The High King: A Tale of Alus (9 page)

Afire with blood lust, Gerid tore through their tiring ranks. Suddenly his blade met a familiar shield and he realized that Karma stood before him. "Pardon me, Master Karma. I seem to have gotten carried away," he said with a grin. "Shall we finish off the rest of this rabble?"
"They're fleeing already," Karma answered with a hoarse, broken voice and the man began to sit down exhaustedly. "Why bother?"
Gerid turned to see the last of the bandits running south. Two horsemen led their way quickly. There were maybe thirty bandits still left to flee. Judging by a quick glance at the bloodied corpses and wounded men laying around them, there had been at least a hundred in the attack initially. He bent down and tore a large rag from the body of a fallen warrior and proceeded to clean the blood from his newly acquired swords. "Now what?"
Karma stared up at him blandly. "We go back to heal and rest, of course. They won't be back any time soon." He paused to gage the giant before him, who still stood seemingly fresh despite the blood covering him nearly head to toe. Karma shook his head in amazement. "Where did you learn to fight like that? It's like you were possessed by the gods. Even now as we all collapse from our efforts, you stand unaffected."
Leoltus came forward holding his bloodied left arm dangling strangely at his side. "Indeed, sir. I believe that Gerid could have bested even the Demons of Biggurn this day."
Not knowing the legend that Leoltus invoked, Gerid simply examined his new swords.
"Aye," Karma began, but he was interrupted by a fit of coughing due to the dryness of his throat. "And `aye' again. I've never seen a man fight like that before. I think that nearly two score fell beneath his fury, maybe even more.
"My father will want such a warrior to join our soldiers for next season I am sure, Leoltus."
"Yes, Master?" the older man questioned sadly, though he was not surprised.
"Have the women come to the field to gather the armor and weapons of the fallen. For those still with energy, I think that I shall have the cooks produce the grandest of victor's feasts. The best steaks only can do," he said eyeing Gerid as he picked himself up from the ground. The master started to leave then.
"Master Karma, may I keep a pair of swords and this shield?" Gerid asked respectfully for perhaps the first time that day knowing that the man could hardly refuse. "If I am going to be a soldier for your family next season, I may as well find weapons for myself to use now."
Karma hardly glanced at him as he waved a noncommittal hand at him. "Fine, just clean them and then put them away. You won't need them until the mercenaries return from the border at the end of the season."
Gerid nodded half smiling. The victory was there quiet as it was.
Leoltus continued to stare at him. "Where did you learn such skills, my friend?" he asked without truly needing an explanation. "Gerid, I have never seen the likes of you ever before and I doubt that I'll ever see a fighter like you again. I've fought alongside many soldiers in my youth, so I know where of I speak. You, my boy, are truly unique in your abilities.
"C'mon, let's go get the women to nurse us back to health now," the older man chuckled as he started back towards the house and away from the carnage left in the field for others to tend later.
Gerid looked down at the blood covering him nearly head to toe. He wondered why it didn't make him truly sick to his stomach, but he was like a veteran, berserker warrior who became numb to the true loss of life around him. Hurrying to catch up to Leoltus, Gerid stated innocently, "I don't think that I am actually injured, Leoltus. I think this must all be bandit blood."
Though the older man laughed heartily and said, "Fake it then. I'm sure that Tabitha would love to try and doctor you. Surely, she'll still want to reward her conquering hero as all the women do in the stories." A raised eyebrow revealed both surprise and a certain apprising stare before the overseer turned to look at his goal past the field. The men trudged onward.
"Speaking of heroes, do you think that Master Karma hates that I was the one that routed the enemy instead of him and his guards?"
Leoltus shrugged without turning as he answered, "I doubt that, though I wouldn't necessarily overlook the possibility. He might even have a different story to tell his father when the master returns home, though the slaves all know that it was you. The more important point is that Master Karma knows that we wouldn't have survived if not for you despite what story he may give. His pride may have been injured slightly, but don't worry about it, boy. You've got his respect at the least. Now come on already and stop dragging your feet. I know that you aren't as tired as me, so move it, boy."
As they walked back to the farm houses, Gerid looked again at the blood on his hands. The blood lust was gone now and its protection disappeared from his soul as well. Faces of the slain slowly worked their visions into his thoughts. How could it have been so easy for him to slay them all so callously, even if they had meant the whole farm harm.
He began to think that he may need Tabitha to heal him after all, even if it was only her comforting presence needed to ease his soul. Gerid sighed and followed Leoltus with his head sagging sadly forward from the new, overwhelming weight of what he had just done.

Vizier Krulir looked out from over the balcony railing set high above the soldier's training yards set between the high stone walls of the castle. The crash of steel as several, stalwart, young men honed their skills could be heard even up in the highest rooms of the tower. He noticed the soldiers' tension as they trained and tried to mask furtive glances to the roof tops above them. The old man followed their gazes and sighed as he too took in the sources of their unease. More than a score of the winged creatures the men had begun calling gargoyles clustered atop the castle parapets and towers watching with various degrees of amusement as the soldiers dueled below them.

With some difficulty, the vizier wrenched his stare away from the disturbing creatures. Though the old man could not voice his worries to anyone he knew, inside his fears screamed that these `gargoyles', as his master called them, the Mar'goyn'lya as they called themselves, were going to cause problems for the realm. The future was endangered by these demons. They weren't natural despite Merrick's assurances. The soldiers and other inhabitants of the city and castle could often be heard whispering fearfully at their sight, if one listened carefully, and yet King Merrick had now called forth more than eighty of the creatures from the passages beneath the castle.

Kar'esh and his followers had earned his lord's trust, of course. Several raids had been sent against the neighboring province of Caldor. Though Merrick had yet to declare war officially, the small country was to be the first of many conquests that Merrick looked forward to picking apart. The soldiers below were just a few dozen of the men that made up the five legions who were on the verge of striking out from Marshalla.

The five generals of those legions, along with Kar'esh and Merrick, were gathered in the tower that the vizier roamed even now. They were discussing the attacks that would be launched in the following week. Only a few days remained before his country could no longer turn back from this war, and Krulir felt his old age crushing in upon him more and more with each passing hour. The lord he served would be the death of him yet, he was sure of it.

The vizier was about to return to the hallway beyond the room holding the balcony when he was forced to draw up short. The huge mass of a gargoyle barely avoided running over the man as it moved determinedly through the corridor fulfilling whatever mission that it had been sent on. A new wave of fear and disquiet washed over him as he watched it pass by him. The creature's eyes darted to the doorway that sheltered Krulir beneath it. The crimson and black orbs seemed to shine maliciously as it found him and the man felt himself cringing away in response.

When the creature had passed, the vizier released the breath that he had not realized that he still held. Moving quickly in the opposite direction of the creature, his worries still remained. The fear he suffered from the sight of these gargoyles was unfounded as of yet. Krulir prayed that he was wrong and would not live to see the day that his fears were fulfilled.

Gerid sighed with contentment. Glancing over at his lover beside him, he watched as the gentle moon's light slid across Tabitha's smooth, white skin as her chest rose and fell steadily as she slept. His eyes caressed her naked form nuzzled against him for warmth. The summer night was just beginning to cool as a small breeze worried at the earth drawing away the day's heat.

An arm slid across his chest even as her leg was raised onto his. Tabitha's breathing remained deep and steady as she slept comfortably beside him. Gently engulfing the woman's upper body with his large muscular arms to warm her, Gerid's thoughts strayed to the events following the battle. When Leoltus and he had returned to the farm yard, the entire population of females had rushed to them to hear news of the battle. Tabitha had held back from him maintaining her composure. The young woman knew that she would have to be strong and resist her impulses to throw her arms around him. Her nursing talents would be needed to tend the wounded as well. Seeing that neither he nor Leoltus were little more than scratched, she and the other women hurried to tend to those still lying at the battle grounds.

Tabitha did so with a last reluctant look over her shoulder to Gerid who returned the look wistfully. He had decided to return as well after stowing away his new weapons. Leoltus and several of the older slaves, who had been considered too old to fight, brought some wagons and Gerid helped wounded and exhausted men into them as they were taken care of by the women. They actually found that few were dangerously wounded. Most were killed straight out in the fight, since the marauders were quick to finish them off when they faltered. Those that survived were mostly those who had stayed back from the initial attacks. Gerid's ferocity had drawn away the death that would have found them before long.

In a little over an hour, the field was cleared and wounded bandits were taken prisoner and held in the barracks under guard. They would be sold to buy replacement slaves for those that they had killed so maliciously. Gerid was curious about that last point.

Leoltus had turned in the wagon seat as he returned with the last of the men and explained, "We could hardly keep these men here. They would try to escape as soon as they were healthy enough. They would just return to where they had originally come from, Gerid. If we sell them to traders instead, then they can be brought to far off lands where escape will be futile. Meanwhile, we can take the money from their sale to get others that will be more suitable."

He had let the matter settle quietly. Gerid didn't like the idea of selling others into slavery, even scum like this, but he was far from being able to change things in his current position. The idea of dissolving such an institution was filed away for the future, though it wasn’t his land and not his first concern.

The afternoon had passed and a dinner of grand proportions was set out for the heroes of the battle. Gerid sat with Leoltus and those men that he considered friends. As he had eaten, Tabitha had looked at him often with a strange calculating stare. All through the meal, the two had exchanged glances and half smiles.

When Gerid had finished and turned to go to the door, Tabitha mirrored his actions, which was also extremely unusual. They had always met away from the others to keep their relationship relatively quiet. The woman had always been quite adamant that they keep it so. Secrecy was important, even though they never did more than talk and hold each other while keeping from crossing any lines that would get them in trouble.

By the time Gerid had exited the hall, Tabitha was right on his heels. They had gone quickly to the southern field where the wheat was now growing tall and strong. The plants shifted slightly with the course of a gentle, warm, evening breeze that had begun with the sun's disappearance. The first moon played its yellowish light through the tall plants playing tag with the shadows as it climbed steadily through the night sky.

"You love me, don't you?" Tabitha asked suddenly, though the question sounded more like a statement. Her voice carried over her shoulder as she kept her face turned slightly away from him.

Answering as she remained turned away, he spoke quietly, "Of course, I do. You're the first woman that I have ever been in love with and the only one that I will ever wish to be, Tabitha."

"A woman?" she questioned oddly as she turned to face him after his words. Her eyes looked as though they were ready to weep and perhaps Tabitha was. "I am no older than you, Gerid, and yet you think of me as a woman. I can hardly think of myself as such. How can you hold me in such high regard? What have I done that I should deserve such a patient man as you?"

"You are a woman, Tabitha, as beautiful and intelligent as I have ever known and with such a gentle, caring spirit. You're older than your years in some ways. Your question should not have been how you have won me. Any man would give his life to find such a woman as you. So my question is, what have I done to gain you as my closest of friends?"

"Friends? Yes, we are that aren't we?" she replied looking down in disappointment at the ground as if in thought. He noticed her hands straying to the strings of her blouse, where she played absentmindedly with their ends. "Today made me realize just how much I care for you, Gerid. Life is too short for us mortals. As slaves, we can never marry officially, you know, but I do not care. I want to give myself to you, my beloved. I want to know you as my husband, if you are willing, even if we cannot declare it to the law." The strings had come undone as she spoke and, with a shrug, the blouse fell away from her on the night's breeze. A quick tug of a string at her waist, and her skirt joined the rest of her clothes upon the ground leaving her skin naked to the moon's light.

Forcing his stare away from her lovely body with a definite effort, Gerid looked Tabitha in the face and stepped closer. "You are sure?" he asked hopefully.