by Greg Curtis
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the captain judged that there were enough enemies gathered together to make a decent target, and he gave the order.
“Launch!” His voice was almost a squeak as he screamed the command, but no one cared about that. Not when they all turned to see the crew hit the levers that released the safety bars. And then they watched as the monstrous cantilevered arms both swung in perfect harmony, dragging up the sacks of orbs from the ground and swinging them high up into the sky before releasing them to the heavens.
After that all eyes were on the little glass orbs as they flew through the air, ascending the heights until they were almost invisible, before beginning their descent. And then they were invisible. They hit. The sound of breaking glass could be heard even as far away as they were, but the distance was simply too great to see the clear glass or clear liquid. All they could do was hope.
And wait.
It took time, but they tried not to let that worry them. They’d always known it would take time for the phosphorus to ignite the oil. Still as every agonising second ticked by, they worried. They feared that it hadn’t worked. That something had gone wrong. That they’d missed. And the silence as they held their breath and one and all refused to speak the single terrible doubt that was on their minds, was complete.
“Look!” Someone from behind them with a looking glass cried out, and they all turned back to see him standing there, pointing. Then they followed the direction of his arm back to the enemy on the far side of the bridge, wondering what he’d seen. It all looked much as it had, until they realised there was smoke rising among them. It was the most beautiful sight Dandis had ever seen.
“Reload!” The captain bellowed the order just before everyone began screaming with excitement, and despite it being the last thing anyone wanted to do, the crews started leaping into life. Straining at the huge wheels to pull down the cantilever once more, loading up the sacks with hundreds more orbs, and finally locking the lynch pins into place. And while they did that the others studied the distant army and the flames leaping for the heavens, and wondered.
Many of the abominations were on fire, but it didn’t seem to bother them as they stood there burning. For the most part they just stood there as if it was nothing. Maybe it was. And yet among the hundreds of them just standing there they could just make out three or four figures running around frantically. And they could just make out the sound of screaming. Those Dandis guessed, were the priests, caught up in the fire.
There had been word sent that these things travelled with dark priests. That the foul demon worshippers could somehow control them. Yet it had seemed to him until just then, that there could be no such people. The things had no minds so how could they be controlled? But seeing those few forms running about crazily among their statue like army, Dandis realised the words had been true.
The distant fire began gathering in strength. Black smoke rising told them that it was no longer just the oil burning. The creatures themselves were on fire. Meanwhile behind the burning abominations, they could just make out more of the monstrosities joining the rest. And some of them Dandis thought were actually walking into the flames and catching fire.
“Launch!” The captain gave the command once more, and this time when the orbs were hurled high into the sky it was to the sound of cheering. Everyone was cheering. Especially Dandis. And he cheered some more when he saw the distant flames leaping higher. The abominations were well ablaze. They thought they were winning.
But that was when things went wrong. And it went wrong in a way that none of them could have expected. The priests gave the command and the abominations started shuffling towards them. On fire, flames shooting high into the air above them, surrounded by black smoke from their burning flesh, they advanced on to the bridge, and everyone suddenly realised that all their plans had been undone. Now instead of an army of abominations advancing on them, they had an army of burning abominations advancing on them. They’d actually made the situation worse. There was a sudden empty feeling in the pit of Dandis’ stomach, and he knew that everything that had gone before had been as nothing. This time the battle would be furious.
Not all of them hurried towards them thankfully. Some fell as they entered the bridge, others shuffled in strange directions, possibly blinded by the smoke and flame, or maybe simply from having had their eyes burnt out. The rest though just shambled around them as best they could, sometimes stepping right over their corpses in their rush as they headed for the town and their victims. At least a few had fallen. It was something to be thankful for as the rest of the flaming abominations hurried their way. And maybe Dandis thought, something to give them a little hope. Hope that more would fall as they charged clumsily towards them.
Once more the guards took aim with their fire sticks and waited nervously as the enemy approached them, and this time they knew it would be no easy battle. There were simply too many of them.
Then the first of them came within range and their fears were proven right. Though they held their formation and firing order, the explosions came fast, one on top of the other, and at least twenty of them had fired before the first man had even finished swabbing his barrel. Dandis was right beside him frantically doing the same. Twenty more had fired by the time Dandis had poured the powder in and frantically rammed home the shot, and the last man in the chain fired barely a few heartbeats after he’d placed his stick in its crutch and taken aim. He barely had to wait more than a few panicked heartbeats, before it was his turn again, and he squeezed the release.
The nearest of the flaming abominations fell down, torn apart by the blast and though he wanted to celebrate the shot, Dandis couldn’t. Once more it became a frantic dash to reload the weapon while the others kept blowing the creatures apart, and all the time Dandis had to fight the urge to look up to see how close the abominations had come. He had no time for that. He had only time to reload and take his position.
Yet they were holding them back. Somehow As he reloaded his fire stick, ready to send another creature to the underworld, Dandis looked up and saw that the abominations were no closer to him. The reason for this was partly the number of gnomes loading, aiming and blasting the abominations. But partly it was that many of the abominations were wandering off course. The fire was finally affecting them as it had their comrades on the bridge, and they were blind. So instead of attacking them they wandered in random directions.
That was good for the soldiers as the enemy stopped charging them in such numbers, but not so good for the town. They’d protected the north side of Pensa Ne, the side closest to the bridge and the one in the direct path of the enemy. It was the logical point to stand. But when the enemy no longer knew what path to take, their tactics had been rendered useless. And so some of them were wandering the grasslands in front of them seemingly at random, but others had somehow slipped around their sides and were attacking the town behind them. And there was nothing any of them could do. As the enemy kept coming at them they had to hold their ground and keep firing, all the while hearing the screams from the village and praying it wasn’t their own families.
As the battle wore on, seconds becoming minutes, minutes turning into hours, the land in front of the town became a vision of the underworld. Fire and smoke filled the air, and the smell of burning flesh tore at the nose. Burning bodies, and bits of bodies were scattered everywhere, forming small piles of flaming, charred flesh, and still somehow the enemy kept coming. Charging awkwardly through the burning pyres of their comrades. All of them were on fire, some were walking infernos, many seemed to be wandering aimlessly for whatever sound had caught their attention, but none of them stopped.
Nor did the screams coming from behind them stop.
So they kept firing and reloading, maintaining their punishing regimen without a single man faltering, until finally they realised that there were less of the abominations coming for them. And it wasn’t just a lull in the battle. After a good few more rounds they reali
sed the numbers heading for them were less with each volley.
Dandis realised it when he noted he had to wait a little longer between each volley to fire.
Was it over? Had they somehow fought through? Dandis didn’t know, but it seemed unlikely. The enemy came in plagues, and though they had surely killed thousands, maybe many thousands, he couldn’t bring himself to believe it was over. But no more could he come up with another explanation for the smaller and smaller numbers advancing on them.
If only he could see. The smoke across the battlefield however, was simply too thick. He couldn’t even see the bridge let alone the grounds behind it where the abominations had been gathering into an army. What he could do though, was to turn and look behind him and see the smoke rising from the town. Some of the abominations had made it into the heart of Pensa Ne and simply by being there set fire to it. But the buildings didn’t matter. It was the people that mattered. His wife, his children.
Every instinct he had was telling him to simply take off and run into the village and find them. To pray that they were alright. But his training was telling him to stay and stand. That was the best chance his family had. The more he could kill, the fewer that could slip around the sides and into the village.
So Dandis stood and did his duty, and one by one he sent the enemy into the afterlife.
In time, and it was a surprisingly long time, the smoke began to clear. And Dandis could see that many of the bodies of the fallen had burnt out entirely. Even the grass underneath them, wet from the night’s rain, had turned to bare dirt.
It became clear however that that while they may have won this battle, the cost of doing so may have been far more than they could afford to pay.
The enemy were still there. He could see them gathering in huge numbers on the other side of the chasm, thick as hairs on a dog’s back, most of them burning. And all of them he knew were waiting there to cross the bridge and rush them, an even larger army than before. But there was a problem. There was no bridge.
Those huge supports that had held the ropes and suspended the massive timbers that were the body of the bridge were gone. They were little more than charred tree stumps. And as for the ropes, they weren’t even in sight. No supports and no ropes. That meant that the rest of the bridge was gone as well. Most of it was likely at the bottom of the chasm.
The reason was obvious in hindsight.
The bridge was both ancient and massive. Its timbers were so solid that they simply couldn’t burn easily. So the townsmen hadn’t worried about what the oil of the orbs would do to them. At most it would have blackened a few timbers, scorched a few ropes. Nothing that couldn’t have been easily repaired. But when the fire was fuelled by a few thousand walking corpses, many of which had simply fallen on to the timbers and burnt, instead of by a few hundred gallons of lamp oil that would have burnt out in minutes, everything changed.
With the loss of the bridge everything had changed, and the battle had been won. All that remained of the enemy were a few walking figures of fire wandering aimlessly among the remnants of their army, and a few others in the village somewhere, causing people to scream. But it wasn’t a victory.
Even as people began cheering all around him, thinking that they’d won the battle, Dandis knew a feeling of horror creeping up on him. This was a disaster, and one that they simply hadn’t expected. He doubted the abominations and their priests had guessed it either. Instead as the gnomes cheered they stood on the far side of the chasm, desperately hungry but unable to cross the chasm.
“Dandis. Smile.” His friends were suddenly with him, laughing and shouting and clapping him on the back. “We’ve won.”
“No.” Dandis didn’t want to tell them the sorry truth, but he had to. Someone had to. “We’ve lost.”
“The bridge is gone. And that was the route by which the dwarves and the trolls would have entered Elaris when the time came to end this war. The humans would have swung down from the north east. The sprites would have simply ridden west. And the trolls and dwarves would have come across the bridge and met with them riding up the south east of Elaris. And then together they would have crushed the Reaver’s temple wherever it is.”
“Now though, the dwarves and the trolls won’t be able to join them. They’d have to come from the west, cutting right through the middle of Elaris, and both of them would be seen by the elves as invaders. Neither would ever be allowed to cross Elaris as an army. Not without rangers to escort them, and as part of a larger combined army.”
“Now the battle will have to be held alone by the humans, the sprites and the elves.” He turned and looked each of them directly in the eyes in turn.
“We’ve survived a battle, but lost the war.”
Chapter One Hundred and Three.
The private audience chamber was full for once. Herrick hardly ever used it, save to greet newly arriving emissaries and the like, and it wasn’t one of his favourite chambers in the castle. But it did have comfortable chairs, unlike his hard wooden throne, and that was important when he was in the middle of what looked like becoming an all day meeting. More so when several of the participants weren’t actually there, save as images in bowls of water laid at his feet.
Of course even if they weren’t there themselves, their envoys were present, though what exactly they could do or say when their rulers were speaking for themselves, he wasn’t sure. It seemed pointless having them there. And the half dozen far seers, one for each bowl of water, added to the clutter, though at least they were quiet and tried to stay out of the way. His attendants and advisers weren’t so considerate, and they had a habit of speaking out whenever anyone made a suggestion. Sometimes even interrupting him. It was annoying enough when he was on his own, but in front of guests it was humiliating.
But that didn’t annoy him half as much as the rulers themselves, as not only did they speak against him, they did it in the face of catastrophe. And the loss of the bridge at Pensa Ne was just that. Two armies had been effectively taken out of the battle before it had even begun, and in both cases it was a terrible loss. The dwarves could have sent them three thousand battlewagons, each with two cannon and a dozen men at arms. The trolls had offered thirty thousand riders. Those were the sorts of armies that could turn the tide of a war. Without them, he wasn’t so certain his forces could prevail.
His advisers doubted it too, and several were suggesting that the attack be called off and let Elaris be swallowed by the Reaver while they defended their own lands. It was suicide politics as his father had called such things. They forgot that when he came he would come with millions. Their choice was stark. They could send an army only half as powerful as he wanted, to do battle with the enemy while he was himself weak. Or they could hold back and wait until the Reaver came to them in all his might and crushed them. Herrick knew that they still had to go to war.
But as he waged his latest battle of wits with the others, he was beginning to think that Irothia would have to wage it alone.
“I’m sure your Commander Tyrus is a very capable leader” Queen Aquina spoke directly to Herrick. “But we will not allow him to command our windriders.” Indeed, she had been adamant on that point throughout the entire meeting. Herrick wasn’t sure if it was a question of trust or pride. He was sure though, that it posed a problem. An army needed a single leader, and he had no one better than Tyrus. There was no one better. And of the three realms that would have to fight the battle, Irothia was the one that would face the steel. Elaris was in ruins, their army disbanded. Solaria had no real army, only windriders. Still he needed as many windriders as he could get.
But as he looked at the queen’s face in the rippling water he saw nothing of compromise in her. If anything she looked more determined than she had at the start.
“And he will not command the rangers either.” Elder Varial was of a similar mind to the queen, but Herrick suspected that it was for a different reason. Officially the Mother guided his every action and he would not allow his
holy riders to be led by someone not of his faith. The Grove did not have confidence that Commander Tyrus would follow Gaia’s ways. But Herrick suspected that there was another reason behind his words. Six months before Tyrus had led an army through Elaris and destroyed four cities and an unknown number of towns. Though he had obeyed the codes scrupulously that was not something that would be quickly forgotten.
It was a serious problem. The rangers were only going to be able to provide a small force of riders to the army, though they were capable horse archers, and the only ones capable of using longbows from horseback. But even if it was only three or four thousand riders they were talking about, it was also Elaris. They knew the land. They could scout it in a way that no others could. And in the end the elves would not welcome another human army on to their lands. They might even go to war with them again. They needed the rangers to provide them safe passage.
