Reasonable risk

Miryil was bone tired when she arrived at Cearaden and stalked into the palace. The sight of her in her singed and battered black armor sent servants scurrying as she made her way to the war room where she expected to find the King’s Generals and Light Bringers they consulted with. Her news was grim.

The door was opened for her as she approached and she was surprised to see King Iotav himself and Prince Ayred standing there, admiring the well-laid plans for taking back Luzoron. She bowed low.

“Your Majesty, your Highness.” Miryil glanced up at her commander trying to convey to him that perhaps they should not be here.

“Light Bringer.” The King sounded almost cheerful. “You have news about our victory?”

She straightened, her face grim and her gaze only on her commander.

“Report, Miryil.” Her commander gave the order, and she nodded.

“There was no victory, your Majesty.” Miryil looked into the middle distance of memory as she began to speak of their defeat.

Esus had been sent to bring back news of the defender’s positions and of Charyic’s whereabouts. But after four days he had not returned from his flight. Miryil had to think that the Prince had known to watch the skies for him.

The thought of his possible capture or death had inflamed the Light Bringers waiting to be sent into battle. They would bring the Light to the darkness of Luzoron. The favored of Malies was going to feel it burning bright.

She rallied the others. Erech had come to fight, Ivhir had been ordered to stay at Lallareth. Erech was far more useful as far as she was concerned. Each Light Bringer was a mirror for the Light of Isemal, and while Ivhir’s gifts were as useful as her own, Erech’s were much more devastating.

Cearazon’s army was in position. This was the only pass from Cearazon into Luzoron, the only trade road. The Luzoron army held the choke point.

Reports had been relayed, the two other passes opening farther south into Arilel had also been fortified, in four months it seemed Malav had been very busy. And it seemed he expected more trouble from the south than would be coming. Spies, the few who had returned, said there were more fires than expected at those passes, and fewer at the one with a significant portion of Cearazon’s forces arrayed in front of it.

It felt like a trap to her, but if it wasn’t it could be a gift. And with the Light Bringers ready to clear the barricades and forge ahead of their men to meet their enemy, it seemed a reasonable enough risk to King Iotav’s Generals.

Miryil had an uneasy feeling as plans were put into motion. They needed to first clear the upper cliffs of the siege weapons and archers Malav would have positioned there to rain death down on those in the pass. The barrage began the morning before the attack. All day they rained stones, pots of oil, and flaming arrows on the upper cliffs.

At night Miryil instructed the Light Bringers to form their wedge with Erech as the front point and those with the gift of shielding with Light on the edges. Inside all of the Light Bringers would be focusing their power forward into Erech. As the last barrage finished, she gave the order and the black armored wedged moved forward approaching the heavy wooden barricade. They expected it to be reinforced with stone, and it was, but not as heavily as Miryil felt it should have been.

Erech focused the Light and let it surge ahead burning and pushing wood and stone alike aside. Clearing the way. They moved through carefully, clearing a path wide enough that ten men could march abreast without difficulty. The eerie, ancient carved dragon’s heads looked down on them as they worked.

The soldiers began to follow, moving quickly. Miryil knew their orders. They wouldn't be surprising the Luzoron forces, but at night and after the barrages, they wouldn’t be able to rain death from above, they would have to meet them at the end of the pass. If they could get enough men through, they could overwhelm them.

The Light Bringers pushed through and Miryil barked the order breaking them out of their wedge once they were out of the dangerous pass to engage the Luzoron forces. The soldiers behind them took up the cry and began to surge forward, the pass soon filled with soldiers. Despite the work being lighter than Miryil expected, Erech had expended all of his energies and was exhausted and unable to join the fight. She barked at two Light Bringers to guard him while the others fought next to the Cearazon soldiers.

This seemed to be what the Luzoron forces had been waiting for. Out of the carved dragon’s mouths gushed Dragon’s fire. Miryil almost faltered as she saw the sticky, clinging, liquid fire pouring over the soldiers in the pass, sending them into chaos, some shoving forward some shoving back, desperate to escape. Those aflame ignited others. Miryil began to curse as she fought. The archers, who had probably never been above where the barrages could reach them, began to fire down on the soldiers as they came out of the pass from perches out of reach on the inside.

Miryil called desperately for the Light Bringers to return to the wedge. It was a struggle to get back into formation while engaged with the exultant Luzoron forces. Erech was still leaned against the stone of the cliff face protected by two Light Bringers. The three were unable to move from their position and under heavy attack as well. Miryil knew she had to find a way to retreat. The Luzoron forces knew the Light Bringers were too dangerous to be allowed to live and try again. If they couldn’t get away they would be slaughtered like the Cearazon soldiers falling around them.

Miryil rallied them as best she could and got shields raised around those on the inside. She began moving them toward Erech and his defenders. The Light Bringers would not be able to keep up the defense forever, or even for long, they had already expended a good deal of energy tonight. Miryil whispered a warning before she broke ranks and attacked those keeping Erech pinned. The three barely managed to rejoin the group, and Erech needed to be supported to walk after his work clearing the pass.

The burning pass was their only hope for escape. Miryil commanded them back down it. They barely managed to hold their shields as the Luzoron forces followed them to the charred and still burning bodies. Stumbling and trying not to get badly burned themselves they made their way, holding formation as best they could, over the dead and dying. Men. Burned, trampled, crushed, and it seemed some stabbed by their own brothers in arms. Miryil tried not to think about the ones they’d left behind.

Some wounded, some with Dragon’s fire trying to eat through their black armor, and all exhausted, the Light Bringers managed to return to the line in defeat.

After being healed, and not stopping to rest, Miryil marched herself to the Generals’ war tent, needing to know what would be done next. She had been sent to carry the news to Cearaden immediately.

Miryil raised her eyes to King Iotav as she finished giving her report. “It was a resounding defeat, your Majesty.”

She took in the stunned look on the King’s face. More than once the Generals had cautioned him not to underestimate his eldest son. The warnings that the Black Prince had studied and trained, religiously, were ignored. This was the result. No one dared to speak it, but it hung in the air all the same.

Prince Ayred was the first to speak. “What now?”

“Malav has had four months to prepare. For a man of his skill…” One of the Generals leaned over the careful representation of the pass and surrounding terrain.

“It required the aid of Arilel and Alaimel, as well as the Light Bringers to bring the last King of Luzoron down from his throne.” Another bleakly spoke.

Miryil noted bitterly that the King seemed more inclined to listen now, after the heavy and unexpected losses, roughly a thousand dead and wounded.

After much discussion it was decided, the safest way to neutralize the threat Malav posed would be to wall this pass up, and the others.

The King agreed. “Seal them in, starve them, let them rot. The blessed of Anyk be damned.”