*BUBUUUUUUUU*

“Form up!” Braydon did not need to hear the horn to know what he should do. It had not taken long for the flanks to fold after the centre of the enemy ran. The Duke’s left flank had already taken a battering from Duke Tetland’s harassment and encirclement, leaving only the right flank relatively unscathed. Unscathed did not mean high morale, however. Just like everyone else on the field, the Duke’s right flank had eyes and they could see what had happened. They followed the centre.

They needed to search for the Duke, yes, but that would have to wait for them to regroup. As much as it had been a short battle, it was a battle nonetheless. There was no way that proper formations had been maintained to the end, even Braydon’s own men had not managed it once they broke the enemy line. And trying to find the Duke whilst disorganised was as good as not finding him at all.

“Damn, they did a number on the poor bastards.” Braydon could only comment once the various clusters of men had lined back up. It was one thing to know you were winning, but only once you could see the bodies on the floor once everyone had stepped back. Or ran away. That also worked. From what he could tell, there was not much left of the Duke’s left flank at all. Unlike the right and centre, they had been surrounded and harassed from both sides and it showed.

“Seems like somebody is getting a good reward for that showing.” Gerald had joined Braydon as the men lined up. Braydon was inclined to agree. Whilst a large part of the success on their right was due to Duke Tetland’s help, the King would still reward whoever was in charge of the right flank.

“Earl Downs, no?” If Braydon had remembered correctly, which he had, then the King had put Earl Downs in the command of the right flank. In part, it was a means to show that the northeastern lords were taken into consideration, Braydon had no knowledge of the man’s military acumen. Though he doubted that there were many other lords as prominent in the northeast.

“Indeed, do you think he can subjugate his neighbours?” Gerald returned. They could both guess that the King would try to use Downs as a means to suppress the northeastern lords after this. It was still to be seen if it would work.

“He can try.” Braydon would wait to see what happened, gaining another powerful lord near him was not something that he wanted to see. It was his luck that before the war, Duke Burn had left him alone. He doubted that that would continue, let alone if there was another to the north.

“I hear you broke the centre.” Rhydian’s first words when he saw Braydon. And if he had not been imagining things, Braydon was sure that he saw a small smile. Though he was not sure if that was pride for how well he had done or because the man himself had gotten to join the front lines.

“And I hear that you did the same on the left.” Braydon had heard just as much about Rhydian’s effectiveness as praise for his own over the past hour. Whilst he had broken the centre first, it had not taken long for Rhydian to break the Duke’s right flank not long after. And in the style Rhydian was famous for, it had been with large sweeps of his equally large sword.

“It is not often that I get to use her in actual combat these days, I have to make the most of it.” Rhydian commented as he adjusted his sheath as if the sword in it weighed no more than a regular arming sword, rather than the greatsword it was.

“If you treat women as well as you treat that sword, you will have a wife by the end of the month.” Braydon could not help but say it. He knew that knights liked their swords but rarely had he seen a man keep such good care of one as Rhydian did. It might just count as his only pastime alongside training troops.

“You’re the lord, you are the one in need of a wife.” Rhydian countered with ease, to which Braydon decided to leave the topic to a later time. Preferably one where Gerald was not listening, he preferred to be the one doing the mocking. Not the other way around.

“Heard any news about the Duke?” Braydon’s chosen change of topic was the most official one that he could think of. If they had managed to end the civil war.

“If you did not notice, I was a bit busy routing an army to see if he was captured. I am sure that the King would know by now if we have. Nobody wants Duke Ryder out of the way as much as he does.” Rhydian did have a point. More than the one at the end of his sword. The King had not taken part in the battle, choosing to stay behind his army.  If anyone had a view of the bigger picture, it was somebody who watched the battle happen.

“Well then, I think now is as good a time as any to have a meeting to discuss the battle.” Braydon was sure that the King was already thinking the same thing, just that he was waiting for a bit of the celebratory mood the nobles were in to die down before serious discussion. At the very least Braydon hardly wanted to talk to most of them as is, he could hardly imagine most of them when they were actually jovial.

“We will probably have to wait for Duke Tetland to come and join us.” Rhydian pointed out the more likely reason why a meeting had not been called yet. For one of the people most instrumental in making the battle go as smoothly as it had, Duke Tetland would have to be thanked personally but King Aled.

Darkwood

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