When spears are drunk with blood, who stands?
Our doom is in the dust of this earth
Our beds are clothed in grass.
Wives seek the warmth of their bedmates
Children cry out for the bringers of food.
But we cannot hear their cries
Our ears are stopped with dirt.
What spear is it that shall not sliver?
Where is the hauberk that cannot be pierced?
We are swallowed up in the dust of our fathers
Our bones are cold within the ground.
- The Lay of King Unrede
On 28 April 1650 (according to the Nashi reckoning) the newly-crowned King Unrede of Halgaburgh defeated his arch-foe, the rebel Eorl Hraekonung, at what became known as the Battle of King's Cross Hanging. The victory cost the young king his life, and left the fair Summer Lands kingless to this day.
Following his coronation, Unrede took Yule at his personal stronghold at Veggberg, where he received word that his former foe Hraekonung was gathering new forces to once again contest for the throne of the Summer Lands. Unrede sent out messengers bearing red arrows, calling all the eorls of the Summer Lands to support their king. Very few responded to the summons.
Not waiting for his nobles, Unrede led the levies of Veggberg out against the rebel Eorl Hraekonung. Moving faster than was expected by his foes, Unrede managed to pin his foes at Blackwater Mere, the salt-marsh where the rebels had landed. So long as the king held the causeway, the superior numbers of Hraekonung's forces could not be brought to bear. For two days, the two armies battled over the narrow causeway that crossed the Mere. It was fierce hand-to-hand warfare, and many brave men found their resting-place in the salt-bogs of Blackwater Mere.
Late in the second day, Unrede saddled his horse and rode out to the causeway. Astride his great charger Brenn, his red banner proud in the evening winds, Unrede led his huskarls, his chosen heroes, across the causeway, fierce in wrath. But, as Unrede crossed the causeway with his huskarls, a dark, serpentine form emerged from the mere and threw itself upon the causeway behind the king, shattering the causeway. Muck-encrusted warriors leaped up from the marsh and hauled the young king from his charger, while other, fouler creatures slaughtered his huskarls before his eyes. The king had fallen into the hands of Hraekonung's silent ally, the boggle-king Ug-lukk. Fierce was the battle, but finally, Unrede fell beneath the boggle-king's battle-mace.
But Fate had not abandoned the Summer Lands to the boggle-king. For the faithful Eorl of Westmarch had led the king's loyal nobles to Blackwater Mere, and there they fell upon the boggle horde with a great slaughter.
The king was brought back to his stronghold, and was interred with his fathers in the Barrows of Veggberg. As the king had died without issue, a committee of nobles was empowered to determine the succession. Although the committee failed to name a new king, from this committee grew the Council of Nobles, which oversees the King's Laws in the Summer Lands.
... next: the crazy lady of Beaversdam.
