> ‘On some gloomy days and in certain fields whence Uher’s light can’t penetrate the fog, or in bloody battle’s most crucial moments, thou can stand witness to the figures of long lost friends and comrades, silently observing thy struggles.’
>
>
>
> Age of Silent Penance
>
> -A squire's memoir-
>
> Septimus of 215 NC
>
> Sir Lauren Voske (born 171 NC in Tigerfall, Canlita Sea)
>
> The errant priest knight of Ikete
>
>
>
>
-
> ‘Robert’s old First’*
>
> ‘Eplas Foot’
>
> *The old First Foot (mostly out of Badum, Tigerfall and Riverdor) had crossed the Shallow Sea in the spring of 188 to assist in the defense of Rida, just before the war for Raoz had started, initially under the command of late High Baron Joep Van Durren. After the defeat of Duke Gideon’s forces and the loss of Lord Joep (Robert’s father) along with the bulk of the Foot’s powerful cavalry wing, the young Robert had initially retreated to Sadofort with over two thousand survivors and civilians. He successfully defended the desert castle town for months against Prince Sahand’s and Prince Nout’s armies completely cut off from Jelin (and written off as KIA), before making a heroic exodus and breaking through enemy lines to bring most of his command into the harsh desert. Robert’s men traversed the unforgiving landscape to reach the Merchant Path and then marched down south for months, first to the newly built Devil’s Cove port at the Azure Gulf, where they reunited with the Desert Crows of his old friend Sir Gust De Weer.
>
> Following High King Antoon’s Council order, they decided to attack Tirifort in order to find and apprehend the rebellious Princess Elsanne. The First Foot kept fighting during most of the war, first at the siege of Tirifort before 190 and later at Shifton’s Camp across the Shifton River. It won the battle at Radin’s Depot next and then saved Sir Gust at Blacksheep’s road during Radin’s counter-offensive (where he clashed with Jorah Dhin-Awal), until it finally participated in the winning siege at Tyeusfort and settled to recuperate at Eikenport.
>
> A year later following the rebel Queen Elsanne’s orders, Robert crossed the Shallow Sea and landed in Scaldingport in 194, where he recruited new soldiers from Badum and Tigerfall, before marching to war again for the battle at Even Fork and the Second Battle at 3Roads (where he’ll meet with Jorah Dhin-Awal again). In order to differentiate from the newer ‘Charles Foot’, or the rebuilt First Foot, the Duke of Riverdor had created in the interim.
>
>
>
> Eplas Foot Command chart (Before the second 3Roads, early summer of 195 NC)
>
>
>
>
> Lord Commander, Sir Robert Van Durren. Heir to the High Barony of Badum.
>
> Cavalry Leader, Sir Leonel Koel, heir to the High Barony of Tigerfall (General’s staff)
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> Lauren Voske (Leonel’s squire, Tigerfall)
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> Sir Klaas Krebber (Badum)
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> 1st Division, Captain Flip Velde (Badum)
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> 2nd Division, Captain Madsen (Tigerfall)
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> 3rd Division (recruits), Lieutenant Piert Smelt (General’s staff, Badum)
>
> 4th Division (recruits), reserve force.
>
> Sergeant-at-arms Kevin Erp (Cavalry, General’s staff, Badum)
>
> First Sergeant (infantry) Patrick Otte (Tigerfall)
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> Marshal-de-camp (major-sergeant /quartermaster) David Elken (Badum)
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> Master Sergeant (rangers) Joss Pfeiffer (Riverdor)
>
>
>
> 400 soldiers per division (instead of 800-1000)
>
> Four divisions instead of three
>
> 1500-1600 spear units with shields
>
> 150 cavalry (instead of 500, a separate division)
>
> Around thirty scouts (ranger-type with bows, instead of 200)
>
> 5 medics
>
> 50 wagons and about 600 civilians (engineers, carpenters, hunters, traders, adventurers etc.) with the supply train.
>
> No artillery, no dedicated engineer unit, no dedicated range unit (usually longbows, or crossbows), but Robert was in the process of buying a number of crossbows from Wilhelm. With his engagement to Cristiana, a part of Struder’s mercenaries (around two hundred) were attached to his army. More than half of the army (the whole cavalry division) along Lord Joep Van Durren had been killed in the battle of the fertile plains between Yeriden’s tributaries, twenty kilometers from Liyana Fort.
----------------------------------------
Sir Robert Van Durren
‘Lord Crustacean’
A Vulture’s Funeral | Vorea Olga’s Dithyramb
(II)
----------------------------------------
ACT I
-Have a good death, if you don’t-
-
> An hour before noon
>
> Second battle at the Three-Roads
>
> (Aka 2nd 3Roads, Vorea Olga’s Dithyramb)
>
> 2nd Day
>
> 1st of Sextus 195NC
>
> (Also the Lorian Bacchanalia, and the Zilan and Cofol 1st Valimae Lilt of the year)
> A sleepless Garai returned on Rex’s saddle and then kept his eyes on the dust clouds raised by the clashing infantry lines five hundred meters away. The open fields easily visible through the vegetation at the forest’s edge. Darno brought him his warspear riding next to Garai’s horse and Totemi-Heb followed right after late Bata’s manservant, with a pair of his own slaves Umoka and Hui.
>
> “When?” The experienced Totemi-Heb asked, a Horselord hailing from Desert’s Nymph like Garai, the large Khanate city of Yin Xi-Yan. The latter built near the Otari Oasis. The Desert Lake as the locals called it.
>
> “When the knights move,” Garai replied and spotted another masked Horselord using a spyglass to better watch the unfolding battle, bring his horse near them.
>
> The Cataphract leader got his own old mask from the saddlebags, the silvery surface cracked and darkened from wear and tear, wiped first the smiling mask with a dirty cloth and then his sweaty, equally mired scarred face. Garai had broken bones -now healed, cuts, punctures and bruises on his skin –most still visible and some still hurting. Eventually all but the worst of injuries faded. They didn’t go away, but just retreated in the background, only to return on special occasions unannounced.
>
> To build a legend that would live longer than his own injuries, one had to accrue plenty of feats and if he failed, always stand-up to try again. Remain vigilant and alert on the changing of fortunes. Strike when the ground was good and his horse still fresh. Retreat when the winds whistle of doom, but also stand firm when it is needed. A thin line drawn in the sands is what separates the worthless sacrifice no one will remember, because a Prince of Rin An-Pur had just been killed and cowardice, or dishonor. But also the swift triumph -after no one notable enough has been left standing in order to claim it…
>
> But yourself.
>
> Garai secured his helmet’s mask with the help of the clasps and felt the warm metal burning his skin. His breath coming out rugged from the slits at the carved mouth and nose.
>
> “There is word, Prince Atpa is paying a fortune in land and gold for good Cataphracts to join him,” Totemi-Heb rustled behind his own smiling mask, old scale armour mended in many places and rusting. “Be it fighters, or trainers it matters not,” the Cataphract added accepting his own warspear from the burly Umoka. The sounds of the battle reaching them in waves. Men and horses screaming. Shields and weapons clanging. The clamor traveling the open fields from the houses of Colle up to the edges of the eastern woods, where they were at.
>
> Once out there, you could hear your own ancestors’ spirits voices, their words mixed in with the cries of the living. Ghosts of dead men and dead animals observing their descendants behind the raised dust and the blurry haze.
>
> All men die on the sands my friend, the late Bata always said, reminiscing of his days in the arena, but sometimes, the ground just looks different.
>
> “The Great Desert’s machinations stand afar from these alien plains son of Heb,” Garai grunted and turned the nervous Rex to lead him through the tall bushes. He turned on the saddle to behold Darno, Totemi-Heb, Hui and the axe-wielding Umoka following after him. The rest of the Cataphracts and lancers slowly gathering beyond their leaders.
>
> “Ride without fear in your belly and don’t stop afore you see the brick houses of Colle,” Garai said gutturally and added in an even more sober manner. “Have a good death, if you don’t.”
image [https://i.postimg.cc/rcX9Q2Lr/2nd-3-Roads-day-II.png]
Hours earlier
Eplas Foot Camp
Kontar’s raid ends
You heartless dog! Robert cursed inwardly when the mace smashed his horse’s mouth, breaking teeth and mauling its snout to the eyes. It popped both eyeballs out. The deathly hurt and blind animal veered left abruptly and Robert was caught whilst swinging his longsword, body turning slower than the horse on the saddle, but managed to maintain his grip and the blade thudded on the Horselord’s exposed hip alike a cleaver.
Robert grunted feeling the impact on his right shoulder, the heavy blade slicing through cloth and flesh afore shattering his opponent’s femur bone. The Badum scion yanked the sword back, splattering blood in a tight arc as both horses disengaged in the chaos of the scrap. Robert’s horse took two strides and then gave up the ghost. It dropped on its front legs and almost tossed the jumping away Robert.
“Drunken rats!” He cursed, faltering on his feet briefly and then twisted about to catch a glimpse of the Horselord tumble down from the saddle, whilst painting the ground with his blood.
Another Horse-Archer popped out of the raised dust, toppling a barrel with food supplies and pouring a couple of buckets worth of apples on the disturbed ground between them. The startled Horselord fired an arrow whilst leading his horse in a tight semi-circle to avoid the bloody longsword’s reach, with hooves crashing fruit and the grimacing Robert slashed at the air frenziedly to stop the arrow.
He failed, letting out a frustrated grunt and the arrow snapped afore coming apart above his left breastplate, despite having personally witnessed people perform the fancy trick, with Robert himself successfully attempting it in the not so distant past.
Scratch that. This was a decade ago.
The enemy rider, now at the end of his horse’s arching maneuver, saw the frustrated Robert heading his way and dropped the bow in front of him, to reach for a short-shafted halberd he’d secured next to the horse’s saddle bags.
Ah, you fucking mule!
Heaving the custom-made weapon high with both hands –it still had a greater reach than Robert’s sword since the Horselord was mounted- the Horse-archer leered tensely at the approaching scowled Issir and then the tear-shaped steel head of a bolt sprouted out his forehead. Gore and brain matter erupted from the horrendous wound, a blood-dripping piece of broken skull flew a meter from Robert, leaving a hole on his opponent’s now-misshapen cranium and completely unrecognizable face.
“Uher curse ye,” Robert grunted and tried to clean some of the gore that had landed on his face. “I had a bath the other day!”
“Milord!” Lieutenant Piert Smelt cried, upon seeing the peeved Robert emerge out of the dust cloud the scared desert horse had raised, galloping away without its rider. “You are injured!”
“I suggest a visit to the eye dottore Piert,” Robert retorted calmly and then tried to get a feel for the damage the departing Horselords had done to his camp. At least they didn’t torch the blasted place. Probably they didn’t want to give themselves away galloping about with lit torches. “Alright then, which rascal fired that bolt? He almost shot my face off!” Robert grunted next with a forced smile, trying to make light of the situation and knew immediately upon witnessing the flushed Cristiana walk up to them carrying her crossbow, he needed to tread carefully.
“I saw him going for the halberd Lord Robert,” Cristiana explained, as more and more officers and armed soldiers gathered around them.
“But going for the head and from ten meters away dear?” Robert asked in a softer tone. And all the blasted dust? “You had a square meter of torso there at the very least.”
“I’ve practiced at the range with melons since I was eight. It wasn’t a difficult target,” Cristiana explained hoarsely –one of the few Issir girls who could claim they had the facilities to train on the expensive weapon, own or make one and then come out believable. A moved Robert would have finished what they had started the previous evening right then and there, now more committed in the budding relationship, but for the fact they were in the middle of a battle.
“It was a heck of a shot sire,” Smelt agreed with a nod at the blushing Cristiana, who stood awkwardly hugging the bronze-engraved crossbow before the small crowd. “Never seen the like.”
“I have,” Cristiana replied modestly. “An adventurer named Zola could hit a tin cup from a hundred meters with her eyes closed.”
Damn. Is she working in a circus? Get the girl to train our fools! Right then. Back to business, Robert thought amused and then sobered up, since given sergeant Erp’s sour expression, they had casualties.
“They cut a lot of people down on the west side. Caught a group of civilians heading into the woods also,” Erp informed them. “But a patrol saw the whole thing and raised the alarm.”
“You’re fixing to head after them sergeant?” Robert asked politely, but it was an order to get his arse going.
“Aye. I have gathered twenty horses milord.”
“You’ll need much more than that,” Robert grunted as the group of Horselords he’d glimpsed riding away, looked to be over fifty at least. Whilst pondering on the matter, Robert used his finger to pry away a small piece of pinkish brain that had stuck on his left eyebrow absentmindedly. “Get as many of the Khanate horses left behind and enlist some of the infantry grunts to help you. They know shit-all about riding, but they are eager,” he finally decided. “Anyone caught sight where the Horselords are heading in all the blasted bedlam, or ye were too busy monkeying about?”
“Straight south following the road,” Erp replied.
Shit. Yeah, I have to stop them.
“Half our wagons are still on the road,” Smelt cursed, thinking the same thing.
“I’ll message my father,” Cristiana said with a pleading glance at the thoughtful Robert. Actually Robert was mussing to do the same. “A bird can make it there faster. Can it not?”
Comely, good with a bow and smart as a tack, he thought impressed with the future Lady Van Durren.
“Go ahead dear. I trust your judgement,” Robert agreed and wiped his gore-covered beard with a palm. He’d a cloth in his collar that could do a much better job, but Robert didn’t want to ruin the hankie she had given him earlier.
He could be romantic like that.
-
> Early the next morning, Walter Van Oord ordered his infantry forward under the cover of most of his crossbows. The Castalor soldiers marched in a wide front through the wheat fields and on the open terrain towards Timor’s men and the Horse-Archers retreated up the western road. After standing witness to this, Walter rode inside Colle to deal with Mutobo’s marines, believing he’d secured the city’s northern approaches. Inside the city, Sir Stans Reuten’s men made another attempt with the help of more Castalor crossbows to push the marines out of the fortified positions before the docks and take Bach’s tower. The Colle soldiers stormed the wall surrounding the citadel with ladders and climbed up from several spots at once.
>
> After fierce fighting on the parapets, they took control of the south gate and then the yard. Mutobo’s marines escaped through the west gates that led back to the docks and Reuten took control of Bach’s Tower two hours later, reporting his success to Desmond Boss, who had pulled his mercenaries back from the north part of the city.
>
> Walter learned about it, but he’d returned to the plains already, as his early morning action had been met with disaster. The Castalor infantry got bombarded with scorpion bolts in the open and whilst they still reeled in shock from the surprise attack, Timor had counter-attacked and pushed them back in disarray causing many casualties. A dance started between Walter’s rear units, mostly crossbows trying to cover their retreating infantry and the darting back and forth through the lines of soldiers Horselords, who looked to pull the rest of the Issirs out of the city.
>
> Robert’s 1st and 2nd divisions under Captain Velde and Madsen had moved against Amir-Zeket’s Jang-Lu spotting Walter’s initial success to their west flanks. The Issirs had the numbers, but not all soldiers serving with the Foot could hold their own against the heavier Jang-Lu units. Still the numbers were in their favor and Velde asked the watching Robert to commit the 3rd Division (half-divisions in reality of about four hundred men per) to attempt to swamp Amir-Zeket, who had only two same-sized units available for the battle (about six to eight hundred soldiers according to various sources), both the Khanate and Issirs facing manpower problems by this time in the war.
>
> Robert had weakened his reserves (the green 4th Division) already. He had dispatched Sergeant Kevin Erp to his rear in order to protect the supply train from Kontar and upon seeing Walter’s morning attack turned back, stalled for a while, before ordering his adjutant Piert Smelt to march the 3rd Division to the front. Smelt was guarding Robert’s east flanks with the help of Sir Leonel Koel’s riders, but with the absence of Scaldingport’s famed cavalry, the Queen’s forces were severely lacking in horses. Walter’s Castalor cavalry (around a hundred) and the Foot’s men-at-arms (about a hundred and fifty, but some stayed near Robert and at least twenty had followed Erp earlier) had to face Timor’s almost a thousand horses (according to sources), plus Dhin-Awal’s and the elusive Garai’s small, but very effective groups of Cataphracts (about a hundred men each).
>
> While Timor’s Horse-Archers didn’t stay their ground before an armoured Issir rider, they were constantly there and roamed the plains split in groups. They attacked targets of opportunity, finished off the injured and herded smaller groups of cut-off soldiers away from safety. It was a slow death this, arrow after arrow landing on the shields of Issirs, or their amour. The crossbowmen were better equipped to survive arrows due to their heavy square shields, but they were slow to move and react against horses. While poorly-armored, or wearing no armour at all, the Horse-Archers could still charge over large distances and then attack with melee weapons from the saddle.
>
> Timor had lucked out in his decision to bring some of the machines available for the siege at Jaw Castle with him and had the time, or patience, to drag them through the muddy road during the rainy season.
>
> Walter brought his cavalry forward leading the men himself, in order to stop the attrition and wrestle back control of the field. A gap had started forming between the allied troops, with Robert’s infantry locked against the Jang-Lu six kilometers away to the east of the plains and Walter’s men pushed near the northern parts of Colle by the roaming horse-archers. Walter sent word to Robert about his decision and asked for Sir Koel’s cavalry to move west to cover his rear. Robert was unwilling to commit the son of Baron Leonard Koel of Tigerfall Castle there, as Sir Leonel, one of Robert’s closest childhood friends, was keeping Garai’s Cataphracts in check. A thorn on Robert’s east flank since the previous day. Robert ordered Smelt to pull out of the rotation (his men hadn’t gotten involved yet) and march westwards to keep an eye on the gap Walter was about to leave behind.
>
> Smelt marched west behind Velde’s division and Walter Van Oord ordered his regrouping infantry to emerge from the city just before noon and entice Timor to approach. The busy refilling his quivers Timor was also in the process of repositioning his artillery. The latter were coming out of the woods using the hardening ground and most of the road. Even so, the Horselord leader had enough riders in the field, who had already replenished their ammo, in order to counter the Castalor’s infantry maneuver. The Horse-Archers grouped up and then attacked the Issir formations that now moved in hollowed-out squares with crossbowmen at their center.
>
> While this was happening near Colle, many kilometers away Kontar and his rugged riders had come upon the Issirs main supply train that stretched all the way to Even Fork beyond the bridge at Boar’s Horn. Kontar ordered his tired men to charge at the easy target without any respite, as he probably knew full well that he was being pursued himself by sergeant Erp. The Khanate riders (scouts, lancers and rangers) obeyed, but met fierce resistance from Wilhelm Struder’s mercenary company (around three hundred men strong, but missing about half their strength with Captain Mads Struder, who had a contract with Gust’s Desert Crows). Even so, Wilhelm had started moving up the clogged up with wagons road, after he’d received a message from his daughter early in the morning and was not about to allow Kontar to destroy the allied supplies (much of the inventory and carts belonged to him as Struder & Boss was Castalor’s main weapons and tools supplier.)
>
> Both opponents surprised each other, the cattle, mules and civilian wagons concealing the approaching riders briefly, but also completely hiding the mercenaries from Kontar’s men. Struder’s men fired at point blank range at the Horselords, but after that first successful volley chaos ensued, with yelling riders crashing on scared livestock and laden with produce carts, while crossbowmen suddenly found themselves fighting hand-to-hand with skilled, very-determined adversaries. The following from the rear Struder tried to bring all his units forward, but the stampeding civilians and animals blocked his path and the rich industrialist was gravely injured in the attempt.
>
> The shocked mercenaries started retreating initially against the ferocious Horselords, who fought from the saddle, on foot, or even after receiving debilitating injuries. Kontar had surely attempted to disengage at some point. He must have witnessed that his men were clearly losing their momentum, while the slowly regrouping mercenaries despite the shock of seeing Wilhelm going down were going to win, as Struder’s men outnumbered the Horselords three-to-one. Sergeant Erp’s men must have arrived at some point on Kontar’s rear and after a savage, but probably brief scrap, all of Kontar’s force was wiped out. Kontar’s (an undisputedly brave general) third action of the battle, saw twenty civilians killed and about forty mercenaries for the loss of about sixty Horselords, himself included.
-
Three hours later
The soft mud and wet grass had dried up after two straight days of good weather and plenty of sunlight. As if eager to welcome the first day of summer, the ground itself had turned hard under foot. With so many men and horses using it, small dust clouds also started hovering over the ground, the soft wind blowing dirt and crashed grass on Robert’s sweat-covered face.
He could see the Khanate cavalry darting back and forth between the Issir squares that had turned immobile now, with some Horse-Archers galloping around them even. Walter’s own men-at-arms had gathered up outside the Khan’s old camp, men and horses appearing tiny in the distance. Robert lowered the field-glasses and looked to the east, where Velde’s spears clashed with the Jang-Lu. The battle line extended for about four hundred meters and further to the two formations’ east flanks –near the forest’s edge- Sir Koel’s riders patrolled the terrain, whilst keeping an eye out for Dhin-Awal’s Cataphracts, who were still keeping to the back of Amir-Zeket’s reserves.
“They might try to sneak up in the gap and flank us,” Robert told a young infantry sergeant from Tigerfall named Patrick Otte. Patrick had travelled to Riverdor in order to enlist in Charles Foot, but upon hearing that Robert had returned and was near Scaldingport, the young officer along with many of the two ‘Lake’s High Baronies’ (Badum and Tigerfall) natives, had opted instead to serve their late Eplas Foot commander’s son.
“Aye Milord,” Sergeant Otte agreed and Robert thought he ought to make the young officer a captain soon -even without any seniority- as Patrick was fresh out of the academy in Badum and from a good family. “Jos Pfeiffer could help lieutenant Smelt. His arrows don’t bother the Jang-Lu too much.”
Well, at least he keeps their heads low.
“You need more numbers for that, or crossbows,” the mounted Robert agreed and patted his horse’s head to calm it down, then gave the sergeant his field-glasses. “You’ll bring the 4th forward sergeant,” Robert ordered, returning his eyes on Walter’s cavalry charge that smashed a large group of Horse-Archers and chased them off the field. Hit the artillery whilst you can, Robert urged the unseen from that distance Castalor scion. Take them out, or retreat.
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“Should we take Lieutenant Smelt’s place behind Madsen milord?” Otte asked the distracted Robert. He’d come to take orders for the 4th division.
“You’ll bring them here so they can see me. We don’t want them marching too far sergeant, lest them boys panic on their own,” Robert replied, pausing with a grimace. The old officer David Elken, the Foot’s marshal-de-camp, had approached them on a light-brown horse and a pair of field-glasses.
“The horse-archers are boxing Walter in,” Elken rustled, his prominent white mustache reaching well below his chin. “They were expecting him.”
Robert reached to grab his field-glasses from sergeant Otte to see for himself. Walter had turned towards the road, but large groups of Horselords were now flanking him from both sides. Some of the Issir soldiers in the squares coming out of formation to assist him, or attack the Khanate’s horse-archers. “This feels like the beginnings of a calamity Elken,” he noted calmly, feeling a knot in his stomach.
“Threerivers all over again milord,” the old marshal-de-camp agreed with a frown. “Might want to warn Smelt it’s about to rain shite on him.”
“Uher’s Light!” Robert snapped, as the major-sergeant had just written-off their allies. “Send a runner to Walter. Or find Desmond Boss. He needs to release his crossbows to us. They are useless in the open against horses and we are facing heavy infantry. Find a fleet-footed lad for the job sergeant!”
Robert intended to have Smelt’s division (guarding the gap) move closer to Colle in order to assist their allies, but he needed something to push the Jang-Lu back, or break them. Velde’s men line hadn’t moved for almost an hour now. The Issir spears and the Khanate halberd had enough reach that no soldier from either side was eager to push against them. Velde had the numbers, but not by much and Amir-Zeket’s masked soldiers were darn imposing to face up close, even for their hardened veterans. The new recruits just wouldn’t budge forward against them at all.
Robert had Sir Leonel’s horses further east near the forest, but without seeing Garai dead, or a large enough piece of him to not matter, he couldn’t take the knight from their other flank, nor use him against the Jang-Lu.
“Milord, Lord Jorah is moving,” Elken interrupted the troubled Robert. “They are galloping in the distance following the edge of the northern woods.”
“Warn Smelt they might turn in…” a worried Robert paused his order, watching the Cataphracts’ group’s maneuvers. “Belay that order Elken. They are heading west.”
-
>
>
> Lord Jorah Dhin-Awal’s cavalry redeployed west again, right after Walter Van Oord attacked Timor’s horse-archers. The latter were bothering the Castalor infantry squares that had tried to advance on his machines (the Horselords were bringing them closer to the city since the morning, right through the wheat fields), but quickly turned on the attacking men-at-arms instead. Walter brushed them off initially, but it was a phony victory, as the Horselord mounted groups retreated, only to come back again, when Walter switched to attack another group that had moved to flank him. Timor was roping the Issirs away from their infantry and crossbows. Walter realized they were chasing their tails in the open fields and ordered his men to disengage. Despite the arrows causing minimum damage to his knights, their horses had suffered a lot by the Horselords expertly aimed arrows and an unhorsed, or lame knight, was nowhere near as dangerous when left exposed out in the open.
>
> Robert van Durren, who watched from afar, tried to alert the Castalor scion and even moved Lieutenant’s Smelt 3rd Division near the city in order to maintain contact with his allies. This left his two embattled divisions (1st and 2nd under Velde and Madsen) without their reserve and opened up another more dangerous corridor directly behind Sir Leonel Koel’s cavalry (the only mobile unit Robert had available was tasked with keeping an eye out for Garai’s force) and the frontline. This new narrow gap extended two kilometers to the south, all the way to the idle 4th Division and ten kilometers westwards towards Colle. Even so, Sergeant Patrick Otte was ordered to bring the green 4th Division forward to plug the gap and he did relatively quickly.
>
> But not quick enough.
>
>
-
Robert galloped near Smelt’s 3rd Division the moment Dhin-Awal’s Cataphracts crashed on Walter’s encircled by at least four-hundred Horselord mounted archers. With so many Horselords riding circles around the two clashing units, it was impossible to see what was happening. The stunned Castalor infantry could, as it stood closer, and charged to break through the Horse-Archers’ moving lines and save their general, but was quickly pushed and shoved into smaller dazed groups, with horses tripping them up and arrows hitting them from all sides. The Horselords ululating cries unnerving even the bravest of them.
“How many do you think?” Robert asked.
“At least five hundred horses sire, but they could be twice as many,” Piert Smelt guessed.
“Fair goddess’ mercy Piert!” Robert gasped, watching horrified next to the frowned lieutenant. “They are going to kill them all!”
“It does look quite bad sire,” Smelt agreed stiffly, with a warning glare for Robert to get his shit together.
He’s plaguing right! Robert cursed, irate with himself for losing his composure.
“Milord!” A frantic rider yelled coming from Colle, another runner reaching them right after, but coming from the opposite side. The east. What in Luthos’ black heart? Robert thought twisting on the saddle. “Commander Boss has taken Bach’s Tower! Sir Reuten pivoted towards the docks!” The first messenger reported with enthusiasm, a little perturbed everyone was looking away from him and towards the northwest of Colle and appeared to be anything, but pleased with his report.
The lad had brought them news from inside the city. Good news for sure, other than the fact that Walter was about to lose most of his army just outside of it.
“Ride back inside Colle and tell…” Robert started, but heard a collective loud cry coming from the frontline more than a kilometer behind him to the northeast, and was forced to stop. He turned around, his horse turning with him, and glared at the distance. The sounds of battle and many galloping horses, had again covered the strange clamor that had briefly interrupted him.
“Lord Robert,” the second messenger said trying to get his attention and Robert noticed the lad was a knight’s squire named Lauren Voske, he knew very well. Ah, you cunning slant-eyed bastard. I knew you hadn’t gone away. You sweaty, stubborn pricks never do, Robert thought bitterly, and everything below his eyes turned numb for a brief moment. “Sir Koel reports movement in the east woods. Garai is about to attack sire. The knights will turn around instead and engage them.”
Garai attacked already lad.
If you saw them, then they were ready to pounce.
“Were they coming here?” A pensive Robert asked hoarsely with a signal for Smelt to alert the men they might have to fight soon. He could see the dust cloud spreading way behind their frontline.
This isn’t a good place. Darn ground is flat and hard as a donkey’s hindquarters. You’re too fucking exposed on both flanks!
This is how my father was killed, he thought glumly. Attacked from all sides and cut off from his lines of supply. They were dead from the moment they went over that darn bridge under the shade of arrows, but it took a couple of days afore the grim deed came to pass.
“Aye sire,” Lauren replied nervously. “We saw Dhin-Awal move west.”
Lord Jorah had moved rather smugly this time. The wily Horselord could afford to, as Walter was already in trouble with little room to maneuver and Jorah wanted to rattle Robert’s lines enough for Garai to do his own thing.
Of course those coyotes had a plan.
This might get out of hand very soon.
They don’t have Colle, his mind reminded him. A general still fights for someone else above him, sometimes doing things he knows aren’t useful for their army.
Hmm.
“Milord Robert,” the first messenger said equally anxious. “What are your orders?”
I haven’t decided yet.
Robert wasn’t about to lose everything in a scalding field outside Colle on Elsanne’s whim and in order for her to have ‘something uplifting to talk about soon’ (as she had written him in her private letter), so as not to ruin her long-time planned royal wedding. Only Gust was oblivious to the eager to get it over with Queen’s preparations. Elsanne was probably horrified when old Ruud had up and died smack in the middle of it. I can’t do it. Not after all this time and so much hardship. Not before seeing Aafke again, my mother’s grave and visit my lands. I owe it to the lads.
“You need to reach Sir Walter, or someone high up the chain of command still breathing,” Robert replied raspingly and waved away the alarmed Smelt’s angry glare.
He’d no time to sugarcoat the deal for the more sensitive men’s ears, nor fear to speak his mind in the open.
“What should I tell them milord?” The Castalor messenger asked oblivious to Robert’s troubled thoughts.
Eh.
“Retreat now,” Robert grunted frankly in a gravely manner, as he wanted them to have a chance. He was a fair guy like that.
Or we are fucked.
-
image [https://i.postimg.cc/hgZZs3pW/2nd-3-Roads-day-III.png]
Smelt is west (left side) here with the 3rd and not where it shows, Otte commanded the 4th
ACT II
-Close my eyes and dream of Badum’s shores Klaas-
> Dhin-Awal ripped through Walter’s encircled cavalry, seriously injuring Castalor’s heir. The knights near him fought bravely to break Walter out (he’d suffered a crippling arm injury and a mace blow to the helmet’s visor), helped in their efforts by the allied soldiers attacking on foot from the direction of the city and Khan Burzin’s old camp. While Walter was to be carried to safety inside Colle, those same soldiers soon found themselves in no man’s land, harassed by Horse-Archers and Dhin-Awal’s lancers.
>
> Sergeant Jos Pfeiffer, the Foot’s ranger’s unit was closer to Colle than anyone else, reported in Sir Lauren Voske’s ‘Age of Silent Penance’ (the priest knight’s personal account of his time with Eplas Foot -starting as Sir Leonel Koel’s squire, was written years after the battle) that a large number of soldiers became disoriented and fought their way north, eventually reaching Timor’s war-machines crews, while many others were hunted down ‘like a lord’s summer prey’.
>
> While all these macabre scenes of destruction were unfolding Sir Leonel Koel, who had started moving after Dhin-Awal’s Cataphracts earlier, spotted Garai’s hidden force surfacing again and turned to deal with the mercenary Cataphract. Not much is known about this very important cavalry scrap, as it was fought near witnesses who are now gone for the most part and while everyone else’s attention was at Walter’s failed attempt to brush Timor off.
>
> Garai attacked with the same number of heavy lancers and Cataphract units as those available for the Issirs. While Sir Leonel had probably less christened knights, this fact is heavily disputed. Garai didn’t have more than thirty Cataphracts with him at the time and Sir Leonel had received over a hundred men-at-arms from Badum the previous months. These were skilled warriors. What Leonel lacked in that particular part of the battlefield was perhaps men who had faced Horselords before, although this was probably just a simple case of having the more tired horses. Garai had preserved his animals staying out of the battle after his initial involvement, but Robert had used his own heavy cavalry like scouts, or a patrolling force, in his eastern flanks since that morning.
>
> Vorea Olga, aka the ‘Enduring Malady’ in the Imperial-inspired jargon of the Great Steppe, was a very experienced Cataphract, an excellent strategist and a capable warrior –despite being in his forties then-, but also a survivor of many battles, who had already faced Scaldingport’s heavy cavalry a couple of months earlier. Garai had opted to retreat after he initially caused heavy casualties to Queen Elsanne’s ‘Blood Raiders’, quickly realizing that the arriving Crows had the numbers and the fresher horses.
>
> It must have been a titanic struggle, fought under the hot sun and given that Sir Leonel fell with most of his men. Vorea Olga’s sudden win burst open Robert’s right (east) flank at the worst possible moment. Garai’s surviving horsemen immediately traversed the corridor left open behind the Issirs frontline, hit Sergeant Patrick Otte’s reserve 4th Division stopping their advance and charged against Lieutenant Smelt’s 3rd Division located further west. Smelt had just repelled an attack from Timor’s roaming cavalry and was caught whilst dressing his lines. The much-more experienced officer briefly lost control of his relatively-green men, but managed to halt them from scattering.
>
> The soon to be distraught at the news of his friend’s demise Robert Van Durren, had initially rushed to stabilize Otte’s 4th Division who had lost all cohesion. The men had retreated, or just run towards their camp in panic. Still, Robert had enough men to make a push forward, or attack towards Colle and keep the west road open, but he opted to stay idle instead and watch Walter’s army pushed back inside Colle, not even making an effort to save his own men, who were still engaged with Amir-Zeket’s Jang-Lu.
>
> Garai made it near the first houses of Colle. Once there he joined forces with Lord Jorah, who had chased Walter’s soldiers inside the market and a large group of Timor’s Horse-Archers. The latter were by this time in complete control of the open fields.
>
>
-
The Cataphract atop the lame horse fired a bolt past the charging Robert that stopped on Lauren’s shoulder, all but dropping the young squire from the saddle. Robert crashed his own horse on the Cataphract’s armoured mount’s sides, shoving the animal and its rider back two full meters.
The enraged Horselord hacked at Robert with a scimitar, the blade glancing on the knight’s twitching helm and then bouncing off of his shoulder plate. Robert punched the man wearing the smiling mask on the chest with his sword guard, raised the longsword and then downed it savagely, catching the Horselord at the base of the neck. The cursing knight heaved and pushed back and forth, see-sawing the blade to cut through mail and flesh, until his opponent slumped down from the saddle lifeless.
“Ah,” the heavy-breathing Robert grunted, momentarily blinded from the trickling blood that had covered his steel helm’s visor slits.
“Milord,” the deathly pale Lauren croaked, bringing his horse near Robert. He’d a bolt stuck in his right shoulder.
“Wrap the reins on your wrist,” Robert advised and turned his dazed, loudly protesting, animal around. “So you can lead the horse with the bad arm, keep the sword with the other.”
Dead and injured soldiers were littering the ground and through the dust clouds haze, he could see more of them faltering back down the road. Officers barking and men screaming in panic.
“Sergeant Otte!” Robert roared, when he spotted the young officer on foot. “Get the men in line gods darn it!”
“Aye sir,” Patrick Otte replied tensely. The sergeant was missing his helm.
Robert cursed and rode his horse near that of Marshal-de-camp David Elken. The experienced officer had followed after them, but Robert had lost him, when his entourage fell on the Horselord strugglers.
“What happened?” Robert asked hoarsely, but the mustached Elken shrugged his shoulders.
“I’ve no idea sire. Heavy Cavalry.”
“Eh. Send a runner to Smelt,” Robert started and then realized they had no control of the situation. Walter’s decision to head for Colle underestimating the Horselords will to contest the surrounding plains had proved catastrophic. “Fuck. We need to warn Velde and Madsen.” Robert turned his horse this way and that to locate a runner and finally eyed with contemplation the injured Lauren Voske, before an approaching group of riders forced the Badum scion to warily twist on the saddle towards the east again.
Issir knights. Lobster armour.
Thank gods.
“Sir Robert,” Sir Klaas Krebber said gravely, after lifting his dented face visor to show a swollen, bleeding face. “Apologies.”
Cursed spirits!
“What happened?” The pale Robert asked with difficulty.
“I was ordered to return,” Sir Krebber replied, and made an effort to stop the bleeding with a dirty cloth. The knight’s nose broken and swollen up to the eyes.
“Leonel?” Robert growled.
Sir Klaas shook his head sadly.
Robert breathed out in sullen silence. He made to raise his left arm and realized the arm was slow to move. The pain from the hurt shoulder joint, clearing his foggy brain somewhat.
“I want someone to make it to the frontline,” he told the men that had gathered near him. “Warn Velde. He needs to disengage and march back towards us. We’ll keep the forest road open.”
“I’ll do it,” Sir Klaas grunted. “I just need a fresher horse.”
“Take mine,” Robert replied without hesitation and climbed down from the saddle, adding after a brief glance at the nervous animal’s front legs. “It can take a hit.”
Half an hour later
The forest road exit, south plains
3rd and 4th Divisions regrouping area
“Smelt is retreating towards us,” Elken informed the thoughtful Robert, while a medic tended to the commander’s arm next to the horses. A mixture of Issir and Khanate mounts that had survived. “He left Pfeiffer to his rear. Lots of Horse-Archers roaming about. Smelt had fifty casualties, but half of them can walk, so they’ll stroll back here.”
Robert had seen some of Smelt’s men arriving already. It was less a stroll and more a trot to safety.
“The rest?”
“They can’t walk at all,” Elken reported evenly.
That’s one way to phrase it, I suppose.
“Otte lost more than a hundred men?” Robert asked next in deep disbelief, after reading the sergeant’s scribblings.
“Less than thirty bodies on the ground. The rest run away and we haven’t found them yet. I bet they are at the camp by now,” Elken expounded. “Garai had rangers with him. He hit our mounted guys, crippled horses and then moved on. Very clinical. This was planned in advance.”
“Should we move the men forward?” Robert asked him tensely.
“There are enemy horses all over the plains,” Elken replied gruffly. “Don’t waste more lives milord. You get those new boys back out there in the open and they’ll run again.”
“How are they going to learn?” Robert grunted angry.
“Same as everyone else,” Elken retorted. “Behind cover and next to a veteran unit.”
“Milord,” a young Issir soldier saluted sharply, after walking up to them.
“Report,” Robert snapped afore softening his tone, since the lad looked dead tired. “Take your time.”
“The lieutenant is bringing the 3rd back milord. He reports thirty eight men were left behind. It is said Lord Walter was killed. We lost contact with Colle.”
Smelt shoved all the bad news at the end.
“Can Walter’s men retreat towards us?” Robert asked.
“There are Cataphracts east of the city. A lot of archers on horseback,” the soldier reported. “They have siege machines milord.”
“Those came from Jaws Castle,” Robert grunted and dismissed the messenger. Elken, who had gone to check on a Khanate’s horse’s saddle straps, made a gesture to get Robert’s attention.
“Sir Klaas is back,” the veteran informed him.
----------------------------------------
“Timor moved a lot of horses into our flanks… and they are testing our rear,” the visibly worn-out Sir Klaas reported with a deep, tired voice. The knight’s broken nose wasn’t bleeding anymore, but the skin had an unhealthy dark-mauve color on the cheeks and under the eyes, or where it wasn’t too-swollen and the crooked nose stood strange on his face. “Small groups… can sneak past them. Madsen… is right behind us.”
“What about Velde?” Robert grunted, as he was on pins and needles waiting for the knight to get the words out.
“If Velde retreats, the Jang-Lu will follow after him… and the cavalry guarding their flanks… shall just come after us. Catch our men on the move,” Sir Klaas replied in an increasingly hoarse voice, willing the words out with difficulty. “The Captain… ordered Madsen to take the less-wounded with him… and retreat. He’ll… stay to keep the Horselords busy sire.”
“I ordered him to retreat!” Robert snapped irate, he had taken a faltering step back, as if he’d suddenly been punched in the face.
“It is too late sire,” Sir Klaas retorted firmly, with another grimace of pain. “You don’t control… the field.”
Robert licked his lips numbly. While there was a soft breeze blowing over the plains outside of Colle and distant sounds of galloping horses could be heard along the clamor of battle, Robert couldn’t hear anything for a moment. A deep feeling of despondency overcame him and the usually sturdy knight faltered near a discarded, blood-covered saddle nearby. Robert collapsed on it without a word and stared at the clouds of dust hiding some of the sun, the black disturbed earth all about them, and the hazy, ghostly, figures of men and animals moving over the grass fields in the distance. Some of them standing still and watching the fight from the sides.
His vision blurring into a feverish dream for a moment.
The next moment, David Elken approached him and offered Robert a dented bronze flask of liquor. Robert took a sip, but couldn’t discern what it was in his dazed state.
“Velde’s son squired for my father,” Robert told Elken raspingly and the sergeant-major nodded him along with understanding. “The boy was with Joep when Nout attacked them. What am I to tell his wife? His young daughter… shit, she’s probably married by now! They lived in our lands David. And brave Leonel, good grief. I grew up with that fool!”
“If Madsen makes it back, you still have three divisions left, or thereabouts,” Elken said measuring his words. “But it won’t matter, if the men feel you’ve given up milord. None of what you’re thinking about will matter, if you don’t make it to Badum. Those that survive, shall live to fight another day. You told us that in Sadofort. We had way worse chances then milord.”
“Eargh,” the moved Robert grunted and rubbed at his beard with his good hand. He sucked at his teeth next and made a grimace of discomfort, before staring at the officers gathered around him. “Get the 4th ready to defend the road,” he ordered hoarsely and pushed himself upright. “Madsen is coming back with the 2nd and he must find it open.”
“I’ll get Otte on it milord,” Elken assured him and with a sober salute, turned around to head near the reforming division.
Robert went near the horse prepared for him, but paused holding the reins with his hurting hand to cast a glance at the gloomy Sir Klaas Krebber. Klaas looked old without his helm on. Fucking hells, he’s a year younger than me! “Did Velde say something else?” He asked the pensive, injured knight.
“What Flip always talked about sire,” Sir Klaas replied heading to his horse as well. Robert’s old horse that is.
“What was it?” Robert asked although he knew.
“Some days and nights in the desert, not all… it wasn’t easy to remember our home,” the knight replied hoarsely. “But here it is. In the smells and the colors. The weather and the people. That’s what Flip said Sir Robert. When me time comes, he told me, I can close my eyes and dream of Badum’s shores Klaas. Aye, that’s all.”
-
> Timor brought the war machines, after dragging them with horses and slaves through the wheat fields north of Colle, near the barricaded men of Walter Van Oord. He ordered the bombardment to commence immediately as the day was running away from him and then rejoined Lord Jorah and Garai in the plains to discuss their next movements.
>
> In his absence Mutobo, who had lost ground inside the city from Sir Reuten’s and Desmond Boss’ men, had asked for assistance and a big number of Horse-Archers charged inside the city to hunt down the retreating Issirs. The soldiers and surviving knights with the injured Walter carried their commander through the city’s empty streets until they reached Bach’s Tower. The latter was firmly in the hands of Desmond Boss and a unit of crossbowmen. Desmond suggested to them to make a stand in that part of Colle, as he’d already messaged Deadmen’s Watch and Castalor to ask for reinforcements.
>
> The men with Walter disagreed and most of Castalor’s men retreated towards Khan’s Landing, where another friendly unit of soldiers was stationed. This left Reuten’s Colle guards behind, along with a lot of crossbowmen and some late to retreat units. Reuten pulled men from the frontline and organized a hasty defense inside the city’s streets, which turned out to be shockingly effective against the eager Horse-Archers. Dismayed at the level of attrition, a furious Timor ordered his fervent riders back to allow the infantry to advance, but it took him a couple of hours to get everyone out of the city.
>
> The infantry wouldn’t advance though that day. Captain Velde’s 1st Division kept the Jang-Lu busy, allowing Captain Madsen’s heavily harassed 2nd Division to retreat towards the regrouping army of Robert Van Durren. Garai and Dhin-Awal made an effort to scatter the Issirs, or destroy the slow-moving Madsen, but failed as they had exhausted even their spare mounts. Timor’s light foot units entered Colle to assist the reinvigorated Mutobo, (the marine leader was just about ready to abandon the city a few hours earlier and leave with the Khanate fleet), but now with Stans Reuten’s force split, he found the chance to break out of the docks.
>
> In a fierce night engagement Mutobo fought for every building, be it a house, a workshop, or a barn, every street and alley inside Colle. Before the third day of the battle, Sir Stans Reuten was killed in the streets of Colle, this time defending it to his last breath. The pressured for time Timor (he’d received, or was about to receive news of Lord Anker’s imminent great offensive across the Red Bridge), attacked in a more coordinated manner the next day, but he had to split his forces, and despite having Mutobo’s assistance, it took him two more days to clear out most of the city from its stubborn defenders. The surviving Issirs coalesced around Bach’s Tower and kept control of the road towards Khan’s Landing, where they managed to successfully defend the fortified position with the help of their winch crossbows.
>
> Amir-Zeket’s Jang-Lu won the battle against the surrounded Captain Velde, wiping out the 1st Division to the last man and marched against Robert’s army that had retreated towards the forest road. There Amir-Zeket paused unwilling to enter the narrow forest road.
>
> After a few unsuccessful attempts to gain ground, Timor asked for help against Desmond’s fanatic defense of the tower’s grounds, despite Jorah’s suggestion to finish off Robert’s wounded army instead. ‘Castalor’s army is broken, but that accursed crustacean is still breathing though crippled and with a cracked back,’ Jorah urged the other Khanate leaders, ‘we can take back the bridge now and bathe ourselves in glory, but if we allow him to yet again survive this and re-grow his limbs, he’ll slowly come at us again on the morrow!’
>
> Whether Robert could do that, or not, it is unclear, but the Badum scion opted to save most of his force in this battle and fortify the forest road near his camp. This kept the bridge away from the Khanate’s hands and maintained the pressure on Colle strategically, even if Timor could succeed in pushing Desmond Boss out.
>
> Time was ticking away for everyone participating in this front. While Timor wanted to secure Colle and then move against Robert, in reality he could do neither due to unforeseen circumstances beyond his control.
>
> Elsewhere, Walter’s father was well on his way for Ruud’s funeral (his death had been kept a secret of sorts for weeks, but eventually it leaked when Lords were invited to attend at the end of the month), but had to turn around upon hearing about the battle’s outcome near Rusted.
>
> Captain Schalk, stationed at Deadmen’s Watch, jumped on the transport ships with every Issir marine available and sailed immediately for Khan’s Landing, where the injured Walter and the remnants of his army had retreated. Schalk would arrive three days later, a week after the start of the battle and within another six days he’d advance against Colle with four hundred marines, three hundred crossbowmen, three hundred soldiers and fifty horse. The once again surrounded and besieged inside the tower Desmond Boss -now for a second straight week, will miraculously survive yet another battle without losing control of his objective. A defense specialist without a doubt.
>
> His business partner though, Wilhelm Struder wouldn’t. The critically injured Wilhelm succumbed to his injuries, one of the more prominent losses of the battle. Also worth of note is Sir Stans Reuten (Sir Jan Reuten’s and Lady Lissane’s father) who was also lost. Sir Leonel Koel, heir to the High Baron of Tigerfall Castle, Captain Flip Velde and many others. The hero of the siege of Castalor against Lord Putra, Sir Walter Van Oord would come out of the battle a cripple and a changed man.
>
> The bloodthirsty Lord Jorah attempted a crazy assault (despite Garai counseling him not to) against Robert’s mostly green troops at the beginning of the third week (after the loss of the 1st Division’s veterans, only the Madsen’s second had men that were with Robert since the start of their adventure). The old Horselord lost his life against the Issir spears, but in Khanate’s histories of the war, he earned plenty of praise for ‘a good death’. After the death of the skilled Kontar, the biggest loss for the Khanate in this attrition war. The young soldiers of Eplas Foot stood their ground this time against their masked adversaries and vindicated the old Horselord in a sense. Robert Van Durren’s battered, but resilient army had indeed used the small reprieve to recover from their shock and their losses. They would march forward again very soon.
>
> The news of the catastrophic setback, especially for Colle and Castalor, along with the loss of almost two thousand crossbowmen, two hundred and fifty men-at-arms, eight hundred of Colle’s soldiers, almost three hundred of Castalor’s guards and five hundred of Foot’s spears, made this the costlier battle of the war for Elsanne and of course shocked Castalor’s rejoicing populace. The large city hadn’t lost so many men in almost two years of conflict. The mayor of Colle Ron Bach learned about the death of his mother’s father as he was leaving Rusted to attend Ruud’s funeral, and was to also be informed of the fate of his city. The furious Ron continued on to Scaldingport to report the news to a grieving Lady Lissane, who had just learned from the Queen about Lord Ruud’s… one could entertain the notion to declare it, a timely demise, but at an inopportune time. The late Duke, uncomfortably –given the volatile climate of the double event, the real father of Ron Bach.
-
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Yk80sQWw/2nd-3-Roads-Septimus.png]
3rd of Septimus 195 NC
Eplas Foot fortified camp
The forest road, eight kilometers from the 3Roads Plains
A tired Robert climbed down from his new horse, a brown and white Khanate stallion, and walked towards Cristiana who was tending to the wounded in the large open tent that was the camp’s hospital.
“Any sign of them?” Cristiana asked about the Horselords, a hint of tease returning to her voice the last couple of weeks. Survival makes everyone an optimist, even in their mourning garbs, Robert decided and hugged the female’s narrow waist over the black thin woolen dress. “Lord Robert,” Cristiana warned softly, since proper Issir, Uher-loving, ladies were modest like that, “aren’t you tired?”
“Not really,” Robert lied, but then made a face and nodded. “I can barely carry this armour around.”
“It’s an old armour,” Cristiana noted and turned around in his arms to wipe some of the dirt from his cuirass. She was about to use that cloth on the sleeping, but feverish, injured soldier.
“A sturdy armour,” Robert corrected her. “Thoroughly tested.”
“Not recently I hope,” Cristiana teased him.
“Eh. It won’t be long afore we move again,” he told her and she puckered her nose in alarm. “Whilst we still can.”
“You did what you could,” Cristiana noted seeing his expression. “Didn’t you?”
Robert pursed his mouth and rubbed at his wild white beard. “Not everyone will see it this way. I’m an uncomfortable alliance. Only useful as a weapon.”
“Could you have helped Walter?”
“Not at the risk of my men,” Robert replied and she nodded. “I owe them as much.”
“You are tired of war. I am,” Cristiana said half-reading his thoughts.
Yeah.
“Darling, I might still be fighting after this war is over,” Robert rustled, trying to make light of it, but wanting to give her no illusions about his fortunes. “I wager Walter might appear the better option now,” he added, but paused to think about it. “Well, not looks wise, I hear he wears an exotic face lately, but at least he’ll be a Duke.”
“Lord Robert. You’re a duke to me,” Cristiana warned him with a chuckle. Ah, the fuck am I doing? Robert thought looking in her comely face. “When will your war end?” She asked, in a throaty whisper. The scenery romantic, if one forgot about the moaning soldier that had his foot sawn off and a couple of injured lads crying in their sleep.
“I don’t know,” he replied truthfully, as there was no reason to wager about the future. “But this journey ends in Badum. Whether I’m successful, or not.”
Cristiana took his closed gloved hand and touched it on her bosom. “Then my journey shall end in Badum as well, my lord and perhaps together we’ll find this elusive success. You and me, and all your friends. I said it wrong?” She asked opening her eyes wide, upon seeing his tensed face.
“Nah,” Robert murmured, trying not to break down like a fool, and added willing his locked jaw to form a tensed smile. “No wrong shall ever touch you.”
For everyone else, his dwindling friends included, Robert wasn’t as sure.