Chapter Eight
Given Over
The dew was heavy on the grass and the morning fog was thick. We glided through it like stalking tigers not a lit torch among us, as we drew closer and closer to the high outer wall near the southern gate. No sounds came from within the city and all was quiet.
Too quiet seemingly for such a city, surely there were at least night sentries. Unbelievably we filed through the wide open gate into the gate yard beyond. Craning around in my saddle I stared at the high walls and towers.
I could see no one!
Was it going to really be that easy or was this some form of an elaborate trap? Was the gate going to come slamming down at any moment for us to find ourselves surrounded by the enemy?
Holon came running up to me sword in hand his face looking as incredulous as mine must’ve looked, “There all dead Zevin! All of them in the gatehouse and I can’t see a live sentry along the walls in both directions!”
“Dead! How?”
“They looked like they had been stabbed as they were eating!”
Who would have done such a thing? And why would they have done it the very night of our attack? If they were indeed helping us how had they known we were coming?
The entire column was fanned out all along the inside of the wall and I wasn’t quite sure now what to do. I hadn’t expected anything like this!
It was as if the Creator had given the city over into our hands without even a fight. But who had killed the sentries?
The answer came then slowly in the form of cloaked figures slowly moving out of the cover of buildings and alleyways. They moved quietly through the mist that blanketed the street to congregate before our horses. More and more of the cloaked figures appeared. There were hundreds of them; no there were thousands of them!
I heard the bow strings of the archers behind me stretch and the grating squeak of swords leaving their sheaths and I held up my hand for them to stop. This was no gathering horde of the enemy. It was a group made up entirely of women!
Girls, teenagers, young women, middle-aged women, and even older women. What was going on here?
Holding my sword at the ready I moved Relentless forward toward the silent congregation. I drew up in front of them waiting, as if expecting an answer for their unexplained appearance and help this night. I didn’t have to wait long.
A young pretty girl stepped forward and said, “Please Sir!”
But hesitated to say more as a hopeless look filled her eyes that said she wanted to believe that there was hope, but doubted it would ever happen for her.
“Take us with you.” Finished an older woman on behalf of the younger woman.
Other voices spoke up softly pleadingly from the crowd.
“Please!”
“Take us from this place!”
“We’ve delivered the city to you!”
“We’ve placed oil on all the buildings and along the street fronts!”
“Don’t leave us in this place!”
I held up a hand silencing the voices. I looked out over them for a moment.
“Can anyone give me one good reason why I should risk the lives of my warriors to take you home with us?”
There was a long pause and I saw a lot of silent tears falling, each one of them making me feel like a heartless villain inside. The pretty girl who had spoken up first stepped forward toward me and knelt awkwardly down in the dirt of the street before Relentless.
Her face was wet with tears, “These women and I want to be taken from this place for many reasons, but I will speak only for myself even though I know my desires are the desires of many of us, if not all of us. It has been foretold by the priestess of the East that strangers would come from the far lands across the sea and that they would bring the words of the one true God with them. It is come true even as she has said. I want to know this God and leave the shame and disgrace of this place that my people have become the authors of. I want to know the love and respect of a good man and have the knowledge that my children will be safe and able to grow up happy and not know what I have known. I want to be a part of something good and be removed from the evil lusts of my father’s people. I want to live and have honor. I hope all these things will come to pass if you take us with you, but if I cannot go then I will at least die in honor and not allow anymore of my soul to be taken away from me or abused!”
She pulled a dagger out and held it poised to pierce her heart in both hands, as she looked up at me out of pleading eyes. I looked from her to the crowd of faces around and saw all the same expressions of that clung to hope, mirrored there as well.
This was probably not going to end well, but what else could I do. It just seemed like the right thing to do, even though it looked for sure like doing so was going to cause it to end badly for not only these women, but also my warriors and myself. I turned in the saddle and glanced at Talin. I inclined my head to the kneeling girl and he nodded pulling his horse out of the line as others followed his lead.
He leaned down out of the saddle and pulled the girl up behind him gently, as if she weighed nothing. Her cloak fell partly open and I could see that she was very pregnant.
I was doing the right thing, I had to be surely. I just hoped it didn’t get us all killed.
The crowd of gathered women lessened as more and more of them were taken up behind riders. There were more children than I had thought there were in amongst the crowd of women, both girls and boys.
I saw a familiar looking woman standing still not moving along with the other women toward the waiting riders. I made my way through the crowd of women and reined up beside the woman. It was the old blind woman that we had met here just a few days before.
Her cloudy unseeing eyes looked up at me, “It is a noble thing that you are doing Zevin. A deed fit for a member of the Ta’lont household.”
How did this woman know so much?
“What good is doing a noble thing if it ends up getting us all killed?” I asked bitterly.
“No one ever said that the right path was necessarily the easiest path in life to take, Zevin. Quite the opposite actually often proves true.”
“Where do you get all your information from? It was you who told these women we would be here tonight wasn’t it? Who do you serve?”I asked both angry at being left in the dark and eager to know the answer to my question.
The old woman smiled serenely, “Relax young warrior I have not betrayed you and as to whom I serve that is a mystery for you to unravel isn’t it? What I have told you is what I have been given to say by one who gave her life so that her land and her people could one day go free, so that all Assoria can be free.”
I looked away frustrated.
Sounding like a petulant child in my own ears I asked, “How am I going to get these women and children back safely? I won’t have the diversion of panicked people I need to slip back through the forest and there is no way I can attempt to reenter the forest without that diversion, not to mention that over half of the horses of my army are weighed down carrying double burdens that prohibits us moving swiftly in any direction. Access to the plain is barred by two forts and every Western soldier is going to be out looking for us with a colossal grudge! Tell me since you know so much about what’s going on what would you suggest I do?”
She seemed completely unfazed by my hot tempered words and responded simply, “You’re an experienced warrior. Does not a successful surprise attack often depend on a skillfully deceptive diversionary tactic?”
I looked away at the city for a moment thinking hard and I came up with something abruptly. What I had in mind might actually work.
“What do you……” My words trailed off and I looked around the immediate area sharply. The old woman was gone! She had simply vanished.
I turned back to Talin, “The old woman? Where did she go?”
Talin looked around “I didn’t see where she went to Zevin.”
Frustrated I turned back around in the saddle, as the rest of the women and children got mounted up. I didn’t know how the old woman played into the story, but she had only been of help so far. I looked over at the girl behind Talin whose brave words had humbled me. Her big belly made it awkward to hold onto Talin and she looked very uncomfortable sitting there.
I reached behind me and pulled my blanket free and brought Relentless up alongside of Talin’s mount. I laid the blanket thickly across the horse in front of Talin, who looked at me puzzled. Backing Relentless up some I gently lifted the girl off the back of the horse and moving forward I placed her in front of Talin sideways on the horse and his left arm quickly rose to support her back.
He flushed red in the face, and I don’t think he had realized until that moment that she was pregnant. Very pregnant.
I laid my hand gently on the full roundness of her belly, “How long?” I asked softly.
Big tears slid down her cheeks, “Soon. I’m sorry!”
“Don’t be sorry! What’s your name?”
“Salien.”
“Salien, I promise you that both you and your baby are going to be fine. All I need for you to do is to relax and let Talin take care of you.”
Nodding her head she laid her head tiredly against Talin’s chest giving up the fight of looking strong.
My eyes rose to Talin, “She and the baby are your only responsibilities from now on Talin.”
“Yes Sir!”
Holon came riding up to make his report, “These women have practically gift wrapped the city for us Zevin! All the gateway walls are absent of live sentries and there appears to be no one on alert in general throughout the entire city. It appears the women also doused the whole city with lamp oil and alcohol. They say the guard change won’t take place for another two hours.”
I nodded, but Holon wasn’t finished.
“Don’t get me wrong Zevin I think it’s the right thing to save these women, but how are we going to get them out of here? We surely can’t go back into the forest with them!”
No that option was definitely out of play.
“Holon I want you to pick out five hundred of our troops and stay here in the city and be prepared to torch it at a moment’s notice. I want you to jam the gate mechanisms of all the gates, except the one you exit out of and then jam that one to. Make sure the dock is well ablaze first so that they can’t escape that way either. Sazen I want you, while Holon is waiting here to fire the city to take one hundred of your archers and ride north as hard as you can for a half-hour and then I want you to put fire to everything in sight working your way back towards the city. You must do this quickly Sazen. Holon when you see Sazen’s fires nearing the city that will be your signal to fire the city itself. I’m taking the rest of the troops and the women to the Dark Forest’s edge near the lower fort. When both your tasks are accomplished you will both come after us as fast as you can. My hope is that the Western soldiers will think that it’s a raiding party of Northerners coming down from the north. After they’ve rushed to the city, which hopefully there will be no one there left to tell them otherwise they will pursue northward after the raiders, while we slip around their southernmost fort on our way back to the Eastern Kingdom. Daylight will reveal the story, but with luck we’ll have a good head start on them by then. Hopefully it will be enough. Holon it would be a good idea if you can procure extra mounts for your and Sazen’s warriors, as you’ll both wear your horses out trying to catch up with us. Get to it both of you!”
They both raced off to do my bidding. I wheeled Relentless for the gate and surged out of it at a fast walk followed quickly by the rest of the column burdened down with the added weight of the women and children.
We rode faster and faster towards the forest edge. Gaining it we skirted along the forest’s northern edge towards the plain beyond. An hour passed by and looking back I saw no sign of fire. The sky was beginning to gray slightly with the first hints of morning light.
What had gone wrong?
Whatever it might have been there was no way that I could go back to rescue either Holon or Sazen. I had to get the rest of the warriors and the women and children back to Kartasa.
A half hour went past and I heard Talin call out to me interrupting my anxious thoughts, “Look Zevin!”
I glanced back the way we had come. The sky was still a dark enough of a backdrop to show the light of fire and the dark smoke rising from it against the lightening horizon.
Why had they waited so long, but I already knew the answer to that. Holon and Sazen must have conferred with each other and agreed to wait longer to give a better chance for us to get away. As it was they had almost waited too long to do us any good as we were nearly at the fort.
I could see lights coming on all over the fort as they too noticed the flames on the horizon behind us. I noticed a sudden extra glow to the morning light and looked behind again.
The city was on fire and burning with unmatched intensity that lit the whole horizon up. The fort really seemed to go into action then as troops began pouring out of it racing off towards the city on the road, while we glided past them as we hugged the forest edge.
Even trying to be quiet we made a lot of noise, but the soldiers in the fort seemed to not notice, too lost in their own panicked hustle to get to the city. How they did not see us in the strengthening morning light I did not know, but they didn’t as no alarm was raised against us. As the fort grew distant behind us I increased the pace to a full gallop, which ate up the distance quickly.
We rode at that pace for hours, until the horses began to tire noticeably. Slowing to a walk I gave the order to exchange the women and children to riders who hadn’t carried the extra weight yet. I took Salien from Talin, who reluctantly gave her up.
I could tell she was in a lot of pain and my guts twisted inside at the possibilities. I let the horses walk for two hours and then I increased the pace again until dark. The horses were stumbling from fatigue when we stopped in the early hours of the morning.
Several of the female archers came up and took Salien from me and began to care for her. There was no doubting the fact that she was in early labor. Her labor brought on by the fear and stress of the journey.
The horses were watered and fed the last of the grain. I let two hours go by and then I stood up hating what I had to do, “Mount up! Mount up now!”
The warriors and the Western women alike looked at me in surprise not wanting to believe what they were hearing. It had to be this way if we were to get to safety in time. I had no doubt as to how hard the West would pursue us, after what we had pulled off on them.
Salien began to struggle to her feet quickly helped by two warrioress’s in doing so. Leaning on them heavily she headed for Relentless. Her actions seemed to galvanize the rest of them as everyone else began to move too.
The horses groaned heavily as they were remounted, but they valiantly pushed forward to the task required of them. The forced march was destroying these fine animals, but better them than us. I understood the unkind looks I received, as I felt plenty of apathy for myself.
All the warriors lacked sleep and now being forced to possibly drive their beloved mounts into the ground was asking a lot of them, but such is the role of leadership. Being a leader didn’t often mean that one made many friends, which is why I hung onto the ones that I did have.
We rode through the rest of the night and by dawn we could see Kartasa’s wall up ahead of us. There was still no sign of pursuit or even any sign of Holon and Sazen. I ordered the column to a walk hoping to save the horses after all.
Instead of slowing Talin’s pace picked up as his sweat soaked mount protested, but it obeyed and launched into the impossible task of giving more, when it had already given its all for its master.
“What’s the matter Talin?” I asked sharply.
Talin’s face was whitish instead of its usual deep tan. He didn’t answer, but just kept urging the horse on with his knees, as he held Salien free of the saddle in his arms trying to ease her from the bumps and jostling of the ride. I glanced down and saw water dripping from off the saddle stirrups into the dry dust of the road.
Her water had broken!
A female warrior surged up past me on a foam flecked mount and grabbed the reins of Talin’s horse and urged both towards the fast approaching wall. I stayed with the column longing to be up with my friend, but I settled for praying instead.
A half hour later we rode through the gates into the city. People rushed to care for us and the horses from every direction. I let them lead Relentless away. I wasn’t worried about him as he would have gone on for days if I’d asked it of him, but some of the other horses were pretty bad off. Such was the price for victory. I only hoped that was the extent of it, as I stiffly climbed the stairs to the wall fortifications above.
I made it eventually to the wall top. I needed sleep, but more than that I needed closure on the warriors I had left behind. The wall sentries respectfully left me alone as I made my way toward a still standing individual, who was leaning heavily on the wall with one hand, while holding onto her crutch in place under the other arm. It was Holon’s girl.
She glanced over and saw me approaching and tried to hobble around to face me, but I waved her to stop. I reached her side and looked into her stoically controlled face. I didn’t say anything just turned and looked out at the plain as she had been doing. She went back to doing the same.
I reached my hand out and put it over top hers and squeeze gently. Her head turned to me and the pain she had been masking from me was there to see now in a vision of raw anguish and loss.
“I’ve known Holon a long time. He’s come through worse situations than this. You shouldn’t give up hope, not just yet.”
She nodded and turned back to watch the horizon. An hour passed and I was about to go down off the wall before I fell asleep on it, when I thought I saw a dust cloud in the distance.
Lennia apparently also saw it and she pointed excitedly at it gripping my hand hard. We watched spellbound as the cloud of dust grew larger and closer. The figures of fast approaching riders grew clearer. They were all strung out and they were running their horses all out.
A heavy solid line of riders appeared out of the dust behind the strung out broken up group in front. Archers poured onto the walls, when it became clear that there was enemy pursuit. Holon must have been successful in securing fresh mounts as there was no way they could be running those horses as hard as they were without them being replacements.
It was hard to count the survivors, but it was something close to four hundred maybe. There had to be several thousand in pursuit of them however and they looked to be gaining on the forward group. The archers formed in three rows along the wall top and readied their arrows.
The front group started funneling together in order to stream through the open gate. They were going to make it!
The front runner of the strung out group streamed through the open gate and into the city and soon after all of them began to enter. I saw several riders fall from their saddles from arrows farther back in the column. A lot of the riders showed evidence of a long-running battle.
Many fell off their horses once they made it into the city, with arrows protruding out of their arms and legs and their mounts, some of which almost resembled pincushions. A horse stumbled at the rear of the column and went down throwing its rider head over heels forward. The rider jumped up and then fell back down obviously wounded.
A big red horse I recognized abruptly pulled up and its rider jumped off.
“Holon you noble fool!” I fumed hitting my free hand down savagely on top of the wall.
Four other riders had also drawn up and were shielding the dismounted man as they fired back at the fast approaching enemy line. One of the riders was Sazen. Had they all gone mad!
I saw Holon throw the wounded warrior across the front of his saddle and then leap onto the horse pausing only to snap off an arrow that had suddenly appeared sticking through his upper arm. They were moving again and the enemy was almost in range.
The five riders seemed to get an extra burst of speed out of their mounts and were soon closing in on the gateway.
“Fire!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs and several thousand arrows streamed out over the battlements towards the onrushing enemy host.
The wall of arrows hit them in their onrushing charge in a whistling shockwave of deadly force. Hundreds of them tumbled to the ground both man and horse alike, as still more arrows came whistling into the pandemonium of the fray of bucking horses and dying men. The survivors wheeled their horses and fled back the way they’d come after having suffered one more defeat at the hands of their enemies that they had dismissed for so many years as being weak. Over half their number lay dead on the plain, because they had wandered too close to the walls, so dead set had they been on avenging the many thousands of their own slain within the charred walls of Boratasa.
Lennia let go of my hand, which I had forgotten that I was still holding and started hobbling as fast as she could for the stairs. I swooped in front of her and folded her over a shoulder making sure to grab her crutch before it fell off to the side, as I then turned to run down the stairs with her over my shoulder.
I tried to keep her leg stationary, but she was probably feeling it some coming down the stairs. She didn’t seem to mind, as I set her back onto her good leg at the bottom of the stairs and gave her crutch back to her. She gave me a grateful look before hobbling toward the indomitable figure of Holon standing in the middle of the courtyard.
He was covered in blood, but he would be okay being the big healthy animal that he was. He was being wrapped up by several caregivers, when he saw Lennia hobbling toward him. He pushed away from the people attending to him and started walking towards Lennia a big sappy grin spilling across his rough featured face that only his mother could have loved.
The smile went away abruptly however when Lennia leaned up and slapped him across the face with all the strength her slim muscular body could muster. She almost fell in the process.
Holon’s face twisted into a frown as he grasped her shoulders quickly to keep her from falling.
“What was that for?” He bellowed out.
“For scaring me!” Lennia replied equally stormy and then she dropped the crutch and locked both her arms around Holon’s neck and proceeded to kiss him with everything she had.
I couldn’t help the laughter that escaped me, when I saw the look of utter confusion on Holon’s face at what was happening. I wasn’t the only one laughing. The two of them were center stage to the amusement of the whole courtyard.
Holon reached down and picked Lennia up into his arms their faces still sealed in a kiss that might go on for forever.
How he did it I’m not sure, but Holon started off in the general direction of his living quarters amid the rampant cat calls and snickers of the onlookers. The two lovers didn’t seem to care though. Two hearts had found each other for life and it was clear that they intended on celebrating their reunitement together with passion.
I shook my head still chuckling. Lucky dog! Truth be told we all had been very lucky or more accurately stated blessed by the Creator to still be alive. We had inflicted maximum casualties on the enemy, while only sustaining minor losses on our own part. It was in all accounts a tremendous victory.
It was possible that we had reduced the enemy force that would be coming against us by almost a third before we had ever met in the field of battle.
My pressing needs took over then. I needed sleep and then food. No make that food and then sleep followed by more food. That sounded like a good plan.
My pleasant thoughts were rudely interrupted as Talin exploded out of the doorway in front of me with far more energy than one should have after going through what we had the past several days.
Seeing me he grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently, “It’s a boy!”
Pounding him equally hard on the back I said, “Congratulations Talin best wishes now let me go!”
Talin’s face turned sheepish looking, “It’s not my child Zevin!”
Before I slipped past him I laid a hand on his shoulders and gave him a serious look, “Perhaps not but maybe you should change that. Every child needs a father, which is something I know that you can personally attest to.”
Talin’s father had been killed in battle when he’d only been five years old and it had been hard to grow up without a father. I slipped on past after giving his shoulder another hard pat.
Talin’s voice burst out after me, “I hardly know her!”
Turning back smiling I said, “She’s well spoken, she’s tough, she’s very pretty and she even seems to like you matchmaker man. What more could you ask for?”
I turned away leaving him there staring after me. Commitment did not come easy for Talin. I hoped that he didn’t let that stand in the way of what I thought would be the best thing for him.