"Jake, bandage him!" Christine ordered from her spot as she wrapped another injured solider. As soon as the fighting had started, men had been flying in one after the other, cut, wounded, and bloody. The current one was bleeding profusely from the abdomen, a deep slash, but luckily, the medic on Christine's right said that he would be all right.
Christine wiped the sweat from her brow and gazed across the vast sea of the injured and dying. She sighed heavily noticing how young they all looked, how all wanted that glory to be the next general or colonel. They were just mere boys, most not above the age of twenty. Getting up, she cleaned her hands of the new blood on her already dirtied dress.
"Majesty." A medic approached her, quickly bowing to her.
"Yes?"
"Does Liren have a medical center at all?" He asked, knowing the answer already, but hoping it had changed in the past hour.
"No," She shook her head. "The old one was destroyed in the last war and is only half finished with repairs."
"What exactly needs to be done?"
"Too much." Her hand waved it lazily away. "It would be of no use to these people, they would probably have worse chances going there. The palace is the cleanest place in Liren."
"How are your medics trained then?"
"Did you happen to notice the age of the men and women working?" She questioned. "They were trained at the now ruined medical school."
"Majesty, I hate to be rude but…" He bit his lip.
"Liren is horrible." A little smile came to her face. "I know. The country itself may need to change, but the people are making it possible, little by little. Now, did you need me for anything else or would you like to comment further on the state the country is in?"
"More volunteers?" The young man sounded hopeful.
"There is a line outside the palace letting them in." She nodded, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Do not worry, Dr. Mitchell, I have faith that you will be able to help many of these men. That is precisely why my husband hired you to be here."
"Majesty." He had a faint blush upon his cheeks. "I actually signed up to be here."
"Oh," Christine smiled. "Then, thank you. You do not know how much that means to me."
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"It could work!" Beatrice sighed in frustration. "They have been fighting since six o'clock this morning when they noticed our men staring them down!"
"My men are exhausted!" Phillips threw his arms up.
"Now you decide they are exhausted!" She stomped her foot. "What about yester night? Were they not exhausted then too?"
"It was different." He shrugged. "We were simply traveling, now they have been fighting a war that they do not wish to fight!"
"I understand." Her head nodded. "But you must understand that we could have the army surrounded and attacked tonight, there will be many deaths, but the fighting could be over sooner and the ones that live may go home to their families."
"Yes but…"
"General." Erik went towards the man that he had entrusted his army. "May I remind you that it was your idea to attack at night?"
"Yes sire." The man nodded.
"And may I remind you that the sooner we finish the fighting the sooner all of us can go home and be at peace?" He stood his ground while the general stood there and thought for a minute.
"Women should not be involved with war." The general muttered. "They are too aggravating." He walked away into his separate part of the tent.
"Majesty." Beatrice looked at the king. "You know that it is much more dangerous at night, yes?"
"This is not my first war, Beatrice." He smiled kindly at the young woman. "I know the risks."
"Yes." She bit her lip. "There will be no one to cover you; this is not a frontal attack. If you become injured, no one will know until morning..."
"I am a little stronger than you think."
"I do not doubt your strength, Sire."
"My knowledge then?"
"No."
"What is it?" He questioned.
"I doubt if you know the true cause of this attack." Her sweetness disappeared and somewhere appeared a strong person. "Liren once was greater than Borswan, greater than any country. Plante can only have two motives for attack; one is to return Liren to greatness but only for the benefit of Plante. The other is to completely destroy the country and leave everything in ruins."
"I know that." Erik said sincerely. "I do not want that to happen to Liren, and I know that Christine does not want that either, this is for her, all for her."
"But sire." She licked her lips, uncertain how he would take this part of the news. "If Plante somehow wins and conquers Liren, by law and order, Christine will be forced to be wed to Plante's ruler no matter her circumstances of marriage."
Erik did not have to contemplate the thought, for a messenger rushed into the tent.
"They're coming!" The boy panted out before suddenly dropping to the floor. The others rushed over to him. "There's more!" He moaned rolling on the floor; a small stain of blood had accumulated there.
"I'll get a medic." Beatrice quickly hurried out of the tent.
"What do you mean there's more?" Erik asked.
"Plante troops." He gasped. "There's more on the way!"
"What is that noise?" Phillips came into the tent rubbing his eyes and noticed the boy on the ground, hurrying over to the sight.
"There are more troops coming." Erik told him.
"Where are they coming from?" He questioned.
"From the West." The boy answered. "They're coming tomorrow night!"
Beatrice hurried back in with a man following her and he quickly attended to the boy.
"Is there anything else you need to tell us?" Erik quickly questioned, kneeling down by the boy.
"There are a lot of them." He winced as the medic began to clean his wounds.
"How many?"
"Twenty thousand men."
"Take him to the palace," Erik told the medic. "Make sure that he has the best care there."
The medic nodded and left, carrying the boy out of the tent. The three people left in the room looked at each other.
"Liren has five thousand men standing by." Beatrice spoke quietly.
"Pull three thousand of them and have the rest on the wall." Erik walked over to the map and began to study it.
"Sire perhaps…." Phillips began.
"No, General" He looked at the man. "To win a war you need hope, do you have hope General Phillips?"
"I do not, Majesty."
"Then I suggest you get a good night's rest, you will need your strength for the morning." Erik nodded the general away and turned to Beatrice. "We need to attack from the top..."
"Our bows are not that strong." She shook her head.
"Borswan brought extra," He answered. "They will be handed out tomorrow morning. Now I need to know how to beat them."
"Strength, cunning." Her shoulders shrugged. "They have fifteen thousand extra men, Majesty that is too much. Plus we lost about five thousand already."
"Beatrice," His eyes pleaded with her. "Liren must beat Plante, I will give it no other choice. I cannot have troops come now, for it will be too late when they arrive. Tell me how I can beat this bastard of a man."
"For one he is not a man." She sighed. "Two, this will not be easy."
"Since when is a war considered easy?" He questioned.
"True." Beatrice nodded. "Now the men…."
Sorry for the long delay! The holidays got in the way and everything else, anyway I will return to a pattern shortly. But thank you all for hanging in there and reviewing!
EV
