The Birth of the She-King of Barisitia

The Surprise Attack

Chapter 25

He had waited for the perfect time. It was a risk, but he had sent his sharpest eyes to watch the movement of the princess. The spy could have been caught and all of the effort would have been a waste, but he had to take the chance. It worked out. She had left. The brains of the operation, the leader was gone. It was perfect.

As soon as he heard the spy’s whistle, the Prince gave the command for the catapult’s shot. The men charged from the forest with a roaring warcry. The prince hid behind the first couple of lines of his cavalry. He would not deign to fight. He was more of the diplomatic type than his warmongering grandfather. In the confusion, he made his way to the castle. 

The Arazan warriors headed straight for the surprised Baristian soldiers. There were screams from the servant girls who had been in the middle of their outdoor chores. Tirio took charge.

“Ziva and Weren, get the women inside. Everyone else, hold them back.” The two men closest to the women began to herd them off like sheep, leading them away and swooping back to pick up any girl too shocked to move. 

Fortunately, in the princess’s paranoia, she had insisted that the troops begin working with real swords rather than wood to better get used to the shift in weight.  If she had not insisted that they begin practicing with real ones, the Baristian men would have been cut down in a quick, massive slaughter. Instead, each Arazan sword was met with a decisive cling! of a Barisitan sword. It was chaos.  No formation or direction could be determined in such an unorganized attack. All the same, Tirio continued to instruct the men. The younger boys, in turn, became invigorated from the actual chance to fight.  To look closely, they were running on pure adrenaline and bravado than any skill or plan.

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As soon as the ship landed, the princess was off running. She had been impatient for most of the ride back, pushing the captain to go faster. The sailors had barely secured the plank to get down before the princess was down. While there is a sense of fear in Halu, the princess was focused. She moved through the crowds straight to the horse. She did not look around or look back.  She swiftly jumped onto her horse and headed for the forest. The only noise she made was to shout that the people clear the way. Halfway to the forest, she heard the hoofs of more horses. In only moments, Acelin was by her side.  She was thankful when he did not give her reassurances. He was in battle mode as well.

When she came across the scene, it had worsen in the lapse of a few minutes from the time she heard it to the time that she arrived. That was how battles were that moved quickly, but lasted long. There were causalities down on both sides.

The princess raced her horse to the center of the fray. Luckily, she had trained the horse not to be frightened easily. She had her emergency bow that she always had in the saddlebag. With as much as balance as she could find in a moving horse, she aimed at the man in the most elaborate Arazon gear. She let the arrow go. It flew straight and clear through the fray. At one moment, it looked like it was to hit a Baristian soldier, but he ducked as he tackled an enemy warrior. There was whirl as the arrow narrowed in on its intended subject.

With a tick sound, the arrow imbedded itself in the general’s throat. It was the only exposed part of the uniform and had been a difficult shot, but Maia excelled best in those shots. The general attempted to gasp in surprise, but it was quite near impossible with the arrow in his throat. Unable to move due to shock, he was further hacked down by a Baristian warrior from behind. A few of the Arazan men closest to the general paused as they realized their commander was dead. The ones leading the charge were much too far to notice such a thing.

The princess knew that it would take a lot of blood to get them to see this. She grabbed a sword from a nearby body. She considered taking the horse with her, but it was much too valuable to use now. She had a sneaking suspicion that this was not going to be the first and last fight of the prince. She jumped off the horse and ducked as she heard the roar of an Arazan warrior charge her from behind. She whipped around and cut at his side. It was not even a moment after that she seemed to be swarmed. Men came at all sides, fighting for a cut at the head of the operations. Luckily, her own men joined.  Leading the group with a triangle formation, she finally made it to the general’s body. She chopped off his head and held it over her own head. She took a deep breath before letting out a roar. There was an awe-inspring silence as the men turned to see the princess lifted above her men’s shouders.