Many the troops cast some rather bitter looks toward the soldier standing next to Pendivall, wearing the colors of the dark wizard. Symon felt like a bug that needed to find a dark, safe place to hide.
As the last of the troops filed past the two, Jarell came walking up with a couple of his captains. He nodded to Pendivall and then his gaze turned toward his brother. He showed no emotion, which Pendivall found disconcerting considering he was dealing with a man who had no problem expressing his feelings when needed.
“It’s been a long time, brother,” said Symon.
Jarell just looked at him, not betraying any feelings he had running through his mind at the moment. Then, ignoring Symon, he looked at Pendivall.
“Where do we stand?”
Pendivall didn’t really want to answer the question, because he wanted Jarell and his brother to get whatever fire they had between them put out, but he decided to let their feud take its course.
“We need to move the troops about an hour east of here. There are some fields at the mouth of a small canyon and would be the best place for us to meet Kerrick’s forces.”
Jarell nodded to him and then turned to the captains and told them to get the troops on the road. They could rest when they reached the fields.
Then he handed his staff to Pendivall and called a young soldier over. He took off his belt, holding his sword and handed it to the soldier and told him to watch over it until he came for it. He nodded to Symon and his brother read his mind. He pulled his sword off and handed it to the same soldier and they sent him on his way with the rest of the troops.
Pendivall looked at the two of them and then shook his head.
“Try not to kill each other. We need both of you.”
Then he turned and headed toward the stockade. He knew what was coming and only hoped that when it was finished, they would still be able to call each other brother.
Jarell turned and looked at the woods behind the pub and started walking toward them. Symon fell in behind him and within a couple of minutes, they came to a small clearing in the trees. As Symon tried to find the words that could diffuse the situation, he took a couple more steps.
And walked right into Jarell’s right fist.
Symon’s head snapped back as he fell backward, landing rather inelegantly on his behind. As he rubbed his jaw, he looked up at Jarell.
“Well, I guess I had that coming.”
‘You’re damn right you had that coming!” yelled Jarell.
Symon struggled to his feet, fighting for breath and bent over. As Jarell moved in to deliver another blow, he found out that Symon’s condition was greatly exaggerated.
A quick punch of Symon’s right fist caught Jarell in the stomach and doubled him over in pain, driving all the air out of his lungs. Then a swift upper-cut caught Jarell under the chin sending him reeling into the dirt.
“And you had that coming!”
Jarell scrambled to his feet and the fight was on. Both men resolved not to go down again. Punches were thrown, even a kick or two, but both fighters kept to their feet. If Agoroth had been walking through those woods, he would have taken a wide path around the two warriors to stay away from their fury.
After about five minutes of fighting, continually circling each other, looking for that one opening that would give an advantage, they both looked like they had gone to war with Kerrick’s troops by themselves. Both had bloody lips and noses, their knuckles were scraped up and one of Jarell’s eyes was swollen shut.
In one last ditch effort to win the fight, each warrior threw a punch at the jaw of the other and both connected with devastating results at the same time. Both men fell to the ground, laying side-by-side and gasping for breath and fighting to remain conscious.
As Jarell lay there on his back, he coughed out, “You called me a son of a pig.”
Symon laughed through his swollen jaw and said, “You told me I was as worthless as dragon snot.”
Jarell laughed through his pain and said, “At the time it seemed appropriate.”
Symon raised himself up on one elbow and looked at Jarell.
“And you called Laurelai an idiot for taking up with me.”
Jarell rolled his head to the side and looked into his brother’s eyes.
“Something that I regretted the very instant I said it and every day since then.”
Symon laid back down and stared at the blue sky filtering through the trees above.
“I know you did, brother. We both said things we shouldn’t have back then. A case could be made that it was just the stupidity of youth. Of course, we were both about a hundred years old, so we should have known better.”
Jarell ran his hand over his face and looked at his knuckles.
“Anyone seeing us right now would say we haven’t progressed very far past that stupidity.”
Symon laughed and clutched at his ribs because he was quite sure he had a couple of cracked ones. He tried to breathe a little easier.
“Any chance we might have reached a point where you can use some of your magic to heal my ribs?”
Jarell looked at him with a small bit of disgust in his eyes. He shook his head.
“Oh come off it, Symon. You know damn good and well that your magic is every bit as powerful as mine.”
“I’m a bit out of practice,” said Symon. “I haven’t used it in over five hundred years.”
Jarell rolled over and crawled on his hands and knees to his brother and looked down at him.
“Not even once?”
“No, brother. It didn’t seem right to use it having left that life behind me.”
Jarell shook his head as he reached out and placed his hands on his brother’s chest. He could feel the breaks with his mind and set about to mending them. Symon twitched under his touch as he felt the bones stitching themselves back together. Within a couple of minutes Jarell was finished and Symon’s ribs were as good as new.
Jarell reached up and ran his hand over his jaw, which he was quite certain was broken and healed it and then healed his swollen eye and broken nose. As he was finishing up, Symon stood up and held out his hand to help him up.
As he stood up, Jarell looked at his brother and then put his arms around him and hugged him close.
“I’ve missed you, brother.”
“As I have you.”
As they stepped apart, Symon looked him over and said, “I think we need to come up with a good cover story for Hilde.”
“Brother, one thing I’ve learned about her is to not try to hide anything from her. She will smell it out quicker than you can imagine.”
“She can see right through you, huh?”
“Like a glass window.”
“Best to keep her and Laurelai apart then. We let those two get together and you and I will be outmatched in every way.”
Jarell laughed as he threw his arm around Symon’s shoulder and they started back toward the village. When they got there, they found it empty. All the villagers had gone south and all the troops had gone east.
As they walked past the stockade, Symon said, “I wonder what they did with the prisoners.”
“What measure of men were in there?”
“There were a dozen, but two of them were captains. They would have no problem rallying the other ten to their cause if we don’t watch them close.”
“I’d say we need to get on up the road then,” said Jarell.
Turning east, they headed out of the village and toward a certain battle that was going to make the battle in the Eastern Desert seem like a little skirmish.
~~~~
As the brothers walked into the field, they could see that the troops were busy making preparations for the coming clash with Kerrick’s troops. On the far side of the fields they could see the royal soldiers were taking up positions right near the mouth of the draw leading into the hills. It was obvious they were tired of sitting on their tails in this war and they were going to be a part of it, if it meant placing themselves
right in the path of the coming army.
Walking about a hundred yards into the future battlefield, they were confronted by one very irritated, redheaded warrior.
“Well, I can see you two idiots couldn’t wait for the battle to start. You had to go start your own.”
“Hi sweetie. Did you miss me?”
Symon doubled over laughing as he looked at Jarell’s grin. He reached up and clapped a hand on Jarell’s shoulder.
“I don’t know if humor is the way to go with this one, brother. She looks madder than a nest of hornets.”
“You’re damn right I’m mad! You two boys have been keeping yourselves apart for over five hundred years, when all it would have taken is a couple of apologies to fix this!”
“Well,” said Symon, “a couple of apologies or a really good fight.”
This time it was Jarell’s turn to laugh, which produced an icy stare from his wife.
“Sweetie, we’re fine. Everything is good between us and we are ready to face this coming battle.”
Pendivall walked up to the three and looked the two brothers over.
“Looks like the discussions went well.”
Symon said, “Master, it’s probably the best time I’ve had in a couple hundred years.”
“Well, I’m glad you got this out of your systems because we should be seeing Kerrick’s troops coming through that draw sometime this afternoon.”
The young soldier walked up with a couple of swords and belts and handed them to their respective owners. He had a little smirk on his face as he turned and walked away from the bloody warriors.
After their swords were strapped on, Pendivall handed Jarell his staff.
“You may be needing this,” he said to the younger wizard.
Jarell took the staff and Symon looked it over.
“I remember the day you won this staff. The Staff of Wind. I also remember that was the day that led to one of the greatest evils this land has ever seen.”
Jarell held the staff upright and looked at it.
“Yes, this staff and I have seen a lot.”
Hilde spoke, “Well, I hope it has seen the end of the foolishness between you and your brother.”
Jarell looked at her and then at Symon.
“I think we can both safely say that it has.”
Symon nodded.
“Good, can we get busy then and prepare for what is advancing our way?”
“Yes, dear.”
“Yes, sister.”
Symon turned to Pendivall and asked, “What became of the prisoners in the stockade? I don’t see them around here.”
Pendivall kind of shrugged his shoulders and then pointed at Hilde.
“I told him to put a Garlan on them,” she said.
Symon’s eyes opened. He had no idea what or who a Garlan was.
“You didn’t,” said Jarell, looking at the old wizard.
“In point of fact I did. Back when I first heard of what Garlan had done, I was in disagreement with it. But, this morning I could see the wisdom in it.”
Symon looked at the three of them and asked, “What is a Garlan?”
Jarell said, “Garlan is a young, master wizard who had to deal with some ruffians last year and he sent two of them out of the village with their memories wiped. He told them they had to spend the rest of their lives, going from village to village and working for and depending on the kindness of whoever they met for their food and shelter.”
“It wasn’t what he did to just them,” said Hilde. “He also drove an entire family out of the village to their doom.”
“A doom that he has cried his heart out over since it happened, sweetie,” said Jarell. “Besides, that dark period led me to meet the biggest ruffian of them all.”
“What happened when you met that ruffian?” asked Symon.
“I joined with her,” said Jarell with a wink.
Symon looked at Hilde and grinned.
Pendivall said, “At any rate, I didn’t take it as far as Garlan did. I cast the spell over them that they would be released from their need to travel and work at menial labor when they had a change of heart and saw Kerrick for what he really is.”
“Two of them didn’t fall under Pendivall’s magic,” said Hilde. “Their hearts were already changed and ready to fight with us against Kerrick. One of them was the soldier we talked to two nights ago.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” said Symon.
Pendivall said, “Alright, enough of this jabbering. Kerrick’s troops are only a few hours away and we need to make sure we’re ready. Symon, if you go over there by that wagon, you’ll find the Guildenians with some battlewear that might fit you much better than those colors you now wear. All of your men have already been outfitted and they are holding a set for you.”
Symon nodded at him and took off across the field to where the wagons were. He saw his men getting themselves all squared away and they nodded to him as he walked past. Most of them had silly smirks on their faces at the sight of their bloody captain. It was good to see he had survived his battle with the wizard.
The four dragons were on the far side of the field, tearing into a large deer they had caught. Most of the troops just watched in awe as the dragons ripped the deer to pieces, but there were a few soldiers that made sure they stayed as far away from the hungry dragons as possible. They wanted no possibility some of them could become dessert.
“So, have the numbers stayed consistent with the number of enemy soldiers?” asked Jarell.
“They have. And after Lianna and Gwen’s meeting with the dragons, they still only have one dragon flying over them.”
“Something about that doesn’t seem right,” said Jarell.
“What doesn’t sound right?” asked Hilde.
“I don’t know, sweetheart. I’m just getting this feeling we’re not seeing everything there is to see.”
“Well,” said Pendivall, “they still outnumber us about ten to six. That worries me and the captains.”
“Ten to six, not counting the royal soldiers. With them I’d say the odds are about even, wouldn’t you?”
Pendivall perked up at that.
“As you may have noticed, the royal soldiers are setting themselves at the mouth of the draw. If we’re not careful, they may wipe out Kerrick’s entire army and not leave anything for the rest of us to fight.”
“What a tragedy that would be,” laughed Jarell.
He looked at Hilde and asked, “And what are your plans for you and your dragon riders?”
“We’re going to wait until the army shows itself, before we take to the air. Sophia doesn’t have a rider yet, so she will be fighting by herself.”
“Okay, I’ll leave you to it and am going to head forward. I want to see how the captains are doing with their men and then work my way up to where the royals are.”
“You be careful, husband of mine,” said Hilde as she turned and headed toward the dragons.
“Me be careful?” said Jarell quietly to Pendivall. “I wonder if she’s ever paid attention to the way she fights.”
“Strapped to the back of a fire-breathing dragon, I doubt she has much time to think.”
Jarell laughed and started walking away.
“By the way, young man,” called Pendivall, “if you see my apprentice up there with the royals, tell him I would rather he stay back here.”
Jarell stopped and turned around.
“Is he up there?”
“He’s heard the stories of what Sean did in the battle in the Eastern Desert and feels like he isn’t doing his part.”
Jarell just shook his head and said, “You won’t mind if I cuff him upside the ears before I send him back, will you?”
“Not at all.”
Chapter 10 ~ There’s Nothing Heroic About War
“This is really quite beautiful.”
Martin looked at the small Guildenian as she stood on the edge of the cliff, dressed in one of his robes. He stood next to her, still ta
ken with her beauty. He didn’t care that she was almost three hundred years older than him. She was beautiful, she was a warrior and she rode a dragon into battle. That was all he needed to know about her.
Gwen gazed out over the valley below. They could see many miles across the valley, to the mountains on the far side, which were hidden at the base by a low lying mist. The peaks reached high into the sky and were covered with snow. She knew the northern lands lay on the other side of those mountains.
The cliff they stood on was about halfway up the side of a mountain and on the other side of it was Wyndweir and home. She thought about home and how she had left there just a couple of weeks before, joining Pendivall’s troops near Bridgehaven and then becoming a dragon rider. Now that Koranth had been killed, she was beginning to think she had lost the will to fight and wanted to just return home.
Quickly banishing those thoughts from her mind, she remembered that her friends were still in the fight and also knew that if Koranth heard her thoughts he would chastise her fiercely for thinking such things.
She began feeling a bit unsteady and Martin helped her to sit down on a rock near the edge of the cliff. After getting her comfortable, he sat down next to her, glad just to be sitting close to her.
“You say you were a dragon rider and when we found you and Koranth, he had died horribly, but you lived. How did that happen?”
“All I remember was turning and seeing a red dragon coming at us from behind by surprise. He killed Koranth with his claws and I was knocked from his back by the red dragon’s wing. As I fell, I went down through the trees and hit every branch on the way down.”
Martin nodded as he listened to her.
“Why I was spared when he was not, I don’t know.”
“Maybe what my father says is true. That the Guildenians are a magical people. Maybe your magic watched over you and protected you.”
“I don’t feel very magical right now.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes and then Martin asked, “What’s it like in Wyndweir?”
She smiled as she thought of home.
“About the same as it is here. It’s green and beautiful, with many lakes and rivers. Guilden sits right on the southern shore of a large lake. Most of the land had been quiet and peaceful before this war started and I dream of the day when it will be that way again.”
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