The Seven Kingdoms

Chapter Five

Hildy and Lawry rushed to the great hall as soon as word of the fleet arriving had been brought to them by one of the palace staff along with their lunch. The king had his captains and his son gathered around him, and as soon as the princesses entered the hall, all conversation stopped, and the men all turned to face this unwanted interruption.

“Fear not, young ladies,” said the king grandly. “You will be quite safe here while we teach those Skulls some manners, I assure you.”

“I have no interest in remaining safely behind walls while others fight my battles for me,” Hildy returned.

The king graced her with a condescending smile while his captains nodded in approval- a very amused approval, it must be said.

Hildy felt anger growing inside her, and not all of it was focused on the Skull fleet streaming into the bay. “My father taught me to fight. I could hold my own against him. How many of you can say the same?”

“It is good that your father gave you such a well-rounded education, my dear,” said the king, but you would be taking the place of one of my trained fighting men if I were to let you accompany us.”

“Your trained fighting men are farmers and fishermen and traders who practice with the staff or sling once or twice a month,” Hildy said, struggling to remain calm. “Their duties consist of a few dozen hours a year trying to look handsome and fierce in their armor when it is their turn to stand the guard watch, and that mostly entails flirting with the girls who work in the castle or come to visit from town. I trained with my father and his best captains on a daily basis.”

“Fighting with a staff requires a certain amount of bodily strength, with all due respect, my lady,” one of the captains made the mistake of saying.

“It also requires speed, balance, and intelligence, any of which qualities I will pit against yours here and now,” Hildy spat. She removed her staff from her shoulder. “Would you care to test me?”

“This is most unseemly,” the king interjected. “Our rules, laid down by our forebears, are clear enough. Two hosts shall meet on the field of battle, five hundred men bearing the staff, and one hundred with the sling, on each side of the field. Each side shall let their slingers send three featherwood projectile volleys at the other before the hosts advance and battle is joined. They shall trade blows until one side yields or until honor is satisfied. It plainly does not allow for four hundred and ninety nine men and one young girl.”

“But we already know that the Skulls care nothing for the rules of civilized warfare,” Hildy said forcefully. “They took the stronghold on Middle by surprise. And obviously they used some trickery against my father and his forces to defeat them with great loss of life.”

“And that is exactly why we have been laying some plans of our own,” the king replied. “We have trained two hundred more men, and they will be hidden in the woods surrounding the field of battle. Should the Skulls attempt to ignore the rules of war, we shall be able to call for reinforcements.”

“Two hundred men who have been training for only a few days?” Hildy asked in shocked disbelief. “But what if they bring one thousand men to the field?”

“Then we will stay within the castle walls, and they can sit outside and rot,” the king said smugly.

“And who, exactly, will begin to rot first?” Hildy wanted to know. “Did you bring in enough food to feed all of us for as long as the Skulls decide to remain? Because it seems to me that they will be outside the walls, and that is where your farms and fishing fleets will also be.”

The king and his captains exchanged uncomfortable glances. It was at this moment that a soldier entered the great hall. “The enemy host is landing, Lord,” he told the king. “We can see them clearly from the tower.”

“And how many men are there?” asked the king.

“Not more than six hundred,” was the expected answer.

“There you have it!” the king said, sounding both pleased with himself and vastly relieved simultaneously. “Assemble the host!”

As his captains scrambled to carry out his orders, Hildy pulled Lawry out of the great hall. “Where are we going?” asked Lawry, sounding nervous as she realized they weren’t heading back to their rooms.

“I’m not missing the battle,” Hildy declared.

Lawry stopped dead in her tracks. “You can’t be serious, Hildy!”

“Did you think I was joking with the king?” Hildy asked her friend.

“What’s happening?” came a voice from behind them, and they turned to see Zareena descending the stairs, followed by Tull and Tolly. They quickly told them about the coming battle.

“And where do you think you are going?” Zareena wanted to know.

“I have to go steal some armor,” Hildy replied. With that, she turned and began walking purposefully towards the nearest exit once more. Her friends hurried after her. They left the castle grounds through the side gate, the two teenage guards gawking at the procession of princesses and fishermen. Hildy led them at a steady pace, ignoring all their questions. She slowed suddenly as the column of marching Evergreen soldiers appeared on the road ahead of them. They were following the dirt road through a thick wood, and as they topped a small rise they could see, beyond the closest soldiers, the head of the column beginning to spread out to deploy in the large, open space of the field of battle.

Hildy veered off the road. She was following some of the two hundred reserve soldiers who had been ordered into the woods to await any trickery on the part of the Skull army. She waited until the men had spread out near the edge of the field, then approached a pair of them. The two newly-trained soldiers looked very young and very nervous.

Hildy strode confidently up to the two young soldiers. They looked to be not much older than her. She looked them up and down and focused on the one closest to her size. She stepped right in front of him. “Give me your helmet, breastplate, and gloves,” she demanded.

The young soldier was confused and more than a little terrified. He looked to his own princess for help, but Zareena merely shrugged. He turned to his fellow soldier, but he seemed to have found something interesting to look at in the tops of the trees. The boy mirrored Zareena’s shrug and began to strip off his leather breastplate after handing Hildy his gloves and leather helmet.

“I’m going to need your shirt and boots as well,” Hildy pointed out.

Again the soldier couldn’t find it within himself to disobey.

“And the pants.” Hildy was finding it hard not to laugh at the poor fellow.

The boy looked down at his trembling legs and the sturdy green canvas pants that covered them. “I’m not wearing anything underneath,” he stammered.

“Then I suggest you step behind that clump of brush,” Hildy suggested.

By the time the last of the column of Evergreen troops had left the road and joined the ranks on the field of battle, they had picked up one unexpected recruit.

As the Evergreen soldiers formed up into long lines, five ranks deep with a sixth rank of slingers slightly in advance, Hildy made her way to the center where the king and prince stood, They were in the front rank of soldiers, with the slingers ten feet ahead of them. The captains were spread throughout the front rank of soldiers to pass orders and steady the men.

Across the field of battle the enemy formed their lines similarly. According to the rules of war, no words were to be spoken. The time for words was deemed to be passed. When each side was in place, the commanders raised their arms for a count of ten. When they lowered their arms, the slingers would send their three volleys of featherwood projectiles then move off to the side, and the ranks of soldiers would advance and battle would be joined.

The king raised his hand once all on the field had settled into their appointed places. Across the field, in the center of the enemy line, Hildy could see prince Nardis in a fancy set of black armor decorated with white flourishes. She had to stand on tiptoe and lean a little to the left to get a good view past soldiers and slingers. Her once-to-be husband held his hand aloft. Next to him, also in decorated armor, stood another Skull that she assumed was one of his many brothers. The two lines of slingers had loaded their projectiles and waited for the hands to drop.

The hands did drop, and the slingers swung their slings and let their projectiles fly. Hildy watched the wooden balls of the enemy sailing towards her and the Evergreen lines. Troopers hunched their shoulders and lowered their heads, to let the thick leather armor absorb the worst of the shock. As the projectiles began to rain down on them it was instantly clear that something was horribly wrong.

Men around her began screaming in agony and falling to the ground. She heard loud thuds as the missiles hit, and a horrid crunching sound that could only have been bones breaking. She stooped and picked up one of the round balls, It was heavy rockwood, not the softer, lighter featherwood required by the rules of war. She also saw large, heavy river stones scattered about.

The second volley was coming in. “Get down on the ground,” she screamed at the soldiers around her. “Lay down and cover your heads.” Some obeyed her, but most did not. More fell to the ground due to injury.

The third, and by the rules of war, final, volley fell, but somehow Hildy knew this wouldn’t be the last, and she was right. From where she lay she saw their own slingers begin to retire from the field, having finished their three volleys, but many were laid out on the ground, and more were struck down as the deadly rain continued to fall. She happened to glance at the king and his son at the exact moment that a large stone struck the prince on his left knee and she saw him collapse. Moments later a rockwood ball hit the king high on the center of his forehead. The thick leather saved him from some of the force of the blow as the ball rebounded high into the air. The king fell to his knees.

At last deadly rain ceased to fall. The Evergreen lines were in complete disarray. Men lay still or writhed in the dirt moaning in pain. Those that were uninjured remained rooted in place, unsure of what to do next. With the king and prince incapacitated and many of the captains wounded, killed, or just unable to overcome the shock of such a blatant disregard for the rules of war, none of the Evergreen troops moved forward.

Hildy leaped up and ran to the king and the prince. The king looked up, dazed and confused, blood trickling down his face from under his helmet. “You!” he said, recognition coming slowly. Hildy knelt between the king and his son. The prince held his shattered knee, his face gray, his lips set in agony. Hildy heard shouted commands from across the field and looked up to see the enemy advancing towards them in line.