Forever Knight (The Champion Chronicles Book 3) (33 page)

“Why?” Conner asked.

“I made a commitment to myself that I would kill the human wizard.  I help you with this battle, and you will help me with that.”

“Good enough,” Conner replied.

“Plus,” Glaerion added as his stoic face almost broke into a smile.  “I cannot pass up the opportunity to spill human blood.”

***

The trebuchet launched another of its load of small rocks.  The counterweight dropped from its apex and struck the ground hard.  In doing do, it pulled the long timber arm up, snapping the end to toss the load of rocks all the way to the castle walls.  They had to adjust the amount of rocks in the counterweight in order for the load to reach its destination.  The sergeant in charge had guessed correctly as the rocks struck the wall in a puff of dust and chunks of the wall fell to the ground.

Because the two launchers were so far away, they would be easily protected from counter-attack.  But they also couldn’t throw a large load.  Based on the light damage being inflicted, it would take many days for these devices to breach the wall.

Emperor Tarcious stood just inside the tree line of the forest, watching the siege engines slowly chip away at the walls.  The plans for the trebuchet had been given to him by General Mace, who now approached from deeper in the forest.  The general had insisted that his new designs were much more effective than the traditional catapults, but his observations were telling him otherwise.

General Mace bowed low as he came up to the emperor.  “Your Imperial Majesty,” the general said in greeting.

“Your new catapults are not doing much damage,” Tarcious said angrily.  “The load they can toss is but a pittance to the other catapults.  Your promise of breaching the walls before the day is over will not happen.”

Another load of rocks was launched towards the city walls.  It was impossible to see if there was any damage done with this load, which emphasized the emperor’s point.

“It is true they cannot throw the load of the other catapults,” General Mace replied.  “But they can be reloaded much faster and they can fire from much farther distances.  We can protect them up here.  The catapults down on the battlefield will soon become kindling for fires.”

Just as General Mace finished speaking, the three conventional catapults launched their rocks simultaneously.  Most of their load hit the top of the wall, causing a large section to fall out.  But the wall was almost ten feet thick and thirty feet high at that sections.  Even with the section being blown out, most of the wall stood strong and sturdy.

“We just need to keep firing away,” the general said confidently.  “In time, we will break a hole in the wall.”

“Time is the one thing we don’t have,” Tarcious replied.  “I need these walls breached by the end of the day and your contraptions are not doing their job.  It is time for a new plan.”

“Of course, Your Imperial Majesty,” General Mace said with a bit of a hesitation.  He knew what failure meant for him.  He was sure that the trebuchets would do their job, but the walls had been taller and stronger than what he had anticipated. 

“Continue launching the catapults on the field toward the walls.  But change the load on your trebuchets.  There are casks of oil on a wagon at the rear.  Start soaking dry wood in them.  After about an hour, they should be ready to be lit on fire and launched into the city.  Your failed machines can at least do some good by starting fires behind the walls.”

General Mace bowed his head and replied, “Of course, Your Imperial Majesty.  At once.”

The general backed away and called for his men to bring the barrels of oil up from the cargo wagons.  He knew that it was futile to try and breach the walls in only a day of firing rocks at the wall.  Even if he had enough rock to last through the night, the walls of South Karmon were just too big and too strong.  The emperor had asked for the impossible.  For the briefest of moments, he thought about just taking a horse and riding away, for his fate had been sealed by his failure to breach the walls. But he knew the emperor would eventually find him and then his death wouldn’t be swift.  Although the youngest of the generals, he was still a veteran of nearly a dozen years of war.  He had escaped death many times at the hands of his enemies, but it would be this last failure that would kill him.

Ever the consummate and loyal soldier, he would continue serving his emperor without question until the very end.

Tarcious watched his general walk away.  He didn’t necessary blame the general for his failure to breach the walls, as they rivaled only the walls of Tara City.  And those, he knew, had withstood centuries of attacks.  The walls of South Karmon were built to withstand any force that humanity could throw at it.  He just wished that he had the power that his ancestors had so that he could walk down to them and crush them with his own power.  But he was not nearly there.  Yet.  His limitations were his own human flesh, unable to withstand only so much power flowing from the web of magic.  He could feel the tingling of the power aching to get out.  A lesser man would have succumbed to that power and tried to cast too powerful of a spell.  And then that power would have simply imploded upon him and he would be no more.  He was too smart, and too careful to let that happen.  There was so much at stake that he needed to make sure that he was extra careful with controlling the magic.

But once he had the Ark, his body would no longer be limiting his power.  The Ark would be the focal point of the magic and he would be able to cast any spell he wanted.  In an instant, he would become the most powerful wizard that had ever walked the earth.  A giddiness overcame him and he let out an audible chuckle at the thought of wielding that power.

The sight of the city’s gate opening surprised him. He was sure that the Karmons would just sit back and fortify their defenses behind the city and wait for the Taran attack.  Karmons were not known as an aggressive people, so his plans to assault with all his available resources had been the only logical tactic.  In doing so, he anticipated losing over half his forces, but whatever loss of life it took did not matter.  With his only goal to make it inside the city and find the Ark, he did not care at all how many of his centurions survived. But the opening of the gate meant that the Karmons were about to attack his army and his siege engines.  There were no worries of defeat as he had assembled the best soldiers the world had ever known.  They would easily be able to repel any attack the Karmons might bring, especially since the Karmon Knights had been disbanded.  Fighting on foot was the centurion’s specialty and they would easily handle an army twice their number.

He eagerly anticipated the battle, hoping for much blood to spill.

Chapter Twenty-One

Marik mounted his horse.  Like all the other war horses, it was dressed in a mixture of leather and steel barding.  He himself wore a metal helm and a breastplate that extended all the way around to his back.  His shoulders were covered by thick overlapping strips of leather underneath a piece of steel.  Underneath the armor, he wore a chainmail shirt with long arms that extended all the way to his hands.  He chose not to wear gauntlets as he never felt like he could get a good grip on his sword with them.  His mail shirt was split low in the front so that the chain links covered his upper legs.  There were many pieces of a typical knight’s armor that were left in the armory.  He was a ranger who liked to be able to move free, but he also knew that he needed as much protection as possible.

A young boy handed his sword up to him, which he took and gripped tightly.  Then the boy handed him his shield.  He did not like putting it on his arm, but with crossbowmen out on the field, he would need as much protection as he could carry.

Fully ready for battle, he turned his horse to the three hundred Karmon Knights that were mounted behind him.  It did not take any convincing to ask them to suit up and mount up.  As soon as the Taran army had made its appearance, they all had raced to the castle to gather their arms and armor.  Many had come from the outlying villages in the middle of the night, bringing whatever horses they could find.  At first Marik was concerned that the stables did not have enough horses for everyone who showed up, but with most of the knights bringing in their own horses, there were plenty to go around.

The stunning, inspirational speeches of King Thorndale and Sir Brace Hawkden haunted him because he knew that he could not match their skills with the tongue.  He had always been a follower and a doer.  Leadership blood was not in him, but as he stood in front of three hundred men, young and old, they were looking to him to be their leader.  Somehow he had fallen into this place and he knew he was not worthy.  But regardless of his personal feelings and desires, he had a duty.  The words of the Oath of Knighthood came to him, reminding him that his life was for the kingdom.

His horse itched to race into battle, and it took effort to hold the reigns tight.  Three hundred knights and countless other soldiers and non-soldiers were waiting for him.  It was as much an exhilarating feeling as it was a fearful feeling.  He wanted his words to be motivating, but he knew that there was nothing he could say that would further motivate the men in front of him.  They were ready.  He could see it in their eyes.  Every knight had felt like they had been slapped in the face when Queen Elissa had disbanded their ranks.  Whether what she did was right or wrong for the long term benefit of the kingdom was irrelevant to these proud men.  Their livelihood had been taken away and now they were given one last chance to show their worth.

He lifted his sword and touched his heels onto his horse’s flank to ride slowly into their ranks.  “Today, we will show the world what a Karmon Knight is!”

Cheers from the foot soldiers and crowds rose up, but the three hundred knights simply raised their swords in unison.  Their training had honed them into fine instruments of war, able to control their emotions and their fears.  Fear was no longer an option.  It was time to take their devotion to the field of battle and bring victory to the kingdom.

Looking across the sea of raised swords, Marik shouted, “For Karmon!”

In unison, the knights echoed, “For Karmon!”

Marik turned his horse to face the gate, and he looked up to see Queen Elissa standing upon the wall, looking down upon them.  He raised his sword again, and shouted, “For the queen!”

Knights and soldiers alike echoed, “For the queen!”.

The gates opened.  His war horse, a jet black mare that had been bred for this very moment could not contain itself anymore.  It knew where the battle was.  It could smell the army out on the battle field.  With one leap, it sprang into a full run.  The rest of the knights followed.

The thunderous pounding of hooves on frozen ground echoed off the trees of the forests, making the three hundred sound like three thousand.  The centurions who had been milling around, waiting for the battle to start suddenly became alive with action.  They formed up in their companies, and the companies formed up into divisions.  Companies of pikemen moved forward to meet the knights head on, while crossbowman positioned themselves in the rear, arming and cocking their weapons.

The knights held in a tight diamond formation.  Marik had to hold his horse in check, as it strained to run ahead.  But their only way of surviving the battle was to stay together and fight as one.  The horse didn’t know that.  It simply smelled the scent of battle and it was desperate to join in.

The three catapults fired their shots one last time, knocking several more feet off the top of the wall.  The soldiers manning them took up their own arms and joined the formation of centurions.  The drivers of the wagons that carried the boulders used as ammunition left both horse and wagon in the middle of the field and ran towards the protection of the trees.

It took two long minutes for the knights to cross the half mile gap between the city wall and the Taran army.  As they came within range, crossbow bolts were loosed, but the shields and armor of the Karmon Knights held fast.  A few unlucky knights fell, falling to the ground to be trampled by the horses behind them.  Some were struck, but managed to stay atop their horses.  They simply broke off the end of the bolts and dug their heels in harder.  For them, knowing that the battle was the end freed them from the fear of death.  Their goal would not be to survive the fight, but to kill as many Tarans as possible.

As soon as the second volley of crossbows were fired, the knights split into two groups.  It was a tactic that had been practiced many times, but had never been done by these knights in battle.  As soon as the single diamond formation was split, the knights re-formed into two smaller diamond formations.  Their perfect timing prevented most of the crossbows from hitting targets.  After the second volley, the crossbowmen loaded a third bolt, but did not fire as the two armies crashed upon one another.

Marik used his shield to parry aside a long pike that was aimed right for him and slashed his sword down upon the thick pole, shattering it into pieces.  His horse pushed right into the centurions without having to be guided.  It did its best to try and trample anyone in its way.

The diamond formation of knights thrust deep into the Taran foot soldiers, sending the centurions into disarray.  But they were like hot metal, bending without breaking.  They countered the onslaught of the knights by striking at the horses.  Legs were cut out from under the great war horses, sending them screaming to the ground.  Some knights were caught under their own mounts and were easily dispatched.  But most used their training to dismount quickly and joined into combat with the closest centurion.

Marik, at the front of the formation, was one of the first to lose his horse.  He did not have time to regret the loss of such a beautiful creature as he was quickly surrounded by centurions.  But he was not alone.  Joined by other knights mounted and unmounted, he was able to continue their push forward through the ranks of centurions. 

Their goal had not been to meet the centurions head on.  That would have been suicide with their few numbers.  They needed to cut an open path through the front ranks, allowing a second group of riders to pass through.  Left alone, the catapults would eventually knock down the walls.  Whether it took one day or ten, the walls would eventually fall.  Once the walls were breached, the city would not be far behind.  Destroying the catapults needed to be the first step in defense of the city.

The second group of knights had already left the city by the time the first group had split from their large diamond formation and began their attempt to make a path to the catapults.  This second group consisted of six smaller groups of twenty riders each.  Two of the riders in each group carried small bags filled with a thick, tacky oily substance.  Two others carried torches that were burning from that same tacky oil.  They followed the path that the first group of knights took, racing through the opening in the Taran army that allowed them to get close to the catapults.  The riders with the bags of the tacky oil ignored the centurions in their path and made a line straight for the wooden devices.  When they got as close as they could, they tossed their bags, which struck the catapults and spread the oil across the wood.  A moment later, torches were tossed onto the catapults and the tacky oil instantly took to flame, lighting up the catapults.

The Taran commanders on the battlefield did not notice the plan of the Karmons until it was too late and the catapults were already on fire.  The crossbowmen were ordered to fire at the knights, but they were not as effective trying to hit knights that were racing away.  In fact, they were more effecting killing their own, rather than taking out knights.  The chaos of centurions being struck by their own crossbow bolts allowed the knights to gain enough of an advantage to turn a suicide mission into an effective counter-offensive.

***

Elissa watched in horrified fascination.  She had expected the battlefield to look similar to the tournaments that the knights and squires competed in, but reality was so different.  She thought that soldiers would pair up and fight in an honorable fashion, and then move on to their next opponent, but instead there was just a mass of chaotic fighting.  Swords flashed and blood flew.  Bodies charged and fell.  There was no way that she could have even imagined the realty of war.

For some reason, despite the horrific scene that unfolded in front of her, she couldn’t look away.  Even though she knew that she should turn her head, that it was unladylike to see the brutality of battle, it held her in a trance that she could not break from.  Even as the catapults were ablaze, and the knights began their withdrawal, she kept her eyes on the battlefield that was now a mess of bodies, blood, and mud.

“This is not the place for you.”

The voice broke her gaze away from the battle.  She turned to see Toknon coming towards her.  Beside him walked Lord Martin and Lord Kirwal.  And flanking them all was a ring of a dozen soldiers, armed with swords and shields.

“I am the queen.  This is my place.”

Lord Martin spoke in a shaky voice.  “You must return to the castle at once!  We must protect you.”  His eyes glanced to the battlefield, but quickly they returned back to her.

Toknon stepped up to Elissa and looked outward upon the battlefield.  He said nothing, but carefully observed the mass of centurions that were positioned on the field.  Only a small number had been engaged as the knights had only directed their first attack at the catapults.  So many hundreds, probably thousands, of others were waiting to join the fight.  But his thoughts were not of the current battle, or of the defense of the city.  They were of his homeland and what the centurions could do to it.  Even a third the number of the centurions who took this field could lay waste to his city of Thellia.  If this army marched north, then his kingdom would be no more.  They would fight valiantly, but they would all die in the end.  He could not let that happen.  Whatever result came out this war mattered little to him, as long as the fighting stayed to the south of the White Mountains.

Lord Kirwal also stepped away from the soldiers and joined Toknon at the queen’s side.  He let out a long sigh.  “It is futile,” he said.  “The Tarans will only regroup and construct more catapults.  How many times can we launch this type of attack before we have no more knights or horses left?  We have bought ourselves maybe a day, or two at the most, before they roll out another set of catapults and begin attacking the walls anew.”

Elissa did not respond.  Even though the battlefield was a good distance away, she could still see each fallen knight.  There were too many of them.  Even though most of the knights were returning, either atop their mounts or on foot, the bodies of those who had sworn an oath to protect her were laying out there alone.  It not only made her sad, it made her sick.  These people died for her and her kingdom.  She suddenly felt so unworthy of her position.

“They do not pursue your knights,” Toknon observed, trying to explain what he saw to Elissa.  “They do not counter-attack because they know they have the advantage of men and only bide their time knowing they have the advantage.  You have lost many good knights, and they have lost some good centurions.  But they have many more centurions to fill in the place of their fallen.  How many more of your knights will die in vain?  Yes, the catapults are on fire, but like Lord Kirwal said, they will soon be replaced.”

Tears came to Elissa’s eyes and it made her mad.  She could not understand why she felt like crying while the men around her stood so stoically, talking about death so easily.  “You are right,” she said with a crack in her voice.  “We must stop this!  Bring the Taran diplomats to me, right now!  We will end this fight.  Surrender.  Whatever it takes!  We cannot win this fight!”

Toknon glanced at Lord Martin and said, “Tell her.”

Lord Martin said in his own shaky voice, “The Taran diplomats were the ones who tried to kill you, Your Majesty.  They were spies.  Assassins.”

Elissa spun around, unsure that she heard him right.  “What?”

“Yes, it is true,” Toknon said.  “Whatever they want, they do not want peace.  They have come to fight.”