Voyage of War

Chapter 20

Queen Adira arrived in Aevan to find all the citizens already taking refuge in the castle grounds.

After recovering the dead Queen Adira had sent Arnold on his way to bury Smaug and mourn with his family. The giant's cries seemed to travel in the hearts of her soldiers. It drifted in on the air surrounding them and echoed off the walls of the empty houses. The loss of the gaint had taken a notch out of everyones confidence.The cast iron gates to the castle grounds opened, but they were not greeted by rejoicing citizens nor a relieved Didier. The people were tending to their wounded and the soldiers soon joined in helping and getting help. Luckely Queen Adira coukd not see anybody mourning a loss only sorrowful and somber expressions.

Queen Adira found Didier asleep in a chair opposite an empty, but slept in bed. She was about to wake him when a strange voice spoke behind her.
"Leave him. I'll tell you what you need to know." The voice commanded attention but it was also hollow.
Queen Adira turned and all colour drained when she saw Camilla standing behind her.
A woman who had arrived here unconscious and had disappeared without a trace.

"We need to move the poeple to the back of the castle." Queen Adira said after listening to Camilla's story.
"They are still tending to their wounded."
"The war isn't over we may have lost the battle at Pantano swamp but Balthazar won't rest until we're all slaughtered or we surrender."
"He is coming here?" Camilla did not give any sign to suggest that she was afraid nor that she wasn't.
"Yes, with the Great waters bordering the castle on two sides we'll have a better chance at devending it with our diminished numbers than doing battle on anywhere else."
Camilla nodded and Queen Adira had the strange feeling that she was the inferior giving suggestions to her comanding General rather than a queen explaining her plan to a mysterious woman.

"Pull up the drawbridge!I need a cauldron of tar boiling on the battlement above the gate! Archers ready arrows to light on fire. I need a Square to acompany every archer. The rest of you devide into three groups. Group one help the people move to the courtyard at the back of the castle. Group two empty sand bags and fill them with rocks and stones, then build small barrigades at intervals. Group three find the blacksmith and make as many explosives as you can. Burry five in each barrigade." Queen Adira walks across the front courtyard shouting orders to the Generals and any soldier who is listening.
"Then await further instructions."
"We need to move fast people!"
Queen Adira had abondoned her gowns and had some adjustments made to her late husband's armour so she could at least walk without losing it.

When the enemy arrived Queen Adira stood waiting for them at the top of the battlement. The courtyard had one  waist high barigade, with several explosives hidden in the bags a, nearest the gates stretching the length of the courtyard. All the explosives were connected to one string that can be ignited from the second barigade. Behind the first barigade were several other smaller ones each with five soldiers behind it with a crossbow or a spear. These to were riged to explode when the enemy came to close. The rest of the army stood in the entrance hall of the castle ready to storm in when all the barrigaeds have been blown away.

Balthazar's army came to a halt in front of the gates. Queen Adira hoped that they could not she the apprehension shining through.
"I order you to turn around and leave my Kingdom!"
Balthazar came trotting to the front of the crowd, looking odd on a full grown horse.
"We have you outnumbered. Surrender or else!" Balthazar shouted up at her.
Queen Adira turned her back to Balthazar and started her decent from the battlement.

Towers were pushed against the walls of the castle and ememy soldiers breached the battlement. The towers were lit on fire by the archers but they only prevented the soldiers on the ground from acending them, the soldiers in the towers had a clear way. Queen Adira sent soldiers from the entrance hall to aid the archers. A battleram was rammed into the gates and they creaked under the presure. Archers let fly arrow after arrow.  Queen Adira dreaded the gates giving way, but knew it had to happen.

The wooden drawbridge splintered and cracked. The irn gates bent inwards and enemy soldiers came pouring through the gap. Queen Adira gave the signal and hot tar was poured over the soldiers storming throught the gap in the gate. Arrows was lit and the soldiers were further lit on fire. This slowed their progress considerably, but only until the tar ran out. This was fase one complete.

Another wave of soldiers came through the gap and proceeded unobstructed to the first barrigade, where they started to clamber over with their heavy armour and weapons slowing them down and a mass of soldiers pooled on either side of the barrigade. Some got shot down and had to be dragged out anothers way. Once the first wave of soldiers made it succesfully over the barrigade Queen Adira gave another signal and after a few seconds the barrigade explodes. Soldiers went flying and others were hit by airborne stones that had filled the bags. Queen Adira's ears rang from the explosion and she dreadex the next dozen. A quater of the enemy soldiers lay strewn motionless across the courtyard and the gate.
They seemed unaffected by fellow soldiers dropping dead beside them and pushed forward through the onslaught of arrows and spears. The second row of barigades were evacuated and blown up. It seemed to take forever until the last barrigade was blown up and the rest of Queen Adira's army followed her as they stormed out to meet what was left of Balthazar's army. In her opinion Balthazar should have withdrawn on the third explosion as his army had depelted to almlst half it had been when he had arrived.

Queen Adira fought alonside her men, in her late husbands armour. Getting just as mu h blood on her hands as her men. Not even able to tell Aevan's soldiers from Casima's. A well oiled unit working together. Winning togethers. Queen Adira empaled a soldier and decapitated another. She searched frantically for anothe attack, another soldier of the enemy, but there was none left. Her men stood among the bodies shouting their fictory. Queen Adira scanned the courtyard, with every stone stained a deep crimson. Bodies scattered everywhere, she felt sick to her stomach and ahd to summon every ounce of will power not to show he weakness in ront of her remayning men. Only a hundred or so ramained standing, but in the light of their fictory they seemed temporarily unaffected by their fellow soldiers' bodies mixed in with the enemy.

Queen Adira dotted her last i and sealed the letter to be sent to Casima with the remaining soldiers returning home. The dead soldiers would have to find their final resting place just outside Aevan alongside her soldiers. Sending back the bodies via a ship would prove to be disastrous. And it only seemed fitting that they rest in the kingdom they had fought to keep save.

Queen Adira is only to grateful that Princess Sybil had not been here to have witnessed what had happened. The scenes would haunt Queen Adira for the rest of her life, she could only imagine what it would have done to her daughter.