“Who’s given us the victory?” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
My voice carried well down and up the pass, as it echoed off the steep rocky sides.
Without any apparent hesitation those around me and in the other six groups belted out, “The Lord God Jehovah!”
I drew my sword out and clanged the flat side of it repeatedly off of the shield at my feet in a regular cadence of ringing metal that was quickly picked up by the rest of the warriors.
“Who created all the lands and the seas?” I yelled.
“Our God!” Came the resounding cry of the warriors on the field.
“Who created the heavens and the stars?”
“Our God!”
The black robed figure had ceased from berating the cowed soldiers in front of him and had wheeled his stallion around to stair in my direction.
“Are there any before the Creator in glory or majesty of power?”
“No! Father God we adore Thee and we will serve none besides The Ancient of Days!” Came the responding shout.
Stabbing the air above my head with my sword I yelled, “Our God!”
The warriors on the field and even those on the distant ramparts behind us on the wall chorused back, “He reigns!”
“Our God!”
“He reigns!”
Then with the greatest shout I could muster I yelled out,
“Forever!”
“Forever!” Came the thunderous ovation of the Valley Landers up and down the pass.
There was then a sudden silence and in it I made an elaborate show of sheathing my sword, as if to say ‘I was done here’ and then turning my back I started to walk towards the wall as my actions were replicated by the rest of the warriors of the six surviving groups.
I had only taken but a few steps when I heard Marfoul’s echoing voice ring out in the distance in a guttural outpouring of rage, “Ten thousand golden tarsas to the man who brings me back his head!”
Wow! That was a lot of money for just one man’s head. Glancing back over one shoulder I saw that quite a lot of the enemy felt the same way about the amount of money being offered for my head. I quickened my pace some to a fast walk, but no faster than that. It was hard to not quicken the pace further though. The greedy envy of so many men in regards to one’s own head can have that affect on a man.
The warriors of the two supporting groups gathered along either side of the pass peeled off as we passed by joining us in triangular formation, which pointed back to Kingdom Pass, of which I was at the head of the point of the v formation.
Emboldened by our lack of response to their charge, the enemy horde’s onrush quickened, as they rightly surmised that they were too close to our spread out line for another barrage of stone or fire to take place from high up on the fortifications of the wall for fear of hitting our own troops. I was the target of their avaricious greed and their onrush took the shape of a triangle as well as they headed singularly for me even trampling over each other in the process.
We were far enough advanced and I stopped and turned drawing both of my curved sabers from behind my back as I did so. I held one low and one high in a classical double sword fighting technique. As I had stopped and turned the entire v formation rippled in a duplicate rhythm of movement. Their double blades were held as mine poised to slice into the onrushing enemy.
We had no shield other than the flashing movements of our second sword. As the enemy caught sight of the line of raised sabers flashing in the late morning sunlight, they gave up their sole chase of me in favor for the next clash between our two forces, with taking revenge for their fallen brethren foremost on their minds. The great horns of the wall behind us bellowed out once more. The sound was deafening.
The onrush of the enemy stumbled somewhat at the sounding of the horns in fear of what new terror they might be heralding in. The side walls of the pass abruptly came alive and it was with terror that the packed onrushing enemy soldiers watched as heavy armored warhorses and their riders tore through a partition of artfully painted blankets that had been stiffened with glue and painted to resemble the rocky sides of the pass.
It had been these fragile partitions that the two elongated formations had been protecting while stationed along the sides of the pass. Warhorse stallions neighed loudly in their savagely expressed desire to fight, even as their masters drove them headlong into the packed ranks of the enemy.
The big steeds surged forward with a will, as their masters swung side to side with heavy axes and maces to add their intensity to the crushing power of their mounts, who surged through the ranks of packed soldiers like unstoppable juggernauts committed to destruction.
The heavy cavalry charged into the enemy in an angled trajectory heading down the pass. They cut off a solid diamond shaped mass of the enemy from the main body of the army that numbered into the thousands and like sharks diving into a bait pool the long flashing line of saber wielding warriors advanced quickly in a flurry of slashing blades that felled the stunned and cut off enemy troops as if they were a field of wheat being harvested by an unbroken line of sickle wielding reapers. As the two bodies of heavy cavalry converged to form the second point of the diamond they wheeled to head down the pass charging straight into the very heart of the enemy army in a phalanx formation.
None could stand before the intensity of their onrushing force. The troops before them broke and fled down the pass in a vain effort to escape the crushing hooves and brutal axe strikes that followed close behind. Seeing the army flee from before the heavy cavalry and with it their only chance of a managed retreat the morale of the cut off men within the diamond formation of our forces broke as well and turned to run.
We charged after them cutting them down mercilessly the length of the pass that had turned into a gory landscape that reflected the true horrors of war. Near the bend of the pass the cavalry gave up their pursuit of the enemy and circled back toward the wall. They cut down those they had missed on the first charge and then smashed into the larger body of fleeing soldiers that my warriors were busy slicing down from behind.
It was full on blood bath melee as the retreating soldier’s escape was cut off by the milling heavy cavalry in their way. They had no choice but to fight, but the heart to fight with was gone from them and they fell away quickly before our blades.
There was the echoing sound of the beat of horse’s hooves and from down the pass a solid wall of cavalry numbering in the thousands appeared at a full gallop. Their haste was such that they ran wholesale over their own fleeing troops in an effort to join the battle and snatch victory out of a skirmish that could only be labeled as the most shameful of defeats on their part.
The wall of cavalry turned the bend in the pass and as they came abreast of the narrowest distance between the pass walls where the two ancient rivers that had once flown through the pass had converged into one. Murky colored fluid sprayed down upon them from sluice ways that had been carefully built into and hidden in the steep sides of the pass to either side of the narrowest point. The murky colored fluid drained out in great volume from massive underground vats that had been opened further up the steep sides of the passes.
The direct fall of gravity down the pass sides and the decreasement in sluice size aided the higher pressure of the fluid as it shot out into the pass forming interlacing arcs of fluid across it over thirty feet into the air. Torches were thrown by men, who had lain in concealment for days in carved out niches on the pass sides. The fountains of fluid arcing out and over the pass ignited instantly to reveal itself as a light flammable oil.
The forward rows of cavalry already doused with the oil burst into flame and went crazy in their desperation to be free of the fire engulfing them both man and horse alike. The thundering column behind them drew up to a shuddering halt even as the new frontrunners of the column were pushed from behind by the momentum of the charge into the liquid rain of fire that poured down like a sheet across the pass.
The great horns of the wall sounded out once more, which was the call for our retreat from the field of battle. Not one of the enemy remained standing within our controlled area of the pass. Quickly we searched through the littered remains of the battlefield for our own dead and wounded.
The twin gates of Kingdom Pass creaked open and wagons pulled by teams of horses rushed out to help convey both the dead and the wounded, as well as those who were simply to spent of the energy needed to walk back to the city having used it all up in the battle. The flames would only last for perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes, and then they would be out and we would be exposed to the enemy once more without any more tricks to play on them.
The retrieval of the dead and wounded went quickly. I stumbled slightly after having heaved a dead warrior onto one of the last departing wagons. The burning oil was almost at an end. It was time to get back to the relative safety of the wall. That I was tired was putting it mildly. The circular shield formation strategy had taken everything I had in terms of energy.
I stumbled over the bodies of the slain making my way back towards the wall. I made my way across the ditch now filled high with the bodies of horses and men, where we had made our first stand. I sensed that I was being watched and I looked around more closely. I found a pair of eyes in the shadowed darkness of a deeper, less filled section of the ditch, that I was crossing over. I moved slightly toward them and I saw that it was one of our own that had fallen into this deeper section of the ditch. The smell of death was high as I made my way over the bodies down to him.
He was a young blond haired warrior that I remembered seeing briefly. He had been a part of one of the formations that hadn’t made it.
Weakly he tried to wave me off, “No sir! They’ll be coming soon! I’m not worth your life!”
This young man just out of boyhood had been going to lie here in this dark hole waiting for the end to come and not call out to me for fear of risking another life. Talk about a special brand of courage. I wondered if I would ever posses such courage as that.
“Nonsense your life and what you choose to do with it is every bit as important as my own! Come on we’re getting out of here.”
I quickly threw what armor was easily available to undo to the side from both of us.
“What’s your name warrior?” I asked as I picked him up.
“Tannis Rologan, Sir.” He responded painfully.
The movement of picking him up hurt him I could tell. “Well Tannis after you mend up from this you’re going to be assigned to my private retinue. I need more warriors like you around.”
It was tough going on the uneven squishy terrain. Tannis’s face was ashen white. “Do you have a special girl somewhere Tannis?”
“Not really Sir. There’s one I wish was mine, but she doesn’t see me like that, if you know what I mean Sir.”
“If she knew what I know about you Tannis she’d be begging to be your girl!”
He smiled wanly and then gave a little gasp of pain and grunted out, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’ll be able to serve with you Sir. I would have liked that more than anything.”
Tannis died then in my arms going completely limp. I sunk to my knees holding him to me. So young! He had deserved to live on merit alone. He didn’t deserve to die like this before the fulfillment of his days in this squalid dark hole of death! He was dead and I had helped kill him. It was my plan, my strategy that had put his life at risk and put an end to it. Bitter tears streaked down my face as I closed his wide blue eyed stare for forever.
“May you be at peace in the arms of your maker Tannis Rologan, I am unworthy of your sacrifice.”
I laid him down gently and stumbled the rest of the way up out of the ditch not looking back. Suddenly Rolf was by my side tugging me along and I let him, too numb inside to much care about anything at the moment. At some point consciousness of my surroundings returned and I glanced back. The battle field was empty except for the bodies of the slain enemy and one who should have gotten a better deal in life than he had.
No more enemy troops had advanced into the pass even though the burning oil had stopped. The sounds of the drums had intensified however. Hopefully that meant that they were bringing their heavy siege equipment to the front on the double. It was an odd battle plan that called for the destruction of one’s best defensive fortification to be accomplished as fast as possible, but that was the plan. It had worked so far maybe our success would continue, but at what cost?
How many more Tannis’s would have to die to achieve victory? The corresponding thought came that answered that question. If we lost this war all the Tannis’s would die of that I was sure, which was why we had to fight and keep dying so that perhaps some would live. I was one of the last to enter the city. As I came out of the darkness of the tunnel passage way and back into the light and the city of Kingdom Pass I saw massed ranks of warriors gathered to either side of the road and as one they shook their fists into the air repeatedly shouting a timeworn military cheer of glory to a warrior they deemed fit of the honor of receiving it.
I didn’t deserve this! It seemed as if every warrior of the army had gathered and was shouting my praise. I was overcome with the feeling of wanting to throw up.
“Don’t you dare!” Rolf said harshly to me.
“I don’t deserve this praise Rolf. Why are they cheering me, when I lost so many of them today? I’m worthy of scorn more than I am praise!”
Rolf continued tugging me along, “They cheer because you have given them hope. They cheer because as warriors they have the honor of being led by the greatest of warriors and that warrior is you! Master you have never sought your own glory and yet it has been given to you abundantly by the Creator we both serve. Let them see the man that you are inside! Let them see the man they believe can lead them to victory, even if you do not believe it of yourself! Reward their faith and let them have peace, whether it is to the grave we go or to stand triumphantly over the graves of our enemies!”
I didn’t feel like doing it, but I recognized the wisdom of Rolf’s words and so I lifted my fist into the air and excepted their praise, even though I was less than worthy of receiving it and would have preferred to slink into a dark corner and lick my wounds and have some time to heal before I again had to face the light of day and the gazes of men’s faces that stared sightlessly out into the void of space and time, because I had led them to their death.
I stopped at where the central stairs started up to the wall ramparts high above and motioned for silence. Reluctantly the impassioned warriors grew silent one by one, with still a few giving scattered cheers in the background.
“Brothers and sisters hear me please. You have not only pledged your swords and arrows to me, but now I see that your hearts also. I am unworthy of the honor you bestow upon me. I am but a man as you are with the same weaknesses that you struggle with, the same problems. But I am also a man that has faith! I believe in the Valley Lander way of life. The right to serve our Creator as we please! The right to protect our families and our lands from those, who would take them from us! The right to live free and accountable to no man other than those we appoint over us and the sovereignty of our Creator, who reigns over all creation! The enemy beyond those walls wants to take all of that away from us! As I have been elected as your leader in war, I swear that as breath and the strength remains within me to lift my sword, that I will fight to preserve all that we hold sacred. I will fight to preserve our freedom and not only ours, but our children’s children too. This is my promise to you and may the Creator judge me ever so severely, if I fail in anything I have promised you!”
The applause that erupted was deafening, but again I made the gesture to be silent and when I had it I said less heatedly than before, “You have given me your hearts, but I tell you that is not enough. I must have your trust also! Orders will be given that you will not understand and will certainly question, but yet I ask you to obey every one of them, as
I believe that the route I believe we must take is the only one that can lead us to victory. Sacrifices will have to be made even as they already have been and more will be asked of you than ever should be and hopefully never will be again. I do not risk anyone of you needlessly and yet I have risked all of you and our entire people to attain total and complete victory over the enemy. What say you? Are you with me no matter the path taken?”
There was a ground swelling roar that culminated in one word being repeated over and over; ‘Lata!’ which simply put, means master or commander.
I saw Romnan make his way through the crowd flanked by generals Sanjo, Nadero, and Santaran. They stopped before me and the crowd of warriors grew silent.
Romnan spoke loudly in order to be heard by all, “We Valley Landers have always been a race of warriors! We have had many proud warriors to call our own over the course of our history. Such a warrior stands before you now in the form of Roric Ta’lont. Well is it said if one wants to know how the progress of a battle is fairing look around to see if a Ta’lont is still fighting, if so then there’s reason to hope yet that the battle might be won.”
There was a general chuckle throughout the crowd at that statement, which seemed only new to me as I had never heard it before now.
“You, the warriors of our people, are faced with making the greatest sacrifice that one can in this life and it is because of this that you speak for all of the Valley Lands. As you have accepted this man, who humbly comes before you as one of you and not one better than you, I ask that you will you not only appoint him as leader of our people in this present struggle, but also in the peace to follow!”
There was a deafening roar of approval and all I could do was stare in shock at Romnan. What was he doing? Why was he unseating the long held power of the council and transferring all the power to me? Again silence was called for and Romnan stepped forward toward me and answered my unspoken question.
A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind) Page 29
