Chapter 34

The real battle began in Vecad. The Umbrian soldiers were well trained but they were no match for the combined efforts of Emertland, Longview, Domita and Tark. The rangers from Longview could track the army without delay. Tark's archers rained death from a distance. The Domitian Cavalry could force the flanks to cave in a few minutes. And the Emertland Guard battled fiercely from the front.

The healers who volunteered, Alite and Usala, were kept busy during the battle for Gobrik after treating mostly minor injuries for the preceding 15 months. Now they were pressed into performing surgeries on the ground and amputating limbs in a wet tent. Jorgarn's goal was to annex Vecad then allow Landor to sue for peace with Umbria.

Until the last battle in Vecad, he probably would have held to that plan. The Umbrian forces refused to surrender. They murdered the Vecadian Royal Family and held firmly to its castle before trying to sneak back across the border under the cover of darkness.

The Longview Rangers tracked them and the Emertland forces caught up to the Umbrian forces only miles south of their border. When the final battle was over, the field was littered with bodies.

Jorgarn had watched in horror as first Melodart and then Seni fell. The Umbrian soldiers had no honor. They attacked from behind while another engaged from the front. From that point forward, it was wholesale slaughter. Jorgarn and his troops killed the Umbrians to the last man and the Cavalry rounded up any who tried to flee.

The battle ended just before nightfall. A group volunteered to attend to the wounded and dig graves for the fallen. Jorgarn, who had received a nasty gash on his cheek, agreed.

The bodies of most of the mercy party weren't found until the next morning. The seven male members of the mission had been killed, including Traymer Ducotte, who was found holding a digging utensil in his hands. The female members, including Usala and Alite, had been taken.

An enraged Jorgarn sent the rangers after whoever had done this and the rangers found the trail quickly.

The group responsible had crossed from Umbria into Vecad, massacred the men, and dragged the women back into Umbria. No one had to issue orders. With a battle cry of rage, the Emertland forces invaded Umbria to find the perpetrators and to retrieve their comrades.

An advanced force found the first body – Usala – a day later. When Jorgarn saw her, discarded beside the road for scavengers, his blood ran cold. The Umbrian soldiers had defiled her in life and mutilated her after death. They left only the face unmarred so she could be readily identified.

"Let it be known," Jorgarn roared to his assembled troops later than night, "any man, woman or child who takes up arms against Emertland is to be killed. There will be no mercy. We will take no prisoners. Every soldier is to be slaughtered down to the last. Any village that does not surrender immediately will be destroyed. I do not care if there is a single living person in Umbria when this is done! We kill them. We kill every last damned one of them!"

There was a cry of approval. Over the ensuing weeks, the remaining bodies of the missing women were found. Alite's was next and Jorgarn refused to allow Pernice to see her until he could find clothing for her.

Jorgarn cried continually as he dressed the woman who had agreed to be the wife of his best friend. He gently combed out her hair and closed her eyes before covering her with his blanket. Pernice did not see the slashes to her chest. He did not see the bites to her genitals. He did not see that a large stick had been protruding from her rear when she was found. He saw only her unblemished face in slumbering repose when he entered the tent.

But he knew.

Pernice had disagreed with Jorgarn about the slaughter of Umbrian natives. He knew what it was like to be at the mercy of a lord who ruled by fear. By the time Alite was buried in the cold, hard soil of Gobrik – because Pernice refused to allow her to be buried in Umbria – Pernice's opinion had changed.

In the coming months, Jorgarn lived up to his promise. A year after Alite's death found them facing down upon the last Umbrian stronghold: the palace of the King. The Emertland forces had split into three and covered almost the whole country. Each group's advance forced the Umbrians back to the castle, a huge edifice set behind stone walls on a rolling countryside. Much of the country had been left in ruins. Many of its natives were dead or homeless.

Still, Jorgarn's blood boiled when he thought of Usala, Alita, Sania and Cornit. The final body had been found just weeks before, only miles from the palace. Cornit Hanos was a member of the Majestic Guard who was digging a grave when she was captured. She was a robust young woman, full of energy and happy to be a part of something as big as the army. Jorgarn had known her only slightly but those around him mentioned her sense of humor and how she was helpful to anyone who asked.

Those were Jorgarn's thoughts when Lippit approached.

"The rangers found an opening through the walls," he said. "Large enough for a man and hidden by the forest at the back. Reports suggest there are about 200 soldiers inside. They have been repelling commoners who seek refuge. But they have been stockpiling food, it seems. A siege could last months, maybe a year."

Jorgarn nodded and closed his eyes.

"I want this finished," he said. "Get Pernice, Renoit, Belad and 10 others from the rangers. I want them ready at a moment's notice. Have the archers fire arrows over the walls and at the drawbridge. See if we can't burn their food stores. Set fire to anything that will burn – excluding the woods. We will need them for cover. We will force them to come face us in the next week or we will go in and get them."

"The men we have allowed to survive will not want to battle us," Lippit said. "I believe they fear us more than they fear their King."

Jorgarn nodded. Renoit had suggested the plan and it was a good one.

When the armies split, the Emertland forces remained relatively hidden. There were few pitched battles because the main purpose was to strike terror into the citizens and into the soldiers. Landor's troops remained loyal to Jorgarn's pledge – any non-soldier who took up arms was killed where he or she stood. There was no mercy. Villages were given one opportunity to surrender. If they did not, they were burned to the ground and their population scattered. Any who fought back were slain.

But the soldiers had it worse. The Umbrian forces had never had to deal with a group as good at tracking as the rangers. Wherever the enemy hid, the rangers found them. Many nights a frightened soldier awoke with his tent ablaze. He found only carnage when he exited and was allowed to flee in terror, to spread the word.

Other mornings, a soldier would awaken to find his entire unit dead. His commander would often be staked to the ground with a wooden post through his rear passage. He would find the remainder of his group in bedrolls with their throats cut.

Because it had been Alite and Usala who had done much of the grooming for the group, the men looked nothing like they did when the departed Emertland. Their tunics were ripped and stained with blood. Their faces were weathered by the cold temperatures in the higher climes. Their bodies were scarred. Their hair was long and unkempt and their beards unruly. They were a frightening sight even before someone saw their long swords, bows and daggers.

In the year it took him to reach the capital, Jorgarn had poisoned meat, beheaded children, burned villages to the ground with their inhabitants inside and destroyed a dozen years' worth of crops. He made sure he left one survivor at each spot so the word of his coming would cross the lands until it hit the castle. His only rules were no raping and no despoiling the corpses.

"They are terrified but that is more dangerous," Jorgarn replied to Lippit. "They know we do not take prisoners. They will fight to the death. When the commanders come out to seek a truce, we will kill them. Then we will launch their flaming bodies over the wall. I want guards in the woods. No one will escape this time."

Lippit nodded his agreement and went to inform the men.

For the next two nights, flaming arrows lit the air at least 10 times per night. They found purchase in the fields, burning crops. They landed on thatched rooftops, destroying entire rows of houses. Two flew into the castle proper, although Jorgarn did not see what damaged those caused. The air above the Umbrian palace was black with smoke. The heavy bridge leading across the small river that ran in front of the palace had been pelted with so many arrows, it finally fell to ashes the second day.

The night after the bridge crumbled, seven rangers slipped in through the opening in the forest and left the dead bodies of the night guards for the enemy to find. They stacked them together with cord wood, doused them with the special oil the Tark archers carried, and set them ablaze. The rangers escaped through the opened gateway and swam across to safety before anyone spotted them.

Jorgarn wasn't the least bit surprised to see a small unit exit the palace walls the following morning. They carried a flag of truce and waited for him on the opposite side of the river. When Jorgarn didn't move, they started to wade across. Jorgarn lifted his sword high in the air and a ranger stationed in the trees dropped his torch into the water, which immediately caught fire, the slick archer's oil resting on its surface. The men saw the wave of fire approaching them and tried to escape. Those who managed to get out of the water were cut down by the Cavalry who raced along the walls on the castle side of the bank.

Jorgarn prodded forward at sword point a young woman who had surrendered. Although he understood no Umbrian and the young woman understood no Emerti, Belad could converse slightly with the girl in Gobrik, enough to get the point across.

"Tell them there is no surrender and no truce," Jorgarn prompted. "Tell them they gave up that right when they defiled the bodies of my female soldiers and my non-combatants."

The girl looked at him with her mouth agape but didn't speak.

"Tell them!" Jorgarn hissed.

The girl complied with a shudder.

"Tell them that if they come out unarmed, their deaths will be swift," he continued as Belad relayed the information to the girl. "But if they do not come forth by daybreak tomorrow, their deaths will be as long and as painful as I can make them. Their deaths will be longer and crueler than the death of my female soldier, Cornit Hanos, whose body was found not five miles from here. The only people who need to die that way are the Royal Family. All others will be shown mercy if they come forth unarmed."

The girl yelled at the walls but there was no reply. Jorgarn turned to depart with a motion to Belad.

"Release her," he said. "There is no use in putting her in the middle of a battle."

Belad cut the bonds that held the captive and told her to run. But she stood still and said something to him.

"She wants to know if it is true," Belad stated to Jorgarn.

"Tell her whatever you see fit," Jorgarn replied wearily. "I do not care if I am viewed as a monster."

He trudged back to his tent to await the next development.

The next development came just after dusk when a member of the Rangers slapped the side of the tent to announce his arrival before entering.

"The scouts report that seven units slipped out of the castle and headed into the woods just after sunset," he reported. "They appear to be moving through the woods and fording the creek about a mile from here. Then they are moving back toward the castle."

"Are they heading toward our positions?" Jorgarn asked.

"No, just along the woods near the river," the scout said. "I suspect they are trying to make us think they have greater numbers than they do."

Jorgarn nodded and sent for his senior advisers – Pernice, Renoit, still recovering from a back injury suffered weeks before, and Lippit.

"Gentlemen, it appears the time has come for battle," Jorgarn said after he explained what the sentry had relayed. "Suggestions?"

Pernice looked to the other two before speaking.

"Allow them to begin setting up camp, then rain arrows on to them," he said. "Every man with a bow lets loose three flights. We keep up the barrage until daybreak, then attack."

Lippit pondered for a moment.

"With 150 of the men outside the walls, it might be the best time for us to enter," he suggested. "We take the castle and set up the battlefield like this."

He pointed to his hand-drawn map and Jorgarn watched as the pieces fell into place.

"There will be no way out for them," Jorgarn said. "We will be able to press them from all sides. Let's do it. Renoit, you are to remain here in command of the forces. Pernice, Lippit, you're with me. I will hold three torches aloft from the eastern battlement when the castle is secure."