Chapter 10

"I don't like failure, Darod." Amaros stated condescendingly. So few people could do that. Darod was just so intimidating. Nobody was able to stand up to him. But Amaros was up to the challenge. Somebody had to scold him after his recent failure at Melior.

And a failure it was. Not only had they lost five thousand, they also had possibly another ten thousand injured in a few hour's fight. Many had left with very severe injuries, further dwindling the effective amount of soldiers able to fight. They hadn't taken an official count, but possibly as little as ten thousand of the initial twenty thousand remained, ready to fight.

And to say that Amaros was merely 'mad' would be a huge understatement. He was furious beyond conception. Though he remained calm, as usual, on the inside, he was mad beyond belief.

"Darod," Amaros continued. "I gave you the chance of a lifetime and you failed to prove anything. You are a failure." He put extra emphasis on all those last four words.

"Pardon me, sir," Darod replied curtly, "But I do believe you gave me the chance to kill. In that respect, I succeeded on numerous levels, so get off my back."

"Darod, I told you to take the castle!" Amaros nearly hollered. "When will you start doing what I ask of you? When will you stop thinking about your own ambitions and contribute to the goals of the group?"

"Look, I take commands from nobody. I take orders from nobody. I take lip from nobody. What will it take for you to realize that?"

"I grow tired of this." Amaros sighed. "All I ever do is yell at you and all you ever do is ruin your chances I give you. I fear our time together grows shorter every second…" He said sinisterly.

"Ha!" Darod let out a cold laugh. "You say that, commander, but you and I both know that only the king has the power to assign and get rid of generals, of which, I am one."

"Yes, that is true, but I do have the power to return you and your men to Zadonia. Back to the boring life for you, I suppose, my friend…"

"You wouldn't!" Darod growled.

"Give me one more reason to, and I will." Darod's face showed skepticism and pride. "What, you don't think I will?" Amaros added. "I grow weary of all this, Darod. That being said, pending any fiasco beforehand, I will allow you to fight with the rest of us when we attack Sienne."

"Hmph, seems you are not as stupid as you look." Darod smirked. "Good night, commander…"

And with that Darod left the commander's tent and returned to his own, where he would try to get some shut-eye underneath the starry night.

Amaros, though, remained where he was.

The big brute sure did know how to screw with plans, didn't he? Amaros sighed heavily

Moving on would be tougher, now. From what he had heard, the forces of Tellius had lost virtually no one compared to how many their force had. Zadonia still had them outnumbered by a long shot, but that's not really the bad part…

Tellius would be motivated now. The won a battle and the morale of the troops would rise from 'virtually non-existent' to 'anything's possible', just like that.

He shouldn't have trusted Darod with so much responsibility. He had already proven in past wars against Dynastia that he was unable to follow instruction. He never would have become even as high as a Marshall of a recruit division had it not been for his relations.

Being the nephew of the king does tend to give you certain luxuries.

That had always been a problem to Zadonia in past years. The army was always the focal point of Zadonia, and positions of power were considered very valuable.

So, many nobles would buy their way into those positions of power; be it a Marshall, General, or Official. So what they had was a bunch of nobles, who had no military experience, leading a core of experienced soldiers. Very ironic and very devastating.

That had changed when Amaros came along. He was a revolutionary commander to Zadonia. He was held with utmost respect, until the disaster with Dynastia. He had handpicked his own leaders based on experience on the battlefield alone; accepting no bribes along the way.

But when the king walked up to him personally and asked that his nephew be given the rank of a general, Amaros wasn't in the position to refuse. As much as he wanted to say no, doing so would put his title of commander in jeopardy.

So in came Darod. Strong and intimidating, but at the same time, dull and very arrogant.

Well, we'll see. Maybe Darod would redeem himself in the upcoming battle. He had better, because Amaros was serious when he said that he was going to send him back to Zadonia.

At the moment, the main army of Zadonia was just entering the Serenes forest and within days of the castle of Sienne. Maybe at about eighty thousand at the moment, their outnumbering of Tellius' forces was only about three to one now.

Still a significant advantage, but diminishing all the same.

Perhaps Hogan was justified in his suggestion of using that tome…

Ike awoke the next morning to a few familiar visitors. Ranulf, Boyd, and Mist sat on a nearby couch, seemingly very anxious of Ike's awakening.

They were all full of glee. Who couldn't be after what had happened last night?

Ranulf was the first to notice that Ike had awakened. "'Bout time you woke up." He said.

"Hey, how's it going, sleepyhead?" Boyd said, grinning.

Ike rubbed his eyes groggily. It had been a long day yesterday, and Ike had gone to bed last night very tired. He wouldn't have been surprised if it was noon right now.

"Man, I've been itching to tell you something Ike." Ranulf said. "You were a beast on the battlefield yesterday!"

"Yeah Ike!" Boyd added, a similar look of amazement of his face. "We watched you take down, like, their whole army on your own!"

"Wha-?" Ike asked. "When were you able to watch me? Weren't you fighting too?"

Mist was the one who answered. "Zadonia wasn't able to get very many ladders up, so things were getting a little boring. So most of us turned our attention to you and Daeins."

"Oh, that's great…" Ike groaned. "So you watched my fight against that seven-foot freak?"

"Oh yeah!" Ranulf replied. "That was the most awesome part! He had you beat in just about every fighting category and you still didn't back down."

"Frankly," Boyd added, simpering. "I'm surprised you didn't soil your pants."

"I thought I was going to, when I first laid eyes on him. I was intimidated, though I didn't give him the pleasure of letting him know. And we went right into the duel."

"But dueling wasn't the only thing you did with him, was it?" Mist asked, smiling coyly.

"What are you talking about?" Ike asked, perplexed.

"Who knew that our hero is a trash talker?" Mist said, still smirking at her brother.

Ike blushed scarlet. Ranulf and Boyd looked at him in utter shock.

"You trash talk?!" Boyd said in shock, and perhaps,…pride?

"Oh yeah." Mist replied for him. "I heard him say everything."

"Since when, Ike?" Boyd asked. "I've never heard you say anything to your opponents before."

"That's because, for obvious reasons, I kept it on the low side." Ike said, still pink at the cheeks.

"Ah, so you wanted to trash talk, but you didn't want to get in trouble with Titania." Ranulf said grinning. "Did I get that right?"

"Yes." Ike replied sheepishly.

"So don't leave us hanging, Ike!" Boyd said giddily. "What did you say?"

"It wasn't anything, really…"

"Come on, Ike, you can tell me." Boyd pleaded.

"Look, really, it's nothing. I just call my enemies stuff so that I can egg them on and cause them to make aggressive mistakes. For example, I called that man a fat cow, or something like that."

Ranulf laughed. "You know, looking back, he did look like a cow!"

"Yeah, well, it worked. He lunged at me right when I said it. And he fought like a beast, that is for sure." Ike sighed. "And to think that he is still out there…"

"Well, what matters now is that we are all safe." Mist pointed out.

"Suppose so…" Ike said contemplatively. "So, any injuries to anybody I know? No deaths, right?"

"I told you, Ike, things were pretty boring." Mist replied. "Nobody so much as got a scratch."

"Had to ask."

"So," Ranulf said, breaking the awkward silence that had ensued. "What next?"

"Soren says all we can do is wait." Ike replied, closing his eyes once more. "So that is all I plan to do."

"Uhh, Ike? You may not want to do that." Mist said cautiously. "You never know what may be thrown at you."

Ike's eyes sprang open at once and darted suspiciously from Boyd to Ranulf.

"Aww, Mist…" Boyd pouted. "Why did you have to tell him? He would have been none the wiser…" He dropped the pillow he was about to fling at Ike on the ground. Ranulf, too, dropped his pillow.

"No fair!" Ranulf complained with a smile plastered on his face. "Why'd you have to go and get a lady, Boyd? And to the victim's sister no less! She's ruining everything…"

Boyd put an arm around his fiancée's shoulder. "At least I can get a lady."

Ranulf smirked back at him. "Yeah, I could get one, but why would I? When you stop and think about it, getting married just means more responsibilities. I guess that's just not my cup of tea."

Boyd looked from Mist back to Ranulf. "Love makes you do strange things."

Ranulf wasn't the one who replied, though. "So did I just become invisible? Can you guys not see me anymore, or am I just that boring?" Ike asked.

"Oh hey there, Ike!" Ranulf exclaimed, smirking. "Didn't see you there!"

"Yeah, right…" Ike mumbled.

"Don't take it personally, Ike." Boyd said. "Ranulf just gets so entranced when I'm giving out love advice. Must be because he personally knows nothing of the subject."

Ranulf bend down and chucked the pillow at his feet at Boyd's face. "You watch yourself! Your big mouth might get you in trouble!"

"Alright, relax everyone." Ike said, though concealing a grin himself. "Let's not fight anymore."

"He started it!" Boyd pouted.

"Yeah, whatever…" Ranulf grumbled. "Hey, is anybody else hungry? I'm starved."

As if on cue, Ike's stomach growled at that moment. "Sounds like a plan." Ike replied.

"Lunchtime!" Ranulf hollered in a high pitched voice before running out the door and down to the kitchen and dining room.

So it was noon already.

Sienne only had about twenty four more hours before the remaining Zadonian force showed up. It was at about noon the next dawn that the bells sounded, signifying the danger everyone knew would come.

It came as came as a complete surprise for most. Soren himself had told Ike that he didn't think that they would come for a few days, minimum. But here was an army on their doorstep, bearing the flag of Zadonia.

And this one was not a small force. It had to be at least twice as big as the last, perhaps even bigger. Soren was right about one thing. Zadonia had wasted no time in getting here.

But this was not a day to whine and complain. This was not a day to chicken out. For today would be the deciding factor in who won this war.

Zadonia had all the momentum coming into this war. Tellius was pushed all the way back on its heels within the first month.

Now the forces wobbled on their heels near the edge of a cliff. Would Zadonia have enough strength to push them off? Or perhaps a better question to ask would be: Does Tellius have the fortitude to survive the Zadonian onslaught?

Zadonia was ready, Ike was sure of that. They were so well trained that they would always be ready. But he still firmly believed that Tellius could still win this war. If they just won this one battle, all the momentum would shift to them, and Zadonia would be on its heels.

And pumping up Tellius wouldn't be a problem. All they needed was to see Ike fighting and they would fight with all the courage they could muster.

So it came down to this. Could they muster enough?

In no time, Ike and the mercenaries were down at the wall with the rest of Sienne's guards. It was a massive army and rivaled the size of the force that had taken Melior with ease.

But that didn't bother Ike one bit. They were a bigger army. They were a stronger army. They could win this.

What did bother Ike was the grim confidence etched on the face of the man he had fought back in Melior. The flaming redhead Amaros stood at the head of the army, just inside arrow range. Perhaps Shinon could get a good look at him, but Shinon never really was a far shooter, just an accurate one. He may not be able to shoot far enough.

Without even his harsh words of welcome, like what he had done at Melior, Amaros readied his troops for action.

"General Hogan!" Amaros called out. "Come quickly!"

Amaros had been swallowed whole when he had given the signal to stop marching. He had been out in the middle of an open field, but he had retreated a little. Now he was in the middle of a large army, there was almost no way that he was in any danger.

And while in the safety of the core of the army, he was able to make a perceptive observation.

"You called, sir?" Hogan replied when he was able to get over to Amaros.

"Take a look up at that section of the wall." Amaros said, pointing at the northern side of the walls to Sienne. "Do you see that man with the blue hair?"

"Yes sir."

"That's not the Hero of Tellius, is it?"

Hogan looked flabbergasted, doing a double take to look back up at the wall. "I-I don't see how it could be, sir." He stuttered.

"It looks an awful lot like him… You don't suppose that he escaped the ice, do you?"

"That would be virtually impossible, sir. He'd have to walk right under our noses."

"Yes, that's true." Amaros looked up at the wall in wonder. "There's no way that he could still be alive. Forget I said anything."

"Alright sir, can I take my leave?"

"Not yet, Hogan. I have a special task for you."

Hogan looked at his commander quizzically. "Sir?"

Amaros reached into his pocket and brought forth a tome. "This is the one, Hogan. Treat it with care. It is immensely powerful, so you are going to have to concentrate extra hard."

"You're finally taking my advice?"

"Hogan, I realize now that I have become very selfish during the past couple of weeks. I have been center-minded and for that I feel much regret. That is why I will grant you the privilege of taking down this hell hole for good." Amaros said with a sinister smile on his face.

"You're going to trust me with this? Thank you, sir! It would be my honor to finish off Tellius."

"That's the spirit!" Amaros replied condescendingly. "Use it when you feel ready. I'm in no rush…" He said devilishly.

Hogan nodded, beginning to walk away. This particular tome would take a while to recite and cast. But before he could get to a secluded spot, Amaros called to him one more time.

"And do try not to hit the northern wall. If that is the Hero up there, I want to have a surprise for him…"

Hogan looked curiously up at that part of the wall, where the blue haired warrior seemed eager and ready to go.

"Soren, what's going on?" Ike asked for about the millionth time.

"I don't know Ike, would you stop asking me that!" Soren replied hastily. "If it were me, I would have attacked by now. Maybe they want to make us fold under the anticipation of doom or something.

If that was what Zadonia wanted, their plan was working, for the most part. Many of the soldiers on the wall, though not shaking in fear as they were last time, were fidgeting in the agony that came with waiting for something bad that you know is going to happen. It was dead silent on the wall and everyone was ready to go. The only problem was that the Zadonia army was still out of reach of their archers, and sending foot soldiers out there to meet them would be suicide.

Ike and the mercenaries at the north end of the wall remained unnerved though. They had been through the agony of war at its peak in the Mad King's War, and they were able to cope with just about anything short of death just nicely. And this benefitted the soldiers around the mercenaries as well. Though they had not been through what the mercenaries had been through, Ike and his company constantly reassured the meager soldiers. Just a little small chat can do wonders for the moral of inexperienced soldiers.

Though the fact that Zadonian's forces showed up just outside their doorstep and had refused to attack for the past hour really intrigued Ike. He had expected them to jump right into battle as they had for the past two battles.

Apparently they had adopted a new strategy after their defeat last time.

He couldn't tell for certain, but Ike thought he caught a glimpse of Zadonian soldiers near the back holding what looked to be numerous tents. It was very far away so he wasn't sure, but he could have sworn that he did.

And that just stumped Ike even more. Why would they want to set up camp? Sure, it was getting dark, but surely they were accustomed to fighting in the dark? Why, Mist had told him that they had even begun the fighting last time with torches in hand!

Or were they planning to send their forces in waves? That could be. But that would be stupid; they didn't send their full force last time and Tellius had destroyed them! Then again, Zadonia could really wear Tellius down with constant and never ending waves. So maybe that is what they are doing.

Still, that doesn't explain why they haven't attacked yet.

"I don't like this, Ike…" Ranulf muttered. Ike looked around. Many of the people around him seemed to have similar expressions of doubt etched onto their faces.

"I'm sure it is nothing, Ranulf." Ike reassured. "You look really tired. Go ahead and get some sleep. I'll wake you if they make a move."

"I'm not going to sleep now! Ike, they are up to something. I just know it; they are up to something unexpected. Why else would they stop, just like that?"

"I don't know, Ranulf. I don't know."

All of a sudden, a loud crashing noise echoed through the air, causing Ranulf to jump. Ike was startled as well, but Ranulf was really antsy at the moment.

Turns out that the noise came from Mist. She had dropped her heal staff on the ground because she too was getting antsy and she was getting clumsy. The fall had broken the staff in half.

"Sorry, everybody…" She muttered sheepishly. She muttered something about getting a new staff before scurrying off toward the barracks, where they had more stocked up.

It was a few minutes later that things finally began to unravel. A series of ill-fated events unfolded in the course of a few minutes.

The first thing that happen was a lone Zadonia archer ran for his life through the field that separated the two armies. He ran through unscathed and sent a message arrow harmlessly up the wall near Ike, before he too ran back to the core of the army harmlessly.

Ike was the first to it and was about to read it when a cry sounded through the air: "Ike! Mage!"

It was Ranulf and he was hollering frantically at Ike to look at what he was looking at. Where the small archer had disappeared stood a lone man. By the looks of it, he was a mage, though Ike couldn't really tell because he was so far away.

"Are you sure, Ranulf?" Ike asked doubtfully. "Maybe he is just the commander giving the order to move in?"

Ike's assumption proved to be far from right. A moment later, the inevitable happen as a great, flaming meteor soared through the air and implanted itself into the ground where the gate to Sienne had once stood. And this meteor was much bigger than any meteor produced by a mage of Tellius. It was the size of a relatively large building, and it had managed to wipe out about a third of the army instantly almost noiselessly.

For a moment, the air remained silent. But soon, terrified screams of fear and mass chaos rang through the air. There was no help now. Tellius had fallen.

The soldiers of Zadonia finally began their march, while the soldiers remaining on the walls of Sienne dropped their weapons in panic and desperately tried to find the nearest exit. Which, for some of them, was over the walls and to their deaths.

At this point, Ike had lost all aspect of time. Tellius, the nation he had worked so hard to protect, was as good as dead. There was no use now. They had to run away now, or be killed by the blade of Zadonia.

While he thought this, though, Ike's body remained motionless. The Zadonians were beginning to climb the rubble when someone finally shoved Ike, causing him to come back to reality.

"Ike, we need to get out of here!" Ranulf shouted as the first of the Zadonians got on the wall.

Ike nodded and ran, following Ranulf further north up the wall, where there was a staircase that they could escape down.

Unfortunately for many of Tellius' forces, they were not quick enough. The Zadonians did not strike to kill, though. It seemed they wanted to make some money from the slave trade as well.

It didn't take long for Ike and Ranulf, who were one of the last groups to escape, to come upon the staircase. But somehow, four Zadonians had made it their before they had. Two of them were currently in a battle against Boyd, and two others were dragging Mist off to where they dumped the new slaves in front of the meteor…

"Mist!" Ike cried, breaking into a full out sprint at the men, but one of the two that had been battling Boyd leaped at Ike.

And he was a formidable warrior. He was actually able to hold against Ike and Ranulf for a few minutes. Enough time for the other two to get away…

Boyd finished in about the same time. And when he noticed that they had gotten Mist, he let out a blood-curling scream of pain.

She was nowhere in sight. And what was worse was that another seven or eight men had emerged and were charging at the three of them at full speed.

"Boyd, no!" Ike hollered. Boyd had gotten ready to charge at them and fight to the death. Ike knew that he had to be going through a lot. Ike reached out and grabbed his shoulder. With the help of Ranulf, Ike was able to get the struggling Boyd through the door to the staircase. They shut and locked the door before any Zadonian could get through.

All three of them were gasping for breath, and Boyd continued to try to get back to Mist.

"Boyd!" Ike said as he and Ranulf continued to hold Boyd back. "There is nothing we can do! We need to get out of here; they could break through that door at any moment!"

"Good! Let them!" Boyd hollered back while still struggling to get away from Ike and Ranulf's grasps. "Let them come through so I can kill them all!"

"Boyd, don't sacrifice yourself now!" Ike hollered. "Wait for a better time! Mist wouldn't have wanted you to kill yourself!"

That did it. Boyd immediately stopped struggling and reduced to sobbing. "It's alright, Boyd. We'll come back for her, I promise. But we need to get out of here, now!"

They were able to get out of there quickly once Boyd had stopped struggling. They made it to the bottom of the stairs before the Zadonians had been able to break open the door and pursue the fugitives.

As they made it to the bottom of the staircase and out the door into the field and freedom, Ike realized they weren't alone.

"Ike!" Soren exclaimed joyfully. "Thank the goddesses you are alright!"

There were more people, but Ike was in so much of a rush that he didn't even notice who they were. "Soren, they're at the top of the staircase! We need to get out of here!"

Nodding, Soren lead the charge toward the nearby woods, where they would become untraceable and out of sight this dreariest among dreary nights.

"Boyd!" Mist screamed and struggled, though knowing in her heart that she was fighting an uphill battle. Boyd was still in the middle of a battle and she could barely see him; he was so far away. She reached her hand out in his direction half-heartedly and stopped struggling against the two warriors.

One of the two men snickered. "Where you are going, miss, you are not going to see him in a while."

Mist soon found herself on the field, where she was thrown into a "cage" by the two men. In reality, though, these were not cages, but rather Zadonian men in a square formation, with twenty or so prisoners in each "cage."

All the prisoners were first stripped of any weapons and then tagged with a metal bracelet that had a unique number on each one before being thrown into the cages. The number of prisoners in the cages was quite staggering. In a guard - prisoner ratio, it may have been as high as 3 – 1. Almost all the men who were not killed by the meteor now sat in one of the cages. And many women and children from the castle town were coming in. And the fact of the matter remained that prisoners were still coming in.

Mist's cage held no recognizable faces and that really depressed her. Almost immediately after she had been put in, another young lady had been thrown in, and she was crying, desperately calling for her mommy.

She couldn't have been too much younger than Mist was; maybe ten or eleven. She was petite and blonde, and definitely too innocent to be in a horrible place like this, where the stink was rapidly becoming very putrid. She seemed inconsolable at the moment, sitting on the ground and crying into her hands. Mist decided to try and console her, though.

"What's your name?" Mist asked the young girl, sitting down next to her.

The girl sniffed. "Carolyn."

"That's a lovely name." Mist said, doing the best she could to give the girl a genuine smile. "Mine's Mist."

"Hi Mist." The young said quietly. "I miss my mom." The girl said, before beginning to cry once again.

Mist rapped her arms around the young girl. "And I miss my husband and brother." Mist said, patting the small girl on the back. "But we still have each other." Carolyn continued to cry into Mist's shoulder.

This truly was a dismal day for Tellius.

Once in the woods, Ike was finally given a chance to read the note. Taking the arrow out of his pocket and the note of the arrow, Ike opened the note. It contained only two words, but they were enough to send shivers down his spine. The note read:

"Good-bye, Tellius."