Chapter 12: War Time
Early the next morning, the elder knights were woken up by the toll of the Council Hall bell. It didn't take long for the elders to gather at the Council Hall. Aulus was standing in the meeting room as the others came in.
"Who sounded the alarm?" Zill asked.
"I did" Aulus said. He looked as if he hadn't slept. The knights took their seats and looked rather exhausted for it being 4:00am. "I think we should get our troops moved out first thing this morning. I've been up all night thinking it over."
"Who will remain here?" Alexa asked. Alexa usually had a day shift and now looked as if she was still asleep.
"My division will remain" Zill said. "We can use the oubliettes to our advantage."
"My division will stay as well" Don Carlos said. "The Junkyard can serve as a last reserve."
"Does anyone have any objections to getting our troops sent out today?" Aulus asked. The group was quiet. Aulus ran a hand through his hair. "We need a division to remain at Baku."
"The Bog will stay at Baku" Hugo said.
"Then, lets get our troops moving at six" Aulus said. "If we hurry, our trip will only take us two days to make."
"Wait" Jessie said. "We have some allies that will be joining us."
"Allies?" Don Carlos asked.
"We will have a few warriors from the Desert of 13 Madmen" Jessie said. "We will also have King Oberon, King Ellery, Lord Vid, and Lord Oren."
"Who knows the latest on the numbers of the dwarves?" Hugo asked.
"Last I heard there were close to sixty thousand" Alexa said.
"We need to get into position or the dwarves will win" Aulus said. "We need to start moving our divisions by six."
"Agreed" The others said in unison.
The rest of the knights were awakened and prepared at five o'clock. Most of the knights were groggy, but the excitement and dread of what was to happen had everyone on their toes. Each division had their troops at attention, each one on a horse.
As the large clock in Goblin City chimed six times, the troops made their way out of the Labyrinth. The troops went faster and faster as they raced out of the Labyrinth.
The journey to Baku took two and a half days. Sir Hugo and his division stayed in Baku, staying near the roads that led into the city. The other troops moved on to Pining Plain.
"Aulus" Jessie called moving up to ride beside him. "Have you seen any of the allies in the woods?"
"No and neither have you" Aulus said shortly.
"That's why I was asking" Jessie said. "I thought that I had missed them."
"Well" Aulus said chancing to glare at her. "You thought wrong."
He moved ahead as the troops spilled into Pining Plain. Knights immediately started to set up tents and bonfires. Food was prepared and the horses were given water. It took hours before the troops had a fully functional camp, but it was too long afterwards when King Ellery approached with warriors behind him. Jessie and Alexa rode up to greet King Ellery.
"Your highness" Sir Jessie said.
"Sir Jessie and Sir Alexa" King Ellery said. The three watched as the troops started to form an extension of the camp. "Is King Jareth not here?"
"King Jareth is not allowed into battle without the high risk of losing his kingdom" Sir Alexa said.
"So he has not found himself a wife yet" King Ellery stated. The knights were silent. "How many troops are estimated to be coming through?"
"Sixty thousand" Sir Jessie said.
"They have six slidringtanni" Alexa said.
"How many men did you bring, King Ellery?" Sir Jessie asked.
"Only four hundred would come" King Ellery replied. He looked over at Jessie and shook his head. "Sir Jessie, always running the numbers."
"We appreciate your help" Sir Alexa said.
"If you will excuse me, I need to help out some knights" Sir Jessie said after watching a group of knights nearly caught a tent on fire with a lantern.
"I see that your festival has given you the troops you wanted" King Ellery said.
"It did" Sir Alexa said. "I just hope that the goblins arrive soon. I'm sure they will be here by tomorrow."
King Ellery and Alexa looked over to see Jessie spreading a bag of sand near the back of the camp.
"What is she doing?" King Ellery asked.
"That was given to her by King Al-Shaidan of the desert" Alexa said. "His troops are supposed to come through the sand."
"She was given the time of day by Al-Shaidan?" King Ellery asked in disbelief.
"Strange isn't it?" Sir Alexa said.
"Sir Alexa, will you excuse me?" King Ellery asked. "I must see to my troops."
"Yes, sire" Alexa said.
It was close to thirteen o'clock, midnight, when the goblins arrived at the plain. The numbers of the Labyrinth defenses increased by two thousand warriors. Jessie sat near one of the many fires waiting for the commotion to settle. She stared into the fire thinking about Jareth and Shaidan and how to resolve the problem. She barely noticed when Aulus sat next to her.
Aulus threw a rock at the large bonfire before asking "Are you happy?"
"Me?" Jessie asked. "I'm overly stressed out."
"But, are you happy?" Aulus asked. Jessie shrugged and picked up a frog-sized stone. She rubbed her thumb against its smooth surface.
"Aulus, I don't think I'd know how to be happy if I ever had the chance" Jessie said. Aulus caught a glimpse of green from the stone she rubbed with her thumb. He caught her hand with his and brought the stone up so he could look at it.
"Green tourmaline" Aulus said. "This is foreign to this kingdom."
"It must have fallen from a caravan" Jessie said. Aulus brought Jessie's hand up so she could see the stone.
"This will bring you luck and success" Aulus said. He let her hand go and smirked. "I suppose it's a good thing you have that since we're about to go into battle."
"Perhaps" Jessie said. An explosion from beyond the far side of the plain caught everyone's attention. "Oh shit."
"Fuck" Aulus said. "I thought you said we had a few days."
"It was a prophecy" Jessie said standing up and pulling her helmet on. "The future can always change."
The knights, the Goblins, and King Ellery's men were all running for their horses and heading towards the oncoming battle. Someone yelled that Lord Oren's men were attacking from the north. As the troops started racing towards the battle, several new warriors emerged from the dark forest wearing Lord Vid's tartan.
The ground shook as the oncoming sixty thousand troops started to pour into the plains. Trees fell to the ground as the six slidringtanni made their way into the clearing with their catapults. Dwarves with axes and swords ran towards the Labyrinth's defensive forces.
The giant black boars let out blood-curdling squeals and trampled those that were underfoot. The catapults unleashed clusters of large stones. The goblins bravely ran into battle, throwing grenades and small bombs at the large groups of dwarves. In the blackness that engulfed the plains, most of the warriors were lost as to who they were aiming for and just tried to hit whatever moved near them.
The battle went on fully until the sun started to rise. The oncoming dawn showed the red stained ground and the warriors who had remained on the battle ground. Several warriors had retired to their camps, while some remained on the field.
Jessie made her way back to the camp and sank to her knees at the water trough. She drank handfuls of water before picking herself up. She felt like she had been run over by a carriage or two. Her arms and legs were cut up. Her hands were bloody. She looked around and found that Aulus and Alexa were doing just as well as she was. In the field she could see Pheon'a Ch'a still fighting.
Jessie made her way towards the forest. She looked down at the sand as she passed it. Shaidan's warriors had not come through as he had promised, but the war was still going on. Jessie managed to find a small fox and quickly drained it of blood. She could feel the blood reviving her a tiny bit. She tossed the carcass to the ground and headed back to the sandy area.
Jessie stepped onto the sand and stomped on it.
"King Al-Shaidan!" Jessie yelled at the sand. She fell to her knees and dug her hands into the sand. "King Al-Shaidan!"
The ground rumbled beneath the sand and a door pushed up from the sand. Jessie stood as it opened and King Al-Shaidan stepped out. He looked out at the battle as if he were watching it from a far distance.
"It's a little early for a battle, isn't it?" Al-Shaidan asked. He turned to look at Jessie and his eyebrows rose. "Are you hurt, dear knight?"
"We need your warriors" Jessie said. "They missed the beginning of the battle, but, as you can see, there are still thousands of dwarves left."
"Yes, well I'll send them through" Al-Shaidan said. He paused before crossing through the door. "Come see me after you're done with this whole thing."
The door closed. Jessie had a look of confusion on her face.
"This 'whole thing'?" Jessie said to herself. She watched as the door opened again and Al-Shaidan's troops started to pour out onto the battlefield on black horses. Jessie stepped back and walked over to one of the camp cooks, taking a handful of bread and a handful of roasted meat. She quickly ate and drank a mug of water.
Surprisingly, through the night, the Labyrinth's defenses had held strong. Lord Vid's Woodsmen had joined in. Jessie figured that they had been there for nearly a day before the troops had showed up at the plains. The Woodsmen were elite warriors from Lord Vid's small province.
Jessie made her way towards the battle, taking her time. The dwarves had stirred when Al-Shaidan's men had rushed into battle. As Jessie approached the edge of the battlefield where the ground was soggy with blood, she withdrew her sword and started to run towards the nearest dwarf.
She raised her blade, cutting off the dwarves head. Two more appeared from nowhere, it seemed. Jessie went into a flurry of swipes, ducks, kicks, and blocks until the two dwarves lay dying on the ground. The inner demon that haunts every person rose in Jessie's mind and unleashed itself through her sword.
To anyone who might have been flying over the battle, she was quick and accurate with her sword. She nearly cleared a path into the dwarves. Anyone flying over the battlefield would have seen the one thing that Jessie never saw. The dwarven archers. Jessie screamed and curled her left shoulder as an arrow found its way through her armor and burrowed into her skin.
Jessie looked up to clearly see the archer, though the sight seemed strange to her. A Shaitan warrior rode up behind the archer as the archer was loading a new arrow and drove a scimitar into the dwarf's back. Jessie gripped the arrow and broke the shaft. Pain shot through her shoulder and down her side.
Dwarves flocked around her. Jessie raised her sword and waited for them to charge. The dwarves did and Jessie did her best to block their powerful blows and land useful strikes. Two Shaitans joined her, helping her slaughter the dwarves.
Jessie fell forward with a scream as a second arrow hit her under her right shoulder blade. The arrow deflected off of a metal stud and only pierced her leather armor and her skin. Jessie pushed herself off of the ground, not worrying about the bloody mud that now covered her. She reached back, and with a grunt, broke the shaft of the arrow that pierced her skin.
A battle cry made her look up. A white-haired dwarf charged at her with a large battle ax. Jessie quickly rolled towards him and raised her sword into his stomach, spilling his intestines onto the ground.
Jessie stood up and noticed a new ally on the battle front. King Oberon, who always went into battle, sat atop a horse in black and red robes. He wore a golden set of rings around his neck. Beside him were several warriors in full plate armor and nearly two hundred Red Caps, named for their once-white caps that they dyed in blood of those they killed. The Red Caps stood at an average of eight and a half feet with shoulders nearly four feet in width.
A warrior that sat next to Oberon blew into a wide horn, letting out a deep bellowing sound. Jessie made her retreat towards her camp as Oberon and his men charged into battle. The new troops were enough to produce ponds of dwarf blood in the plain. The energy that the new troops had was more then what the dwarves still encompassed.
Jessie stumbled towards the camp and stopped before a group of goblins and knights who were sitting and watching the battle.
"What are you doing?" Jessie demanded. The warriors looked up at her. "Get up. We will charge them."
"You look pretty bad" A goblin said.
"It does not matter" Jessie said. "Grab your weapons and get into basic formation."
"We're tired" A goblin said. The knights stood at attention and so did a few of the goblins. The ones that remained sitting received a sword pointed at them.
"Get up and fight" Jessie growled. "Or I will kill you myself."
The goblins stood up. A few other knights and goblins who had been on their way back out to the battlefield got into basic formation with the other. The lazy goblins got into position as well, making faces at Jessie.
"We will walk over there" Jessie said. "And we will slay any dwarf who stands in our way." No one objected. "March!"
The group marched forth. Jessie reached under her right arm and pulled out the tip of the arrow that had pierced her skin. She threw the bloody tip to the ground and kept marching forward. The group became closer to the battle.
"Attack!" Jessie yelled running towards a dwarf. The small group ran forth. The goblins threw their small grenades and the others swung their swords. The battle seemed to engulf the group. Blood fell upon everyone. The morning sun was rising and it became all the more clearer as to who was winning the battle.
Jessie pulled an acorn from her belt and quickly wrote 'help' on it. She held it on her open palm and said "Glandis invenire propinqua Sir Hugo."
The acorn took off to find Sir Hugo. Jessie picked up her sword and stepped back into fighting mode.
The battle went on in the same fashion for several hours, until the sun said that it was nearly ten o'clock. Most of the warriors on both sides of the battle were entirely exhausted. Jessie found Aulus sitting with his back against a thick tree. He almost looked like he was sleeping, but with the way he was holding his arm, it was obvious that he was just trying to be still for his arm.
"Aulus?" Jessie asked. She sank to the ground next to him. Aulus looked over at her. Jessie took off her helmet and let it fall onto the ground. "Are you badly wounded?"
"Nothing I can't deal with" Aulus said. "You?"
"I'll need a doctor afterwards, but I should be fine" Jessie said.
"Do you think we're going to win?" Aulus asked. Both of the knights looked out at the battle. The numbers had been cut down to nearly equal amounts. The slidringtanni had all been taken down by archers and goblin bombers.
"I think that if we have back up that we will win" Jessie replied.
"Did you contact Hugo?" Aulus asked.
"Yes" Jessie said. "I don't know where he is. I contacted him nearly four hours ago."
"Perhaps he was waiting for the dwarves to tire" Aulus suggested. Jessie pushed herself up to stand. Her tired body tried to trip over itself, but Jessie steadied herself against the tree that Aulus was using. "Where are you going?"
"Back out there" Jessie said.
"You can't be serious" Aulus said watching as her leg muscles twitched in protest.
"If I don't, then I will collapse" Jessie replied.
"If you do, you could be killed" Aulus said. "At least wait until Hugo gets here."
"I don't know when that will be" Jessie said stretching her neck out. She pulled out her sword, which seemed to weigh twice as much as it once had. She stumbled towards the battlefield. Aulus stood up, bracing himself against the tree. He watched as she approached the battle.
She managed to slice and gut nearly half a dozen dwarves before standing eerily still. Aulus' eyes grew wide as she started to slowly fall to her knees.
"Jessie!" Aulus yelled. He pushed himself to run towards her. He ran faster as he watched her fall onto her back with two arrows sticking out of her upper body. Aulus fell into a sprint with his sword drawn. He fell into battle swiping at the dwarves that came up to him.
Aulus looked down at Jessie, who was still obviously alive. She was gasping for air and trying to break the shafts of the arrows.
"Jessie!" Aulus yelled. "Will you live?"
"Aulus" Jessie gasped. Aulus grabbed onto her collar, behind her head, with his bad arm, and dragged her back to the camp. Aulus sheathed his sword when they were close to the camp and lifted Jessie.
"Stay with me" Aulus said as he rushed her over to a blood-free area of grass. He knelt over her and was surprised when she gripped his hand tightly.
"The medics" Jessie groaned. Aulus looked over to find the medics knee deep in wounded soldiers.
"There's a line" Aulus said. Jessie gasped for air much like a fish out of water.
"The sand" Jessie said. "Get me to the sand." Aulus picked her up and quickly moved her to the sand. She took as deep of a breath as she could and yelled "King Al-Shaidan!"
Aulus looked up at the door as it opened. Two women made of sand emerged from the door. The bent down and picked up Jessie, taking her inside. Aulus followed them, watching as Jessie was taken into the throne room. Aulus was only a step behind Jessie. He stayed beside her as she was presented to the king.
"What has happened?" Al-Shaidan asked changing to his human-size and moving to stare down at the knight.
"Arrows" Aulus said. His arm started to throb and he held it against his chest. "She's dying."
"Get her to the doctor immediately" Al-Shaidan commanded. The sandy figures quickly left with her. Al-Shaidan looked over at Aulus. "Are you wounded as well?"
"My arm is broken sire" Aulus said.
"But, you managed to bring my dear knight here" Al-Shaidan said.
"Yes, sire" Aulus replied. Al-Shaidan gestured to the doorway that Jessie was taken through.
"Hurry and catch up with them. Your arm can be healed" Al-Shaidan said. Aulus bowed and ran after the sandy figures.