The Bloodwood Curse: An Epic Fantasy Adventure of Swords, Magic and Romance. (The Rosethorn Chronicles Book 1)

by Peter Summersby

  “You were a farmer?” Aquillia asked, setting down her bag next to his and sitting down next to Akuchi.

  “Yes, I was,” Akuchi said. He turned to look at the naked elf beside him.

  Maybe now I can confess to her about the other women… What would she say? I don’t want to lose her… I feel dirty, making love to so many women. I need to pick one. Which one?

  Aquillia took his hand in his brought it to her lips and then she gently kissed it.

  Akuchi’s eyes widened at the action but didn’t recoil from the act.

  Aquillia placed one of his fingers into his mouth and sucked it a little, cleaning the berry juice that had stained his fingers. He pulled her hand and she fell into his arms. He brushed her hair away and kissed her cheek. She had placed her hands on his chest. Akuchi’s heart raced. He entwined an arm around her back and drew her deeper into his embrace.

  Can I continue to make love to all these women without hurting any of them?

  ***

  As they approached the fort with their forage, the gate door opened. Standing just inside the gate was Commander Oghenekaro with his arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his brow.

  “We have found some food.” Akuchi smiled. walking past Oghenekaro.

  Aquillia said nothing just smiled at Oghenekaro as she followed Akuchi.

  “Stop,” Oghenekaro ordered, his tone sharp and firm. Akuchi and Aquillia stopped dead in their tracks. “You abandoned your post and now you are parading around my fort naked. Take that food to Taya and then get some clothes on. I will deal with you two later.”

  Chastened they ran to the stores building where they presented their find to Taya. The sound of the pounding from the gate continued as the trolls had not given up their attempt to retrieve their stolen cattle.

  Taya frowned and placed a hand on her forehead in despair.

  “Where did you get these?” Taya asked, trying not to look at them.

  “In the forest to the south,” started Akuchi.

  “The Bloodwood Forest,” completed Aquillia, smiling at their success.

  Taya undid the knots on Akuchi’s trousers and Aquillia’s skirt. An assortment of berries and food stuffs tumbled out.

  A moment of silence hung in the air as Taya looked between Akuchi and Aquillia trying to determine if they were joking.

  Akuchi broke the silence. “Oggy asked us to get new clothes.”

  “Follow me,” Taya muttered as she opened the hatch in the bench and let them into the stores. Akuchi and Aquillia followed her down through the shelves and up a set of stairs to the room on the next floor. The room contained various assortments of clothing; dresses, skirts, trousers, shorts, shirts, and socks. Aquillia walked over to a pile of skirts and pulled out a replacement brown skirt and stepped into it quickly. Akuchi pulled out a pair of brown trousers and stepped into them. Once they were done, Taya took them back to the front of the storehouse. Oghenekaro waited for them, his face scowling with his muscled arms folded across his chest.

  “What am I going to do with the two of you?” Oghenekaro said. He ran a hand over his face. “Akuchi, one day you are disobeying me, the next you are heroically saving the fort. You’re not making my life any easier.”

  “Sorry, sir,” Akuchi said.

  Chapter 18 Punishment and Bravery

  Akuchi and Aquillia stood before the seething Commander Oghenekaro, his foot tapping in rage.

  “What am I to do with you two?” asked Oghenekaro. He turned back to them, eyes flashing with anger.

  Akuchi opened his mouth to speak before Oghenekaro cut him off.

  “I should punish you for abandoning your post during a siege,” Oghenekaro ranted, “but you did find a source of food. However, you then came back into the fort naked as the day you were born. Your crime of leaving your post would not be as severe if you hadn’t brought food back. The fact that you went into the Bloodwood Forest will garner you some respect and awe from the other troops.”

  “Why is that?” asked Aquillia.

  “We had sent patrols into the forest before but none came back, so we stopped sending them. That was before my time as commander. I can’t execute you or send you away; morale is low enough as it is. Follow me.”

  Oghenekaro led them out to the main square and called the soldiers in the square to order.

  “Akuchi because you abandoned your post and left the fort while we were under siege, I sentence you ten lashes. However, as you also showed that food can be retrieved from the Bloodwood to the south.”

  Soldiers not on the wall gathered round.

  “I reduce your punishment to that of ten beatings with a stave.”

  A large man in leather armour appeared and handed Oghenekaro a wooden stave and then proceeded to tie Akuchi to the flag pole. Once the man had finished his job, Oghenekaro applied the stave to Akuchi’s back. Striking with all his force at his bare back.

  As the stave struck pain seared across his back and Akuchi groaned. He kept count in his mind counting down from ten to one each strike sent new pain shooting through his back.

  Ten, pain, nine, pain… He lost count as the blows rained down on his back.

  After he was finished Akuchi was released his back red and blistered.

  Oghenekaro’s face lit up with an evil smile. “I want you to join the sortie to break the siege.”

  Akuchi blanched.

  “Last time we did that the sortie was destroyed, not to mention the fact that this group of trolls would be aware of our tactics since the raid this morning.”

  “That is just the thing,” Oghenekaro stated. “They won’t expect another attack after night-fall, and their fear will work for us. One all-out assault with as many soldiers as we can spare, tonight just after dusk.”

  With that, Oghenekaro stormed out of the storeroom.

  “Does he want to kill us all?” Taya said from behind the bench.

  “How bad are our food stores?” Aquillia asked.

  “Very bad,” replied Taya. “Without the cattle we brought in this morning we barely had enough food to last the week. Our food boats have been very light of late.”

  The door crashed open and in walked Mayu. Her eyes flashed at Akuchi and Aquillia, she strode in and turned to Taya.

  “I need armour for these two,” Mayu demanded.

  Taya righted herself. “What armour do need?”

  “I will need leather gauntlets and shoulder guards, if you have a simple leather breast strap” Mayu began launching into a list. “For Aquillia, the same, and for Akuchi, studded leather armour, leather gauntlets, greaves, boots and a metal helm for each of us.”

  “Come on through and we will get you all fitted,” Taya said opening the bench for the three of them to enter.

  “Follow me.”

  Aquillia and Akuchi, glanced at each other then followed Taya and Mayu back through the storeroom. They walked through compact shelves stacked with various sized boxes and assorted objects. They went to a room behind a simple door, and they entered a room filled with wooden mannequins. On each mannequin was a set of armour, of various types. The closest had simple padded armour the next leather, the next studded leather, the next chain-mail, the next a combination of chain-mail and some plates, the last steel plate. Behind the mannequin were several steel trunks.

  “Here you go,” Taya said, sitting down on the bench. “Pick what you need. When I asked what you wanted when you came, you said you wanted nothing. I am only letting you have this because of the full-frontal attack that Oghenekaro has ordered.”

  “Thank you, Taya,” said Mayu. “Akuchi, try these on.” Mayu indicated to the mannequin that displayed the studded leather armour.

  Akuchi pulled the armour from the mannequin and started to don it. Mayu and Aquillia opened a box behind one of the mannequins and started donning leather armour.

  Mayu and Aquillia wore leather gauntlets that went up her arm to their elbows. They then strapped on a leather strap that covered their chest an
d fixed them in place. They then fitted shoulder guards that came out a few centimetres from their shoulders. Mayu and Aquillia then pulled on leather pants and strapped their swords over the top of their armour.

  For Akuchi, they insisted on the studded leather armour jacket. He was fitted in leather boots that came up to his knees, greaves that came down to his ankles, and gauntlets that came up to his elbows that met his studded leather jacket.

  “Do I need shoulder guards?” Akuchi asked.

  “No,” Mayu said. “Your type of fighting style needs you to reach up high and the shoulder guards will prevent that movement.”

  Once they were all dressed, Taya handed them all simple metal helms that they donned and fixed the leather strap under their chins.

  With weapons attached, Mayu’s to her hip, Akuchi and Aquillia with theirs on their back they proceeded back out of the room down the hallway and out the door.

  They turned to the left and came to the mustering yard. The whole fort was assembled and dressed in their war gear. Men in leather armour standing with pikes formed the Commanders Guard. Soldiers dressed in full armour with an assortment of weapons from long claymores to short dirks made the heavy infantry division and lastly a collected group of men and women wearing various armour collections from heavy full plate to light leather armour with an assortment of weapons, including spears, whips and chains, formed the third and final division of the defence auxiliary.

  Mayu kept walking, leading Akuchi and Aquillia past the guard and the heavy infantry and joined the auxiliary unit.

  A short dwarf dressed in full plate with a great axe strapped to his back walked up and lifted his helmet’s visor.

  “Fine night for a battle,” Nurarfed greeted with a grin that split his whole face.

  “Any day is a fine day for a battle,” Mayu replied.

  “That it is,” Nurarfed agreed. “I was hoping to join the heavy Infantry but, that takes some time.”

  “We could use your axe,” Aquillia said. “With us.”

  Nurarfed nodded.

  Commander Oghenekaro standing at the front of the assembled forces bellowed out for attention.

  “These trolls have plagued us for long enough,” Oghenekaro bellowed. “Today we take the fight to them. We have waited here and trained for this day. We have nearly run out of food. Today some soldiers in our ranks liberated their food supply. They want it back. I say they shall not have it. We shall go out and crush them and take the rest of the food they have.”

  A cheer went up from the assembled forces as the gates opened and the heavy infantry rushed out to meet the.

  The trolls were caught off guard at seeing the gates open suddenly. After the infantry, the auxiliary charged after them Akuchi ran at full speed; Aquillia, Mayu and Nurarfed followed right behind him. As he ran through the ranks of the heavy infantry Akuchi drew his large falchion off his back and carried it in the air above him. Drawing near to the first troll, he brought it down and split the troll’s head in two. He lifted his falchion and brought it down on another blood splattered troll.

  Aquillia arrived beside him and with a downward swing, cut through a troll next to Akuchi, slicing through the neck coming out through the ribs. She then stepped forward and twirled, swinging her double-bladed sword across the chest of another troll.

  Nurarfed stepped up to the other side of Akuchi and swung his great-axe around above his head and swiped through a troll in front of him. Then he stepped forward and cleaved through the mid-section of another troll. Innards and guts spewed forth onto the ground.

  The three of them continued to step forward cutting their way through the standing trolls. Mayu stood behind them as her shorter weapon was more suited to stabbing. She watched, waiting for an opening or a missed opponent to come up so she could filet them in the side. The small group broke off from the heavy infantry group and cut their way, stepping over the dead trolls as the pushed through the group.

  The surprise of the first attack waned and the trolls recovered. They reformed and started to lash out.

  Akuchi brought down his blade and was blocked by a purple-haired troll with a short sword. The clang of steel on steel alerted Akuchi to the change in the battle from surprised slaughter to a proper fight. He pulled his blade off the troll’s short sword and brought it close to his chest. He changed his footing into a more defensive stance.

  The troll lunged forward with its sword and was blocked by Akuchi’s falchion. Akuchi then pushed forward with the blade and elbowed the troll in the face. The troll went down and Akuchi reversed the blade and plunged the falchion into the troll’s stomach, killing it.

  Akuchi then stepped over the dying troll and brought his blade across in a sideways slash at the next troll. He saw Aquillia on his left, surrounded by trolls as she spun and slashed, pushing the trolls back at every turn and swipe. On his right Nurarfed continued to swing his great axe above his head as trolls rushed to strike him down. Nurarfed slashed them and then split them with his great axe, sending them to their deaths and their afterlife.

  The trolls couldn’t run as the trolls behind them continued to press them forward into the oncoming steel of the fort’s defenders.

  Akuchi stepped forward and stabbed his falchion into the gut and cut up, his sword coming out of a green-furred troll’s head. An arrow whistled past his head behind him and heard a gurgle as a troll fell to the blood-soaked ground behind him. He turned and saw a white furred troll lying on the ground pumping fresh blood around an arrow that was embedded in its back right between its shoulder blades. Akuchi turned and looked back up at the Fort on the wall.

  An archer saluted him drew another arrow from his quiver and let loose another arrow from his longbow. A smile crossed his face.

  I am one lucky guy. That archer must really like me. Thank the gods.

  Akuchi turned back to the fight and swung taking a squat, snarling troll in the face with his falchion. The troll fell to the ground spewing blood all over Akuchi. Akuchi, in disgust stepped over the troll and brought down his falchion at another troll.

  The troll raised his sword at the last moment and blocked Akuchi’s attack.

  Akuchi stepped forward and turned his back on the troll and elbowed him in the stomach. The troll doubled over and dropped his sword as the wind rushed out of him. Akuchi then turned and cut the troll’s head off. Akuchi kicked the body of the troll aside and continued to step forward.

  An arrow whistled out and embedded itself into the face of the next troll. The troll fell and Akuchi stepped aside.

  “To me, to me!” bellowed Oghenekaro over the din of battle.

  Akuchi turned to face the Commander and saw that he was well ahead of his unit, Mayu was still behind him, her body and armour was covered in splattered troll blood, Aquillia and Nurarfed still flanked him.

  “We should return to the Commander,” instructed Mayu as she stabbed a troll in the gut with her kukri.

  “Good idea,” Nurarfed and Aquillia echoed.

  The four of them formed a small square and began to hack their way back to the front lines.

  Aquillia stepped out and spun, cutting down several trolls in front of her, creating a gap that the rest could step through. Nurarfed and Mayu stepped backwards following through the gap Aquillia had created. Trolls pressed into the space they had created.

  Akuchi stepped alongside Aquillia, slicing through a heavy-set troll with a pair of longswords, keeping the space between Aquillia, Nurarfed, and Mayu clear of any trolls.

  After a few minutes of cutting through trolls, they broke through to the front lines.

  “Good to have you back in the ranks,” greeted a soldier in heavy plate wielding a longsword and shield. He stepped aside and let the small party through.

  Aquillia smiled and stepped past him into the ranks.

  The soldiers pressed past them and they came upon Oghenekaro standing at the van of his elite personal guard unit as they followed the heavy infantry.

  “As much
as your efforts are laudable,” Oghenekaro greeted them, smiling as the unit of spearman marched passed them, “I don’t want you guys to die. You have acquitted yourself well.”

  “Thank you for your considerate thoughts,” said Nurarfed.

  “I don’t want anyone to die,” scolded Oghenekaro. “Your aggressive attack has put the trolls on the back foot; they shouldn’t pose too much trouble for us. Take a breather and re-join the auxiliary.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Mayu said, sheathing her kukri.

  Oghenekaro stepped away as the last of the personal guard marched past.

  Akuchi looked at the group around him. “I am good to go back.”

  Aquillia, Nurarfed and Mayu all looked at each other Mayu shrugged. Akuchi turned and began walking back to the front line.

  Reaching the front line, Aquillia stepped forward with a stabbing thrust, impaling a surprised troll. She then twisted the blade and spun the blade first to the left. She then brought the back blade down into the troll’s face.

  Akuchi stepped past on Aquillia’s left and swung and decapitated another troll.

  A troll pushed passed his fellows and stood up straight, reaching a full head taller than the trolls around him. His fur was a bright yellow with blue stripes. In each hand, he held a claymore, and wielded them effortlessly. The troll roared at Akuchi and Aquillia, and the surrounding trolls backed off, giving the three combatants space.

  Aquillia stepped forward with her double-bladed sword pointing at the troll. She stabbed the air, pausing his attack.

  The troll swung a claymore at her. Aquillia ducked and stepped forward under the claymore. The troll blocked her attack with a sweep of the other claymore, clashing against her blade.

  Akuchi stepped to the right and brought his falchion down on the now exposed right arm slicing through the troll’s forward before bouncing off the bone.

  The troll roared and attacked Akuchi with a backhanded lunge with the same hand.

  Akuchi blocked the swing with his blade and then stepped out of range of the claymore before stepping next to Aquillia.

  Aquillia sidestepped away from Akuchi, twirled around to the side of the troll, and stabbed at the troll. The troll tried to bring its left-handed claymore to bear to block her short jabbing attacks but was unable to do so fast enough and Aquillia’s sword blade placed several cuts into the troll’s exposed flank.