Phoenix Destiny

Seventeen

Giving Gambler’s shoulder a final pat, Jaron cautiously made his way to the pavilion. He circled around the large tent to avoid the soldiers guarding the entrance. Making sure there was no one near, Jaron leaned close to the heavy fabric. He could just make out muffled voices.

Silently, he took out the dagger he now kept secret in his boot. It was the same blade Ivy caught to protect him. He cut a small slit into the tanned hide to better hear what was being said.

“Your report?”

“The soldiers are holding their own,” Dorrall’s voice answered.

“Not surprising. They are only battling farmers.”

“They are cut off from retreat. I’ve personally seen to it that no messengers made it back to the encampment.”

“Are you sure it is all right for you to be here?”

“The General thinks I’m running a message for reinforcements.”

“Clever.”

“If we attack the camp now, we’ll take them by surprise. Then we can deploy the rest of the troops to the battle.”

“Then you will be the General.”

“And you, Your Highness, will have an entire army at your command when you seize the throne.”

“What about those who refuse to fight?”

“What’s the loss of a few soldiers? The others will fall in line when they see the rabbles hanging from nooses.”

“I like the way you think, Dorrall.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

“We attack tomorrow.”

Jaron slowly backed away as voices approached his hiding spot. He retreated into the maze of tents before he was seen and made his way back to Gambler. The equine remained where it had been left. Gathering the reins, Jaron led the gray stallion out of the camp.

The few people who noticed him waved but didn’t seem to take any particular note of his presence. Jaron glanced down at his appearance. He supposed his attire didn’t look all that different than their own.

Once clear of the tents, Jaron climbed into the saddle and reined the stallion toward their own camp. With a snort, Gambler climbed the narrow path up the ridge. Jaron gave the beast its head, knowing it was a better judge of the terrain than he was.

Once clear, it broke into a gallop while Jaron’s mind raced with what he had heard. Dorrall’s betrayal wasn’t a shock though the scope of it was surprising. And the Prince…This was shaping up to be quite a coup if all of it was true.

As he neared the mercenary camp, Jaron saw that the soldiers were still milling around without direction despite the fact most of the day was gone. The rapidly approaching stallion caught the attention of a few hanging around the outskirts of the camp, but they didn’t seem all that concerned. Now that Jaron thought about it, their security was rather lax.

“Jester? Where have you been?” a soldier stepped forward to greet him as he boldly rode the horse into the middle of camp.

“Saddle your horses and gather your weapons.” Jaron leapt off Gambler’s back. “We’re going to be attacked tomorrow.”

“What? By who?” one of the remaining captains demanded.

“Dorrall.”

“Good one jester, very funny,” a soldier laughed.

“I heard him and the prince discuss their plans. Dorrall will be made General, and you’ll enter the service of Manlea. Those that refuse will be executed.”

“That’s impossible,” the soldiers argued as more gathered and word of his report spread. “Dorrall is one of us.”

“We should send word to the General,” someone suggested.

“Any messengers we send will be killed,” Jaron yelled to be heard. “Dorrall’s allies will see to that. They’ve already stopped messengers from reaching us with the General’s reinforcement requests.”

“You went and weren’t killed,” someone argued.

“I wasn’t close enough to the battle to be seen,” Jaron answered. “I found their encampment and was able to enter and leave without raising alarm. We don’t have much time to prepare.”

“How large was the encampment you saw?”

“Five hundred, give or take.”

“That’s nearly twice our size,” someone said. “We don’t stand a chance without reinforcements. What do we do?”

“We have to flee.”

“We’re soldiers. We don’t flee.”

“We need the General.”

Jaron listened to the soldiers argue as he surveyed the camp. There wasn’t much for cover or materials. A soldier’s brown gelding pawed at the ground, tipping its water bucket. Jaron’s eyes narrowed, and he looked at the trees a short distance away. Maybe.

“I think…” Jaron turned and noticed the soldier’s indecision had turned into a loud argument. “Hey!”

Slowly, the voices settled. They looked at him.

“If you’re all finished, I think I have an idea,” Jaron studied the anxious faces. “At the very least, we should be able to hold our own until reinforcements arrive.”

“What reinforcements?”

“The General and the others. They’ll come once they receive word of the situation.”

“But you said any messenger we send would be killed,” the captain argued.

“That’s what you said,” another soldier agreed.

“Yes, any messenger we send on horseback will be intercepted,” Jaron said.

“How else are we supposed to send a message?”

“In a way they will never expect,” Jaron raised his arm.

Ivy swooped over the soldiers’ heads to land on his arm. They stared at the winged creature in awe. Like Dak, no one had ever seen such a thing before. Ivy calmly studied them without the least sign of fear. If anything, she looked at them all with a note of disdain. Clearly, she wasn’t impressed.

“Now then,” Jaron petted the small dragon, “I think it’s time everyone starts digging.”

“Digging?” one soldier repeated.

“Yes…digging.”

“You want us to dig?” the captain asked. “Why?”

“For cover,” Jaron answered.

“Cover?”

Jaron let the dragon crawl onto Gambler’s saddle and explained, “We will hide the first wave under the tents, the second in the trees.”

“What?”

Jaron sighed and knelt. He drew a map of the camp and forest in the dirt with a finger. From the saddle, Ivy looked at the picture as if she, too, was studying the battle plan.

“The camp,” Jaron said, “and the forest. We dig holes under the tents to hide horses and soldiers. Others we station in the trees with arrows. If we need to fall back, we fall back to the woods.”

“We can never stand against so many,” a skeptic said.

“They’re using farmers to fortify their numbers. If we fight smart, we should be able to hold them off. Are you soldiers or not?”

The men looked at each other. A young one pushed past the captain and bowed to Jaron, saying, “We await your orders, sir!”

“Grab shovels, buckets, spoons, whatever can be used to dig. Now.”

The soldiers dispersed as ordered. Jaron organized them to dig under certain tents. Other soldiers dismantled and moved the main portion of the camp out of sight within the relatively safe borders of the neighboring kingdom, Kilan. Jaron packed his things, along with the supplies and helped to hide them in the woods.

Finding a scrap of parchment and quill among the General’s belongings, he wrote a short message to Dak. The horse and dragon watched him, ignoring the activity around them. Jaron looked at the reptilian. They hadn’t reached this step of her training yet, but there was no choice.

“All right, Ivy. This is where you prove yourself,” Jaron tied the message to the dragon’s foot with a string pulled from a frayed rope.

Ivy studied the parchment but didn’t try to remove it. Calmly, she climbed onto his arm and trilled. Unlike other animals, she didn’t shy from looking at him directly in the eye. She was barely a year old, but there was no denying her intelligence. Hopefully, it would be enough.

“Find Dak,” he gave the dragon a pat before releasing her.

She circled once before flying north. Then he headed to the woods to help build tree shelters for the archers. They had to be sturdy enough to allow the archers to fire without fear of falling. Not even Jaron could be certain when the attack would begin, so all major preparations had to be finished by nightfall. A watch was set to warn them if any unknown soldiers approached.

Trenches were dug and platforms built. Once given direction, the soldiers worked quickly to complete their tasks. They enjoyed a brief dinner in the last light of the suns. Jaron walked the perimeter of the camp with Gambler in his shadow. The horse was calm, and he took it as a good sign.

He wondered why he was so quick to take command over the soldiers and why they were so amiable in taking his direction. Dorrall, as they had pointed out, was one of them. He wasn’t. Even so, it had felt natural and he hadn’t fought it. Apparently, neither had the soldiers.

Still, Dorrall could have more allies than he suspected. Maybe they were in the camp already. Perhaps one would kill him tomorrow.

Something told him, the battle would not be the end to his journey, even without the sprite there to confirm. Ivy’s chirping interrupted his thoughts. Jaron held up his arm. She swooped from the darkness to land. Her message was gone. Jaron hoped it meant it was received. Rewarding the dragon with a scrap of dried meat, he sent her to scout. She returned, purring.

“So, we have a night to rest,” he said. “No telling what tomorrow will bring.”