Fall of a Kingdom

by Michael Greenfield

  The look on his face was not what Cal would have called pleasant.

  “What the in all that’s holy do you think you’re playing at? Unless you hadn’t noticed we have a small army of Shalers on the battlements and a King to save.”

  Tamala turned her frosty gaze on the newest Lord in the kingdom as if he were just some servant that had dared to question her decisions. “Cal’s just seen Nagril on the walls.”

  Luda looked incredulous. “How is Cal supposed to know what my father’s advisor could possibly look like?”

  “He didn’t, but I do. Nagril is up there and by the looks of it he was helping the Shalers deploy.”

  “Then we have no time to waste.” Quickly he ducked back into the guardroom whilst the other two followed as rapidly as possible.

  Inside Cal saw the bodies of two of the keep’s guard, slumped where they had fallen. Strangely these were the first bodies that Cal could recall seeing throughout their escape from the keep and he said as much to the big swordsman that he now followed.

  Luda thought about it for a moment. “You’re right; I can’t think of any bodies that I saw in the corridors or the courtyard. Tamala?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t remember seeing any, but I was pretty out of it for the most part, I only properly remember the last five minutes.” She smiled apologetically. “Another mystery to solve?”

  “Perhaps,” Luda allowed, “although I’ve a feeling that the solution is much simpler and bloodier.” He motioned for them to follow as he made his way down a small staircase at the rear of the room.

  Once they had made their way to the bottom Cal saw that they were in a small room with two doors in each wall.

  “Cells.” Tamala had obviously noted his slight confusion as to where they were and supplied the obvious answer to him.

  Luda immediately stepped toward the cell situated on the right hand side of the far wall and pulled open the iron door. Following, Cal saw him stoop by the edge of the sleeping pallet and reach under the near side. A low grating signalled the beginning of movement as the bed swung about its midsection so that one end dropped and the other end moved upward, revealing a narrow passage in the rock beneath.

  Cal marvelled at how the floor had appeared completely intact one moment, and then gave up its secret a split second later. He had no further time for marvelling however, as both Luda and Tamala quickly disappeared through the gap, descending a worn set of steps that led from the cell.

  Within moments Cal was plunged into darkness as the bed swung neatly back into position above them.

  Betrayal

  Torbek Nagril stared from the top of the Keep walls toward the party that he could see approaching through the town of Holdur. His figure was quite short considering the company he was renowned for keeping, but the stocky shoulders and thick legs betrayed the power that he commanded through years of rigorous training with people that he had once called friends within the officer cadre at the keep.

  Compared to the Shalers that stood alongside him on the wall he was positively dwarfish but that made no difference to him. He was here to command and that was he was doing.

  He could see the King’s party were closing on the causeway now, the main bulk of his force having been left on the outskirts of the town. The local inhabitants were treating the entire thing as if it was an excuse for some sort of party, none of them having realised that they were in any significant danger at all.

  As the party made its way down the main street toward the causeway his dark, almost black eyes picked out the helmed figure of the King astride his favourite warhorse. His observations were interrupted by the arrival of Kela Farn, his deputy for this task and the current leader of the Shaler warriors.

  Farn was tall, even for a Shaler, standing just short of eight inches past six feet. Not the tallest of the elvish kind he had ever met, but quite possibly the smartest.

  His hold on the northern tribes was quite impressive and Nagril was quite willing to exploit that rare occasion. His own masters had long looked for a way to try and break the hold of the coastal kingdoms on the trade routes and the treasures that were to be gained from that trade, and now they finally appeared to have the chance.

  Life was beginning to look very good for Torbek Nagril.

  His Most Royal Majesty Sielan the First of Boraan was worried. The message that they had received from the keep was that there was a Shaler force out here somewhere, and that they should make all haste to the keep to prepare a rapid defence. Relatively easily done but there appeared to be no sign of the apparent panic of the keep to be seen amongst the general population of the town. Surely they would have started evacuating the town’s people to the safety of the solid rock walls beyond the killing zone of the causeway by now, but the people appeared to be none the wiser as to what was happening. They were in fact cheering his procession as it passed toward the great gates ahead.

  The party had now entered the straight section of street leading directly to the causeway and Sielan could see the gates of which he thought. They were closed.

  Sielan may have spent the last eleven years administering to the ruling of the kingdom, but before his father passed on he was rated as one of the better officers in the Royal Guard. Something of the sixth sense that had served him so well during that time was playing at the back of his mind now.

  The gate being shut wasn’t totally unexpected, not with the possible threat of attack, but the combination of factors he had already observed, added to this detail, made him pause for a moment. He knew that Marig would have ordered the town evacuated to the keep as soon as it became clear that the threat was real, but he hadn’t.

  The message that had spurred him northward in the first place was that there had been an incident to the north involving his daughter’s party and warriors from the desert tribes of the J’Dar, and it was the fact that he believed his daughter to be behind the walls of Holdur Keep that now caused him to make a fateful mistake.

  He had forty riders with him, at the lead of which sat his oldest friend from the Guard. Commander Avrim Collett had served his liege lord all of his life and would follow him to the ends of the world if that were what he was ordered to do, but only after having argued the toss as to whether such an expedition was necessary. Now he spurred his grey charger forward to His Majesty’s side.

  “This doesn’t look good Siel.” The rest of the troops did not hear the familiarity as he kept his voice low.

  “I agree, but we must get to Myriana. What worries me is that we’ve not seen any sign of the Shalers that the keep warned about.”

  As Sielan cast his eyes back toward the gate Collett turned to the nearest rider. “Trooper, go and announce our approach.”

  The man that had been picked out kicked the flanks of his horse and sped past the two men at the head of the party, who themselves were just riding on to the beginning of the causeway.

  Farsighter and Dorrin were approaching the edge of the town when the first arrow flew past them. Both pairs of eyes darted in the direction of the attack and were amazed to see the air literally shimmer and appear to dissolve, revealing the presence of a small squad of Shaler warriors.

  “Illusion!” Dorrin wheeled his horse to a new route that led away from the threat at an angle that still approached the town. “They’ve used illusion to disguise their approach.”

  Farsighter just grunted as he used his knees to guide his own mount in the same direction as Dorrin. Using his knees allowed him to draw his sword and hunting knife whilst losing no speed at all.

  Then he heard the first scream.

  Sielan turned at the sound from somewhere behind them. “The keep!”

  All the horsemen spurred their mounts forward at almost the same time. “Sire!” Collett shouted. “The gate is still shut.”

  It was too late. The forty horse had started to accelerate across the causeway, King Sielan at the head.

  Torbek smiled to himself as he saw the mounted troops begin to adv
ance rapidly across the causeway. He waited until they were halfway to the gate, easily within earshot of those on the walls as they yelled for the gate to be opened.

  He looked across at Farn. “Now.”

  The Shaler raised his arm and the massed warriors he commanded brought their bodies clear of the top of the wall. Each was armed with a Shaler longbow and each drew their weapon’s bowstring simultaneously. He dropped his arm.

  Collett heard the first wave of arrows with undisguised horror. They were caught in the open with no cover. His Majesty was at the front of the line of soldiers and his sudden decision to advance had left the commander out of position. He wasn’t even able to make the ultimate sacrifice and throw his own body over his liege lord’s in order to protect him as he had once long ago promised, even unto death.

  A blood-curdling cry rose from the battlements as the Shaler warriors saw their arrows strike home. Collett’s horror was compounded as he saw his king’s horse stumble and then begin to topple toward the side of the causeway.

  His own action at the first wave of missiles had been to reach over his shoulder, as he simultaneously ducked behind the flank of his mount, to reach the shield he had slung across his back, but all thought of the shield was forgotten as he leapt from his horse and raced to the side of the King’s fallen steed.

  Sliding to his knees as he reached the stricken animal, Collett could see that it would take more than a practitioner of the healing arts to save His Majesty. Two arrows protruded from his chest, both having punched through the breast armour that he had worn.

  “Avrim?” Collett was surprised that Sielan had managed to retain his consciousness.

  “My Majesty.” He leant close to the fallen king’s face so that he could hear clearly what he was saying.

  “Dorrin is with my daughter. Protect her; she is your queen now.” The voice was failing even as he spoke. “She must be protected, she holds the hope of our nations.”

  Sielan’s head slumped back as if the effort of giving the final command had sapped him of whatever reserves his body had managed to retain. Collett saw that the eyes had glazed over and that the chest no longer rose and fell with breath. He had seen death many times but this was the hardest one he had ever been required to witness.

  Slowly, reverently, he lowered his king to the ground and then reached for his right hand. From the ring finger he carefully removed the royal signet and placed it in the pocket of his padded jacket before returning his attention to the battle.

  All along the causeway was total confusion. Men-at-arms were down all over, and those that had survived were huddled behind the bodies of their fallen horses.

  “Shield order!”

  The shout managed to cause some of those closest to Collett to flinch at the sound. It was almost enough to bring a smile to his lips, but not quite. The rattle of metal catching buckles as the remaining troops pulled their shields from their backs cut through the almost continual swish of the arrows that still rained down.

  In the sudden calm that he now felt Collett managed to take stock of what else was happening around him. From the town behind them he could hear the sound of further struggle, mixed with the terrified screams of innocent civilians that had suddenly found themselves in the midst of a battle with no warning at all. It was obvious to him, through the fact that the rest of the force that they had left on the outskirts of Holdur had not come racing to the scene yet, that there must be more Shaler forces out there.

  A scream from the wall caused him to turn in time to see a body pitch forward and fall forward to the base of the keep. An arrow clearly stuck out from his upper body. A second yell announced the passage of another arrow travelling toward the keep, but this one appeared to come from within the large open area to the left of the causeway.

  Cal cursed himself for not thinking clearly whilst they had been inside the keep. After the fight that had saved the life of Dorrin he had retained the presence of mind to collect the arrows that he had shot but were still usable, but after the short, sharp skirmish at the top of the stairwell he had forgotten one of the golden rules of an archer. Always recover whatever arrows you could to avoid running out.

  Now he stared at the almost empty quiver, there were less than a dozen arrows still inside it. His gaze took in the discarded Shaler arrows that lay in plain sight just yards from the entrance to the house within which they hid. Tamala caught the look.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you.” Cal turned his attention to the young noblewoman, raising an eyebrow. “You’re bow is Lighter. If you try and use those arrows with it, well, let’s just say that it won’t be a pleasant experience.”

  Cal’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion but he was stopped from asking the obvious question by Luda’s voice.

  “They’re trying to retreat. I can’t see the King, but I can see Collett, his commander.” This fact appeared to trouble both Luda and Tamala.

  The first of the retreating soldiers had drawn level with the house where the three of them crouched when arrows began to fall from within the town. Cal spun toward the new threat but could see no target from where he was.

  “Cover!” Luda’s voice cut across the battlefield. Several heads turned in his direction but they quickly complied with the order. The shields that they had been using as cover from the attack from the keep were only good for guarding one direction at a time, and the appearance of danger from the rear meant that if they did not use the cover of the buildings around them the situation would quickly turn into a complete massacre.

  Of the forty men that had ridden forward with the King and Collett only fourteen were left. The Shaler forces inside the keep were now leaving the walls and preparing to sally through the gates whilst other forces of warriors had the rest of the Kings soldiers constantly engaged outside of the town and unable to send any assistance.

  Collett knew a hopeless situation when he saw one, and he saw one now.

  “Skirmish order. Retreat!” The order was one of the most difficult that he had ever given but he saw no other choice. He had also spotted the three figures using one of the nearby houses as cover to provide whatever assistance they could to his troops. He did not recognise two of them, but the bulk of Luda was unmistakable. He sprinted to where they hid.

  Dorrin was not the most powerful user of the mystical arts by a long way, but from the side of the slope leading from the open area around the keep to the town itself he had been able to cast several spells of confusion. It was not much, but it would divert the aim of the archers on the walls and allow a few of the soldiers that had been caught out in the open to at least have a chance of escaping.

  Farsighter had his bow out and had been sending the occasional arrow at the wall when a target presented itself but now there appeared to be fewer Shalers on the wall to shoot at.

  “They’re readying a sally, time to be moving.”

  Dorrin grunted his agreement. “Where to?”

  “Judging by the angle that the other arrows were coming from, I’d say that Cal and the others are in either the first or second building after the causeway.”

  Without further sound the two of them set off at the fastest pace they could manage. Their horses had been left a short distance away amongst the houses, but they were in the opposite direction so they were forced to move on foot.

  Collett slid to a halt by the entranceway where the trio from the keep concealed themselves. “Luda.”

  There was no time for formal niceties as an arrow ricocheted off the wooden frame of the door. “Collett.” Luda just nodded. “The King?”

  Collett lowered his head. “Dead.”

  A Shaler appeared on the opposite side of the street and Collett felt the breath of an arrow fly past his cheek. Cal had had no time to warn the officer to duck as he released the missile to take the enemy warrior cleanly through the throat. To his credit Collett managed not to flinch, though in truth he had hardly had time to realise what had occurred before it had happened.

  �
�We need to move.” Tamala motioned for the other three to follow her. “The back leads to a short alley, we’ll be able to move quickly and out of sight as long as we don’t delay.”

  None of the men argued as they followed the young Lady. Both Luda and Collett held their swords at the ready whilst Cal kept an arrow nocked and available for instant use.

  They passed through the main front room of the small town house they had used and rapidly exited through the kitchen to the short alley that Tamala had promised was there. They had only taken a few steps outside when both Luda and Collett whirled to face a sound to their right.

  Swords were lowered though when Luda spotted the face of Dorrin appearing over a low wall.

  “Glad to see that you’re still alive.” He nodded to Cal and Tamala as Farsighter hauled himself over the wall also and dropped quietly to the ground.

  “They’ve sallied, we need to move quickly.”

  No further words were spoken as they made their way along the alley and entered a side street that appeared to lead to the northern edge of Holdur. As they ran Cal got a better chance to study Collett, the lithe cavalry officer that had joined them.

  His helm had been lost in the scurry back along the causeway, leaving his long hair bouncing behind his head where it was tied back with a black band. The colour was surprising as it was pure white.

  He was just short of six feet tall, and very slim. His movements almost catlike as he moved along with the group. Cal was almost disappointed to see that he carried a fairly simple sword as opposed to the cavalry sabre he had been expecting.

  As they reached the edge of town they could see the signs of carnage that had been left by Shaler warriors that had been waiting just beyond the perimeter of the buildings. Cal was almost ill when he saw the bodies of children mixed in with those of the adults that had fallen trying to defend their property. His thoughts were interrupted by Farsighter motioning for them to enter the last building on the left of the street before they entered the open ground before the hills surrounding Holdur.