Nelson still had one large question that he didn’t like his current answer for. The question wouldn’t leave his mind and the king knew he would lose sleep contemplating it in the coming nights.
As Lannes talked through his thoughts for the western campaign, King Nelson sat and listened and tried to ignore the thought that threatened to overtake his entire mind.
What happens if Lauriston and whatever is left of the Brunian forces in the west fail? What happens if Duroc gets north of the Branch and all of Erlon is lost?
Everything Nelson had planned in response to the Kurakin betrayal would be for nothing. The west would fall and it would be hard to hold the east with Erlon’s army gone. How could they defend the east if Duroc invaded from Erlon and up from the south at the same time? They’d be outnumbered and outflanked.
If the west fell, how could they possibly win the war?
Andrei
The rumbling shook the ground under Andrei’s feet. His army charged east along the road towards the town. The Brunians answered the attack with cannon fire.
Andrei closed his eyes and rolled them back and let the world drift away below him. He flew high above the fight. The soldiers were only specks of black against the landscape below and the concussion of the artillery was barely felt on the light breeze.
General Duroc could take away his wolverine and the Scythes, but the connection with his hawk would always remain.
Andrei’s hawk drifted on the wind just below the cloud cover. She focused on the northern bank of the river that wound its way through this land. The ribbon of blue cut the forest in half and divided the two sides of the battle for the town that was only just beginning.
Red coats of the Brunian enemies on the northern bank. Black coats streaming in from the west and into the town on the southern bank.
Andrei could see most of the Brunian position. Pockets of trees obscured the area just above the bridge. The enemy artillery was well placed to harass the Kurakin approach. But Andrei knew his men would be able to fight through it and once his own cannons were in place, they would pound the Brunian defenses until they crumbled and the Kurakin took the bridge.
Andrei opened his eyes and returned to the ground. He took in a deep breath. The chill morning breeze smelled of gunpowder. It was a good day for battle.
“Push into the town.” Andrei mounted his horse and nodded for the aides to carry the orders to his officers. “Take the square and begin to push the bridge. Our artillery will cover the movement.”
The aides scattered. The Kurakin units around Andrei continued down their path towards the end of the forest and the open field before the town.
It would be tough to cross that field, but the Kurakin would do it. They could withstand artillery fire from a weak Brunian battalion. Then they would attack the bridge and force their way across over the bloody red coats of the enemy.
General Duroc would have his crossing. Andrei would give him his gateway to the rest of Erlon. Then Andrei would get his wolverine back and command the Scythes once more.
“Forward,” Andrei shouted over the din of the march.
The next infantry units of Kurakin lurched forward. The front group broke into a run as they reached the open field. They charged towards the town and the cover of the houses as the Brunian artillery shells erupted around them.
Lauriston
Lauriston called Quatre, Mon, Desaix, and Lodi to him as the Erlonian army drew close to the town. The army had marched double time to make it to the battle before midday. The soldiers would be tired, but they had no choice but to dive right into the fight.
“The artillery won’t make it in time, Lar.” Quatre shook his head.
“I know. We’ll have to do without.” Lauriston scratched at the stubble on his cheeks.
What a horrible feeling. An army was exposed without artillery. He could see the doubt on the faces of the generals before him.
“The Kurakin artillery will need to focus on the Brunian positions. If they turn to us, we’re only freeing up the Brunian defense.” Lauriston needed to instill confidence in his officers, no matter how nervous he felt himself.
He stepped forward to the edge of the forest for a view of the town of Neuse. The fields between Lauriston and the town were open and freshly planted and sloped downward towards the river. It would be difficult to attack across.
At least the Erlonians would have surprise on their side.
The Kurakin poured in from the west down the main road. Many of their men had made it into the town already and would be bunkered in the homes against the Brunian artillery. The stone bridge was already contested and the Brunians held the northern bank as more and more black-coated Kurakin pressed forward.
The Brunian command looked to be up on the hill just above the bridge. Lauriston briefly wondered what General Pitt was thinking with the Kurakin rushing in on his soldiers and taking the brunt of his artillery in stride.
He must feel very alone. Lauriston and the Erlonians needed to help him.
To the east of the town, the forest stretched around the fields and ran all the way to the river bank. That would be good cover.
A plan formed in Lauriston’s mind immediately.
He scanned over the field of battle once more.
Kurakin in the west. Brunians holding the bridge in the north. His main force to attack across the southern fields directly in front of him. The tree cover sat in the east unused.
Lauriston turned back to his generals.
“Mon,” he said.
“Sir.” The old general stepped forward.
“You units will take the eastern flank. Use the trees as cover. Our main attack will distract them, you should be able to get into the town before they know you’re coming.”
“Yes, sir.” Mon nodded and looked off towards the eastern section of trees.
“The Lakmians will go with you.” Lauriston nodded at Lodi and got a confident smile in return. Lodi was always ready for a fight.
“Quatre and I will push the main force across the field here,” Lauriston continued. “Desaix, you harass the Kurakin that are still marching in from the west.”
Lauriston looked at the town again. There was a spire to the Ascended One that shot up from the town’s square in the center and stood twice as tall as any surrounding building. It looked like a stone castle turret from the olden ages.
Lauriston nodded towards the tower. “Use the spire as your reference point. We’ll be in different positions for the whole attack. But our goal is to meet at that spire and the main town square.”
“My sword will nail the Horde commander to the front of the Ascended One’s house,” Quatre said.
“My spear will beat you to it.” Lodi smiled and winked at Quatre.
“Any questions?” Lauriston looked around at his men.
None of the generals spoke up.
“Good. You have your orders. Ascension be with our soldiers. Onward.”
“Onward!”
The men answered in unison to Lauriston’s last word. They saluted and split off towards their units. Lauriston made to turn back and watch the battle in the town again but thought of something at the last moment.
“Mon,” he said and took a step after the elder general.
Mon stopped and faced the marshal.
“Protect Elisa, keep her with you.” Lauriston put a hand on his old friend’s shoulder.
“Of course, Lar. She’s safe with me,” Mon said.
Lauriston nodded once. Mon’s eyes were focused and stern, like they’d been all those years ago at the beginning of Emperor Lannes’s rise to power. The old warrior was fully back now.
Lauriston smiled. Mon saluted again and walked off to where his men and the princess waited with the rest of his part of the army.
The marshal of the last Erlonian army was now alone. The chaos of the growing battle echoed behind him.
A heavy sigh escaped Lauriston’s mouth and he felt his shoulders drop. He was tired
. Weary from the long flight from the Scythes and the double-time march to get to the town in time.
But a marshal never had time to rest. There was always another fight.
Lauriston stood still and watched the town and the smoke billowing up from destroyed homes and the gunfire over the bridge and chaos on the river banks. This was quite a battle.
It was time Lauriston’s Erlonians joined the fray.
Elisa
Mon came back and distributed the orders to his officers and soldiers. Elisa stood with Mon and the men formed up to move through the trees in the east.
Waiting for the orders had been an exercise in nervous patience. The rumbling of gunfire was no longer a distant and foreign noise like it had been all those weeks ago on Mon’s farm.
Elisa was the closest to a battle that she’d ever been.
The booming of the artillery shook the trees around her. It echoed in her ears. It pounded relentlessly and she was still well away from the center of this battle.
Although that was about to change.
They would flank the city using the forest as cover. Mon seemed hopeful with the plan and the soldiers were confident as well, especially with the Lakmian regiments marching with them.
Lodi led the column of Lakmians just to Elisa’s left. They looked like shadows flitting from tree to tree in their dark green coats. The only thing that gave away their movement was the gleam off their bayonets or the spearheads on their backs.
The normal Erlonian soldiers moved slightly less gracefully than their Lakmian counterparts but still stealthily enough. The men stepped quietly through the trees and the booming of the battle came closer and closer.
They stopped a hundred feet away from the edge of the forest. Elisa could just make out the top of the Ascended One’s spire in the middle of the town through the treetops.
Elisa was ready.
Despite the ground shaking under her feet. Despite the nerves she felt. Despite her hands shaking slightly. She was ready for her first battle.
The soldiers stood steady behind her. The strength of the Erlonians welled around her and were ready to fight for their country.
“Stay with me when we reach the houses,” Mon said.
He stood to her left and stared at the town through trees. No movement could be seen in or around the homes. It seemed the Kurakin were focused on the bridge and hadn’t seen the Erlonian approach.
“Are you afraid?” Mon turned his head to look down at her.
“No.”
Elisa wasn’t lying. She didn’t feel fear at the moment.
Mon nodded and turned back to the scene in front of them.
Elisa looked over her left shoulder. Over the heads of the Lakmian regiments were more trees hiding their approach. Beyond that stretch of forest would be the rest of the army preparing to attack across the open southern field. Once they attacked, Mon would order this group forward to execute the flank.
And then the fighting would begin.
Movement caught Elisa’s eye. She had to focus on the spot where she’d seen it. Slowly, she saw the outline of a Lakmian perched on a high branch above Lodi’s soldiers.
He wasn’t dressed like the soldiers, but his tail was clearly curling back and forth below the branch he sat on.
It was Elisa’s guide.
He smiled and waved at her. She nodded in return and he nodded back.
Elisa glanced at Mon and found the general hadn’t noticed anything. None of the other soldiers seemed to have spotted the vision, as they were all focused forward.
Seeing the guide helped to fully ease the last bits of her nerves. She had her friends fighting with her and the strength of her father’s army around her and the guide watching over her. They would win this fight and then continue on to fight the war.
It was time to join the battle. She glanced at the houses just through the trees once more and everything was still.
Elisa turned back and saw the guide had disappeared from his perch. Lodi led the Lakmians in their pre-fighting movements and the silence before the attack echoed around the soldiers.
As soon as Lauriston started his attack, the game would be on. Elisa fingered the silver pistols at her hips and looked forward. The imperial seal was cold against her skin and she traced the outlines of the symbol and thought on her father. He wouldn’t be afraid at this moment and she wouldn’t be either.
She was ready to fight with her friends for the last bits of his empire. She was ready to fight for Erlon.
Lauriston
Lauriston stood on the very edge of the trees and stared down at the town. The Kurakin were still marching men into the town. Their artillery had established a position on the river bank in the west and now answered the Brunian cannons.
Houses were on fire. Smoke billowed up to the sky. The towering spire to the Ascended One stood tall in the center of it all.
Lauriston turned his head to the east. He couldn’t see Mon and Lodi’s units. He had to trust they would be in position. Lauriston’s own push up the center would draw the enemy’s attention and ensure Mon could get into the Kurakin flank.
The plan was a sound one. It’d been thrown together quickly, but Lauriston trusted it to work for his men. He wouldn’t second-guess himself this time.
There were bodies on the bridge on the far side of the town. Red and black coats alike were piled on the edge of the bridge. There was a line cut down the middle where the two sides cleared a path to continue fighting. The Brunians barely held on.
It was up to Lauriston and the Erlonians to relieve the pressure on the Brunians. They wouldn’t be able to hold off this Kurakin attack forever.
“Form up,” Lauriston said over his shoulder. He heard the order being echoed up and down the line of men behind him.
The din of the battle seemed to pause and hang over his head. It was a long moment, as if Lauriston was stuck in time.
The marshal drew his sword and raised it above his head.
“Forward!”
The lines of Erlonians marched forward. Lauriston stepped out of the cover of the forest and into the afternoon sunlight. His boots sank into the recently tilled dirt.
Drums beat the time for the men to march to. Lauriston briefly wondered if the Kurakin would hear the drums over the roar of their battle.
It didn’t matter. If they didn’t see Lauriston’s attack coming, they would soon feel it.
The Erlonian lines straightened once they emerged out of the trees. Quatre controlled the flank on Lauriston’s right.
“Onward!” came the cheer from a unit directly behind the marshal.
Lauriston waved his sword in the air to praise the spirit of the men and more cheers came. The time for stealth was over. It was time to attack.
“Onward, Erlon! Onward, Emperor!”
The cheers grew even louder. Lauriston let the light gleam off his sword in the air. There was no time for a speech, but he didn’t need to rally the men. They were already roaring.
The marshal of Erlon dropped his sword down and pressed forward. The soldiers followed him. They picked up speed slowly and were soon at a run.
Lauriston let out a yell of his own as they charged towards the houses and the Kurakin beyond. He was drowned out by the cheers and the thundering charge of his men.
“Onward, Erlon!”
The Erlonians flung themselves into the battle.
Chapter 28
Battle is easy to make glorious until you’re in the middle of one.
Select Sermons
Baptist VII, 21st Tribune to the Ascended One
Pitt
It was a disaster.
The Brunians held the bridge, but only by the last few bits left in their strength. Pitt knew the Horde would break his defenses soon.
The enemy had too many men. There weren’t enough Brunians to stop them.
Pitt paced on the hilltop overlooking the bank of the river. The town and the bridge and the swarming Horde army sat below him.
<
br /> The Brunian line held against the latest Kurakin attack on the crossing. Pitt’s artillery pounded the houses on the western side of town and the adjacent field. The Kurakin cannons answered. Their volleys were an octave deeper and came with less space between.
Pitt shook his head.
“Send the Fourth down to the bridge,” he said to an aide. “How’s the First recovering?”
“They’re fairly beat up, sir.” An officer stepped up beside him.
“They’ll need to reinforce the bridge again soon. They won’t have time to keep resting.”
The officer nodded and didn’t argue back. Everyone on the command hill knew how dire the situation was.
Pitt had reached the town and been dropped off by Desaix less than a day before the Kurakin army appeared. Pitt had ridden into the town and found the Brunian soldiers on the bridge. He’d set out to prepare for the arrival of the Erlonians, not the Horde.
The town hadn’t changed much in the weeks since Pitt was last here. No citizens were around. The houses still sat deserted. The market square around the Ascended One’s spire was empty and silent.
The quiet was a far cry from the chaos that now engulfed the little town.
Pitt had set up the defenses and taken control of the Brunian units present on the northern bank. He’d explained the approach of Lauriston’s army and the need to treat with the Erlonians. There’d been trouble getting the Brunian officers to understand the need for the alliance.
Not that it mattered anymore.
Now everything was done for. All of Pitt’s efforts, all the luck he’d needed to survive the Kurakin betrayal and the flight from the Scythes in the woods. All of it was for nothing.
Pitt had failed again. He had always been a failure.
The Fall of Erlon Page 31
