James Somers - The Sword of Gideon

Everyone remained silent as their heavy steps echoed out of the mist-shrouded darkness. The torches upon the wall could not penetrate the fog. Gideon closed his eyes to pray. The breathing of the anxious men filled his ears. They weren't saying it, but they were all scared to death. There was good reason to be. The army that Gideon had seen massing on Wayland's northern shore had been unlike any he'd ever seen assembled.

Gideon prayed.

As he opened his eyes again, he realized the steady thrum of the march had stopped. He could sense them out just beyond sight-the heavy mist shielding them from thousands of fearful, watching eyes. The trees that bordered the city may have been beautiful on a spring day, but they were a curse now. The enemy stood among them hidden.

A lone cry came up out of the darkness then. One voice calling out to King Stephen himself. Gideon immediately recognized the man. If there had been any doubt before, now he was sure. Mordred had indeed come along to lead this campaign.

"Stephen!" Mordred cried. "I've come for you, Stephen! With an army beyond your imagination! Surrender now. Have these cowards lay down their arms and I might show you some mercy."

From a hundred yards down the wall, Gideon heard the King's reply. "We are no cowards, Mordred!" Stephen said. "We will never surrender Evelah to you!"

Laughter resounded from Mordred and his army after him. When it had died down, he said, "Dear Stephen, I was so hoping you would say that!"

Gideon heard something building then in the darkness…footsteps…giant footsteps.

Out of the fog, coming directly down the main road to the heavy iron gate of the city, came a host of the giants that Gideon had seen upon the northern shore. They ran in two long lines, each pushing one side of a massive, rolling battering ram. It appeared to have been fashioned from a huge tree and was still several hundred feet long. At the head of it a heavy, spiked iron ball, much like a mace, had been added. Along its sides, long metal spikes had been driven straight through the trunk so that nearly fifty giants could push it.

With a number of wheels bearing its weight, the full force of the giant's combined strength could be utilized in the ramming. Gideon thought about the gate. It consisted of a heavy iron meshwork which drove into metal slots in the ground. Beyond that stood two massive wooden doors reinforced with steel bands. It wouldn't hold for very long against what he saw coming.

The order sounded from the King. "Fire!"

Archers, established along the length of the wall, fired their arrows at the approaching giants. These brutes had been outfitted with armor, but still some of the shots got through. Some of the giants faltered as they were struck repeatedly, but they did not stop.

Angry now, their pace only increased as they screamed in fury and planted the battering ram into the iron portcullis. The impact shook everyone on the wall within one hundred yards of the gate. The iron held, but had been dented significantly. "Fire again!" King Stephen screamed.

The archers, shaken and bewildered, leaned over the wall and took aim again. Gideon didn't have a bow on him, only two swords. He leaned after the archers. Suddenly the man in front of him screamed and fell back onto Gideon. He had an arrow protruding from his sternum.

Gideon snatched the man's bow and quiver as he eased him to the ground. He nocked two arrows as return fire took down more men around him. He leaned over the edge, sighted two enemy archers hiding among the trees and shot them out of the branches. These and many more were providing the cover fire necessary for the giants to back up with their battering ram in order to give it another run.

"The trees," Gideon cried, hoping to warn the others nearby. He fired again. Another of them fell out of the branches. Meanwhile the giants had managed to get enough space between themselves and the gate. They surged forward again with the ram. The king's archers tried to fire on them again, but the enemy provided cover fire on a grander scale.

The giants hit the gate again. It buckled and gave way. The portcullis fell under the ram as it smashed through and hit the wooden double doors. The blow had been almost fully absorbed on the portcullis and went no further. The king, realizing the imminent breach, ordered his men down from the wall. "Hurry, before they break through! Meet them at arms!"

Levi grabbed the torch from the mount upon the wall and rushed for the stone staircase leading down. "Let me through!" he shouted as he pushed through bowmen trying to reach the wall at the King's command. Levi ran down the stairs and hit the ground running. He quickly found the fuse he'd left in place.

The torch set the fuse cord alight. It hissed and bounced around like a wounded snake as the flame ran across the ground toward Levi's buried payload beyond the wall. The giants had crashed into the wall twice now and were backing up for another go. Levi could see the cracks in the wooden doors. It wouldn't last much longer.

The fire ran under the space beneath the doors and beyond the ruined portcullis. The giants retreated a full fifty yards with their battering ram intending to make this run at the gate their last. The fire ran toward them as they surged toward the gate. About thirty five yards from the ruined gate the fire met the giants and their battering ram. It ran underground just as they lumbered by.

The ground heaved upward underneath them. Fire erupted out of the ground behind the plume of earth. The great tree the giants had been using as a battering ram shattered in flame. The Anakim's bodies filled the trees around the main road. On the wall, after the initial shock, King Stephen and his men cheered.

Gideon had barely noticed the fire bouncing down the road before the explosion. His ears were still ringing. He didn't know who had rigged the charge until he looked down on their side of the gate and saw Levi Bonifast whooping and cheering at his triumph.

Gideon stood up to the wall again. He was covered in dust and ash from the blast. Nearly everyone on the wall had been bathed in dry earth. Gideon surveyed the damage. Stephen's soldiers returned to their posts only to be cut down as a massive hail of arrows arced from the trees to the wall.

Bodies fell around him. Gideon nocked arrows as fast as he could, firing on everything that moved in the darkness. More giants swarmed out of the darkness with hybrids following. They came down the main road as their archers increased their cover fire.

Two of the giants pulled the smashed portcullis out of the way as the rest heaved smaller ten man battering rams of iron into the door. The King's soldiers swarmed down from the wall with their swords drawn. Gideon drew his swords and ran down the wall toward the main gate. So many bodies lay on the wall. The way had been all but cleared by those abandoning their posts here for lower ground and the fight coming through the gate any moment.

Gideon noticed the King already down from the wall by now. His personal guard were ushering him back toward the palace. The giants burst through the doors, smashing them to the side on their ruined hinges.

Immediately the Anakims surged through the breach and began to cut down men three at a time with great broadswords made for their size. Gideon leaped away from the wall. He landed on the shoulders of one of the giants using his momentum to ram both of his swords through the man's clavicles. The giant lurched, stumbled, and fell.

Gideon leaped into the fray with the other giants as the king's soldiers tried desperately to keep them at bay. Somewhere in the battle he heard Levi Bonifast, but he couldn't be sure where. The streets inside the wall had turned to pure chaos now.