Godless World 2 - Bloodheir

by Brian Ruckley

  Aewult kicked a loose pebble into the water. He followed it to the edge of the quay and peered down at the waves.

  "Tired and old, indeed," he said without lifting his gaze. "You needn't worry. You can stay here tomorrow, while we carve a path back to Anduran for your Thane. If he ever sees fit to grace us with his presence. Perhaps his duty has called him elsewhere."

  The Bloodheir swung about and set off up the road towards the market square. His Shield clattered into loose ranks before and behind him. Taim had to hurry to keep up. He was tempted to ask Aewult what it was he thought he knew about Orisian's whereabouts, but was not inclined to feed the Bloodheir's sense of his own importance.

  "The Black Road seems more numerous than we thought," he said as they strode along. "All the reports suggest the Horin-Gyre Blood is no longer the only foe we face. And Inkallim--"

  Aewult cut him short with a flourish of his gloved hand. "You and your Thane shouldn't have been in such haste to leave Kolkyre, if you've not the stomach for a fight. I've got enough men here to give me the stomach for anything." He came to an abrupt halt and jabbed a finger at Taim. "You are the rearguard now. Haig'll do the killing that's needed to win this war."

  Taim was uncomfortably aware that they were attracting attention. A whole family huddled on the doorstep of a bakery had turned their heads at the sound of Aewult's voice. Half a dozen men carrying firewood down towards the harbour had stopped to watch. Above, an old woman was peering curiously out from a window.

  "We should march with you," Taim suggested as evenly as he could. "You've still got hundreds of warriors strung out on the road, not even here yet. My men can kill for you as well as your own."

  "I'll tell you what you should do, Captain of Anduran: you should do as I command. I am here, your Thane is not. Unless you can produce him, and have him command you otherwise, you're bound to do as I tell you. Are you not?"

  "Yes, sire."

  Aewult grunted, a satisfied smirk briefly stretching his mouth, and set off once more. Taim followed with a heavy heart. The Bloodheir was right: in Orisian's absence, he had no choice but to obey whatever instruction Aewult saw fit to give him. Any other course would lead to an open breach with Haig. However appealing that prospect might be in some respects, here and now it would be a disaster.

  Up ahead, Aewult's shieldmen were like the prow of a boat, ploughing a path through the thickening mass of people as they drew closer to the square.

  "It might be worth delaying your advance a little while, sire," Taim tried again. "Anyone here could tell you there's going to be foul weather the next day or two. Heavy snow'll blunt any advantage you have in numbers, or in horsemen. Wait until your stragglers have caught up. If it's true that the Black Road's stronger than we--"

  "If it's true, if it's true. Enough. I will not wait here for your Thane to arrive, if that's what you hope. I have an army, and an enemy within reach of it. If I wait for good weather in this miserable corner of the world, I'll still be here come the spring thaw. Whatever you hoped for when you snuck out of Kolkyre, this is not your battle to fight. Not your victory to win, do you understand?"

  "I do," Taim sighed.

  "Then bite your tongue. Tomorrow, you'll see what the men of Haig can do. It might be a valuable lesson for you and your boy-Thane."

  II

  Aewult nan Haig's army was a lethargic thing. It woke out of a cold night slowly, discouraged by the gloomy sky and the sharp-edged wind that was gusting off the sea and carrying tiny, hard flakes of snow. Long after dawn, when they should have been formed into columns or already on the move, men were still clustered around fires, arguing over trifles or silently eating gruel. The whole army stank of resentment and reluctance.

  The invisible sun climbed higher. The snow grew heavier and cast a white dusting over the town, the army's camp and the road north. At last, with abundant ill humour, the host began to move. They trudged in their thousands around and through Kolglas, choking every street and farmland path, spilling into the fringes of the forest.

  Taim Narran was posted a little way north of the town, five hundred of his men flanking the road. He sat astride his horse and watched Aewult's army pass. He saw some companies he would count as ready for battle: straight-backed spearmen who marched behind a Vaymouth banner; Taral-Haig riders, their mounts clad in stiff hide bards; a loose crowd of skirmishers from the Nar Vay shore, exuding a murderous enthusiasm. Most, though, appeared short on both vigour and spirit. Heads hung low, feet dragged. Few had clothing fit for the wintry conditions. Taim could see canvas wrapped around boots that were too thin now that snow was falling. Many men had removed their helmets and replaced them with warmer, softer caps. The warriors of the Kilkry Blood would have done much to strengthen and fortify this host, Taim reflected, if Aewult had permitted them to gather and march.

  Aewult nan Haig and his Palace Shield were like a glittering precious stone set in the tawdry sludge of his army. The shieldmen had evidently been polishing their breastplates. Aewult's magnificent horse - a huge beast - had its mane plaited, and its head encased with moulded, hinged silver armour. Some of the shieldmen were beating their drums, though the snow and wind conspired to thin out the sound and rob it of its force.

  The Bloodheir peeled away from the column and came cantering up to Taim's position. His Shield followed and drew to a halt in a long, bright line.

  "Enough to do what needs to be done," Aewult said with a flourish of his arm. It was not a question.

  "I hope so, lord," Taim said.

  "You're not to move from this position, whatever happens. I'll send word to you if your company is needed. If my messengers do not find you here, it will count against you when all this is done."

  "Of course," Taim said tightly. "I will be here until I am commanded otherwise. Or until night falls."

  "Ha!" The Bloodheir turned his horse hard about. "This'll be done long before nightfall. You'll see."

  "Dusk comes early at this time of year," Taim murmured, but Aewult was already gone.

  As the snow grew heavier, Taim had his men set up tents and move most of the horses into the fringes of the forest for shelter. Fires were lit and pots of broth set over them. A band of Haig warriors detached themselves from the passing army and demanded food and a place by one of the fires. By the time Taim got there and ordered them away, fists were being clenched and insults thrown. They were not the only ones to split away from the great, slow column. A dozen or more sick-looking men sat down by the side of the road and huddled there, despondent and apathetic, while the snow settled all around them.

  Taim saw other small groups simply turn around and head back down the road towards Kolglas, like stubborn fish swimming against the current. One such band of reluctant warriors - men from the far west of Ayth-Haig to judge by their accents, and better than half-drunk to judge by their loudness - was intercepted by a harassed-looking captain in the midst of the column, and commanded to resume the march. There were threats, and shouting, and eventually violence. Two men were dead and others wounded before the mutinous company was compelled to obedience. Taim watched all this with a cold sense of trepidation settling over his heart.

  The falling snow thinned. The sky lightened a fraction, the wind eased and fluttered back and forth as if unsure of its destination. Taim had dismounted and was sharing a loaf of bread with some of his men. He glanced up, and thought for one moment that he even glimpsed the globe of the sun, smeared through the clouds. It had begun its descent towards the horizon now; half the day was gone. The swirling wind was carrying a faint hint of sound on it. All around, men were waving at their companions to silence them, angling their heads to try to catch whatever message the erratic wind sought to deliver. Taim, like all of them, recognised the sound well enough. It was a formless thing, but he knew of what it was made: feet and hoofs, blades and cries, the clatter of shields and press of bodies. Somewhere far up the road, the head of Aewult's army had found the battle it sought.

  The c
louds soon thickened and reasserted their grip. The world was returned to a kind of twilight gloom. The wind swung back into the west and drove fresh snow in off the sea. Taim led his horse into the shelter of a clump of bushes and waited there, in silence, with a knot of his most experienced warriors. They watched, without surprise, as the flow of the mighty Haig army along the road faltered and fragmented. Fewer and fewer warriors were trudging up from Kolglas, and ever more of those who did were stopping and flinging themselves down, pulling cloaks over their heads and curling in their protection like soft boulders. Wagons had got stuck in the roadside ditch. The tide of the army slackened. For a short time, there was nothing more than a scattering of men, disorganised and unmoving, strung out along the road. Then the tide was ebbing and, though Taim had heard no command given, men were no longer marching out from Kolglas but back towards it.

  Soon after that, the messenger came to Taim: a young man, with blood on his face and a feverish urgency in his eyes. He struggled to control his panting and foaming horse as he shouted his message.

  "You're to bring every man you have to the Bloodheir. At once, without delay."

  Taim swung up onto his horse and set about unbuckling his shield from where it lay across his back.

  "Where is the Bloodheir?" he asked. Already, his men were hurrying to ready themselves.

  "Glasbridge! Make for Glasbridge!" The messenger sounded almost angry, though perhaps it was only the backwash of fear. "You'll find the Bloodheir that way."

  Taim grimaced up at the waves of snow tumbling down. "I'll be lucky to find him anywhere," he muttered.

  "Every man you have!" the messenger cried as he spun away and was carried off by his distressed mount.

  "Three hundred," Taim shouted after him, then as much to himself as anyone: "No more. I'll not blindly lead all the strength my Blood has left into this storm."

  The wind died as they rode. Fat, heavy snowflakes thronged the air like congealed fragments of cloud. Hundreds upon hundreds of warriors, some exhausted, some wounded, some merely lost, crowded the road. It was as Taim and others had told Aewult nan Haig: this would be snowfall enough to still the world, to confound all the intents and desires of men. Even the rocky shoreline was acquiring a white dusting in the space between each set of waves. The sea receded into obscurity as ever more dense curtains of snow rolled in from the west. The mills and cottages on the landward side of the road faded behind wintry veils. It was, Taim kept thinking as he led his men on along the coast, weather fit for disaster. With every pace his horse took, the road was disappearing beneath its hoofs.

  There were corpses - and perhaps the living too, for it was not always easy to tell the difference - here and there along the roadside: black bundles heaped up and now coated with white. Arrows, bolts and broken spears were scattered around, and a few dead horses. Once, without warning, a shower of arrows came skimming out of the snowstorm. There was no way of telling their source. A couple of men cried out, horses screamed. A few riders set off in search of the unseen archers but Taim called them back.

  They came to a great swathe of the dead. Bodies were piled up along the line of a ditch and bank - now little more than great white undulations in the earth - that had been thrown across the road. The wounded were crawling around, clambering over their fallen comrades. Some were weeping, some crying out for help. One man, his left arm broken and torn, was stumbling around stabbing feebly, one-handed, with his spear. Perhaps he was killing the enemy wounded; perhaps he was killing the already dead. A score or more of injured Haig men had gathered together, huddling in the ditch, watching one another die.

  "Where is the Bloodheir?" Taim shouted down at them.

  They looked up at him, and he saw shock, fear, emptiness in their faces.

  "Have you a healer?" one of them asked him. "We need a healer."

  "Tell me where the Bloodheir is first," he insisted.

  They did not know, but Taim left three of his men to give them what aid they could, and get those who would live back to Kolglas. He rode up and over the bank. Beyond, the ground as far as he could see was strewn with bodies. Hundreds had fallen here, warriors of the Black Road and the True Bloods alike, but the battle had moved on. It was somewhere out there, in the grey-white clouds of snow. Taim took his men onwards in search of it.

  They were attacked soon after. Seventy or eighty assailants came howling out of a scrawny stand of trees. Not many of them had any armour, or even proper weapons. Fearless, they swept down on Taim's column, brandishing sickles and axes, cudgels and long knives. Many stumbled and fell in the snowdrifts; many others fell as soon as they came within reach of the Lannis men. Enough closed up to turn a short stretch of the road into a brutal little battle. Taim kept his horse on a short rein. He worked methodically, hacking down one attacker after another. It was soon over.

  The further up the coast road they went, the more uneasy Taim became. He heard bursts of battle from further inland, never close or clear enough to tempt him towards them. Aewult's great army had been engulfed and dismembered by the snowstorm. A frightened band of Haig warriors came streaming down the road from the direction of Glasbridge. Many of them were wounded, others had cast aside their weapons. As they barged their way past, Taim leaned down and seized one of them by the collar.

  "What's happening?" he demanded of the man. "Where's the Bloodheir?"

  "Who knows?" the warrior cried, and tore himself free.

  More figures were rushing down the buried road in the footsteps of the fleeing Haig company. These were different, though: matted hair, hide jackets adorned with fragments of bone and ivory, long spears with extravagantly barbed points. Tarbains. Taim had fought them once or twice in his youth, when he was scouting into and beyond the Vale of Stones from Tanwrye. He knew how best to meet them. He swung his sword above his head and charged the tribesmen, crying out as he went. His men followed. The Tarbains halted. Some of them launched spears that arced down into the mass of horsemen. Breaks and contortions in the rolling thunder of hoofs told Taim that more than one of the missiles found its mark, but the Tarbains were not inclined to test their skills against mounted men. The whole ragged band of them scattered from the line of the road, streaming inland over a flat, blank white field.

  Taim reined in his mount at once, and a single shouted command was enough to call back his warriors. There was no point in wasting time and the horses' strength trying to run down Tarbains in deep snow. They had a more important purpose here. Taim allowed himself to wonder only briefly how he was supposed to fulfil that purpose, if he could not even find Aewult nan Haig. There was nothing to do put press on down the gullet of this great wintry beast.

  The air was now so thick with snow that sight failed beyond two score paces. Taim's world had collapsed to this strange, enclosed white space, beyond which strange sounds - indistinct but terrible - rose and fell. He turned his head this way and that, trying to make some sense of what he heard, but the same blurred cacophony seemed to lie all around beyond the curtain of falling snow. He glimpsed figures and raised his sword; they were gone at once, as if they had been mere momentary darkenings in the air's featureless expanse.

  His men were clustered together behind him. Their silence betrayed their apprehension. Taim peered this way and that. Even the course of the road ahead was lost, hidden beneath a white blanket. Anger - a clenched ire born out of anxiety - knotted his stomach. It was impossible to fight like this, half blind and half deaf. He had not led the survivors of Gryvan's war against Igryn oc Dargannan-Haig all the way here just to throw their lives away.

  He was on the point of turning his company back when a surge of sound reached him, holding its shape in his ear long enough for him to fix its direction. There was battle somewhere close ahead. He urged his horse forwards, gesturing for the others to keep pace with him. And soon enough there was a trail they could follow: corpses; a broad field where the snow and earth and blood had been churned into a filthy, trampled mess; and voices, scream
ing and shouting above the ringing of blades and shields. There was a heaving mass of figures. It was a formless thing, a dark, turbulent thundercloud pressed down by the weight of tumbling snow. Amidst it, Taim glimpsed momentary flashes of armour, a torn banner swaying back and forth like the mast of a tempest-shaken ship. It was Aewult's Palace Shield, beset. And where his Shield was, the Bloodheir must be.

  "Here you are," Taim cried over his shoulder to his men. He rattled his sword against the face of his shield. "Here's battle for you! Here's the Black Road, that killed your Thane and burned your homes!"

  The charge was reckless and wild, across treacherous ground strewn with the dead, through the blizzard. There was no time to tell friend from foe, only to stab and slash as they crashed into the throng of warriors. Taim's horse reared and stamped, lunged on into the fray. Men and women went down before it. Taim swung and his blade sent someone's helmet spinning away. A spear lanced in across the front of his hips. He hacked down on the shaft and cracked it. His shield shook, and he saw a crossbow bolt fixed there. Another spear punched into his horse's shoulder and stayed there for a moment, dragged from its wielder's hands. It fell away as the horse staggered, sinking, before surging up and on again. Someone - a woman - was running past, fleeing perhaps. Taim cut at the back of her neck.

  He could see the Palace Shield, surrounded by a thick press of Black Road warriors. He cut his way towards them, trusting his men to follow. His horse stumbled and its forequarters plunged down. It twisted onto its side, throwing Taim. The snow was deep and it smacked, wet and cold, into his face. It filled his mouth and clung to his face. His body acted without the need for thought. He kept hold of his sword, rolled, and then he was on his feet, spitting snow, in time to turn the first spear thrust aside with his shield. Another came in from his flank, but he was already stepping back and out of its path. A backhanded swordstroke hit the spearman on the shoulder and knocked him down. In the empty, still part of his mind that took over at such moments, Taim registered his own warriors surging past, saw the mounted figure of Aewult nan Haig up ahead. He heard his horse struggling to rise behind him, spun around and flung a leg across the saddle. It bore him up.