by Pedro Urvi
Swift Deer gazed at his uncle, then at the other Chiefs.
“I’ll honor my uncle’s wishes.”
“Leave, then, quickly,” White Owl said.
Kyra gave the Chiefs a nod of respect.
“I promise you we’ll gain freedom. Your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”
Quiet Spirit and Lone Wolf set off at a gallop.
White Owl nodded to Kyra, who galloped after her friends.
Swift Deer leapt onto his horse, and his champions after him.
“Guide them to victory,” his uncle said.
“You have my word.”
They galloped away at a dizzying speed. In no time they caught up with the others, who were riding as if the hounds of hell were at their heels, and overtook them.
“Spirit that walks two worlds, follow me! I, Swift Deer, will take you to the warriors of my people!”
Kyra glanced back. The Hunters had almost reached the elm wood. They would soon be upon the Chiefs.
Let’s hope the warriors are still there, although I have an ominous feeling about this.
Chapter 5
“We have to take the gates of the city!” Ikai cried with the full force of his lungs. It was pouring with rain, and a gust of wind filled his mouth with water.
“Forward, Warriors of the Highlands!” yelled Burdin beside him.
Two arrows buried themselves in Ikai’s shield and another in Burdin’s with a dull powerful impact. Several men in front of them fell dead and lay there in the mud-hole which the ground they were walking across had by now turned into.
“Get behind the battering ram!” cried Ikai. He had lowered his shield far enough to let him see what was happening in front of him. They were a hundred paces from the city gates, and death was raining from the battlements.
“With pride! Heave!” Burdin yelled with all his might.
The colossal battering ram moved on its eight wheels of steel-reinforced wood with a shriek of effort. More than a hundred Wolf-Warriors were behind it, giving it all the strength of their young bodies. The weight of the gigantic siege machine and the mud it had to move across were turning that last stage into a titanic task.
“Put your backs into it!” Burdin encouraged them. “Today will make you into men! Today you’ll become Bears!”
In front of the battering ram, more than ten thousand enraged warriors were trying to take the gates and the southern section of the wall in an assault on the capital which was little short of suicidal. Ikai could barely think in the midst of that deafening din of howls and the lashing of the storm.
A new shower of arrows came down on the battering ram and the brave men pushing it.
“Shields up!” shouted Ikai.
At his order the young warriors stopped pushing and as one, raised their left arms where their small round wooden shields were tied. There came the whistle of arrows cutting the air, and like the lightning which announces thunder, death fell from the sky. The arrows struck shields and men with almost the same hollow sound. Sharp on shields, softer on the bodies of men. Twenty or so young men fell amid muffled moans.
Burdin turned. “Move the fallen! Replace them!” he ordered the warriors who were moving on behind the ram.
At once a new team took up their position and pushed with all their might.
“It’s going at a snail’s-pace,” Burdin complained.
Ikai calculated the distance to the gate. “There’s not far to go. They’ll make it.”
Another volley of arrows fell on the warriors who had managed to reach the foot of the wall. The front lines did not even have time to position themselves ready to climb it, but fell dead before they could even try.
“They’d better. We’re being massacred!”
Ikai shielded his eyes from the rain. More than ten thousand warriors were hurling themselves at the eastern part of the wall, carrying ladders and hooked ropes. To the west the scene was repeated amid savage shouting. From his position he could not see them, but he knew that another ten thousand were attacking the north wall.
Burdin brushed his wet hair out of his eyes with his forearm. “And this storm isn’t helping us at all,” he said.
“It’s not hindering us either. At least not for the moment.”
“I don’t follow. Climbing these walls in the rain is going to be a complicated business.”
“So is shooting arrows and hitting the target in these conditions. Besides, they can’t use fire against us in this storm.”
“Ah, I see…”
“For now, the plan’s working. We’re already at the foot of the four walls, and there aren’t as many casualties as I’d anticipated.”
“Sure, but they’ll begin to pile up if they don’t manage to climb those walls.”
“That’s why the battering-ram is the key. It has to get as far as the gates. We need to stop them destroying it.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll manage.”
Without thinking, Ikai put his hand on the horn he carried at his waist.
“And that horn? You’re not going to call retreat, are you? We’re not going to retreat!”
“It’s just in case…”
“Just in case? I don’t like the sound of that. We’re not going to retreat, either we take the capital or else we die here.”
“Take it easy, remember I’ve already been through this in my own Boundary.”
Burdin eyed him in annoyance. Then he snorted.
“All right. You always know what’s going to happen. If it’s just in case, well, so be it.”
“Thanks, friend. I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not, we’ll need it.”
“You’re the Liberator. I follow you.”
Burdin was beginning to move forward toward the battering ram when a horn sounded the alarm behind them. At once the warrior glanced aside at Ikai, who shook his head.
“That wasn’t me.”
Both of them turned to face the sound. The horn rang again with an urgent shrillness.
Burdin strained his neck to find out what was going on. “The southern watchers are signaling danger,” he said.
“Can you see anything?”
“Nothing in this damned rain!” roared the warrior.
He stood on tiptoe and stretched further.
“Careful!”
A deadly rain of arrows fell on them. Ikai leapt to protect Burdin’s back and covered him with his shield. The missiles reached several men around them. Two struck Ikai’s shield.
Burdin turned with a snort of relief. “Thank you.”
“You look after my back and I look after yours,” Ikai said with a wink.
A new wave of arrows fell on them. The shields did their job, but every time more warriors were hit: some wounded, some never to get up again.
Ikai looked up at the sky and saw that the heavy rain was thinning to drizzle.
“The storm’s subsiding.”
“In that case it’s time to take the walls.”
The horn rang out again, this time with clear urgency. They turned to face south, and then they saw it. An enormous army of the Guard was advancing in their direction.
“Hey, what’s this?” cried Burdin. “Where are they coming from?”
“It’s a trap,” Ikai said, sounding resigned.
“It can’t be. They couldn’t have left the city.”
“They haven’t left it. They were never inside. They’re the reinforcements from the county capitals.”
“Hell! I thought we’d disbanded them! I was sure they’d all run away!”
“They’ve prepared a trap. While our army’s divided, attacking the four walls, they’re coming to attack us from behind, where they can hurt us most. Here, at the gates of the city.”
“The treacherous snakes!”
The men around them turned to see what new threat was coming upon them, then prepared to defend themselves. They began to take up their formation behind Ikai and Burdin. The battering-ram stopped its advance toward the gates. The men
pushing it ran to join the others.
The enemy army was advancing determinedly and rapidly. More than fifteen thousand men, well trained and equipped, were on their way to bring death to them.
“What do we do?” Burdin asked urgently.
Ikai took a good look at the enemy army, then at his own men. He looked to east and west, where the warriors were already attacking the walls, and thought for a moment. Burdin and the rest of the men awaited his orders tensely, their eyes on him, their hands clasping their weapons. After an instant which seemed an eternity to those brave warriors, he turned and took a step toward the enemy.
“Liberator…” Burdin insisted.
All eyes were fixed on Ikai.
“We’ll do the opposite of what they expect,” he said calmly, as if the enemy army which was almost upon them did not cause him the slightest concern.
“Your orders,” Burdin begged, now in great haste.
“Burdin, listen to me carefully. You have to pull down those gates. It’s the only chance we have.”
The warrior’s eyes turned first to Ikai, then aside at the enemy army. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely sure. I’ll deal with them.” He waved toward the enemy. “You take charge of the battering-ram and bring those gates down. If you don’t do it, we’re all dead.”
Burdin’s gaze lingered on him for a moment, then he made up his mind. “Right. Lurama wants me to follow your orders and that’s what I’ll do. Wolf-Warriors, to the battering-ram, with me!”
Ikai watched them go. As soon as they reached the siege weapon a new volley of arrows fell on them.
“Good luck, my friend.”
“Liberator, they’re coming,” said one of the warriors beside him nervously. Ikai took stock of the men and women with him: they were not warriors, he had been left with the farmers. The warriors were fighting by the walls.
“Stay calm, all of you. Form into three lines behind me.”
They obeyed at once. He counted some three thousand people with him.
“Listen to me carefully. I want you to dig your legs firmly into the ground. Flex the support one, hold fast with the other. Shield up, spear and sword to the front.”
The frightened rebels followed his orders.
“What are we going to do, Liberator? There are so many of them,” another man said.
One of the women, copper-haired, cried: “Fight, like the children of the highlands we are!”
“Let’s finish off those traitors! For our children!” yelled another woman, with blonde hair.
Ikai smiled. Those women really had guts.
“What I need,” he said to the women, “is for you to keep up the line. Don’t fight, don’t advance or run in any direction. Hold fast as if you were a wall.”
“We don’t attack?” asked the copper-haired woman.
“No, we hold fast. Understood?”
“Understood.”
“So what do we do?” shouted Ikai in a voice which expected an answer.
“We stand!” they all shouted back.
Ikai faced the arriving enemy who were almost on them and reached for the horn at his waist.
“This is the ’just in case’ moment.”
He rang the horn three times, then withdrew behind his warriors.
The army of the Guard reached them and crashed against the human wall he had prepared.
“Hold fast!” he ordered his people.
The crash caused numerous casualties among the rebels. But they withstood. Like the wall of a dam, they contained the enemy flood. The Guard put pressure on the defensive line, but the rebels did not yield a single foot. They did not retreat, did not break their lines. The soldiers pressed and pressed, trying to break the lines and get to the battering-ram and Burdin’s men. But for a short but invaluable time, they were delayed. The men and women of the lines were sacrificing their lives to prevent the avalanche and protect the rebel rearguard.
And that was what Ikai needed. To gain the time needed for Burdin and the ram to reach the gates of the city. And for something else, something the enemy did not expect. Behind the army of the Guard, silently, by surprise, there appeared the forces which had been attacking the northern wall of the city. Or more exactly, two-thirds of them. He had only sent a third of his forces to take the north wall. The other two he had hidden in the forest, waiting, just in case they were needed. It’s wise to remember the past and learn from it, he said to himself remembering the ambush his people had fallen into when they had attacked Sesmok’s armies, and how his sister Kyra had saved them by appearing from under cover of the mist at the last moment. He remembered it well, and that was why he had prepared that counter-measure, for history tends to repeat itself. And this day it had done just that, in another place, with other people, but with the same result.
The line of defense was finally overcome. They fell before the superior numbers. A dozen enemy soldiers attacked Ikai. Calmly he clasped Adamis’s disc in his hand, focused, and used the Power. Before the incredulous eyes of the soldiers his body began to turn translucent. He became ether, as if he were a spirit, and disappeared in front of them.
The soldiers had no time to react. Behind them the rebels were falling upon them. The enemy army tried to swerve and face the surprise attack, but it was too late. The warriors of the Highlands charged at them with menacing howls and terrifying roars, and began to cut the soldiers to pieces like wild beasts of the mountains.
Ikai went up to the fallen and discovered the dead bodies of the two women who had supported him so bravely. The copper-haired woman had died as she thrust a knife into a soldier’s throat. The blonde woman lay beside her with a spear in her stomach.
The horror of war. I’ll never get used to it. And for my own good I hope I never do, that it always makes my stomach turn and my soul shrink back. For a moment he watched the fierce battle, then walked to the battering-ram. He was no longer needed here; the enemy army had fallen into a counter-ambush and was already doomed.
Burdin was moving forward with his shield held high: surrounded by a thousand fellow-countrymen, under a rain of arrows. Behind him came the ram and the brave warriors pushing it. The arrows found their targets among the rebels, but Burdin would not yield. He came to the city gates and made way for the ram to reach them.
“Get it into place! Quick!”
The first thrust of the siege weapon came at once. The gates shook but did not yield. It was followed by a second and a third. The doors shivered, but held.
“Come on! Give it all you’ve got!” he cried to his young warriors.
Spears rained on them from the battlements. More than half of them fell dead.
“Hell! Replace them!” he shouted to his men. Immediately new warriors took the place of the fallen and the ram hammered at the gates once again.
He appeared beside Burdin, who pointed to the battlements They were now throwing down rocks and spears.
“They’re tearing us to shreds,” the warrior said.
“I’ll deal with them,” Ikai said, and closed his eyes. He summoned the Power, and the disc rose above the palm of his hand. It gave forth an almost transparent flash, and he pointed his finger at the battlements above his head. From his finger there came a thread of mist which rose to the parapets. The thread extended, becoming a fog, which spread throughout the battlements above the gate. Denser, more solid, he ordered the disc, and the mist turned into thick fog. The soldiers found themselves wrapped in a cloak of fog which prevented them from seeing a finger’s-breadth in front of their noses.
“By the three Goddesses!” exclaimed Burdin.
Ikai pointed to the double gate. “Let’s seize our chance.”
“Pull down the gates!” Burdin cried to his men. “All at once, come on! Shove! Shove! Shove!”
The battering-ram hammered on the door ceaselessly to the rhythm Burdin set. The soldiers on the battlements were shooting at the rebels but with no visibility, in the midst of the fog, their aim was uncertai
n.
At last, with a tremendous crash, the gates gave way.
“Yes! Forward!” yelled Burdin, and crossed the gates followed by a thousand warriors.
Ikai put the horn to his lips and sounded five calls. This was the signal they were all waiting for. The rebels abandoned their assault on the walls and hurried to the gates. He looked over his shoulder and saw, arriving behind him, the warriors of the ambush. Like an overflowing dam they came into the city: thousands of rebels, in search of that longed-for freedom.
The fighting inside the city was brutal and chaotic. The defenders tried to push back the assailants from the battlements, taking advantage of their position. But the men and women of the Highlands were fighting as if possessed by the spirits of fierce beasts. The walls were covered with the red fluid of life. Inside, at the far end, Ikai saw the great Monolith of the Gods. It rose imposingly, threateningly, to the skies. The divine artifact was identical to the one in the Senoca Boundary. Ikai shivered.
In the streets of the city, skirmishes between Guards and rebels were breaking out. The Guard, overwhelmed by the tide of rebels, were withdrawing to the innermost part of the city, to the main square of the capital. Ikai looked around for Burdin and found him leading the assault on the great square. The warrior was shouting orders to his men. To the north of the square, behind the great Monolith, Ikai saw a huge stronghold with a number of adjacent buildings with regal walls and high towers. The soldiers of the Guard were retreating toward it.
“What’s that building?” he asked Burdin.
“That’s the Regent’s fortress. He’s barricaded himself in there with the nobles, and his last forces.”
“It’ll be hard to take.” He clenched his fist hard. “But by the Gods, we’ll do it!”
Unlike Sesmok’s palace this was not showy and built for the glory of its occupier, but a military construction. And Burdin was right, it would be very hard to take. Different men, different ideas… even though they serve the Gods in the same way. He studied the situation: the rebels had taken the battlements and the southern and central parts of the city. There remained only the fortress and the northern part of the capital. Thinking of that area of the city, a shiver ran down his spine.
