chest for their clothes.

Next, the cleaners went across to the other side of the courtyard to clean the men-at-arms' quarters. There were six halls for the common soldiers, designed to hold six hundred people. But there were fewer than three hundred men-at-arms in the fortress. Even less now, after the events of the last few days.

The soldiers' rooms weren't very different from those of the servants. Just a bit more spacious, with a small table and chair, and a stand for the chainmail that all the soldiers wore. The rooms all smelled of oiled metal.

There was a break for lunch, then, after that, Kiri and the other cleaners trooped through the gate to the knights' section of the fortress to do the cleaning there. This took the rest of the day.

The knights had luxurious rooms. Many of them had wives, and even children, so they had suites of rooms to house their families. Kiri hated this part of the job. All the ladies were snobs and all the children were spoilt brats. Well, maybe not all of them, but Kiri didn't have a chance to get to know them. Nor did she want to.

She worked as quickly as she could, keeping her head down, her face hidden behind the curtain of her dirty curls. She spoke only when directly addressed, limiting her answers to a mumbled 'Yes, ma'm' or 'No, ma'm', and got out of there as fast as possible.

After that she moved onto some of the other areas of the knights' halls - the kitchens, the childrens' schoolrooms, the ladies' recreation room, the libraries, the study rooms, the training halls, and so on.

One good thing about the knights' halls - much of the work was done by magic. There were no fireplaces to empty of ash - magic kept the rooms at a comfortable temperature. There were no lanterns or candles to trim or fill - the rooms were lit by magically glowing globes. Best of all, there were no chamberpots. The knights had privies, which magically disposed of the waste.

Even so, it was still a lot of work, even with twenty cleaning women. The only areas they didn't have to clean were the stables, the blacksmith's forge, the armouries and the chapels.

Of course, they didn't go through the third gate either, to the last courtyard where the Great Tower stood. Only knights could pass through that gate. Anyone else who tried was pushed back by powerful magic.

Today, all of the knights were gathered in the Great Tower, to discuss what had happened, and to decide what the Order should do next. There was much gossip about it, both from the cleaning women and from the ladies - those who weren't grieving for lost husbands. Although Kiri didn't join in, she listened intently.

'They'll have to recall some of the knights from the chapterhouses. Maybe even close the one in Mear - it's not doing us much good there.' That, from one of the ladies.

'Lord Vayrlan can't be confirmed as Lord Commander until all of the Lord Marshals meet. And it'll take at least a fiveday to get them here from all the chapterhouses,' said Onni, one of the older cleaners.

'Yes, and they can't have Lord Kershel's funeral till they all meet, neither.' Another cleaner.

'I've heard that they're going to take all the knights of the Order and go back and get the helm. Well, they have to, don't they? They can't let orcs steal part of the Panoply.'

'But they can't do that! It would leave the chapterhouses practically unguarded!'

The chapterhouses? Kiri thought, What about the people the knights are supposed to protect? But none of the ladies mentioned the common people, concerned only with how the Order could best regain its power.

Kiri trudged back to the servants' quarters at dusk with the rest of the cleaners. Although the other women were still chattering, Kiri kept silent. She felt gloomy, as if a big, dark cloud hung above the fortress.

Fortunately, tomorrow was her day off.

It would be good to spend the day with her father.