I was down to one guard when we entered the city gate, the rest I’d had to get Rachel to order to stop and rest lest they kill themselves. Once inside I got her to her quarters immediately.
I gave her a rather lusty good-bye kiss. Well maybe a bit too lusty because we ended up taking yet another quick diversion in private. It was nice to see that I was having the same effect on her that she was having on me. She deserved more than a quickie from me, but we both knew the time wasn’t there. At least we were both all purrs and smiles when I left.
Then it was off to the temple to deal with the head priest.
Five
The trip to the temple was an easy one, I could have found it with my eyes closed with the way my senses were drawn to it; I definitely had a deep and profound connection to the place. Going up the stairs to the rather large front doors several things quickly became apparent, the first being that they practiced human sacrifice, or maybe it was feline sacrifice? I could see a number of bodies that were staked out, they all had the same pattern of cuts, and the chest cavity had been cut open. I recalled Rachel’s words about the priest wanting to sacrifice her and I realized that it wasn’t a one off thing, they did practice it regularly, they just wanted to use her for the victim for a change. I made a mental note that that aspect was going to end; I didn’t care who the normal sacrifices were, be they prisoners, or even willing. I just would not tolerate it and if that meant Fel and I had words, well so be it.
The second was that the entire place was packed, standing room only. The third was that it was rather large.
Oh, and as soon as I walked in past the archway, I started to draw the attention of everyone inside. I’m not sure what it was, some kind of a presence, or maybe there was some aspect around me that only they could see, but it caused the entire place to go deathly silent. Including the priest who was standing up by the altar and who looked rather perplexed at me as I strode quickly down the long center aisle, vaulted the low railing into the sacristy, and then stopped standing next to him.
His eyes suddenly got wide as he no doubt saw the anger in mine. I seized him and turned to the crowd, a gasp going up from everyone as they saw I had him by the throat. Public speaking was never my strongest point, but I could see I wasn’t going to have any other option as many of them rose to their feet, obviously agitated, probably angry.
“People of Hiland city,” I began, “as you have no doubt been hearing, there is a great need for the men of this city to be men and follow the dictates of their queen, and their god. Now the queen wants you to go fight tomorrow, because if you do not, the city will be lost, and so will you.
“However this man here,” I gave him a little shake, “Says otherwise.”
“Well, let me ask you this, if he is so much the servant of our god, Feliogustus, why has he lost the god’s favor? Why are not lightning bolts striking me down this very instant as I stand here slowly squeezing the life out of him on the dais of our god’s most sacred temple?” I looked around the temple, no one was moving now and the people were rapt with attention.
“Simple. Because this man here, who I will not even dignify by saying his name, has lost the favor of our god and in his doing so has lost it for all the rest of you too. When was the last time someone who was seriously injured got healed by the priests? When?” I looked out into the audience.
“It’s been months!” Someone shouted out.
“Exactly,” I continued. “And people have been getting sick, and the sick have been dying. Why? Because this man has not only fallen from the faith, but he has turned to evil ways! This man tried to have your very own queen sacrificed to the god of the Mulanders!” I growled and looked at him, he was very pale now.
“Who is the next in line?” I asked turning to the assembled priests and priestesses standing behind the altar. There was a look of terror in a few of their eyes; all were showing some signs of fear. But several were standing tall despite their fears.
“You,” I pointed with my free hand paw at one of the younger priestesses, “Come here!”
She bowed and came forward. I could see she was afraid, but I could actually feel her faith, she believed.
“Do you believe that Feliogustus will protect you here in his temple?”
“I believe that if I do my lord’s bidding and serve him well, I will not need his protections.” She replied. “When my time comes to meet him, I will do so joyously.”
I smiled, “You are now the head of the order, the new high priestess, by the will of our God Feliogustus and through the power he has invested in me as his champion, I appoint you in his stead.”
“And as for you,” I looked at the man cringing in my gasp. “I do believe our lord would like to have some words with you. Good bye.” And I crushed his throat in my grasp.
Everyone in the temple gasped loudly as I squeezed and he started to turn blue as he died. But then the most amazing thing happened. The new high priestess started to glow. Her eyes went wide and she stepped up besides me and said in a loud clear voice that carried far better than my own.
“Hear me people of Hiland, your god is with you once again. And he commands that you hear the pleas of the queen and serve her, lest all of yea perish in the upcoming fight. The god of the Mulanders has sent his evil serpents to confuse you and lead you astray, and for the desire of powers no priest should want he led my predecessor awry. Look upon the champion of Feliogustus, our protector and savior and remember that our god has always answered our calls when we were fit enough to see that he would only help us when we were willing to take up our fair share of the task.
“So all of yea men, go now, join with the garrison and protect that which is ours!”
I watched as all the men suddenly stood as one and they all turned and filed out the exits, I had no doubts as to what would happen now. I dropped the dead body to the floor and turned to her, “Nice speech. You need any more priests throttled before I go?”
She smiled at me, “I think there will be a lot of very penitent people here soon enough. Feliogustus tells me things should clear up here fairly quickly now that he can reach the rank and file again.”
“You can talk to him?” I blinked.
“Yes, and eventually he should even be able to appear here to some extent.”
I nodded, “Oh, no more human sacrifices, okay? I’m serious about that.”
“And if he should command me otherwise?” She asked smiling.
“Then Fel and I are going to have a very big argument. I haven’t had the chance to talk to him about it, and I don’t have the time now. But it’s something of an issue for me.”
She nodded. “We can talk when you get back.” Then she looked me up and down appraisingly and smiled, “I’ll see you later.”
I got the distinct impression I was being sized up for something, but not exactly sure what. However, I had things to do and little time to do it. Gathering up my still meager gear I headed out into the city to find the garrison guards.
It was close to dawn when I finally stumbled into camp. I’d had to spend more time organizing the guard than I had expected, and had to run harder than I wanted to make up for the lost time. I was bone tired; I’d been on the move for a day and a half and only eaten once in all that time. I found the general’s tent without any problem, I noticed the guard had been doubled, but no one got in my way as I entered the main tent.
A member of his staff was up, so I grabbed him.
“I need food, and then a place to sleep until we move.”
He nodded and five minutes later, I was eating a large breakfast. As I was eating, the camp started to come to life. The general came in and got his own food as I was finishing up.
“What time will we be marching?” I asked stretching.
“Two hours.”
“Well, I’m going to take a nap.” I said and stood and stretched letting out another massive yawn.
“I could watch that all morning long,” I heard Rachel purr and I turned
around to see her standing behind me at the tent’s rear entrance.
“What are you doing here?” I growled. “You’re supposed to be back home where it’s safe!”
She smiled, “Considering I sent all of the guards and every soldier from the city off with the citizens you asked for, right now the safest place around is here with the army.” She walked up to me and put her hands on my hips. “Besides, I want to watch you fight.”
I looked over at the general, “If she gets within a half mile of the front I’ll pull your arms off and beat you to death with the bloody stumps!” I looked over at the two bodyguards who had followed her in and were by the entrance. “You two I’ll just kill,” I growled. “And I don’t care what orders she gives. Understood?” They both nodded.
“Now, I need to take a nap, as long as you’re here, you can keep me company,” I sighed.
“I wanted to get something to eat first,” she said looking at the food.
“You can eat while watching me slaughter the enemy.” I said dragging her out of the tent. I found her small tent and dragged her inside and dragged her down onto the bedroll with me.
“Minx,” I growled as she giggled.
“What’s a minx?”
“A lovely little creature that causes all sorts of problems if you don’t watch out,” I said and yawned.
“You really are tired, aren’t you?” She said cuddling up against me.
“Very,” I kissed her, “Keep me company while I sleep.”
“Sure, Will.”
I awoke to the sounds of the Army being mustered to move, I stretched slowly and sensuously, it may only have been a couple of hours but I felt considerably better.
“Yum,” Rachel purred looking at me from the other side of the tent where she was sitting. She was as naked as I was. Someone had removed my gear as I had slept, her I suspected.
“Come here, you,” I smiled.
“If you two are quite done in there?” I heard General Holse’s aide’s voice from outside the tent.
“I think so,” Rachel said laughing as we untangled ourselves.
“The command staff will be moving out in fifteen minutes. The general requests your presence by then.”
“We’ll be there,” I said standing up.
“Here, let me help you,” Rachel said and handed me a metal breast plate.
I stopped and looked at her, “Where did this come from?” The armor I’d gotten yesterday didn’t fit well and was a patchwork of unmatched pieces.
She smiled, “This set has been sitting in the great hall for years. This belonged to one of my ancestors, the one who founded Highland. The stories say he was a large man. Apparently just about your size,” she purred and fondled me.
“I doubt they discussed that!” I laughed, “Now, help me with this.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised at the things they discuss,” she giggled and helped me put it all on.
It was a nice set of armor; it was bronze, with a leather backing. A front and back piece, a leather skirt with metal strips, bracers, greaves, and a helm. I looked at my reflection in the shield she held up. I looked a lot like what Josh told me the hoplites must have worn.
“Now your sword,” she smiled and handed me one in a sheath.
I belted it on and drew it. It was steel.
“Wow,” I said shocked. The sword I’d been using was bronze. A lot of what I’d seen was bronze. Steel was a shock. “Where did you get this?”
“It’s one of the royal treasures. My Father used it; he got it from his father. No one knows where my grandfather got it though.”
I put the sword away and pulled her against me and kissed her again. “Thank you. Thank you very much, my love.”
She smiled and hugged me tight, “Just go out there and win, and come back here.”
I laughed, “Well, that’s why I’m here. Let’s go.”
We walked out to meet the others. I noticed the senior officers all had bronze armor same as me. Among the soldiers, most wore leather, though there was a unit which was composed completely of soldiers armored such as myself. I asked the general about them.
“That’s our heavy foot. They’re the ones you put at the center of the line.”
I nodded, “I’ll lead them then.”
He introduced me to their commander and I gave Rachel a last kiss and once again promised her bodyguards what I would do to them if they let her get anywhere near the fighting. They promised to keep her on a hill a ways off where she could watch from a distance. They also promised not to fly any pennants to give away just who she was.
And then we marched.
It took us a half hour to march to the field; we were early so as to keep them from taking our positions when they arrived.
The hardest part was the waiting. We sat or stood, each in our position and waited for their army to march up, and then for them to form up for the battle. Part of me wanted to fall on them while they were still arriving, but they were arriving in good order so I suspected it wouldn’t be to our advantage. We had our plan; our goal was to stick to it as long as possible.
I won’t go into the preliminaries, because I didn’t pay much attention to them. The general dealt with those. The archery in the beginning was more annoying than anything else. We had prepared for it, so we lost few men to it.
Then we fought!
The land was set in such a manner that they could not bring their entire line to bear upon us at once; their size was cut down by this. This was a good thing because they clearly had brought twice the army that we had. Our biggest task would to make sure they could not outflank us, because with their numbers we would be in serious trouble.
As we ran to clash, I outpaced the rest of the group by a small distance, it felt like the right thing to do, so I did it. As I did a stray sunbeam found its way to me and suddenly I remembered Fel’s words about finding ‘something for you to wear.’ There was a flash around me and I noticed that suddenly my armor was polished to a mirror like finish, and on my breastplate as well as my shield were both Fel’s symbol and the queen’s device. The line in front of me gasped and the soldiers behind me all cheered loudly as one.
And then we clashed.
Even with the speed effect, I was fighting for my life from that instant onward. I may have been faster than any of them, they may have all seemed to move slowly to me, but there were five or six trying to engage me at any one moment. Twice early on I got stabbed, but remembering Fel’s words, I concentrated on healing the wound a moment and in each case they were. However, I had a feeling those healings would be limited so I took more care after that to protect my own hide.
I have no idea how many of their men I killed. I was out there for so long that it all became a blur. There is a rhythm to a war, to a battle, a fight. If you live long enough, I guess you sense it or learn it. I saw and did things that would have normally made me puke my guts out. But not here. Not now. I did it because it had to be done, I cheered as I killed them, because they died and not me. Hacking off limbs, disemboweling bodies, gouging eyes, ripping throats, splitting and spitting chests, it was gory and it was gruesome and at that very moment, I was deep in its splendor, reveling in all of the blood, bile, and gore. It was the only way to survive and not go insane from the shear horror of it all. You either get caught up in the battle, or you die there. There is no middle ground, no other way.
Eventually, I realized that we were pushing forward into them, so I took a step back and raised my sword and waved it back and forth. I looked around to see how the battle was going. There were a lot of dead. A lot of dead. Normally I think I would have been repulsed by the blood everywhere, the hacked up corpses, the body parts, and the cries of the dying, but I was still too hyped up by the battle, and the fear of becoming one of those on the ground. I’d become as completely numb to it as those dead around me, many of whom I myself had killed. Suddenly I understood why so many old soldiers feared sleep.
Our forces were still holding
strong, and it appeared that there were more of them dead than of us, which gave me a feeling of hope. I noticed those closer to me were doing exceptionally well and I wondered what kind of influence I might have been having on them. I could see the flags of our command staff and saw one wave towards me in response to my signal. I then turned back to the battle and looked for the flags of their command staff.
“This way!” I yelled and pointed in that direction. Surprisingly, the men fighting with me seemed to hear me and we started to fight our way in that direction. Again, I spent my time killing and trying not to be killed. It was hard work and I could tell my men were getting tired. New troops started to filter up from the rear; the tired ones filtering back to take a break. I hadn’t thought that we’d been fighting that long but now I realized that the battle had been going on for several hours.
Right about then the enemy started to surge, and we started to have to give back ground that we’d already taken on the field, they started to push harder and harder and suddenly those behind the ones we were fighting started to get entangled in the front line and I realized that our flanking attack had finally hit and they were being pushed in on themselves on this side of the line. I called for a rally and an attack and as I pushed back into them their line collapsed and they suddenly fell completely apart, just like that. I led our forces forward and turned to the left to hit the now open flank of what had been the center, letting the irregulars and the town guards mop up the completely disorganized groups on the right.
It went from a battle to a slaughter and I led everyone right into the midst of it. We granted no quarter and took no prisoners. Finally, as the sun started to get close to the horizon the remainder broke and ran, fleeing for their lives. I stopped and looked around, I could see our priests in the field healing and helping our fallen, while others went around putting the fallen enemies to death. I marched back to where the general was issuing orders and I grabbed a pitcher of water to take a long draft.
Portals of Infinity: Book One: Champion for Hire Page 9
