Princess and warlord

"Oh, I did not get that far: the children of all the castle families including ours will be boarding a warship sailing towards my cousin's kingdom to the SouthWest of here. He was the first to volunteer military assistance, and he offered to shelter them. They leave tonight: maybe you could help them pack, and reassure them that they will be safe." My mind was racing with preparations, and this had slipped. I apologized to Cleo for not telling her of this precaution. She kissed me, and rushed out to help them.

The next few weeks rushed past; preparations were complete, our traps were set and baited, and the castle was set for defending. Signals were announced so the people of the town could rush to the safety of the enclosure before they became endangered. The barbarians from the northeast were famous for their 'burned earth' policy, and all natives were horribly tortured and killed.

Our army fought the first battle beyond the fringe of the kingdom and lost, deliberately; we wanted the enemy overconfident and thinking our army would be easy to defeat. Meanwhile they were celebrating late into the night with the wine we had left behind. Sadly, they captured a village intact; all the men were impressed into service, and the homes burned. The women and older girls were used by the troops repeatedly, then bound to simple x-frames in the field before their army. The children were all forced into the largest building, and died when the village was burned.

The x-bound women were carried before the barbarians the next morning, as shields. Many died, some at the hands of their own husbands and fathers who slipped away and mercifully killed them and themselves. The few who survived this died in the battle, as our soldiers overran the barbarians from three sides and inflicted heavy losses while capturing four of their leaders and many barbarian troops. All the leaders were rushed to the castle for interrogation. As I was busy training the troops and directing the relief and support armies' motions, I asked Cleo to handle the questioning.

When Cleo found out she was to be left in charge of interrogations. There was no way she could possibly do such a thing. It was beyond her why her husband would have left her in charge of such a thing. On the way to the dungeons, the soldier who escorted her explained many of the details of what this war cost. Details that she had been mostly spared so far. The second soldier had tried to silent him but she insisted on hearing the stories. They were less than half the way down the stairs when she stopped suddenly. Sending the second soldier she wanted word spread among the rank, search for any one who had family among those first villages.
In the mean time she thought she would try being polite first. Two men, two women. Having the guard bring htem out of the cell, she watched them carefully. Wanting to see their first reactions, see h ow was missed the most, who feared the most. It was evident it was the first time they had seen each other since the capture. It had seemed a good idea to keep them in seperate wings of the dungeon.
Getting a knife from one of the guards she picked the taller of the male captives. Putting the knife of his throat and the guard next to him helped her be driving the man to his knees, holding him firmly in place. Cleo ran the blade careully over his skin. Not enough to make him scream but a low his escaped his lips. Aware of movement behind her, she turned her head slightly to find one of the girls struggling. If looks could kill, the other woman was trying her best to kill Cleo.
"These two have a family resembalance.... Brother sister maybe...." Motioning between the woman and the other man that she had not bloodied yet. "But this one must be the lover."
Looking at the other girl who had not rected, it was apparent the woman was tight lipped. "This one must be odd one out. Too bad for her."
A new soldier appeared in the door way. His eyes on the captives and full of hate.
"You had family that was among the raided." His eyes went ot her for the first time, and one of the guards actaully stepped in front of her. "I am truly sorry for your loss... There is nothing that can be done to bring them back but I offer you this one. I need information from her. She is yours till she wants to talk....Dont worry these three are not vouching for her so I doubt you will be interrupted too soon..."
Unable to watch she offered him a cell down the hall a short ways. He assured her there was not reason to shut the door behind him. It took a lot less time than she had expected for the first screams.
"One down. Three to go"
"I like the fiesty one..." Turning at the voice, she thought she recognized the soldier. She didnt think he had any family. At least that is what she thought. Maybe she was mistaken him for another.
"Do you? She is yours.... Pick an empty cell...."
"This the lover?" Cleo nodded at his question.
"I dont need a cell then.... Their captives were forced to watch the rape and death of loved ones.... " Staring at him. Nodding slowly, Cleo took a deep breath.
"Lover gets to watch someone keep his attention split between her pain and his. .... brother.... he can stay where he is... let him be nice and comfortable...."
It took a couple of hours but the first words of information came out of the girl alone in the cell with the first soldier. Cleo sent the word along to Kong.

I took the supplies and relief to our front lines, where many of the enemy troops had found a high point to defend. Our troops surrounded him carefully, assuring access to water and food was limited to that which they had brought with them. The village which had been near was razed by the invaders, and more of our people were slaughtered.

The invaders were using our own people to shield them once again; women and girls were spread on x-frames once again, braced into the soft earth of the hillside before the enemy positions. This kept most of our bowmen from being able to pick off their troops in camp. They were waiting for something, but what?

Word came to Tama and Jing from Cleo, and they quickly contacted me. When we got together we heard the bad news... this was just a forward segment of their army, sent to 'soften us up' and distract us into believing we had won. The main army was five days behind... and three times larger. Would our help from other kingdoms arrive in time? And which way would they come from?