“The power of a White Knight can be useful when I know it is not magic,” said Teutates. “Saves time from riding on horses and flying on Dragons.”
Valverno signed.
“So you are a White Knight after all and I can see for a human to strength fast they would need great strength in their muscles to sustain a long run. I’d never know you would be Strength. And yet here are the three of the four: Charity, Loyalty, and Strength. And the White Knight we’re missing is Trust.”
Sora walked close to her brother’s left side and looked at Geraldus and Teutates. The two men suddenly changed their clothes of nobility to the white and blue garments of the White Knights. Sora was still in her White Knight garments.
“So this is all there is?” asked Sora. “What about Trust?”
“I’ve met the spirit of the original White Knight of Trust and a fellow Pangaean survivor on my journey to the Northern Region. Desmond, his Pangaean name was. I’ve meant him in the appearance of a wolf. You see I couldn’t fly pass the mountain border, due to some magic barrier that rebelled flying abilities. He helped me and my group travel to a river. After that, it seemed he had cross over and left to the Realm of the Gods.”
“So that would mean…” said Sora.
“It may seem Trust didn’t give his power to any successor, which meant the power he once held he must have bestowed to me,” said Valverno. “But I’ll figure out whom to pass the power of Trust to later. Right now, I need to know what happened in the past week in my absence.”
Geraldus and Teutates glared at each other. Sora stayed silent as something did happen but it wasn’t good news.
“There is nothing to say? Uragiru is sending a secret army to the Western Region in two weeks. And there will be seventy thousand men coming this way, and if I have no communication from leaders from different armies, we might as have lost already.”
Geraldus stood up and said, “We have heard everything we needed to know. I have already committed my forces and I’m getting some five thousand people from the swamps. Your three clans have also come to the Western Region while you withered around. Even though we may have gotten a few reinforcements, Teutates had to leave his clan behind him due to another clan believing to take the Northern Region.”
“The Snake Clan,” grunted Valverno.
“Yes, every civilian and every soldier from the Eagle, Cheetah, and Tigress Clans has been brought down here, with help from the Dragons, Centaurs, Unicorns, and every horse we could count. I have ten thousand men at the ready, plus the five thousand from the swamp lands. The soldiers from the three clans have fifteen thousand. We have a total of thirty thousand soldiers going against the ‘secret army’ of Uragiru.
“However, Teutates only contributed five thousand calvarias to the Western Region, which brings our forces to thirty-five thousand.”
“We’re going to be outnumbered slightly more than half,” said Sora. “Even if the island heard your message, he may still be adding some other loyal men to his cause. And if Lusìvar did hear what Uragiru had said, he may kill the king first or just abandon Uragiru completely.”
“Whatever he may throw at us, we’ll be ready for sure,” said Valverno.
“How can you be so sure?” asked Teutates. “He has more soldiers than us. And you said he has small units of evil creatures everywhere on the island.”
“And Lusìvar is the leader of the evil creatures. Surely he will not commit them to Uragiru’s aid, so the false king coming this way will only humans serving in the secret army. That gives us the ultimate advantage. We are allies with the Centaurs, Dragons, Fairies, Griffins, Merpeople, Pegasi, Sea Serpents, and Unicorns.”
“Don’t be so sure the creatures of light will be coming to join our cause,” said Geraldus. “Right now, they see us the coming battle as a ‘human cause.’ They will not be joining us in the fray.”
“Then we’re going come up with some kind of plan of what to do before Uragiru and his army comes. Right now, let’s take the time to gather what soldiers we have and ready them in the coming battle. Two weeks may seem long enough, but it is still a short amount of time of where to pick a battle and in what terrain to meet Uragiru’s army on.”
A water swirl and sudden slash came from the shoreline. Marina came walking up from the water with fish bones in her hands. She dropped the dry bones on the sand as she came walking up from the water.
Dosed and wet, the Siren shook her and her hair waved out with water drops splatting across the sand. She used her hands to squeeze any water remaining in her hair and dose it back into the ocean.
“I’ll leave you two be,” said Geraldus. He turned to see Marina once before walking off. Teutates walked in a different direction and Sora walked to a distance from her brother and stand in a spot she pretended to be invisible.
Marina saw the three people walking away from Valverno. “What was that all about?” asked Marina. “Were they talking about what to eat for diner? I’ve already had my fill, but tuna this time of year is really stale.”
“They were Sora, Geraldus, and Teutates. We were discussing about the battle coming this way,” said Valverno. “And in two weeks’ time, we’re going to need every soldier, every man and woman to stand up against Uragiru’s threat. The Western Region, under the command of Geraldus, of Shimabellia is going to war against Uragiru.”
PREPPING FOR BATTLE
Twelve days had past rapidly since Valverno met with the three White Knights. He learned Teutates used his White Knight power to travel from different locations though a portal he could create from his
