(Author’s commentary); I have to admit, I think I struck a pretty good balance with the first major battle between the resistance army and the evil Skull empire. It is exciting, but it isn’t overly gory. I do love the way my main hero… a teenage princess, I might remind you… is so good at thinking on her feet and making changes to react to the enemy.

That being said, there seems to be little real interest in this story… at least here, on the blog… I hope there will be some interest in it when I publish it, because I really do think we need to take the princess story away from the Disney corporation and do something new with it. I might stop posting it here. Let me know what you think.

**********

The Seven Kingdoms

Chapter Twenty Eight

As she turned her head to order a man to go gather up the troops still holding the line in the event of the return of the Skull flanking force, Hildy stopped the movement to stare in amazement. At the other end of the valley, she saw a sight that sent her heart soaring. They hadn’t lost the battle. Far from it.

At the bottom of the valley, where it widened out to meet the beach, stood her army. They were in good order, many ranks deep. They were formed up into a half-moon shape, the center of the curved lines were closer to her, while the two ends, still anchored to the bottom slope of each ridge, had moved forward to where the ridges almost disappeared, dipping down to small rises right beside the coast road.

In front of her army, hemmed in against the sea, was the main body of the Skull army. Even as she watched, she could see small balls of fire trailing smoke as they arched up from behind her lines and into the mass of enemy troops. Sanara’s fire balls had a tightly-packed target they couldn’t miss. But she could see longboats bringing enemy reinforcements to the beach as well.

Hildy looked directly below her to the valley floor. On closer inspection she could see that the bodies littering the valley looked to be mostly dressed in black. She gave the order to bring the rest of the men at the run. She was fairly certain now that the fighting at the top of the valley must be her forces from the other ridge. The Skulls must have sent a flanking force up that ridge too, and had driven her men off of it. They needed help, and she was going to give it to them.

When her men were once more gathered together, she got another shock. There were less than three hundred of the more than seven hundred that had marched up the ridge with her. She would grieve for them later. She pointed to the top of the valley. “Our friends are dying, and they need our help!” she yelled.

Her men cheered wildly.

She turned and began running back along the top of the ridge, making sure that the triplets were staying close behind her. Her men followed, still cheering. She wanted to tell them to stop, that it would just tire them out faster, but it made her feel better.

When they neared the end of the ridge, she stopped them a little short of where they had climbed it such a short time before. She stood where she could survey the scene below. Her force from the other ridge had been pushed back to the base of the ridge she stood atop. They must have thrown most of their stones, because very few were using their slings anymore. It looked to her like there were three or four hundred of her men against well over twice that number of the enemy. Still, the men with her might be enough to tip the balance.

She formed her men into line, three ranks deep, and hastily told them her plan. It wasn’t much of one. It involved all of them charging down the slope in front of them, yelling and kicking up dust and trying to make it look like there were more of them than there actually were.

She went over to the triplets. “Stay close behind us, then stop and hide somewhere on the slope. Stay out of sight. If things go badly, stay hidden until you see the rest of the army coming up, or until the Skulls leave. I’m sorry, that’s the best I can do.”

With that, she raised her spear, and yelled for her men to charge. It wasn’t a graceful charge. The slope was steep, rocky, and patchy with vegetation. Some men were sliding down on their backsides. A few men tripped and rolled partway down, and one or two of those were injured. And they did look like a larger force because of all the dust they raised.

They reached the valley floor only a sling’s throw from the end of the line of men they were trying to save. The Skull lines stopped as the men in them watched the crazed scramble down the steep slope. As Hildy’s men found more level ground, they immediately began to reform their lines and pull their slings form their belts. Many were running short of stones, but they threw what they had. When their stones were gone, they picked up their spears or staves from where they had dropped them, and prepared to advance.

Hildy started the men forward, leading from the center of the first rank. She intended to march to the left of the Skull lines and then turn her lines sideways to face the end of their lines. Then she planned to charge the enemy. Right as her men swung their lines to face the Skulls, they were treated to another miracle. A new line appeared as if by magic, but this line was not a line of fire. It was a short, two-rank-deep line of new troops, wearing the familiar mixture of the new uniforms, the old-style uniforms of the Smilingman army, and plain white tunics. They carried a few spears, a lot of staves, and a sling for every man. They stopped and began pelting the enemy from behind.

This was too much for the Skull soldiers. They were surrounded on three sides and being bombarded once again with a deadly rain of stones. A few of them threw down their spears and began waving their hands above their heads. Some of the other Skull soldiers turned and used their own spears to menace those that wished to surrender, but more of them joined their comrades and dropped their weapons.

They must be aware that their main body of troops have been driven back to the beach, Hildy decided, because they still outnumbered the resistance army forces here by a good margin. She was close enough to observe the breakdown of morale. A few of the diehard Skulls wanted to keep fighting, and were willing to kill their own men to do so. These were quickly overwhelmed by those that saw no point in fighting anymore.

At this point, something bewildering occurred. Some of the Skull soldiers began to cheer and hug one another. They would have hugged some of the resistance army soldiers if these soldiers would have allowed them to do so. As she drew even nearer to the beaten mob of soldiers, she noticed that the ones who looked happy all had white collars around their throats.

One of these men saw Hildy approaching and began to run towards her. Instantly, a wall of lowered spear points were aimed at him. “Princess Hildread!” the man called to her, tears running down his face.

She waved aside the protective soldiers and went to the man. “I know you, don’t I?”

“Yes, princess. I own a shop in Halfmoontown. I sell candles and lamps. You have been in my shop a few times. My wife works in the castle kitchens.” The man was obviously moved to see her, but it was more than that. He continued, desperation in his voice. “Princess, the Skulls force us to fight for them. They hold our families in big camps, and threaten to kill them if we do not fight. And these,” he fingered the white collar on his neck, which Hildy could now see was made of thick metal that had been painted, and had a metal ring attached to the front of it, “they chain us together on the ships until we are needed for battle.”

Hildy put her hands on the man’s shoulders. “What is your name?”

“Owan Maker, my Lady,” he told her.

“We will do what we can for all the families, but it isn’t your fault if the Skulls lose the battle. We have to hope that will make the difference.” She didn’t know what else she could possibly say.

She heard a voice shouting her name, a familiar voice. It was Seevan, her messenger. “I brought them, commander!” the boy yelled as he ran to hug her. “I brought the men from the villages! We got here just in time to attack them from behind!”

She squeezed the boy tightly, unable to speak for a moment. She had seen him toss aside a spear, a spear he must have picked up to join in the fighting. “You are my brave soldier,” she said when she could.

She turned back to her troops. The Skull soldiers were being herded into a tight group well away from the weapons they had dropped. Hildy ordered the prisoners with the white collars separated out and explained to her men why they didn’t need to worry about them. The triplets came down the hill from their hiding place, and she told them to stay with Seevan and the men she was leaving to guard the prisoners. Then she took more than half the men with her to join the fight at the beach.

They moved quickly down the valley and soon reached the spot where the battle had first begun. Bodies lay piled in a line across the valley floor, her men and the enemy mixed and intertwined in the grisly intimacy of violent death. She was horrified by the number of dead. This was what even a victory in battle looked like.

The enemy had obviously managed to charge her line at least once, to come face to face in battle. Beyond the line of close combat carnage, the dead scattered down the valley were almost all Skull troops. A desperate charge, a clash, and the enemy had been driven back and pursued.

A voice called her name. Near by, one of the bodies raised itself on one arm and waved to her. It was Tull Caster. She ran to him. His left leg was wrapped in bloody bandages, but he had a big smile on his face.

“The healers are really great!” he exclaimed. “They sewed up my leg where I got stuck with a spear. And they gave me some pain bark to chew on. I actually feel pretty good right now.” His eyes were glassy and bright. “The throwing spears worked, Hildy. I think I killed a man or two.”

“I will be back to check on you soon,” Hildy assured him. “I have to go now. There is still fighting at the beach.”

He nodded. “Commander Bloom is dead,” he said in a calm voice. “I saw him die, right over there.” He waved his hand in a direction behind where he lay. “He stayed right in the front line.”

Hildy looked that way. She saw some of the healers working on wounded men, but she didn’t have the heart to look for one particular dead man among the fallen. She would miss the commander dearly. She waved to Tull and ran to catch up to her men. She stepped over and around the corpses of Skull soldiers, and a few that moved and moaned. The slings of the resistance army had done their work well. She would have to make certain that the healers helped the enemy wounded too.

She saw a dead Skull soldier, lying on his back. One of the new throwing spears was sticking up out of his chest. She wondered briefly if one of the Caster brothers had killed the man. Then she saw the white collar on the dead man’s throat, and she felt rage at the stupid, useless waste of this war.

She suddenly smelled the delicious aroma of cooked flesh, and felt her stomach growl. She stopped dead in her tracks. Before her, a Skull soldier smoked and smoldered, the victim of one of the fire balls. A shudder ran through her body and she ran faster until she caught up with her marching troops. By the time she did, they had reached the rear of the main force.

The survivors of the Skull army still stood defiantly on the beach. Behind them, she could see longboats full of more Skull soldiers, but they were no longer rowing reinforcements towards the beach. They were rowing back to their ships. Her army was no longer bombarding the enemy with stones and fire balls. Halfway between the two armies, she saw Nius Tar and Nudge, talking to a Skull officer.

She pushed through the ranks of her soldiers, who began to cheer her, and walked over the coast road and out onto the beach. She stepped between Nudge and captain Tar. The Skull officer wore a superbly made uniform, and his armor was covered with small studs of silver set into the leather.

“Allow me to introduce my half brother, prince Carmak,” Nudge said to her.

“I must admit…” the Skull prince began to say.

“Surrender now, or I will stone and burn every last one of you,” Hildy said coldly. She didn’t care in the least what it was he had to say. It took all of her willpower not to drive her spear into his chest.

The man was smart enough not to argue. He turned and shouted for his men to drop their weapons.