by Peter Last
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?” Vladimir commented. “We have to make a trip to their forest and see where they stand.”
“That might actually be one of the best uses of our time,” Lemin said. “If we can secure the help of the elves, we would have an advantage over the enemy because we would be able to flank them. Of course, enlisting their help will be harder than you think. We’ll have to convince not one but four kings to help us.”
“It may be harder than I think, but it’s still worth a try,” Vladimir persisted. “Their help may be our only hope for survival.”
“I think you’re right,” Lemin said. “The only question is, given the disarray of the country, who has the power to form a treaty with them?”
“The ruling councils of Gatlon and Belvárd are missing; nobody has heard from them since the attack,” Senndra said. “Since the only ruling body left is that of Rampӧn, it seems logical to get their permission.”
“That will take too long,” Lemin objected. “I’ve had a small amount of experience with the council, and it seems they take forever to decide the smallest things, much less something as important as this. No, we need to have a single person who can agree to a treaty.”
“A single person or several of them?” asked the cadet Timothy didn’t know. “What if we got several of the highest ranking officers to sign the agreement? That’ll probably be the best we can do, given the circumstances.”
“You’re right; I don't know why I didn't think of that,” Lemin said, rising from his chair. “William,” he said, addressing the cadet, “I am hereby appointing you as a messenger to go and see if the elfin kings will agree to a treaty. You are to escort those sympathetic to us back here so that we can meet and determine the details. While you’re gone, I’ll get approval from the highest ranking officers. Hopefully they’ll see the importance of this, but even if all of them don’t, I’ll find some way to push it through.”
“Yes sir,” William said and saluted. He dashed out of the room, and the door closed with a bang.
“You realize the council won’t be happy, right?” Timothy said.
“Oh yes, I realize that,” Lemin said. “But right now, I’m just trying to save the country, and I don’t really care who doesn’t like it.”
Seven
“General!”
Josiah jerked awake at the shout and sat up on the couch he had been napping on. He rubbed his eyes and turned to face the man who had woken him. The messenger was a soldier, now standing ramrod straight in front of his superior.
“At ease, soldier,” Josiah said. “What news do you have?”
“The enemy is approaching, sir,” the soldier said. “Scouts have reported the main body of their army to still be a day or two out, but smaller scouting forces have been seen only a few hours away.”
Josiah stretched and stood as he thought through this new information. A week had passed since they had reached Castle Far Point, and already reinforcements were pouring in. Their numbers had already increased from twenty thousand to twenty-five thousand, and they were expected to increase to thirty thousand before the end of the day. Even so, many of these men were not soldiers but simply citizens who had answered the call of their countrymen. It was obvious that most of them had never held a sword before; in fact, many of them had arrived armed only with pitchforks and other improvised weaponry. They still had no news concerning any reinforcements by dragons, and their forces were looking rather thin compared to that of the enemy.
Josiah thanked the soldier and dismissed him. He stretched again to get all the kinks out of his body and then headed for Nathan’s quarters. When he arrived, the elf had already been informed of the news and had a sand table set up with a rough likeness of the surrounding area and small markers to indicate soldiers. As Josiah entered, the elf looked up and greeted him.
“So, what about the wall?” Josiah asked as he leaned on the sand table and looked at the scene depicted there.
“The wall is obviously not finished, but it’s in reasonably good shape,” Nathan answered. “It has finally been extended along the full mile we’re protecting and has been built fifteen feet high in most spots. It should be wide enough to withstand ram or catapult attacks, but we won’t know until it’s tested.”
“Now that’s something I hope never happens,” Josiah muttered as he studied the table. “We should revisit the question of force size. Given our numbers, how long can we hold this position?”
“That all depends,” Nathan said. “We have roughly twenty thousand men now, but even so, they’re going to be spread pretty thinly if we are to cover the whole wall. The real trick is to figure out where they are most likely to attack, so that we can post the ogres there.”
“There havn’t been any reports of dragons or griffins accompanying the army, have there?” Josiah asked.
“Not as of yet,” Nathan answered. “As far as we know, we’re just going to have to deal with their massive ground force.”
“And that’ll be enough trouble in and of itself,” a low gravelly voice said. Nathan and Josiah looked up to see that Levvy had joined them. “Even with all our preparation, we will still be badly disadvantaged. Only by the grace of Elohim will we be able to hold them off.”
“If only the dragons would arrive,” Josiah commented. “Then we would have an advantage they would find very difficult to counter.”
“But we have no dragons, and there is no point in wishing for them,” Levvy said. “If they come, that is all well and good, but until that happens we need to decide what to do with the men we have.”
“Right,” Nathan agreed. “Now, here’s what I think. If we spread my soldiers down the wall so that there are archers along the whole length and set a concentration of ogres at the castle, where I think that they will most likely attack, our firepower will be properly dispersed. Then the humans can form squads and reinforce the other soldiers at various points along the wall, but also be ready to move at a moment’s notice. That way they can move to give assistance wherever it is needed.”
“We have some horses, so we could put together a cavalry unit,” Josiah said. “They would be very useful in quickly giving help to various points along the wall, and if the enemy breaks through, they’ll be invaluable.”
“It looks about as good as anything we can do with the soldiers we have,” Levvy rumbled. “We’ll just have to fight like fury to make up for our deficiency of numbers.”
“How are we doing on supplies?” Josiah asked. “How long can we last on the food we have?”
“We have a supply that should last us about month or so if we are careful,” Nathan said. “I wouldn’t worry about food, though. We can easily get more if we need to.”
“What about arrows?” Josiah asked. “What about arms and armor?”
“We have enough arrows for now, and we’re producing more even as we speak,” Nathan answered. “We’ll run out before this battle is over, but that’s to be expected. As for arms and armor, we have exhausted our supply, so every new person who comes has to fight with what they bring.”
“Well, that can’t be helped,” Josiah said. “I guess we’ve done just about everything that we can to prepare for this. Now it is in the hands of Elohim.”
“What would you say our chances of survival are?” Levvy asked.
“Not good,” Nathan said after a moment of silence. “But we’ll fight like hellfire and make them remember us no matter the outcome.”
“Today is a good day to die,” Levvy said.
“Um, they actually won’t be arriving until tomorrow or the day after,” Josiah commented.
“Oh shut up, you know what I mean,” Levvy said. “Now let’s go make sure that our men are in good order. I may be prepared to die, but that doesn’t mean I want to do so.”
******
The enemy army stretched out across the plain, darkening the land for miles around, and all Josiah could think about was how the scouts had been wr
ong. It was only hours after his meeting with Nathan and Levvy, and the full army was already here. Oh well, today might not be such a bad day to die. In the sky the shapes of griffins could be seen circling the area, but thankfully no dragons had been spotted...yet.
The mere sight of the army facing them was enough to frighten some of the defenders into abandoning the line. The holes left were quickly filled, and the soldiers of Magessa stood resolute, daring Molkekk’s army to attack. A flight of boulders hurtled overhead, and Josiah looked back to where a set of newly made trebuchets hid behind the castle. The engineers were already resetting them for another salvo, adjusting the weights in order to get more distance on their shots. Another swarm of rocks flew over the wall, most of them falling short, but the ones with the most distance smashed into the front lines of the enemy army.
The enemy was quick to assemble their own siege equipment, and soon they were pounding the recently constructed wall with boulders of all different sizes. The defenders hunkered down and took cover, seeking to wait the attack out. They knew projectiles for the catapults were not very abundant on the plain, and that the enemy would run out eventually. Boulders smashed into the wall, knocking pieces off and killing soldiers; nevertheless, the defenders refused to move, and eventually the rain of rocks lessened and ceased entirely.
A few of the braver men peered over the wall to see what the enemy was doing. Their siege equipment was quiet now, and their soldiers were forming up into a line. News traveled quickly down the defenders’ line, and the soldiers resumed their watch from the wall. It took a full hour for the enemy army to line up, and when they did, they looked even more impressive than they had before. Instead of advancing, however, they stood in perfect order as a man on horseback detached himself from the ranks and rode toward the defenders’ wall. He held a white flag in his left hand and continued riding until he was within shouting distance of the castle. Josiah looked down from the castle wall as the rider reined his steed to a halt and dismounted.
“The great Lord Molkekk sends you greetings,” the man bellowed his message. “The great Lord Molkekk does not wish for anyone to be harmed without reason and so gives you the opportunity to surrender before we attack. If you surrender, you will be taken prisoner and treated well. If, however, you refuse this offer, you will be swept aside by his mighty army.”
“Molkekk does not wish people to be needlessly killed?” Josiah asked. “Then what exactly happened to that entire area?” he said and gestured northward. “You pillaged, plundered, and killed with no restraint. That fact aside, we will never surrender to the enemy of Elohim! He has already delivered the army to the north into our hands, and He will do the same for you. So either you surrender to us or be gone so that the battle can start.”
“You scorn the generous offer that the great Lord Molkekk has made to you?” the man said in surprise.
“You bet I do,” Josiah shouted back. “In fact, he can take his offer and eat it for all I care! Now I suggest you go back to your own army before one of my men shoots you. I can only keep them in check for so long, you know.”
“It is in your best interests to accept this offer,” the man argued. “If you don’t, you will be killed and swept aside as if you were nothing.”
“Elohim will be our commander,” Josiah retorted. “With Him as our leader, we cannot lose. Now this is your last warning: get back to your army, or you will be killed.”
“Elohim?” the man snorted. “He does not exist.”
“Drop him,” Josiah told the man beside him. The archer placed an arrow on his bow string and drew it back to full draw. The messenger was still shouting, and the archer took little time to aim before letting fly. The arrow flashed through the air and buried itself in the messenger’s throat. He fell like a sack of potatoes.
Silence settled over the field for some seconds as the impact of what had just happened sank in. The enemy army started to mobilize, and slowly it began to advance. The front was a mile long and several hundred lines deep. It was so intimidating that Josiah had a fleeting thought about running away. He shoved the thought out of his mind and diverted his attention from the enemy to his own men.
The trebuchets were firing again, dropping as many boulders into the enemy ranks as they could, but for every person that they killed, several hundred more remained. The enemy army started to march double-time, and soon they were within range of the archers. The defenders let fly, but the large shields and effective armor of the enemy prevented many of them from being hurt. They stopped for a moment, and their own bowmen returned a devastating rain of arrows, which slammed into the defenders and killed scores of them. Archers pitched off of the wall all along its length, and Josiah had to force himself not to think about the casualties. Instead he gave the order to fire again, and his men rained another storm of arrows down on the enemy - again with little effect.
“Conserve the arrows,” Josiah ordered. “Wait until the soldiers get close enough that we can effectively shoot into the gaps of their armor.”
So the defenders waited on the wall as the enemy army advanced. The details of the enemy soldiers came into focus as they drew nearer. The armor they wore was extremely well made metal, with hardly any vulnerable spots in it at all. The helmets they wore had disfigured designs on them in an attempt to frighten their enemies.
Josiah heard a growl to his left and turned to see the ogres setting their crossbows. He smiled grimly and peered over the wall at the advancing force which had, as of yet, been virtually unharmed by arrows. The ogres raised their bows to their shoulders. A resounding roar echoed across the castle, and the twanging of hundreds of ogre bows made Josiah’s heartbeat quicken. Before his very eyes, the army that had seemed to be invulnerable to ranged attack was cut down by the deadly ogre arrows. Several hundred of the soldiers dropped to the ground, but the rest of them continued marching, undeterred by the trebuchet rocks and now the ogre arrows that whistled around them. The ogres reloaded and fired again and again as the enemy army approached. Everywhere their arrows struck, the dwarves sustained massive damage, but the effect was negligible compared to the whole army.
Josiah continued to wait, saving the arrows of his men. Using a spy glass, he was now able to see weak spots in the neck, armpits, and waist of the enemies’ armor, but only a very experienced archer would be able to make a successful shot at this distance. The army inched closer until finally they were well within the range of the archers. Josiah sent the command to have his soldiers load and draw their bows. The soldiers did so, and Josiah inhaled to give the order to fire. Suddenly a blast of wind knocked Josiah off his feet, and half a dozen soldiers near him were flung off of the wall. Josiah recognized the victory scream of the griffin before he saw it climbing sharply into the air. He jumped into a crouching position and looked to see what the damage was. Upwards of thirty griffins climbed into the sky, each having cleared the wall of several men.
“Bows up!” Josiah shouted. He watched as his soldiers climbed to their feet and readied their weapons. They were obviously shaken, but more than that, they wanted to repay whoever had done this to them. The griffins circled overhead and swooped back in for another attack. This time, however, they did not come in on a horizontal path, which would have provided an easy target for the bowmen. Instead, the griffins dove vertically at archers, pulling up only at the last instant and throwing men in all directions.
Josiah rose to his feet again and glanced out at the approaching army who had cut the distance from them to the wall more than in half. The urgency of getting rid of the griffins hit Josiah, and he dove under the claws of one of them to reach the bow of a fallen archer. He grabbed the weapon and several arrows and rolled over onto his back, nocking one of the arrows and dropping the rest. He rolled up onto his knees and pulled the bow to full draw. Spotting a griffin making a long looping pattern in the sky, he started to follow it. A movement from the corner of his eye drew his attention, and he swung around. Only a few dozen feet away, a griff
in was flying straight at him, claws extended. Acting purely on instinct, Josiah released the arrow and dove to the side, landing facedown on the wall and covering his head with his hands. Warm liquid splashed across the back of his hands and neck, and he raised his head. The griffin was splayed out on the ground, the fletching of Josiah’s arrow visible from beneath the creature.
His eyes lingered on the scene for only a second. Grabbing an arrow and spinning to the left, he drew sights on another griffin. Smoothly, he pulled the string back and released, watching with satisfaction as the arrow sunk home into the griffin’s chest. He stooped, grabbed another arrow, and brought it up to the string of his bow.
Without warning, pain tore into his shoulders, and he jerked forward, losing his bow and arrow in the process. His feet rose off of the wall, and he looked down to see it rapidly falling away. A glance up confirmed that it was a griffin that had grabbed him and was now carrying him up into the air. Josiah reached for his sword, but when he tried to move his arm, pain shot through it. He strained, pain coursing from both shoulders to the rest of his body, but he was still unable to reach the sword. He tried again, but his efforts were yet again rewarded only with agony. The pressure on his shoulders suddenly disappeared, and he found himself weightless. Instinct caused him to throw his hands up over his head and grab the first thing that he felt: the claw of the griffin that had just released him to plummet to his death.
The griffin was surprised and a little frightened at Josiah’s reaction. Never before had a human grabbed onto its claw. It closed its claw, crushing the human’s hand, and opened it again, but miraculously the man would not let go. The griffin tried again, but the human stubbornly kept his hold. Trying a new maneuver, the griffin pulled its wings in and dropped into a dive.
Pain flared from Josiah’s left hand as the griffin crushed it in its claw again. His agony was replaced with horror as he felt himself become weightless again as the griffin dropped toward the earth. For several long seconds, the weightlessness persisted, and Josiah watched as the earth flew upward to meet him. Just when he thought there was no hope, he heard the snapping of wings opening above him and felt a jerk as they caught air. His grip on the griffin’s claw held by the smallest margin, but his arm jerked upward, straining at the shoulder joint and jerking it out of its socket.
