The First Spark

by T J Trapp

  Focus, he thought.

  Flames erupted on the trogus’ tails. Alec had learned from trying this maneuver before that the tail was the most sensitive part of the animal, and any trogus tended to go mad with any disturbance to its tail. After a few seconds, the first trogus broke and stampeded; by the time the approaching riders had halved the distance, two-thirds of the trogus were braying and bucking wildly, throwing riders and rolling on the ground. All that remained was a ragged line of upset yowling animals. Erin ordered her riders to convert from defense to offense and led the charge herself. Her riders charged into the broken Alder line and destroyed any organized opposition. After that it became small group fights – the superior skills and organization of the Theland warriors easily carried the battle. The remaining Alder riders retreated, and Erin did not attempt to follow and pursue her advantage. The battle over, the Theland riders returned to the Gott allies’ lines.

  22 – Battle

  When Erin arrived back at the Gott base camp, Ferd and the other Theland riders let out a cheer – overjoyed to see their commander and their comrades after three weeks. Except for occasional use as messengers they had not yet participated in the battle. They had heard rumors of Erin’s successes on the Grasslands and were ready for action themselves. Erin spent some time settling the injured, debriefing Ferd and her field commanders, hearing stories of how things had gone in her absence, and generally stalling before she decided to bite the bullet, as she had heard Alec say, and meet with the General Mawn.

  Erin, Alec, Thom, and Ferd rode to General Mawn’s new command area, now located closer to the battlefront so that he could exercise control over the disposition of allied forces. They waited about a half hour before they were escorted in to see the General, Erin growing more impatient by the minute. General Mawn sat at a long table with many of his command staff. Erin gave a brief summary of their actions and successes and asked the General if he wanted a more detailed account.

  “Thank you, your most Gracious Highness Princess Erin,” the General said, resorting to the Gott style of formal speaking, “It seems as though you have had a most successful venture. However, I don’t have time to go into a great deal of detail just now, while I am busy directing these important battle operations. I will ask you all to meet this afternoon with one of my orderlies to depose a full detailed description of your exploits for the record.” Then the old General looked at Erin with appreciation in his eyes.

  “I thought that a woman would drag down my operations, but I must commend you. Your actions have given us a chance. The lack of supplies had forced the Aldermen to attack before they were ready, and your raids diverted a significant portion of their mounted riders to searching the grasslands for you. Talk to Major Voy, and he will give you a detailed status of the battlefield. He will also give you orders on where I need you next on the field.” Then General Mawn nodded a dismissal and went on to other concerns.

  Well, a Major is better than an orderly, Alec thought to Erin. She smiled grimly; Alec could tell she was annoyed.

  Major Voy was all business and did not seem to be concerned that he was addressing a woman. He escorted them to a side tent and began a description of the situation.

  “About two days ago the Alder began their advance into our pass. Their plan seems to be simple but effective. They seize a local high point with a good field of view and fortify and strengthen that point. Then they position several death rods on the fortified location. They find our weak point within the death rods’ field of view and then attack in force. If we try to reinforce the weak point, they rain teeth of death down on our men. Rarely are we successful in getting enough reinforcements to the weak point in time to keep them from breaching it! Then they encircle our troops. If our troops retreat, they are killed by the death rods. If they fight, they are surrounded, outnumbered, and killed. If they surrender, they are chained and taken away as slaves.”

  Ferd asked a few questions about details of the locations, and then the Major went on.

  “We have to eliminate the death rod positions to have a chance to stop the assault. Yesterday, our allied forces made three attempts to storm death rod positions using mass assaults. In two cases, all our men were killed before they reached the position. In the third, however, we were more successful. We reached the death rod position, killed all the defending Alders, and captured several death rods. It required the death of essentially all the Lashon troops to capture one death rod position, so we cannot repeat that many times.” He looked at Alec. “This is the first time our men have seen death rods. We do not know the wizardry that makes the death rods function.” Alec sensed a bit of fear in the Majors’ demeanor.

  “Earlier in the battle the Alder were using three death rod positions, and their fields of death were linked. Now they are down to only two positions – and using them less often. We don’t know why – but we hope it is a good sign.”

  They must be running low on ammo, thought Alec. Our caravan escapades must have worked.

  “One of their death rod positions endangers our defenders at the top of Raner Pass,” the Major continued. “The Aldermen appear to be preparing for an assault – we think it will occur tomorrow morning, probably soon after dawn. We have noticed that the Aldermen use the death rods most often during the daylight hours. We think that perhaps their magic does not work as well at night when it is dark.”

  Thank goodness, no night vision scopes, thought Alec.

  Major Voy leaned forward and looked intently at the three.

  “The General has given you this assignment. Your task is to make a mass charge and take out the death rod position before midnight.”

  Erin looked surprised.

  “Today? This afternoon? But Major Voy, we have only just returned from our engagements on the Grasslands!”

  “I realize that this is in short order,” the Major said, not unsympathetically. “But our need is urgent. Yours is the only allied contingent with great success at eliminating death rod positions. If you cannot clear out the death rod position before the third moon rises, then the General will have to evacuate all of our troops tonight – or face the loss of the core of the entire Allied Army.”

  Another ‘suicide mission,’ Erin thought to Alec.

  They seem to think that you … that we … are expendable, Alec thought back.

  I wonder how many trogus we could expect to make it all the way to the emplacement alive, thought Erin.

  “Can we see the emplacement before we must attack?” asked Alec.

  “No,” said Major Voy. “Although it is close enough to threaten our position here, it is too far to send a scouting party, do reconnaissance, and return before you must assemble your riders. The best I can do is to show you our detailed battlefield map.” He led them to the map tent.

  Alec studied the map. It was a large detailed rendition of Raner Pass showing topography, structures, and trails. Both allied and Alder troop dispositions and locations were marked on the map. Alec was impressed by the cartographic skill and accuracy of the map; the details of the areas he had seen matched his recollection. Alec could see why the situation was desperate. The Alder had captured a bluff that overlooked the top of the pass. From there, they would have unobstructed use of death rods against anyone on the pass.

  Erin was not as accustomed to reading maps as was Alec, but she could see the allies’ multiple defensive positions marked on it. With the ability to move troops and reinforce those positions, the Gott force would be very hard to defeat. However, with the death rods preventing allied reinforcements, those positions were susceptible to mass attack. As the Major had indicated, the map showed that there was no convenient place to get a good view of the Alder death rod emplacement.

  “Erin, without a good view of the death rods, I am going to have to destroy them as they bring the death rods out,” Alec said, planning his moves against the Alder. “That puts a lot of our riders at risk – but I have an idea to save the riders and take their death ro
d position.” He slapped his hand down on the map.

  “Let’s go! Get your riders ready. I will need two light wagons also.”

  Erin nodded and thought to him, I trust your ideas, my Great Wizard.

  ✽✽✽

  Erin’s fresh riders were ready. Erin and Ferd assembled the riders, briefed the leads, and moved out of the base camp, all before mid-afternoon. Within the hour they had advanced to the edge of the open area in front of the death rod emplacement. The Alder soldiers in the emplacement were watching their every move.

  While Erin and Ferd readied the riders, Alec went to work – Lots to do in a very short time, he thought. He selected ten riders for each of the two light wagons. They stripped the wagons, and with a lot of dark energy, Alec repositioned many of the planks on the front to form a crude shield. Then Alec positioned the riders. Now it was time to move the wagons towards the death rod position.

  At the edge of the open area, the riders unhitched the drungs from the two wagons and proceeded to push the wagons across the open field towards the emplacement. The pushers flinched as several loud bangs came from the death rod posts, followed by a cascade of splinters puffing off the boards on the front of the wagon. However, none of the troops were hurt, even though they were on foot.

  Not a bad approximation of a wooden tank, thought Alec, pleased with himself.

  After the third shot, Alec spotted one of the death rods.

  Focus.

  A rapid series of bangs occurred, and a death rod spun high into the air from the recoil. Alec’s riders cheered and continued to push towards the Alder emplacement. In the excitement, one the riders craned his head out from the wooden ‘tank’ for a better look. Promptly, the Aldermen fired a shot in his direction. Bang! He quickly ducked back under the wagon.

  “I said, keep covered!” Alec shouted. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed!” But that lets me know where the next rifle is, he thought, and was able to destroy it.

  Alec’s riders continued to push the modified wagons towards the emplacement. The plan had been for riders under cover to shout directions to the advancing riders or use their battle whistle codes. However, as they approached the emplacement, it was too noisy to hear, so they improvised by looking back and using hand signals to keep the wagons moving in the correct direction. Alec could see a third death rod as it came out. He felt for the ammunition but could not sense any.

  Time for Plan B, he thought, and the death rod’s barrel glowed red and started to slump. The Alder gunman looked at it with shock and dropped the weapon.

  By now the two converted wagons had reached the Alder emplacement, and the riders stormed around the sides to engage the Alder. There were at least twice as many defenders as Erin’s troops – even without the death rods, the emplacement troops had the advantage.

  At Alec’s signal, Erin quickly ordered a charge. The sight of three dozen charging trogus was formidable; the Alder defenders were overwhelmed in no time. In the midst, the conflict Alec saw several Aldermen retreating across the bluff with two more death rods, but they were out of sight before he could focus.

  “We did it,” Erin said to her consort. “And the sun has not yet set.”

  Erin consolidated their position near the bluff and settled in to wait. After what seemed like an eternity, a column of Gott infantry arrived at dusk and marveled at their quick success. The Gott infantry relieved the Theland riders and secured the Alder emplacement. Erin and Alec took their weary, but exuberant, troops back to camp; a team of drungs would come in the morning to retrieve the wagons. Ferd went ahead of the riders to settle the camp for the night.

  As soon as Erin and Alec arrived back at their camp, a messenger was waiting for them with instructions to report to General Mawn immediately. The two weary people rode towards the command tent.

  Inside the tent was a hubbub of activity. As soon as they arrived, they were promptly escorted to General Mawn. He asked for an immediate debriefing. Erin went through the battle describing the modified wagons they had used to approach the death rod emplacement and the resulting battle, including Alec’s destruction of the death rods.

  “Very good, very good,” said General Mawn. Erin knew that they were not there solely to debrief the General and his officers.

  Here it comes, she thought to Alec. He nodded.

  “We have new information from two of our scouts, who have just now made it back to safety through the enemy lines. They tell us that the Alder are massing great numbers of soldiers, including reinforcements that seem to have come from far away,” General Mawn said.

  “We have reason to believe that they will attack in the morning. We will need to call upon all our allies for this great effort. We need to be able to respond quickly and adroitly to any crisis that occurs on the battlefield. I am assigning you and your men … er, people … to serve as the first line rider reserve.”

  Erin gave her assent, and the General dismissed them. It took far into the night to prepare for the coming engagement before they finally settled, exhausted, into each other’s arms.

  ✽✽✽

  Long before first light, they were up and preparing the troops.

  “I don’t know what today will bring,” Erin exhorted her troops, “but we will fight valiantly for victory over the Alder. I know that the day will bring its share of battle wounds, injuries, and death. Fight well, my riders. Fight for our Queen, for our people, and for our land.”

  “We will, Princess,” shouted Ferd, and Thom and the other riders responded in kind.

  They were in position behind the front by dawn. As soon as the sky was light, before the sun rose over the mountain peaks, the first wave of Alder attacks started. Not surprisingly the first attack was against the newly-fortified position closest to the captured death rod emplacement. The attack would have successfully overrun the troops at the fortification, but General Mawn was able to move reinforcements up unopposed. When it was apparent that point was well defended, the Alder leader pulled his forces back and redirected his attack on a second strong point. Again, the General’s reinforcements saved the day. By now the Alder strategy was clear: continue prodding different fortified points to force General Mawn to commit troops until the Alder found a weak point that couldn’t be reinforced. If they still had their death rods, the Alder tactic would have easily succeeded to make the General’s movements impossible, but with no death rods, they were not able to decimate the General’s troops as they moved.

  In late morning the Alder made a second assault towards the initial fortification. General Mawn again moved allied forces to reinforce the point. Suddenly, a ring of fire broke out, encircling the Gott reinforcing troops. The flames were not high, but they frightened the troops and their animals. Then the men in the allied force started falling, one by one, and died with horrendous screams of pain.

  “What is going on!” exclaimed Erin.

  Alec thought to Erin, I sense dark energy swirling. I think someone is using dark energy on the other side.

  I sense it too. What can we do? Erin thought back.

  I don’t know. Alec felt for the swirls of dark energy and tried to smooth the lines. Abruptly, the other user sensed the resistance from Alec and stopped the flow of dark energy. But by then, the Gott reinforcing column had broken, and the men were running away from the ring of fire, in a panic of retreat. The shouts of the allied officers could not pull their troops back into obedience. The Alder ground troops penetrated the Gott-held fortifications.

  “This is us,” said Erin, and started to lead her riders. “Forward! For Theland!”

  Send the troops forward, Alec thought to her, but you need to stay. We need to defend against this dark user, and I fear I cannot succeed without your help!

  My place must be with our riders in battle! Erin shot back.

  Erin! I need you here! Alec answered her.

  Erin was torn. She thought of her mother and tried to calm her thinking. Then she decided her mother would have said her place wa
s where she could win with the fewest casualties, and that was with Alec.

  “Ride on!” she commanded her troops, and Ferd lead their charge. Erin wheeled her mount and came back to Alec’s side.

  The Theland riders charged forth towards the Alder infantrymen who had penetrated the Gott front line. But, as with General Mawn’s first line of forces, fire spurted up around them, and the front riders started falling. Erin’s riders were well-trained, and they stalwartly rode through the deaths of their brothers and sisters, but their comrades were falling quickly.

  Alec could feel the massing of dark energy. He saw the flames sprout, and he could feel something forming inside of the riders’ bodies before they fell. He tried to smooth the energy lines, but from a distance, it was easier to clump them than smooth them. He watched in agony as more riders fell.

  Erin saw her role. She pulled up close beside Alec, took his hand, and opened her senses. Now Alec could feel the forces on the field. He could feel where the dark energy was forming – with Erin’s assistance he could sense the subtleties of the flow and instead of bluntly trying to overpower the other user, could move the implementation point with finesse. Minor whooshes of air started to swirl on the battlefield, and the death blows to the fallen riders stopped. Alec could feel that the energy fields continued to pulse and mass, but their effectiveness was gone.

  After what seemed like an eternity of fighting the masses of dark energy, Erin’s front line of trogus crashed into the Alder infantry line. The beasts wreaked havoc on the enemy in the pitched battle that ensued. General Mawn was quick to find a second reserve column to add to Erin’s force. However, as soon as the reserve column approached the battle, the massed dark energy started to occur again, and again the troops fell in death. With Erin’s help, Alec again nudged the implementation point, and the deaths stopped. When the reserve column reached the Alder infantry the massing of dark energy stopped. It appeared the enemy user could not distinguish between friend and foe in close combat.