Undying Blood - Beta - Chapter 14 -

“How? How could you not see it?!”

Those who were in the king’s tent with Francis were standing on the edges of the carpeted area. Each one was as far away as possible as the ruler of their kingdom moved back and forth before the young man, waving both arms, still wearing his armor.

“It doesn’t work that way! I didn’t see that far!” Francis exclaimed, glad Baxter wasn’t on his throne.

“When will you get your next one? How can we win this fight? They knew what we were going to do! They were prepared for it!”

Each shout carried anger, frustration and rage, and Francis knew he was just the easiest target of it all.

“It’s because you’ve used it three times now. They knew what to expect.  Odds are it was a spell they held in check, waiting for the right moment, and this time they were ready.”

Baxter stopped mid turn as he prepared to walk the same path again and growled.

“Who is the fool that promised me this would work?!”

People shifted and Francis saw a middle aged man suddenly standing by himself, all those who had been gathered around him having moved away.

His face looked pained, like someone had punched him in the gut. The orange robe that he wore shook, revealing that the man who had come up with that plan was trembling underneath it.

“Forgive me sire, I didn’t know–”

“It’s your job to know! Ten thousand veteran warriors! GONE! You promised me that this would be the greatest use of our artifacts! Now look at us! We are crippled! What would have happened if the next two lines had been caught in that spell? We would be overrun, dead!”

“Yet they didn’t attack!” exclaimed the pale faced man, his hands trembling as he dropped to his knees, holding them out before him. “They… they could have but they didn’t! Perhaps a mercy?”

A few groans came from the gathered generals and others as King Baxter strode past Francis, moving to where the balding man was.

One move had him in the air, held by a single fist as the robe started to choke him.

“A mercy?! They can come at any time! The number we killed today was not near the same! You and I both know there are other troops back there we haven’t fought yet.  We have seen the images! Tell me Lester, why should I let you live?!”

Francis watched as a vein throbbed on the temple of the king.  

He’s going to choke the man to death.

“Sire… I…” gasps and gurgling sounds came as Lester’s face turned red, eyes bulging from both arteries being cut off by the fabric of his robes collar.

Shouting, Baxter tossed the dying advisor down, ignoring the gasps that came once he was free of the powerful grip. Now the King began to gaze upon everyone else gathered.

“You need to find a solution to this problem and quickly! The kingdom of Shundonga may soon fall if my reports are to be believed.  Only Braourdom and Prembleton are still holding on as the threat assaults their lands as well.”

It’s that bad? Then the rumors were true… 

Francis found himself considering everything he had heard in the past half year.  All the gossip and stories that had been whispered in the different towns he moved through with Michael had reported heavy casualties from all the kingdoms.  It was believed that even some of the kingdoms across the great seas were under attack from the same enemy.

Maybe Michael was right and it’s the damn rulers and their lack of not helping each other out when reports came.  Supposedly by the time they realized how strong this new enemy was, there was no time to call for help.

“Francis!”

The sound of his name from the king’s mouth brought him back from his thoughts.

“Sorry sir, I mean no disrespect, I was just thinking.”

Both eyes narrowed as the red eyes seemed to almost glow.

“Tell me it is something better than everyone here.”

Known for his quick wit, he called upon the limited knowledge he had and took a stab in the dark.

“How many more spells do the mages have they haven’t showed yet? Anything like what the enemy used today?”

Some of the men and women behind the king cleared their throats and gave him hard stares yet none said a word as Baxter’s stance relaxed slightly.

“There are a few. Why?”

“Well I don’t know much about magic, being a ninth son and all, but I’m assuming the little bit I know tells me your mages can only cast so many spells and that using that healing one drained most of them.  

“Artifacts aren’t anything I have ever seen,” he said, ignoring the chuckle and smirk Baxter made at those words, “but I would guess they have limited uses or require time between uses.”

“Correct… go on…”

“So what spells are you holding onto that someone hopes will change the flow of battle? Why not go all out? You say that you fight basically every month.”

Francis’s mind did what it did best.  He could start to see a pattern and knew he had to be pulling the right string, seeing the king nod.

“I’m assuming we dictate when we line up.  The enemy doesn’t attack does it?”

“No. They did at first and now they simply counter us.  Each fight ends many of our lives on both sides.”

“And we wait this long for reinforcements and the recharge on spells and artifacts?”

“Your highness, sure we shouldn’t–”

The woman who had taken a step forward, holding up a hand as she spoke froze when Baxter turned his gaze to her. 

“For once I am hearing someone not try to tell me what I want to hear. This sage is saying things I mentioned and many of you said were not worthy of being considered, so unless you wish me to decide if you might join Lester in his fate, I would caution you right now Priscilla.”

Her red hair bobbed as he nodded, giving a slight bow, both blue eyes fixed on Francis, a slight narrowing of them as she stared.

“Forgive me.”

Without waiting, the king turned back to Francis.

“Continue, please.”

Sensing the shift in tone and how things were going, he jumped upon the moment.

“Why wait to attack? I know we just lost ten thousand troops but they lost many as well.  If their magic works like ours, it would be safe to assume that they might be weak in regards to spells.  Could we perhaps not attack?”

“And what if we find out their magic isn’t like ours?” Baxter asked, shifting his stance until he stood there, arms clasped behind him.

“Does it matter? Unless you can magically summon twenty or thirty thousand men in a month, all that will happen is both sides are able to cast spells again and we appear to be down to what, fifteen thousand? Sure they’re your best troops but against that spell? So what?”

Grunting once the king frowned.

Neither spoke for a whole minute as those behind Baxter shifted quietly, eyes darting between the young boy and the mountain of muscle and power.

“And you say you have no vision about what will happen next?”

“I won’t lie to you sir.  I don’t know what will happen if we fight tomorrow or the next day. What I do know is that it won’t matter in a month if they can cast that same spell again. So why not see if really changing up your tactics will do anything. Perhaps if this works we can share with the other kingdoms and finally push back the enemy.”

“Stenson!”

An older man stepped from the crowd, standing a few inches above most, but what caught Francis’s eyes was the fact his right arm was missing completely at the shoulder. Each step spoke of surety and presence, the chain armor bearing the kings isnigia on front.  Two brown eyes were locked on him and a slight smile was on the perfectly clean shaven face.

“Yes my lord.”

“This was your plan, wasn’t it?”

Not once did Baxter turn to gaze upon the warrior who nodded.

“It was your highness… except there were those who cautioned against such a risky endevor and–”

“Do not worry about speaking like that,” the king cut him off. “You and I both know I liked the idea at first and it falls upon me for not listening to you. Instead I took the cautious route and that appears to have left me where we are today.”

Snapping his fingers, summoned the older man a few more steps closer from where he had stopped.

“Take our sage to the tent where the map is. Have Captain Vella and your men figure out our best option for tomorrow.  At first light we will attack. No horns, no warning.  We will see if Egbus and Thonia will lend us their blessing and help with the battle and the wisdom we need.”

“Francis, may you be the gift from the gods I hope you are.  All of our lives will depend upon tomorrow and I am going to trust that you were sent here for a reason.”

Baxter moved quickly, coming to hold out his hand.

Eyes wide and having heard the gasps from those who were in shock as he was, Francis reached out, hand shaking slightly and shook the rulers hand.

“Go young one. We need a miracle and I pray it is you.”

***

“It’s about time someone grew a pair,” Vella muttered after Stenson explained to her what the king had ordered.

“I would caution you to not speak that way again,” growled the older man. “Even with only one arm I will slap you senseless.”

A few chuckles came from the others gathered around the table, eyes fixed on the pieces that remained, so many now missing from a day before.

“You never change Stenson. Always loyal even when you should have spoken with that same tone months ago.”

“And you’re still a bitch,” replied the older man.

“That will never change.  It’s why mother loved you.”

Realization hit Francis and he felt his jaw drop open, the pair seeing him and both smiled.

“Yes this old man is my father.  Unlike many, I choose to follow his footsteps. Something he reminds me constantly of was a bad decision.”

Snorting, her father turned and focused on the table drumming his remaining fingers on the edge.

“Don’t make it harder on the boy than it already is.  Catch him up with what we have and let’s see if we can’t figure out a way to get out of this place with at least some of us alive.”

Nodding, Vella moved to stand a little bit away from her father and snapped her finger, pointing at the space between.

“Get over here and shut your mouth.  We don’t have time for that.”

Closing it, Francis moved quickly to stand between the pair 

“Those are our elite troops, all seven thousand and five hundred or so.  You met Knight Ginge right?”

“I did,” he answered, staring at the blue pieces Vella had just pointed to.

“He commands a section of the cavalry here. There are four thousand of them with some archers between the two.”

“Why didn’t we use the archers?”

Snorting, Vella shook her head.

“Arrows aren’t cheap and we spent months replenishing the stock.  Until the veteran warriors had engaged and after the spell had wore off, we were going to pull back slightly, using them to blanket the enemy again.  The problem is when we do that, they return the favor.”

“It’s a stale mate,” Stenson said as he picked up a thin long stick that was at the edge of the table and tapped the enemy lines which had been slightly adjusted. “They have mages, an archer class like ours, siege weapons, and even a calvary class, though it's more like a creature that is a horse and something else. Only the first time did we engage a few of those, but the truth is we don’t know what lies behind all those lines.  All our scouts never make it far enough to get any intel that tells us what to expect.  Our mages cannot see past whatever barrier they have, just like we have ours in place.”

Francis nodded, studying everything that they had marked and wondering what exactly he was supposed to help figure out if there were that many things that no one knew about.

 “Tell me, can you share what spells we have left?”