“We will send troops north from Port Ludenberg as soon as we take the city,” Marat answered.
“Proceed with the invasion as planned,” Anton said. “Now, what about the young man from the prophecies?”
“Our last communication indicates they are searching the Valley of Caves for mystical armor,” Vitaly said as he tapped on the gold sword marking their location on the map.
“Our last attempt to capture the sword was thwarted.” Vitaly added with apprehension. Anton didn’t take well to bad news.
“Tell me more,” Anton ordered.
“We knew where they were heading and had 50 men waiting to ambush them,” responded Vitaly. “They were soundly defeated. The boy with the sword has proven to be an unstoppable warrior. There is also a Basilican Knight and a man who wields a gigantic war hammer. They cut through our soldiers like they were untrained farmers.”
“What else do you expect from my brother?” asked Anton. “He may be even more difficult to kill than the boy. Keep monitoring them and keep me apprised of where they are going. They cannot stop us now, so we will worry about them later.”
“As you command, my lord,” Vitaly said.
Anton turned from the table and walked to the window facing south towards Solandeus. He visualized the mountains and the cities beyond that he would soon conquer.
“I am coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. By this time next year, you will all bow down to me.”
- - - - - - - - -
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Gavin stood on the wall looking out at the frozen wasteland known as the Ceald Desert. Spring was approaching, but it was still cold; especially for a young knight who grew up as a noble in the middle of Solandeus where it never snowed. This was his first assignment as a knight in the King’s army and he was doing his best to be alert even though there hadn’t been an assault on the Wall of Salvation in over 200 years.
The Wall of Salvation was built across the only pass in the Great Divide Mountains that separated Solandeus from the north. It was built 300 years before to protect Solandeus from raids by bands of barbarians from the North. During the first century after it was built, several warlords had mounted attacks on the wall, but were easily repelled. Since that point, there had been peace between the Solandeus and the North. Trade had even opened up between the nations, but all of that was done by sea.
After centuries of peace, the manning at the wall had declined. There were 200 men in Gavin’s unit who rotated 12 hour shifts on the wall. The contingent of 100 men that stood guard now was barely enough to put one man every 10 feet, but with a wall that was 100 feet tall and 50 feet thick, how many men did it really take to defend it?
Gavin’s unit had arrived the day before for their one-month tour of duty at the wall, and the previous unit was already on their way back to the capital city of Westport. This was his first shift standing watch on the wall, and even though there was virtually no chance he would see anything, he was focused on watching the horizon.
If he hadn’t been looking so close, Gavin probably would have missed the dark outline that had appeared on the horizon. Even looking close, he assumed he was just seeing things, but went to the telescope at the middle of the wall to be sure.
Gavin looked at the horizon through the telescope and his heart dropped. He stepped back and rubbed his eyes before looking again. After his second look, he hurried towards the west end of the wall.
“Captain,” Gavin called out. “I think you need to see this.”
After he got his captain’s attention, he turned around and hurried back to the telescope where he looked one more time to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. A minute later, his commanding officer, a veteran named Jeremiah, arrived.
“What is all this commotion about rookie?” Captain Jeremiah asked.
“I think you better look for yourself,” Gavin replied.
Captain Jeremiah walked over to the telescope and looked at the horizon. Just like Gavin had done, he stepped back for a second then looked again to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
“This is bad, very bad,” Captain Jeremiah said as he stepped away from the telescope the second time. “We’ve got to send word to the King.”
Captain Jeremiah turned toward the west and took several quick steps before coming to a complete stop. He turned back to Gavin with a frantic look in his eyes and tried to say something. His mouth moved, but the only sound that came out was a gurgling sound and blood started streaming from the corner of his mouth. His knees buckled and he slumped to the ground.
Gavin looked down and saw that there was a crossbow bolt protruding from his Captain’s chest. He looked up and saw men streaming onto wall from the west. He turned and looked behind him and saw more men streaming onto the east end of the wall as well.
Each man carried a crossbow and shot one of the surprised knights on the wall before any of them could even react. After calmly shooting a man with the crossbow, the men discarded their crossbows and drew their weapons. He could see that almost half of the original 100 knights were down, but the remaining knights on the wall quickly recovered from the surprise and started fighting back.
The fighting was still 100 feet from away so he was able to check on Captain Jeremiah. As he kneeled down to check on him, he could see that the wound was going to be fatal. The captain was still trying to talk and Gavin leaned down to try to hear what he was saying. All he could make out was Captain Jeremiah repeating over and over “Warn the King.”
Gavin stood up and drew his long sword. It was hard to leave his captain there dying, but there was nothing he could do about it. He only had one purpose now, and that was to clear the wall of invaders and warn the king.
Gavin was new to the unit, but he was by far the best swordsman. In fact, he was one of the best in all Solandeus. The only person that was able to beat him was his younger brother who seemed to have a supernatural ability with a sword in his hand. With the singular mission of clearing the wall of attackers, he rushed into battle with his sword high above his head.
Most of the attackers were engaged with defenders already and had no defense against a deadly swordsman on a mission. The first enemy Gavin encountered had his ax raised over his head ready to bring it down on a knight who had been knocked to the ground on the right side of the wall. Before the man could swing, Gavin severed his head with a vicious two handed swing of his sword. He allowed the momentum of that swing to carry him around to another enemy that had his back to him where he lunged forward and stabbed his sword through the man’s back all the way through his chest. He put his foot on the man’s back and pulled his sword out. That attacker slumped to the ground dead and in mere seconds, Gavin had taken down two attackers and he was just getting started.
Gavin worked his way towards the west end of the wall cutting down attackers every step of the way. Every time he took down an enemy soldier, it freed up another knight to carry on the fight. The evenly matched fight quickly turned into a route and the west side of the Wall of Salvation was cleared of invaders. The fight on the east end of the wall wasn’t going as well so most of the knights charged that way to help clear the rest of the wall of invaders. While they did that, Gavin headed for the stairs down to the ground on the west end of the wall.
As he climbed down the steps, Gavin wondered why none of the soldiers below had heard the commotion above and come out to help. He could see the barracks, but didn’t see any soldiers outside.
As he neared ground level, he started to see signs of a struggle near the barracks. There weren’t any bodies, but he could see that there was blood on the ground and smeared on the door frames of the barracks.
When he reached the ground, Gavin worked his way towards the barracks to see what had happened. As he approached the first barrack, he quietly went around to the back side so he could look in the window to see what was happening. As he peeked through the first window, his heart dropped. There were signs of a small struggle and a few bodies were piled up near the door, but most of the soldiers were still lying in their beds with pools of blood under them.
Gavin checked the rest of the barracks and found the same thing in each of them. The attack must have come quickly and caught most of the soldiers while they were still sleeping after having stood watch on the wall all night long. What he couldn’t figure out was where all the attackers went after massacring the knights.
While he was standing there deciding what to do next, he heard a distant war cry. He looked up at the top of the wall and saw another wave of attackers flooding onto the west end of the wall. He realized that the invaders must have went back up the mountain after massacring the soldiers on the ground and were now serving as a second wave of attackers. He knew it would be over quickly because the remaining knights were wore out and now vastly outnumbered.
Gavin started to run for the stairs to help his friends on the top of the wall, but the dying words of Captain Jeremiah came back to him. “Warn the King.”
He stopped in his track and looked around to see exactly where he was. He spotted the messenger pigeon coup and ran that in direction. He stepped inside and quickly prepared the messages to be sent. He wanted to make sure that the message got through so he prepared three pigeons to carry messages. After releasing the third pigeon he stepped out of the coup and watched the birds fly away.
While he was watching, the pigeon that was furthest away suddenly dropped from the sky. Confused as to what happened, Gavin shaded his eyes from sun and watched the remaining two birds. As he watched, he saw the bird closest to him tumble from the sky and realized somebody must be shooting them down. Just as he made that realization, he was slammed backwards into pigeon coup.
As Gavin stood there leaning against the pigeon coup, he was initially confused as to what had happened. As the pain started to spread from his chest he realized he had a crossbow bolt in his chest. In fact, it went all the way through him and was sticking into the wall of the pigeon coup holding him up. Even with the excruciating pain, he thought of his duty to the kingdom and searched the sky for the third pigeon.
As Gavin searched the sky, he could make out the third messenger pigeon flying south towards the capital to deliver the warning to the king. Despite the pain, he managed a small smile, but that smile was short lived as he saw a dark shape speeding towards the last pigeon. He squinted to see what that dark shape was and realized it was a falcon and it was speeding right towards the pigeon. Gavin’s heart sank as the falcon crashed into the pigeon in a puff of feathers.
With his last hope for warning the King gone, Gavin slumped back, overcome by pain and misery. He thought of his family. He realized he would never see his little sisters again. He thought of his brother who was in the capital city of Westport learning about ruling because he was going to be the Duke of Rolling Rock, their home city. Gavin also wondered where his little brother was. He hadn’t heard anything about him since he left home after his 17th birthday several months before. He wondered if his mom and dad would be proud of him when they learned what had happened, and it pained him to know that nobody would ever know that he had done everything he could to warn the King.
Gavin was brought out of his reverie by the sound of somebody approaching. He looked up to see the biggest man he had ever seen. The man stood close to seven feet tall and had a shaved head. He had a goatee that was made into four braids and had several small hoop earrings in each ear. He was wearing a sleeveless vest that revealed huge, muscled arms. The man was smiling, but there was no sign of friendliness in his expression.
“You almost got me,” the man chuckled. “You almost ruined my surprise for the king, but, fortunately for me, my little pet here saved the day.”
A large falcon swooped down and dropped a bloody pigeon on the ground in front of Gavin. The man reached down and picked it up. He removed note and unrolled it.
“The Northern Kingdom invades,” the large man read. “Hundreds of thousands of men - send help. Too bad nobody else will ever read this.”
With hopes of warning the king dashed and his lifeblood spilling out onto the ground, Gavin was starting to lose consciousness. He could hear the large man talking, but was having a hard time comprehending what he was saying. As everything started to go black around him, his last thought, for some reason, was of his little brother, Mat.
Continue reading all about the further adventures as Mat, Persephonie, and the group search for the rest of the Armor of God.
Book 2 of the Armor of God Series coming in
Spring 2014
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Sword of Spirit (Salvation of Solandeus) Page 14
