The battle of the Golden Path (prologue)

It had been three days since they left the Sinaric province, three days since they've had a good night's sleep, they were the royal party of the King Grandos III of Penrose, but they traveled without much of the royal guards, to the annoyance of the king's own brother Rictos.

A measly five knights protected the party, not counting Rictos and Mikanze, who are fine warriors in their own right but were cooped up in the carriage with the king.

The king himself was a great warrior but  wasn't expected to fight if trouble befell them, he is the king after all.

The party was no better than a small gang as they made their way along the golden path. 

No matter how Rictos plead with Grandos he wouldn't improve his personal guard, "A king must show he trusts his subjects." He loved to say. Something Rictos was sure he heard from their father when they were boys. 

Sometimes he wished he didn't give up the throne. But then again he wasn't made to rule, not like Grandos, he preferred the battlefield, though now he was too old for it.

"Brother, I fear the war with Kaldia is getting out of hand on the eastern front." The king said, breaking the silence.

"Aye." Rictos replied, turning to his brother.

"Lord Grey rides with his warband to reinforce the troops. He should be there in a few more days". Rictos continued.

The king sat still for a moment looking to be lost in thought and then said, "And what does the Grey host number?"

Rictos looked towards the third man in the carriage, his brother had insisted that this man should be kept close, but Rictos didn't trust the man at all, he didn't trust a lot of the company the king kept. 

Without removing his gaze from the man he said, "around 10,000 heavy troops, mostly infantry and some archers."

"No whisperers?." The king asked.

Rictos removed his gaze from the man and made eye contact with the king, "House Grey follows the old ways brother. " 

The kings sighed "thats unfortunate they would have been more effective in the battles, though 10,000 troops should be enough to hold the east."

Rictos nodded in agreement.

"I do have concerns about the western front though brother." Rictos suddenly said "it's too quiet, not even one battle since the start of the war."

"What of it?" The king asked nonchalantly. "Its under control."

"From what my spies tell me, something is strange brother." Rictos continued without missing a beat. "Kaldia is gaining ground without any encounters, though that information may be outdated now, it's still concerning" 

"Freydion is a great commander, he knows what he is doing." The king replied with his eyes closed.

"The east is struggling to hold, the west is giving up ground and the center is in stalemate." Rictos said with some poison in his voice. The king looked up and glared at him but Rictos continued. "This Freydion may not have our best interest at heart if this is what the battlefield looks like."

"And these spies of yours. How much do you trust them brother?" The king asked still glaring at Rictos.

Rictos sighed "as much as a man can trust any spy, though they're paid well." Rictos finished.

"Freydion has proven his loyalty, he is the one who saved my life during the feast of the krone king." The king said as he stroked his bushy moustache.

"He isn't one of us, he isn't Djinn." Rictos said.

"Enough!" The king shouted looking up at his brother. "Djinn or man he is trustworthy. Set your prejudices aside brother. There's no place in my court for that." 

Both men sat in silence after that.

It was an hour past midday when the party entered into the forest that bordered the edge of the Ifris province, the canopy gave shade from the sun in the cloudless sky, even the Golden path that cut through the forest was in disrepair as the vegetation overrun the stones laid by the builders, this made the carriage ride more uncomfortable.

Rictos sat upright frowning and started looking around. The king observed him for a while before speaking, "whats wrong brother?" He asked, "did you hear something?"

Rictos stood up as tall as he could without hitting his head on the roof of the carriage, he slid the covering of the small windows of the carriage and peered out.

"I think we are under attack." He said calmly, "all our knights are gone, only their horses remain."

Grandos' face hardened as soon as Rictos spoke, his bushy moustache twitching as he too got up to look through the window.

"There's one missing." Grandos pointed out, as soon as he spoke the carriage jolted and came to a sudden stop, what sounded like around a dozen arrows hit the side of the carriage then a man called out in a strange language.

"He says that the horned ones should step out." A voice called from behind the king and his brother. It was Mekanze who at some point had woken up.

"Kaldian." Rictos said with disdain, his demeanor more rigid as soon as he saw Mekanze.

The man outside shouted again and what sounded like laughter followed.

"We are surrounded." Grandos pointed out.

"How did the kaldian get so deep into our territory?" Rictos asked in confusion.

The king looked at the door as if deciding something.

"We have to get these dogs to tell us." The king said as he reached for his spear.

Rictos nodded in agreement as he reached for his blade as well.

Mekanze stood up and strode forward revealing his metallic hand under his cloak.

He pressed his head against the door of the carriage and listened for a moment.

"We are the only ones left, the whole party is dead or captured it seems," he said

"I didn't even hear a struggle." The king exclaimed in disbelief.

The man outside shouted again in Kaldian

"What are the dogs saying?" Rictos said in an angry voice.

Mekanze's metal masked face turned to Rictos. "They ask if the king is a coward hiding in his metal box."

"So they're after me then," the king replied as he peered through the window.

The king couldn't see any people but he could still see the horses in the clearing near the golden path.

"I see most of the horses in the clearing, if we can fight our way there we may be able to escape." The king said 

"Aye or we could wait here and try to hold them off from within the carriage until help comes, whenever that may be." Rictos replied.

"That may take too long brother." The king pointed out. "They control the supplies and we don't know how long it could take for the high seat to figure out something is amiss and send reinforcements."

All three men paused to consider their options. 

"The way I see it we wont be able to hold them off for long from in here." The king said after a while.

Mekanze reached for the lock on the carriage, and looked at the king with questioning and received a nod in return.

"Better to fight and die then?" Rictos stated

"I'm not planning to die," the king said smiling at his brother who nodded in return.

Mekanze unlocked the door and threw out a small artifact and shouted something in kaldian and an invisible force from it enveloped the carriage 

The three men were vigilantly observing while stepping out of the carriage.

A volley of arrows was fired instantly at the door but the invisible force stopped them around a meter from the door and they fell to the ground.

Rictos and the king stepped out of the carriage after seeing that.

One of the kaldian stepped forward, he was a large man wearing the kaldian style armor. His green cloak was frayed and muddied showing he was waiting days to pull the ambush.

"Looks like we've caught ourselves two unicorns lads." The man sneered In the Penrosi language, his thick accent making the words drawl.

Four more men emerged from the bushes in front dressed in the same manner as the man before, the biggest one with dark hair carrying a bow where the other three had swords like the first man.

Rictos scoffed at the man. "It appears dogs have learnt to speak like men."

The kaldian leader frowned at that and then nodded to his men who started to surround the king's party.

The kaldian smiled. "We have archers in the brush, we killed all your knights," he then looked at Mekanze, "give up the unicorns and we will let you live," 

Rictos waved his sword menacingly. "The sky sword damn you, this day I will strike the head from your neck and mount it on a spike everytime I ride to battle, filthy dog."

"What is your name Kaldian?" The king asked.

"Loryx is what I'm known as unicorn king, but what use is it to you?" Loryx asked

The king stepped forward "I like to know the names of my defeated foes."

Loryx laughed heartily, "interesting, but you wont be defeating anyone today, once that artifact is out of power you will be the dead ones."

Another volley of arrows was broken on the invisible shield at that moment. 

"What a powerful artifact to last this long."

Loryx exclaimed curiously.

At that moment Mekanze looked to the king. His eyes slightly glowing a faint blue.

"It is time my king, it is ready," he whispered in his tin like voice.

The king got in a stance holding his spear with both hands. Rictos seeing this prepared himself his sword stance as well.

Loryx held up his hand and his men got ready. Nobody spoke a word.