The Line of Illeniel

Chapter 40

I woke slowly. Opening my eyes I could see I was back in my own bed. Penny lay quietly beside me, awake and staring back at me. Neither of us spoke for long minutes, content simply with the fact that the other was alive.

“I felt you,” she said softly. “I was dying but you wouldn’t let me go.”

A lump formed in my throat, “I couldn’t.”

“You almost died with me,” she said.

“Better that than the alternative,” I replied. “You really are pregnant by the way.”

“You told me that before,” she answered with a puzzled face. “Is the baby alright?”

“Yes, he’s fine,” I smiled.

Penny had always had a quick mind. “You lied before didn’t you? You didn’t know I was pregnant.”

I sighed, “Yes, but things worked out didn’t they?”

“You really are a bastard sometimes,” she replied, and then she kissed me to emphasize the point.

I pulled away for a moment, “You should be thanking me.”

“I think we came out even in this exchange,” she replied. “I saved you first.”

“Not that, I made some improvements while I was healing you,” I said with a smirk.

“What?”

“Don’t your breasts feel a bit different?” I added.

She sat up suddenly and brought her hands up to her chest. The sight of her frantically cupping herself made me laugh. “What did you do?” she said loudly.

“Well I always thought they could stand to be a little larger, so I added a bit to them,” I lied. The look of shock on her face was priceless. She began struggling to get out of her chain byrnie, writhing to escape the heavy metal and the padded tunic beneath it. Sometimes jokes work out better than you expect.

“They look just the same! What sort of game are you playing at?” she demanded once her torso was bare.

My laughter was uncontrollable now. “Relax I didn’t change a thing. They were perfect already anyway,” I reassured her.

“Then why would you say something like that?” she said. My eyes ran down her shoulders and over her beautiful curves. She was much more attractive without the mail and blood soaked tunic covering her. The look told her everything she needed to know. “You are unbelievable!” she shouted and picking up the bundle of heavy mail she dropped it on my face.

“Ow!” I exclaimed as I pushed the gory bundle off and stumbled out of the bed. “You didn’t have to do that!”

Her thoughts had already shifted. “How long do you think we’ve been up here?” she asked suddenly.

“I don’t even know how we got here. I suppose some of the men brought us,” I replied. Stepping to the window I looked out. The view would answer most of our questions more quickly than speculation.

Reality returned in a rush as I saw the men fighting for their lives outside. The army of Gododdin was pressing inward like a great wave against a rock. Most of their forces were clustered against the outside of the curtain wall as they sought to force their way past the defenders holding the breach in it. My eyes focused on the knot of men clustered atop the rubble there, where the fighting was most intense.

Sunlight glinting from shining silver armor showed me Dorian among them. Like a lion among lambs he slaughtered any who came near, his sword sweeping heads and limbs away as easily as a scythe cuts grass. Among the men who had fallen beside him I thought I could see Marc’s brightly colored surcoat. If it was him he wasn’t moving.

Penny stood beside me now, shrugging her way back into her torn and bloodied armor. She held her head proudly but I could see her limbs shaking as she struggled to get dressed again. “You’re not going back out there,” I said. “Your body is in no condition. It will be weeks before you get your strength back.”

With a sigh of frustration she finished pulling the byrnie over her head before her exhaustion forced her to sit down on the divan. I winced inwardly. The blood on her armor would ruin it. She caught my look and glared at me. “Don’t say it,” she warned.

Instead I drew out the pouch of glass stones that were keyed to the trap I had placed around Castle Cameron. There was no more time for delays. My father’s hammer was back in his smithy and there was nothing suitable close at hand, so I focused my will and with a word I formed a tight, hard shield around the small bag. Clenching my teeth and mind at the same time I used it to crush the glass within and the ground lurched beneath my feet.

The world beyond the walls of Cameron Castle exploded. Soil and stone were thrown hundreds of feet into the air while flames engulfed everything. Thousands perished in an instant, some burned to a cinder while those further from the explosive centers were tossed broken and mangled into the air. Dorian and those fighting in the broken gap of the wall were thrown back and tumbled to the ground, along with the men they had been striving against.

I headed for the door and Penny shouted at my back, “Wait, I’m coming too.” She stood up but I could see her swaying on her feet.

“No you’re not,” I said and went back to her, lifting her from the ground. With the armor she was almost more than I could handle, but I managed anyway, carrying her to the bed. She struggled to rise but I gently pushed her back and reached down to pull her enchanted pendant from her neck. A sharp tug and the chain broke. “Shibal,” I said and left her sleeping.

As I ran down the stairs my own fatigue threatened to send me stumbling, so I reached out with my mind, calling to the earth once more. I could feel a power there beyond anything I had ever imagined and I drew upon a small portion of it, filling my body with strength and vitality again. I was fairly sure the effect would be short lived, but I didn’t have time for proper rest.

When I reached the yard the men there were still recovering from the shock and violence of the explosions. “Get up!” I shouted at them. “There’s no time for wasting!” Long minutes passed as I rallied the remaining defenders. All told they numbered little more than two hundred men. More had died holding the breach than I had realized. Dorian and Marcus were not among them but I had no time to search for them.

Driving them by pure force of personality I took them out through the ruined wall. The devastation there was daunting. Great holes had been torn in the earth were the stones had been hidden under the ground. Nothing remained of the buildings and shelters we had built there, nothing but charred wood and broken timbers. I kept them moving and we went beyond the shattered remains of the palisade to find what might be left of the enemy.

For a hundred yards out the earth was covered in bodies and rubble. In the distance the few who had escaped the destruction stood uncertainly. At a glance there appeared to be almost a thousand men left, but their spirits had been shaken and I didn’t intend to give them time to recover the will to fight.

The men gathered around me and I remembered Dorian’s speech, and the one word that had possibly killed more men than ‘should’. “Now’s the time! Let’s show these whoresons what the men of Lothion are made of!” I shouted. “For Lothion!”

“For Lothion!” they responded.

“For Cameron!” I screamed.

The cry came back again and I could feel their hearts pounding in time with my own. I opened my mouth and roared with everything I had, “Charge!” Like one great beast we began moving forward at a run, our pace eating up the ground between us and the enemy.

For a moment one of the enemy captains tried to rally them. Standing in his stirrups he tried to organize them to receive our charge. “Lyet Bierek!” I shouted as I ran and light blossomed over his head. A great cracking boom sounded and his horse reared, throwing him to the ground. Those nearest him were blinded and began running in confusion. In seconds the morale of the rest fell apart and the army of Gododdin was routed.

From that point our charge turned into a long chase. Neither we nor the men we pursued could run for long and soon we were walking after them. Some stumbled and fell, and those we caught died quickly. Those among the defenders who faltered simply stopped and rested, or fell in their tracks. Hours went by and we followed them to the valley road before stopping. I watched as the ragged remainder of Gododdin’s once great army rejoined the wounded men camped there.

A sharp pang of guilt passed over me as I drew out the last bag of stones. Our victory had been won, but I needed to be sure. We would be in no shape to fight again if those that were left somehow rallied against us on the morrow. Gritting my teeth I pushed my sympathies aside, there was little place left in me for mercy. A word and a sharp focusing of my will crushed the bag in my hand.

The ground jumped beneath us, throwing men to their knees. I would learn later that the shock was felt even in the capital, Albamarl. A great plume of fire and superheated steam rose up from the end of the valley where my father had built his dam. Rocks and great chunks of ice were thrown for miles. One even landed in the castle yard in Lancaster, crushing a cart that had been left out. Seconds later the sound reached us, a subdued roar at that distance.

It was minutes before the water arrived, a sweeping torrent of roaring water that washed the enemy and their wounded from their makeshift camp. Men cried out in fear as the water struck and many perished as it threw them against rocks and trees. The rest drowned before the waters began to recede. An hour later all that was left was a mess of flotsam and jetsam. The dead bodies of men and horses were scattered from the center of the valley to its western end.

It was the greatest single day of slaughter that history had ever known, and I was its chief architect.