by Sam Ferguson
Arkyn shook her head. “Two score, perhaps a few more, it was hard to count through the smoke. I only caught a couple of glimpses on my way out to you.”
“I can handle that,” Gorin said. “I already proved as much back at Kuldiga Academy.
“Let’s not waste time arguing,” Arkyn said finally. “Let’s move.” She pointed to a couple fellow archers. “You see to it that everyone gets to the manor. Orres and Lepkin are expecting you. Peren, Gorin, and I will delay the enemy.”
The archers nodded and started moving quickly. Lady Arkyn took a mental note. Not counting Orres, herself, Wendal, Peren, and Gorin, there were twelve masters, most of whom were in decent enough shape, but some could use fresh bandages at the very least. Any time they could rest while House Lokton fought would be a welcome respite as well.
“Leave the horses with us,” Peren said. He smiled at Arkyn. “It will help even the odds a bit. She regarded him curiously but nodded her consent. Peren walked to the horses and grabbed their reins. “This is going to be fun,” he promised them.
The three went toward the enemy, keeping their pace slow enough to stay just inside the thickening smoke where they could remain hidden. They could hear the clanking armor coming closer. Sticks snapped under foot and men shouted at each other as they made their way.
Lady Arkyn gave a soft whistle to Gorin and gestured that she was going to kneel in a copse of young saplings. She pulled several arrows from her quiver and stuck them in the ground in front of her. Gorin nodded and walked out several yards to the left, hiding next to a large, leaning oak. He pulled his knife loose and twirled his hammer in front of him before jerking his head to the side and cracking his neck.
Peren walked ahead, to the edge of the smoke. Arkyn could see all but the back of his head as the smoke there was beginning to descend lower under the push of a breeze. The horses stood, flanking him. One of them nickered and pawed at the ground with its hoof. The other snorted and struggled to keep its nose below the smoke. Peren released the reins and started weaving his hands in front of him.
The clanking armor came closer. The steady, heavy footsteps were almost in synch with each other, as though they marched to drums. Lady Arkyn squinted and looked under the curtain of smoke, just making out the first glints of armor through the forest. Someone in the oncoming group let out a shout and then the footsteps broke rhythm. She could tell that each soldier was running forward separately. They had seen Peren.
She set an arrow to the string and went to pull back but she stopped as a column of orange and red fire encircled Peren, ripping through the smoke. Lady Arkyn raised a hand to shield her eyes from the intense light. Even with her keen sight, she could not see beyond to the enemy, but their frantic cries told her that something awful had stopped them in their tracks. The light and fire disappeared and there, where Peren and the horses had stood, were a pair of beasts the like of which she had never seen before.
Each monster stood upon hind legs as thick as tree trunks, with sharp talons stretching out from their scaled feet. Long, barbed tails swished back and forth behind them and their arms were tipped with sharp, curved claws instead of hands. The enemy stood before them, petrified and unmoving. The beasts emitted low growls from behind their massive, fur covered heads.
“This should be good,” Peren whispered as he appeared next to Lady Arkyn.
“What did you do?” she asked. He winked and pointed back to the beasts. She turned back to see a man on horseback charging forward with his sword drawn.
The beast on the left moved impossibly fast. Despite its massive size it weaved in between the trees and lashed out with its right claw, severing the horseman in half. Then it brought its left claw down from above, drilling the horse through its neck and pinning it to the ground. The beast on the right launched forward, jumping over the first two lines of warriors and crushing several men under its talons. The enemy erupted into action. They descended upon the beast, swinging and hacking at it with swords and axes. The beast lashed out with its claws, sending men flying into nearby trees with such force that they broke through the lower branches and then bounced off the ground.
Lady Arkyn sucked in a breath and averted her eyes. “What are those things?” she asked. Peren didn’t answer her, he was busy weaving his fingers in the air and muttering arcane words that she did not recognize. She looked back to the enemy and watched as the two beasts tore through their ranks. It seemed that they were unstoppable. Within a mere couple of moments the entire group of warriors lay broken on the ground and the beasts snorted and howled their triumph.
“We should be good to go now,” Peren said. “I will send them to greet our enemy.”
Lady Arkyn nodded and whistled for Gorin. The large man nodded and cast one more glance at the beasts before joining them.
“Remind me to pay you the four copper pieces I owe you,” Gorin told Peren. “Don’t want you to send those things to collect the debt.”
Peren snorted. “Four copper pieces wouldn’t cover the trouble,” Peren said.
“Why didn’t you do that at the academy?” Lady Arkyn asked.
Peren shrugged. “I have to be standing with the animal I am going to change,” he said. “At the academy I was inside with no animals nearby.”
“Couldn’t you turn the enemy soldiers?” she asked.
Peren shook his head. “No, I can only change animals. Besides that, I have to be able to get the animal to assent to my spell for it to work. It may have looked easy, but that is the biggest change I have ever been able to create successfully.”
“What happens if you don’t succeed?” Gorin asked as they started back for the manor.
“You don’t want to know,” Peren said honestly.
*****
Gondok’hr turned his horse to the side and trotted out to the southern side of the field. The screams and shouts that erupted from the trees let him know that something had caught his men, and they had met a horrible fate. He halted his horse and waited. As the shouting and screaming died down, a pair of sharp howls assaulted his ears. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Whatever it was, it was big.
Suddenly the smoke parted and warped away from a pair of hideous beasts. They had long snouts filled with fangs and their arms ended in sharp, bloody hooks. They ran forward at the speed of the fastest horses. A lesser man would have soiled himself and cowered in fear. Gondok’hr sniggered and cast a hand before him, muttering an ancient incantation. A ball of blue fire appeared before him and he sent it flying for the pair of beasts. As it tore through the air, sizzling and dripping blue liquid fire, it doubled, then tripled in size until it slammed into the first beast and laid it low on the ground in an instant. The second beast jumped to the side, avoiding the blue death and then resumed its charge.
Gondok’hr smiled and pointed at the beast with his left hand. “Kazhur, mo himbei,” he said. A bolt of green energy streaked from his hand and stung the beast in the left eye. The beast twirled around and slammed to the ground, twitching and howling terribly.
“Archers,” Gondok’hr called out. “Finish them off,” he said. A rank of twenty archers ran to him and aimed their bows at the beasts. They let their arrows fly just as the second beast started to rise to its feet again. The warlock waved his hand again and each of the arrows glowed white with fire and magically turned in the air to descend on the second beast, raining a searing hot death down upon its head. The beast groaned and fell back to the dirt, never again to rise.
Gondok’hr turned to the smoke and sighed. “Enough games,” he said. He stood in the stirrups and waved his hand at the smoke in the field. The thick blanket moved to obey his command, lifting from the forest and the field to descend upon the manor, allowing him to see his way to the house and covering his approach. Next he summoned a raincloud and extinguished the flames in the field. “March forward,” he told his men. “Archers remain with me, the rest of you march forth and raze the manor to the ground!” The men instantly obey
ed, marching forward in lockstep through the field as the fires sizzled and protested against the rain.
*****
“Curse this smoke!” Braun bellowed as the thick cloud dropped down around the manor. “To arms men, to arms!”
Erik looked around and saw just under three hundred men, all of whom had recently fought alongside his father, in full battle-dress. The men closest to him wore grim, sober expressions and seemed to care little about the smoke.
“Shall we ride out?” one of the men shouted to Braun.
“Wait!” someone called out from around the corner of the house. Erik and Braun turned to see Lady Arkyn running toward them, with a couple of others trailing close behind. One of the men was a mountain of a man, arm’s thick and muscled, carrying a great warhammer as he ran. The other was tall, but thin and wiry, with a tuft of scraggly hair jutting out from the bottom of his chin.
“Master Lepkin,” the wiry man called out. “We should wait until the enemy gets close.”
“But our archers cannot see where to aim,” Braun argued. “We should march out from the screen so we can see our foe.”
“Please, listen,” Lady Arkyn said as they closed in. “Master Peren can weave a spell that will allow us to see out of the smoke. When the enemy is within range, I will help the archers fire upon the enemy. The rest of the men should wait here until the enemy is upon our moat. Then Master Peren will push the smoke back around the enemy so as to cut them off from their commander’s view.”
“And then I will gladly charge out with you and bash their skulls together,” the large man said.
Braun walked up to the man with the warhammer. “I don’t believe we have been introduced, but unless I am mistaken, you are Gorin, son of Duaordin, and hero of Rororke.”
Gorin stood tall and nodded. “I would not call myself a hero, but I was there,” he said.
“They call him Boneshatter,” Master Peren said. The wiry man gestured to Gorin’s hammer. “I suppose the reason why is obvious.”
Braun nodded. “Go and weave your spell, Master Peren,” Braun said. “If you can do as you claim, then it will give us the advantage.”
“He can do that, and more, I assure you,” Lady Arkyn said.
Master Peren walked forward and worked his finger in the air in front of him, drawing ancient runes that only he could see. Then he muttered something Erik couldn’t quite make out, but after Peren’s words ended the very air itself seemed to expand near the manor. The smoke was pushed away from the men and formed a thin line around the moat, as if a large opaque bowl had been placed around them by some unseen giant. “Can you see, Lady Arkyn?”
“Perfectly,” the half-elf said. “Give me a moment.” She ran to the manor and ascended the ladder leading to the roof. Once she was with the other archers she waved down to Peren. “Hold it exactly like this, we can see everything.”
“How many come for us?” Braun shouted.
“Maybe five hundred,” Lady Arkyn replied. “But we are about to even the odds a little.” She walked among the archers and pointed to the field.
Erik could see the archers nodding and moving into position. “Can the enemy see us?” Erik asked.
“No, Master Lepkin,” Peren said. “To the enemy the smoke looks as thick as it was before. It is only altered for us.”
Erik nodded and waved to the men. “Hold ranks behind the wall. Prepare to jump over it and charge through the gap in the moat only on Braun’s command,” he said.
Braun leaned in close. “Perhaps you should stay here, next to the manor,” he said.
“You would have Lepkin stay off the field of battle?” Peren said shocked. “That would be like not using your queen in chess.”
Braun sighed and looked to Erik for support. Erik shrugged. “I will fight with the others,” he said. “It will not be the first time I have raised my blade.” He patted Braun on the shoulder and walked past him to Gorin. “Stay by Braun,” he said.
Gorin looked to Braun and then nodded his head. “As you command, Master Lepkin,” Gorin said.
Braun walked back to his waiting horse and jumped up into the saddle. “On my mark,” he told the waiting troops. Then he looked back to Master Peren, “I wait for your word, mage.”
Peren nodded and kept his eye on the field. “We’ll let the archers whittle them down and then just as they start to climb over your wall we’ll go.”
Erik could see shifting shapes through the smoke. He couldn’t see them clearly, but he could hear their march. Their armor and weapons rattled in synch with their steps, as if someone played a great set of drums and was rolling forward. Erik slid Master Lepkin’s sword out of the sheath and looked down at the black, Telarian steel. The weapon felt cool to the touch, but he could already feel the fire inside, yearning to be set free again. It matched the angry blaze growing inside Erik’s heart.
Bowstrings snapped into place above and a whoosh of arrows tore out through the bowl of smoke. Erik listened to the whistling missiles until the shouts and yells of men assaulted his ears. The drumming marching stopped as men clambered under shields and the arrows rained down upon them. Unable to see the result, Erik strained his ears, tying to discern the effect. Many cried out in pain or short, gurgling yells. Surely some of the arrows had struck their marks. Then followed a sound like pebbles falling upon plates of metal. Erik guessed that many of the opposing army were able to find cover in time.
Someone shouted from beyond the smoke and the marching resumed. This time the cacophonous thunder of steel boots assaulted the ground with a quickened pace. The enemy was running toward them.
Another round of arrows was set free. The running didn’t stop this time. Instead, the foe ran quicker. Many were taken down by the arrows, shouting and yelling out as the deadly shafts disrupted their sprint, but many others were still able to effectively cover themselves as arrows plitted and pinged off their armor and shields.
“They are close to the moat,” Peren said.
Braun raised his arm to ready the men. Erik swallowed hard and wrapped his fingers tighter around Master Lepkin’s sword.
A third round of arrows flew. This time the whistling lasted only for a brief second or two before the arrows sank into the enemy force. There were only a few shouts this time, most of the arrows bounced off harmlessly.
Master Peren slowly raised his hand, index finger pointing to Braun. He kept his eyes trained forward, on the enemy. Shining breastplates could be seen now beyond the waist-high wall. The first couple of ranks reached the wall and dropped their shields to climb over. “Now!” he shouted.
“HUZZZAAH!” Braun yelled with all of his might. The three hundred men at his back answered in kind and the force tore off at full charge toward the enemy. Erik couldn’t see Peren, but he knew the mage had already gone into casting another spell for the bowl of smoke disappeared entirely, only to reform a moment later behind a sea of shimmering armor and grisly faces.
Erik’s stomach squirmed as if a nest of baby snakes had suddenly hatched inside. Until now, the reality had not sunk in. Now, faced with an army, he felt small and insignificant. Both armies clashed over the wall and mixed with each other violently. Soldiers rushed around him, eager to get at the front line of the oncoming enemy. Erik stood motionless for what seemed like an eternity. Everything around him moved slower somehow, as if he were no longer in the moment, but watching from afar. It was then, amidst the storm of shouts and the clanking armor that he felt a calm come to him. Something slid against his chest. He reached up and grabbed the leather thong out from under his shirt. He looked down to the jewel and all became clear again. “For you, my father,” Erik said as he raised his father’s ring to his lips and kissed it. Then he charged forward. The sword in his hands absorbed energy from Erik’s rage and a white hot blaze of flame erupted around the blade. He ran forward, his feet carrying him almost effortlessly. The enemy rolled at them like a great wave of the sea, moving together and running directly into the moat and clamberin
g up the other side, picking their way through the large wooden pikes only to be slowed by the waist-high wall.
“Fire the moat!” Braun shouted. A slew of flaming arrows zipped down into the moat from the roof and a great whoosh of flames engulfed the enemy. Erik’s eyes went wide as a pair of men struggled to get through the pikes. They were wrapped in yellow fire, but on they came. Erik deftly hopped over the wall and rushed to meet them. He raised his sword and ran at them, but a pair of arrows put them down, dropping their bodies back into the fiery moat. Erik looked up and saw Lady Arkyn. She waved to him briefly and then went back to stringing her bow.
Master Gorin and Braun drove into the breach, where the moat had not been finished. The main body of the enemy was funneling into the clear space as well, coughing and gasping for air. Gorin raised his mighty hammer and came down in a sweeping arc that took three men to the ground. As he brought his hammer back above his head a warrior yelled and ran for him. The mountainous Gorin lashed out with a savage left kick, denting the warrior’s breastplate and dropping him back to the ground.
Braun was equally as savage. He slashed his sword down through the gap between a man’s helmet and hauberk, sliding his blade deep down into the man’s body and pulling it back just in time to remove the head of an angry axe-wielder running at his right side. Then the main throng of the enemy slammed in through the breach and Braun’s horse was closed in as efficiently as if it had been trapped in a great, writhing vice. Braun leapt from atop his horse and took two enemy warriors down to the ground under him. He quickly ended them with a slice of his blade across their necks and rose to his feet. He looked up to see the blade of an axe streaking for his face.
Gorin let out a mighty roar and his hammer slammed first into the axe, and then into the axman that had been poised to slay Braun. The man’s body flew back, knocking several others into the fiery moat.
“Many thanks,” Braun said as he engaged the next nearest foe.
