The Kingdom of Liticea: The Sorcerer Prince

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Road Through the Westland

The Titans of Rainwood lost their flare after a few days of walking under them. Now there were just blocking out what little sunlight was left in the sky as the grey clouds of winter began to creep in from the west. The woods the air beneath the canopy was dark and brown. The leaves were falling harder everyday. There was talk that the snow would be falling just as hard before the men began their march home, if they would return home before the light of spring shined through the snowy night.

It was getting could too. Jergan, Eliza and the others could see their breath in the air as clearly as one could see smoke from a pipe. In the frosty mornings their armor was freezing to the touch, and the feeling would even step through the protection of their thick leather under armor in the moments after they put it on. At night, it got especially cold. Men would gather around fires like prayer circles and hold their open hands to the flame hoping for a little relief.

But it was not the cold or the bleak sky that got to the the young knights the most, it was the evidence of the war around them. Although the bulk of the Morcar army had not made it this far east, the scars of the war had. Bandits and outlaws, many of them refugees themselves have taken to thievery and marauding in order to get by. Everyday, the young knights rode by burnt houses, dead bodies, and crowds of people clinging together with whatever weapons they could find. The Prince ordered the Bastard Brigade to placed at the center of the army, where none of them had much of a chance to slip off and prey on these poor people. Rolrik himself had Aiden Marthal tied to the end of a horse.

Many of these refugees were able-bodied men. Tauron sent word through the army that any that wished to join were to be supplied leather and a spear. By the end of the first fortnight of marching they had added nearly six hundred. But for every hundred fighting men that they added, another five hundred women, children, crippled, sick and elderly were added as well. These followers sought the army for food and protection, for which they could give little. The Rainwood was not ideal farming country, leaving the army deprived of the endless stocks they had marching through the fertile heart of the Kingdom.

They were a pitiful sight for the young knights. They looked as filthy and ragged as the Brigade, but instead of murderous and hateful, these poor folk were just plain miserable looking. They all agreed to ride towards the front of the army where the sight of them was not as common, but still there.

"Why can't they just pass us by?" even Locke was growing distressed by what he had been seeing, "Why do they have to follow us?"

"We're their beacon of hope," Eliza stated, "We have food and we have weapons. They think we can protect them."

"Why can't they just give us the Lord's good wishes and send us on our way?"

"If there was an army pillaging the swampland, wouldn't you want to stand and fight?"

"The difference, Bart is that I would not have runaway first. Half of those men are deserters, running from their posts. Now there's this bigger army and they feel safer with us," the knight scoffed, "The cowards should be hung. No wonder this shithole has been overrun."

"I really hope he gets a nice hit to the head," Bart whispered to Jergan. Gor was not present at the moment. He was meeting with some Velrock men that left Anthre with the Prince. They were under the command of Helg Velrock, though all the knights knew that Archduke Amos would be far more comfortable with his second son carrying his banners.

"Might fix that part of his head that he was dropped on," Jergan whispered back and they both giggled.

Locke exploded with coughs. The cold was beginning to get to him, "Why can't these Westland fucks defend themselves. Why can't they defend their own fucking country. Hey Bart, that's another difference right there. If the Swampland were invaded, we'd have thrown the cunts out by now. Not have to drag our neighbors through these freezing woods to lend a hand."