Victory's Price

Mollen - Wolf (Part Eighty)

Chapter 80

As the sun slowly tipped the horizon, Moll saw Seira. Seira with its scarlet banners, with its discipline, its drums and its resolution. Moll had truly thought that, with such large numbers, two thousand men would not make a difference to the sight of an army, that he would be able to cast his gaze across the empty distance between them and truly believe he stood a chance.

But he had been wrong. Two thousand men amongst a further fifteen was a great number, an insurmountable number.

And the Phoenix and her victory had not arrived.

She was not going to.

Moll sighed. He had already accepted the direction of his fate.

"Get me my horse." He commanded.

"But…"

"I said." He growled at Duke's insubordination. "That I want Kae."

Moll returned his gaze to the army that remained stationary before his wall-less city. They did not deserve to be there. And though he knew he would die trying to remove them, he had been born to make sure it was done.

There was shuffling behind him, and then his steadiest friend was at his side.

"Come on then, Kae." Moll whispered, ruffling the horse's forelock and heaving his heavy, metallic body into the saddle.

When he was mounted, looking down on those whose job it was to challenge his decision, Moll made his announcement.

"We will wait no longer on the volatility of the Phoenix. The sun rises, now, on our battle and I am going to fight."

"Without her they will annihilate us." Kat whispered.

"We were born for this, remember?" Moll admonished.

Kat shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. She said nothing more though he knew she was thinking just how much she did not wish to die.

"Feel no concern, my dear." He promised. "I will be taking you home tonight."

When the rest were silent, turning their hollow gazes up at him, Moll took his consent, kicking Kae out of the bank of his lines.

Now was the time was words. Now was the time for grand promises and the screaming of the masses. Now was the time, before the sun could cast the warmth of her rays upon the earth, for a king to boil the blood.

Moll's movement caught instant attention, as much attention as the arrival of the enemy, and he felt the sudden pressure of every eye, the hope in every heart.

But he did not rush himself, not just yet. He did not need to jump straight into a speech he had not prepared. These were his men, as much as he was their king, and so Moll satisfied his will first, his curiosity. They straightened as he passed, walking Kae deliberately past the full extent of his first line.

And, before long, Moll felt the slow accumulation of Seira's attention also. It could have been his imagination, for he awarded only his men his gaze, not once turning toward the expectant foe. But Moll knew it was not, Moll knew that, in one simple act, he had become the focus of thirty two thousand warriors. For the time drew ever nearer, there was no man that could not feel it, and Moll would be the man to break the barriers, he would be the one to release the tide. At his word, two worlds would collide.

"Our Motherland." He called, lifting his voice so that it might reach the furthest corners. He would not fool himself into believing he possessed a voice loud enough to reach the ears of fifteen thousand. But already the whisper had been taken up, spreading his words to the very back, a cascading wave of breath, hope and resolution.