The king, Captain Glyupit, Rasvetchick, Captain Moloydochin and Captain Karandashen sat on their horses on a rise in the landscape. Below them the two camps sat facing each other. Captain Karandashen said with a note of grudging approval "Captain Povrchan has chosen a very good location for the battle. He always did"
Captain Moloydochin replied "But his allies! He has been saddled with the worst lot of mercenaries I have ever seen."
Rasvetchick pointed at a small group. "What manner of weapons are those men carrying? They seem to be of a totally different quality than the rest of the mercenaries."
"I noticed them too. They are so very different than the rest of them." The king agreed
Rasvetchick looked to the flanks. "The knights in armor on the flanks look moderately competent, the knights in armor in the center are total nincompoops. One is having a miserable time staying on his horse"
Captain Karandashen laughed. "Those are local clerics. They want to be close to see the total route of our army, but don't want to get hurt."
"Captain Povrchan can't stop them from interfering? That is very bad for them. He must feel he has made a total fool of himself if that is the case" Rasvetchick said.
"He is a great commander, but hot headed." the king said. "It has got got him in trouble before but never so badly"
Captain Moloydochin shook his head. "He really feels put upon with the loans. He really should have thought it through better"
"Before I have his head chopped off, I will tell him I agree with him. It really bothers me too."
"I want to be in the center where the clerics are" Moloydochin said. "I feel I could get great execution there." The three other men laughed.
"Captain Karandashen, do you want to be on the left where those mercenaries are?"
"Very much so. They can't handle their partisans correctly over there... unless they are doing that to lull us into a false sense of security."
Rasvetchick said "I would like to be on the right where those mercenaries with the odd weapons are. I would like to see them. The remaining mercenaries are there as well. But these ones seem a great deal better than the ones on the left"
"My speech is going to be on the iniquity of using mercenaries "
The king sat on tall block of wood and looked up at Captain Povrchan. Then he looked around at the view from the high hill the great oak was standing on. The oak stood by itself on the hill and so he could see a long way off. Captain Povrchan would be able to see the capital from where he was standing, and the coast was just visible behind him. He spoke quietly to Captain Povrchan "I have to do things I don't much care for as well. I totally agree with you that paying horrible woman's loans was a bad thing to do, but what could I do? It would have destroyed the kingdom if I had failed to do it!"
"I was quite upset with you when it came time to punish your troops for their treason to me, that was another thing I had to do that I hated. These had been men I had served with for a long time. Men I had fought shoulder to shoulder with! You made the punishment necessary! You made it necessary." He was quiet tor a few moments. "I am going to let you in on a little secret, seeing as no one can hear us. Instead of the lot being one in twelve, I fudged the lot to one in fifteen. Men that brave and skillful shouldn't be made to die for one man's folly. And I had them beheaded rather than hung. The headsmen got very skillful near the end. But tired, so so very tired"
"Ah, we had a great time together, Captain Povrchan! You were so brilliant in your movement of troops! Always where your enemy least expected you to his very high cost! You gave me quite a scare yesterday, despite all being lost for you. You almost could have escaped! Captain Grubo, Captain Moloydochin, Captain Karandashen and I will be discussing that maneuver for quite some time. Brilliant. Quite brilliant."
Large numbers of crows were alighting on the oak and quarreling for position. The king waved his arms around for bit, threw a few stones at them, but more crows alighted in the higher branches. He sat down again.
"What ever possessed you to ally yourself with the likes of Captain Habgyebabo? Two more different men I have never seen, except you and Captain Dangmineulin. Did they promise you two different allies? They must have. It must have given you quite a shock when you saw who you would be working with. I must say I was offended that they sent that pair to depose me. Of course, grateful too. A merciful God sent me the pair of them to defeat quickly"
"The poor headmen are exhausted. Chop chop chop! The mercenaries all had to die, you realize that. Some of them were little more than boys. We can't let them pass the word that we will grant them any mercy. Most mercenary troops are little more than rabble, but when they are victorious they never show any mercy to the towns they capture. I have to insure that mercenary troops think long and hard before they come to attack here. I want them to mutiny before they come here again!"
The king was quiet for a bit, until the crows began to be bolder. He shooed them away again. "Ah Rasvetchick! Such a lover. Better than you, I am afraid. I will miss him terribly too. I knew him but for a fortnight, but he was so wonderful. He was like a cat in some ways, sleek and supple, but his curiosity got the better of him. 'What manner of weapons are these' he had to know. He found out, to my sorrow. "
"I will take them to the capital and have the smiths study them. Fortunately there were books with their officers. Those will be studied as well. I have one of the books here. 'S Streletsom.' The 'om' is one of the absurd cases Punician is divided into, and I will have scholars from the ghetto puzzle it out. Punician has eight cases, can you imagine?"
The king sat for a bit longer. "Goodby, lover. You were such a marvelous lover. I wish we could have had more time together. After you left I found Rasvetchik, but now he is gone too. I feel so sad." The king stood up. He looked around the hill, admiring the view again. Then he gestured to the burial detail to come over. When they arrived he said "Cut him down and bury him deeply. I will watch. But move quickly, the army will finish marching by here shortly." Then he moved to the side and watched as the cut they corpse of Captain Povrchan down and laid him in the grave in the side of the hill facing the capital
Captain Glyupit came up and saluted. "The last burials are done. We found a deep pit and we put all the skulls of the Punician mercenaries were tossed in, and we had room for the bodies as well. The burial detail sent swiftly after that."
"All the heads separate from the bodies, correct?"
"Yes sire. We put a layer of earth over the heads before we started on the bodies."
"How did the navy do?"
Captain Glyupit grinned wolfishly. "We allowed one to escape. Only one. I don't know if he intends to go to Punicia. I wouldn't in his shoes. But wherever he goes, he will tell what happened here."