Chapter 1
A man stood upon a high wall with parapets on either side of him. A thick beard rested beneath a thin lined mouth, which was tight from unconscious use of muscle during his thought process. Watching over the mouth was a sloped nose with a bulged out cartilage, and the eyes above that were a hazel-like thick honey with eyelashes thrown in. His body was covered in a refined form of steel that had golden trim along the edges, the newest model from his hard-working academics. It was lighter than what standard infantry wore and stronger, too. On the right shoulder guard three letters had been etched into the metal and dyed red: "AoH." At his side hung a scabbard that held within a long bladed sword, ticked along the edge from much use. He was gazing out towards the horizon, where the sun was beginning its slow ascent into the sky. What little light there was outlined a large group of sparkling men heading for the city. The man made a rough calculation and guessed the numbers to exceed somewhere in seven thousand. At their head rode another armored man; this one with a darker colored steel, more black than grey really. On the back of his saddle there appeared to be a woman bound and gagged, and even from where he stood the man on the wall could see red stains on her clothing and many of the men marching close behind. The host made its way to the city gate and stopped, as if waiting for something. The bearded man realized he didn't hear the sound of opening doors. He walked over to the main gatehouse and peered in, where a sentry was resting against the wall, snores emanating from his throat. The man was suddenly woken up as an armored hand lightly tapped his head. At first apparently upset at being so rudely interrupted, the man's demeanor quickly changed when he saw who had awoken him.
"L-L-Lord N-Necrokai, I um…excuse me, I was just…um…"
The bearded man, Lord Necrokai squatted down beside the man as far as his armor would let him, "You may not know what you were doing, but I know a sleeping person when I see one. I trust you won't let it happen again?" The soldier nodded rapidly and quickly stood up, bowing in the process. Lord Necrokai waved his hand in annoyance.
"No need for such formalities, I'm only a baronet. Perhaps when I have acquired more medals, the Queen will see fit to promote me to a higher status, eh?" The baronet walked past the sentry and grasped the gate pulley in both hands. Rearing back for momentum, he began to heave the pulley downward, which activated the necessary gears to open the gate. As soon as the gate was open, he clapped the sentry on the back and made his way down the stairway that led to inside the walls. Before he was out of hearing range, Lord Necrokai called up to the sentry, "Try to get more sleep off-duty than on."
As he walked out into the open street the large mass of warriors, archers and heavily armored swordsman made their way through town, heading for the many barracks spread out through the city. The man who had been leading them rode up beside the baronet and dismounted from his steed. The two men clasped forearms in the greeting between brothers-in-arms. Lord Necrokai spoke first, "So, Malcolm, it would seem the raid fared well, yes? I don't see a wagon with any casualties, and we seem to have another visitor," Necrokai's gaze fell on the woman still tied to Malcom's horse saddle.
"Yes, Lord, there were somewhere near 250 enemies in the camp, but we just pinned them under archer fire and killed the rest when they tried to escape. None made it out alive, except for their leader the woman. She wouldn't speak to any of us, but maybe you could knock some sense into her." Necrokai made his way over to the woman and looked into her eyes. Both grew still for a moment, before the baronet unsheathed a knife belted to his side. Grasping her face in one hand, the other bore the blade into cloth, slicing through the bonds around her hands and mouth. Untying the rope from around her feet, the baronet took her in both arms and lightly lowered her to the ground. He went a step further and softly dusted off her grimy clothing. She had been wearing armor before from the look of the dust patterns. Necrokai turned to the commander of his military, "You laid hands upon this woman?" The woman looked from Necrokai to Malcolm and back again.
Malcom's face flushed to pure white and he responded quickly, "Of course not, sire, we only removed her armor in order to search for weapons. I would never allow the men to get carried away like that. Upon my honor, sire, that is the truth. She'll back that up too, We didn't touch her."
Necrokai looked again to the woman, "Is this true, they did not lay hands on you inappropriately?"
The woman paused for a moment, as if contemplating some sort of vengeance, but ultimately only nodded her head in answer. Satisfied, the baronet walked across the street to one of the marketplace stalls and borrowed a chair. He came back and placed it beside the woman, patting it to confirm it was for her and that she should sit. Unsure of her fate, the woman decided to cooperate and sat down. Necrokai leaned against Malcolm's burly horse and crossed his arms, or at least attempted to. Armor is not exactly flexible.
"So, Madame, would you care to tell me your name? Maybe where you're from. As for myself, I am Necrokai, lord of this city of Dormstrang and the cities of Sturmkrieg and Kohlberg. I am a baronet of the Queen and a vice-host general of the great alliance 'Angels of Honor.' I am not your enemy. I wish you no harm, it's just you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Such is the curse in the hunt for the medals of the Queen. They are scattered across the land, and bandit groups like yourself often find some and keep them as treasure. You would think you would have learned, hearing about the slaughter of your comrades in other parts of the world, but still you bandits hope they will give you some leverage. It's unfortunate there is so great a loss of life to retrieve these medals, but I will serve Her Highness with utmost loyalty. So, let's start with your name, shall we?"
The woman looked up from the ground and her eyes flicked across the face of her captor, a voice like a mouse attempted to speak, but was unsuccessful. She cleared her throat and tried again, her confidence growing as she realized she wasn't going to be put to death for the moment, "Josephine. M-My name is Josephine."
"Ah there we go, that wasn't so bad was it? A pretty name for a pretty barbarian. Now, Ms. Josephine, what would you think of living in a place like this? No longer having to scavenge for food, safe behind stone walls, even a weekly pay stipend if you choose to serve as one of my city leaders. You have already shown you are capable of leadership, even if you're entire party was wiped out, but that's not really your fault, is it?" Here Necrokai chuckled a bit, but stopped abruptly when Josephine blanched. "Er…I hope you'll forgive me for that, poor taste. You must have lost some friends back there. I'm sorry."
Josephine frowned slightly and was about to respond, when a sudden blaring horn sound fell from a watchtower to the south of the city, opposite where the baronet and company had gathered. Frowning quite a bit himself, Lord Necrokai motioned to Malcolm, who hopped back on the horse and sped off in the direction the horn blast had originated. Turning to Josephine, the baronet, offered his arm. "Seems we may have unwanted company on the south-side wall, probably just another lord hoping to find easy prey, though. You'd be surprised at how many cities get left ungoverned around here. They are ripe for raids from us stronger lords, and sometimes the lords even make the cities into satrapies for extra income. I'll admit, I've done this myself, but I ensure peace and prosperity for my 'colonies,' as we like to call them. Come, I will show you what we are about here."
After about an hour of making their way through the city, pausing a few times for the baronet to show the barbarian girl buildings and statues, they came upon the south wall where soldiers were running to and fro in preparation in case they were needed. Leading Josephine up the tower stairway, Necrokai came out of the entrance and almost ran into Malcolm, who was headed down. The comical appearance of this caused the girl to giggle at this which in turn made the two men pause and then burst into laughter themselves. "Well Malcolm, I'll assume you were looking for me. I apologize, I thought I'd show our company around a bit." At this Malcolm scowled, but then sighed and ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair.
"Of course, sire. It's no problem at all for our leader to be walking around when we may be attacked any moment."
Smirking, Necrokai whispered to Josephine, "Likes his sarcasm, this one. Careful, he'll bite your head off before admit he's wrong." The girl returned the smirk.
"Don't all men?"
Once again the baronet filled the morning air with laughter, slapping Malcolm on his shoulder.
"Oh she's too much Malcolm ha ha ha! I like this one! Well then, let's see who has come to play today, shall we?"
All three made their way to the edge of the wall, and the baronet looked over the protective slabs that rose from the base. Some few hundred yards away a large force was preparing itself for battle, siege weapons dotting the camp line. Mostly ladders, but there was one siege tower that was lined up with where the baronet was currently standing. Necrokai could also see the formations of troops gathering behind the weapons, and turned to a short man further down the wall who had a bow strung and was testing its pull. Calling out to him, Necrokai pointed at the enemy lines.
"Turvis, think you and your boys can send our visitors a welcoming gift?"
The dark-skinned man relaxed the bow and gave a wide grin, "I'll see what we can do, sire. These new bows are quite the prize. I'll have to head down to the academy and thank Colby personally." He was immediately among his men who were also attempting to string their bows, getting them into line and armed, "Alright you lazy buncha bums! I wanna see the straightest line ever made!" As he was passing one archer, the soldier pulled back on his string, but his fingers slipped and his elbow smacked into Turvis' face. After a few vulgar terms for what Turvis thought of the man, he continued down the line.
"So help me, make sure you have some elbow room, too!"
Satisfied they were in order, Turvis looked to Necrokai for the signal. The baronet returned with a nod, "Let's show these intruders some Carinthian hospitality, shall we? Fire when ready, Turvis."
"Alright, lads! Take aim!" The air was suddenly filled with the loud creak of wood as fresh bowstring was being drawn taut. Necrokai was watching the enemy soldiers, and he smiled as some of them walked beyond the camp lines holding what looked like black pots, most likely dumping what was left of breakfast. Turvis saw this too, and threw his raised arm down accompanied with a frenzied yell.
"FIRE!"
In a couple brief seconds, hundreds of arrows took flight. The whistles sounded as the metal tips cut through the air at fast speeds, barely slowing under the friction due to their newly refurbished shafts. The men walking back to their camp paused as they heard something and turned around, only to have the gifts puncture their chests, legs, and any other exposed body parts. Having underestimated their bow's new strength, the archers cheered in amazement as a bulk of the arrows flew into the enemy camp. Cries of anguish could be heard rising from the white tents. Bodies scrambled to and fro in a panic until louder shouts over bore them and they calmed down. Lord Necrokai nodded his head in appreciation of the good leadership and looked to Turvis.
"Well my friend, I think they liked the presents we made for them. Now that the hive is awakened, prepare for the retaliation. The Queen bee will soon have them organized again. Perhaps we sh-" The baronet was interrupted here as hundreds of metal claw-like objects rose from below the wall and grabbed the sides, clinking home and pulling tight. These were soon followed by ladders that slammed forward at high speed, breaching the wall instantly. As soon as the ladders were up armored men could heard making their way up, clanking each rapid step. The baronet quickly got over his shock and began bellowing orders. The archers that had been smiling were now frowning as they were in the front line, moving quickly to allow the heavier swordsman behind them to take their spots.
As the first wave of enemy troops poured over the wall, Lord Necrokai stepped in front of Josephine and drew his sword. The wall soon filled with the sounds of war as steel clashed and cries of pain overpowered the yells of officers. It was all down to the skill and numbers of the troops now. Blades slashed and shields bashed as the fighting got tight upon the limited space of the wall. A thickset man wielding a large poleaxe clumsily made his way over the wall and landed in front of the baronet. Glancing at the girl behind him, the soldier gave an evil gin and swung his weapon in an attempt to trip his opponent. Necrokai saw the assault coming and parried the swing on the inside and quickly closed the ground between them. The slower pikeman never even saw the sword punch through his armor, it wasn't there one second and then it was. Removing the sword from the now dead man, Necrokai turned to see a swordsman bearing on his rear with no time to react. Thinking this might be the end, the baronet said a quick prayer and looked Death in the eye. Before he knew what was happening, however, a frenzied bush of brown hair enveloped the swordsman and there was a quick scuffle, blood from someone splattering his armor.
The bush stood up from over the corpse of the swordsman and it turned around to show the face of Josephine, breathing heavy and wielding a dagger dripping with a red liquid. She smiled briefly at the baronet before grabbing up the larger sword and testing its weight. Necrokai whistled in appreciation, "That was something, my lady, I am glad to have you at my back. But tell me, why protect your captor?" He never got an answer as the horde of men coming over the walls enveloped them and their only focus became survival…
To be continued in Chapter 2