Fall of the Stars Book 2: Victory's Wing

Gerey Nesell I

It had been four days, four blisteringly cold and brutal days. The gloves and coat that Gerey received from Cris Towers of Sirestar did not help him much once the winds kicked up. The mounting snow made erecting tents many times more difficult, causing some to just give up and cut a tree to sit under. The two siege towers proved completely useless and impossible to move. The catapults were readied, but Rynn would not give leave to fire them. Instead he wanted for Walter Barawayne to surrender without destroying his castle.

"Are you ready?" Rynn asked. His nose was red as a berry.

"This is a waste of time," Gerey said. He struggled to get on his horse. His arm was still in bad shape.

Every day at noontime, Rynn and Gerey met Mard Barawayne in front of his gate to convince him to hand over his son. He was kind and cordial, but he would not budge. That morning he was at his gate before Rynn and Gerey, covered in an immense bear coat. His mount was coated as well. Gerey envied his warmth, thinking hard about snatching the coat off of him and taking it for himself.

"I admire your resilience," Mard Barawayne said when the three met at the gate. "Any man would have turned tail with this snowstorm brewing. I say, how long do you plan to stay here? I will not hand over my son."

"I will stay for as long as I must." Rynn shrugged. "Nick and Len Starfront once conquered the Snowlands in the middle of winter."

"And they both died only weeks apart. I will take no further threat from you, boy."

"I did not mean to threaten you, Lord Barawayne. Please understand that I mean you no harm."

"Yes, you mean me no harm, but you wish to execute my heir."

"You say this, and yet..."

"Did you know that Sir Grobert was knighted by your very own grandfather? A commoner, as humbly born as they come, yet he caught the king's eye."

"You've told me this." Every time they met, Lord Mard would always remind Rynn that he had one of his grandfather's friends killed. Rynn hated hearing it, though he never told Mard that it was actually Gerey who ended up taking the head in the end.

"If you've no regard for a man who was given power by the king, your grandfather, then why should I believe that you won't kill my son?"

"I never said I wouldn't kill your son. On the contrary, I want his head. But I will face him honorably in man-to-man combat, just us two with our weapons."

Mard looked at Rynn's eye patch and laughed. "What did that earn you last time?"

"A mere mistake. I will not let it happen again."

"And neither will I." Mard slightly bowed his head. "I bid you farewell. Send my regards to King Rickardo." He stared at Rynn and Gerey until it looked like they were ready to leave.

Defeated, Gerey turned his horse around and sighed. Rynn did as well, but he turned around time and again to look back at Lord Barawayne still at the gate. Only when they were back in their tent did Mard make his way back into his warm, cozy castle.

When Gerey entered the tent he found Jasper Towers, Cris Towers' son and heir, Brewis, and Sosa, Rynn's other squire. Jasper was older than both Rynn and Gerey, but he was a small man with a boyish face. His cheeks were bright and pink, and his light brown hair was tied into braids wrapped around his head. Jasper mumbled angrily at the fire until Rynn took a seat next to him. He looked up, sighed, and then lowered his head.

"What bothers you, Jace?" Rynn asked him.

"We must assault the castle. We are freezing to death and our men are steadily fleeing in the night by increasing numbers. Soon it will only be us out here waiting for that fat fool to hand over his son."

"We have all of his supply lines cut off. He will soon run out of food and have no choice but to give me his son."

"We will all die out here before he runs out of food." Jasper sighed again. "Do you think he didn't expect this? On our way here we could barely find any game to hunt. Don't you realize he anticipated our coming and stocked up?"

"That...is a possibility."

"It is a fact and you know it," Jasper shouted. Gerey could hear the shuffle of a small crowd outside of the tent. "That wall should be in bloody fucking pieces by now. I will give you two more days, Rynn. Two days. If Sir Walter isn't out by then or the wall isn't down, I will take all of my father's men that are left and return home."

"Calm yourself, Jace," Gerey said.

"Or else what, Gerey?" He stood up angrily. Everyone else remained seated.

"Hold your seat, Jace. I want to leave as badly as you do. My arm is broken and frozen, and I fear I may lose it if we stay much longer. But I am still out here, freezing to death and gritting my teeth. Do you know why?"

He looked at Rynn and scoffed. "Why, Gerey?"

"Because I am a knight sworn to serve the Starfront Kingdom. You and your kin are sworn to House Starfront, to do as they say and support them in all endeavors. Sir Rynn is not only a knight, but a Five Point General of the Starfront Army as well as King Rickardo's son, and he has called all of us on this task with authority from the King himself. We are not here for pleasure or merriment; we are here out of obligation and duty. You walking away right now would be the highest of treason, Jasper Towers. So, if you plan on leaving, sink to your knees and lower your head now so that we can take it and save time."

Jasper looked out of the tent as if he thought about leaving, but then he sat back down, mumbling begrudgingly. He knew better. No matter how friendly Rynn was to him, at the end of the day he was just a subject. He had no place questioning a general's order and threatening to flee a battle.

"Thank you, Gerey," Rynn said after a long pause. "Jace does have a point, though. This is folly. With the weather worsening each day, I don't see how we can hold out. Likewise, I do not know if the manpower we have is even enough to successfully take the castle. There should be roughly a thousand Sirestar troops blocking off the road to the east of the castle. The camp here should be around eight or nine hundred if we take into consideration those who fled. The castle is quite large, and we do not know how many men are in there. It would only take about a hundred or so of them to stave off our almost two thousand. Even so, we cannot risk any of the Barawaynes being killed or this will get really ugly. The way I see it we have three options: Try our luck and storm the castle, have someone sneak in at night and unlock the gate, or turn tail and go home like cowards. What say you, Jace and Gerey?"

"I am in favor of storming the castle," Jasper said immediately. "We have been here far too long. We should have attacked when we were at full strength."

"I... I do not know what we should do." Gerey wavered. He wanted to get into some action, but his arm was not fully healed. "Having someone sneak in and open the door is too bold to be successful. I must say that I favor storming the castle."

"I, too!" Little Sosa raised his little arm in the air. "I will prove myself, Lord Rynn."

"Me... Me too!" Brewis raised his hand in the air.

Rynn smiled, his exposed eye twinkling with pleasure. "Fine then. On the morrow, our flags will raise, and this castle will be ours!"