Lauriston charged into the smoke and heard the Erlonian yells around him. He stabbed down into the stomach of a Kurakin on the ground. The enemy position was overrun.
Beyond the smoke of the exploded cannons, Lauriston saw an open square. The entire Kurakin regiment was falling back. His Erlonians were pressing in on all sides. The spire to the Ascended One rose above them.
“All right, we’ll move up now,” Lauriston said to himself.
He yelled out the orders and they were passed back through the part of the town they’d just taken. His army fell in behind him.
“Pursue them.” Lauriston pointed towards the square and the fleeing Kurakin. “Force them out of the city, make them run back west.”
“Onward!”
The soldiers flew forward with battle cries. Lauriston stayed in place and thought through the rest of the battle. He wanted to make sure he kept the momentum on his side. There couldn’t be a mistake with the approaching enemy reinforcements. The Kurakin in the town had to break completely to make the reinforcements useless.
Lauriston’s mind could see the positions as if he was a Scythe hawk in the sky. They’d turned this portion of the town, they needed the rest to break and run now. The enemy center was breaking, but the bridge beyond the square was still under heavy assault. Lauriston needed the entire Kurakin attack to break. He needed General Pitt and the Brunians to push across the bridge and finish the rout.
The marshal’s aides reached him. One held the flag of the Erlonian army on a pole. Lauriston took it without a word and sprinted off across the square and left his confused-looking aides in his wake.
The large door to the spire of the Ascended One stood open. The stairwell inside wound up around the walls and Lauriston took the steps two at a time. The flag streamed behind him.
He was out of breath when he burst through the top door and out onto the platform that stood high above the battle in the town below.
The Kurakin cannons had ceased and the last of their smoke blew away to the west. He could see the fighting on the bridge. He could see the eastern part of town still engulfed in fighting from Mon’s flank. And he could see his own men chasing the Kurakin and turning them west out of the town.
Lauriston waved the flag above his head in big sweeping motions. His aides started to cheer from the square below and the soldiers echoed them across the square as more and more men noticed the marshal high above them.
“Onward!”
“Onward, Erlon! Onward, Marshal! Onward, Emperor!”
“Onward, soldiers of Erlon!”
The cheering passed through the town and carried over the gunfire and the fighting. Lauriston kept waving the flag and yelled with his troops. They needed to push on. They needed the entire allied army to turn the Kurakin attack before more enemies arrived.
Pitt
Pitt saw the shift in the battle. Kurakin began to flow out the western side of town and back up the road. The Brunian cannons were positioned perfectly to rake the retreat.
He almost felt bad ordering the artillery to fire. The Horde was fleeing. They were helpless. Many didn’t even have their muskets anymore.
But he remembered the night he’d spent tied to a tree. He remembered the look in the Kurakin captain’s eye when they turned Pitt loose after letting the dog catch his scent. He remembered the cold terror they’d caused him and the brutality Kura was bringing to the Continent.
“Fire at will.” Pitt didn’t hide the anger behind his words.
The aide carried the message off and the cannons opened up on the uncovered Kurakin retreat.
It was a massacre.
Pitt’s eyes returned to the town and the bridge in front of his position. There were still plenty of Kurakin fighting. Explosions and smoke still came from the eastern houses.
Movement caught Pitt’s eye. High above the battle, he saw a flag waving.
“It’s Lauriston,” he said under his breath.
Pitt stared at the figure. He couldn’t believe it. The marshal stood atop the spire in the center of town and waved a large Erlonian flag.
The marshal’s army pushed forward through the square. They pursued the Kurakin west. The blue threads waving back and forth rallied them to pursue with vigor. But Lauriston was also signaling something else.
Pitt brought a hand up to call for an aide. His mind was still thinking on the order.
“Sir?” one of his aides said behind him.
“We must push forward.” Pitt brought the hand down. He nodded his head as his mind confirmed the move.
“Sir?” A couple of other aides exchanged confused glances.
Pitt glanced again at the bridge and the town and the flag on top of the spire. The Kurakin on the banks of the river still pressed against the bridge, unaware of the fate of the battle behind them. Pitt needed to press back and complete the push against the enemy. They needed to push all the Kurakin back against Lauriston’s army and crush them.
“All forward. Relieve the Third and move in the First and Fifth,” Pitt said. “We’ll push the Kurakin off the bridge and to the west.”
The messengers ran down the lines with the orders and the army formed up. Pitt led the push himself. They stepped over the dead bodies of the fallen Brunians and pushed up against the Kurakin soldiers still fighting.
The Third, exhausted from the fighting on the bridge, filed back and let themselves be replaced. Even before Pitt fired his first round, the Kurakin were retreating off the bridge to join the rest of the army in a full flight away from the town.
Andrei
Andrei had been part of a defeat before. He’d felt the turn in the momentum of soldiers and the fear crashing through regiments like a cold wave onto a rocky coast.
Instinct for survival took over. Every Kurakin wanted to run for safety. No one, not even the mightiest warriors, wanted to keep fighting.
Andrei knew it was no use trying to rally. All was lost when the troops began moving off the bridge and the Brunian push came.
An open gap swelled behind them as other regiments pulled out of the city. The square was taken by the Erlonians. The Kurakin cannons faltered.
Andrei’s army was done.
Even with the rearguard reinforcements, the army wouldn’t hold together. Andrei didn’t even need to order a retreat. The army ran on its own.
He went to his horse but found his command area deserted. Foot soldiers streamed past him towards the western road. His aides were gone. His horse had fled with the army, something his old wolverine never would’ve done.
Kurakin soldiers ran through the streets. Musket and cannon smoke pushed after them. Through the haze, Andrei could make out the shadows of the Erlonians coming for him.
Andrei ran.
He ducked off the main road and moved between the houses. He jumped a fence and ran straight into a surprised Erlonian soldier.
The pair tumbled to the ground. Andrei landed an elbow across the enemy’s jaw and rolled away. By the time the Erlonian recovered, Andrei was on his feet and running for the next alley.
A yell went out. More Erlonians were on the next street over. Andrei heard the crack of a pistol and the snap of a ball hitting the side of the house as he dove across the street.
He found more of the enemy down the next alley.
It was hopeless.
The thought screamed in Andrei’s mind, but he kept running. He made a turn into a house. An Erlonian uniform met him and gave him the butt of his musket.
Andrei flipped backwards and felt his head hit the ground before everything went black. The smoke and the explosions and the screams of the lost battle filled his head one last time before the darkness took him.
Lauriston
Lauriston came down from the spire and handed the flag back to the original carrier. From the top of the tower, he’d been able to see the full Kurakin retreat. The Brunian cannons raked them as they fled and allied cavalry chased enemies into the trees.
Lauriston moved acr
oss the square. The Kurakin were gone from the row of houses and their muskets were strewn across the cobblestones, thrown away in their haste to get away.
When the marshal reached the houses neighboring the bridge road, he was greeted with a column of Brunian soldiers.
Pitt marched at the head.
“Well held, General.” Lauriston saluted Pitt with a smile.
“Brilliant attack, Marshal.” Pitt saluted as well. “You have quite a sense of timing. Thank you.”
The Brunian column spread out through the square. Some of the Brunian soldiers eyed the Erlonians cautiously.
“How was the bridge?” Lauriston shook Pitt’s hand. This friendly gesture got even more confused looks from the aides around Pitt.
“Tight, but the men fought bravely. How was your side?”
“A near-run thing. Their cannons raked us harder than I wanted.”
“I think we’re paying that back in kind.” Pitt turned to look towards the sounds of the Brunian cannons and the explosions throughout the Kurakin westward retreat.
“That you are.” Lauriston listened to the beautiful sound of the artillery. He was thankful to be on this side of the battle and not engulfed in those volleys. “We’ll round up prisoners and regroup. The eastern flank still has some fighting.”
Pitt nodded. “My men will be fully across the bridge soon.”
Lauriston took a deep breath and sighed. “Quite a day.” He shook Pitt’s hand before the Brunian walked back towards his men. “Quite a day.”
“Yes,” Pitt said as he left. “That it was, Marshal. That it was.”
Elisa
Elisa didn’t feel the fear anymore.
Not because the Kurakin were falling back in front of them. Not because the fight was already won.
It was because she was numb.
She couldn’t even find her sadness and worry for Mon anymore. There was only the next row of houses to take. Only the fleeing Kurakin in the alley to attack and pursue.
She stopped firing at the enemy. She let them run. It didn’t seem right to shoot someone in the back.
The rest of the Erlonian soldiers didn’t have the same mindset.
After the last volley, Elisa hadn’t even reloaded her pistols. She entered the next house with only her cutlass out and found it empty. The Erlonians ran farther down the street and Elisa was left behind. Through the far door of the building, she found an alley. She realized her mistake with her pistols only after it was too late.
One last Kurakin waited for her in the next house.
But this one lacked a beard.
Sensation returned to Elisa in time for her to feel a cool breeze blow eerily across her neck. It was the same feeling as when her guide appeared, but this figure in front of her was a Kurakin.
The filed teeth of his smile proved that.
The sounds of the far-off cannons receded. Gunshots were muffled from the adjacent houses. Fear gripped Elisa once again.
Movement came from the left. A different cool breeze passed from the other direction and Elisa’s fear lessened.
Her guide stepped through a doorway. His face was stern and angry and terrifying. He stood between Elisa and the evil being. Sounds came back and the pops of muskets were clear again.
“Away with you.” The guide’s voice was deep and powerful.
“I only seek the mother.” The evil god’s smile had only faltered for a second when the guide appeared.
“I know what you seek.”
“Our goal is the same.” The evil god held his hands out wide.
“But the means are very different, Chaos.” The guide shook his head.
Elisa had no idea what their words meant. Her heart hammered in her chest from how serious her guide was taking this Kurakin god. The enemy’s smile was too confident. Elisa wanted to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. They would only shake.
The evil god took a last look at Elisa before turning his back to leave. He stopped in the doorway for only a second, as if contemplating spinning back to attack. Instead, he stepped out into the alley and faded away like gun smoke.
Elisa fell to her knees and wanted to cry. The guide turned and smiled at her.
“You’ll be okay, Princess. You fought well, you’re safe now.” The guide faded away too as Erlonian soldiers came through the house and into the alley.
They pulled Elisa to her feet and sent her back towards the rear lines.
The battle was over.
Elisa was finished with fighting. She retraced the path they’d made through the houses and trudged to the wall where Mon had been shot.
The memories came back to her in waves. She remembered him falling. Lodi crouched over his chest.
The images overwhelmed Elisa and she ran the final few steps and hurdled over the wall.
She found two figures alone on the ground. One with his head on the other’s chest.
The sounds around Elisa went away again, as if the evil Kurakin god was back in front of her. She stumbled and collapsed next to Lodi.
Mon’s eyes were closed. His face looked peaceful. His undershirt soaked pink. The dirt around his torso dark and muddy.
“I’m sorry.” Lodi’s voice was broken.
Elisa wasn’t sure if the words were directed at her or Mon’s body, but it didn’t matter.
Elisa was sorry too. She was sad. She was exhausted. And she couldn’t muster tears for her friend and protector.
The sounds of the end of the battle came back to her ears. They were far off now. Elisa wanted to collapse into the dirt and let it all fade away. She wanted to turn back time somehow and protect Mon. To somehow stop the musket balls from striking him.
But she was powerless. The Erlonians were victors. The battle was won and Elisa still felt like she’d lost everything.
Chapter 30
Lannes believed that even in victory, a general should feel loss.
Tome of the Emperor
Nelson Wellesley
Elisa
Elisa walked through the battle’s aftermath as if in a dream. She worked with the soldiers and helped organized things. She did as she was told and tried not to think on the memories of the battle.
The full Brunian army marched over the bridge and into the southern forest hills during the evening after the battle. Artillery was placed in defensive positions throughout the town and the surrounding fields.
The Kurakin reinforcements didn’t attack. The enemy army was broken and needed to regroup.
The victors sent out scouts and pressed the advantage they’d won in the town. Houses were turned into headquarters and the alliance between Brun and Erlon continued, with the common soldiers still overly cautious about working so close to their former enemies.
Regiments were reformed and men were accounted for and losses tallied. Multiple medical areas were established and served both sides of the new alliance together.
Soldiers helped bury the dead. The cleanup continued through the evening of the following day. Work was stopped as night fell.
The army finally paused and allowed a time of reflection. The Erlonians gathered and held the vigil for the lost and gave General Montholon the soldier’s farewell that he deserved.
Lodi came and got Elisa from her tent in the center of camp. “Come, Princess,” he said.
Elisa had worked all day with the soldiers. Her body ached, but she barely felt it. The monotony of battle cleanup helped keep her feelings contained deep within her.
“Grief is good after a fight such as this.” Lodi helped her to her feet. “We must pay our respects to the fallen. The Ascended One is already greeting Mon with open arms.”
The funeral pyre was set up in a clearing to the east of the battlefield. There were three platforms. Mon lay on the highest of them in the middle. Two other soldiers deemed to have died bravely were included on either side. One Brunian. One Lakmian.
The entire Erlonian and Brunian armies had gathered in the clearing. They cleared a path for Lodi a
nd Elisa to get to the front.
As she approached the center of the gathering, Elisa heard the cries of “Onward!” from the Erlonians. They were weaker than normal, given the setting, but they rang out nonetheless. A determination and pride shone through in the cheers.
Lauriston and the others already stood at the front by the pyre. Quatre put a hand on Elisa’s shoulder, but no other words were spoken until Lauriston addressed the crowd.
“These men died bravely, defending our country and its alliances. They died defending the Continent.” He swept a hand behind him to indicate the pyre. “This fire is to honor them, to send off their mortal remains on the wind. May they be carried to the Ascended One’s feet, as a memory of their sacrifice and bravery on this ground.”
The fire was lit and the platforms burned quickly. The flames climbed up the wood to the bodies. Elisa had to take a step back from the heat.
She watched Mon’s body disappear in the orange and red and her vision went dark from the brightness of it all. Sparks were flung up into the starry sky.
Quatre produced a bottle of wine and passed it down the line. Every one of the officers drank, even Marshal Lauriston. Elisa took a pull and found the liquid burned her throat on the way down, just as it had when she’d stolen a sip on Mon’s farm so long ago.
The sting reminded her of the old general. She saw him sitting on his horse, swaying back and forth and holding a bottle by the neck. She saw him sitting by the fire in the dark in the deep forest, telling stories of old battles.
It made her smile and she took another swig before passing the wine back down the line of officers.
The group stayed by the fire for a long time. The other soldiers filtered out after the ritual and went back to the camp. Elisa’s group stood and stared at the flames as the platforms were reduced to a pile of smoldering wood.
No one said anything. The wine was finished. The stars came out fully in the cloudless sky and the smoke of the dying fire was carried off towards the north.
The Fall of Erlon Page 34
