His attention swung back to the front as the cavalry crashed into his main lines, the long lances of the enemy finding their targets, and spearing Sanang pikemen where they stood. Agang picked up a stake and pulled his shield into position. He leapt into a gap formed by a falling warrior, and lunged out with the stake, wielding it like a spear in his right hand.
His thrust bit deep into the flank of a horse, and it threw its rider, whose head was crushed by another horse as he fell.
Agang looked to each side, and located Echtang. The young man was still in the third line, grasping onto his long pike. The lines in front of them were locked together in a mesh of lances and pikes, as the front ranks of each side were impaled and crushed in the press.
More horn blasts echoed across the valley.
‘Mandalecht’s regiments,’ he called out to Echtang. ‘Right on time.’
From the slope, Agang could see the fresh soldiers arriving, swarming across the valley side from the north, behind the mass of cavalry. Agang bit his lip as he watched them. He had pressed home to Mandalecht the importance of closing the distance as quickly as possible, to ensure no major detachments of cavalry evaded encirclement.
He smiled. He knew the Sanang could run fast, but witnessing four thousand soldiers sprint across the valley, like an unstoppable river surge, was a sight that made his heart miss a beat.
‘It’s working,’ Echtang cried, watching as he crouched behind his shield, shoving forwards into the lines, his pike extended.
Before the cavalry had sensed the danger, Mandalecht’s regiments slammed into them from behind. His warriors had been issued with short stabbing swords and shields, and were wreaking carnage on the horses. The beasts, unable to turn and lacking any space to manoeuvre, began concentrating into a thick mass of vulnerable flesh. The troopers flailed around with their lances, as the Sanang cut through them.
With eight thousand of his soldiers now surrounding four thousand stationary Holdings cavalry, and with arrows still raining down upon them, Agang took a step back from the front. Soldiers from the lines behind him were still surging forwards, keeping up the pressure of pikes and holding the shieldwall.
‘Where are the rest of the allies?’ Echtang said, as he followed Agang to the rear of the lines.
‘They’ll be here,’ Agang said. ‘They’ve been waiting to see if I could win the battle on my own. Now they know the field is mine, they won’t want to miss out on the glory.’
‘What if we’d been losing?’
He smiled. ‘They would have waited until my army had been destroyed, and then they would have descended upon the exhausted cavalry like vultures. And tomorrow, Sanang would have a new high chief.’
‘Look, uncle,’ Echtang pointed, as a great mass of warriors appeared over the brow of the hill to the west.
‘Herald,’ Agang said, ‘call the order to make way.’
The young man nodded and blew three short blasts, followed by one long.
It took a moment for the effect to become visible, but Agang’s four regiments of pikemen began withdrawing, leaving their embedded stakes in place, along with the heaps of impaled corpses and dead horses. They formed two lines of shields, leading from the top of the hill where the mass of allies had gathered, down to the great body of crammed-in cavalry being herded up against the pikes, as Mandalecht’s swordsmen kept up their assault from the rear.
There was an enormous roar from the allies, and they charged down the hill between Agang’s regiments and through the forest of pikes, smashing into the panicking mass of cavalry. Agang watched as they passed, each lost in his own world of ferocious bloodlust, each howling for a chance to strike at their most hated enemy.
Echtang fidgeted at his side while Agang’s forces withdrew step by step, keeping their formation as the hordes of Sanang warriors surged into the carnage at the bottom of the hill.
‘Do you wish to join them, nephew?’ he asked.
‘Yes, uncle.’
‘You have already fought bravely today,’ Agang said. ‘You have no need to prove anything more.’
‘Holding a pike, uncle,’ Echtang said, ‘well, it didn’t feel like real fighting.’
‘Go on, then,’ Agang said. ‘Take a detachment from the lines. Try not to get them all killed.’
‘Thank you, uncle,’ Echtang grinned, before running off to a young officer he knew.
‘The youth and their vigour,’ said a voice behind him.
Agang smiled. ‘Our victory must be assured if our chief minister deigns it safe enough to get this close to the front.’
‘So our little tricks and subterfuges worked, my lord?’ Hodang said. ‘How the songs will mark this day, the glory of this moment, with you crowned by the most pure sunrise. A blood red massacre at dawn, a crimson day, a hard day.’
Agang watched from the hillside as the tight ring of Holdings cavalry grew inexorably smaller. As the crescendo of carnage and the stench of horseshit and death assaulted his senses, he turned away.
‘Back to the command tents, my lord?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The battle’s over. Only the slaughter remains, and I have no wish to witness it.’
Chane was waiting for him in his private reception tent, wearing a dark red dress and a closed expression. Servants hurried around with drinks and platters of food, as Agang and Hodang entered, passing the guards at the door.
‘Congratulations, my lord,’ she said, holding her head high.
He nodded to her, and sat down on his raised chair, the gleaming standards of the army stacked up behind him. A cup of honeyed wine was put into his hand, and he drank deep.
‘My friends,’ he said, raising his cup, ‘may your sound advice never cease.’
Chane and Hodang shared a glance. Agang knew she mistrusted his chief minister, but he relied on them both, and was glad she was keeping her feelings to herself.
The doorflap opened and his allies, Drechtan and Badranga, appeared in the entranceway. Hodang and Chane took up their positions at Agang’s shoulder.
‘A great victory, my lord!’ Drechtan called out. ‘We thrashed them as thoroughly as we did at the Twinth last year.’
There was a cheer from the officers and chiefs crowding the hallway behind him.
‘Or should I say,’ Drechtan continued, ‘thrashing them, for the slaughter goes on as we speak.’
‘It will last a while yet, I daresay,’ Hodang said. ‘It takes time to put thousands of Holdings and their horses to the sword.’
Agang noticed the corner of Chane’s mouth twitch, but she said nothing.
‘Where is Anganecht, my lord?’ Badranga said, striding into the tent and taking a cup from a servant. ‘Great honour is due to him, as the one who stood at the head of the army, and faced the enemy before any other.’
‘His men fought most bravely,’ Hodang said, his eyes flicking over to Agang.
‘Indeed,’ Agang said. ‘I’m pleased that I gave him the honour, he did everything that his high chief asked of him, and performed nobly. I fear though that he may have lost his life in the first charge of the enemy cavalry. We might not know his fate for certain until the battlefield has been cleared.’
A messenger entered the tent, bowed, and held out a long furled pennant.
‘Speak,’ Agang commanded him.
‘My lord,’ the messenger said, ‘a gift from Commander Mandalecht Naro.’
He unfurled the flag, and held it out. On a flat green background, a silhouette of a leaping horse had been stitched in shining black satin, over which seven golden stars shone.
‘The standard of the enemy commander, my lord,’ the messenger said, amid applause and cheers from the officers and chiefs. He knelt in front of Agang and placed the flag on the steps before him.
‘And where is Commander Mandalecht?’ Agang asked.
‘On his way here, my lord,’ he replied. ‘He asked me to report that he has withdrawn your regiments, and handed over command of the eastern flank to the allie
s.’
‘Very good,’ Agang nodded, and the messenger left.
‘I’ll admit,’ said Badranga, ‘that I had some doubts about your plan, my lord. All that sneaking about in the dark, and waiting, but it worked. From what we could see from the hilltop, the horsemen fell right into your trap. When this day is done, there will be enough swords, lances and armour for every warrior in the army to receive their share.’
‘A few extra weapons don’t matter,’ Drechtan said. ‘Lord Agang has eliminated the only Holdings garrison for a hundred miles around. There remains no credible force between us and the gates of their capital city.’
‘We’re not going to their capital,’ Hodang said. ‘This is a mobile raid, not a siege army.’
There was applause from the officers by the doorway, and Mandalecht entered, a grinning Echtang walking next to him. The young man’s armour was smeared in blood, and his eyes were wide. In contrast, the expression of the one-eyed older commander was dour and grim.
‘My lord,’ he saluted.
‘Well done, Commander,’ Agang said. ‘Your timing was perfect, and your execution immaculate.’
Mandalecht grunted, and sat at a bench, taking a cup of wine.
‘And, nephew,’ Agang went on, ‘I’m happy to see you in one piece.’
‘I wanted to stay longer,’ he said, ‘but old Mandalecht insisted I return. Still, it was worth it. I killed eight soldiers, uncle. They were screaming for mercy as we cut them down.’ He laughed. ‘They had nowhere to run!’
‘Well done, boy,’ Badranga said.
‘Some were wondering, my lord,’ Mandalecht said, ‘when you were going to call an end to the killing, so that the survivors can be rounded up and allowed to surrender?’
Agang shook his head.
‘No surrender will be granted,’ he said. ‘The entire Holdings force must die.’
‘Well said, my lord,’ Drechtan nodded.
Badranga snorted. ‘I admire your spirit, my lord,’ he said, ‘and do not doubt for a minute that the Holdings swine deserve to perish, but were we not planning to take slaves on this great raid?’
‘Of course,’ Agang replied. ‘But not yet. Consider, my friend, how the battle was won. We used a combination of tricks, by hiding our true numbers, and new tactics, such as archers and pikes, that the Holdings have never seen Sanang warriors use before. They were unprepared and arrogant, thinking they would sweep us aside like they used to. The fewer Holdings witnesses remain alive, the better.’
‘It also sends a clear message, my lord,’ Hodang said, ‘and will chill the heart of the Holdings King.’
‘Then this half of the Plateau is ours to strip bare,’ Echtang said. ‘That coward on the Holdings throne will never send out another force against us, not after he learns what happened here.’
Badranga frowned. ‘Then we’d better hope that the rest of the Plateau is more populated that what we’ve seen so far. Not a single farm or settlement since we left the mountains. Just grass, and empty hills.’
‘We knew the area at the southernmost edge of the Holdings-occupied Plateau was sparsely inhabited,’ Agang said. ‘Once we travel further north, we will find the rich lands you seek.’
He stole a glance at Chane, but she kept her face still. What he had said was a lie. Chane had told him that all of the Plateau was thickly inhabited, with towns and farmsteads littering the countryside. He doubted that she had deliberately misled him, but if she was wrong about that, then what else could she be mistaken about?
His mage Badolecht entered, a deep frown on his face.
‘Mage,’ Agang greeted him.
‘My lord,’ he said. ‘My healers are all out in the valley, doing what they can to repair the damage wrought upon the flesh of your men. I came to see if you, or any of your officers require healing.’
‘Thank you, mage, but no,’ Agang said. ‘Go back to where you’re needed.’
‘Wait,’ a man called. Agang turned, and saw Lomecht stagger in, a bottle in one hand, and blood streaming from a wound in his upper leg. ‘I could do with some fixing.’
‘Greetings, Commander,’ Agang said, ‘and well done for holding the left flank today. Your position was heavily assaulted, but you defended stoutly.’
‘Near two hundred of my regiment dead, my lord,’ Lomecht spat, as the mage approached. The warrior sat on a bench, and stretched his leg out.
‘And each did their duty,’ Hodang said.
‘It’s not the bastarding numbers that bother me, you halfwit,’ Lomecht shouted at the chief minister as he grimaced in pain, ‘it’s the way they died. Huddled behind shields and pikes, like fucking cowards. Their fathers would be ashamed of the way they fell today.’
Mandalecht rose to his feet. ‘Ashamed?’ he cried. ‘You fucking imbecile. Did you not see what the Holdings cavalry did to Anganecht’s battalion? Without those shields and pikes your whole regiment would have been carved up.’
‘Quiet, please,’ Badolecht said, placing his hands onto Lomecht’s leg. ‘I’m trying to work.’
Everyone stilled, and watched as the mage closed his eyes.
Lomecht’s head arched back, an expression of half-agony, half-ecstasy on his face, as the healing power of Badolecht surged through him. He convulsed for a moment, then fell slumped onto the bench, his chest rising and falling.
Badolecht stood, and glanced at Mandalecht. ‘You may continue berating him, Commander.’ He nodded and left the tent.
Lomecht raised his head from the bench.
‘Sorry, Chief,’ he said. ‘Sorry, Commander. I might have gone temporarily mad from the pain, but I’m all right now.’
He got to his feet, and rubbed his healed leg. ‘By the gods, that feels good.’
He stood to attention.
‘Congratulation on your victory, my lord,’ he said, a crooked smile on his face.
‘You are forgiven your outburst,’ Agang said. ‘The gods know how often I have lashed out after an injury. Go get drunk.’
‘Yes, my lord,’ he said. His eyes flickered over to where Chane stood for a moment, then he turned and left.
‘My lord,’ said Badranga. ‘Not to show any disrespect, but there have been mutterings among the warriors about your army’s tactics. The pikes most could understand, the sneaking about at night was harder to explain, but archers, my lord?’
‘The other chiefs can scoff all they like,’ Agang said, ‘I only care about what works. My archers thinned out the cavalry charges, and allowed us to encircle the enemy. Without them, our line would have broken somewhere, and the plan would have collapsed.’
Badranga shook his head. ‘You make it sound so sensible, my lord,’ he said, ‘but the common warriors don’t see it like that. To kill your enemy from a hundred yards away? It’s everything the Sanang warrior code is opposed to.’
‘The same warrior code that allowed the Holdings to invade us for four years running?’ Agang said. ‘The same code that has kept us squabbling and fighting among ourselves for a hundred years? Look at what we achieved today, by breaking the code. When we return to Sanang I will bring in a new order, one that does not rely on obsolete traditions.’
‘You are not king yet,’ Badranga replied, his face reddening. ‘Nor will you be if you continue to ape the Holdings in all that you do. Our ways are not the same as theirs, and the other chiefs won’t stand for it if you try to re-make us in their image.’
‘Then let them challenge me,’ Agang said, staring down at him.
A messenger entered.
‘My lord,’ he bowed, oblivious to the tension in the room.
‘Speak,’ Agang said, keeping his eyes on Badranga.
‘A message from the valley,’ he said. ‘Toa Banga’s warriors have discovered the remains of Anganecht Bristang, his two sons, his brother, and his brother’s son, all slain on the battlefield, along with almost all of his battalion.’
Agang nodded to the messenger, and he left.
‘That accounts for
all of his male relatives,’ Hodang said. ‘By rights as high chief, his lands fall to you, my lord, now ruler of the Mya river tribes.’
Badranga’s mouth fell open. ‘Now I see,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘and I thought you’d honoured the old man by letting him lead the army.’
He looked up at Agang.
‘I won’t make that mistake again.’ He bowed low. ‘My lord.’
Chapter 10
Rainsby
Rainsby, Rahain-Occupied Plateau – 4th Day, Last Third Summer 505
The rain had been pouring all day, a summer squall over the gentle slopes that stretched all the way down to the shores of the Inner Sea.
The road had been churned to mud, and rivulets of water streamed into the over-flowing ditches on either side. Keira pulled the hood further across her face, her heavy clothes soaking, her boots sodden and falling apart. For nearly a third she had walked, alone. She had stayed close to the main road leading from where the new tunnel would exit. It ran alongside a river for the majority of the way, through countryside that was empty for the most part, excepting the odd farm and settlement. She had kept the river on her left, and headed north.
Towards Rainsby.
Back in Kell, while she had been resisting the Rahain occupation, she had met a few folk who had talked about the squalid Rahain town, and the large refugee camp that spread outside its walls. Nothing she had heard made her overjoyed to be going in that direction, but as she didn’t know the way back to her homeland, she had figured that at least she would be able to meet up with some of her own folk there, and find out what had been going on since her capture.
The leaden clouds made the early afternoon seem like dusk, and she re-joined the road as soon as she glimpsed the walls of the town ahead in the distance.
Her fears of being recognised were eased by how quiet the traffic was. The few Rahain she saw go past her on the road moved to the other side once they noticed her height. Several looked nervous, and clutched onto their possessions as they hurried to get by.
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