by Logan Jacobs
“Has there been any signs of Penny yet?” Cimarra asked when my gaze fell on her.
I glanced at the dark sky above us, as if she might suddenly appear out of thin air, but then I shook my head.
“No, but I’m sure she’ll be here soon,” I replied. “At least, I sure as shit hope so.”
While I had gathered up troops from all over the empire to come make our last stand, I had sent Penny to bring Azure back from the Capital. I wanted to ride my dragon into battle against Tevian and all the rest of the elves, but if Penny didn’t show up soon, I would just have to settle for my war horse to start things off.
“Should we be worried about the lass?” Skam asked.
“No,” I said. “I knew that it might take her a day or two to get here since she couldn’t use the portal to move him.”
“Yeah, Azure is definitely too big for the portal now,” Cimarra said. “He’s actually probably the size of the entire portal room itself, so he wouldn’t even be able to fit through the sewer or through the sentient door, much less through the archway into the Blood City.”
“But it shouldn’t take her that long to fly him here, right?” Ashlin asked. “Well, I don’t know how far it is from here to the Capital, so maybe it really would take that long.”
“Azure can’t fly for hours on end,” I said. “He needs to eat a lot and take frequent rest breaks. She isn’t going to push him to go as hard as he can, so he can be fresh for battle when the elves see him.”
“Can you imagine their faces when they do?” Clodia smirked. “The elves haven’t seen a dragon, at least not one in the wild, in… oh, I don’t know. It’s been ages, anyway.”
“Besides, it also gives Penny and Azure a chance to scan my kingdom and see if there are any other stray elven patrols or army remnants,” I said. “I told her to eliminate anyone else she found on her way here, just to make sure that after we destroy Tevian’s forces, that we won’t have to face anyone else.”
“I guess there are a couple of forts between here and the Capital,” Golierian said. “So if there did happen to be any elves hidden there, your dragon would make quick work of them.”
“Maybe it’s just taking her a little longer because Azure keeps finding little elven snacks,” Ava said. “No offense, Clodia and Golierian.”
“That’s possible,” I laughed. “I just hope they get here by the time the battle starts, or at least pretty fucking soon after that.”
I wasn’t really worried about the redheaded pixie because for one thing, I knew that she was perfectly able to take care of herself. But she also happened to be on the back of a giant blue-scaled dragon, and Azure was damn near as fond of Penny as he was of me, so he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. After all, that was the biggest reason that I had sent her to get Azure instead of anyone else, since other than me, the dragon knew and trusted Penny more than anyone.
Still, I would be happy to see her safe and sound with my own eyes, even if she didn’t make it to the battlefield before the start of the fight.
“Can we afford to wait any longer?” Leif asked.
“No,” I sighed. “I want to gear up and move out, so we’re in position before the sun rises.”
“Then let us help you into your armor, my king,” Twila purred.
“By all means,” I said with a smile.
Leif and Dar brought my armor over to me, and then as Twila helped secure the armor onto my legs, Ava and Clodia slipped the chain mail over my head and then fastened my breastplate into place. Dar and Selius buckled my forearms into my bracers, and then Twila buckled the belt around my waist. After Skam presented me with my sword, I sheathed it at my side, so then my hands were free to accept my round shield from Golierian.
“And now the final touch,” Cimarra said as her blue eyes sparkled at me.
The raven-haired dancer lifted the crown of the last human king and gently placed it over my hair. As soon as it was in place, I felt a wave of calm wash over me, while at the same time, I felt a rush of energy shoot down my arms into my palms. I glanced down at my hands to see that all the lines in my palms glowed a soft white, and I knew that I would have as much magic today as I needed to win on the battlefield.
And I didn’t think that was just because of the armor.
“Actually,” Ashlin whispered as she moved toward me with a balled-up cloth in her hands. “I think this might be the final touch.”
I glanced over and saw that Osman now had a long lance in his hands that he had either found or maybe conjured up from somewhere. He extended the lance toward Ashlin just before she reached me, and when the brunette dancer nodded, she and the djinn worked together to fasten the cloth on the end of the lance. But when they turned their backs to me, I couldn’t quite see what was in their hands.
When they turned back around, I immediately realized what they had done. As Ashlin handed me the lance, the balled-up cloth finally unfurled to its full length, and in the dim torchlight of the Blood City, its red and white colors rippled like blood and magic.
It was the banner of the last human kingdom.
Just like Golierian had sewn me a battle flag to fly over the garrison in the Capital, Ashlin had sewn me a banner version of it to carry on my lance into battle with me. As the wind caught the banner, it fluttered it up and out, so all my troops could clearly see the red dragon on the white background, along with ten tiny blue stars all around it.
“Ashlin,” I murmured. “This is perfect, thank you.”
“Cim and Twila helped, too,” Ashlin said.
“But it was your idea,” Cimarra pointed out.
“I don’t know how you found time to do this on top of everything else that you’ve all done for my kingdom,” I said. “But thank you. I will proudly ride into battle with this.”
Before I accepted the lance with my banner on the end of it, I mounted my warhorse and surveyed my troops. I wore the last human king’s armor, I bore his shield and huge battle-sword at my sides, I had his crown on my head, and now, as I took my banner from Ashlin, I even had the last human kingdom’s flag to lead my soldiers into battle.
But it wasn’t the last human king’s armor or weapons or even his flag anymore. Now, those things belonged to the new human king, because now, those things belonged to me.
I stood on the shoulders of all the humans who had come before me, from my father all the way back to the last human king, and I knew that the victory I would win today wasn’t just for me, just like it wasn’t even for the future generations of humans and all the other races.
It was also for all the generations before me who had dreamed of freedom, who had fought for it, who had died for it, and who had trusted that one day, someone would come along to make every hope that they had come true.
And today was that day.
“I couldn’t do any of this without you, my friends,” I said as I looked down at everyone assembled around me in a circle. “I hope you all know that.”
“Eh, save the mushy stuff for after we win the battle,” Skam said, even as he wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Fair enough,” I said with a grin. “Cimarra, Twila, Ashlin, remember what I told you. Stay safe until… just stay safe.”
“We will,” Cimarra promised. “And we’ll be waiting for you right here when you get back.”
Each of them went up onto their tiptoes to kiss me, and then they stepped to the side. After Clodia, Golierian, and Ava mounted their own horses, they fell into position behind me, and then the rest of my friends returned to their own units to lead my soldiers into battle. Leif headed up a huge detachment of foot soldiers from a number of different cities, while Skam commanded a troop of dwarven soldiers as well as human guards, plus one very excited Selius. Dar and Melia stood ready to lead the combined forces of the City of Slaves and Riverhome into battle together, and Osman fell into the ranks of soldiers from the Capital.
“Let’s move out!” I called as I raised my lance high, so the banner
fluttered even more in the wind.
The soldiers all shouted back with one voice, and it sounded like the roar of the sea inside the walls of the Blood City. When all the commanders signaled that they were ready to move, I began to ride toward the front gates of the elven capital.
I had given us plenty of time to get to our positions in the fields, so I didn’t have to race my horse forward. Instead, I could save his energy for the battle itself, especially since I wasn’t about to leave the rest of my troops in the dust behind me just because they were on foot instead of on horseback.
We marched silently across the plains, but every so often, I let a small burst of white fire explode into the air above me. It was partially to reassure my soldiers, but it was also to make sure that everyone still followed in the darkness. We had torches to help light our way forward, since we weren’t trying to sneak up on the elven troops, but it was still so dark that even the torch light seemed to be dim.
When we finally reached the spot in the plains that I had picked and designed to give us the best chance of victory, I lowered my lance to signal a stop. The sky had just started to grow light to the east, so I knew that it wouldn’t be long before sunrise, and when I glanced far ahead of me across the endless fields, I saw the faint glimmer of elven armor in the distance.
“What did Twila whisper to you?” I asked Ava on the horse beside me.
“She had a dream,” the blonde assassin replied. “She dreamed that you two were going to have a son.”
I had heard that sometimes women dreamed of what their future children might be, so I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if Twila really had sensed that we were going to have a son.
“A son,” I murmured.
“A son,” Ava said and then bit her lip. “And Wade?”
“Yes, my love?” I asked.
“I told her that I had a dream, too,” the beautiful assassin replied. “I dreamed that our child was a girl.”
I leaned over and kissed her so deeply that I felt her cheeks grow hot in front of all the soldiers, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to make sure that there was never a single doubt in Ava’s mind of how deeply I felt for her and for our future child.
“Then let’s go win our daughter’s future,” I said when I released her. “Let’s go win the future for all our children.”
I turned my horse and began to trot up and down the ranks of soldiers all spread out behind me. There was still time for them to get into battle formations, but first, I wanted to speak to them as their king since everything that we had all worked so hard for was about to come down to the next few hours.
“My soldiers!” I called as I continued to ride up and down in front of my army. “You have come here today from all across this kingdom to fight for your freedom, and you have come here in the hopes that you can make a better world for your children.”
Every soldier on the battlefield behind fell silent to listen to my words.
“I am your king!” I shouted, as I urged my horse to ride even faster across the ground, so the human banner on my lance could fly in the wind behind me. “But I do not stand before you as just your king, but as a man. A man who wants the same things that you do. A good home, a good life for my children, and the right for us all to be treated as equals.”
I caught Ava’s eye again and smiled at her from across the field.
“So tell me,” I said as I turned back to the crowd behind me. “Will you follow your king?”
“We hear, and we follow!” the Elite shouted in one voice.
“We hear, and we follow!” the rest of the soldiers echoed.
“Then know that a day may come, when I ask you to follow me into the halls of death itself,” I shouted, as the whole field fell silent. “A day may come, when I ask you to follow me into the pits of the afterlife.”
The only sound on the battlefield was the steady drum of my horse’s hooves upon the earth.
“That day may come,” I said, and then I spurred my horse even faster back and forth in front of my troops. “But, my friends, today is not that day!”
Suddenly, my soldiers all stood up a little straighter and gripped their weapons with a little more confidence.
“Today, all I ask is that you fight!” I shouted. “Today, all I ask is that you trust me! That you trust yourselves! Because we do not fight for empire or for lands or for riches. Today, we fight for our lives!”
As one, my soldiers all beat their weapons against their shields just once in response, so it sounded like a single drum of war that echoed all up and down their ranks.
“Today, we fight for our right to live,” I continued. “To live how and where we please, to live with honor and honesty. To live without fear! To live without terror and dread!”
Again, every soldier beat their weapons against their shields, but this time, they also gave a shout like the tide as it crashed into the shore.
“Today, we fight as free men!” I shouted. “Now, are you with me?”
The crowd of soldiers instantly shouted and began to cheer, until one voice carried above all the rest, and I immediately recognized it as Leif’s.
“Who do you serve?” the big gladiator shouted over all the noise.
“The king!” every soldier on the field cried out.
“How do you serve him?” Leif called.
“We follow his every order, and we are his most loyal soldiers!” the field of soldiers called back. “We lay waste to all enemies in his path, and we make sure that nothing touches him!”
“And how long will you serve him?” the big gladiator called again.
“Until our last breath!” my soldiers shouted in one voice.
“Until our last breaths!” I called back as I raised my banner high.
The crowd behind me thundered with shouts and noise as they clanged their weapons on their shields to cheer, and I rode back and forth in front of them to help whip them into a frenzy. I couldn’t quite believe that all these soldiers had followed me into battle against the elven empire, and I felt a mixture of pride and worry tie knots inside my stomach.
We would win the day.
We had to.
Just as the last of their cheers finally died away, the sun poked its head above the horizon in a sudden flash of golden light that spread across the whole plain. The elves were closer now than they had been when we first arrived on the fields, and in just a few minutes, it looked like they would be ready to charge, so I signaled to my unit commanders to begin preparations.
As all my troops hurried to get into position, I glanced at Golierian and Clodia behind me, I looked over at Ava again, and then I looked back at all my friends and soldiers as they readied themselves for battle.
The units of pike-men all gathered into a deep formation that faced the elven force, so there was no way for the elven cavalry to break through and attack our foot soldiers if they didn’t want to end up with a pike through their lungs. The four of us on horseback, along with the few dozen other human riders that we had, would fight outside the wall of pike-men to help keep the cavalry from breaking around to the back of our forces.
With my magic, I was confident that we would be able to protect our main force, especially since the Elite archers would all be guarded by the pike-men as they unleashed one round of death after another on the elven cavalry. Then, once we broke their cavalry, we would advance on their foot soldiers and break them, too. And if for some reason we weren’t able to break their cavalry in time, then we still had plenty of space to retreat and regroup, and I had planned for that just as well by clearly marking out the lanes men should use to fall back in an orderly fashion.
Once all of my soldiers were in position, I turned my horse back around to face the oncoming elven horde. Their forces were divided into one of the standard battle formations that Golierian had told me about, so the foot soldiers were divided into four main sections, while the shock cavalry advanced in front of everyone else as one main unit. Like at Riverhome, they clear
ly expected us to crack at the first onslaught as that had been their experience for as long as any of them could remember.
And just like at Riverhome, they were in for a rude awakening.
Only one elf rode out in front of all the others, and even though he was too far away to see his face clearly, there was no doubt about the fact that it was Tevian.
As the elves drew closer and closer, I glanced at the sky again for any sign of Penny, but it was a clear day, and there was still no trace of the dragon or his red-haired rider. I would do alright without my dragon, but I would do a hell of a lot better with him, just like I would do a hell of a lot better once I knew that Penny was safe.
Besides, based on the number of elves that were stretched out across the field before us, I knew that my own soldiers would do a lot fucking better if they had a huge fire-breathing dragon on their side.
“Come on, Penny,” I murmured. “Where the hell are you?”
Chapter 20
Almost as soon as the sun rose, and all my troops were in position, the ground beneath us began to shake with the thunder of the elven cavalry as they raced toward us. The closer they drew, the worse our situation looked, but we had planned for this, so we just needed to hold steady and wait for the right moment.
My troops were at the top of a steep rise in the ground, so the elves had to charge up the hill toward us. Behind us, the ground continued to rise until it reached a wide crest and then dipped back down into a series of gently rolling hills all the way back toward the steepest hill that led right up to the gates of the Blood City.
If we needed to retreat, we would fall back to the top of the crest behind us, and then if things got even worse, we could retreat all the way back to the elven capital. But in the meantime, we had the advantage of the high ground, and we also had the advantage of better preparations.
On either side of the half-circle of pike-men around my troops, I had ordered workers the previous day to lay out a little surprise for the elves. The ground was already a little uneven, and that would certainly be an advantage to us as the enemy cavalry tried to charge up the hill. But on either side of my own army’s position, the workers had torn up the ground as much as possible.