The Medievals 2 Read online

  Then, she hurries back to the entrance of the church, where she opens one of the doors and looks out, searching for Mulan.

  But the Blind Shen is gone.

  “Mulan?” Wendolyn shouts over the din of the battle.

  There is no answer. And this concerns Wendolyn. Her heart shudders, knowing that Mulan would not leave her post at the front of the church if she were not dragged away.

  She turns back into the church, and then races up the aisle and into the antechamber. There, she climbs the ladder that leads up to the belfry, taking two rungs at a time. Once inside the steeple, she slides her body around the bell, and looks out over the square.

  Wendolyn searches the land and the sky, looking everywhere, but she does not see Waldron. Instead, her view is filled with smoldering buildings and soldiers dying in their fight against the saurians amid the swelling cloud of smoke. From here, the battle appears as though it is being lost by the humans.

  As Wendolyn looks out over the destruction, she wonders where the Lady of the Lake is with her reinforcements, and where Mulan has been dragged off to, and where Richard is this very moment.

  Then she wonders: Is Richard still alive?

  {Richard}

  The world is being swallowed by dust and smoke. Richard’s field of vision is limited to his immediate surroundings, with soldiers fighting and dying in a battle that seems to favor the saurians. All around him, ashes float down through the hazy sky, blanketing the ground with the cindery feathers of unseen ruin.

  Meanwhile, Richard’s throat stings, the air feeling as if it is filled with tiny invisible pins. He coughs, smoke stabbing at his chest.

  In the moments before the saurians were spat from the mouth of the impossibly shaped cloud, one that bore the visage of the Rune, Richard’s father and Constable Clyburn had formulated a plan of attack: a two-pronged assault with the archers and the infantry.

  But in the moments following the arrival of the saurians, the immediate fog of war discarded that plan, and the winged beasts had quickly proven to be an enemy that escaped strategy. The archers were unable to see their targets, and the soldiers on the ground were forced to stab at the smoke in hopes of killing the saurians.

  With Richard’s armor-clad horse unnerved by the saurians’ snarls and flames, Richard has traded the advantages of his steed for the certainty of the ground, the cobbles of the city streets hard beneath his boots.

  His father has also dismounted and is fighting alongside Richard and the Lead Guard, exposing himself to the same dangers his men face, heedless of his own safety. As Richard’s father has explained to him in the past, it is important for the King to be seen fighting with his troops. A soldier must feel the fate of crown and common are the same. But also, the King can better understand the battle by standing within the flow of it.

  “Shield wall!” the King shouts just as a spray of flames reaches out of the thick smoke.

  Richard and the other soldiers throw their shields in front of their faces, and tongues of fire lick at their steel. Richard’s armor goes hot and sweat drips down from his brow. But the armor has stopped the flames from burning his skin.

  Meanwhile, not far from him, Richard sees Ivanhoe holding out his shield with one hand, as his other hand holds the mysterious bovine horn close to his chest to safeguard it.

  “Brace yourselves men, and drive it deep!” the Constable shouts, instructing a team of knights from the Lead Guard that are wielding a thirty-foot pike.

  The soot-stained knights let loose a chorus of battle cries as they drive the long wooden shaft blindly into the murky space where the flames originated. The pike finds its intended mark, and the hidden saurian releases a cry of pain.

  “Twist!” Constable Clyburn orders, and the men obey, twisting the iron-tipped pike and provoking an even ghastlier shriek from the saurian, a shriek that can only signal the torturous end of the beast.

  The men swell with the victory, cheering as they pull the pike from the saurian, the green-blooded beast falling to the ground.

  But the victory is short-lived.

  “Stay at the ready!” the King commands, and his words of warning come just as another saurian swoops low and drops onto the ground before them.

  The saurian whips its sinewy tail, catching the Constable and his team of knights in its swing, and the men are thrown from their feet. The pike they were holding flies free, disarming them. As the massive tail whips again, it thrashes Ivanhoe, sending him to the ground, and then the tail finds Richard’s father, his sword struck from his hand and disappearing behind the scrim of smoke.

  Richard looks around and realizes that he is the only one that has been left standing, spared by the saurian’s tail. His eyes turn back to the saurian, who snaps its jaws in the direction of the unarmed men that are now helpless on the ground.

  “Over here, beastie!” Richard taunts impulsively, an urge to protect the defenseless soldiers taking quick hold of his tongue.

  He wields his sword, gripping it tightly, aiming its point at the saurian.

  “Richard, no!” his father yells from the ground, and Richard hears alarm in his voice that he has never before heard.

  The saurian turns its untamed yellow eyes on Richard, and gives a low snarl. It bares its teeth, like two rows of ivory knives, and its hind legs seem to draw in, like springs coiling.

  And then, the saurian pounces, launching its entire body through the air, a fearsome vision of claws and teeth and eyes coming at Richard.

  Richard’s feet instantly turn to clay, and he can hear only the blood pumping between his ears. In the reflective eyes of the predator that is upon him, Richard sees his own death.

  Then, he sees a scintillating light, like that of an intense flame. And as Richard considers the source of the light, the saurian’s head drives him to the ground. There, he tries to escape the jaws of the saurian, its teeth at Richard’s jugular. He grabs the saurian’s head with both hands, hoping to keep it from his throat.

  But as Richard tries to fend off the beast, he notices that the saurian has gone limp, and its yellow eyes have gone wide and still.

  Richard sits up, confused.

  And then he sees that he is holding only the decapitated head of the saurian, while its body still stands a few feet away, not yet toppled. The neck of the beast is leaking its glowing green blood onto Richard’s armor.

  Richard looks up to see El Cid standing over him, his flaming sword at his side, the source of the scintillating light. El Cid reaches down and grabs the head of the beast, and then he raises both Tizona and the bleeding head into the air.

  “Viva El Cid!” the Spaniard triumphantly roars.

  And then, as suddenly as he appeared, the conquering warrior drops the saurian’s head to the ground and runs off in search of another fight, vanishing into the smoke.

  Ivanhoe helps Richard and King Henry to their feet, and Richard’s father scans the ground for his sword that had been knocked free of his hand. He finds it within the haze and then rejoins them.

  “We are easy pickings out here,” Ivanhoe judges.

  The King and Clyburn nod in agreement.

  “Our formations are proving useless against the saurians,” Richard’s father explains. “And we are stripped of our eyes. We must get clear of this smoke.”

  “What do you suggest, Your Highness?” Constable Clyburn asks the King.

  The King’s mind works as he surveys what little can be seen of the battle.

  “Let us get the men above the smoke, get our lines of sight back,” Richard’s father instructs, his eyes on the smoking city. “Find the buildings that are not burning, that are made of stone and mortar, and we will station ourselves on the rooftops. Archers and infantry. Every last fighting man.”

  The King then turns his eyes to the Constable and Ivanhoe: “Clyburn, you will lead a contingent of the Lead Guard to the northern part of the city, and Richard and I will tend to the south. Ivanhoe, you will take the rest of the soldiers back to
the battlements and protect the castle.”

  Ivanhoe and Clyburn accept their missions with grave nods, and then the King gives his parting word: “Godspeed.”

  ◆◆◆

  The sound of boots hitting cobbles echoes off the outer walls of buildings as Richard and his father lead their group of elite archers and swordsmen through the narrow alleys of the city.

  This eastern section of the city is where the King’s Market is located, the market where Richard first saw Wendolyn. These streets are usually noisy with the town crier, or shopkeepers calling out their wares. But today the shops have been abandoned, and Richard wonders if they will ever be opened again.

  A winged shadow glides along the top edge of one of the buildings and Richard looks up to see a saurian flying overhead. The King gestures a silent order to the thirty or so men, and they all tuck into doorways or take cover beneath rooflines.

  As the smoke and fires have not reached this far south yet, the air is clear, which leaves the men exposed to saurians scouting from above. The contingent of the Lead Guard holds a collective breath as the beast flies over them, searching the alleys. And when it appears the saurian has overlooked them, Richard, his father and the men all breathe again.

  With the saurian gone from sight, the King scans the narrow alleyway, points to a tall stone building, and says to Richard and the others, “We will take that roof there.”

  Assuming orders, one of the archers in the Lead Guard wordlessly retrieves a heavyweight crossbow from his back, aims, and then fires a grappling hook straight up the sidewall of the building, the teeth of the grapple catching confidently onto the lip of the roof.

  Then, one after another, the armor-clad men of the Lead Guard climb the side of the building with speed; their swords, shields, spears and bows strapped to their backs. Much like Ivanhoe, these men appear as if they are blunt instruments chiseled from stone. But also like Ivanhoe, they are agile and mindful. This is the consequence of Master Cheng’s training, a mix of poetry and violence, and Richard is in awe of the Lead Guard.

  With a nod from his father, Richard takes to the rope, his fingers gripping the rough fibers. Remembering Master Cheng’s technique, Richard makes a single wrap of the rope around his right leg and across the top of his boot. Then, his other boot clamps down onto the rope, trapping it in order to support all of his weight, easing the load on his arms.

  Richard pulls the weight of his body, shield and sword up the rope, and halfway up the side of the building he can feel his muscles burn, much the way they burned as he attempted to climb Mount Saurian. But Richard does not slow his ascent, instead keeping pace with the Lead Guard.

  As Richard climbs, he wonders where Wendolyn is, and whether she is safe out there amid the smoke and violence. He is buoyed by the thought of Mulan at her side, her constant guardian. The Blind Shen would no doubt give her life to save Wendolyn. But Richard can not bear the thought of losing Wendolyn after only just finding her. And he refuses to believe that fate has brought them together only to pull them apart again.

  When he reaches the top, Richard pulls himself over the lip of the roof and then stands. The sweat of the climb combines with the soot on his brow, and the mixture drips into his eyes, stinging them. Richard wipes his eyes clean and then looks out over the city.

  The view is an assault on his spirit, and his chest tightens with dread and sorrow.

  Richard has never seen such destruction. And he has never imagined it possible, either. Not here in the heart of the Realm. The fire-breathing saurians are setting rooftops ablaze; and with their heavy tails, they are relentlessly turning buildings into rubble, spoiling the majesty of the city.

  Richard watches as, in the distance, one saurian crashes into the side of the King’s Arena, its body turning part of the outside wall into an explosion of stone.

  Seeing the buffeted stadium, Richard’s mind recalls Master Cheng’s reenactment of the Endless War for his Triumph Day performance. That performance, while it was chilling and inspired at the time, now feels tame. If this wreckage continues at such a pace, there will be nothing left by nightfall.

  “The spirit of the Realm is stronger than the stone and mortar that forms its streets and buildings,” Richard’s father says, sensing Richard’s concern as he looks out over the city. He puts a hand on Richard’s shoulder. “If we can defeat this Rune and these saurians here today, we can rebuild tomorrow.”

  The tone in his father’s voice is strong and measured, and his confidence seems to pass through his fingers on Richard’s shoulder.

  “Take your positions,” the King instructs his men.

  The Lead Guard forms two rows near the edge of the roof. The men in the front line create a shield wall and hold their spears at the ready. Meanwhile, in the second row, archers nock their arrows into their bowstrings, drawing them back. At the sight of the archers, Richard thinks of Loxley, how his sharpest of aim would serve this moment.

  But Loxley abandoned Richard and the others. He left them high and dry for a sack of coins.

  “We must pull the eyes of the saurians to the north and the south, and keep their attention from the castle as long as we can,” the King says to Richard and the Lead Guard.

  Richard knows that his father’s plan is not just to save the castle, but the heart that beats within, as Master Cheng is protecting Queen Soraya in the the Keep.

  “Now, to get the saurians’ attention,” the King muses, turning to Richard. “Shall we roar together?”

  It was not long ago that Richard and his father were standing on a ledge on Mount Saurian, the ancient beasts petrified in the stone beneath their feet, and his father had asked him to roar. “As far as your echo reaches, that is your Kingdom.”

  But now, the saurians are no longer beneath their feet. Instead, they are in the skies. They are alive. And they are hungry.

  “Come, my son. Let us tell those beasts who this Realm belongs to,” his father prods.

  Richard nods.

  Following the lead of his father, Richard fills his chest with air, and the two of them roar together. Their unified roar is booming and mighty, echoing over the rooftops of the city. And it inspires the Lead Guard to unleash their own roars into the sky. The collective battle cry reaches the ears of the saurians, some floating in the air, others on the ground. And the winged creatures turn their yellow eyes to the south.

  The attack comes almost immediately. First three saurians, then ten, then twenty. All of them wing their way across the city, heading straight for Richard, his father, and the Lead Guard.

  “Hold your arrows taut,” the King instructs, his hand held in the air, gesturing for the archers to wait. And then, as the first wave of saurians nears, the King brings his hand down, yelling, “Fire!”

  The elite archers let their arrows fly, and many of them find their marks, with two saurians falling away. The rest maintain their trajectory, flying for the rooftop.

  “Spears!” the King orders.

  The archers duck low as the knights behind them angle their spears at the approaching saurians. Richard holds out his own spear, his shield at the ready in case the saurians spray their fire.

  In the matter of a single breath, the saurians are upon them. Richard grips his spear tightly, tries to imagine that his body is an immovable force. But as the tip of Richard’s spear meets the massive gray belly of one of the saurians, breaking through the flesh, his weapon fixes to the beast and Richard momentarily forgets to relinquish his hold on the spear.

  Richard is ripped into the air by the saurian.

  As his feet leave the roof, Richard instantly realizes his mistake, and he lets go of the spear, which is carried off by the impaled saurian. Meanwhile, Richard’s body finds its own momentum, arching downward through the air long enough for Richard to wonder whether he will be caught by the roof, or fall to the ground far below.

  The answer comes in a hurry as Richard’s right shoulder crunches against the solid roof, delivering pain to his arm
but sparing him a far more painful fate.

  Defying the blow to his shoulder, Richard springs to his feet once again. And this proves fortunate as he turns back to the fight only to see another saurian diving for him. Richard manages to roll away just in time for the saurian to fly past him, missing him by only a hair.

  As Richard finds his breath again, his father is there before him with a relieved smile.

  “Next time, perhaps consider letting go of the spear sooner,” his father says with a wink.

  Richard returns the smile, happily owning his foolish mistake if only because he survived. Beyond his father, Richard sees that much of the Lead Guard remains after the initial assault of the saurians. Several of the knights stand over the body of a saurian, which lies dead on the rooftop. One of them releases a triumphant bellow, and it ignites a chorus of cheers.

  “Well done, men. Now, we must prepare for the next wave of saurians,” his father says, his eyes directing Richard to the twenty or so new saurians that are now sailing across the sky toward them.

  “Positions!” he shouts to the Lead Guard.

  Once again, the soldiers kneel with spears and shields at the edge of the roof, while the archers ready their arrows. Then, the saurians are upon them, and once again, the Lead Guard picks off several of the saurians, sending them crashing to the city streets below.

  More cheers from the men. Richard can feel the tide of the battle turning.

  “Again, positions!” the King shouts, and the Lead Guard is quick to line up at the roof’s edge once more.

  “Fire!” the King orders in a husky bark as the saurians approach, and a barrage of arrows find their targets.

  Richard watches with amazement as one of the arrows penetrates the chest of one of the saurians, a shot to the heart of the beast. The saurian’s wings give out immediately, an instant death, and its body sinks through the air.

  However, the dying saurian’s momentum carries it straight for the building, and it explodes through the outer stone wall somewhere just beneath Richard’s father. The roof crumbles in the very spot where the King stands, and his eyes go wide.