The Bloodstained God (Book 2) (58 page)

With Passerina gone their luck seemed to have deserted them. It was against all belief and history, but Seth Yarra had adopted new tactics. From what he understood of them, from everything he had learned from books and been told by Narak, this was quite impossible. They fought according to a book, and the book was sacred, and could not be changed. Yet he was sure that their attackers were Seth Yarra. Who else could they be?

In the early hours of the morning the alarm had been raised. Two of the guards were dead, killed by arrows. Four other men had been injured, also struck by arrows which had been shot seemingly at random into their camp.

It was not a serious threat, but it was certainly an annoyance. An hour later the same thing occurred. Perhaps twenty arrows flew in from the dark outside the camp, and from quite a different quarter. This time one man was killed and two injured.

For all that Skal could do to prevent it a cavalry detachment of Telans galloped off into the night to hunt down men that they could barely hope to find before dawn, and so it proved.

Less than an hour later there was a third attack, equally trivial, and it failed almost completely in that only one man was slightly injured. Yet Skal wondered if it was a failure at all. Thousands of men milled about in the dark and their officers had to exert themselves to keep even more men from rushing off.

“We will seek them out in the morning,” Hestia said. She had called her commanders together once more to exhort them to keep their men within the camp.

“I doubt you will find them,” Skal said. “If you do they will number no more than a couple of hundred.”

“And how do you know this?” one of the Telans demanded.

“Because there are no Seth Yarra here but the remnants of the Greenhow garrison. When we passed by on the other bank of the Perit it was clear that their numbers were much reduced. Our scouts have reported no forces abroad that need worry us, and now we are attacked.”

“So we will seek them out in the morning and destroy them,” the Telan officer insisted.

“How long will that take you?”

“No more than an hour,” the man replied confidently.

Skal shook his head. “By dawn they will be scattered and hidden.”

“Two hours, then. Four. What does it matter?”

“A day, perhaps?”

“Very well. A day.”

“Or more… So we stay here. They know the land, they have had time to prepare. If they have a good officer, and I’ll wager they have, it will take us three or four days to stop these attacks. How far away is the Seth Yarra force to our south?”

“They mean to delay us,” Hestia said.

“They will not catch us,” the Telan officer protested. “They are a week behind.”

“Lord Skal is right, Garrial,” Hestia said. When we get to the Western Chain we will need time to prepare, and the less time we have, the poorer our defence will be. If these Seth Yarra delay us two days it is two days we cannot afford.”

“But it is intolerable!” Garrial stormed. “We cannot just sit and comb our hair while these dogs shoot at us!”

“Nor should we,” Skal said. “Tomorrow we will kill them, but not by chasing them. We will make them chase us and draw them into an ambush.”

Hestia smiled at this, and Skal knew that his argument was won. For all her faults as a Telan the queen appreciated cleverness over brute aggression, and that was what Skal offered her. He explained his plan. In the morning he would take five hundred of his Avilians ahead of the main column as an advance guard, and he had no doubt that the Seth Yarra would see them go. He would march through Greenhow, which he was confident was now deserted by the enemy, and take up a concealed position along the line of march beyond the town.

Hestia would follow with the main force, and the Seth Yarra soldiers would follow her trail. She would clean out anything in Greenhow that was of use and then march through Skal’s positions and make camp again a few miles further up the road. Skal would ambush the Seth Yarra as they followed Hestia. By this plan there would be no delay, and the nuisance raids would be ended.

Garrial looked at him as though he had conjured a particularly noxious weasel from under his hat. It went against strict Telan notions of honour to indulge in ambush, although they were not above it historically. Skal reflected that as an Avilian lord there would be some Telans who saw everything he did as unsatisfactory in one way or another.

Hestia, however, was pleased. She assented to the plan almost at once, and Skal went about his business picking the men who were to make up the ambush party. He chose veterans, men with discipline and patience. Such qualities would serve them well.

There were two more attacks in the night, and another man was killed, but no further pursuit was launched, and the men were instructed to sleep beneath their shields, if they could sleep at all.

Skal had his men up before dawn, and he led them personally, checking them and speaking to them constantly, just as Cain would have done. He had seen the response Cain got from his men this way, and he had learned. At first light they were formed up and ready to march, and even as the Telans set about breaking their camp he walked out of it at the head of his men. He had chosen to take infantry, and to walk himself for the simple reason that it was easier to set an ambush if you didn’t have horses to conceal which might give you away with an imprudent noise.

Within an hour they had reached Greenhow. There were no Seth Yarra there, as he had predicted, but the town was far from empty. Skal ordered the Telan royal standard unfurled as they entered the town, and it seemed to work. Men and women came out onto the streets to watch them pass, and some even called out to them. Skal’s men were clearly not Telan themselves, and Skal made a point of not requesting any assistance from the people of Greenhow, but instead took time to warn them that their queen approached, and would need what little they could spare to carry on the fight against the invader.

They seemed receptive to his message, and even glad that Avilians were riding in alliance with their queen.

So they left Greenhow behind them, warmed for the queen’s arrival, but otherwise untouched. Skal now studied the lie of the land with a tactical eye. Somewhere in the next few miles he must find a site for an ambush, a place where he could hide five hundred men on both sides of the road.

He found what he was looking for quite quickly.

The road north followed the river, and every now and again it swung away into the low hills where a bluff or a sharp bend made the detour desirable. It was mixed country, and though it had not been immune to the depredations of the nearby town there were still substantial areas of woodland. At one point the road curved back to the river over a rocky bluff, dropping down to the water and tracking the west bank faithfully for half a mile with dense woodland narrowing the path.

It was ideal. The river would act as his eastern force and he would conceal his men in the woods. He gave his orders and left the sign he had agreed with Hestia on the road – four stones in a line and a fifth beside them. This would let her know where the ambush lay, so that she was certain to make camp beyond.

He knew that it would be hours, even perhaps after dark, before the Seth Yarra passed by, so he put his men to conceal themselves and rest as best they could. He left a couple of dozen men on guard and waited for Hestia.

By midday there was still no sign of the queen, though they were barely two hours march from their overnight campsite, and he guessed that they had been delayed in Greenhow. The day passed slowly, and Skal was unable to take his own advice and rest. He grew increasingly impatient.

He imagined that Hestia had once more fallen prey to bad advice and had made camp in the town, looking to the comfort of her men ahead of the plan they had agreed. He did not trust her to do what was wise if he was not there to prompt her.

He was also troubled with the thought that she might be challenged again. This was foolish, because the time for challenge was past according to Telan law, and those that followed her were now bound by their honour to serve her. But Skal found that he doubted Telan honour almost as much as he doubted Telan prudence.

He was relieved when his scouts eventually reported the approach of a body of men that could only be Hestia’s army, and so it proved to be. Skal did not break cover, but he watched from the woods as Hestia approached, stopped her horse at the sign he had left, and dismounted to scatter the stones. It was clear evidence that she had seen it. He saw her look into the woods, but his men were well hidden by now, and he guessed that she saw nothing but shadows.

The army marched and rode by, and as the last of them passed out of sight Skal could feel the tension in the woods around him rising.

The next thing to come down the road would be Seth Yarra.

The rest of the afternoon crept by them, minute by minute. Every man was silent, straining to hear the slightest noise above the muttering roar of the river. It was still as an autumn dawn. The wind did not blow and the forest was quiet around them as though it was holding its breath in sympathy with their vigil.

It was dusk when the scouts gave their signal: a scattering of stones that fell among the men like the first hint of rain. A minute later Skal saw a man, just one, walking along the road. He walked slowly and looked about him. A scout. He was followed by five more, coming over the bluff and down onto the road in front of the forest. Skal waited. These were not the men he wanted to kill.

The first man paused, signalled back to the five and then went on. The stretch of road below the forest was close to half a mile in length, and he watched the five move onto it. They were cautious, but not overly so.

He caught sight of the main body. As they came down the road, marching in good order, he saw that their number was about what he had guessed – more than two hundred, and less than three. A lot of them carried bows.

Skal continued to wait. If his men had been Telans the battle would already have started, but the rabbit was hardly in the trap, and he wanted to spring it to total effect, not have a few dozen men run away back towards Greenhow.

Skal had put six score men at the north end of the wood and six score at the south. His remaining force formed a line fifty paces back into the trees. It was a thin sided box, but he had recruited the trees to shore it up, and his men were ready.

The moment came. Skal gave the signal, which was the simplest he could imagine. He yelled as loud as he could.

The box closed. Skal walked forwards through the trees with the line, their pace kept it straight, almost shoulder to shoulder, passing around the trees. Already there was a steady clash of steel from the north and south, and he heard arrows from his own men flicking away into the mass of Seth Yarra soldiers. The timing had been good. All they had to do was hold and it would be over in minutes.

The line joined the battle, sealing the trap. The few Seth Yarra who had run into the forest to escape were quickly dealt with. None of them were anywhere near Skal. He stepped out onto the road and was attacked at once, but the man had no skill and was quickly despatched.

The cornered men were not cleansers, at least they were not dressed in black, but they fought well enough. Skal engaged another man and found himself quite tested. They exchanged blows for a minute or two before Skal could find a weakness and worked his blade through to take the man in the throat.

There was a cry from his left, and he saw that a dozen or so had broken his line, and were escaping into the woods. His own portion was quiet – most of the Seth Yarra that faced him and the men around him having been killed or pushed towards the ends of the trap. He quickly picked ten men to follow him and set off in pursuit.

It was growing dark now, and their quarry was no more than moving shadows and noise ahead of them. Arrows flew from behind, his own men shooting past him, and he saw a couple of the Seth Yarra fall.

He was catching them. As they went deeper into the wood the undergrowth thickened and progress became difficult. They were all stumbling in the gloom, but the Seth Yarra were in thicker stuff than Skal.