by Billy Wong
"No?"
"Who would actually want to be in a war? But when I found out I had to, I decided I'd make as much of it as I could. I know I'm not the strongest or most skilled soldier, anything like that. So I try to make my mark a different way—by being the bravest."
Derrick nodded. "I believe it. You've convinced me!"
"Say, if my deeds are worthy, do you know any bards who could write a song about me?"
They both laughed, and Derrick patted his back. "Okay. If we both live, I'll make sure you get immortalized in song!"
#
Walking into General Lipner's tent, Adam couldn't help but be annoyed at the way the older man greeted him. "Greetings, lord... Aidan? Aaron?" Finally Adam corrected him, and Lipner looked only slightly embarrassed. Even Adam had to admit it was hard to keep track of all those minor nobles claiming one title or another. "Yes?"
"The battles are taking a toll on the men," Adam began. "There are few left unwounded, and their morale..." Lipner didn't interrupt him, but seemed not to really listen. Adam quickly finished his speech. Lipner clearly knew the army's plight, and restating it only wasted time.
Lipner nodded politely. "Yes, our situation is grave indeed. What would you have me do about it?"
Adam hadn't expected the normally self-assured general to ask him, a minor local lord, for advice. He himself had come to ask if Lipner had any specific instructions on how to best aid their beleaguered forces. The general must be low on options, but it wasn't like Adam had ideas he hadn't probably considered already. He wanted to say something productive, and not obvious and useless. Standing speechless for a few seconds, he shifted under the general's expectant gaze.
He thought then of Jacob and the incident over a decade ago, when his mentor and a few companions had been captured by Coblan's forces. About to be executed, they had pleaded for a chance to win their freedom through combat. Wilner, proud warrior he was, could not refuse, and the knights had faced the monarch and his chosen partners in battle. The result had been one of Jacob's favorite stories, as the prince's mighty and beautiful new horse had failed him, suddenly collapsing in mid-joust, and the knights won their freedom through fate or blind luck.
Now, Adam hoped Wilner's warrior pride would be his downfall again. "General, I learned from my mentor Jacob Greyhunt that Prince Wilner is no man to back down from a challenge for personal combat. I think if a worthy challenger from our camp would demand a formal duel with him, he would hear out the request and give our weary men some much needed respite."
General Lipner averted his gaze, seemingly unnerved that Adam was looking at him as he said the words "worthy challenger." "And who would you suggest?"
Adam did not hesitate. "You are the leader of this army. Who else could represent us in such a battle, where our very survival hangs in the balance?"
The general reluctantly acknowledged his limitations. "I would place my skill above most men on either side, but against the monstrous prince I have little chance. But Rose drove him off today, and their first meeting was hotly contested as well. It is rumored he views her as his chief rival now. Would she not be the first among us he wishes to face, and perhaps the best match for him as well?"
Lipner's eyes widened at his reaction. "No!" Adam cried. "She has suffered many a wound contending with him, and can no longer fight at her best."
"You sound as if you fear for her. Why do you care? I hear that she killed your beloved mentor, who was as a father to you."
The memory grieved Adam, but he shook his head. "I still feel anger at her sometimes, but that wrath is unjust. Rose is a good person, who suffered greatly trying to help us. Her killing of Jacob was forced by our own clouded judgment, and she cannot be blamed. I don't want to see her come to harm."
"Is Prince Wilner himself not badly injured? I hear Rose broke his arm."
Hearing this, Adam felt a little less disturbed by the thought of sending Rose against him. "Will he accept the challenge, if he is so hurt?"
"He has never been so flustered in battle before, and has likely grown obsessed with beating her. I am sure it will not take much goading to bring him into this battle." Adam acknowledged then that Rose had a good chance of surviving and defeating the prince, and the guilt nagging at him diminished.
All that remained was to decide who would request the great warrior's cooperation. Lipner seemed more than willing to do it himself, but Adam thought it would be better for someone close to her to ask. He approached Derrick in his tent and shared the plan.
"What are you thinking, Adam?!" Derrick said in response. "You still harbor that much hatred for her? He has nearly killed her every time they fought. He is too fast and skillful—she's had to pull out every trick just to survive his onslaught, and even so, is exhausted and badly hurt. Do you want to see her die?"
Adam was taken aback by the accusation, and raised his hands in denial. "Wilner has been wounded himself in their confrontations, and it was he who broke off combat each time. You don't think Rose can take him?"
Derrick began to answer, but then Rose walked, looking past tired, into the tent. She cut off his protest with her strong voice and looked intensely at Adam. "I still can never be sure how you feel towards me in your heart. But I accept your proposal. I'm the only one who will fight wounded; Wilner has some strange magic which speeds his recovery. Even so, I can't pass up the chance to fight him where he couldn't easily run like a coward back into his army. Besides, it can only get worse if we keep meeting like we have. So I'll kill the prince for you, and end this royal feud for good." She chuckled despite her obvious weariness. "It'll be a good story to tell my children, someday."
Adam nodded, and left the tent satisfied. The horrible battles would soon come to an end, and he was glad to have helped bring that about.
#
The place and time were quickly decided, neither opponent hesitant to fight even on the enemy's terms. Both warriors prepared for battle inside the old ruined fort just past the border whose roof they had chosen as their arena. Dark clouds gathered over the watching armies threatened rain and seemed also to foreshadow grim times to come, at least for one side.
Rose armed herself as she traditionally did, with great lead-cored broadsword which defeated armor more easily than most maces, wide steel shield practically impenetrable even to the heaviest projectiles, and three-layered armor of steel and leather, heavy as a normal woman. She slung one of Wilner's wonderfully crafted axes, dropped in their second fight, over her back in case she lost her sword, and tucked a few daggers here and there about her body.
#
Elsewhere, the black-armored prince smiled as he hefted two fine axes, replacements he thought he'd never need for his lost weapons. He wore an extra sword on his back, but left his greatest weapon in his dressing room as he headed out, assured of victory.
#
Derrick stood outside, anxiously awaiting the battle. He feared for Rose, who he knew still suffered from her wounds, and prayed to any gods who would listen to get her through the day. It gladdened him that Peter and Tom were at his side, reassuring him things would be all right.
Well, Tom wasn't really reassuring anyone. Instead, he sprouted more useless drivel along the lines of, "Kill him bad, Rose! End this thing so I can go home and brag about being on the winning side!"
Derrick knew the man was trying to bolster morale with bravado, but couldn't help feeling aggravated. Peter did manage to calm him a bit, though. The man's cool steadiness was somewhat infectious, and his attempts to lessen his worry much more effective than Tom's. The sergeant reasoned that Wilner had run before from Rose, and it would weigh on his mind now that he could not do so. Though Derrick considered that his desperation might make him fight even more savagely, Peter said it could also make him not take the care needed against someone like Rose. So Derrick came to feel better, and now his heart only pounded moderately hard in his chest. He had begun to wonder how much longer the wait would be when he felt a huge hand on his sh
oulder and spun around, heart racing anew.
He relaxed less than he would have expected when he saw the giant who had grabbed him was none other than Rose's estranged lover Finn. "Derrick! Where's Rose, and what's going on?"
Anger over his neglect of another friend gave Derrick's voice an edge. "Rose is about to fight Prince Wilner on top of that fort. Gods, I wish you had been here to support her. She came here to help me out of friendship, and has suffered so much for it. Not only physical wounds, but emotional ones as well. You know she can't stand to see comrades die—well, she's seen it countless times since she arrived.
"If only you'd been here to soothe her pain and rage, she might not have accepted the proposition of dueling against the most feared warrior in the world. She is heavily wounded and he unscathed, and his speed has come close to overwhelming her twice already. I fear greatly for her now, and you should too if you still care for her."
Finn blinked as if surprised at Derrick's hostility. "I do fear for her, that's why I came. When I heard she had joined battle with the Coblan army, I worried something just like this would happen, and shuddered to think she might pick a fight with Wilner. So I came to try and stop her, but it looks like I've gotten here too late. Now all we can do is pray and hope fate will see her through." Realizing how worried he too was, Derrick's anger at him diminished.
"Don't worry," Tom said, "the prince ran away from her both times they've met on the battlefield so far. She's a better match for him than you seem to think!"
At that, Finn smiled proudly and thumped his chest. "That's my Rose! I never should've doubted her, she'll soon add to the legend of the Iron Flower once again when she crushes the unbeatable Prince Wilner!" But in reality he and Derrick were both still scared for her, and stopped talking as the fighters came out on the roof. Finn called to Rose, and his great voice carried to her over the rest of the gathered warriors.
#
Rose's spirits soared to know her lost love had come for her, and her cheer became evident in the new spring in her step and relaxing of her posture. However, this did not seem to bother Prince Wilner, whose enthusiasm seemed to rise even with her morale.
The prince smirked wickedly as he and Rose faced each other on the worn roof, rain beginning to drizzle from the dark heavens above. He reached out a cupped hand to catch the water as he taunted her, "So, woman, it is just as in the poems. On this dark and rainy day, a great hero shall fall to the forces of darkness, and your nation will mourn as it is plunged into an abyss of my making."
Rose only laughed at his attempt. "You think a little bad weather and your amateur's prophecy can diminish my joy?! The man I love traveled hundreds of miles out of concern for me, even after I fled him over our argument. So the hope I've gained today could not be the least harmed by your words. And I doubt you really think of yourself as evil. So stop playing to your bad reputation and let's just fight, as champions do."
"Why does such a great warrior like yourself fight for such a worthless land?"
"I'm not fighting for the place, but the people who live here—my friends." Rose grinned. "But you can't fool me. Though you say it's useless, you wouldn't be fighting for it if it truly was. So once I beat you, I'll find out for myself just what it is you want here. That'll be a worthy knowledge to pursue." Her opponent stopped smiling then and charged her, the time for words over.
Their weapons met as before, and Rose found herself forced back by the furious blows which seemed, unbelievably, to come even faster and stronger than ever. Or was she weaker? Wilner stepped in close, and she took a knee to her injured thigh followed by an axe haft to her sore head. She could hear his army cheering as she backed up against the edge of the roof. But she sidestepped his attempt to rush and knock her off, and with one well-placed kick to the back almost sent him over the parapet.
He twisted away from her followup slash and came on hard, sending jolts of pain through her shield arm with hard double axe blows. Her defense weakening, she took several deep cuts before she stumbled and fell. Her allies fell to nervous shouting. As hurt as she was now, Wilner was too damn fast for her! She managed to kick him in the knee as he raised his axes, and he fell flat on his face. He spat blood as they both stood. She charged and pinned him against the parapet, smashing his face again and again with rapid headbutts. He pushed her away, but took a cut across his belly as he tried to advance. Doubt emerged on his crimson face, and Rose pressed her attack.
With desperate fury Wilner beat her back, only to have her grab his arm after a parried slash and throw him down. He rolled quickly to his feet, but the next chopping blow he blocked cost him an axe-head. He dropped the pole and tried to draw his sword, but Rose found her opening and stabbed him through that arm. He screamed, and in his pain could not hold onto his remaining axe when she grabbed its handle and wrenched it away. Using the sword in his arm as an agonizing lever, she forced him onto his back and stepped on his neck. She had won.
The knowing confidence still in Wilner's eyes unnerved her, and she heard a collective warning from the Kayland soldiers. She released the prince and began to turn, only to see an immense halberd streaking at her. Rose jumped away, just avoiding a cleaving blow that might have cut her in two, but her attacker turned the slash into a stab which buried a spike the size of a shortsword deep in her side.
Studying her new foe, she gritted her teeth in pain and anger. A huge armored man like one of Wilner's personal guard stood before her, but she marked him instantly as the master of those. Like a stallion among mules this one was even taller and more massive, close to eight feet tall and seemingly near as wide, and wore great gilded armor far thicker than the norm. There seemed to almost be no weak spots in that metal shell, smaller plates overlapping the joints for extra protection. Egbert Laros, the human castle.
He'd hurt her badly with his first strike. She could already taste blood in her mouth, and when she touched her fingers to her side, they came away too wet. A voice like thunder rumbled from behind his visor. "You killed my men, some of whom were kin to me. Now I will spill your blood in their name."
She realized then that the Coblan army had begun attacking the unsuspecting Kayland soldiers, who could hardly defend themselves in their confused state. Rose turned an eye back to Prince Wilner, trying to pull himself up with his good arm.
"Coward!" she screamed. She kicked right into his wound, crushing his already mangled arm against the wall and dropping him to writhe in agony. Egbert lashed out, but Rose ducked inside his polearm's reach and hit him with a heavy blow that would have sheared a man in normal plate in half. It glanced off, the great armor barely scratched. In response, Egbert sent her sprawling with a punch like a blow from a mace. She wiped blood from her mouth and groaned as she realized the gauntlet must have been weighed. Apparently, her enemies had no qualms about cheating to win...
The halberd left a deep gouge in the stone where Rose's head had been moments ago as she rolled, and she struck hard at the same spot on the giant's side where she had hit him before. The metal dented slightly, but Egbert barely seemed to notice the impact. Again she took an incredible punch, this time to the gut. The following blow to the back of her neck felt like a tree trunk falling on her, and the armored knee to her face shattered her nose, making her choke on blood. The behemoth then grabbed her by the neck, lifted her into the air, and drew back his halberd as to impale her on the long spike on its end. How was she being manhandled like this?
Rose kicked, planting both feet solidly on his helmeted head, and to her relief forced him to drop her. With an angry roar Egbert raised his halberd high and brought it down like a falling comet, but Rose dodged as it sparked against the floor and attempted to strike with a twisting slash which would surely cleave through the mountain of metal and man.
But the giant was surprisingly quick to recover, and deflected the blow with the handle of his weapon. Unwilling to give ground to each other, the two exchanged an evenly matched series of fierce blows before Egbert tried to
surprise Rose with a swipe of the butt end of his halberd. But Rose saw it coming, and ducking under the strike grabbed his legs and threw him over herself. He came down with all his weight on his head, and Rose asked, "How do you like getting tossed around?"
To her surprise, he was able to mutter "Strong..." as he stood up. How had his neck not snapped? Maybe it'd been the armor bracing it. But Egbert was still groggy, momentarily unable to raise his weapon to defend, and Rose swung her sword in a great twisting arc at his side. This time, the armor that must have been three times as thick as the norm gave, and the blade buried itself deep in his flank. He fell to his knees, the halberd dropping from his hands.
Somehow, the mammoth man fell-lunged forward and grabbed her in a great bearhug, staying low while he pinned her arms to her sides. Rose's ears picked up a scraping movement behind her, and she realized Wilner was recovering. She attempted to break the hold with sheer strength, to find Egbert's grip unyielding.
With a determined yell, she summoned all her power, and felt his stubborn arms slowly giving way. But it was too late. As Egbert's arms parted, he fell away, and unbearable agony seized Rose as something pierced her back and burst out bloodily between her breasts. Her vision blurred and failed in a red haze, and though she distantly heard Wilner's triumphant voice, she could hardly make out the words.
#
Wilner grabbed his dying opponent by the hair and yanked her head back to look at her anguished face, eyes half-closed and blood pouring from her gasping mouth. "There's a reason I am known as the greatest of warriors," he whispered in her ear. "I never let anyone who could match me live for long. Where's your hope now?"
To his utter shock, she raised her hand and reached behind her, plunging her fingers into the open wound in his arm. He shrieked, nearly fainting as she tore it wide open. Then, impossibly, she turned, wrenching his sword from his weakened grasp, and drove her huge blade into his middle. Gushing black blood showed it a mortal wound in itself, but Rose pulled the sword out and with trembling arms raised it for a blow which would split him in half. He knew his death was near, and felt relief it would come at the hands of the greatest warrior he had ever fought. And killed, he comforted himself as he watched blood spurt out around his blade in her chest.
