The Forced Throne

Chapter 21

Today was the day of the negotiation for the war. Alexius sat on top of her horse at the front of the line, her father in the middle and Hakkan on the other side of him. Cyrus was next to her, and she could tell that he was a bit nervous. And then she heard what she had so quietly been waiting to hear, the march of an army. She felt herself begin to tremble. This was the first time she felt super scared in a long time. King Gelmore's army was huge, but Alexius felt better knowing that they had more soldiers now. 

"King Jaron!" Gelmore called out.

"King Gelmore," Jaron replied, hiding his frustration behind a calm voice.

"If you give us our land back, then we won't have to fight this bloody war that we both know you are bound to lose. You wrongfully stole it from my kingdom," King Gelmore complained. "No, you told me that you didn't care for the land, so once we took it because my kingdom needed it for farming, and we found the resources in the mountains, you suddenly wanted it back," Jaron corrected.

That made King Gelmore quite upset. "King Gelmore, this war is not needed. It will do no good for your kingdom nor mine," Jaron said. Truth be told, the kingdom of Gelyn hasn't been doing too well for a while. So if they went to war with Carthya, it would most likely destroy Gelyn more than Carthya in the end. "We could start a trade sequence if it's really only the resources you need, I know your people need the food and I will happily help you," Jaron offered. Alexius hoped he would except a trade idea instead of war. 

"Pfft, a trade isn't going to help my kingdom, land will," Gelmore argued. Although that's what Gelyns king believed, the knights look like they believed otherwise. "You need it and you know you do, but your to stubborn to except help from another kingdom! All you are is greed, you want the land for the sole reason of its riches!" Jaron spat. Alexius reached over to lay her hand on her father. He turned to face her and sighed, "I understand." Jaron turned back to face Gelmore. "Fine, if it's a war you want then a war you'll get." 

"Finally, I wondered how long it would take before you realized that," Gelmore rolled his eyes at Jaron, "I guess Carthyans are really that stupid." Alexius knew immediately that Gelmore shouldn't have said that because it ticked off Jaron and before Alexius realized Jaron was gone and the war had officially started.

Alexius hit whoever she saw first, making sure to check for the remarkable blue and golden Carthyan colors. Alexius was never really good at fighting on horses, but it kept her from getting trampled on. Left and right she could hear the clashes of swords and screams of pain. This was the main part she hated about fighting in wars, the screams, she hated that horrible sound and it always haunted her day and night for weeks. "Watch out!" Alexius heard someone yell. She jerked her head up to see an arrow flying towards her, she quickly pulled out her shield and blocked it. 

"Thank goodness someone warned me!" Alexius sighed. One of Gelyns knights started to charge towards her. Alexius pulled out her sword and blocked his blow, hardly though, Alexius needed to get off this horse, she couldn't fight on it, but first, she needed to find Jaron and make sure he hadn't done something stupid. Alexius raced through the fighting knights, blocking attacks as she went forward towards the center. "Alexius!" she turned to find who called her name when someone knocked her off her horse. She fell flat on her face and groaned in pain. She got up quickly from the ground, but her horse had taken off. Great! Alexius thought. At least she still had her sword and shield. Another Gelyn soldier came running up to her, she blocked him and then hit a blow on his leg which then knocked him over. Alexius wondered how long this war would go on.