-a/n- Eeee! Another chapter for all of you wonderful people! And I can promise some Alex, a battle and a horrible cliffhanger...
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your lovely comments! I would've replied to more them if I hadn't been so busy writing this chapter ;D (And keeping the puppy under control!) For those of you who asked he's a gorgeous little golden retriever (although not golden at all; he looks like a baby polar bear at the moment...) I'll change my profile pic to him so you can see ;D
Here it is...
Confusedknight xxx
The grey clouds were heavy, heavy like the heart of the hazel-eyed man staring up at them. Sparse sunlight was penetrating the thick forest through which they tramped. The silence was oppressive. The trees were still and no movement disturbed their surroundings save for the weary band of rebels walking onwards because it was that or give up and die.
Stomach's were so empty that they hurt; there had been no food for over eight days, not since they'd entered the forest. Some of the younger boys had tried to eat some of the damp moss that grew on the dark tree trunks, but had been sick hours later.
Alex knew that they could not go on much longer, and what was worse, they knew that they were nearing the end. In the forest, with the cloudy weather shielding the sun and stars, no maps and certainly no compasses, they were walking blind.
They'd already lost one man on this punishing trek. At the time they'd buried him. Now Alex wasn't sure whether it wouldn't have been better to eat the man's remains; anything would be better than this constant, debilitating hunger.
He scratched the short beard that had sprouted on his face. Not able to remember the last time he'd had a bath and shave, Alex had resorted to hacking the facial hair off with his dagger whenever the beard grew irritatingly long.
One of the younger boys was crying, again. Sixteen, his face already haunted he'd collapsed to the ground, too hungry and exhausted to continue on. Not for the first time Alex thanked the gods that he'd sent Kel away when he had. Although he'd seen Kel in a bad way before, he'd do almost anything to spare her the suffering of his fellow freedom-fighters.
Men were helping the boy, hauling him roughly to his feet. It was Tor, once a broad, well-muscled man was now wasted and emaciated, clothes hanging loosely off his shoulders, not hiding the stump where his right-hand should've been. He looked up and his eyes caught Alex's, filled with desperation.
Alex looked away. He'd led them here. They expected him to find a way out of this mess. Twenty-six years old and the fates of millions of lives rested on him. If they all died in this gods-forsaken forest then the revolution would never happen. Maggur would continue his rule, destroy Scanra in his quest to have dominion, to control the "riches" of Tortall.
The last village he'd led them to had been crawling with Maggur's soldiers, outfitted in their blood-red tunics. Whilst he doubted that any of them would recognise him, being recruited by force into the army would've set back his plans somewhat.
They'd fled on foot, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and the swords on their hips. Alex didn't want to think about what would happen if he'd miscalculated their path through the forest. If there was not a safe village on the other side...
They needed food, rest and horses. Alex wanted to leave some of the party holed up in a village and only take a select few to ride to Mydnnalk. He needed news from the border. Urgently.
Sweat was trickling down Kel's cheeks. She could see sunlight reflecting off of the sweat beaded on the forehead of the man lying next to her. They were flat on their stomachs, heads peering over the rocky bluff that they were sheltering behind. Five paces to her right and sheltering behind and overturned wagon lay Sergeant Osbern and three others of his squad.
The sun was beating down mercilessly and Kel's armour was roasting her alive. She cursed inside her head at the Scanrans who'd driven them into this position. Riversedge was fortified and protected, Flyndan was holding their own fort, and Vanget was besieged in Northwatch. Cursing the enemy for multi-headed attacks, Raoul had ridden out to protect a caravan loading at the silver mines. They'd driven back the raiding party from the gully only to become trapped with Scanrans lurking in the forest at either end of the short valley.
If one defending force failed the other would find themselves under attack from all sides and would inevitably annihilated. Raoul, and four squads had taken the main entrance, leaving Osbern's squad and Kel to hold the rear.
There was a rustle in the bushes, Osbern hand-signalled his squad to hold still. Let the enemy reveal himself before they did. Kel notched a griffin-fletched arrow to her bowstring. As the first wave of Scanrans rushed forward eleven Tortallan arrows were loosed towards them. Some missed altogether or bounced off of plate armour but Kel's arrow and two others struck true; three Scanrans dropped, dead.
Without a pause, Osbern gave the second cry and more arrows flew to bury themselves in Scanran flesh. The blonde men were too close to them now and Kel snatched up her sword even before the sergeant had given the command.
Charging, the blue band of soldiers hit the red, Kel a small speck of green felling red infantry at a deadly pace. When the Scanrans turned tail and ran the squad retreated also, back to their makeshift shelters. A few arrows whizzed over the top of them, poorly aimed.
With barely time to catch their breath a newly formed wave of Scanrans, their shields interlocked in a barrier against arrows, marched forward.
The man next to Kel swore, 'Mithros save us. There must be at least thirty of them.'
His words were true, when Kel next chanced a glimpse over the rock she could see the four neat blocks advancing towards them, sheltered behind enormous iron shields. An arrow whooshed past Kel's ear and she threw her head down breathing fast. There was a cry, Sergeant Osbern pitched forward, an arrow protruding from his side. He'd been crouched over, running to give them instructions.
This time it was Kel's turn to swear colourfully. 'Take those archers down, now.' She hissed, handing Walton and Gildes a handful of her precious griffin arrows.
Hearing screams from the Scanrans, Kel knew the arrows had been successful. This would be their only opportunity, and there was only one way that they could beat a force in close quarters that outnumbered them over three-to-one. 'Mount up,' she hollered. The men closest to her scrambled at the order, whilst others hesitated. 'Do it.' Her tone brooked no argument.
The men sprinted for their mounts picketed behind the shelter of rocky outgrowths from the cliffs that trapped them in the gully. The Scanran forces ran forward eagerly, convinced the enemy were fleeing. When Kel's defending force, only ten-strong since Osbern had been felled, slammed into the warriors with devastating results. Those who weren't trampled were slashed at by the swords of men fighting desperately for their lives and the lives of their comrades.
Kel kept the mounted fighters in a tight formation so that they could wheel around and make a second charge through. Several minutes of intense fighting later, it was the Scanrans who turned tail and fled. The trained men of the Own didn't break rank but came to a halt behind Kel. Their eighteen-year-old commander pushed sweaty hair from her forehead as she counted those still in the saddle.
'Fenric went down,' said Walton quietly.
'Let's get back behind there,' said Kel firmly, privately amazed that they'd only lost one man in the crazy last-ditch attempt.
They found Sergeant Osbern slumped against the sandy rock, his face white with pain and blood loss.
'You two,' Kel pointed at the two soldiers nearest her. 'Dismount and get back there as lookouts. Any word from the other end?'
Osbern shook his head weakly, each movement costing him a great effort. 'Sounds...like... heavy...fighting.' He gasped.
'We should send someone,' pointed out a corporal. 'Call for help here.'
'If my Lord had any spare men, he would've sent someone to see how we were faring,' retorted Kel. 'We must assume that they're under heavy assault.'
'This is madness,' commented one man. 'You're going to let this squire give the orders?' he asked the corporal.
'The way I see it,' rasped Osbern, 'This squire...just saved all our hides. She saw...the chance and took...it.' He nodded stiffly to Kel,' Keladry...you're in charge...now.'
Kel met the man's eyes briefly. It was one thing to seize control in an emergency, the heat of battle, and quite another to be charged with the safeguarding of a squad. She squared her shoulders.
'My Lord instructed us to block the Scanrans here. And until we see Scanrans charging up from that end,' she gestured to where Raoul's troops were fighting out of sight, 'That's precisely what we're going to do.'
'Anyone got any healing Gift at all?' Kel looked around at the dirty, wary faces.
No one answered her plea. 'Gildes, get a bandage on Osbern, try and slow the blood loss. I'm going back up to the front. You, with me,' she pointed to the corporal. Everyone else stay mounted. If we give the signal, get ready to charge and cover our retreat.'
The men glanced towards the corporal. 'Do as she says,' he growled.
Kel and Corporal Rafel joined the two sentries, crawling along the ground on their bellies to avoid making themselves a target for arrows.
'Any sign of them?' whispered Kel.
'There was movement a couple of minutes ago,' came the whispered reply. 'We were about to call and then it all went quiet again.'
'I don't like this,' growled the Corporal. 'If they've got mages in there we're royally doomed.'
Kel heard far-off shouts and a great crashing sound. The shouts and yells faded, but the crashing only got louder and louder. Something enormous, something destructive, was coming at them from within the forest.
Kel's flushed face drained of colour. If that was a giant...
When the metal machine emerged from the undergrowth a minute later, seven feet tall with metal-coated bones, chains and pulleys instead of muscle, huge slicing knives for fingers and toes, Kel almost wished that it had been a giant.
It crawled towards them, it's grotesque doomed head turning slowly this way and that, a gaping mouth set with teeth longer than Kel's fingers. Could that...thing... see?
Not in any of her worst nightmares could Kel have dreamed up so horrible a creature. Was it a creature or a machine? If anything could've been worse than seeing the terrible thing emerging from the woods, slashing and clicking, it was seeing the other men looking to her for instruction.
If one hundred Scanrans had emerged Kel reckoned her brain could've concocted some plan, even if it led to their death in battle. Her mind was utterly blank. How on earth did you fight something entirely covered by metal whose very digits were slashing with deadly force. You only had to look at the way it had carved a path through the thick undergrowth to know that they were razor sharp.
If she died now, here in Tortall, her biggest regret would be not seeing Alex again. Not thanking him one last time for picking up the pieces of her life and pulling her back together. Alex's face swam in front of her eyes, followed swiftly by Raoul and Dom's. These three men, who she trusted more than anyone else in the world, cleared her mind of it's blank fog.
'Get the others,' she spoke firmly to Walton. 'On foot. Send someone to the mines, get them to bring anything that could help. Pickaxes, ropes, anything.'
Kel's hands went to her bow. Her actions were mirrored by her two companions.
'May Mithros save us,' muttered Rafel.
'So mote it be,' they replied tonelessly.
Standing up fully they loosed. The last of the griffin arrows flew true, two burying themselves the the hollows that might've been eye sockets. The third arrow hit the creature's domed head but glanced off of the metal shell.
Despite standing up, in full view of the enemy, there were no Scanrans to be seen and Kel felt that they'd likely just let their killing machine do all the work. Casting the useless bows aside, Kel's hand went, as it always did, to Courage belted at her hip and she stepped forward numbly.
If they could confused it perhaps, come at it from different angles... She signalled this to her comrades and they crept closer. The machine had paused in his thrashing and with a yell, soon followed by Kel's cry of 'No', Tomas had leapt in triumphantly, sword aimed at the creatures plated trunk. Metal struck metal with a screeching clang and moments later Tomas's head whirred through the air, disconnected from his torso by a metal arm that had whipped around without warning.
Kel signalled a retreat to Rafel. This was going to take more than two of them to restrain. Still the thing advanced onwards. Minutes, though it seemed like hours later, the rest of the squad arrived.
They saw Kel and the corporal's face, and no one asked where Tomas was.
'We've got to restrain it's arms,' said Kel. 'We need to get close enough to see if we can't kill it somehow.' She looked around. 'Two to each leg. Let's use ropes.'
The attack happened incredibly fast. Lassoes were thrown for each horrible clanking leg. Only two made purchase. The beast started to thrash as the soldiers held on grimly, restraining the sweeping slashes. One free leg whipped around to crash into Kel's chest. The knives left long rakes in her breastplate. As the leg came around for it's next attack Kel grabbed onto it. Above the deadly hands, the rest of the leg was a jumble of pulleys and chains. Enraged at the sudden weight on it's hind-limb, it tried shaking her free, but Kel hung on grimly. It smashed her over and over into the ground. Stars dancing before Kel's eyes, she held on for all she was worth. Courage had long since slipped from her hand as her fingers had entwined in the beast's metal muscles.
The machine, distracted momentarily by whatever was going on at it's front end, allowed Kel to throw herself onto it's back, her fingers finding one of the ropes that had fallen short of the limb and had ensnared the neck instead.
'Axe!' she roared with a voice that didn't sound very much like her own. Someone tossed her one of the miners pickaxe's. For a second it slipped through her bloody hands before her fingers tightened. Knowing she had only moments before she slipped off or worse. Kel swung the axe back and then buried it's point in the creature's head.
Rather than a roar or bellow, a small voice asked 'Mama?'
Kel was so surprised that she slipped sideways. As she did so, the pickaxe dislodged from the metal skull. There was a whoosh of steam and the thing sagged, limp. Kel tumbled to the floor and pushed so that she rolled away from the repulsive creature.
Staggering to her feet and feeling thoroughly battered, Kel gazed around.
'Tie -' her voice was a rasp. 'Get this' she kicked one of the limp metal legs, 'trussed up.'
The men scrambled to obey, no one was questioning Kel's authority now.
'The rest of you, back to positions, the enemy are still out there.' Mithros help us if they've got more of those machines. Kel thought.
One man, Fal, had a bad leg wound courtesy of the monster and was sent back to Osbern who'd slipped into unconsciousness.
They held their watch for how long Kel didn't know. Adrenalin was the only thing left holding her shaky body up. She'd been reunited with her sword and now grasped it tightly for reassurance.
When Raoul rode up and saw, not only the piles of Scanran dead and his weary, injured squad and trembling squire, but also the seven-foot monster felled and wrapped up like a fly caught in a spider's web, his mouth fell open.
He cast around for Sergeant Osbern and noted his absence. 'Who's in charge here?'
All the soldiers, some of them without the energy to stagger to their feet, glanced or pointed at Kel, who was leaning against the rock cliff for support.
'Very well, I'll take your report later. Vanget's companies are here to sweep the area. Make the wounded your first priority. Then collect the Tortallan dead before the Stormwings come.'
Kel had spotted the sunlight glinting off of the massive metal bird-creatures about an hour previously and knew that they were circling, just waiting for their opportunity.
'Corporal, I'm leaving you in charge of the clean-up, I need Kel.'
It took a lot of effort for Kel to push herself off of the cliff face. She staggered slightly but managed to remain upright.
'How-' her voice was nothing but a whisper. She'd done a lot of shouting that afternoon.
Raoul handed her a water flask which she accepted gratefully.
'How were things your end?'
'Bad. They had giants, we managed to hold them off until Vanget arrived.' He took Kel's arm, supporting and steering her over to where the metal monster lay. 'I'll be a lot happier when Wyldon's finished building his fort and we've got closer back up. He shook his head. Vanget's got seven companies, we've got one to defend our entire area. And what in Shakith's name is this?'
'I think it's one of those killing machines we've been hearing reports of,' Kel managed, suppressing a shudder. 'It took eight of us to even try and control the thing.'
'I want Numair Saliman here, now' growled Raoul.
Kel, after another swig of water was able to pull herself into Prince's saddle.
'How bad were our losses?' asked Kel.
Raoul didn't answer for a moment. 'Seven our end.'
'And two here, provided Osbern makes it.'
'Let's clear up this mess and get home.'
Darkness had long since fallen by the time Kel had cleaned herself up using a bucket and sponge in the wash house. Curled up in an uncomfortable wooden chair, she was wearing an enormous company-issue shirt tucked into a clean pair of breeches. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, drying off.
She was in Raoul's office, waiting for her knight-master to return. When he did, he too was dripping. He was still in his sweat-soaked battle clothes and Kel had a feeling that Raoul had simply dunked his head in a bucket of water. He acknowledged her presence with a small smile and then ducked into his bedroom to change.
A few minutes later there was a muffled curse.
'Kel,' Raoul's head popped out from the door. 'Can you help me to change this bandage?'
Kel stood up gingerly; her side and back was black and blue from where the creature had thrown her repeatedly against the ground.
Raoul came out shirtless with a half-tied bandage around his arm.
Kel was too weary to be remotely embarrassed about seeing her knight-master half-naked. She re-tied the bandage firmly. With a mutter of thanks, Raoul pulled on a clean shirt and collapsed into his chair, head on his hands.
'What a nightmare.' He said, 'What a nightmare.'
'Sir?'
'I should never have allowed us to become trapped like that,' Raoul shook his head, self-disgust in his face.
'Sir it wasn't your-'
'I left you with ten men to defend against,' his voice broke off. 'It's a miracle we weren't all killed.'
'You did what you could with the men you had available,' Kel said sternly. 'What if's are no good now, no good at all. We survived, and those nine men will go peacefully to the Black God's realm.'
'Ten,' said Raoul miserably. 'Hurse just died in the infirmary.'
Kel winced. They had lost a tenth of Third Company in one day.
'Vanget's going to get mages to blow up that cursed mine so it's no longer a target for raiders.' He rubbed his face. 'I'll sort out the paperwork and arrange funerals tomorrow. For now everyone is back inside this fort.' He settled back in his chair. 'All I have left to do is hear what happened up your end. There are wild stories flying around. Something about you leading charges against hundreds of Scanrans and wrestling with metal killing machines.'
Kel's cheeks reddened slightly. 'It wasn't hundreds. More like forty-odd.'
'And the killing machine?'
'I wasn't wrestling it in some inspired moment of glory,' retorted Kel. 'I was trying to keep the thing from chopping us into pieces!'
'Start at the beginning,' said Raoul, pouring them both a glass of apple juice.
By the time she'd regaled her tale, Raoul was looking impressed. This made Kel uncomfortable.
'Look I know it sounds all glorious, but most of the time I was just trying to save our skins.'
'I know,' said Raoul with a slight smile at his indignant squire, but a serious tone to his voice, 'And that's the mark of a true commander. You assessed the situation and acted instinctively. You saved those men Kel, I've no doubt about that. And as much as you may pretend to be a simple soldier, and don't get me wrong you fight very well following orders, but you've got the intuition and level-headedness that few possess. You did me, and your other teachers proud today.'
Kel didn't know how to respond to such praise so she ducked her head.
After a few moments silence, Kel said; 'I heard you bagged yourself another giant, my Lord.'
Raoul smiled wearily. 'As you said, it sounds a lot more glorious than it actually was.' He snorted, 'The men are even proposing to name this fort Giantkiller.'
'You know, you should go and get your arm looked at, Sir.' Kel pointed out.
'I will tomorrow when the healers have fixed the seriously wounded.'
'Are you alright?' He asked suddenly, his eyes sweeping from her head to feet as though expecting to see blood suddenly pouring forth.
'Fine,' Kel assured him. 'A little bruised, that's all.'
After a moment's pause, Raoul said gently, 'Dom was shot.'
'What?' Kel gasped, a sudden dread filling her chest, she'd been deliberately avoiding asking who hadn't made it.
'He's fine,' Raoul assured her hurriedly. 'The healers have stitched him up, he's fine. He'll probably be resting, but I just thought you should know.'
As Kel bid Raoul good night she thanked the gods silently that she had Raoul for a knight-master. He didn't fuss unnecessarily, accepted her relationship with Dom, had never once shouted at her, trusted her word to be truthful, and what's more was honest with Kel, talking to her as an equal. Kel also prayed that she'd never be forced to choose between betraying him or betraying Alex.
Kel slipped inside the dark women's barracks with the intention of flopping down on her bed and going straight to sleep. As she slid the door shut behind her, someone stepped out of the shadows. She started and then realised who it was.
Tall and as broad-shouldered as ever, with his right arm in a sling, Dom reached out to her.
'We could be seen,' Kel whispered, allowing herself to be pulled into his warm embrace.
'Everyone's too preoccupied with what happened earlier. I needed to see you,' Dom's good left hand caressed her cheek.
'I'm fine,' Kel reassured him. 'It's you I should be worried about.'
'The healers patched me up nicely,' said Dom. 'And all I've been hearing about is how you've been busy wrestling seven-feet machines of death, nearly losing your head and-' his voice was too thick to carry on.
'Honestly, no harm done,' said Kel somewhat shakily looking into his intense blue eyes. She winced as he squeezed her closer to him. 'Nothing permanent anyway.' Dom's fingers un-tucked the shirt gently and pulled it up to reveal Kel's black-and-blue side. Kel shivered at his touch although his fingers weren't cold.
'Just a few bruises,' said Kel pushing her shirt down again.
Dom buried his face in Kel's damp hair. 'Those were the worst losses in a single battle since I joined the Own,' he murmured.
'Who?' Kel asked, dreading the answer.
'Luke,' Dom replied in a half sob. 'But there were so many others.'
Kel nodded soberly. 'I lost Fenric and Tomas.' After a pause she said. 'But you can't let yourself think like that. You kept eight other men alive against difficult odds.' She knew the words would do little to soothe the agony of losing a man you'd trained for years. It hurt, Mithros it hurt. Kel didn't know how she'd coped with the losses at Somalkt, even the death of Tomas and Fenric was tormenting her, wondering if she'd done things differently would they still be alive...
She held Dom until his ragged breathing returned to normal and wiped away his tears. They bid each other goodnight and Dom left, leaving her to the darkness and her thoughts.
Kel fell into bed so exhausted the she had no energy left for sobbing. A numb feeling enveloped her and tears ran silently down her cheeks, wetting the pillow. Somehow sleep crept up and before Kel knew it the morning's light was creeping around the cracks in the door, signalling the arrival of a new day.
Everyone was dressed smartly; the whole company, or what was left of it, assembled to honour the fallen. Even all the men who'd been occupying the infirmary had insisted on being funeral pyre had been built outside the walls of the newly christened Giantkiller.
Ten bodies were wrapped in undyed cloth, lined neatly in a row. Someone had draped a King's Own flag over the centre of the pyre. The men stood to attention, listening whilst Raoul read a short speech that Kel knew he'd spent nearly all night preparing. He named each man, spoke of them in a way such that they'd be missed as friends and not only as good fighters. Each man was saluted in turn by the Company. A prayer was read out, wishing the men a speedy journey to the Black god's realm and peacefulness ever after.
Someone, a mage, sent a flash of fire to one corner of the pyre and the dry wood caught alight eagerly. Another mage added his fire to the crackling blaze and several others stepped forward until the whole pyre, all 8 yards of it, was consumed by dancing flames.
The men took a step back; they didn't want to smell the burnt flesh of their comrades. Slowly a song welled up, starting as a murmur and growing until the air was vibrating with the deep voices of mourning warriors.
Kel was standing with the officers. Dom's face was void of tears now; he'd had his cry last night, in Kel's arms. Sergeant Osbern on the other hand was making no effort to step the flow of tears cascading down his whiskery cheeks. Raoul's eyes were lifted to the heavens as he sang, though whether he was praying or merely trying to keep from crying Kel couldn't tell.
She added her voice to the harmony, at least an octave above the others. Flyn looked around in surprise, Kel pretended not to notice. Why shouldn't she sing? She lost herself in the melody, it was a release, she hadn't sung like this since that last night in Somalkt.
The men stood close together, shoulder to shoulder, brothers in arms. Supporting each other without losing face. The song ended. A lone voice sounded through the calm afternoon, this song was meant to be a solo and everyone listened lost in their own thoughts.
Another prayer was said and the men filtered back inside Giantkiller, back to their duties. The fire burnt and then smouldered all afternoon, the grey plume of smoke a grim reminder of yesterday's battles.
When it had finally burnt itself out, a group were sent to bury what was left of the remains. The ash and skeleton fragments were buried in a shallow grave short distance from Giantkiller's outerwalls, along with the others who'd died since their posting to the fort. It was out of the way and would likely remain unsullied by the battles ahead. Ten markers were added to the five already standing. When it was done, Raoul and the other sergeants visited to pay their last respects.
No prayers were said this time. The silence ate away at all of them. Raoul looked at his despondent officers, at the grim faces watching from the fortress's walls. He nudged Kel, trying to convey with his eyes what he wanted her to do.
Kel closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled slowly, peacefully. Most of the songs she knew were Scanran, but of the few sung in Common tongue, she knew before Raoul had even asked her which song it was that she would sing.
The first phrase pierced the evening air, causing all in the vicinity to search for the creator of the ethereal, lilting melody that filled the night in so many ways. It was simple, it was beautiful. A song of desperate hope, although whether sung to those who'd passed on or those left behind no one could tell.
As the last note died away, Kel bowed her head. She almost jumped as she felt Raoul's massive hand give her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
'Let's go,' he said quietly.
That night they ate, and after supper played cards or challenged each other to shoots. The atmosphere was beginning to return to normal. They'd mourned, they had to move on; a Company that lost hope was a disaster waiting to happen.
They encountered the enemy half a dozen or so times before a chill descended and Raoul predicted that Maggur's army would have to retreat north or risk dying of exposure when the snows came.
It was mid-October when Wyldon, Vanget and a couple of other district commanders rode into Giantkiller (to Raoul's displeasure the name had stuck.)
When Kel asked whether Lady Alanna would be attending the meeting, thinking that she'd love a chance to see Neal again, Raoul had to gently remind her that they would've started to head south in time for Neal's Ordeal.
Kel, with all her worries of the war, Alex, and Scanra in general had completely forgotten that her year-mates would all be undergoing their Ordeal this Midwinter. She herself had another year to go, if she made it that far. Kel wondered just where the last three years had disappeared to; her time with the Own seemed fleeting compared to the years she'd spent in Scanra and travelling on her own.
When the visitors reached Giantkiller Owen was overjoyed to see Kel. Torn between leaping to hug or bowing, he had ended up leaping into a semi-bow and then staggering to regain his balance. His cheeks were as rosy and chubby as Kel remembered them and she greeted him warmly.
The commanders were there to discuss what action should be taken over winter to best prepare the border for the inevitable assault it would receive when Maggur threw the whole of Scanra at them in the Spring.
The skies were grey and stormy, a biting wind ruffling the flag of the King's Own on it's tall pole when Kel entered Raoul's office. By the time she left that evening night had already descended. Worn out with her brain buzzing from trying to keep track of bands of soldiers and where they would be best stationed, Kel changed slowly into her night shirt and slipped under her blankets, wiggling around until the bed was warm.
It felt like a mere second after her head hit the pillow when there was a great hammering at her door. It was thrown open, flickering light and cold breeze flooding into the room.
'Squire Kel.'
She was already up, sword in her hand.
'My lord wants you, immediately.'
Kel cursed, searching for a pair of breeches.
'Now,' the man said in a tone that offered no opportunity to argue.
Kel stuffed her feet into her boots, still fumbling for breeches. After ten seconds she conceded defeat and hurried from the barracks, the breeze chilling her legs. Luckily the nightshirt covered her almost to the knees and whatever Raoul wanted, it sounded urgent.
Instead of leading her to Raoul's office, the man hurried up onto the watchtower, Kel scrambling after him. To her relief, Kel discovered that she wasn't the only one who hadn't had time to dress properly. Her fellow Squire was also only wearing a night-shirt, though he hadn't managed to get boots on either. Raoul was in breeches, his shirt completely unlaced and flapping in the wind. Wyldon and General Vanget had night-shirts tucked into breeches. What had been so urgent?
Kel was bemused to see that not one of the party had their swords on them. They were all staring out across the wall of the fortress to where a light was burning some distance from the fort. The flickering light illuminated the thick smoke that was furling up into the sky. Bits of flaming debris were being carried upwards with the plume.
'What's going on?' Kel whispered to Owen.
'The watchman spotted that, and that' Owen gestured in a separate direction where Kel could see, although it was further away, the evidence of another fire.
'Gods curse it, we all thought the Scanran's had packed their bags and left for the winter.' Snarled Flyn.
'And the fact that this is at least a double-pronged attack means that Maggur wants to get the last punch in before winter. He doesn't seem to care that these men aren't going to make it back before the snows hit.' Said Raoul tiredly.
'Where do you think has been hit?' Kel asked quietly.
'We think that one is an army watch-house,' replied Lord Wyldon, 'But that one, is more likely to be the town of Goatstrack.'
Kel felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach.
-a/n- Muahhahah I'm an evil author. But you haven't had a cliffhanger for a while, so I thought I'd treat you to one ;D
I really enjoyed writing this chapter, the writing's coming a lot easier now I'm getting back into it. Spent most of the time writing this outside, occasionally, (okay more than occasionally,) getting distracted by the puppy.
The song that Kel sings (in my mind at least) is 'May it Be' sung by Enya for the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Youtube it :P (I also have a Hayley Westenra version but I'm not sure whose I prefer...)
As always your lovely thoughts would be appreciated,
Confusedknight xx
P.s. I'm also wondering if anyone's got any books they'd recommend for summer reading? I figured you're the best people to ask...