Benjin
Today was not a day to worry about being late.
Benj could feel the heaviness that permeated all of Haidan Shar, and he wondered how many times his mother had felt it too. He reached down for Glamrhys at his side, running his fingers over the ancient leather sheath, and took a tiny bit of solace in it. He looked over at Shotes, in his ill-fitting armor, and couldn’t help but smile. He was glad that his best friend was here.
The two of them were walking to the center of the city to meet their captains and the rest of the army. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, but it was the first time he’d done it for real.
This was war.
His heart jolted at the thought.
War.
They had always trained for this sort of thing—at least as long as he’d been an armiger—but they had never gathered to march to an actual battle.
Colors seemed sharper today, and smells seemed stronger. Benj could have sworn he felt something emanating from Glamrhys as he walked; and knowing there was more to the sword than just cold steel, that was probably the case. Today made everything inside him, everything around him, seem different.
“Armiger Benjin,” Captain Jahaz called from the front of the formation. There was no anger in his voice. That almost scared Benj more than if there had been. “Fall in with the others. We captains are finishing up our inspections of the rest of the men, and then we will be off. Today is a big day.”
That’s an understatement, Benj thought, making sure he was thinking the words, not saying them aloud. “Yes, Captain Jahaz,” he answered.
The troops in the city’s center were facing the old, wooden stage that served mostly as the theater for the local mummers’ troupe, but its official function was to elevate the queen when she addressed her people. Benj knew that’s what they would be in for today.
Benj walked over to the file of armigers, arranged by height, and worked himself in right behind the tallest armiger, Amethyst. Older than Benj by only a year, she had hit her growth spurt two years before and had absolutely shot up. She used to line up near the end; now, the slender redhead was first in line.
“Taking your time, huh?” she whispered. She winked at him.
Benj blushed and jabbed her in the ribs with an elbow. “Shut up, Thyst,” he said. “You think I’m worried about being late today?” He smiled smugly. “I said bye to the horses, finished my breakfast, hugged my mom—”
“You guyth hear that?” Shotes called out from behind them. “Benj loveth histh mom.”
The chuckle from the rest of the armigers ruined their military bearing—Benj even saw a captain or two who had noticed it—but no one was going to say anything today. Morale was important, and there was no time where it was more important than on the edge of a battle.
“I love yours too, Shotes,” Benj shot back, and the file erupted.
“Armigers!” a nearby captain shouted. “Bearing!”
Sometimes the need for one outweighed the other, though. It was a good lesson to learn as Benj tried to wipe the grin from his face. It took a few tries, but he got it.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Benj spotted Captain Jahaz. He walked past them, toward the front of the formation. The armigers, being the most disciplined of the troops, were the left-most column of what amounted to a square of troops. In each column to the right of them was the rest of the army, also arranged by height from front to rear.
Jahaz kept going, walking right up onto the stage, where he promptly called the whole formation to attention. Hundreds of legs moved in unison, and all was still.
Haidan Shar’s standing army was relatively small, mostly due to the fact that they preferred to hire outside mercenaries to fill their ranks, so Jahaz did not have to try hard to be heard.
“Sharians,” he began. Benj felt proud watching his captain, the most senior of all the captains, address them. “Most of you are old enough to remember the last time we marched out together as an army. But,” he said, looking over the faces in the crowd, “some of you are not. To those of you who do not remember it: don’t worry—you will never forget this day as long as you live.”
There was a collective chuckle of acknowledgment from most of the captains, and even some of the men beside Benj.
“And, as is tradition, I have invited the queen to say a few words before her best and strongest go off to battle.”
With that, Jahaz stepped aside, and Benj’s breath caught in his throat as he saw Queen Lena stride forward in the most magnificent platemail armor he’d ever seen. A sword was strapped diagonally across her back, almost as tall as she was, and Benj had no idea how she was moving so smoothly with it. She even looked graceful while armed to the teeth.
Then again, that was exactly why she was queen.
“Sharians,” she began. “Mighty warriors!” She lifted her arms up in a V, and a cheer burst forth from all around. She reveled in it, soaking it in with a smile before letting it die down and speaking again. “Today, your mettle will be tested. You will find yourself facing an enemy that most of you have only trained for and only a few of you have actually faced. The Chovathi are a threat that our cousins to the west, the Thurians, have been fighting since before any of us were born.” She swept her gaze across the troops, seeming to look at each one of them individually. “Take solace in that. Know that experience is on their side—and, by proxy, yours. Trust your training. Trust your captains. Follow your armigers. And, most importantly,” she added with a grin, “follow your queen.”
She grabbed the hilt of her massive sword with both hands and pulled it out of its sheath, swinging it in a circle around her head and then holding it out in front of her, its blade slanting upward toward the sun.
The entire army went berserk.
In that moment, behind the deafening cheers of bloodthirsty exuberance of the entire Sharian army, Benj was glad that no one was paying attention to the stiffening in his trousers.
“That is the greatest thing I have ever seen,” he whispered to no one in particular.
He had no doubt that if he were dropped on the battlefield right in that moment, he could have killed every living Chovathi by himself.
War, he suddenly decided, wasn’t so bad.