A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind) (42 page)

Moments later those swept along were smashed against the great wall with concussive force. Massive plumes of spray shot upward and the water backwashed into the city carrying its burden of wasted flesh with it. The water continued to mount in the city as more water surged down the old channels fed from the bro
ken gaps in the dams upriver.

Much of the low lying fires in the city were put out by the water that left off mas
sive spitting clouds of steam, as they were contacted and extinguished by the surging debris filled water. Several minutes passed by as a solitary struggle for life against both fire and water could be seen scattered around the city.

Then it happened, like the cork being removed from an upturned water jug the two side gates of the city exploded outward off of their massive hinges into the packed crowd of cavalry that had been massed in front of the gates earlier in preparation to storm into the city. Water shot out of the tunnel gate entrances under high pressure and two giant whirlpools formed on the city side of the wall as the water backed up in the city emptied out through the gates into the packed masses of the enemy beyond the wall caus
ing even more chaos and loss of life.

The flood waters rushed down the pass, as balking horses, some of them already riderless, ran amuck trying to escape the craziness that the sudden burst of water had inspired, even as more soldiers were swept along in the swift moving current. The resurgent rivers rejoined at the narrow
er bend of the pass powerfully and wrecked the advanced siege equipment that was still arrayed there that had just brought the once proud wall to its knees.

The destruction of the city was complete, but it had reaped a bloody toll of life in the fight for the conquest of it.
It was time to leave this place of death and shattered glory. I pulled Flin around and headed out into the night silently, followed by the rest of the small column that accompanied me. The heavens opened up and the rain that had threatened all day dumped down on us now.

We rode through the sheets of rain in the direction of the Shrine of Remembrance slowly, there being no need to rush as any pursuit tonight was extremely unlikely. It wasn’t long there after though that I thought I heard something. I drew to a stop and motioned for the column to remain stopped, as I rode Flin towards a small grove of trees accompanied by a few of my friends. Riding through the trees I stopped on the other side and waited for one of the persistent lighting flash
es to light up the night scene.

Crack!

Boom!

The shallow valley beyond lit up as bright as day for a moment and it revealed a telling tale. Massed columns of troops and flanking cavalry brigades were moving quickly through the wet night in the direction of Kingdom Pass. The Attorgrons had ar
rived.

What a different tale it would have been if they had been able to join the fight and had attacked us from the rear. As it was they had almost disrupted our retreat, which would have been disastrous for us. Renewed hope surged within me at how I saw the Creator’s hand stretched out in divine provi
dence on behalf of our cause. My optimism wasn’t shared by the others though.

“What’s the matter? Can you not see how the Creator is fighting for us?” I asked the assembled group of friends around me.

Rolf spoke up, “It’s not that. The Creator is clearly at work on our behalf I can see that, but look at how many of them there are Roric! That army numbers more than our entire Valley Lander force put to
gether and there not even the main body of the army! They still outnumber us by at least four to one! We have no tricks left to throw at them. How can we hope to defeat such a force as they still field in open battle?”

I decided to share more of the plan with them, “Your lack of faith does not be
come you Rolf. It is not
so grim as you believe, as everything is not what it appears to be.” I had their attention now, “The army you see before you is mostly a slave army. They number close to two hundred thousand men, but one hundred and fifty thousand of them are slave warriors. Only the cavalry are regular army and there the least experienced soldiers that the Attorgrons have. They were only sent along in order to keep the slave warriors in line and for appearance sake. The Attorgrons distrust the Zoarinians motives, as to what happens after they have jointly eliminated us. They kept their most loyal and best trained warriors behind to defend their cities in case the Zoarinians turn on them after their done with us. They view the slave army as expendable and unreliable, which their right in be
lieving partially. My uncle was in contact with their slave leaders, when he found out about their inclusion in the battle
plan, they reached an agreement of sorts. If we can make a convincing case for victory they will switch sides and join us in the fighting. After the fighting they have asked for and will receive refuge in the Valley Lands as free men and
be
given land of their own. After the war we will bring pre
ssure on the Attorgrons to release the families of the warriors to them under the threat of invading them if they don’t. But we have to make a compelling case that its
worth throwing in with us or they won’t join us and if that happens then yes things are likely to turn out very grim indeed.”

“Is that all you have up your sleeve?” Rolf asked watch
ing me closely.

I shrugged with a slight smile turning up the corners of my mouth slightly, “It’s possible that we could receive some help from the Tranquil Islanders too, but that is heavily dependent on whether they can make it through the Zoarinian blockade in time and in any great number.”

“It would seem then that there is reason to believe that the fu
ture can still have a fruitful outcome after all.” Rolf said inclining his head slightly in a bow to me.

“Yes, there is reason to hope yet and hope we shall, as it is all we have left other than prayer and I recommend doing plenty of that. Come let’s get out of here and catch up with General Sanjo before they spot us.”

Chapter Nineteen

According to Plan

The Zoarinian Camp on the highland outskirts of Kingdom Pass the next morning

General Tessan stood looking out over the multitude of tents of the army he alone had been tasked to lead. It was the largest military force ever congregated together under one banner, even after they had lost so many in the fires and subtle tricanery of taking Kingdom Pass. They really hadn’t taken the city behind the great wall. It had been given to them and they had paid for it in blood.

Over two hundred thousand men missing from the sea of tents before him bore testament to the price that they had paid to set foot on Valley Lander soil the night before. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the enemy’s losses had been high too, but they hadn’t been. The assault last night had been a colossal error and now the whole army’s morale was in question. Their spirit of optimism as to an easy campaign was shattered.

The Valley Lander army was gone and still intact and able to continue the fight, while they should have been slain to a man within the confines of Kingdom Pass. If they had only held off on the attack! He would not underestimate
them again. The sounds of his aids and subordinate field commanders arguing behind him began to register in his consciousness disrupting the clarity of his thoughts.

“Enough! Stop this senseless chatter!”

Those gathered within the tent fell silent at the general’s sudden outburst of an
ger.

“I listen to you and all I hear is whining and that what has befallen us was an unavoidable occurrence. What utter ri
diculousness! We were beaten clear and simple!
Manipulated masterfully to commit ourselves onward onto our own swords as it were.
There’s no going back! What’s been done is done. We need to move forward and accomplish our primary mission’s o
b
jective. Our force is still strong and more formidable than anything the enemy can throw at us. Prepare the army. We march for the Shrine at once!”

A longtime experienced field commander spoke up hesi
tantly, “But what about the cities Sir? We’re not just going to leave them are we? This is the best opportunity we’ve ever had to crush the enemy once and for all!”

General Tessan didn’t look unfazed for a moment at having his orders questioned, “Our primary objective is to secure the ships at the shrine. Once we have them secure we can return our attention to the systematic annihilation of the Valley Lander people. We need a quick victory to restore our men’s moral and captur
ing the shrine does that, as well as securing our primary mission’s objective. Should we be surprised further by our wily foe, we will at least have that accomplished. We will leave a discretionary force of eighty
thousand men to keep the Valley Landers bottled up within their nearest city, which will secure our open supply line with the homeland through the pass should we need it. Our navy along the coast will off load what supplies we may need to us as well. The Valley Landers will not want to leave either their city fortresses or families un
guarded with such a strong army nearby and we will have a clear path to the Shrine. We will take the rest of our force and
march di
rectly inland to the Shrine starting today. You have your orders, now go and see that my army is on the march within two hours or heads will roll!”

General Tessan watched them go knowing that in their hearts they ques
tioned his choice of strategy. They still saw the army as unstoppable. Why not destroy the enemy, as they found them instead of bypassing them for a soft target like the Shrine? As for him he no longer thought their army unstoppable.

One quarter of his army lay dead with probably less than ten thousand of the enemy slain. If the enemy could keep that odds differential up, this invasion of the Valley Lands was doomed. If they were able to seize the Shrine and the prize it held, then perhaps they could break the enemy’s spir
it to fight.

He had thought breaking their great wall would do that, but he had been wrong. The loss of their great wall had in
spired them instead.

The third morning of the invasion. In the camp of the rearguard army of eighty thousand men assigned to keep the Valley Landers held up within their cities, while the main body of the invading army marched for the Shrine of Re
membrance.

It was barely past the brink of dawn when Commander Orlanthis was jarred awake by one of his aids, “Sir the enemy has left the city sometime during the night and is advanc
ing on our position!”

Commander Orlanthis leaped off of his cot and ran out
side only half dressed. His aid had been
right; the enemy was clearly visible as they marched in for
mation away from the protection of their walls, directly at them.

“Sound general assembly on the double!” Wheeling to face the aid he barked out, “Why have they now just been noticed? Where are our sentries?”

The stammering aid could only shake his head, as horns rang throughout the camp calling for the assembly of the army. A scout the aid had dispatched but minutes before drew up his excited mount before the com
mander’s tent.

“What do you have to report soldier?” The commander barked out as he stared up at the rider.

“A large force sir!
I make it an easy fifty thousand sir! There appears to be no cavalry support and the force from their general make up and disorderly form appears to be comprised of nothing but mil
itia sir!”

“Militia?
They send militia out against us!”

“Yes sir! Older men and farm boys is all I saw!” Re
sponded the scout emphatically.

Commander Orlanthis smacked his hands together excitedly. The gods must be smiling down upon him this day! This was a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his overlords. Not to men
tion the revenge that would be theirs as well! His eighty thousand men were all that remained of the initial strike force that had been deployed against Kingdom Pass.

These old men and farm boys would fall before their superior numbers and experienced soldiers like flies. This was just the opportunity he had needed to redeem himself. He had barely escaped Kingdom Pass with his head after the great loss of troops his contingent had suf
fered. Within a half hour his force was gathered in readiness for battle.

Their battle line was more disorganized than he would have liked, but it would do and besides they had almost twice as many men as the enemy. They were almost within range and he raised his sword as he sat astride his mount in prepa
ration to signal the first volley of arrows to be released into the fast approaching militia.

An aid pulled his horse up abruptly beside his, “Sir!”

“What?” The
militia were
within range.
“Archers at the ready!” Commander Orlanthis bel
lowed out ignoring the aid.

The enemy militia suddenly stopped and issued forth a war cry before breaking into a run towards them wielding a wide assortment of weapons. The brave fools, what did they hope to gain by so impetuous a charge?

“Sir!”

“Confound it all man what is it?” Commander Orlanthis half screamed as he turned towards the aid pre
pared to cut him down in his anger with his sword.

The aid was shaking like a leaf and as pale as milk, as he pointed down the valley behind them. Before Com
mander Orlanthis could turn to look at what the aid was pointing at he heard it.

He froze up inside at the sounds of the horns that sounded out within the veiled morning mists, still hang
ing low in the valley behind them. Over the blare of the horns he could hear the roar of cavalry at full charge echoing up the valley towards them. Reluctantly he half turned in the saddle to witness his fate.