BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (26 page)

Humonus first cocked his head to the ride
side, before yelling out to the soldiers behind him, “At ease!”

The troops assumed that far more comfortable
position.

Speaking at a normal volume, Humonus next
said, “Most especially, King Cheo is Baltor and Brishava’s friend
and ally—it has been commanded of me to destroy the enemy army, or
at least slow it down until Baltor and his reinforcements
arrive.”

After Salami interpreted, Humonus continued,
“Moreover, if you will allow us to help you, we can even give the
citizens of Valakan a ride to the fortified walls of Pavelus that
are six-hundred-foot high by one-hundred-foot thick. That is,
before the dark and evil army arrives on your very doorsteps, which
is almost certain to happen any day now!”

“I see,” Salami said. He turned to Yaush, and
interpreted.

Following that interpretation, all of the
giants, too include Yaush and Salami, immediately began to talk
both loudly and angrily amongst one another, while many of them
began to shake their weapons and shields around, which caused quite
a chaotic ruckus for about two minutes!

Meanwhile, Humonus related to Cheo the gist
of what had been said. Some of their troops began to worry that the
giants might actually be getting angry with them. Once the last of
the giants had quieted back down, perhaps a minute later, Yaush
said something to Salami.

Salami turned his head to Humonus, and
interpreted, “Yaush said that he has many questions, but his most
important one is if there’s anything more you can tell us about
this…dark and evil army!”

Looking over at Cheo for a second, Humonus
answered, “Yes. However, I will let King Cheo tell you, as he has
firsthand experience dealing with them. I will have to interpret
for you what he says as he cannot speak either of our languages,
but only use sign language. Okay?”

Salami answered, “Okay…but let me first tell
everyone what you just said.”

With a nod to his head, Humonus answered,
“Okay.”

Once Salami had finished translating what
Humonus had just said to all the giants who remained silent, he
looked over at Cheo, and said in Pavelian, “Go ahead, King
Cheo.”

Even though there were unabashed tears now
flowing from Cheo’s eyes as he looked at Salami, he signed out
fervently with his hands while Humonus verbally interpreted, “Yes,
all that General Humonus has said is true! They destroyed my two
villages mercilessly, and even less merciful, they did not kill me
but let me go because they knew I would find Baltor, who they know
is the Sultan of the Sharia Empire!”

Cheo took a lengthy pause so that Salami
could interpret to the giants what Humonus had just said.

Once Salami had completed the interpretation,
he then looked back over at Cheo, and nodded his head.

Cheo continued to sign, while Humonus
interpreted, “This very evil army that numbers in the millions
fights with magic, believe it or not, both from their weapons and
from their fingertips! Not only do they like to fight at night, yet
they have pitch-black skin that is vastly darker than mine, and
very pointy ears!”

Humonus continued to interpret, “Sultan
Baltor Elysian and I both firmly believe that the army are not
humans, but evil gnomes, and that their just-as-evil leader is a
giant black dragon that flies, breathes out fire, and has magical
capabilities!”

At this point, Salami actually began to
cackle out in laughter as he heard the absurdity of these “fairy
tales about gnomes, magic and dragons” being true, which caused
everyone in the vicinity to cast “strange looks” at him—giants and
human leaders.

Salami tamed back his laughter a few seconds
later, especially upon seeing that pissed-off look coming from
Cheo. He immediately explained, “I swear that I was not laughing at
what happened to you and your nation, King Cheo, but there must be
a logical explanation, perhaps even a different type of human race
never before discovered! Then you mentioned dragons? Next thing
I’ll be hearing, there are vampires somehow involved too in this
crazy little tale, right? I shouldn’t have asked that
question—sorry! If you took my laughing offensively, King Cheo, I
sincerely apologize.”

During the course of Humonus interpreting
Salami’s answer, Cheo’s face slowly relaxed from anger to calm.

Following another tap on his shoulder by
Yaush, Salami interpreted all that Cheo had said, even though
Salami obviously continued to sound disbelieving.

Yaush, on the other hand, replied something
to Salami in Valakanese, which instantly caused a fearful look to
cross Salami’s face.

Salami immediately asked a question in
Valakanese. A few moments later, when Yaush finished his answer,
this caused yet another fearful look to cross Salami’s face.

Salami asked yet something else, and a moment
later, upon hearing Yaush’s answer, a third look of fear crossed
Salami’s face.

With fear in his voice, Salami looked at
Humonus, and revealed, “Yaush says that what you just said can be
partially confirmed. Three evenings ago, he says that he saw
something flying in the sky to the east of Valakan! He says that he
guesses he is not going crazy, after all…” At this point, he
stopped talking and stared off into space.

After feeling chills that ran up and down his
back, Humonus was the first to ask perhaps five seconds later,
“What did Yaush see?”

Salami answered, “That’s what I asked him. He
said something to the effect of: ‘While I was returning home from
my unsuccessful hunting expedition, just after sunset but before
night took over, I was extremely tired from the long and boring day
without so much as a single kill. I thought I was imagining things
when I saw a very-very-very large shadow fly in between two of the
mountain peaks to my southeast. It was there for no more than a
second!’”

Salami continued, “So I asked him, ‘Are you
sure it wasn’t a large bird you saw, Yaush?’ Yaush answered, ‘I
don’t really know what it was, but if it was a bird, it was one
freaking big bird without feathers and shiny black skin!”

Meanwhile, even though the army continued to
remain perfectly still, the giants continued to talk angrily
amongst one another. Some of the giants were even smacking the end
of their weapons into the palm of their hands!

Amidst the chaos, Salami instinctively asked
in Valakanese, “Larse brothi mersha maotaos prisha?” (8)

As soon as Yaush began to answer, the rest of
the villagers clammed up. Once done saying what he had to say, they
simultaneously raised their weapons and shield into the air while
booming out, “Hoooossshhhaaa!”

Humonus had no idea what that word meant.

Yaush said something else—Salami interpreted,
“Yaush said for me to say first that he is really proud of Baltor
for deciding to take a stand against an army of might, magic, and
myths—one that is most likely led by a black dragon, unless of
course we’re all going crazy!

“Before I could interpret this to you,
however, Yaush unexpectedly asked all my kinsmen, ‘Am I correct, my
brothers, that we—the Valakan Nation—would work better as a team
with our friend Baltor’s army against a looming threat that may
soon attempt to destroy our home and lands, as they have already
done with King Cheo’s home and lands?’”

Salami then concluded, “Once they all agreed
with the “Hoooossshhhaaa” sound you heard them all make, Yaush then
said, ‘Tell Humonus and King Cheo that Valakan will join Baltor and
his Sharia Empire in eradicating this common enemy! We shall send
our womenfolk, or those who can’t fight, to Pavelus as soon as
possible!’

“That is all that he had to say…”

Humonus interpreted to Cheo, and a small
smile of appreciation formed on Cheo’s face upon hearing all that
news.

Humonus looked over to Yaush, nodded, and
said, “Gav.” He then added, “Tell Yaush that the womenfolk or those
who can’t fight can ride on however many ever wagons it takes to
get them all safely and quickly there—there will be an armed escort
going along for the ride, of course. As for the rest of us, we must
continue to head east as soon as possible—no later than
tonight!”

Salami first said, “Agreed.” He then
interpreted to Yaush.

Yaush and everyone else agreed with a
“Gav.”

Hastily the giants began the preparations to
evacuate the village of Valakan, while the army patiently waited
outside the town.

By nightfall, a little more than three
hundred old men, old and young women, and all the children, rode in
the back of fifty wagons westbound—accompanied by two hundred
soldiers from the assault and support teams.

Two hundred and twenty-eight “brawny”
Valakanese giants joined the ranks of the Sharia Empire. Not a
single person knew that the “dark and evil army” was literally only
days away from arriving at Valakan…

Near the borders of the Sharia Empire and the
Vispano

Province—2 weeks earlier…

The following day after Baltor had conquered
Lasparus, he and his army followed behind all of Valiante’s forces,
as they trekked their way northeast on the main road between
Lasparus and the Vispano Province’s capital city of Parthway.

Along the road over the next couple of weeks,
not surprisingly, there were nearly a dozen encounters with
platoon-to-company sized elements of the duke’s soldiers—on foot
and/or on horses.

Thanks to Valiante and a dozen of his Vispano
Knights that proudly held their national flag high into the air, a
red flag that contained a black, two-headed hawk in the middle,
there was not a single battle that occurred along the way.
Moreover, as this man was the third-in-command of all the Vispano
Forces, he ordered that every soldier join his ranks. They did …
approximately four hundred of them.

Besides the duke, of course, there was only
one officer higher in rank than Valiante, and that man’s name and
rank was Senior-Commanding-Knight Travail!

He was the only man who ever bested Barquoth
in a friendly weapons-dueling contest, twice—in fact, Travail was
known as the greatest weapons’ master throughout the entire
Province, never before beaten in single-handed combat, battles, or
wars!

Moreover, Valiante believed, and knew by
serving under Travail for more than fifteen years, that this
equally honorable man lived his life by the book called
The Code
of the Vispano Knights
. Travail even had this book’s words
memorized in his head, verbatim.

It is solely because of
The Code
that
Valiante believed he could convince Travail the reason as to why he
returned control of Lasparus back to the Sharia Empire. In turn,
Travail could convince Duke Marlborough, or so he hoped…

He also hoped that his Duke would be very
relieved to hear his report that the Sharia Empire was not coming
to attack, but assist against this common and powerful foe that lay
to the southeast—a dishonorable and evil army who’s numbers contain
at least millions … and not just in Sultan Baltor Elysian’s
words.

However, things did not work out for Valiante
like he had hoped and planned. Not at all.

Instead, the very second Marlborough’s
advanced scouts reported that the Sharia Empire’s forces were
marching toward his capital city—even though Valiante and his
knights could clearly be seen leading them all—this duke became
extremely surprised, fearful, and angry!

Immediately he, along with his new earl,
about-faced their thirty thousand forces on the road, hastily
retreated back to Parthway, and entered the fortified city made of
waterproofed steel—walls that stood at fifty feet tall, thirty feet
thick, and five-squared miles. This square-shaped city had only one
steel-gated entrance located at each quadrant.

Once safely inside the city walls with the
gate securely shut behind them (as well his ninety thousand
infantry soldiers, twenty thousand archers, and last but not least,
forty-five thousand Vispano Knights), the duke’s fear and anger
turned to outrage!

While his forces were still in formation, he
declared to them all, “Valiante, and sixty thousand of my troops
including knights, have not only abandoned their posts at Lasparus,
but now they must be trying to mutiny against me, as they are
coming directly this way!

“If you include the Sultan and his forces
following behind, there are more than one hundred ten thousand men
now rallying against me…against us! They are all trying to %$#@
steal my capital city and our riches, our way our life, even our
families! We, of the Vispano Province, cannot allow this happen, no
matter the costs.”

Of course almost every last Vispano Knight
present believed that there must be a logical and honorable reason
for what was going on, especially with Valiante in the lead, and so
it was only because of Travail’s strongest suggestions that the
Duke agreed
not to shoot on sight
, but
ask questions
first
…

As soon as the two armies had neared the
Capital City, just after sunset nearly two weeks later, Marlborough
immediately set all his archers upon every inch of the walkway that
existed at the top of the walls. He next headed to the armored
podium that sat safely behind and above the walls, yet overlooked
the entire area.

The second Baltor first gazed upon the
massive steel walls of Parthway, from a little over a mile away, he
called out to his men through his megaphone, “Halt—set up camp…and
chow!”

The forces of the Sharia Empire first halted,
and then they began to do as ordered.

All the while, Valiante and all his forces
continued to draw closer and closer to the city gates, but even
upon their arrival about ten minutes later, those gates never
opened a single inch.