Vedientir

  "I must," said Dion and sought Kerkio's eyes with his own. "I must take the battle standard all the way home."

  "You have done your duty! You have gathered the men around the battle standard. Now let the legion take it home."

  "I cannot do that. I refuse to have people say that Arnos had used the standard to save his son from the siege, that he had used it for personal gain. I will take the standard to where it belongs - into battle." He struggled to keep calm as he spoke.

  Kerkio fixed his hair and said nothing more. He was angry but he understood.

  "Eya and the dragon surely do not have to come with us. This is not their war," continued Dion, now struggling less with his words as he calmed down slightly.

  "No, it is not my war," spoke Eya. "For the dragon I do not speak, but Vedientir has given us all the same task and we must stay together, even in war. We will stay together until Vedientir's task is completed. Have you already forgotten about it?"

  "Yes," he answered truthfully. "Not completely of course, but momentarily yes."

  "And what do you plan to do if your army fails? Have you thought about that?"

  "Yes. I have." He sounded upset again and offered no explanation.

  "Let's go, if that's what you have decided," he said sharply and stepped outside.

  ✽✽✽

  It was early afternoon when the king's scouts saw the first segments of the South legion approach the training camp. By the look of the camp it was obvious that they weren't expecting to stay there for so long. The camp looked like something that Galinos and the woodsmen would leave after a hard day's work - the entire forest clearing was filled with planks, wooden beams, stones and tools. The king's legionaries had set up their tents as close to the road as possible, and refrained from building anything.

  "Let's rebuild this camp!" commanded Aris. "We might need it tomorrow."

  The legionaries had trained there often so they went right to work and before long the wooden skeleton of the camp was clearly visible. Less than two day parts later, a ditch was dug all around the camp, and the wooden walls were filled with the excess earth.

  Night came quickly that day, but the camp was built, and the people and animals were fed and resting. All they had to do was to wait for the morning, but that was also the hardest part.

  Aris gathered a select few in his tent to go over the details: Dion, Kavalis, Rochus, a few senior primaries, and two king's legionaries.

  "They are at least three times stronger than our force," started one of the king's legionaries. "However, they are not evenly spread. Most of the forces are in the west and in front of the city gates since their camp is on the south side of the Calapis. There is a much smaller camp on the eastern bank of the Naumona. They have a presence on the east but that is merely to keep the siege and harass the defenders. There are a few hundred there, not more."

  "All right," Aris thanked him and took over.

  "Surprise is still on our side, and we have to use that. The riders should go first to confuse and make the enemy react to us while the legionary segments deploy. We have to cover as much ground as quickly as possible and give ourselves space to maneuver.

  Our task is to secure the road and reach the gates to make sure Dion's evacuation plan can be realized during the battle if we are unable to break the enemy. I have a few more ideas regarding tomorrow's day. Let's go over them now."

  A few night parts later when everyone in the camp slept, except for the men in Aris's tent, the two ravens flew to Echa once again.

  ✽✽✽

  Morning was still away when Aris ordered the men to awake. He was already on his horse, waiting in front of one of the four camp exits for the men to come out.

  Torches were lit in front of the camp where men slowly assembled, and Dion finally got to see what he already knew was in the wagon of the Pharesian archers but had never seen. They removed the leather cover and beneath it stood a rack that looked like a ribcage of some beast, and every rib was one unstrung bow, neatly wrapped in protective cloth that even gave them a bone-white color.

  The archers started stringing their bows as their helpers broke the barrels driven in other wagons to get to the beautifully preserved arrows. The sound of a few arrows hitting nearby trees announced to the legion that Phares was also ready. In the distance, the axes of the woodsmen struck the first of the trees selected by Galinos.

  Two segments of the South legion went first, one after the other, with orders to form a line once the road widens near the exit of the forest and space allows for it. Meden Tai was at the head of the first segment. He carried Dion's and one other legionary carried the legion's battle standard. The standards were leaned against their legionaries' shoulders, and were still tied to their staves as was custom, and were only to be untied when the standards reached the battlefield.

  Pharesian archers went after the two legionary segments, and after them went two segments of Maran veterans. Their task was also Dion's task - reach the city walls. The rest of the Marans were given an equally important task - protect the entrance to the forest, and so they stayed behind at the camp to join at the rear.

  First after the two Maran segments was the dragon, and behind him walked Eya, Kerkio and Dion, leading their horses behind them. Aris walked with them with his first segment - the only segment that led their horses on the road, the others led their horses on the dirt next to the road to avoid making too much noise. The legionary segments marched on the road behind Aris's segment, their ears trying to catch any sound that might come from the city.

  They marched until morning dawned and spread to form multiple long lines when they arrived closer to the exit of the forest. There used to be houses there and an inn that was most popular during the winter but now there stood nothing but dust and broken stones.

  "Bells! Bells!" whispered the nervous men of the legion when the sound reached their ears. They knew what the sound meant, and now that they were so close to their homes and families even the legionaries had trouble containing themselves, but they knew they had to.

  "What's happening?" the dragon asked Dion.

  "A new attack on the city is beginning. The defenders are notifying the people to stay off the streets," he answered and saw that he was about to get answers himself. The ravens were returning from Echa.

  "Vrata esu srushna," the white raven said.

  "The city gates are destroyed," Dion translated to the others and clenched his fist.

  "Nai dohodyt..." the black raven began the message, and the white raven finished it.

  "Do not come! We cannot break out! We cannot clear away the rubble in time," were the messages that the ravens brought to Dion. He looked towards the city but the curve of the road and the forest in front of him blocked his view.

  He smiled gloomily when he understood how he must have looked like and how he felt. Only one other person could have understood him then, but that person was not by his side to guide him.

  "Dion, think! Don't do something stupid," he heard his father's voice in his head, but the voice did not calm him down this time. It just enraged him further. He wanted to hear him - he wanted his father to bring him back to sanity for he knew he was about to do something insane, but Arnos wasn't there. He was locked inside four walls and he kept Echa alive. He could not get out, and Dion could not get in.

  "Eya! Zmai!" he shouted louder than any other man had allowed himself that morning, but Aris did not object.

  "I beg you! Please wait for me here where it is safe," he pleaded his friends once again in both languages to remain in safety. "You do not have to follow me."

  "Dion!" he heard Aris call him loudly and Dion knew he must not move without Aris's approval.

  "Follow the plan!"

  Approval.

  "Gafranihi, sai amonom!" Dion called his ravens to him and mounted his horse. His eyes feverishly searched for Meden in the first row of the legion, some distance in front of him.

  "Meden Tai! I need my standard back!" Dio
n shouted and Meden turned around, as did most of the Pharesian archers over whose shoulders Dion shouted.

  "Unfold it!" he first commanded Meden and then he commanded his horse to run.

  "You are not going anywhere without me!" yelled Kerkio angrily after him, and Dion heard hooves striking dirt when Kerkio ordered his horse to follow his.

  The two riders were approaching the beginning of the column but Meden still struggled with the last lace of Dion's torn battle standard.

  "Sons of three Echas!" roared Aris loudly to prepare his men for battle.

  "Your home awaits! Your families await!"

  "Lyud!" Zmai called after Dion, unsure of what to do.

  "Stai isah, nai sai amonom!" shouted Dion back to the dragon, pleading him more than commanding him to stay in the hoped-for safety of the legion, and then he turned forward, fearing he would run past Meden Tai and fail to grab his standard.

  "Nai, lyud! Hodam sai atobom!" shouted Zmai after Dion but Dion could no longer hear the dragon's words. "No, human! I'm going with you!"

  "Phares and Mara!" Aris commanded further. "Go straight towards the city gates and stop only when you meet the wood of the gate and the stone of the walls. I will meet you there. The king's segments! Take the left flank with me. Horse segments - take the right flank. Legion! Go west after the legionary horses. There the battle lies. The primaries will guide you. White segment - with me!"

  "Unfold it! Quickly! Quickly!" Dion shouted nervously to Meden, leaned in the saddle and stretched out his right hand as far as he could. Meden somehow managed to untie the last strap holding the flag wrapped around the staff, grabbed its corner and started unfolding it.

  "Give it now!" cried Dion for the final time and commanded the horse to run even faster, but Meden failed to unfold the flag completely before Dion's horse reached him. In the last possible moment Meden stretched out his arm and held the standard as high in the air as the pain in his ribs allowed him so that Dion could grab it.

  A thousand needles of pain stormed through Dion's arm when he snatched the battle standard from Meden's hands.

  In the blink of an eye he was at the front of the legion, leading a two man charge, and the horsemen behind him started climbing into cold saddles on their rested horses.

  For a moment Dion panicked, thinking that the standard would fall out of his hand, but in the next moment he fixed it on his right foot and it unfolded in the wind - the black flag with the golden dragon.

  "Rechyte grodu ada dohodymo," he shouted to the ravens flying above him. "Tell the city we are coming!"

  "Tell them to continue clearing away the rubble!" he commanded in the old language.

  "Grak! Lyud lud!" the ravens answered him, telling him that he was out of his mind, but they listened to him and pushed even faster towards the city with Dion's messages.

  "Heavens! So many!" gasped Dion when the horse brought him out of the forest.

  He felt as if he wasn't seeing but was instead soaking up the world with his eyes, as if in a fear that the world might disappear at any moment. Then he realized that it was true, but not the world - he might disappear, the horse that he was riding on, Kerkio, the dragon, his parents, the legion, Echa. All could disappear with one wrong step, one miscalculation.

  "Stay close to me if you do not wish for the lake to happen again!" demanded Kerkio after he appeared on Dion's right.

  "We need to draw their attention away from the road!" he shouted back to Kerkio while his mind was busy counting and refusing to comprehend the enemy's numbers.

  Thousands of bodies swarmed outside the city walls. Those that were not naked or covered in fur like the giant magic hunters wore red and earth-brown leather armor. There was no uniformity in their dress or formation, no cadence in their step, and there appeared to be no singular command that coordinated their attack. They behaved more like hungry ants, trying to climb up the city walls over the ladders suspended on the backs of countless Eaters clinging to them.

  "Woe!" despaired Dion loudly when he got a better look at the walls and understood why Arnos said not to come. Echa looked like a sick growth on the world whose meat pulsated and swelled in blood-drenched agony. Eaters hung onto every stone of the walls as far as he could see. Some were already lifeless bodies pierced by the spears of the defenders while others still strangled the city with their tentacles, allowing their deadly cargo to climb up.

  To Dion the top of the walls looked like an angry hedgehog - the spears and swords flew through the air and cut and pierced anything that managed to climb all the way to the top - an Eater's tentacle, a man, even a gnarly hunter whose size and strength occasionally created a hole in the healthy part of Echa's spiny shell.

  "Do you see them!?" shouted Dion emboldened for a moment by what he saw. "They are still holding it!"

  "Barely," responded Kerkio to himself.

  The hooves of their horses and their shouts still turned no eyes towards them, and they were already near the burned remains of the Village and the first small clumps of the enemy forces that were camped there, waiting for their turn to climb onto the walls.

  "Just carry the standard!"

  That single thought now occupied his mind while the horse carried him ever deeper into the battlefield, charging unnoticed through the ruins of the Village and the flimsy cloth shelters erected there by the enemy. He was getting ever closer to the men that were assaulting the city and threatened to burst through its gate - a gate that no longer existed. The gate was now only torn oak planks that hung on broken hinges, and in place of the gate stood a mountain of stone and wood that had been piled up in the last effort to thwart the incursion.

  "Finally!" Dion thought when a scream burst over the ruins of the Village.

  Dion's horse almost turned from fright, but Dion calmed it and they stayed the course, even though his own heart started racing mercilessly.

  Shriekers!

  Shriekers that hid in the ruins were the first to notice the two riders, and a whole pack emerged from nowhere and began pursuit. There were many more of them in the Village than there were in Aquia, and their howls turned the eyes of the besiegers beneath the walls north. Dion saw surprise in them when they saw the battle standard almost upon them. Their eyes met with Dion's, and they recognized and understood each other in that one moment.

  "I am your enemy," they told one another.

  The two riders continued down the road through hands of men that appeared on both sides of the road and tried to grab them, riding ahead of the feverish pack of shriekers whose slobber watered the ground and sprayed the tails of their horses.

  "Turn already!" shouted Kerkio.

  "Not yet!" shouted Dion back and glanced back at the shriekers. They looked like an infestation of fleas, jumping one over the other, squealing with desire to let some blood over their fangs.

  Dion's horse neighed loudly and Dion turned forward in his saddle just in time to see that the last line of the enemy had begun running towards them.

  "Get ready!" shouted Dion over the numbing noise of the world that for the two of them was now only a thin strip of beaten grass between the shriekers and the spears of the equally bloodthirsty men who charged out of the besieging mass to attack them.

  "Now!"

  "Now!" Kerkio cried a breath after Dion shouted the same command. They couldn't make one more step forward for they would have crushed themselves into the enemy that was so close that they could recognize the features on their faces.

  "Turn! Turn!" they both shouted to their horses and pulled the reins to the left. The leather of the reins creaked and the muscles of the horses clenched and pushed the hooves into the ground forcefully. Dion's horse turned east, and Kerkio's did the same in the very last moment, having to jump over the fangs of the nearest shrieker that bit into empty air instead of the horse's leg.

  "Watch out!" they heard panicked cries in the old language, followed by cries of pain, curses and then shrieks and gurgles of the broken shrieker that had lunged fo
r Kerkio's horse. By the time Kerkio's horse touched the ground again, the shrieker had already broken the legs of three men when it stumbled into them.

  Other shriekers tried turning left after Dion and Kerkio, but their claws were no match for the hooves of the legion's war horses and they too crashed in full speed into the besiegers and broke themselves along with the shields, spears, and the men that carried them. Not a single shrieker came out alive from that impact, and very few men who went after the two riders survived unscathed.

  "Drzhte yh!" shouted the few unharmed men from the back of that mess, still wanting to get to Dion and Kerkio, but the spears and stones they threw only hit the dirt behind the war horses. Dion's standard was already far out of their reach.

  "Stop here!" shouted Dion and they both stopped their winded horses.

  "You are aware that we are still too close to them?" asked Kerkio as he watched the news of their arrival spread east from one group amassed beneath an Eater to another, all the way to the Eastern Bridge and beyond. They saw the red flag from the Old world on the bridge, and a group of shrieker riders grouping on it.

  "I am aware," said Dion looking now north, towards the river, but there was still nothing there.

  "Aris and River Mara will come," said Dion and moved his horse a few steps left and then a few steps to the right so that the enemy could see the battle standard and know that they were there.

  "So we wait," said Kerkio.

  "Plamensin!" then shouted the men from the middle of one of the ladders on an Eater that hung close to the road.

  Dion turned to his right to look at the men who shouted that, and saw them pointing north.

  "They decided not to listen to you, it seems," said Kerkio when he spotted Eya and Zmai rushing towards them from the direction of the Village.

  "No one is happier than me to have their help here and now," said Dion and understood when he spoke that he really felt that. "And no one is more worried about them," he added while Eya and Zmai were away enough not to hear him.