“Sire, the battle has begun. We move on your order.” A knight reported to Duke Ryder, who was already waiting in formation with his army. By his side was his own personal guard, something that he had kept a secret from everybody until this point. Even his own allies had been shocked to find that he had built one in secret without anybody finding out. 

Building a personal guard troop was harder than just having the money to throw at expensive horses and armour, if that was the case then there would be plenty of Earls who would be followed around by such troops. They required years of training and were often composed solely of knights, and at the least well distinguished soldiers. Not to mention that warhorses that could realistically be used in heavy cavalry were not just a matter of money but needed to be specially bred. Unless you already owned enough to breed your own, you would need to spend far more than it was worth to gain them from specific horse breeders. And there were no such breeders in Fiveria.

“We wait a while longer, let them tire themselves out.” He was in no rush. So long as he was there to clean up the remnants and make sure that there would be two empty thrones by the end, then Duke Ryder would be happy. It was not like there was anyone else to stand against him at that point. Duke Burn might make a valiant effort, but he was confident that he would win that fight. Nobody else in Fiveria was strong enough or organised enough, not even Earl Blake. Duke Oakley would have been able to had he not brought almost all of his men to the battle that was already underway. But there was no room for what ifs, Duke Ryder would not allow it.

“Go keep an eye on the border castles, make sure that they don’t come out to try and cause trouble.” Duke Ryder turned and ordered another knight. He was not worried about such a small number of men, even if they were strong, but that did not mean that he wanted to take losses for free.

“Sire.” The knight responded before leaving to take a small contingent of light armoured men with him.

“The battle should have started by now.” Braydon said as he was waiting for the scout he had sent to return. Alongside him were a still energetic Cinar and an almost asleep Ethan. They had let the men sleep as much as they could without setting up camp. With the amount of time they had, it would have to have been taken down as soon as it was set up, so they didn’t bother. Not that sleeping in full armour on the ground was particularly comfortable, as the sleep deprived Ethan showed. 

Braydon was starting to think that Cinar really did have endless energy, he had about as much sleep as Ethan but looked like he had had a full night’s sleep in a comfortable bed. Braydon was more used to getting any sleep that he could find so had managed alright, a trait he had acquired after joining the battlefield under his father several times.

“It’s not like we are going to be taking part if we can help it.” Ethan added, though Braydon was barely able to understand what he was saying through all the yawning.

“Well look alive lad, that’s only if we can help it.” Cinar responded, his persona having regained its non seriousness that it previously had when Braydon first met him in the joint army camp. ‘It must be his attitude that has helped him through his hard times.’ Braydon was sure of it, if he had gone through what Cinar had done, he was sure that he would be a lot more downtrodden than the man actually was.

“Things have gotten going.” Rhydian said as he came to join them, obviously having met their scout and sent him on another mission. Even Ethan managed to perk up a bit to listen to what he had to say.

“The battle got off to a good start, Duke Oakley’s crossbows were quite effective and dealt severe damage to the centre of the enemy.” Rhydian stated, though Braydon was sure there was more to the story or the scout would not have returned so early.

“But..?”

“But that was about all that was out of the norm on  that front. Casburland’s forces quickly changed formation to deal with the crossbow fire and carried on their forward march, clashing with our side. Since then it has been fairly even, probably due to their more cohesive command structure in comparison to our three part one.” Rhydian put more meat onto the bones of the report about the state of the battle. And it was not going to be the crushing victory that Duke Oakley had hoped it would be, likely because he had not accounted for Duke Ryder and his allies not being there.

“And what about Duke Ryder’s movements?” Cinar asked, this was the more important question. A battle between Fiveria and Casburland being in a stalemate was not really newsworthy. That was almost always what happened, with very few exceptions.

“His men are ready to march towards the battle at any moment but are waiting at the moment. I presume that Duke Ryder wants both sides to take more damage before he moves in.” Rhydian put forward his best guess about the Duke’s intentions, and Braydon thought they were quite likely right. The problem was that the longer the Duke waited before he moved in, the less likely it was that anyone would be able to retreat safely.

“Does he know of our movements?” Braydon asked, if the Duke knew of their movements then it was likely that he was waiting longer to make sure that they couldn’t help the King escape.

“I do not believe that he does. At the very least he has not made any movements to suggest that he does. But that does not mean it is certain, he might just not think of us as a big enough threat to make any specific moves for.” That was also a problem, with nobody but Duke Oakley and Duke Ryder’s factions having brought their full strength to bear, there was no way that they had the numbers to force Duke Ryder to make any big changes to his plans. Not to mention that Duke Ryder already led the strongest faction in Fiveria by a large margin. He would have the largest army of any individual faction anyway.

“Sire.” A scout rushed up to them as they were speaking, clearly bringing important news. And they could already guess what it was.

“You may speak.”

“Duke Ryder’s men have started to advance.”

Darkwood

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