How Not to Poach a Unicorn

Thirty-One

He and the High Wolves charged across the plains and as they approached the Desidan army, the eclipse was nearly full. The wolves howled loudly, announcing their presence, their fur gleaming in the mid-day darkness as the moon passed in front of the sun. Blue, green and purple streaks wove like a spider web of lightning across the plains.

The Sun Jackals barked out a welcome to their northern cousins. The fur of the jackals, too, was blazing yellow, red and orange in the light of the eclipse. The dogs were going to war and they howled out their brutal intent. The voices of the wolves and jackals rose in dreadful harmony with the war chants of the rampaging Desidan army.

Ulrat and his men joined the chorus and blew hard the call of battle on their horns as they rode to join Kish and the other elk riders at the head of the charge. The call was returned a hundred times throughout the Desidan army as the hordes closed on the greatest of the sandstone bridges over the chasm.

Vestin was furious. His grand entrance was being sullied by mangy dogs. It did not matter, though. It was not the Desidan barbarians that he was going to impress and lead to glory. Their stupid prince would die just as easily to a blast of his fiery breath as any other puny human, and the dogs would burn and their arrogant howls would turn to squeals of torment. He would have his revenge in due time.

He took a position high in the sky and as for the sun to started to emerge, he began to descend slowly towards the Haelund ranks with the growing light at his back. He imagined that to the eyes of the insignificant specks below, he would appear most awe-inspiring. He was preparing to recite his carefully planned speech when a sudden flash of light from the ground below blinded him for a moment.

It had been an odd couple of days for Prinin. King Ashunar had opposed simply returning Prinin to his people and having him explain the situation. He made the excellent point that much of the Haelund nobility didn't much like the idea of him as king to begin with. It would be of much greater effect to appear as if by miracle and take command of the army immediately. 

Moreover, Ashunar predicted that there would be a full solar eclipse on the day hostilities were likely to break out. That would be an ideal time to reappear and take control. Ashunar had spies of all shapes and sizes tracking the progress of the war and the advancing Canerian army to ensure that they could pull off their deception without missing their opportunity.

The time waiting was not spent idly. Ashunar was emphatic about presenting the right image. First they robbed the royal vault of Haelund.

It made Prinin a little uncomfortable looting his own treasury. The vault was deep in the catacombs beneath the burnt husk of the palace and supposedly the King of Haelund was the only one who knew the secret to open it. Apparently, the man who built the vault also knew the trick and that happened to be reliable old Uncle Ash. So they raided the king's private armoury. They stole the enchanted golden armour of the King of Haelund and his great warspear. They also took a silver suit of armour meant fora mounted general and his horse. Finally they stole a pair of windmares from a nearby lord's stables.

As the two suits of armour were modified to fit a dainty king and his one-armed general, Taimon and Prinin practised their spear work. Prinin had never been an expert, but the practical experience in recent months had taught him much which he was now applying to horseback. Taimon, on the other hand, had been one of the best in the kingdom, but he was not yet used to controlling the replacement hand that King Ashunar had crafted for him. 

With some practice and creativity, he was turning the void that should be an arm into an advantage that no whole man could use. Instead of using the arm to brace the spear, he had found that passing it through the space allowed rapid changes between stances that should be quite impossible.