Legend of the Swords: War

by Jason Derleth

  “We might be able to defend the capitol with that many,” Hesiod said. “It’s heavily fortified. That might discourage an attack.”

  “I doubt it. We’re severely weakened. That’s the perfect time for an enemy to take advantage of us.”

  Hesiod leaned forward, suddenly energized. “Then we have to go after the swords, Renek. It’s imperative, as you say. That would be enough of a deterrent to keep anyone else off of our backs.”

  Renek was silent for a moment. “I still don’t like it. It would be like we were going behind the king’s back.” He smiled. “Or the prince’s. I don’t mind that so much, even if his strategy is turning out relatively well.”

  “So far,” Hesiod said, ominously. “Who knows what those Triol Singers have gone off to do.”

  Renek started. “You don’t think they’ve realized that they were on the ‘evil’ side?”

  “No.” Hesiod shook his head slowly. “I think they’re up to no good. They may not have many of them, but I’m guessing that they have something in store for us that we’re not going to like.”

  Renek nodded, pursing his lips.

  * * *

  They didn’t have to wait long to see what the Triols had in mind. The next morning, as the two armies prepared to face each other in the narrow valley, the Triols were enthusiastically pounding their shields with their swords in their famous rhythm. The very ground shook with the sound.

  Renek felt the shaking. He looked up, behind the assembled Triol army, and saw several piles of boulders, twenty feet tall, arranged in a semblance of human form. Giant arms made of stalactites swung at the sides of enormous boulders, which rode on legs that somehow moved fluidly, almost as if they had hips, knees, and ankles articulating beneath their black bodies. They marched in time with the Triol pounding.

  Oddly, all Renek could think was: I’ll bet that Michael beats me in the numbers today.

  * * *

  The massive rock creatures towered over the Triol army. Their soldiers scattered to the side, making a wide pathway for the giants to march through. They marched in perfect time with the beat of the Triol shields.

  Renek’s teeth chattered as the ground shook underneath him.

  The front of the kingdom army broke. Man by man, they turned to flee as the creatures came close. They were at least twenty feet tall. Their bodies were made of rough, porous black rock. Their legs were stacks of fieldstone, which slid against each other, allowing the legs to bend. Their heads were made of carved gray boulders, with glowing eyes that seemed as large as a man’s head.

  That’s interesting. Renek thought to himself, staring at the multitude of stones. It’s as if they’re cobbled together with whatever was around. He looked closer, and saw that some of them were smaller, or missing pieces. He started counting, and found there were six.

  Huh.

  He wheeled his horse around and rode back towards the rear line. There were few kingdom soldiers left, most of them had run long before Renek had turned. He rode straight up to the generals’ area.

  It was too much. The generals were staring, a bit dumbfounded at the sheer largesse of the other side’s use of magic. James actually had his mouth hanging open, but when he saw Renek riding up, it snapped shut. He looked at Renek, eyes narrowed.

  James shook his head, bewildered. “Either they’ve got more Singers than we think or this battle is important enough to them that they’re willing to exhaust the ones they have.” He turned to look at Renek. “Do you have any ideas, soldier?”

  “Not really,” Renek said. “They seem to be slow, though.” He walked his horse past the generals and up to the Singer behind them. He looked at the healer’s assistant who had been slightly familiar to him, and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  The man looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. He gestured towards Tristan, the other assistant Sorcerer.

  Renek turned to Tristan. “What can we do?” he said, then shook his head and corrected himself. “I mean to say, what can you do, for I can do nothing against such beasts.”

  Tristan laughed. He seemed relaxed, happy. “You would be surprised, warrior—for there is a lot that you can do.” He gestured towards the rock creatures. “You were last off of the field, weren’t you?”

  Renek nodded.

  “Well, then you are probably are brave enough.” He smiled, shaking his head in disbelief. “It has been centuries since anyone attempted to build golems like this. Rocks this large are quite fragile. One sharp blow can break a rock in two; once it is broken, its song will leave it, and it will become lifeless rock again.

  “We will hold them off as long as we can—that will be, at most, an hour. Should you need to go close to them, we can protect you from falling rock, but you must do the rest.”

  Renek raised his eyebrows. “What can I do?”

  Tristan shrugged. “I don’t know.” He smiled broadly. “Keep yourself from getting hit by one of their pointed arms? Find a way to knock them over? They are tall, so if they fall they will hit with a large impact.” He turned back to the other Singer and started chanting. Thunderclouds began to gather.

  Renek nodded, rubbing his chin. He turned in his saddle and snatched at where his saddle packs would have been, if they were marching—but he was outfitted for battle, and his bags were back in his tent.

  Why is everyone looking at me? Renek looked around, and saw that most of the generals weren’t just looking at him, they were looking to him. They either had no ideas, or the Singer speaking to him had temporarily lent him some authority. He glanced at the young prince, and saw that those feelings were not universal—James was glaring at him as if he were a Triol captain.

  Well, I don’t hear any ideas coming from him. He looked around, searching the at the scrub brush in the hills for ideas … until his eyes found some scraggly trees.

  “Does anyone have a rope?” he asked.

  * * *

  Sheets of lightning were holding the creatures, and the army, back. When one stepped through, one of the Singers threw a small rock at it; when the rock struck, it exploded, pushing the creature back.

  Unfortunately, the Singer that was throwing the rocks was completely exhausted by doing so. Clearly, a larger rock was out of the question. As it was, he had to sit down for a few minutes to rest, his clothes wringing with sweat, after every rock.

  Meanwhile, Renek was busy.

  “General Richard,” he began, “can we dig a trench across the center of the valley?”

  Richard nodded. He spun his horse around and started gathering men.

  A foot soldier came running with a long length of rope. He handed it to Renek.

  “Thank you,” Renek said to the man. “Can you gather about a hundred men with swords and axes?” The swordsman saluted, and ran off.

  Renek looked over at young prince James, a question on his lips…but saw James’s sneering face and thought the better of it. He turned instead to another old general.

  “General, would it be possible to build a battering ram?” Renek asked. “ I can bring you a log. I would prefer a ballista or catapult…” He looked back at the Sorcerers. They were all sweating, now. “But I fear we do not have the time.”

  The general nodded. “The smith back at camp has smoothed many logs for me.” He smiled. “He might even be able to find some metal to cap it with, since you say you will bring the wood.” He turned and galloped towards the camp.

  The man he had sent to find swordsmen and axe wielders ran up to him, with several dozen men behind. “I could not find a hundred, sir, but there are perhaps sixty swords and ten axes.”

  “It will have to do,” Renek said, and led them towards the trees.

  Once they had gotten there, he stood with the copse of trees behind him and motioned for them to gather. They grouped up next to him.

  “We only have a bit less than an hour before the Singers’ protections will fail.” He gestured towards the trees behind him. “I don’t need to tell you what will h
appen to us when that happens. We need as many logs as possible cut down and stripped of branches. And then we need them dragged to the top of the hillside near the lightning, and stacked on top of each other.

  “Break up into groups of three or four men and cut trees as fast as you can!”

  The men fell to with gusto. This was far better than fighting twenty-foot tall creatures that would break your weapon and stop you into jelly.

  It wasn’t long before the group had about thirty small logs, about a foot in diameter. Renek whistled.

  “Everybody get on one side of your logs!” He yelled. “Two of them go back to camp. The rest we can roll downhill, that’ll get us halfway there.” He wheeled his horse. “I’m going to prepare the site, just roll the logs up to me!”

  Back at the kingdom army, one of the Singers gasped and fell as Renek galloped across the field. He heard the men gasp, and glanced over at the lightning barrier as it flickered, then froze in place. The lightning wasn’t moving any more. The stone creatures pushed against it, and it toppled to the ground and shattered as if it were made of ice.

  The ground shook as the giant stone golems came to a stop in front of the shallow trench. It was about three feet deep, perhaps half as deep as their legs were tall. One of them stepped forward, hesitantly, and toppled forward. It fell across the trench and shattered, pieces flying everywhere.

  No, that’s not right. Renek thought. It didn’t shatter, it broke into its original pieces of rock.

  Renek got to where he had wanted to go a few moments later. He searched around and found two large rocks, perhaps as big across as his shin. He leapt off of his horse and squatted down to grasping a corner of the rock. He lifted, grunting at the weight, but flipped the rock over.

  That’s heavier than I thought it would be. He thought, as he squatted down again. Those monsters below would be unstoppable in battle. He lifted again, and the rock flipped over again. It was a few feet away from where it had started. He studied the slope, and squatted to turn it again. This had better work.

  He stood up to wipe sweat off of his forehead and check on the logs. Several of the knights had ridden over and were using their mounts to drag the logs. Renek nodded, then turned the rock again.

  Once it was nearly in place, he took out the rope and lay it down on the ground. He flipped the rock over so that it was on the rope, and he tied the rope together. He then strung the rope out and tied it around the other rock.

  A glance down at the trench told him that the Triol army had sent a dozen foot soldiers to use the rocks from the fallen rock creature to fill in the small trench the kingdom soldiers had dug.

  Renek shook his head. We don’t have much time.

  The knights started arriving with their logs. Luckily, they had been relatively small trees, and several of the knights brought two logs dragging behind their horses, with a single piece of rope strung between them and held against the horse’s chest plate.

  “Where do you want these, Renek?” The first knight asked. “They’re getting tough to hold on to, they want to roll down slope.”

  Renek looked more closely at the man. He was wearing the insignia of one of the Knights of the Crown. After a second, he gestured to the rope.

  “I want them held behind this rope.” He gestured. “Hopefully, it holds.”

  The knight nodded, and dragged the logs approximately into position.

  Down at the bottom of the hill, the rock golems were beginning to cross the trench on the loose stones that had once been the back of their fallen comrade.

  It didn’t take long for the rope to begin creaking. It was holding back most of the logs. The first nights had galloped back towards the logs, so the rest were on their way.

  Renek wasn’t looking at the logs, though. He was staring down at the five remaining rock creatures. Several of them were right below them.

  “It’s not going to get any better,” he said, “and we can’t wait any longer,” Renek said to no one in particular. He drew his sword and cut the rope.

  There was a terrible crunching and crashing as they ground against each other, but the logs quickly picked up speed, tumbling down the hill. They picked up speed as space opened up between them, and bounced a bit as they hit uneven spots in the slope. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before they cascaded into the front of the line of creatures.

  Three of them took direct hits, and a fourth shivered and fell apart as the first three exploded into shrapnel. There was a feeble cheer from the kingdom soldiers as the dust settled and it was clear that there was only one left.

  Hm. Those things must not have ears. Renek smiled. They didn’t even look up.

  The last one of the creatures paused to look at the ground in front of it. There were rocks and logs strewn everywhere. The spaces in its body seemed to expand, then it settled back down to its former shape, and managed to push through the debris by walking forward while keeping its feet low to the ground.

  I wonder if I just saw a rock shrug? Renek wondered. He waved at the knights who were bringing up the last three logs. They nodded their understanding, and turned to ride down to the main camp. Renek rode to meet them.

  “I’m out of ideas,” Renek said as he rode up. “I don’t know what to do.”

  The Knight of the Crown that had brought the first log to him spoke up. “Didn’t you suggest using a battering ram?” He grinned. “Speak of the devil…”

  Renek turned. Riding up behind him were the old general and the smith, each pulling an iron-tipped log behind them. “You wanted one, we got two,” he called, grinning. “Never say that general William doesn’t deliver!”

  He glanced over at the remaining creature. It was nearly through the debris of its sundered companions. “Our best shot is while it’s still somewhat immobilized. We should go now.” He looked back at the knights. “You get the rams out there, I’ll bring some men to man the ram.”

  There were nods all around, and the knights rode towards the creature.

  Renek spun around and rode towards a small group of swordsmen nearby. “I need each one of you to find two other people, as quickly as possible, and meet us out by that … thing," he said. “I think we can finish it off,” he added, seeing the looks of fear they threw him. Most of them stood up quickly and ran, but one or two seemed to be moving slowly.

  Renek shook his head and rode out to meet the knights. About a dozen men showed up a minute later. The knights had dismounted, and were already picking up one of the logs; the foot soldiers took up the other.

  The ground shook. The creature had managed to free itself from the debris, it was walking again. Renek raised his eyebrows at the Crown Knight, who stepped away from the head of his log for a moment.

  “I think the teams should go after different legs,” the Knight said. “That way, if one of us fails to take it out, we won’t be getting in the way of the other team as much.” He grasped the log about five feet from the end, and led the knights.

  Renek grinned at the other log, and grabbed it near the front. “Let’s show those pansy knights what real men are like!” he yelled with gusto, loud enough for the knights to hear, and led the men into a trot to catch up with the knights.

  As the men drew up alongside the knights, the knights glanced at them sideways and started running. The men sped up and past the knights, who again sped up to try to take the lead.

  A few seconds later, they were at the creature’s legs. It spun, flailing about with its arms, trying to stop or damage them. The men simply ducked and weaved to avoid the creature’s pig-sized fists.

  The knights managed to connect a split second before the foot soldiers did. The layered rocks that built up its legs slid out of place, and its torso teetered, and then fell over on top of all of the men. The last thing that Renek remembered before everything went black was thinking: That rock is a lot bigger than that one I could barely flip over…

  Living Rock

  They sat at the top of the trail, staring at the
rock wall, until midday.

  “I don’t understand,” Gregory said. “The trail must go somewhere.”

  Armand snorted. “It goes down, Gregory. We could follow it, if you so choose.”

  Shortly before noon, they took out a biscuit each, along with some jerky, and had lunch. They all leaned back against the rock face so they could look down at the valley below them.

  Ryan shifted around, trying to get comfortable, as he ate. There was a rock digging into his back, and there wasn’t much room to move around. Finally, he got up to shift down the trail a bit. As he bent down to put one hand on the ground, he paused.

  Kevin looked over at him. “What’s wrong, Ryan?” He asked, when he saw that Ryan wasn’t moving.

  “The shadow’s funny,” Ryan said, gesturing. Kevin got up and came over. “See? It’s like there’s part of the rock doesn’t cast a shadow.”

  Kevin looked down at the thinning sliver of shadow. “Huh. You’re right.” He reached out and touched the rock, but found no resistance—his hand sunk into the stone. “Would you look at that?” he said, shocked. He looked at Ryan, grinning, and stepped into the rock face in front of him.

  The image of the rock dissolved as he stepped into it. A narrow, steep ravine lead directly east.

  The two knights came over to look.

  “I don’t like it,” Armand said. “It feels bad.”

  Gregory nodded slowly. “Get your pack, Armand. It’s clearly the way that we need to go—but I agree with you, it doesn’t feel good.”

  A few moments later, Gregory led the party into the narrow darkness.

  They hadn’t walked more than a hundred yards when a large piece of rock detached itself from the wall and rumbled into the middle of the ravine. It turned to face them, its long stone arms reaching out touch the walls, its legs set firmly. It looked down at them from its twelve-foot height and the rocks that made up its face moved into a smile.