I Will Not Fail Again

Reiner turned his eyes away from Erich's lifeless body to return them to "The Dragon Heart," pinned to the ground next to the corpse. The banner was within reach of his hand; all he had to do was throw it towards the burning trees below and it would be destroyed, yet he was reluctant to touch it. He forced his hand to reach out toward it.

"No!" shrieked Roselyn, who lunged toward him, wielding a stiletto. He slapped her down and turned toward her as he raised his sword."

"Fine, then I'll finish you first!" roared Reiner.

She rolled to get out of his reach and then laughed and pointed behind him.

"Insect. Turn and behold your doom!"

Reiner looked over his shoulder. Through the wall of fire that enclosed the base of the hill burst Baron Ulburt and ten of his horsemen, steeds crazed with fear, manes and tails smoking.

Reiner's men, standing beside the bodies of the swordsmen they had just defeated, also turned to look at the squadron of knights advancing up the hillside toward them. Hals lay on the ground, clutching a wound in his healthy leg that was no longer healed. In superstitious terror, Reiner noticed that sparks from the burning trees had set fire to the small shrine, which now burned like a torch. It was not a good omen.

The knights drew their spears and charged the companions. They fell back wearily, too stunned to run. There seemed to be no way to stop them from being run over and crushed. Unless...

Suddenly inspired, Reiner picked up the cursed banner and ran forward as his injured ribs groaned painfully from the effort it took to lift the tremendous weight. The pole burned his hands with crackling black energy that ascended his arm and caused tremendous pain in his joints.

"Stop!" he shouted. "Ulburt! Knights! I command you! In the name of Ulburt, stop and turn back!"

Ulburt and his knights stopped dead in their tracks and their war mounts reared up and bucked as if suddenly faced with a stone wall. One fell from the saddle.

Ulburt forced his horse's forelegs down and reached out for the sword.

"Get back!" bellowed Reiner. "Half a turn! Get down the slope!"

Ulburt was petrified with his hand halfway to the hilt of the sword, struggling with all his concentration against the influence of the standard, but the knights obeyed the order without a struggle, turned their steeds about and started down the slope. At the base, the mounts resisted going back through the burning forest and did not continue.

The cavaliers spurred them wildly. The horses whirled and bucked, dismasting the horsemen, who reared up and rode into the burning forest. Through the flames, Reiner could see their cloaks and tabards ignite as the flames leapt toward them. Reiner grimaced. It was a horrible death.

Ulburt remained at his post, visibly trembling as he tried to ignore Reiner's order.

"Turn around, Baron!" shouted Reiner." I'm your boss now - I order you to charge down the hillside!"

Ulburt began to turn hesitantly, cursing and sweating as, against his will, his hands pulled the horse's reins to the right.

Reiner laughed - Baron Ulburt was obeying his orders! What a delightful joke! A heady shudder ran down his back. With the power of the banner coursing through his body, he could make anyone do anything. A vision flashed through his mind where he ordered his father to kiss his ass, but it was nothing more than childish revenge. With power like this he could do great things. It was dark power, true, but if a man was strong enough to control it he could make it work for good. He could right grave wrongs, dispossess cruel despots, force evil men to lay down their arms. Or, better yet, he thought with a chuckle, he could turn them against each other and make evil fight evil for once and kill each other to the last of them. Let them cleanse the world with their blood. He would be king! Emperor! He would reshape the world in his....

A searing pain appeared in his back. Something sharp scraped his ribs as it pierced them. He let out a shriek and dropped the banner. The here and now appeared around him again. Roselyn was withdrawing the stiletto to stab him again. He backhanded her in the mouth and threw her over the banner.

Grunting in pain, Reiner turned as he raised the sword.

"You should have cut my throat, witch."

"Halt, villain!"

Reiner looked over his shoulder. Ulburt had recovered and was dismounting from his war steed.

"Touch not the lady!" he exclaimed as he strided forward and unsheathed his sword. His blue-tinted armor flashed darkly in the sun.

"The lady is a manipulative and seductive woman who has turned you against your brother and your homeland" said Reiner backing away. However, despite his brave words, he felt like a rabbit in the path of a carriage. Ulburt was stronger, better rested and better armed and armored than him, not to mention a head taller than him. He braced himself for the baron's attack.

A shot rang out. Ulburt stumbled as one of his shoulder pads flew off, pierced and twisted. Behind the baron, Reiner saw Oskar, kneeling near the unconscious Hals, lower the smoking gun. Franka and Giano also fired, but their arrows bounced off Ulburt's armor. Pavel advanced with weary stride dragging the spear. Reiner's heart was glad. He had forgotten. He was not alone.

Ulburt recovered and charged Reiner with a tremendous blow. Reiner ducked down and swung past the baron to slash him in the back. His sword bounced harmlessly off the gleaming breastplate, and he had to spin himself around to dodge the lunge with which Ulburt charged backward.

"Resist, captain!" Pavel shouted. "We're here."

Oskar had dropped the firearm and Giano the crossbow, and now they limped behind Pavel with naked swords. Franka was circling widely as she put another arrow to the bow.

"Lady Roselyn!" Ulburt shouted. "Take cover. I'll take care of these traitors."

"No." Roselyn replied as she rose to her feet. "The banner must fly or the battle will be lost." She lifted "The Dragon Heart" with effort and stumbled forward to the top of the hillock.

"Someone stop her!" shouted Reiner as he dodged another lunge from Ulburt. "Destroy the banner."

Pavel and Giano turned, but it was Oskar who ran after the abbess.

"I have failed you too often, captain!" He shouted. "You will not escape me again!"

"Go carefully!" shouted Reiner, but he had Ulburt's sword almost in his face and could not devote any more attention to Oskar. He parried the blow and, with Pavel and Giano, they began to describe circles around the baron like dogs stalking a bull... They were lunging at him with the swords and spears as the baron turned this way or that.

"Bellacs without honor!" Ulburt gasped, his face flushed red under his helmet. "Three against one? Is that how the men of the realm fight?"

Reiner advanced like a dancer and slashed Ulburt open on the calf.

"Do men of the Realm enslave their subjects with sorcery and throw them against their brothers? Do men of the Realm kill their own kin to increase their power?"

"My brother is weak!" said Ulburt. "He does the king's bidding, like a lapdog, and refuses to join me in driving the Norsemen from the mountains once and for all."

"And you bring to earth a new evil to fight the first?"

"You know not of what you speak."

As Reiner moved in circles, over Ulburt's shoulder he saw Oskar catch up with Roselyn. The abbess turned as she approached him and raised a hand to give him a command, but Oskar shielded his eyes and slashed at her with his sword.

It was a weak blow that barely made a scratch on the back of Roselyn's hand, but it was enough to make her shriek and drop the banner, which fell against Oskar's chest.

Roselyn leapt at the gunner like a wildcat, stiletto raised. He blocked the attack with the staff of the banner and hit her in the face with the pommel of the sword. The priestess dropped like a stone.

"Roselyn!" shouted Ulburt as the priestess collapsed on the grass, fainting. He began to advance towards her, suddenly disinterested in his own combat.

The three companions seized the opportunity and charged him all together, but once again Ulburt's armor thwarted the attack. Giano's sword bounced off his helmet. Pavel's spear pierced a quixote but did not penetrate far enough to wound him. Reiner's sword slipped on the breastplate.

With a bellow of fury, Ulburt charged them. He kicked Giano to the ground, opened a deep gash in one of Pavel's shoulders, and threw a slash at Reiner that glanced off his scalp.

Reiner went down with his vision blurred with pain as the world spun before his eyes. He felt the ground hit his back, but he wasn't sure where the rest of his body was. Ulburt was a blurry form raising the sword overhead above him. Reiner knew that was bad, though he couldn't remember why.

Franka's voice echoed in his ears.

"Reiner! No!"

An arrow stuck deep into one of Ulburt's armpits and stuck sticking out between the breastplate and the armguard. Ulburt roared in pain and let go of the sword, which landed point-first, dangerously close to one of Reiner's ears. Reiner, who had completely lost his sense of balance, rolled to his feet, swaying from side to side, and blindly thrust at Ulburt with all his might. The point of the weapon pierced the baron's left eye, and Reiner felt it penetrate the back of the eye and enter the brain.

Ulburt fell to his knees wrenching the sword from Reiner's hands, which swung but did not fall. Reiner re-gripped the hilt, braced one foot against the baron's chest and pushed. The baron's face slid off the blade of the sword and Ulburt collapsed sideways like a cart loaded with scrap metal overturning in a ditch.

"Fucking lunatic." Spat Reiner, who dropped into a sitting position while clutching his bleeding head.

"Reiner! Captain!" shouted Franka, who ran to kneel beside him. "Are you hurt?"

Reiner looked up, and his vision cleared. The young woman's face was so charged with sweet concern, Reiner longed to embrace her.

"I..."

Their eyes met. There was an instant of perfect communication between them in which Reiner suddenly knew that Franka was as eager to embrace him as he was to embrace her. A second glance followed in which, without speaking, they both agreed that this was neither the time nor the place and that the deception must continue.

With a forced smile, Reiner averted his eyes and gave Franka a hearty pat on one shoulder.

"Why yes, I'm fine, my boy. Nothing that needle and thread can't fix."

Franka smiled in return. "I'm glad you are."

It sounded like bad actor dialogue to Reiner, but Pavel and Giano were laboriously standing next to them, so he went on.

"I thank you for your marksmanship." Reiner continued. "You saved my bacon with that shot."

"Thank you, sir, you can tell it was a critical hit."

Pavel looked up at the top of the knoll and grunted.

"The priestess, what has she done now?"

Reiner turned back. At the top of the hillock, Oskar was hunched over, his face contorted in a grimace of pain, still holding the banner.

"Oskar!" shouted Reiner. "Oskar! Throw him down! Drop him!"

Oskar did not move. He was petrified on the spot, shivering like a man with a high fever. His face was bathed in sweat and the yellow glow of the burning shrine shone upon him. He spoke through gritted teeth.

"No...I can't."

Reiner and the others began to advance toward him.

"No!" he shouted. "Don't come any closer! The banner makes me want to do terrible things."

Reiner advanced another step.

"Come on. You must fight..."

Oskar waved the banner sharply at him.

"Please, Captain, don't come any closer, I can't control it!"

Reiner cursed.

"Oskar, you must leave it on the ground. As long as you hold it up it will continue to control Ulburt's soldiers."

"I know." Oskar said with a tone of unhappiness.

"I have held it in my hand." Reiner stated. "I know what he is whispering to you, but you must fight him. You must..." Reiner fell silent as he realized that he too had not been able to let go of his own free will. He had been saved by the knife Roselyn had plunged into his back.

Tears streamed down Oskar's contracted countenance.

"I can't fight him, captain. I am weak. You know I am. I..."

With an agonized cry, Oskar waved the banner at them again and advanced a few staggering steps until he forced himself to stop. He looked like a man trying not to be swept away by a giant kite.

"No." he muttered furiously. "I will not fail again. I won't."

Straining as if he were carrying the weight of a mountain on his shoulders, Oskar straightened up and turned his back on them. He took one step toward the shrine, then another. He moved like a man walking through quicksand.

"All right, Oskar." Reiner said. "Throw him into the fire. You can do it."

Oskar approached the shrine at a snail's pace, but at last he found himself little more than three feet from the fire. He stretched out his arms and Reiner and the others saw that they were shaking from the effort he was making to try to release the banner, but it remained in his hands.

"May the gods help me." He whimpered. "But I can't. I can't!"

Reiner moved forward again.

"Oskar, be strong!" he shouted at him. "Be strong!"

"Yes." Oskar muttered through gritted teeth, and closed his eyes. "Yes, I will be strong."

And as Reiner and the others looked on in horror, he advanced slowly but deliberately and stepped into the flames that consumed the sanctuary.

Franka shrieked. Reiner shouted something, but he wasn't sure if it was words.

"No, mate." Pavel muttered.

Through the flames they could see Oskar standing in the middle of the shrine, shoulders erect, burning like a shingle, his clothes and hair charring, his skin cracking and bubbling. The flames shot up the pike at great speed, and caught fire on the banner. First at the edges, which burned with a strange purple light, and then engulfed it completely in an instant. There was a sound that was more than just the roar of the flames, a deep rumbling howl of inhuman fury that made Reiner's hair stand on end; then, with a deafening crack, the banner exploded.

Reiner and the others were knocked down by an explosion larger than could be achieved using all the catapults at once. A huge ball of purple flame shot out of the shrine into the sky like an eruption just as the splintered timbers of the shrine whirled past them like chaff blown by a storm. The last thing Reiner saw at the moment he lost consciousness, or the last thing he thought he saw, was a demonic face screaming with rage and gurgling out of the fireball. Then it disappeared, dissipating in billows of thick gray smoke, and the blissful darkness of unconsciousness came.