The Forever Man: Clan War
Page 17
‘Chief,’ he responded. ‘You’re in my head! How are you doing this?’
‘Not important,’ answered Nathaniel. ‘As long as you can hear me. Now, where are you?’
‘The woods, sir. Waiting.’
‘Good. On my command, I want you all to ride hell for leather to engage the Orcs. I need you to bottle them up between the two trenches and the wall. Got it?’
‘On your command, sir.’
Nathaniel turned to face his men.
‘People,’ he said in his magik-enhanced voice. ‘It’s speech time. This is where I tell you that we are the last bastion of freedom in a world that has gone to shit. We are the last of the Free Men. The fate of the world blah, blah, blah. Well I don’t do speeches. I have one thing to say, so listen up. This ends here. It ends now. I’m sick of the Orcs attacking us. Now it’s our turn. So, stay frosty and follow me, it’s time to kick pig-faced butt. Oorah!’
‘OORAH!’
The Forever Man cast out his bubble of light, letting it caress the land, letting it climb high into the sky, sending it deep into the womb of mother Earth. Then he pulled it slowly back in, bringing with it untold amounts of power. Many times more than he had ever come close to handling before.
He could feel his muscles tightening and his heart thumping in his chest. His tongue started to swell in his mouth and his eyes started to burn. Then his teeth began to clatter together as the energy overflowed from him. Pain rose in him like a barometer level after a storm and his vision clouded over, the whites of his eyes turning red with broken blood vessels.
And, as he drew more and more power in, the Orcs charged once again, their feet crashing across the plain, coming closer and yet closer.
Then they were almost at the wall.
Nathaniel pointed at the base of the structure and punched the power out.
The wall did not simply explode – it disintegrated. Four thousand tons of gravel, wood and mortar detonated with a blast equivalent to 50 tons of TNT. Bigger than the biggest conventional bomb that the world possessed prior to the Pulse. Over a thousand Orcs and a thousand goblins perished in those first few microseconds as they were pulped by the tons of flying shrapnel.
Nathaniel screamed in pain but unlike before, he didn’t pass out. Instead he pulled in power once again and bellowed out a command that all could hear.
‘Charge. Everybody – charge! For Freedom!’
Seven thousand Free Men charged across the plain towards the ten thousand Orcs and goblins. On each side of the trenches, Papa Dante’s men stood up and fired a stream of arrows at the massive trolls, riddling them with steel pointed oak.
And the thunder of hooves drowned out all else as two thousand mounted men came galloping from the forest to fall on the host with lance and saber.
Nathaniel saw a gaggle of little gray Fair-Folk running into the forest in an attempt to escape, they had given up using their glamour and were visible as their usual small gray selves. Papa Dante’s men cut them down as they ran, piercing their small, rubbery bodies with countless shafts.
The marine fought with a mindless fury, sweeping his huge battle-axe from side to side, shearing through armor and sword, and flesh and bone.
The cavalry ranged back and forth across the battlefield, standing in their stirrups and hacking downwards with their long curved sabers. No quarter was asked nor given.
Ultimately it was the human cavalry that won the day. The Orcs and goblins had never fought against mounted warriors before and they simply had no idea how to protect themselves from an armed man running them down using over one thousand pounds of angry, sharp hoofed, large toothed animal.
It was not in the Orcs’ breeding to surrender, it simply wasn’t an option that they considered. So, after the host’s cohesion as a fighting unit had been broken, it became a simple slaughter. The Free Men had to kill every last pig-face and the slaughter went on past sunset.
Then, finally, it was over.
And on that terrible day over fifteen thousand Orcs and goblins died – as did over two thousand Free Men.
The humans worked late into the night, fighting against their own exhaustion as they felled trees and collected the dead, building huge funeral pyres for enemy and human alike.
The next morning saw the sky thick with the gray greasy smoke of the burnings. A final tribute to the brave and the foolhardy, the cowardly and the courageous. The Orcs – and the humans.
Enemies in life, brothers in death.
And Nathaniel wept openly when Tad gave him the numbers of the dead and he ordered a wall of dressed stone to be built and on that wall the name of every Free Man that had perished during those days defending the wall so that they were never forgotten.
Epilogue
It had been two months since the great battle of the wall and the scouts had seen no presence of any Orcs within miles ever since.
Roo and a crew of men had rebuilt the destroyed wall and, this time, he had installed a large wooden gate that ran on rollers so that the wall could be opened and cavalry could sally forth.
One hundred and twenty men died of their wounds in the weeks following the battle and their names were added to the stonewall of remembrance. Three of The Ten had died and Tad had chosen replacements out of the very best of the best of the survivors.
Nathaniel continued to live in the main fortress that was attached to the wall and his quarters were added to and increased. He had a hall built and a large round table installed. Big enough to fit twenty people.
Milly continued to stay with Gogo and the walking folk. Nathaniel asked to see her but Gogo refused him permission. It was not yet time, she told him.
Tad grew worried about Nathaniel. The marine would rise late and then walk down to the wall of remembrance and simply stare at it for hours on end, reading the names over an over again.
He would eat the food brought to him and drink the water, but he became less and less communicative and the running of the Free State fell more to Tad, Roo and Papa Dante.
Then one day, just before lunch, Tad went to The Forever Man.
‘Come,’ he said. ‘There is something that I want you to see.’
Nathaniel followed the little big man as he climbed the stairway to the top of the wall.
‘Look,’ said Tad, and he pointed.
In the distance he saw them. Hundreds upon hundreds of people. Wagons, push carts, horses. People on foot, herding goats and cows and sheep before them.
And above them flew the black and silver flag of the Free State.
Humanity had found a place to be free.
The Forever Man smiled and went down onto the plains to welcome his people.
Thank you for reading Clan Wars. If you enjoyed it please leave a review…I know that it’s a hassle but us writers rely on your kind hearted input. We need you to help us!
If you would like to discuss anything at all, please email me at zuffs@sky.com - my private email, and we can have a chat.
Keep your eyes open for the next book…
THE FOREVER MAN: Book 4
UNICORN
THE FOREVER MAN: Book 3
CLAN WARS
© 2014, Author Craig Zerf/C. Marten-Zerf
Small Dog Publishing Limited
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.
Acknowledgements
Polly - thanks for all the hours of editing & valuable input.
Axel - for the readings and the advice.
Mom & Dad & Shirl - for helping me to remember.
Michael Marshal Smith - My mentor and friend, for telling me to keep writing.
Once again – th
is is for Polly and Axel. Actually – they all are.
* * *
[*] Geas - an obligation magically or supernaturally imposed on a person.