BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan

by J. Eric Booker

  Right before going to bed that night, only thirty minutes after Chelsea had left, Brishava handwrote a letter on a scroll to Baltor, sealed it with wax, stamped it with her ring, added some spicy smelling yet delicious perfume, and then put it into a scroll case. The letter read:

  Dearest Baltor,

  My sunshine…and my love! I am willing to bet that you are just as surprised and delighted to see this giant hawk, as I was earlier this very day…and even more so by smelling that spicy perfume you love me to wear—perfect!

  I have named this hawk “Praetor” and he shall aid you in the fight against the evil gnome army and the flying dragon! He’s now yours.

  Praetor is but one of two gifts delivered today from King Amnion and Queen Tessa of Rolinsa! In gratitude, I have already dispatched an invitation for the king and queen to stay here in Pavelus for a month long vacation in one year’s time.

  I hope and pray that by the time of their arrival, you will have returned to Pavelus, so that you can meet them yourself, and then we can give them several wonderful gifts of our own—you and I!

  Please do your absolute best in keeping Praetor alive, so that we may later breed him with the female, whom I have named Leshava…she has been dispatched to aid your friends, King Cheo and Ruling-General Humonus.

  Once the war is over, I am going to keep Leshava for myself, and as I said before, Praetor is yours.

  And once we’ve bred them, hopefully in a year’s time, I have promised both your friends—that they will each get the first of the litter!

  Also, please listen carefully to whatever this hawk master named Traes has to instruct, as this boy-hawk is very sensitive, proud and intelligent.

  I’m sure you will come to love Praetor as much as I already do in the brief time I got to meet and fly upon him, as he reminds me so much of you when you fly!

  Of course, my Husband, you are forever my Love, my Life, and my Sultan.

  Sultaness Brishava Elysian.

  The following morning, after handwriting yet another rolled-and-sealed scroll and then putting it in a scroll case, she ate a light breakfast alone outside on the patio, in which she felt a bit lonely because Chelsea was gone.

  Following breakfast, she headed down to the courtyard with a scroll case in each hand, as well her personal guards—one scroll case for each brother.

  Upon arrival, Brishava observed that the two brothers appeared to be all ready to go, as they were already buckled into the saddle of a hawk.

  She first handed the scroll case in her left hand to Traes, as well a copy of the world map.

  Once he had taken both items, she pointed out Baltor’s approximated location on the map, and said, “Sultan Baltor Elysian and his army of more than seventy thousand strong should be located somewhere around here at this time…easy to spot from the skies. Once you have found my husband, give him the scroll case, please. In the meantime, if I were you, I would keep this map protected in that scroll case I just gave you, when not in use.”

  “Yes, my Sultaness,” Traes said with a bow, before putting the map away. He looked over at his brother and said, “Farewell, my brother. I’ll see you soon… in this life or the next!”

  “Farewell, my brother! Be safe…”

  After throwing a salute, Traes put the map away and launched his hawk straight up into the air, and once at an altitude of a thousand feet, took off northbound.

  Meanwhile, Brishava walked over to Darius.

  The very second she had handed him the scroll case and the other copy of the world map, she drew an imaginary line on the map with her index finger, a line that ran from east to west, and said, “Ruling General Humonus, King Cheo, and their army of twenty thousand cavalry soldiers took this route to the east. They should be located somewhere around here, maybe even as far as the Galgaa Jungles by now…got it?”

  “Yes, my Sultaness, and I too shall keep the map safe in the scroll case when not in use. Farewell,” Darius said with a bow.

  “Farewell, my friend, and good luck!”

  After another bow, he launched Leshava straight up into the air until reaching the altitude of a thousand feet, and took off eastbound.

  In the same moment, Ruksha came prancing out of the palace’s entrance and saw Brishava looking off into the skies. After bowing, he cleared his throat before asking, “Your Highness—are you ready to see your people in the throne room?”

  Looking over, she answered with a nod and a smile, “I am.”

  Ruksha returned the nod. With that, he and Brishava reentered the palace, and went to work…

  CHAPTER XIII

  30 miles to the east of Valakan—2 nights later…

  Cheo, Humonus, and their army continued to ride in the same formation that they had been using since having first entered the Bospa Mountains—in the rear of the formation marched two hundred twenty-eight powerful Valakanese giants.

  During this first night of travel, a night without any encounters or problems, they made their way eastbound via the safest routes that Humonus remembered by heart, as he had traveled this very route twice before.

  Thanks to the fact that both of the half-moons were in the sky providing quite a bit of illumination throughout the tree-filled valleys, only a few soldiers at the front and the rear of the formation were needed to carry lit torches.

  Twenty minutes before the sun was about to rise, and the skies had already been lightening up, which was at four-forty in the morning, Humonus ordered the troops to set up camp and chow in between two mountain passes—they did.

  That evening, after a day without any problems or encounters, camp was unset and dinner ate before they trekked their way through the valleys. Other than hearing the sounds of howling wolves off somewhere in the mountains, there were no worries all night long.

  Thirty minutes before sunrise the following morning, they again set up camp and made chow.

  While everyone was quietly eating breakfast, only twenty minutes later, however, the “red alert” came.

  “Gnomes!” was the word heard way more than seen, especially for the fact that tens of thousands of seven-foot-diameter circular patches of pitch-black clouds had instantly sprouted in the middle of the air just about everywhere—especially where large congregations of exhausted troops or giants sat and ate. Magical clouds that enshrouded most of the camp and surrounding area in utter darkness—not even the lights from any of the burning torches could be seen!

  From a widespread volley of poison-tipped arrows shot by the attacking gnomes in the first round, thousands of arrows, more than sixty men on the friendly side were already dead, injured and/or poisoned, and one giant had instantly been killed from an arrow puncturing his throat! Those individuals who had been wounded from the arrowhead, but not killed, began to get nauseous from the poison and puke their guts up.

  Even though Humonus could not see, as he was lost in one of those clouds himself, he instinctively stabbed his sword deep into the gut of a female gnome who possessed a wicked dagger and had just teleported to his position—she was dead!

  As Humonus didn’t sense any other dark gnomes right near his location, at the moment, he yelled out through the darkness, “Forces, remember your training!”

  The gnomes had already shot several dozen arrows with precision into Humonus’s direction, but the man had already performed two leaping somersaults—back to back—out of harm’s way.

  The troops neither spoke, nor moved, nor attacked, nor used their shields, unless they felt they had to, as per the orders of their ruling general.

  In the next moment, the patch of darkness that had been surrounding the very man strangely dissipated and he could again see.

  Just before Humonus had leapt back into yet another cloud, he noted to himself that the giants were the ones stomping all about and making a lot of noise in the darkness in order to find the gnomes, or each other. At the same time, he saw that the gnomes that now surrounded the camp were continuously shooting more volleys of arrows whenever they
saw their human enemies, or heard noises, especially at the giants! At the same came all the other combative sounds of swords or other weapons slicing others—coupled with the sounds of people or gnomes screaming out in pain!

  Once again on his feet in the darkness, Humonus half-whispered in the language of Thorium, “Salami, tell your giants to stay still and keep quiet…”

  Salami, who had been eating breakfast with Humonus and was still nearby enshrouded in his own cloud only twenty feet away, yelled out in Valakanese, “Silence—stop stomping about!”

  Nearly a dozen arrows would have just killed Salami, but fortunate smiled on him as every single arrow had been deflected and destroyed—with one swipe of Humonus’s sword.

  Salami, however, did not know this fact that his life had just been saved. Fortunately, the giants had listened to Salami, stopped in their tracks, and were making no noises whatsoever.

  For a little over a minute, silence reigned, except by the horses and camels that all had been snorting out their nervousness and fears, as well the crying from the wounded and/or the dying.

  Not even thirty seconds later, ten thousand gnomes simultaneously screamed into the air, just before they swarmed like angry bees through the encampment in order to kill every human and beast!!

  Thanks to the troops’ expert combat training, however, they had killed nearly a thousand gnomes in the first round and injured another thousand, while only several dozen humans were dead, and a few dozen more injured!

  At the same time, the giants had killed two hundred-or-so gnomes in that same first round—nearly a couple thousand clouds dissipated in total, which made about one-tenth of the entire camp—people, giants, and gnomes included—become visible.

  Even though Cheo remained perfectly, still in the darkness, he heard the sounds of a sword zinging his way, and based off the direction that the sounds were going, he dropped to his knees while swinging his own sword horizontally.

  The gut of a gnome was split wide open, and the shroud of darkness that had covered over Cheo’s position dissipated!

  Now that he could see, he began pursuing and killing all those female gnomes that were either teleporting, or the males sneaking from cloud to cloud, in order to get to their pre-selected prey. He had killed about two dozen of them, mostly males, so far … and counting!

  With every swing of Yaush’s six-foot axe—whether in darkness or light—two to three gnomes were not only hit and killed, but their corpses flew a dozen feet through the air!

  For the next ten minutes, a fierce “battle of the ages” was fought, as wave after wave of dark gnomes continued to attack with everything they had, including their magical weapons and martial arts skills, in order to win! For some unexplainable reason, whenever a gnome was killed, his or her weapon stopped glowing. In the end, however, thousands more gnomes had been slaughtered, and only a few thousand had successfully retreated into the day.

  After the very last creature was gone or dead on the bloody battlefield, as well all the black clouds, the Valakanese giants and the Forces of the Sharia Empire lifted their weapons high into the air, and for several minutes longer, they all cried out, “Hooray!” or “Hoosha!”

  Once things had finally settled back down, Humonus found Stormea, and so he ordered, “Commanding-General Stormea, find out the number of men and giants killed or wounded, and report this number to me on the double.”

  “Yes sir!”

  Nearly twenty minutes later, Stormea reported the information that four hundred twenty-three men had been killed, and eight hundred had been wounded in all degrees, including the four hundred soldiers who were still dry heaving from the poison, as they had nothing else left to puke up. Nine giants had been killed with thirty wounded—twelve of these were also dry heaving! Last but not least, an approximate count of the number of dead gnomes—at least eight thousand.

  Only seconds after hearing the report, Humonus called out through his megaphone, “Attention!”

  The army assumed the position—he briefed, “Forces, we have finally met the evil enemy face to face, and we have lost more than four hundred good lives today—let there no longer be any doubt amongst any of you that the words of our Sultan bear true!”

  He stopped in his speech and nodded at Salami. In turn, Salami interpreted in Valakanese … and in turn, his brethren cried out, “Hooooooosha!”

  Humonus only then continued, “Today, we shall pick up our camp, move the wounded into the back of our support wagons, and move a half-mile down the road, where we will set up our new camp and properly treat all the wounded—and let’s triple the guards, while the rest of us rests and recuperates. That way, we will have three times the chance to raise the alarm and fight back should they make another attack!”

  Salami interpreted.

  Once it was his turn, Humonus added, “Come tonight, we ride with even more haste toward the Galgaa Jungles, which should only be about four days away. After all, our chances of beating the gnomes in the jungles will be far greater than fighting in these very narrow valleys.”

  Salami interpreted.

  Humonus asked, “Are all my orders clearly understood?”

  “Yes, Ruling-General Humonus,” the troops cried out in unison.

  Salami interpreted what Humonus had just said—in turn, the giants again cried out, “Hooooooooosha!”

  Humonus concluded, “Make it so.”

  That evening, after their new camp had been broken and dinner eaten, the army went back on the trails that, for the most part, descended.

  Four uneventful mornings later, just before sunrise, the army had once again finished setting up camp, this time within the borders of the Galgaa Jungles.

  Until all of a sudden and coming from out of nowhere, a giant hawk carrying an unknown man landed only twenty feet away from the command tent.

  Not even a second later, “the alarm” got raised as hundreds of nearby soldiers—with weapons drawn and ready to kill—quickly began to surround the hawk and rider. At the same time, many of them soldiers were yelling out, “Intruder alert!”

  The man looked all around real nervously, before gulping and then asking, “Is there—is there a Ruling-General Humonus or a King Cheo around here?”

  Though these very men had exited the command tent in the next second with weapons drawn, Humonus answered using suspicious tones, “Yes, this man and I are the ones you seek. Who are you?”

  “My name is Darius, and I bear a sealed message from Sultaness Brishava Elysian!”

  Now sounding a bit curious though mostly suspicious, Humonus asked, “Really—where is the message?”

  “May I be allowed to get off my hawk, sir? The scroll is in a saddlebag.”

  “Yes… Soldiers, at ease.”

  The soldiers relaxed their weapons, but of course they did not leave the area.

  Immediately Darius climbed down to the ground, pulled out a scroll case out of one of his saddlebags, and extended it out for Humonus to take—he did.

  Humonus then opened the case up, and pulled out a scroll that bore the unbroken seal bearing the symbol of the Sharia Empire. After handing the scroll case back to Darius, Humonus cracked the wax, unrolled the scroll, and once unrolled, he verbally read aloud this message:

  “‘Greetings King Cheo and Ruling-General Humonus,

  I trust that your campaign against the dark gnomes and the dragon is going well, and that the Valakanese have joined us in our crusade against these abominable monsters…

  To let you know, this man who stands before you is named Darius. Darius is not just a hawk rider, yet he is also the special caretaker and trainer of hawks—a hawk master.

  Please listen very carefully to everything Darius has to say regarding this most beautiful female hawk I have named Leshava, of whom is a very sensitive, proud, and intelligent creature I already love.

  Now I am going to allow the both of you, King Cheo and Ruling-General Humonus, to equally borrow and share her, until the war is over—after all, she i
s a special gift to me from King Amnion and Queen Tessa.

  Leshava will serve you best as a scout that can literally climb miles up into the sky, or sharply dive with the simple tugging of the reins.

  Please try and keep her out of direct combat situations, as I would very much like to keep her alive, so that we can breed her with the male hawk counterpart, whom I have given to your Sultan.

  Speaking of my beloved, Baltor successfully continues onward with his mission. Not only has he successfully recaptured the city of Lasparus without so much a drop of blood spilt, yet he and his army are marching northeast toward Parthway, in the hopes of uniting his forces with the Vispano Province’s forces.

  How much greater our odds, and how much more wonderful it would be, if we had them fighting alongside us, despite our recent past grievances? Well, that is the last word I heard from any of my husband’s messengers, which was but a few weeks ago—of course I love reading every word your Sultan has to write…

  Finally, know that we have peacefully reclaimed Mauritia, as well another successful city of the Vaspan Empire we did not know about previously, called Driven—so great is the news I bring to you in so many ways! The Sharia Empire grows more and more each and everyday.

  Good luck with your campaign, Ruling-General Humonus and King Cheo…and God speed,

  Sultaness Brishava Elysian of the Sharia Empire.

  P.S. Please ensure this message is relayed to King Cheo, okay?

  P.P.S. Once the war is over, we will breed our two hawks, Praetor and Leshava. Both you and the king will get your pick of the first batch of baby hawks, okay?

  P.P.S.S. Ruling General Humonus, your new battle armor is ready and is sitting in a large bag upon Leshava. King Cheo’s should be done in another month.’”

  Upon having concluded the letter, Humonus rolled the scroll back up, placed it in the scroll case, shut the case, and wedged it between his arm and armpit.

  “So,” Humonus asked, “is it possible if King Cheo gets the first ride on the hawk with you for about an hour? And then I can be second for another hour, after of course you’ve given me my armor so I can try it on, and make sure it fits and works properly?”