V2 Chapter 6: The battle of Madegofell meadow

The moment Entarii sat down on his throne; his newly established office started operating on full force without resting for a moment in the next two days. Since the court and the imperial palace were littered with corpses and bloodstain, Entarii ran his office within the ground of Imperial Barrack. Lanxer, too, was struggling to stay afloat within the ocean of paperwork in his new office. He understood that the war has not ended, not yet, not until Entarii’s position on the throne is completely secured. However, before that, Lanxer had to declare the justification for the army of White Winter to mobilize within the territory of Zard, preventing Thrainian IV to rally his neighboring allies to his cause.

As several of his royal messengers were shouting his Imperial Edict to the people of Shepiran, Entarii dispatched his envoys to declare his kingship and impose his will across the kingdom. Seven groups of official court messengers bearing Imperial Edicts headed out of Shepiran on fast horses upon Entarii’s and Lanxer’s orders. One group headed toward the mountainous eastern border, the ancient Fort Axionis, the ancestral home to the Boars of the Spine. One rode straight to the southern Kemon floodplain, the land of the Golden Serpent. Four rode toward the western Border before splitting at Etá Délador. One of them remained in the western plain and roamed around, waving the golden dragon of the Imperial standard, exposing Hyrios’ treachery to the throne to the people of the western border. The other three crossed the Sandanphon to reach Lamentia before splitting again. The last group of the seven rode north, flying toward the Golden Triangle Region.

While the royal birdhouse of Shepiran has already sent out hundreds of letters and edicts to declare Entarii’s kingship, without the official court messengers delivering the written Imperial Edicts to confirm the news, nobody would dare to believe it.

Lanxer, too, was drowned in an ocean of papers and scrolls. Since Hados went down to pneumonia, the load on Lanxer’s shoulders increased significantly. Nevertheless, as he drowned in an ocean of endless paperwork, Lanxer tried to find free time to educate Patocli regarding the newly established administration of Entarii’s office, but before that, he decided to shatter the boy’s disillusions about war.

There is no better opportunity.

Regan was against such decision at the beginning of the campaign, Let the boy realize that on his own when he grows into a man, but Regan was not here in Shepiran. Thus, Lanxer decided to educate Patocli according to his belief.

For the first time, Lanxer revealed the state of the kingdom’s coffer and granary to Patocli with all the problems highlighted in a short summary. Once Lanxer was sure that Patocli understood it, he took the boy to a quick tour around Shepiran riding on horseback with their royal guards accompanying them.

Even when the fire was doused and the fighting has stopped, black soot still flew in the air and blood still kept on spilling on the streets of Shepiran. Entarii formed a small unit who swore loyalty to him to deal with the “pests” whose existence proved harmful to his throne. Doubters who voiced their thought regarding Entarii’s story and legitimacy to the throne were quickly put to the sword. Stubborn loyalists among to Thrainian IV were forced to swear their loyalty to Entarii or face the sword or watch their family suffer. The people who received the “pests” label by Entarii, their served head mounted on pikes along with the head of the second prince and hundreds of other traitors to the throne forming a dreaded forest of served head outside the granite wall for the public to see.

Lanxer was glad that things were like that, “You will not see things like these in the songs of the bards or in the scrolls kept inside our royal library.” Lanxer directed Patocli’s sight at the result of the battle and he was glad to see the paleness of disgust in the boy’s face.

“Let’s move on to another topic. The Justification of a war. I’m sure that the royal tutor and Regan have taught you that we all need a justification to declare war on another kingdom. To go to war without proper justification, we have already lost it before we fight it. You have learned this, am I correct?” Lanxer inquired and Patocli nodded his head to affirm.

Lanxer sat on the back of his warhorse and watched the forest of pikes and heads with apathetic eyes. His silk mask could barely keep the stench of decayed flesh from entering his nose. Lanxer welcomed that stench to envelop his body like an old friend. “I doubt that royal tutor has told you but the peace that we are enjoying at this moment is but a fallacy. Any king of any kingdom in this northern realm can declare war against any kingdom under the pretext of realizing our great ancestor Craxus’ truest ambition. We can wage war against each other at any time we desire. After all, we, the sons of Craxus have all the rights to claim our Great father’s land as ours. To us, the sons of Craxus, that is our grandest goal and most noble dream. And yet, few have ever done that. Do you know why?”

Patocli shook his head. His visage still paled from cawing of crows and the sight of that grim forest of bodiless heads.

“Every king who has made such foolish declaration would immediately have no kingdom to rule. While he has the rights to claim this realm as his, every other son of Craxus, too have their rights to claim this realm as theirs. They will gain the justification to band together and wipe out that foolish king’s kingdom from its existence.” Lanxer showed to Patocli a few examples of such kings from the age of the War of the Dragons. “Therefore, the person who dares to declare his ambition to realize Craxus’ truest ambition must be prepared to fight a war with every king in this realm and from multiple fronts.” Lanxer calmly explained, “Only a fool would fight such a war. No matter how strong we are, that is a situation we must avoid at all cost. Never declare your intention in reforming the Empire of Craxus. That’s an unwritten rule in our politic. Patocli, do well to remember that.”

Lanxer waited for the boy nodded his head. When Patocli did, Lanxer pointed his finger at the heads mounted before the granite wall, identifying a few heads among the bunch, “This man and this man and this man are the royal record keepers under the reign of King Thrainian IV, were... Prince Entarii… no King Entarii had these men killed after labeling them to be in the same league with the traitorous second prince. However, the real reason why King Entarii killed these men is not that. These men defied Entarii’s order and refused to write down Entarii’s version of the story into the royal record, thus they were killed. They are foolish to die for such reason, but they are brave and honest men, however, they will be remembered as traitors and coward by history.”

Lanxer proceeded to tell Patocli to forget about the grandeur of glory and justice in the songs of the bards.

“This is the hypocrisy of war. We all need justification to fight a war, and yet, there is no justice in war. Since both sides create their own image of justice and both sides claim to have justice on their sides, not even Wonten would know which side he should support. That is why Wonten is not a god of war despite the amount of strength he possesses, and this is why people pray to Sinintee instead when they go to war. Sinintee does not condemn war or conflicts. He gives strength to both the strong and the weak equally. Above all, he forgives the winners of all the sins and crimes they committed in war. This is why our ancestors, the past kings of White Winter built more Great Temples over the other temples.”

When Lanxer returned to his office, he looked at Patocli, “Now, I want you to go back to your room and think. Ask yourself this question What justifications that the neighboring allies of Zard could use to get in our way by joining King Thrainian IV? When you are done with that, ask yourself How do I prevent that from happening?”

This would be an invaluable experience to the boy, Lanxer told himself that the boy would benefit from the experience. Lanxer has not told the boy regarding his plan to strip the nine dukes of their power and army. He decided to keep it a secret to the boy until the time is right.

On the third day of his reign, Entarii ended his father’s half-a-lifetime-effort in taking away the power from noble houses with a single Imperial Edict. In an effort to reward his loyal supporters and gathered the old nobles who were bitter and dissatisfied with Thrainian IV’s reign to his side, Entarii promised to restore the noble houses to their former power. Lanxer has expected that Entarii would make such policy; therefore, he was not surprised.

A report came, notifying Lanxer the identity of the person who helped Letrailos avoiding his death trap in Madukat. “Harlot!” Lanxer sighed as he read the report. He immediately wrote an order to have that woman killed.

Lanxer then sent a fatbird to Regan, ordering him to head east to unite his 800 horsemen force with Entarii’s army of two thousand that were heading east to claim the eastern border before the Iron Boar could return, with them Letrailos and his Judgment Army moving eastward.

One week has passed since the moment Entarii sat on the throne, the killing in Shepiran still showed no sign of stopping. Lanxer took the opportunity to further explaining the rights and wrongs of Entarii’s policies to Patocli, preparing the boy for the important moment. Around that time, the royal birdhouse of Shepiran still received numerous distress letters from Madukat and the western border asking for relief forces.

The timing of the distress letters arrived at the royal birdhouse made Lanxer recalled the memory of the Gigastetris campaign. While most of the nobles of Gigastetris were still rallying their army to the king banner and some were already marching to join forces with their kings on the field, they received the news of their king’s army was routed by Regan for over a week. The marching speed of Regan’s army and Lanxer’s successful interception of homing birds played a vital role in achieving such lightning victory.

Lanxer knew that it would take three or four more weeks for the people of Zard outside of Shepiran to realize that the king of their kingdom was no longer Thrainian the Fourth but Entarii, the first of his name.

Thirteen days after Entarii became the king, Lanxer received an eagle from Krady, confirming the success of Duke Lenagor-the ruler of Lamentia in taking over the control of western border in the place of Letrailos’ Judgment Army. Krady also mentioned about the movement of the other three dukes’ armies that Lanxer has instructed to invade Zard from the western border. They stayed and waited for the official court messengers of Entarii to give permission to cross the border. Lanxer replied to Krady’s letter with a reminder to keep a close watch on the convoys bearing grains and gold moving toward the western border.

Still, Lanxer received no further letter detailing the state of Bloodbeard army and that prince who came out of nowhere. Lanxer could only speculate that his mole has been discovered and killed after sending out that letter. He sent two fatbird and one eagle to dispatch his local spies around the Golden Triangle Region to check Fort Bundor.

Around that time, Lanxer received a report of a sighting of a large group of over three hundred Greyscale magic casters and a small unit of elven riders entered Zard from the eastern border. As Lanxer was pondering if these people were his allies or enemies, they headed north using a mountainous trail. Lanxer sent his messengers to intercept the group, demanding to know their intention for siding with Bloodbeard and their connection to the prince of De Aa Lionse.

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After six days of marching in lines across the Great Plain, Letrailos’ eyes became sick of the yellowness of the dying grasses of the meadows. The bleak yellow of the meadow grasses and flowers reminded Letrailos of the plain of Thunderbound in Kraig’ondor, with the name of that plain, his buried shame. He quickly shook his head, trying to forget such a distant memory. He was not the same person as back then, Letrailos told himself.

He looked around him, 6000 of his devotees in the white of winter and gold of the first fire, 1000 in the grey of their full body armor and the rest in the colors of their gambesons, mails, and clothes. His army has grown whilst Lanxer headed to occupy Shepiran. Listen to the call of the Great Sinintee for glory, immortality, spoils, and battles, thousands have rallied under his banner, and more would come soon.

As Letrailos swept his eyes through the moving lines of his marching army from the rear to the vanguard, his eyes naturally locked at the black hills, captivated by the color. He turned to his guide, “Is this the Madegofell meadow?”

“That’s correct, Your Holiness,” the man replied with a respectful bow, “This is where the last dragon Karijard fought and killed the grey dragon Madego. The fire of their battle scorched this plain for weeks, turning the ground and the water of this area black of until this day.”

“Water?” Letrailos furrowed his brows.

“Yes, Your Holiness. People said that Madego’s blood has stained the water below the ground and turned it black. Black water, it smells just as bad as a dragon’s breath and catches fire easily,” the guide replied. “Tastes horrible as well. You cannot drink it. Those who try to drink it die. Though, many people believe that only a true son of Craxus can drink this black water and live.”

Intrigued, Letrailos sent scouts to ride over the dark hills, searching for black water and bringing it back to him. The two scouts drew two trails of white dust with their horses. Letrailos trained his eyes on their back until he could only squint due to the flare of the setting sun over the black hills. He saw his scouts reared their horses when they arrived at the top of a hill.

One rider fell off his horse. The other turned and galloped back to Letrailos’ marching army. Realizing that there was something beyond the black hills, Letrailos barked his order for his marching army to halt. His eyes still trained on the returning scout who was waving his arms around in grave desperation.

A figure emerged from the other side of the black hill where one of Letrailos’ scouts has fallen, a rider. Letrailos squinted. He could only see the dark silhouette of that rider as the setting sun was behind him. The rider drew his bow and the returning scout of Letrailos fell off his saddle, reeling on the ground.

“Enemy,” Letrailos’ commanders shouted, “Protect his Holiness.” The paladins moved their horses to stood before Letrailos as the line of Letrailos’ army hurried to move into a formation. Letrailos broke into cold sweat, knowing that they would never get into the most basic formation in time.

He catches me at a bad time.

Letrailos’ mind was occupied the silhouette of the rider who stood atop of that black hill. The rider reared his horse as another figure emerged from the other side of the hill, a large feline animal.

He should be at Madukat by now. He should not be here.

The barking of his commanders seemed like meaningless noises to Letrailos’ ears the moment a loud roar of a predator crossed the distance and reached his ears.

The king of the Great Plain has returned.