4. Capery Chokepoint

As the years continued, Gupra’s skin discolored, more gray and more bleak. He had an endless dilemma: he had to keep Ashorra close to prevent anyone else from trying to “solve” this problem, but the boy was insane and never useful.

They’d made a plan. Tiger Mero already walked away to command the army. But no, Ashorra wanted to speak up.

“I still think we must attack the other king,” he said, now a strong elephant at fifteen years old.

“The First King, Are, is closer, just like his palace,” Gupra repeated annoyedly. “Why do I need to explain this again?”

“Oh, yes, but, yes, I know. But my, eh, gut feeling tells me to first conquer the others.”

“Your gut feeling?” Gupra exploded. Angrier than he’d ever seen grandfather. He shrank underneath his devastating gaze. “Disappear! Don’t meddle with business you’re too dumb to understand!”

You are not too dumb, you are much smarter than all of them. They are just too weak. You should never be weak, if you want to live.

The inner voice was truly a part of him now, just like the ghosts. And no matter how hard he tried, ignoring any of them seemed impossible.

The meeting with the Tamli girl had never left his memories. Oh how he longed to be there, instead of locked inside this palace with a grandfather who slowly grew more insane than he was.

Maybe that’s what Gupra meant with “a bad leader defeats himself”. As soon as your subjects would rather have the enemy lead than you, your end was near. Even his ghost, now always nipping at his heels, seemed more friendly.

He walked to the balcony. The city didn’t shine anymore like it used to. Streets were dirty, food spoiled, the animals thin and sickly. Large parts of Alixader’s army stayed just outside the city. Mission after mission failed, and all that time Gupra had to feed two armies at once. So many animals. So many ghosts.

It drove Ashorra insane. Sometimes he wanted to blindfold himself, just to never see those monstrous shadows again.

Alixader entered the room and bumped into the chandelier, as always.

“Ready for departure. And please don’t flee this time at the slightest sign of trouble.”

“Slightest sign? The Tamli had hired hundreds of Pricecats! If we’d kept fighting, our entire army would be dead now!”

Alixader’s mouth became a line. His tusks scraped across the stone table, creating an ear-piercing scratchy sound. “Any soldier of yours that flees or disobeys, is shot down by me.”

“Are you serious?”

“We’re stuck in an endless cycle of wars and violence. This can’t go on. We either win today … or it’s the end of Schola.”

“Insanity!”

“Look at your city, Gupra.” They both joined Ashorra on the balcony. Though they desperately pretended he wasn’t there, and his eyes didn’t flit between the ghosts of several birds. “Maybe it’s not even worth saving that.”

“The Tamli choke us!” Gupra yelled. Ashorra could almost see through his bleak, worn-down skin. “They stopped all trade. Taken all the fertile land. Our best workers migrated to them with pockets full of money.”

“So why disagree that we must win this battle?”

Gupra studied his city. The grey mass of sickness and poverty. Ashorra saw how easily it could become like the old days; Gupra only saw how much better it was in the old days. He cried for his subjects.

“Why,” Ashorra said tentatively, “do you work against Alixader? He has enough soldiers to crush the Tamli.”

“Alixader lusts for power. The gods gave him too much, and they know it, for Ardex follows him everywhere. They don’t want to make the mistake with the Ancient Turtles again. But if the opportunity would present itself, Alixader would conquer the entire world, I am certain.”

Gupra turned to his grandson. “Each being, good or strong they may be, needs somebody who says no.”

“Where do you get all that wisdom?” Ashorra asked. “Nobody in all of Somnia is like … like you.”

Nobody in Somnia is like that girl you met. You want to be with her, or you’d rather not live at all. It’s the truth and you feel it.

“It is the way of Buha.”

Buha? Wasn’t that a figure that some animals started to view as a god and leader, instead of grandfather? Animals believed the strangest things.

He believed in what was truly worth it. Prove that he was strong and skilled, prove to Schola that he was not insane, and be the first to conquer Tamli. Schola were his people and he’d protect them against the others.

He wanted to ask about Buha, but Mero came back to fetch the king. Gupra still insisted on leading the army himself and fighting at the vanguard.

This time, however, he waved away Mero’s pleas.

“I’m not coming today. I have other plans. Ashorra leads the mission. As, erm, decided long ago.”

“Excuse me?”

Ashorra the Insane found himself at the vanguard of his army. Gupra’s insistence that this was all part of the plan, and the soldiers should listen, was the only thing lending him some authority.

They stood near Capery. Near the cliff where his life almost ended years ago.

Alixader had performed operations in this area, almost surgically. Once in a while he’d destroyed one important place or city, only to walk away touching nothing else. Each time Alixader took a few important nobles or traders hostage.

Each pinprick irritated the Tamli, until he’d succeeded at drawing them out of their homes.

Ashorra could see them coming from the hilltop. An army of assembled soldiers, bought from neighboring countries. But as opposed to years ago, the Tamli kings now came with them to fight. Gupra had foreseen this and said it helped motivate the soldiers.

Candya was easiest to see, his horn painted in bright colors and long thorny rings on his claws. The army behind him was disorganized and distracted.

Are stayed more hidden, but was actually prepared for a fight. His army was larger and trained to walk in neat formations.

Ardex suddenly appeared next to Ashorra. He wished the God of Fire had been around more, but he was always called back to help his siblings on Origina.

“You still see them, don’t you?” he asked. “The ghosts?”

“Everywhere. Sometimes they’re far away, sometimes they stick to a creature. You have none.”

Ardex huffed. “One of the few advantages of being a god. Ignore the ghosts, son. Leave them to me.”

“You … you see them too?”

“Every second of every day.”

Ashorra tried to stay calm, breathing slowly. Before his eyes was not one army, but two. The actual soldiers and the shadow creatures following them. This time he noticed that all ghosts, without exception, almost sat on their creature’s shoulders.

He swallowed. A black blur came at him. Their archers already stopped and aimed their bows. Curse the shadows!

“Archers!” Ashorra yelled over his shoulder. “Prepare!”

Fortunately, half of them had already done so without command. What was his grandfather thinking? Pushing this on him?

Ardex pushed his warm far against Ashorra’s raw elephant hide. “Nothing can go wrong.”

The location was picked for being a choke point. If the Tamli wanted to save the hostages, they had to travel through the valley for a while. A thin corridor between stones, with tall walls on both sides.

One one side stood the Gupramil army; on the other stood Alixader’s men.

As the Tamli streamed into the corridor, both sides let loose bows and catapults. A rain of stones, arrows, debris, anything threatened the Tamli from above. Soldier after soldier was flattened. Ghost after ghost vanished like smoke.

Ardex set wood and cloth on fire, after which others threw the burning objects down. That was the the most Ardex wanted to influence the battle.

“Full power!” Alixader yelled. Both armies listened to his command. Multiple battalions ran to the entrance to block any chance of exit for the Tamli. Fighting to keep the blockade, many of them were drawn into the stone corridor as well. Some trained soldiers, mostly goats, ran over the steep rock wall to kick down any strong Tamli climbers.

“No! Stay back!” Ashorra yelled. “Where’s the third king? There were three, right?”

He counted again. Are. Candya. Beeris was nowhere to be found.

Ashorra had more than enough cannonballs and arrows left. But Alixader had rushed through all supplies and stopped his attack from above.

The Tamli army was cut in half in one blow. Now Alixader ran into the corridor to finish the job.

“I said no! Stop! Stay here!”

Nobody listened. Only one battalion stayed with him: the personal guard Gupra had appointed to keep his insane grandson in check.

There he was. The third king. The sky opened up, letting in sunlight, and a gust of wind helped speed up his approach. Beeris ran to the battle field with his own army, the largest of all.

And Gupra traveled in their midst, chained but still able to walk slowly.

Mero climbed the walls in a panic, even though tigers couldn’t do that. The other soldiers noticed too. Some immediately surrendered and hid, others fought with even more fervor.

Now his armies were choked from the left and the right by the Tamli. The choke point of Gupra had miraculously turned into the choke point of Tamli.

Alixader was right. Schola would fall today.

Creatures disappeared in tandem with their ghosts, like a last embrace. Ashorra was the only one left on top of the hill, eyes cast down to survey the confusing battle field.

“Load the catapults,” he said out of breath. “Archers! All arrows down! Use everything we have!”

Beeris had a cooler head than Alixader. He slowed down before leaping into the corridor.

“Surrender!” the rhino yelled. “Schola is ours. Gupra has surrendered already. Any who fight will simply die; there is no way out.”

Their soldiers threw down weapons. Mero bowed his head and shuffled forward, probably to indicate their official surrender.

“No, you may surrender!” Ashorra triumphantly yelled from high on the hill.

All looked up and squinted against the bright sunlight. Nobody could move anywhere, the Tamli and Gupramils weaved as if they fought for the same commander.

Rows of catapults and arrows were ready to destroy everything. He only had to give the signal with his trunk, and everything down there died. Even their ghosts looked up at him with pleading eyes.

And then he saw her.

The face he’d never forget. The most beautiful elephant girl who had only grown prettier and more enchanting.

She recognized him too and tried to smile sweetly. That was hard when archers were one slip of the finger away from a shot in your face. But she managed to look lovely all the same.

“I … I will allow everyone to leave alive,” Ashorra spoke with wavering voice. “If that elephant there becomes my wife.”

A shock ran through the army. Candya burst into loud, shaking laughter, nudging Are until he laughed with him. Beeris looked unfazed, as if he saw this coming. Gupra sank through his knees in misery.

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes, I accept!” she quickly yelled upwards.