The War of the Gilded Beasts

by Grady P. Brown

  Shifting his weight nervously in his saddles, Holdyn said, “This will be the first time I will fight a real battle. Is that all right?”

  “Sure thing, son. I have fought Regan’s father with the Monster Slayer. You are safest if you stay with me,” Hondo firmly said.

  Eyeballing the scorpion bolt in Ymir’s hand, Holdyn asked, “Why are you using that? Wouldn’t a sword or axe be a better weapon for the occasion?”

  Tightening her grip on the scorpion bolt, Ymir ground her teeth and said, “That traitor hurt my dragon and I am going to drive this bolt through his heart! I will then remove his head and mount his skull in the trophy room next to his father’s! Then I will have my vengeance!”

  Shivering, Holdyn further asked, “You think we can win this? Do you think any of the barons will help?”

  “We are on our own! I don’t know if we can win this battle, but at least I will try to strike the usurper down!” Looking ahead, Ymir asked, “Uncle Hondo! Are we ready?”

  “Our scout has yet to return. For all we know, he was captured and killed by Regan and Regan might sneak up on us. All we can do is wait,” Hondo clarified.

  At that moment, Hondo’s worries were swept away as a Welt scout rode towards them on horseback. When the horseman reached the front lines, he announced, “Regan’s army is a few hours away! They outnumber us more than two to one!”

  After his announcement, the scout rejoined the ranks and Hondo ordered, “Battle formations! Stand firm!”

  In response, the Welts banged their weapons against their shields and roared with bloodlust. Ymir, Hondo, and Holdyn assumed their positions on the rear hill. Off in the distance, Regan’s army could be seen marching, their footsteps could be heard for miles. As this was happening, lightning flashed across the sky with the intensity of the sun and thunder roared with deafening magnitude. Rain started to trickle down on before transforming into a relentless downpour.

  While the rain continued to bombard the landscape, Hondo scoffed, “Well, there goes our preparations.”

  With their bows useless, the Welts discarded them for swords, spears, and shields. Still, even without their ranged weapons, the Welts’ resolve remained unabated. While waiting for Regan’s army to approach, Ymir and her companions noticed their trenches flooding and the stakes falling over like chopped-down trees. Finally, Regan’s host halted three hundred yards away from the hills. Even though both armies were well organized, they were uncomfortable with their increasingly soggy surroundings, and their banners sagged like damp rags. The Welts found it increasingly difficult to find firm footing as the ground became muddier and grimier.

  For a long while, both forces stared one another down, waiting for someone to make the first move. Then Ymir saw Regan ordering his archers to fire upon her men, but the projectiles flipped out of the bows and only went a couple feet. The Baal soldiers roared with frustration. Ymir could not help chuckling at Regan’s apparent military inexperience. Regan had plenty of experience when it came to quelling small rebellions, but he had never fought a full-scale battle before. As a result, Regan did not know that longbows were useless in the rain.

  After a while, Ymir watched Regan change tactics and send his entire cavalry force against her and her allies. The Baal cavalry outnumbered theirs by two hundred men and would have the power to plow through them in an ordinary battle. However, the weather once again thwarted Regan’s forces. The rain had made the ground muddy and slippery, causing many war horses to fall and slide across the field only for more of their allies to trip over them. Those horsemen who managed to reach the hills found their mounts drowning in the flooded trenches. Stripped of their horses, the Baal men-at-arms clambered up the grimy hills and took the fight to the Welts, who greatly outnumbered the survivors. The Welts on the front hills moved forward and struck down their worn opponents while suffering casualties of their own. From what Ymir could tell, the first wave with the Baals cost her roughly a hundred of the Welts on the front hills.

  Once the Baal cavalry was exterminated, the Welts reformed their defensive positions as Regan sent the rest of his army forward. However, a powerful gust of wind blew the rain into the faces of the Welts. For several moments, Ymir and her comrades struggled to see the enemy before them. Once their vision cleared, Ymir was horrified to see Regan’s men forming a tight schiltron formation of shields and spears. With their vision obscured, the Welts were powerless before the battle-hardened warriors. More than half of the Welts on the front hills fell before they abandoned their posts and reformed their positions on the rear hill with Ymir, Hondo, and Holdyn. With their opposition withdrawing, the Baal host climbed over the flooded trenches and advanced to the remaining hill. The wind died down and the Welts’ vision returned, and they were able to hold off the schiltron in a viciously tight melee. The ground was so muddy that both sides of the battle were knee-deep in the muck. Some soldiers fell on their backs and could not get back up due to their heavy armor weighing them down. The rain made the whole experience cold and uncomfortable beyond measure.

  A sense of despair washed over Ymir as she saw her men struggling to hold back Regan’s army. They were outnumbered more than two to one, and their defensive positions may collapse any moment. Ymir felt that their efforts to take back Umbran from Regan and his loyalists were about to be in vain. It was a sickening sensation that threatened to tear her soul apart. In the middle of the enemy host, Ymir spotted Regan himself, clad in plate armor with a crowned helm and a great battle axe in his hand.

  Pointing her scorpion bolt towards Regan, Ymir cursed, “Bastard! I’ll kill you!”

  Ymir’s words seemed empty as Regan’s men started to break through the Welt line. It was the beginning of the end! Suddenly, a series of deafening war horns erupted from behind Regan’s army. They turn around to see another army approaching from the east. Even though their banners were soggy, Ymir recognized the sigils of Houses Letum, Torren, Galber, Drada, and Marmor. From the looks of it, it appeared they assembled an host of roughly three thousand men. Were they here to support Regan as well?

  Ymir got her answer when the new arrivals attacked Regan’s army in the left flank and rear. The swiftness of the sneak attack was so great that half of Regan’s army was slaughtered in a matter of minutes. The rest of Regan’s men-at-arms were thrown into disarray and Regan himself fell off of his horse.

  Smiling, Ymir ordered, “Charge!”

  With their enemy in chaos, the Welts ran through the hills and plowed through Regan’s ranks. The arrival of the Magnus loyalists had boosted the Welts’ morale and reduced the Baals’ so greatly that the battle quickly became a one-sided massacre. Despite their smaller numbers, the Welts were breaking through the Baal line. However, Regan’s army recovered from their initial confusion and started to push back as Regan himself led the charge. Then the skirmish became a more even fight as the three armies clashed.

  As the fight continued, Ymir finally got to see what her Welt cousins were truly capable of in combat. Hondo brandished his falcata and cut down one foe after another with lethal precision. Holdyn wielded a pair of battle axes with the same level of ferocity and aggression as the other Welts and ruthlessly hacked down every foe that crossed his path. Overall, Ymir was pleased to see that her cousins were fierce warriors.

  Ymir herself cautiously rode her horse through the skirmish, careful not to slip and slide through the mud. She gripped her Ferruman scorpion bolt tightly as she surveyed the battlefield for Regan. Finally, Ymir found her target. Regan Baal was fending off half a dozen Welts while another half dozen were dead at his feet. To Ymir’s horror, she watched as her uncle Hondo was slain by Regan as well. The aspiring king swung his axe wildly and roared like a madman. Regan’s weapon was drenched in blood and had bits of flesh sticking to it. However, despite Regan’s prowess, Ymir noticed that he was exhausted, had a broken spear head stabbed into his shoulder, and had a debilitating wound in his left side. Regan may have been holding off the Welts for the moment, but
it was clear that he was on the verge of being overwhelmed.

  To the Welts, Ymir ordered, “Stand down!”

  The Welts did as they were told and took several steps back. Regan turned to Ymir and panted heavily, gripping his axe in one hand and his abdominal wound with the other. Ymir dismounted to meet Regan on even footing, holding her scorpion bolt like a quarter staff.

  “Regan! It is over! Yield now and your execution for your treason will be quick and painless! Refuse and I will kill you where you stand and add your remains to the trophy room!” Ymir announced firmly.

  “I will never yield to a half-breed whore like you! I will not yield to a false dynasty of bastard half-breeds like your family! If this is the end of House Baal, then I will die with my axe in hand!” Regan snarled defiantly.

  Firmly holding her scorpion bolt with both hands, Ymir declared, “So be it!”

  With determined steps, the princess and the king approached one another, ready to fight for life and kingdom. Under normal circumstances, Ymir was no match for Regan in single combat. However, the odds were in her favor due to Regan’s wounded and exhausted state. When they got close enough, Regan attempted to chop Ymir’s head off with a two-handed swing of his axe, but Ymir blocked the attack and struck Regan’s wounded side with the butt of her scorpion bolt. Regan staggered backwards and clutched his side. With Regan off balance, Ymir seized her chance and thrust the scorpion bolt straight through his heart. The Ferruman blade easily pierced Regan’s breastplate and went straight out of his back. Regan gasped in shock and pain as Ymir skewered him.

  As Regan collapsed, Ymir pulled her scorpion bolt out of the king’s chest. Staring at Regan’s corpse, Ymir started seeing memories of Regan throughout her childhood. Most were fond images of Regan acting like a fifth big brother to Ymir. Some were of her fantasy of one day marrying him. However, Ymir quickly discarded the memories from her mind.

  To herself, Ymir muttered, “Don’t dwell on the past. Regan was a traitor and died like one. That is the end of it.”

  Holding her scorpion bolt over her head, Ymir loudly declared, “Your false king has fallen!”

  As Ymir’s voice traveled across the battlefield, Regan’s barons, knights, and mercenaries turned to her. Upon seeing their king’s corpse, some of the men-at-arms threw down their swords and fled. The barons and higher ranking knights fell to their knees and raised their hands in surrender. All of the surviving Welts and Magnus loyalists cheered at their victory. Holdyn beamed at her with pride, holding up his fist in solidarity. Then the rainstorm that ravaged the landscape cleared and the sun pierced through the sky.

  ______

  With Regan’s army defeated, Ymir, Holdyn, and what remained of her vanguard marched to Magnus Keep to reclaim the castle. Regan’s corpse was stripped naked, crucified, and paraded for the whole kingdom to see.

  “Do you think we have enough warriors to take back the castle? We seem to be a modest force at best. How many men did you lose in those hills?” Ymir asked Holdyn.

  “We originally had one thousand five hundred Welts and the relief force had around three thousand. Now I am guessing we have around two thousand five hundred warriors. We certainly have enough soldiers for a siege and we have you,” Holdyn replied.

  “If the Magnus loyalists didn’t show up when they did, Regan would have beaten us. I’m glad there were people still loyal to my family despite the duress they were facing. I think I am too trusting. I did not anticipate Regan would turn on us, and it cost me.”

  As they came close to Magnus Keep, Holdyn asked, “How shall we approach this?”

  Ymir suggested, “We could starve them out by surrounding the castle and waiting them out. That way we can avoid more casualties. We will need all the men we can spare to restore order to Umbran.”

  Holdyn pointed forward and countered, “I don’t think we have to worry about another battle. Look!”

  The Magnus army looked up to see all the Baal banners on Magnus Keep struck off and replaced by a series of white flags. In addition, the front gate was swung wide open while a hundred men-at-arms walked out with their hands held above their heads in surrender. When the soldiers reached the Welt host, they dropped to their knees and bowed their heads.

  Ymir approached the soldiers while riding her horse and asked, “Do you yield?”

  The lead soldier raised his head and replied, “Aye. We took the job because we were assured that Regan was going to win. Now that he is dead and his army is crushed, we are not going to die for a lost cause. Do with us as you will.”

  Ymir contemplated her options as she stared into the lead warrior’s hopeless eyes. Part of her wanted to feed them to Faxia for aiding Regan’s treason. However, Ymir made her decision and ordered, “Get out of here and never return!”

  After those words, the remaining Baal loyalists rose to their feet ran past the Welt army and quickly disappeared into the surrounding forest. With the enemy garrison gone, the Welts and Magnus loyalists wasted no time securing Magnus Keep while Ymir herself was left alone outside the castle with Holdyn.

  “We won this civil war. I had my doubts, but we did it,” Ymir sighed.

  Nodding in approval, Holdyn said, “Your brothers would be proud. What do you plan to do with Regan’s body?”

  Looking up at Regan’s crucified corpse, Ymir smiled and answered, “I am going to add pieces of him to the Trophy Room. Faxia can have whatever is left.”

  “You are most generous. I am sure Faxia would like to eat some of the man who nearly killed her.”

  “Thank you.”

  ______

  Two weeks later, Umbran was back under Magnus control. In the Trophy Room, Ymir pushed a cart full of items from her victory. Among the items were her Ferruman scorpion bolt, Regan’s skull, braid, battle axe, armor, banner, and crown. One by one, Ymir silently placed the items on the vast shelves in the chamber with meticulous care. Earlier, she had servants move Regan’s anti-dragon scorpion into a far corner in the vault. When she was done, Ymir looked at her trophies with pride burning in her eyes.

  To herself, Ymir whispered, “I have finally taken my place amongst House Magnus.”

  A maid entered the chamber and announced, “My Princess, your brother Prince Daegar has returned. He wishes to speak with you.”

  Smiling, Ymir pushed the cart out of the chamber and closed the door behind her.

  ______

  Ymir entered the throne room to find Daegar waiting for her. Upon seeing one another, brother and sister ran to one another and hugged tightly. After a long embrace, Ymir and Daegar let each other go and locked eyes.

  “I thought Regan killed you! Are you all right?” Daegar asked frantically.

  “Aye. I am. I have much to share with you. I had the situation under control.”

  “Indeed you did. None of us expected you to handle the situation so well.”

  “Why? Because I am your helpless little sister?”

  “Don’t get the wrong idea. Kemrin sent me all the way up here to rescue you. Here I am to find out you didn’t need rescuing. How did you restore order to Umbran?”

  “I arranged a new privy council made completely from Magnus loyalists. With their assistance, I was able to dispense justice fairly to those who sided with Regan. The men-at-arms and knights with no lands or titles got off easy because they were only obeying their liege lords’ orders. The barons and landed knights who were acting under duress were pardoned and had their loved ones returned to them. Those who sided with Regan willingly were attainted and executed down to the last child. The forfeited land was distributed evenly to the barons who saved us during the battle. With all surviving Baal loyalists exterminated, the Welts have finally started to come out of hiding in the forests and started to form settlements in open fields. Overall, we will never experience another rebellion for a good long while.”

  Nodding in approval, Daegar said, “Father would be proud. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  Smiling mischie
vously, Ymir said, “Come, let us have the cooks make us a welcome-home feast for the conquering hero.”

  “All right, but I will need to return to Kemrin as soon as possible now that I know you’re safe.”

  “Deal.”

  After those words, Ymir and Daegar left the throne room to once again share the comforts of home.

  CHAPTER 25

  A week later, Autem stood stiffly as his squire dressed him in his gold and purple Ferruman armor. The process was agonizing as Autem struggled to stand up straight. His joints were grinding against each other and his ligaments threatened to break apart. To make matters worse, Autem’s scoliosis was getting so excruciating that his spine felt as though it was going to snap like a dry stick.

  How can I possibly lead an army and fight a battle in this condition? If I knew the toll to Agatha’s blood magic would be this intense, I would have taken less risky methods to win this war. I just hope she can give me that potion along with what she has planned for Gryphclaw. On the upside, thanks to the increasing economy the Magnuses established in Umbran, we gained access to their Ferruman. At least this new armor will keep me safe, Autem thought to himself as he fought to keep a straight face in front of his squire.

  By the time Autem was fully clad in his plate armor, Agatha entered the chamber with a full chalice in one hand and Gryphclaw in its scabbard in the other. She smiled with grim confidence as she approached her husband. Agatha’s pride was so palpable, Autem was intimidated by it.

  “Is it ready?” Autem asked, still frightened by Agatha’s proud aura.

  “Aye. This potion will restore your strength and vitality, but because I could not finish the final product, I cannot say how long it will last or what unforeseen consequences will be done to your health. As for Gryphclaw, I used a combination of blood and elemental magic. The possibility exists that you will clash with Gramfyre, the Sword of Power. This spell will potentially give Gryphclaw the power to fight Gramfyre on even footing. As an added bonus, even if he survives fighting Gryphclaw, his wounds will have a curse placed on them. Any attempt to use healing Druid magic would be disrupted and he would be in a state of debilitating pain for the rest of his life,” Agatha explained.