The Willbreaker (Book 1) (19 page)

Cedric attempted a smile, but he knew he would lose soldiers today and the feeling sat in his heart like a heavy weight. These people had families; they were mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters, and they were prepared to give their lives for what they believed in. Cedric had never been so proud.

Janga's voice came from behind them. “Ready when you are, Sire!" Reinhold turned around to take one last look upon his army. With a deep breath, Reinhold gave the men a nod.
Here we go.

“Remember your orders! Element benders with me! Air benders, defend us from the arrow volley, and take down the defense towers! Waters, be ready to smash their oncoming Blade Maidens! Be prepared for the unexpected, we do not know how many Gifted are inside! Everyone ready?” he yelled.

In unison, the army filled the trees with their battle shout. Reinhold turned and advanced out of the trees towards the east entrance of Orlimay. Charlotte and her Gifted formed a line directly behind him.

They took long strides through the short grasses that panned out in front of them. Low cut fields surrounded Orlimay, giving the guard towers vision of any incoming threats. Today, Lord Cedric Reinhold became that threat.

As they marched towards the capital, Reinhold watched as three mounted women rode from the gates, en route to his position. Reinhold glanced back at Charlotte, who looked ready to fight. Reaching his right hand over to his left hip, Cedric gripped his armored fingers around the hilt of his sword, The Heart of the King. With one quick pull, the sword pulled free from its prison. The sound of ringing steel resonated throughout the entire valley, causing the horses of the incoming women to rear up on their hind legs. He held the sword to the sky, letting all know the power he wielded. The mounted women looked at each other uneasily as they waited for Reinhold and his Gifted to get within speaking range.

The three women all had the gift. Each wore a robe colored to their elemental faction: two wore red robes with a small flame patched to their left shoulder, and the other's brown robe had a mountain patched to her shoulder. Looks of disgust covered their faces.

"I am General Naheena, leader of the Orlimay armies. This is Major General Black and Colonel Kambry. What are you here for, Reinhold? You are not welcome here," said the lead woman in red with hatred in her eyes.

"We are here because your leader is a tyrant and murderer. I offer you sanctuary and freedom from her rule if you surrender now. The same goes for any of your soldiers. We will not harm you if you surrender. You have my word."

Naheena spit on the ground at Reinhold's feet. "You best bring the rest of your army, Reinhold. We will finish this war today!" she yelled as she dug her heels into her horse, causing it to rear up on its hind legs with a loud neigh. She yelled for the horse to move, and all three women sped off towards the city. As they fled, Cedric watched Naheena carefully.

"She is going to stop," he said. Naheena and the two others rode another hundred yards and turned around, hopping off their horses. Lord Reinhold held out his left hand to Charlotte and the Gifted behind him. "Stay here."

He walked forward, concentrating on the elementalists before him. After gripping the sword with both hands, he raised the sword up to his chest. Naheena and Cynthia, both fire users, stepped forward and held their hands away from their bodies as fire engulfed their closed fists. They shouted in chant, mimicking each other word for word, as the fire around them grew hotter and brighter. When it seemed the women would be lost in the flame, two sizeable fireballs sucked the fire away from them and shot out towards Reinhold. The blistering hot fireballs collided together in a shower of flaming sparks, making a single and substantial ball of magically fueled heat. Cedric dropped his brow in a look of anger as he turned sideways, holding The Heart of the King as a woodsman would do with his axe right before a mighty chop.

As the ball of death neared its target, Cedric pulled the sword backwards and gave it a magnificent swing. The sword whistled through the air as it collided with the monstrous fireball. A deafening crack resounded as the metal of the sword, created by magic in a time long lost, turned the momentum of the fireball backwards to where it came. A blast wave of air ripped outward from him in a circular ring, exploding in all directions as the fireball, now moving much faster than its original speed, raced back to its creators. Within a half second, the fireball smashed into the earth with a terrible crash at the women's feet, throwing the ground upward in a spray of flying rock and debris. As the dust settled, Reinhold could see the bodies of the women and horses, all showered in dirt, resting limp next to the hollow in the ground where the fireball met the earth.

Cedric looked back at Charlotte and the Gifted. "Be ready. May God bless and protect us all." As he turned around, they saw the lines of troops flooding over the bridges of the city into the land that stretched before them. Two large groups of cavalry parted from the main force, one group headed out to the left and the other split to the right, forming the flanking groups of their army. Rows of archers formed ranks behind the infantry. Cedric estimated ten thousand strong, but knew a far larger army waited within the capital.

The whoosh of the fired catapults echoed throughout the streets as their flaming ammo became airborne, leaving trails of black smoke behind them.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
When the flaming pots hit something solid, they broke open, spraying flaming resin and pitch all around, killing any caught in its blast.

"Stop those pots! Stop those pots!" Reinhold yelled. The air benders spread out. With heads pointed to the sky, they twisted and formed the air into concentrated bolts of space. The air shimmered as they worked, distorting the landscape behind them just as a poorly made piece of glass would do. As if throwing something, the air benders flipped their hands into the air. The transparent bolts shot through space, obliterating the catapult's pots in midair. The burning fuel sprayed away from them in a wave of flame.

As the air benders worked on the pots, the fourteen water benders advanced in front of Lord Reinhold, and the fire and earth benders moved to counter the flanking women who charged on horseback. Charlotte and the water benders reached their hands towards the city and lifted their arms upward, as if lifting something imaginary. As they drew upon their power, the water that filled the river surrounding the city rose out from the canal. The soldiers on the bridges scattered in fear of what grew around them. It grew thirty, then forty, and fifty feet in the air, forming a massive wall of heavy water. The water benders summoned it higher, as they added more water. They pulled at every ounce of power available to them; Reinhold could see the strain they put on themselves. The water lifted completely off the ground, draining the canal of its fluid. It hovered in the air like a looming beast. With the snap of their hands, the water benders brought the gigantic wall of watery death down upon Orlimay's advancing foot soldiers. It crushed into the ground, instantly killing and sweeping thousands of Blade Maidens across the valley.

Arrows filled the sky as the archers tried in vain to kill Reinhold's Gifted. The air benders continued knocking them out of the sky. The earth benders smiled at the oncoming horses and their riders as they pooled their power and split the earth apart underneath the charging women. The women's screams faded into nothing as they fell into the fissure.

The mounted Maidens flanking on the left headed straight for the fire benders. Over a hundred Maidens rode in and eight fire elementalists stood against them, but the eight waited confidently. With hands ignited, they sent jets of molten fire towards the inward bound cavalry. Hair, leather, and skin lit to flame as the horrific screams of the dying sounded out in unison. Their wails diminished into silence as the fire overcame them.

As the air cleared of arrows and catapult pots, Reinhold and his Gifted continued their advance through the soaked graveyard of the fallen. Shortly after moving forward, Cedric halted, as thousands of soldiers came barreling out of the city. They were like ants moving over the bridges and into the battlefield. With an alarming whistle back to the trees, Cedric motioned the archers to come forward. Dozens of men ran to them, each carrying a full armload of oil-soaked arrows. Orlimay's defense force moved onto the battlefield.

Charlotte yelled, "Cedric! The towers are still standing! We have to take them down if we want to slow the advance of their soldiers!"

"I know! But we cannot destroy them unless we can get through
them
!" he yelled back, pointing at the incoming army of Blade Maidens.

The archers set the piles of arrows down in front of the Gifted. Without hesitation, they lit the arrows aflame. The air benders once again summoned their gift. The arrows levitated off the ground, and shot outward in a spray of fire towards their enemy. Thousands of arrows took flight at the same time, making an impenetrable wall of blazing demise. The arrows scattered and fell like a blanket upon the second wave of battle ready women. Fire punished those who were not killed by the arrows. Cloaks, clothing, and battle banners lit aflame instantly, powered by the lamp oil that soaked into the wooden arrows.

"Now is your chance! Take out those towers!" Lord Reinhold commanded. The air benders moved forward. They formed a semi-circle facing a tower directly in front of them. They put their heads down as each dipped into their power. Archers circled the towers rooftop and took aim.

"Charlotte, the archers!" Lord Reinhold hollered as he pointed to the archers on the towers roof. "Take them out, and hurry!" Charlotte grabbed the attention of the fire benders as she shouted instructions to them.

The air benders put their hands out in front of their bodies in unity, palms facing the ground. As they worked, it appeared they were pushing against an imaginary force below their hands. They each concentrated as they struggled to move their hands downward.

"Push! Harder!" one of them shouted. "Push!"

Reinhold could see their arms shaking as they exerted every bit of strength to push their arms downward. Fireballs hissed outward towards the tower as arrows whizzed by them in return. Flame splashed against the tower walls, dousing an archer in fire as she fell from the top of the roof to her death. The archers bobbed in and out of view as they tried avoiding the fireballs.

Reinhold could see wisps of stone dust puffing out the base of the tower. The air benders used air pressure to collapse the tower and it started to weaken it. A "thud" sounded close by as one of the air benders fell backwards, a thick arrow stuck deep into his chest.

"No!" Lord Reinhold screamed. Another let out a scream as an arrow stuck into her shoulder. Charlotte yelled at the fire benders to focus their attention on the base of the tower.

"Hit the base! Smash it in!" she cried.

The elementalists turned their fireballs towards the tower base, striking it hard. One, two, three of them crashed into the base as the air benders arms became free and went downward. The tower buckled and collapsed into the streets, burying another wave of Maidens. They focused their attention on the next tower.

The Maidens who did not fall under the tidal wave in the battlefield had advanced and closed the distance between themselves and Lord Reinhold. Cedric charged into them, swinging his great sword overhead into a blocking Maiden's blade, severing it and its holder in half. A powerful swing upward brought The Heart of the King through another Blade Maiden, cutting off her arm and head as she buckled to the ground. Reinhold yelled with power as he fought. For every woman he cut down, two more attacked him.

The sound of another falling tower filled the air. The element benders ran ahead to get within range of the final tower. The earth and water benders also moved ahead and fought the hordes of women coming out of the city. Reinhold engaged the few who made it past the element benders. Within minutes, the last tower crumbled into dust.

Lord Reinhold's armor glistened with the blood of his enemies. "Fire! We have to draw out the Boatman! More fire!" He ran towards the city. The remaining Gifted followed behind him.

The collapsed towers blocked off the city entrance. It would be difficult to get inside, but that also made it difficult for the remaining army to get out. Reinhold lead the way across one of the massive bridges. As they got closer to the tower wreckage, Reinhold noticed something exciting.

"Wood! The towers support beams! Light them up!" he yelled back to the fire benders. He could see the troops behind the wall of bricks, frustrated and trying to find another way out to meet their enemy. In a flash, the wood ignited. The fire benders moved around Lord Reinhold, and lit shop doors, horse troughs, benches, flagpoles, and trees on fire. Within minutes, the streets danced with flame. Thick smoke blanketed the area, making it hard to breath and harder to see.

"More fire!" Reinhold yelled. They moved on top of the fallen tower, giving them a better view into the city. The fire benders lit up carriages, wagons, shop signs, and stable yards; if something could light, it burned. Fire raged within the capital. As Reinhold watched, he noticed that the city no longer burned down the main road. He stared as the fires burned out, leaving only smalls trails of smoke. One after another, the fires extinguished.

"The Boatman . . ." he whispered. As the words trailed from his lips, Cedric saw two women leading an unshaven man through the street. He wore dirty rags and a shackle around his neck. His hair and beard were wild and uncombed, and the bottoms of his pants were ripped and shredded. He walked barefoot. As Reinhold stared, one of his air benders, Liam, walked up next to him and eyed the Boatman. The other benders fending off straggling Maidens.