“HOOLD!” a company leader yells with a resounding voice.
“KEEP IN FORMATION DON’T LET THEM INTO THE CITY!” Our company of 100 stands behind the gates along with another two. Our once shiny guardsman armor now blemished in dirt and blood.
“REMEMBER YOUR WIFES AND CHILDREN, ONCE THEY BREACH THE GATES THE ONLY THING STANDING BETWEEN YOUR FAMILY AND HELL IS YOU!” The man on my left pulls up his helmet only to puke his guts out before wiping his mouth and re adjusting his helmet back in place.
“Fuck this we aren’t making it they are already on the walls” I can hear some of the men vent their fears behind me, At least they aren’t in the front. I’m willing to bet he was stationed here and has nobody he cares for in the city of Gray dale. Although most citizens were evacuated once the riders came back with news of movement from the Empire, but they are just as likely to starve as they are to die here. Maybe starving beats the stories I have heard from the prisoners of this war.
Pieces of metal and wood splinters spray out as the battering ram finally breaks the large gate of wood and iron. The remaining pieces of the gates slamming to the ground in a cascade of dust, a metal ram head barely visible before pulling out.
“BRACE! BRACE!” The commanding officer yells as all the soldiers push their shields side by side overlapping.
“DRAW!” another commanding officer positioned on the 2 story stone houses behind our lines and a platoon of archers ready their bows, the creaking of wood heard even over the din of battle.
Maybe I should have went and lived in the forest or something.
“DRUHAA!”I hear what sounds like the soldiers charging the gates accompanied by the sound of armor clinking and the thunder of footsteps. Damn helmet I can barely see through the slits.
“YAAAH!” The first enemy soldier bursts through the gates, light armor, he doesn’t even have his shield up, looks like he just wanted to be the first into the gates.
“LOOSE!” a volley of 50 arrows scream over head, at least 6 aimed directly at the first guy the rest going into the crowd of shields and short swords charging in just behind him.
“SPEARS UP, SPEARS UP!” Officers yell down the line as the guards obey, shields and spears clanking in tune with our armor as we brace forming a wall of spikes. The air rumbling as imperial soldiers storm down shields up arrows thumping down from the rooftops.
I wish I wasn’t in the front.
Maybe desertion, at least then I would live, I doubt the kingdom will survive anyways.
thrusting my spear forward I manage to stick him in the neck, the spear slipping under his helmet causing a spray of blood... I should have closed my mouth.
He falls to the ground clutching his neck, his life seeping through his fingers.
“KEEP THEM AT BAY DON’T LET THEM PAST THE TIP OF YOUR SPEAR!”
“LOOSE!” Another volley of arrows going into the crowd of screaming empire troops.
Another wave of troops crash into us bulging the line as shields bash into shields
The guy next to me got a sword right under the plate body into his stomach and up gasping as he falls. Travis I think was his name. Good guy, family waiting back at home, wife and kids.
One of the rear men rush in to take his spot, no way is Travis surviving a wound like that. In that fraction of a moment an empire soldier takes a swipe at me with his gladius pulling my attention back. Ducking under my shield I manage to avoid the swipe at my head and return it with all dues. A downwards thrust with my spear punches through his knee. He falls clutching his leg screaming in a language I don’t understand as one of his comrades drag him back.
“LOOSE!” another volley whistles over head, 2 of the arrows hitting his the man trying to pull his friend out and another into the shoulder of the man with a hole in his leg, more screaming. For every man falling from the arrows more flood into the gate over the dead and injured bodies of their comrades with their black shields up. They are too many.
This lasted 5 minutes before the enemy changed plans.
“DU VAS RUAT!” “DU VAS RUAT!” A man yells outside the gate.
“hey what are they saying?” the man who replaced Travis next to me asks
“how the hell should I know I don’t speak tripe” Turning to the man I respond, his eyes wide while he pants. His once shiny iron plate coated in blood and vomit.
“WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!” a man in the back yells.
“JUST HOLD THE LINES! THEY ARE REGROUPING!” The lieutenant yells, looks like the commanding officer died. Each and every soldier in the 50 or so out of the original hundred in my company still alive have the look of a cornered animal, panting, eyes wide, fearing death. We all just want to go home to our family’s, to the gals we like and finally tell them we like them before we die. Everyone is thinking about the regrets they have, only half of us remain and a whole army of them behind those walls.
The enemy’s thunderous retreating footsteps quite down after one last volley from the archers on the roofs.
“I don’t like this” The man who replaced Travis says under is breath.
“Neither do I, It seems like they are definitely up to something. Hey what’s your name anyways?”
“Fred, Its Fred” he responds in a rather sullen voice while wiping what I assume is sweat, maybe tears from his eyes, probably both.
“I tell you what Fred, when this is all over I’ll buy you drinks so stay alive till then. My names Sam by the way."
Before he gets the chance to respond another yell is heard outside the gate, this one accompanied by the thunder of hooves and chainmail, heavy cavalry.
“HOLD!!, SPEARS UP!”
“oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck” Fred panics besides me shifting his legs. I will admit the sight of armored cavalry charging straight at you with spears longer than yours is enough to make any man piss his pants, just a little though.
A line of cavalry makes it through the large opening left by the gate and over the bodies. Our line is wavering, we may have spears but against heavy armor our wooden and iron tipped spears are more likely to snap than pierce. The thundering and clanking of the war horses and the spear wielding plated knights that ride them shouting gets closer.
The line wavers with every other man taking a step back into the shields of the men behind them who are also bracing themselves.
“STAND TOGETHER MEN!” another companies commander yells at his troops who also look ready to flee.
“shit, shit, shit, shit” Fred starts to run into the crowd of men behind him pushing into shields as the first group of cavalry hits us with a thunderous roar, Fred being trampled by the first heavy cavalry that hit, one of its hooves hitting him In the back of his helmet as he’s going down. The knights spear going straight through the wooden shield that the man directly behind Fred was holding and into his chest. I turned back just in time to be able to glimpse the horse that ran directly into me sending me into a world of darkness.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Imperial commanders tent
“Commander Ulvac!” an Imperial soldier runs into the large white tent used as the commanders briefing room.
“speak” the commander standing in front of a detailed map of the defenses of Gray dale speaks to the foot soldier who is showing his respect on one knee, right hand over his chest.
“Sir!” standing the soldier continues “the southern gate is breached, our cavalry have broken the lines here.” The soldier points to the southern entrance of the town on the map. “The remaining defenders of Gray dale are here being surrounded as we speak.”
“Good clear the remains of the town, take the survivors and bring them prisoner. I’m sure they could use some more toys" Laughing the commander sits down on his small chair waving the soldier out.
Sam
Oh god my head hurts, I can feel the warmth of the blood dripping down my nose, must have hit my head pretty hard. Trying to move I find out that my hands are binded behind my back and my legs tied together. I can hear hooves and carriages moving, even with my eyes open I cant see a thing.
“hello?”
No response
A little louder this time “Hello?”
“hey keep your voice down they will hear you” a whispered voice responds, a voice that sounds familiar.
“Fred? Is that you Fred?”
“Oh shit Sam?- So they got you too huh.” again Fred with the sullen voice.
“What is going on? Also where are we?”
“We have been taken prisoner, the town of Gray dale is gone.” Fred responds.
“Shit” I say almost biting my tongue as the carriage hits a bump.
“Hey shut up if one of the guards hear us again they will beat us” another voice adds into the conversation with a lisp.
“Wait there’s more of us in here?” I ask
“Yeah, I’m Stewie, but most just call me Stew, also Ron is in here, he don’t talk much though. Don’t bother telling me your names, I already got them since you guys are so damn loud.”
I already don’t like this guy.
“So Stew do you know where we are being taken?”
“My guess, they go’n take us for those damn mages in Latriel, heard some shit about that, really messup shit.”
Then begun the long carriage ride to hell. My ass hurts, I have not seen sun in days because of this damn sack tied on my head that they make me wear even when I take a piss which, tends to be on myself since they don’t let me out for that. I now understand why Stew was so adamant that we be quite, the couple of times the guards heard us talking in here he climbs back from the front just to beat us a bit. Swear that guy waits for us to make noise so he can do it, sadistic bastard always hits the same spot.
Ron hadn’t spoken a single word for the first few days, we found out he died from infection, the guards just threw him out the back. I am thirsty and hungry, they only feed us enough so that we don’t die which is just a couple of pieces of bread. The insanity inducing and mind-numbing darkness with only the ability to squirm a little with my restraints is making me go crazy.
“Hey Fred?” I ask with a coarse voice.
“mm” Fred responds with a greater lack of enthusiasm than usual, which is saying a lot for Fred.
“What do you suppose they will do with us once we get there?”
“I don’t know, stop asking that” Fred responds in a slightly irritated voice.
“OI!- Du bar veas killean!” the carriage driver yells as he gets ready to jump back handing the reins to the less sadistic carriage driver.
“fuck” I hear Stew mutter under his breath.
2 weeks pass with nothing happening but long roads and the occasional stops for the soldiers walking to rest. I can feel my stomach eating itself, now most of us in this carriage rarely talk save for at night.
“Hey when do you think we will reach Latriel?” Fred asks Stew
“Dunno if thats were they takin us, but the distance between Gray dale and Latriel is bout 2 n a half weeks by horse so, we should be there in a couple days” Stew continues “I tell you what, I ain’t looking forward to it, I think I would rather stay right here in this shit hole of a carriage.”
“You said you heard stories about what happens with prisoners in Latriel?”
“Oh yeah messed up shit, that’s what” Stew says
“what happens?” Fred asks, I can already imagine Fred leaning forward in his seat like a kid listening to a horror story from their parents. Conversations are not as fun when you cant see.
“Oh you want to know what ha-ens do ya?” Stew says as if Fred had not just asked the exact question. “Well I tell you what I heard from an old friend of mine, he says he met a man who escaped from there, dug a tunnel he did, anyways the things those damn mages are trying. Forcing 2 body parts from different people to grow onto anotha person, forcing fluids into your skin. says there was a person who’d been in dat prison for 3 years, was missing half is body.”
“What are they trying to do there” Fred asks at this point a little fear in his voice is evident.
“lotsa stuff, immortality, regrowing lost body parts, bringing the dead back to life, you name it they’ll probly try it on ya.” Stew pauses for a moment. “Well that’s just what I heard, no use gettn so freaked out bout it.” he adds.
“Yeah really helping Stew” I scoff as I roll back over hoping to get some sleep.
3 Days later border of Latriel
“Hey, is it me or are the guards being a lot more talkative today?” I ask Fred
“Yeah, they definitely don’t talk that much, wish I could understand what they are saying.” Fred says with curiosity.
Suddenly the usual sound of the carriage rocking and creaking down the road with the sounds of the horse clops comes to an abrupt stop. The usual guard’s voices pick up along with a new one just outside of the back of the carriage, followed by the sounds of the guard getting into the carriage.
“There are 3 prisoners in this carriage," gesturing to the 3 dirty prisoners with burlap sacks over their heads. "Followed by 30 others in the following carriages.” Prison train warden Skvet talks to the old man in a black robe wearing the gold insignia for the Imperial mages.
“Hmm” the old man starts with the voice of a man who has been smoking pipe for years. “I only need around half that number, the rest can go to the mines in Valra.”
The guard drags me out and stands me up after cutting the bindings on my feet. I still can't see a thing, however I am quite glad to be able to stretch my legs. Standing alongside who I assume are Fred and Stew, it sounds like there are a lot of others next to me as well.
“you”
A pipe smokers voice with a imperial accent sounds down the line.
“you”
“you”
Several “yous” later and he’s right next to me. Sounds like he skipped the guy next to me, hopefully I get skipped to, from what Stew was saying I would rather be anywhere else.
“you”
The voice says right in front of my face wafting the smell of old tar ridden teeth, the guards pull me forward dragging me to god knows where. After around 3 minutes of dragging I finally get my first glimpse of light, I would say it was beautiful if my eyes were not about to explode from the sudden impact of light. The guard tosses me into a cell hard, landing on hay I take in my surroundings, a small dark damp cell with some hay to sleep on. Moving to the bars at the entrance I can see that there are cells all around me, the guy in the cell across from me looks to be missing half of his body just the arms torso and head.
"Well I guess it could be worse, at least I have hay to sleep on" I laugh to myself in self pity.
“Oh you must be new here” a voice says from across the bars.
“Who’s there?” I speak moving towards the bars to find the source of the voice.
“I’m the one directly across from your cell, you must have really bad luck to end up in this place” the voice says
Wait the guy missing half of his body is still alive? I think Stew had mentioned something about something similar.
“Yeah” I say laughing at my poor luck “What happens now?” I ask, the man missing both legs up to his pelvis stands up, when I say stand up he stood up on his hands. His long brown and greasy hair nearly longer than his body, it looks like he hasn’t been able to cut it in ages, his face guant.
“Well shit hah what aren’t they gonna do to you? I mean look at me.” He says on borderline tears the black circles around his already sullen face appear even darker “Even if I could escape from here what am I going to do? I can’t work and there is no way I would be able to return to my family like this. I look like the god damn dead. 4 years I have been here, 4 YEARS” he leans himself back onto the stone wall behind him, taking a deep breath. “If your lucky they will decide to use you for a specific experiment. They usually keep the ones they want used alive and healthy as possible." He pauses to take another deep wheezy breath of air. "Well define healthy” he laughs again in an exasperated tone.
I get the feeling that talking to this guy will make my day even worse than it already is. I want to ask him what happened to him but, I'm not sure I really want to know that judging by the way he looks. Leaning back into my hay only growing increasingly worried about what will happen to me now.
“Hey” I call out to him once more “I heard that someone managed to escape a while back, he mentioned something about you, do you remember anything?”
“Don’t even think about it. Ever since Brian escaped anyone found trying to escape gets a punishment worse than death, I mean way worse than death.” The half man continued shaking his head. “Your best bet is to play the obedient dog. Tyril tried escaping a couple months back got caught and every prisoner in this cell block could hear his screams for the next month.” he says gesturing with his hands as if to encompass the cell block.
“So you---”
“SSHH!” he interrupts me as the two guards comes back into the cells with another prisoner, throwing him into the last cell before walking out, presumably to grab another prisoner.
“So your saying I have no chance?”
“Yes” the sunken faced half man said definitively “Unless by some miracle you manage to escape without ending up like Tyril”
Well that didn’t help ease my conscience at all.