Divided Nation

The King

We managed to finish off the rest of the invaders from the third garrison quickly enough. Unfortunately, a couple survivors managed to escape. Kyxio sent horsemen to hunt them down, but I knew that at least a couple would find their way back. Soon, more soldiers with better equipment was going to be on us.

     After the battle, Alexia summoned all of us to the meeting room to discuss next steps.

     "I say we should move," Kyxio said to the mini counsel, "More soldiers are going to come and this time, their going to take us a lot more seriously. We can pack everything up and march to Harman's Castle."

      "You're insane," Chole said, "Theirs no way we can get to Harman's Castle in time. It's a 2 days horse ride and that's when the conditions are good. I'd rather die fighting the Regime then getting lost and dying of hunger. We should stay and fight."

     "We can't risk staying here," I said, adding my voice to the conversation, "King Louis won't send another idiot like Sir Lampwell again. He might send Crampton himself or another commander of the garrison."

     "And we'll just kill them again," Chole countered, "Lampwell wasn't that hard to kill."

      "You don't understand," I replied, "Lampwell was just a lowly knight, probably only had 1 or 2 years of training. Sir Crampton had been commander of the third garrison before I was born. He served under my father and my grandfather. A thousand Lampwell's won't even make a dent in his armour."

      "And the third garrison's suppose to be the weakest one..." Kyxio muttered, yet everyone heard him.

      That part was true though. The third garrison was the weakest, since if that garrison broke, Crown's End could easily send men to the garrison in less than a day. The other garrisons were further away, and therefore needed more men. The first garrison was supposedly the most powerful, under the command of Ikhad, the dark mage.

      "I agree that we need to move," Alexia said, "but Chole's got a point. We can't force march all the way to Harman's Castle. With the frequent bandit attacks and the rough terrain, we would be better off fighting."

       "Then where do we go?" I asked, "All our other strongholds are much further away and we can't seek refuge in any of the kingdoms. Especially not the Biege Kingdom."

      We were currently closest to the Biege Kingdom, but they were closer to nomads than an actual kingdom. They were once a strong Kingdom, ruling from the Heart Of The Land, but ever since the Central Uprising failed, it was a shattered kingdom. The entire known royal family had been executed and the Heart had been burnt to the ground.

     Now, it was a nomadic place, with clans and families fighting each other, each presenting their own claims over the ruins of the castle. Once in a while, a 'king' would crown himself, only to be overthrown a week later.

     "We've got no choice," I continued, "We've got to march. To Harman's castle immediately. They've got strong walls and plenty of soldiers. Once we add up our numbers to theirs, we'll be virtually unbeatable."

    "I agree," Kyxio said, "That'll buy us some time and allow us to build up our soldiers and supplies again."

      "Alright then," Alexia said, "We start packing our stuff today and tomorrow, at dawn, we leave."

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     War horns woke me up the next day. We had spent the entire day before loading food, weapons and armour into mule carts that would pull us across the rough terrain of the Jaw. Even with mules for the equipment and horses for us, the march was planned to take more tahn a week to reach the castle.