The last two weeks or so in Chaldea had seen an almost miraculous chronology of events. Goldoran criminals had fled the city en masse after the execution of their protector. Then, Goldoran forces had followed suit. During the last four days, the true king's mysterious ghosts—that's what the people were calling the knights—had disappeared a host of Garrera's goons in office, forced the remaining ones to flee to the palace with him, and made him increase palace security and lock himself up in the palace. Garrera had also gathered 5,500 men since, led by the Chief of the Army General Hatto, and stationed them on the walls and in the city. The Chaldeans did not understand the rationale for this deployment, but Garrera was anticipating the arrival of a massive army, having confirmed that K'rar did have one. The garrisons were so many, and sections of them kept their eyes open on every corner and every alley and every wall crevice, having been tasked to watch out for the highly trained assailants who were still here in Chaldea. The knights' reputation preceded them. Only reports of their ruthless efficiency reached Garrera's ears, the latest of these being the merciless destruction of Goldoran troops in Moon Province. The Kaffrarian Knights, according to the newest report, had taken no prisoners whatsoever, and had impaled thousands of dead soldiers on stakes to further rub it in Goldora's face. Garrera pictured undisciplined, bloodthirsty cutthroats, justifying his mobilization of troops. He felt they were sufficient to keep K'rar out of the city. He had even invited a famous Kayan mercenary, Ar-mithre the Wanderer, who had a stellar reputation in defending walled cities. Ar-mithre's mercenaries amounted to at least 500 men, fierce fighters, so in total, Chaldea had 6,000 troops. Only the Administrators' private armies had remained in their district posts. Garrera knew that K'rar was currently not in the city, as he had made no appearance since his execution of Minister Sentien of Goldora five days ago, although his cell was still present.
And on the fifth night of waiting, his somewhat paranoid actions were vindicated when ten riders came to the palace. They had come from the east coast, from the district of Chalcol, or Calcul, carrying terrible news. Garrera was in his throne room with five people including Hatto and two other military officers, Kishra, and a minister. The messengers reported exactly as Garrera had feared. A very large army was marching on Chaldea with blistering pace. They had also had sunk what was left of the Matalma Rock Fleet before starting this procession to Chaldea.
'Did you see how many?' Garrera asked the leader of the riders.
'Tens of thousands, sir.'
'Tens of thousands?' Garrera repeated.
'Yes, sir. They all ride horses, sir. All of them. And they travel fast. They caught up with us twice. They could be only a single day out.'
This messenger did not know it, but K'rar's reconnaissance teams had seen him and his riders. He had only managed to complete his journey because K'rar allowed him. Because of them, K'rar had also concealed the Nephilim. At Chaldea, Tahwan was also still secret, although he had been out and about, laying waste to Goldoran troops before their departure. And, K'rar was not expecting any opposition upon his arrival.
That was because Shaniz and her 40 knights within Chaldea had a mission to guarantee that. When K'rar was only one day out or less, the mission started the following morning. Shaniz herself was in the compound of their base by dawn, before the morning sky was fully lit. The rest of the cell was preparing themselves, getting all their logistics ready, including parts of a dismantled whizzgun without its base and wheels, and chemar rounds. Shaniz was in the compound with Tahwan. He was being suited up in full armor. He had his giant bow as well as a mace of similar size. He, too, wore knights-grade body armor, made of leather and steel.
'Are you ready?'
'More than ready,' said Tahwan, 'let's go.'
Tahwan would go for his undertaking with someone else, not Shaniz. It was a knight who had been scouting the area near the palace's front gate.
'Off you go then.'
Shaniz and the rest of the knights would all follow shortly afterward. Several of their kidnapped officials, including Maldab, were being dragged along in carts. Even though there were soldiers teeming like flies in most every corner, it was easy for three of the knights, females, to simply walk through the roads without their disturbance. These three broke off from the larger group led by Shaniz, headed for the house on Abishec rivulet, or its ruins. They were to serve as a distraction to the guards stationed there to watch the tunnel. Garrera had been told that the Goldoran cabal K'rar had destroyed was the one that burned down the house, but he also knew that K'rar knew about this tunnel, hence his deployment of a squad of good soldiers there. But he had not thought carefully. Either that, or the K'rar was simply more judicious in nature. The main body of the knights' cell, with Shaniz, traveled in the more clandestine ways typical of them, and arrived in the small, hidden grove of short trees where they had been digging over the tunnel. With them they had Chief Administrator Maldab, his son, and two of the five Korah administrators. K'rar's dog, Targa, was also with them. Jaax threw off the wooden cover they had placed over the hole he had dug, revealing an eight-foot drop into the earth below. He dropped down first with a rope, with Targa on his back, then followed the knight Ezio. Shaniz was next. She first grabbed Maldab by the frock of his robes, and made him sit up. The old man wore a shattered, and resigned, look when he made out that they were standing over the tunnel. He was bound and gagged like his other officials, so he couldn't reply when Shaniz said,
'Surprised? Of course you are. But how can you hope to keep out the king from his own home?' she then dragged him to the mouth of the hole and pushed him. The knights below would break his fall, but not too leniently. The same thing was done for the other prisoners. Damaris the damsel was the last one to drop down, and she closed the hatch. Its cover was spread with dry grass and earth, perfectly camouflaged. It was now bright outside, but they had to light up their glass lanterns once inside. It was a long walk from here to the palace underground.
Meanwhile at the palace, alarm bells were ringing violently. The guards even had to arouse Garrera from his slumber to tell him of the staggering sight they had just seen approaching the palace gate via the King's Road, apart from the news that a group of the Kaffrarians had just attempted, but not successfully, to use the tunnel from the house on Abishec rivulet. Both he and Kishra, who had entertained him for the night, didn't believe it at first.
'What do you mean a giant?' Kishra was the more incredulous of the two.
'You have got to see it yourself,' said Major Alain, 'you will not believe unless you do.'
Both quickly threw on something, and followed Alain to the parapets of the front perimeter wall, where a crowd of soldiers had lined up along its length. Kishra might have let out a scream at what she saw, but she muffled it with a hand over her lips. Tahwan was still making his way up the quiet King's Road, led by a man, a knight. The two were unhampered, and were by themselves, although they had been spotted on their way here. But the giant was too fast, and had easily vanished between buildings and alleys, carrying the knight, Bacillan, on his back.
'Goodness! What the hell is that?' Garrera was genuinely afraid. He had been for some time. No one answered his query, but only a loud shout was heard from Major Alain to defend the door at all costs. When Bacillan and Tahwan came to within sixty or so meters, the latter stopped, and Bacillan alone walked on toward the gate. As he did so, he pulled from his back a white flag on its post, and waved it. Alain's archers had been stationed along the top of the wall, ready to shoot. They did not shoot him, courtesy of the white flag. Alain did not open the gate to him though, and only spoke to him loudly from the ramparts.
'If you are here to ask for surrender, forget it.'
'The alternative is bad for you, you know,' Bacillan said, looking up. He recognized Garrera simply from his different garb, 'you have only 200 men defending this palace. My friend Tahwan only can wipe them out, before the sleep on your face disappears.'
'There's more men in the city, young man. All we must do is light a signal,' said Alain. There was no need for this because the men he spoke of had seen Tahwan, and would soon arrive by themselves, 'and after we shut you down, we will feed your guts to those birds.' He pointed up at the parliament of birds making rounds over the palace sky.
Bacillan laughed at this. Alain had punned on himself, because the birds he was referring to were a unit of 30 Urdian raptors. He said,
'I am so glad you said that. You have ten minutes to reconsider.'
But not even one of those minutes had passed, when Tahwan pulled his bow from his back, as well as two arrows as large as small trees. Attention had briefly been turned from him because Alain had ordered his men to kill Bacillan. They were shaken, and others thrown off their feet, when Tahwan's arrows suddenly smashed through concrete on the ramparts. One of them sliced a man's head clean off, and some blood squirted on Kishra's right cheek. Kishra's scream wasn't the only one that greeted this. Two guards quickly snatched her and Garrera off the ramparts, while Alain shouted the obvious,
'My lord, you need to return indoors!'
Tahwan fired another arrow and took out another man, causing a frenzy among them. That's when the raptors hovering above them began to swoop. One throng of six flew in an elegant queue to attack Garrera directly. Had he not been guarded by seven men, they would have carried him off the earth. They continued to harry the men on the ramparts, until they all had to operate from the ground and fend off the birds with arrows. Meanwhile Tahwan and Bacillan continued to cause havoc, although they had neither the intention nor the means to actually breach the gate by themselves. They were merely putting up a show, until more men came from the city to fight them from outside. Tahwan sliced through them like a training session, swinging his mace and tomahawk with both hands. Once they became too many, Tahwan carried Bacillan and escaped from the scene, but not before kicking a few men like balls, one of whom landed badly with his head first into a tree, crushing his skull.
'Where is my son?' Kishra was asking the maids in charge of the boy. The daughter, Sherianne, was already with her in her chambers.
'He is playing in the gallery, Your Majesty. Shall I fetch him?'
'No, let him be.'
She surmised that the boy, Rugan, was even safer in the gallery, his favorite spot. The prince liked that place because it led down into a tunnel under the palace, where the eight-year old boy loved to play with his toys. Garrera had himself taken the kid on a tour of it after renovating the escape tunnel some years ago, and Rugan had since taken a liking for the tunnel. Whenever Rugan played here, he would roam as far as the first barrier gate deep in the tunnel, a gate constructed specifically to prevent the boy going farther. Also because of this, he would be by himself when he went down into the tunnel while his attendants remained at the entrance of the tunnel, fearing no danger. Like this morning.
Rugan's play routine was simple. To run back and forth, sometimes with a ball, and sometimes with a wooden sword, swinging it in the air against imaginary opponents. Garrera was preparing a military future for the boy, a way to earn his army's trust first, before taking on the kingship. Today, Rugan went as far as the barrier gate, which was just behind a sharp corner. But today, Rugan stopped in his tracks, and paused his fighting. He wasn't sure whether to be scared or to investigate. Rugan knew he was not alone. There was something, or someone, jostling with the barrier gate just behind the corner in front of him, but he could only hear, not see it. Not unless he checked himself. Rugan's inquisitiveness was stronger than his fear. Besides, he was a prince. There was no reason to fear, as there had been no causes for this all his life. So he walked to the corner, without even first taking a peek. He simply stood right in front of the barrier, and found himself face to face with a large black dog. The boy's blood immediately froze, and he dropped his sword. But he stayed put, at first, as Targa couldn't harm him from the other side of the bars. But he did turn around to leave when he heard the footsteps of the approaching knights. He was spotted just before he turned back into the corner, this time sticking his face to look.
'Shit,' said Jaax. He accelerated to the barrier, and called out to the kid to come back, but to no avail. He cursed, dropping the stuff he was carrying so he could lift the barrier gate out of the ground, where it was fastened by studs. Three of the others, including Suchy, joined him when the gate didn't budge. It was firmly established into the ground.
'Shit, shit!' Jaax was still cursing, 'why did it suddenly appear at this time?'
He was justified in his complaint, because along the rest of the tunnel there were no other barriers. Meanwhile Jaax was running faster than he ever had all his life. His young mind created an image of Targa snarling right at his heels, and he carried himself as if the dog was actually chasing him. Targa would chase him as soon as the knights got the better of the barrier, but the kid had had a sufficient head start, and he arrived at the stairs leading up out of the tunnel safely. Still, he was still running for his life, and he raced past his matron in the gallery as if she wasn't there.
'My prince!' she was startled by the boy's sudden appearance. The tunnel's entrance wasn't a trapdoor as it had originally been. It was a door now, one that could be locked. And because she chased after Rugan, the matron neglected to lock it. The gallery was a relatively small room with no real significance other than the tunnel, so the boy was already outside by the time the woman caught up with the boy and stopped him. She only took one look at him before she frowned in confusion. Rugan looked like he had just escaped from the mouth of a constrictor.
'Gracious,' she said, 'what's the matter, Prince?'
'There was a dog,' was what the boy said between two heavy breaths. The matron sighed in relief.
'A dog, my prince?'
'A big, black dog.'
'Okay, okay. You're safe now, there's nothing to worry about.'
'I want my mother.'
'Okay, okay. Let's go to mother.'
The kid was still a bit shaken when he was brought to Kishra, who was just being told that the giant who had previously left, was now back again, trying to breach the gate. Kishra dismissed the maid saying this, and as soon as she saw Rugan, she swallowed back into her mouth what she was about to say to him, and instead said to the matron,
'What is wrong with him?'
'He was in the tunnel, my lady. Something spooked him. He says he saw a dog.'
'I saw it, mother,' Rugan reemphasized it.
'A dog, my son?' his mother lifted him onto the mattress besides her, while his sister laughed at him.
'Yes, there was a dog. And some people.'
'Is that so?' Kishra ruffled his hair encouragingly, obviously regarding the boy's talk as mere imagination, 'you never scare that easily, son, even in that eerie tunnel. What changed tod…' Kishra's face went pale with terror, and her eyes almost fell out. She removed her hand from the boy's hair and used it to hold his shoulders.
'Rugan, did you say you saw some people?'
'Yes. I am not lying.'
Kishra stood up, snatching the kid from the bed simultaneously, and saying to the other kid,
'Sherianne, let's go.'
'What's wrong, mother?' the little girl wanted to know. Kishra said to the matron, who was also awaiting her response to the girl's query,
'The palace is under attack. They're in the tunnel.' She was dismissing her with her fingers, 'tell the guards. Tell the guards, now!'
The matron proceeded to run out. There was quite some distance from here through the corridor, at the end of which the guards stood. Behind her, Kishra was yelling the same thing, that the palace was under attack, and the two guards heard her before the matron reached them. They turned and stepped into the corridor. This was an error. They never got a chance to at least yell the alarm to the rest of the palace, but even if they had, they would have had to travel quite some distance to find another group of guards. All the palace guards were preoccupied with the situation outside. Tahwan's role had turned out perfect. There was a very small number of guards inside the palace. As soon as these two got the memo and turned around, one of them was pinned to the wall by Uche's arrow, and the other by both arrow and dog fangs. The matron's legs gave way as soon as her eyes met the dog, and she just dropped onto the floor like a lead balloon, screaming like a banshee. Kishra paused in her tracks, and retraced her steps frantically. She wanted to lock herself in her chambers. One Damaris struck the door with an arrow, so close to her, causing her to fall back inside the chambers but managing to lock it, while the other Damaris bullied the matron into submission. The both of them then dragged her to the chamber door, and started to assault it.
The cell did not have trouble navigating the palace, because Yorgi, who was present at the palace and waiting for them from the interior, would help them. He had reemphasized his desire to be the one to execute Lankh. Shaniz and the larger mass of the cell headed to the room where he waited for them by himself, while Damaris easily forced Kishra's door open, and found her brandishing a weapon at her. She said to her,
'Put that down, you're scaring the kids.' The kids were cooped up in the corner of the bed, cuddling each other, 'put it down!'
Kishra dropped it, because she couldn't use it anyway. She now adopted the bargaining attitude as Damaris snatched her arm.
'Please, don't harm my children.'
'That depends on you. Move.'
Damaris was not going to leave the kids alone. Her namesake came along to take charge of them, taking them after her back toward the tunnel.
They found Garrera in a porch on the second floor of the palace when a maid directed them there, scared as a cornered rat. He was watching the gate, where Tahwan was terrorizing the guards there, including Lankh. Garrera was standing with three of the Korah members, with their backs turned from the approaching knights. At least eight guards inevitably saw Shaniz and company, they drew their swords, alerting the men of repute, but it was too late. The knights all carried bows, and even though these palace guards were particularly very good fighters, they would get no chance to flaunt it. All were felled in the blink of an eye. Hazael and the knight called Ezio shot two of them right between the eyes. The General and his men swerved around in shock. One of the administrators attempted to shout for help, and got himself an arrow in the throat. Shaniz also an arrow into Garrera's right thigh to disable him, whilst marching into the balcony, saying,
'Sorry about that, old man, but you will die anyway.'
Garrera had smothered his yelp of pain between gritted teeth, falling to the floor like a sack, clutching at the injured leg. The other two administrators who were still standing immediately surrendered by putting their hands up. Shaniz said,
'Good choice.'
This porch was high and very far from the palace gates, and all those on ground were preoccupied with keeping Tahwan outside the gate, which was increasingly getting problematic. Tahwan was still being kept out successfully, but only just. Shaniz, Suchy and Ezio dealt with Garrera. They had the equipment to bind him, and to gag him too because he was hollering lots of empty threats. The knights in the interior were dealing with any other hostiles, and others were dragging their other prisoners. Once Garrera was bound well, except at his legs, they dragged him back inside, and took him through the building to the compound. Uche and the two namesakes dragged Kishra and the children, toward the gate. They were still completely unseen, even when they pulled up behind the defenders, although lots of palace maids and eunuchs were standing around in sheer fright. That's when the whizzgun came into use. Two knights inclined the whizzgun on something a hundred meters back, pointing it at the back of the Guard Squadron. They filled the barrel with its maximum ammunition, and fired it three times. 18 men dropped dead or injured before they had the chance to look back at what was killing them. The blasts were so loud and disorienting that they rooted many men to the spot. Meanwhile, Tahwan used the distraction to knock open the gate, and launch a rampage. He sliced the men to his left with his tomahawk, and those to his right with his mace. The bloodshed was gut-wrenching. While Tahwan killed about ten men in a swipe, the whizzgun was fired elsewhere at fleeing guards, dropping dozens of others. The rest of the knights were shooting arrows too. This was maintained for just over three minutes, until Shaniz ordered them to stop. More than half of the men had been killed. The remnant, including Lankh, were cornered like rodents in a pocket, first by the towering giant, who was then joined by bow-wielding knights. Shaniz stood next to Tahwan, and announced to them,
'Lay down your arms and get on your knees, and you will be spared.'
'Wait,' said Yorgi from out back, running to join them, 'he's mine.' He was pointing at Lankh, who had to react to a brand new shock.
'Traitor,' he breathed, 'I will have your head you blithering idiot.'
'You killed my people, fuck's sake. And then you turned me into a cutthroat. Am I a dog, that I should not remember these things?'
'So you ran away at the first try, eh? You have no honor. I should have killed you back then, with your herders.'
'How dare you speak of honor, with hands that have shed innocent blood?' Yorgi spat back, 'yes I did run away at the first try. You and your master are no kings. All you care about are your stomachs and your greed, for power that you cannot wield.'
Lankh was enraged. This was not the time to have to find out that his Yorgi project had in fact been a failure, especially when his own master was present. He angrily raised his sword, hurled it at Yorgi, and struck him in his shoulder. For this, Lankh himself was struck by four arrows on his midrib. While Yorgi yelled and writhed in pain, Lankh dropped on the earth without movement, his nostrils stopped, and he expired. For Garrera, this was like the loss of a son. Even the hard man's face crumpled in pain, and this quickly turned into vengeful fury. Nonetheless he could do nothing more than try to free himself by shaking violently. Hazael was already tendering to Yorgi's bad wound, when Shaniz said again,
'Last warning, soldiers. Lay down your arms, and your lives will be spared.'
Major Alain, as if he had replaced Lankh, opened his mouth to speak, and as soon as the gist of his speech smelt of stubbornness, he was swiftly struck down too. Resultantly, all the rest of the men dropped their weapons and dropped to their knees.
'Good.'
They clustered the men in small groups, bound them with rope, and lined them up one behind the other with nooses around their necks to connect them together. Shaniz called for wagons from the palace, and had some staff bring eight caged wagons for transporting animals. They stuffed the aristocrats in these, with Garrera alone in the lead wagon without his royal robes, and Kishra and her children in the other. They then lined up facing the gate, but before they opened it, Shaniz ordered all the nonviolent staff, most of whom were already converged around watching in utter shock, to assemble. They did so very quickly, and Shaniz said,
'Who are your leaders?'
The chief eunuch and chief maid were already in the front of the assembly. They stepped forward. Marlo was the chief maid. There were maids much older than her, but Marlo's dealings with Kishra, stretching all the way back to the first time Kishra came to the palace, had turned their initial animosity into a good relationship. The chief eunuch, on the other hand, was new with this post, as his predecessor had joined the Guard Squadron, and was one of those dead.
'The true king of this land has returned. He will want to find his home in good condition. If any of you won't serve under him, step out.'
Both eunuch and maid suddenly fell on their knees and bowed before her. The rest of the staff did the same. Marlo said,
'Please, speak well of us. We are only merely worthless workers, and we had no choice but to serve.'
'No blame has been put upon any of you,' Shaniz said as a matter of fact, and then added, 'I simply said, if any of you will not work under your king, you are free to leave.'
'We are happy to serve under the true king. We simply ask forgiveness for working under the usurper.'
'Your penance is already accepted. On your feet.' They rose, with their faces downcast, and Shaniz added, 'clean this mess up quickly. The king will be returning home soon.'
'Yes, ma'am,' said the chief eunuch, who then turned around and said, 'you heard her. Get to work!'
When Shaniz ordered to open the gate, two horsemen were already galloping toward it from down the road, messengers arriving from Chaldea's gates. They rode all the way to the gate, as they couldn't see the wagons nor their contents. The men clearly knew nothing of Shaniz's gang, because they saw her, Hazael and Suchy standing in front of the gate, and had no reaction, except to the fact that two females were standing in front of them dressed as combatants.
'What is it?' Shaniz asked. The messengers resisted their inclination to ask, so they just said,
'We are here to see the king. The Kaffrarians are arriving at the south gate.'
'But the king marches with the Kaffrarian Knights. So how can he be here at the same time?' Suchy said.
'W-what?' said the second messenger.
'What is this about? Who are you?' said his companion. This was the signal to Suchy to nod to Ezio behind him to open the gate. The messengers did not spot the staggering sight at first, but when they did, they whimpered on behalf of their horses. The lead horseman healed quickly, and asked again,
'Who are you?'
'Brigadier Shaniz Santillan is my name,' said Shaniz, 'commander of the Serpentine Division of the Kaffrarian Knights.'
The convoy of knights inside the gate was now marching out, on horseback. Shaniz herself was given a horse, and when she mounted it, the messenger said,
'This is high treason. Your head shall…'
'The way I see it, if you don't stand down now, your head will be the one in danger,' said Shaniz, 'now you will return with us to the gate. It is time to welcome the king.'
'Most of the king's men who helped him take power are the same ones guarding the gate. Do you think killing him will make them open the gates?' the messenger said, as he and his companion were bound, and returned to their horses.
'We'll see about that.'
The high battlements of Chaldea were teeming with soldiers. The last time this took place was many years before Hatto himself was born, and he had only read about it in history books. The siege of Chaldea, by Goldoran armies. The Chaldeans had won the war and drove back the scarlet-colored savages. It was that siege that birthed the modern nation, the one that had kept Goldorans at bay so many years. Hatto had wanted to be part of the Korazin Army from the moment he learned about those heroes, and he had succeeded. General Garrera had spotted his potential very early in his military career, and he had since been under his command. This was the state of affairs when Garrera was sent down to the southern frontier to guard against Goldoran aggression. When Garrera began to grow resentful of the king because he had been left out in so many things on so many occasions, Hatto had shared his sentiments. He knew of Garrera's dark history. All Korazin had ever done for his family was to sacrifice it, and give it no recognition in return. Garrera's own father and brothers had died in the nation's wars, after his mother had abandoned them to become the concubine of one of the king's officials. Yet, no one ever mentioned the Garrera family. The country had betrayed Garrera. So he had betrayed it too. These things had taken place under the rule of von Balian's predecessor, so Garrera had begun to plant the seeds of his vengeance early, by establishing military power and respect for himself. His idea had been crazy at first, then all of a sudden, through a sexy frontierswoman named Kishra, his secrets had reached the ears of not just any Goldoran, but its king. And so both the Goldorans and Garrera had snatched at an opportunity to bring the dynasty to an end, simply by feeding into Garrera's resentment. They had presented to him a more practical plan, one that was far better than simply satisfying his resentment. His original plan had involved his own death, as long as he destroyed the king. The new plan would not only remove the king, but it would spare his life and put him on the king's throne. He had then become friendly with the Goldorans, to cripple his own nation. But as long as his family name was now the highest in the land, who cared? Even Hatto didn't care. He was a man who would die for Garrera. Garrera had not looked down on him simply because he was from a lowly family. He had practically raised him, as he had Lankh.
But now, even Hatto couldn't deny that Garrera was not a good king. If anything, Garrera's name was not revered. Instead, it was known far and wide that it was the name of a Goldoran puppet. He had actually disgraced himself and his family rather than establish it. He had completely undone the great history of Korazin, and all the heroes that Hatto looked up to.
Yet, here stood Hatto, on the battlements of the great city of Chaldea, ready to defend it, not against Goldorans, but against a descendant of the great Casparon kings. In just a few weeks, K'rar von Caspar had gone a long way to restore Korazin's honor. Without shedding a drop of blood inside Chaldea, the boy whom he tried to kill almost thirteen years ago, had expelled the Goldorans from Chaldea. The boy was already more of a hero than Garrera. He had even defied death. But this concession wasn't enough by itself to make him even consider letting the true king return to his post. Garrera was an evil man, but he was his evil man.
When the first sign of K'rar and his foreign army appeared just beyond the hill on the horizon, Hatto thought he was not seeing clearly. He paced closer to the wall, bent over the concrete to squint into the distance to make sure he was seeing right. Then, both of the other leaders of the defense, Ar-mithre the Wanderer and his fellow General Ahn Emis, joined him wearing the same bewildered countenances. Ahn Emis said,
'What is this? What is he doing?'
K'rar's army was approaching indeed. But they were not approaching in battle formation at all. In fact, they resembled an exceedingly long queue of travelers, who would have been thought to be arriving for the Festival had they been civilians. They dragged no siege engines, wore no helmets. A belligerent army should approach parallel to the walls, everyone knew that. As they came closer, the men frowned even harder at the sight. K'rar's black stallion was being shared with what looked like a boy. The boy was Ollinz, but the defenders cared less, because the boy was not meant to be anywhere near a warzone. K'rar's horse was flanked on both sides by Romiel's and Bekka's, and behind them rode the other brigadiers as well as K'rar's native officers Mongoose, Pliny and Ossus. When they came to within a reasonable distance from the gate, looking directly at it and at the soldiers along its battlements, they stopped. There was a new, weird silence in the depression between this hill and the gate as they stared at each other. But K'rar did not move again. He just stayed there, on his horse, while the rest of his army also parked behind him. Hatto asked again,
'What is he playing at?'
The answer did not come from his fellows on the wall. It came from everyone else behind him on the ground. They had all just gasped, were doing so or were about to do so. Hatto swerved round to see for himself what was causing this new sensation. He, too, almost lost his eyes in shock. Not only was Garrera locked up in a caged wagon with a sharp curved blade to his neck, but he was also only one of eleven others, including Queen Kishra and the royal highnesses, the children. And, with the new arrivals was a twelve-foot brute, a beast of a man, brandishing heavy weapons. A crowd had formed up around and behind them, made up of both civilians, who had followed them, and soldiers, who were seeing them for the first time. Shaniz announced,
'Open the gate! Why are you making the king wait outside his own home?'
Hatto had rushed down to the road with Ahn and Ar-mithre. He was still stunned, speechless. He remained in this state for quite some time, and then he began yelling, addressing Garrera,
'What is happening, my lord! What is this?' when he tried to come close to him, Tahwan strode between them, and tightened his grip on his tomahawk. Shaniz ordered again,
'Did you not hear me? Open the gate! Now!'
Now Suchy and Ezio opened up Garrera's cage, yanked him out on his knees, and Shaniz placed her blade on his neck. Garrera was too mortified to even look up. There were already civilians beginning to snicker, laugh or agitate an altercation.
'Last warning,' she said, and then addressed Hatto, 'order your men to lay down their arms and open the gate. The king has arrived.'
Many officers under Hatto were looking from one face to another, then at themselves.
'I will not open the gate! How dare you do this to the king?'
'He is no king,' said Shaniz. She then raised her voice and addressed everyone else, 'you are men of the Korazin Army. You men cannot have had enough humiliation. Is it really possible that you have not noticed how demeaning for you the last thirteen years have been? Have you forgotten already that this man has turned you into a vassal army under the yoke of your sworn enemies? You may have thought those years ago that disrupting the order and tradition of this nation would earn you honors and riches, but has it? You have only become objects of laughter. Your enemies turned you into reserve armies, and you disgraced the great history of the Korazin Army. But now, your true king has since expelled the enemies from this land, and you have a chance to join him to make Korazin great again. This dishonorable episode of your careers will be buried, and you can serve under your king as men of Korazin. Not tributary Goldoran forces. Lay down your arms, open the gate, and let us rebuild the reputation of this land!'
This speech was not so elegant or anything like that, but it served its purpose. Expressive and inspiring, it clearly took its toll on the soldiers, even her own cell. She had struck deep into their hearts and tickled all that was left of the essence of the Korazite soldier. Because of this, General Ahn Emis, with a somewhat convinced look at Shaniz, said,
'You speak so well, whoever you are. But you are not Korazite yourself, and you are a woman. How can you know so much about our history?'
'I am Brigadier Shaniz Santillan, under the command of the king,' she lowered her blade from Garrera's neck, 'I may not be Korazite, and neither are my friends, nor those who are waiting outside with the king. Yet we followed K'rar von Caspar to this strange land, and we will become Korazite simply by staying here all our days in his service. Your true king made even women into soldiers. He believed in us. So we believe in him. How much more so should you men, native Korazites?'
'How can you leave your post as a woman and degrade the army?' Hatto breathed, 'swords and arrows are not your tools, and the army is not your place.'
'And yet, I wasn't there with your greedy master when you desecrated your own kingdom and sold it to the southerners. I wasn't there when this disgrace of a king licked their boots. Also, since I have returned with the king, the Goldorans have been banished, and I invaded the fortress of your master, whose life I hold in my female hands. So tell me, how is the sword not my tool, and the army not my place? Am I not better than any of your men?'
'Open the gate,' Ahn Emis said all of a sudden to his men.
'Don't you dare touch that gate, soldier!' shouted Hatto.
'The true king of Korazin is outside. He is the supreme lord of the land. And he has already done for this city much more than your king ever has. Open it!'
Now, when a unit of Ahn Emis' own men tried to do so, Hatto's men impeded them, saying Hatto was the supreme commander of the forces in the city, and his command stood. They had their hands to their weapons, ready to unsheathe them at the slightest provocation.
'Stand aside, soldier!' Ahn Emis yelled at them, but they wouldn't budge. So Tahwan made a move, and suddenly bludgeoned Hatto with the flat face of his tomahawk, sending him reeling several feet away until he ran into something, and just lay there, lifeless. The relevance was that Ahn Emis now had the command of the armies, and everyone understood this, so Ahn once more ordered the men to step aside, and they did, with one eye on Tahwan. The men removed the planks in the gate, removed their war equipment from the road and from the battlements. Shaniz said, in an order, to Ahn,
'Punish the mutinous soldiers. Parade the rest along the route to the palace, all the way there. Have the rest assemble in the Square. And release the civilians you ordered to shut themselves indoors.' The square she meant was the King Ordec II Square, situated just behind the palace. It was a very large assembly ground where grand ceremonies were held, and could harbor both the Kaffrarians and the battalions of the Korazin Army in the city, as well as thousands of civilians.
He made a bow in assent, and Shaniz mounted her horse. She would have asked them to take away her prisoners, but letting them out of her sights was dangerous.
Only she and Suchy rode outside the gate, and stopped ten feet in front of it. K'rar saw her, and smiled to himself. Then he urged his horse, resuming the march into the city. Both soldier and civilian in the city were eagerly awaiting his grand entrance. The native soldiers lined up along both sides of the route, keeping excited civilians behind them. They, too, were scrambling to be on the route, because only about 1,500 of them were needed to stand in the road's margins. The return was even grander than any of them had expected. When K'rar caught up with Shaniz, everyone behind him dismounted their horses, and Ollinz was then taken by Pliny, who put him on his own horse. Lady Noor-shan also remained on her horse, just behind K'rar and in front of the other men. She had been in a carriage for the whole journey, as were the other nonmilitant women and men, including K'rar's Xaxanikan engineers. These would still remain in their carriages, but because Lady Noor-shan was making a grand return home herself, she would ride out in the open with her son.
Shaniz rode side by side with K'rar, smiling delightfully at him. She said,
'Victory, king of Korazin. Welcome home.'
K'rar smiled back, saying,
'You too, Queen of Korazin.'
But there was no smile on his face when he cast his glance at Garrera in his cage. He said,
'Ungag him.'
Suchy did so. K'rar had hoped that the General had something to say, but he was so humiliated and defeated that he didn't even look K'rar in the eye. Kishra was sobbing like a small child, and her daughter had joined her. Rugan, on the other hand, either didn't really give a shit or understood very little of what was taking place.
When K'rar had had enough looks at Garrera, he urged his stallion, and began the grand entrance. The stride of the knights was uniform and majestic as they came into Chaldea in only two queues. An elegant group, beautiful rather than scary in their uniforms. The female knights were especially a major attraction, donning ponytails or short hairstyles, fabulous armor, and svelte, pretty bodies. They maintained the same distance between each other, the same speed, even as they all dragged their horses along with them. But there was more for the crowd to marvel at. On the back of some of the horses, the magnificent Urdian eagles were riding, and then there were the canines, waltzing at the feet of at least 24,000 of the 30,000 men and women coming into the city. K'rar had left much of his navy at Matalma Rock with Sorcatan, and had established that office there, temporarily. He was planning on turning Botterein into a city from scratch, and the main base of his Armada. When the extremely long queue of knights was almost entirely inside Chaldea, the city, whose denizens had not moved even an inch, was treated to the cherry on the cake of surprises. The king's army also employed, not only one giant Tahwan, whom they had seen, but 23 others, who were taller than him.
The ecstasy was electric. Thousands of civilians almost stampeded, waving branches, singing, calling K'rar's name, trying to touch the knights. The festival had started early. K'rar had hijacked Ashtoreth's festival from her.