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Sir Rik De Weer
The paeans of spring
Part I
-The time for vengeance-
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3rd of Tertius
Trade road heading from Castalor to the Even Fork junction
Forestfort’s ‘Young Crows’, ‘Grey Cloaks’ and Order of Tyeus road camps
Rik stared at ‘Curious’ head, the young stallion tasked with carrying him around excited with the opportunity, as his old horse Moonmane had a splinter bothering his front right leg and had stayed with the spares. The horse snorted, flapping its black lips and showing him the large teeth in protest.
“No more dry apples,” Rik retorted standing firm and pulled at his right glove to better adjust it around the fingers. He walked to the small table next to the small night fire by the road and returned the greetings of the small group of knights there. “Get the fire extinguished,” he ordered after the niceties were over. “I want that report from Castalor Adrian,” Rik told Sir Hakker and the Forestfort knight signaled for their squires to approach. Mickie ‘Rots’ and Terry were standing by the spare horses.
“Anything from Sir Walter?” Adrian asked while Rik accepted a cup of warm tea from Sir Duncan Buld.
“The Gray Cloaks were reciting psalms all night,” Duncan rustled crooking his mouth. “Sir Mart Nootveld arrived with his priests and Bolte’s nephew Daan. They got all stirred up.”
“I heard them,” Rik replied and sipped at the lukewarm tea. “Well?” He turned to Mickie and the young man grimaced.
“The Duke sent a missive during the night,” Mickie showed him the scroll. “The bird left it in my satchel.”
“Hah-ha,” Adrian guffawed and slapped at Mickie’s back. “Had anything of value in there Rots?”
“Xener went for the walls?” Rik asked, blinking his eye at the sunrays coming through the foliage. There was forest on both sides of the wide dirt road but for the cart lane that is. Still the latter was under half-a-foot of mud and rotten leaves from the winter rains at spots.
“They thought so initially, but the Duke reported that they have marched to the north gates and beyond. He came out to challenge them.”
“What are they doing?” Rik wondered and gave the scroll back to Mickie. He reached to adjust the leather patch over the scar marring the left side of his face. Worked the finger under and around the stitched skin where the eyeball was missing. It always itched there every morning and it was pulling at the flesh.
“Sir Walter will come around them and Schalk can send the Marines to the walls, this makes no sense,” Adrian agreed.
“Where are their horses?” Duncan wondered. A tall, bulky knight with a small head for his large frame and heavy armour.
“Walter will have scouts reach their camp soon, see if they left or if they are trying to retreat towards Deadmen’s Watch. Though I can’t understand why they would sacrifice their infantry to do it.” Rik grimaced and spilled the rest of the tea into the fire.
“Maybe they got tipped off about Schalk’s invading force?” Adrian probed.
“Hmm,” Rik murmured and turned to walk towards the grey-cloaked men across the road, Gust had loaned him. Sir Adrian followed after the De Weer scion eager for gossip.
“They say the Queen all but admitted the boy is Gust’s,” the knight commented.
“Not now Adrian,” Rik paused to stare in his bearded face. “Although, I guess it’s not much of a secret.”
“Gust is easy to read,” Adrian grinned and then sobered up seeing Rik’s expression. “As far as the Queen is concerned.”
Rik sucked at his teeth thoughtfully but he didn’t have time to reply as a great ruckus was heard coming from all around them. The earth-shaking sound ripped through the branches, rattled the moss-covered trunks and bounced off of the trees on both sides of the forest road. A lot of wheels moving fast on hard uneven terrain. Both stone and packed earth.
The Grey Cloaks were already on the move a moment later, grabbing shields and swords to block the road. The roar of the approaching wheels increasing, a strange sound with a lot of metallic creaking echoes mixed in, Rik hadn’t heard before.
“What in the all-hells?” Adrian wondered and signaled for Terry to fetch his helm. Rik was already moving towards Curious and his squire that rushed to get the saddlebags loaded.
“Leave the bags!” Rik yelled as he sprinted near him. “Grab my shield lad!” He jumped on the saddle just as the huge cloud consisting of pulverized earth and dust appeared coming towards them from the direction of Castalor. Rik didn’t have time to wonder how the enemy had leaped beyond the Duke’s men blocking the road. Whatever had happened under the cover of darkness had moved the Horselords kilometers forward and brought them to their camp.
“CHARIOTS!” A sergeant bellowed hoarsely at the top of his lungs, his voice barely registering in the midst of the earth-shaking uproar the war-vehicles had raised.
Two hundred meters away the first of Maluph’s scythed chariots blasted out of the raised dust clouds, their horses now racing on this much better part of the road. Bolts and arrows plunged on the scrambling Scaldingport men less than a breath later. They ripped through flesh, stuck on the road or animals, bounced off of tree trunks and splintered on plate or raised shields.
-
Five minutes later
Curious leaped over the crashed chariot, now a large pile of broken metal, fallen branches, crooked wheels, and gory body parts. The horse landed with a protracted neigh, its hind legs fighting to keep purchase on the grass, its rear swerving hard right and Rik who managed to stay on the saddle with a curse, saw two more chariots cut through men and animals ten meters from him in an explosion of gore and savage violence.
“Move boy,” Rik hissed and kicked his legs to snap Curious out of the shock. The horse jumped forward on the hard gravel, the left part of the road, the leading chariot bouncing off of the same material with sparks flying out of the metal-reinforced wheels and the extended rotating blades spraying gore at least five meters out on each side. “Sneaky motherfuckers,” a tensed Rik cursed at the bloody, smiling masks approaching him and raised his right arm holding the spear while the neighing wildly Curious closed the distance rapidly.
The trying to keep himself on the deck charioteer fired a crossbow bolt from five meters away, Rik hurled the spear at the horse galloping on the outside of the row -a sharp moment later, and growled like a madman feeling the steel bolt-head breaking the top of his shield afore penetrating his left shoulder. A second later the warspear skewered the chariot horse through the neck, the animal yanked away and to its left (Rik’s right) in horrified agony, shoved the other horses that way and the chariot veered wildly in that direction also, in a shrieking otherworldly twisted sound, the snapping on the ground blades hacking away both of Rik’s horse’s front legs from under it.
The groaning knight found himself heading for the ground just as more war-vehicles came roaring towards him, the second one a gilded chariot.
-
> On the late morning of the 2nd –a very misty day in the forest- Xener’s Jang-Lu marched against the lightly fortified Castalor lines west of the city. They carried several gigantic wooden shields that could for a while, at least until the defenders set them on fire, protect the Khanate’s infantry from the hail of bolts released against them. Sir Walter Van Oord, ordered his infantry and more groups of crossbows to flank the approaching mass of armoured enemies but he got flanked himself by Horus Mirpur’s Cataphracts that attacked with ferocity and scattered his infantry.
>
> Walter ordered his men to retreat towards the walls of the city, and the many more crossbows firing from there, but while Xener’s men followed slowly after them still holding the burning shields, Horus Mirpur led his riders back into the nearby forest and was never seen near Castalor again. Unbeknownst to the Van Oord scion, the whole of Lord Putra’s army was on the move abandoning their rear camps.
>
> Walter messaged his father Duke Basten Van Oord, who was at Castalor’s east port with Lord Erland at the time overseeing Del Schalk’s Marines (a seven hundred strong force) boarding the transports for an assault at Deadmen’s Watch, and the alarmed Duke left the matter to his kin to rush to the walls of the city.
>
> Xener marched parallel to the walls, drawing a lot of attention from the worried city, but stayed away from short weapons range for the most part. He suffered casualties from Scorpios and the tower catapults firing on his men, but kept marching around the extended walls with determination.
>
> The Duke ordered the captain of the East Gates guards to get his men out of the city and challenge the moving Horselords, while simultaneously, messaging Lord Erland to stop Schalk’s Marines from departing the ports. Erland dispatched three hundred of Scaldingport’s loaned Marines, the men were still loitering at the docks waiting their turn to be loaded on the transports, over to the East Gates as well and this force got out to challenge Xener’s Jang-Lu.
>
> Xener stopped the march and prepared to give battle instead of retreating. It was a delaying tactic, as the Horselords weren’t approaching the north walls and the Duke looked to find more men to fight them. Sir Walter dispatched four hundred crossbows to Xener’s back out of the west gates, at great risk as there was theoretically Horselord cavalry still roaming about, and this action forced at last Xener to attack Duke Basten’s gathered army near the afternoon.
>
> The fight dragged on but Xener’s veteran infantry pushed the defenders back slowly. Castalor’s soldiers were more inclined to return to the safety of their walls –and the cover of their ranged weapons- than facing the hardened Jang-Lu heavy halberd infantry. The Duke ordered the men to retreat towards the east gates, hoping to drag the Khanate’s infantry away from their camps and give Walter the opportunity to reinforce his own flanking force with more troops.
>
> The battle lasted until the sun set beyond the horizon not soon after Castalor retreated, as it was still early spring, and the defenders lit up the walls and fields before them to keep the resting Jang-Lu well in their sights for the coming night.
>
> During the night Sir Walter’s scouts journeyed deep into Lord Putra’s winter positions to discover what was going on and returned with news hours later that the Horselords massive constructed camps and animal ranches stood empty.
>
> On the morning of the 3rd, almost a hundred kilometers away at Boar’s Horn River’s bridge, Desmond Boss’ 3rd and 4th Castalor divisions tasked with keeping an eye on the strategic passage, were surprised by another force of Jang-Lu infantry under Amir-Zeket who approached their lines under the colors of the destroyed the previous year 2nd Issir Foot. Amir-Zeket managed to take over half of Boss’ west camp but got bogged down as he had to fight a close quarters -very messy- scrap for it, which neither side favored.
>
> Kontar, the same officer that had fought against Legatus Merenda’s First Legion less than a month earlier, assisted by the former Lord of Dia Castle Jorah Dhin-Awal’s cavalry, the latter was the late general’s father and a family close to Prince Radin since his birth, attacked crossing the bridge, pushed Desmond’s men back and caused heavy casualties.
>
> Due to the unorganized, elongated battlefield and the strong opposition, Lord Jorah was unable to capitalize on his success. Kontar who was sent to cut Boss’ men off from the road met one of Lode De Jagger’s scout patrols, not to be confused with Mitch De Jaeger that led Ruud’s Rangers. Despite both being members of the same family originally, the Jagger’s and Jaegers had split up with each branch now holding lands at Tail and Tongue peninsulas respectively. Lode De Jagger was scouting the road for Gust’s Desert Crows that had camped about fifteen kilometers behind Desmond Boss in full force (but for their veteran mounted infantry group, called the Gray Cloaks that were with Sir Rik De Weer east of Castalor) and immediately sounded the alarm.
>
> The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
>
> Captain Gel De Moss, who stood in command for the returning from visiting the Queen in the ‘County’ of Rusted Gust, ordered Lode’s over a hundred Rangers and the other part of the Gray Cloaks, the three hundred strong Old Spears (perhaps the most-hardened spear unit in the field) to block the road for Kontar’s amassing to attack group of riders. The determined to restore his name –and save his head- Kontar attacked ferociously but despite causing many casualties, got slowed down eventually against a wall of spears, got injured twice –was cut badly in the face- and was forced to retreat towards Lord Jorah.
>
> The latter had managed to take over the west camp from Desmond’s men, but the hit very hard Castalor crossbows had by now barricaded themselves in the east camp across the road and for hours cut down Amir-Zeket’s Jang-Lu frontal attacks with great determination.
>
> While all this was happening, Sir Rik De Weer’s Young Crows and Gray Cloaks, the latter basically men-at-arms in all but name, especially after campaigning on the saddle for years with his brother Gust, got attacked by Maluph Erul-Sol’s scythed war Chariots that had managed to leapfrog Castalor’s defenders through the woods covered by Xener’s infantry and had emerged about seven kilometers east of the city.
>
> Maluph’s machines hit the better road galloping hard and raced for Even Fork to assist Horus Mirpur. The Cataphract leader was traveling through the woods since the previous day’s action –for a while escorting the attempting to escape Lady Marleen Van Oord and his baby boy, who were with Tibia-Han’s rear personnel closer to the gulf’s shores. Maluph bludgeoned the waking up Gray Cloaks, killing or maiming about forty in less than three minutes, but Sir Rik and his nearby cavalry intervened preventing a rout, as they could withstand –somewhat- the bolts and arrows hurled against them due to their heavier armour.
>
> The rotating blades and javelins they could do nothing about and first their horses, followed by the Knights themselves started falling.
>
> In a normal engagement fought at the start of the campaign Maluph would have turned around and mayhap won in a rout, but this wasn’t one. He barely had sixty war chariots to begin with against well over six hundred, mostly on horseback after the first few minutes, opponents. After the initial shock of the attack subsided, the scattered Gray Cloaks found their nearby horses, urged by thunderous chanting and sharp curses by Sir Mart Nootveld, Priest and Commander of the knightly Order of Tyeus, Jelin’s most austere and prestigious of Orders, and the nearly perishing in those first moments of the scrap Sir Rik De Weer, who had his horse killed under him. Both leaders galvanized the men by example and the hard-pressed Maluph, who always wanted to keep on moving, found himself getting hunted by the furious ‘one-eyed crow’ that steadfastly refused to allow him to disengage, in what is locally known today as the ‘Bloody Sprint’. A heroic action as the war chariot historically holds great advantage when on the move, both in attack or in ‘retreat’.
>
> According to the military scholars at least.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/sV8hFycw/Castalor-Radin-arc-v2.png]
-
“Milord!” A wild-eyed Mickie ‘Rots’ cried out running near the faltering Sir Rik that was still trying to find his footing after the spectacular near-death tumble. “Good gods, look what they did to poor ‘Curious’!” Mickie bemoaned sadly, whilst trying to help the knight to his feet.
Rik was unable to speak and he had to smack hard at his dented helm to clear the visor from the gathered dirt and rotten leaves. He unsheathed his sword the next moment, shoving Mickie away, in order to attack the surviving Horselord, but paused a stride in with a grunt of pain, as he’d part of a broken bolt still lodged in his shoulder. The shoulder plate had stopped it from reaching the bone, but the wound was bleeding down his armpit.
The Charioteer saw him hesitate and charged him with a wild swing of his scimitar, after jumping over one of his mutilated comrades –the driver was buried under the crashed chariot. Rik parried the curved blade away, twisted to avoid a dagger and then caught sight at the tail end of his peripheral vision of the galloping hard Sir Duncan’s lance skewering a charioteer that had aimed a crossbow on the busy unmounted knight.
The onrushing chariot’s driver veered hard left to avoid the knight’s charge, but he was too late.
The ranged charioteer hit the ground with a crooning yelp, half-lost in the thunderous roar of wheels and nearby clash of arms, and the one facing Rik attacked again raising his scimitar high, only to be pierced through the chest by the stepping back knight’s longsword. Rik yanked the blade back and savagely cut the Khanate’s soldier across the face, splitting the metal mask in two parts that clattered down between them.
“Horse…” He croaked raspingly at the arriving Mickie and his squire nodded wildly, turned around and sprinted back to their campsite. Rik’s attention turned to Sir Duncan who had found himself in trouble from another chariot, as most of them had cleared through the Gray Cloaks lines by now. The desperately turning his horse around knight had a bolt break on the side of his helm, which was lucky, but got cut above the knee from a reaching well-out of the chariot rotating blade that gored his horse, which wasn’t.
Rik cursed seeing Sir Duncan drop from the saddle but he had to dive out of the gilded chariot’s way himself. It was a close call again, the horse’s hooves digging at the ground, rotating blades screeching like crazed fiends over his head and the second charioteer hurling a javelin in an attempt to nail the rolling on the ground knight that missed Rik for a hair.
“Argh!” Rik growled seeing the bouncing about chariot blasting past him and the fancy dressed Horselord twisted around to watch in disbelief the cursing De Weer scion getting up and faltering stubbornly towards the mounted Mickie that had brought Moonmane to him.
“Milord yer bleeding!” ‘Rots’ yelled hoarsely but Rik dismissed his protests with a curt wave, clenched his jaw doggedly and climbed on his old stallion’s back.
This is not a time of mourning, Rik thought. Neither for horse or man.
“Spear!” Rik roared and Mickie pulled back his pale lips revealing two rows of crooked teeth. Just behind them Sir Adrian Hakker approached on his own horse after ordering his squire Terry to see to the groaning irate Sir Duncan’s wound.
“Sir Rik,” Adrian said watching a grimacing Rik extracting the bolt from his shoulder with bloody fingers. “There’s word that Jang-Lu are coming toward us. They broke through Castalor’s defenders. We must hold the road.”
Bullshit. These chariots are racing away with no thought of clearing the road. This is a bloody feint!
Trust your instinct this plaguing time.
Rik closed his tearing eye to combat the mind-numbing pain and tried to keep his rage from spilling out. He’d made considerable efforts after Riverdor to approach matters differently and with much more patience. He cultivated a more sinister, thoughtful personality that had served him well in the years that followed. Ruud’s way. But after having suffered a humiliating defeat once already before high lords and gods at the hands of these slant-eyed bastards, then losing his sister’s husband to a Lorian ruffian and of course poor Marleen who was an innocent in all this, the enraged Rik found himself unable to follow down the same level-headed path.
Not the time to consider past failures, personal losses and doomed romance’s what ifs.
“Gather the Crows Adrian,” he rustled gravely to his long-time friend, brushing aside all other thoughts to focus on the present. “Leave Sir Nootveld to deal with the Jang-Lu. Sir Walter can’t be that far behind them,” Rik elucidated through clenched teeth. “We’re going after the blasted chariots.”
This is the time for vengeance.
-
> “I had a marriage offer or two,” a slightly inebriated Robert said with a silly grin to a scowling Gust that stood next to him. “A couple of toothy donkeys in the mix, no argument there. Anyways, Albert Struder’s daughter Cristiana seems like the better prospect at this junction. I’m pretty desperate for coin right now. Ever heard the story of the unfortunate knight that reached into a pocket and grabbed his ankle? That’s me! Eh, between us Struder has a pretty frugal reputation, so I don’t know,” the Badum noble confessed and frowned at the frosty reception to his troubles. “For Uher’s sake Gust, at the very least lighten up a bit will you? And I know common people problems bore you, but surely you can, to a certain degree, pretend to care a smidgen for a person of some importance! Right?”
>
> Gust crooked his mouth and glanced at the sky above their heads for any signs of Bugs. The Raven was missing since the other night, but it had come in Gust’s dreams to warn him of trouble brewing ahead of them. The reports from Castalor saying as much. He stared at Axel ‘Mudriver’ next but his squire, Axel was about Gust’s age so he wasn’t a young man, had a smile on his face as well listening to Robert’s stories.
>
> While Robert wasn’t a High Baron per se, what with Duke Charles pretending Badum’s heir was dead and the rumors of his arrival a tall tale, common people were impressed with Robert’s charming personality and manners. Years later despite the Badum scion holding a lesser –and if that- title from Gust, everyone seemed to like him better.
>
> Even Elsanne had told him that she considered Robert a better prospect than Charles for example though she was quick to add, upon seeing Gust’s furious glare ‘in the occasion we were unattached, which we are not. All gods, I’m just teasing you! Really! Tell him Jasi. It’s Eplas humor! Didn’t we call for him in our hour of need desperately?’
>
> ‘I believe that was a scream your grace,’ the eunuch had replied stiffly, visibly unwilling to get involved while enjoying a piece of fruit cake. ‘During labor.’
>
> Elsanne nodded with a cute frown. ‘And where were you?’ She asked turning to stare at the startled Gust accusingly, who found himself on the defensive all of a sudden.
>
> ‘Standing outside!’ Gust grunted. ‘The Dottore was adamant!’
>
> ‘Since when do you allow another to dictate your actions? The Gust I know would have punched the Dottore in the face!’ Elsanne retorted barely concealing a grin. She was trying to cover her earlier gaffe.
>
> Gust had backhanded Rowan as a matter of fact upon seeing all the blood on the baby, but people had intervened to stop him. It had caused quite the stir inside the Viscount’s estate, although Ruud had found the whole situation hilarious and suggested Rowan should fight Gust to clear his name, which the injured Dottore promptly refused outright, accepting he was in the wrong for not doing a better job.
>
> ‘I know what you’re doing,’ Gust hissed warningly and Robert’s groan snapped him back to the present.
>
> “Oh, for crying out loud,” Robert protested. “It’s like I’m talking to a sullen wall! It behooves me to think that with a son in hand and a comely Queen’s affections, your view of life would have changed my friend.”
>
> “Life is as it always was,” Gust rustled, perking up seeing one of Foot’s sergeants marching towards the commander’s headquarters. Sir Leonel Koel intercepted the low-ranking officer and took the missive he carried from him. “Nothing changes because of a kid.”
>
> Although it had changed a lot.
>
> Now Gust was responsible for the boy’s life as well as the Queen’s.
>
> Instead of more relaxed, Gust felt twice as tensed and wary of people.
>
> ‘I would have named him Gust. Truly,’ Elsanne had told Gust in bed before he left them to return to the frontlines. ‘But it’s not a nice name… shush, learn to take a jest from your Queen,’ she teased running a finger on the wrinkles covering his forehead. ‘He has your nose.’
>
> Gust didn’t think so but found it pointless to argue with her. It wasn’t important for him but it was for her. The name. So Gust indulged her fantasies as making her happy was very pleasurable an activity to him.
>
> “De Moss is under attack,” Koel reported tensely, killing the mood Robert had tried hard to cultivate earlier. “Desmond Boss’ lines have been overrun. Horselords are pouring through the bridge.”
>
> Lord Putra is trying to break out, Gust thought turning around to find Robert’s maps, while the knights and officers present reacted with disbelief at the news. He signaled for Axel to approach while Robert ordered the men to prepare for a march towards Even Fork.
>
> “Message my father to be on the lookout,” Gust told Axel studying the detailed map of Boarsnout with furrowed white brows.
>
> “The Duke might not be at Rusted yet,” Axel argued.
>
> Yeah, but Elsanne is and no one can control her but the old Crow. Sometimes. Gust wanted the Queen out of there and back behind Scaldingport’s thick walls.
>
> “Ruud moves fast, don’t let his age fool you,” Gust retorted gruffly and Axel nodded pursing his mouth. The knight planted a thick finger on the map and followed the road from Castalor up to the bridge. “That’s too big a distance for infantry to travel. They’ll never make it. What is this? An elaborate feint?”
>
> “You told me Horselords rely on their horses, all else is gravy,” Axel grunted. “That’s a lot of trained horse they might want to evacuate.”
>
> Tossing all those men to the pyre? What cruel sadist would have devised such a plan? Then again, the Khanate’s values differed from theirs.
>
> “Um. That’s true.” Gust shook his head. “They attack the bridge and concurrently push from Castalor. Could they use the trees to skirt around our forces and evacuate more valuable personnel?”
>
> “It’s possible.”
>
> “The distance remains, even if they clear out De Moss, they need Even Fork to link up and block our reinforcements. They need to move fast through difficult terrain. Else we’ll keep sending soldiers and wait for Castalor to move up behind them.”
>
> “They might have the numbers,” Axel noted but Gust dismissed his thought with a gesture.
>
> “You can’t magic soldiers out of thin air. They have army at Eagle’s Nest, more against Lord Anker. Lord Putra’s we know about. This is it Axel. We have the upper hand here.”
>
> “A good thing?” Axel probed unsure as Gust’s expression had sobered up even more.
>
> “Rumors say Prince Radin moved out of the capital,” Gust said thoughtfully. “Each time someone faced him, us included, that cunning bastard managed to surprise us to a degree. He did it on Eplas with even fewer men than what he has available now. We can’t trust what we see before us to be the whole picture.”
>
> “You are overestimating his skill Gust. This is just Khanate propaganda,” Axel said in his direct manner and Gust stared in his face soberly for a moment.
>
> “Rik let his guard down and it cost him. The Alden lad payed for it with his life and so did Sir Mark Est Ravn. These were some pretty good knights. Not a fool amongst them. Don’t take Ruud’s comments seriously. At some point Axel, you need to accept a man’s skill even if you don’t like him. Whether it is pure skill or a cretin’s guile, it matters not in the end,” Gust rustled and turned around to find his horse. “Find Sir Reuten and Solt. We are moving out,” he told the numb Axel without turning his head.