The Kingdom
*****
“So boss, where are we going?”
I glanced up from cinching my saddle to see the distraught features of Thanuel. “What worries you Thanuel?”
He shrugged expressively and said, “You don’t know?”
I stayed silent and he soon exploded out with, “You have everything here! You are the King’s friend! You’re a national hero! You could accomplish so much! Why leave?”
“Because it’s time to old friend, but you can stay if you want.”
“Hmmphhh! My place is with you! I think you’re making a mistake, but I’m with you to the end. You must know that by now!”
I gripped his forearm tightly, “I do know that. Thanuel, as you put such trust in me to go wherever I lead, then you must also trust in El Elyon’s plans for our lives. Our time here is over and to stay would be against the urging I feel in my spirit to leave and begin what El Elyon has next for me to accomplish.”
Thanuel nodded, “When you put it like that…….how can I say otherwise.”
I slapped him on the back and mounted up onto Phalon. Thanuel mounted up and the group of eight riders, who had first adopted me as their own, followed me out of the courtyard even as Susori rode beside me.
We began to make our way through the city. Glancing back I saw several Cronian Knights ride up fast to only then keep pace with my friends. I glanced at Susori and smiling she said, “They asked if they could come along. I did not think you would mind.”
Not in any way did I mind. Cronian Knights were some of the best in the world and I was glad to have them.
I headed for the Eastern gate. I’d come from the South, had my share of escapades to the West, and I felt that it was not yet time to head to Vella in the north. That left me the East. I’d leave it to El Elyon to show me otherwise if I was flawed in my choice of direction.
The clip clop of our horses hooves sounded loud as we made our way down the stone paved byways and thoroughfares of Philanthia’s grandest city. I hadn’t expected to see the reactions that our entourage of riders received from those on the street.
They cleared a way up before us as if we were royalty, but more than that they took the time to regard us with waves and salutes to which I responded in kind. I had not known the news of my departure had traveled so far within the city already.
There seemed to be a mournful quality to the moment of our passage through the city. Beyond being mournful it was loud. I glanced back to see why there was such a loud noise, only to behold at least 40 riders in addition to my own band and the 10 or so Cronian Knights that had joined us.
Had the King sent these riders to detain me from leaving? They were certainly making no move to do so, seemingly content to be a part of my column of riders.
The men were all Knights of the Kingdom of Philanthia and their horses were laid down with supplies as if packed for a journey. Surely not……..
I glanced to Susori to see her coyly regarding me with a knowing smile, “Why is it husband, that you are so blind to the obvious?”
I glanced from her to the way ahead of us, even as I saw five more Knights drawn up waiting to join into the column as we rode past. I shook my head in consternation as three more Knights trotted out from an adjoining alleyway. Why was this happening? What could I have ever done to warrant this?
Susori’s cool touch on my arm had my troubled gaze going to her in search of wisdom.
“You are too humble by far, my husband, of your own notoriety and yet that no doubt plays heavily into why so many men wish to be led by you. You are a great man! Don’t think it strange that others have noticed what El Elyon has done in you or that they would not want to be a part of what He will do next through you.”
I nodded, taking her words to heart, but the disbelieving part of me broke free and gave voice to disparagement that didn’t seem to fit into the moment, “Why so many would follow me, a bastard, despite what El Elyon has done through me is still beyond me.”
Immediately I expected to be scolded for my self-deprecating words, but none came for my statement of weakness. Glancing at her was to see the loving nature of a mate that had only my best interests at heart. I relaxed in the knowledge that I didn’t always have to be impressive in terms of confidence and self-respect to still retain her respect for me. She believed in me and it never showed more than it did now and I loved her the more for it.
The sound of our passage through the city had grown to a roar of pounding hooves. Subconsciously I had increased the pace as if to somehow escape from my sudden newfound notoriety. It did no good, as the riders at my back kept pace easily.
Phalon kicked out his feet as if he was at the head of an army of several thousand. Glancing back, I ascertained that the host at my back hadn’t obtained that status yet, but there were several hundred riders now.
My friends wore the hugest of grins and I shook my head as Thanuel shouted out, “It’s great to be leaving sire!”
Turning forward once more in the saddle I heard Susori’s voice speak but now dimly discernible over the roar of hooves, “You may be but a bastard by way of origin, but now El Elyon has made you a king over men.”
I shouted back to her, “What is a king without a kingdom?”
She leaned toward me and said, “What need is there of a physical realm to call your own when the Kingdom of Shamayim is so close at hand?”
I gazed at her in astonishment.
She simply smiled and said, “I’ve been listening to you my love. You speak often of the Kingdom to come. Thank you for showing me the way there!”
I reached my hand out to hers and gripped hers tightly when it slipped into mine. El Elyon had not only given me an army with which to do His bidding, but also the comforting passion of having my soul equally yoked with a woman whose growing faith rivaled my own.
The Eastern gate creaked open before we reached it and we streamed through it, out from the city into the open plains, as if eager to leave the city behind and embrace what the future held.
Chapter Sixteen
A King’s Request
Four years later
The night was ablaze with fire even as arrows rained down all around. Despite the stiffness of the continued aerial defense, I could tell that the city was weakening in the face of our siege against it. Still, I held off from commencing the final assault.
The longer the fire had to work on the enemy’s defenses, the weaker their defense against us would be. I was for anything that conserved the lives of the men under my command.
My hand rose to grasp at my armor encrusted chest. Beneath the armor lay the necklace that Susori had given me. It had been over five months since I had last seen her and my daughter Lavaya. Even now Susori was pregnant and would soon deliver what we both felt sure would be a son.
There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think of them or wish that I was with them. Once this city fell then I would be free to go to them.
The last of my obligations to the peoples of Ayenathurim would be complete, when this last city of the giants of Sapan fell. At least that’s what I told myself. Without fail, some new crisis would rise to clamor for the attention of me and my men.
I didn’t care. I’d been too long from my family. I was going to them no matter what.
It was time for this city to fall!
I turned from the glittering lights of the city on fire to mount up onto Phalon. Once in the saddle I drew my sword and pointed to the East, “Tell the King of Smirnaz to begin his assault on the city and we will do the same from here!”
The aide to the King saluted and galloped off into the night. Pointing again I yelled out, “Advance the ramps!”
At my command, large elongated ramps began to trundle out toward the battered walls of the city that had been under siege for close to four months. Tonight was the night it would finally fall.
Arrows rained down upon the siege ramps, but to no avail. Even though the arrows had rags soaked in a combination of oil an
d pitch and flamed brightly, the ramps did not catch fire. I had utilized an old trick to keep wood from burning. Although the smell almost made me regret using it, except for the fact that it was working.
The seven ponderous ramps were well saturated with sewage water. I wasn’t quite sure of the science behind it, but the sewage waste was better at repelling flame than water alone.
“Benaiah, you should not go on the first assault into the city. It’s too dangerous. An arrow may strike you.”
I smiled and turned to look at Jarken, “Where my men go, so do I.”
Jarken sighed heavily, but remained silent. I turned forward once more. The ramps were getting close. A Knight stepped close to Phalon and handed my helmet up to me.
I felt an eagerness rise up in me as the action of the coming battle drew close. Win this battle and then I would see my family. My beautiful wife’s face came into view, along with that of my daughter, and for a moment they were all I saw in place of the burning city.
“Sir, the ramps are almost there!”
I snapped out of my fantasy and became once again the warrior leader of a host of several thousand men devoted as I was to the cause of justice. I took in the position of the ramps and then I urged Phalon out to skirt along the side of the front ranks of double pressed cavalry behind me.
The burning fires of the city glinted dully off their armor even as a slight drizzle of rain began to fall to our favor. The army was ready.
“Men, you know what is before us. A city full of hybrids! Men and women who have forsaken the bloodlines of their ancestors and combined themselves with the seed of the fallen ones! They are an abomination before El Elyon and if they were allowed to remain they would continue to corrupt the bloodline of our kind! They make war with us out of eternal hatred, but now is the time to give them their eternal reward which they so richly deserve! Not one of them is to be left alive! Are my orders clear?”
“Yes sir!!!” bellowed back the host before me.
“Then to war!!!” I yelled, as I wheeled Phalon toward the city of giants. The Kingdom of Sapan had ever been at war with the Kingdom of Smirnaz. The giants of Sapan had often feasted on the flesh of the people of my birth and although there were many wars between the two kingdoms, never had the Kingdom of Smirnaz claimed a victory before this last war that had gone on for two years now.
This was the last city of giants left in Sapan. The reclusive giants that called these high peaks home would soon be no more.
I had lost good men in this war and I would lose more tonight, but our cause was righteous and the need for victory was great. The other Kingdomer Nations had never come to the aid of the poorest of the seven kingdoms, but now, after this fight, the Kingdom of Smirnaz would be at peace on all its borders, while the rest of the world toward the south and west fell apart as the tide of evil rose worldwide. It was that same evil we fought tonight, only we would win where other Kingdomer Nations were failing.
Phalon, in full battle regalia, plunged across the blood soaked ground littered with arrows and the debris of past days' engagements. We drew ever closer to the wall formed of gigantic boulders, precision placed by the offspring of the fallen Malachim.
The city was a formidable fortress, but greater than this last holdout had already fallen prey to the will of the men, still pure in their bloodline, that charged at my back. Size didn’t make the man and this war against giants proved it.
Arrows, from giant sized bows that were twice the length of our own arrows, flew by me to slam into others in the unbroken line of surging heavy cavalry. Where one horse and rider went down another soon took his place.
Swords forward, we broke our fixed line to angle for each of the seven ramps that had just now clamped against the base of the city wall. I dodged Phalon to the left and a giant sized spear plowed into the ground where we had just been. Another passed by my head so close that I felt the whisper touch of its staff against my helmet.
I heard the scream of a horse falling behind me, which no doubt heralded the death of yet one more of my treasured men, and the knowledge of that drove me on harder. Phalon leapt onto the ramp’s back and chewed up the wood slatted slope that still stank of the refuse of men and animals.
Within moments the battered wall top was before us and a giant that topped my own height by four feet stabbed at me with a spear. I ducked under the jab of the spear even as I swung my blade for the giant's head. As Phalon’s iron shod hooves let off sparks upon landing on the wide wall top, even so did the giant’s helmeted head as it fell with a dull clatter onto the stones.
On foot these giants of Sapan dwarfed us, but on horseback we were their equal for height. With a spike affixed to his head plate, Phalon gored into another giant guard. The giant was driven backward as he let out a roar of pain.
I drew my second sword clear, even as both of the giant’s grasping six fingered hands reached to break my horse’s neck. Both hands fell to the ground from a forward swishing downstroke of my blades and screeching the giant fell down before us, only to be clambered up and over by Phalon.
More and more of my Knights had streamed up and over the wall and the giants, for all their size, could not match our numbers or the force of our will. Still, the fighting was intense and it was with relief that I saw the main gate to the city burst inward from the force of a siege ram under the command of the King of Smirnaz.
Soon the King’s forces were backing us up in the tight melee of conflict, which was to our advantage when facing giants. The less room a giant had to fight with, the more easily they fell to our blades. In close conflict their giant spears and swords were of no help to them, even as our quicker blades flashed repeatedly into their tough hides and bled them dry.
The walls overrun and all the gates open to our combined forces, our complete annihilation of the city began. Not one of the mixed bloods was permitted to live. Neither were their livestock, which they often copulated with, allowed to live. There would be no spoil taken of this city either. Instead, the fire would cleanse all until only the rocks remained.
My swords dripping with blood, I found my way past the few remaining scenes of open conflict to an area relatively free of the bodies of the fallen. Shoving my swords into the ground I knelt and as was my custom I prayed. I prayed a prayer of thankfulness to El Elyon that the city had fallen at the loss of far fewer men than I had expected.
There were reports from many of how, on the approach to the city, the enemy’s arrow shafts had been blown off course by sudden breezes and how, once inside, the giants had seemed to be sluggish and far from the berserking wrath that legends were full of.
It was a miracle and the knowledge that I could now go to my family eased the built up tension surrounding my heart.
“Sir!”
Glancing up, I saw a high ranking Knight of our allies of Smirnaz. He looked very shaken and for a moment I thought the battle had taken a turn for the worse in my brief absence. One quick look confirmed otherwise though.
The Knight was speaking, “The King has fallen! He bids you come quickly!”
I got up, leaving my swords in my haste to follow the other man. Near where the gate had been broken in was a tight pressed knot of Knights, which made way before me as I came closer.
The King had indeed fallen. He was transfixed to the ground by a giant spear that gored him completely through his middle. The only way he was still alive was that the shaft of the spear must’ve formed a tight seal to help hold in his blood. Even so he was near death.
I knelt down beside him and his hand reached up to grip the back of my head, my helmet having fallen off some time previously in the fight for the city.
“We did it! You and I! We are men of a generation that I never expected to live to see this glorious day when our enemies of old stand defeated on all sides!”
I nodded, as I gripped his other hand. There was a fierce joy to behold in his eyes as he gaspingly said, with all the force he could muster, “Smirnaz is free!”
br /> “Yes my King,” I said.
His hand let go of my head to thrust at my chest, “And you are the one who has made it possible! You and the men you lead.”
I shook my head, “I would not have gotten far without a king such as you, willing to risk all in the pursuit of freedom. In truth, the glory is El Elyon’s because the victory we have achieved together is greater than either of us could have ever brought about by our own devices.”
Blood trickling from his mouth the King spoke, “Well said. Spoken like a King. Truly there has never been a more nobler bastard born to woman than you!”
I smiled, not taking offense in the slightest. The King coughed and I thought he was on the verge of passing out, when he suddenly gripped hold of my chest plate armor hard enough to pull me closer and say, “Truly there is no one better qualified than you to be king in my absence!”
Stunned, I stared at him in shock as he moved his intensely staring eyes from me to those that were around us, “Hail your new King!”
As one the Knights bowed low to the ground, even as I began to object, but the King would have none of it, “Benaiah, you and I both know how late the hour is. Without a strong leader the victories that we have achieved will all be for naught.”
How to tell him?
“Your highness, even as the prophetic hour is late, there will soon be no more kingdoms to be ruled over by Kings. You do me too great an honor in these last days to make me King.”
The King’s hold on me relaxed as he shook his head, “Truly, granting you kingship is not honor enough for your exploits these past four years on behalf of the seven kingdoms. Yes, the times of kingdoms will soon be no more I fear, but there will be a Kingdom! A Kingdom not built by men, but rather of El Elyon himself. Benaiah, I need you to lead the people into that Kingdom that even now draws nigh. Will you do it?”
At a loss for what else to do I nodded, wanting the King’s last few moments in life to be those of peace and not of concern. He smiled and gave me a faraway look as he said, “I can see it now Benaiah. I can see what we’ve been fighting for!”