The Fall of Cadoria: After War Comes Betrayal

Chapter 6

There was a permanent watch, night and day with the Cadorian army on high alert, watching for and reporting anything. Despite Tyrran's misgivings, he still had no reason to go against the intelligence he was given but the intelligence was now over a week old. He did not know where the Thargoẑan army was, his intelligence chief was missing as were the scouts that were sent out and that constantly worried him.

"Sir!" the veteran sergeant gruffly called down to the young officer in charge of the watch, who was almost half his age. "You had better come and look at this."

The bored young officer slowly climbed lethargically up the stairs to the battlements to see what the sergeant wanted. They had been on high alert for days, constantly wearing armour and carrying their weapons, on watch for four hours, twice a day but nothing had been sighted except for a few deer. The Thargoẑans were not supposed to arrive for another week at the earliest, so he had no idea why they were on high alert. Permission to kill a few of the deer and have them roasted for the men had been denied. No one was permitted to leave the fort except for Prince Tyrran's family who were due to leave the following day. The officer was not sure why they were at the fort in the first place, who takes their children to war? He decided that royalty and nobility were a different breed to everyone else, and he was not sure he would ever understand them. His sergeant was a veteran of several battles, though, so he knew that his sergeant would not be one to jump at any shadows. It must be important. He imagined a few of the children from the nearby villages had come to have a look and they needed to be told to leave the vicinity immediately.

"What is it, Sergeant?" he asked when he arrived on top of the wall before freezing. His blood drained completely from his face. Thousands upon thousands of Thargoẑan soldiers had suddenly appeared outside of the fort, their banners fluttering in the wind, and more and more were arriving from all directions.

"They arrived several minutes ago," the sergeant said in his calm gruff voice, but his eyes showed how afraid he was. "How many did His Highness say were in the Thargoẑan army?"

The young officer did not reply. The enemy looked like far more than his commanding officers had told him. On either side of him, men stared wide-eyed at the Thargoẑans arriving, some were visibly shaking with fear.

"Barricade the gates and get into your positions!" he screamed below in panic and his orders were immediately followed. Senior officers then appeared to take charge. Orders began to be barked loudly, sleeping soldiers were roused and men at arms and archers began to arrive hurriedly on top of the walls filling in the gaps between the soldiers already there. In places, they were two or three deep. On seeing the Thargoẑan army, fear was in the eyes of every man. Whizzing filled the air as the odd arrow was fired wildly towards the Thargoẑan army,

"Cease firing and calm yourselves! You're Cadorians!" was screamed by an angry sergeant.

"I need to report this to General Jadan," the young officer told no one in particular, in a shaky voice without even asking permission before he turned and ran. In his haste, he stumbled in his heavy armour which slowed him down. He nearly tumbled down the steps from the battlements before running across the courtyard and up the steps into the keep. It was a trip he had made regularly since he arrived at the fort to provide status reports. It would normally have taken him no time to get there, but this time the keep felt like several leagues away and he was running in quicksand. His armour clattering echoed as he ran up keep's stone staircase until he fell through the heavy door without knocking into the large plain chamber where the war council was meeting. The generals were giving Prince Tyrran updates around the wooden table. The young officer fell to the ground exhausted, his breathing laboured, unable to speak. There was a furious shout, but he could not hear what was said.