The Rawn Chronicles Book Two: The Warlord and The Raiders (The Rawn Chronicles Series 2)

by P D Ceanneir

  ‘Come and meet death lord Luxon, I’ am Prince Havoc of the Roguns!’

  It was as if the tide of fighting men parted as Luxon turned towards the taunting prince. They stared at each other for a few seconds and Havoc could see Luxon give him a slight nod, and then the Rawn Lord charged.

  Even though Havoc was prepared to fight, he was not ready for the speed of the commanders grey charger; the blood-splattered horse’s speed was incredible. Havoc used Dirkem as a shield and pulled hard on the reins so the stallion reared up on his hind legs, giving the horses front hooves more height as the grey charger smashed into him. Dirkem’s hooves fell down on Luxon’s shield; the weight knocked the man from his saddle at the same time Havoc brought down Sin cleaving open the grey chargers skull. However, the force of the impact tipped Dirkem off balance. As he crashed to the ground, the prince barely managed to roll from the saddle.

  Havoc moved away from Dirkem’s flailing hooves and rounded on Luxon. The black armoured lord had just healed his broken shield arm and defended himself from the prince’s attack. The attack was vicious, and the commander stumbled leaving his defence open, Havoc took the moment to strike down with Dex, but it was a feint from the wily commander, who twisted from the blow and raked Havoc’s chest armour with one side of his sword, then he used his battered shield to knock Dex from the princes grasp. Havoc stepped back a few paces with a pain in his right side. He could feel warm blood trickling down his body. He had no time to curse himself for a fool because Luxon attacked with quick precise jabs. Despite the pain and light-headedness from the wound, the prince still moved quicker than his opponent did and he delivered a devastating counter-strike. Luxon’s sword was no match for Sin; large nicks appeared on the blade as sparks flew with every strike. His armour also was like paper to the sword. Luxon attacked with ferocity borne of fear and Sin shattered his sword at the last strike. In his defence, Luxon, conjured up a whirlwind of bone crushing air, but Havoc waved a hand and nullified the third elements danger. The blast of wind still spiralled away to knock down fighting soldiers around them. Havoc seethed with rage and stepped forward linking a Pyromantic Surge to the earth element as he did so. With a yell, he thumped his fist into the commander’s armoured chest.

  Luxon lifted twenty feet into the air with the force of the blow. He spun over the heads of his losing army and hit the ground with a tremendous crunch, churning up clots of earth as he gouged out a shallow trench in the blood soaked plain.

  Havoc healed his wound and sealed the two pieces of his sword, Sin with Dex, as he walked towards the battered body of the Rawn Lord. Even from this distance, he could feel Luxon trying to heal himself, but the act would weaken him to death. Every bone in his body had shattered; all of his internal organs had burst. When the prince reached him he could see Luxon’s mangled limbs twitching as the bones knitted together, only the battered armour was holding his body in its original form.

  He could not speak to the prince through his shattered jaw, nor could he see him, because his eyes had burst as the pressure of the princes punch had coursed through his body. Havoc swung his sword and took off the commanders head purely out of pity.

  The Vallkyte army was disintegrating into small islands of combatants. Over to the east, Powyss had hacked down most the fleeing fugitives and, with Morden’s reserves, were now a barrier against any escapees running Caphun.

  Mactan and Felcon’s men, along with the Eternals, now enclosed the Vallkytes in a circle of death from the southwest and Mad-gellan in the northeast. Havoc joined with his foot soldiers as they hacked their way into the middle. With no Luxon to issue commands, and totally encircled, the fight went out of the Vallkytes and they died in their thousands.

  After half an hour of tiring battle, Havoc finally met Mad-gellan in the centre. The big Nithi Lord was drenched in blood that was not his own. He boomed with laughter as he saw the panting prince and he walked up to him and gave him a tight bear hug, lifting him from the ground and forcing the air from his lungs.

  ‘Never thought you could do it boy!’ he said as he placed the prince down on his feet, ‘you have worked a miracle this day, my lord,’ he walked off laughing at the ruin around him. The prince’s other officers climbed over the dead to form a ring around him, each of them saturated in blood. Havoc knew he looked the same, he felt his long dark hair plastered to his scalp with the red venous liquid.

  They started to chant his name.

  Up on the battlements’, Barnum surveyed the devastation of the battlefield. The dead covered the north half of the plain, survivors were few. In the silence at the end of the battle there raised a chorus of male voices, shouting out a single name.

  “HaaaaVOC! HaaaVOC! HaaaVOC!”... Barnum felt his stomach flip with jealousy, but also a sense of relief. He would be able to keep his post of Regent and build a powerbase within the Rogun hierarchy as well as his own people, through the queen.

  As he listened to the voices, they rose and mixed, the prince’s name became a new word that echoed off the walls of the fort and the surrounding mountains.

  “WaaaRLORD! WaaaRLORD!....... WARLORD! WARLORD!”

  Part Two

  The

  Raider

  Campaign

  With silent mouths

  And sightless hope

  The dead men stand

  Upon the slope

  Sending rented flesh

  Into a babbling brook

  Austere Vallkytes,

  Their lives are took

  Excerpt from the poem of the Battle of the Dead Mound

  By Morden of Triel

  Oplacus 3030 YOA

  “It was a close run thing, that battle at the Pass. The De Proteous took a gamble. If he had not won, then the Raider Campaign would not have begun.”

  Master Jovin,

  Lecture of Rawn History at the Academy of Rawn Arts

  3067 YOA

  Chapter 10

  Return to the Vale

  King Vanduke the First of the Roguns.

  Father,

  I hope this letter finds you well. I bring you good news; the outcome of the civil war with the Vallkytes has changed. Fort Chunla has been destroyed by the coalition army that I now command, and I’ am currently occupying the fort at the Pander Pass. However, the fort is in need of repair and more men. The tactical advantage of the Roguns holding the fort and trapping Plysov in the Aln-Tiss, is, as you already know, a necessity, but not tangible with the forts wall near completion and a large Vallkyte force threatening us at Fort Caphun.

  In consequence, I have ranked myself as High Warden of the Central March, and must use my meagre force to expel the enemy from your Rogun lands. I beseech you father to send Lord Rett with two thousand men to command and rebuild the walls of the Pass. I have given him the rank of Acting Warden, with attached privileges thereof.

  The Falesti of the Eternal Forest have allied with me through their Queen, Bronwyn, and have provided valuable men and logistics for my endeavour. I have given her husband, the Atyd Barnum, the civil rank of Regent, he will command at the Pass in my absence, until Lord Rett arrives.

  “Pain and despair are volatile.

  But forgiveness can come from a tranquil soul.”

  I beg you father to forgive my past sins.

  Prince Havoc De Proteous Cromme, High Warden of the Central March.

  King Vanduke read the letter for a third time; with a mix of emotions and a shaking hand he passed it to Lord Rett before he could reread it again.

  ‘How long ago did he achieve this?’ he said to the short Falesti girl that stood in front of his desk in his personal tent.

  ‘I had been travelling for a week before I found your people, your highness,’ said Mila. She looked weary and saddle-sore from her journey; she had entered quite far into the interior of the Sky Mountains when a roving Rogun patrol found her. The soldiers were shocked at the sight of the medallion that the prince had given her. They demanded to know how she came by it, and her o
nly answer was the same as the princes. They never frowned, never asked her what the ashes once were, but took her, post haste, to the king.

  The King held the cavalry medallion firmly in his left hand as he scrutinised her. He then called for one of his guards outside the loose flap of his tent to fetch Lady Vara to him.

  ‘There is more, your highness, the Lord Luxon was quick to mobilise his army from Caphun to take back the Pander Pass,’ said Mila, smiling from ear to ear, ‘your son fought him outside the walls of the Pass, even though he was outnumbered two to one, he was victorious.’

  The king looked stunned and tall swarthy Lord Rett cheered with his clenched fist over the letter.

  ‘The prince further planned on taking the Fort at Caphun, but I left before he marched, so I do not know the outcome, but he hopes to draw more men to his standard from Haplann,’ informed Mila

  The tent flap opened and a petite woman, with light red hair, walked in. She curtsied to the king and smiled at Mila.

  ‘Ah...Vara, could you escort this young lady to the refreshment tent and find her a place to rest?’ said the king.

  ‘Of course sire,’ said the onetime Queen of Sonora, she opened the tent flap for Mila to exit, but the small girl turned to the king before leaving.

  ‘The prince will require a return message. So I must be ready to leave soon, your majesty,’ she said.

  ‘There will be plenty of time for a reply, my dear, once you are fully rested. I need to think things through.’ He noted that Vara’s face wore a frown of confusion and her eyes flicked towards the letter that her cousin held, but she asked no questions.

  Shortly after Mila and Vara left, the flap opened again to let in the armour clad Magnus and Lord Ness.

  ‘Is it true?’ Magnus asked the king with excitement, ‘was that a messenger from Havoc?’

  ‘Yes, and it is good news,’ said Lord Rett handing the letter over to his nephew, who read it with an earnest enthusiasm. Lord Ness read it next; he took it from Magnus and walked towards the king’s desk.

  ‘Can he do that?’ said Magnus frowning, ‘can he term himself High Warden?’

  ‘He is De Proteous, and is well within his power to do so,’ said Lord Ness looking up from the letter at the king, ‘only your father can cancel the appointment.’

  ‘But you won’t, will you Van?’ said the Red Duke as he watched Magnus pluck the medallion from his father’s hand and stare at it in awe like the king had previously done.

  ‘I would be a fool to do such a thing; I accept his title and his choice of Acting Warden. I will give you the men you need, if not more, you will leave as soon as you can.’

  ‘I’m going to father,’ said Magnus.

  The king hesitated for a few seconds, then acknowledged with a nod. In Havoc’s absence, Prince Magnus was now in command of the Princes legion and it had grown into an elite fighting force.

  “Pain and despair are volatile. But forgiveness can come from a tranquil soul,” said Lord Ness, ‘why does that sound familiar?’

  ‘It’s a quote from the ancient bard Herodotus; I used to read Havoc his odes when he was a small boy,’ said the king sadly.

  ‘Ah yes, from the Dragor-rix in the Rawn Sagas, I remember now. The story of a father and son sadly separated by a peril beyond their control during the time of the first dragons. Very apt. Do you not think?’

  ‘Yes,’ mused the king, ‘Very.’

  Prince Havoc had followed up his victory at the Pass by marching east into Haplann. His rebel forces were now reduced in number since the battle though only by a tiny fraction compared to the Vallkyte loses. However, with such a small army he could not afford to lose more men. His own royal standard flapped in the breeze as he marched at the head of his army through the lush plains and woodlands of Haplann.

  The host reached the border of Haplann and the small wooden fort of Curran put up no resistance; in fact, the Vallkytes had deserted it since they found out about the defeat at the Pass. Originally designed to be a Rogun checkpoint for the drove roads to the Haplann Mines, it was in no condition to put up any defence against a host the size of the princes. Havoc ordered it burnt to the ground.

  They marched onward to Caphun, a large township and the seat of the Counts of Haplann, the prince had a personal interested in its capture. Caphun sat in a small area of fertile marshland to the south west of the Haplann Hills, several small streams from these hills fed the marsh, which was partly dry for most of the year. Dry islands were dotted throughout the wetlands right down to the Firelands in the south, on the largest of these islands rose a rocky crag were Caphun Castle sat, overlooking the walled town. White stone, quarried from the hills, made up its white towers and surrounding battlements. The name Caphun means White Castle in the old Haplann tongue.

  Lush greenery covered the castles crag, shrubs, large leafed ivy, and tall blue-green pine trees. It made the castle look as if it was floating on a green sea. The township of Caphun sat at the foot of the crag; white washed stone cottages with green thatch, gave the town a beautiful quaint look. Thick high walls surrounded the town, also made of the same white stone as the castle. A partly natural and partly manmade moat, wide, deep, and fed by the floodwater from the hills, reflected the walls as sunlight sparkled over its surface.

  Two days earlier, the Vallkyte survivors of the battle at the Pass, and the deserting troops of Curran, arrived at Caphun with tall tales about the rebel force and the prowess of the Rogun prince that led them. Calpine, the acting commander of the town’s garrison and a senior-captain, a Vallkyte rank similar to the Rogan one of major, ordered the defences double-manned by the meagre force that remained. Helmond, the mayor of Caphun, and his small band of councillors, organised a rebellion among the townspeople. Buoyed up by the knowledge of the advancing rebels and the small number of Vallkytes to citizens, Helmond and his people attacked in the dead of night, reducing Calpine’s men by half, and forcing them to barricade themselves inside the castle.

  Havoc’s small army arrived on the fourth day of Helmond’s rebellion. His numbers now greatly strengthened by Haplann people in their hundreds, recouping his losses and then some.

  The drawbridge was already down and the great wood and iron doors were open when the prince and the rebels came into view amidst a dust cloud kicked up from the drove road. Helmond, finely bedecked in his mayor garb, Tri-coronet on his baldhead, Regalia Pendant of Office around his thick neck and red velvet sash around his paunch stomach, greeted the prince along with other high-ranking members of the town. As the mayor gave Havoc the Key to the City- a large set of gold keys on a silver key ring- the prince saw in Helmond’s steely grey eyes, a stout conviction, and steady reserve. This man had seen battle before and did not shirk from danger; not a politician Havoc was familiar with from his youthful days at his father’s court.

  After learning about the trapped Vallkytes, the prince sent Mad-gellan to flush them out; after two days of hopelessly defending for their lives, Senior-captain Calpine surrendered. The Nithi lord unceremoniously stripped them of armour, weapons, and rank. All two hundred Vallkytes were sent, partially naked, into their own lands of the Dulan Plain. The rebels taunted them as they ran and continued to watch them run as the horizon swallowed them up.

  Havoc’s powers as High Warden gave him legal right, under the terms of occupation, to name a Regent for Caphun. This did not go down well with the mayor or his councillors, it was one occupation replaced by another even if they shared a distant heritage with the Falesti. Atyd Morden as the Regent soon wove his naive charm with the mayor, giving him his full office rank back, something the Vallkytes never allowed. As much as he trusted the mayor, the prince neglected to inform him about Mulvend, but he did mention the death of her family at the hands of Vallkyte collaborators. This news spread around the town. It seems that the local people dearly loved the count and his kin.

  Morden also worked his magic with the townspeople and dedicated a poem to them about the Caphun Rebellion called t
he Luckless Calpine. It went down so well at the town feast four days after Caphun’s liberation that the humour, flights of fancy, derringer do and familiar family names of Caphun that fought in the battle, made everyone laugh so much that they decided to recite it each year on the anniversary of the rebellion. The Regent also endeared himself to the townspeople by forming a Civil Militia, to be under the control of the mayor and to help police the citizens and defend Caphun. He would strengthen this with his own Falesti warriors. The prince also advised him to open up trade links with the Eternal Forest.

  Word from Queen Bronwyn arrived two weeks later. Queen Nieve had fallen into a coma the day after Bronwyn’s and Barnum’s wedding, and never regained consciousness. She died on a cold, early autumn night, the same day as Havoc’s nineteenth birthday.

  Bronwyn had followed tradition and slept beside the old queen’s body on the night of her death. She presented herself to her people in Nieves clothes she wore on her deathbed, this was to represent the rebirth of a new, younger, queen. Royal physicians’ then embalmed and interned the late queen’s body in the royal tomb called Regalia Trihi which sat to the north of Ten Mountain; Havoc allowed Morden to go to the funeral along with Barnum.

  On Morden’s return, Havoc learnt about the Atyd’s Tolland and Sequilan. Both the powerful nobles had shown public support for the new queen while spreading malicious rumours about her within political circles. They had mentioned the strong possibility of her affair with the Rogun prince and her ineptitude as queen, because of her alliance with him, and bringing war upon their land. Atyd Tolland’s machinations went further as he collected support for his daughter, Jolene, to be crowned queen.