by Mussie Haile
However, Lord Taboon and Sinto were still at a loss as to why the king had requested their presence. They were not generals, and not experts on battle strategy, either. It was not clear what the king had called them out for. If it was for counsel, which they had been inclined to think was a reason initially, then Henok showed that he did not need much of it!
“I have sent out word to the generals to prepare our troops. The earlier we attack Tonar, and silence their growing presence, the better. However, a little help would be needed to combat whatever tricks they will have up their sleeves. I require your magic.”
Henok’s tone was clear. This was not a request or a plea. The King had given a command.
“What are we to do?” Sinto asked. He was secretly happy that Eldana’s case had not been brought up. Because, once again, he would have sounded incompetent before the monarch.
“Gather your men,” Henok said, staring at the both of them. “Make sure they are ready. We will leave in two weeks.”
“Two weeks, my lord?” Sinto asked. He was unable to keep the shock out of his voice.
As head of the guard, he always ensured that his men were ready. That preparedness was part of the reason he had remained head of the guard for decades. But though their recent major altercation was weeks ago, with Eldana in the clearing of Kleas, they had expended so much magical energy that they needed more time to recuperate.
“Is there a problem, Sinto?” Henok asked.
“No, my king,” Sinto said recollecting himself. “There is just this one minor thing.”
Henok raised his brows inquisitively.
“My men are not yet ready to devote the amount of magic that you would deem satisfactory for the war effort.”
“Why is that?” Henok asked.
Sinto stared at Lord Taboon. He hoped that the wily bastard would not do something that would place him in the king’s anger. Because no matter how hard he had tried to evade mentioning Eldana, she still found a way to affect the king’s plans.
“It is just a simple matter of recovering the strength we had lost during our altercation with Eldana and her friends at Kleas.”
“Eldana, and a bunch of criminals like her, you mean to say,” Lord Taboon corrected.
Sinto looked at him, lowered his head slightly, and flashed Lord Taboon a smile. It was a gesture to show the king that he was in total agreement with Lord Taboon’s view. Meanwhile, in his heart, he thought:
Stupid bastard.
“I thought it has been weeks since you fought with the girl?” Henok asked.
“You are right, my king,” Sinto said, “but as Lord Taboon will also confirm, the level of magic Eldana exhibits unprecedented levels. And her friends in her company too. The three of them are all very powerful.”
Sinto turned to Lord Taboon, fixing him a harsh glare. Lord Taboon smiled in return. He had grasped the meaning behind Sinto’s expression.
Watch as I save your hide, old friend, he thought.
“My king,” Lord Taboon said, “Sinto is right. Why else do you think the girl had been able to best the royal guard, which is comprised of no ordinary mages. Sinto himself was there! And just like he said. And it was not just the girl. The Siem and Berserker are both fearsome magicians. It took them almost everything to keep from getting killed.”
Sinto felt relief flood through him. Although, he took care not to reveal that.
“We, Lord Taboon and myself are in no doubt in true shape to contribute our all to the battle, but I cannot say the same for the members of the guard.”
“How much time do you need?”
“A month, my king,” Sinto replied.
Henok shifted in his throne.
“Sinto, we do not have a month. Attacking Tonar in two weeks is even too delayed. The goal here is to decimate them before they can amass enough power to constitute a major obstruction to our authority. We already have the Berserkers, the Elfsoc, and the Technocons to deal with. Adding Tonar to the list will reduce our authority in Toas to shambles. We have to attack, and we have to attack now.”
Lord Taboon’s face had grown pensive as the king talked, and Henok had noticed it.
“Lord Taboon,” Henok called, pulling him out of his thoughts, “now is not the time to play cozy with your thoughts. If you are cooking something up, say it here immediately so we can deliberate on it.”
“My apologies, my king,” Lord Taboon said, bowing simultaneously. “There might be a way to go around Sinto’s problem.”
Sinto stared at Lord Taboon. Immediately, he knew he was not going to like what the magician was going to say.
“Go on,” Henok said.
“There is a magic ritual that could replenish their magic, and get them ready even before the time for the attack.”
“I can tell there is a caveat coming,” Henok said.
“My king, he is talking about using dark magic,” Sinto chipped in.
“Thank you, Sinto,” Lord Taboon said, turning to acknowledge the other man, albeit sarcastically, “you took the words right out of my mouth.”
Henok reclined into his thoughts for a moment. Then he asked:
“This magic ritual will have them at full strength in time for the attack on Tonar?”
“Yes, my king,” Lord Taboon replied with a flourish.
Dark magic was not just a specialty with Lord Taboon. It was a hobby, something he relished practicing. And he did not hide that. He was one of the very few in Toas who practiced dark magic somewhat openly, courtesy of being Henok’s favorite teacher years back and being one of his most prized counsellors now.
“My king,” Sinto said, “dark magic, while seemingly stronger, is unpredictable. The members of the guard stand the risk of death or even more horrible things if even the slightest thing goes wrong with the ritual Lord Taboon is proposing.”
“What could be worse than death, Sinto?” The King asked. “The future of the Middle kingdom seriously relies on us being able to spring a surprise on an entirely unsuspecting Tonar. While I respect your concern, I do have to overlook it. There is no time. You have nothing to fear. Lord Taboon is skilled in the dark arts. Nothing will go awry.”
Sinto pressed his lips together. There was nothing more to be said. The king’s tone was clear. He had made his decision already.
“Lord Taboon,” the king called. “I expect that you will supply an army of magicians to win my war!”
Lord Taboon smiled. “Of course, my king.”
Henok nodded. “Then you are both dismissed,” he said. “I expect that everything will be ready in two weeks.”
Sinto and Lord Taboon bowed at the same time, before turning and walking out of the throne room.
Everything was quiet and still as they made their way through the trees. Nobody spoke. There was no need for that, not yet. They moved under the cover of the dark sky, which was lightened by the hue of first light. Ordinarily, this time of the day was not ideal for troop movement, especially movements made without the aid of torches. But this was no ordinary army. These were the warriors of the Middle Kingdom. Each selected soldier that made up the mass of this army was handpicked from a young age, and trained rigorously. The only people who seemed to have a problem at moving around where the people within the walls a few miles from the forest. The warriors of Middle Kingdom were skilled at navigating in the dark, among other things. It required extreme skill for such a deluge of forces to be able to make it through the trees without making a sound. At the front of the army was a row of horsemen. The horses moved silently, and the men swayed smoothly with the movement of the horses. The horses moved surely and steadily without making a noise with their hoofs.
One of the horsemen moved closer to the horse in the middle. “My King,” the horse rider saluted, “We’re almost there.”
“Thank you, General Senay,” Henok replied. “
If we’re to win this, our numbers alone aren’t enough. We can do more damage if everything goes according to plan.”
“I’ll see to that, my lord,” General Senay said. With a quick bow, he retreated from the King then turned around and went down the length of the column to consort with other generals.
About a week before the attack, the generals had sent scouts out into the forest to survey the terrain and the walls of Tonar. Tonar had suddenly assumed a strictness towards the admittance of people within her walls. Attempting to go in would subject the scouts to intense scrutiny from the guards at the gate. And the King had made it clear. He wanted this to be a surprise. If the identity of the scouts were revealed, the element of surprise was sullied. Each of the scouts had returned with about the same report:
Tonar had heightened their level of security. But apart from that and the fact that the huge walls kept a lot from going out, there did not seem to be much happening inside the city. The indication that they might be expecting an attack was nothing.
The generals kept sending scouts out to establish certainties that they could work with for plotting strategies. Then two days later, the army left the Middle and bled into the woods. The scouts had kept ahead of the general body of the army every step of the way, ensuring that the forest was clear enough for the army to move undetected. The scouts had left with a smaller group of soldiers, who would help stage the catapults and battering rams required for the assault.
Lord Taboon and Sinto moved by both sides of the king. Sinto had members of the guard walking behind him in hooded robes with runes etched into all of them. Sinto imagined when the attack would begin, how all those runes would begin to glow as they worked their magic. He wished that there would be no loss of life among his company. But he knew how futile such wishes were. There was no way they would engage in battle with Tonar and not come up with casualties of their own. He prayed that whatever augmentation Lord Taboon had them undergo during the dark recovery ritual would give them enough strength to be able to shield themselves from harm. He looked over to the other side where Lord Taboon rode.
Lord Taboon was more battle-thirsty. He looked forward to the prospect of using his dark magic tricks on human, suspecting and unsuspecting alike, magician or no magician.
Feel my wrath! the magician thought. The company he had contributed to the ranks of Henok’s army rode behind him. They wore robes too that had runes inscribed all over them. But unlike Sinto’s men, Lord Taboon’s were practitioners of dark magic, students of his who shared his maliciousness. Before embarking on the march, he had reinforced how important it was that they stay alive no matter what.
“Your lives are what matters to the Middle Kingdom’s victory,” he had told them. “Not the warriors. Yours. The longer you stay alive, the greater the chances of victory, and of course, I don’t need to tell you that you can’t go back to whatever lives you left before becoming my students. Don’t hesitate. Let all the darkness out. See this as the test of everything that I’ve ever taught you.”
As he approached Tonar steadily, he did not doubt that they would tear through the city, and as a consequence, show the whole of Toas that the Middle Kingdom would not be trifled with. They remained the undeclared and unofficial center of power in Toas and would be treated as such.
Without warning, they broke out of the trees and into a massive clearing. General Senay held out his hand at this point and signalled for the army to halt. The city of Tonar stood before them, several miles away, but unmistakable. Its walls shone a dull white in the darkness. Senay pulled out a spyglass from his belt and peered through it.
Exactly according to our projections, he thought, before pulling the spyglass from his eye and then handed it to Henok.
“My king,” he said, “You might want to take a look.”
Henok received the spyglass from the general and put it to his eye. It was dark, and he was not supposed to see the city so clearly, but the view he got was that of the entry gates firmly shut.
The spyglass was a magical instrument and provided its light, therefore, it was one of the excellent choices to bring along for surveillance. Henok directed the spyglass to the rampart. It was empty. He smiled. He had expected this.
The fools won’t even know what hit them, he thought.
He had spent a few years among the regular people of his court during the years following his ascension to the throne. And he had learned during that period that the people were generally less active during the early hours of the morning. It was the sweetest and deepest hour of sleep. And so it was that Tonar seemingly slept on, sitting ducks, as the massive army surrounded them. The very best strategists in Toas could see, even before the battle started, what direction it was going to take; and a number of them were present, as they carried the ranks of generals in the Middle Kingdom’s army. It was evident. They had come upon Tonar with the intent to carry out a massacre.
“My king,” Senay said as he came up to where Henok at on his horse, a little distance away from the main body of the army.
“Yes, general,” Henok responded.
“Everything is ready,” Senay said.
Henok stared one more time on the majestic walls of Tonar and pressed his lips together.
“Good,” he said. “Fire when you’re ready.”
Henok retreated behind the row of catapults, to where Sinto and Lord Taboons at in their horses, and he watched as General Senay ordered the first set of projectiles primed into the catapults. Then the soldiers made way for a row of Sinto’s men to come forward. Placing their hands over the projectiles they whispered:
“Fire and fury! Fire and fury!”
With a whoosh, the projectiles; boulders of rock cut perfectly to fit into the launch cups of the catapults – caught fire. The magicians stepped a few feet backward as a row of soldiers came forward and manned the catapults’ release levers.
Senay rose his hand into the air, and for a few seconds everything went silent, the anticipation of battle hung in the air like a whisper, and then he brought it down. The soldiers pulled down the levers, and the catapults twanged as they rose into the air, flinging the projectiles towards Tonar.
Henok’s face along with a considerable part of the army was illuminated by the fire on the moving projectiles. He had a pleased look on his face.
Now the ambitious Tonar must come to an end. All they’ll see is my fire falling from the sky like rain! the King thought.
Lord Taboon watched with a sneer on his face as the fireballs fell over Tonar, burning with magic fire.
Come on! Lord Taboon thought as he followed their trajectory. He was aching for action. And his skills were better employed on other things than putting fire to balls of rock. And he was looking forward to unleashing those skills.
Everyone watched as the balls of fire stopped abruptly over the air of the city, and scattered as if on impact. But there was nothing there! Just sky!
Could those be the mages of Tonar? Sinto asked himself. They weren’t supposed to be up by now, except maybe Tonar had taken to keeping sentries out on the lookout since Toas had begun descending into chaos. “Maybe we are the chaos.” He murmured while still being confused about what just happened. Henok speaking brought him back from this idea.
“Fire again!” he told Senay. Henok himself was a bit taken aback, but he did not show it.
The general ordered another assault. As before, Sinto’s men set the boulders on fire, and the soldiers hurled them into the air. Henok’s eyes stayed dutifully on their trajectory until they were over Tonar, about to land into the city...
Then the same thing happened again. The balls stopped as if they had hit something and scattered. Their pieces tumbling off the air and falling to the land around the city. But there was another extra piece of detail that Henok picked up this time around. The shield blazed into visibility the moment the projectiles touched them. He had
not seen this before because of the size of the explosion, but he saw it now, the way the shield shimmered and revealing the extent of its coverage. It spread over entirety of Tonar from wall to wall. Henok gazed at General Senay, and they had the same thing on their minds. This was one thing gone wrong with their plan already, and they had barely started the attack. It was not presumptuous at this point to accept that the entirety of their plan was now in shambles. Sinto and Lord Taboon drew close to the king.
“My lord,” Lord Taboon said, “they have a magic shield!”
“I have eyes, Lord Taboon,” Henok replied dryly.
“What we don’t know is if it’s the work their mages or the technology that the Technocons had shipped to them.”
“I don’t know the specificities either,” Henok replied. “But Technocon or not, the both of them are still magic, and we have a sturdy shield over Tonar that’s stopping us from reaching our…”
Just then General Senay yelled:
“Incoming! Everybody take cover!”
Henok’s eyes flew to the sky, and then he saw them, little bright things like stars, speeding out from within the walls of the city towards them. Henok had not seen such things before, and it was the puzzlement and the speed at which they came that made him too slow to react.
The ground erupted in plumes of dust and chunks of stone as the little starry things hit the ground all around them. The force of the explosion knocked Henok off his horse, throwing him high into the air, and casting him to the ground.
