After the rest of his British knights were taken from their horses and killed, a great cry of victory went out among the rebels. Both armies sought the honor reserved for noblemen, but only one side had fixed their minds upon God. Since they believed in themselves and their cause, a remnant of the original idea of Templar honor, their momentum continued from the previous day. Jerusalem had been lost, but the true kingdom was never more than virtue, making the underdog a bigger beast as camp followers, craftsmen and farmers, women and the elderly, picked up makeshift weapons and joined their Scottish brethren.
The English saw them coming from the woods and assumed them to be soldiers, resulting in a rout when their lines began to break. As a full retreat commenced, the Brits proceeded to run over each other to escape the slippery banks and went tripping down the hillside. Causing as many casualties as the enemy in their desperation, they tried to cross the River Forth and drowned, stacking the dead so heavily that the last to leave merely ran over the bodies to get away.
“Edward was not captured,” Xenakis heard a fellow Templar say. They breathed hard with their horses and watched the carnage wrought upon the English with the thousands of Scots who roared in victory.
“Who cares?” said Sir Robert Keith. “He is castrated politically. He will head to the coastline and take a ship home to London, but it is only a matter of time before his impotence is uprooted. The rest of his army will have to walk on foot past every Scottish town between here and England. Before they reach the safety of their territory, they’ll have to face the civilians they’ve been oppressing for generations. They will find no shelter and receive no rest, they will only find justice and the retribution of a vengeful God.”
“God will not punish them,” Erelim pointed out. “He just won’t offer them mercy for the innocence they’ve destroyed.”
After he spoke those words, the Templar thought about the light blue eyes of Roslyn and how she had seemed so sure about what was going to happen. Time had proven her right about everything, so perhaps God really did send an angel of inspiration to show her the truth. Xenakis decided that he needed to pray again, something he had avoided after the death of his wife and children. He would have to be ready to see them again someday.
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