"Kill every male, from one day to a hundred years old. The goods, women, are to your disposal."
The voice of Rabadash echoed in his head and the soldier smiled. This was the chance to prove himself. The years of service in Tashbaan lacked challenges. He needed a great war, conquest and leadership, the best would be his own. He had no chance for the throne, but at least he should have been the leader of this ride, not that idiot prince. However, if Rabadash´s desire for a woman put some courage to is head, so be it. Without him, he would have been stuck in the capitol city, were all the slave women seemed to wear the same face. Dull, passive, emotionless. To get a woman from the North, that would be something! And after they get Archenland, they will head towards Narnia! The very name made his heart beat faster. The mysterious land was full of secrets. The ones invited to the narnian tourney came back with amazing stories. There were mermaids in the sea, treated equally with normal people. There were tree spirits, fauns, centaurs, and all kinds of talking animals. He could see a few of them in circus before, but there they refused to talk unless beaten to the blood. Narnia simply fascinated him.
As they crossed the desert and stopped by the first encountered stream for some rest and the fresh water, he looked up at the mountains and wondered. Rabadash´s plan was to take Anward by surprise and if succeeded, his dream about Narnia as the next conquest could come true. The first stream was also the beginning of the forest and from there, the paths went higher and became narrow. It was something the calormenian horses were not accustomed to. Exhausted after the desert, they continued the journey unwillingly, especially when the land was so full of water and juicy grass. But they did climb, after receiving painful reminders from the whips showing them that they had no choice.
Their travel lasted another day and the Calormenes were forced to prepare the next camp for the night. The air got fresher and even they, so arrogant and cruel in their hearts, couldn´t not appreciate the beauty of the forest. The trees were somehow thicker and taller than the trees they knew. Especially their leaves were different. There were no palms, but huge oaks, acorns and birches, and strange, huge trees with no leaves at all, but something that looked like millions of little needles instead. They were dark green and sharp on the edges. The Calormenes didn't know any conifers, so that was what they thought of great pines and spruces.
They climbed in silence now, afraid they could be spotted by accidental travelers and anyone bringing warning to the fortress would ruin their mission. Of course, they had no knowledge of a secret winter land and its queen sending animals to watch over Narnia and Archenland, neither they knew of a certain little boy, who looked the same as prince Corin and happened to overhear their plans back in Tashbaan. But, as one would say, that belongs to somebody else´s story.
It is enough to say that the Calormenes got very disappointed. King Lune got warned and managed to lock the gate in the last minute. What a failure! Poor Rabadash, he thought, not without a hint of satisfaction, seeing the fury on his not very respected superior´s face. Since that barbarian woman appeared, the prince lost his head, he murmured. First, Rabadash intended to keep her in Tashbaan by force. But as queen Susan and her brother escaped on ship, Rabadash decided the attack on Anward, a little neighbor that was the only barrier between the Empire and Narnia, would bring him more than chasing them personally through the sea. What Rabadash avoided to mention was that he was awfully sea sick every time he travelled to Narnia, so his grace and combat skills on waters were far less impressive. Of course, saying that out loud would cost anybody his own head.
"O Greatest Son of the One, Who-shall-live-forever-Tisroc, what ought we to do now? The gate is closed and the surprise is gone. There are demons in these lands, they must have warned king Lune and our Gods deserted us in this barbarian…
"Hold your mouth, dog!" Rabadash yelled and the whip landed on the soldier´s back. He curled up in pain and a deep bow at the same time.
"We will take this castle even if I have to kill every single barbarian myself! They are not worth the sweat of our horses! Cut the tree! We will make a ram and break this gate. There is no power able to stop the Son of Tisroc, the Glory of Tash is upon us!"
It took some effect on the more faithful troopers and soon they all got to work. The trees were strong and hard, so another couple of hours passed, before they were ready.
"We outnumber them anyway," he thought listening to the rhythmical ´thumb´ against the gate. Soon the rain of arrows started to fall from the castle, but it did them little harm.
"These fools think our shields are made from sand!" They laughed and kept on attacking the gate. The ladders would let them force the wall faster, but they trusted the surprise strategy too much and they had no other plan. So they kept on forcing the gate and perhaps they would have gotten through finally; if another distraction didn´t appear.
Valiant trumpets and horns sounded in the forest. The help was clearly approaching, from Narnia´s side!
"But how?!" There was no time to think. "Back on the horses! Attack!" Sounded everywhere.
This was the real battle now; they could forget the plan. Rabadash was overwhelmed by rage. He would win or die, to surrender was out of question. The previous talks about spilling as little of narnian blood as possible, and keeping only Anward for the time being, were now forgotten. The Calormenes saw the strangest army they could ever imagine. Were those really animals fighting? He saw a line of leopards and panthers that now caused all the calormenian horses panic, making it impossible to control them, so the most of the warriors had to jump down and fight on foot. Which was very risky because of the centaurs (may Tash curse those devil creatures!). But they worked their ways wildly and fiercely with swords, cutting every horse they got, sometimes confusing the centaur with their own steeds.
The battle became chaotic and fast, but he, so far, was unharmed. Spotting the leopards quickly enough, he jumped off his horse as well and killed maybe ten of those beasts. Cutting his way between the narnian dwarves he saw a group of narnian archers heading to the side. He guessed their plan, they obviously intended to surround them. He looked to the right. Were those big walking stones really giants, fighting in narnian army? And he could swear he saw a white bear among them. What an awful gathering of beasts! He called five men to go with him and ordered them to sneak in between the rocks, towards the archers. There was one on the front, clearly looking like a leader. Was that the High King? No, according to the rumors, King Peter was supposed to fight the other giants, far away on the North. Must have been king Edmund then. But he just saw King Edmund dueling prince Rabadash on the other side. So it must be one of the queens after all, he smirked. He kept on watching.
The silhouette with a shining helmet and royal signs on her armor was holding two swords and just cut the heads of his two men. He gasped. If their women fight like that, he could finally understand the obsession of the prince. To possess a woman like this, that was the challenge he waited for. He rushed forward, but as the battle reached its culmination, he had to protect himself more efficiently. The centaurs seemed to spot his maneuver and headed towards him. He managed to stab one in the side and the centaur screamed with pain and tripped. The other two rushed with help, leaving the Calormene alone. This was his chance. Seeing the archers busy with taking their positions, he jumped towards the shining armor in front of him and with one fluent movement he cut the leg of her horse. The animal howled with pain and fell heavily to the ground.
He blinked. Where was the queen? She either should be under the horse, or, if she would be fast enough to jump off, she should have landed right before him. Then he noticed a movement behind him and threw himself to the side, which saved his life. The queen stood on top of a big rock. How did that happen? When did she…? The rock was at least ten feet high. The queen somehow managed to jump there from the falling horse, so fast that he didn´t notice. The soldier fell his blood boiling. This was his moment. He would show this barbarian (there he used a few words that would look not nice in the story) what it means to be a real, trained, calormenian warrior.
With his fastest maneuver he tried to stab her legs, but she gracefully jumped down and it was his turn to jump now, in order to avoid one of her swords. Calormenian swords were sharp and slightly bent, which usually was giving them a great advantage as the enemy´s defense was prepared for a sword as straight as their own. It was a marvelous technique he now used, it usually let him throw the enemy´s weapon out of his hands. There however, it didn´t seem to work. She acted as if she had a great experience with calormenian swords and it was very upsetting. So was her speed. She jumped down and for a moment her foot really stood on his own sword, bounced from it, to enable her the smooth landing. He was furious. With his full power, he leaned forward and aimed both, his sword and a dagger, at her, feeling that now or never. And felt a sharp pain in his side, first, in the arm, later. She threw him on the ground. As the sword was ripped out of his hand, he stared at her with wide open eyes. He wanted at least to know the name of the one, who defeated him.
"Who are you?" He asked with a hoarse voice. The shining silhouette took off her helmet. The last thing he saw were the long, golden hair and icy, blue eyes.
"I am Jadis. The true queen of Narnia." She cut his throat.
