Book 6, Chapter 31: Not A Warm Bath
With the enemy riders largely focused on them, the captain’s group were forced to turtle, putting up a circular shield wall like we had done.
I loosed another arrow, string sending the arrow off, taking another soldier down. The man beside him gave me an ugly glare, he charged, I nocked another and dropped him. Reaching for the quiver, I found it empty.
One of the men shouted, “They’re heading back this way!”
The lieutenant called out, “Shield wall!”
Someone tugged me, pulling me back into the center as once again, they dropped their large tower shields in front, placing another line vertically above, and the rest of us crouched down. Cresida and I were huddled up, shoulder to shoulder amongst the men, our dresses contrasting with their chainmail. None of us had bathed recently, it was smelly, sweat hanging like a fog around us, fear on some of their faces, then arrows plunked into the shields, mostly falling to the ground. One got through a gap, the air moved over my head like a breeze and into the back of one of the men in the second line of defense.
His knees buckled, archers beside him jumped up, one saying, “I got his shield.”
The other helped him to kneel on the ground, reaching for the arrow, saying, “It’s not in far, hold still.”
Cresida’s eyes were wide, sweat dripping off her face, she took my hand in hers and squeezed as the wounded man grunted. I gave her a little smile. She closed her eyes.
More arrows hitting shields, the lieutenant yelled, “Keep those up! No cracks in our defense!” and the thunderous hooves stamped past. Then, “Archers up! Loose!”
The spearmen dropped their shields, we stood, I let go of Cresida’s hand replacing it with my bow, and someone tugged on my sleeve.
“Here, miss,” a young archer, handing me a fresh quiver. “You’re a much better shot than me.”
“Ah, thank you.”
With wide eyes, he looked eager to please, “I don’t think I’ve seen you miss.”
“I missed a bunch of times.”
“Every arrow you’ve sent has hit its target.”
“Not in the dark with them moving around. A lot of the soldiers I’ve struck are merely wounded.”
“Oh,” he said, staring at me.
Trust me, I thought to myself, I’d rather have a gun. Anyways, yeah, if empress doesn’t work out for me and it sure didn’t mean anything to these soldiers, I could take up archery and be a marksman. Markswoman? Maybe work for a circus, hitting apples off heads, touring the land. Avoiding monsters from beyond the void.
One of the soldiers at the front said, “Shit! They’re going for the horses.”
From my position crouching down, I peered through the soldiers armored legs, but only saw blurs of horses riding past, more clinking, a shield went down in front of me as the soldier grabbed his leg. A barrage of arrows flew through the unprotected space as the enemy took advantage of it.
Taking Cresida by the neck, I pushed her down and we both lay flat against the trampled grass.
“Fuck!” she said, angry look on her face as she brushed dirt off her cheeks.
“Stay flat!”
Then, our lieutenant yelled, “Archers up, they’re past!”
The shield wall dropped, we stood up, and I readied my bow. The spearman who’d fallen was full of arrows, he’d taken the brunt when his shield dropped, blood drenched his armor, and the man beside him had been hit in the leg, many arrows on the ground, whimpering behind me but I didn’t look, instead stepping forward, taking aim at the men in between our horses.
They were all but dark silhouettes against the trees and horses, moving through and cutting the reins. No theft on their minds, they were setting the horses free. That’d cause us problems, slow us down. I dropped one, then another, another.
A horse neighed out in pain as one of our archers hit it instead for the darkness. I dropped another soldier.
From behind me, not quite in a whisper, “You see? She never misses!”
Trying to ignore them and focusing on my targets, I couldn’t help but wonder how many thousands of years I’d dedicated to the study of archery. Or, well, the previous mind who existed before this particular me. What a mess I was. A gold mine for a psychologist.
A spearman stepped forward, shield at rest, spear forward, “We have to get in there or we’re lost! We can’t lose the horses!”
“No!” Yelled the lieutenant at the few men who joined the first to assault the saboteurs, “Keep in formation!”
Enemy soldiers who saw the break in our formation wheeled their horses around, charged at us.
I switched, loosing at them, striking the lead rider. He slumped in his saddle, leaning right, the horse began to turn, causing those behind to head toward the tree line where our horses were before changing directions and riding at our soldiers, making them under attack from two directions.
A rough hand grabbed the dress at my neck, yanking me backward, behind the shields, “You’re don’t have any armor!” shouted the lieutenant. “Stay behind us!”
Several of the errant soldiers made it back into our formation, set up the shield wall, but two of them had made it halfway to our horses, and the enemy bore down on those men. One spearman tried to rush at a horseman, but the archer danced out of his reach. The other made a beeline for the trees. The horse archers were soon close enough for their arrows to penetrate chainmail. I dropped several of the enemies, as many as arrows I could loose, but our soldiers didn’t last long, and the bulk of the cavalry turned their attention to us.
The lieutenant shouted, “Stay in formation!” driving the point home, and I crouched down behind the shields as our men prepared to repel the next attack.
Fewer now, the circle was tighter, and we were packed in, pressing up against each other. Cresida grasped my arms as we crouched close and low. I wished and wished I had a crossbow! It’d be easier to use with so little space.
Someone put a hand on my behind, giving me a start, then a tugging on my quiver. Looking over my shoulder, it was the boy putting more arrows in. He chanced a smile, but I was still fighting anger at the unwanted touch, eyes resting on Cresida, head down, waiting.
The night wore on like this. No more men chanced breaking formation, and we’d turtle up whenever the enemy rode at us, then loose arrows at them when they were vulnerable. Tired as I was, as the men surely were, the enemy was taking much higher losses, and we were whittling them down. After long into the night, they gave up, left their dead behind and fled the field in the direction I’d seen the wounded go. I stopped loosing at that point, closed my eyes and took a breath.
The lieutenant yelled out, “Archers stand ready. Spears, round up the horses!”
The men went to work, I told Cresida, “Let’s go find your husband and the mage.”
“I’m exhausted,” she said, eyeing me up and down. “And you must be, too.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
A slight scowl and she thumbed behind as we headed to the other group of soldiers, who were also breaking formation and rounding up horses, “He didn’t listen to you, you know.”
“I know.”
“Aren’t you a little concerned?”
“I’m still processing it.”
“Like churning butter?”
“Yes, that’s right. My mind is a big vat of milk and through processing I hope to be butter one day.”
“That’s dumb.”
“Sorry. I’m still considering the problems. Ok,” I stopped and faced her, “I don’t know what to do but here’s the situation. I have a much more effective army in my lands. We could wipe these guys out with no great difficulty. But to get to them, I have to travel hundreds of miles because your husband wouldn’t let me leave. And there are terrifying monsters now roaming the lands thanks, uh, I guess to me. Sorry for that. And I really am the legitimate heir to the Laemacian throne but, gosh, it seems like Serce didn’t tell anyone. So, yes, I’m in a bit of a bind, all things considered.”
“Gosh?”
“I used the word.”
“Is that like a cuss word where you’re from?”
“Cresida . . .”
She put her hands on my shoulders, “I should really hate you. You destroyed my way of life. But, I don’t, maybe because you’ve saved my life. Perhaps we can ask Gyges to take you to your castle? Could you . . . would you offer our people sanctuary?”
“Yes. Yes, I will. But that’s not going to happen. At least, not now. You and your husband are trapped here as much as I am. Serce’s men won’t let us go.”
“You could just kill him and-”
“Kill Serce? I’m not sure that would help. If they don’t recognize me as empress now, there’s no reason to recognize me after he’s dead by my hand. But yeah, sure, killing seems to be my thing now.” I patted her hands, took them off my shoulder but kept holding her right as we walked toward the other group of men. “I don’t know, I really don’t know what to do.”
“What is the point of being a goddess if you’re so damned helpless?”
“Oh, I’m asking myself that very question over and over, let me tell you.”
***
The full moon cast pale light across the meadow, grass all trampled down now, bodies littering the ground, a horse here and there, and many, many dark patches, some still slick and shining. I found the man and said, “Captain Tircade, what’s the plan?”
He spared a glance at me and Cresida, then resumed talking to his men and, after sending them off, turned to us, “We’ve rounded up horses for you and ten men. You’ll be setting off immediately and riding through the night, as long as you can the next day and as long as you can continue. It’s imperative that you get to the capital city.”
“I see. And you will be . . . ?”
“We’re taking the battle to them.”
“Is that wise?”
“We’ve won the night. Look around,” he gestured over the field, “they must have lost damn near half their men. I intend to finish off the lot of them.”
“It’s nighttime, you don’t know exactly where they’re camped, they might have set up fortifications or even a trap.”
“A small escort will take you, the mage, and Captain Gyges and his wife,” he nodded to Cresida, “further on. I’ve already sent the messenger ahead on fast horses.”
Taking my hand out of Cresida’s, I stepped toward him, saying, “This isn’t a good idea. We all should continue on tonight while they regroup and tend their wounded.”
“There aren’t enough horses right now.” He paused, nodding, “My lady, these are my orders, and they will be carried out. I know you fancy yourself empress, but you aren’t yet betrothed to Emperor Searcian and so I will not be taking orders from you.”
“We’re to be wed, is that what he told you?”
“I’m not privy to that information. I’m to see you to the capital and nothing more.”
I felt a bit snarky as I said, “Well, you won’t be seeing us to the capital now, will you?”
“You will be taken safely to the capital, my lady. As you ride closer to it, the safer the land becomes as it’s routinely patrolled. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have preparations to make.” He walked away and began to direct soldiers for whatever war plans he had in mind.
“That is a man who,” Cresida said, “does not believe you will ever hold power over him.”
Watching him walk away, I silently agreed with her. “I’m not sure he’ll survive the night.”
“A divine premonition?”
“Just a guess. You know,” I took her hand in mine, “we are going to want to put some serious distance between this place and us, maybe ride through the night and day tomorrow, as he suggested.”
“There better be a warm bath where we’re going. And some wine. I need a drink.”
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