Rise of Dachwald (Boxed Set, Books 1 through 2)

by Lawlis, Daniel

  “I suppose that’s reasonable enough,” said Fritzer, his hot temper cooling slightly, “but I’ll certainly ensure the people going to investigate don’t suffer a similar massacre. I’m sending all six thousand Sodorfian Hugars!”

  “All of them?!” responded Bundor. “That will leave only ten thousand troops to protect the rest of Sodorf, and the rest are Sodorfian regulars, not nearly as skillful as the Hugars.”

  “There’s always some risk when it comes to military maneuvers. However, as you well know, our spy reports indicate the entire Vechengschaft only has nine thousand men. Even if they sent over every last man, that would still be a thousand less than we will have defending the rest of Sodorf. I say it’s a reasonable decision, and I am the elected leader this year. Granted, the position is normally just administrative, but during times of war or dire threat of war, the nobles have the option of increasing the leader’s power until the emergency passes. We simply don’t have the time to be voting on every single decision right now, and if you aren’t willing to give me that power, give it to another noble then. Someone must take charge!”

  The nobles unanimously expressed their approval of his powers being increased.

  “Send for General Fuhdor,” he commanded. Without delay, a messenger was sent for him, and about forty-five minutes later he arrived.

  “Yes, Sir Fritzer,” he said; “I have heard about the horrible massacre. Do you want me to go and investigate?”

  “Yes, I do. I authorize you to use military force against anyone crossing the border, unless they are carrying a white flag, in which case you are to give them one warning and one warning only to promptly go back to where they came from. No second warnings.”

  “How many of my Hugars shall I take with me?”

  “All of them,” Fritzer replied, looking the general dead in the eye. General Fuhdor was stunned and immediately sensed the gravity of the situation.

  He summoned his Hugars and set off for the site of the ambush. When he and his men got there the next day, they were all sickened by what they saw. Body parts everywhere. Maggots gnawing away at the dead. Flies buzzing around. Fuhdor was disgusted by the gore covering the tree with the severed rope attached to it. He looked high into the trees but could not see what exactly the rope had been attached to. He pulled out his telescope and looked.

  Nothing.

  As he looked at the smashed remains of what once had been strapping young soldiers, he vomited. He would have been embarrassed under other circumstances, but this was unlike anything he had ever seen. And it wasn’t just the sight. There was also the smell. It smelled as bad as 524 rotting people filling the bellies of millions of maggots possibly could. Most of his men were puking their guts out.

  He regained his composure and examined the bodies. The force of the spear had been so great when it hit these men that huge cracks had gone throughout all of their armor, like the cracks formed when a rock is thrown onto ice. Some pieces of armor had been knocked clean off even though they were not even at the point where the spear made contact. And then there were those who had been cut in half. It was chilling how clean the cuts were. They had been sliced through like a hot knife through butter.

  “The bastards are going to pay for this,” he said under his breath.

  The remainder of the bodies—those that had not been mauled by the devilish device—were pincushions. Some had been pierced clean through by so many arrows that they were partly propped up, not touching the ground. A diligent student of military history, he knew the feathers on these arrows were those used by the Vechengschaft.

  “THE BASTARDS ARE GOING TO PAY!” he said again angrily, this time shouting.

  Just as these words were leaving his mouth he heard the sound of approaching horses.

  “Horsemen approaching!” announced a Sodorfian picket.

  General Fuhdor pulled out his telescope and looked through it. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

  Approaching southward down the path appeared to be a group of Dachwaldians.

  “READY YOUR WEAPONS!!” he screamed furiously at his men. Some used crossbows, and they immediately loaded them with arrows. Others had bows—not longbows, but quite large—and they promptly, but calmly, fitted them with arrows. Most of the rest had swords, which they quickly unsheathed and held ready for battle.

  Fuhdor began walking towards the Dachwaldians. When he was within thirty feet of them, he could see eight bodyguards and one emissary. The emissary was carrying a white flag.

  “I’m giving you one, and only one, warning to get out of here and not look back! You’re lucky you’re not already full of arrows!”

  “Good Sir,” replied Lixen, “there has been a big mistake; we had no knowledge of the ambush. We are going to conduct an investigation; we—”

  “Now you listen to me, you treacherous, two-tongued, lying son of a whore! I don’t want to hear ANY of your lies!!” General Fuhdor responded. He then proceeded to raise his crossbow and shoot an arrow right through the white flag of truce Lixen was holding.

  “That is how much respect I have for your flag of truce!! Now, if your back isn’t turned and you’re not heading back to where you came from in ten seconds, the next arrow’s going to be aimed right at your throat. And I have deadly good aim.”

  Lixen was disappointed, but not surprised. As he and the eight bodyguards had neared this scene of carnage, they had seen the bodies. From where he was sitting on his horse while having this exchange with General Fuhdor, he could see even more terrible destruction further down the road. Although it was several hundred feet away, the sight was still disgusting enough to make him nearly sick. He had known the odds were nearly nil that the Sodorfians would listen to him. It was no use.

  “Let’s go,” he said to his bodyguards dejectedly. They turned around and headed back north.

  When they crossed back into Dachwald, they began to speak with General Sivingdon.

  “I will launch a thorough investigation into this, and I will show no mercy to the perpetrators when I find them!” he said angrily.

  But days turned into weeks and weeks into months. After about three months, still no evidence had been found by General Sivingdon or his subordinates that any of the Vechengschaft had crossed into Sodorf at all. Sivingdon had his most trusted, able trackers scour the area to see if there were any tracks from Vechengschaft troops going into Sodorf. None.

  The situation was getting bad in Dachwald. Rations had already been reduced by seventy-five percent throughout the south. The northern regions had seen about a fifty-percent decrease. Even the senators and the king had suffered a twenty-five percent decrease in their rations; of course, they still ate well compared to the rest of the country. Much to their frustration, the one-hundred-man committee they had appointed had failed to find any useful information at all. They were as perplexed as Sivingdon.

  People throughout Dachwald were showing signs of malnutrition, losing their teeth, growing emaciated.

  Crime was on the rise. Before, one could travel throughout the whole countryside without fear of being attacked or robbed. Now, you’d better have a good reason to do any traveling across the countryside because you were risking your life. Gangs of hunger-crazed Dachwaldians roamed the countryside, ready to attack anyone they thought might have food.

  Or anyone who looked like food.

  Unconfirmed stories of cannibalism had begun circulating. Stories were being told about wealthy people being attacked, killed, cooked, (although not always in that order) and then eaten by bands of Dachwaldian cannibals.

  Some had begun mixing sawdust with their food.

  In spite of the fact it did no good nutritionally, it filled up your stomach if only for a short while. Women were so malnourished they couldn’t produce breast milk, so thousands of infants were dying. The country was transforming. Before, people had talked about peace, shunned war as a barbaric activity, and encouraged philosophy and the writing of poetry. The Vechengschaft was looked down upon by m
any, especially those in universities, as remnants of a barbaric, outdated past. Most common people had not gone to quite this extreme, but they didn’t feel there was much point in having a military, much less a powerful one. It had been so long since they had had any kind of military conflict or any serious suffering. Especially on this scale.

  Rioting became common throughout the numerous cities of Dachwald. As a result, security at Castle Dachwald had increased drastically. The number of guards assigned to guarding the castle gates, walls, towers, and especially the underground tunnels had nearly tripled. The senators and the king were horrified at the crimes being committed throughout Dachwald due to hunger, but they didn’t know how to stop it. If they could just make it through this winter, they told themselves, they could plant food again, and everything would go back to normal. But making it through the winter at this rate was going to be a long shot. It had the kind of odds that would scare even the most compulsive gambler from placing a bet.

  The king and senators feared revolution was imminent. They got so scared they even cut their own rations by fifty percent. They prayed rumors would circulate about just how gaunt they had become, how they were suffering right along with everyone else.

  They considered hunting. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Dachwaldians hadn’t hunted for centuries. The land to the north was ripe with game, and had enough animals to feed everyone until they burst. But no Dachwaldian was skilled enough to hunt in the northern regions. These were unforgiving lands. In addition to the animals that would be easy prey and make good meals—deer, caribou, fish, squirrels, etc.—there were . . . others. Animals that weren’t so soft and cuddly. Animals that could wipe out small hunting parties in a matter of minutes. Bears measuring over fifteen feet tall and weighing over two thousand pounds, with flesh so thick and muscles so large most arrows wouldn’t even come close to reaching a vital organ. Wolves the size of deer traveling in packs as large as, and occasionally exceeding, a hundred. Wolves that made the vicious northern wolves of Sodorf look like the kind of pet you’d buy for your three-year-old daughter’s birthday party. A few Dachwaldians, out of sheer hunger and madness, had gone to the northern regions to try to hunt. Those Dachwaldians weren’t seen again.

  The king and senators reached the sober conclusion there was no chance of completely rectifying the situation. Thousands more would die and suffer. However, in order to avoid revolution, something had to be done to show the Dachwaldian people their government wasn’t a bunch of incompetents. Someone had to be punished. A scapegoat was necessary. This idea was first set forth by a shrewd senator about a month after the disastrous incident with the Sodorfians, but King Duchenwald had rejected it initially as being underhanded. After about three months, however, he brought the senate together to discuss the proposition again. After some difficulty, they decided the only person whose punishment could possibly quell the wrath of the Dachwaldians sufficiently to prevent rioting was none other than General Sivingdon himself. After dozens of lengthy debates and discussions, the senators decided, nearly unanimously, that the best approach would be to falsify reports and state that the hundred-man committee, after a lengthy and careful investigation, had found out General Sivingdon had secretly and illegally ordered fifty Vechengschaft soldiers to cross the Sodorfian border and attack the Sodorfians.

  Crooked work lay ahead.

  Forgeries would have to be made, confessions extracted—by whatever means necessary.

  The Dachwaldians knew there had been an attack on the Sodorfians by some unknown persons, and that as a result all chances of obtaining assistance from Sodorf had vanished. They were angry about the attack, but none concluded the Vechengschaft was responsible. But . . . they could be led to believe this, and that was all that mattered. Once the populace found out General Sivingdon was to blame for their suffering, they would scream for his blood.

  And the government would give it.

  They would publicly execute him and fifty Vechengschaft soldiers, who would all sign confessions to having participated in the egregious attack. This wouldn’t solve the hunger problem, but it might stave off revolution. That would have to do.

  They had to tread carefully, however. If they simply tried to round up fifty Vechengschaft soldiers and General Sivingdon, they would all be slaughtered like a gang of pups taking on a group of angry lions. No, they would have to be methodical. They came up with a plan. It was understood, even by the Vechengschaft, that the investigation committee had arrest powers and could call people in for questioning.

  The king and senators prepared lists of people to be “questioned.”

  The committee members took no great amount of convincing to go along with the scheme. The king knew better than to pick an investigation committee that was afraid to get a little blood on its hands. The committee members went around to the various Vechengschaft camps and, one by one, summoned individual soldiers to Castle Dachwald for questioning. These soldiers were then tortured mercilessly in a dungeon below the king’s palace used for the most hideous of purposes. The torture could make a man admit to cheating in a game of poker with the gods if it would make the pain stop. Once all fifty signed confessions had been obtained, the king and senators decided to make their next move. They summoned the general.

  General Sivingdon was finishing breakfast when he received the message:

  Esteemed General Sivingdon:

  It is imperative that you report to the senate chambers at Castle Dachwald immediately. A matter of the highest urgency must be discussed.

  Your prompt compliance with this request is greatly appreciated.

  Yours truly,

  His Majesty King Duchenwald

  Perplexed, he got on his horse and rode to the palace. Upon entering, he was escorted by guards to the senate chambers. All the senators were there, and it was obvious hunger had taken its toll even on Dachwald’s elite. Even King Duchenwald, formerly a grotesquely fat man, was now thin.

  These starvation rations have probably been good for your health, he thought.

  Those senators that had been medium-sized or even thin before the “Great Famine” (the name it had already earned) were now walking skeletons.

  “Greetings, King and senators. I have come before you as requested,” General Sivingdon said. He noticed that the king’s eyes—and those of the senators, for that matter—looked tense and uneasy.

  Something was amiss.

  “General Sivingdon, you have served this country for many years, and we are grateful. We can never repay you for all the times you kept order when domestic disturbances have broken out or for your leadership during some of the skirmishes we have had with our neighbors. But, recently, some very unpleasant news has reached our ears. People from your own ranks have come forward and confessed that YOU gave the order for them to go and attack the Sodorfians. Now—”

  “But, Your Majesty, this is outrageous! This is slander! How dare these vile men speak such treacheries about me?! I would have never endangered the fragile peace we enjoyed with the Sodorfians. If I had wanted to do so, I would simply have taken the Vechengschaft across the border into Sodorf without even asking for YOUR permission, and would have CRUSHED those vile maggots and made them pay for what they did to our farms! We would now be served by them as our slaves, not starving like wretches; mothers and fathers would not be going mad with hunger and eating their own children; people would not be eating sawdust! NO, I did not order any of my Vechengschaft to attack, and I believe that none of them did. The only witnesses we have to this supposed massacre of Sodorfians were eight bodyguards and one emissary. No military officer viewed this supposed bloodbath. The whole thing was probably made up by Sodorfians to distract us from discovering that they did indeed ravage our farms, probably as a preliminary move to INVADING OUR COUNTRY, which, with the current state of affairs here, would not prove overly difficult!! A rowdy band of barbarians from the east could wipe this country of walking skeletons right off the map with a good stiff blow of a
ir. With the abominable cuts in military expenditures that we have suffered over the centuries following our ignominious surrender to the perfidious Sodorfians, it probably never would have taken much of an army to wipe us out, and just look at us now: pitiful, starving, vulnerable! Furthermore, even if there was indeed a massacre of Sodorfians, it was probably a massacre ordered and sanctioned by none other than the Sodorfian nobles themselves! What better way to make themselves the victims and prevent us from discovering what they clearly did to our farms?!

  “Those despicable maggots have always sought to prevent Dachwald from becoming great again, the way she once was. They have always sought to destroy our people! Believe me—no Vechengschaft soldiers attacked the Sodorfians! They wouldn’t dare do so without my explicit orders! And furthermore, these vile Sodorfians—”

  “I have heard ENOUGH of your invective,” shouted King Duchenwald. “Do you DARE defy me?”

  “No, Your Majesty.”

  (not yet)

  “Good. Now, you will of course receive a fair trial. We will see if the accusations brought forth by these fifty Vechengschaft soldiers are true or not. We will see if they are lying. If they are, they will be executed, and the committee will continue its investigation. However . . . and, believe me, this is not easy for me to say . . . as of right now, we have no choice but to relieve you of your command. You must turn over your sword and your armor immediately. The Vechengschaft and the rest of the populace will be notified tomorrow of the upcoming trial and of you being relieved of your command pending the trial. The people of Dachwald must and SHALL know that we do not take treason lightly at any level, no matter how high!! Your trial will be public; if you are found innocent, you will be reinstated as general of the Vechengschaft. If you are found guilty . . . .” King Duchenwald paused.