Sarika watched as the Tahaerins tried to disengage and saw enemy soldiers turn to stop them. She realized some mind reader in the Deojrin army watched just as she did and must be issuing orders to keep their response organized. They would try to hold Irion and keep him from saving their newly recruited army.
“We have a problem,” she said, turning towards her taciturn minder. Pointing down the hill, she showed him Irion’s men and the larger enemy force heading towards the trees.
“Indeed.” Eli squinted as he looked into the distance. “Come on.”
Vially looked pained as they explained the problem to him. “Damn,” he swore, thinking how unprepared they still were for fighting an army of mind readers. Of course they would see, and of course they would pass messages quickly between each other. “What do you want to do?”
For a moment, Sarika did not know how to respond, not expecting he would ask for her opinion, but Vially deferred to her, waiting for her answer. “I want to bring them here, with me,” she said, surprised at the command in her voice.
“I can spare ten soldiers right now.” Looking to Eli, he said, “Take horses and ride back double. If you’re careful and fast, it looks like you can still reach the hill without running into any serious fighting.”
Sarika would not abandon these Cursed. Having lost Petrine, she would not lose these. “I’m coming with you,” she said, daring him to argue. “I can kill anyone that gets in our way.”
The queen is going to sack me for this, Eli thought, but said nothing as he motioned to the soldiers Vially loaned him. Together they hurried to the pickets on the backside of their hill.
As they emerged around the base of the ridge, Eli surveyed the landscape before them. The stand of trees lay a couple of hundred yards ahead. Earlier, Ladvik had ordered one of the mercenary companies to swing between the trees and the hill, and now the Deojrin had forced them back, cutting off the straight approach to the mind readers. To the right lay the bulk of the armies and to the left a small skirmish had arisen between another company and Deojrin pikemen trying to flank them. A very narrow path lay between the two groups of mercenaries. If they kept that space open, Eli thought he and the others could slip through and rescue the Cursed that now fought for them.
***
Almost as soon as they started making for the trees, Irion and his men found the Deojrin trying to surround them. The Tahaerins drove themselves forward, trying to cut their way through the press. But Irion knew that one of the Cursed must be spying on them and directing their soldiers. He could see the Deojrin moving to keep them from reaching the trees, and he knew had to get his men out of this trap. Time after time, they struck down an enemy only to have another move to block their way.
To your left, Irion. Sarika’s voice sounded in his mind, and from the corner of his eyes, behind several ranks of enemy soldiers, he saw a black-robed mind reader slump to the ground. Having witnessed this several times today already, he knew what would follow. She would forge him a path out of this. Shouting to his men to follow, Irion pressed his attack as the man in front of him swung a cudgel at his head.
Grappling with the enemy soldier, Irion saw the Cursed man struggle up from the ground and burst into a frenzy of motion. Clawing at the first Deojrin he could reach, he gouged at the man’s eyes screaming in fury. The soldiers around him jumped back as their companion shouted in surprise and pain.
Crazed and mad with hatred, the mind reader threw himself at soldier after soldier, heedless of the wounds they inflicted. He screamed and bit, limbs flailing wildly. Space opened around him as the Deojrin struggled to respond to something as incomprehensible as one of the slaves attacking them. With their attention diverted, Irion and his men attacked, forcing their way through the confusion towards their goal.
As they reached the trees, Irion counted six of his original ten. All sported bruises and gashes and all neared exhaustion. Stumbling into the little copse, they met seven black-robed mind readers who stared, unsure if they were friend or foe.
Irion felt the threat radiating off them, as they silently warned him and his men to keep their distance. “We’re Tahaerin,” he gasped out, holding up empty hands. “We’re here to help. They’re coming for you.”
Heads turned towards the sound of pounding hooves and then Irion felt the hair on his neck stand up. The Cursed huddled together, ready to defend themselves. To his amazement, Sarika and Eli appeared with a handful of fresh soldiers.
Taking in the scene, Sarika spoke in a soft voice, trying to defuse the tension. Of course, the freed Cursed feared for their lives. She should have thought of that before. “It isn’t safe here for any of us. We have horses and a clear path.”
I’m Hanne, and we’ve been doing as you all asked, the bald woman with the fine high cheekbones said stiffly. Her gaze shifted between the soldiers and Sarika, taking a measure of the threat each presented. “What will you do with us now?”
“Save you.” Sarika looked at Irion. “Vially could only spare a few men. We brought these as an escort, but we have to go now. The Deojrin know we’re here and they’re sending more.”
The young man grimaced, knowing they could not lose these mind readers. Sarika’s plan hinged on them. “Take them and go. We’ll hold them here and then follow you out.”
Hearing his lie, she wanted to argue. Irion and his exhausted men would die here in the trees, but she felt an enemy mind sweep over hers, searching for them, and she knew they had to hurry. The Tahaerins’ sacrifice would be in vain if she waited much longer. “Come with me and I’ll take you to safety, I promise.”
At first, the Cursed did not want to follow. They wanted to run as they tasted freedom for the first time in years, unwilling to risk her strange queen enslaving them, but they could sense the approaching threat as well as she could.
“Look at me,” Sarika said, pleading with them, filling her thoughts with reassurance. “I’m not a slave. I promise you’ll be safe. Move,” she ordered. As one, they started rushing in the direction she pointed.
Stepping out of the trees, Sarika saw the horses and heard the sounds of fighting drawing closer as they wasted time. A black-robed figured darted across the battlefield toward their position. Leisha and Avrid were still sending them here, unaware of the near disaster unfolding. She tried to reach out, to tell Avrid to find a new hiding spot, but could not find him from this distance. A stronger mind reader could reach them, but she could not.
As the Cursed and Vially’s soldiers emerged from the little spinney, they watched her waiting for her orders. Sarika knew she had to solve this.
Then she realized the Cursed did not need an escort back to the ridge. She pointed at the men Vially sent. “We’re staying here to help Irion hold this spot.”
Turning to Hanne, she said, “On the horses, all of you. When you get to the ridge, tell Avrid or the queen to find me here. Now, follow Eli and kill anyone that tries to stop you. Understand?”
Seven malicious smiles met hers. They certainly could kill.
***
Zaraki stood with Jan and Aniska, each watching over their charges. Two hours into the battle and the Deojrin had gained no ground, though they appeared to be pushing one of the mercenary companies on the eastern flank. The Tahaerin assault from the front continued while, from the rear, more and more Cursed turned on their masters. Sarika’s plan seemed to be working.
At last count, Leisha had freed fifteen Cursed since taking a rest. She sounded less fatigued than before as his assurances that the battle had turned in their favor drove her on. Though she wanted to keep going, he wanted her to stop and have something to eat and drink. “I’m going to pull her out,” he said to Jan. The other man nodded and they both started towards Leisha and Avrid.
Too late, Zaraki saw the dark shape as it arced toward her. He heard her scream and saw her stumble back from her spot, the quarrel lodged in her shoulder, just below and to the right of the collarbone, where her vest did not reach. Like a nightmare,
he saw the shaft buried in her flesh, the bright blue flights quivering as he reached out to stop her fall. Leisha collapsed, her knees giving way to the pain.
He lay her on the ground, head in his lap, as she gasped and writhed, trying to find some position where the pain could not consume her. Some part of himself remembered all the years of training. Don’t panic, he told himself. “Jarden,” Zaraki called over his shoulder. “She’s been shot. Hurry.” Heads turned in their direction as people realized who he meant.
Leisha’s doctor stood several feet away, speaking with one of the young soldiers who waited on the hill with them. The man turned to take in the scene before collecting himself and rushing along the line of soldiers, bent over to avoid any other bolts that might reach this distance. None should have been able to, Zaraki thought distantly.
Kneeling in the grass, Jarden glanced up at him. “We need to roll her and see how deep it goes. Can you hold her head, Sire?”
Do I need to get someone else? he meant.
Trying to stay calm, Zaraki looked down. “Are you ready, love?” Fear lay in her eyes, but she nodded and gritted her teeth. Laying on the trampled grass, she stared up at him, pleading as blood spread across her gown and started to pool around her collarbone and the hollow of her throat.
Jarden reached under to roll her away from him. The sound she made tore at Zaraki, and the crimson set against her skin made him feel weak.
“All the way through,” Jarden said, ducking his head to look underneath her. He could just see the tip of the quarrel. “Good.” With care, he rolled her back onto the ground.
Agony stabbed with every breath as the rise and fall of her chest moved the bolt. “Please,” Leisha moaned through gritted teeth. “Please, get it out.”
“Can you?” Zaraki asked, feeling her pain and fear leaking out as she lost control of her gifts. Everyone nearby on the hillside would feel it soon.
“Can you move your hand, Highness?” Jarden looked down and saw her hand clench into a fist. “Yes, excellent. We need to break the shaft here, at her shoulder. Then we’ll pull it straight through the back. Less trauma that way, Highness.” He turned to wash the grime off his hands and open a bottle of wine from his case.
Zaraki had been wounded before, sewn up his own injuries, helped another boy he grew up with when Matyas fell off the wall and lay with a bone jutting out of his thigh. He had learned long ago not to let blood bother him. But now, the thought of pulling a crossbow quarrel through Leisha’s flesh made him light-headed and queasy.
Distracted by cries and moaning, Avrid came back to his body and stepped away from his perch, casting his gaze around for the source of all the noise. When he saw Leisha on the ground and saw the blood pooling on the grass, he moved to her side. Crouching down next to her and looking confused, he brushed matted, sweat-soaked hair back from her face. “Your Majesty? Leisha, why don’t you stop the pain?” Instead of concerned, he sounded vexed, his voice full of exasperation.
Leisha wanted to scream at him, tired of his constant lectures and disappointed expressions. Just once, she wanted him to act as though he thought of them as equals, rather than a teacher and a dim-witted student.
“Avrid, not now,” Zaraki barked at him.
The other man pursed his lips, annoyed. Without warning, he reached out and forced Zaraki’s hands aside. Putting his own on Leisha’s face, he drew her eyes to his. “Why don’t you ever think of these things on your own? If you can stop a man from breathing, you can stop yourself from hurting.” He let himself sink into her and felt no resistance. Eddies of pain washed through her mind, making him wince. Following the sour note he heard there, he rushed to smother her pain center, extinguishing the searing agony.
Zaraki saw the pained expression on her face evaporate. “Avrid,” she breathed in wonder as cool relief spread down the nerves in her shoulder, along her arm to her fingertips.
Without waiting for an explanation, Jarden grabbed the shaft of the bolt, his hand resting against Leisha’s bloody shoulder. He nodded, and Zaraki put both hands around the quarrel, one touching the doctor’s hand, one several inches higher. The shaft snapped cleanly and he threw the piece away. With careful hands, they rolled her over, and with a bit of digging, Jarden drew the bolt out.
“Sire,” the doctor said, hesitating. “We should clean the blood away.”
His hands shaking now, Zaraki’s fingers moved to unlace her gown enough to pull the material back from her wounds. Pouring wine over clean cloth, Jarden swiped carefully over her skin, still afraid of hurting her. Then he pressed wads of clean bandages soaked in wine to her shoulder as blood continued to weep from the wounds. He bound the damp cloths in dry bandages and let Zaraki pull her gown back up.
Leisha never made a sound. Her calm composure rattled Jarden even though he greatly preferred this to having his queen screaming in agony as he worked on her.
***
Sarika watched as the horses rode for the safety of the Tahaerin lines. The clear path had narrowed, but she could see Hanne and then others reaching out to keep it open as they struck down any enemy who tried to stop them. Spread them along the top of the hill. Tell them to do as the queen asked them, she told Eli.
Once she felt sure they would reach the hill, she pushed back into the spinney. Taking stock, she could see there had been fighting while she herded the Cursed to safety. Irion sported a huge new bruise on his face and one of his men cradled his sword arm. It looked broken. The other Tahaerins had cuts and welts but looked fresh and ready for more.
“What the hell are you doing here, Sarika?” Irion demanded.
“There are more of them coming,” she said, feeling a sweep of thought probing through the trees. She counted sixteen soldiers, fifteen still capable of fighting.
Without warning, a black-robed figure scrambled through the underbrush, blood gushing from a cut on his head. He stared at the soldiers, eyes wide with fright and confusion. Sarika stepped forward. “We have to hold these trees for now. I can kill and I can help the Cursed as they arrive.”
***
Once they reached the top of the hill, the Cursed fanned out. The Tahaerins moved back, unsure of the new arrivals in their black robes, but the mind readers took no offense. They knew war and fighting and they wanted revenge. But years as mindless actors left them unsure how to accomplish that. Most struck out on their own, finding targets at random, killing some, freeing others.
Hanne saw this would never work. As a slave, she had relayed orders to other Cursed as her masters commanded, and she knew a great deal about tactics and strategies. Free now, she took the control she always hungered for. Reaching out to Sarika, she asked, Where do we send those we set loose?
We’re holding the trees again. Send them here, Sarika said.
Hanne called to the mind readers around her, demanding their attention. The Deojrin so feared what their deadly weapons might do if given any measure of independence, they never permitted the Cursed to exercise the smallest amount of self-governance in battle. They could not select their own targets or even provide suggestions. Instead, the Deojrin leashed them like dogs, even when their compulsions kept them from turning on their masters. How unwise, she thought as she felt the weight of the others touching her thoughts. She could see and do so much now.
Hovering over the battlefield, she could see now all the potential her people possessed. Instead of waiting for orders to come from captains in the thick of the conflict or commanders in tents sitting behind ranks of men, the Cursed on Dabrova Hill would act.
Her orders passed to those who stood on the ridge. First, we find more to free as the queen asked us to. Then we’ll kill.
It took some time and patience as she and the others learned how to remove the compulsions, but with so many searching, ten mind readers soon reached the copse where Irion and the other Tahaerins waited.
Satisfied with their numbers, Hanne turned her small army’s full and deadly attention to the battle below. She coordi
nated their attacks in ways the Deojrin never imagined possible. To the south, she found a knot of enemy pikemen flanking a band of mercenaries. On her orders, her people struck, erasing the compulsions of ten Cursed in moments. The Deojrin fighters died, overwhelmed by a press of enraged mind readers.
With their combined knowledge, Hanne and the others sought enemy captains out and killed them in the midst of fighting. They found a group of Deojrin in the middle of a charge and set their Cursed free, disrupting the maneuver. The Tahaerins seized the opportunity and mowed down their enemies. The Deojrin could not maintain discipline and their neatly ordered lines wavered.
The freedom to act and strike thrilled Hanne. Wherever she turned her gaze, chaos erupted.
***
“Help me back up,” Leisha commanded when they finished binding her wound.
Zaraki shook his head. “You’re hurt and bleeding. This is the adrenaline talking.” Already thinking what it would cost him to pick her up and carry her off the hill, he looked at Ani. She would help him.
“That may be,” she said trying to push herself up from the ground. “But right now it’s screaming at me to get up and fight.” Then she caught the look in his eyes and remembered her promise. “I’m sorry. I’ll go if you want me to. I can still help Avrid, and I think can do it without injuring myself further, but if you say so, I’ll go with you.”
Sighing, Zaraki looked at her doctor. “What do you think, Jarden?”
The poor man did not know what to say, or whose side to take. King or queen? “As long as the bleeding is minimal. Let’s bind your arm. But Highness, you must be careful or you’ll hurt yourself further.”
Bending her arm for the sling brought a wave of fresh, blinding pain, but Leisha knew how to stop it. Zaraki bent over to help her to her feet. He warned her to be careful, and she knew he would order her off the hill the next time something happened.
As Dragons from Sleep (The Tahaerin Chronicles Book 2) Page 44
