Ionart Castle loomed before Richard, the army of Camelot spread behind him. It was an old structure, the signs of recent additions to the defences showing. Thousands of soldiers were gathered inside the castle and along the walls, preparing to fight Camelot’s forces. Both the shattered arrow of Aggravain and the golden bird of Caedan could be seen on banners across the castle.
The army of Camelot outnumbered the soldiers gathered at Ionart, but Richard knew it would still be a tough fight. And it would not be the last in this war. This was only a portion of the soldiers Cyclops and Aggravain had landed on the island. But it would be a promising start in the war. With Ionart back in their hands, Camelot City would be protected, for a while at least.
For three days, the castle had been under siege. More and more soldiers were arriving to join Arthur’s army, and the time had come for the battle to begin. Scouts were reporting that more Lorrics were approaching, and the King wanted the castle in his hands before they arrived.
Richard turned to where the leaders of the army prepared for the battle. King Arthur himself was there, his armour gleaming and shining. The fabled Excalibur hung from his hip, the jewels on the hilt glittering. With him were four of the remaining six High Knights, after Sir Bedivere's quick death before the war had truly begun. There was Dame Rayda, the most powerful woman in the land, Sir Gawain, a man whose temper was almost as famed as his skill with a sword, Sir Bors, his loyalty beyond the likes of any other knight and there was Sir Lancelot, the right hand of Arthur. Sir Percival and Sir Edmund were not there, out gathering more soldiers for the rest of the battles.
Around the leaders were a dozen lesser knights, more spread throughout the army. Lady Koda had stayed behind at Eldton Castle, ready in case Arthur’s army fell. Richard and Grace stood off to the side, waiting for orders from Lancelot. Richard sighed. It would be a while yet before they would be ready for battle. He hated the waiting. His hands were restless at his side, itching for the fight. One drummed lightly on the hilt of his sheathed sword.
Eventually, Lancelot approached them. “Are you two ready?”
“Yes sir,” they replied.
Lancelot nodded. “Good. You will stay with me. We shall lead the assault on the front gate, along with Dame Rayda. Once inside, we must find any of the lead traitors quickly, while Rayda secures the walls.” Lancelot fell silent as people began muttering around them.
Sir Bors appeared beside them. “Lancelot! Look at the walls!”
Lancelot turned to look at the castle, Richard doing the same. It took Richard a moment to discern what he was seeing. There seemed to be fighting along the walls of Ionart, the defenders turning on each other. Richard could make out a gang of Lorrics charging along the wall, another gang standing against them. The castle was soon in utter chaos, as the army of Camelot watched the battle unfold without them taking part.
The gates of the castle were opened from the inside, and Richard watched on as a group of Lorric soldiers rode out, turning and heading west. Arrows flew at them from the walls, but most of the archers were too preoccupied with the fight inside to worry about the fleeing soldiers.
“Rayda!” King Arthur called from behind Richard. “Take the castle. Bring me someone who knows what is going on. We will wait here for your return.”
“Yes, my liege,” Rayda said.
Rayda mounted up. A portion of the army charged with her towards Ionart. Richard made to go with them, but Lancelot laid a hand on his shoulder. “We will wait,” the knight said.
The gates were still open, and Rayda passed through them practically unchallenged. The defenders soon realised that she was the bigger threat, and tried to repel her. But they rallied too late. Rayda’s soldiers were already swarming through the castle, and they easily outnumbered the surviving defenders.
Rayda soon returned, some of her soldiers dragging a group of prisoners behind her. The rest of her troops were still securing the castle, dealing with any of the defenders who still fought. Most had already surrendered.
The prisoners were brought before King Arthur. The High Knights and some of the lesser knights stood around them, all eager to learn what had happened in the castle. Richard was among them. The prisoners were a mixture of Lorrics and Camelot traitors. Richard recognised one to be Lawrence, the traitor knight who had been made Lord of Scriosana Castle.
“Ionart is ours, my liege,” Rayda said, dismounting.
“Good work, Rayda,” Arthur said. He looked at the prisoners, his eyes stopping on Lawrence. “Well, Lawrence, it seems you chose the wrong side in this war.”
Lawrence looked around fearfully at the soldiers all around him. “Please, sire, spare me. I did not want to betray you, Aggravain forced me to. Please-”
“Silence!” Arthur turned to Rayda. “I was told Oslan was in the castle as well. Where is he?”
“He is dead, my liege. He was killed before we could reach him.”
“Good. He deserved death, as all traitors do.” Arthur’s eyes were on Lawrence as he said the last line. Lawrence gulped. “Tell me what I want to know, Lawrence, and I might spare your life. Now, why did you turn on each other?”
“It was not us, Your Majesty. It was the Lorrics. Messages arrived from Borgone for the Lorric commanders, but they weren’t from Cyclops. All of a sudden, the Lorrics were turning on each other. We tried to intervene, and then the Lorrics turned on us as well. That’s all I know, I swear.”
Arthur moved away from Lawrence, approaching a Lorric commander. “Why did you fight other Lorrics?”
The Lorric spat blood onto the floor. “I will tell you nothing. Nothing!”
Arthur had given the signal to kill the prisoner before he was even done talking. Arthur moved on to the next Lorric as the body slumped to the floor. “Why did you fight other Lorrics?”
The Lorric’s eyes darted to his comrade’s corpse, then to the soldiers behind. He looked back at Arthur. “If I tell you what I know, will you let me live?”
Arthur smiled. “Yes.”
The Lorric nodded. “I received a message. From Commander Pullo, on Borgone. He said Lorr has fallen.”
“Fallen? How?”
“The message wasn’t clear. It seems the city was destroyed in some attack. Caedan is dead, as is Ingmar.”
There was muttering in the soldiers around Richard. Richard himself was too shocked for words. Without Lorr, everything changed. Arthur silenced the muttering with a raised hand. “Go on,” he said.
“Pollo ordered us to leave Ionart, return to Borgone, and board ships that would take us back to the Empire. There, we would join Erion, the new Emperor. However, other commanders had received different orders. From Commander Xian. They would join Xavier, who they claimed was the rightful ruler of Lorr.”
Arthur laughed. “And so you fought. How excellent.” He stepped away from the prisoners. “Kill them.”
The soldiers cut down the prisoners before they could realise what was happening. Only Lawrence was left alive, his fearful eyes on the corpses beside him. All of the rest were dead, even the Lorric who Arthur had agreed to let live.
Arthur drew Excalibur, the blade gleaming under the sun. He approached Lawrence. “Lawrence, you are a traitor. A traitor to Camelot, a traitor to your fellow knights, and a traitor to me. You must be punished.”
Lawrence’s eyes were locked onto the blade. “Please, sire, spare my life. I swear, I will be loyal to you forevermore.”
“Your oaths mean nothing to me. You have already broken them once.” With a swift swing, Arthur beheaded Lawrence. The traitor’s head rolled across the ground, until it eventually came to a stop. Arthur wiped the blood off Excalibur. He looked at one of the lesser knights. “Take that head to Camelot. Display it for all to see. Let the land see what happens to traitors. Find Oslan’s, and do the same with it.”
The knight bowed and left, taking the head with him. Ionart was fully under their control by now, and the army was setting up camp around it. Many of the soldiers that had been with the prisoners had left, carrying word of the fall of Lorr with them. The High Knights gathered around Arthur.
“What are your orders, my liege?” Sir Bors asked.
“I will stay here tonight,” Arthur said. “In the morning, I will take most of our army and head south. We sail to Lorr. They are weak now, and obviously in confusion. This is the perfect chance to defeat them. Bors, Gawain, you will stay with me tonight and come with me to Lorr. Lancelot, Rayda, you will each take some of our soldiers. Rayda, I want you to deal with any soldiers of Aggravain or Cyclops still in our land. Take the heads of any traitorous knights. Lancelot, you will go straight for Borgone. While Aggravain is weak, you shall strike. Kill him, and Cyclops. Stop the Lorrics from returning south. That will make my assault on what remains of the Empire easier. Both of you go tonight. We cannot give them time to recover. Once you are done, head south and join me. Edmund and Percival shall send the soldiers they gather south and see to this land while we are gone. No mistakes, from anyone. If we do this right, we will be richer and more powerful than ever before.”
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***
The ships cut through the water, the Borgone Isles ahead of them. Richard stood beside Lancelot at the bow of the lead ship, his armour shining, his sword sharp. Finally, the battle would begin. It had only taken a few days to arrive at the coast, and they had boarded ships there, ships left behind by the Lorrics fleeing Camelot back to the Borgone Isles.
Lancelot had split his force, ships going to land at a number of different places along Borgone itself. From their landing sites, all the soldiers would go to Cragfall, the main fortress of Borgone. Richard had never seen it himself, but he had heard of it from many tales. It was centuries old, resting atop a huge cliff on the northern coast of the island. The high, unclimbable cliff served as one wall of the fortress, and no attack could get through that way. Lancelot had assured Richard that there was where Cyclops and Aggravain would be, with the small number of troops they had left. Lancelot planned to throw all his force at Cragfall, as once it was theirs the rest of the islands would fall in line.
Their ship entered a long bay, where they planned to land. In the distance, Richard could make out the outline of Cragfall, high above him. Two dozen other warships followed them into the bay, flying across the water towards the beach. Barricades had been built by the defenders, the Lorric banner flying above them.
Archers across the ships loaded their bows as they approached the shore. Catapults along the beach launched rocks, crashing down into the water around the ships. Out of the corner of his eye, Richard saw a ship go down.
A cloud of arrows was released from the ships, forcing the defenders to go for cover. Richard felt the planks beneath his feet shudder as they reached the shore, the hull scraping along the ground.
Soldiers all along the ship jumped out, charging up the beach towards the Lorric defenders. Other ships touched down all around them, the soldiers joining in the attack. Richard waited by Lancelot. He knew his task for this battle. While Grace was out helping lead one of the other landing parties, Richard was to stay with Lancelot. Richard didn't mind; Lancelot wanted to be at the centre of the battle, so staying with him would be interesting at least.
The beach was soon under their control, the defenders no match in numbers for them. Lancelot swung himself over the side of the ship. Richard followed, landing in the water. They strode onto the shore, meeting with the lesser knights who would help lead the attack.
“All right, this is a good start,” Lancelot said. “But the hardest part is still to come. We must get up to Cragfall, and soon. They’ve already had a few days to prepare, so let’s not give them any more time. Send some soldiers to check if the other landing parties made it. Let’s go. I want Cragfall in our hands by tomorrow.”
The knights moved off, shouting orders to the soldiers. The troops made ready to leave, taking all of the supplies they would need off of the ships. The corpses of the Lorrics were left where they had fallen, already crows coming down to pick at them.
Lancelot turned to Richard. “Remember, stay with me. While the others secure the fortress, our number one task is to kill Aggravain and Cyclops. If all else fails, we must at least achieve that.” Richard nodded solemnly. He knew the mission.
The army marched up to the fortress. Along the way, they joined with another landing party, their forces doubling in size as the two groups merged together. Soon, they arrived at Cragfall. The fortress sprawled across the land, a massive structure. Three gates were positioned equal distances apart on it. A third landing party had already reached the castle. They were already working on catapults and a battering ram, out of range of the fortress' ballistae. Lancelot’s soldiers set to work immediately. Richard sighed. It would be a while.
Richard noticed something odd as he took in the long fortress; only the dual lightning bolts of Cyclops were displayed on the banners along the wall. Soldiers of Borgone were intermingled with the Lorrics, but neither the shattered arrow of Aggravain nor the eagle of Lorr was shown. That struck Richard as particularly peculiar.
More soldiers arrived as the day progressed. The battering rams were set to work on each of the three gates, and the catapults began an attack. Archers provided cover from the ground, and along the walls the defenders fought back. Ladders were thrust up against the walls, soldiers streaming up to attack the defenders. Richard watched as they made a little progress, not enough to open the gates from the inside. Richard stood by Lancelot as the battle developed, waiting.
Finally, as the sun dipped below the horizon in the west, the gate before Richard fell inwards. Lorrics streamed out, but Lancelot’s forces moved to meet them. Lancelot drew his sword. “Come, Richard. It is time.” Richard grinned as he unsheathed his blade. Finally, his battle would begin.
Lancelot strode towards the fallen gate, a small honour guard of soldiers going with them. Already, the invaders had pushed inside the gate of the castle, beating back the Lorric defenders. Richard and Lancelot entered behind them, on guard.
The grounds of the castle were filled with fighting, Lancelot’s army trying to push deeper into the castle. “Follow me,” Lancelot said. “I have taken this castle before. I know where Aggravain will be.”
In the distance, Richard heard a second gate collapse. The battle was turning in their favour, but he knew it was not over yet. There were still many soldiers within the castle to deal with, as well as Aggravain and Cyclops themselves.
Richard parried a blade, slicing down the warrior who had attacked him. He continued to move deeper into the castle, Lancelot and the soldiers with him. Eventually, after passing through much of the castle grounds, leaving behind many other buildings and walkways, they arrived at a large courtyard. A huge hall was directly ahead of them, its tall oak doors closed. Many Lorrics were guarding it, soldiers of Camelot already engaging them.
Richard charged forward. He thrust his sword through a Lorric’s chest, withdrawing it and spinning around to deflect a blade. He cut down the Lorric, jumping backwards to avoid a swinging axe. His sword went through the throat of the axe-wielding Lorric, Richard stepping past the man before the body had hit the floor. Lancelot was beside him the whole time, and together they pushed for the doors.
They reached the oak doors, and Richard pushed them open. He stumbled into the hall, Lancelot coming after him. The hall was long and wide, large pillars of marble stretching up to reach the roof. A throne was at the far end of the hall, a small door leading outside behind the throne. General Cyclops the Vicious sat upon the throne, his one pale blue eye watching the intruders. His other eye socket was an empty hole in his face, not even a patch covering it. His grey hair was pulled back to show off all his scars. A banner hung on either side of his throne, yet instead of the eagle of Lorr there were the dual lightning bolts of Cyclops.
The doors slammed shut behind Richard and Lancelot. Richard swung around as a soldier dropped a bar into place, locking them in. Four soldiers moved to stand in front of it. Richard glanced at Lancelot, and they leapt forward together. The soldiers tried to fight them off, but they couldn’t match their skill.
Richard turned back to Cyclops and the throne, wiping the blood off his blade. Lancelot walked towards the throne, his sword still bared in his hand. Cyclops did not move.
“Sir Lancelot,” Cyclops said, his one eye on the knight. “I had wondered who they would send after me.” His eye moved to Richard. “I do not know you, boy. You do not wear the garb of a knight. How strange.”
“Where is Aggravain, Cyclops?” Lancelot asked as he moved closer. “I had expected to find him here.”
“And here he is,” Cyclops declared, pointing off to the side. Richard turned to look. There, half hidden behind pillars, was Aggravain. Or more accurately, his corpse. Blood had soaked his clothes, and his body was hung up by ropes from his hands. A number of other bodies were beside him, Lorric commanders and soldiers of Borgone.
“Who killed them?” Lancelot asked, horror creeping into his voice.
“I did, of course. I killed all of them. Once word of Lorr’s fall reached them, they turned on me. And on each other. So I had to kill them, before they could kill me. There had to be unity. Aggravain opposed me, so I had to kill him too. Sadly, some of them got out messages before I could reach them. But no matter, I shall go on.”
“You have already lost, Cyclops. Can’t you see that?”
“I have not lost yet, knight.” Cyclops rubbed a hand along the side of the throne. “You know, I have never been a ruler, instead just a simple soldier following orders. But I think it is time that changed. All shall fear me, and my kingdom will last forever.” Cyclops smiled at them. “After I kill you, of course.”
Cyclops jumped down from his throne swiftly, drawing his sword as he did. He launched himself at Lancelot. Lancelot parried his blows. Richard moved in to attack Cyclops while he was unguarded, but the General was too quick. He dodged Richard’s attack, spinning around to kick him backwards. Richard recovered, darting forwards again as Cyclops crashed the hilt of his sword into Lancelot’s face. Cyclops deflected Richard’s blow, smashing his elbow across Richard’s head.
Richard stumbled backwards, regaining his balance by leaning against a pillar. He looked back at Cyclops. The General knocked Lancelot’s sword to the side, twisting his blade around swiftly to hack off the knight’s hand. Lancelot’s sword clattered to the floor, his hand still clenched around it. Lancelot dropped to his knees, clutching at the bleeding stump of his arm.
Cyclops turned away from the injured man to face Richard. Richard charged forward, his sword clashing with Cyclops’s. He forced the General backwards, away from the injured Lancelot. The knight had slumped to the ground, passed out from the pain, and Richard knew he had to stop Cyclops from finishing the job.
Richard ducked under an attack from Cyclops, twisting around to strike at the General’s unguarded back. Cyclops was too quick, however, blocking the blow before it could hit him.
Richard retreated under a flurry of swift attacks by Cyclops. He passed the throne, and in a moment the door was behind him. He darted out of it, putting some distance between himself and Cyclops. The moon shone above him. The cliff was only a few steps away, a low wall no higher than his waist along it. The ocean could be seen beyond it, glittering under the stars. In the distance, Richard could hear the sounds of battle, as his soldiers still fought to subdue the castle. He and Cyclops were alone.
Cyclops walked out the door slowly, grinning at Richard. He spun his sword around his hand. “What’s your name, boy?”
“I am Richard Snowthorne,” Richard said, waiting for the attack to come.
“Well, Snowthorne, you have fought well. But it is time to end this.”
Cyclops leapt forward, his sword already swinging. Richard parried the blow, but he had no time to strike before Cyclops was attacking again. Richard continued to retreat, struggling to match the experienced General. Cyclops’s attacks were strong and swift, and they left no time for Richard to fight back. Richard did not know how a man that old could still be so strong and fast. It seemed almost magical.
Richard felt the wall pressing against his leg. He glanced backwards, seeing the steep drop of the cliff behind him. He had to do something soon, or else Cyclops would kill him. He blocked the General’s next blow, and pushed him backwards. He leapt forwards, Cyclops ducking past him to avoid his attack.
Richard matched Cyclops blow for blow, neither advancing or retreating. Richard could feel the tiredness to his bones, adrenaline the only thing keeping him going. Cyclops’s sword snuck past his defence, scratching a slight cut along Richard’s arm. Richard felt the blood trickling down his body, but he did not let himself feel the pain. He fought harder, finally forcing Cyclops backwards. He parried a blow, twisting his arm around to smash the hilt of his sword into the general’s face. Cyclops stumbled backwards, reaching the wall along the cliff. Richard advanced, moving before Cyclops could recover. He kicked Cyclops perfectly in the chest.
With a scream of rage, General Cyclops of the Lorric Empire tumbled over the cliff and towards the ocean far below.