Infinite Blue Heaven - A King and A Queen (26 page)

The last rider was more determined and hacked at my leg. The blow struck the edges of my greaves, cutting into the flesh slightl and causing a stinging sensation, but I knew it would not be a deep cut. With that, he was gone.

One man gripped my arm firmly.

You are a lucky bastard he said.

The man next to him slapped him on the back. “Do you know who that is?”

“No.” the man said hesitantly. I guessed my face must be covered in dust and dirt.

“It’s the King!” The man said.

With that, some of the other men turned and a cry of “The King” went up from the small band of men.

I pushed my way between the haunches of two struggling horses, towards the front.

“Is Geb here?”

“Yes. At the front!”

I trudged on. The arrows continued to rain down, but they were mainly concentrated on the front of the small column. I reached the lead horse and sure enough, there was Geb, dismounted, holding the reins. I tapped him on the shoulder and he swung to face me. At first he didn’t seem to recognise me and then his mouth fell open and his face broke out in a broad smile.

“Sire!” He clasped my hand, not strictly according to protocol, but I didn’t mind under the circumstances. It was great to see a familiar face.

“You look a little, tired!” he said.

I just grinned but had to quickly duck as an arrow skipped across my shoulder.

“You must let the horses go!” I shouted.

“Yes. I think you are right but if we do, we may not escape.”

We have no choice. The shields will be our only protection.

He gave the order and most men slapped their horses’ rumps to get them to canter off down the slope.

The rest of us quickly got under the shelter of the shields.

“Is Abdil still alive?” I asked.

“I think so. Against the wall. We have only just reached it. We need a moment to rest.”

“Of course. Yes. Is there any water?”

“No.” He looked at me with sympathy. “Well I haven’t, perhaps somebody else does.”

“Does anybody have any water for the King!” he barked.

A flask suddenly appeared, passed hand to hand. I took hold of it and Geb pulled out the bung so that I could take a draft. That water tasted so good, it was better than any wine or potka I had ever tasted.’

“Thanks.”

After only a few moments, to let the water seep into my body, I got to my feet, helped by Geb, and started forward for the wall.

I called Lord Abdil’khan’s name as I went and men parted to let me through. Geb followed. All the time arrows clattered on the iron and leather shields and occasionally thudded into the ground. We could hear the cries of the men on the parapets above us, shouting abuse and generally urging each other on to kill us.

My twisted foot was sending waves of pain through my body, each time I put my weight on it, the pain was worse than that of my arm.

I saw the familiar face of Abdil’khan, inn the gloom, astonished to see me.

“God, am I pleased to see you!” he said, clasping my arm and wiping his brow.

“What is happening? We must light the wood!” I said. “They will send out horsemen as soon as they guess what we are doing.”

“We are just doing it.” He stood aside to let me see past him to the vertical posts, perhaps 1/7 sachine wide. In the darkness, cut across by the occasional harsh streak of sunlight between the shields, two men crouched, one with a pouch open beside him and linen rags spilling out. He was tucking straw and linen into the cracks between the posts and the other man held a tinder flint to the straw and struck it. There was intense concentration on the faces of the two men as they went about their task. It seemed to take ages and many attempts before finally a strand of straw glowed red at the edges. They blew on it furiously. It finally took and soon there was a bright lick of flame, lighting up their faces with an eery glow. At the height of the battle a few huddled survivors fought to light a flame in the enemy’s wall, a flame that could save my kingdom!

“Stand back!” called Abdil’khan.

The wind was still blowing gently from the west but here, close to the rock wall, the air was eddying around and the flame jittered this way and that, not really spreading. Soon the two men were stuffing more straw and shreds of linen into the slits between the posts, further along the wall, in the direction the flame was licking the most.

“Come on, come on.” I said under my breath, as most of the other men did too.

A man cried, “The Gates are opening!”

I felt a lurching in my stomach. If we failed in this, it would have all been for nothing. I could see a patch of the tree bark blackening and then the faintest sign of flame. There was more smoke than flame, because the wood was still green and full of water. Would the plan work?

“Fan it! Fan it! We will have to move any moment.”

Men started fanning it with their helmets and some men even lowered their shields and used them. Finally there was a strong flame going and it was just at the time we heard the pounding of hooves.

“Form a defensive circle around the flames!” shouted Abdil’Khan

“No.” I grabbed his arm and spoke quietly to him. We must move down the wall. If it catches we will be burned to death.

“But we are doomed anyway!”

“No we are not. The sun will soon go down. If we can last till then, we can escape and if the flames burn through, we can die in Glory inside the fortress.”

“Alright.” He said. “Move down the wall. In double rank!”

The men lined up as best they could, the horsemen now engaging with the outer of each pair of soldiers. I noticed there were only three soldiers with the blue crest. The rest all had the palace crest.

Men were shouting furiously on the wall above now and moments later, the first splash of water came down and touched our legs. But the flames were well alight now. It would take a lot of water to put it out.

As we fought on, perhaps two hundred of us, against five hundred of them, the losses mounted. I had hardly a moment to look at the burning wall but when I did I was horrified to see that the walls were drenched and many buckets of water were simultaneously being emptied down the sides of the walls. The flames were nearly out but there was a hole, perhaps one sachine square, just above the base, big enough for a man on horseback to get through.

“Yes!” I thought. Some of our men were climbing through and the men behind me backed towards the hole. As we got near it, I could hear screaming inside. Finally, I could peer around the edge.

Two or three men were fighting hoards of the Enemy and I could see daylight beyond and some sort of wooden building and either side I could see the high sides of the mountains. Within seconds, the men were dead and Abdil,’ straining next to me, shook his head.

“This is no good! We have made the hole. We need reinforcements!”

I looked blankly at him for a moment. There were none, at least none we could communicate with. Then I remembered Yedigei.

“Can we signal Yedigei?”

“Are you
mad
?”

We were being approached by an enemy horseman and turning to parry his thrusts I told Abdil’khan to find a way.

“I have a mirror. He said. Hold him off!”

Just before I turned back to our assailant, I noticed that Abdil’khan was bleeding badly from a wound in his side too.

Just then a trumpet sounded and one of the enemy, probably their leader barked a command.

The horsemen disengaged and left, riding back to the gates.

“They can see we are finished! Said Abdil’khan. They may as well just pick us off from the battlements.”

“Yes.” I said.

He was flashing his mirror and in the distance now, the dust was mostly gone from the battlefield, I could see there were perhaps a dozen of Yedigei’s men left, with no enemy around them. They looked exhausted but were standing their ground, unwilling to risk reaching us but unwilling to retreat.

“Signal them to get reinforcements.” I said.

“These are scouts signals, I used to be one. This will only work if one of them can understand them,” said Abdil’

Suddenly we saw the riders all mount and one on a white horse, probably Yedigie, pointed his sword towards the gates. I could not understand what he was doing.

“No. Go back!” shouted Abdil’Kahn. “They are going to charge!”

“Oh no!”

They charged towards the gates, just as our attackers started to ride through them. Korim’s riders turned to face the brave attackers and the archers on the Battlements launched a fusillade of arrows. The riders stood no chance. In the end there was just one rider left, on a white horse, and as he rode on, alone, we could see that it was Yedigei. Our hearts were in our mouths as he rode on and then he was hit, by one, two and then many arrows. Eventually he slumped forward and then his horse came to a stop and he fell from his horse.

“Yedigei.” said Abdil’khan. “You were so young.”

“What do we do now?” said Abdil’khan after a long moment.

“We wait until dark, we survive until dark, and then we go back.”

“But why? We have got this far. They will just block it up!”

“Maybe but we can’t go on without more men. We go back, get reinforcement and come back.” There seemed so much more I should say but what could I say?

I guessed there was perhaps three hours until complete darkness. I didn’t think we could possibly survive that long. Korim would finish us.

But he didn’t.

Arrows continued to rain down on us. At times boiling water too and once some boiling oil. Many men died, even sheltering under the shields.

Men exchanged messages, to be given to their loved ones, should their comrades survive. The atmosphere was one of resignation, not despair. We had fought bravely and achieved success. Others would follow and we hoped, succeed. It was frustrating that Sabitzan and Abutalip could see the hole in the wall but they couldn’t act. I had given them strict instructions to remain where they were unless all of us were defeated. They would be wondering what was happening but would not move, not yet. They were to be the second wave. They would probably already be planning how best to launch their attack. Occasionally we saw the head of one of their observers peering over the rise.

“If it weren’t for Geb’s charge, we wouldn’t have made it,” said Adbil’khan.

He was still resentful about my decision to leave and the words did not come easily to him, but at least he was trying to make conversation.

“What will you do if we win?” he asked

“Have a long hot bath – Shakira is very keen on them – and not do anything strenuous for at least six months.”

“A bath! A bath! You are getting soft. Becoming like the rich in Europe! And only six months. I will do nothing for years! In fact, I want to retire. Promise me you will not send me on any more campaigns?”

“If we survive this, I promise you can retire with full honours and nobody will bother you for the rest of your life Lord Abdil’khan.”

“That’s settled then. Now all we have to do is get out of here!”

Several times I thought about Meth-Medir and Lord Bulya. Where were they? We had heard nothing of them. Had Meth and his tribe been captured?

It was getting dimmer but now there were less than forty of us left. We had to keep moving, back and forth, to avoid the showers of boiling water and oil. We were exhausted.

Finally it was time to leave. There was a sort of reluctance, now, even though many times, men had called, “Is it time to go yet?” Crossing the open space could only lead to more deaths and most probably, none of us would make it.

“Let’s go. Pass the word along. Three men abreast, full shield wall, top and sides and lets be quick.”

The men had been picking up the larger shields of fallen soldiers as the afternoon wore on and as we left and marched towards the rise, we looked like some strange giant centipede, articulated and armoured. Near the front as I was, I could hear shouts of sweating and exhausted men behind, trying to keep the shield walls solid and occasionally we would hear a moan or scream as another man fell. It took an age to descend the slope, all the time wondering if Korim would send out horses, and dreading the sound of the gates opening. But it never happened and eventually, thankfully, we were out of range, and, one by one, the shields dropped and we shambled, wearily into the lines of the reserve army. Men rushed forwards to help us and were astonished when they saw my face.

* * *

Chapter Seven

“King!” they shouted. “You are alive.”

I smiled but I was in so much pain now, I just wanted to find somewhere quiet to sit.

Lord Sabitzan came out of the crowd and saluted me. He smiled. Well done, Sire! We have them now!’

“Ha. Not unless we can keep the breach open.” I groaned. I must sit down.

Sabitzan turned to a soldier. Fetch the Cook, immediately.

“No. It’s alright. I will go there. He must have many men to treat.”