Daughter of War

Chapter 14 - Golden Crown

On the battlefield, Alden's hands are shaking, the men in front of him are monsters, he has watched as they leap onto men's backs and dig their teeth into flesh. They have long curved talons that are sharp enough to tear through armour.

Alden stands beside his brother in the calm, surrounded by dead men. They met a thousand nyokamtu in the mountain pass, they pushed them back before they could pass through the mountains, and then it turned into a massacre, where the only sound to be heard were the screams of men as they fought and died.

In the end, Alden's army proved victorious, but he still lost over two hundred men.

"Alden," Harrmon says, placing his hand on Alden's shoulder, "What's wrong?"

"The scout said that there were at least five thousand nyokamtu," Alden breathes turning to his brother.

"So the fool can't count," Harrmon laughs, clapping Alden on the shoulder.

"No," Alden says with a tight scowl, he looks around, his own horse lays dead, several feet from him, its body shredded from the claws of his enemies.

Alden looks around at the dead, some are missing parts of their faces, others have deep gashes in their chest; he looks to the wounded, men with broken bones and blood gushing out of deep wounds.

"Captain!" Alden calls, "Captain!"

"Yes, my prince?" the captain of his army responds, he stands with some of his men, mostly wounded.

"Take the wounded to the Mothers," Alden instructs.

"Are you ill?" Harrmon hisses, "It will cripple us, we will lose men who can fight."

Alden faces his brother but before he can open his mouth he hears the sound of horse feet pounding on the ground.
House Maisel charges over the mountains with house Urion, the houses from the south.

"Well met, my prince," Lord Thaddeus from house Maisel says, "It appears that we have come too late to fight."

"Not so, my lord," Alden says, "This is only the first of many to come."

"The nyokamtu are moving to the north," Lord Urion says and Alden's eyes widen, "We had a raven come, this morning."

"Get the wounded back to the mothers," Alden commands, mounting a fallen soldier's horse, "We ride north."

Alden pushes his horse to run, his remaining soldiers ride with him and with the force of the other houses, they should outnumber the nyokamtu.

Alden and his men ride hard and fast along the border of Triforte and Ilannda, to castle Roxworth, it takes three weeks, but when they arrive, it is black and burned, dead bodies litter the ground, and none of them have scales around their eyes.

"By the Gods," Lord Maisel gapes, stopping his horse by Alden, a fire still slowly burns through the castle.

"No horses," Harrmon says, "They took the horses."

"And the weapons I bet," Lord Maisel adds, Alden's heart races as he thinks of Thora back at the castle, he takes a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"We have to keep moving," he says.

"Where?" Harrmon asks, "Where are we going to go? We don't know where they are going."

"They could go up the mountains," Lord Urion says, "And go towards Triforte, or they could go around the mountains, unnoticed slipping through the smaller villages and castles, growing in strength until they reach your uncle at Coldin."

Alden thinks of the former option, how they could ride to Triforte, Alden's hands shake, the castle isn't fully defended, with only a small amount of men, not nearly enough to defend against the full number of nyokamtu. His men start to talk, they whisper among themselves, then the whispers grow louder.