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“We shall see my lord” Cregan turned his stallion and rode away. His men followed him behind, the city’s gates were closed again.

Aryan and her men departed from the gates and rode far to make camp. Since it was an ambush and not a war which Aryan prepared for it, the men were forced to sleep under the stars without tents. It was so cold since winter was just a few moon shy away, the men used their heavy fur layers to protect themselves as they tried to get some rest.

The ones who had no pleasure of sleeping were Aryan, Sir Tyriol the Lord Commander of Queensguards, Lord Tommy of King’s City, Lord Criston HighRise of Bellward and the new representative of Lady Catherine of Claydall, Sir Thomas Buken ─ a thirty-six-year-old experienced knight who fought alongside the former Lord of Claydall, Aubrel Tally during the Battle of Stonedance.

Sir Thomas knew the ways of war because he had experienced the worst one taking place in the desert and somehow survived. He fought alongside Aryan too and Aryan knew that she could trust him with plans of attacks. Hence Sir Thomas took the role as the general of the whole army.

“First we need to know where we are going to fight our enemy. By the look of it, this war will take place on grass plains since this whole area is covered with grasses. Our horses can’t move in tall grasses hence we are going to have to abandon most of them, the Queen, I, Sir Tyriol and Lord Tommy will take our horses to the front and our men will follow unhorsed. The archers will have to hide in the mountains, let’s put ten thousand all over the mountains so they can take Cregan’s men by surprise” Thomas pointed on the map as he spoke.

“What about my lions? When should I release them?” asked Aryan after seeing that Thomas spoke perfectly about where and when should the men attack but failed to include the ten lions.

“You have ten lions, right Your Grace?” Thomas went right at it and now he was considering the lions.

.....

“Yes”

“Are they all adults?”

“Just three of them” replied Aryan but she then she grew hesitant, probably she felt it was too soon for her to send her cubs to war.

“So that means seven of them are cubs?”

Lord Tommy came to Aryan’s defense “Not necessarily cubs Sir Thomas” he said with a smirk. “A lion is a lion… no matter the size” then he added while looking at others as if hoping to gain support from them.

But not even Aryan supported him as she chose to remain silent. Sir Thomas continued “The size matters Lord Tommy, we have seen that in Stonedance. King Gandalf lost five of his lions and he was nearly struck down if it wasn’t for me, I saved him when his last lion was cut in half” then Thomas paused and exhaled softly. “I hate to admit it Your Grace but Cregan is right, come dawn and none of your cubs will make it”

“I agree with Sir Thomas” said Lord Criston High Rise who had been silent ever since he arrived in the battalion but even he saw the size of the cubs and knew straightaway that they will be cut in halves like chickens once in the battlefield.

Aryan laid down her head “So what do we do now? Do we fight with men that we have? He has outnumbered us” she said trying to make sense to her lords.

“And we have surrounded him Your Grace. I say we attack the city at dawn, it’s not that huge hence it’ll only take a few hours. Spare the innocent folks and attack only the men in uniforms, the Queen and Lord Tommy will seek out Cregan. Tommy you are a best smuggler and spy in Prophis, I’m sure you will get Cregan’s whereabouts in no time and the Queen will deliver to him the justice he deserves. I, Sir Tyriol and others will hold the men at the castle and out in the open. Once Cregan is dead, his men will surrender and that’s how we win”

The plan seemed accurate and simple, if it was someone else then Aryan would have probably called it stupid plan and more like walking inside a lion’s den. But this was Sir Thomas, the hero of Stonedance and Aryan trusted him and his plans.

At that time everyone was just waiting for Aryan’s final word, will she agree to the plans or not. There was another minute of clarification and explanations, then Aryan stood tall to her men “We follow Sir Thomas. I shall ask the lion keepers to take the cubs back home and leave the three adults, we attack at dawn”

From there her words were repeated to all the men “We attack at dawn” said Lord Tommy and he was helped with Lord Criston High Rise in raising the message and making everyone aware of the plans. Few hours later it was silent, the men took time to rest as they prepare themselves for a rough battle tomorrow.

Aryan hated wars, although Olivia wasn’t easily convinced when Aryan told her this but she truly hated them. Wars only intention is to fill out graves, that’s what she believed but also without wars then some things just never work out. Cregan Lawsend poisoned her brother and this was the only way she could avenge Gandalf. “If it was me, my brother would do the same” she told Olivia before she left.

But now she was sheltering under an open sky with cold air, so cold that she could feel her hands trembling, but it was all worth it.

The news of Aryan’s ambush reached Blackmount and Lord Balrus delivered this to Artemis since he was friends with Lord Cregan Lawsend. “His whole city is surrounded; Aryan will attack at dawn” said the eunuch with his hands forward. This time Aurora was right there and she was just waiting to see how will Artemis react, especially after they just averted his last mistake not so long ago.

“What did he do?” asked Artemis, he was shocked.

“He poisoned Gandalf Your Grace”

“That was only a rumor. Cregan is a good man he would never…”

Lord Balrus quipped “He confessed it himself, in front of Aryan and everyone. He even confessed to slitting the throat of Gandalf’s infant son, Prince Landan Squire, first of his name”

“So what are we to do? Do we just let him die?” Artemis started to pace back and forth. He knew Aurora will be against it, she would never indulge herself in matters of Prophisians just like how she always says.

Suddenly out of nowhere Aurora looked at Artemis and said “Take Artodo and fly him to Raven, save your friend”

Lord Balrus’s eyes widened with amazement “Your Grace, it wouldn’t be wise…” he tried to speak against it because he thought it was madness.

“Are you sure?” Artemis was also caught with wonderment.

“The war is coming whether we like it or not. Aryan will prove to be fatal to us, to our kingdom and to you…” Aurora paused to look at Artemis. Then she slowly moved towards him and placed her right arm on his left cheek “I will rather burn cities and kingdoms if it means saving you, my sunshine and my moonlight. So yes take the dragon and go to war, reduce her army and make sure she feels the wrath of our dragons. Let it be known across all the kingdoms that anyone who dares to attack us or our allies shall burn to ashes”

What a speech! And what a display of power Aurora showed that day. Artemis praised her and said she had turned into a “true dragon” and that a dragon doesn’t fear sheep, they eat the sheep. Lord Balrus was left with questions which were on his lips but there was no way he could ask them out loud.

They were inside Aurora’s Hill and hence this made it easy for Artemis to just walk a small distance towards the dragons’ cave, summon Torgo to bring out his dragon and then he screamed the word Valar and from there Artodo took to the skies of Blackmount in the darkness.

For a dragon, it was just a short flight from Blackmount to Raven, the same journey which could take ten days on horses. This was the happiest day on Artemis’s life, he has always wanted to fly his dragon to war, flex his silver hairs like he was Alienor Morrow or Euric. To be able to go to war with Artodo was a dream come to true and he planned to show Aryan never to mess with a dragon.