The Stonegate Sword

by Harry James Fox

  “Are those your terms? Any other demands?” asked Samuel.

  Balek Brown whispered in the general’s ear. He nodded.

  “We have been reminded that your forces committed an outrage, a cowardly ruse, and slew one very dear to our leader’s heart. Those responsible must pay—though we promise a fair trial. There are no other demands.”

  “Yet, if it would ease your mind, I would be willing to settle the matter by offering trial by combat, against our commander of horse. We will let skill in arms determine the right or wrong of it,” said the general, looking directly at Don.

  Don froze in his seat. He kept his face immobile, but he felt his forehead getting hot, his collar felt tight, and there was a throbbing at his temples. He said nothing. Samuel also sat in silence for a long minute.

  Samuel answered, at last. “We had a similar parley at near this very spot, a generation ago. Your sires made similar demands. We rejected them, and at the end of the day, we held your invading army at the very spot where we now sit. Why should we accept these terms now?”

  “Our army in those days was little more than a number of levies from our towns and cities,” answered the general. “They were hastily assembled with little training and as little thought for supplies. Our lord’s father tried to reason with them, but they insisted on punishing the many slights they had received. You stopped them, it is true. But you did not defeat them. The lack of food did that. Do not make the mistake of comparing this mighty army with that untrained militia of a generation ago.”

  “We are peaceable people,” said Samuel. “You continue to mention our many offenses. I know of none, except some steps that we have taken in self-defense. We are no threat to your empire and only wish to be left in peace. We will agree not to molest your army, and grant you the right of free passage through our lands, on the condition that you molest none of our people, farms, livestock, crops or towns. We will gladly offer these terms.”

  “I don’t know whether that was supposed to be a jest or a serious proposal,” returned the General. “I don’t know what your spies have told you, but General Logan commands an army of twenty-five thousand men. We have mighty engines of destruction, the like of which has not been seen since the elder days. It is the most mighty army that this valley has ever seen. And you offer us the right of free passage?”

  “And you want us to send our entire militia to fight against people that are not our enemies?” asked Samuel. “How do we know that once you have these soldiers that you will not then attack our defenseless towns?”

  “You question our honor?” asked the General. “It is we that should doubt yours. You are the ones that made an unprovoked attack on our border guards that we stationed here to keep the peace. You are the ones who drove defenseless farmers off their lands in this very valley. You are the ones that invaded our lands, and held critical military terrain for months! You are the ones that used dishonorable and treacherous tactics against our patrols. Many mothers are weeping today because of the young men who were slain from ambush. You started this war, not we.”

  He paused, then continued. “But, as I said, our lord is merciful and kindly disposed toward you, and does not wish the matter to be carried to its inevitable conclusion. I will keep this offer open until your towns are surrounded and we give the order to storm your walls. If you harm a hair on the head of any more of my men, the offer will be withdrawn. And that includes any deaths at the hands of your allies, the savages from the south.”

  “Once the storming of the walls has begun,” he concluded, “I will not restrain my soldiers. The towns will be given to them to sack and pillage. Many will die, and the survivors will long for death. That will be your certain fate unless you agree to my commander’s terms. Choose quickly.”

  “Let me just say this,” said Samuel. “Your so-called border guards were the most vile and loathsome collection of cutthroats that it has been my misfortune to encounter. They were the ones who preyed on the innocent, and when they attacked our patrol, we retaliated by wiping them out, as we still claim the ancient right of self-defense. It was your Raiders that attacked defenseless Diné villages and butchered women and children—so who can fault them for retaliating? We did clear the valley to spare the farmers from the depredations that you committed on them before. And where is your title deed to Grand Mesa? We do not recognize it as your territory. Again, our cavalry had every right to be there and to defend themselves!”

  General Frasier stood and replaced his helm, face turning crimson. He pulled a scroll from his belt and slammed it down on the table. “Look here, old man! This is all our territory!” he snarled. “This contains our terms! I want it signed by your leaders! And when you bring it back to me, you had better be on your knees—head bowed!”

  He pointed at Don. “I see that you are no more a match for Colonel Brown than my wife’s lap dog would be for a timber wolf. I hope you at least have the courage to find an honorable death. But I will see your head on a spear, perhaps on the rail of Glenwood bridge, before the week is out.”

  Then he spun on his heel and marched out, trailed by the others. Balek Brown looked back at Don and smirked. Then they were gone. The four looked at each other. They left the ale untouched. Don could find no words to say. Samuel spoke first: “Surely they did not expect us to believe them. Yet, their terms are amazingly generous. I wonder why.”

  “I think our proud general is under great pressure to move and move fast,” said Del. “He does not want to spend much time here. Perhaps he has delayed too much already.”

  “Perhaps so,” said John. “Perhaps we only have to prove that we are a hard nut to crack!”

  †

  The huge army moved cautiously up the valley, well screened by the heavy cavalry and Raiders. Heavily burdened with many wagons, they made barely ten miles per day, but did not stop. There were many that urged Samuel to make a stand at Battle Ridge as they had done before, but he insisted that it was not defensible against such a force. A much better position was the pass at New Castle. It also had been fortified, and the ridge was much higher and steeper. But even there, Samuel’s decision was the same. They did not have the force to defend it.

  Del Pembroke had said weeks earlier: “If I had ten thousand, I could defend the New Castle Ridge against thirty thousands. But we have not the force. Still, we have planned a ruse.”

  New Castle Pass was beautifully defensible terrain. A steep-sided ridge blocked the enemy’s advance. It looked as if a mighty hand had crafted it especially for this purpose. On the ride back from the parley, the delegation stopped and looked it over. The area was a beehive of activity. The road was barricaded, and the old stone walls had been refurbished. Hundreds of mannequins, made by the women of Ariel and Bethuel, lined the tops of the walls like silent sentinels, with mock weapons. Four ramps had been built behind the walls to emplace two ballistae and two catapults. A hundred banners flew from the walls. It looked like a serious defensive battle was planned.

  “I thought you said we would not defend this position,” said Don.

  “We will not,” returned Del. “This is for show only and to force the enemy to deploy. We think we can cost them a day and teach them some respect.”

  “You might think this is much effort to gain a day, Donald,” said Samuel. “But at last we have everyone, civilian and soldier alike, working to prepare the defenses. We can do more in that one additional day that we could have in a week of half-hearted effort.”

  “But we will take losses that we can ill afford,” said Don, cautiously.

  “We don’t think so,” returned Samuel. “Everyone here will have horses. When the enemy comes near to the walls, and we have finished punishing them, we will rapidly retreat. I expect losses to be light.”

  †

  The New Castle ruse was the first skirmish involving enemy infantry. The Diné mad
e a major contribution by screening the area south of the Kolaroo River. The scouts under Robert’s command tied their horses and took positions on the walls with their bows. They, as well as the mannequins, gave the impression of several thousand defenders. The horse troopers, now two hundred strong, took positions on the flanks. Don commanded the right with twenty crossbowmen, the Bows and the Javelins. Colin, having proved himself in the field, now commanded the Javelins, and Eric had taken his place as Don’s bodyguard. Robert was on the left flank, the more difficult position, with the Lances and the Blades and the other unit of crossbows.

  As terrible as an army with banners. This line of ancient poetry ran through Donald’s mind as he saw the enemy army approach. It came up in a marching column twenty men wide, then deployed into blocks of one thousand: one hundred wide and ten deep. They were methodical and slow. The blocks formed, then stretched into a line. The front of the army finally was seven blocks wide, and a long column behind still stretched for miles. Interspersed with the infantry blocks were smaller blocks of archers. Several horsemen, apparently the officers, rode with each block. The grand formation was hours in the making and moved slowly, but seemed unstoppable. Many of the soldiers were carrying siege ladders and pikes. Like the defenders, the Raiders and the heavy cavalry took positions on the advancing flanks. It was a magnificent and terrible sight. Don had never seen anything to compare with it. He looked at his companions, and they all sat their horses with jaws agape.

  A rider came from behind, apparently through the same small gate that they had used. Don looked back to see who it was. It was Samuel, followed closely by Bobby and Philip. “I thought I would take a look at the battle from here, Donald,” said Samuel. “Good Lord! It is a fearsome sight!”

  Don agreed heartily and said so. He smiled and nodded at Philip and got a cheeky grin in return. Bobby, obviously acting as Samuel’s bodyguard, gave a wave. Philip did not seem a bit intimidated. All the young feel immortal! I wish I still could believe that! Then two more riders came into view, unarmed except for short swords. They were two of the Ariel armorers, David and Charles, mounted on mules. They waved, and Don greeted them as well.

  The first ranks of the army were perhaps a bit over a quarter-mile away when the heavy cavalry began to charge towards Don’s position. They looked to be about four hundred. Obviously, they intended to pin the small force of horse troopers against the high stone wall to their rear. This was a real threat since the gate behind them was small, and escape would be difficult. The troopers lowered their war spears and prepared to defend themselves. Then a sudden blast like a thunderclap rang out, and a small black puff of smoke appeared over the leading enemy horsemen. Another blast came far to the left, a moment later. The scene became one of pandemonium. Frightened enemy horses scattered like quail, with their riders sawing on their reins. Many had to drop their spears to hang on and keep from being thrown off. Don’s troopers had something of the same problem, but their mounts were much farther from the blast, and were not unmanageable. When the dust had cleared, several horses were down and some saddles were empty. A few riders on runaway mounts were carried toward the waiting spears of the Bows, who quickly dispatched them. One riderless horse, bleeding from the neck and shoulder, came running on, and a horse trooper grabbed his reins.

  “Bring the horse here,” shouted David. The trooper complied and led the frightened horse over. The weapon smiths began examining the animal’s wounds with great interest.

  Don turned his gaze back to the shattered cavalry formation. The infantry had stopped, but after five minutes began to advance again. Then Don saw an object flying over the center infantry formation, and another black puff appeared, followed a split-second later by a third thunderclap, followed quickly by a fourth. The formation lost its orderly look, and dissolved into a mob. Don had clearly heard the officers shouting commands, but now their voices were drowned by a babel of shouts and screams. Don saw an officer striking his men with the flat of a sword. Then he saw what looked like a small spear fly across the field, take the mounted man square in the chest, and continue on past, speed little abated, to fall among the infantry.

  “Did you see that?” shouted Samuel, excitedly. “That was a dart from a ballista. Amazingly accurate.”

  “They care little for our ‘stings’ or our ‘thunderclaps,”’ shouted David. “Nicely done. They had the range on those shots.”

  A second ballista dart removed another officer in the center formation, and the entire unit promptly turned and began to run. The other units stopped and seemed to waver. Then another officer in one of the units farther to Don’s right fell from a third dart. Don did some calculations in his head. Clearly it took about four minutes to reload, because there were two, and a spear-like missile was being fired every two minutes. The accuracy was uncanny.

  “Those are our best ballista crews,” said Charles, who had remounted and rode up to Don and Samuel. “They can hit a two-foot wide target four times out of five at four hundred yards, or they would not be here.”

  The armorer explained that the catapults were throwing gunpowder bombs that were exploding in mid-air and throwing a spray of lead balls in every direction. They would have been devastating, except that there were only two catapults, and they could only fire once every five minutes. It did not appear that many soldiers had actually been hit, but they caused great terror and surprise. Indeed, the horse formations had still not re-assembled. “It is a shame to give away our surprises, but we have a few more for them,” he concluded.

  Two more puffs of smoke appeared over the center-right formulation, and another double thunderclap split the area. Don could feel a puff of concussion of his face. Snap jumped again, but his fright was not as great. The horses were all settling down. But the shock effect was also being lost on the enemy horses. Then the infantry formation, now missing two of its commanders, also turned and began a hasty retreat.

  Even now, with only five of the thousand-man formations left, the assault could have easily taken the New Castle Pass fortifications. The rate of fire of the ballistae and catapults was too slow to stop them. If they had simply charged the last three to four hundred yards, the defenders would have had no choice but to retire from the field. But they did not. Bugles sounded and the remaining formations turned and marched back and did not stop until they were about one thousand yards away.

  They left behind a few little clusters of dead and wounded on the field. The half-dozen horsemen killed by Don’s troopers were the only other enemy casualties, as apparently the cavalry on the left had not approached Robert’s position. Then a calm settled over the battlefield, except for some moans of the wounded. The medic, Thad, offered to go down and give them something for the pain, but his request was refused.

  Both sides held position until mid afternoon. Finally they could see movement in the enemy ranks. Something was coming forward. Don looked through his binoculars. It was a large, black object being drawn by an eight-horse hitch. It was a cannon!

  †

  The armorers were quite interested in the cannon and took turns looking at it through Don’s binoculars. The crew began setting it up about one thousand yards away. Samuel asked if now might perhaps be a good time to withdraw, but David recommended that they hold their positions. It would be valuable to observe the cannon being fired, and the risk from one shot would not be great.

  “They must think they are now safely out of range from our weapons,” commented Don.

  “They are correct,” said David, continuing to observe the process. “We might be able to get a ballista dart that far, but it would have no accuracy. It would have to be launched at such a steep angle that it would be coming down in an unpredictable way.”

  “Best not to try,” mused Samuel. “No use giving our maximum range away.” He turned to Philip. “Philip, go tell the ballista crews to hold their fire.” Philip rode off toward the sma
ll gate to their rear.

  “An amazing achievement,” commented David. “We are many years away from casting anything one fourth as big. It looks like a fifty-pounder. And they must have much gunpowder.”

  “They will have problems,” said Charles. “They are sitting on level ground, and this ridge is high. I doubt that they can elevate the tube high enough to reach us.”

  And so it proved. The gun fired with a cloud of gray smoke. The ball was clearly visible as it travelled in a high arc, but not high enough. It hit well down the slope, bounced in a white cloud of rock dust, then rolled back down. The thunder this time was deeper, more of a boom, but it seemed to echo from every hill and mountain and rattle the very trees. A great cheer came from the enemy lines. The horses jumped, but seemed only mildly startled. More activity could be seen at the gun carriage. They rolled it back in position from where the recoil had driven it.

  “The cannon ball is smaller than I would have expected,” said Don.

  “Yes,” said David. “A fifty-pounder would fire cast-iron balls about seven inches in diameter.”

  “They seem to be elevating the tube much higher than before, rather than raising the front of the carriage,” commented Charles. “That might be a mistake. The carriage will not be able to absorb the recoil so well.”

  The gun fired again after perhaps ten minutes. Don had the other pair of binoculars and was watching this time. The entire carriage seemed to be driven downward, then bounced up and rolled to the rear. Don lowered the binoculars and again could track the incoming arc of the ball. It still hit short, but was coming down at a much steeper angle and apparently buried itself in the ground. Again, the echoes rolled. The horses hardly stirred.

  “I think they shattered the gun carriage, or perhaps cracked the cannon trunnion,” said David. “They would have done better to have built a ramp to raise the muzzle. Hmm. There may have been a flaw in the casting.”