Chapter 23

It took the Virdenese army five days before it began to move. Thomas received reports that they’d buried King Hector and officially crowned Prince Doyle as their new ruler during that time. Once Doyle was in charge, things moved quickly. His first act was to name his boyhood friend General Merek Angen to lead his forces. He’d also gathered many of his mates and put them into key positions. This meant that the old guard was pushed aside.

Thomas had tried to make life as difficult as possible for his adversaries. While he personally worked with the mercenaries to warn the populace living near the main road of the coming war, the rest of his people were busy on other tasks.

The Wildlings and Rangers worked to eliminate the enemy’s scouts. This had come at a price, as they lost a Wildling and a Royal Ranger on the third day. The Virdenese had set traps using scouts as bait to lure in the Abingdonian scouts. All but those two escaped.

Thomas ordered his men to allow the Virdenese scouts to run free for now as he changed tactics. He told Jacob to begin to burn the grasslands in earnest. That task became easier as most of the mill villages saw the distant fires and followed suit.

By the time King Doyle began to march, there was scorched earth for as far as the eye could see and an overpowering smell of smoke. Thomas believed that Virden’s troops would be able to spot any of his scouts in the barren lands, so he felt justified in temporarily halting intelligence gathering. Besides, King Doyle’s force was so large that you could see them coming for miles.

After three days of marching, the Virdenese forces had traveled forty miles, almost as far as Thomas and his commanders had estimated.

Jacob had done an excellent job of finding places for their men to camp. They were only a few miles ahead of the Virdenese lead elements but ten miles to the east. They’d discovered a small lake surrounded by woods during their exploration, so they were well hidden. The Abingdonian forces had holed up there for a few days to get everyone much-needed rest and to prepare for what was to come.

Thomas had sent the Wildlings out the night before to make sure no Virdenese scouts found their camp and to check on King Doyle’s forces.

Early morning of the fourth day, they held their regular briefing. This would be the day he would begin to delay the enemy’s progress. He walked into the tent, expecting his war council to be eager to get started. What Thomas found was tense expressions on everyone’s faces.

“What’s wrong?” Thomas asked.

No one wanted to answer him, so he forced an answer.

“Duncan, what happened?”

“They sent out foraging parties to some of the villages we forewarned. A few turned them away, but one actually arrested them,” Duncan shared.

“Good,” Thomas said.

“Not good,” Jacob interjected.

Thomas looked at them all before Duncan continued.

“Word must have reached King Doyle because he led a force to the villages that refused to help. His army quickly breached their defenses and burned the villages to the ground.”

“That’s terrible,” Thomas said as his first thought was, ’This is all my fault’.

“It gets worse,” Jacob said.

“They rounded up the villagers and ... uh ... mounted them on stakes,” Duncan shared.

Thomas could tell it wasn’t as simple as tying them up by how everyone flinched when Duncan had described it as ‘mounted.’

“Just say it.”

“They planted stakes in the ground, lifted them up, and shoved the stake up their arse. They left them to die. He did it to all of them, including the children,” Roland explained.

“He had them impaled?” Thomas asked in disbelief.

“Yes, he did. King Doyle left a message tacked to the broken front gate,” Duncan said as he handed Thomas a piece of paper.

It had one word: Traitors.

Thomas knew logically that they were at war and people would be killed ... but this? And to King Doyle’s own people. This monster had to be stopped.

As soon as he thought that, the Knowledge Stone warmed in warning. It was telling him not to do something rash that would get them all killed. Thomas honestly wanted to just walk into the Virdenese camp and kill his second king in less than two weeks.

“Did they find the food?” Thomas asked.

Duncan shook his head ‘no.’

“Did the villagers drain the mill ponds?” Thomas followed up.

“Yes,” Duncan supplied.

“So that means that King Doyle’s men and animals are hungry and thirsty this morning. I want you to think like the Virdenese. What would you do?” Thomas asked.

“I would start rationing immediately,” Alek answered to kick off the discussion.

“I bet they send for supplies from the capital,” Jacob added.

“They are going to get serious about finding food and water. That means more foraging parties. We talked about them dividing their forces and traveling to different villages. The key right now is water,” Roland said.

“What would cause the maximum amount of damage right now?” Thomas asked.

“Their army is strung out for miles with the supplies in the back. If you attack that, they will defend it at all cost,” Alek suggested.

“The only problem is they’ll easily see us coming because we’ve burned most of the cover,” Duncan warned.

“What’s our main job?” Thomas asked them.

“To delay their advance,” Jacob supplied to remind everyone.

“All we have to do is threaten to destroy those trailing wagons. They are full of both supplies and camp followers. Even a hint of that happening would have me stopping to protect ours,” Thomas reasoned.

“They’ve also had an easy march to this point. I know they are probably physically tired, but we haven’t put any real obstacles in their path yet. I say we force them to form a wall. The more they have to work, the more it will drain them,” Alek said.

“What else?” Thomas asked.

“We make them pay for any water or food they forage today. Maeve has herbs that we can use to poison wells. And we confiscated several barrels of caltrops. I think we break some out to slow them down,” Jacob suggested.

When Thomas first saw them, he wasn’t sure what to make of a caltrop. It was an iron figure with four spikes arranged so that when three spikes were on the ground, the fourth was always pointed upward.

At the time, he’d wondered why Jacob had saved them for their own use from the shipment of arms they’d stolen from the Virden Royal Smithy and sent on to Abingdon. Then his Knowledge Stone had shown him what the small piece of metal was capable of. The caltrop was the ideal passive weapon—simply constructed, cheap, and easy to make. It required no particular skill or training to use, was easy to carry, capable of recovery, and, above all, highly effective in most settings.

The stone showed him the devastating results to horse or man unfortunate enough to step on such a device. At worst, they could kill, while at best, it would disable the victim. The killing came slowly from the infection the puncture wounds caused or, sometimes, from a horse stumbling and pitching its rider.

From there, the discussion centered on how and where they wanted to make all this happen. Today was about harassment. Jacob had been planning ambushes. Those required time to plan and find the right conditions to pull them off. The first of those would occur tomorrow.

Thomas decided to take the lead and give the Virdenese notice that his forces hadn’t just slipped away.

Thomas put on his Virdenese tunic and mounted Fury. He’d received reports that their army had broken camp and begun to march north. Jacob had found a spot where the road cut through a hill. Thomas sent one of his Rangers to the top so he could see the lead force coming. When they were a hundred yards from the hill, the Ranger signaled Thomas.

Thomas let Fury have his head, and the warhorse galloped down the road. Thomas saw that the lead section was made up of men-at-arms marching in formation four abreast. Out front were two men on horseback who looked to be sergeants, which were high-priority targets.

When they saw him coming, the two men on horseback trotted out to meet him. Thomas raised his bow and shot two arrows in quick succession. He watched in satisfaction when they were both unhorsed, dead before they hit the ground. Their startled mounts ran off.

Thomas stopped thirty yards from the first row.

“We reject the new king’s rule of Virden for killing women and children!”

Thomas wanted to plant the idea that the people of Virden were against them for King Doyle’s atrocities. He was sure that word had gotten to them of what had happened at the villages the night before. Thomas wanted them to worry that their own people might attack.

He then let fly two more arrows.

“Form up!”

He watched as the Virdenese group quickly formed a shield wall, a testament to their excellent training. Thomas saw men on horses ride up to investigate what was going on. Thomas turned Fury around and slowly started back. Five horsemen spurred their mounts to catch him.

Thomas led them through the cut in the hill. When he cleared the other side, he allowed them to get within twenty yards of him. He could hear their taunts as to what they would do to him once they caught up.

As the Virdenese horsemen cleared the cut, they were faced by his Royal Rangers. Their momentum carried them into the open, allowing Griffin time to let fly the first volley of arrows. Four of the five horses went down. Thomas turned and shot the fifth just as he made it back into the cut.

In Thomas’s mind, that had been lucky. Now the Virdenese would have to stop to drag the horse from the road to continue the march. It also made him aware that each cut was a possible place to fell a tree or roll a boulder into to slow their progress.

Alek made sure the riders were all dead. When he remounted, Thomas rode to his men, and they formed up behind him. Their work was done for now.

Throughout the day, Thomas received reports from his forces. The Wildlings had managed to get among the wagons, killing both oxen and their handlers. Duncan shared that their actions had had the desired effect. The reaction from King Doyle’s army was as if they’d kicked a hornet’s nest.

Thomas and his men played cat and mouse with a heavy cavalry contingent for most of the day. The Abingdonians finally lost them before making their way back.

Jacob had split his forces, and they’d ridden to mill villages. The sight of his troops had caused them to start fires, and he could see villagers fleeing.

Roland had been tasked with handling the other side of the main road. His men had spotted a large force headed toward a village. To reach it required crossing a bridge, so he had his men destroy the bridge. They then put caltrops in the water and up the far bank.

He described what followed.

“When they reached the bridge, they stopped. It was apparent that the water was shallow enough to ford, so they split up into two lines and began to march on each side of the bridge. When they hit the caltrops, there was confusion as men and horses screamed out in pain.

“They stopped to tend to their wounded. While that was going on, they sent more men further downstream. Those men cautiously made it across, only to run into the caltrops on the far bank. Once rescued, their commander turned them around, not wanting to risk more men,” Duncan said.

“They will be more persistent the hungrier they get,” Thomas predicted.

He then shared his day.

“After we stopped them the first time, when I rode in alone again, they got smart. They had men work to encircle me as the main force kept marching forward. We had to bring in all the Rangers before they would form a shield wall.”