Disclaimer: This is a work in progress as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). You are reading the work product of a first draft writing session and not a finished product. Comments are welcome, but bear the first draft nature of the work in mind. Thank you and enjoy!
Chapter 13
The boats were standard three-masted merchantmen who’s holds had been emptied of their cargo to carry troops and supplies across the Southron Sea to the open ports in Verona. The Kingdom of Rhodes was taking advantage of the shorter travel time across the water rather than take the month and a half to march by the land route. The same trip by sea could be made in just three days if the winds were right. The Legion loaded up their companies and all their gear into four of the merchant ships. The king had already loaded two hundred thousand arrows on another ship to account for the five hundred arrows per legionnaire it was expected they would need in the initial campaign. Each member of the Legion also carried a quiver with thirty arrows at all times.
Cori would have thought thirty arrows would be enough for any campaign until she had trained to fire all thirty of them as fast as she could at targets downrange. The entire company of one hundred archers could send three thousand arrows against an enemy force in just over two minutes. Once she realized she’d have an empty quiver on her back in just a few minutes of firing, Cori wished she could have more than the five hundred arrows allotted per legionnaire for the campaign. She liked the idea of killing the enemy at more than an arm’s length with a bow rather than letting them get in close.
Uncle Vernon told them during their weapons practice that it was the close-in melee fighting that was unpredictable. “You could stumble over a fallen comrade and fall on your own blade. There is no rhyme or reason and sometimes pure, dumb luck determines who lives and who dies. So train to kill your enemies fast and get away from them to shoot at them again from a distance.”
She thought of those words and other bits of wisdom he and the other sergeants had tried to impart to them as she sat in the hold of the ship to which they were assigned with the other members of Stag Company. Some already looked green from the gentle rocking of the boat in the harbor. They weren’t going to have a very nice trip once they got out into open seas and the boat started rocking. She had been at sea before and was somewhat used to this mode of travel but to people who lived in the inland mountains and forests, the concept of a wide body of water where there would be no land in sight was a frightening thought. She remembered the look on Shelby’s face, and some of the others, too, when they rounded the bend in the harbor road through Rhodes City and they saw the harbor and the sea beyond it for the first time.
Soon enough, with the coming of dusk, the evening tides rolled in, and the merchant sailors on the decks above raised the anchor and started for the harbor mouth and the sea beyond. Cori again felt exhilarated to be on another leg of the journey that would bring them to the far shores of Verona. She had never left the Kingdom before so this would be a new journey for her as much as it was for the other members of the Legion. She was still thinking about it when she was startled from her reverie a retching sound nearby, and then another and another as the ship’s movement and the roll of the waves caused many of the ship’s human cargo to loose what was left of their lunch on the lower decks of the cargo hold. There were a few buckets scattered around but not enough and before long there was a nasty, slippery mess everywhere around. This was going to be a long three days.
———
The Legion arrived in Verona on the third night after they left. The relief to be out from inside the stinking holds of those merchant vessels could be seen as all the legionnaires took deep breaths from the fresh sea air as they came on deck and walked down the gangplank to the dock in the seaside town on the coast of Verona. Cori wanted to bathe and wash off her boots after walking around in the slop that had accumulated below decks in the ship. She walked across the deck of the ship and down the gangplank into the town. It had to be a town and not the capital city of Veron. The place wasn’t any bigger than Westgate Town. She saw Captain McAffrey talking with the sergeants on the dock nearby. She walked up and asked him where they were.
“This is a town called Felton. It lies near the mouth of the Rhen River,” the captain told her and the rest of the assembled company. “The Imperial forces have surrounded the capital city of Veron and have patrols out along the both banks of the Veron river to the east, so we have landed here. We walk from here to where the rest of the assembled allied armies are camped.”
He turned to the assembled sergeants. “Organize your platoons and then assemble a squad from each at the ship carrying our additional supplies. I want every legionnaire carrying an additional quiver of thirty arrows at all times so have the work squads carry enough extra arrows back from the supply ship for your entire platoon. The rest of our supplies will be transported by cart to the assembly area, but we aren’t going to wait, we travel with what we carry and head north and east. We’ll leave at first light.”
Cori watched as Captain McAffrey strode off towards the center of town and then saw Sergeant Neale coming towards them. “First squad, follow me back to the dockside, we’ve got supplies to retrieve. The rest of the platoon will follow Sergeant Verell with the rest of the company to the eastern edge of town where we’ll make a temporary camp.”
Cori’s first squad formed up and followed their platoon sergeant to get the platoon’s essential supplies and weapons unloaded. When they arrived at the side of the ship that was unloading crates and tied bundles of arrows on the dockside, Sergeant Neale appropriated a horse cart parked on the dock. There was no horse, but he had four of the squad members lift the traces and haul it over to the growing pile of arrow bundles.
“Purvis, open that crate marked ‘quivers’ and start handing out extra quivers,” Sergeant Neale ordered. “We need sixty of them. Then load up eighteen of those hundred arrow bundles. Our platoon is not gonna run out of arrows if I can help it.”
The group started working on loading the bundles and the quivers into the cart then with four of them lifting the traces and the rest of them pushing from the side and behind, the two-wheeled cart rumbled off to the eastern edge of town. The rest of the platoon had a small camp area set up for them when they arrived an hour later. Sergeant Neale ordered each of them to fill an additional two quivers with thirty arrows and be prepared to carry them on the march. Then he detailed the first squad to return the cart to the dock where they originally retrieved it. By the time Cori and the rest returned if was nearly midnight. They settled in their tents, half of them standing guard while the others slept. It was good to sleep in the open again and breathe some fresh night air after three days on that God-forsaken ship. She fell asleep right away.
Cori’s early morning night watch shift meant she was responsible for rousing the platoon as the first hint of dawn light showed on the eastern horizon. They were all awake and packed up by the time the sun first peeked above the trees to the east. Sergeant Neale walked past them, checking their gear and occasionally checking the edge on a legionnaire’s blade or tomahawk. He turned and addressed them when he was finished.
“We are in enemy territory from here on out,” he began. “This is where is starts to be real. The real danger, real killing, real dying. You need to keep that in the front of your mind from now on. Once we start marching, we could encounter the enemy at any time. Remember your standing orders. Remember your training and drills, and keep your eyes open and you might just make it back home alive. Let’s move out. Captain McAffrey wants us on the point of the company, so we spread out and break trail to the northeast.”
Sergeant Neale led them to the road the Legion would be marching on to meet up the rest of the Free Kingdoms’ forces. The second platoon spread out on either side of the road and ahead of the main march to scout ahead of the Legion. Cori knew as she reached the tree line nearby that other platoons from the companies spread out to the right and left and rear just as the standing orders said. They marched to join the war.
———
The Legion of Solon Princess’ Own Regiment marched for three days to reach the army. After the first day, they moved off the road to march to either side of it because it was choked with carts and wagons from refugees fleeing the conflict to the east. It was then that they heard the first stories of the brutality of the Imperial forces during the invasion. They were taking slaves from among the women and children and sending them back to the Empire. Any men or women caught bearing a weapon bigger than a belt knife was put to death on the spot. If weapons were found in a household, there were reports that the entire family who lived there was locked inside, and the house burned down around them. The haunted, hollow look in the eyes of the people who trudged by on the road spoke volumes of the brutality they had each seen.
In camp on the second night of the march, the platoon sat and talked about what they had all heard about the Imperial forces from the fleeing people on the road. They were not accepting surrender from any troops, slaughtering entire companies and regiments of the Veronan army rather than take them prisoner. Sergeant Neale sat and listened to them talking for a long time without saying a word. Cori wondered what he thought of this. He finally stopped puffing on his clay pipe and spoke in a quiet voice to the rest of the assembled platoon.
“This is real war people,” he began. “There are women, children, soldiers and animals dying out there because war doesn’t care who it kills in its sweep across a land. You should know of harsh treatment of prisoners and learn from it. Don’t let yourself get captured. Fight hard, fight smart and when the time comes, run away if you have to in order to live to fight another day. I’m not telling you to leave your comrades but if the time comes that you are separated from the group, remember your standing orders and try to make it back to the rendezvous. If you can’t do that, strike west and eventually you should make contact with allied forces. Pay attention to what you see and be ready to report it to any units you encounter while you make your way back to the nearest Legion company. They’ll make sure you get back to us.”
“What do we do if some Imperial wants to surrender to us?” Erin Sparrow asked. “It seems like we should give them the same treatment they offer us, right?”
“Two wrongs don’t make it right, Erin,” Neale said. “Besides, we need to know what that Imperial soldier knows. It might save our lives or the lives of other allied troops later on. So, no, we won’t be killing Imperial soldiers we capture. It’s important that we hold on to our humanity in the midst of this conflict, so when we return home, we don’t bring too many of the demons of war back with us. We’ll all bring some, but let’s not borrow trouble and turn into the monsters we are fighting.” He tapped out the dottle from his pipe and looked around. Better get some sleep. Make sure you know who is to relieve the sentries on the perimeter and double check your gear before you turn in. Good night.”
The other members of the platoon murmured their good nights in return and began to see to their sleeping arrangements with their tent mates. Cori reflected that Sergeant Neale sounded something like the Uncle Vernon she had grown up knowing and not the tyrant of a drill master he had become during the march so far. She liked that he seemed to change, but she also knew it meant that he was concerned for all of their safety, especially hers.
Morning came quickly, and they had one more day of marching by Captain McAffrey’s estimation to join the allied forces in their main encampment. First platoon of Stag Company was on the point today leading off the Legion’s march along the road north. Cori shouldered her pack and triple arrow load and started the march paralleling the road. It was late in the afternoon when a runner from first platoon came back to report to Captain McAffrey and Lord Logan at the head of the column that they had encountered sentries from the main camp. An officer had requested that Lord Logan come forward to be taken to report into the commander of the army. Cori saw her brother beckon to a squad from Wolf Company to join him, and he and Jonathan set off at a trot, following the first platoon legionnaire off up the road. Captain McAffrey called out to the company to set up camp to the north of the road along a streambed that ran through a stand of trees there. He sent a runner back to the other company commanders to tell them to do the same.
Cori found a spot beneath a large oak tree and worked with Shelby to assemble their tent. She laid out her blanket roll inside the tent and set her pack and gear down next to it. Shelby was inspecting her long knife’s blade and then sheathed it.
“Are you as nervous as I am, Shelby?” Cori asked.
“Probably more, Cori,” The former tavern girl replied. “I don’t have the training you had growing up. The training and drilling worked. I’m better at fighting than I was, and I grew up on a farm near Gladestown so I know how to shoot a bow, but I have to wonder if I’m going to be good enough.”
“I think we all fear the same thing,” Cori responded. “I know I do. What if I run? What if I get somebody killed because of a mistake I made? I don’t think I could bear it.”
“You won’t run, Cori. You’re the among the best with a bow, and you are a whirling dervish when you fight with a long knife and tomahawk,” Shelby reassured her. “You lead the squad as much as Geb does, and that was going on before we knew who you were. I don’t think Lady Corinne Westgate has any retreat in her bones.”
Cori laughed. “My mother would probably agree with you. She always said I was as stubborn as a badger guarding its burrow.” She sighed. “I wonder what she’s doing. You know my parents, and I didn’t part on the best of terms.”
“Yet you also know they still love you,” Shelby answered. “They sent Sergeant Neale to watch over you and train the platoon. We are the best platoon in the whole Legion because of him. That is because of your parents. I don’t even have parents anymore. Our farm was raided and burned down when I was young. I was forced to move to town and was taken in by the innkeeper’s wife to earn my keep as a maid and then working in the tavern.”
“Well, when we return to Rhodes, I’ll bring you to Westgate and introduce you to my parents as the sister I never had,” Cori said. “They’ll adopt you on the spot. I promise.”
They were interrupted by a legionnaire from Wolf Company. He bowed to Cori and said, “Lady Corinne, Lord Logan requests your presence in the main camp. I’m to take you to him there.”
Cori looked at Shelby, shrugged and gathered her gear. “Let’s go legionnaire, and if you bow to me or call me ‘Lady Corinne’ again, I’ll box your ears. I’m just another member of Stag Company and a legionnaire just like you.”
He smiled, started to bow, then stopped himself and trotted off to the road north with Cori close behind. She hoped this wasn’t a ploy by her brother to separate her from the company and ship her back home. He was in for a fight if that was his plan. She continued to think about it as she approached the main camp a mile up the road. It was already starting to get dark, and she couldn’t believe all the tents and campfires she saw. There must be thousands of them. The legionnaire, who she learned was named Berk, led her in a winding path among the tents and regiments camped there towards the center of the camp. When he arrived at a large pavilion tent flying the royal banner of Rhodes he stopped and told her that Lord Logan was inside.
Cori pushed past the tent flap and entered the finely appointed interior. Inside she saw her brother Rad first and then the youngest of her older brothers, Hartmann. She rushed over and gave them both a hug. She had not seen either of them for a long time. Logan and Jonathan stood by and watched the reunion. She stopped hugging them and stepped back warily as she thought of the reasons for this reunion.
“What is up, brothers?” She asked. “You aren’t planning on ganging up on me and trying to get me to return home, are you?”
Rad held up a hand. “Peace sister. Logan has assured us that you are resolute in your determination to stay with the Legion.”
Hartmann jumped into the conversation, “We thought this might be the last chance for a Westgate family dinner for a while, and Logan agreed to send for you to make it complete. Mother and Father can’t be here, but at least we siblings can share a meal and good company together before we all go our separate ways.”
Cori relaxed as she understood the reason for the summons. A dinner with her brothers would be nice. It had been a long time since she had talked to any of them. Logan and Jonathan had kept their distance in the Legion. She knew they were watching her from afar, but that wasn’t the same. The Westgates were a close family, and she missed her older brothers. She also wanted their approval.
“I think that a dinner with you all would be a nice way to spend the evening,” Cori announced. “I want to hear the news of the war so far and learn more of what is going on.”
There was a table set up already in the tent and the five Westgate siblings sat around it with Rad at the head. He was an officer in the Royal Heavy Horse, second only to Prince Welby, Alvina’s twin. Rad clapped his hands, and two servants appeared, bringing wine and a platter of bread and cheese. Her mouth was watering. She had been eating camp rations for too long. Cori sat down and joined her brothers in a meal. They talked of home and of happier times growing up together. It was a good way to pass the evening after all the hard work leading up to this point.
As they enjoyed some fruit for dessert, Cori noticed Rad looking her way as if appraising her from afar. “What is it you see, Brother?” She asked.
“I’m remembering you crying the first time you killed a rabbit with an arrow,” he said. “I’m trying to match it up with seeing you as my sister the warrior maiden.”
Logan finished his mouthful of apple and came to her defense. “I have been talking to Uncle Vernon. He tried his darnedest to get her to give up her decision to enlist. He grudgingly admits that she is, and I quote, ‘Fierce little mountain cat who I’d hate to run into on a battlefield.’ I suspect he’s more than a little proud that he taught you to fight like that, Sister.”
“It’s good to hear that from you,” Cori admitted. “I was beginning to think he is mad at me for enlisting and is taking it out on me by trying to kill us in training.”
“Trying to kill you with training is the way to keep soldiers alive on the battlefield,” Hartmann said. “The King has said that many times in the course of the last few months of preparations for war.” Hartmann was a personal squire and knight in training with King Edgard of Rhodes.
Her other brothers agreed with the statement. She thought about it and realized it made sense. The second platoon of Stag Company was the one that trained the hardest, and it was now one of the hardest and prepared units in the Legion. She looked at her brothers around the table. They were all actively involved in the war effort now. Rad was second in command of the Rhodian Royal Heavy Horse Regiment and best friends with Prince Welby, the commander of that regiment. Hartmann, as a squire to the King of Rhodes, was also part of his primary honor guard and would protect him in battle. Logan and Jonathan had roles as the Leader of the Legion and principal healer and spiritual guide for the Legion respectively. And she was a lowly recruit in that Legion. She preferred her place in the Legion now. If her father had permitted her to join from the outset, she might have been given an officer’s position as a Lieutenant to her brother or as a platoon leader alongside one of the sergeants. She preferred earning her own way in the world, and that included finding her own place in the Legion.
“What news do you have of the war, Rad?” She asked her eldest brother.
He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Not well, Cori. Not well at all. The Imperials swarmed into Verona across the border in dozens of places. The defense of the kingdom is set up much like our own. It takes time to assemble the levies and militias and organize a defense in the midst of a surprise attack. The Imperial army surrounded the capital at Veron within weeks of the invasion. We fear the city will fall if we cannot get to them. The problem is that we have numerous imperial forces between us and the city. They are enslaving the populace and marching them back into the Empire and those they don’t enslave they are killing in the most brutal ways imaginable.”
“We’d heard that from the refugees on the road we encountered on the way here from the ships,” Cori said. “The stories were awful.”
“War is awful, little sister,” Rad said. “There are no winners in a war. Even if we win this conflict, it will be years until Verona is the same, and they may never recover.”
“What caused the conflict to start?” Cori asked.
“It started when the Imperial Crown Prince, Vashima, His Amazing Godliness,” Rad rolled his eyes as he said the last. “He decided that Princess Kalila should be his latest bride. He already had a wife from every province in the Empire but he met her on a state visit to Verona to discuss a trade agreement, and he wanted her added to the deal.”
“As if she were property?” Cori asked in disgust.
“Exactly,” Rad continued. “When King Aran of Verona politely refused, the Imperial Prince supposedly stamped his foot and demanded the princess be brought to him immediately. He said that Free Kingdoms had played as if they were independent long enough and it was time they admitted they were still part of the Empire. At that point, King Aran called off the negotiations and politely asked the Prince to leave the city. He returned to the Phutan Empire’s capital at Imperial City and his father sent the imperial forces streaming across the border with Verona little more than a month later.”
“So this whole war started because of a temper tantrum from a spoiled imperial prince?” Cori asked.
“That was a the match that lit the tinder, but the fire has been smoldering beneath the surface for a long time, probably since the war a hundred years ago when the four Free Kingdoms kicked the Empire out the first time. They were embroiled in revolutions in their eastern provinces and didn’t have the energy to put their full force into a fight with us on the western frontiers, so they eventually conceded. But I’ve long thought that the Empire has wanted us back in their borders. I think Prince Vashima’s demands were a set up from the beginning to give the Empire a reason for offense and a pretense to start a war. It makes sense. If King Aran had conceded and given his daughter to Vashima in marriage, then her children would have been in line for the throne of Verona. If she refuses, he offends the God-Emperor of the Phutan Empire. There was not a right answer, or at least, not an answer that wouldn’t lead to war eventually.”
“So, what of the Legion, Brother? Do you know how they mean to deploy us given the way the Empire’s forces are spread in front of the allied armies of the Free Kingdoms?” Logan asked Rad.
“Prince Welby, as the representative of Rhodes here has the final decision. I believe he is going to divide the Legion into two forces and deploy them to the north and south in an effort to secure the flanks from Imperial raiding parties and to scout for large concentrations of enemy forces that will signify a battle line was forming.” Rad looked at Logan and asked, “How would you split your forces if that were the case, Logan?”
“I’d send two companies to the north and two to the south,” Logan said, thinking on the problem. “Archard McAffrey is my second in command so he would take control of one group, probably the northern one. I’d take the southern force and sweep along the river banks of the River Veron to secure that geographical boundary. I’d like some cavalry to help us with any large forces we encounter, especially to the south where there is a lot of open country. In the north, where it is more mountainous and forested, they won’t be as much help.”
“I can assign a few squadrons of the Rhodian heavy horse to you in the south. That should give you the support you need to cover your operations.”
Cori sat back and listened as her brothers continued to discuss the finer points of the Legion’s disposition on the battle line. It sounded like Stag Company and Panther Company were to be sent north. She started thinking on that and on what she would do when battle was joined while they continued their planning. She looked at her brothers and realized this might be the last time she saw one or more of them. She sipped her wine and thought of them in better times and wished the war would be quick, and they could all join again in Westgate soon.
—-
Disclaimer: This is a work in progress as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). You are reading the work product of a first draft writing session and not a finished product. Comments are welcome, but bear the first draft nature of the work in mind. Thank you and enjoy!