Cassia The Lost

Chapter 3: Invaders

Teran woke up the next morning with the rising sun. As he pulled on his heavy work boots, the tranquil morning was shattered by the sound of the bell tower. Not the slow rhythmic peal of the noon-time marker, but instead a sudden and furious pounding of the bells. This was instantly followed by the panicked shouts of warnings; first heard on the battlements and repeated moments later throughout the main square.

Teran ran outside and watched in fascination as the nearby barracks sprang to life with a bustle of activity. Runners with urgent messages could be seen sprinting into and out of the barracks. The doors to the stables burst open and first one, then two, and finally a third horse burst from the stable; their riders aggressively kicking the flanks of the horses and spurring them to a reckless gallop on the cobble stone roads.

Teran heard shouting near the city gates and the ring of steel on steel. Vulgarity and screams of pain rang through the early morning air. He ran back inside his small apartment and grabbed the medium sized hammer that he kept beside his bed for protection. Master Harfor had told him that no true blacksmith would ever be without a hammer and had given him this one as a gift.

With hammer in hand, he left his apartment at a jog towards the commotion at the front gate of the city. The bells continued to ring furiously and by this time the entire city had come to life. As he got within site of the gates, he could see the back of the city guard circling the gate and pressing forward in a mass; their blue and grey uniforms blending together. It took him a moment to realize what was happening. He jumped up on a nearby fountain wall for a better view. He could see the soldiers in front raising their swords and slamming them down over and over. The soldiers in the back had pikes and were trying desperately to poke through the gaps between their fellow soldiers to stab at the enemy.

On the other side of the conflict was a similar formation. Men in unfamiliar red uniforms were hacking at the city guard. From his viewpoint it all seemed so unreal, like a bunch of children playing at a school-yard game; except the blows from each side had to be landing somewhere and causing real blood to be spilt.

Teran noticed for the first time that soldiers were yelling at the people of the city to run. They screamed at them as people tried to gather their belongings.

"Go! No time! Take your children and run to the castle gates!"

The city gates were lightly fortified, but the gates to the castle grounds would be more easily defended and inside the walls of the castle would be a much safer place during a siege. Teran stayed for a moment longer to watch with dread as the battle raged in front of him. He was old enough to be a soldier and any one of those helmets could be one of his friends. A section of wall exploded inwards as it was hit with something heavy from the outside. Luckily, the people of the city had cleared the area, running in fear towards the castle walls.

Men in red uniforms began to climb through the newly formed gap in the wall. Teran's heart dropped as he realized that the soldiers defending the gate would be flanked and overrun. Dead, they would all be dead! How could this be happening? He jumped down from the small fountain wall and started to move backward away from the conflict. He knew that he should turn and run, but he couldn't get himself to look away from the tragic scene before him.

As he watched, the red army swarmed over the city guard. A contingent of the King's cavalry, lances leveled at the attackers, thundered into view and rode full speed into the fray. As their sharpened tips caught on flesh and bone and armor, the lances were discarded and swords were drawn. Twenty war horses in full armor trampled and kicked out at the attackers. Teran's heart lifted for a moment, but it soon became apparent that the cavalry had only bought the citizens a few more moments of time. They had no hope of pushing the enemy back. Nevertheless, they continued to hack from top of their horses; reigning blows onto the heads of the men in red.

The city square was cleared of civilians. Teran was near the back of the crowd as it pressed towards the castle grounds. The path across the drawbridge created a funnel for the flow of the crowd. As the guards yelled for the people to hurry, he saw a man fall over the side of the drawbridge into the mote below. He looked back at the cavalry riders who were giving their lives for as many people as possible to make it inside the castle defenses. He saw women and children being shoved roughly to the front of the crowd as they cried and screamed the name of their loved ones. He wondered at what point the drawbridge would be closed.

Teran saw some red uniforms break free from the battle with the cavalry and sprint towards the mass of civilians. Another contingent of cavalry thundered into view and the red uniformed soldiers were run down, trampled under heavy hooves. Behind the second cavalry contingent, a column of several hundred pikemen came racing into view to form up between the citizens and the invaders.

Teran, having spent years being tutored by his father, could clearly see what the strategy was for the city guard. They would continue to send as many soldiers as needed to hold off the invaders while the citizens funneled across the drawbridge and through the castle gates. The pikemen formed a human barrier, a last defense between the citizens and death at the hands of the murderous army. They were nothing more than a delaying tactic; sacrificial lambs to buy time for a retreat.

Teran had remained at the back of the crowd. He didn't have the will to push his way forward. Who would he displace? A child? A mother? A father? No, he could not live with himself if he pushed forward and lived while another died. He decided that he would be among the last to go through.

A gap of a forty yards separated him from the blue and grey line of pikemen. The space between him and the defensive line was eerily vacant; devoid of life and noise. On the other side of the line the cavalry was still battling; trying to keep the attention of the invaders for as long as possible.

As he watched, a young girl walked calmly out of a nearby building. She strolled out into the void as if completely unaware of her surroundings or of the scene of death that was taking place on the other side of the line of soldiers. She held her beggar's basket in front of her and stopped a few paces behind the defensive line as if asking for a hand-out; her black mass of curls hanging past her waist line. After a moment, she dropped her basket into the dirt and raised one hand in front of her as if trying to hold back a raging river with just her will power alone.

"Cassia!!!" Teran's voice boomed out in desperation, "Cassia! Come this way! Run!" It was no use, she could not hear him and wouldn't understand if she could. She remained frozen, alone in the courtyard. Her basket on the ground in front of her and one hand raised with her open palm facing the invaders. Her pose brought back a terrible memory of the night she had used her power; the night she had become Lost.

Without hesitation, Teran began to run towards her. He imagined what the red soldiers would do to her and the thought of her innocent doll-like face being slashed and her body being trampled spurned him to an all-out sprint. He held his hammer in his right hand as he ran; holding up near the head of the hammer for balance.

Teran reached Cassia at the same time that the red army clashed against the thin defensive line. The pikemen were only a single man deep, whereas the attackers were now packed thick in the courtyard beyond. There was no longer any sign of the cavalry; their sacrifice having been made and even their horses had apparently been cut down.

A man in a red uniform broke through the line of pikemen and ran at Teran and Cassia. Luckily, the man had left his sword buried in the collarbone of the man he had killed. Weaponless, he must have reasoned that the two civilians were easy prey. He lunged at Teran with his hands out in front of him. Teran swept the man's arms away with his left hand and swung his hammer with all his might at the man's head. Three years of heavy forge work had taught him how to swing a hammer and given him the muscles to do it effectively. The man's head was crushed inward like a clay pot and the man fell limply to the ground.

Teran grabbed Cassia around the waist and was amazed at how light she was. He threw her over his shoulder like a bag of coal and turned to run back towards the drawbridge. As he turned, he saw the last of the citizens filing across the draw bridge. The city guard escorting them in the rear. He would never make it back before the draw bridge was drawn shut! He and Cassia would be left with the remaining city guard to be sacrificed. He paused to think of a new plan, Cassia limp and uncomplaining over his shoulder. Teran ran.