The King's Ring (The Netherworld Gate Book 2) (18 page)

Though we bleed, help us still,

So thy might may be shown.

Basei our god, our rock,

If we fail by our blades,

And on thy door we knock,

Lay us down in thy glades.

Horatt took in the song of his company and it swelled him with pride. The song repeated over and over, taking cadence with the marching steps of the men. No longer were any screams heard when arrows and missiles stung at his men. The whole horde was filled with courage, born of their belief in the god of war. The troop marched with new zeal and strength.

“Look at the gates,” Getl exclaimed over the thunderous singing of the horde.

Horatt raised his spy glass and saw that the enemy was raising the portcullis and marching out. “The fools think they can meet us face to face in the desert.” Horatt replaced his spy glass in a bag on his saddle and smiled. “Basei is with us today,” he shouted. “He is bringing our foe out to meet us!”

At his words the men sung all the more confidently, assured that their song was being answered by the fiery-willed Basei. Only Getl was silent. He looked up to Horatt with a worried expression on his face.

“Stay your tongue,” Horatt said before his lieutenant could utter a word. “I will not have the faith and courage of my men mocked by a cowardly junior officer.”

The look in Horatt’s eyes told Getl that it would be wise to maintain his silence.

“Sound the charge,” Horatt ordered.

*****

“Their songs are in vain,” one of the soldiers to Ret’s right said. “Basei will favor us this day.”

“I reckon that Basei cares little who lives and who dies,” Ret told the trooper. “He is a god of war, and I doubt he picks sides in accordance with just principles. He is just as likely to side with the enemy, I suppose.”

“Well, then who would you reckon we should pray to sir?” the trooper asked disdainfully.

“Pray to whomever you like,” Ret responded. The knight looked down at the dismayed trooper and smiled wryly. “Pray as though the battle depends on Basei, or Icadion, or any other god you like, but then by the powers of heaven and hell you had better fight as though they are ignoring you.”

A chuckle rose from some of the nearby men.

“Remember, wait until the enemy is only fifty yards away, and then you will sound your bugle three times. Do not sound it a moment before or it may mean defeat,” Ret instructed the bugle-boy.

“I will be careful sir,” the boy responded.

A bugle sounded from the enemy horde. The call was long and determined.

“They are coming,” Ret announced. “Come on men, we must clear the gate before the enemy reaches us. I don’t want to risk them getting inside our walls.”

The men responded quickly, rushing out through the open portal and scrambling to get into formation in front of the gatehouse. Ret could hear the snap of bowstrings and scorpion launchers from above. He looked up to the sky, and thought about praying, but decided not to. He had never put much stock in the gods anyway.

*****

Alexander waited patiently atop his steed. He and his men were in position, waiting for the signal from Ret. Alexander said nothing, nor did any of his men. They were all experienced enough that they had little anxiety over the pending battle. They waited in silence, each man ready to charge at any moment, yet they were calm and still.

At last the signal came. Three distinct blows of the bugle.

“For Kobhir!” Alexander shouted. He drew his sword and urged his steed on, followed by the rest of his knights. As they rounded the south-western corner of Kobhir’s wall they were greeted by a sight that caused each man to reach inside for his courage. Thousands of troops were charging towards Ret’s company with alarming speed.

“They have knights also, sir,” one of the knights shouted, pointing to a small number of riders charging ever closer to Ret’s company.

“Ret and his men can handle twenty riders with ease. Our target is the flank of the main body of troops.” Alexander dropped the visor of his helmet. Each of his three hundred knights did the same and then pulled their glimmering swords free.

The enemy army failed to respond to the new threat of Alexander and his knights. The Shausmatians were fixed on Ret’s troops, and made no attempt to prepare for the charge of the Zinferth knights. Alexander watched as the enemy horde collided with the five thousand Zinferth troops under Ret’s command. The unmistakable clanks of sword on shield erupted through the air and silenced the battle hymn of the Shausmatian soldiers. A few moments later, Alexander reached the flank of the enemy horde and tore through his first victim.

The knights bore their way deep into the enemy’s flank. They cut down their foes by the score. Alexander, still at the forefront of his men, had already slain fifty men before he was surrounded and his charge was brought to a halt. He hacked down on a spearman to his right and kicked out with his left leg to another foe. His horse would have been an easy target for the enemy, save for the thick plates of steel that it wore over its vital areas. Weapons made a ringing sound as they glanced off of the armor.

Alexander was soon rejoined by the bulk of his knights and they continued to fight side-by-side against their enemy. At first they felt invincible. The field around them was covered with Shausmatian bodies, and none of their own had fallen. They pushed through the enemy, fighting their way towards the enemy’s rear. After a while one of the knights was pulled from his horse and dragged into a sea of swords and maces.

“Break them apart!” Alexander shouted, pointing to the group that had assaulted one of his men. The thundering hooves of the battle-horses scared the group away from the fallen knight in time to rescue the man from death. The knights formed a protective circle around the injured man and Alexander leapt down from his horse. “Can you ride?” Alexander asked.

“I can’t move my leg,” the knight replied. “My back hurts too.”

Alexander rolled the knight to his side, shielded from the enemy by his men. “You have been stabbed,” Alexander informed the knight. “Hold still and I will inspect the injury.

All around them men groaned, growled, and screamed. Still the knights held the tide of attackers back from their leader and fallen comrade. Alexander was able to remove the injured knight’s breastplate and take a proper look at the wound. A spearhead had been broken from its shaft after embedding itself near the knight’s spine, just above the hip.

“I’m not sure how they managed to get under your armor, but the wound isn’t fatal,” Alexander assured the knight.

“The armor doesn’t fit right,” the knight replied with a cough. “My armor was damaged in the first skirmish today, so I traded it out with a fallen soldier before we left Kobhir. It doesn’t quite cover me correctly in some places.”

“I see,” Alexander replied. “You’ll have to make do until the surgeon can see you.” The knight nodded his head. At that instant a crossbow bolt glanced off of Alexander’s right pauldron. He looked up to spot the attacker, but one of his knights was quick to bring an end to the would-be assassin’s life. “Asin, get this man back to Ret’s company and have him sent to the surgeon,” Alexander ordered.

A knight immediately broke formation and, with Alexander’s help, slung the injured knight over the horse. “I will see him through to safety,” Asin swore.

“Go,” Alexander shouted before jumping back on his own horse. “Everyone on me,” he yelled. Alexander then led the group of knights in a protective formation around Asin and fought their way back to meet up with Ret’s troops. It was sticky going at first, and the group was barely able to progress through the horde, but as they neared Ret’s soldiers it became easier to maneuver.

Ret’s soldiers were busy hacking down the enemy line after line and wave after wave. To Alexander’s surprise, instead of holding their ground, Ret’s troops were advancing through the horde. It wasn’t long before Asin made the safety of the wall and sped off for the surgeon.

“I thought it would be wiser to take the fight to the enemy,” Ret shouted as he rode up beside Alexander.

“Good thinking,” Alexander replied with a nod.

“Besides, I didn’t want you having all the fun for yourself,” Ret chided. The lieutenant looked back to his men and waved his arm forward. “Press on men. It is time to crush the enemy.”

Alexander signaled to his knights and the whole army moved as one. The battle raged for three more hours, and Alexander had sent many more of his knights back to the surgeon, but in the end, Zinferth claimed victory. Alexander and his men cheered and shouted in victory. The citizens of Kobhir welcomed them back through the gates with flowers and praise.

Kelden awoke shortly after nightfall. He felt a throbbing from the back of his head and reached a hand back to feel the wound. A tender knot of swollen flesh protruded out from the back of his head. He looked around and saw a couple of the others bailing water out of the longboat. The others were still rowing. Kelden looked around, but all he saw was black sky littered with diamond-like stars above the waters.

“You struck your head in the squall, sir,” Sorbiy said. “We nearly capsized, but you’ll make out alright.”

Kelden nodded and then looked to the front of the longboat to see Redbeard cleaning his fingernails with his knife. Pinhead was lying with his head in Redbeard’s lap, snoring loudly enough to wake the dead.

“He’s been doing that since the storm stopped,” Sorbiy told Kelden.

“Did you try poking him?” Kelden asked.

“Didn’t work. Nothing ever does,” Redbeard said. Redbeard sheathed his knife and leaned his head back over the side of the boat.

“What is our heading?” Kelden asked.

“We should make land before dawn,” Sorbiy said. “Would have been there sooner, but the storm pulled us out away from land. No telling how many miles we were thrown, but looks like the waters carried us northward quite a bit.

As they continued into the darkness, heading for the eastern coast of Zinferth, a large, driving rain came with force and assaulted the small boat and crew. The hardened men lowered their heads in defiance of nature and drove their oars in more powerfully. They went on in that way for several hours, until finally a large wind picked up from the east and started hurtling them on an even faster course westward. However, they did not travel in a direct path. The winds swirled and curved, turning their boat and driving them southward, parallel to the coast for quite some time. No matter how hard the men rowed, the winds and waves decided their path.

The storm still raged when the sun peeked over the eastern horizon. Sorbiy and Garret instructed the men how to create makeshift water containers to catch the fresh water. Then, when that was done they all removed their shirts. Garret tore each shirt in half and then tied them all together to form a covering from the sun.

“Seems like a waste of time with the clouds above us,” Redbeard groused. “Besides, we aren’t far from land. We should be able to make it in soon, right?”

Garret responded in a calm tone. “The sun has been known to send burning rays even through the clouds. It is especially strong at sea. Better safe than sorry. As for the distance to shore, well, a storm has a way of keeping things apart.” No one else said anything. The next several hours were passed almost entirely in silence, except for Sorbiy making adjustments to the heading or assigning breaks to the men. Even the most basic of tasks seemed to be overly complicated on the longboat. Food was almost nonexistent. The group saw a pair of sea turtles swimming by, but not even Garret could catch them. They dove down deep and disappeared into the blue waters before he came within five yards of either one. There was no privacy on the boat either. Even relieving one’s self now became a public affair. Luckily none of them suffered from the sun, thanks to Garret’s makeshift canopy.

As the sun went down at the end of the day, the stars hid themselves behind thick clouds. The moon with her alabaster face peeked out at them from under the clouds until it reached higher into the night sky, then it too disappeared and its light failed to reach them.

“Sir, how shall we adjust our heading?” one of the men asked.

Sorbiy looked up to the sky and cursed their luck. He licked his index finger and stuck it up above his head. “We have had a warm wind driving us all day, but now there is an icy wind from the south.”

“Another storm,” Garret said.

“And it is going to be bad,” Sorbiy confirmed. “Maintain the current heading, and row for all you are worth. Maybe the gods will yet smile on us and the storm will pass up by.”

The men set harder to their task, digging and pulling at the sea beneath them, but the gods did not smile on them that night. A great rush of wind drove them eastward and massive waves swelled up around them. The longboat rose up and down as if traversing rolling hills with each passing second. One of the men lurched over the side of the boat and retched, the others continued to beat the water with their oars. As the night wore on, the storm became worse. Icy hail mixed with large drops of warm rain descended upon the men. Garret tried to maneuver the canopy to protect them, but the wind rent it from his hands and tore it free from the longboat, leaving them all vulnerable to the elements. The large man cursed the wind and then moved in to take an oar in hand and battle the ferocious seas with the others.

They fought hard for hours. Exhaustion set in upon them. The incessant, slamming waves devoured their hope as the boat lurched and crashed into the troughs between the steepening waves. The boat groaned and cracked in protest. Some of the oars snapped. The rudder’s handle splintered as the boat spun around to crash into a trough, nearly sending Sorbiy overboard had not Garret snatched the man back by the ankle and pulled him into the safety of the boat.

“Pull in the oars, men!” Sorbiy shouted. “Just do what you can to hang on!” The boat then pitched with the bow shooting up as they climbed over a wave. A few moments later they reached the peak and almost came level again.

“The sea will decide our fate now,” Garret said reluctantly. A great succession of lightning illuminated the area.

“In the name of Osei…” Sorbiy muttered.

Kelden turned to look as another flash of lightning tore through the darkness. The longboat was precariously perched atop a great swell over thirty feet above the next trough. The bow pitched downward into the descent. The next wave towered more than twice the height of the one they were falling from. The longboat picked up speed and the men all shouted.

“Hang on men!” Sorbiy yelled just instants before the boat slammed into the trough. It was as if a god had picked them up and thrown them into a granite wall. The boat shattered apart and men were flung from it, devoured by the massive wave that drove Kelden and others back from his seat to tumble head over heels in the depths.

Kelden felt something with his hand and grabbed onto it out of desperation. A moment later he broke the surface, holding onto a hunk of the hull just large enough to help him float. He caught his breath and then felt another sinking sensation. The water dropped around him, sucking him downward. Lightning flashed above, but it failed to illuminate the area around him. It appeared as though he had been sucked into a black valley between waves. Then, in an instant, Kelden was ripped from the wreckage he was holding and twirling in the sea with the momentum of another wave as it passed by. It seemed as if he had been thrust into the dark abyss of a watery hell. Pressure assaulted him on every side and his ears screamed in sharp pain until they popped. Quickly he reoriented himself and swam to the surface.

He sucked in a huge gasp of air as his head rose above the water. He could hear shouts of men who had also found their way back up. Another flash of lightning revealed a large section of the boat had remained intact, albeit it now floated upside down in the water. Kelden swam hard and managed to reach the overturned boat.

However, his smile quickly faded as he heard the shouts of the other men growing more distant. The storm was separating the small group as fate decided who would survive and who would be left behind. Kelden put his hands to his mouth and shouted for Redbeard.

A muffled shout returned the call. Kelden looked down just as something knocked on the inside of the overturned hull. Kelden slipped down and ducked under the wood to find a small pocket of air under the hull. Redbeard was inside, holding on with his arms locked around one of the benches.

“Let’s get onto the top,” Kelden said.

“Nothin doin!” Redbeard shouted back. “Here at least I have something to hold onto. We go above, and there is nothing. The water swelled beneath them and Kelden scrambled to wrap his arms around the adjacent bench.

“Where’s Pinhead?” Kelden shouted.

The water broke nearby and a massive form lurched up from the depths. It was Garrett and Pinhead.

“Hold on!” Garrett instructed.

“Where’s Sorbiy?” Redbeard called out.

“Dunno,” Garrett shouted back. “Couldn’t find him.”

“Hold on, we are going for a ride tonight!” Redbeard shouted.

They could hear the men above screaming and wailing as they rose up with one wave and then fell down into the valley before the next wave swept over the top of the capsized hull. Soon afterward they heard others scrambling atop the boat, pushing the hull down and reducing the air bubble slightly.

“We can’t stay here,” Kelden said.

“You take your chances up there if you like,” Redbeard replied. “I’m staying right here.”

Kelden shook his head and adjusted his grip. “I’m not leaving you,” he swore.

“Better to stay here for now,” Garrett said.

They rode out the rest of the storm clinging to the benches and spitting water from their mouths when the swells threatened to steal their air bubble. They could hear others clambering onto the top, but Kelden did not leave Redbeard. True to his word, he stayed with the dwarf until the waters became peaceful, and the sun rose high above the sea. Near the end, Redbeard almost fell asleep by the time the sunlight pierced the waters around them, but Kelden reached out to steady the dwarf’s hands and shouted to keep him awake.

“We need to move,” Kelden said.

Redbeard shook his head.

Kelden squeezed the dwarf’s forearm. “The storm is gone, and we need to go out now. We can’t dangle here forever like teabags.”

Something splashed into the water and the boat jerked to the side. A moment later Sorbiy popped his head up and had a big, toothy grin on his face. “Fancy seeing you here,” he said.

Kelden laughed despite himself and nodded with his chin at Redbeard. “If you get him, I will meet you on the other side.”

Garret smiled and wrenched Pinhead from the bench and disappeared under the surface. Sorbiy grabbed Redbeard and did likewise. Kelden followed and then they all climbed up the overturned hull and spread out. Kelden let out an exhausted sigh and lazily flung an arm over his eyes.

Redbeard cursed Sorbiy as he wrung out his beard and muttered something about a stupid bean pole. A moment later he flopped back onto the deck and was snoring within a minute. Garrett struck the water with a single oar, trying to push them along.

“Where are we going?” Kelden asked.

Garret shrugged. “Well, with the sun at our backs, I am hoping we are headed west.”

“What of the others?” Kelden asked Sorbiy.

Sorbiy shook his head and a sour grimace pulled at his face. “Haven’t seen or heard anyone else.”

*****

When the five of them finally came close enough to shore that they were able to walk in the shallow water, they were beyond exhausted. Even Garret struggled to put one foot in front of the other as they waded out from the gentle waves and up onto the sand. Each and every one of them fell to their knees on the sand. Sorbiy thanked Osei for deliverance, while the dwarves both bent down and were busy kissing the wet sand.

“Any idea where we are?” Garret asked.

Kelden nodded. “About one hundred and twenty miles north of Kobhir. Not quite half way to Khatthun.”

Sorbiy rolled onto his back and stretched out on the ground. “That is an awfully precise distance. How in Hammenfein could you know that?”

“While I am on holiday, I sometimes take a ride up the coast. I have camped not too far from here.” He pointed up the sandy coast to a hill where a line of tall cypress and yew trees grew. “There is a spring not far beyond those trees. I watered my horse here before.”

“I don’t suppose you happened to leave any boots or shirts?” Pinhead groused.

“No,” Kelden replied flatly.

“How about rum?” Pinhead asked. He stood up from kissing the sand and moved to poke Kelden in the chest. “Don’t think I have forgotten about the jug of rum you owe me!”

Sorbiy cut in as he rose to his feet and twisted his back to the left and then to the right. “Water before liquor, my good dwarf.”

“That’s rich, coming from a sailor,” Pinhead quipped.

Sorbiy’s eyes went wide and he frowned at the little dwarf. Pinhead just started walking, grumbling to himself and muttering about how intolerable humans were.

“Bah, don’t mind him,” Redbeard said. “He gets grumpy when he hasn’t eaten for a while.”

“Or when he is thirsty, apparently,” Garret observed.

Redbeard nodded his head and then thumbed at his brother. “I best go on after him,” he said as he unceremoniously jogged to catch up with his brother.

“Alright Kelden,” Sorbiy started. “I figure on the sea I outrank you, but on land, you should probably take the lead. What’s our next move?”

Kelden nodded and pointed at the two dwarves. “Let’s get them to that spring. Fresh water will do us all some good. After that, we need to make our way to Rasselin. I have a score to settle.”

Garret held his hands out and shook his head. “I don’t mean to sound like a whining child, but you do remember we have neither shirts nor shoes, yes?”