“Sorry that you had to go through this bad situation,” Aylan said. “Do you know anything about Chara?”
“The Queen Mother broke her neck as the punishment for betrayal,” Cro looked straight into Aylan’s eyes and said in an emotionless voice. “Chara’s dead.”
For the first time in his life, Aylan had lost his words to comfort his friend’s loss. This extended horrific time had been consecutively presenting them the even hideous news. Cro gave one more glance to his friend and flew to the gate-tower. His part was done for now.
Aylan could see Commander Magoora had ridden from one end to another with his sword raised in the air. He was warming his soldiers up. They’d march toward the gate-tower in any moments.
Laam had nothing to say. Past few days had prepared his soldiers. They were ready to do or die. It doesn’t matter if the Kajlas flood over them or not. Though Laam already thought about how to stop them. With Aylan’s approval, he had crushed the coals to powder and made them inflammable. The plan was to through the flaming sacks full with powder just in the middle of the Kajlas force. As soon as they come in touch with any inflammable object, they’d burn them down, and the Kajlas would divide into two parts for a while. At that time the Ashalandians would attack the front part and proceed to the next.
The Midney force in their shiny armors marched over the Mathagor and stopped at a safe distance, waiting for their commander’s signal. The majority of the Kajlas had maces in their hands as this weapon was their favorite. A lot of them even held sword or spear in one hand and a mace in the other.
Everything seemed perfect until Aylan narrowed his eyes to see the enemy’s movement. Commander Magoora was looking at the sky as if he was waiting for a signal. Aylan took a moment to realize the angle of Magoora’s glance. He was looking right on top of the gate-tower. Aylan looked up, and for a fraction of a moment he saw a black object hiding behind the cloud, and he realized what was going to happen. He checked his pocket and remembered Jeem hadn’t returned the ring yet.
Aylan looked back to Jeem. He was at the rear of the force with the archers. Aylan looked at Laam and said, “I’ll be back within a few moments. There’ll be a bit chaotic at the tower, but don’t move from your position.” He pulled the bridle as he talked and then poked the horse’s belly mercilessly to speed up. Aylan was a little too late.
At least a dozen Dainees came out from the cloud, wearing their dark gray robes and were riding on the Urontos. Big black sacks were hanging from the both sides of the saddles. They took some black balls from the sacks and started throwing them down. The balls got flamed on the way down. The soldiers on the roof were not aware of that. They flinched as soon as the fireballs hit the tower and created chaos. Damal and Shaibal found it hard to control the soldiers as they had to save themselves, too.
At the same time, the horn blew from the other side, and the Kajlas soldiers rushed forward.
The incident agitated the soldiers on the ground. And when the fireballs started falling on them, the situation went even chaotic. Laam rode through the soldiers and ordered to use the shields and stay still. It was hard, but they listened to him. The horsemen held their shields over their heads with one hand and the bridle with the other. They just helplessly looked at their enemies approach.
Aylan shouted to Jeem to return his ring. Jeem quickly took the ring off his finger and threw it to his friend. Aylan caught the ring and put it on his finger. But as he raised his hand, he saw a ripple of blue light from the rooftop and hit the Dainees and disorganized them. Another ripple of blue light followed the first one and blew them away. Aylan followed the light down to see the source. It was Master Dorian, standing at a corner of the roof, hands raised. Aylan was surprised. He didn’t have any idea about Master Dorian was a wizard too. He was distracted for a moment as well.
As his work was done, Master Dorian lowered his hands and gave a glance to the soldiers on the ground and collapsed as if he had used his the last bit of energy. Shaibal was close to him. He caught Master Dorian before being hit on the roof and shouted to Damal to take control of the others.
On the other side, the Kajlas had slowed their pace. They too had seen the ripples of light and the Dainees being vanished behind the cloud again. Even commander Magoora was distracted and took a few moments to order the next move; however, this time he was a little too late. Before he could reorganize his men, a horn sounded from the gate-tower, and flaming projectiles began raining down upon them, Destroying a few of their catapults and created chaos amongst the archers. Within moments a cloud of arrows followed the flaming projectiles. Commander Magoora looked behind and saw his men are falling to the ground. He signaled his men to double their speed.
Laam ordered the spearmen to block the enemy’s way. As he raised his sword, Jeem ordered his archers to target the Kajlas soldiers in the front. Another cloud of arrows went up into the sky and rained down upon the Kajlas. The horses stumbled, and the soldiers fell on the ground. Commander Magoora had witnessed his men being massacred.
In response to the Volley the Kajlas archers fired a hail of arrows back at the Ashalandians. They’d gotten back positions after the first catapult attack. Bolin’s unique armors and helmets repelled the arrows that had managed to hit their targets, leaving the Ashalandians mostly unharmed. However, a lot of them could not save themselves from the catapult attacks. Many scattered on the ground, either dead or severely injured.
With most of the catapults having suffered damage in the attack, Commander Magoora had no choice but free the Danob’s early. The Danob’s were already feeling the rush of war, they took up their weapons and charged the enemy. So, as soon as they got free, they raised their hammers and rushed to the front.
The Ashalandians had seen the Danobs charging right for the Kajlas soldiers and stood firmly in their positions and waited for the impact. Their blood was boiling. Their hearts were trembling. Sadly, they were not ready to show their back the enemies.
Laam moved his horse forward. Few more moments and the two armies would collide. He raised his sword once again, and this time he screamed, “For Ashaland!”
The soldiers echoed him, “For Ashaland!”
Right at the moment when the two armies collided, the massive doors of the gate-tower slammed open and the huge rocks rolled in the Mathagor. The whole ground trembled as they entered one by one. The soldiers from the both sides flinched and took a moment to understand what was going on. As they started forming their real shape, the baboon army jumped over the tower and joined the force. The apparent weak Ashalandian force became ten times stronger within a moment.
Prince Mathuray stood by Aylan and said, “Sorry for the delay my friend. Cro was a bit late. And thanks for the Cricles.”
Aylan didn’t have a chance to reply as the Kajlas force suddenly surged forward. The over one hundred Stonemen and two hundred baboon army couldn’t slow their pace this time. The battle of Mathagor had finally begun.
The Danobs were twice the size of the Stonemen, but the stonemen chose to fight them as they drew close. Unlike the Danobs, they were fast, which gave them an advantage against the giants. On their way, they crushed the Kajlas soldiers as much as possible.
King Laam and Aylan were facing the flood of the Kajlas. While Lord Eko shielded Jeem and his force to keep shooting the flag bearers. The aim was simple. Take down the flags and make the enemies confused. The Ashalandian force didn’t have this problem as their flag was on the tower. The soldiers would keep fighting until their banner falls.
The baboons were swift and brutal. Even the fearsome Kajlas soldiers were frightened by the animals gruesome manner of attack, using their strength and enormous teeth to shred the limbs of their enemies. They’d attack a soldier as pairs. So that, the soldier would confuse how to defend him. Within a moment the pair of baboons would finish their job and jump to the next.
The half-trained villagers had struggled to fight the born fighter Kajlas. Most of them lay on the ground injured. Bu
t Bolin’s unique armors and helmets saved their lives.
Aylan had an advantage of being able to use both the hands. As he advanced his horse through the Kajlas, he charged and defended himself from the both sides. The enemies had an order particularly for him to be dead. For that the Kajlas soldier tried their best to wound him. But they wouldn’t last longer in front of his skill and power. If Aylan saw a soldier attacking him with a mace, he would rush his horse forward before the mace come halfway through to crush him, and stab the soldier before having try to defend themselves.
After a while, he noticed the Midney flags were still up. He looked around. Only Jeem was fighting with the Kajlas, and his uncle was nowhere to be seen. He looked to his left, in a little distance King Laam was fighting with two Kajlas. Aylan punched in the face of the Kajlas he was fighting with the sword’s butt and walked to the king.
“I reckon something had happened to Lord Eko. I’m going to help Jeem,” he shouted to Laam.
“No problem,” King Laam replied without stopping his fight.
Aylan pulled his horse’s bridle to Jeem and then left it to hold the other sword in that hand. He poked in the horse’s belly with the spur to speed up. As he rode through, he kept charging with his swords and the horse every Kajlas soldier that came in his way. In a few moments, he approached to Jeem. Jeem looked relieved to see his friend. He was in middle of the enemies, fighting with sword in circle while holding the bow in one hand. Aylan signaled him to follow him to get back to his position. As Jeem gathered his remaining archers behind Aylan and Lord Eko’s soldiers, they started shooting arrows to the flag bearers. This time more carefully took down one Kajlas or Midney with every arrow they shot.
While fighting, suddenly Aylan was attacked by two soldiers from the both sides, and to him, their approach looked different and familiar at the same time. These soldiers were more muscular than the Midneys and seemed more like a human than the Kajlas. Though they wore the Midney uniform, their disguise couldn’t deceive Aylan for long. The Darkhors had found him.
If Aylan weren’t trained by the Darkhors, he would die of the first attack by those soldiers. The Darkhors were dedicated to killing as the Kajlas, and for that reason, they mastered the cruelest and efficient way to finish their targets at the shortest time possible.
As Aylan was defending himself from his former brethren, Jeem noticed another soldier with a spear in his hand circling around them, apparently looking for a right position to throw it to Aylan. To assure his assumption, Jeem also noticed that soldiers wasn’t giving any attention to what was happening around him as he glued his eyes to Aylan.
Jeem called his second in command and told him to lead the archers for a few moments. Then concentrated to the mysterious assassin. He followed the soldier’s movement with his bow and arrow to come to a clear position, where he could shoot him effortlessly. And the chance came to that assassin first, as soon as Aylan knocked down the two Darkhors he fought and looked for if anyone else was going to attack him. There was no one between him and Aylan. But Jeem had his friend as the obstacle. As the Darkhor soldier raised his spear, Jeem rushed forward and jumped using one of the Kajlas soldier’s knee as the stepping stool and shoot the arrow while he was still in the air.
Aylan saw Jeem jumping from the corner of his eye and assumed something was wrong on the other side. As he was about to turn, he felt the impact of the spear went through his right armpit. The Darkhor soldier was looking for the weak spot in his armor all this time. Jeem widened his eyes with disbelief. His friend was hooked with a spear that he tried to stop.
Jeem rushed to Aylan to catch him before he falls to the ground. He expected to see him bathing in the blood. Instead, Aylan gave a smile to him and pulled out the spear from his body as if nothing happened to him. Aylan checked the bloodied spear and turned to his fallen assassin. The third one had died. That means there would be no more Darkhors for now, he thought. It was the Darkhor style of assassination. Sending three killers on a mission. Aylan was once the part of it.
He looked back to Jeem to ensure that he was alright and he better go back to his position and thanked him. Jeem was going to ask him a question, but a Kajlas charged him, and he had to move away, assumed that the ring saved his friend’s life.
Aylan took a moment to take a deep breath. His wound closed immediately and started healing. Within a few moments, he got back up to fight.
King Laam waited for a while to the condition of the war. It seemed the both armies were in the same strength and weren’t ready to give up yet. It’s the time, he thought. He pulled out the bright red handkerchief and waved it over his head with the left hand, while he was fighting with the right one.
Shaibal had an eye on his King as he was ordered to. Though the signal was supposed to come at the beginning of the war, he was aware that the surprise attack from the Dainees had changed the situation. Now then, he had seen the signal at last, Shaibal ordered his assistants to load the first projectiles and aimed to the middle of the Midney force. As Laam lowered his hand, Shaibal signaled his people to release the missiles. They threw half of the stock and stopped.
Meanwhile, the Midney force was strange to see some black colored balls being crushed around them, where they expected to get hit by the stones. But they carried on fighting.
Only Commander Magoora knew what those balls were. Since as he was at the beginning of the force, he hadn’t noticed them. Just at that moment, he saw the crossbows on the top of the tower were inflamed, he looked back and realized what was going to happen, but he was too late. The giant arrows were thrown before even he could turn to his back. The arrows flew over him and crashed on the black powder and created wildfire within the force. The atmosphere in the battleground became heavier with the scream of the affected soldiers. The rest just disarrayed. Even after all these bloodsheds, this particular incident trembled every soldier present in the battleground. Laam regretted making such a decision.
Commander Magoora looked around and realized that Chief Lord Brirar was right. It was a stupid decision to attack the villagers without knowing their strength. He could see the number of his men was falling. The battle was supposed to be one sided, but the joint force of the enemy had changed everything. In this way, he would lose almost all his men to reach the gate-tower. Commander Magoora took a glance to the city, where the Midney soldiers were guarding the King. It was for sure that, they could see the situation of the battleground, yet there was no sign of help from the city. As if, the Kajlas were sent to die like the trapped mice.
In one way, he was right. There was no help coming from the city. Lord Brirar had seen the Danobs being defeated by the Stonemen and the brutal Kajlas were being stopped by the Ashalandians, he ordered the soldiers to not to move from their positions. In case, they get defeated, and the king needs some time to make the next move while these soldiers face the foes.
Seeing adverse condition, commander Magoora was trying hard to make a decision. He couldn’t see his men being slaughtered for a greedy king. Also, he had a dream to settle his people in this very place by killing the Midneys. And that’s the reason he influenced King Khuli to bring more Kajlas to Ashaland. If they all die today, there’ll be no hope left for the rest. So, when he saw his men were burning, he made his decision.. “Fall back!” He shouted to his soldiers.
The whole battleground fell in silence as if they didn’t understand what he had just said. Commander Magoora repeated his order, “Fall back.” He had pulled the bridle and turned to the city.
The Kajlas soldiers couldn’t believe their own eyes and ears. They were the kind who would rather die in the battleground then to show their backs to the enemy. And commander Magoora wasn’t the leader who would make such kind of cowardly decision. Then they realized, that there must have a reason why he had to decided to fall back.
The excited Ashalandian soldiers attempted to attack the runaway Kajlas from behind, but King Laam shouted, “Hold your weapons and let them go unharmed. I
t’s against our war policy.” Everyone lowered their arms and even let the Kajlas take their injured soldiers. At the midday, the battle of Mathagor had stopped.
King Laam ordered to look for the casualties. His men obeyed the order. As he looked at his back, he saw Aylan and Jeem were riding back. Aylan was carrying an unconscious Lord Eko on his horse. So far everything went well, he thought. King Laam turned the bridle to the gate-tower.
The soldiers made them their way as they rode through. And when they arrived at the gate, the people welcomed them, screaming, “All hail King Laam! The King of free Ashaland.”
King Laam raised his right hand to them. The people stopped making noise. “Yes, we have won the battle with the help of our brave soldiers and the selfless friends, without whom we’d have a very tough chance to win. But it isn’t the time to celebrate yet. As soon as we get informed about the casualties, we will ride to the city to confirm our victory.”
The people cheered to welcome the decision. Aylan handed his uncle over to the physicians and joined King Laam.
Not long after the search party returned to him with the report. One hundred and twenty Ashalandian soldiers, thirty Baboons had died, and three hundred Ashalandians, twenty-five Baboons, and five Stonemen were either minor or seriously injured. The gypsies were all alright.
Son of The Prisonland (The Myth Shadow Trilogy Book 1) Page 21