Six Heads One Crown (The Pearl of Wisdom Saga Book 3)

by Jason Paul Rice

  Mariah asked Lucille, “How are you…? What happened? I thought…”

  Lucille pulled her in for another squeeze and whispered in her ear, “We weren’t in the castle when that awful dragon attacked. We were out paying tribute to the families who lost sons in the Fox Chapel attack. We were in the Laurel Lowlands, far from the attack, but it still breaks a duchess’ heart to find out about something like that. This is your day.” Lucille whispered something into her ear and Mariah looked around.

  She spotted a band of instrument players and yelled, “Play something that we can all dance to.”

  She grabbed Lucille’s arm and the two listened as several musicians tried to play all at once until one song drowned the rest out. Everyone started to move to the music except her mother who stood off to the side near the wall holding her baby brother. Mariah saw her mother look away quickly as she made eye contact. She detected a look of jealousy and excused herself from Lucille and walked over to her mother.

  She grabbed her hand and said, “Come dance, will you?”

  Camelle spoke fast, “No, I can’t. You go, I’ve got little Jon to worry about.”

  Mariah dragged her out from the wall and said, “Stop making excuses. Little Jon will love it.”

  She started to feel happy again until she noticed Haley with a forced smile and wished Ruxin could have attended.

  B-RUXIN

  Ruxin threw the wooden stick out onto the grass. Jasper ran over, scooped it up with his mouth, and brought it back to Ruxin. He sat on a tree stump and continued throwing the piece of wood to his dog. Ruxin tossed the stick again but the dog ran by it and over to the edge of the hill.

  The dog started barking. Ruxin told Jasper to stop, but the dog wouldn’t listen.

  “General Taker, get the men ready. Send word to the next unit to be on alert. We may need backup,” Ruxin said.

  “What? Where is this coming from?” the general asked.

  “Do it now. That’s an order from your prince,” Ruxin commanded.

  Ruxin walked over to the incline and looked down. He saw screaming soldiers rushing the bottom of the hill. Ruxin assumed this was a scare tactic to draw them down into a trap. He thought the men would rush halfway up the hill and retreat. As the enemy passed the halfway point, Ruxin’s men began to assemble along the precipice. Ruxin drew his sword and his men followed.

  Who are these fools? They have the purple tiger banners but she can’t be this foolhardy. Does she think we only have one hundred men? Nobody would attack uphill like this.

  Ruxin looked behind him and saw his count of soldiers growing by the second. Ruxin wasn’t going to allow the enemy to get to the top, so he screamed, “ATTACK.”

  The men rushed down like wild banshees and Ruxin quickly overpowered a fat soldier by driving his sword into the man’s unprotected chest. Moving downhill, Ruxin killed liberally and often, massacring the enemy with ease. He couldn’t understand why they would attack uphill. As the utter slaughter pressed on, Ruxin realized that all the men were normal soldiers. No one wore the colors or decoration of an officer. He killed four more men and looked around the hillside. Bodies covered the normally romantic landscape, soiling the purple-leaved bushes and littering the dense orange soil. Very few of Ruxin’s men had been lost until it hit him.

  I smell a red herring. This has to be an illusory attack.

  There weren’t any high-ranking members of an army and most of the so-called men looked younger than him. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw boys who looked like pages or squires dressed in the special surcoats of officers but lacking the sufficient armor or body protection.

  A frantic Ruxin ran up the hill, stumbling on dead bodies and hacked-up pieces of men. He tried to work around the carnage but that proved impossible. After wading through and over the bloody mess, he reached the top.

  He saw two messengers and yelled, “Get the fastest horses. We need to leave now. We need to get word back to the castle, immediately.”

  C-LEIMUR

  “ATTACK,” screamed the Queen of Goldenfield. An explosion of pent-up aggression followed and her troops rushed south. The vanguard smashed into the unprepared opposition. Her army had been permitted to pass through the city gates after bribing a sympathetic lord. She could hear shouts from the enemy. Calls for retreat, sending word back to the castle and her favorite, surrender, rang in her ears along with the banging blades around her. They herded up a group of men that yielded without much resistance and the Queen continued toward her prize.

  She hoped the false attack would force the King of Donegal to send forces to the west and leave the northern area unprotected. Leimur hoped the attack was still going on. She had only left instructions not to attack uphill. She knew the smaller force would ultimately be defeated, but if it could extend the battle for at least an hour and draw men out of the Capitol, it would go down as a wild success . When Leimur had learned that the new King would be at his daughter’s wedding today, she knew it was the perfect time for an attack. She worried about more people being in the Capitol but most of them weren’t fighting men. Dusk slowly stole in, which was fine with Leimur, who didn’t mind fighting in the near dark.

  As they rambled down a slight hill into a level valley, another faction of soldiers stood in her way. Her warriors shredded through the enemy with ease and raced across the open plain. They came to another hill and the cavalry raced ahead as the Queen preferred to fight on foot. The bowmen set up at the bottom of the hill and the Queen thought back to the Marshlands.

  Just when Leimur had thought it was her fate to be sucked under the murky earth, the ground firmed up and allowed her horse to make it safely across. The worst of the swampy area proved to only span about fifteen feet. General Rigby thanked her for not taking his advice and retreating. They made it into Fox Chapel undetected, traveling under the deep cover of thick forests. Her spies had noticed only small units randomly placed in strategic areas north of the castle. Her informers had found heavy forces to the east and west, but the north side seemed to be forgotten. The Queen’s unlikely plan had paid off so far but looking up this hill made her worry. She tried to get her men up to the top as fast as possible because she hadn’t seen much of the enemy yet. All reports told her that Jon Colbert was a brilliant battle technician. She was on edge wondering where an attack could come from. Her contingent made it to another level area. Leimur heard a sound like a thundering herd and looked at the next hill in front of them to see a heavy unit racing at them.

  The two forces crashed into each other, sword on shield, and the wild warring commenced. Leimur whirled her battle-axes around and traded failed attacks with an older man with a long sword and shield. She ducked a wild swing and rose quickly to bury one axe into the man’s helm, right at the bridge of his nose. The cold steel caved the iron helm inward, creating a mortal wound. She pulled her weapon out of the dead man’s face and continued killing. This proved to be a lower skilled unit and Leimur’s soldiers crushed the enemy quickly.

  I can taste the throne already. All the reports of Jon Colbert being a battle expert seem to be lies to create a false mystique. I wish I could send a letter to the palace and tell Ali-Tiste and my boys to leave for the castle now. This is as good as Goldenfield’s.

  Another small force of very green teenagers tried to stop Leimur. They only delayed the Queen’s ascension to the top of this series of hills. Blood dripping from both axes, Leimur started to traverse the next hill. This was the final summit to the King’s Castle. With strong numbers behind her, Leimur didn’t see anything that would prevent her from taking her prize. The last hill was the steepest and darkness had fallen fully, creating a tense atmosphere, but the Queen marched forward fearlessly. Leimur laughed at King Jon’s desperate attempts at defense. The last few groups of boys couldn’t have been much older than fourteen and they were getting younger by the minute. The Queen hacked her way through the brave but foolish boys and farther up the hill.

  I will let Ali-Tiste be
Queen of Donegal and she can hold the throne until Astrid is ready to rule. Then she can come back to Goldenfield so we can grow old together.

  The stars and moon provided just enough light through the lingering clouds to expose the towers of her new castle. She could barely see, but the gate towers and barbiment looked void of defense. Suddenly, she saw a screaming horde of silhouettes. A massive attack of cavalry backed by infantry raced downhill at her. Now Leimur worried that she had fallen into King Jon’s trap to lure her in and surround her. She ordered the troops to retreat to flat land to fight the battle. At this point, that looked like her only chance at victory.

  D-MARIAH

  As Mariah enjoyed her wedding dance with her father, she couldn’t have envisioned a more perfect day. Everything seemed almost magical. She had married a wonderful man and felt like the Gods were smiling upon her again. They had spared Lucille and Edword from the dragon attacks and made sure they could make it to the reception. An armed guard pulled Jon Colbert away from his daughter. Mariah thought her father was going to assault the guard until the man whispered something into Jon’s ear. That’s when everything changed.

  More guards, knights and soldiers invaded the room and it didn’t take a scholar to realize there was a huge problem. The music had stopped and the minstrels left their instruments behind in a dash to leave.

  Jon made his way back to his daughter and said, “You stay here, right here. Where is your…Camelle?” Jon yelled, looking around for his wife.

  Through the mad chaos, he spotted her, ran over and told her something, then ran out of the room.

  Camelle rushed over to a confused Mariah and she asked, “Mother, what is going on?”

  “It may be nothing, but we may be under attack,” Camelle said with a firm grip on Baby Jon.

  “Attack, who is attacking us?” Mariah wanted to know.

  “That’s not important right now. We just need to stay here until our escort arrives,” her mother instructed.

  Torvald and her Bottomfoot friends came over to Mariah as everyone was being whisked away through the south entrance. Mariah was terrified and kept stumbling over her lengthy dress. Jon ran over and noticed the problem and stopped Mariah for a moment. He pulled a dagger and cut the dress away unevenly just above his daughter’s ankles. This broke Mariah’s heart. This was supposed to be her perfect day but now it might be the day her family and friends died. She continued rushing along until they were outside, exposed to the ominous black sky and swirling gray clouds. The clouds had increased and now covered the moon and stars to create an inhospitable escape scene. The only thing not hard to see was the utter madness. Mariah looked around for her new husband and his parents, but couldn’t spot them in the melee. Nobles in expensive silk and samite dresses were running for their lives, screaming to be spared by the Gods. Jon Colbert had his family rounded up and got them to the southern stables. He quickly procured a small army of knights to guide his family back to Mattingly. Mariah sat up on her mount, gripped with fear.

  E-RUXIN

  Ruxin raced for the entrance to the castle when the unsettling sight of a mass evacuation became apparent. He worried for a few moments until he spotted his loved ones surrounded by some of the best knights of Mattingly. He dismounted and rushed over to his wife.

  “My darling, Haley,” Ruxin said, and bear-hugged his wife and unborn child.

  “I was so worried when I heard about the attack,” Haley said.

  Ruxin’s wife licked her forefinger and wiped some of the dried blood from her husband’s speckled cheeks.

  “I am perfectly fine. No need to worry, my love, our child will grow up with a father,” Ruxin promised while rubbing his wife’s burgeoning belly.

  His father tapped him on the shoulder. “Ruxin, we must defend our castle. The rest of you go back to Mattingly until we crush this small uprising.”

  Camelle objected immediately, “No. Both of you are coming with us. We stay or leave as a family.”

  “We cannot call ourselves the King and Prince if we turn and run while our castle is being attacked,” Jon argued.

  Ruxin helped his wife up into her saddle and all his family members were on horses now except for his father and him. He wanted to stay and fight.

  “Well if that’s the case, then a Queen and baby Prince should fight too. Someone give me and my son a sword and shield so I can fight and die,” Camelle stated emotionally.

  Before she could continue with her stunt, Jon slapped her horse’s hindquarters and screamed, “Be off, I love you all.”

  Ruxin watched Torvald pass with Baby Jon in his arms and in a flash, his family was gone.

  Jon turned to Ruxin. “We need to hurry. We don’t have time to get into full armor, so return to your quarters but only for a few minutes.”

  Ruxin barely reached his room before his father arrived wearing mostly the same get up from the wedding. He noticed his father had a sword belt, his battle helm and gauntlets to the elbows. Ruxin grabbed a large triangular shield and handed his father a buckler. The royals ran back through the castle and headed for the north side.

  They saw Bryan Caughleigh and Jon questioned him, “What’s the situation?”

  He reported, “Waves of enemy soldiers keep coming up the hill. Just when we think we killed them all, more start running up, ready to die. Must be several thousand, at least. I don’t know how they got in the gates but they won’t be able to get siege towers up the hill. We have seen ladders moving in toward the north wall. We need men on the ground and up in the parapet walks.”

  “I have word out for men coming from the east and west, but who knows when they will get here? It looks like this battle is up to us,” Jon said.

  “Then we are at a strong disadvantage from a numbers standpoint,” Bryan stated.

  “We better get to action. Let’s go kill this bitch of a queen. Ruxin, you go down on the ground level and I’ll head up to the walks,” Jon ordered.

  His father assumed the fighting on the ground would be safer for his son but the real possibility of death lingered everywhere.

  “Yes, father,” Ruxin answered and took off. As his father left, Ruxin could hear the savagery getting closer by the moment.

  F-LEIMUR

  Warm blood decorated her tainted golden armor as Leimur made her way to the top of the final hill. Her plan to back up to level ground had worked and they quickly defeated the enemy force and moved up the hill unmolested. Her men were throwing up ladders and climbing the castle wall. She couldn’t believe they had fought their way up several hills to reach this point. Goldenfield had suffered some big losses and the Queen had left some of the force behind to avoid getting completely surrounded. After seeing the lack of skill of the enemy, Leimur’s confidence brimmed.

  The battle still raged behind her on the hill as Leimur rushed for a ladder. The soldier in front of her only made it a few steps before a pot of boiling grease rained down, burning his eyes and exposed face. Leimur kicked him aside and steadied the rocking ladder. She quickly climbed the creaky wooden construct. She found crenellation at the top and easily stepped onto the narrow walk way. There weren’t any archers still alive. Their bodies were strewn about on both sides, littering her path to the throne. Leimur needed to navigate down the walk to get to the Dragon Tower and into the King’s Castle.

  As she fought, the Queen heard the booming voice of General Rigby from below, “My Queen, heavy enemy forces have arrived from the east and west, they’re crushing us on both flanks. We need to retreat north. We will all die if we stay and fight, they will trap you inside the castle. Get out now.”

  Leimur peeked down to see the General running off, shouting instructions to the soldiers. Leimur wasn’t willing to make it this far to turn back now. If I can just take this stronghold, I have enough soldiers in Goldenfield to break any siege. I just need to take control of this castle and the realm is ours.

  She also knew that the enemy was likely to give up if she took control of the King�
�s Castle, so she forged on. Leimur took a quick glimpse down the hill and saw her flanks being heavily assaulted but it didn’t look as dire as General Rigby had made it out to be. She slaughtered three more men and neared the opening to the main castle. The next man who stood in her way wore fancy clothes and held a long sword and small shield. The odd-looking man took almost a full minute for the Queen to dispatch, the stiffest opponent yet. The next man she faced wore fancy clothes featuring golden bulls and a golden bull helm. The Queen could tell this man was a high noble because that kind of helm took many hours to craft.

  The short, stocky man wore gauntlets but no signs of armor. Leimur slashed and dodged with both battle-axes whizzing through the air. The early exchange showed Leimur this man had a lot of power. As the two carefully attacked each other in the narrow space, they came to another crenellated area. Leimur glanced down and saw her forces being massacred. She quickly focused back on her opponent but could hear the blood curdling cries of her loyal men being slaughtered like sheep. Unfortunately, their bravery wasn’t being rewarded at the moment. The Queen tried to land her axe in the exposed body of her enemy but the slick man with a gray-blonde goatee proved to be supremely skilled. He blocked everything Leimur could throw at him. The stocky man used his little shield extremely well to block the whirling battle-axes.

  Every tactic that had worked in the past failed against this man. She wanted to kill this noble and rush the castle but the indomitable man wouldn’t budge. An irresistible force had met an immovable object as both unleashed their best attacks to no avail. The tiring stalemate raged on as sparks flew from a sword being blocked by a battle-axe, but neither could land a clean blow. Leimur was running out of stamina after all the fighting and racing up the hill. She became desperate as she finally realized who her opponent was. She let loose with a final furious assault that culminated with an overhand swing that stuck in her opponent’ buckler. She made a quick attempt to slash the man’s throat with her other axe but he slapped it away at the last moment with his sword. The axe did make light contact with the man’s shoulder, drawing blood. The greenish blade of her opponent matched his eyes as Leimur stared at him. In one motion, Leimur leaned down with her shoulder and thrust it into her opponent’s chest, knocking him onto his back. Leimur felt someone tugging at her shoulder but her only thought was to end the life of this stubborn enemy.