Battle for Peruna by Josiah Boss (book club suggestions TXT) 📕

ended up crying himself to sleep.
***************************
Where did those arrows come from? Garnock wondered after having just been missed by one.
“Retreat!” he bellowed loud enough to be heard above the battle.
The centaurs regrouped across the drawbridge and counted to see how many had been lost. Out of the five thousand they started with, one thousand were dead or unaccounted for, and another five hundred were wounded, including Skylar. Zebulon had a small cut on his hand, but otherwise, his generals were unhurt.
Skylar was looking very pale and was visibly shaken, having lost his sword, and having a huge gaping gash on his arm that he was now stopping up.
“Okay, one more brief surge, guys,” Garnock wearily said. Blood was sliding down his forehead where he'd been grazed by a sword tip. “Atherton, Tace, Zebulon, and I will each pick out two hundred fifty soldiers to go in with us. Long two-handed swords only and do as much damage as possible. All right, let's get going!”
They were soon sorted and picked.
***************************
Forester and Felgor regrouped their soldiers in the middle of the courtyard. All were sweating, and few were left unscathed.
“Okay, time to clean up!” shouted Mardoc from the wall.
The men groaned and watched in envy as the bowmen and Mardoc filed off to their rooms. Oh well, no use in whining.
“Heads up!” shouted Felgor, “the horsemen are back!”
The soldiers barely had enough time to draw their swords when the centaurs fell on them fiercer than ever.
That was strange. The centaurs didn't just fight, they also slashed apart storage buildings on the wall, ransacking building after building. Here came another wave of them armed with....clubs!? They split. Traveling along the wall, smashing it so hard that pieces of wall and the top walkway broke loose and came tumbling down. Here came a third wave. These had swords, but not in their hands. In their hands, they held....flaming torches!
“No!” screamed Felgor, when he saw the one in the lead toss his torch onto the thatch of their armory room. “After them!” he screamed hysterically.
Some of the soldiers turned to get the torch-throwing centaurs only to have their swords met by the swords of the centaurs. Then, just like that, all the horsemen were racing back out the gate like they were being sucked into a vacuum.
Mardoc and the archers came out again, just in time to see the last few centaurs disappear through the gate.
****************************
“All who went in, out?” asked Garnock, ready to drop, but asking, as it was his duty to be first in battle and last to retreat.
“Yes, sir, we're all here,” came the weary answer.
“When I first came here, I thought it'd be fun, you know, like a vacation. I guess I found out different,” Skylar remarked ruefully. Laughter rippled through the crowd, tired though they were.
“Well, tomorrow we go back to the summer house,” Garnock said, “so let's hit the sack for the night.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” grunted Atherton as he settled into a comfortable position.
*****************************
Garth was rather rudely awakened by a jab in the back with the butt of the guard's spear.
“Time to get up, lazy pig,” grunted the guard.
Garth rolled over, “Oh go away and leave me alone.”
“Ha! Fat chance of that! Mardoc's orders: you're supposed to help clean up the courtyard.”
“Why does it need to be...cleaned...” he asked as it returned to him about last night. Then he casually asked, “How many casualties, for your side, I mean?”
“Half our force is either dead or wounded. Good thing they didn't know that or they probably would've come back and won. It's also a good thing that we're getting reinforcements today.”
The guard unlocked the cell door, and they went to the courtyard. The whole courtyard was strewn with dead men. Huge chunks of the wall and single bricks were scattered hither and yon throughout the courtyard. A few food storage houses and the armory were nothing but ashes. There were huge gaps in the double brick wall, and the top railing to the walkway had mostly fallen down. In short, it looked like the whole place was ransacked.
As they got closer, Garth was horrified to see what looked like about seven hundred fifty, give or take a few, dead centaurs mixed in with the dead soldiers. He didn't recognize any of them.
“All right, get to work!” Felgor bellowed, when he saw Garth and his guard standing there.
****************************
“Did you find him?” Garnet and Gardenia asked in unison needlessly. They could already tell from Garnock's and his generals' faces that they hadn't.
“Didn't find nothing but this,” said Skylar, grimly holding up his gashed arm.
“Oh dear, I'll have Aura look at it. She's the nurse around here,” Garnet said.
“Okay.”
****************************
Garth stood up and stretched for the twentieth time that day. Cleaning up the courtyard was backbreaking work, but...
“Get on with it, lazy cur!” roared the soldier in charge.
Garth glowered at him and continued working.
****************************
Garnock sighed and leaned back after supper. “I suppose they'll be coming after us now, after what we did to them.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Garnet weakly agreed. “And I suppose they'll be holding Garth hostage to get us not to fight them and to take Mardoc as king.”
Garnock's face to stone. “I'll wipe out their nation or die trying before...those...those....I-don't-know-what's make us take Mardoc as our king.”
*****************************
“Hey....Garth! Pssssssst!...over here!”
“What do you want?” asked Garth, warily coming over to the door of his cell. He looked through and down into the guard's face.
“Hey—uh...you wanna, you know, uh...kinda go for a gallop?”
Garth's heart leaped. “You mean tonight? Right now?”
“Sure why not?”
“Is this some kind of trap?”
“No of course not. The other soldiers don't like me anyway; and Felgor and Forester want to get rid of me.”
“Okay.”
*****************************
Zebulon was in his cave staring into his fire, trying to think of a way to get Garth back and to drive Mardoc out without a fight. It was useless. All he could do now was pray that God would protect Garth and take what lay before him.
*****************************
“Whoa! Slow down! I'm getting dizzy!” The guard laughed.
That's the first time I've ever heard anyone from the castle laugh, thought Garth to himself.
They both stretched out on the grass in the meadow enjoying the time out and away from the castle. Finally, Garth asked, “What's your name?”
“Skandar.”
“Huh, nice name.”
******************************
They had been playing cops and robbers, Skylar reflected. Skandar had gone and hid—they'd never been able to find him. That had been four years ago, four very long years. Skylar stared into the fire, lost in thought.
“Gotcha!” Skylar jumped and whirled around only to be met by Nikkelon's teasing face.
“Stop that!” ordered Skylar, knowing that Nikkelon had no such idea in his mind.
“Whatcha thinking' about?”
“Oh, just someone.”
“Someone? Oooooo! And who might that someone be?”
“Oh just my cousin Skandar.”
“Oh.”
***************************
Skandar stared into the clear sky. Eventually he got up and shook himself. “Come on, let's get back to the castle.”
“What!? Not run away while we have the chance?”
“No, it's too risky tonight. Too many guards out. But sometime...” Skandar's eye gleamed as his voice trailed off. He mounted and rode off to the castle.
***************************
“What happened to him?” asked Nikkelon.
“Oh, well, one day me and him were playing cops—er, good guys and bad guys. He went and hid, and I was supposed to find him. Thing is—I never did. The police, FBI—never mind, you wouldn't understand it—searched the whole state with no trace. He'd just vanished. Never was seen again.”
***************************
“What's going on?” asked Garth. Sunlight streamed into his cell, bathing it in a glorious glow.
“I dunno. I'll go check,” Skandar grunted, as he stiffly stood up and walked to the door. He returned a couple of minutes later. “Looks like they're getting ready for battle.”
“What!?”
“Yep. I'll go and be an innocent inquisitive soldier.”
“All right. I'll wait here.” Like I have anything else to do, thought Garth wryly.
****************************
“Line up orderly now!” Felgor's voice rolled across the courtyard. As all the soldiers snapped to attention and saluted, “King” Mardoc entered the courtyard on a black steed.
In the middle of the courtyard were the soldiers. Surrounding them, a hundred deep, were the common folk, people that Mardoc had brought with him to inhabit the country. As he rode up the aisle lined with soldiers, the people cheered fit to shake the earth. Mardoc reigned in his horse in the middle of the courtyard, smiling and bowing in all directions. Then he held up his hand for silence.
“Fair, loyal citizens of Peruna...” The crowd cheered drowning out Mardoc's words. “We have gathered here today to witness myself and my troops going off to vanquish the rebels!” The crowd cheered again, and Mardoc pulled his sword out. Instant silence fell on the courtyard. “Next time we come back to this castle, we will have destroyed the rebels like this!” And with those words, he drove his sword hilt-deep into the chest of the horse beneath him. The horse shuddered and collapsed dead. “And now, soldiers of Peruna, MARCH!”
******************************
From his cell, Garth listened to the steady tramp, tramp, tramp of the soldiers marching all over the drawbridge. He heard Skandar enter, “Well is it good news?”
“Good news and bad, I'm afraid.”
“Why? What's happened?”
“Well, the good news is that we can escape now. The bad news is that Mardoc's arm is marching off to fight your dad and his army.”
“How do you know who my dad is?”
“Oh, I just happened to hear you tell Aubin.”
******************************
“Sire! Sire!” A panicky voice shot Garnock out of his thoughts.
“What is it, Glenstorm?”
“Soldiers! The army! Mardoc!” Glenstorm was all out of breath.
“What!? Mardoc and his army? Where?”
“Yes, Mardoc and his army on foot. They're coming this way right now.”
Garnock leaped of his throne—a richly embroidered cloth—and said, “Where? How far away?”
“About another hour or so away on foot—I think. They're by Big Springs.”
“Lord, help us! We haven't a minute to lose. Get everyone that lives in the castle in the castle now!”
“Yes sir!” Glenstorm wheeled and thundered away.
“Tace! Tace!” Garnock bellowed. “Where is that scoundrel when I need him?”
Just then the throne room door flew open, and Tace with Skylar at his heels came racing in. “What is it, sire?”
“Mardoc and his soldiers! That's what! Get together your bowmen at once. Skylar, alert Atherton. Oh, and send Zebulon to me if you see him. Hurry!”
*****************************
Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp.
Villagers stared in awe at these highly disciplined men that marched in arrow straight lines in their grayish armor with their leaders in silver armor at the head. Yes, sir, those centaurs sure had what they deserved coming to them.
*****************************
“Call all the generals and soldiers together. Tell them we meet at dusk in the right wing of the castle in the fellowship hall.” Garnock told his servant.
The servant bowed and backed out of the room.
*****************************
“This is the torture chamber, though I'm sure they won't be using it, Skandar said. He was giving Garth a tour of the castle. “And there is another door leading to the courtyard!”
“Wow! They sure have a lot of doors leading to the courtyard directly and indirectly. Why?”
“Oh, Mardoc. All he is is one big coward. Has to have all these escape routes so that he can save himself. Thing is, as long as he can't get across the drawbridge, he's still trapped inside the castle.”
*****************************
“Are we almost there yet? How much farther?” complained one soldier.
“Ah, stop complaining,” snarled