A grinding sound followed as Mayu stepped back, sweeping her sword into an attack.
Akuchi saw the attack and prepared to defend. He brought up his falchion and blocked the swipe, causing both blades to glide along each other past them both.
Stepping forward, Akuchi forced Mayu back as he twisted his sword in front of his body. The move surprised Mayu for a second before blocking it.
A loud horn bellowed twice echoing from outside.
“What is it?” Akuchi asked, looking down into her eyes.
“The trolls are bringing ladders,” Mayu stated, “We are needed on the wall immediately.”
They headed back up the tower, arriving at the wall as a ladder came crashing against it.
“They normally do this on the second day,” Mayu commented, “what has changed?”
“They seemed ready for this today,” replied a soldier next to them who wore full leather armour and sported a long siege fork.
The first troll came into view and Mayu reached out and stabbed it in the eye, it collapsed back dead, leaving the sword coated in blue blood.
“Akuchi,” Mayu ordered. “Take the other side.”
Akuchi stood on the other side of the ladder and together they pushed against it. With a hefty push, the ladder sailed away from the wall and tottered for a moment before coming back to the wall as another troll climbed to the top rung. A chorus of laughter from the trolls on the ladder went up as the troll stepped on to the wall. A yell of war cries rose from the trolls beneath.
Akuchi stepped forward and swung his sword, decapitating the troll.
The soldier with the siege fork pushed the now dead troll backwards and it plummeted to the ground, taking the troll behind it with it.
“Thanks,” the man in leather said.
“Great work,” Mayu cheered. “Let’s see if we can find another.”
“Sure,” Akuchi agreed moving on with Mayu.
Together they moved past the defenders on the wall, moving west towards the next tower. Men and women on the wall fired off arrows into the crowd of trolls at the base of the wall. A loud whump came from further along the wall. Akuchi looked up at the tower and saw a catapult sitting atop launch a huge stone into the mass of attacking trolls. The stone flew and crashed down, landing onrushing a group of trolls. A ladder arose from the mass of trolls. Several trolls clung to the ladder. Akuchi grabbed Mayu’s shoulder and pointed.
“I see it,” Mayu exclaimed. “It will land just ahead of us. Come, let’s go.”
They both ran till they stood in front of the oncoming ladder. Akuchi braced his sword in rock formation with both hands ready to strike. The ladder hit the wall with a jolt. Akuchi struck forward, hitting the first troll in the neck. Warm blue blood spurted out from the neck and the troll fell to the ground. The sudden movement pulled Akuchi forward. He braced and the blade came free of the flesh a the troll dropped to the ground.
A horn sounded from beyond the wall. The ladder was pulled back and the trolls pulled back from the wall. A troll jumped off the top of the ladder as it teetered away from the wall and landed in front of Akuchi. It swung out with its scimitar and struck the man in leather next to Akuchi, killing him. Akuchi brought his sword up and swung it in a fluid water strike, bringing the blade up from the ground to above his head. The blade cut through the troll, cleaving it from navel to neck. Mayu stepped forward and cut off the troll’s head with a powerful air spin attack move.
“What’s happening?” Akuchi asked. The troll’s body slumped backwards and fell to the foot of the wall.
“It’s nightfall,” laughed Mayu, “trolls are afraid to fight in the dark. So, they always pull back at dusk.”
Akuchi noticed that the sun was setting. He glanced west and saw the sun touch the horizon.
“I wonder what they are afraid of?” mused Akuchi. “It must be something really frightening for them to abandon an attack.”
“We don’t know that much about the trolls. They do have a very predictable fighting style. At the sound of their horn, they retreat.”
Akuchi followed Mayu down the tower steps and into the command building. They gathered their food for the evening meal. They had entered a room off the side of the command building. Inside was a long bench with bowls sitting in neat rows that contained dinner.
The rest of the room was filled with large tables and bench like seats on either side of the tables. The tables were arranged in simple rows to maximise the people contained at them. Akuchi looked at horror at the amount of food he was given.
“How is anyone meant to live off this?” Akuchi complained, looking at the simple soup sitting in front of him. Mayu laughed as they made their way to a table and sat.
“If you don’t want it,” Mayu said stretching out her hand for his bowl.
“I didn’t say that,” Akuchi growled as Mayu laughed. “What could the trolls be so afraid of that they would obey their horn signals so faithfully?”
“If you find out, let us know. We might be able to use it for our benefit.”
The soup tasted faintly of meat, of what exactly Akuchi could not tell. The soup was pale, thin, and watery. He could taste several familiar tubers and greens in the soup. After drinking it all down and placing his bowl back on the mess table, his stomach growled.
Chapter 9 Comfort
1st day 8th month 579th year of the 8th era
Mayu awoke Akuchi before dawn; she nudged him awake the predawn light coming through the window.
Mayu was leaning over Akuchi. The gentle light caressed her skin casting her, nubile body in a warm glow. Akuchi opened one eye as she gently shook him awake. The vista of beauty that he opened his eyes to took his breath away. Mayu smiled at him and raised one finger to her lips. Mayu took a step back as Akuchi threw aside the bed covers, sitting up. She shushed, a finger going to her lips.
Silently, Mayu reached into her trunk and took out her weapon and belt; she indicated he should do the same as she stepped into her loincloth.
Akuchi reached into his trunk and extracted his trousers and weapon and dressed. When he was done, they both crept quietly out of the barracks into the predawn light. Closing the door behind them, she indicated Akuchi should follow her as she led him to the command building. They entered the mess hall. Inside several staff members were ladling out soup into bowls for the morning meal.
“Grab some food,” Mayu instructed. “Oghenekaro has requested us on the muster field at dawn. Smoke was detected on the horizon last night.”
“Why?” Akuchi asked, picking up a bowl and following Mayu to a spot on one of the long tables.
“He didn’t tell me. Normally we wait for the trolls to launch an attack on the walls then we make a sally.”
Several more soldiers came into the mess hall and silently took their meal before sitting down at another table altogether. They were dressed in plate armour with chain mail between the joints. They all carried heavy great swords on their backs, much like Akuchi’s falchion but long and without the gentle curve.
Mayu looked at them. Recognition dawned on her face as she watched them take their seats. Akuchi saw her look over his shoulder and he turned to look at them.
“Who are they?” he asked, turning to face Mayu.
“They are the Commanders Guard,” Mayu answered returning her attention to Akuchi. “Finish up. We don’t want to be late.”
Akuchi and Mayu lifted their bowls and drank the rest of the weak watery soup. It tasted very much like the soup they had drunk for dinner yesterday, faintly of some meat he couldn’t recognise and a combination of many roots and tubers.
“This food is very bad,” Akuchi commented as they got up from their seats returning their bowls to the table.
“It always has been. It only gets worse during a siege.”
Akuchi and Mayu left the mess hall and proceeded to the muster area, where they joined several other pairs of soldiers, and other members of Oghenekaro’s personal guard. About fifty soldiers stood
on the muster field, milling around, waiting.
“What’s going on?” Akuchi asked Mayu as they stood on the field.
“I am not sure,” Mayu replied, folding her arms as she looked around the field. “I see several very skilled soldiers and some of the best pairs in the garrison.”
Oghenekaro moved out of the command building with three members of his personal guard behind him. He wore his full plate armour with chain mail between the plates, much like his personal guard. He raised his hands and the murmur of quiet conversation stopped. People started to move closer together.
“Soldiers, I asked you all to come today, because as you have noticed the trolls have once again laid siege to us….” Oghenekaro started.
“Yeah, the food got bad again,” a heckler called out from the crowd.
“That is to preserve the food we do have,” Oghenekaro replied, laughing. “We know from previous sieges that the trolls normally wait a day or two before using ladders.”
“What is with them?” called out someone else from the crowd. “They breed some brains?”
That question elicited a rumble of laughter from the assembled soldiers, even Oghenekaro smiled.
“Because they have brought up their attack strategy, we must do the same,” Oghenekaro continued.
This statement was filled with a moment of silence.
“The soldiers on the wall have told me that they can’t see a command tent or anything that would indicate a troll leader,” Oghenekaro stated.
A murmur ran through the crowd.
“So, I called you guys here tell you to prepare for a counter-attack at dusk,”
“Clever,” whispered Mayu to Akuchi, “the trolls are afraid of the dark, an attack then would have the advantage of surprise and fear. We will be hitting them when they are tired.”
“You have been all relieved of your normal duties today to prepare,” informed Oghenekaro, “be back here and ready to go at dusk.”
At that, the group started to split up and go their own separate ways. Mayu stood where she was, watching the Commander. Akuchi watched her. Mayu’s face was a blank expression except for her furrowed brows of concentration.
“What do we need to do?” Akuchi finally asked. A ball of nerves started to form in the pit of his stomach.
“We train,” Mayu said, turning and leaving the muster field. Akuchi followed her back to the command building and into the basement training room.
***
Oghenekaro paced in his tent.
A messenger came into the tent. “They have brought the scaling ladders again.”
“Thank you,” Oghenekaro said. “Take me to them.”
The messenger turned and Oghenekaro followed him. They went up the gate tower and arrived at the top of the wall. Several bowmen were firing into the teeming mass of trolls. Several men at arms stood amongst the bowmen with siege forks and their melee weapons waiting, for the trolls to scale the walls.
A scaling ladder with trolls hanging off clattered against the fort’s wall. Two men at arms moved forward. One with a siege fork to push back the ladder and the other to cover him. Several arrows flew out and killed the fur covered trolls on the ladder, causing them to fall. Other trolls replaced them and one stepped onto the wall. A man at arms swung his sword and was blocked by the troll’s sword. Another troll stepped off the ladder and an arrow felled him. The soldier with the siege fork locked his fork against the ladder and pushed it. The ladder tipped and fell away from the wall. He brought his sword down and killed the troll facing him.
Further down the wall another scaling ladder rose and thudded against the wall.
Oghenekaro drew his sword and ran towards the new scaling ladder. He arrived at the scaling ladder and saw several trolls fighting with men at arms. Several bodies of trolls and men lay at their feet.
Oghenekaro raised his sword and charged into the melee. He brought his sword down on the first troll and slew it. He stepped over a dead soldier and retrieved the siege fork.
“Soldier!” he called out to a bowman nearby. “Take this and I will cover you.”
The bowman shouldered his bow, and took the siege fork, and followed Oghenekaro.
Oghenekaro yelled a battle cry and charged towards the nearest troll. His downward stroke was met with a clash of steel as his sword met that of a large troll. Oghenekaro stepped forward pressing into the troll. He then sidestepped the troll. In a smooth water attack, he sliced the troll along its back and it fell forward onto the stone wall. Another troll swung at him and he blocked the attack with the same motion and completed the water movement. He squared his posture and blocked the troll’s second strike with a solid mountain stance block and then again pressed forward with the mountain attack. His movement caught the troll in the shoulder. The troll dropped its sword as its hand went limp. Oghenekaro stepped forward again and decapitated the troll in a signature wind attack strike. His forward momentum had brought him and the bowman with the siege fork to the wall’s edge. The bowman locked the fork into the ladder and pushed it away from the wall. A troll leaped off the ladder and sailed towards the wall. Oghenekaro lashed out with his sword and skewered the troll’s stomach. The forward momentum of the troll carried it onto Oghenekaro’s blade. Gravity took hold and the troll slide off the blade and went plummeting to the ground.
A man at arms placed an armoured hand on his shoulder. “We have this section, sir. You will need your strength for the sally tonight.”
“Thank you soldier,” Oghenekaro replied.
Chapter 10 Counter attack
1st day of the 8th month 579th year of the 8th era
At dusk the trolls withdrew to a safe distance away from the fortress wall Akuchi and Mayu gathered with fifty others in the mustering yard. They sat on their horse’s ready and waiting. Torches arrayed around the yard flickered, casting the yard in their yellow light. Akuchi’s horse stood next to Mayu’s, the torch-light flickered, catching their oiled bodies. Commander Oghenekaro sat on his horse at the vanguard, facing the gates. A soldier at the gatehouse raised waved to the Commander.
“Open the gates,” Oghenekaro commanded.
The gates began to swing outward, at the Commander’s orders, Oghenekaro raised his hand above his hand and when the gates had fully opened he swung it forward and urged his horse on. The horse’s shod hooves clattered through the gateway.
The whole squad advanced forward at the same time, moving out the gates into the plains. The soldiers moved out and formed several lines on Oghenekaro. The troll’s camp was situated to the north one kilometre away. Too far to shoot from the wall, far enough to make charge speed.
The squad moved silently to face the camp. A large bonfire was situated in the middle of the camp. A large gathering of tents encircled the bonfire.
Oghenekaro raised his hand and then swung it forward. His sword glistened in the faint light. The squad began to move forward at first at a quick trot then faster and faster till they were moving at a full gallop. The pounding of the horses’ hooves on the ground matched the pounding of Akuchi’s blood in his ears. The charge covered the distance over the flat yellow grassland to the troll camp quickly, and they began to cut their way through, slaying trolls as they arose to the defend the camp.
The first wave of soldiers split and moved through the camp, the pounding of the horses’ hooves on the ground awoke the camp, and trolls started to appear of the tents. They then ran to the weapon racks and grabbed a weapon. Many trolls died as they emerged from their tents. As the charging horses went deeper into the camp, they found more trolls pouring out of their tents. The charge slowed as the soldiers engaged in fighting with the trolls.
Akuchi and Mayu were in the second row and slashed at trolls as they emerged from their tents. Akuchi swung at a troll as it stepped out of its tent and only hit air as the troll dropped to the ground. Akuchi glanced over his shoulder as the troll got back up and was decapitated by the soldier in the next row. Akuchi passed another tent and swung
at a troll emerging from the tent. Akuchi’s blade found its mark, slashing a deep mortal wound on the troll. It fell to the ground, its blue blood pumping out of the wound.
***
Akuchi found himself riding behind Oghenekaro with Mayu beside him. The Commander charged straight to the largest tent in the centre of the camp. Akuchi and Mayu followed him. A large troll emerged from the tent. Green skinned with pure white fur it stood three meters tall and wielded a large two-handed axe in each hand. As the Commander charged the beast they both swung at each other and missed. The troll swung and felled a rider behind them. Akuchi galloped past Mayu on the other side. They both swung and missed the large troll as they passed by him. Oghenekaro, Akuchi and Mayu all wheeled their horses and charged past again. Oghenekaro swung his sword and sliced through the troll’s arm, severing it. Akuchi and Mayu galloped past the troll each missing as the troll turned to face them. As they wheeled their horses for another charge, the troll dropped his axes, grabbed a tent pole, and levelled it at them.
Oghenekaro charged forward as Akuchi and Mayu both followed; the troll waited as they charged toward him. As Oghenekaro closed he raised his sword to bring down in a mighty thrust it at the troll’s head. The troll lunged forward with the tent pole and thrusted it into Oghenekaro’s horse. The horse panicked and threw Oghenekaro to the ground before dying on the tent pole. The troll threw the tent pole to the ground and picked up his axes. Akuchi and Mayu charged past and sliced the troll in the back with their weapons. The troll roared and turned to face them.
“Akuchi, save Oghenekaro!” Mayu shouted over the din of battle. “I will distract him.”
Mayu charged the troll, slicing him again in the back. The troll turned to face her and charged her down with his axe. Mayu turned the horse away from the troll and galloped away, leading the troll away from Oghenekaro.
The Bloodwood Curse: An Epic Fantasy Adventure of Swords, Magic and Romance. (The Rosethorn Chronicles Book 1) Page 7