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Part 2: Asgarnians

(1) From the western district of the sea-folk, Armadyl, Ikov, and their company traveled east into the central fields of the penninsula abandoned by the Asgarnian tribe. There they pitched camp. Armadyl and Ikov took counsel with their soldiers to learn what they could of the tribe. The Asgarnians were a violent people, proud and prone to anger, divided among themselves into dozens of fiefs. Each fief-lord defended his land and his serfs jealously - unless a large army of sea-folk camped on his border. The lords cooperated only for their common defense. Otherwise they were hostile towards each other. And those among them without the protection of a fief-lord and his contingent of serfs enjoyed no safety among them at all.

(2) By that time the lords of the southern fiefs had retreated to the north, along with their households and serfs, in order to take counsel with the rest of their kin. The liberation of the sea-folk had troubled them. The Asgarnians feared that the sea-folk would take control of the southern penninsula, for the sea-folk had long desired free travel across the land between the central and western districts. Also, the message of hope, forgiveness, justice, and law promulgated by the people, preached by Armadyl and Ikov, had spread among their own population, and they feared uprisings from the serfs and their landless kin. Already - and even despite the oncoming winter - the Asgarnians intended to march against Armadyl, Ikov, and their small company, but their pride and mutual suspicion impeded their organization and slowed their plans.

(3) After their account, Armadyl asked, "What good is there to be found among this arrogant people?" In their response, all the sea-folk were agreed. The Asgarnians were a noble people, an admirable people, independent and strong. Only in the past years had the relations among fief-lords, serfs, and others who lived in small, walled villages begun to sour. Only in the past years were the fields of the penninsula closed to travelers. Never before had there been threats of uprisings; never before had they known such resentment there.

(4) Ikov spoke: "There seem to be many spirits at work in this land, for only many spirits together render a people so noble. But it seems one has gotten the upper hand of late, a spirit of anger and of division. Yet we have learned that our message of law and of justice has found a place in their hearts. So this people is not corrupt. Therefore, we should not make them our enemy but only the spirit that haunts them."

(5) Armadyl and the whole company of sea-folk agreed. Ikov continued, "They are prepared to march against us in war. But they are slow, impeded by their pride. Let us take this opportunity to dispatch messengers throughout their villages and fiefs. Let us recruit to our cause all willing to join us. Let us make a charade of war, but not engage in battle. We are small and disciplined, while they are many and divided, and we have many of this land already on our side. We'll skirmish and retreat, deceive them of our plans, threaten from the east and appear in the west, surround them, tire them, and deprive those who stand against us of their friends and serfs."

(6) Again Armadyl and the whole company agreed. Half the company, Armadyl and Ikov sent out among the Asgarnians to muster recruits and to create the appearance of war. The other half marched north under the direction of Armadyl and Ikov to seek out a defensible location. They found a hill with rocky outcrops and surrounded by fields, providing excellent visibility. There they built a fort.

(7) In the following days, hundreds came to join the cause, mostly serfs and village dwellers. They were not well-armed, but they brought a constant stream of news and promises of support from their villages. Armadyl oversaw their military training; he organized raiding parties to seek out supplies from among the nearby abandoned fiefs and their strongholds. Ikov dispatched messengers to spread false rumors of their numbers and plans.

(8) Bad news also came. Several of their messengers were captured in the northern fiefs, tortured, and hung in public places, as a warning to potential rebels. Serfs suspected of sympathizing with the invaders were also executed. Villages were sacked or seized, and draconian curfews enforced throughout the north. Anger grew in the hearts of the troops. Armadyl and Ikov recognized their anger, and constantly turned the attention of the troops to their fellowship and their hope for a just future.

(9) Within weeks Armadyl and Ikov commanded a force of many hundreds: the soldiers were well disciplined and well fed; the villages closest to them and their foraging parties provided ample supplies; sea-folk and Asgarnian rebels lived and trained together; morale was high among them. And then news came that the Asgarnians had settled their petty feuds and were marching south with a force of more than a thousand; they were not newly trained serfs but included among them dozens of battle-hardened fief-lords and hundreds more of their class. To meet them on open terrain could only end in defeat.

(10) Then Armadyl ordered the army divided into companies of one hundred each. All would evacuate the fortress which they occupied; the companies would retreat to hills, woods, walled villages, and other hidden and defensible locations throughout the countryside. Half would move to the west, and half to the east. They would remain hidden during the march of the Asgarnian army, and attempt to pass by them and enter the northern fiefs when the opportunity arose. There they would disrupt Asgarnian supply lines, liberate villages, seize strongholds, and recruit more to their cause. Battle was to be avoided, and the companies were ordered to maintain frequent contact with one another.

(11) Armadyl led a company to the east, and Ikov led one to the west. Days passed; the companies entrenched themselves in secret places; they still ordered supplies delivered to the fort to make it appear occupied; they continued to spread rumors of their numbers and concentration at the fort. At last the Asgarnian army arrived before the fort, already divided into two battalions, ready to attack. But the few sentries remaining at the fort immediately fled. Recognizing that they had marched to the fort on false information, the Asgarnians leaders fell into dispute among themselves; their battalions stood immobile for a time.

(12) Then the companies of Armadyl and Ikov were on the move: quickly and discreetly they traveled north. They set about their work with zeal. Supplies lines were broken. Their numbers grew. They continued to feed false information to the Asgarnian leaders. Liberated villages sided with the rebellion. Strongholds were captured. And soon some fief-lords pledged their support, providing supplies openly or secretly to companies hiding nearby.

(13) The battalions of the Asgarnian army each went separate ways in pursuit of the rebels, one to the northwest and one to the northeast, but always they were slow to act; their leaders fell often into argument. Broken supply lines and the cold winds of winter led many to defect. Even fief-lords with their whole companies abandoned the effort, returning to their strongholds to support the rebellion or to wait to see who would prevail.

(14) The companies of Armadyl and Ikov continued to outwit the Asgarnians, and within a matter of weeks they held sway over the whole land of the Asgarnian tribe. Only a handful of the bitterest fief-lords and those soldiers of theirs forced to remain with them had gathered at a fortress in one of the northwestern fiefs, just east of a large inland lake. Then Armadyl sent out messengers and commanded all of the forces of the rebellion to gather together, to march upon the last fortress of the enemy. All anticipated victory for the rebellion.

(15) Once reunited, Armadyl and Ikov spoke together. Armadyl said, "This will not be the battle that the army expects, Ikov. We were never at war with the Asgarnian lords but with the spirit that haunts them. Now the spirit will show itself, and you will have to strike it down. Do you know why I have merely commanded and have not made use of my power thus far?"

(16) "Yes, I know," answered Ikov, "A god cannot destroy a spirit hidden in the hearts of men; only a man can, indeed if he can at all. I have already sensed this angry spirit, and I know how we will decide the fight - it will be a duel of champions; it will be a joust."

(17) On the following day, at mid-day, Armadyl and Ikov order their armies assembled, numbering nearly two thousand. They marched toward the fortress, and stopped a half mile from it to wait, arranged in companies. Hundreds of remaining Asgarnians sallied forth, and arranged themselves also: they were ready to die. Then Ikov came forth alone into the open field, in the sight of all, mounted upon a strange beast, known only in myth and dream: he rode upon a hornless unicorn. He wore his hard leather armor, as well as his sword and bow and quiver and sling, but he held in his hands a broad shield and a long spear. The beast and shield and spear made an ominous sight.

(18) Across the field, in the dark gateway of the enemy fortress appeared the figure of a man, totally concealed within armor black in color. He too rode a strange beast of the same kind as Ikov, and he too carried a shield and long spear. Fear struck the hearts of the Asgarnian soldiers, for the spirit had come forth from their own fortress. Both sides knew then that they would witness a battle which would end the war, a battle of champions, between a spirit and a sorcerer.

(19) Ikov and the dark figure rode towards each other to the middle of the battlefield and stopped three hundred paces apart. Ikov could feel the malice of the spirit. It probed his heart, searching for an entrance, a hidden anger: a bitterness or a grudge. Then Ikov could see himself from the place of the spirit, through the narrow visor of its helmet; and he could feel emptiness within the black breastplate, and brooding rage within its heart. They began to ride about, in a circle, as if at opposite ends of the spokes of a wheel. Then they began to spiral inward.

(20) Ikov could feel the spirit searching. Unpleasant memories stirred in his mind: disappointments, hurts, insults; forgotten memories: slights he had not understood, suspicions he had not entertained. The two began to ride with greater speed; their spiral tightened. Thoughts raged across his mind, but Ikov did not yield to them. He concentrated upon the desires that guided him: a desire for justice, for respect for the natures of things, for persons, his desire for freedom and for all else he loved - he hardly thought his thoughts; he felt them and lived in them, and remained calm. The pressures upon his mind increased; he received the beating patiently; he would not yield.

(21) Then Ikov knew the moment had come. He did not know whether he would prevail, but that could not be helped. He and the spirit broke their spiral, and each rode straight at the other. Converging quickly, they converged also in mind: Ikov raced toward the figure and, seeing through the dark and narrow visor, also toward himself. And Ikov felt the brooding grudge down deep, possessing and possessed by it: and as the spears closed in, he undid the evil spell: he, as the knight in black himself, forgave the old offence, and the spirit disappeared.

(22) The armies watched in awe. Ikov rode right through the spirit and his beast; he himself flew through the air and smashed into the ground: his spear and shield were shattered, and his beast too had disappeared. After a moment, he stood up, and all his forces cheered. Struck with terror, some of the remaining Asgarnians fled, and others, driven mad, charged into the field towards victorious Ikov. Ikov's troops charged also. Ikov stood dazed from the joust. All around him, his soldiers slaughtered the remaining enemy, and the battle for the Asgarnian lands was won.

(23) In the days following, representatives of fief-lords, serfs, and villages gathered in court before Armadyl and Ikov. The boundaries of some fiefs were redrawn, agreements enacted between towns and fiefs and serfs, ambassadors sent on behalf of the Asgarnians to the districts of the sea-folk, and new laws and customs were universally established which would protect the balance of power in the land and recommit all Asgarnians to their common life. The army was disbanded, but for a few hundred sea-folk and Asgarnians who sought to continue on with Armadyl and Ikov; they prepared to leave the land. Armadyl and Ikov had campaigned there for about three months.

Part 3: Woodland

(1) Armadyl and Ikov, along with their company, traveled east to the edge of a huge forest. They inquired of their troops what they knew of the woodland. The woods stretched from the ice-capped mountain north of the Asgarnian plain east along a ridge of hills - the hills divided the woods from the vast steppes of the north - to the source of the Lum which flowed south to the sea. From the mountain and ridge of hills, the woodland stretched south between the river and the Asgarnian fields before it stopped at the northern borders of the districts of the sea-folk.

(2) Geography divided the woodland in two. The lower woodland contained as many as a hundred small, unwalled villages, mostly of simple woodsman. The villagers were protected by and paid taxes to the settlements of the upper woodland - hardly a woodland but a great open space on the southeastern slopes of the ice-capped mountain. On the southern slope stood the capital of Hevel, a large city surrounded by massive defensive walls. On the eastern slope stood the city of Aidos, also defended by large, high walls, crowned with several turrets. And at the summit of the mountain, nestled between its two icy peaks stood the fortress-town of Kathekontos. From there the sentinels of the woodsmen could survey the whole land and keep watch for any threat from the east or west or north or south. At the highest known point in the region, the stronghold was the pride of all woodsman, and for holding it they received much honor.

(3) All the soldiers agreed on the account, for both Asgarnians and sea-folk had traded with and traveled among the woodsmen in the years past. But when the trolls migrated south and the politics of the Asgarnians soured, trade with the woodsmen ceased for both peoples. All had heard rumors of foreign rulers in the cities of the upper woodland and of opportunities for power and fortune at the new court. Higher taxes had been levied on the villages of the lower woodland, which made life difficult there.

(4) Then only some of the Asgarnians who had joined the army of Armadyl and Ikov recently had more to say. They reported that some trade had persisted between woodsmen and Asgarnians of the northern fiefs until it became clear that the rebellion would succeed; then the woodsmen and their villages disappeared. The Asgarnians could no longer find their way in the woods: the paths were obscured and various landmarks removed, as well as any trace of human life.

(5) The rest of the troops were amazed at the news. Throughout all the accounts, Armadyl listened intently, speaking only once, to note the beauty of the name Kathekontos. After the reports were finished, Armadyl said, "These are strange tidings, but I do not sense danger for us in the lower woodland; we need not fear." Ikov ordered scouts once familiar with the lower woodland to enter the forest and confirm the reports of the newest Asgarnian soldiers. After some hours they returned, and confirmed the Asgarnians' report: the trails were obscured or led nowhere; no one was there.