Blaekerian: An Epic Fantasy Novel (In Progress)

We Will Be Free

At that moment the catapults stopped, and the din was relatively silent again. The constant boom of the rocks slamming high walls and the crunch of gears as the devices were reloaded had almost faded into the background since an hour after Vyra had arrived. The newfound silence was eerie. Unnatural quiet before an explosion.

And then as one, voices rose and the three companies of Thren battalion lurched forward and charged the walls of Fort Chyyne.

Vyra removed the spyglass given to her by her adopted father when they had first met and watched the proceedings.

Imperial troops charged the wall. For every twenty soldiers, one carried a great ladder used for the climb. Suddenly troops on the ground began to fall, struck from seemingly invisible attacks.

Vyra turned the spyglass up the wall and saw the Cian's firing arrow after arrow on the forces below. The walls were lined with defenders. Maybe their whole force, she couldn't be sure. They were almost on top of each other up there. She looked to the keep behind the walls. It was a simple structure with mostly wooden make up. Who resides there? She wondered. Why didn't they surrender? They could not hope to hold out against the empire. It was surely impossible.

At the bottom of the wall, the empire's forces began placing the ladders. Some were already making their way up. Vyra cringed for what she knew of a surety would happen on several of those. And sure enough it did. On one in particular she  followed a soldier on their journey to the top but when they got there, hell awaited.

A large Cian plunged a sword through the first imperial to reach the top of the wall and shoved the dying soldier back, plummeting down. However that man was exposed and was soon taken out by archers that got him from the ground, he fell forward and joined the imperial he'd slain in the downward spiral.

Other Cian's took his place soon after however, and these bore red barrels that puffed up steam from their open tops. The two Cians poured the contents of that barrel down the ladder which erupted the climbers in screams of agony and death. All along the bottom of the wall those screams were heard as the Cian's dumped their payload on the imperials below.

Vyra could hear them from this distance. Her skin wrinkled with goosebumps. She turned the glass further down the wall.

The battering ram had made it to the front entryway and the troops were pounding away at the entrance. The THUD THUD THUD of the great branch-less tree echoed through the valley. The sound added to the chaotic noise of metal on metal clashes as well as cries of anger, bravery and death.

The battalions were swelling against the walls like tidal waves crashing into a great cliff or like insects being halted by a great boot. She caught the sight of one area in which their troops had made the climb successfully. Bleakerians were on the walls.

Vyra lowered the spyglass. She turned toward her own company and saw that no one was resting easy up away from the battle. All of them on edge with weapons drawn. A few men were sharpening their north-land curved swords while staring into the distance. One gnarmoc was kicking at a tuft of grass that grew raggedly on the hilltop. She seemed quite engrossed in her task.

Vyra looked back to the battle ensuing below. It was nearly time.

"N'Daryion Company!" she yelled.

That startled them. The group staring dejected turned. The ones sharpening stopped their routine. The gnarmoc woman halted her task.

"We the imperial legions, are the backbone of the empire." She pulled her shoulders back and took a step forward. "We must take that fort. You may think it a small out of the way place guarding nothing nothing of value. But you would be wrong if you did."

"That fort," she pointed down towards the battle unfolding below, "Is where the beginning ends. Once we hold it, Isle Cruelle is ours. And once the island is ours we will have our western side secured for the full invasion. All of the Rhyyne Sea will begin to fall quickly after that. Island after Island. Cianne, Elhurra, Credor. All the way to the very last place occupied by any of the races, Balghr 'Ranthe."

"And when we hold the Rhyyne Sea." Vyra turned back to the men and women before her, staring into many pairs of wide eyes. "We will hold back the Awakening... And we will be free." The troops all as one saluted and repeated her last words.

"We will be free." Their voices echoed across the hilltop.

Admiral Vyra N'Daryion looked to the battle below. Imperial troops at that moment breached the main gate. The metal and wood burst inward and Cian's began charging out to defend the newly created hole in the fortifications.

Vyra raised her sword to the clear morning sky and shouted, "For Blaekeria! For the Empire!"

"For the Empire!" Her troops called back. And then it began.