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Hence most of the men either had their hearts torn from their chests, or had their intestines removed. Either way no man can survive that mortal wound. And in that case, neither did Lord Aethelind who died two days after being attacked and had his insides taken out. With one general down, and the number of men lost even Lucian Mithandir had lost all hopes of winning the rebellion.

Prince Ambrose was also wounded, he lost twenty thousand men and remained with ten thousand who weren’t one hundred percent for they were all wounded just like him. The camp where they resided reeked of blood and screams of men who were dying in agony. War nurses who came to help had no time to rest as they constantly tended to the sick.

The only half survivors of the war were the ten thousand slaves under King Vaith, for they lost only half of the men while they fought in the vanguard alongside General Haul. Vaith thought it was because they followed the instructions from the general, and indeed the general had war experiences and he knew what he was doing.

At first it was Lord Aethelind who took charge of the war. He gave all the orders to attack, to seize, to fall back and when he decided to take his men against the lions who he called “cats” that’s when he lost many men and in return himself.

“Lord Aethelind is dead” King Vaith delivered the news in the main tent with his head down, this was a friend he loved for many years.

The tent hosted only the generals of the battle, General Haul, Lucian Mithandir, Prince Ambrose, Cardinal Topher and Vaith. There was a huge table which had a map of Prophis drawn, and they moved the blocks when they were planning for the war as if they were playing chess. This is where military plans were forged, only ten invited knights joined in to listen to the plans.

“The angel of death is working overtime, I shall be sure to reward his family. He was a good and loyal man to my house” Lucian Mithandir sighed, then he sat on a chair. His fellows followed and sat down with the table sitting between them. The ten knights chose to stand while listening closely to what must be done now.

.....

Suddenly, Cardinal Topher decided to speak out “We are losing the war” with a loud voice so that everyone inside the tent can be aware of that. Perhaps everyone knew it but they were in denial, or perhaps the fall of their leader Lord Aethelind lowered the morale of many men.

“Cardinal...” Lucian attempted to speak to his friend.

Cardinal Topher interrupted him “Apologies Your Grace but that’s how I see it. I’m sure everyone inside this tent is aware of that. In a span of just two weeks we have lost many men than we can possibly count. The desert is bleeding they say, and the smell of the rotten disrupts the near by villages’

“I’m pretty sure we gave the same loss to our opponent. He’s lost the same number of men as we have” said Prince Ambrose, he was limping during that time and he had a huge scar on his forehead after he was nearly split in half by their foes.

“Oh, did we? And how many men have you lost young prince?” asked Cardinal Topher. “Twenty thousand of them under your command”

Prince Ambrose decided to speak out “The same number of men you’ve lost” he said with a wroth tone in his voice. “You had thirty thousand men from Iron Falcon, and you’ve remained with ten thousand just like me... but unlike you I gave my brother a lesson. Killed forty thousand of his men”

“He has two hundred thousand now, against our what – fifty thousand?” It was vivid enough that Cardinal Topher was indeed panicking and he seemed scared of the outcomes. “They have five mighty lions left, and what do we have... more men to feed those beasts” and with this Cardinal Topher abruptly hoped up on his feet.

Lucian Mithandir urged him to sit back, but he refused then he stormed outside of the ten, mounted his horse and no one ever knew where he went. Later on some witnesses said they saw him pass through the villages racing his horse as if he was chased and disappeared into the unknown. While others claimed Cardinal Topher was murdered just a few leagues from Lucian Mithandir’s camp for he was branded as a traitor and a deserter. His body was thrown into the Silent Sea never to be found again.

With his departure the council of Lucian Mithandir weakened. Hopes were lost, the men were scared and some left the camp in the hour of the wolf. Most of these men crossed the Silent Sea and sailed to the unknown. Some made their way back to Maldonia and scattered themselves around the good folks while they swore to never speak about the war again.

Others travelled as far as to the capital, Blackmount and engaged themselves into the daily activities. Even the free riders and sell swords men who swore an oath to fight for Lucian Mithandir after being paid sum of golds fled Stonedance and joined King Artemis. In just a span of one week, Blackmount experienced an increase in number of settlers like never before.

The number of men fighting for Lucian Mithandir declined to sixty-five thousand men. Forty thousand knights led by General Haul, five thousand slaves led by King Vaith, ten thousand led by Prince Ambrose and another ten thousand mixture of men from Cardinal Topher, Lord Aethelind and Lucian Mithandir himself. Those soldiers who decided to leave Stonedance were never found, and nor was Lucian in the position of chasing off traitors while he had a war to win.

Most of the times, wars are won by ten thousand men or even less. But not when your foes have two hundred thousand and five mighty dangerous lions who attack and leave mortal wounds. Some of them who were attacked by the lions lived to tell the tales of the beasts, and these tales spread like a wildfire all over Blackmount while being fanned by wild wind and spread through rodents.

Artemis learned about the lions and their wroth when he was forced to visit House Horriss. His uncle and kin had died; it would be unwise not to attend the funeral. It was Aurora who pleaded Artemis to attend the funeral and he should be there to comfort his cousins, all five of them and claim Deagol his uncle’s first son as the lord of House Horriss.

Along the way when they were inside the royal golden carriage, Aurora tried to speak some sense to her husband, the King. It had been a day on the road and Artemis’s face still showed disappointments and clearly he didn’t plan on going to the funeral.

“You have to at least be there for your cousins” Aurora tried to make him feel like he was making a good decision.

“Cousins?” Artemis groaned softly “They don’t care about me; they never did”

“That’s not true...”

“All they wanted was to swindle me of my wealth by having me marrying their sister, Lady Maurin. An ugly treacherous woman I have ever seen”

“Artemis, you can’t speak like that about your cousin. Lady Maurin is a good woman, plus she was just recently married. I’m sure they can’t still be wroth...”

“You are forgetting the part where I refused to support their father on the war, and now he is dead. They will pin his death onto me, making me responsible for it” said Artemis but he was most complaining instead of talking.

Aurora patted him by caressing his back and his hairs, she kissed his cheeks and hairs while letting him cool off his anger on her chest. Two carriages carrying the “four”, hand of the king with wife Princess Sansa and other members of the court were in front of the royal carriage. Two more on the back carrying servants, scullions, washer women and Selma – Artemis’s slave who had gained her status as the King’s servant.

One thousand knights led the caravan, while another one thousand followed after the carriages to maintain peace. Artemis loved travelling in style just like his father, and since he was for the first time accompanied with his wife, he was ought to protect her in case they are attacked after all the war was far from over.