Unbroken (Unarmed Trilogy #2) (34 page)

“I will try to abide, my Queen,” Will replied before he kissed Liam’s forehead again. With a final look and Tamzin’s trembling bottom lip, Will and Garrett began to ascend the stairs back to the main level of the palace. As they walked up the stairs, Garrett began to speak.

“Thank you for letting Seraphina join the royals and nobles in their protective state,” Garrett said as they walked into the courtyard, where the nearly two to three thousand Thurston, Roth, and Bradford men congregated. Willem had formed the men into their proper lines and they stood ready for instruction.

“It is a sign of good faith, but I’m about to try and murder my father. If you betray me, I will come for you. If I die, the Bradfords, the Roths, and the Thurstons who follow me will come for you. My soul will not rest until the people who have wronged me and tried to harm my family are put to the blade. Do you understand what I am saying to you?” Will growled as he imposed his height and weight on his friend.

“I do understand. My actions have been suspicious, at the very least, but I am loyal to you and I will prove it to you,” Garrett said, undeterred by Will’s threat. “We are meant to win this battle.”

“But are we meant to win the war?” Will asked seriously. He was never one to believe in fate, even after how things changed with Tamzin.

“The men follow you already, but tell them what your father has done. How he instructed the Johanssons to invade and made you leave no soldiers behind to ensure their victory. How the Johanssons burned Thurston to the ground to make the Roths retaliate. Tell them everything and it will only serve your advantage. Your father wanted to be rid of you and didn’t care that he sacrificed thousands of his own people to do it.”

Will said nothing as he walked to the front of the lines, where Paul was holding Angus by the reins.

“The first of the Johansson men have been spotted exiting the mountain pass. Gregory has been spotted but no member of the Johanssons ruling party has,” Paul said as he handed the reins to Will.

“Douglas Johansson has never led his army. Everyone knows that,” Will said as he mounted Angus and pulled on the reins to quell his horse.

“Yes, but the usual men who do lead his army to not appear to be doing so,” Paul said as he stared out the gates of the palace. The air was still heavy with fog and Will felt his chest constrict tightly. He always became nervous like this before a battle, and that was when his father was on the same side as him.

“Men,” Will called out as he looked up as the sun began to rise. “Do you see that sun? Our enemy wants to make sure we never see the light again. We won’t let them. Our enemy wants to change our way of life and take our lives and the lives of the people we love. I have always believed that we should never underestimate our enemy, but up until a few days ago, we weren’t entirely sure who the real enemy was. I do, now.” His breath caught in his throat.

“My father, your King, Gregory Thurston is now an enemy to the Thurston way. He joined with the Johanssons and arranged the burning and murder of the Thurston Castle and people. It was he who decided to leave behind no soldiers to protect the territory. He did this to murder my wife and make her family retaliate against us. He wanted to remove me as his rightful heir and through a series of battles he knew he would not lose, he would gain control over the entire realm. He does not care how many innocent people are killed in his wake or how many of you will never return home to achieve this goal.”

“My father wants to conquer the sun, but we cannot let him. We are Northerners and we won’t let any person take what is ours. We will not be conquered and we will not let our people die. My father is the enemy and we cannot let him win. If we win, our names will be remembered. We will go on and we will walk stronger and our enemies will cower in fear. We won’t conquer the sun, but walk along with it at our side. We will be as tall as the sky and when they name the stars, it will bear our names!”

The battle cries of the Thurstons, Roths, and Bradfords echoed in the empty space and Will watched as Willem and Paul opened up the large entrance to the tunnels. Will and his men were the first to enter the tunnels and Will led them on horseback. Angus was adorned in his Thurston armor and his hooves were the only sounds heard as the disciplined soldiers entered the tunnels one line at a time.

In a short amount of time, Will stood just below the exit of the tunnels and he turned to see the break off in the two different directions; these troops were led by Paul and Willem.

“And now we wait,” Will muttered as he listened to the footsteps above them. The Johanssons were beginning to invade.

~~~

Garrett stood with Rolf around the perimeter and watched as Gregory approached the gates with the Johansson soldiers.

“Have you ever fought in a battle before?” Garrett asked Rolf as the men eyed the one thousand man invading army. It was a far cry from the twenty thousand men that the Thurstons once commanded. Garrett could tell from the structure that none of these men had an ounce of Thurston training.

“Not against Gregory Thurston. If he trained Will, I can only imagine how fierce he is,” Rolf said uncertainly as he reached behind him for his bow. “Don’t tell him I said that. Do you spot any of your kinsmen?”

“I think it is safe to say that all the Thurstons that didn’t escape have been killed. We have one thousand Thurston men here, five hundred Roth archers, and four hundred and fifty Bradford men that line the perimeter…” Garrett said as he pushed his blond hair out of his face.

“The Roths and Will’s aunt will be sending more once they are healed. That and the training of the townspeople will give Will a ten thousand man army. Not to mention, there are many sell-swords who may be interested in joining for the right price,” Quincy said as he appeared next to Garrett and Rolf. “My men have joined Will for his protection.”

“Will would never hire sell-swords. It would go against his honor code,” Garrett said as he raised the signal to the men to begin to arm themselves.

“This realm no longer has an honor code. You do what you must to survive,” Quincy said as he stared down at the enemy approaching. “I would duck down, if I were you.”

Garrett obeyed and sat on his knees just high enough to be able to peer over the edge.

“This is what my son has to fight with? An old Roth man and a few archers?” Gregory laughed and Quincy heard his Johansson men join in. “I knew my son was too much of a coward to face me. His heir is sickly and probably won’t live much longer and a wife that is willing to do anything to get away from him. There is no way he is my son.”

“No, Will doesn’t believe in murdering innocent people and restricting the rights of others. He doesn’t have anything to prove,” Quincy said, his voice still level and he seemed completely disinterested in what Gregory had to say. “The Roth archers are the best in the Realm. They are used to a King having a hissy fit.”

“Storm the gates,” Gregory ordered as his Johansson men rushed forward. They may have had the seemingly larger majority, but the men were disorganized and undisciplined. The front line didn’t use their spears and weapons to beat down the gate. The lines behind them pushed them into the gate, crushing and maiming them.

Quincy peered down and watched the bones jutting from their skin, blood oozing from open wounds, and he shuddered at the sound of the men crying out in agony. Quincy should have felt surprise that a king like Gregory would make such a stupid mistake, until he watched the second line back up.

What he witnessed wasn’t the act of a disorganized army. The men in the front line were part of the Thurston army, as was obvious from the color of their uniforms, and the Johanssons soldiers used them as shields and to attempt to batter down the gates. Quincy felt bile coat his throat and if he weren’t used to facing down his enemy to their face, he would lean over the perimeter and puke.

“Gregory is using your Thurston soldiers as shields,” Quincy whispered to the still-hunched-over Garrett. Garrett peaked over the perimeter and his eyes widened as he saw the men, who were all friends and foes, but all Thurstons, fall to the ground. Some were obviously dead, while others crawled to get away. “This may have become a rescue mission.”

“It has. Will would not leave this men behind to secure a victory,” Garrett whispered as he looked up to the Rolf. “Take out the first few lines of the Johansson soldiers. I will take the Bradford men to try and pull the injured back into the palace, but you must be vigilant and take out the lines as they approach. Can you and your men do that?”

“Yes, sir,” Rolf nodded as he gave the signal to his men and they extended their bows, arrows in place. “First line, down!”

Garrett watched as the mass of arrows blocked out the sun and touched down on the ground. Every man he saw aim hit their target and the Johanssons men fell like flies. Garrett was thankful that the Thurston men clearly wore no armor, which meant finding them on the battlefield would be that much easier. Rolf called out the second orders and the second round of arrows flying through the air took out the entire second and some of the third line of the Johansson men.

“It’s time for me to take my leave. If I don’t see you again, it’s been a pleasure,” Garrett said to both Quincy and Rolf as he adjusted his armor and unsheathed his sword. He jogged down the steps to see the Bradford soldiers standing by the entrance of the gate. “I think it is safe to say this has now become a rescue mission. It’s a trait the North has always had: never leave a man behind.”

As Garrett and the Bradford men prepared to open the gates, Will and Angus had walked up the exit of the tunnels and he and his men sat behind the bushes and trees, where they watched the Roth archers take out line after line of soldiers.

“Wave the flag,” Will ordered the man behind him. The men watched as a white flag rose slowly towards the trees and waved slightly. The Roth archer raised his hand in acknowledgement as he lit his arrow on fire, as did three other men. They raised their bows high into the sky and released their three flaming arrows at once. The arrows shot through the sky and landed in the middle of the field, where the dry grass caught fire. The air became smoky and the wind caught it just right and pushed the smoke towards the Johansson soldiers.

The men began to cough and sputter, while others began to panic. Will could see them lose formation and the booming sound of Gregory’s voice ordering them back into line. Will dismounted Angus and turned to give his men a meaningful look. It was now or never.

He raised both his fists in the air, a sign and order to Willem and Paul, and the men began to move forward from the back and side-to-side. Will felt a man nudge him and handed him a spear. Will took a step back and with the strength of his back leg, launched the spear into the air. The spear cut through air and smoke and pierced the left flank of his father’s horse. The horse cried out for a moment before it lost its footing completely and Will watched his father fall from his horse.

The fire in front of them was nearly out and Will raised his fists in the air again, before he used his index finger to point forward.

“Show no mercy,” Will told the men directly behind him before one of the men cried out:

“For the North!”

Will’s feet dug into the ground as he launched himself first into the awaiting battle. His sword was unsheathed and gripped so tightly in his hand that it felt like it might fuse into his skin completely. The Johansson men turned behind to face Will before he impaled the first man he came into contact with. He stabbed him in the juncture in between his pelvis and his stomach. The man spat blood on Will before he shoved him off his sword and ran for the next man.

Will plowed through them, where he felt himself lose a bit of humanity with every life he took. This wasn’t honor; this wasn’t glory. This was death and destruction because of one man’s greed and arrogance. Will may have killed the men, but it was Gregory that had blood on his hands.

His forces were squeezing the life out of the Johanssons, literally and figuratively, as the sides came together and compressed the men together. When the Johanssons swayed their swords to try and kill the enemy, they cut each other more than the Thurstons or the Bradfords. Will watched as his men resorted to using rocks to crush the Johansson men’s skulls and some of the archers had come off the perimeter and were shooting any moving Johansson target. Will weaved through the men, maiming and murdering those who crossed his path as he approached his father.

Gregory stood near his dying horse; he was probably going to force the suffering beast to try and stand and gallop away when Gregory knew for sure the battle was lost. They locked their matching blue eyes as Will approached him, sword drawn and it dripped with blood.

“It was a very lucky plan,” Gregory sneered as he unsheathed his sword. “But you’re fighting the man who taught you everything you know.”

“That doesn’t mean I still don’t have a few tricks up my sleeve,” Will said as he bent his knees slightly, but kept his stance rigid. “Disinheriting me? You’re not going to live forever.”

“When I was younger than you, an old beggar woman told me I would live forever. You have been a disappointment from the second your whore of a mother gave birth to you and you will die a disappointment. When I am King of the Realm, I will erase your name from the books. It will be as if you never existed,” Gregory said as he reached forward and abruptly sliced Will in between his armor. Will winced, but showed no other sign of pain. “I was waiting for the day you would slay me, or at least try. I only became King so young after I murdered my father. You were always too much of a coward to truly seek power.”

“I don’t want it,” Will said as he dodged another blow from his father. “If you hadn’t planned on attacking the Bradfords or slew your own men, I wouldn’t have bothered coming after you.”

“And they say you are the noble one,” Gregory taunted. “You have always been so weak. Some woman always enamored you and you hid behind their dresses. First, it was your mother and now that wife of yours. You couldn’t have made that work either, could you? Garrett has told me she is itching to get me to take her as a wife. Tamzin Roth was always such a pretty thing. Her thighs will feel wonderful wrapped around my waist…”