A Double-Edged Sword

The Art of War

And so it happened, that one week after leaving Kalaan, at the age of sixteen, on a mockingly bright and beautiful June day, Lela caught her first sight of what war looked like. The Kyran army was assembled to the west side of a large valley, fairly devoid of trees. Far off in the distance, Lela could see the road that led to Cante, and realized that she was closer to the ocean now than she had ever been in her life. Despite the intense visions of battle, that Lela had been picturing the entire ride over, what she was confronted with was just harsh reality. Men, drawn and weary from battles already fought, performed mundane tasks throughout the encampment. Many sported bandages and other scars, and there was a large tent set up for the wounded.

As Lela’s company rode into the encampment, the men turned their eyes hopefully to the fresh soldiers, and when the spotted the prince riding among them, the eyes brightened before their heads dipped respectfully to honor his presence. Prince Nicolai himself rode at the head of the procession, next to Commander Kereah, and followed by Second Commander Rotinald and Jr. Commander Constant, who were trailed by the rest of the men in no particular order.

Lela kept her eyes open, searching for any sign of Markie, or anyone else she knew for that matter, but she spotted no one. Her company soon arrived at a cluster of tents that had been set up in anticipation of their arrival. Apparently, wagons had been sent out from a city nearby. Once there, Lela dismounted and began unpacking her items into the tent she had been assigned to. She also ended up unpacking the prince’s items into his tent as well, since he left with the Commanders in order to get caught up on the events that had transpired while they were on the road.

The afternoon passed without anything noteworthy transpiring. Then evening came and night fell, and Lela dozed restlessly in her tent, listening to the steady breathing of the nine men she shared it with. She woke to shouts.

~

“We’re under attack!” someone bellowed from nearby.

That was enough for Lela to dispel the last remnants of sleep from her body. She bolted upright, scrambling to pull on her boots and find her helmet and breastplate. She grabbed her gloves, and hoisted her saddle over one arm as she sprinted out the flap of her tent, tripping, and nearly falling flat on her face, over someone’s pack that had been left in the way. She found Silver, prancing at the end of her line. Lela had secured Tumbleweed with the pack horses last night, in case of just this situation. She only needed one horse right now, and Tumbleweed would be safe with the pack animals.

Moving as quickly as possible, Lela tacked Silver up and swung aboard.

“Cavalry! To me!” Commander Kereah bellowed from his steed.

Lela turned Silver around so that she could better hear his commands.

“Constant and the Prince will take one group of 15 around to the left. Rotinald will take another group of 15 to the right. The rest of you will come with me and we’ll meet our attackers head on,” Kereah roared.

Lela found herself nearest the Roald and Nicolai, so she followed them as they urged their horse’s into a canter and sped through the turmoil of activity towards the left of the camp. She knew that Kereah was hoping to surround the enemy with his flanking action, but she hated splitting up. Fifteen men on horses, against … Well she didn’t really know how many men she was going to encounter. But she did know that between the cavalry that had been stationed in Cante originally, another company of about 50, and the foot soldiers and archers there, there had been about 400 men defending Cante, and they had been brutally defeated. Now, with many of the original men dead or wounded, and only two cavalry companies, including her own, and two foot soldier squadrons, which each held about 100 men, and one archery unit of about 50 men, the Kyran army did not have many more soldiers now than they had before. Only 350 soldiers had arrived to help, although more were on their way. But what good were soldiers that were enroute going to do now.