Sex is a Job Description? Ch. 09

"My lord..." Captain Vendr said, searching for the right words to address the issue.

"What has gotten into you? Time is of the essence! The Den is ours for the taking! Right there!" He pointed his sword to the stone fort that lay across the river from them.

"We understand that, lord, but up until now we have fought skirmishes and disputed claims. Crossing this river...it is an act of war that breaks the Interwar Observances." Captain Vendr's voice sounded weak and timid. Fentin could understand their hesitation to openly declare war, but did not share the sentiment.

"Then call me Caesar! We cross the Rubicon!"

"But Grymir-"

"To the Ninth Circle with Grymir and his hordes!" Fentin spat testily. "He does not involve himself in petty squabbles and feuds! Now, to the Den!"

Fentin turned about and called Acus to cross the river. The hellbore obeyed with enthusiasm, leaping into the shallow water, followed somewhat reluctantly by Vendr's company and the ronx. The shoal rose above the water near the middle of the river, and the loose gravel and sand provided much better footing for the hellbores, hastening their crossing of the river.

Something thudded against Fentin's breastplate and nearly jerked him from his saddle. Whistling filled his ears and two streaks of brown passed his head by inches. Acus howled as something appeared in his shoulder.

An arrow shaft.

"Archers!" Fentin yelled, yanking Acus' bridle. The hellbore didn't stop, however, and leapt to the opposite bank, his claws digging into the sandy embankment, scrabbling for purchase.

"Forward with our lord!" Captain Vendr roared, followed by a great host of cheering. Acus topped the embankment and Fentin leapt from his mount, blade in hand. As he hit the ground, a ranger stepped out from behind a tree in front of him, bowstring taut and arrow nocked.

Fentin threw his blade and it pierced the ranger high in the chest, causing his arrow to fly just inches over Fentin's head. The demon retrieved his blade and struck down another ranger attempting to draw a sword. Acus howled and thrashed about as he dismembered a ranger and began to draw a great deal of arrowfire.

Quickly, Vendr leapt atop the embankment, without his mount, and joined the growing fray behind a large tower shield. His company followed shortly after, overwhelming the rangers offering only a short fight after becoming outnumbered.

Fentin cut down another ranger and met up with Vendr, who had impaled two rangers with his longsword and was busy trying to remove it from the chest of one and the head of another. The cavalry company pursued the last remnants of the rangers before regrouping in a small clearing and being joined by half the archer company that had crossed after them.

"Damned rangers catching us without a vanguard," Captain Vendr muttered, removing an arrow from his hand and balling it into a fist to test its strength.

"We're the vanguard," Fentin laughed, turning to face Acus, who stood diligently at his side with several arrows sticking out of his hide.

"Ensign, help my poor friend here, would you?" he asked. The banner-bearer nodded and stuck the end of the banner in the ground, removing an arrow from Acus' side. The hellbore growled, but did not move.

"Well then," said Fentin as he picked up the company banner. "Let's move on them. With me, men!"

The motley assortment of soldiers made their way along the well-worn path to Pikes Den and met no further resistance until they reached the fort. They spread thin across the edge of the forest surrounding the fort, avoiding the main road to keep their numbers, and hopefully their presence, hidden.

"Any guesses?" Fentin asked the archer captain.

"Not much in the way of manpower, lord," the demon said, nocking an arrow. "It'd probably be best to do it quick and catch them by surprise."

Fentin agreed. "Then let's get to it. Ladders!" At his command, the six ladders and their teams emerged from the forest, ambling toward the stocky stone walls of the fort. Upon hearing shouting from the fort's defenders, Fentin called for the archers to move forward.

"Captain Vendr!"

"Yes, my lord!" came the reply from not far off.

"Don't let me die today!" the demon joked, grinning widely at the soldiers around him.

"Nor you, men. I like my head where it sits." This roused a great chorus of laughter from his men and emboldened them to charge on his order once the ladders were raised.

They hastened across the open ground between the edge of the forest and the wall, a thicket of arrows meeting them in return. The company banner was quickly pockmarcked with holes and Fentin realized carrying it was not the greatest idea he'd ever had. An arrow skittered off his pauldron and he lowered his shoulder, sending another arrow off target and into the ground behind him.

The demon reached a ladder and ambled up its rungs, following several of the ladder bearers as they leapt up the ladder rungs in twos and threes. An arrow struck Fentin in the hand and he nearly dropped the banner, only catching it by the rope used to tie it up for storage.

At the top of the wall, he raised the banner above his head and drew his sword, heaving a great roar in triumph, though he sorely doubted that things would be easier now that he had joined the battle in earnest. He parried a swordstroke aimed at his chest and sidestepped his foe, slashing up through his throat. The demon collapsed in a fountain of blood and Fentin kicked him aside, moving forward with one of his archers wielding a hatchet beside him.

Two more demons turned to him, one with a sword and the other wielding a large crossbow. Fentin's comrade was unlucky enough to step in front of the large bolt's path as the crossbowman fired, throwing the unarmored body into Fentin with astounding force. The lord stumbled backward and a blade clanged off his chestplate, denting it against Fentin's ribs. He winced at the impact, but recovered before the demon could strike again.

He shouldered his foe back with a spiked pauldron, impaling his face with three curved spikes that faceted him to Fentin's body. He used the corpse as a shield and progressed slowly, angling his body way from the crossbowman's lethal bolt. Still, the bolt pierced Fentin's human shield and his shoulder. Pain flared all the way up his neck and down to his fingertips, but he pushed on and stabbed at the crossbowman as he attempted to draw a shortsword from his belt, catching the unprepared demon in the throat with the butt of the company banner. He finished the demon off with his sword and painfully heaved the corpse off his shoulder, removing the bolt stuck in his armor in the same motion.

Ahead, he saw Captain Vendr's tower shield crest the wall and behind it came the large demon, brandishing his longsword menacingly at the three demons facing him.

"Fight me, cowards!" he roared, slamming his shield into one demon, throwing him off the wall and to the ground below. The captain turned, ramming his blade into the chest of one demon and pressing forward to impale a second before bearing them both to the ground and stomping them twice, cracking bones and armor audibly. At this, several archers firing from the gatehouse turned their attention to Vendr.

Fentin grunted and heaved his sword over his head, throwing it with as much precision as would a dog a bone.

"Captain!" he shouted, drawing his second blade. His sword skittered across the stone at the archers' feet, but didn't deter them as they loosed their arrows at Vendr. Fortunately, the captain had turned at Fentin's call and the arrows struck his shield almost harmlessly. Vendr beat his shield with his sword and let out a war cry, thundering down the length of the wall separating him from his enemies.

Fentin used the banner in his left hand to block a swing from a cudgel that would have taken his head off. He cut off the hand holding the cudgel and then spilled its bearer's entrails across the stone at his feet. In seconds, the bloody guts and flesh turned to papery thin scraps and drifted in the breeze, fluttering peacefully away from cry, rotten bones.

At seeing an artifact from another age, Fentin's foes fled his reach, leaping into the fray in a manic rush to get away. Unfortunately, their only viable exit was straight into Captain Vendr's shield and sword, and the company leader was in no mood to take prisoners, having received several arrows to the shoulder joint on his shield-bearing arm.

"My lord!" Vendr shouted over the din of battle, hurling another demon off the wall with a great heave of his full weight. "I will plant that banner in the skull of whoever shot me!"

"I give you full rights to vengeance!" Fentin shouted back, running his blade through the back of a demon loading a crossbow. He sidestepped the disintegrating corpse and met with Vendr and his men, two of them breaking the arrow shafts piercing their captain's body.

"My lord, the banner," Vendr said, grunting with discomfort as he removed his shield from his arm. The flagstones shook as it hit the floor, and Fentin realized just how heavy the thing actually was. A large hand opened before him and Fentin handed the banner over. Vendr searched the immediate area for a moment before choosing a corpse and ramming the butt of the banner through its chest, twisting it twice before letting go.

"Excellent work, men!" Fentin said, lowering his head and removing his helm gingerly. His sword growled at him for blood, but he ignored it for the most part and sheathed it before it could make any more noise.

He and the rest of the soldiers nearby moved to the large cogwheel mechanisms that controlled the gate below them. It took four of them, including Vendr's large frame, to turn the crank that controlled the gate, and even then the progress was slow. Eventually though, the large iron doors below them spread apart and the larger part of Fentin's troops poured into the courtyard, forcing his enemies to retreat hastily to the small keep at the far end and shut themselves in before they could be completely overrun. Hellbores clawed at the iron doors before their masters called them back and they began to feed on the corpses littering the courtyard.

Fentin immediately planned to undermine the keep and collapse the structure upon itself, but thought better of the idea a few moments later. He held his helmet at his hip and made his way down the steps into the courtyard, where his men were busy wrapping up the few stranded defenders with merciless efficiency and contempt.

Captain Vendr followed him closely, tower shield at the ready to be thrown in front of Fentin at any moment. Around the lord, a cluster of the cavalry company formed, protecting their liege from harm. They ended up in front of the main doors of the keep, large iron slabs inlaid with rivulets of gold from base to top. A marble slab above the doorway read 'Tirahg Pent ror' or 'Den of the Pikes'.

Fentin cleared his throat and raised a friendly hand to the demons gathered at the top of the keep's high wall.

"Well met, noble foe," he said, receiving a glob of spit that landed on one of the steps leading to the doorway before him.

"Choke on a golden cock!"

"As much as I would relish dignifying that response with a crude one of my own, I call for terms of surrender to be made! Do you wish to surrender?"

There was a moment's pause. "Terms?"

"Unconditional surrender. All of you that are alive now shall remain so. As many of you that wish to join my army will be allowed to do so and be equipped and respected as my own."

At Fentin's offer, there was much deliberation atop the keep, which erupted into shouting and then quieted down again. Fentin folded his arms across his chest and waited patiently for the answer.

"We're coming out!" came the reply. After a short wait, the doors opened and out came nearly fifty or so demons, some wounded and others holding nothing more than lengths of chain or a wooden pole. They tossed their weapons at Fentin's feet and gathered in front of him in a large crowd, waiting for Fentin to tell them what to do.

"However many of you wish to join my army, please move to my right. All my new prisoners, move to my left." When they had separated themselves for him, Fentin had the men to his left surrounded by the cavalry company.

"You orders my lord?" Captain Vendr asked.

"You know how I feel about this," Fentin answered. Vendr nodded and turned to face the new prisoners.

"To ours to theirs!" he ordered.

Swordstrokes fell like rain among the prisoners, and screams rose like a cacophony of terrified bird calls.

"We take no prisoners," Fentain said to his new soldiers with a wolfish grin. "I suggest you take that to heart and remember it well."

With Pike's Den conquered, Fentin finally had his war officially underway.