The Adventures of Brandar Odaron
Book 1: The Hidden Continent
Chapter 22 Jesan’s Plight
General Jesan divided his Army into ten Regiments, spreading the first five as a Front north to south on the Borders west of Kombros, but four behind those, and the Tenth in the rear to be sent company-by-company to either flank. But he waited with his Guards upon a low rise behind and somewhat north of the Tenth Regiment, and prayed his strength would be enough.
The first hint that things would go awry came with two storms that met and clashed over his Army; one from the north and the other from the west, but without concern for the prevailing winds. And the disturbances brought deafening thunderings and deadly lightening which struck repeatedly across the Lands thereabouts, but especially among his troops; killing many a Soldier ere the enemy were even seen from afar westwards across the Grassland gathering at the Forest’s edge.
Then great whirlwinds came in from the north, uprooting trees and tossing them into the clouds, and sucking up rivers and streams, and otherwise throwing all manner of debris high and wide; with much of it, and many an uprooted tree, landing on his men. But one of the whirlwinds came across the Front and swept the Fourth Regiment away and half of the Ninth, flinging Soldiers skyward; many never to be seen again, living or dead. Yet, ere the complete horror of this was realized as the whirlwinds continued south, there swooped down vast numbers of flying things from the west.
Here were flock upon flock of winged monsters which attacked so forcefully and struck so unexpectedly that the Sixth Regiment was decimated in minutes, with all of its survivors running away in panic, while the rest of the Army became so thoroughly involved in defending themselves, including Jesan and his Guards, that no attempt could be made to stop the ever-growing count of deserters fleeing east.
Here were creatures in the form of giant rats but with wings as those of vultures, and tusks like to swords, but claws like long knives. And there were Forest Drakes which could slay a horse with but one swipe of their talons, or carry both horse and rider into the sky to be dropped from a great height. Then came fell Wind Demons, black as coal, with gigantic man-like bodies, horns as long as lances protruding from their foreheads, slithering tails, like tremendous serpents, and leather wings barbed at the joints. And a heart-stopping dread dwelt in their shadows, as if they were living things, powerful and menacing.
Of course, Jesan had Mages with him which he quickly sent to contest the Wind Demons, lest these alone rout his forces. But as his Officers and many other Soldier had magical weapons, the rat-vultures and the Drakes and other vermin could be resisted to some extent when those so armed stood together. Yet, ere the Mages could go far upon the field, great hordes of Durwolc which had come running over the plain assailed what remained of the Front. Then was a tremendous and bloody battle fought there. And thus, dire was Jesan’s plight, for there seemed no end to the ranks of the enemy.
The monsters afoot consisted of large companies of Durwolc; slavering Gobba wielding short curved swords; red-tongued Gress using hammers and maces; lanky Kobo with spears and pole-arms; and tall scaly-skinned Trollo with battle-axes. But amongst all those creatures strode Giants towering over the rest, of the kinds called Yhotus and Uhlgoll and Khikori. And this press of foes was such that a full third of the Front was destroyed within just a few hours, so the day raged on in a ferocious manner, where the clouds were so dense that it was dark as night, yet the enemy had brought torches.
Then did Jesan, in the brief flashing of a lightening strike, behold the vastness of the horde that had been arrayed against him and knew without doubt that the Gods had abandoned him. So he used his Afaerin, which Flaven had sent him, and with it sought Brandar to beg for aid in force of arms, only to learn that Brandar faced an even larger assault. Then Jesan spoke to other Lords, finding that nons could spare Warriors as everywhere along the Frontier was furiously raging battle. Then did he stand resolute, as a Soldier who knows he is about to die but does his duty nonetheless.
In his good Company of Guards were those men, now Knights, who had come with himself and Brandar to depose the Duke Vastus. And these he now sent to gather any men who found themselves leaderless and with them do battle with the Giants. But the enemy were already beginning to sweep around and come against his flanks both north and south. So he sent the Eighth Regiment and what was left of the Ninth to counter them Northwards, while the Tenth and the Seventh he sent south. Yet, this merely had the effect of curving the Front along an arc across the battlefield, soon to be outflanked once again. And though his Army had slain thrice their number upon land, more than half of Jesan’s Soldiers lay dead ere the rest of them retreated to make a great ring about the hill upon which Jesan and his remaining Guards were striving with the vile monsters of the airs. Thus was the swiftly failing Army soon to be surrounded on all sides as they were now yet outnumbered by at least hundreds to one.
No quarter was given until the coming of night, discerned merely because the darkness grew darker and the enemy pulled away while yet keeping the Sereghran wholly surrounded, and the storm-clouds ceased to be so threatening, though a dense overcast remained, blotting out the light of the Moons. Then some of the Durwolc took to lighting fires all around, while others shot arrows and slung stones and threw spears, as though the monsters were playing a cruel sport. And the creatures tossed the severed heads of fallen Soldiers amongst the living Soldiers who stood bravely about the hill. But this sort of harassment continued throughout the night, while the enemy built great bonfires that flared up across all of the Lands thereabouts. And the choking smokes from the fires darkened the skies even more.
That hill was later named “Jesan’s Rise”. And it was located at the southern end of a finger of Grassland which reached towards Kombros, so that the edge of the Jungle to the east ran at an angle half-a-league away, going northeast to southwest. Thus, north and west of the Rise the land was only a plain with tall grass, now trampled flat by the Durwolc. But farther north, the enemy had not heavily crushed the grass beyond a league from the Rise, though fires were scattered across that region, while to the west it seemed that the Forest itself was ablaze, so great were the enemy’s bonfires there.
At daybreak, with the sounding of horns, the enemy renewed their assault, and it seemed that the fires were instilling an ashen pall in the air. Yet, it would later be known that the ash came from volcanoes which Modeus had caused to erupt in the West, and which vomited poisonous clouds which the Demon Lord sent eastwards upon conjured up winds, to smother the Sereghran; causing diseases in their lungs.
Now, the Giants could only be contested by the wielders of the greatest magical weapons, or by Mages with the mightiest of magical skills. But otherwise, swinging huge spiked warclubs, each Giant could sweep away several Soldiers with but a stroke. And the Durwolc fought like mad, heedless of peril even from the Giants. And the sky was again filled with flying creatures, attacking relentlessly. Jesan therefore deemed that his Army was doomed, and believed not that help would come.
When he determined that his forces were at a fourth of what they had been, so that they stood now mostly upon the Rise, he heard horn-calls from the northeast, faint and dull in the smoke-laden air, but steady and growing louder. And hearing the horns gave heart to the men upon the Rise, so they put off their exhaustion and fought with renewed vigor -- for perhaps they would be saved, after all.
Here came the Cavalry from the Garrison at Kombros riding hard over the plain, wielding lances and spears and long steel-tipped pikes. And they assailed the Durwolc with such force that they drove deep into the enemy’s ranks in very short order. But following the Cavalry was a considerable army of Garrison Soldiery, followed themselves by an even larger force of the People’s Brigades. And together these Soldiers and Brigadiers rivaled in size the entire host of the Durwolc surrounding the hill. Thus was a wide and terrific struggle engaged in there, later called the “Battle of Jesan’s Rise”. And it later became one of the most famous contests of the war.
Seeing a chance at escape, Jesan rallied his dwindling forces and made to cleave a way towards the embattled Cavalry. Then, hacking through the enemy, losing another dozen Soldiers in the effort, at length he met with the Cavalrymen, where he and his fellows were conducted out of the fray and so given respite for a while.
Vicious and gory was the battle on that stretch of Border. And the Durwolc were made positively insane with fury at the rescue of Jesan and his men. Thus, while the Durwolc may pay five times a much as the Sereghran for each exchange, the enemy behaved as if they had no other goal in their miserable lives but to kill else be killed on that very day. Then did soot-black blood of Durwolc and wine-red blood of Men run freely upon the ground, making for a gruesome quagmire upon which the fighting raged.
There the brave Sereghran strove with the wicked Durwolc and other monsters; trampling beneath them the severed limbs and loosed intestines, and battered brains and other spillage of war, together with the dirt and the dust and the grass. And for a time it seemed that neither side could decisively turn the tide. Then, with the coming of dusk, the Giants converged upon the Cavalrymen and slew them to a man, at which Jesan and his survivors from the Rise were forced to re-enter the fight in support of the embattled Garrison Soldiers and the Brigadiers, where he had now but one of his Knights and two of his Mages remaining with him among the shrinking number of what was left of his Army. Then he sent the Mages to attack the Giants while he and his Men of the Rise fought as valiantly as ever, despite their wounds and weariness.
Here again, Jesan believed he was lost. And he began to weep even as he fought, mulling upon the hardy Knights and Cavalrymen, and Soldiers and Brigadiers who had fallen, and continued to fall upon that field -- for the People’s Brigades were rapidly diminishing, having little in the way of magical weapons, which soon left his meager forces in no better straits than they had been in while standing upon the Rise. Indeed, worse was their plight, as the Men of the Rise had obtained no rest for days, and were collapsing from exhaustion and despair, or from the failing of their will to live and fight on. But the end was not yet.
At the time when the last light of day was disappearing in the West, Aetas and Ergon strode down from the north leading a great following afoot of righteous Mariners and powerful Mages, where the flashing of the mystical energies released by the Mages and the blasts which burst from the Mariners’ magical weapons lit up the night like the lightening of the enemy’s own storms. And none could withstand them.
Aetas killed four of the Wind Demons, then two Drakes, while Ergon one and six ere the rest of the enemy realized that their own doom was now at hand. But the Mariners and Mages with Aetas and Ergon were joined by the Mages which Jesan had sent, and together they slew all the Giants. Thus, and swiftly then were the Durwolc and flying things defeated, where the surviving Durwolc fled howling away west, together with the remaining winged monsters.
Aetas forbid anyone from pursuing the fleeing enemy, kenning that much healing needs be done. So, the Mariners and Mages remained, and did their best to heal the hurts of the wounded. Then they rose up early the next morning to begin burying the fallen, while burning in great pyres the filthy bodies of all the dead monsters, setting aside, in separate heaps, the weapons of both sides. And this took all of two days. Afterwards, they cleansed the Lands of the aftermath of the battle, as best they could, and melted down the weapons of the enemy, from which they made a great emblem in the form of a six-pointed star that the Mages enchanted so that it would strike fear into the hearts of creatures of evil who came nigh to that place. And it served as a ward of protection for the Sereghran for many an Age. Thus did that place long remain a refuge for the Sereghran, and was therefore called Havenland.
The fallen Sereghran they placed in a mound just north of Jesan’s Rise and called it “The Warrior’s Barrow”. And it was viewed as hallowed ground by the Sereghran ever after. But all their weapons which they had saved Aetas ordered must be handed out equally among the Mariners and the Survivors of Jesan’s Rise, with the understanding that they may later be given to any who had need of them in coming days.
So it was that Jesan survived, but with only a fifth of his Army. And there King Aetas obtained another victory, though no one would celebrate it due to all of the fallen in the Barrow. Then Aetas called for three days of rest and mourning, where he sent for food and water to be brought from Kombros.
The fortunes of war are unforeseeable. And the most thoughtful plans of Kings and Wizards, and Warlords and Generals, and Knights and Captains shall go astray despite all of their best laid efforts. And so it was in this war, for the Sereghran prevailed in places where Modeus was sure they would fail, while elsewhere they won out in ways in which Brandar was certain that the Sereghran were strong.
The Demon Lord must have expected Aetas to come from Baerakis. But what he kenned not was that Aetas had been preparing in secret for many years, deeming long ago that such a war was inevitable. Thus did Aetas come to those fields with such powerful magicks, and so many great Mages, and so large an army of men wielding magical weapons, that no strength of the enemy could stand against him. Yet, even as Aetas was in the very act of setting foot upon the shore at Geranost, away in the south the Tower of Angust, but a day’s ride from Baersunthas, and with a great number of well-seasoned troops, was taken by the enemy, just as Medhyos was gaining for himself a massive victory of his own at Baersunthas. But the disaster at Angust could have been averted but for a single error in one Officer’s otherwise flawless judgment. And this is how that came about.
The Officers in command at Dhwinos, learning that a force of Durwolc were on the move in the Forest, mistakenly assumed that they were coming west, to Dhwinos, when they were on their way northwest to join with those who were attacking Medhyos. Thus, that Officer held off from moving his forces north in support of his Duke, who would surely have sent them on to Angust, in any event. And this turned out to be a terrible blunder on the part of that otherwise good Officer, who soon came to regret it.
Too late did that Officer recognize his mistake. And so it was that the men of the Garrison of Dhwinos arrived at Baerhesperos the day after Medhyos had won his fight, and after Angust was in enemy hands. But when Medhyos went next to Angust, leaving that sad Officer to stand guard in Baerhesperos, he found that the Tower of Angust had been wholly torn down, and Durwolc were entering freely into Arzultaur; going then unchallenged upon the Great Central Road. Indeed, they had already gone far into the Lands, destroying the village of Gemma. And they were roving about unhindered, raping and pillaging, burning crops, looting with abandon, defecating into sources of water, and slaying every Sereghran they could find. Yet, Medhyos ordered his forces to go about slaying all of the enemy in the Lands, and they were felled to the very last one, which took many days. But it was of no help for all the slain Villagers of Gemma and for many settlers and homesteaders thereabouts, and who were not even Warriors. And there were many young among the dead, even infants. And that was difficult for the People to bear.
It was known that the invasion was not a mere set of battles at one or two places along the Frontiers, but was rather a large-scale effort by Modeus to crush the Sereghran’s defenses along all of the borders, from Geranost in the north to Magadinos in the south. And while it was obvious that some points of intrusion were but faints to draw forces away from where they were most needed, the tactic remained determinative and would have succeeded had not Modeus sent his armies too soon and had instead waited for the full mustering of his strength. For he had sent but a third of all the forces he could eventually have brought against the Borderlands. And due to that, it was believed that the slaying of Vastus had angered him so greatly that he ordered that his war must begin straight away, and therefore lost the war, in the end, because of it.
Some argued later, however, that even if that was the case, this war was but the first in a series of long-planned conflicts, and that the Fall of Vastus was but a minor setback for Modeus, as the war weakened the Seregrhan at that time, which thus reduced their strength in later struggles.