Aela (18 page)

Carefully examining the pendent, he thought he could see that it was pointing in a particular direction. Scooping up his talisman in one hand he started walking in that direction into the forest and began to feel a little bit more confident that he was on the right track.

Aela continued to walk along the sacred way, hoping to see Rom or the enemy soldiers that maybe a little ahead of her, or situated around a corner or on a top of a hill. But there was no one in sight so she pushed on.

‘I must be catching up with them soon,' exclaimed, Aela to herself. On a few occasions she stopped to rest and drink some water from a nearby stream. After what seemed like an eternity Aela heard the sounds of marching feet, of metal hitting leather the soft snort of horses and the irregular sound of voices. She immediately stopped in her tracks and held her breath momentarily for a brief period. She then panicked and dived into the bushes at the side of the pathway.

‘What was to be her next move?' thought Aela. There must be a lot of men ahead judging from the sounds she was hearing. This was not just a small party of men with Rom as their prisoner. She must walk very cautiously, in order to see what was ahead of her. She heartily wished Rom was with her to help her with this plan, but he was not, so she had to make the best of the situation.

Treading warily with her feet Aela made her way through the trees and undergrowth. She walked along the side of the pathway, stopping every now and again to listen for any more sounds ahead of her.

Very soon, she spotted a couple soldiers walking slowly along the road, deep in conversation with eachother. Aela halted, trying not to make any sound with her feet, before moving on very stealthily like a wild cat stalking its prey. She observed that there were more soldiers ahead as she passed them behind the camouflage of the thick undergrowth.

Soon she was abreast of the main body of the army as they steadily marched on the road, kicking up a considerable amount of dust in their wake. She recognised some of the soldiers faces, as coming from her village and realized that they were Brude's men. Why were they doing marching along the Sacred Way? thought Aela

Then she remembered the vision that the Head Priest had told her, but where was Rom and the small party of soldiers guarding him? Perhaps they had already killed him, disposed of his body and returned home. Aela shuddered at this thought and immediately dismissed it from her mind.

Then there seemed to be a sudden activity amongst the ranks of the men, as a horse and a rider came galloping along the side of the road, at break neck speed.

‘Get out of my way you idiots! I have an important message for Brude,' shouted the man.

On hearing this, a number of the soldiers leapt aside, so as to make room for the rider as he thundered on his way.

‘I wonder what that is all about,' growled one of the soldiers as he picked himself from the ground and dusted himself down with both hands.

‘It is bound to be bad news,' uttered another soldier.

‘We will hear soon enough, mark my words. Bad news always travel faster than good tidings.'

There was a general nodding of heads in agreement as the men continued to march along. Then there came a sudden loud command from an officer, for everyone to immediately to stop in their tracks and to stand to attention.

Within a short space of time everyone was motionless, then another order was barked out and repeated down the line for everyone to relax. With general sighs and grunts of relief the men shuffled their feet as they stood waiting for the next order. A few soldiers cleared their throats, others automatically checked their weapons and gulped down water from their flasks in an attempt to slake their constant thirst.

When one of the soldiers knelt down, to tighten his sandal strap, he spied through the undergrowth, a flash of blue. He quickly stood up and dived into the bushes, falling on top of Aela, who gave out a squeal of pain with the heavy figure straddled over her chest. She tried to free herself by attempting to wriggle from underneath the soldier.

‘Let go of me you great big oaf!' yelled Aela as she tried to disentangle herself from his rough hold.

A couple of other soldiers, out of curiosity who had watched the scuffle, looked down on the duo struggling with each other on the ground. ‘I believe you have won yourself a prize beauty, Noah, you lucky dog!' said one of the soldiers.

‘Wait a moment, I know who she is. She is Aela, I know her from my village. She is the one that Brude wants to capture, as well as Rom. Where is the Sacred Sword you both stole from the Temple of the Sun?' he demanded as he thrust his head close to hers.

He was greeted with a stony silence from Aela. ‘We must take her to Brude immediately,' growled the soldier. ‘We will be given a big fat reward for finding her.'

Aela was dragged to her feet, hustled away and was soon standing in front of Brude with Eena a few paces away glaring steadily towards her.

‘Well, we meet again. This time I have the distinct upper hand with you and I will make sure you never escape me,' uttered Brude menacingly towering over Aela with his hands on his hips.

‘Where is Rom, and more importantly, where is the Sacred Sword that Eena claimed she had in her possession?' Brude shot a venomous look towards Eena.

Without flinching, Aela replied coolly, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.'

Brude lifted his hand as if to strike Aela across her face, when a scout came rushing over to Brude, hastily kneeling in front of him. ‘My lord, my men have found Juno's army they are a short distance in front of us.'

At this news Brude swung into action, ‘Take this woman away,' pointing at Aela, ‘Make sure she is tied up and well guarded, so she cannot escape. If she does somehow get away, you will all die a slow and horrible death. Where are my officers? We must prepare for a fight. I am going to be the winner over Juno and his army. Today is my victory day.'

Aela was quickly whisked away and Brude strode off to prepare his army in readiness for the clash with Juno.

Almost simultaneously Juno received the same news from his scouts, that Brude's army was nearby. There was a brief stand-off, then both leaders sent out preliminary parties to parley over where the battle would be staged and to feel out the other side as to whether they would surrender.

This latter option was rejected by both sides, so it was agreed that the two armies would meet along the sacred way at a designated spot. Neither leader had any intention of sticking to this arrangement. They immediately discussed with their officers as to how best to surprise their opponent.

Brude decided to send a secret contingent of his men to climb the cliffs that were situated on one side of the track, so they could rain arrows down onto their enemy at regular intervals.

Juno ordered his men to build a wooden barricade across the sacred pathway and placed his best fighting men at strategic positions at either side of the barricade, with their long spears poised towards the enemy. He placed his elite cavalry in front of the wooden edifice, ready to charge at the enemy as they advanced towards them. Other soldiers were positioned in strategic positions behind the barricade ready for combat. Now it was a waiting game, with all ears straining to hear the steady tread of men marching towards them.

Very soon Juno's men heard the sound of Brude's warriors marching closer and closer. They were soon in sight, so Juno barked out the command for his cavalry to charge. With loud cries from the riders, the horses began galloping at high speed straight towards the enemy. There was a clanging sound and crashing of steel on steel, steel on flesh and then cries of pain and agony coming from the mouths of men.

Terror was mirrored in the eyes of the horses, matched with the blood lust spewing from the eyes of their riders, as the two groups of cavalry collided with each other, amidst a cloud of swirling dust. Confusion ensued for sometime, then the dust began to clear sporadically, as images of men and horses were seen lying broken in grotesque positions on the ground. Blood and guts were seen pouring from both horses and men, the stench of death was hovering everywhere.

There was no clear winner, so the walking wounded staggered and retreated back from each other. The situation was at complete stalemate for the two armies and both Brude and Juno were furious with the outcome.

They both ranted and raged at their respective officers of how incompetent their men were and how they lacked the moral fibre to kill the enemy. Juno was the first to break the impasse, by placing his bowmen in front of his army in order to send a barrage of arrows into the air so they would fall down onto the enemy, with deadly results.

Without waiting, Brude gave the signal for his bowman who were situated atop the cliff, to let loose their deadly fire and both walls of arrows collided in the air. Many of these arrows hit their mark, men were either killed outright or maimed with an arrow piercing an arm, leg, eye or torso. Many twisted bodies were lying in obscene gruesome positions on the ground, whilst others were lying haphazardly in piles on top of each other.

The ferocity of the clash between the two armies was violent in the extreme, as neither side had the distinct advantage over the other, so both armies retreated away from each other, to literally lick their wounds and ponder their next move.

A truce was called so that both sides could collect their wounded and the dead. Overhanging the whole scene was a heavy feeling of menace with the misty pall of the dead and dying lying on the ground. There was a brooding atmosphere of foreboding and anguish, as the blood red sun sank behind the deep purple blue of the mountains and the black night enveloped the land once again.

Brude was beside himself with rage and frustration. ‘What went wrong?' he thought that he had the best trained men in the country. If only he had the magical powers of the Sacred Sword with him, he would be invincible and have absolute power over everyone.

Then he had a sudden thought, perhaps Aela knew where the Sacred Sword has been hidden.

‘Guards fetch that confounded woman, Aela immediately. I will tear her limbs apart. She must tell me where I can find the Sword.'

In an instant Aela was kneeling before Brude, wondering what was going to happen to her.

‘You are going to tell me this instant, where have you and Rom have hidden the Sacred Sword.' Brude spat out the words through his clenched teeth.

Aela's mind was in complete turmoil, what was she to say that would satisfy Brude? An inspiration came to her, ‘I am so glad you have found me Brude, as I have been double crossed by Rom. He left me in the forest to die after we had a quarrel over the Sacred Sword. He disappeared into the forest yelling, “The Sword is mine and nobody else can have it.”'

‘Why should I believe you Aela? You could be lying to me!' retorted Brude.

‘I swear to you on the memory of my mother that I am not lying to you.' pleaded Aela.

Brude then grabbed some of Aela's long blonde hair and he stared into her blue eyes. ‘If I find out you are lying to me I will have you sacrificed to Athunor our most precious goddess, slowly and painfully,' hissed Brude into Aela's ear.

‘Guards take this woman away and guard her with your lives,' ordered Brude. Aela was quickly hustled away by the guards.

Eena hissed, ‘Why didn't you kill her, then and there Brude? She is no use to us!'

Brude rounded onto Eena. ‘Talking about liars, why did you tell me you had Aela and Rom prisoner and the Sacred Sword in your possession, all hidden somewhere at a secret hiding place? Lies! Lies! That is all I hear from you and other women in my life,' moaned Brude as he clasped his hands over his head in despair.

In a flash Eena has an inspiration, ‘You lust after Aela. Your wife would not be happy about this if she knew,' exclaimed Eena in triumph.

Brude shouted back, ‘You had better watch your step, Eena. I could kill with my sword and take command of your army.'

‘Oh, you would not do that to me Brude, I am too useful for you at this stage,' Eena replied in sweet tones, tossing her head in the air, completely savouring the moment, as Brude acknowledged the truth of the situation.

He stormed off yelling out for his officers to report to him immediately, ‘Where are my worthy and trusty lieutenants? We must get together, to plan our counter attack against Juno and his forces, they must be smashed to pieces and ground into the dust forever.'

CHAPTER 8

The Victory

A
s dawn broke, a scout ran into Juno's camp shouting hysterically,

‘Brude's men are upon us. They are attacking us now!'

Just then an arrow pierced him in the back and he fell abruptly on the ground with his words of warning still gurgling in his throat. Men suddenly woke from their sleep, abruptly leaping up from whence they had been lying on the ground and at the same time grabbing for their weapons. Juno rushed out of his tent taking in the scene instantly with a sweep of his head and stared at the scout lying prone on the ground with an arrow in his back.