Kingdom Fall: Chapter 27

 

Chapter 27

Sara was startled by the arrival of Houser and Corval with the horses. She turned to see them almost running with the horses. They had brought all the horses and Mach Tai's wolf. It was clear to her that these horses were used to the wolf as none seemed bothered but the great dog running beside them.

The same could not be said for Henry, who said, "Look out there is a wolf after the horses."

He tried to get up, but Sara said, "That wolf is not after the horses. It is the mount for Mach Tai."

He asked, “Who is Mach Tai?”

She was about to answer when she saw the Woodsman moving towards the horses.

"Where do you think you are going?" she said.

He turned to face her and although there were still tears running down his face, there was now a new look in his eyes. A look that unnerved her. It was pure hatred. He said, "I am going to the battlefield." He said it with such a finality that were it not for her experience as queen she would not have been able to say anything. As such she said in a commanding voice, "Wait, we will ride together." She was not sure he would obey as she had no authority over the man but was pleased to see him stand down. Once she was confident that he would not try to ride off she turned back to answer her husband only she found Captain Waltch and Mach Tai approaching. She indicated for her husband to look behind him. As he did she said, "Allow me to introduce to you Captain Walch of the Doorshire kingdom and Oper Mach Tai of the Hathorn kingdom." She then said to the new arrivals, "Captain Walch, Mach Tai, this is my husband Duke Henry Bellfourth."

Both soldiers nodded to the Duke and Mach Tai said, "Pleasure to meet you."

Henry was completely speechless. Sara then said, "Mach Tai, both my husband and General Lateaf have been hurt, see if you can help them."

Mach Tai said, "Yes sir." She grabbed her pack and went to work on the two.

Walch looked at the dead bodies and said, "What happened here? Did the citadel kill them?"

Sara said, "No, the magic has been removed from the Citadel. I am afraid this is General Allison's handy work."

The captain reached for his sword and started looking around. Sara smiled at the diligence of the soldier. She said, "No need for that, he is dead. Our guide took care of that."

He put away his sword and muttered, "I knew he was too evil to be trusted. He was the leader of the Delland Army, and the only thing you can trust Delland to do is to stab you in the back. I can’t believe I was starting to like that guy."

Sara realized that the captain was expressing how she was feeling. She too had started to believe the man to have turned a new leaf and had something redeemable in him. What was worse was that she was sure that King Childs had put him up to this, but since the general did not say so, she had no evidence. Even so she was done trying to make nice with Delland. Once this war was over, she would attend to the thorn had had been poking her since she took power.

She turned to see Mach Tai standing up. Mach Tai said, "Neither have life-threatening injuries, although had someone not acted quickly on the leg injury for General Lateaf, it would have been a lot worse. I have them both bandaged up, and they should be able to ride. I also gave them some neotin weed to suck on. It will help with the pain."

Sara smiled and said, "Thank you. Now I say we get out of here." She was pleased to see Walch, Corval, Houser and even the Woodsman move to help the injured onto the horses. Once they were all mounted Sara took one last look around. It saddened her that they were leaving behind so many horses, not just for the poor animals but because of the loss of life they represented. She then turned to the group and gave the indication for them to head out.

The Woodsman took the lead, and they headed out at a very brisk pace. She worried that the man's judgment was clouded by his anger as he was not trying to hide their presence. Instead of taking game trails and back ways he was taking them on the open road. She debated saying something but quickly realized that they had yet to see a soldier on the road and the locals did not seem to care or give a second look at the foreign army marching through their countryside. She decided to follow the man's lead as they were making good time and she was anxious to get to the front lines.