The Destiny of Amalah (66 page)

‘What did you do?’ Rakan asked.

‘The needle of death.’

The two men looked at Bryce rather puzzled and Bryce pulled out a small needle that was less than an inch long.

‘I slipped one of these into the back of his neck. If put in the right place it turns the body against itself and shuts down very slowly. He will be dead by this time tomorrow.’

‘I am sure he wishes he were dead now,’ said Rufus.

‘He does,’ Bryce said confidently.

The three men turned away from the dying High Chancellor and walked away; they went in search of Waldon and Kenaz and when they found them, the five men surveyed what was left of the city. They gathered their army and then had a feast and a roaring time among the rubble and ruins. They danced, whistled and talked loudly and drank and ate while the fires burned all around the city until they were reduced to low embers.

The sun rose and the army continued to revel on until sunset. While the soldiers revelled through the day, the five leaders made their plans and the four friends learned about Bryce. Late in the evening the soldiers became tired and before midnight, except for the sentry’s’, everyone was asleep.

The next day Waldon and Kenaz gave orders to the former officers of the guard and they turn organised the soldiers; they ate, drank, made or sharpened weapons and hunted for food. Waldon and Kenaz and the officers began to teach their soldiers how to march, to stay in step and how to change formations. They taught them what they could as they went along and soon, they were shaping up to be a proper army.

Eventually Santeb fell. Once the city in Tschin had fallen the inevitable end came for everyone else. The five men and their army then ventured north, then eastwards and then southwards. By now, many of the people of Santeb were mostly dead or a member of Rakan’s army.

Town by town, village by village and city by city; they razed it to the ground and Waldon and Kenaz led their men forward to fight rob and raid as they went along on their way. Sometimes the two men would enter an inn and challenge everyone there to fight them. They told the patrons that if anyone was good enough to join them, they would be the ones standing; but it never happened and so, they left the inns, full of the bodies of broken men and went on their way, continuing their rampage.

Now the five of them stood on the edges of Santeb facing Aradene with their army, which was now eight hundred behind them – they looked on and surveyed the sight of Aradene and then looked at each other.

‘Let’s take it,’ Rakan said to the others.

Chapter 25

Aradene was not easy to take; the men had relied on its size as an indication of ease; for Aradene was the smallest of the nine nations. But one thing went in its favour, and it was that Aradene was made up of mainly forests until they reached the outskirts then it became sandy beaches and blue waters. The second factor that went against the five men and their army, were the people; they had grown up and lived off the land and they could hunt and track as well as any member of the guard and at that time – better than the army that Rakan, Rufus, Waldon and Kenaz had put together.

When the nation of Aradene learned of the army and their intentions they organised quickly. The natives would ambush small groups of Rakan’s army, take their food and weapons and then disappear into the forests, as quickly as they had appeared and as they continued their raids; the army were losing heart – not to mention soldiers but they carried on – albeit reluctantly.

‘Why can’t we just raze it to the ground?’ bemoaned Rufus.

‘Because to build an army, we need people,’ Rakan replied testily; ‘and we need them alive.’

‘Do we need them here?’ an exasperated Rufus countered.

‘Some of them!’ Rakan snapped back and then his tone softened. ‘Have patience Rufus, not all of the people in this nation are hostile to us. If we move to the south I am sure that there are those who will join us.’

‘How do you know this?’ asked Bryce.

‘One has ventured through the lands before us and sowed the seeds of discontent,’ answered Rakan.

‘We are losing soldiers nearly every day,’ Kenaz added.

‘I know,’ said Rakan. ‘But it will not last long. Once we reach the South, there will be droves waiting to join us.’

‘In the meantime,’ Waldon began; ‘let us play the Aradenians at their own game!’

‘I like the sound of that,’ Rakan said, breaking into a wide smile.

And so the games began. Before an ambush: Rakan, Rufus, Waldon, Kenaz and Bryce would leave a few men on the ground, while the rest of them would hide in the high trees for hours on end and when the Aradenians’ struck, they watched their retreat. They observed their hideouts, their tricks and their ways, and when they had seen enough, they then turned the tables.

The natives still put up a fight when the tables had turned on them but when Rakan and the others reached the south and met with the southern natives; they were, as Rakan had promised, loyal to the new dark army. Things changed for: Rakan, Rufus, Waldon, Kenaz and Bryce as their army more than doubled in size, and together, they drove back the northern natives and ransacked everything they could.

Rakan’s army was growing everyday, they lost soldiers but at that time, they always seemed to be gaining more than they lost; now the army was two thousand strong and growing, and even though Rakan, Rufus, Waldon, Kenaz and Bryce were succeeding, they were still not happy.

‘We need more than soldiers in our army,’ conceded Rakan.

‘What do we need?’ asked Bryce.

‘We need: officers, guardsmen, seers, empaths and other sorcerers,’ answered Rakan.

‘It will happen,’ said Kenaz confidently.

‘It must,’ Rakan said slowly.

And it did, at least with empaths and sorcerers, but they could find no seer who was willing to join them. From the east through to the west, Rakan, Rufus and Bryce sought and found sorcerers and empaths. They got them to join them using all the devious tactics that they knew. For the most part they offered power, which was seductive in its own right, but if that failed them; they used magic, or mind games or hallucinations and for those who still refused to join – they simply killed them, or Rakan or Rufus turned them into an animal.

Some of those who practised magic were often easily seduced with the promise of secret knowledge and more power. Rakan and friends soon found that there were more sorcerers than there were empaths but still, there were no seers, for they had received visions of what Rakan and his army wanted to do the world and the people in it, but none could see the outcome.

Most seers wanted no part in Rakan’s plan, for they were good people and the rest, were too scared to embark on such a dark journey. Waldon and Kenaz continued to enter inns and start fights with all of those who were in there and when they left; the patrons were always on the floor bleeding, dying or dead and anyone who had remained standing only did so because they had agreed to join the new dark army.

Now the five men had taken Santeb and Aradene and now; Mantor was in their sights. They set forth on their journey to Mantor as a force to be reckoned with and as always, hell bent on destruction and conquering. They travelled by day and slept by night and after five nights they arrived in the mighty Mantor.

By now, Rakan’s army was barely recognisable from the early rabble that they had recruited: now they were a fighting force. They wore leather culrasses, wrist and knee bands, heavy cotton skirts or trousers lined with metal strips and heavy sabatons. They were armed to the teeth with swords and daggers, along with other weapons such as: battles axes, war hammers, bows and arrows and crossbows. Most of them carried two to three weapons of choice and those who were lucky enough to be on horseback, carried more weapons and supplies.

When the army came to a halt and they were looked upon, they looked deadly and fierce and it was understandable that anyone seeing them for the first time would almost certainly have run for their lives. When they moved, they now moved in unison and in a flawless march and formation. Rakan, Rufus, Waldon, Kenaz and Bryce led the way, and they were followed by the magicians and empaths, and behind them, were the troops. On they marched until the reached southern Mantor.

‘Rakan, we cannot take the whole of Mantor,’ Rufus said.

‘I know,’ Rakan replied.

‘Then why?’

‘We can’t take Mantor, but we can hurt it and divide it – all the way to the north before we reach Basimine. Besides, many of the Empress’s guard are here, but most are loyal to Waldon, Kenaz and I, and they will join us.’

‘That will more than double our number again,’ said Waldon.

‘Yes it will,’ agreed Rakan; ‘and as I told you back in Amalah, our hard work will be rewarded.’

‘
If
they join us,’ cautioned Rufus.

‘Oh, they will join,’ said Kenaz, confidently.

‘Yes they will,’ agreed Waldon.

‘We have no choice anyway,’ said Kenaz. ‘We started from the east and had the intention of going westwards nation by nation until we reach Lansten and then we were to go to Amalah. We cannot deviate from that journey now that we have conquered two nations; time and man power will not allow for it.’

‘Fear not Kenaz, we will survive Mantor,’ said Rakan.

‘We will, but will they?’ Waldon asked, as he turned his head backward to look at the soldiers.

‘Mostly.’

When Rakan, his friends and their army had arrived in Mantor, their arrival had not gone unnoticed. The Zulus and the Xhosas had witnessed their arrival and had been concerned at such large numbers entering into their homeland. The next morning the chief sent two of his riders to Rakan, Rufus, Waldon, Kenaz and Bryce to ask them why so many of their number had come to Mantor. The riders were allowed to ride to where the five men were located and when they reached them, they dismounted from their horses and spoke with the five men.

‘Chief Ulundi wishes to know why so many of you have entered Mantor at once?’ the rider asked Rakan.

‘To destroy it,’ Rakan said.

The two men looked blankly at Rakan, they heard what he said but they were not quite sure that he was really saying it and so, the two men looked at each other and then back to Rakan.

‘To destroy it!’ Rakan said again. ‘To destroy Mantor, you, the chief, everyone and everything.’

The two men were still not willing to believe that what Rakan was saying was really what he meant and so they looked at the other four men, but they simply stared back while they remained silent. Rakan signalled to two of the soldiers with his eyes and before they knew it, the two Zulus had two swords at their throats courtesy of the two soldiers who were now standing behind them.

‘You don’t believe me?’ Rakan asked, raising his eyebrows.

Rakan brought forth his hand and a fireball appeared before the eyes of the two hostages.

‘Believe it,’ he said forcefully. ‘Tomorrow we are marching north and everything in our wake will be destroyed, so tell your Chief he has two choices – join us or leave.’

Rakan extinguished the fireball and once again signalled to the two soldiers who then let them go. The two men looked at Rakan one more time and then looked around surveying the soldiers before them.

‘Go!’ Rakan ordered them.

The two men did not need telling twice, they darted to their horses and mounted them faster than they had ever done before and raced off back to their village to tell the chief. The chief heard what Rakan had told them and he listened to the proposition and accepted neither; the Zulu’s and the Xhosa’s joined together and worked throughout the night so that they could defend themselves, their homes and their land.

The untrained women and children were evacuated and the men gathered together to prepare to fight; they gathered their weapons and donned their warrior dress and planned what they would do if they were to fall to the army that would soon be descending on them.

At dawn, Rakan’s army began its advance to battle; they marched down hill and through the first villages to find that they had been deserted. However, when they reached further north they heard humming noises and faint drumbeats and the further they advanced, the louder the humming and the drumbeats became. Some of the soldiers were unnerved by it and nearly all of the empaths and sorcerers were too.

The soldiers advanced with Rakan and his four friends leading them and when they began another descent into dead ground, there they saw the Zulus and the Xhosas all lined up ready to fight. They were dressed in their famous warrior dress and were armed with spears. They were at least fifteen hundred strong and they were still making the din that became even more unnerving the closer the soldiers got to it; the Zulu’s and Xhosa’s were spread out in lines of one hundred that went ten deep and they too looked an awesome and fearsome sight.

When Rakan led his men down to the dead ground, they made a new formation. Waldon and Kenaz climbed down from their horses and stood in front of their troops and they raised them to fervour and when they had finished, the soldiers were making a war cry of their own. Waldon and Kenaz turned to Rakan, Waldon then nodded his head and Rakan then turned to face forward and when he was facing them, he raised his sword in the air and moved it forward giving his soldiers the signal to move. They moved forward as one, at great speed and making a thunderous noise as they advanced.