Michael Mathias - Kings, Queens, Heroes, and Fools

He hoped that she would turn invisible when he grabbed her, but she didn’t. Worse, she was too heavy for him to lift, much less carry to safety.

A great commotion near the priests’ gateway commanded Phen’s attention. Something that radiated evil like a foggy stench crawled up out of the hole. It was huge and hairy, with long apish arms, and cherry eyes. It stood on two legs and carried a massive bone as if it were a club. The end of the bone was knotted and gnarled, and the shaft was the size of a healthy tree. When the thing stood upright, its wolfish head was above the balcony. Several smaller things crawled out at its feet and Cole spelled each of them as quickly as he could. One was a scorpion as big as a goat. There was venom dripping from its curled stinger.

With a sharp pop that left Phen’s ears ringing, the hole suddenly disappeared. The three priests collapsed into heaps on the garden lawn. Flick was casting a spell that was far beyond Phen’s understanding. Then the bald-headed wizard scooped up the Princess and strode away. It was all Phen could do to keep up with him as he wound and twisted and climbed through a labyrinth of hallways to Pael’s tower lift. Phen couldn’t go up with the two of them, but that was all right. He heard the command Flick used to make the lift rise. As soon as Flick came back down, Phen got on and, with a word, rode it up to the nest. It was several hours later, after he had somewhat healed the infection in Rosa’s hand, and tended the stump of her finger, that he realized he didn’t know the command to send the lift back down. Not only would he soon be discovered, he couldn’t get away.

The three-thousand Valleyan cavalry that General Spyra somehow managed to round up were a welcome sight to King Jarrek and his men. To learn that just as many infantry, both swordsmen and archers, were marching through the pass, bringing with them much needed food and supplies, was even better. Jarrek couldn’t wait for the foot soldiers to arrive, though. He had to attack the Dakaneese and drive them back through the bottleneck before their reinforcements got settled in. It was the only option.

Master Wizard Sholt had arrived in a startling flicker of sparkles a few days earlier, bearing messages. The sudden presence of Queen Willa’s high wizard unsettled Jarrek, but Sholt was welcome. So was the news that Queen Willa sent with him. Her missive stated that Queen Rachel was already organizing her troops to make the short march across lower Valleya to attack Ra’Gren at O’Dakahn. Her anger at having her men ambushed and slaughtered in Seareach, and the frustration of not knowing her daughter’s fate, seemed to bring out the aggressiveness in her. King Jarrek hoped her attack would keep Ra’Gren’s attention on the defensive and distract him from Wildermont.

The strangest news of all came with Sholt as well. A small army of dwarves was on its way to aid them and would supposedly arrive any day.

“Have they reached Dreen yet?” Jarrek asked Sholt after hearing the news.

“They’re not traveling overland,” said the wizard with a shrug. He glanced down at the front of his stark white robes as if looking for a stain. “They have tunnels. General Diamondeen, the commander of the force coming our way, assured me that he and his twelve hundred fellows would arrive here ready to fight by the turn of the season.”

“The turn of the season,” Jarrek’s mind went blank. “That is… that’s…” He realized he didn’t know when that would be.

“Summer’s Day is only three days away, Highness.”

“Three days?” Jarrek couldn’t believe it. “Almost a full year since this madness began. It seems like only a few months have passed, but then again, it feels like it’s been decades.”

“I understand,” Sholt agreed. He had fought Pael’s undead army from the walls of Xwarda too. His mentor, High Wizard Targon, had been snatched from the wall by the Choska demon. Sholt had walked the heaping piles of his city after Mikahl killed Pael. He’d helped restore a city that had more corpses than carrion in the streets. He’d exhausted himself of spells daily for months alongside Master Amill, trying to clear the rubble and stench from Xwarda’s districts so that the survivors might start again. For a while, time had lost all meaning, for all of them.

“I assume you will attack soon,” Sholt said, looking down at the maps strewn about the table.

Jarrek had moved the main body of their occupation south from Castlemont to an abandoned farming village north of Low Crossing. The stronghold there, which was really only a large rock house with a piled stone wall built around it, had become King Jarrek’s command center. It was crowded, but it sufficed. Sholt could tell that the man had long since given up the luxuries of his station. The King of Wildermont used the open privy pit like the other men, and ate most of his meals from a field tin with them. It was clear that they respected him for it. Hardly any of the men behind him were from Wildermont. The zeal and fervor with which a soldier will fight to defend his homeland wasn’t in them, yet King Jarrek’s determination, and the way he led them, caused them to believe in his cause wholeheartedly.

“On the morrow,” Jarrek answered Sholt’s unasked question, at first light, a company of breed giants will lead the attack.”

“Breed giants?” It was Sholt’s turn to be surprised.

“I took some liberties as the situation dictated.” Jarrek let an ironic smile creep across lips. “Had I known I’d be getting all of this help from Xwarda, I might have left them out of it.” He looked at Sholt seriously. “It will come as a blow, albeit a small one, for Queen Shaella to find a large number of her ferocious breed giants have betrayed her.”

“What does the High King think of this?” Sholt asked, showing genuine curiosity at what the answer might be. “It was reported that breed giants savaged the people of Northern Westland for some time.”

“Mikahl went off into Westland some weeks ago and no one has heard from him,” Jarrek frowned. “I have no men to defend with, and I can’t afford to wait.”

“That is grave news about the High King,” commented Sholt. He wiped again at the front of his pristine robes. “Queen Willa is under the assumption that the High King is in contact with either you or General Spyra. Queen Rachel thinks he is trying to rescue Princess Rosa.” Sholt shook his head sadly. “The realm needs Ironspike. If we lose Mikahl, we lose its power for all time.”

“I know, but I can’t afford to dwell on it, Sholt,” Jarrek said. “I have a country to protect and a kingdom to rebuild. Ra’Gren still holds thousands of my people as slaves. He has already slaughtered innocents in the street. High King or no, I’ll do what I have to do. I have to think of the greater good.”

“No one will doubt your judgment, Highness,” Sholt said with a nod of respect. “After I report back to Queen Willa, I will spend the rest of the day preparing spells for battle. I am at your service.”

“Sholt,” Jarrek stopped him as the wizard started out of the room. Jarrek found that he couldn’t find the words for what he intended to say. He settled for, “Let Willa know that I appreciate everything she’s done for Wildermont.”

When dawn broke, eighty breed giants stormed across the Wilder River at the village of Low Crossing. They didn’t use the bridge. Water that would be chest deep and encumbering to an armored human barely came up to a breed’s waist. For the most part, the primal beasts didn’t wear armor, only loose fitting trousers and vests made of layered elk hide. A few of them wore chest plates, scraps of mail, and helmets that they’d gathered from the ruins at Castlemont on the journey south. One of the hairiest of the breed wore nothing at all save his fur.