by Gerard Bond
Urroz fixed him with a cold stare,
“In view of the fact that I can see you have a very real reluctance to actually fight and defend your nation, I hereby dismiss you from your charge and order you to return to Kassandrea to be dealt with by Lord Ercanbold. Good bye Lord Cathan and good riddance.”
Urroz turned away not waiting for a reply, Cathan was left stunned. Slowly he turned his horse around and rode back to his own men. Upon reaching his lieutenant, he ordered his men to turn around and head north. There was nothing else to do and he certainly wasn’t going to stay there and watch as Urroz killed more men.
Lord Urroz ordered his new contingent forward, his signalman waving flags. The new columns moved, the first one thousand horsemen rode forward split in the middle for the other two thousand that would come through once the archers lay covering fire. The front rows moved at a trot, one hundred men wide and five deep with the archers bringing up their rear in similar formation.
At one hundred fifty yards the front rows pulled up and the archers started laying down covering fire. A few ballista bolts flew out and landed amongst the forward horsemen spearing some but they held their ranks. The two thousand horsemen surged forward through the center and entered the fort. There were a few being taken down by arrow and crossbow fire, but it wasn’t anything like it had been before. Many of the Isogorrean soldiers were holding shields up in defense while a second used his crossbow. The plan was working.
The two thousand split and turned facing their flanks. A few fell as ballista bolts flew into them but they held their nerve and as they swung about they charged the ballista positions even as Kingdom arrows fell amongst the enemy. The ballista crews didn’t stand a chance when the Kingdom’s soldiers hit them. Many were bowled over by the charging horses. The horsemen wheeled and struck as they went, cutting the enemy down. Some horsemen were falling from fire off the ramparts but the Kingdom’s men were making real progress.
Lord Urroz ordered the archers forward to flank the walls from the outside and bolster the attack. This way they could get closer and fire more accurately. The protecting horsemen moved in and held their shields up. For now they were there in the event of a counterattack and to protect the archers.
Slowly but surely they were making progress, more and more of the Isogorreans fell. The casualties were mounting on the Kingdom’s side too and at one point a band of five hundred Isogorrean foot soldiers surged forward against the horsemen within the walls but they were driven back to the rear of the fort by the strength of the Kingdom’s forces.
General Marcellus watched on as his men were falling and losing to a more coordinated attack but he did nothing except nod to reports from his officers as the battle raged. He was more focused on watching the horsemen in the middle as they pushed his foot soldiers further and further back. Advancing as they went, he watched closely and calculated that the Kingdom’s numbers were down to about seventeen hundred when he signaled again.
If the officers of the Kingdom had paid a little more attention to the state of the area within the walls they would have noted that every abandoned wagon near the remains of the north wall was upside down. If they had been a little more suspicious, then they may have prevented what happened next.
This time a bullhorn sounded loud across the battlefield and all of the wagons lifted with Isogorrean soldiers pouring out from hidden bunkers underground. All of them carried bows, they notched and let fly at the backs of the horsemen who were concentrating their efforts on the remains of the foot soldiers at the back of the fort. Many had no idea what had hit them as they fell dead from their saddles. At the same time a second wave of foot soldiers a thousand strong surged out from where they had been hiding and waiting at the rear of the fort.
The Kingdom soldiers were caught in another trap, they were cut down by the dozens with every flight of arrows shot at them. More men kept pouring out of the holes in the ground and took up position kneeling on the ground. Poles six foot long and four inches thick had been laid out in the ground before the battle, recessed into the ground to hide them as much as possible.
These men knelt and waited. Many of the Archers ran off to the flanks and grabbed the abandoned ballistas. They turned them around towards the outside walls and pushing them out, they were no longer concerned with the battle in the fort.
Outside the Kingdom archers continued their fire on the walls totally unawares of what was happening inside. Inside the walls the ballistas were loaded and ready, their bolt heads near small openings in the outer wall. The signal was given and the ballistas let loose. Outside the ranks of horsemen defending the archers were decimated. They were not heavy horse and not armored like the knights and while it was a further distance to fly a ballista bolt was able to pass easily through two men before lodging in a third.
Amongst the Kingdom men it was carnage. Men died in their saddle and others screamed bloody mercy as they were cut down. Blood sprayed from them all in a gory dance of death, the surprise was complete.
While this was happening the horsemen inside had attempted a retreat once it was realized the tide was turning and they had charged at full flight back towards the entry. The kneeling Isogorreans lifted the large poles and dug the back end into the ground while aiming the tips at the oncoming horses. They had left it until the last moment so the horsemen could not stop and the horses screamed and whinnied in terror as they were impaled on those stakes. Many of them fell forward crashing to the ground. Some even killed their Isogorrean defenders with their fall, but for the rest it proved fatal as they tried to slow and dodge their falling comrades. The delay allowed the Isogorreans to wield swords and attack directly. The other thousand foot soldiers brought up the rear and again the devastation was total.
Overlord Urroz had spent the time gasping, calling out useless orders then belaying them and making new orders. The signalmen were waving all sorts of different flags as the Lord kept changing his mind, to the officers in the field they simply did not know what to do and the lines of communication broke down.
The archers kept their positions and kept firing until they spent their arrows. Then without any more orders retreated back towards Urroz. What men were left defending them retreated too but there weren’t many left. Urroz had only fifteen hundred horsemen left and maybe one hundred knights. The Archers were still intact and that gave him a total of just over two and half thousand men, this was a debacle to say the least. There were almost five thousand dead Kingdom soldiers on the battlefield.
He turned to his entourage of officers and addressed them,
“We cannot give up now, we cannot run back to Kassandrea with our tails between our legs! I will not accept total defeat! I will personally lead the next action!”
Urroz turned and urged his horse forward barking orders to adjutants to get the horsemen ready and archers fresh arrows. He was wild with the anguish of what had just happened. Urroz just couldn’t accept he had just been soundly defeated. He rode out to the front of the amassed columns, the archers in the rear and horsemen out front. From there he led them forward to the Isogorrean fort and stopped just out of enemy range, there he sat on his horse and waited.
The Isogorreans did just as Urroz wanted. The Isogorrean soldiers were standing at the remains of the burnt wall and jeering at them, calling names and waving swords. Urroz was so stirred up he couldn’t think straight, turning to his men he pointed to the Isogorreans taunting them,
“They are spitting in your faces! Listen! It is your girlfriends and your wives that they are making jokes of! Do you want to put up with that!? Do you want to go back to Kassandrea and tell them how the Isogorreans were shouting out what cowards you were as you retreated?!”
There were calls and shouts of No! Urroz stirred them on.
“Are you all cowards? Are you too weak to stand up against our enemy? Are you all yellow?!”
Again they replied only more passionately now NO!! Now Urroz really stirred them up.
“If we
leave this field defeated then it is only a matter of time before these dogs take our women and have their way with them! Our children they will use as firing practice!! What... Say…. you?!”
All the men roared and with that Urroz raised his sword, he was a part of the mob now and reason had gone right out the window.
“Well then follow me!”
Urroz turned and charged the Isogorrean front lines with two and a half thousand fervent Kingdom soldiers at his back.
The battle lasted maybe another twenty minutes but the end was never in doubt. The Kingdom had just lost an entire army of men in a single battle. Never in its history had it ever suffered so heavily at the hands of any enemy on it’s own land.
General Marcellus came down off the rampart and walked across the ground picking his way through the dead and maimed. Blood soaked the ground red, everywhere is was like stepping in mud. The smell made many of the Isogorrean soldiers gag, the carnage was so great. Marcellus came up to the body of Lord Urroz and he looked over the dead man. He was certainly brave at the end, but a fool nonetheless. It had only cost him the lives of a thousand men to kill the first five and half thousand Kingdom soldiers but the battle against these last two and half thousand had cost him a further fifteen hundred. He wondered if they had fought so valiantly from the beginning, would the end result have been reversed?
Marcellus bent down and took Urroz’s ear off with his dagger, it was only fitting to take a souvenir from such a great battle. He turned to one of his aides and gave him orders for the men.
“Make sure that all wounded Kingdom men are put to the sword, also put to death any of our men who are badly wounded. Next we need to collect all weaponry that is still useable and have it loaded on these wagons for shipment back to Port Cholandra. Collect all able-bodied horses to be pressed into service and kill any horses that are injured. Once all that is done I want all the horse carcasses cut up. Set up some smoking rooms so the meat can be cured. Also send out parties of men to look for any stragglers that may be found in the immediate vicinity and find the Kingdoms supply wagons too.”
Marcellus went for a walk into the trees taking in the fresher air there, it certainly was a grand day indeed. He could see good things coming of this victory. The sorceress Dione approached.
“Good afternoon sorceress, I must thank you for your help today.”
Dione looked at him,
“It wasn’t much to do with me really. All I had to do was heighten their emotional states a bit, they were already quite pliable to suggestion.”
Marcellus considered this.
“That may be true but I am sure that without your help we would not have achieved a victory quite as cheaply as we did.”
Dione bowed her head in well-mannered acceptance.
“Do we move north now to Kassandrea?”
Marcellus considered this.
“If all else goes well I don’t see why not, we have yet to have a setback of any real significance to date and I don’t envision one happening anytime soon, I expect we shall receive orders to move north soon enough.”
They both turned back to the scene beyond the tree line. They could hear the occasional scream and whimper carry to them as his soldiers worked putting to death the badly wounded and dying. It would have been an eerie and creepy scene to anyone born of the Kingdom but to the Isogorreans it was normal.
The sorc Dione bade Marcellus good tidings and moved back into the fort. She would go and check on the other thirty sorcs who had imbued her with the power to control the minds of so many. In doing so she had drained not only their magics temporarily, but it had exhausted them physically too, for today they would be sleeping until the morn.
Lord Cathan rode along lost in his thoughts, what was he to do on return to Kassandrea? Simply say he had refused to do his duty? Make out that Urroz had lost it? What would Urroz put in his report when he finally got back there? Well he had just over a week to consider his position and then wait for Urroz’s return for a final decision on what they would do with him.
Cathan’s ears pricked up, he had sent a scout back to monitor the situation and once the battle was over the scout was to report back, he was already returning so soon? He was moving at a great rate too riding at full gallop towards them. As he approached, Cathan could see the horse was covered in a lather, it had been pushed too hard. The scout pulled up near Cathan and was frantic, something was seriously wrong.
“Catch your breath, take you time and give me a full account.”
Cathan watched on as the man tried to calm himself and was gasping. A couple of his lieutenants came close too.
“The army is destroyed.”
Cathan looked on in surprise,
“The Isogorreans have been destroyed?”
The scout shook his head frantically,
“No, no, our army, it is gone!”
Cathan was dumbstruck.
“Did Urroz not withdraw?”
Again the scout shook his head.
“No, he led a final charge with his reserves and they were wiped out to a man, there is no one left alive!”
“By the gods! Tell me this can’t be true? Surely there are some survivors!”
Once more the scout shook his head.
“The Isogorreans were putting anyone wounded or left alive to the sword when I chose to leave. They killed them all my Lord.”
The scout was almost sobbing now. The lieutenants began talking amongst themselves and questioning the information. Cathan could only stare as a look of horror crossed his face. An entire army group had been wiped out. If it had not been for Urroz ordering him off they too may very well have been dead too. Cathan turned to his lieutenants.
“We need to get back to Kassandrea as soon as possible, order double time immediately!”
The men saluted and quickly moved off, it was within the minute their pace had picked up and they were on their way back to Kassandrea with more urgency now. This was no longer a journey to mark their loss of face it was about getting word back as soon as possible to mobilize the Kingdoms armies. There was no telling how close behind the Isogorreans may be by the time they got there.
Cathan focused on what he would need to do, report what had happened to Lord Ercanbold and also request permission to return to his homeland to mobilize the men of the district. Word would also have to go out to all the provinces of the Kingdom. He now understood that the early report he had heard regarding the genocide in the south was most likely true. It gave him pause as there were so many people in small villages stretching from here to Kassandrea. The more he thought about it the more he realized he should give fair warning not only to those they directly pass but to all villages out wide too. It also meant he was going to be taking a major decision without the approval of his superiors, but right now he was the highest ranking officer left in the south and his men were what was left of the southern army group.
Turning to one of his men he ordered that the Lieutenants return to him which they did in quick time, they were all experienced men and knew they needed to be focused and vigilant.
“I need you all to split the men up into small groups of six all with at least a corporal in charge, these groups are to fan out either side going out to a distance of three days ride and then go to every village along the way warning them of what is coming and that they are to retreat to inside the walls of Kassandrea. They are also to strip all supplies of any kind including burning whatever is left behind. They are not to let anything fall into the hands of the enemy that could be of use, are there any questions?”
All of them shook their heads, they understood perfectly what it meant. It would be no easy task to convince the villagers stretched far and wide across the land to abandon their homes and livelihoods, then torch anything they left behind.
“Men, we have no choice in this, the Isogorrean army is stronger than we could have imagined and I truly believe this course of action is the only one we have open to us, if any of you disagree
with me at all speak now.”
His lieutenants looked at each other and one spoke up,
“We are with you all the way Lord Cathan, we place our trust in you implicitly.”
Cathan nodded,
“Thank you, I in turn will take seven men and return to Kassandrea directly by the fastest means possible. All men are to carry what food supplies they can and the supply wagons will be cut loose and burnt. There is no time to waste, move out!”
It took them only three and a half days to get back to Kassandrea and as Cathan entered the massive gates of the city he looked around at all the people going about their normal day to day lives, totally oblivious to the coming human made storm.
Kassandrea was a huge city covering almost 15 square miles, it had made its own importance a top priority under the present King and had prospered beyond even its own expectations. Cathan wondered if that bubble was about to burst? At least there was plenty of room for the coming masses.
It took a couple of hours to wind their way through the busy city to the Castle proper. It was like its own isolated town within the heart of the city. The high walls had once been the original boundary of Kassandrea before it had gotten so big. Now within these second set of walls sat the administrative hub of the Kingdom. This was the seat of power of all. Cathan stared up those high white granite walls and wondered at the colossal energies that must have been used to fashion them. No human hand was capable of making a dent in them, let alone breach them. It was the one thing they could count on if all else failed.
Presenting himself at the secondary set of gates he announced his presence and waited to be ushered in. He sat with his men in the small outhouse provided for those in wait. Cathan then thought better of his men and gave them leave to come back in a few hours. They could have free reign until then. They bid their thanks and moved off. Some went to have a beer, others to find a place with a bath and a couple of them went looking for some working girls.
Finally he was ushered in and Cathan followed the guide. They must have walked another five minutes and entered another large set of gates. Here finally they were inside the castle proper and he continued to follow the guide upstairs to a high ceiling-ed hallway. They traveled down it and he was bade to sit at a bench outside a set of huge ornate doors. Cathan had never been inside Kassandrea before and he was feeling somewhat intimidated by his surroundings. He began to fidget at the delays, they were making him wait even longer and he had urgent news.
