KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Thirty Seven

"It is too late in the season for you to grow another crop, even with the arts we might share. However, if you are still willing to form an alliance, we might be able to share some of our excess grain. There are larger threats than the angorym to come and we can use men who know how to hold a spear and which end to thrust with."

Sabek took a large breath, and blew it out thoughtfully. "How much could you share?" Some of the men standing behind him, relaxed.

Karux did a quick mental calculation of their stores. "We could give you fifty vadhs of grain."

Sabek lowered his head, leaning on his spear. When he raised it again, he looked genuinely regretful. "That wouldn't be enough. We would need more than twice that just to make it through the winter."

"We could help you hunt and forage," Karux offered. "I'm sure we could find a way to help you."

"Even the Keleos trees have dropped their nuts too early." Sabek looked up. "As for hunting, there are hundreds of koria in as bad a shape as we. Nothing lives that walks on four legs south of the mountains. No." Sabek readied his spear. "I'm afraid that won't be good enough. We're going to have to ask you to give us the rest."

"Listen, I'm sure we can find a way to help you. Just give us some time."

"No. I'm sorry."

"Well then the price of your blood will fall on your own head." Karux walked away

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Karux called back over his shoulder, "It means we will stop you." He stepped through the lines of determined reavers who closed ranks behind him. Behind the rearguard he turned and, realizing he couldn't see the enemy through his own forces, mounted the stairs to the flat roof of a nearby house.

The men of Korion-Daikon outnumbered the defenders by at least three to one and bore longer, heavier spears. They approached in a roughly S-shaped line, spears lowered, then charged across the short distance with a scream.

The men of Korion-Athrion stood their ground, unmoving, spears at the ready. When the forward part of the curve met the defenders, wood clattered against wood as the men of Korion-Athrion remembered their training, pushed the attackers' spearheads aside and stepped in, thrusting. A score of men from Korion-Daikon fell, pierced through. The rest of the attackers surged forward, most of them suffering a similar fate. A few defenders fell as well, struck by the longer spears thrusting from behind the first line, then all became a chaos of dust and screams and anger and pain.

Karux noticed the defenders rarely had a chance to use both ends of the spears. While the weapon was fine for fighting in small groups, these large tightly packed formations, made them less useful. Only their better training allowed them to stand against these farmers who had, at best, only used their spears for hunting wild boars.

They should probably be even shorter, Karux thought. The spear heads should be longer, like that angorym long knife, but at each end. Would such a weapon be too heavy? Ideally the whole thing should be one long sharp piece of metal with only a place to grip it in the middle, but such a thing would almost certainly be too heavy to wield. Perhaps, with training, their strength might increase?

As Karux watched and pondered the course of the fight, he noticed Macander surging forward ahead of his men. He had cleared a small space out in which he was able to use his weapon freely, and he was both a wonder and a terror to behold.

With a wide sweep of his weapon from which half a dozen enemies stumbled backwards, he slashed the throat of one man with his weapons' tip. The man dropped to his knees clutching his neck while blood sprayed out as from a cracked jug of beer. Macander thrust forward, spearing another man, then lunged backwards, gutting the man behind him with the back of his spear. He swung around again, driving back more men and bringing the weapon down on another man's head. Macander's blow staggered his man, but only bounced off his skull.