Zachania (66 page)

“The house of
Heikan’s honour and loyalty are true to the crown.” replied King
Arun.

“Thank you
sire, may I ask that you send me into battle tomorrow so I can
redeem the wrong I have done to Lord Tanaga and his courageous
warriors.” replied Heikan looking down at Tanaga emphasizing he was
wounded.

“Lord Heikan,
there is no redemption needed, I do not want your men at the front
line at the moment.”

“What is our
plan for tomorrow sire?” asked Lord Tanaga.

“We hold our
lines, I want our archers ready, the Empire will find it difficult
to advance in this mud.” answered Arun which did not go down well
with the other Lords who sighed at the thought of returning to the
same tactics.

Eight days had
now passed since Talon had left the battlefield, the Empire had
been relentless in their attacks, for the last two days since
Heikan’s failed attack, the Empire had sent thousands of soldiers
to their deaths. The armies of Lord Tanaga and Lord Krazmos had
suffered devastating casualties as the fighting intensified. When
King Arun sat for his evening meeting he could see that morale
amongst the Lords had hit rock bottom.

“Arun we will
not be able to hold the line for another day, my men are exhausted,
I am down to twenty thousand warriors.” Tanaga sighed with his
voice full of despair.

King Arun,
himself exhausted struggled to reply, he looked around the room at
his Lords and noticed the defeated look upon their faces.

“Then it is
time.” he sighed quietly

“Sire we must
accept the reality that we are on the brink of defeat, maybe it is
time to pull our defences back to Death Valley, falling back to
Zachania may soon be our only option.” added Zumal

“I do not
accept that option Zumal!” snapped Tanaga.

“Somewhere
there is another option.” he added wearily.

Lord Heikan
then rose to his feet.

“Sire my army
is still strong, we ache for battle, let us fight tomorrow.” he
replied

King Arun
looked across at his Lord, the King thought for a moment as he
stroked his moustache and then ran a hand over the weeks stubble
round his jaw, then just as he was about to answer he was
distracted by Ganasis now awake from his two day rest entering the
tent who looking full of energy.

“Ganasis!” King
Arun snapped pleasantly surprised.

“What has been
happening?” asked the wizard as he took his seat next to the
King.

“Well” he added
after looking at the blank expressions on the Lords faces.

“Surely you are
not lost for words.” he snapped looking at Lord Heikan.

“Ganasis” then
came a voice from the other side of the room, Ganasis turned to see
it was from his fellow wizard Zumal.

“The news is
grave my friend, the King’s army, Lords Tanaga and Krazmos army are
severely weakened, all we have intact is Lord Heikan’s men.” added
Zumal looking distraught.

Ganasis looked
coldly at Zumal and then changed his stare at the King who in turn
gave Ganasis a modest nod of his head as if he was ashamed of the
truth, Ganasis then looked around the table at all the Lords faces,
the old wizard clenched his fists as his face became red with anger
at their quiet demeanour and lack of will, Ganasis gritted his
teeth as rose to his feet.

“Rise your
heads, you are Lords of the royal Zachanian council, speak! And act
like leaders…..the morale I see here grieves me…..I give you a
winning position before I rested and now I awake to find you acting
like women and children with your heads bowed like you are
ashamed…….by the gods you are warriors, all of you, Zachanian
warriors, where has your Zachanian backbone gone.” he shouted.

Again there was
nothing but silence so Ganasis enraged grabbed hold of Lord
Tanaga’s head and lifted it up and then pulled him to his feet,
Ganasis then went to each Lord and pulled them also to their feet
screaming at them.

“STAND!”

“GET TO YOUR
FEET; I WANT TO SEE PRIDE IN THIS ROOM!”

“Where has your
honour gone? So you have been in a fight, you are up against a
strong opponent, that is no excuse to act like weeping
children.”

“GANASIS!… you
go too far” snapped Lord Tanaga now feeling insulted.

“Hold your
tongue…this is my time to speak, you can speak when I have
finished.” replied Ganasis turning quickly to Tanaga and looking at
him sternly before walking around the room and looking at each
Lord.

“I look at you
all and I feel ashamed, I can remember when I was with Apollo, we
fought harder when all was lost. Outnumbered one hundred to one yet
the warriors sang as they went into a hopeless battle… we held our
Zachanian heads up high and proudly sung Zachanian songs with
honour……..so you have had a taste of defeat…so what!…losing a
battle is not something to be ashamed of. Defeat is not a sin, but
to lower your head and lose your spirit and accept defeat, that is
not what Zachanian’s do, we dishonour all those who went before us…
I will not stand here and let you shame your men out there in the
dark, I did not come here to run back to Zachania at the first
taste of blood………..so the odds are stacked against us….good!…then
this is the ideal time where we dig our heels in the mud, we
sharpen our swords and we refuse to take another backward step, now
is the time to show our resolve, now is the time to show our
courage and will to fight, and now is the ideal time to avenge our
ancestors…..HEIKAN!…..you say your army is ready”

“Yes Ganasis
and we ache to fight!” snapped Heikan full of Zachanian
resolve.

“Good….GOOD!….then ready your Zachanian warriors, tell them of
their importance, tell them to show the Empire how Zachanian’s
fight! Let the history books say that at dawn tomorrow we went onto
the battlefield singing death or victory, now who is with me, who
is a Zachanian!” Ganasis shouted

The room
suddenly burst into cheers as Ganasis did not wait for an answer
and just made his exitwaith a spring in his step and the poise of
someone determined, the Lords just looked each other and smiled as
they saw the new found sparkle in their eyes from the speech
Ganasis had just made.

“Look at us
now, Ganasis has shown us how to be men again, let us swear that we
will never again lower our heads and speak of defeat at another
meeting.” said King Arun sternly.

“No more
plans…no more trying to outwit this cunning enemy…..from now on we
just fight... We just attack and we kill.” the King added as he
pulled his sword and raised it into the air, Lord Heikan joined him
and moments later the other Lords all did the same.

“HONOUR,
REVENGE, AND ZACHANIA!” the King shouted.

“AND VICTORY!”
added Heikan.

Fires were
burning high behind the Empire’s front line as the men warmed their
drinks and cooked their supplies but morale was also low amongst
Imperial soldiers, they had entered this valley eight days ago with
nearly one million soldiers but were now down to two hundred
thousand weary and injured men.

General Krustov
having witnessed the past eight days was feeling sickened and
disgusted by this battle. This was not how he wanted to fight, this
was being witness to massacre on both sides, there were no great
military plans, no acts of genius or heroism, just an order from
Grarlin for the men to march to their deaths with the hope they
kill a few Zachanian’s before they died.

“This is not
war….this is no place for a General.” Krustov whispered to himself
as he sat warming himself besides a fire only to snap from his
thoughts by Grarlin walking towards him.

“Krustov! Where
have you been?” shouted the evil wizard as he got closer.

“I have been
thinking your highness and I wanted to mix with the men.” replied
Krustov as he pulled himself to his feet.

“What
about?”

“Battle.”
answered Krustov.

“Leave the
thinking to me Krustov.”

“Yes your
highness.”

“My Degrain’s
will arrive tomorrow, at dawn I want you to attack the Zachanian’s
with every man we have.”

“You want a
full frontal assault your highness.” Krustov replied trying to hide
his anger.

“I want the
Zachanian’s weakened and tired by the time my Degrain arrive, then
we will destroy them once and for all.”

“Yes your
highness.” Krustov replied lowing his head “destroy them once and
for all, but at what cost.” Krustov thought silently to
himself.

As usual the
night passed very slowly for both armies, men on both sides
struggled to rest as they knew what lay ahead for them when morning
broke, occasionally the silence was interrupted by the screams of
wounded men or the sound of the occasional alert where men’s minds
played games with them making them see movement upon the
battlefield. But this night in particular seemed more stressful
than the rest, there was a scary feeling that tomorrow would be the
last day of battle, a feeling of relief, fear and terror all mixed
into one.

King Arun
stared into the nights sky for most of the night as thought of
tomorrows battle over and over again in his mind, just before he
fell into sleep he told himself that tomorrow he would join the
fighting, it was his time to stand shoulder to shoulder with his
men and fight as a King should.

When morning
came and the sun rose over the hills to take away the nights chill,
King Arun was already awake and full of optimism, the King made his
way to the Zachanian front line where he saw Lord Heikan shouting
orders to his men, Arun looked at his Lord and thought that he had
never seen him look happier. Heikan saw the King approach and
walked over to him.

“I smell
victory.” Heikan boasted proudly as he sniffed the air loudly.

“Tonight we
rejoice Lord Heikan.” Arun replied confidently as he tapped the
Lord on the shoulder and then gazed out onto the valley.

“We are ready.”
Ganasis announced as he joined them.

King Arun
pulled Ganasis to one side and then whispered to him.

“Thank you for
last night Ganasis; you have rekindled the men’s will.”

Ganasis smiled
and was just about to reply when both men’s attention was turned to
one of Lord Heikan’s warriors shouting loudly.

“HERE THEY
COMMMMMME!”

Lord Heikan
then quickly brushed past the King and Ganasis and joined the
shouting soldier on a large rock, Heikan gazed at the advancing
Empire for a moment before raising his sword in the air to signal
his men to advance to meet them.

King Arun drew
his own sword and went over to join Heikan who was readying himself
to join with his men.

“Arun!” Ganasis
snapped grabbing the Kings arm and trying to stop him from joining
Heikan.

“What are you
doing?” added Ganasis knowing full well that the King was intending
to fight.

“Ganasis this
battle I must join.” replied the King sincerely.

“The King does
not engage in combat.” snapped Ganasis abruptly.

“I am sorry,
but this King Does.” answered King Arun as he broke free from the
wizards grip and jogged over to join Heikan.

“Are you with
us?” Heikan smiled seeing the King join him.

“I am with
you.” replied Arun smiling as he felt the adrenaline rush through
his body.

“THE KING
FIGHTS WITH US!” Heikan shouted turning to his men who all replied
by cheering.

The two armies
marched slowly towards each other; Heikan’s army marched to the
sound of drums which echoed across the valley, Boom …..Boom
…..Boom, they sounded sending chills into the advancing Imperial
soldiers who could see clearly they were fighting a different
Zachanian army. Both armies stopped about fifty paces from each
other; it was a show of respect from the Imperial soldiers who
cheered the Zachanian’s acknowledging the courage they had shown
over the past nine days. General Krustov far away on the Empires
front line saw this show of respect, he quickly grabbed a sword and
shield from one of his soldiers and began to bang them together
sharing the tribute. Both armies stood cheering each other until
Heikan ordered his drums to increase, the drums banged faster and
faster until they sounded like a giant racing heartbeat, Heikan’s
warriors started to bang their feet and crash their swords against
their shields as their eagerness to attack reached breaking point.
Lord Heikan then turned to his trusted champion Kinlan and told him
to sound the attack; Kinlan smiled and jumped forward raising his
sword high into the air.

“LONG LIVE
HOUSE HEIKAN!” he screamed as the army pointed their swords at the
Empire and repeated the words as they began to charge.

Heikan’s army
then threw thousands of their ancient weapons, the Klafboz at the
Empire; the poisoned tips of the weapons flew into the Empire
dropping thousands of them to the ground, Heikan’s army cheered as
they fell.

Then like two
great giant waves crashing together the hand to hand fighting
commenced. The King and Lord Heikan quickly got into the thick of
the fighting, Heikan armed with a sword in one hand and an axe in
his other wasted no time in killing the Imperial soldiers. Besides
the King and Heikan was Kinlan whose skill in combat was second to
none, King Arun was fighting well even though Kinlan stayed besides
him keeping his eye on his back. The Zachanian’s roused by standing
with their leaders soon began to push the Imperial soldiers back,
the killing was relentless and furious, the Zachanian’s spirit
quickly began to rise as they could sense a great victory, Imperial
soldiers were running and laying down their swords in surrender as
the merciless onslaught of the Zachanian’s continued.

Led by Heikan
and the King they drove the Empire back to their front line, the
Imperial soldiers lost all control of their lines as the Imperial
tents were now in view.