They arrived at Lynken's capital city just after midday. They set up two miles from the ogre encampment surrounding the castle. The ogres could clearly see them. The ogres played drums loud enough for both camps to hear, and both sides lit hundreds of fires. The Nork war general, Quann, Kirl, and William had a meeting of the minds to decide the tactics that would be employed. They agreed on a battle plan.
Quann caught up with Juxta. "Will you show me your grove?"
"Yes."
They rode to Juxta's grove. Hundreds of saplings surrounded the ancient lifeless tree. Juxta started the incantation to wake them.
Break the Peace, Awake
Wake the Ancient, Take
Hundreds of tiny voices spoke in his mind, Juxta!
Juxta smiled, for it warmed his heart to talk with the trees. One by one they started to chant, Feed us. Juxta gathered up power and started the incantation to feed them.
Green of Spring, to be Seen
New Life, from Strife
He poured power into the chant through his ring and staff. The saplings started to visibly grow, and time started to distort. They said, More. Juxta summoned more and more power to feed the trees. They bloomed in blue blossoms. The shadows across the landscape visibly moved. Still the trees begged more. The blossoms grew into seed clusters and began to fall from the trees. Some of the seeds sprouted and started growing into tiny saplings. The sun set. The trees said, Enough. It invigorated Juxta, and he didn't want to stop, but he did anyway. He looked around himself. He stood in a dense forest now.
Quann clasped his hands together in front of him. "The life magic is strong in you. Didn't you enjoy that more than killing?"
"I only kill out of necessity."
"At tomorrow's battle, I want you to sit back with the war general at his pavilion," Quann said. "I don't want you in the vanguard with the other magi."
Power flared in Juxta. "Why?"
"I think it would be best. Some of the ogres might try for the pavilion. They may need you to guard the prince. We're making him sit out as well."
"That's not fair to either of us!"
"Fair or not, you and the prince will be sitting the battle out."
They went back to camp and slept. Come dawn their army lined up in formations for the coming battle. The wizards and druids made up the vanguard. The morning sun burned at the dew covering the battlefield. Juxta could see individual vortexes of power form as magi summoned them one by one. Behind them, Nork's infantry lined up followed by the cat-riders. The Nork war general and his honor guard, as well as William, Simon, Teresa, and Juxta, stood at the very rear on a slight hill with trees all around it.
The ogre army organized in rows. The war general signaled his trumpeter. He blew on the horn with all his might. Kirl threw the first bolt of lightning, and in a great horde of fire and death, the rest of the magi kicked up a great storm. The ogres' drums started to beat a charge tune, and the ogre army charged.
The spellcasters cut down hundreds of them starting with the front of the line, so bodies would slow the advance of the others. The Nork infantry moved forward ahead of the spellcasters to take the brunt of the enemy's strength. The cat-riders raised crossbows in a high arc and in unison let loose a barrage of 5,000 quarrels. They reloaded their crossbows and started to charge around the sides of the Nork infantry.
The advancing ogres fell upon the Nork infantry, and a great melee ensued. The cat-riders fired another barrage of quarrels. The wizards and druids cut into the ogres with magic over and over.
The cat-riders assaulted the ogre flanks, and the cats showed their savage nature in battle, biting off heads and limbs and ripping open necks with their claws. The ogres died left and right, but they numbered over thirty thousand at the start of the battle. Juxta, William, Simon, and Teresa sat back with the war general and watched the battle. Juxta's grey kitten perked up its ears and started growling in the direction of their backsides. Everybody turned and looked. Ogres approached the command pavilion from behind.
Simon and the prince knocked arrows to their bows and let fly. Two ogres went down with arrows pierced through their skulls. Ogres with slings threw rocks at the humans. Power flooded into Juxta as if on a will of its own. Simon and the prince loosed arrow after arrow. Juxta hit ogres with fireballs. Hundreds approached the command pavilion, many swinging slings in vicious circles.
The war general drew his sword with a grimace, and his honor guard followed suit. One by one they killed the ogres, but they just kept on coming. William and Simon ran out of arrows and drew their blades. They ducked under rocks or called out in pain as the projectiles hit their bodies. A melee ensued. Juxta sent fireball after fireball at the ogres, but he couldn't cut them down fast enough to hold back the horde. They seemed to be trying to get to the prince more than anything else. Simon and the prince stood side-by-side, cutting the ogres down.
The main battle raged.
The giant cats tore into the ogres with claws and teeth. The kittens growled and hissed but wouldn't let any ogres get within their reach. The cat-riders proved expert at reloading atop a moving cat and fired quarrel after quarrel into the ogres. Juxta started to tire as fireballs cost him a large amount of power.
He glanced over at William and Simon, and a large pile of dead and dying lay at their feet. Ogres kept the war general and his honor guard busy. One by one the honor guard fell. Teresa hid behind William and Simon. Soon the ogres had William and Simon completely surrounded. A rock hit Simon on his cheek, and he fell. William pulled him to his feet. Juxta started drawing triangles over large groups of ogres and raining lightning on them. The ogres advanced on William and Simon just to be dispatched. More and more rocks flew.
William shouted, "We should be wearing helmets!"
Simon laughed.
The war general seemed to be in a blinding rage cutting down every ogre that came within reach of his blade. He would knock rocks out of the air with his sword. More and more ogres circled Simon and William. Juxta focused all his power on keeping the ogres away from himself.
One of the ogres shouted, "Surrender the crown, and we'll let you live!"
William summoned all his strength, and a bolt of lightning etched across the landscape from Shoc-Ra into the ogre who had spoken knocking him to the ground.
The ogres started tightening the noose around the prince and Simon. William shouted out, "Charge!" and Simon turned his back on his half of the circle and ran forward into the ranks of the ogres with William at his side. Teresa looked around and then chased after them. They batted spears out of the way and aimed for the necks of two different ogres. Their arcane blades cut through flesh like a harvester's edge on a grain stem. They advanced toward the second row of ogres and cut them down similarly. William and Simon turned a quarter-circle.
Again standing back-to-back, they advanced on the abominations. They were out of the center of the mass of ogres, and Juxta imagined a triangle over the remaining creatures and called down a huge bolt of lightning on them. Then he turned and faced the ones still approaching him.
The tide of monsters on the main battle field turned. They took too many losses to stay organized, especially once the cat-riders surgically removed their drum-carriers. The spellcasters invoked wholesale slaughter.
William, Simon, the war general, and Juxta fought for their lives. The more they killed it seemed like the more that came into view. Juxta started making bigger and bigger triangles over the ogres and pouring more than enough power into them to kill. Simon, William, and the war general stood back to back in a triangle protecting Teresa. They pushed into the mass of ogres slicing them to pieces. Juxta killed and killed. They all did…
The drawbridge to the castle opened up, and a troop of rangers galloped out, then a steady stream of marching soldiers. They engaged the ogres from behind. The rangers started in with their bows, volley after volley. The ogres died by the hundreds. The spellcasters caused the most damage. William, Simon, and the war general dispatched
ogres as fast as they could. Juxta went back to throwing fireballs, sending them faster than he ever had before.
The cats ripped great chunks of flesh from the ogres and tossed the pieces aside only to go after more. One at a time and in groups, the ogres routed, running east to Tercia. The spellcasters rained fire and lightning on the retreating forces. The cat-riders chased after them firing their crossbows into backs.
Finally, the fighting stopped at the command pavilion. Dead ogres littered the hilltop in piles. Sword halves and rocks dotted the hill. A ring of corpses surrounded Juxta, many of which still burned.
William shook his head. "Where do they get all these smooth rocks?"
"Tercia is a largely mountainous region," an injured ogre spoke while clutching at a cut in its chest, "with countless streams where we--"
Simon pierced the ogre through the brain.
The war general laughed. "It's over. The castle is freed."
William turned to Teresa and grabbed her by the arms with a great smile on his lips. He grabbed up her right hand in his and fell to one knee. "Will you marry me?"
Teresa smiled. She reached down with her hand to lift him up by the chin and kissed him gently on the lips. She whispered, "Yes, my prince. In the fall, when the trees are alive with color, I'll marry you."
The prince's shoulders visibly slumped. "You'll make me wait that long?"
She kissed him again on the lips. "I'll share my kiss." She reached her hand up to his hair and gently righted a few strands, and then she brushed her knuckles on his cheek. "And I'll share my caress. But you must wait to marry. I've always dreamed of a fall wedding."
William pulled her hands in close and kissed them. "I can wait for the wedding."
"I thought you could, my love."
The Nork war general laughed and laughed. Then he slapped William on the back. "Well fought, young lad."
William just smirked and nodded.
The spellcasters searched the battlefield for signs of life, tending to the wounded. They dispatched wounded ogres with a quick slice to the neck. They built a massive pyre for the dead ogres and dug graves for the dead on their side. Teresa, Simon, William, and Juxta rode into the castle to meet with the queen. She embraced her son. She looked him in the eyes. "You must ascend the throne."
William said, "Not while my father lives."
The queen shook her head. "Lynken needs a king until your father can be rescued. We need to rebuild. You have no choice but to take the reigns."
"If we send an army into Tercia, it'll mean fighting hordes of the undead," Rollin said with a deep sigh. "We'll lose hundreds if not thousands of men."
Juxta said, "We'll rescue the king."
Simon said, "Aye."
"I'm going, too!" William said.
The queen snarled. "Your place is in the throne room!"
William's shoulders slumped down, and Teresa put her arm around him and held him tight leaning her head on his shoulder.
The queen pointed at Teresa. "What is this!"
William smiled. "We're going to marry in the fall."
The queen clutched at her heart and sat down. She looked her future daughter-in-law in the eyes. "Welcome home, Teresa."
"Thank you, my queen."
"Karen, my dear, Karen."
Teresa curtseyed.
Quann and Kirl joined them in the throne room. They both greeted the queen as her majesty.
Quann said, "We must chase the ogres back into Tercia."
The queen began to cry.
"They have the king," Kirl said. "When are we going to rescue him?"
"Simon and I are going to try." Juxta stepped forward. "We've traveled in Terc before. We know where they're keeping him."
"You'll face the undead." Quann shook his head. "There are spells for battling them. You likely don't know them."
Juxta said, "I know of no spells to fight the undead."
"How long will it take for Juxta to learn these spells?" Simon asked.
Quann said, "We never teach them to apprentices."
Juxta asked, "Will you teach them to me, Quann?"
"Yes."
"I'm going along," Rollin said. "That is if you two don't mind?"
Simon reached out and grabbed Rollin's hand and shook it. "I'd welcome the company."
Juxta nodded.
"Begin at once," William said. "Rollin, assemble the rangers."
"Aye, my liege."
Juxta and Quann relocated to Hebron's house. It had been burned down, but the brick walls still stood. Debris littered the inside of the house. Quann said, "Let me demonstrate the force of this magic." He clutched his staff with both hands and closed his eyes in concentration. The debris started to shift and lift up and move into a swirling tornado like cone. The spiraling vortex moved out of the house into the backyard where it settled into a neat pile. Quann opened his eyes and held his staff one-handed. He sighed deeply.
"Impressive, but how will that defeat the undead?" Juxta asked.
"You'll be able to push them back with it and crush their bones against walls. One by one they can be beheaded but in larger numbers crushing them should suffice. At least the ancient texts say this is an appropriate way of dealing with them. It has been some time since druid or wizard has fought any undead."
Chapter 23
Prince William met up with Rollin, and they rallied all the rangers together. The prince started his spiel, "Our capital is a ghost town thanks to this war. I want you to split up into squads and carry the news of our battle to the four corners of Lynken. Tell the people they can return to their homes here. What has been destroyed, we shall rebuild!"
The rangers cheered and then scattered to the four winds.
The cat-riders had suffered losses, and the cats didn't know what to do. They dragged their dead riders away from the battle scene and stood guard over the corpses. A number of cats had died, and their riders tried to win the friendship of the riderless cats. They didn't seem interested--they just growled and hissed when one of the catless riders approached them. The main body of cat-riders pursued the ogres eastward. William and Rollin approached one of the catless riders, and William asked, "What'll happen to these cats?"
"Once the riders start to smell, they'll abandon them. They'll either accept us as their new masters, or they may simply wander off. They may go feral. We're hoping they let us be their new masters, but we don't know."
Rollin rubbed his palms along his pant legs. "We'll have to hunt the feral ones down and kill them. Won't we?"
The cat rider's shoulders slumped down, and he stared off into the distance.
William glared. "Will we have to kill the feral ones?"
"Aye, some, but not all of them," the cat rider said. "Some will start hunting livestock and ultimately might kill a child or a farmer."
"Great."
"Would you have us kill every cat that has no rider?"
William groaned.
"We'll alert the people. If one of the cats starts going after livestock, we'll hunt it then," Rollin said.
William and Rollin rode back to the castle. They discussed the regular army and Nork's forces. They agreed the Nork's should be sent home. The regular army would be put to work rebuilding Capital city building by building starting with a new lumber mill and the smiths.
*
Juxta attempted to move small objects, and Quann gave advice. Juxta made little progress. Quann decided to channel power into Juxta to see if he possessed the rudimentary concept of moving objects worked out. Quann believed Juxta hadn't mastered the art of drawing large amounts of power calmly. Quann fed him power like a bottomless well. Juxta looped a force line around a copper coin and lifted it with his mind. Then he threw it hard and fast. Next he tried it on a barrel. He levitated it and then threw it. The rudiments of the spell seemed simple enough for Juxta.
Quann smiled.
Chapter 24
Within another day Rollin, Simon, and Juxta rode for Tercia. They took Prince Wil
liam's enchanted blade, Shoc-Ra, to give to the king, in case they had to fight their way out. They penned in their feline companions--the cats would draw too much attention to them.
They expected no difficulties with patrols on the road. The cat-riders systematically killed any and all armed ogres while avoiding mausoleums. They didn't aim for genocide. Peaceful ogres lived. It took a week of hard riding to reach Terc.
They found the mausoleum just after dark. The front door opened easily. The ground floor had the feeling of a temple with an altar and rows of pews. Juxta created a light and led the way to the rear of the temple. Simon and Rollin drew their blades. A door blocked the way down, and Juxta picked the lock. It opened easily enough. A stairway led down.
Simon whispered, "Too easy…"
Juxta nodded.
Light trickled up from the bottom of the stairs. Juxta descended with Simon directly on the left and Rollin on the right. A light flickered at the base of the stairs. Juxta and Simon stared in awe at the room before them. Yellowish brown candles lined the walls above alcoves filled with mummified corpses. Hundreds of them. Little or no stench of decay assaulted their orifices, but there was a tired, old smell of stale air lingering.
Juxta pointed at an arched doorway in the wall on the opposite side of the room. Simon advanced towards it, and Juxta hurried after. The door revealed paved stone stairs leading down. They descended again into more burial chambers. Again, at the end of the room they found stairs leading down.
Simon nudged Juxta in the ribs. "How deep do these levels go?"
"The king is in the room at the bottom of these stairs."
Rollin peered down the stairs. "What else is in the room?"
Juxta didn't say anything.
"He asked you a question," Simon said with a glare.
Juxta shook his head. "There's something down there that I can't scry."
Simon raised one eyebrow. "Thank God that you have only mentioned this now."
"We're making enough noise to wake whatever it is…"
Juxta, Magi Page 18