A Warrior's Legacy (29 page)

She looked over at Kregridor and said
somewhat peevishly, “A costly mistake on your part my dear.”

Kregridor’s face remained impressively stoic
in the face of what she was insinuating had all been his fault.

“What about the second reason and what he
said about continuing my life?” I asked.

“Yes…… that.” Thora responded sounding
somewhat reluctant to go into it.

“By what manner of means I do not know, but
the sorcerer injected trinial into Raya while she was yet in the
womb and then after birth and again I do not know how, but he
manipulated and activated the deposits within her so that the
trinial became part of her entire system. The trinial as a
substance is self generating. It only loses small amounts of power
over even a long span of years. Essentially the trinial is part of
Raya and it causes her body to regenerate continually, much like
the first human bodies did. She does age, but only very slowly
because the trinial inside of her is always working to repair her
back to a perfect state of energy or close to it anyway.”

“Okay I think I can understand how that
might work, but what does that have to do with my life?”

Thora looked at Kregridor, but no help was
forthcoming.

“There’s really no delicate way of putting
it. When you are intimate with Raya and yoked together you are of
one flesh. Her bodily systems look at your body as being part of a
whole and they fix what’s found degraded in your body the same way
it continually does in Raya’s. It was through this process that
Raya’s father intended to use his daughter to gain the benefits of
being younger and prolong his already overly prolonged life.”

“The sick bastard!” I exploded out with.

Not only did I want to kill the Sorcerer,
but now I wanted to do it with my own hands wrapped around his neck
watching his face turn blue and purple.

“Quite so!” Thora responded.

“However things have turned out differently
and she now has you to protect her and yours is a life worth
preserving longer that is if you both stay together regularly.”

I heard a strangled snort issue forth from
the stoic looking Kregridor and my face flushed red, as Thora’s
meaning hit me.

I tried to steer the conversation elsewhere,
“So can you help or not?”

“At present only indirectly. If we show
ourselves into the light of day to aid you in the battle we risk
being shot out of the sky by the trinial bolts that the sorcerer
wields. If we die our children may not reach adulthood and our kind
will be no more.”

“What can you do then?” I asked.

“Something we’ve contemplated doing for a
long time and have been saving for just such a time as this. The
Western Kingdom’s cities sit overtop a highly unstable area. With a
little redirection of lava and a little applied leverage we might
be able to send the Western cities tumbling into the abyss that
lies beneath them.” Thora said.

Well that answered one part of the problem,
but it didn’t help with the battle any.

“Is it possible that you could undermine the
Blue Castle too?”

“No unfortunately. It is built on solid
rock. There is no way we can get to it, but from the air and we
would never be permitted by the sorcerer to get so far.”

“Destroying the Western cities is all you
can do for us then?”

Thora nodded in response.

“Perhaps not Thora.” Kregridor intoned
surprising me with his input, “Look at the ring on his hand.”

Thora looked and the big toothy smile was
back.

“Did you see the one on the sword to?” Asked
Kregridor, with a hint of excitement in his deep toned voice.

“I did see that one, but not the other. I
would’ve thought the master had taken it with him or left it in the
Blue Castle, but he was wiser than to do that it would seem. Zevin
on second thought we can do a lot more, but only if you are able to
accomplish one thing first.”

Looking from one to the other I asked,
“What?”

I found Raya sitting on a fallen boulder as
she watched the magma shower down onto the molten river below.

“Do you hate me now? Do you think me a
monster?” She asked softly.

I passed the alpha pair, who lay panting
heavy against the cavern wall trying to stay cool. I walked around
to the front of Raya and pulled her up to her feet. I raised her
head up with my hand.

“No one is calling anyone a monster and as
for my love for you it hasn’t dimmed any either, but is stronger
than ever!”

“You’re telling the truth?”

“Nothing, but the truth Raya!” I said as I
closed my arms around and held her.

“I’m sorry that I had to make you bring me
down here and relive old memories.” I said softly into her
hair.

“Was it worth it?”

I drew back from her and let my relief show
to her, “I think we’re going to win now, both the battle and the
war!”

She smiled wanly in return, “Good now maybe
you’ll go to sleep and stop worrying.”

“Honey I’d rather spend the few remaining
hours we have left together doing something else.”

Gavin stood in the shelter of a wall parapet
and gazed out at the flickering lights of the enemy up and down the
long walls to either side of him. Archers and warriors sat crouched
against the wall’s edge, as they leaned wearily back against
it.

Sleep was impossible for fear of another
attack. So far since the siege had begun four days ago, the West
had not attempted a night assault, but that wasn’t a guarantee that
they wouldn’t.

They did keep up with their barrage of the
wall and the city beyond at night though. The wall was proving to
be of a great surprise in terms of endurance. It was not a pretty
wall like Kingdom Pass had been, but it was perhaps a more durable
one because of one surprising aspect, its hasty construction.

In the great war of the past the East had
sacrificed its armies and cities in order to provide time to
construct this last ditch haven for their people. But there hadn’t
been much time even then to build defenses. They had scavenged
everything they could find to construct the wall. They tore down
houses, ripped up roads, and stole bridge stones. They still didn’t
have enough material so they made countless simple clay sun baked
bricks, which they used to fill in and around the larger scavenged
stones.

It was an act of necessity at the time only
to be realized later that it had been a military breakthrough in
technology. When a stone wall is hit by a projectile the stone will
shatter on impact and cause fracturing deeper into the wall
structure, which can endanger the integrity of the whole wall from
just a single direct hit.

The clay brick however when hit directly
would only be pulverized in the immediate area of the hit. The
softer material absorbed the energy of the projectile so no force
was carried further than the first few rows of brick and the
overall wall integrity remained unchanged.

The wall had stood up to multiple
halfhearted sieges over the last century and it was still holding
up well to the heavy assault it was under now, but like all
man-made structures it couldn’t last indefinitely.

The enemy had not restricted their assault
to the wall alone, but also the city beyond, as evidenced by the
constant barrage of fire bombs that had continued to sail over the
walls and plummet into the burning city beyond. Half the city was
on fire, while fire parties worked hard to keep the other half free
of fire.

Gavin looked upon his burning kingdom with
somberness. If they won it could be rebuilt that was the important
thing, but lives were being lost and they were gone for
forever.

“You think he will come?”

Gavin turned to see Zalisha, “I thought I
told you to evacuate with the rest of the women and children to the
peninsula!”

“I just couldn’t! I had to stay. Are you
displeased with me?” Zalisha asked sorrowfully.

Gavin brushed her cheek with a sooty finger,
“No it doesn’t really matter if you stay or leave I guess. If the
wall falls there will be no safe place anywhere.”

“Then it is better if we are to all die that
I be here to die by your side.”

Zalisha’s arms closed around him and Gavin
held her with his own wondering what he had ever done to deserve
her. The answer was nothing.

The Creator’s Word was true when it said
that He gave good gifts to those who seek His name and His will in
their lives. Together they watched the city as it burned.

Once proud buildings collapsing inward on
themselves, as they had already been gutted by fire, adding to the
growing destruction of the city.

Gavin caught movement off to his right and
saw General Lasho, Lohan, Holon, and Talin quickly approaching him
along the wall top, as they stayed low to avoid enemy arrows.

General Lasho and his son had proven
invaluable to the defense of the city. They had devised a rolling
defense strategy that floated extra troops randomly up and down the
walls strengthening different areas for a period of time before
moving on. It left the enemy forces with no clear understanding of
where a weak spot was for sure in the wall defenses.

The party of men drew up in front of Gavin
and Zalisha. General Lasho’s manner appeared urgent in
demeanor.

“Sire I believe your brother has arrived
with the reinforcements!”

Gavin looked out over the wall top and at
the flickering lights of the enemy’s campfires and wondered at what
the General had seen to make him believe Zevin was out there with
an army.

“What do you mean you believe?” Gavin asked
doubtfully of the General, which he immediately knew had been the
wrong thing to say.

The old general straightened up painfully
and spoke as if his pride had been injured severely, “I am a
hundred and two years old and I have fought as a warrior since I
was fourteen in an unending war for survival. Over the years I have
learned to trust my instincts and my instincts tell me that there
is the presence of a real army beyond that slovenly contingent of
soldiers that the enemy intends to front as an army. There are
serious warriors out there beyond that ring a fires. I am sure of
it!”

Gavin decided on the spot to believe him,
“Do you think Zevin would attack at night?”

The General appeared hesitant to answer, “I
wouldn’t! I would wait till just before dawn and my impression of
your brother was that he would do something likewise, but the
feeling I have is one of imminent action.”

Gavin nodded and looked back out at the
darkness beyond the enemy. He didn’t feel the General’s judgment
about his brother was entirely accurate. His brother was just crazy
enough to attack in the middle of the night.

“Prepare every available able-bodied
fighting man and woman we have left for the attack General and make
sure they are reminded to stay as quiet as possible until the order
is given to open the gates.

The General saluted and hurried off with the
others issuing hushed commands along the way.

An hour later the entire force of the
Eastern Kingdom that was still able to fight stood gathered at the
base of the wall’s face as quiet as a large group of people can be.
What sounds they did make were drowned out by the crackling of the
fires in the city beyond them. At least Gavin hope such was the
case.

He stood beside Zalisha on the wall top
gazing out into the darkness. An archer started to pear up and over
the wall top, but Lohan smacked her back down with the flat of his
sword blade and sharply hissed for everyone to stay down. And then
the most curious of things happened.

There was barely a quarter of the moon in
the night sky, when the darkness was pierced by the combined howls
of two wolves.

They had to be the biggest baddest wolves
ever and instinctively Gavin knew. The howls continued on for an
unbelievable amount of time far longer than any normal wolf.

The ancient primal sound of the howls in the
night froze the hearts of both Eastern and Western warriors alike.
They looked fearfully around in the night somehow forgetting the
weapons in their hands to consumed with the primal fear of what
could be roaming in the dark of the night, to realize the absurdity
of falling prey to an animal while among fellow warriors.

Gavin looked to the General Lasho beside
him. “General!”

The General tore his own spellbound gaze
from the night beyond the wall to look at Gavin.

“Prepare to open the gates General!”

Turning back to Zalisha he took her hands in
his, “I have to leave you now, but before I go let’s pray.”

As the trailing notes of the howls waned off
I smiled. I was going to have to come up with names for those two.
They had seemed to adopt me and Raya in place of the pack they had
lost, which I was perfectly fine with. I’d even had tinted glasses
made for them too, as I had figured that they intended on tagging
along. Something that Relentless was not very happy about.

A runner came hurrying up and I asked, “Are
the girls in position?”

“Yes Sire! All is ready.”

“Good, it’s time Raya, it’s time!” I said
glancing over at her as she sat astride of Starfire.

I leaned over and kissed her quickly, “I
love you! I will forever!”

And then I rode off in front of the line. I
swear my night vision was getting better than it used to be,
because I could clearly see what was going on.

“Lanorians it’s time! It’s time to fight!
It’s time to gain back your ancestors honor! It’s time to claim
revenge! Avenge your past as we fight for the freedom of Lanoria
and Assoria this night! Lanorians it’s time to unveil yourselves
and kill the enemy!” I finished as I was practically standing up in
the stirrups waving my sword at the enemy encampment barely a
hundred yards away.