enthusiasm at seeing their King, and their joy knew no bounds.
Artrex and Ben fought their way through the jubilant crowds and the King eventually stopped his horse outside the alehouse, where Onall and Verastus stood smiling broadly, waiting to greet them. Aaralf appeared, he immediately dropped to his knees at seeing his King and the majority of the surrounding crowd joined him. Artrex dismounted and helped Ben down before holding up his hand to silence the cheering throng. Everyone was quiet as they waited patiently for the King to speak.
“My friends, this is truly a most welcome sight! To see so many of you here warms my heart, though I admit, I am not sure I understand how…?”
He looked enquiringly at Verastus, who shrugged his shoulders slightly in response. Then he looked back at the crowd and continued.
“…It does not matter now, there will be a time for explanations, and I will listen to them thankfully. But for now, we, my friends, are an army once more. We are now worthy of that title. Now we will take the fight to those who have sought to enslave us. We will strike at a time and a place of our choosing. And when we do, it will be with the wrath and vengeance of all our peoples! Of free people!!! We will avenge our dead!” he shouted excitedly.
The crowd cheered wildly. Even those who couldn’t hear the speech joined in as the King’s words were relayed by those around them. After a short while, Artrex held up his hand once more and they all fell silent again.
“Get some rest now, we all have long journeys ahead of us. We will need all our strength for the trials that lie ahead.” stated the King, waving for the crowds to go with his arm. They dispersed slowly and filtered away. Artrex turned to Verastus and Onall, he placed a hand on each of their shoulders as lked with them into the Inn.
“Come my fine warriors, I need you to explain this wonderful miracle to your King. Spare no detail.” he said happily. Ben followed closely behind, he shouted to them all as they entered the doorway.
“Hey! Please, please, I have to know. Tell me, what’s happened to Jake?”
* * *
The light was fading when one of the rebel lookouts spotted a large group approaching on the northern plains. He immediately took out his Geslaq from his pocket and whirled it around his head to raise the alarm. The rest of the army in the village grabbed their weapons and poured out of every conceivable hiding place to meet the unknown threat. It was hard to make out the shapes in the distance in the diminishing light, but Artrex quickly realised that they weren’t positioned as an attacking force would be and he told his soldiers to relax a little. Verastus strained his eyes, a broad smile formed on his face as he recognised the two shapes at the head of the column.
“It is Queen Bressial and Lord Castrad!” he shouted triumphantly.
Artrex looked at him in disbelief, hardly daring to believe it. The crowd around them began to cheer and celebrate once again and within seconds the King was struggling to make himself heard above the noise. He bellowed at the top of his voice to Ben and Verastus.
“Shaarr!!! The Gods be praised. I never thought I would live to see this day. Oh, Knesh my friend,” he shouted, looking up at the sky above, “you did it! You have given us all hope when we thought that hope was lost forever. Oh day of days!” he cried joyfully, tears of happiness filling his eyes. He turned to look directly at Ben. “You Ben my friend, you and Jake have made all of this possible, along with Knesh. Whatever the outcome of our journey from here, I want you to know now that I will be eternally grateful for this day. I am whole again!! There is a fire in my belly that has been missing for years. I thank you both on behalf of our people. You have earned our respect and gratitude a thousand times over, and we will never forget it!”
Ben was a little embarrassed by the King’s words and he didn’t know how to respond, so he just bowed his head slightly to acknowledge what had been said. Then he replied as only he could.
“Thanks,” he answered casually, “it’s nothing really. I just wanna see Jake.”