"I'm hoping to choose a man, not a boy."
Teresa decided to flip a coin between Juxta and William. Juxta won. The feast and dancing was upon them. Simon pushed himself up from the table and puffed out his chest. He approached Teresa and held out his hand. "Will you dance?" he asked.
She said, "No, fetch me Juxta."
Simon returned to his table with the prince and Juxta. "She asks for you, Juxta."
He rose up, summoned his courage, and approached the king's table. "Your wish, my lady?"
"To dance," Teresa said.
He took her hand and danced with her.
After a few dances she said, "Kiss me."
Juxta embraced her in a kiss. Simon left the hall. Teresa pushed Juxta away.
His left eyebrow raised up high, and his right eye squinted almost closed.
Once the feast was dying down, William and Juxta retired to the guest quarters. Simon was beet red with clenched fists, and his hair was in shambles as if he had been pulling it out.
"How could you?" Simon said.
Juxta pointed off into the bowels of the castle. "It was her idea. She was just trying to get back at you."
"If you weren't a wizard, I'd challenge you to a duel!"
William laughed. "It was only a kiss, and you have no more claims to the girl than any of us."
"I love her!" Simon said.
"So do I!" William and Juxta said in unison.
Simon threw his hands in the air. "Bah, I love her more!"
"Perhaps, but I would compete for her, Simon," William said.
Juxta nodded. "As would I."
"She'll decide," Simon said. "Let's see what tomorrow brings."
*
All three of them stayed up late that night plotting against each other and towards Teresa. Rubie sat Teresa down and glared at her.
"You broke Simon's heart," Rubie said.
Teresa tilted her head to the side. "He tried to buy me up! He deserved it."
"You are a bit of a trollop you know."
"What!"
Rubie held up three fingers. "You like three boys!"
"I grew up with William. I grew to like Juxta while he apprenticed and lived in the castle. Simon is a wonderful dancer and handsome. All three of them are like brothers to me."
Rubie spat. "Brothers are useless."
"They're a nuisance, at best."
"Will you say no to my brother if he proposes?"
"Pointless question,” Teresa said. “His duty to the crown is to marry royalty."
"But it wouldn't be unheard of to marry otherwise, especially for beauty."
Teresa snapped her fingers. "I've got it! I won't marry any of them, but let them prove themselves to me nonetheless."
"You have a plan?"
Teresa smiled like a wicked temptress baiting one of many traps.
*
The next morning, William went to Teresa's quarters. He breathed in deep, and knocked.
Teresa answered the door and bowed. "My liege."
William knew immediately that he was doomed, but he surely also knew he wasn't going to get anywhere without trying. He moved in close to Teresa and tried to grab her hand. She pulled out of the way.
William fell to one knee and clasped his hands together. He waited until her eyes caught his. Her ears began to turn red. He said, "Will you marry me?"
"No."
William ran away.
He passed Juxta in the hallway and whispered, "Good luck."
Juxta knocked on Teresa's door.
Teresa shook her head on seeing his face.
Juxta was quicker to grab up her hand in his, and he looked deep into her eyes. "I've loved you for a long time, my dear."
Teresa laughed.
"The way you carry your hips as you walk. The way you lord over the kitchen staff making sure everything is prepared just so," he said. "The gentle curves of your form."
Teresa said, "What do you want, Idiot?"
Juxta closed his mouth for a moment. "I was thinking we could marry…"
"No."
"I think we would make a good couple! I would do whatever you ask. If you want two children, we'll have two. If you want five, I would allow it."
Teresa's eyes cut through him with a vicious gaze. "You're a pig."
"You like me! Admit it!"
Teresa shook her head. "I'm not going to marry you."
Juxta said, "But why?"
"Because I don't want to marry yet. Give me a child, and I'll marry you."
Juxta's face began to twist into a grimace.
He found himself backing away to the door. She advanced on him, drew a dagger, and put it to his throat. Yes, she was quite the nimble little vixen. She said, "Do this!"
Then she embraced him in a kiss. The kiss evolved into quite a bit more. Afterwards, they lay on her bed breathing.
Teresa pushed him out of the bed. He looked at her. She said, "If you tell anyone about what we did, I'll tell everyone that you cast a spell on me."
"What?"
"I'll tell everyone you used your magic on me. If I have a child, then we can marry."
Juxta shook his head. Then a little thought occurred to him. "You know we may have to do it more than once for that to happen? It likely takes at least three tries."
"Get out!" She shouted
Juxta grinned wide, but he left her quarters.
The next day when Juxta, Simon, and the Prince were preparing to leave, Teresa came running up to the three of them. "I'm sorry! I can't marry all three of you!"
Then she ran off in tears.
"She could pick one of us," William said.
"Let's ride, men," Simon said.
And they rode for home.
Chapter 14
That fall and winter passed quickly. Juxta studied with Hebron, and Simon and William patrolled the border with their ranger squad.
Before the last frost scouting reports from the Tercian border started to flow in. They massed an invasion force, a large one. The regular army mobilized from its places along Lynken's borders.
The regular army consisted of roughly fifteen thousand men armed with pikes, chain mail, and swords. Five thousand men from Nork bolstered the force. A thousand rangers and three hundred or so cadets constituted the extent of the cavalry. They gave the cadets the option of joining in the upcoming battle, and none said nay.
Rogue Scouts tracking the enemy army spoke of at least thirty thousand ogres and ten thousand humans. The enemy had little or no cavalry. They did have siege engines though: great lumbering catapults, towers, and battering rams.
King William evacuated the civilian population in the city. Able-bodied men were asked to stay behind to fight in the coming battle, and some did, but many didn't. Many retired rangers re-recruited. Seems that the thief's guild abandoned the city last and some looting occurred.
They didn't have much time, and the smiths worked night and day. They stockpiled food and water in the castle. They sent word to their neighbors requesting aid. Druids were contacted from all over the realm. Within a week's march of the capital, the Tercia army lumbered closer with each passing day, and the riders requesting aid would barely reach their destinations in that time.
The king, the Nork war general, Rollin, Hebron, and Prince William together decided where to engage the massive invader. They agreed on a gently sloping meadow on the eastern side of the capital. The incline would give them a slight advantage, and the top of the meadow would be a good place to station the war general and his honor guard as well as Juxta and Hebron.
The Tercian diplomat left Lynken in the dead of night. The Tercian army marched on. The day of the battle loomed large.
Lynken's army took to the field taking the high ground. The army lined up in rows twenty men deep. They stationed the mounted rangers at the rear of the infantry. Simon and Rollin would fight on the ranger's right flank while the king and the prince commanded the left flank. The rangers had bows ready. The enemy marched into
sight. At the highest point of the hill, stood the Nork war general and the horn-blowers as well as Juxta and Hebron on horseback. The Tercian army marched on. Ogres and humans formed up in line after line carrying spears and swords wearing breast plates.
Juxta and Hebron waited until the enemy's siege engines rolled into view.
As the first of the catapults crested the hill, Juxta started summoning power, and Hebron added to this power by the bucketful. Juxta channeled both energies into one force through the Dragon's Fire ring and his Amethyst staff. He drew triangles with his mind over the catapults and sounded, ‘Shoc.' Lightning crashed down on the engines reducing them to cinders and ash. Another row crested the hill, and Juxta destroyed them. Hebron fed Juxta more power than he knew what to do with.
He started drawing triangles on the ranks of ogres and humans in the army. He focused energy and barked out ‘Shoc' again and again, and lightning crashed sending ogres and pieces of ogres flying. He tried sweeping the triangle back and forth across their line. The effect devastated their ranks, but it started to curb the flow of power from Hebron.
The enemy started to beat drums and charge forward. The rangers raised their bows, arrows cocked, then let loose en masse. Juxta started throwing fireballs at the lines of ogres. It took a lot of energy, but Hebron seemed to be feeding him from a boundless pool of power. Juxta began to tire while the bloodlust started to grip his heart.
He killed at least a thousand of the beasts, maybe close to two thousand. The rangers let loose another barrage of arrows. The front ranks of the enemy met Lynken's forces with a crash of metal and flesh. The ogres had the distinct size and strength advantage, but Lynken's forces fought like a precise machine. The rangers let loose another barrage of arrows and another. Juxta switched back to lightning bolts, careful to target the rear ranks of the enemy, avoiding any friendly casualties. On witnessing the melee, Juxta's rage boiled tenfold, and his lightning strikes became more and more devastating while fatigue started to wrack his body with spasms.
Still, the sheer mass of ogres and humans in the Tercian army overwhelmed Lynken's force. Blood puddled underneath the dead and dying. The war general ordered Juxta to target their siege towers and battering rams. Juxta complied blasting them one by one with massive lightning strikes. The war general ordered his trumpeter to sound the charge. En masse the left and right ranger flanks split into two halves and circumvented the regular army in a wide sweep. They drew their swords as one; brilliant sunlight flashed a thousand fold. The ogres knew the rangers would charge, and many had spears planted in the ground waiting. The rangers fought well and cut into the enemy's flanks sorely.
The melee started turning in the favor of the ogres, but the rangers fought on from horseback. The king and the prince on the left flank battled in the heat of the melee wielding their arcane blades. Simon and Rollin on the right flank cut down ogres left and right. Juxta finished off the siege towers and battering rams, and he started looking for targets of opportunity in the mass od ogres, but he paused as his fatigue threatened to overwhelm him like a dark cloud, while the flow of power from Hebron still flooded his being. The ogres pushed through the ranks of Lynken's army.
Juxta sensed it in the distance. A smell of death and decay so raunchy that it reminded him of a wild boar that died in the dead of summer and lay rotting for at least a week before Juxta found it. A Hellsteed approached. Juxta looked to Hebron. "Master!"
Then for Juxta it seemed the sun was blotted out of the sky, and a dark cloud formed over the battle. Juxta could feel Rivek drawing in power like a scourge. Sensing his own doom, Juxta drew in as much power as his fatigued and almost broken body could muster. He saw Rivek in his mind, atop his bony hellsteed. Then in a great blast Rivek lashed out with all his strength at Hebron's mind. A tingling sensation jolted Juxta as his master died and slid off of his horse. A thunder crack echoed in the heavens as the last barriers holding back Juxta's rage shattered.
Juxta lashed out at Rivek, crashing lightning down on a spherical shield. In a haze, Juxta lashed out again and again until Rivek finally died. Juxta paused, and realized blood streaked down his face from his nose. His head thumped with each beat of his heart.
The king fell from his horse. The prince didn't see. He faced the other direction. They struck the king over the head with a simple club, knocking him out. Ogres started to drag him and his sword away, and a cheer went up on the side of the ogres. The cheer made the prince turn and look around. He shrieked, "No!" when he saw his father's empty horse. He looked around and caught a glimpse of him being dragged away. He kicked his heels into his horse's sides in the direction of his father. He killed ogre after ogre in the way, but too many of them stood in his path. Still, he fought on like a savage kicking his horse forward as the bodies piled up in his wake.
Lynken's line broke, first at one point, then a second, soon at more. The war general ordered the horn blower to sound the retreat. Prince William heard the call in part of his mind, but his body didn't respond. He just kept on pushing forward, and ogres surrounded him. Rollin and Simon heard the retreat sound as well. Simon looked around first and saw the prince in dire straits. He galloped for him. The ogres knocked William off his horse, and he used Shoc-Ra to its fullest in beating back the ogres surrounding him.
The ogres seemed to be interested in keeping their distance from the prince and his arcane blade, but they had him direly outnumbered. He had strayed far from Lynken's main force.
Simon cut through the circle of ogres surrounding the prince. "My liege!"
Simon grabbed William's arm, and pulled him onto the horse. Then Simon kicked the horse into a gallop away from the ogres. Dead and wounded littered the field. Some of the ogres gave chase. Juxta cut them down out of sheer malice. Juxta rained fire on them as if he intended to hold back their whole army alone. Simon and William rode to the lookout where Juxta still did his arcane dance.
Simon shouted, "We have to go!"
Juxta lowered his hands and stopped throwing fire. He started to just breathe for a moment. He let the power dissipate. The blood ran all the way down his face and neck. He sighed. "Help me lift Hebron on his horse. We'll give him a decent burial at least."
Simon and the prince lifted Hebron onto his horse, and the three of them rode to the castle.
Chapter 15
Within the war room of the castle, Prince William, Simon, Rollin, the queen, Juxta, and the Nork war general met to discuss the situation.
The war general gave them all a tactical briefing. "We have five thousand or so men left from the regular army, just less than five hundred Rangers, and enough foodstuffs for six months. I believe we can hold the castle at least until the food runs out." The war general pointed at the map where the enemy was. "They haven't encamped around us yet. They are likely caring for their wounded and rebuilding siege engines. I figure it will take two to three weeks before their siege engines are rebuilt."
"What of Rivek?" The queen asked. "I see we lost Master Hebron. He'll be sorely missed."
Juxta puffed out his chest. "I killed Rivek, my queen."
The queen spoke slowly to be sure Juxta understood. "Did you retrieve his body, so we can quarter it and spread the pieces to the four corners of the land?"
Juxta's shoulders slumped down.
"Stupid fool! Now they will cocoon him and resurrect him, and he will be stronger than ever before!"
Juxta whispered, "When he returns, I'll kill him again."
"What of Raleg? We could flee there," Simon said. "There's enough food to last for years."
The queen turned her stare on him. "Raleg? Raleg! It's made of wood, you fool. It was built to withstand orcs. Orcs are too stupid to make fire." She pointed her finger at Simon. "Why is there a bottom ranked ranger in my war room!"
William said, "He's with me, Mother!"
The queen moved her hand, so that her claw didn't point at Simon. "Juxta, can you sense if the king still lives?"
Juxta had acquired Hebron'
s scrying orb after the battle. He used it. "He still lives."
"Can you tell where they have him?" the queen asked. "Could the rangers attempt to rescue him?"
"There are hundreds of ogres and all their Necromancers guarding him." Juxta shook his head. "I couldn't face that many Necromancers, not after today's battle."
"How soon will we hear from our friends Nork and Weslan?"
"Aid from Nork could be here in a month," the war general said. "But there's no telling if Weslan will send aid."
The queen slammed her open palm down on the map table. "I want Prince Matthew taken to safety in Nork."
"I'll take him and then go to Weslan and beseech them for assistance," William said.
"The mage's council of Weslan won't listen to you unless you've a magi with you," Juxta said.
William smiled. "You didn't realize you're coming along?"
"We have six druids," Rollin said. "Two are ancient though."
"Have them watch for siege engines. If they fail to destroy them, don't hesitate to break out the fire arrows."
"Aye. There are only a hundred of them, and we don't know if they'll light."
"There are actually 197," William said. "Father and I counted them and tried one on my tenth birthday. They light at the touch of a spark."
The queen wiped tears out of her eyes. "You must hurry, William."
"It's going to be weeks before we can bring together both Nork and Weslan." William looked at Simon. "Will you join us on this journey, Simon? It's not without risk."
"I'd consider it an honor to die at your side, my liege. I want in."
William nodded.
The queen said, "I'll go get Matthew ready."
They set out within an hour, heading north on the king's highway. William carried his father's crown in a backpack. Within three hours' ride of the castle, Prince Matthew begged to stop. They stopped to let the child rest. He broke down in tears.
William sat next to his brother. He reached his finger under his chin and lifted his face up so they were eye to eye. "We're trying to get you to safety, and this isn't helping."
Prince Matthew asked, "The war?"
"Yes, thousands have died," Simon said, "and more will die before it's over."
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