Chapter II
The
Two Provinces
Lord Carlomin sat around his table,
his generals and four lesser lords nervous and afraid of what he would say
next, with one of them almost sweating. "So, how has the attacks gone so far? I
am anxious to see what you have accomplished since I met you almost three weeks
ago.". All the people looked worried and hoped another one of them would begin,
when one of the generals spoke out:" We have prepared our infantry in an
offensive position. Even as we speak, the captains will be reading the orders
we have given them. By the time we have returned to the border, our armies will
already have crossed it at several locations. We have ofcourse forbidden them
to get involved in any greater battle, were we will be needed to lead." he said
while moving the infantry-pieces forward on the map. Then he lifted the
cavalry-pieces up and said "And as for our cavalry. We used them to inflict
heavy damage upon several bannergroups near the border. The success rate was 20-50%.
We lost practically all of our cavalry, but the damage they inflicted was worth
it".
"What! You wasted the cavalry! Are
you total idiots! We need our cavalry to stand against theirs at the least. Do
you expect the infantry to be able to do anything?" he shouted towards the
generals. Then he picked up on the cavalry pieces in his hand and said "Do you
wish to explain why you did so, or shall you suffer the same fate as this small
piece of wax?", then he crushed the piece in his hands.
All of the generals stared on what
was left of the piece in amazement, and two of them wondered why they didn't
faint. Noone seemed eager to speak, least of all Ferwyl, the general that spoke
up before. Everyone around the table was quiet for a couple minutes, until the
other general, named Gerad, spoke up.
"Cavalry is an formidable enemy in
battle, but they have more. Allot more. Almost all of the horses are trained in
western Tear, and they control it. At best our cavalry would have been
outnumbered five to one, and wouldn't have succeeded in doing any greater
amount of damage to the enemy. This way we gave the enemy heavy casualties, and
will be able to invade quite far into their lands before any greater army meets
us. And as for their cavalry, we were planning of using long iron pikes at the
three forward lines in our infantry. They should be able to counter most of the
cavalry charges." he said, surprised at how casual he managed to sound.
High-Lord Carlomin seemed to
consider these words for a while, after which he said "If you are wrong in what
you did, we are all going to die, but you, you will die before the rest of us,
and you will not have as easy a death .Go to the front now, and keep me
informed". After these words everyone at the table sighted of relief, but only
general Ferwyl seemed to remember that they were probably not going to win this
war.
Mihel Esobhar was getting ready for
dinner today. He had just came home from a village meeting, where they were
discussing the war. Not that he though much about it. From what he saw, nothing
would change whatever side won. The lords would rule and the commoners would
serve. He had managed to strike several good deals though. Supporting the local
lord had allowed him to rent more land for farming cheaply, and with the new
barn he had spent winter and autumn build on his own, he might get enough money
to support his eldest son's training for a merchant.
"Good day, what food have you cooked
for us today?" he asked his wife as he stepped into his house.
"We made some fish-soup, and Tereni
helped me with the vegetables. The little girl is already learning to be a
master-chef." she said happily. "How did the meeting go?" she asked casually.
"Well, I managed to rent more lands
cheaply from the lord. With the income of next year, we will be able to send
Domiho to Tear, where he will study with a merchant. Then after a few years we
will be able to support the trade he chooses to take" he said with a hopeful
gleam in his eye. His son had always been the smart one in the family , he
though, and now he would become a merchant.
"That's good. Oh, we should eat
while the food is warm. Too bad Domiho didn't seem to make it here today in
time." Mihel's wife said and then moved towards the table. At the same time the
two youngest boys in the family carried in the food at the same fashion they
had seen the servants of the lord do. Mihel laughed softly and sat himself down
to eat.
A little later, at about the time
everyone had finished the half of their food, the outer door was kicked open
from the outside, and five armoured me suddenly entered the room.
"Aah, entertainment! After five days
of riding, don't you guys think we deserve a little" one of the new arrivals
said to his friends. After vigorous nods from all of the other guys, one of
them moved onto Mihel.
"If you try anything, all of your
family dies, and then you die. Got it?" the person said angrily to Mihel. Mihel
started almost weeping, and nodded surrendedly. After he was finished, the
person who had spoken up before started moving towards Mihel's wife. She tried
to move backwards, but stumbled on a chair, and before she could react, the man
was on top of him.
As
the children noticed what was going on, they all started screaming. The men
seemed annoyed by this, and the man on top of Mihel's wife said to his men to
shut them up in any way necessary. As soon as they understood what he meant,
and pushed aside what was left of their morals, two of them moved towards the
children and quickly killed them all.
One of the men who had managed to
cut one of the boys totally in half, said "Blood and ashes, that was easy. I
wonder how that would look in battle, don't you think.".
When Mihel saw what they had done,
he tried to attack them with his bare fists, but before he even had managed to
land a punch somewhere, his throat was cut up by the man guarding him. The man
stared in amazement as at the amount of blood that came out of Mihel. "Light, I
didn't know a human had even that much blood in him."
Mihel's wife was in no position to
notice what the men had done, and even if she had, she couldn't do anything
about it. At the time that all the men had been on her, and she noticed what
else they had done, she was only glad that the men decided to unify her with
her family.
"We should burn the house. I hear
that's what you do after something like this" one of the men said. He almost
looked surprised when he noticed what exactly he had done.
"Good idea Guiran! We should also
take some of their food. The army just can compare." he said while grinning a
bit. "Then we move out".
Domiho walked was just about to
finish the last hill before his home. He had always wondered why the creator
had chosen to put one range of hills in this entire province, and that hill was
between his house and the town he studied with a local merchant with. At least
he would get some food now, he though.
When he reached the peak of the
hill, he noticed five men with horses outside his house, and before he could
think of any reason for them being there, one of them had thrown a torch into
the house. The house took fire almost completely, and as soon as he understood
what had happened, he started running towards the house.
Fernadoes Cortsen sat at his small
field table. Three days ago had received orders to move a light cavalry group
into Valdemons lands, to prepare for the follow invasion. He though about how
joyful he had been to receive the honour of getting command of his own group.
Nowadays he saw how much work it was.
As he had finished his thoughts, his
second in command came in to the tent. "Sergeant Helnon reporting sir! I have
finished my patrol, and taken a view of the surrounding countryside as you
said. We came upon a few hills, and used their height to see further, quickly.
A small farm was beside one of the hills, and they gave us food as we told them
what we are fighting for." he said in a shouting manner.
Fernadoes replied "Good sergeant."
calmly, but he was curious why Helnon had a grin on his face. Nothing important
that he could think of, although that hill was good. The army might use it for
a lookout post.
"Did you see any military
detachments?" he asked just to be sure.
"No sir, only two undefended
villages, one to the northwest, the other one to the southwest of here" he
said, almost shouting again. Fernadoes was annoyed at the voice level of the
man, but he had already decided he could do little against it without breaking
any laws.
"Good, then we will move out soon.
Make ready to break camp; I want you to be finished when I have finished my
letter to the generals. With no army, and the people loyal to our cause, they
can move into here quite safely. We on the other hand, can move west, and
notice any incoming army" he said while examining the map on the table.
"Yes sir" Helnon replied normally,
and with those words moved out of the tent.
At the same time, the rebel
High-Lords Sunamon, Cerandin and Carlomin were meeting in High-Lord Carlomin's
Palace in Godan.
"Well, how could this have happened.
We all agreed to not attack before diplomacy was over, but you!" Sunamon said
while pointing at Carlomin "You attacked them almost as soon as your army was
at the border. Why did you do that?" he almost shouted.
After a few seconds, Carlomin said
plainly "If you are foolish enough to believe we could bargain ourselves out of
this, you do not deserve to be at this table. They would never have accepted
anything less than seeing our heads on a plate. It was better to attack before
they could react. My armies should already have attacked the border-forts, and
soon we will fight in greater battles.". As he finished his line, he sat
himself down lazily at a chair and called for the servants to bring some wine.
Just as Sunamon was about to reply
to Carlomin, Cerandin spoke out "My informants tell me that almost everyone of
our enemies has put their armies in Sanchez lands. If we do not stick together
now, we will lose quickly.", after which he said while looking at Sunamon "We
cannot undo what has been done, and now we must go full length into this war.
You ought to send your armies to the northwest, and we will attack Sanchez
lands from both the southeast and east. I will attack Valdemons lands, and
perhaps they will be pressured to move away some of their forces. I have been
keeping close contact with my generals, and they say that scouts reports tell
of almost no forces there."
After a while Sunamon nodded, but
said with a scent of anger "I will do so, but the both of you should remember
that trust runs two ways. I will trust you to keep me informed and to
coordinate attacks with me, and you will do the same. That means especially
you, Carlomin.". After his words, he departed quickly from the room. Cerandin
looked accusingly on Carlomin, and after that he also walked out, leaving
Carlomin sitting on a chair, drinking the wine that the servant had brought to
him.
Weiramon sat in a chair with five
around a small table in a field tent. As he looked at them, he dreamed of how
they one day would call him King. Even now they had chosen him to lead the offence
here. He was happy about it, and a small smile on his face made the other
High-Lords wonder what he was smiling at.
Weiramon spoke out "Now, I, Andiama,
Belman and Belorna will move a spearhead trough the middle of the front,
masking it as our only attack. As they will rush all that they have to counter
our attack, Amalsin will move in an army from the north, and Sanchez will move
in from the south. If they by some means survive our main attack, the flanks
will kill them anyway." he said while pointing with his finger on the map. Then
he looked up on High-Lord Sanchez "The conscripts from your lands will prove
themselves to be useful, although our cavalry will most probably kill the
little they have left. The foolish attacks they made on the border-garrisons
killed most of their cavalry it seems like".
The High-Lords nodded soon after,
although Weiramon though he saw some hesitation in Sanchez and Amalsin. He
dismissed it as thinking it was just himself.
Retin Chialin stood guard outside be
captains tent. For some reason unknown to him he had been selected to be one of
the standard guards there. It was boring to stand there almost every day he
though, but he took some joy in knowing more about what was going on than most
of the soldiers in the camp. Two days ago a letter-pigeon had arrived, and
since then they had been moving with a steady pace towards the southeast.
"Hey Retin, you heard what has
happened at the east front", his guard-comrade said to him. "They say that the
Rebels have moved an army across the border. I guess that is what we are
marching against. From what I believe we will meet with several other groups,
and attack the rebels in a glorious field battle. What you think?". As he
finished his line he quickly glanced into the captains tent to check out that
he had not heard.
"Someone once said that the only
thing sadder than a battle is a battle lost. I think he was right" Retin said
calmly, although inside him he finished the line with "and everyone who says
otherwise is a very stupid man".
Right then a voice said from inside
the tent. "You are quite correct. We are marching towards our main army, but
you don't have to worry about dying. They say that the enemy has lost all its
cavalry, and with the numbers we have, we infantrymen won't have to fight at
all.
Retin answered "You are quite right,
sir", while looking at his friends grinning face. "We won't have to die" he
finished the line with.
Ricao looked at the burning tower.
The commoners in this area had tried to protect their lord with their lives,
claiming he was a good lord. Soon after he and some of his friends had been
ordered to launch fire-arrows at the tower they were hiding in. He had not
liked to see the burning bodies trying to save their lives by jumping out of
the windows, or the screams of terror from inside the tower, but he had said to
his friend who had barfed "What must be done, must be done. Only the cause is
important, not the means how you get to it". His friend seemed to have accepted
it, but as Ricao looked at the tower, he too wondered whether some prices were
too high to pay.
Right then his commander tapped him
on the shoulder "Worry not about killing those. We will meet with the bulk of
our army in a few days." he said calmly.
"Yes sir. But may I ask, then what?"
Ricao said calmly. The main-army, he though. He had heard that they were many,
almost ten thousand, but several of them only had a spear or a sword. Of course
he had a sword too, and a spear, and a crossbow. But he had good steel armour
too. He didn't like that all the time, as he was forced to keep it on at all
times, even during the night. It was long since he had gotten a good nights
sleep. But he wondered whether he would trade all that to losing his armour.
Fighting without it was not his favourite dream.
"We will probably move against the
main-enemy army. And then onward to Tear" he said, as it was the most natural
thing in the world.
Domiho stood watching out of a
window in a small farmhouse, how a large smoke pillar rose up from the plains.
He and several others had begun to fight the rebel army as soon as they had
moved in. They were mostly farmers and other who had lost their families in the
battles. The lords and trained soldiers had almost all died at the hands of the
trained rebel armies. Last night he had led a group to set fire upon the food
stores of a group set in this area. Now he watched a pillar of smoke rise from
the same place that the village of Nidano had once stood.
"By the creator, what animals could
do such a thing" said Jueno, one of Domiho closest men, while looking at the
pillar.
"Rebels could do such a thing, and
only them. Feel lucky we saw this coming, and almost everyone left the village
last night." Domiho replied calmly back. He though about what the rebels would
do when they found farms full with people, far too many to be permanently
living there. But that was a problem for another day he concluded.
At the moment he had finished his
though, the outer door strung open, and almost everyone had begun to draw their
swords before they saw that it was just the scouts they had sent out.
"They are moving against us. Four or
five hundred soldiers. They will be here in maybe 30 minutes. They don't have
any cavalry, but they march fast. Someone at the village must have told them
where we are…" the scout said.
"We are only about fifty. The plan
is simple. We pack up everything and move out. We will be long gone by the time
they are here." Domiho said quickly.
"I was just coming to that. They
have surrounded us, and five groups are closing in on us from every direction.
There is no way we can escape, if we do, one or two groups would spot us, and
we would be forced to fight them too." the scout said.
"One group is easier to fight then
five. We move out. Westwards." Domiho said. If he was fast enough, he might be
able to escape unharmed.
Domiho stood around and gave orders
for the next ten minutes, shouting at everyone who wasn't fast enough in
packing. He could afford to lose a single sword, and everything had to carried by
the people, as carts would take too long to move. As soon as everyone had
packed fully, they started moving out, with the scouts forward a bit to see if
any of the groups was moving against them.
They had only marched for about
seven minutes, when the scouts returned. "Domiho, an enemy groups is five
minutes in that direction" he said while pointing towards where they were
heading "If we continue like this, and they too, we will meet in two minutes,
maybe a bit more. But there is no way we can hide from them".
"Light!" Domiho said. He seemed to
be thinking for a while, and everyone in the group was expecting, and terrified
of what he might say next. "If we cannot hide, then we must fight. We march for
a minute still, then we take off our packing, take out our swords and bows, and
fight." And so they did, and quite soon they reached the enemy group, which
seemed didn't seem surprised to meet them.
"After we are in range, we shoot
arrows at them, and then we charge in a wedge formation" Domiho said calmly,
making sure that everyone understood. Some asked what a wedge was, and were
explained to that it was generally a V formation.
The enemy group was closing in on
them, and as Domiho looked at the sides, he several of his comrades reading
their bows, and sweat dropping from their faces. The only one who didn't seem
worried, was Jonael, one of the few survivors from the lords army. He had
chosen to lead the wedge, and didn't seem worried to die. Domiho wondered
whether he was fool enough to believe that he could survive.
As the enemy army came close enough,
he noticed that they were formed as a loose box formation. The arrows they shot
had some effect, but few of the enemies had fallen, Domiho noticed. He could do
nothing but admire the leader of them.
"They are too close now. Draw
swords, and charge at when Jonael moves" Domiho shouted to his troops. He
shouted very loudly, and it seemed the enemy commander had heard. Domiho heard
about an inverted something, but he considered it too late to change his plans.
He noticed the enemy grouping in closely, and assumed that it was standard
tactics. He was about to wonder what they were about to do, but too late, as
Jonael had started running, and the rest of the group with him.
"Look, they are retreating." someone
beside Domiho said. He looked up too see what was happening, and he a quick
glance showed him that the enemy seemed to be pulling back. But soon he noticed
that only the middle of the enemy group was pulling back, the edges were still
standing. When he saw that his wedge was charging right into a trap, it was
already too late for him to do anything.
Jonael was chopped up by three
different swords before he could even land a stroke somewhere, Domiho noticed,
and several others had already fallen, which was the last time he could look at
how the overall battle was going.
He stood against two men, one very
tall, almost a head taller then Domiho, the other one about his size. Domiho
thanked the gods that he had trained to be a swordsman too, although his father
hadn't wished that. But still he couldn't fight two men, with almost no space
to move on. He seemed to be a better swordsman than the two others, and even
managed to land a few strokes on them. But every time that happened, he cursed
their armour, which allowed them to ignore his strokes. He tried several of the
different sword forms he had trained during the years, holding names that were
of no importance of him now, as he could less and less attack, and had to more
and more defend. He though he was dead, when one of his soldiers at his right
side fell down, and another enemy can against him. He was just about to try to
fall back and run, when the new enemy soldier suddenly had an arrow trough his
head. He stood gaping at all the blood that sprouted out, and so did his two
enemies. He was quicker to overcome the surprise than they, and before they
could react, he had cut off the leg of the long fellow. His friend looked down
at him as he screamed of pain and terror, and when the man looked up again against
Domiho, the last thing he saw was the edge of Domihos sword, heading towards
his head.
The man down at the ground saw his
friend fall, and Domiho moving towards him. He tried desperately to fend off
Domihos swords, but was soon cut down.
"Thank you my friend" Domiho said
backwards, hoping that the man who had shot the arrow would still be there. As
he glanced backwards, he noticed someone standing there with a horse and a bow.
"You must go now, sir. Someone of us
must survive this battle to tell other what the rebels have done. You are the
best candidate, so go." the man said to Domiho, with a hopeful glance is his
eye.
"Yes, someone must survive" Domiho
said slowly. He though about how his father had told him "Live to fight another
day", and he did not feel like dieing, even if he felt that he somehow betrayed
his troops. "I will go now" he said, and quickly jumped up on the horse.
"Live long and healthy, Domiho" the
man said. Domiho though he was about to say something else, a silvery edge
stood out of his stomach, and a rebel soldier stood behind him. Domiho realized
that he had gotten a sword trough him, and the only thing he could do was to
complete the mans final wish. At least that is what he tried to tell himself.
Domiho survived, as leaders do, and
retreated to the next village, and the next, and the next, and so forth as the
rebels moved forward. He fought in several skirmishes, some he won, other he
lost, but he could never forgive himself for abandoning his troops that day,
near the village of Nidano.
High-Lord Valdemon stood in his
bedroom at his castle, overlooking the city. Two days ago the rebel army had
reached his capital, and put a siege on it. His city had only maybe
twentyfive-thousand people living in it, as the city taxes got bigger the
larger the city was, usually. His guard was only seven hundred men large, and
from what he had been told, the enemy army was almost five thousand men large.
Looking outside the city walls, he believed it. After one day of siege, they
had sent a message to him. It had simply stated "Surrender to us and you may
live, fight us, and you may not. Greetings from High-Lord Cerandin". After
Valdemons initial response, almost throwing out the messenger from the window,
he had given the message much though. The city-walls were high, but thin, and
with a catapult or battering ram, they would fall easily. How much time until
they had finished building one. Three days? A week? No, surely not that much
even. From what he had seen, they were quite trained and disciplined.
Valdemon walked out of his room, and
told the servant outside his room "Send for a writer. I wish to send a letter
to the rebels". As the servant left, Valdemon though about all his years as a
High-Lord. There was always a servant outside his door, always within an arms
reach, even if he went to battle. But he had never believed, never hoped, to
send them on an errand like this.
Soon after the writer arrived.
Valdemon stated, "Take up this letter. I will dictate for you", and with a
sigh, he began to talk "Dear High-Lord Cerandin. I write you this letter, as
a surrender to your army with these term. All my lands, armies and commoners
will be under your command until the war ends, and in return, after the war
ends, if you win, I will be allowed to rule at least the lands that are still
under my command, not invaded by your armies, and that I will not be kept in a
cell until that time. High-Lord Valdemon". The writer looked up in surprise
a few times, but kept on writing. When he was finished, he looked up to
Valdemon with a hopeful look in his eyes, and said, "Whatever you think, you
did the right choice here today", and gave the letter to High-Lord Valdemon for
him to put his seal in wax on.
"The Wheel weaves as the Wheel
wills" Valdemon replied back, and signed the letter. After the writer had left
the room, Valdemon finished the sentence with "But sometimes it doesn't weave
the right way, and then you die".
High-Lord Cerandin stood outside his
field tent, looking the capital of Valdemon's province, Endearo. The white flag
was flying over the city gates and the castle. About half an hour ago, a
messenger from Valdemon had come to him with a message of surrender. Cerandin
was surprised at how fast Valdemon had surrendered, but pleased that he could move
his army forward again. And with almost one thousand men more in his ranks.
That information seemed to have spread in the city like wildfire, and the main
gates were already opened, and some of the commoners had come out to greet the
army. Yes, he was very pleased with the current events, Cerandin concluded.
"Sergeant, inform my personal guard
that I wish to enter the city. Tell them to be ready." he said to the young
sergeant beside him. As the man walked away, Cerandin considered the different
possibilities on how to enter the city.
A while later, Cerandin and his
personal guard started entered the city-gates. It seemed that someone had
though that he might need more defence than just his guard, and had ordered an
entire banner-group of five hundred men to march after his into the city.
"It seems as if everyone in this
city is pleased that we have come" he said to the captain of his guard. It
seemed most of the city's population had come to see the army marching in. Some
shouted things like "Our saviours" and "The heroes of the commoners". Other
were not so happy, and tried to attack the army with their bare fists, although
they were beaten down by the rest usually.
"Make sure that we set up some
recruitment posts in this city, I believe that we will get several soldiers
from here" Cerandin said to his captain again.
As they approached the castle,
Cerandin noticed that the gates to it were open, and several of the workers
were there to meet them. High-Lord Valdemon himself stood at by the door to inside
the castle, and some of the lords of the land were beside him, but almost not
so many as he had heard where inside the castle at this time. "I wonder where
the rest of the lords are. It's possible they are behind the servants and such,
but I don't think anyone of them would want to look like they scorn us, lest we
maybe will kill them. Or so they would believe." Cerandin said to his captain
of the guards.
But when he entered the castle
grounds Cerandin realized why so few lords were there. He saw fifteen to twenty
men jump out of the windows of the castle. Some had ropes around their necks,
and died fast, others did not, and fell to the ground, dieing in pain. Cerandin
was quite surprised of what had happened, but when he noticed what clothes the
corpses were wearing, he realized why so few lords were at the castle grounds,
well, alive at least.
"Aah, Valdemon, it seems some of
your friends didn't quite accept the fact of surrendering to us. Well, good
riddance, don't you think." Cerandin said to Valdemon with a small smile on his
face.
"Dead, all dead. Pernocaes, one of
my best friends, is hanging there from a rope, and you ask how I feel. No
matter, they are dead, and dead people are silent. What will you do with the
rest of us?" Valdemon said, almost crying.
"Are you actually that stupid,
Valdemon? Where else? Godan of course, where you will be an honourable guest
for a while". Cerandin stated "And as for the rest of you, we might need some
lords to rule here, but not that many, so you need to show your obedience to
me, now". As he finished his line almost all of the lords fell on their knees,
and pledged loyalty. That day something happened that might have changed the
course of war, had there been more, just a few more to pledge loyalty.
Fernadoes Cortsen sat upon his
horse. A few hours ago he had received pigeon-mail that the main army had
started a siege of Endearo. Before they had crossed the border, they had
received orders to not move more than ten-days march from the main army.
"Ok men, let's set up a camp right
here. There is a small stream over there" he said while pointing to the
northeast", which will give us water. They have started a siege of this
provinces capital, and sieges usually last several months, but almost certainly
a week or so."
"Water, who in the name of the
creator needs water! It has been raining for the past two days here, and it
seems to get worse all the time. Our damn armour might rust, and the less said
about the swords, the better. Let's taker over a small village, and get some
good solid roof over our heads" Helnon cried out, and most of the men seemed to
agree with him.
"Our orders are simple. Stay
undetected, and report. If we take over a village, well, we are too far from
the front to get any help from our army, and the local lord would certainly
attack us imminently. We will wait for an order by pigeon or otherwise before
we move out" Fernadoes said loudly.
Helnon seemed to understand that
Fernadoes was right, but still said " Do you think that anything that flies
could come from Endearo to here, alive. The next order we will be from the main
army, that just marched on our tents".
"Maybe, but at least we get to rest
until that time, and few land-armies would move at this time, and only a fool
would move a fleet, so we and the rest our army can rest easily", Fernadoes
said in a calm fashion.
High-Lord Selorna stood at the deck
of the flagship in the Tairen fleet, a large wooden destroyer, with three decks
for firing fire-arrows at enemy ships. It had begun to rain a few days ago, and
now the rain was gushing down. The wind was getting strength every-day, and it
was blowing to the northwest, making it hard move against Godan at all. How
much he had hoped to capture it, and give the rebel heads on a plate to his comrades.
Not much chance of that happening now.
"Captain, could you tell me, in land
terms, where exactly we are right now, and if we are able to move forward in
this storm", Selorna said to the man captaining the flagship, and thus the
whole fleet, who stood by the roar at the deck. Selorna hadn't really taken any
part in the fleet business. He was not like the other stupid High-Lords who
liked to play soldiers and generals, with the basic strategy being a charge. He
didn't even pretend to know anything about ships, and had left the entire
business to the captain of the flagship. Until now that is.
"Well, in land terms, we should be a
day or two from the coast of Valdemons lands. One day to the northwest, two to
the northeast, because of the winds. And no, I do not believe we will be able
to reach Godan. If the weather continues to worsen like this, soon we will lose
our first ship, and then the whole fleet, milord" the captain said while trying
his best to hold on to the roar.
"I hear that Valdemons lands have
been invaded. Move northeast, and prepare to disembark the army." and with
those words Selorna left for under the deck, hoping not to get thrown overboard
by the winds.
Ricao Tzuni stood in the middle-ring
guard outside the main camp of the army. They had made camp upon a large, but
not very tall hill. The defences were set in three perimeters, with the outer
one almost three miles from the camp, the middle one at the bottom of the hill,
and the inner one was formed in almost a completely closed circle around the
camp.
"This is stupid. The outer guard
would spot any incoming army, and we could prepare ourselves in fifteen minutes
to take full defensive posture. We or the men at the inner guard do need to be
here" he said angrily to the guard next to him. They had been assigned in
pairs, as much for security to not kill the men from boredom, he though.
"Yeah. Anyways, see those dark
clouds to the west. I hardly suppose that any army would march quickly in that,
except if there were paved roads all the way, something we Tairens are not
famous for having. Trust me, they will either come tomorrow, or they will not
come at all", the man replied back. "And I do hope that they come. We spent
almost four days digging these hidden trenches to kill their cavalry, and
cutting down the forest to make arrows. If they don't come, we will have to go
after them, and they would not be a pleasant experience."
Retin Chialin marched in good order,
with almost fifty thousand other men beside him. Two days ago they had learned
that the bulk of the rebel army was camped about three days from where they
were then. Now it was only one day left.
"Well, think of the good side"
Kunao, the man Retin had met during his first battle said to him.
"Which is?" he replied back.
"From what I have heard, we
outnumber them five to one, and they don't have any cavalry left, we took care
of that, didn't we" Kunao said with a small grin on his face. "Besides, looking
at the cavalrymen at our side, they are likely to charge as soon as they can,
to make sure that we infantry-guys don't get any glory in the battle at all.
They are even talking about that some high-lord will join the charge with
them."
Retin though about that for a while,
and started smiling a bit on the prospect that the battle would be over before
he had come to the enemy.
High-Lord Weiramon stood in his
tent, conferring with the rest of the high-lords. How happy he was with
himself, managing to take full control over the rest of the high-lords during
this campaign. The others would be a problem of course, but they would fall
easily when the men in this room proclaimed him king. Oh yes, things were going
to be good.
"Well, our attack plan is simple. We
will mount the all of the infantry here," and pointed at a place just out of
the range of archers", and form our cavalry in a four-man thick line,
stretching over the entire battlefield. Then we charge in with full strength,
with me leading the attack. High-Lord Belorna will lead the infantry from here,
although I don't believe that it will be necessary, since we have almost
two-thousand cavalrymen, and they have only ten-thousand infantry totally. Does
anyone have any questions?"
Noone seemed to be willing to speak
up, until Andiama said "Well, firstly what about our archers. Granted, they are
not so many, but we could muster considerable damage to the enemy. Secondly,
why don't we move in some of our infantry or cavalry to flank the enemy. And
thirdly… never mind about the third part".
"It might take a full day to sneak
in any flanks, and we need to move quickly. Unless we attack tomorrow, the rain
that has just started dripping down this evening will probably turn into a full
storm in two or three days, making it impossible for us to charge. As for the
archers, there is no honour gained in using those. Now, move out, all of you"
he said, quite calmly even. Aah, how he dreamed of the day that all of those
would bow to him.
Outside however, the soldiers in the
camp wondered what High-Lord Andiama meant when he said "Thirdly, are you
actually stupid enough to believe that you can simply charge upwards, in muddy
ground, towards pikemen. They must be smart enough to have pikemen, you know."
, but the soldiers who heard it simply dismissed it as high-lord business, not
wanting to get involved.
Ricao Tzuni stood almost at the
front row of the army. At about midnight, one of their scouts had returned at
told the commander of the army that the enemy was camped just about five miles
from them, or at least that was how the most common rumour went in the camp.
Now however, it didn't matter very much, because as he was looking out over the
enemy, it seemed he had no chance of winning. He knew that his side has almost
ten thousand men in the ranks, most of them well trained. That side could have
as many as sixty thousand, maybe more, he though, and right at the front of
them, there was a quite thin looking line, but it was as wide as the full army.
All of them cavalry.
Someone who stood beside him said
"Aah, cavalry. Maybe three thousand of them. With a little luck, they won't
crush the entire army, with great luck, some of they might fall into those
stupid ditches we dug yesterday.".
Ricao looked at the man. He was sure
he had seen the man somewhere before, but he never cared to learn any names,
since they were all going to day soon enough anyway. And that day was probably
today. "I'm sure that is very comforting for those at the back, but unless you
have noticed, we are not at the back, but at the front. As a matter of fact,
there is only one line of men before us." he said to the man, almost shouting.
Some other men in the ranks glanced towards his direction, and then quickly
looked back again. They had been disciplined very hard, breaking any rules was
not a good idea for anyone, even if they stood at the front row of death today.
"Well, if it makes you feel any
better, you are about to find out just how lucky you really are. It seems their
cavalry has started to move forward, and they will be here in a minute or two.
But look at the good side, with this rain now, if we win, the ground will be
very muddy and nice to sleep on" the man said while widely grinning.
Ricao just though about what kind of
man might be wanting to tell bad jokes when he was about to die.
Retin Chialin stood at the other
side of the field, hearing how the cavalry had begun their charge. He couldn't
see them of course, there were too many men before him, but he was happy that
he could be able to see when their cavalry crushed the rebels on that small
hill. He wouldn't have to fight at all he though.
Ricao was however not so pleased,
looking as the cavalry had just begun to charge full speed. There were just
about to charge over the ditches, and Ricao the only thing he could do now was
to watch.
"All right men, soon we will be
starting to rush upwards. Take full speed, and pull your swords" Weiramon
shouted as he kicked the horse for more speed. He wondered whether it was a
good idea to lead the charge, but it was too late for him to change his mind
now.
"What is that on the ground, it
seems different?" someone at his right side shouted. Shouting was the only way
to talk here, as thousands of horses charging made a sound quite unlike
anything other, and a loud one. Of course, with the speed they were moving,
Weiramon never had time to look down at the ground, and all of a sudden, the
horse seemed to fall down, and before he could react, he had fallen the ditch.
Almost all of the front line of cavalry had fallen into the hole too, few had
time to see what was happening, and few of those had time to do anything about
it.
"What happ…" were the last words
uttered by High-Lord Weiramon, and his last sight was black speck with a
horseshoe, covering his sight, and crushing his head totally.
At the rebel army, the men were
quite surprised. "Look even some of the second and third line seem to have
fallen, and the fourth line is stumbling on the bodies of other horses. This is
almost ta'veren luck." someone said out loudly in the front-line. Ricao could
do nothing but agree. But there were still almost a third of the cavalry still
charging forward. "Form Spears" went the order.
Retin stood still in the loyal army,
not knowing about what had happened. There had been screams and shouting in the
front lines, but the army was too big for that talk to spread down to the
middle of it.
Right then Retin saw as the cavalry,
or what was left of it, rushed up towards the hill "Wait! What happened to the
rest of them, that's less than half. What is happening here". With those words
the cavalry crushed into the rebels, but were soundly killed by an incredible
line of spears. The first five lines all held spears against the cavalry. Retin
just watched as one cavalryman after another fell down. Of course, the cavalry
was still in quite closed formation, and the entire battle lasted only seconds.
The rest of the cavalry had begun to flee as soon as they noticed what was
happening to the other cavalrymen.
The armies stood quiet for almost
ten minutes, both sides waiting for the other one to do something, until a lone
soldier from the rebel army started marching forward.
"When in the light is he doing? Is
he stupid or something?" Ricao said as he saw the man marching forward.
Everyone on both sides seemed to be wondering who or what the man was.
"What do you think he is?",
High-Lord Andiama, seemingly commander of the loyalist army now that Weiramon
had not returned from the cavalry charge, said. "Do you think he comes with a
message", he said to one of the generals from his lands.
"Perhaps." the man replied. "Lets
wait and see." he ended the line with, letting the man come within archery
range.
Both sides nervously waiting to see
what the man was doing. When he shot an arrow towards the loyalist army, their
unrest level suddenly escalated, the men at the front row hoping they had good,
tower-shields.
"It might be that the arrow had a
message attached to it, milord" the general said to Andiama, and received an
agreeing nod as a reply. However Andiamas nervousness about what the arrow
contained ended quickly, when it hit him, punching trough his armour, into his
stomach. Before he collapsed from his horse, he got to see that the arrow was
just an arrow, no message whatsoever.
As the men at the front row saw that
their leader had fallen from a lone arrow, shot from just about the range of a
normal bow, it took little to convince them that the rebel army was unbeatable,
and within minutes, all of the infantry was fleeing backwards, from an enemy a
fifth their size.
In the rebel army, the mood was
incredibly surprised as they saw their enemies run away in terror. Ricao said
to the man beside him "Well, I wish you so much luck sleeping on the mud you
were so looking forward to before this battle begun."
And as for the loyalist army,
High-Lord Andiama returned as trough a miracle, the arrow had just missed his
any vital organs it seemed like. Fourtythousand men were grouped together
again, and what was left of the cavalry. As for the rest, they were never
regrouped, but in truth, some joined the rebels, some went home. Others, few
killed themselves in despair.