Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (81 page)

Picking up his pace as he finally was clear of the
main killing field, Dante rushed as quickly as he could
manage. The castle was nearly twenty miles south. If he
could get there soon enough, the soldier could prepare
the king for what his troops would be facing.

Walking all day, eventually Dante spotted smoke
ahead of him. A dark flash and the soft rustle of wings,
alerted him to the raven's presence again. It had followed him this far oddly enough. Perhaps it was still certain of Dante's death and had chosen him as its future meal, he
thought wryly. But as the bird soared on ahead towards
the smoke, Dante realized that the bird would have
something else to feed on first.

The bird had disappeared long ago, but Dante
knew that the creature would be waiting ahead for him
though he had no reason for such odd behavior. The
warrior followed the road as best he could and before
long he found the source of the smoke.

A small village, through which the Certen army
had passed only a day ago, was now a smoking ruin. As
he entered the outskirts of the town, Dante could smell
the death before him even as he had on the battlefield.
Animals and scavenger birds were here as well. Most
scattered at the approach of the man. The brazen raven
appeared before him in the road and turned to him with a
cry.

"So nice of you to wait," he mumbled
sarcastically.

As he searched the village for any survivors,
Dante began to wonder about something else. The
invaders’ identity was entirely unknown to him. They had appeared out of virtually nowhere. Those that had alerted
the king had not known from where they had come
either. More than five hundred strong, a true army of odd
creatures the likes of which had never been known to
this region of the Taltan continent, if they had ever
existed anywhere in all of the world of Alus, and they had
just appeared out of nowhere to attack and destroy.

Armies of man they knew. There were even
dwarves rumored to be a true separate race up in the
north, though he had never seen one. The myths of a race
of gargoyles and the existence of dragons had made their
way to Certe from North Continent as well. The source of
old wives' tales to be told to naughty young children or
around the campfire to try and spook the rawest of
recruits, but now these aberrations were here. This
slaughter was no wives’ tale.

Dante could find no survivors left alive and so he
proceeded south to warn the king, even as the man
continued to ask the unanswerable questions.

The raven continued to follow but revealed
nothing to him.

For the Original Story of Gerid the Grimnal Read:

The High King: A Tale of Alus

Chapter 11- A Berserker Among Us

Gerid wiped the sweat from his dirty brow.
Leaning on his shovel, he turned to survey his progress.
The dark line of the new irrigation channel, which he had
been working on, appeared dark against the summer
sun's bleached earth. The scrawny shoots of the Taltan
continent's main staple, cracker corn sprang up in rows
to either side.

Summer was half over now. Nearly two months of
slavery showed themselves in the hard calluses that were
even rougher than from working in his family holdings.
His upper body and face were dark brown from exposure
to the sun, a stark contrast to his silvery, white hair. The
youth still had to smile in satisfaction at his progress.
The herculean feats that he had performed had begun to
get Holtein's notice by now. New plans to impress the
slave holders and ways of finally winning his freedom
continually played in his mind. This channel, for instance,
would normally take five men to complete in the same
amount of time his pace would complete it, if he could keep it up. The smile played about his lips still as he
returned to the hard labor.

"Gerid!"

He looked up to see Mateil coming through the
path between patches of growth. The shovel was
powerfully driven into the earth one more time and he left
it to stand by itself. "What can I do for you, Mateil?"

"Leoltus wants you to come to the soldiers'
barracks immediately along with most of the servants. He
wouldn't say why, but that it was extremely urgent."

Gerid tugged the tool free of the earth and followed. On their arrival at the barracks, they found
nearly every male slave that the Holteins owned gathered
around the foreman. The men stood in various states of
anxiousness awaiting Leoltus' news, but, when Gerid was
entering the building, he had spied three men that he had

seen very seldom in his stay at the farm. Karma, the only
son of Master Carter Holtein, a dark haired, handsome
young man, stood with two of his bodyguards wearing
their light armor. Upon seeing the master’s son in his
armor, the men all began whispering to each other in
their surprise and a new wave of questions were
whispered about.

"Quiet! Quiet, all of you," Leoltus ordered. "Master Karma has come to deliver some important news, so be quiet."

The slaves quieted as the young man moved to
the center of those gathered there. "I'll get straight to the
point. We've had word that there are bandits in the area
headed here from the southern hills. We don't know if they're Tolmonan soldiers or simply bandits, but until
King Colona can recall a brigade to deal with them, the
farms to the south of the capitol are on their own.

"My father cannot come here now, so I will lead
you in the defense of our home in his absence."

"And what do we fight with, our hands?" Gerid
asked casually.

Karma's eyes narrowed from annoyance. The
guardsmen tensed towards their weapons in slight
surprise at the rare questioning of the master's authority.
Seeing that it was the rather intimidating giant, Gerid
who had spoken, Karma held up a restraining hand to his
men. Gerid thought that he saw relief in their eyes
despite the weapons in their hands. He was nearly a head taller than even the tallest man here and holding a shovel
that could be used as a weapon gave him a strong
presence within the room. On top of that, they all knew
the feats of strength that he had performed in the past
months even within the main house as well. "That's why I
had you all called here. Though you are all only slaves

and untrained in battle, we still have weapons and
shields. There is even leather armor here, such as it is. My men and I can try and show you what we can before the bandits arrive. They may not even arrive here, since the reports are not completely clear, but we must still
prepare for the worst."

Gerid didn't bother to reply to what he thought of that type of thinking. There was little that untrained men could learn if they faced real swordsmen, but instead of
worrying over that point, the nearly two score slaves
spent the next half an hour finding weapons that the
mercenaries who had been trained at the Holtein's
facilities had left behind. He had taken a stout club
studded with nails and a foot and a half long knife for his
own. Gerid figured that, if the bandits were well armed,
as was probable, then he could steal a proper sword from
one of the fallen enemies. If they weren't well armed, of
course, the club would suffice in his strong hands.

Leoltus moved over to him clad in mail. Karma
had apparently decided that his overseer deserved better
than the leathers which would do little more than the
clothes that Gerid wore. "Aren't you going to put on some
armor, boy? At least grab a shield."

A wry smile crossed his face as he looked up from his seat on a bale of hay. "I'm too big to wear
anything in there and a shield just isn't my style. I prefer
two weapons. They're a lot quicker and less clumsy. If
they use arrows, then I'll worry. Maybe I can hide behind
you instead," he suggested with a grin.

The older man laughed, "I'll lend you my shield
and hide behind you more likely, thank you." His face
began to change as he seemed to reappraise Gerid
again. "You seem awfully confident. Were you a soldier
already back in your old home despite your young age,
boy?"

"I've had some training though not in battle. A
few duels that I found myself in with Lord Merrick's
soldiers caused most of the circumstances which have
brought me here. It was because I won them all,
however."

"Excellent." At Gerid's look, the older man
amended, "Your training I mean, of course. If those
bandits do come, I think that I'll be standing at your side.
Master Karma has had some training as has his guards,
but I doubt that they've truly been tested in a real battle
either. I'll get Baitram, Jatan, and Mateil to join us.
They've fought before though they were only trained in
the basics before they were sold to the Holteins."

"Do any of the others know how to fight?"

"Not with the sword that I know of."

"Then do you think that we should all stay together or try to lead the others through the attack?"

Leoltus gave him a look that was meant to
express the wisdom of all the overseer's years. With a
shake of his head, he said gravely, "It may seem nobler to
lead them to their probable doom, but we can do more by
staying together. I'll get the others."

As the man went to gather the other men who had become nearly like a family to him here, Gerid
watched as Karma and his men sparred with the slaves in
an effort to show them whatever techniques that they
could. He had avoided them until now, but the giant
arose from the seat he had taken and moved towards the
trio and their students. After a short while of watching
closely, he spoke to Karma as he paused, "You're leaving
yourself wide open."

"What?" the master’s son cried out in annoyance.
With a hand raised to hold back the next student from
approaching, Karma stared at his addresser with a mixture of anger and disbelief that any would dare
second guess him. "What did you say, boy?"

Gerid nearly laughed at the idea of the twenty year olds use of words for him. He answered instead,
"Your shield is too low. If a blow is slashed at your face,
you'll be unable to stop it in time."

Karma's face was darkening swiftly with the red of anger at his insubordination. Gerid quickly realized
that he had forgotten himself. It hadn't been the first
time in his recent life, of course. He just seemed to enjoy
ticking off authority figures with or without intention, especially when it was only inherited and not earned.
Merrick's soldiers had probably at least earned their positions, but not Karma as far as Gerid was concerned. He almost missed Karma's order. "Prove it," the master
said gesturing to a place before him.

"Are you sure, Master Karma? You won't be too
angry with me or embarrassed if I show you this?" the
young slave asked as he remembered his current status.

The master's eyes crinkled with disdain and he
raised his nose slightly as if he had scented something
rotting before him. Karma believed that no common
slave, no matter how large, could possibly have learned
enough to surpass his own skills learned from his father’s
mercenaries. "Now," he ordered again.

Gerid stepped forward already watching the
other man carefully, though he still noted the slave
students all moving slightly away around them. The area went still as the others all drew back and the guards and
their students turned to watch as well. He only half
noticed Leoltus' look of worry as he clapped a hand over
his eyes as if to block the sight though he quickly
lowered it again to watch the event.