Taken: The Life of Uktesh Book 3

by Hicks, Aaron

  “Man! When are you goona give ‘er a number o ‘er own?” Enan said. “I hain’t nevo seen a man as fast as Laurilli an’ she jus’ a girl! She nearly took out hav o’ them by herself, twene-two ou’ o’ fifty! Our Laurilli is a lovely force unto ‘er own self. Boy! How could you die li’ tha’ you know ahm s’posed to die firs’!” Enan growled at Anen.

  “I got killed in the ambush. I woulda been fine,” said Anen, whose accent wasn’t nearly as hard to understand.

  “Well, I think I just gotta come up with something that’ll end you, if an ambush that started before you were even at the site didn’t work, who knows what’ll be next.” And no one did, they’d been running these mock fights for the past month. The first month was training with blade, bow, and fist, though Laurilli was excused from the bow. Laurilli quickly showed herself to be beyond superior to everyone else. Thanks to a certain dragon!

  Well I do what I do.

  Thanks to the stunt Three had pulled at the opening ceremony she had been promoted to group leader, and was in charge of ten men and women. Her first group had been all eight of Basam’s children, Enan and Anan. Even then she’d known she wanted them on her team.

  After a month of dedicated skill training, where each person was placed with one of the Numbers for training, she was again promoted to sub-squad leader and in charge of twenty-five men. She had been pleased to learn that Six, the only woman Number, also used a rapier. She found to her disappointment that even with all the exercise the food they were being fed must have been extremely fatty because she was beginning to develop a gut! When her group of twenty-five never lost in the first rounds of survival training, she was promoted to squad leader, and even though Enan and Anan were offered positions as squad leaders, they opted to stay together and stayed with her as sub-squad leaders. “All I know is that you, Laurilli, are our first lieutenant, and you’re in charge of one hundred men. You need to promote the necessary people to the right positions, but I’ll leave that up to you as usual. You’ll meet the other half of your team tomorrow.”

  She smiled and said, “Enan, Anan? You guys passed up squad leader before, you want it now?”

  Before he left Three said, “Remember Laurilli the fifty you’ll be getting tomorrow will have their own squad leader who probably won’t take kindly to being demoted.”

  Laurilli smiled and said, “If you’re right he or she can choose who he or she wants to fight for the job.” She knew her smile had turned into a grin that didn’t reach her eyes.

  Enan and Anan had made almost as good a reputation as Laurilli had with their fighting prowess. They, outside of this ambush, had been following Laurilli almost from the beginning. They made the first ten people in line a squad on that first day. Laurilli’s group had an advantage of having a squad leader chosen for them, so they didn’t have any of the internal fighting that most of the other groups had. They’d formed that core group of ten which included Basam’s kids, whom Laurilli, Enan, and Anan were shocked to discover were far more skilled than they should have been, for their ages. Enan and Anan would have been promoted out of her group, but they specifically asked to not be transferred out, and had passed up promotions to do so.

  As they walked back to the camp, for more training, in which Laurilli didn’t gain much. But she had started training her own troops in unarmed combat, as well as giving special instructions to anyone in her squad who asked for it. Her reputation, as well as the improvement of all those training under her—not to mention the squad’s win record--made her squad the only squad with people asking to join it. As the day turned into night and the other squads started to wrap up their practice matches, Laurilli and her squad were halfway through a cross-country jog. Laurilli had made the rule that wherever they went, be it to eat, jog, or relieve themselves, all the members underneath her had to wear their full battle gear. For Laurilli this meant that she always could be seen walking around with her dual bracers of throwing knives, her sword hilt swinging from her left hip, her chain mail on, and a backpack with the rest of her equipment.

  Since most of the members of his squad had decided to emulate her, most of the squad was running with dozens of throwing knives jingling together too. Enan was one of the few exceptions as he wore two swords, one on either hip, and had a heavier chest armor on. They were practicing scouting for ambushes, while getting their run in for the day. Her subgroup leader, Sapag, and the four members of his subgroup were out in front, three jogging with him and one trailing them by several body lengths, but still keeping them in sight at all times. While they were running they were scanning the trees for any sight of the enemy. While hard to do when you know that no one is out there, they were still scanning the trees, bushes, and trying to stay sharp by seeing if they could spot any animals.

  Laurilli had created a motto and had resurrected a name from the past for her squad and posted it on the door into their sleeping areas:

  We are a chain. We are strongest together. Break one link and the chain will not shatter; it will become two. Break more and we will become more. Break us down, until one link is left, and that link will be a ring. We do not run. We are strong. We do not cower in fear. We were, are, and forever will be. We are the Light Ones.

  She smiled every time she thought of the meaning of her motto, that every single man in her squad from herself down to the very last man knew who was in charge if their leader died. So that if they were cut down to the last man, that one person would not be simply a soldier on his own, he’d be the leader, and it would become his job to finish the mission. It also meant that when they trained together. If one man stumbled they would not leave him behind to pick himself up; they trained as a team, fought as a team, lived as a team--and she had hoped before today to never have to watch them die as a team. Some people had balked at the motto, and didn’t want anything to do with it. She was fine with that, she had so many applicants that it meant she had the ability to kick someone to a lesser squad. At first some people volunteered to leave, stating that she was training too hard or that they’d rather lose that have to take orders from a girl. Truth be told she didn’t want quitters in her squad. She knew her squad trained harder than all the other squads. She also knew, that as hard as they trained, she trained harder than most of her squad. While they were using their break time, she was sparing or teaching. She stayed up at night reviewing the day’s events and the mock battle of that day.

  So far her squad had soundly won every engagement. Her superior training and troops meant that the only way to fight evenly with them was to ambush them. At first they’d been allowed to get to their camp and set, up with increasingly less and less time. This last time they had been ambushed as they were running to the camp. They ran, because they had learned that the quicker they got to their defensive point, the more time they had to set up the defense. She wondered idly if they’d be ambushed during their jog next. Then she realized that because they ran with full weapons and armor, those in charge might choose to try it. Then she realized that without the practice swords and practice daggers, they’d never allow that. She yawned and rubber her eyes. I think that I am one step ahead of our trainers, although, arrogance will probably lead to my downfall.

  “Enan, you have the group!” she called out as she started picking up the pace. Soon she was practically sprinting to catch up with the frontrunners.

  As Laurilli gained distance from the bulk of the squad she heard Enan bark at them, “Ah don’ t’ink your runn’in all that dat fast to me, an’ if dat youn’un can run dat fast, den you better be pick’in up de pace!”

  Laurilli smiled and continued to run. As she caught up to the trailer, Mart, he slightly turned his head to regard her with a raised eyebrow, but he said nothing. Laurilli said, “I just want to pick up the pace. I heard Enan pick up the pace for those behind us, you may want to speed up a bit too.” When Mart nodded with an unconvinced grin, Laurilli continued to catch up to Sapag and the other three scouts. They had noticed her approach long be
fore she caught up to them, but they didn’t slow down, and they didn’t stop scanning the forest. Only the occasional, “squirrel half way up tree there,” or “three deer in the distance there,” broke the silence.

  Laurilli caught up to them and said, “I don’t know how much of a possibility this is, but I want you guys to keep up the same level of surveillance, because we may actually have to deal with an ambush. I know that this would mean two attacks in one day and an attack outside of the usual engagement area, but I was thinking that they might try, even though we have real weapons. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. I know no one likes to die in one of these fights.”

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Sapag said, and as Laurilli started to jog back to the main group she heard, “That girl will never need to know what it feels like to die in a mock fight, she’s too good. You on the other ...”

  Grinning as she passed Mart, she nodded to him, and quickly caught up to the rest of the group, who had started to shows signs of weariness, but when they saw the end in sight, she turned around and started jogging and shouted, “Anyone that doesn’t beat me back has to run this again, but at my pace!”

  This’ll help get rid of some of the weight I’ve gained! There was a hustle to pass her up and soon it was just her, Enan, and Anan running together laughing as they sped up to make those trailing nervous.

  How is this fair

  Five months apart from Uktesh

  Laurilli stared hard at the troop around her. In the month since she had been promoted to lieutenant, she’d since been promoted to a sub-captain, then a full captain, and she was now in charge of one thousand recruits as a sub major. She was roughly in charge of one third of all the recruits. She still had everyone from one month ago under her command, but she’d added nine hundred and fifty members to her troop. They’d been ambushed. She had had a full squad under her command go rogue, and attack her troops during the middle of a battle. Although she did feel sorry for them, they’d been ostracized and were forced to leave her battle group. She and her troops now had to walk around with their practice weapons at all times, which mean that they could be ambushed while they jogged, ate, or slept. And yet with all that work I’m still gaining weight! Uktesh better not come back until I’ve been away from this food for more than a month, maybe two! The dragon was silent. Now you don’t want to mention my weight?

  You didn’t take it well last time.

  She mentally screeched at the dragon. And I won’t take it well this time!

  She and her core crew had had to live for the last month almost as if they were constantly in enemy territory, and with two groups of equal size able to attack at any time they were getting worn down. The most recent attack had come at their sentries while they slept. They’d beaten that group, but were immediately set upon by the third group of trainees. Several instructors walked around the battlefield yelling that the dead needed to stay dead until this conflict was over. They had only barely won that fight, and had it been real they would have lost everyone to injuries.

  Her eyes travelled across the line of recruits, and after today--graduates! Down the line to her left she saw Enan marshalling the troops; walking up and down the line, giving encouraging boasts of how many kills he personally would get. To his right he saw Anan standing still. The slight breeze stirring his cloak was the only movement he let happen; he stood firm as a rock in a flood. Laurilli saw Basam lick his thumb and wipe some dirt off Rasam’s face. She felt her eyes roll in an almost uncontrollable spasm as the twins were boosting the moral of their squad by making out with two lucky members. She saw that all four approaches did seem to inspire confidence in the men. For this last fight she and her men were painted blue and clothed in blue. Across the way she saw the enemy split to the right dress and painted in red, led by the only other sub-major Liam. The enemy split to the left had mud on their arms and faces and were clothed in brown. They were led by two captains Tad, and Baloce.

  The final test had no traps, no guises--it was simply survive. While ordinarily it was meant to be a free-for-all melee, Laurilli knew that her counter parts had formed an alliance until either they were wiped out or Laurilli’s team had been beaten. Laurilli was confident that they could win. They’d won against both teams in the last attack, but they’d never had to deal with the weight of twice their numbers attacking at once. Laurilli knew that the key to winning this fight would be defense. Archers and throwing daggers were forbidden, so this would be won or lost by the strength and training of her team. And in that we can’t lose! In the distance a horn sounded and both groups started jogging toward Laurilli’s team, “Form up!” she yelled. An idea that she had decided to try in this last crucial battle would be hardest for four people, Sapag, Anan, Enan and Basam. As her people moved into a diamond formation Laurilli let Basam take the role of the spearhead. The idea was to have the enemy rush in and not smash into a line of troops, but to break and become divided by the wedge.

  As the first of the warriors started sprinting toward their formation Laurilli saw that Liam, Baloce, and Tad were all out in front aimed at Laurilli’s position. A grin lit on her face that never travelled close to her eyes. She raised her sword in a salute and then stepped into a balanced form of defense. Her mind filled with a moment of panic as she thought of her plan failing and everyone under her command dying. As long as Basam can stand firm they will break around him. Then with a crash they were upon Basam. Right and left he blocked the seemingly never-ending rush of enemies.

  Laurilli picked off an attack to Basam’s right while Myranda, Basam’s eldest daughter did the same for Basam’s left. Basam’s sword was a flurry of parries. He didn’t even try to fight back; that was everyone else’s job. Even in the furious middle of the action she could only attack when she saw a clear opening with no chance of someone attacking her. Liam, Baloce, and Tad, had been swept aside by their own troops, and Laurilli had seen Tad go down with a quick stab to the ribs as he tried to turn back for another attack on Laurilli. Every “dead,” person knew it would be suicide to lay down and pretend to be dead during that first rush, so Tad had lifted his sword above his head and walked away from the conflict and instead of dying, sat down and watched.

  When Laurilli’s troops were completely surrounded and the rush ground to a halt, the second part of her plan took effect. From the center of the group, through a suddenly explosive spear point, a group of troops who as of yet had not taken part in the fight joined Laurilli in her push outward. Two-hundred and fifty troops sprinted forward into the mass of troops and the front of the pack. As they left the rest of the group Laurilli could hear Enan and Anan shouting “Fill the gap!” and Laurilli had to put them out of her mind as she lead her group of attackers into the fray of brown-clad enemy. Stabbing furiously, she lost herself in the flow of the sword--stab, slash, block, counter, block, slice, stab, and parry.

  Although still surrounded by enemy troops, her troops continued to rally around her. But suddenly she noticed that she had lost half of the troops that had followed her. A wake of troops moved through the ranks with their swords in the air, clearly showing who was dead--a testament to their training. Once outside of the melee Laurilli saw that the sky was darkening with clouds, and the brisk wind was refreshing to her sweat-slicked face. Laurilli wheeled her remaining troops around the outer edge of the encircling red troops, until she came upon a group who didn’t realize that anyone had fought their way through. They slammed into the unaware group from behind. They took out whole squads in the first moments before anyone realized that the enemy was among them.

  Laurilli’s troops quickly got bogged down again, and those around Laurilli near the front had to fight passed, “dead,” people who were trying to get out of the fight mingling with those trying to fight on. At the same time, the troops Laurilli had originally been running from, had finally caught up with them from behind. Laurilli turned the group as well as she could to angle them out of the fight. As they fought their way free Laurilli saw whole sect
ions of her force cut off and killed. She put it out of her mind and fought her way free. Straggling out behind her were no more than fifteen of her troops.

  Basam had been lost as some point, as had one of the twins, but somehow Trysha and Kayla had made it out with Laurilli. She sighed and rallied her troops. They’d taken out far more than they’d lost, but she was pretty sure that they weren’t going to survive to the end of the fight. They sprinted away from the mob of enemies, and it was at that point, when most of the allied forced arrayed against Laurilli’s troops were busy trying to finish off Laurilli, that the third part of her plan was put into motion. Enan, Anan, and Sapag were to split the remaining forces in thirds and rush out to battle the now only slightly superior-numbered troops.

  They caught the enemy completely by surprise and the first few moments were all in the blue team’s favor. In confusion those chasing Laurilli and her remaining half-squad turned around to go back and help their teammates. She saw an opening caused by the confusion of a battlefield. Laurilli turned her men around and crashed into the backs of those who had been pursuing them. They flowed over the now out-of-the-battle recruits and like a quick knife to the kidneys speared into the enemy from behind. The red and brown groups were so intermingled that Laurilli was sure that they considered themselves one united group. As they fought in deeper and deeper Laurilli saw first one, then quickly four of her remaining troops fall.

  The wind started to pick up and almost in tempo with it, Laurilli battled into the sea of brown and red, and tried to kill everyone before they could get to her men and women. She saw that she had eight, then four, of her troops left, until there was just herself and Trysha, who was better as an archer than a fighter. Soon she too was down. Then a circle formed around Laurilli as Baloce and Liam walked forward. Her men who had just been killed looked at Laurilli. Some were fighting real injuries, some were being lifted over shoulders unconscious, but all who could looked at Laurilli and willed her the strength to fight on and win.