(-a/n- Hello again! What a speedy update! This is, in effect the second half to chapter 43. I was ecstatic with the review response for last chapter (You're all wonderful people :D )…and now I'm really worried about posting this chapter. Please don't hate me. )
Confusedknight xx
Gemmel was cremated about half an hour later, his body wrapped in the blue Somalkt flag. The remaining citizens of Somalkt sang a song of respect and loss as their clan chief became smoke and ash, carried skywards in the arms of the dancing breeze.
Once the flames had begun to die down the army was on the move again. Kel was handed a fully tacked black destrier by a stable-hand. Alex was also on horseback, riding his ever faithful Prince.
The losses from the morning's fighting had been heavy and Tor was short of several commanders. This meant that both Kel and Alex had been entrusted with a company of tired, disheartened soldiers to command.
'This is our home,' shouted out Tor, every bit the chief of the clan. It was hard to believe that only an hour previously he had been weeping and despairing over the loss of his father. 'Maggur's scum come here and damage the city of our forefathers. They hurt our civilians, have killed our comrades. Now we will show Maggur the true might of Somalkt.'
A mighty roar rose up from the eight hundred or so soldiers that were gathered before the city's outer gates. Tor kicked his mount into a charge and with Alex, Kel and the rest of the army following he thundered down the slope.
It was a scene that mirrored many a tapestry and painting; a charging army kicking up dust from the dry earth, men's mouths stretched wide in an animalistic battle cry and the makeshift flag flapping and dancing in the standard bearer's hands.
Elation filled Kel and all thoughts of tiredness were banished as she galloped into battle alongside Alex. The army halted on the plain about three hundred metres from the city and the warriors settled into a loose battle formation. Kel trotted over to a company on the left; the company that she was to command.
Courage was already clasped in her left hand whilst her right arm was folded protectively across her chest. Kel had declined a shield knowing that she would not be able to use it properly with her damaged arm.
Tor was shouting more words of determination and his foot soldiers roared in agreement. Kel wasn't really listening; she was concentrating on the red mass of Maggur's soldiers that were assembling ahead of them.
There was a short blast on a horn and arrows from Somalkt's archers whizzed through the air to sink into their targets. Maggur's archers responded in kind and several men around Kel dropped. Tor gave the signal.
'Charge!' Kel screamed to her men. And the battle began.
As commander of the second company, it was Kel's job to ensure that her men didn't let any of Maggur's forces sneak round the Somalkt army and attack from behind. It wasn't easy as the red soldiers vastly outnumbered the white and blue.
Kel chopped and hacked, her destrier rearing and felling almost as many soldiers as she did. Kel had to be careful to protect her vulnerable side by having the black horse almost side on to the rush of oncoming foes.
It was impossible to know how much time had passed. Underneath her armour Kel was sweating profusely –the midday sun was strong and unforgiving. As ever in battle, Kel was grateful for all the hours spent in training; her arm muscles did not protest as she swung her sword over and over.
With a horrible squeal Kel's mount lurched beneath her and then pitched forward onto the blood-soaked earth. Kel had just enough time to push herself clear of the horse so that her leg wasn't trapped beneath it's flailing body. She landed hard and rolled over, all the breath knocked out of lungs and pain exploding up her injured arm.
She staggered upwards and her breast plate deflected a would-be fatal blow. Still struggling to breathe, Kel engaged another opponent.
Kel's senses were overloaded. The metallic smell of blood almost choked her and she could taste blood in her mouth. The noise of the battle was deafening, metal on metal, cries of victory and death all rolled into one.
It was harder to keep track upon her soldiers on foot. Kel killed the opponent with a stab to his unprotected thigh and she ran away from the frontline to where the fighters were more spread out.
Spotting a potential danger Kel cried; 'Somalkt to me!' and any warriors who could followed her to plug a gap in their defences.
They had done it. All of the pages had passed the big exams and were now squires. Tonight they would move over to the squire's table in the mess hall as they had watched all the older pages do in previous years.
The relief was evident on every face as the pages were being congratulated by their parents who had been watching the day's exams anxiously.
Sweetmeats and refreshing fruit juices were being handed around by palace servants. Merric broke away from where his parents stood talking to Duke Turmot of Wellam and walked over to Neal.
'So we made it,' he said happily.
'Just,' agreed Neal, smiling. Nearly all of us, he suddenly thought remembering a small, emotionless face in his mind's eye. It had been a while since he'd last thought of Kel. Three years was a long time; even his recollection of her face was beginning to slip away.
Neal sighed and turned back to the festivities.
'Pull back,' roared Tor's voice over the melee. He galloped up and down bellowing the order.
'Retreat,' Kel hollered to her men.
It was not easy for the Somalkt fighters. If they all turned tail and ran they were likely to be cut to shreds by Maggur's army. Kel watched in horror as a squad of Maggur's surged forward, cutting off twenty or so men from the rest of the army.
Kel was about to rush forward to help, but was carried backwards by the surge of fleeing soldiers. She could just about see the men's panicked faces over the crowd, as they realised that they were trapped, about to die.
'No,' screamed Kel, but no one could hear her. Tears of rage and dismay trickled down her face. Eventually Kel had no choice but to follow the rest of the men. Her legs ran without her conscious control and before long they were back inside the city.
As the last soldier entered, the gates banged shut with a horrible finality.
'No, no, no,' muttered Kel in shock. She should've done something to help those poor men. Kel jogged up a flight of stone steps past several arrow-riddled corpses and onto the ramparts. She looked down at the battlefield and almost vomited everywhere.
Corpses littered the ground; hundreds maybe even thousands of bodies, their life blood leaking out onto the dry grassland. Kel could see Maggur's soldiers walking along the fallen, picked up their own injured and murdering Somalkt's.
It was a sight that Kel would never forget, not even when she was old and grey. In years to come the plains of Somalkt would be renamed 'the Blood plains' for the two thousand that died there during the battle.
Kel couldn't look at the sight any longer and retreated down the steps. She immediately rushed to the aid of a soldier bleeding profusely, and using her good arm, supported him as he walked to the infirmary.
She made several trips of this kind, doing her bit to help the injured. When there were no more people that needed help, Kel joined the other relatively uninjured soldiers in the courtyard. Bread and water was being passed around but Kel could only make herself eat little chunks; the smell of blood was still too strong.
Just then, something thudded down about three metres from Kel. She took a closer look and recoiled in horror. It was a human head. Other heads were now raining down and the men were all shouting and moving out of the way.
Maggur's men seemed to be beheading the fallen warriors and catapulting their heads into the city. This time Kel really was sick and she retched in an alleyway until her stomach was completely empty. She leant back against the wall, it's cool bricks soothing her whilst she gained control of her body again.
More than anything she wanted to find Alex, wanted them both to be far away from this living hell. How much longer would the men keep fighting? How much more could they endure? How much more could she endure?
Looking up Kel noted that there seemed to be a general movement of warriors up through the streets of Somalkt. Sighing, Kel joined the despondent troops who trudged up to the more sheltered grounds of the castle.
When Kel reached her old place of employment she followed the crowd into the castle's great hall. The hall, previously used for the dining of the castle's staff, had been cleared of it's large tables. The women handed out more food to the tired men and the soldiers sat and collapsed on the floor, safe from the grisly rain of heads.
For the amount of people crammed into the large hall it was eerily quiet. Morale was low and men wept for their fallen friends, brothers and comrades. It was then that an idea struck Kel. Back on the slave plantation they had sang to keep up their hopes. Would the same thing work here?
Quietly Kel began to sing. Men looked up in surprise but Kel continued to sing softly, paying them no attention. People listened, transfixed, letting her soft voice roll over the muffling silence. The song faded and no one spoke, no one moved.
Then suddenly, a man with a tear-stained face began to sing in a musical voice and the song he sung soared to the rafters. A second man joined in and then a third. Gradually, ever so slowly, more and more voices joined in until the hall rang with the harmony of the song.
When that song ended, another one began. And when that song too ended a third song began. Kel accepted some slightly stale bread and nibbled. The sheer intensity of the music gave her goose-bumps.
The mood couldn't be described as happy, but the despair was lifting.
Many miles south Neal was tucking into a succulent pork chop drizzled in gravy. His plate was piled with all sorts of food imaginable (no vegetables though) and he was eating with great gusto.
Over the babble of the pages and new squires a band of court musicians could be heard playing cheery melodies. The mood was jubilant –a grin on every face.
Kel had waited for almost an hour and still Alex hadn't arrived. Fed up of waiting, she decided to go and find him. The first place she searched was the meeting room where they had made the flag earlier on. He wasn't there.
A familiar "boom" resounded and the ground trembled. Maggur had begun bombing the city again. Shuddering, and trying not to rekindle the previous night's terror, Kel hurried along the roads of Somalkt. Where could Alex be?
She searched both her own and Alex's quarters but to no avail. Finally the only place that she could think of was Rhonda's room.
Kel was just walking up the street to the lodging house, when a boulder the size of a horse's rump smashed into the first floor of the house with an almighty crash. Fortunately it was not a ball of exploding blazebalm, but there was significant damage to the house. Praying that Alex was not inside, Kel ventured into the house.
'Hello,' she called out. 'Is anybody in here?'
Kel kicked open the door to Rhonda's room and squinted through the cloud of dust. There was a prone figure stirring on the floor.
'Alex,' Kel shouted. She knelt down beside her friend and pulled him roughly up, shaking his shoulders. 'Wake up.'
Alex groaned and placed a hand to his forehead. When he brought his hand away blood glistened on his fingers. 'Rhonda?' he asked unsteadily.
'No it's Kel,' she said gently, wondering how hard the blow to Alex's head had been.
'Rhonda!' he repeated, and with a cry like a wounded animal he launched himself across the room, ignoring the debris from the floor above. At the far end of the room, where the ceiling from the floor above had come down, a black figure lay.
'No Rhonda no,' he cried, slapping her cheeks with his bloody hands. Kel came to stand behind Alex, feeling helpless.
'Alex,' Rhonda rasped in a tired voice.
'Don't you dare leave me,' said Alex, his voice breaking. 'It's going to be alright, we'll get you out of this.'
This was a downright lie, and both Kel and Rhonda knew it. The bottom half of Rhonda was crushed beneath the collapsed part of the floor. Blood oozed from her stomach, where a large splinter of wood was embedded.
Rhonda was shaking her head, slowly, painfully.
'Yes,' he half-shouted. 'I need you, you can't leave me.'
'Don't be stupid,' whispered Rhonda. 'You'll be fine without me; you have to follow the plan through.'
'But…' Alex said, tears now leaking down his cheeks, making tracks through the dust that had settled there.
'I'm sorry,' said Rhonda, her voice even quieter than before. 'I'm sorry for everything, if I hadn't been so stupid, none of this would've happened...'
'It's not your fault,' soothed Alex, stroking her hair. 'It's all Maggur's, do you hear me? He would've found a way whatever you'd done.'
'You just make sure you make him pay,' she croaked. 'And you,' she directed this comment at Kel, 'You help him put things right in Scanra.'
'I will,' promised Kel, tears of her own now sliding silently from her eyes. 'You have my word.'
'You know for a Tortallan, you aren't half bad,' the older woman rasped.
Kel smiled through her tears.
'I guess this is where we say goodbye Alexei of Rathhausak,' Rhonda said tiredly.
'Thank you for everything,' Alex choked, barely able to speak in grief.
Rhonda placed her closed fist to her heart and then her head. 'Long live the King,' she murmured. Her eyes slid closed.
'No,' Alex howled, hugging Rhonda to him and rocking backwards and forwards.
Kel held her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her own sobs. She backed against one of the remaining walls and shook in her own silent grief. Life wasn't fair. Rhonda had been fighting for so long and yet she'd never see Maggur killed.
When Kel has regained some composure she crawled over to Alex and placed an arm around his shaking shoulders. Alex let go of Rhonda's still form and grabbed onto Kel, holding onto her tightly.
It could've been seconds, minutes or hours before he spoke.
'You know she saved me Kel. I'd given up, wanted to die, but she wouldn't let me. She never gave up, fought to get me back to Tortall and then, when we were safe, she looked after us both. Do you know what she did?' choked Alex, more tears welling in her eyes. 'She sold herself to get the money for my lodgings as I was nursed back to health. She hated it,' he sobbed, 'that's why she hates Tortallans; because no one would help her to care for me, she had to earn the money…' Alex was once again overcome by grief.
'Alex we should go,' said Kel gently, unable to say anything to ease her friend's pain. 'This building isn't safe.'
Alex didn't move.
'Come on,' said Kel desperately. As another boulder made impact with a building nearby, the room seemed to shudder around them.
Kel literally pulled Alex from the room and out into the street. Although Rhonda deserved a proper send-off there was nothing that Kel could do. She was just trying to keep them both alive.
Still crying softly Alex followed Kel, who took him to the watchtower. Although the tower was potentially a target, in the dark it was hidden. It was also one of the points of the city that was furthest from the catapults. Kel hoped it was out of range.
No one was guarding the tower when they arrived; there weren't enough men to spare, so Kel and Alex went straight to the top. She'd brought him to the watchtower because she knew it would be a place where they wouldn't be disturbed. Alex didn't need everyone seeing him at a moment of weakness.
On the gentle night's breeze, in between the explosions and "booms", Kel could hear the singing of the soldiers in the castle. It was surreal, the gentle summer's night, the horrors of the day swallowed by darkness…
For over an hour, Alex sat there in the dark, his breathing ragged until he had no more tears to cry. Wiping his puffy eyes on his shirt sleeves and still struggling to control himself, he looked up. He knew what he had to do, but that didn't make it any easier.
'Keladry of Mindelan go home,' he said, his voice wavering just a little.
'What?' gasped Kel, sure that she must have misheard. Maybe a combination of sleep deprivation, grief, blood loss and low blood sugar levels were making her imagine things.
'Keladry of Mindelan go home,' Alex repeated himself, this time turning to face his younger companion.
'H-h-how?' stuttered Kel, shaking her head in disbelief and taking a step backwards.
'I knew who you were before we even left Tortall,' said Alex, his voice unusually hoarse. 'When you spied on that squad of soldiers for me, you knew who the leader was without needing to here it. That night I headed over to Mindelan and I learned how the youngest Mindelan girl, Keladry was missing and was presumed dead.' Alex said all of this slowly, trying to keep his thoughts together.
'I also discovered that she was the first girl page to try for her shield and that, to the outrage of many, she had been sent away. It wasn't hard to figure out. There aren't many ten-year-olds called Kel who can wield swords and speak Yamani.'
A silence reigned between them.
'That's not who I am anymore,' said Kel quietly. 'I left all that behind, a long time ago.'
'No you didn't,' argued Alex softly. 'You are Lady Keladry of Mindelan and always will be; it's part of who you are.'
'No,' said Kel forcefully. 'I'm just Kel and I have a new life, a new life here fighting alongside you. Keladry of Mindelan never did anything for anyone. She sat in posh castles eating fine food and dreaming of the glory of battles, whilst other people suffered. I was no better than all the other nobles out there.'
'But since I became Kel,' she continued in a quiet passionate voice, 'For the first time in my life I felt like I could make a real difference. I lived among those suffering, I helped them. That's more than any Tortallan noble has ever done.'
'But you're the same person, Keladry of Mindelan is the Kel that helped all of those people,' Alex reasoned. 'Look, when I fled from Scanra and ended up in Queensgrace, I was ready to give everything up. I fell in love with Annie; I was going to marry her just as Alex. Alexei of Rathhausak didn't exist anymore in my eyes.' He paused, the memory excruciatingly painful.
'But then Rhonda returned and I had to make a choice. Being Alexei of Rathhausak was a part of me, and if I denied that then I could never be a whole person. I had to return, because whether I wanted to or not that is what I knew I must do. I would never have been content with the life I was trying to build. I would've always wondered what would've happened if I had gone back…'
'It's different,' Kel protested, tears trickling down her cheeks again.
'It's not,' said Alex softly. 'Even if you stay here and everything you hope for comes true; we win this battle, defeat Maggur and I am crowned, then a part of you will always long to return to your homeland.'
'But I can return once that's all happened,' said Kel. 'You need me here.'
'Kel,' Alex said brokenly. 'I've lost all my family and now Rhonda. I can't lose you too. Tomorrow Maggur's armies will overcome this city. If he permits the men to live then they will be enslaved into his armies. The women will become slaves on the plantation…but not before…you know what happens. I will not sit back and watch you being raped.'
Kel flinched.
'I need to know that you're safe.'
'Can't I wait for you in another clan?' said Kel desperately. 'How can you expect me to return and do nothing for the people suffering here?'
'If things go according to plan, then sometime in the next couple of years the Tortallans are going to become crucial in the fight against Maggur. I need someone over there too; someone who I know understands what is at stake.'
'They won't listen to me,' cried Kel. 'I tried before remember? It's not like Scanra. Here if you can best a man in swordplay then they respect you. Back in Tortall no one will listen to me, a thirteen-year-old girl.'
'Then make them listen,' said Alex passionately. 'You're the best fighter I've ever trained Kel. Wherever you go things change because you make it so. I know that they threw you out last time but the Kel I know doesn't give up. You go and show them what you can do Keladry of Mindelan, you make them listen.'
'But-' Kel was crying in earnest now, unable to think of arguments against Alex.
She stumbled forward and clung to Alex, inhaling in the scent that she recognised so well. Alex hugged her back, rocking from side to side, crying too.
'I'm going to miss you little one,' he said roughly.
'Thank you for all you've done-' Kel started, but Alex interrupted her. 'It was nothing little sister, nothing at all.'
They stayed clutched together in the darkness, but all too soon she, Alex and Prince stood at the gate.
'Alex I can't take Prince,' Kel protested through her tears.
'I don't want him falling into Maggur's hands. Prince deserves more than that; he's a warrior's horse, it's only right that he goes to the best warrior I know.'
They hugged one last time.
'We'll meet again,' said Alex. 'I promise.'
'I'll hold you to that,' sniffed Kel, a tight ball of misery in her throat.
The guardsman opened the side gate and Kel mounted up. She saluted Alex once, bringing her closed fist to her heart and then her head. Alex responded in the same way and Kel slipped away into the night.
She travelled a narrow path up into the mountains, watching the smouldering city grow smaller and smaller. Tears still streamed down her cheeks.
(-a/n- It had to happen :( I'm sorry, but this was planned right from the beginning. I hope you enjoyed the chapter apart from the overall depressing tone…)
Please leave a review –I love hearing from you all!
Confusedknight xxx