Contributed by Larissa Peltier
Commander Kaid watched the field. Clouds gathered like spectators, dimming the sky and ushering a mist that rolled forward like a ghost of the wave of opponents to come. The air moved forcibly against the backs of his soldiers in their ranks. It was as if the elements cleared the game board of war for the mortals. Wind pushed away the mist, revealing the first dark line on the horizon that was the enemy. Men of Rathyst, men with hunger in their eyes, turning their bones into iron and their muscles into cords of determination. Kaid locked his jaw. His eyes flickered behind his eyelids as he calculated, counted, estimated numbers. If he thought about the truth, he would be unable to do what he had to do. The truth that they were not numbers; they were individuals, each one so unique and valuable, with wives and mothers and fathers and children. They lived and laughed and walked and survived up to this day, and for many, only until this day. But they were soldiers, and they were meant to be used in this way. To send forth to kill and be killed. Kaid opened his eyes and walled up his heart from his mind. Seven thousand on this battlefield, maybe half? How many did they have? Were their men well rested, were his? Where was the fear? Was there already defeat in the mind? How could he inspire that? How many of theirs would he have to slaughter and make it look effortless to make them despair? But these men of Rathyst, they did not give up, even though they lost far more than his in every battle. What kind of place could rear such a desperate race?
That was another mystery. Rathyst, a domain yet unheard of, did not even appear on any of the maps. And that was bad. Not good to not know the enemy. The Rathyst were sinew and swords. They had a wild look in their eyes as they hacked their way into the domains of Ralorn. At first, the Raths had overrun the sparsely-populated domain of Nadeau. Then had quickly discovered the passes that linked Nadeau to Mrain, and had begun a campaign across the grain fields of Mrain. Commander Kaid intended for the invasion to stop here. The central domain of Ralorn could not be overtaken, and the Rathyst force was determined to do so. The Raths were barbarians who slept on the ground at night with only the sky for a blanket. Those who had swords carried chipped blades; the rest fought with rusty pikes and any other weapon they could fashion with their own hands. These invaders could go days without food, and fought with the desperation of starved animals. Even though Kaid knew the Raths had traversed miles the day before, here they were advancing across the plain, ready for battle, as ready as his soldiers who had slept well with a hearty meal in their bellies.
The archer’s horn blew and the first line of longbows lifted into the air. Kaid scanned the end of the field. The mist had cleared and the dark edge on the horizon spilled forward. Kaid counted as the dark edge increased. There were five hundred, a thousand. He gave the signal and the archer’s horn sounded again. The arrows unleashed with a wind of their own, thudding into ground or chest as they fell back to earth. It triggered the enemy’s charge.
Kaid’s army took action. The infantry met the charging Raths, while the horse riders stabbed through the rents that opened in the mass of struggling foot soldiers, cutting down any enemy Rath they saw. The Raths had the same battle strategy every time, overcome where they were thickest. To defeat them, Kaid sent the horse riders in, even dropping off foot soldiers into the areas of Rathyst concentration in order to rip the horde into shreds and win the battle.
Riven rode into the fray with his mounted unit, leading them into a Rathyst mass and setting down his infantry rider in the midst of it. It was his daughter, Karice. He had trained her from a young age to wield her weapon, the chain blade. It was a length of chain with a razor sharp blade at one end, and a weight at the other end. Karice, along with the rest of the infantry, engaged the Raths and cut them down before moving onto another. Few Ralorns fell while the battlefield became littered by the bodies of the Raths. It looked promising for Commander Kaid. The disordered Raths with their inferior weapons were easily killed by his well-equipped soldiers and mounted units.
A sound filled the air, one the soldiers of Ralorn had never heard before. It was a deep, raspy sound, as if something immense was breathing, filling huge lungs. Dark shadows loomed from the forest on the sides of the field. They emerged as two huge beasts of murder. They resembled bears, but were enormous with ragged white fur and jaws the size of a man’s chest.
