Victoria looked up, eyes full of determination. Her heart, her body, her soul...it all flooded with a sense of purpose. Yes, she could hear the strings climb higher, the trumpets blow louder, and the drums beat faster. Her death was staring her right in the face. She had never been afraid of death. She couldn't imagine being so. Yet somehow now...At least this was when living counted and death did not. Not today. The sun's rays peaked over the whispering oaks and willows, and the sound of their old creaking branches brought songs to her ears.
"Are you ready?" the princess asked under a nervous breath. Light slipped onto the woman's face as the sun rose, casting new shadows across her straight nose bridge and intelligent eyes. She was the last heir of her family. Her father and brother had perished. It was up to her to protect what little was left of the kingdom.
Victoria gritted her teeth as she saw the oncoming storm of men, or those who used to be men, cross the hills and into the sight of the princess's army. They were a huge lot; in so great a number they covered the entire countryside. She could only guess there were at least three hundred thousand. She'd never gone up against an army of such prowess. The men walked shoulder to shoulder, armed with pike, sword, and mace. The horses of their cavalry stomped upon the ground, clad with multi-layered iron armor. Hardly a spear could get through them. Their shadows melted down the summer grass and the sound of their horses and boot stomps made the earth and sky tremble.

The princess’s men maybe numbered up to thirty thousand, not nearly enough to make a dent in Uriah’s mighty forces. Victoria insisted the woman stay back but she had refused; stubborn and brilliant one she was. Royalty like Princess Athena was thought lost in the centuries of war, pestilence, and famine. But no, here she was alongside her men. She knew her place, just as Victoria did. The only goal now was to take down as many as Uriah’s men as possible.

“I was born ready. I was once a slave,” Victoria started without bitterness. “But I know where I belong, by your side. This is our time…” She swallowed and glared at the opposing army, their mass now blocking the rising sun. There could not have been a more perfect day for this battle, the battle that would go down in all of Cadell’s history. “This is our time!” she raised her voice and spurred her black mare to stride across the front lines of their cavalry. Her sword, given to her by her father, went from its sheath to the air, held fast in her gloved hand. The small, blood-red ruby at the handles end glistened. Soon she would be covered in the color. “Men, take up arms!”

At her order they all unsheathed their blades and raised their weaponry with a loud cry. These were men of all backgrounds. They did all they could to scrounge up this pathetic number of soldiers. They weren’t even proper soldiers, not all of them. “Whatever your birth, whether peasant, smith, or knight, this is your time! This is really what you were born for. You fight alongside the men you used to scoff at. Today you are brothers. You will fight and if you die, it will have been for the freedom of the people!”

A clatter of armor sounded as they shook their arms all the more at her short speech. When they began to die down, Victoria looked back at the princess, awaiting the signal. Athena, catching Victoria’s emerald eyes, nodded and raised her own sword, the sword of her father and his fathers before him. It was a sword of royalty and a sword that had seen many battles. The archers were in place and the trebuchet were fully manned. The pike men either rode a horse or were right behind the cavalry with tall shields, a royal crest carved into the design. Everyone knew this was it, fight and die or become
slaves. Victoria knew the decision like an old drinking friend.
There had been enough bloodshed. Mothers had been raped in front of their husbands and children, the sons were forced to kill their parents, and the elderly perished without the blink of an eye. More than anything, Victoria didn’t want to witness that kind of pain again. She remembered the blood of innocents splatter across her face. She saw people burned to death and smelt the stench of their roasting flesh upon the wood. And she had had enough.
“Fiiiigghhhtt!” Princess Athena screamed. The roar of her army, the last men willing to take a stand, thundered louder than any war cry Victoria had ever heard. The echo of their shouts travelled as the army charged at full speed. Hoofs struck the ground at galloping speeds and men pointed their swords ahead, their ends shining as the sun rose above the shadows of the opposing army. This was a last stand against tyranny. Victoria couldn’t have chosen any better way of dying.