At first, he hesitated because there must be a reason it was placed there in a room that was covered up. His curiosity got the better of him, and he reached in for it. What he felt was a smooth surface and was able to grip it to pull out. For a few seconds, he didn’t know what he was holding, but then his eyes opened up wide because he could see it was a stone made of Alumrylite. It looked similar to what the forest people had brought with them. After telling the others, they spoke amongst themselves and then called for their own private guards to replace those that were standing outside sent by Kemi.
The wise man who found the Alumrylite stone rushed out and had never run so fast as he did now to the castle. Kemi had only been told he was coming and was taken by surprise of the hasty opening of the door that slammed shut. She first intended to tell him to be respectful but then stopped as soon as she saw what he held in his hands. In front of her was clearly a stone that looked much like the earth stone. After a short explanation, Kemi asked if it could be really true. Kemi could not believe it had been one of the Alumrylite stones underneath her all this time. How came no one knew or did her father know about it? She didn’t think so, and what the advisor had said it must have been hidden away for a long time. She asked for the forest people’s leader Hun, what he knew but he told her he never knew of any other magic stone than theirs.
When Kemi asked what the magical stone could do, there was no one that could make it work or knew what it was capable of. After bringing all the books and scrolls from the hidden room in the temple, they began to search for clues. Not much of use was in many of the books, and one had a strange old language on it that they were unable to read. It almost fell apart, and many pieces had already vanished into dust. Some of the paintings inside showed strange things that had been seen before. Also, a city that looked to be very grand, but that they believed must be made up. On the top of the first page that was almost completely broken was a word none of them recognised. It said “Sabor”, and a very fuzzy picture of a person which they could not make out if it was a man or a woman under it. They finally found something and brought it up to Kemi who was waiting for them.
They knew the Alumrylite which was impossible to find in such quantity was of very pure form. The purple black Alumrylite stone was very beautiful. There was one scroll that spoke about the magic stone and that the name translated from the old language they didn’t understand was shadow. The shadow stone had instructions that were translated with a few words. They had no luck making the magic work, but they read on the scroll that said the shadow stone reacted on the wish of the user. None of them were having any progress with it as it stayed dormant. The scroll did say that only a few would be able to connect with it, but that some could start to hear it as a voice. What made them more interested was that it said the magical stone had a strong power on a certain metal. It started to shine a little after one of the high priests put the shadow stone on the floor, then laying a sword made of the metal close to it.
The Alumrylite stone produced a dark shine that was aimed at the sword, and one of the wise men brought the sword to the magic stone so they touched each other. Nothing happened at first, but then one of the high priests believed he could hear a very faint voice from inside the room and looked around for the voice. The blade suddenly caught a dark fire that turned the sword black making him forget the voice. It was an incredible sight that made many people watching open their mouth in disbelief. The sword didn’t stop burning until two hours later, and during the time, they tried to fight with it. The sword was burning and being tested on other swords of the normal metal they used for all the soldiers. The swords broke apart as the burning sword hit them. They believed the dark shine from the Alumrylite stone was somehow protecting the then burning sword from damage.
In the old temple, there was also a wide range of old books that the wise men were deciphering as fast as possible. The language was very old, and many words had lost their meaning, but the wise men still knew what it said. The weapon manufacturers in the kingdom were busy as well and built everyday bigger or smaller things that hopefully could be of help. Jay had been training the army together with some other high-ranking officers and was getting more archers ready since Kemi had ordered a defensive to be made first in case of them not being ready for attack.
Far away from the kingdom, Gon was instructing his students and was fully aware of what was happening. He had over 500 pupils in his school then and had built out his school to almost three times the size since winning the big tournament a few years ago. Sophia was a great fighter and could not be beaten with weapons by anyone of the others. She now had long red hair that went down to her lower back and had just turned seventeen. She found the situation in the land was becoming all too dangerous and had asked her father to prepare in case the Darcolia lands army would come.
Gon knew how bad it could get and had already made plans for Isabel who now lived in the kingdom to leave towards her father’s home if the kingdom got attacked. They would take cover in a massive room built inside the mountain that would hide them from the outside until it was safe to come out. Those at the school had been encouraged to leave the land in case of an invasion. He had asked them to go back to their own countries to be safer, but very few had left and would stay no matter what happened. Many of the students had left their homes to never return, and others had been thrown out from their family and had lived at the school for years.
The complex now had a higher wall that was thicker, and also further up the mountain there were walls that covered any way into the school. During four weeks, the kingdom advanced several years in war tactics and equipment. They got a chance to test out the army in the biggest training exercise the kingdom had ever had. The forest people that had become a close ally had brought with them the magical stone of earth and supplied the army with unlimited wood. When they were given a piece of land to live on, they filled it up with a thick forest where they then lived. After talking amongst themselves in the small village built not too far from the kingdom, the forest people had come to an agreement. They would fight with the kingdom as well this time and built many structures that could hold many men that could shoot arrows. The wood, constantly being provided in high numbers, helped build wooden towers that were placed across the land. With the unlimited supply of wood and man power, there was a new tower being built every day.
The swords were made by the many ironsmiths and were of different metals that the shadow stone reacted better to. There was, however, not as much of the metal that Kemi would want, so when the time for fight came, there would not be enough swords to go around making those without it carry their usual swords. There had been a big delivery of machinery from Domoro, and they had three new inventions to bring to the fight. There was a cannon that shot heavy logs that made a big damage on the targets they hit. Another was a bigger square wooden vehicle on wheels and could be moved by a network of ropes and manpower. The box could hold many soldiers inside that could shoot many arrows while avoiding getting hit themselves. The last invention was an improvement on the multiple arrow shooters and one of them had been modified differently. It was an untested arrow machine that then had an exploding tip on every arrow from a substance made by the most creative mixologist of the kingdoms. It could now shoot longer than the others, but fewer arrows since they had to be bigger.
The reason for it not being brought to the battlefield was because of the exploding tip of the arrow that was unsafe in its current form. It didn’t react well to the increased speed it generated, one of the Domoro engineers told Kemi, and must, therefore, be put closer so distance would be of less importance. But the problem would be that they might become easy targets. Kemi found it bad that they had a new arrow shooter that could shoot further than the others but still had to be put closer. For the time being, the machine was placed in the kingdom at the training grounds for further testing in combat. The hope was that the substance might be improved so the speed could play no factor. If not, she
might consider to just use it without the explosive tip.
Nami had been standing in the background and looked at the new weapons that were tried. She was the main person that approved the machines for combat together with other advisors. She had been feeling sick the last week but continued to check the work and watched as the weapons were tried out. One of the healers told Jay to come when Nami suddenly fainted and was being examined in the check-up tent for the soldiers. When Jay came into the tent, he found her looking out the window. He asked her if she was injured, but she started to cry. She said she didn’t want to be a part of the war anymore and held him.
Jay was confused and asked her what changed as she was so happy to help before. She was so eager to bring the preparations faster to be able to engage if the war came. She looked him in the eyes with tears in her eyes, but smiling, and said she was pregnant. Jay was shocked and stared for a few seconds before he hugged her tight. He understood her feelings and asked her what she wanted to do. She said she must leave to her father’s old castle as it was more hidden from the outside and would keep her safe for the time until the war was done. Jay did not object and would rather have his wife be anywhere else than on the battlefield then. She left the same day with some soldiers that served her before, and Jay had to say good bye to his wife carrying his unborn child.
The information from the land of Darcolia were sometimes getting through and were always worrying as the army seemed to grow bigger. But there had been no sighting of any people entering the kingdom or showing any aggression towards the people living close to the border. Even with all the different information coming, there seemed to be no one that knew if they would cross soon. Some of the advisors believed the army was present inside the mountain where then not even the neutral kingdoms were allowed to get through. Stories of big birds flying over Darcolia had also emerged, and they all wondered what they were. At first, they were dismissed as false rumours, but when more of them came, they began to wonder what else Redonia had. The giant city surrounding the castle of Grasoll had slowly been emptied of people that had decided to leave in case of the kingdom getting under attack.
Many thousands of people had left towards the closest towns in an effort to get away from the war. But some stayed as they trusted the walls and that the soldiers would be enough to hold the enemy back. Some of the people had left towards other lands such as Besidil or entering into the kingdom of Ocenia. All had hope to return to the kingdom after a victorious battle ahead for those who stayed. After some time, there had been less information than usual, and Kemi feared some of the spies had been killed or taken. She still hoped to be able to avoid war and sent, every four days, a pigeon towards Darcolia asking for peace. The same pigeon never returned back, and she was feeling the pressure mounting on her. Her hopes for Redonia to not avenge the fall of Darcolia might be far away.
She must think of the tactic ahead, she told herself, and regardless if the new threat came into Grasoll, she would be ready, then walked down to the courtyard. She was impressed about the fast preparation of the war supplies and new magic from the magical stone found in the temple. Jay found the army was responding well, and should it come to war, he knew they would be ready for it. Jay was testing one of the new swords and was chopping away on some practice dolls when he heard from one of the four riders that travelled between the different lands. The men who brought the messages had been granted immunity by everyone except from inside of Darcolia but could keep to the outside where the border was. He told Jay that movement was showing over Darcolia. He got chills at first then ran towards Kemi and saw her being briefed by a couple of riders. She looked focused and listened to what they were saying.
After they left, she called everyone to the war room where she would brief everyone. Well inside, she said to look at the table showing up the world, and they all gathered around it. Darcolia seemed to be finally on the move towards them and had a mighty force with them. She said they had many wagons with them that were covered up next to the border. According to the messengers, there had been a movement of soldiers that then stood ready to come in over the border than what the Grasoll land had, and they must act swiftly before they got too close to the land.
She asked the forest people that had joined in the room to grow a forest at the entrance of the land and slow down the oncoming warriors. At the moment, the land had been raised to create a path that was facing the way towards Darcolia. Hun told her that if they bury the earth stone, the trees would continuingly grow thicker which would make it harder to pass through. Hun and the others left with the earth stone soon after Kemi agreed to the plan. Jay was told to move the soldiers to the defensive line at the entrance in case of them getting through and evacuate the remaining people located at the edge of the land. The substance then put on the arrows had not been improved so she had to think about something else. She asked the mixing preceptors about the substance on the arrows and how much they managed to create, and they told her they had fifteen jars full of it. She asked them to make changes to the jars so they could be used in battle. Not needing any more information, the engineers constructed a mud jar that was filled with the substance and was now ready for battle. They knew it would generate an incredible fire ball when it hit the target. She didn’t know about Gon’s plan to hide in the mountain if the army should get close and was worried he might get hit by the attackers.
Gon had insisted to leave him out of the fight but had not told her about his secret hideout in the mountain for his students and his family. Gon’s daughter, Isabel, was told to return home and arrived soon to the well-built complex where her father was waiting for her. They gathered on the big training ground, and everyone listened to Gon who informed them about what might happen if the army advanced successfully into the land. He said they must hide first in the mountain if there was a possibility of the army being greater than was possible to defeat. If they were noticed by the army and had to fight, then all the weapons must be placed so they might get to them easily. They had already started to prepare for the chance of an attack and had built statues of clay that held weapons and that could be easily broken to obtain them if needed.
They brought the battleground to a trap for anyone coming in and trained for the possibility of it becoming a real fight. Isabel was not a fighter, and Gon had prepared a special hideout for her in his bedroom that he had had installed long time ago and would fit both his daughters. Sophia refused to hide and said she would be by her father wherever he went. He knew she would never hide and would let her stay with him since she was such a great weapons fighter. He was relieved to have her there and knew she would have his back. They finished fast and went back to training, and Gon looked over the land from his house where he saw the army far away preparing their camps.
For each day that came, more tents were set and he had never seen such an army before. The trees had grown thick and wide to cover the land where also a small mountain had been built to create a single path into the land next to the kingdom. Kemi was impressed by the magic the Alumrylite stone could generate, and for the first time, she looked upon a mountain that reached far. If only she could surround the whole land she would but Hun had told her the earth stone would stop if used excessively. She was still happy and could see the forest where open ground once was. If the attacking army was to come, they would have to leave all their heavy weapons or use up the ammunition to get through. The allied army had assembled fast at the valley that had to be crossed to get to the kingdom.
Those loyal to Kemi had brought soldiers ready to defend against Redonia. Just in the last few days, there had been an increase because of reports that kept coming in from outside of Darcolia. Not everyone looked forward to fight but had to pick a side due to the loyalty owed. Some of the small houses still had people inside them since they refused to leave but most of the people outside the kingdom walls had been placed inside the gates if they didn’t wish to leave. If the reports were to be true, the new advancing army had thre
e days of marching before entering the land.
A stronger and taller tower was raised to look over the forest and give detailed information about the direction of the attackers as well as anything else of importance. Queen Lisaro of the Domoro Land, had stayed in her castle all this time and had her guards and army surround the castle. She was sick and had trouble moving from an illness that had made a lot of her people unable to move around as much. She had apologised for not being able to come but Kemi understood. Queen Lisaro had decided to stay in the castle to defend it in case of the land of Domoro got attacked.
The Domoro Land was more protected from attacks since the queen ordered traps to be placed all over the mountain. It was now harder to access through the mountain for anyone not knowing the safe way through. It had a lot of dangerous paths that would stop anyone from advancing far without bringing much of the mountain down on them. After waiting for what she hoped would not come, she got the answer she didn’t wish for. Information about the Redonian army finally being seen reached her ears. Her enemies were getting closer by each day from the messages that travelled between the lands. What she could tell from the messages was that there would be a lot of soldiers coming towards them. As soon as the information came, she reluctantly gave the order to head towards the battlefield. She had taken place behind the army in a specially built wagon that had strong walls to protect against heavy artillery.
The wagon was incredible heavy with thick oak covering the sides. An engineering masterpiece that made it seem impenetrable. She intended to stay at the valley floor as long as the fight went, which she hope would not be too long. With all the resources she had to her advantage, she felt confident but Kemi was not stupid. The plan for retreat had already been prepared and everyone knew what to do if the signal came. The shadow stone was placed on a pedestal easily obtained by the army so they could get their swords ready. Everyone knew the sword infused with the magic of the stone would cause heavy damage. But Kemi insisted on finding another way to use the stone’s power.
World of Taroo Page 45