The Tale of Five Heirs

Chapter Twenty-Four, in which Kelvin loses all the horses

Kelvin gave his horse's reins a shake, noticing the light coming through the trees up ahead indicating that the forest he had been riding through, with the twenty battalions of the Everwinter Army on foot behind him, was finally clearing. After nosing his way through the front lines of cavalry, he pulled up beside his mother and the line of riders that made up her top commanders.

They were all standing on the lip of a ridge. Before him, Kelvin could see the entirety of the east end of the Stelaster River Valley. The river began as a giant waterfall cascading down to a little lake at the base of the valley. Here he could see a small village, with little clusters of cabins on the shore of the lake and docks jutting out into it. From this lake, the river flowed over a small stone dam, and down the valley for what looked to be forty units before widening at a second fishing village, smaller, but more developed, with some fishing boats big enough to be seen from the ridge.

Lady Gwenyth turned to address the two riders closest to her: her advisor, Periwyn, who commanded battalions one through ten, and Heledd, who despite having almost no military experience, had been given command of battalions eleven through twenty.

"Periwyn, take your battalions west along the ridge, then dive down and seize the lower fishing village. You can burn cabins, but make sure not to damage ships. Heledd and I will descend the valley wall now and take the upper village." She waved her hand and began trotting down the valley, Heledd close behind.

As the rest of the army began to mobilize to follow, Kelvin turned to follow Periwyn west, along with his brother Ivor, who commanded the third battalion. Looking back Kelvin imagined what it would look like to the fisherman down on the lake to see hundreds of warriors pouring down the valley wall. He shuddered.

As soon as they were out of sight of the Ironfist and her officers, Ivor pulled up beside Periwyn. "I say," he said, "Rather than charging down the valley all at once, we encircle the village and demand they surrender. If they refuse, we keep the cavalry in the back and make a shield wall that marches steadily and unflinchingly inward until they surrender. That way we avoid the permanent destruction that my mother and sister are probably causing upstream."

"I'm not sure," replied Periwyn, "That may take too long. What's to stop them from sailing away in their boats before we can seize them?"

Kelvin hurriedly rode up next to them. "Wait, I have an idea," he said.

Periwyn sighed, but Ivor said, "Go ahead."

"Let me just say," said Kelvin, "the villagers will probably see the smoke from Mother's burnings upstream. It is critical that we get to them before they can sail away with any of their boats. We need every boat if we're going to get the whole army down the river in any sort of timely fashion. I say you stay here with the ten battalions, and I ride forward with all the cavalry, to get to the village as fast as possible."

Periwn looked at Ivor, "He raises a good point, but why don't you go. Kelvin has no experience, and we don't want him to botch it."

Ivor smiled at Kelvin. "It's just a little fishing village, what could go wrong? Go, brother, ride like the wind." He turned to the cavalry. "Follow Kelvin!"

With a whip of the reins Kelvin was off, peeling down the valley, towards the second fishing village, cavalry following along behind him.

As they arrived at the edges of the village, Kelvin could already see the frantic situation inside. Villagers were picking up axes and hammers and whatever they had and rushing out to protect their homes.

Kelvin raised a hand and with a clatter of horseshoes the cavalry came to a halt behind him. "You two," said Kelvin, pointing to the two soldiers at the head of the pack, "dismount, drop your weapons, or at least the obvious ones, and follow me." They looked incredulous, but they did as he commanded.