LIGHTNOVELONLINE To Arms in Esta!
Adan slammed to the ground, his feet buckling beneath him, and falling forward. The arrow in his right shoulder was pushed further into him as he fell, and he cried out in pain again.
Adan looked through tears of pain and saw the tree roots in front of him, shielding him from the cart that had passed by. He scrambled down into the divot and hunkered down.
He waited with bated breath, his heart pounding, and his fingers in his ears.
A sound unlike anything he had ever experienced rocked the ground. The tree roots shifted toward him as the force of the explosion pushed them outward. A wave of heat and flames washed over Adan and he shouted in pain before collapsing and losing consciousness.
Out of the swirling blackness Adan became aware of the sound of music. The Estan warriors were still singing:
Advance the flag of Esta!
Hurrah! Hurrah!
And drive our foes beyond the woes,
And live or die for Esta!
To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Esta!
To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Esta!
Adan opened his eyes to see bright morning sunlight streaming down. He lay on his side, covered in dirt, facing away from the tree roots. The air was thick with a strange, sulfuric smell.
Send them back your fierce defiance!
Stamp upon the accursed alliance!
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Esta!
The sound of singing warriors drew nearer. Adan shifted, trying to sit up and see out of the divot he lay in. The motion shot fresh pangs of agony through his body.
Shoulder pressing close to shoulder
Let the odds make each heart bolder!
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Esta!
Adan crawled forward out of the divot and looked down the hill at New Esta.
The clouds of smoke had parted momentarily, allowing the morning sun to shine down on the basin. The main gate was thrown open, and the men of Esta were charging up the hill toward Adan.
For faith betrayed and pledges broken,
Wrongs inflicted, insults spoken.
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Esta!
Calden the gatekeeper ran at the front of the small army, sword in hand, leading the men in their song as they charged. Adan saw Samo, Laxander, and Hammund among the warriors, and even governor Fagus, singing and running at breakneck speed with an ax in his hand.
Their song rose to a roar as they approached.
Cut the unequal bonds asunder!
Let them hence each other plunder!
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Esta!
Adan crawled around the edge of the divot trying to see around the roots of the great tree. As he crawled, the remnants of the Undelman army came into view. The tree whose roots had protected Adan was twisted and blackened by the blast.
Then at peace, and crowned with glory,
Hear your children tell the story!
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Esta!
A smoking crater lay beyond the tree, over three hundred paces wide. The catapult was gone, as were most of the Unelmands who had stood near it. Many trees were gone as well. The barrels had exploded on the edge of the forest and sent trunks and limbs flying backwards, leaving a trail of broken and shredded timber.
Adan looked from left to right and saw the remaining Uneldmans lying prone around the crater. Closer to the explosion, Adan could see a twisted mangle of bodies and burnt corpses, men who would never rise again. To the south and north, Undelman warriors were picking themselves up where the blast had knocked them down, many of them injured by a flying projectile or singed by the fire.
Advance the flag of Esta!
Hurrah! Hurrah!
And drive our foes beyond the woes,
And live or die for Esta!
Adan looked back at the Estans warriors, who split up before reaching where he sat, half of them following Calden south, and the other half following Samo north, to finish off the rest of the Undalman warriors.The waiting Unelmans who could still fight rose to their feet, snatching their weapons up and rallying to stave off the charging Estans. Adan saw panic in their movements.
The Estans continued their charge, unstoppable in their hope and fury.
To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Esta!
To arms! To arms!
And conquer peace for Esta!
The Esan warriors crashed into the Undelmans, mowing them down where they stood. Adan hardly dared to believe his eyes as he watched the attack become a route. The Estans beat back the terrified Undelmans with swords, axes, hammers, shovels, and staves. They drove them into the trees and chased after them, heeding no danger of fire or smoke.
As they passed under the boughs of the trees, Adan breathed a sigh of relief.
I hope Hugo didn’t survive the blast, he thought.
“You!” A familiar voice hissed directly behind Adan.
Adan snapped his head back just in time to see the commander standing directly behind him. His clothes were burnt and smoking, his face was covered in soot and ash, and the right side of his body was covered in horrible burns, but he was still very much alive. He still held one sword in his left hand.
He kicked Adan from behind. Adan tumbled to the ground, turning and landing on his left side with a groan of pain.
“That’s twice now you’ve tried to kill me and failed,” he hissed again, kicking Adan in the stomach as he lay on the ground. “But Sithril has protected me again!”
Adan doubled over in pain. He had no weapon and no strength left.
“You’ve only bought this place some time,” Hugo continued, kneeling in front of Adan and grabbing the arrow that protruded from his shoulder. He twisted the dart slowly and Adan let out a whimper as he writhed on the ground.
“I’ll be back here with another army, twice the size of this one,” Hugo said in Adan’s face. “So before you die, know that I will destroy this place once and for all, for the glory of the One!”
Hugo stood and lifted his blade in the air. Adan gritted his teeth and shut his eyes, waiting for the killer blow.
“No, you won’t,” a familiar, husky voice said behind Hugo. “But you will see him soon.”
Adan opened his eyes just as Hugo wheeled around.
Arfon stood five paces away, axe in hand.
Hugo froze when he saw the older warrior.
“Well, well, well,” he said. “You’re alive.”
“No,” replied Arfon, spinning the axe in his hands. “Not anymore. I’m a dead man walking. A ghost seeking justice and vengeance.”
“You know nothing of ghosts,” Hugo said. “I have seen them. I have met them.”
“And you have made them!” Arfon said and Adan heard venomous hatred in his voice. “I was on a hunting trip when you came to Othelli. Did you know I was still alive? Did you wait till I was gone, like a coward?”
“If I had known you were still alive,” Hugo replied, “I would never have attacked your village.”
Adan was surprised to hear remorse in Hugo’s tone, a pleading sorrow that he never would have expected to hear from the commander.
”But you did,” Arfon said. “And if I had known what you would become all those years ago when I found you in the ice, I would have left you to freeze, like your Collvei family did.”
Hugo remained silent, but Adan saw his muscles become as tense as a bowstring.
“I don’t care what they did to you,” Arfon continued, “and I don’t care what they promised you. It’s just us now, you and I, and even Sithril won’t protect you from me!”
For the briefest instant, the two of them stood facing each other. Then Arfon’s axe swung through the air. Hugo deflected the blow with a flick of his wrist and let out a savage roar. He advanced on Arfon, swinging his short blade as quickly as he could, but his movements were far slower than before. His burnt arm hung limp and useless as his side, and Adan could see the pain his movements were causing him.
Arfon dodged and deflected Hugo’s rain of strikes with ease. As Hugo brought his blade down in an over-head blow, Arfon spun his axe and caught Hugo’s blade in the flanges.
As Hugo wiggled the sword free, the older warrior reached into the folds of his cloak and drew one of his throwing axes.
Hugo saw the movement, and leapt to the side just as Arfon threw the small projectile at him. The small axe spun through the air, missing Hugo and landing next to Adan.
Hugo continued to pommel Arfon with a hail of blows.
Adan grabbed the small throwing axe and hefted it in his left hand. Darkness threatened to overwhelm him again, and every movement brought him waves of pain. He had never been very good at throwing axes, especially left-handed, he couldn’t sit by and watch as the Vankull Warriors fought. His vision flickered as he pushed himself off the ground.
He waited until Hugo stood with his back to Adan, and couldn’t see him. Then Adan threw the axe with all the strength he could muster.
The weapon spun end over end through the air for an instant before sinking deep into Hugo’s back.
Hugo let out a grunt of pain and arched his back. His sword arm froze in midair.
Arfon, seizing the opportunity, took a step forward and swung his axe in a wide arc at Hugo’s neck. The axe passed through air as Hugo ducked out of the way. Arfon lifted a leg and kicked Hugo in the face. Hugo stumbled backwards, blood flowing from his nose.
Then Arfon lifted his axe and deftly brought it down with a loud crack!
The blade of the axe cut through skin, bone, and flesh as it sank deep into Hugo’s chest.
The commander dropped his sword and stopped moving. He stood still, facing Arfon.
”Now go and meet the One who promised you the world,” Arfon said. “So that he may reward you for your deeds!”
Arfon yanked the axe out of Hugo's chest. Steaming blood spilled onto the ground in between them.
Hugo fell to his knees, shaking all over.
Arfon and Adan watched as Commander Hugo slowly crumpled to earth, until he lay still on the blackened ground.
Relief washed over Adan. He let out a sigh, and collapsed.
Darkness threatened to swallow him. As he lay on the ground, he felt something wet touch his face. Then another droplet of water landed on him. Several more drops of water fell, cooling his aching body. The unmistakable sound of thunder rumbled the ground.
Rain… he thought to himself. Finally, some rain.
“Adan…”
He heard Arfon speaking as if from a great distance away. Then he finally allowed the darkness to overwhelm him.
Adan awoke to find Layla’s face hovering over him. He stirred awake, opening his eyes and realizing that he was no longer on the battlefield. Blurry visions of heat and pain filled his memory.
He lay on his back in a dark room made of stone. Candlelight illuminated Layla’s pale face, which held a combination of relief and anxiety. Adan felt her holding his left hand. His head ached and he felt stiff all over. The arrow protruding from his shoulder was gone, as was the spike in his side, but the wounds left behind felt as if they were on fire.
Adan groaned as he tried to move.
“Be still,” Layla said, concern in her eyes. “Don’t move too much.”
Adan obeyed and stopped trying to sit up. He let go of Layla’s hand and lifted his to stroke her face. A single tear fell from her eyes as he cupped her cheek in his hand.
For an instant, Adan wondered where Kian was. Then the memory of his death came crashing down on Adan.
“He’s… gone…” Adan managed to groan, holding back tears of his own. His voice cracked from the strain of trying to speak. His throat was parched and his tongue felt like it was made of leather.
Layla nodded. “I know.”
“Water…” he groaned,
Layla was already passing a shallow bowl to his lips.
He sipped slowly and carefully, allowing the clear liquid to parch his throat.
“The Undelmans…” he said when the bowl was empty.
”Killed or driven away,” Layla replied. “Some of the warriors are still scouring the forest, but the army is gone.”
Adan leaned his head back.
So we won, he thought. But the cost…
“I thought you were dead when Arfon carried you in,” Layla said. “The healers cauterized your side, but your shoulder only needed binding, but they said you need rest.”
“How long ago was that?”
”Yesterday afternoon,” she replied. “It’s early morning now.”
Adan looked back at Layla. “You’ve been here all night?”
She nodded.
“Have you had any rest?’
”As much as I need,” she replied.
Adan could tell from the bags under her eyes that she had sat up most of the night.
Overwhelmed with gratitude, he grabbed a handful of Layla's hair and gently pulled her to him. She allowed him to pull her face to his and kissed him tenderly. Adan felt another of her tears fall on his cheek as they kissed. When she pulled back, he wiped her face.
“I’ll be alright,” he said. “I don’t feel like anything was permanently damaged.”
“That’s good to hear,” a familiar voice said to Adan’s right.
He glanced over to see Hurst walking through the doorway, followed by Laxander and Hammund, whose left arm was in a sling.
“Laxander said you were waking up,” Hurst explained. “We just wanted to see how you fared and give you our eternal gratitude.”
“We’re in your debt,” Hammund said. “We were preparing ourselves for one final charge into the enemy ranks when you commandeered that cart. The mothers and elderly men were preparing to take up arms and fight while the older women were taking the children down underneath the citadel to barricade themselves inside. When you blew the Undelman army half to hell, we realized we had a fighting chance.”
”You should have heard Calden as he rallied the men inside the gate,” Laxander said. “We were all ready to run out of the gate and die fighting.”
”Yes,” said Hurst, “and I suspect many a song will be made for the last charge of the men of New Esta, as they drove the terrified Undelmans back with songs of victory on their lips.”
“Regardless,” Hammund added, “we just wanted to thank you. You could have died in the explosion and your courage saved us all.”
Adan nodded his acknowledgement with a pang of guilt. He thought it would sound ungrateful to tell them that he had originally intended to end his life in the explosion, and had only changed his mind at the last second, a fact that he promised himself he would never admit to Layla.
“I’m just thankful to the Creator for giving me the means to do what I did,” he said, thinking back to how he managed to steal the cart from the Undelmans. ”I do wonder why the cart wasn’t with the rest of the army, and why it was brought around the wall from the south.”
“I suspect they had to find a path through the burning forest, and they found a southern route that was safer,” Hammund offered. “The fires were still burning hot in many places east of the fortress, and they couldn’t risk the barrels igniting.”
“No they could not,” Laxander agreed. “But they didn’t reckon on Adan Calanson being there, did they?”
Adan leaned his head back again and breathed a sigh.
After a moment of silence Hurst cleared his throat. “We also came to offer our condolences.”
Adan turned his head to the side and looked back at the three men, who’s faces became grave at Hursts words.
“Yes,” Hammund said. “The whole city mourns with you, but we know the grief is keenest for you.”
Adan’s lips tightened and he nodded stiffly.
“We will give Lord Kian a burial worthy of a king,” Hurst said. “For now, we have laid his body to rest in the great hall, with his sword on his chest.”
Adan shut his eyes, still not wanting to believe that Kian was gone.
He nodded again. He knew that if he opened his mouth to speak, the tears would start anew.
“We will let you rest,” Hurst said, and the four of them passed silently out of the room.