The Kingdom of Liticea: The Sorcerer Prince

Chapter Forty-Three: The Hill of Death

The lengthening nights yielded little comfort for the soldiers at Talonwood. Everyday they hunkered down bracing against the growing cold and listening for the footsteps of the Morcar army to signal the coming of doom. Rengle spent most of his time on the wall, staring off into the valley as if he wanted to see the Morcars when they first came into view. Jergan noticed his father standing up there. He had little to say to Argus, Alaric, or anyone. He left his friends by a fire and left to go share the old with his father. The completion of the hill and the restoration of the keep had left little else to do. The young knights now had the option to either sit and be fearful or sit and be bored. All of them, even meathead Locke dreaded this long wait.

"Father," Jergan came alongside his father and leaned against the stones that would guard them from whatever the Morcars threw at them.

"Jergan," the usual Rengle Fallaner greeting. He did not seem to acknowledge his son's presence for minutes after that little response. The knight could not tell if it was fear or anticipation that held his father's tongue. Jergan never held any grudge against Rengle for the few words he spoke in kindness and affection. Inheriting Carell Keep at a young age n an unstable time made Rengle into a man of stone and steel. Yet, when he found the time appropriate he risked a smile. The earliest that Jergan recalled seeing that evasive smile was when returned from the Corasian War and found his son who was dying of illness when he left out and running around like a little lad again.

"It's beautiful night," Jergan observed to break the silence and not expecting any response.

"It reminds me of the night I wed your mother," he unexpectedly replied, "It was the brink of winter and the countryside was running wild with bandits. I married her to gain the help of Juracles Brittenford. Then, I was dreading the coming day. I just wanted to lay in bed and sleep beside your mother for eternity and not have to deal with the world. If there is a paradise after this life, mine will be resting peacefully with your mother in my arms," he turned to his son, "and little baby you between us."

This talk of afterlife worried Jergan, "Do you think we'll ever go home, father?"

"Many of us will not," he said bluntly, "Even with that hill and this wall we will still be outnumbered a hundred to one. By the time this is over there will not be a soul in the army who did not lose a friend."

"What if I lose all my friends?" the thought of Eliza, Locke and Bart down there by the fire made him wish they stayed at Rainguard with the Prince. At least there they would be behind twenty thousand men and not these mere hundreds who are supposed to meet the Morcars head-on.

"That's a risk you took when you went to that school. That's a risk you took when you became a knight. It's a reality you have to bear just by coming into this world."

"Did you lose any friends at Brother's Crossing?"

"I lost all my friends at Brother's Crossing," Jergan turned to him wide-eyed with surprise, "They died when Yorod Dayvey IV ordered that idiotic charge out of our stronghold. Cost us half our men, most of them Ruskamen. We would have been destroyed and the city surrounded if I had not held back enough for us to keep holding the fortress. Of course, Yorod blames my unwillingness to send men to their deaths for nothing for the failure of his attack. But I blame him for the deaths of men whom I had known since I was old enough to walk."

Despite the anger and emotion in his words, Rengle' voice hever was raised a note. In all his childhood, Jergan had never experienced him yelling or shouting at him as most children do. But Rengle's dark eyes were more than enough to scare young Jergan into behaving.

"Since then I have never forgiven that fool, nor has he forgiven me. I pray for you when he becomes Duke. I was sure that we were going to die in that keep and I would never see you or your mother again. That was what I was most afraid of. I didn't think about Corasian swords and shields while in that fort. I just thought about my young boy who was deathly ill the last I saw him. I did not know if you were even alive. I believe that is what kept me alive though that battle, what gave me the drive to keep fighting. The men must have felt it too because they fought just as hard as me. Even Yorod's soldiers seemed to catch whatever fire I had in me and fought on when all that oaf wanted to do was surrender. So, if nothing else Jergan, think of your family and what you have back home. Your mother, your uncle."