Melcorka Of Alba

by Malcolm Archibald

  'The Thiruzha are too outnumbered to chance losing men in pointless skirmishes like that,' Kosala said.

  After a few moments, a horn sounded three urgent blasts, and the Thiruzha cavalry broke off the action and hurried back to the western side of the pass, with two squadrons of the Chola horse in hot pursuit.

  'They're running!' Kosala said. 'The Thiruzha are on the run!'

  'It's a trap,' Bradan told him. 'Bhim used similar tactics with his fleet.'

  The Thiruzha cavalry streamed through the pass as if in panic, the sound of their hooves echoing from the high walls as they passed underneath the stone bridge. When the Chola horsemen followed, laughing as they thought they had broken the Thiruzha attack, Bhim sprang his ambush. As one phalanx of spearmen ran from the side of the fort to block the pass behind the Chola horsemen, two other companies formed in the Cholas' path, forcing them to rein-up or face hundreds of eighteen-foot-long spears.

  The Chola horses screamed, pawing the air as the riders hauled on the reins, unsure which threat to face. Other riders were too slow and ran onto the spears, and then Bhim ordered his archers to fire. Flight after flight of arrows hissed into the trapped Chola cavalrymen, killing, maiming, and adding to their confusion. Within ten minutes, there was not a single Chola horseman left mounted. The ground was a mess of dead and wounded men and horses, lit by the oil barrels' flickering flames.

  'Look!' Chaturi pointed. 'There's the rakshasa now.'

  Bradan heard the Singhalese shuffling further away, as if fearing Dhraji could see them through the dark at half a mile's distance.

  Despite himself, Bradan watched Dhraji as she walked among the dead and wounded, dipping her finger in the blood. In the oil-barrel's dying light, Dhraji looked even more sinister.

  'She's a monster,' Chaturi said.

  'She gets inside your head.' Bradan noted the well-remembered curve of breast and flank, hip and thigh. Oh, dear God, why am I thinking like this? He could not look away until the black-and-white miasma drifted across his line of sight.

  What is that thing?

  Bradan realised that Kosala had unsheathed his sword and had crept beside him. 'It's all right, Kosala, I have no intention of letting Dhraji know we are here.'

  Perhaps it was a coincidence that just then, Dhraji, still licking the blood from her fingers, turned to face their direction. For one moment, the flickering firelight reflected from her face, and Bradan could swear he recognised the lust in her eyes. Even at that distance, he felt the menace that emanated from her.

  'She is the most evil woman I have ever met.'

  'She is the personification of evil,' Chaturi agreed. 'No mortal blade can kill her, no arrow can pierce her skin, no spear, axe or mace can hurt her. Only something immortal can destroy her, and until the balance of the world is restored, no force for good can come to our aid.'

  Bradan looked up to where Machaendranathar hung in his iron cage hundreds of feet above the pass. Unless the Chola army succeeded in forcing a passage, there seemed no hope of rescuing the Siddhar. Melcorka would remain physically weak, with the mind of a child and no memory of the woman she once had been.

  'May my God and your Shiva aid the Chola army,' Bradan said.

  'The Cholas are attacking again,' Kosala had replaced his sword in its scabbard. 'All of them.'

  Aware of this new threat, the garrison of Rajgana suspended oil lanterns from the walls, making the pass nearly as clear as daylight. No longer playing Bhim's game, the Chola general had sent forward his entire army. They advanced at speed, with the remaining cavalry in front and the elephants and infantry in the rear. Massed archers fired volley after volley ahead of the cavalry to clear a path.

  'They mean business this time,' Chaturi said. 'The Chola general doesn't seem to be worried about taking casualties as long as he forces the pass.'

  Bradan agreed, as he watched the Chola army advance straight into the Thiruzha barrage. Arrows, spears and rocks poured down, felling men by the score. Still they pressed on, stepping over the bodies of the dead, leaving the wounded to lie.

  'They might make it…' Bradan heard the hope in his voice.

  'Let it please Shiva that they do,' Chaturi prayed. 'And may Shiva protect the Siddhar from a stray arrow.'

  'What's that?' Kosala lifted a hand. 'I heard something.'

  The sound started as a faint rumble and increased to a growling that echoed from the rocky slopes. Bradan looked up as a slot opened in the solid cliff underneath the fortress. Scores of Thiruzha soldiers slowly rolled a fifteen-foot-high iron fence across the pass.

  'It's on wheels.' Bradan could hardly believe what he saw. 'It's a barrier on iron wheels.'

  'Nothing will get past that.' Kosala sounded sick. 'I've never seen anything like that before.'

  'Neither have I,' Bradan said.

  Ignoring casualties, the leading squadrons of Chola horse pressed on, to erupt on the Thiruzha side of the pass a few seconds before the barrier closed. Wheeling, one squadron attacked the Thiruzha soldiers who pushed the mobile fence.

  'There are not enough of them,' Kosala said. 'They are doomed.'

  A sudden hot wind sent the oil lanterns dancing along Rajgana's walls and bounced surreal shadows on the ground. As the wind strengthened, it blew out most of the lights, plunging the pass into darkness. The battle halted except for arrows flying in both directions. The Thiruzha horn sounded again, long and low, and one by one, the lanterns were replaced. As the light strengthened again around Rajgana, details of the battle became apparent.

  The detachment of Chola cavalry that had passed the gate milled in confusion as they realised that they were trapped between the iron fence and the entire Thiruzha army. With the light restored, the Thiruzha arrow hail increased, humming and whistling toward the couple of hundred Chola horsemen. A Chola captain trumpeter blew a series of short blasts and the cavalry formed into an arrowhead and charged toward the Thiruzha army. Sitting on his elephant, Bhim ordered his spearmen into a solid, spiked hedge.

  Rather than a battle, it was a massacre as the cavalry ran into the spears, with the Thiruzha archers sending a non-stop stream of arrows toward the rear of the Chola force. It was over in five bloody minutes, leaving the ground littered with Chola dead.

  All the time, the defenders of Rajgana Fort had been busily firing at the Chola host, with catapults, rocks, spears and arrows whistling down on the confused and largely impotent force that had seemed so formidable only the previous day. Some Chola warriors had advanced as far as the iron barrier, only to die in frustrated fury as the defenders fired arrows and dropped rocks on top of them. A few ragged survivors limped back.

  The Thiruzha horn sounded again, five short blasts and a long drone. The defenders dragged back the metal gate and the Thiruzha army surged through, cavalry in front, followed by the elephants and the infantry.

  'I've never seen a battle on this scale,' Kosala said.

  Bradan said nothing as the Thiruzha cavalry charged straight into the disorganised Chola and sent them reeling back.

  'We've lost the battle.' Kosala shook his head. 'Oh, Shiva! I wish I could help.'

  'One sword would not make much difference in a battle of thousands,' Chaturi said.

  Bradan thought of Melcorka and said nothing.

  The horn sounded again, five long blasts, and the tail end of the Thiruzha army filed under the stone bridge and through the pass to the east. Last of all was the war elephant of Dhraji, deliberately stepping on the Chola wounded.

  'Look,' Banduka said. 'Rajgana's gates are opening. The garrison is joining the pursuit.'

  Bradan had expected the garrison to march down a path from one of the towers. Instead, a door opened beside the metal gate. Hundreds of men filed out, to trot towards the east in pursuit of the retreating mob that had once been the Chola army.

  'Dhraji and Bhim must be confident of victory,' Chaturi said. 'They've stripped every last man from Rajgana.'

  Every last man! Rajgana is nearly empty. '
They've given us a chance,' Bradan said quickly.

  'A chance for what?' Banduka asked.

  'Our chance to rescue that poor fellow there.' Bradan gestured upward, to where Machaendranathar swung in his iron cage. Bradan's mood lightened with this first stroke of good fortune for days. 'With most of the garrison gone, I can slip into the fort and get him out. There must be a way into his cage from above; how else will the garrison feed him?'

  'You can't go in there,' Banduka said. 'You've just escaped from Dhraji. You can't go back into her den.'

  Bradan glanced at Melcorka, lying supine and vacant-eyed on her litter. 'I have to,' he said.

  'I know you do.' Chaturi touched his arm.

  'I'll come with you,' Banduka said.

  'No.' Kosala shook his head. 'I will. The pale foreigner might need a sword to guard his back.' He touched his sword hilt. 'Or he may be planning to betray us, in which case he will need a sword in his back!'

  'He is no traitor,' Chaturi said. 'Move fast in case the rakshasa's men come back, and keep out of trouble.'

  'Come on then, Kosala.' Bradan hesitated, looking at Melcorka.

  'I'll look after her,' Chaturi said. 'Whatever happens to you.'

  'Thank you, Chaturi.'

  Glad to be doing something positive, Bradan negotiated the wooded slope with Kosala at his back and the night already beginning to fade. A slanting overhang half-hid the door in the rock, which the garrison had left unlocked.

  'That was fortuitous,' Bradan said.

  'Or one of Bhim's traps,' Kosala drew his sword. 'I'll go first, Bradan, in case there is a sentry.'

  The door opened onto a flight of stairs that spiralled up inside the rock wall of the cliff. Without lighting to show the way, Kosala moved up slowly, testing each step, keeping his sword ready as Bradan followed, biting back his impatience. Within a few minutes, Bradan felt dizzy with the constant spiralling.

  'Wait.' Kosala put out a hand.

  Footsteps echoed from above. Bradan felt his heart racing. His mouth dried.

  A Thiruzha warrior ran down toward them, buckling on a sword belt and trying to adjust the round shield he carried on his back. He stopped when he realised that Kosala blocked his passage.

  'Who are you?'

  In reply, Kosala slid his sword in the man's belly and sliced upwards. The man died without a sound, falling onto the steps.

  'That's one less.' Kosala cleaned his sword on the dead man's turban.

  They moved on, silent in the dark, upwards and ever upwards. Twice, they stopped when they heard movement above, and each time Bradan held his breath. He was a man of the open spaces, not a thief to work in such confinement. Then he thought of Melcorka, lying with a vacant smile on her face and the mind of a child. I must press on. I must do my best.

  After an eternity of climbing, the stairs ended at a heavy wooden door, studded with iron. Kosala placed a hand on Bradan's shoulder to stop him, pushed the door gently and eased in.

  'Who's that?' Bradan heard the question, followed by a strangled gasp.

  'Only one guard,' Kosala reported, wiping the blood from his sword.

  'I'm glad you're here,' Bradan said.

  'Follow me.'

  They entered what was evidently a guard room, an austere stone chamber with nearly empty weapons-racks on the wall. Lifting a long, slightly curved knife, Bradan thrust it through his waistband. He did not wish to use it but knew that if he needed a weapon, he would need it desperately. Again, he steeled himself with the image of Melcorka lying helpless as a baby.

  Kosala opened the door in the opposite wall, and they stepped into another long room. Faint light seeped through eastward-facing arrow slits, revealing that dawn was already greying the eastern sky. Within half an hour, full daylight would make their position in the fort even more precarious.

  'Hurry,' Kosala said.

  They hurried, with Kosala disposing of another Thiruzha soldier on the way.

  'Bhim has emptied the fortress of everybody except the sick and the menials,' Kosala said. 'None of the men we've met have been top quality warriors. Bhim must be supremely confident of victory.'

  Bradan peered out of an arrow-slit as the rapidly rising sun glossed the sky brilliant red. 'I think he is right to be confident. I can't see a single living Chola soldier.'

  Dead bodies covered the pass to the east. Men and horses lay singly or in small mounds, with grey heaps showing where the Chola elephants had also died. There was no sign of either army.

  'We have to find that bridge,' Bradan said. 'We must release Machaendranathar.'

  'Hey!' The voice was strong and authoritarian. 'Who are you? Why are you not fighting the Chola?'

  The man was tall, broad and carried a long, wavy-bladed sword in a manner that suggested he knew how to use it.

  Thinking quickly, Bradan faked a cough, hoping to be taken for a sick man.

  'That won't fool me,' the tall man said. 'You were talking normally a minute ago, the two of you. Come here!'

  'No,' Kosala said. 'You come here.'

  'What?' The tall man stared at him from under a pointed steel helmet. 'Do you know who I am?'

  'No,' Kosala said. 'But I know what you are. You're a fat, bullying pig. You're a ranting coward that sends others out to fight, while you strut around waggling your fat arse and trying to look important, you useless lump of stinking lard.'

  The man strode forward. 'I'll have you flogged!' he roared. 'By Shiva, I'll have you thrown over the cliff, flayed alive and hanged by the heels.'

  'Well, which will it be? Make your mind up before you give birth, you waddling barrel of fat.' Kosala leaned against the wall. 'Which death is it to be?'

  'Give me your name!' The broad man increased his speed.

  'I am Kosala.'

  'I am Bradan from Alba.' Bradan slipped a foot between the angry man's heels, making him stagger.

  Kosala stepped aside, grabbed the man's head and cracked it hard against the wall. 'These Thiruzha are so overconfident, they are easy to fool.'

  Bradan nodded. 'Dhraji was the same,' he said. 'She believed all my flattery. Vanity seems to be their downfall.'

  'Now…' Kosala relieved the guard of his sword, 'let's find out where the bridge is.' He pricked the man on the side of the neck. 'A minute ago you threatened me. Now, I am the man with the power. Tell me how to cross to the fort on the other side of the pass or I will cut you up very slowly.' He twisted the blade until it was just under the surface of the skin and slid it downward, avoiding any vital spots. 'This could take all day.'

  'Why do you want to go there?' Sweat slithered down the guard's face.

  'Dhraji ordered us to,' Bradan said.

  'You don't know Dhraji,' the guard blustered.

  'I do indeed,' Bradan said. 'From the top of her head to that interesting little mark she has on her left buttock. You must know the one? It's shaped like a fish.'

  'Of course I know it. You go through that way.' The guard's eyes swivelled left. 'And it's the second door.'

  'Thank you,' Kosala said.

  'Why did you not just ask?' Blood flowed from the guard's neck.

  'This way is more interesting,' Kosala said and thrust in his blade. The guard died with hardly a sound. 'Bradan, does Dhraji really have a mark like a fish on her arse?'

  'No.' Bradan shook his head. 'I was playing on the vanity of these people, as we said.'

  'It worked,' Kosala said. 'Through here.' He searched the guard and swore softly. 'I hoped he might have the key to Machaendranathar's cage with him.'

  The passageway led to yet more stairs, narrow, with arrow-slits providing the only illumination. As the large man had said, the second door opened onto the bridge.

  Built of stone and with a vaulted roof, the bridge crossed the path in a high arch, with light shafting through from a score of arrow-slits. Cavities in the wall held spears, bows and quivers of arrows, while there were three iron ring bolts in the floor, one a few paces from each end and a much larger one in t
he centre.

  'Machaendranathar must be beneath here.' Kosala hurried to the central ring-bolt. 'There is a single slab here, but it's heavy, Bradan. I need your help!'

  Even working together, they could hardly budge the central slab. They turned the ring bolt and heaved, with the slab moving about a finger's width from the floor and slamming back down as their strength failed.

  'There must be a knack to this,' Kosala said. 'I'm as strong as any man, and you're no weakling.'

  'We'll have to lift it and wedge it open with something,' Bradan looked around the covered bridge. 'We'll have to hurry. Bhim's army could return at any time.'

  'We'll try this!' Grabbing a spear, Kosala hurried back to the slab. 'Now, on the count of three. One, two, three!' Again they managed to lift the slab a crack before Kosala thrust the spear butt into the small opening. 'Now rest and gather your strength.'

  Bradan nodded and relaxed his grip. Immediately he did, the slab slammed back into place, snapping the spear-butt as if it had been a twig. 'That didn't work. There must be another way.'

  'Two spears?' Kosala asked. 'No…'

  'The other slabs are smaller,' Bradan said. 'If we can lift one of them, we might use it as a wedge.'

  It took them only a minute to lift the much smaller slab nearest the northernmost tower and carry it back.

  'Lift!' Kosala said, and for the third time they hauled the central slab up. 'I'll hold it.' Kosala's muscles trembled with the strain. 'Hurry!'

  Bradan scraped the smaller slab into place. 'There!'

  Kosala relaxed. They looked at each other, sweat dripping from their faces.

  'If we twist the smaller slab onto its side,' Bradan suggested, 'it will force the larger one higher, and then we can maybe push it all the way up.'