by John Olsen
The words rolled past her without meaning. Everyone around Saleena was in a rush that never quite touched her. She and Da sat with Runner and held him close. Time passed, and the rush subsided. Runner still breathed.
* * *
Gavin knelt beside Saleena, concerned she hadn’t moved the whole time as the other animals were attended to. The rest of the creatures were resting easily now. “Saleena, it’s time for you to get some sleep.”
She gave a nod and crawled over to her blanket where she had lain while bringing the mystery woman back. She put her cattle crystals on, then curled up and took a few deep breaths.
Satisfied she was all right, Gavin returned to Draken who inspected the small wooden chest from the enemy camp.
Draken pulled the cork from a bottle and sniffed. “This is a lot of sleep juice, even for training. Ten empty bottles could knock out an army.” His eyes grew wide, and he swore a stream in a language Gavin had never heard before.
A puzzle piece fell into place in Gavin’s mind. “The Baron’s Conference. They were drugged. No wonder. They must have used it on her as well.” He pointed at the woman bundled head to toe in blankets, nothing but a shock of hair showing in the moonlight. Her feet had been cleaned and bandaged, and they had done what they could to make her comfortable.
Gavin said, “She hasn’t woken up at all, even when Saleena woke up after controlling her.”
Draken said, “Sleep juice will do that. It’s used when training particularly difficult animals, and it’s horribly expensive. This might explain the barony’s empty treasury. While using this, you can control an animal even when it’s out cold. It normally lasts only for an hour or two on a large beast. They must have given a lot of it to her. I don’t know how long it will take to wear off.”
Gavin’s eyes drooped as he nodded. “We’ll wait and deal with her when she wakes up. We’d better get a little rest before it gets light. It’s been a long night, and it will be a lot worse tomorrow.”
Saleena faced Willem with her hands on her hips. “If we get overrun, it will be too late. You need to wear some armor, at least.”
“I don’t have any. Don’t need it, don’t want it.”
She shook her head and bit her tongue to hold back a string of names which would have been both accurate and childish. “Look. I think I have at least an old spaulder from when Gavin beat the two men.”
“And a bear. Don’t forget the bear. You can’t forget to idolize him for that, too.”
She climbed the wagon to rummage through her things and mumbled, “I don’t have time for this.” She understood his response was because she had been short with him, but she was still annoyed. Finally, she came across the layered leather spaulder, still near the battered camping pack from what seemed like forever ago. She tossed the shoulder armor down to Willem. “The buckles should let you adjust it to extra small.” As soon as she said it, she knew it was a mistake. It wasn’t fair for her to take out her frustrations on him. Runner’s brush with death had hit her hard, and the smallest things were setting her off this morning as the sky lit up with orange-tinted clouds.
The pack tipped as she dropped it, and the contents spilled out. An old case with a lock on it landed on one corner and broke open. With a sigh of exasperation, she sat down to ram everything back into the pack and came across a letter with a wax seal. It had Gavin’s name on it. “Willem, why would a bandit’s letter have Gavin’s name on it?”
“Don’t ask me. I don’t read. Too stupid and too little.” He twisted the armor this way and that, working out how to adjust all the buckles.
“I need to get this to Gavin.”
Willem glared at her where she stood on the wagon, holding the note. “It’s waited a long time with no problem. It’ll still be there later. We need to get going. We’re already late since you made me get this.” He shrugged into the shoulder piece and fastened the iron buckles.
She nodded and tucked the envelope into a pouch on her hip. “Fine. There. Now you can only be stabbed on most of your body instead of all of it.” She jumped down and rapped her knuckles on his new armor. “Let’s go. They’ve set up a guarded perimeter around where we’ll spread out.”
Most of the team was already gathered. In addition to the regulars, she saw Royn, the leatherworker who had taken over most of the day-to-day herd management. “What are you doing up here, Royn?”
“I had to show you what I finished. The armor is rough, and it doesn’t fit well, but every head of cattle with a crystal now has a neck guard and some heavy leather to cover their, um, chuck, brisket, and ribs.”
She nearly burst out in laughter at the use of meat cuts to describe the areas he’d armored, but it told her what he’d done faster than any other description would have. They would have armor on the front, and a little past their shoulders. Anything would help. “Thank you, Royn. I hope to make you proud today.”
Behind her, Willem sniffed, then said, “We about ready? I’m heading over to spread myself out now. There’s a shady spot under the wagons.”
Saleena hadn’t seen the cats arrive, but Willem assured her they survived the night without serious injury. She hadn’t been aware of much last night after the fight. Thinking about it made her alternately sad and angry, wanting to weep, and then wanting to rip the enemy to shreds over Runner’s injuries. The cattle might pick up on her mood as she controlled them. She needed to gain focus for the coming battle, or they would become too aggressive for their own good and endanger themselves and her.
Her blankets lay under a cloth pavilion with most of the others. Willem could hide away on his own if he wanted, but she needed to be part of the team. She slipped into a trance and became aware of over three dozen views of the hillside as she took control of the herd mind. Several of the cattle had a view of the space between the camps, and she saw the enemy animals and men forming up below. This would be a messy, deadly day.
* * *
Gavin gazed over the open field as the sun’s first rays lit the sparse trees. There was no sunlight advantage either way since the enemy was to the north. Their night raid had sown some chaos, but the force below them still fielded an impressive array of bears, mountain lions, wolves, a couple of moose, and some more exotic northern animals he hadn’t seen before.
Carnivore or not made little difference. If they were large and had antlers, horns, claws, hooves, or teeth they were of use in a fight. Most of them wore metal or leather plates of fitted armor. He’d seen Saleena use her herd to take out a single bear, but now they faced a whole line of trained, armored war animals. Rather than overwhelming one opponent, they would need to rely on strategy and tactics to push the fight in their favor. Aside from the high ground, they had a few advantages the enemy didn’t know about. The herd performed more precisely under Saleena’s control than any group of people could manage. They would have to use that to their advantage, and it would only surprise the enemy once.
A hundred footmen formed up in front of the enemy animals in the valley below. This was a change. In the past, they’d always run the animals in first. Maybe they had hit harder than he gave his team credit for, or, more likely, they were wary of traps.
The army was smaller than the original estimates of five-hundred men, and Gavin was thankful Adrian had the rest running a merry chase. They still had too many men ready to fight compared to his forces. Success seemed a remote chance, but they had to try.
Saleena had brought back several crystals, and their squirrel had come back with cheeks bulging to capacity. The war animals had left some of the stolen crystals hidden in the enemy camp for lack of hands to carry them. All of the crystals they had taken, aside from the one, had been the animal’s half of the pair. Gavin had no way to make use of those animals or crystals for the battle, but the enemy couldn’t use them, either. The animals could be set free, but there was no way to tell who or what they might attack, or if they would flee into the countryside. Those animals were useless now unless they rounded up
spare crystals, and spares were always rare.
It was a waste of time to second-guess himself. Everything had been set in motion, and, as usual, precious few of the final details were up to him. He came up with the main strategy and then let the individual experts figure out how to make the tactics work. If this was what leadership was like, it was overvalued.
His own forces were meager. He had the cattle and a couple of oxen, as well as the wolves and dogs who remained. They had switched a few crystals to uninjured animals, but those animals had almost no training. There was no time. Draken’s wolf was in good enough shape to make a difference, even without her tail. The smaller creatures had escaped without serious injury, probably because they were so easy to overlook.
Gavin smiled at the thought of how such small creatures had made such a big difference. It wasn’t so much what you had as how you used it. He saw himself in the same category, small and usually ignored, but thrust into the line of duty to perform unexpected and heroic miracles. So far, those miracles hadn’t included winning a head-to-head battle.
He caught a hint of movement near the top of the hill as the cats and badgers picked their way through the tall grass. In moments, they were lost to his sight. He never saw the smaller ones at all. He had little idea what a rat could do against a bear or moose, but their job was to get behind the enemy and hit targets of opportunity, and then get out of the way as fast as possible.
The enemy forces slowly advanced up the hill in formation. It was hard for Gavin to pick out details at this distance, but the men up front seemed to be pointing at the cattle at the top of the hill. Gavin retrieved a spyglass, borrowed from Draken, and put it to his eye. Draken had threatened to break his fingers if harm came to the spyglass, so he held it with care. The men below pointed at the cattle and laughed, making rude gestures. That would change soon. Because of the raid, Gavin’s unconventional war animals accounted for more crystals than those of the enemy’s army. The enemy still had far more training in war.
The men below formed into lines two deep, with bows in the back and pikes up front to destroy any direct charge. The cattle wouldn’t survive if Saleena had to face them head on, but she said she had a plan. The cattle’s armor would help, but not enough by itself. If those men diverted by Adrian had made it back, the fight would have been quick and deadly. Now they had a slim chance if everything worked in their favor.
His men had no front row of pikes, but he did have archers and swordsmen armed with a mix of their personal bows and the weapons Adrian had brought back from Greenvale. They stood behind the cattle. Women were mixed in among the men, everyone taking their place to defend those they cared for.
They had several swordsmen deployed to guard the Crystal Cabal, yet many had little or no training. An old, retired army bugler stood to Gavin’s side, ready to send signals out to the field, but each group was responsible for their own actions now that the larger strategy had been laid out. They only needed a signal from him to put the battle plan into motion.
The enemy footmen below reached a predetermined location, and Gavin said, “Now.”
A horn blast echoed across the field, and the cattle turned downhill, moving as one. Gavin’s archers held back until the enemy pike men came into range. Their volley fell among the rows of men far downhill. They didn’t have enough men to do a real rain of arrows, but every little bit helped.
The cattle gained speed until they were at a full run, straight at the pike men who stopped and braced their pikes directly up the hill, ready to receive the attack. The men of the enemy front line were brave, he’d give them that. Few men would stand in the face of a full charge of any animal. The archers behind the enemy pike men let loose with a volley, and to Gavin’s disappointment, a few of the cattle now had arrows rising from their backs. None fell.
At the last instant, the cattle shifted direction, turning hard to the left in a wave so they could hit the front line almost sideways. It was a move nobody could coordinate if you had individuals each controlling each animal. The enemy had no way to predict it or protect themselves from it — the first time. A few of the pike men turned their weapons to receive attackers at the new angle, but they tangled their pikes when most remained in the useless forward position. The cattle hit the pike men, then ran down the row, tossing them aside like rag dolls or crushing them whenever beast and man collided. A few cattle swung wide to threaten the archers, reducing their attacks. Several archers dropped back out of the way, but they moved back up as soon as the wave of cattle stampeded past.
Because of the direction change, more of the damage hit the left side of the pike line. The cattle peeled to the left again and retreated up the hill. Gavin supported Draken when he denied Saleena’s request to plow straight through and go head-to-head with the larger war animals. A normal charge would lead to the destruction of the whole herd and the loss of the battle.
The cattle charge missed most of the enemy archers. The archers fired at the retreating cattle, hitting where the animals had no armor. Gavin’s archers were useless. They risked hitting the cattle if they tried to shoot that far. The enemy war animals behind the archers closed the gap, moving forward to prepare for a counterattack. The enemy force of war animals had been reduced by their night raid, but they still formed a great animal army, able to kill any who ended up in their way.
The cattle appeared to be in disarray as they ran back up the hill, but that was part of the plan. The enemy wouldn’t know they were controlled as a single unit and would, hopefully, misjudge their readiness for their next attack. Gavin spotted the men below shouting orders to the animals. Gavin gave no orders since the plan was still mostly intact.
A lucky archer lobbed a high, indirect shot and hit one of the cattle in a rear leg, taking it down. It got back up but limped as it moved. The armor did its job, deflecting much of the attack against the herd with the poorly aimed pikes and the sporadic arrows, but Saleena had to be in a lot of pain. Gavin glanced at her and saw she was drenched in sweat even in the cool morning air.
Gavin had given so much attention to the movements of the men that he had paid little attention to the war animals behind them. With a sudden rush, the animals ran through gaps in their front line, intent on reaching the cattle now that the field had been shown to be free of traps.
Some of the enemy animals howled and turned rather than charge. Tiny shapes darted away into the grass while the remainder of the animals came up the hill at full speed. His team of small animals did their best, but it wasn’t enough to make a real difference as most of the force charged up the hill.
As one again, the cattle turned in place and aimed at one of the largest enemy animals out front, a huge brown bear. It was a repeat of Gavin’s first sight of the cattle fighting together. They streamed in from all angles with perfect spacing to barely miss each other. One after the other, they hit their target until it dropped. Saleena took opportunistic shots at others with horns and hooves as the cattle sped past. Without the concentrated power of the group, they took as many swipes as they gave on those secondary targets. Three smaller war animals were taken out by the cattle, while four of the cattle collapsed when their legs were taken out from under them. Several animals pounced on the fallen cattle to make sure they stayed down.
Gavin spotted his father’s black bear among those shredding a fallen animal. Was his father controlling the one-eared bear, or was it someone else? It was impossible to tell.
After breaking the charge, the cattle fled back up the hill among a scattered hail of arrows. Again, more of Saleena’s force failed to make it back up the hill. The enemy war animals reformed outside of Gavin’s archer’s range. Even the strongest and least injured of the cattle struggled from all the running. Those that remained needed a rest.
Apparently, the enemy saw the same thing as the men and animals charged again. The animals loped along easily behind the men as they waited for a signal to break into a charge.
Gavin turned to the bugler. “W
e need the archers to hit them as the animals cut between their men to come forward. It’s a more concentrated target.”
The command didn’t work well. They barely had enough archers to wear the enemy down as their war animals surged. It wasn’t enough. Gavin’s animals were falling faster than the enemy’s.
Gavin spared a glance back at Saleena. With the damage her cattle had taken, it amazed Gavin that she kept control of her herd. He had never considered the pain she and her cattle endured in their initial training against mountain predators, just like he had never considered the pain of those who fought in wars with trained animals. Now people fought, suffered and died at his command.
Saleena ran the cattle down again to meet the approaching war animals and then broke into another formation aimed at their front rank. A moose formed the tip of a triangle formation charging at full-speed. Gavin heard the collision from his vantage point on the hill when horns and antlers tangled at high speed. Saleena sacrificed at least three animals in full speed collisions to pierce through armor and take out the largest animals at the head of the enemy’s charge in a one-for-one trade.
The enemy’s momentum broke, but the field was strewn with corpses and injured bodies of both men and beasts. Two enemy bears broke all the way through to the hilltop where they crashed through some swordsmen and attacked the archers in a desperate bid to reach Gavin’s position near the Crystal Cabal. Men and women screamed in rage and pain as the fight was joined.
Without warning, the mystery woman looked around, and then leaped toward the two bears. She ran her wrist bonds against the sword of a fallen guard to free herself, then grabbed the sword as she raced forward. She screamed two men’s names at the bears who both turned to face her. She spun in place, swinging the sword in a great circle, then let the sword fly like a giant throwing knife, piercing the leather chest armor of the lead bear to sink a hand span into its flesh. The bear batted it free, only slightly injured. Gavin’s forces and the woman shared an enemy, and that was good enough for him. She now had the full attention of both animals.
