Chapter Fourteen: To Arms
One Day
"Alright men, line up!" Marcus barked orders, getting his company ready. "I want two rows, pronto! Move, move, move!" Men scrambled at his commands, assembling with quick and practiced obedience. The captain looked over his men proudly, each of them armed and ready for battle. "Good job men! Now be sure to show this kind of behavior for the king when he arrives! No disappointing me!"
"Aye, Captain!" The soldiers shouted back. Marcus nodded and turned his attention back to his lieutenants.
"What news of the orders?" he asked the young, newly promoted lieutenant. If he remembered his officers correctly this young man's name was Haemon.
"The king only sends word to assemble our forces. He has not said why yet. I could not even hazard a guess what we are prepping for, all alliances with our borders are sound," Haemon kept stride with his captain easily as they marched down the line of troops. Marcus grunted, looking over again the written orders from King Harkinian.
"Well then, best get things along here, if the king doesn't send word for reason I'll not be the one to answer to him." He turned to one of his scribes and had him write some notes down on company size and position before snapping his tent flap open and glancing over the strewn of papers on his desk.
"The names the recruits, Captain Viscen," said Haemon, picking up a loose sheet and glancing at it. "Organized by rank and how many years served." Now taking the time to read several of the papers, Marcus furrowed his brow as he scanned over each name, sprawled in a fine, tight handwriting.
"We have a lot of young boys here with no fighting experience," he grumbled, grabbing another sheet.
23rd Company, 56 men, ranks and years of service as follows:
1. Alemnor, Brutes 2nd year cadet
2. Atrops, Samuel 1st year cadet
3. Harper, Kallin 1st year cadet
4. Maken, Allen 1st year cadet
5. Tern, Sanders Lt. Commander
"What? Sanders is here?" Marcus's eye flew up. "Damn fool! I told him to not to bother." The Captain slammed a hand down in frustration. "Lieutenant, tell Lt. Commander Tern to get in here, immediately." Haemon nodded and hurried out of the tent while Marcus fumed over the rest of the recruit reports. After a time another, noticeably tall, man entered the marquee and met his captain with a level gaze.
"You wanted to see me Captain?" the man said, with a sidelong look at Haemon who was hovering in the door.
"Haemon," Captain Viscen ordered stiffly, "you can go. See that some of the greenhorns know how to march."
"Aye, Captain." Haemon saluted and left, glad to finally have a purpose other than errand runner. With him gone, Lt. Commander Tern's features relaxed and he sauntered to Marcus's desk. His friend looked at him irritably with a frown.
"I thought I told you to take some leave," said Marcus officially. Tern smiled and pressed his knuckled against the deep stained wood of the table.
"You did, but did you really think I was going to listen to you? We haven't had anything to do for months! I'm going to go stir crazy if I don't get out and at least march with the soldiers!"
"When I told you to take leave it wasn't a suggestion of a friend! It was an order!" Viscen snapped.
"What's gotten into you?" replied Tern, grinning, not seeing the seriousness of the situation as always.
"What about Maeve, Sanders?" Asked Marcus steadily now. "Isn't your beautiful wife and newborn son enough to stay home for?" Sanders blinked at his old friend, obviously confused.
"Don't be stupid, Old Man, I'm not going out and throwing myself into death!" he laughed. "I just need to put these skills to use before it's been so long that I forget them! Maeve knew I was a fighter when she married me. We're not going to be away for long."
"Truth is Sanders we don't know what we're going for," replied the Captain bitterly. "Haven't gotten any orders yet other than to assemble. I'll tell you that our forces aren't half of what they were before the Dark Lord."
"That's because there's been no need, peace 'l do that." Marcus glared up at his tawny hair friend as he threw down the papers curtly.
"Stop being a fool Tern! I may not know what the king plans, but there is defiantly something unsettling here! Can't you feel it? The dread that bears down on you more and more with each passing day?"
"What are you talking about, Old Man?" Sanders laughed.
"I'm telling you to get out of here! Go back to your wife and son! I'll not have you throw yourself on some futile endeavor, not this time." Marcus's eyes were ablaze with authority and Sanders could only fall back and stare at him.
"Surely you don't think me a coward--" he protested but Viscen snapped back.
"Of course not, you fool! But I sense that before this moon is up there will be much bloodshed and heartache here. I won't have Maeve a widow and your son fatherless, not when I can help it." And the fierce sternness slowly melted into a familiar careworn smile. "My friend," he finished softly, "I know your will's in fighting old friend, but think of your heart." He clasped Sanders shoulder firmly and looked at him levelly in the eye. "Go home. Enjoy your son. There will always be another battle."
At this time Haemon reentered the tent and saluted.
"King Harkinian, Sir!" He barked officially as the fabric door flaps flew open and the king's tall, broad frame shadowed the morning light.
"Your Highness!" Marcus straightened and saluted as well, "we've been assembling, just as you've commanded." Harkinian looked about with a satisfied expression and with hand on the sword hilt at his waist, walked over to the captain's desk. Another man appeared from behind him that they all knew very well.
"Link!" Sanders laughed, extending an arm and clasping Link's. "I'm glad to see you alright, haven't laid eyes on you since the crisis at Death Mountain last week. I---"
"Thank you Lt. Commander, but Link and I must speak alone with Captain Viscen," the king said formally and then ignored him further. Sanders looked from Link to Marcus's faces for an instant before mumbling an 'excuse me, Highness' and left. Link's eyes followed his friend as he disappeared from the tent before directing his attention back to the King and Captain.
Outside Sanders scowled irritably at being thrown out of the meeting, but he was dwelling more so on what his friend had said to him rather than that. Surely he was just being irrational, Marcus did that, and it's what made him a fearless and uncompromising commander. Sanders began to walk back through the camp, presently set up out on Hyrule Field and among some trees. Like this, no one could get near the Castle Bridge or walls without one of the soldiers knowing about it. What they were all assembled for was what he wanted to know.
Some of his old privates called him over to their fire for a drink, which he happily did, wishing to forget for a moment his churning annoyance. They greeted him with a cheer and slaps on the back, and were quick to fill his pewter with ale.
"Aye, Sir! Grand to see you! Heard you and the Missus had a little boy?" One of them laughed, taking a long draught of his drink.
"It's true, young Alaxander Tern," Sanders lifted his cup and the others followed suit. "He does a man proud!"
"A proud trophy to your manhood, no doubt!" They all laughed and clanked pewter together. They sat on the outer fringes of the camp, but still the commotion and shouting of drilling new recruits clamored through the air. It was just past eleven and the coolness of the morning was beginning to dissipate into summer warmth. The first beads of perspiration began to appear on the men's foreheads as their gales of laughter echoed over the tents. It was then that one of the men took notice of two horses approaching them from the Field and stood to hail them.
"'Ello, what's this?" One man asked, staring at the strange newcomers. Sanders eyed them as well and went to inspect them himself. The horses stopped and he could see two men rode them and a young woman sat in front of one of them. It was she that drew his attention right away, though her companions were unusual enough by themselves. Her eyes were startlingly exhausted, peering out from a pretty face that was obviously not Hylian. The one sitting behind the young woman, whose arms wrapped around either side of her, was too solemn for a man his age, especially one who had a woman in his lap, but at least the elder man smiled.
"Good morrow," said the elder stranger, nodding his head and extending his hand for Sanders to clasp.
"Good morrow, friend," Sanders replied, smiling good-naturedly. "What business do you have here?"
The other men in the camp now noticed the strangers and became interested, but seeing a Lt. Commander handling it they kept to their own business. The stranger smiled again and sat up in his saddle while the other man and woman stayed straight faced and quiet. There was just something in her eyes that left Sanders unsettled.
"My son, his wife, and I have traveled here from Vertamae to visit with family, as well as do some business. We hope that we have not come at a dangerous time?"
"Nay, this is just a bit of a drill we have going on. Doesn't interfere with the market or town. Have you two been married long?" Sanders grinned now; the little bit of ale he had consumed gave him a healthy buzz. The young man now smiled, the great scar across his lower face making it crooked, and patted his woman's hand.
"Just a few weeks," he said and now even the young woman made a small, coy smile and nodded her head.
"Eh, well then, congratulations! Probably still on your honeymoon I bet. Well then just go through these tents here and straight toward the gates there. And may I say, uh…" Sanders realized he did not know these men's names.
"Kiehs," said the younger man, extending his hand and they grasped in shake.
"Ah, then may I say, Kiehs, you have a lovely wife. I wish you both happiness." With another good-natured grin, he lifted the woman's small hand and gave it a light kiss. She looked shocked, but only for a moment. Sanders had to do something to get a reaction out of her, for his own piece of mind he could not let her go without hearing her speak. Kiehs certainly had looked surprised all right, but the young woman just smiled sweetly and kept herself composed.
"I thank you for the compliment, sir," was all she said, and weakly at that, before her companions reined their horses on again and toward the town. Tern's men stood with him as they rode away with equally as interested faces as he.
"Well if they weren't the oddest newlyweds I've ever seen." Said the youngest man.
"Yeah, if I had a wife like that, I wouldn't be so straight faced or idle handed. She was handsome, not beautiful you know, like Beth," and at Beth's name all of the men groaned with pleasure and rolled their eyes to the back of their heads, "but, I dunno, kind of 'exotic'. Compared to those two at least."
"Oh get your head out of the clouds!" They all laughed at him and eventually meandered off back to the fire again.
Link left the tent followed by the king and Captain Viscen, their business being concluded. Fifty men would be stationed outside of the Temple of Time on the day of the new moon, along with five more regiments stationed between the castle and marketplace. And that wasn't accounting for the soldiers the Gerudo, Zora, and Goron were sending, where they were supposed to go was yet to be seen. In little time Castle Town would be converted into a battle encampment of horrific proportions. Then again, this could be a struggle with horrific outcomes as well. By the Courage of Farore, he missed Navi so.
The streets were to be cleared that day; no one was to be out. Link left to find his friend Sanders again and eventually ran into him looking over some weapons in the armory pavilion with a few other of his men. Right away, even from just seeing his backside, Link could see that the man's mood had changed to something for the worse. Link appeared beside him without a noise and when he turned he let out a startled gasp.
"Great Din, Link, I didn't hear you," Sanders had obviously been preoccupied with something.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you were so deep in thought. What were you thinking about? Oh! How's your son, by the way?" Link grinned and leaned up cross-armed against the table.
"Good, good, and Maeve is doing wonderfully too. More than a man could ask for." Despite the fact that he was smiling, Link could read the way his unshaven jaw tightened and twitched between sentences. Something really was on his mind. Link asked him of it, but Sanders shook it off and inspected another blade. It was one of the other men who brought it up.
"Link! Did you see the strange threesome that just came through here? Had a girl with 'em, she was something to look at."
"No, I didn't see them. New lust, Grant?" Link laughed.
"Nah, she was too 'girl next door' to be a lust, looked very simple. Not plain, but simple, but she had these eyes Link," the young man exaggerated a shiver, "too bad you missed her."
"Sounds like it, too bad."
The three strangers on the horses now passed beneath the great arch into Hyrule Town, not once looking back nor risking being stopped again. No one noticed however how quickly they disappeared, like the morning shadows, into the crowded market streets.