BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (24 page)

Meanwhile, Hawkins looked over at the young
lord, and asked, “Lord Bradmir, do you have any final questions
before you deliver the command to deploy our troops to the city
gates?”

“Governor Hawkins, I have no final
questions.”

Hawkins ordered, “Good—Execute plan A!”

After nodding, Bradmir called out through his
megaphone, “Green team! Left face—forward march!”

The remaining half of the regiment made the
right face, and all made their way into the borders of the Vaspan
Empire. Hawkins followed by Bradmir’s side in the front of the
ranks, as did the guide-on bearer who was holding high both
flags.

Nearing noon, just as the green-team was
nearing the city walls/labyrinth that surrounded Mauritia, Bradmir
called the forces to a “halt.”

Soon after they observed an army of at least
five thousand on horseback who were quickly assembling outside the
walls of the labyrinth, and so these three men began to ride
forward at a trot.

Manifesting in front of that army and riding
toward their position at a fast pace, was the commanding officer
that Bradmir instantly recognized as “Commanding-General Strums,”
his top three generals, and of course, the guide-on bearer bearing
the flag of the Vaspan Empire.

Bradmir had known Strums ever since he was
ten years old, and also knew that he was a reasonable and honorable
man. Bradmir was all too aware that Vaspan liked to have
“reasonable people” placed into positions of power whenever he was
away as he knew that “other unreasonable people” would try to steal
away his power and lands.

Once all the leaders had gotten to within
twenty feet of each other, they all stopped their horses in
unison.

Strums greeted, “Hail, Prince Bradmir! Please
oblige me in allowing me to relay the ‘suspicious reports’ I’ve
been hearing about for the last couple of weeks before you
speak—please your majesty?”

“No problem, Commanding-General Strums.”

Strums acknowledged with a bow to his head,
“Thank you, your majesty—two weeks ago, our advanced scouts
reported that your army of around thirty thousand bears both flags
of the Vaspan and the Sharia Empire held high, which army now
appears to be halved. They also reported that they did not see any
of your princely brothers, the Ruling-General Thorn, nor even
Sultan-Sedious Vaspan in the mix…

“Now the only reason we didn’t lay out our
hundreds of thousands of defensive traps all around the city for
miles, which traps would have easily destroyed your little army…is
because you were recognized, my prince. And it appears to me that
you are not being held hostage, but as we all know, appearances can
be deceiving.”

After clearing his throat, Strums continued,
“Really, I have so many unanswered questions right now it isn’t
even funny. Here are the most important ones, Prince Bradmir. Why
are you the only royalty I recognize here? Where is your father, or
any of your other brothers? Are you and-or they being held hostage?
Who is this man who rides beside you, and most importantly, where
is the other half of your army?”

Bradmir actually became a bit nervous, as he
hadn’t planned to have to answer the very last part first, but he
didn’t let his face betray a single ounce of nervousness. He was
poker-faced.

After sucking in a very deep breath through
just his mouth, an answer suddenly popped into Bradmir’s mind, and
so he replied it, “You have done quite well in keeping both the
Vaspan Empire’s forces to par, via your report, including asking me
those very questions you just did, Commanding-General Strums…”

Bradmir found he had to clear his throat
several times, before he could continue saying, “In order to answer
every last question, to your complete satisfaction, will take a bit
of your time, as well some patience, which I am fully aware that
you have a lot of patience and are very reasonable.”

“Thank you, your majesty,” Strums replied
with another respectful bow to his head.

After sucking in a light breath through just
his nose, Bradmir answered, “Nearly eight weeks ago, we—my father,
brothers, the Ruling-General Thorn, the army and the mercenaries,
and of course myself—did arrive at Pavelus. Not even an hour
afterwards, the Sultan and Sultaness Brishava of the Sharia Empire
met us in the very middle of the battlefield, but an all-out battle
did not erupt. Well, it did, but not in the way that you
think…”

At Bradmir’s last statement, both of Strums’
eyebrows scrunched up, but he did not say a word, only continued to
listen.

After a three-second pause, Bradmir began to
relay the story from beginning to end, regarding the deal, duel and
victor between his father and the new Sultan over both
empires—Sultan Baltor Elysian the Fifteenth. Truthfully.

All the while, Strums and his top-generals
listened very attentively without so much as a word spoken, though
there were both thoughtful and mixed expressions on their faces the
whole time.

In the end, Bradmir introduced Hawkins as the
new Governor of both Mauritia and Driven, though he never once
relayed any of the information that the other half of the army was
waiting for the command to execute “Plan B” at the secret
entrance.

Following that introduction, Hawkins
immediately greeted, “Hail, Commanding-General Strums. I am
Governor Hawkins. All that Prince Bradmir has told you is the
truth.”

Still suspicious, Strums said, “I
see…governor. Well, I have another important question for either of
you to answer. Where is Sultan Baltor Elysian the Fifteenth that
you speak of, who doesn’t even bother to show up to claim his
prize…his new empire? Or at least send Princess—excuse me—Sultaness
Brishava?”

Bradmir was the first to answer, “Sultan
Elysian is leading a campaign with the bulk of his army of more
than a hundred thousand soldiers, along with Ruling-General Thorn,
in order to recapture the city of Lasparus, which city was recently
conquered by the Duke of Vispano.”

“As for the Sultaness,” he added right away,
“she is not only incredibly busy overseeing affairs back in
Pavelus, yet is preparing the city’s defenses and offenses as there
is still yet another army that must be contended with—not you guys,
of course! That is why they sent us in their stead.”

Strums asked, “How do I know that this all
isn’t a trick by your father, in order to test my loyalties?”

Without hesitation, Bradmir answered, “My
father is dead—I swear on everything this is no trick and all I’ve
said is the truth!”

A moment later, Hawkins confirmed, “This is
no trick from anyone—I swear upon my soldier’s honor as a former
commanding general, just like you are now, good sir. If you like, I
can send the request to have Sultaness Brishava sail this way,
which I’m sure that she would be more than happy to oblige this
request…or even better, how about bringing over Prince Bradmir’s
brothers, so that they can confirm our truthful story?”

“Hmmm,” Strums replied, “I need to talk this
over in private with Major-General Noose and my other generals for
a minute…okay, gentlemen?”

Once Bradmir and Hawkins had both nodded
their heads, Strums cocked his head to the side, turned his horse
around, and spurred it on. A second later, his generals and the
guide-on bearer followed behind.

They stopped about fifty feet away, and began
to discuss things quietly amongst each another. Nearly five minutes
later, they rode back and stopped at ten feet away.

Strums first bowed his head, and after he had
looked back up toward Bradmir, he informed, “My generals and I wish
to speak with the other princes of the Vaspan Empire before we can
make any sort of major decision like this, in order to be
one-hundred percent sure this is no trick. I’m going to send our
fastest frigate ship to Pavelus in order to retrieve them, so that
they can confirm your story—two-to-three tops, depending on the
weather.”

Strums added, “In the meantime, you and your
army can safely camp at this spot until they arrive. By the way,
where is the other half of your army? You never answered this
question for me.”

Hawkins replied, “The other half of our army
is the rear detachment. They will join us once the command has been
issued, which it will momentarily.”

“Very well,” Strums neutrally replied. “Any
suspicious tricks from your part at any time, and we will be forced
to destroy your army, no matter its size. And trust me, we will be
watching you… through our scopes.”

“Understood,” both Hawkins and Bradmir
replied both simultaneously and coincidentally.

Bradmir added right away in promising tones,
“I can assure you—Commanding-General Strums—that soon enough, this
just, wise, and powerful Sultan, Baltor Elysian the Fifteenth, will
rule the entire world.”

With a laugh, Strums replied, “We’ll see…I’ve
heard that one before—a few months ago as a matter of fact!”

After chuckling and shaking his head a few
times, he next looked over to his generals and guide-on bearer—they
had not laughed once, yet bore poker faces throughout. Strums, once
again serious, ordered, “Let’s go, men.”

“Yes, sir!”

The four then rode their way back into the
labyrinth of Mauritia … as did all the rest of the troops.

Meanwhile, Hawkins had already delivered the
order for the red-team to not only stand down, but to come to their
coordinates. About an hour later, not only was camp set up and hot
chow being served, yet thankfully, the red-team returned without
having been spotted by the Mauritian scouts.

Two in a half weeks later, the three princely
brothers arrived at the docks of Mauritia on her fastest ship, and
without hesitation or trickery, they confirmed Bradmir’s story. So,
without so much as a drop of blood spilled, the Vaspan Empire
merged into the Sharia Empire!

Once all was said and done, which included
peacefully apprehending Driven not even a day later, Hawkins
ordered that same fastest ship back to Pavelus to report about his
“successful mission.”

Back to the very night the Forces of the
Sharia Empire split—

9 weeks and 4 nights earlier…

Humonus, Cheo, and their army of twenty
thousand cavalry soldiers began the even longer journey eastbound
across the Sharia Desert.

By the order of Baltor, this army belonged to
both men equally, and whenever Cheo had a command for the troops,
he would sign language it out to Humonus, who would then verbally
broadcast the king’s command to anyone.

Yet it was all three men—Baltor, Humonus, and
Cheo—who had strategically planned this “very special” cavalry
unit, which had been split into two separate teams—the fast-paced
“assault team” that led, and the steady-paced “support team” that
followed behind.

The assault-team consisted of sixteen
thousand troops that rode on saddled horses, or upon horse-drawn
chariots. The riding formation with which they traveled was in four
rows riding at a safe distance of twelve feet away from their
fellow rider on either side. Because there were a thousand soldiers
in each row, the length of the row spanned for two miles!

As for Humonus and Cheo, they rode in the
very center of the first row … as for the other officers in all
four rows, ranging from lieutenant to commanding-general, one
officer was strategically placed between each and every forty
enlisted soldiers.

Later that evening, when the assault team had
stopped for the night, and camp was set up for both teams (the
support team wouldn’t catch up until the early morning hours),
Humonus then taught his assault team (whose trainees included Cheo)
the two main secrets to blind fighting.

The first secret for everyone to learn was to
wear blindfolds and fight with training weapons and random
partners. The not-so-simple second secret was how to learn to
utilize the other senses—besides sight—in order to become
proficient, especially the sixth sense Humonus called
“intuition.”

Of course Humonus easily proved the
effectiveness of his blind-fighting skills to everyone—after all
his demonstration had been completed, not a single person had any
doubts. During the course of these training sessions that happened
every single night for up to three hours, not only did the troops
practice with random partners who were not blindfolded, yet so did
Humonus and Cheo.

The third and final secret, which Humonus
never made any mention to anyone at all, was the fact that he had
learned his first two secrets from his former profession as a
master thief, shortly before he became this army’s
ruling-general.

As for the support-team that followed behind
at a trot, this consisted of four thousand troops riding upon, or
within one thousand horse-drawn covered wagons, that traveled in
three tight columns, with no more than five feet spaced between
each wagon. In fact, this formation resembled a mile-long
snake!

The single wagon that led the support team
was the support-command-station, and within this wagon was the
second-in-command assigned to oversee them all—a just-promoted
commanding general whose name was Stormea.

Riding behind this wagon on horses were half
of the commanding officers of this unit, who protectively
surrounded the nine hundred ninety-nine horse-drawn wagons.

Not only did these covered wagons carry tons
of medical supplies, food, water, and even bunks, yet the majority
of the support troops. Those soldiers not assigned to drive the
wagons, or to continuously scan their horizons, were trained in the
back of the wagons by the medics during the day, and later at
night. One final mission they had was to make hot chow for both
teams before early morning came.

Once the support team had joined up with the
assault team, typically at about one or two in the morning, they
served hot chow to everybody. Once dinner was over, other than
those scheduled on guard duty, the entire army was allowed to sleep
until one hour after sunrise.