Steel and Sorrow (25 page)

Rumbling hoof beats caught her ear and she glanced to them, expecting last minute orders. Her face lit up when she saw Rygar galloping toward her, his blond hair bouncing atop his head. He smiled as he jumped from the saddle and came up to her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “The battle can start at any moment!”

“I know. I begged Kaz to give me this moment before he sent me off again.”

“And he allowed it?”

Rygar nodded. “But I would have come anyway.” He pulled her away from her men. “I’ve been thinking. I’ve been trying to help you deal with Jonrell’s loss, but I think I was pushing you more than you’re ready for. I’m sorry. I realize the best way to help is to back off and give you the space you need,” he paused and Yanasi could see him struggling. He cleared his throat. “I’m ready to do that. I just want you to be happy.”

Yanasi’s eyes watered. She looked down and blinked, letting the tears fall on the dewy morning grass.

Rygar cursed. “I upset you, didn’t I?” He sighed. “I’m sorry, I can’t do anything right.”

Yanasi looked up. “No, please. You’re fine. I was just thinking about how much I needed to apologize to you and how great you’ve been. I was worried that depending on what happens today I might have never been able to tell you that.”

“So, I guess that means I don’t have to go anywhere?”

“Of course not.”

Rygar grinned. “Good. And don’t talk like we won’t see each other. I worry about you enough as it is.”

“But it’s true.”

“You’ll be alright and so will I.”

“So now what?” she asked after a moment.

The ground began to shake some distance away. Tomalt’s lines had begun their advance.

“I need to get back to Kaz.”

“I need to go back to my men.”

Rygar grabbed her by the shoulders, squeezing them through her mail as he pulled her close. Yanasi’s breath quickened as their mouths met. Though they had kissed countless times before, this one felt extra special. The circumstances of the kiss weren’t like anything her mom had told her about when reciting fairy tales to her as a little girl. Princesses never kissed wearing full armor on a battlefield. But the kiss gave her the comfort and reassurance she desperately needed.

He pulled away. “I promise I’ll see you after the battle.”

He kissed her again and ran to his horse, riding back toward the rear as he waved over his shoulder. In that moment, all she could think about was following after him and the two running off to some private place where they could be alone.

Perhaps one day.

Yanasi ran back to her men. They all wore grins. She tried to scowl as she looked them over. “What’re you all smiling about?”

“We was just wondering if we’d all get ourselves a kiss like that,” said one of her men. He was a man from the mountains of northern Cadonia and spoke with a thick accent.

The lines hooted in laughter and Yanasi couldn’t help but smile too. A year ago she would have punched him, but now they joked with her not out of hate or resentment, but because they considered her one of them. Still, she couldn’t very well let the man get away with such a comment. “Corporal, I didn’t think you knew what to do with a female that had only two legs.”

The laughter grew louder and the Corporal showed a gap toothed grin of his own as the others heckled him in turn.

Jonrell always said laughter was the best way to ease the tension before a battle. I hope he was right.

* * *

As Tomalt’s men advanced, Raker received orders to begin. He took a long pull from his whiskey bottle and turned back to the men busying themselves with last minute adjustments to the nearest trebuchet. Drake had somehow figured out how to get decent range from the smaller piece of equipment. Its size made it ideal for a quick assembly and allowed them more freedom in stationing the devices in odd places like the high ridge they held now.

Drake’s getting too cocky for his own good. Thinks he has all the answers.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” yelled Raker.

A private called out. “Sir?”

“Don’t ‘sir’ me.” He spat. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Making the adjustments Drake showed us.”

“That’s not how you adjust a trebuchet.” He staggered over to the equipment and pushed the man aside as he began to fiddle with the tension.

Drake thinks he knows everything. I’ll show the smug little . . .

“But sir, that’s not how it’s supposed to work,” said the private.

Raker turned and sneered at the man. “Boy, I know how to work a blasted trebuchet.” He turned and made several new adjustments, cursing as he had to put his bottle down for a second to do so.

“But, Drake constructed this one differently so . . .”

Raker punched the man in the gut. The private fell to the ground, gasping for air. Raker spat near the soldier’s feet and scowled at the rest of his crew.

They think they’re better than me too.

“Quit standing around!” he yelled. “Get into position.”

A minute later he overlooked the battlefield, gulping at the whiskey in his hand. He pulled the bottle away long enough to shout a command.

“Release!”

* * *

A loud crash sounded from behind and Drake flung his head back as the first of the trebuchet buckets came forward. He cursed the second he saw its positioning and the angle the rocks entered into the air.

“What are you cursing about?” asked Lufflin. Against Drake’s request, Lufflin and Nora had been assigned to shield the siege equipment, knowing Tomalt’s mages would try to go for them as they neared.

“It’s off!” Drake followed the high arcing boulders as they fell hundreds of yards short of their target. Their own men, archers and light infantry, ran frantically out of the way. Several rocks crashed within feet of their lines. Yanasi and the other captains did all they could to keep the soldiers from breaking formation.

“One Above!” said Lufflin. “The idiot’s attacking our own men.”

Lufflin was right, but Drake hollered at him anyway, tired of his constant berating and sense of entitlement. “Shut it and go make yourself useful!”

“Hey, don’t think you can boss me around just because . . .”

With no time to argue, Drake gave the green mage his back and ran over to Senald.

“Did you see that?” asked Senald, wide-eyed in disbelief.

“Yes. I’m going up there now. You’re in charge down here.”

“Wait. I don’t know if—.”

“Not now, Senald,” said Drake, sounding more angry than he intended. “I need you to take over here.”

“Go.”

Drake climbed the rise and heard Senald shouting orders behind him. Cresting the hill, Drake found sure footing on the flat area the engineers had cleared away to make room for the siege equipment. He expected to see men running around reloading and preparing for the next shot. Instead, everyone had their backs to the battlefield, staring in the same direction. Drake pushed his way through where Raker sat on a small boulder wearing a blank look.

Drake kneeled in front of him. “Raker, are you alright? What happened?”

“I almost killed our own men,” he said in a low voice, barely a whisper. “What would Jonrell have said?” Raker put his head in his hands.

Drake shook him. “Get up! C’mon!”

The mercenary didn’t budge.

I don’t have time for this.

Drake spun and grabbed the closest man. “What happened? I thought I showed you all the changes I made. We drilled on them.”

“We tried to explain that to Raker, but he made us change the settings.”

“On all of them?”

“No. Just the one we fired.”

Drake glanced back at Raker who rocked back and forth.
What’s happened to you?

Drake turned away. “You three, work on getting the settings right while you four refill the bucket.” He gestured. “The rest get back to the other two.” No one moved. “One Above, now! This isn’t your first battle. We got men down there counting on us to do our job.”

That seemed to set them off and the ridge became a frantic mess of activity. The other two teams readied their trebuchets in moments. Drake quickly checked the distance with a spyglass and then gave the command. The wooden structure groaned and creaked as stones heaved into the air. This time they found their mark.

* * *

“What in the name of the One Above are they doing up there, captain?” asked a soldier.

Yanasi wondered the same thing. “It was meant to confuse Tomalt’s men so they think we don’t know what we’re doing,” she said with a quick lie.

“Then why didn’t they tell us?”

“It wouldn’t have seemed as natural if we had to fake being scared. Now get back in line and quit asking questions.”

I didn’t believe Rygar when he told me how concerned Drake was.

She felt a tug of guilt over her selfishness, not realizing how bad the engineer had gotten.

Another rolling thud sounded as the counterweights of the trebuchet slammed forward and echoed over the mountains to their left. Heads went up and involuntarily flinched until they saw the stones continue well past their lines. Tendrils of sorcery from Tomalt’s mages went up to meet the rocks, but their mages couldn’t deflect all the projectiles in time.

I guess Raker got it together. Hopefully it stays that way.

The discipline of Tomalt’s men impressed Yanasi. None broke formation to step around their dead. Soldiers walked on and over the fallen.

Siege equipment from the lower level soon joined the rocking cadence of the trebuchets. Yanasi raised a hand and a young soldier waved a green flag. Archers stepped forward and readied their bows. Tomalt’s men marched forward at a determined pace.

“Loose!”

* * *

Krytien moved the spyglass back and forth between the siege equipment and the first lines of the left wing. Arrows, ballista spears, boulders, and bits of metal from the trebuchets and mangonels worked in a steady rhythm. Tomalt’s mages worked to shield their men from the falling projectiles, but the sheer volume filling the gray sky overpowered their efforts. Tomalt’s soldiers fell like stalks of wheat at harvest.

“They’re definitely in sync now since Drake took over.”

Kaz grunted. “Raker is a liability. I’ll have to deal with that when this is over.”

“No,” said Krytien as he turned to Kaz. “Please, let me. He’s never been this bad before and I should have noticed it sooner. He may be more inclined to talk to me.”

“Someone he trusts?”

Perhaps.
“Someone he’s known longer. Someone he’s been through more with.”

Kaz nodded. “Let me know what the result is.”

“I will.”

Kaz pointed to the left wing. Krytien lifted the spyglass to watch as the enemy crashed into Kaz’s lines. The two forces heaved against each other and a ripple that shook the ground went out among the ranks. The arrows had stopped and the engineers shifted their focus to targeting the rear ranks of the enemy.

Tomalt’s mages went on the offensive, battering Kaz’s left wing with wave after wave of sorcery as the two forces clashed. Amid the flashes of light and fire, Krytien struggled to determine who held the advantage. Even through the spyglass, the armies seemed like a giant mass of flailing limbs.

Krytien found a pocket of their mages, several rows behind the front line. Two figures in green robes protected Jeldor’s black-robed mages while the latter worked to counter Tomalt’s assault.

“How are the mages?” asked Kaz.

“They’re holding for now.”

“Good.”

“We still have to worry about Bronn’s mages though.”

Tomalt’s forces pushed forward and Kaz’s right wing purposefully gave ground with the intent to appear weaker than the rest of the formation. Kaz wanted to lure Tomalt in as the left wing then pushed around to encircle him, pinning him against the river.

Krytien glanced over his shoulder at their reserves which consisted mostly of cavalry and light skirmishers. Once the left wing started their move, Kaz wanted the cavalry to sweep behind and support them.

But that all depends on the success of the right. If they fall back too quickly, Tomalt could press us into the mountains. If the right breaks, Tomalt will split our forces. And then Bronn’s men will be able to overwhelm our divided army.

The right wing continued their slow retreat into the fog, using the sorcerous cover created earlier to mask Kaz’s strategy.

Still visible at the front of the right wing, a tall figure swung out with a giant warhammer, flinging three of the enemy into the air.

“Crusher will take out that whole side by himself,” said Krytien.

“Don’t tell him that,” said Kaz. “His head is big enough already. It took a lot of convincing to get him to leave my side today. The new armor helped. But when he found out I was using him as a rallying point so the wing wouldn’t buckle too quickly, he was convinced.” Kaz held out his hand. “Let me see the spyglass.”

Kaz stood in his saddle searching out Bronn’s men. They waited by the river near a spot where it turned back on itself. He grunted. “Bronn hasn’t taken the bait yet.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Increase the fog as Tomalt’s lines advance. Let Bronn think we are close to collapse. Maybe if he believes the battle is decided, he’ll be more inclined to act. If what Jeldor said is true, he’s only interested in the glory.”

* * *

Jeldor’s pikemen surged past Yanasi’s archers and light infantry, slamming into the wall of Tomalt’s spearman. The two groups met with such force that her ears rang from the clashing of steel. Wails of despair and blood-curdling screams of pain drowned out the clanking of shield and armor as the two armies stabbed, sliced, and hacked.

The archers, unequipped for this sort of fighting, fell back behind Jeldor’s pikemen. The archers weaved between the lines where possible and loosed arrows as openings presented themselves. She had convinced Kaz to let her try the idea and was surprised he agreed.

Jonrell would have worried too much for my safety.

Yanasi drew another arrow from her quiver and readied it as she moved through the tightening lines. She released her arrow as a pikeman fell. Yanasi made the enemy soldier pay with an arrow to the eye. She got off another half dozen high arcing shots before the constant shoving and pressing became too much. She slithered back through the ranks just as a thrown javelin passed by her head, clipping her helm. She pitched forward and one of her men caught her.