Book 3, Chapter 9: Long Pikes, Short Pikes
Earl Carlisele, Brin’s father, a man I bullied into giving me his soldiers, a man I cowed by taking his daughters and wife hostage, walked with me to meet Brundle on the outer castle grounds, to inspect how our phalanx were adjusting to the new sarissa. The grass was browning, leaves yellow on the distant trees, the air a touch crisp and cool, but a cloudless, open sky and sunlight on my face warmed my spirits.
“The new pike, the, ah, sarissa, now that troops are getting used to it, it’s outperforming regular phalanx formations.”
“That is good news, my lord.” Might as well be nice to him with the honorifics.
“Yes. Excuse me, Princess Cayce, but where did you see this weapon used before?”
“It’s difficult to explain, my lord. Suffice it to say that I invented the weapon. Not exactly difficult, dreaming up a slightly longer staff.” I wasn’t about to try to explain YouTube to him or what a documentary was.
“It’s difficult for me to believe that a young girl such as yourself, alone, could re-invent the phalanx.”
“Perhaps it’s the purview of young girls to dream of longer pikes.” I needed him to not dwell on this topic. “Anyways, how are our men working together?” Integrating the Bechalle castle troops with mine had only just begun. I’d restricted access to the castle proper and inner courtyard to my troops, keeping the late duke’s outside until I could be sure they weren’t going to try retaking the castle. But it seemed that they were content with me in power.
“My men or duke Bechalle’s men?”
“I guess you’re right. I mean the late duke’s men.”
“You’ll have to ask your General Brundle that question. I restrict my concerns to my own troops. The few you’ve left me.”
“Don’t be testy, my lord. It isn’t becoming. How are your troops faring, then? Protecting your castle, I imagine?”
“Yes, judging by their reports, they are well. The castle is functioning normally.”
“Excellent. Will you be, by chance, returning to take care of your lands?”
“Not while my wife and daughter remain here. Speaking of my wife, you should really visit her. I believe she wishes to aid in your appraisals of suitors.”
He must have known that was a dark point for me, but I held my sigh in. I tried to smile, to kill him with kindness as the saying went, but his presence often soured my mood, and the smile was wanting. “That’s an excellent idea. I will follow up on your suggestion.”
“Princess Cayce, as your bannerman, let me just say this. Rulers who hide in their rooms do not long make for rulers.”
I gave him a sideways glance. “At some point, my lord, we are going to have to mend our relationship.”
We had finally made it to Brundle and Gun, on a flat grass field where they were overseeing the phalanx training with the new sarissa formations against the old pikes. A substantial part of the field had been beaten into hardpacked dirt. Brundle turned to us, “Your Highness. My Lord. Come to check on the progress I assume.”
I loosened my cloak, bleeding off some of the heat built up because of walking, “How are you today, General? Major?”
“Well, my lady. Very well.”
Gun bowed fluidly from the hips, “Your Highness. You look exquisite in your armor, as usual.” His gaze lingered on my lips, until moving up and resting in my eyes.
“Good to see you, Gun.” I forced myself to look into his eyes, though my body wanted to mirror him, glance at his lips.
“You as well. I’ve been working with the men to explore this longer pike you’ve invented for us. It took time to get used to them, but little by little, we’re working out the intricacies of it. I’ve come to see it your way, my lady. Longer is better.”
“Uh, in warfare, I think so, yes.” For some reason, my teenage body wanted to blush. Like many of the soldiers, Gun was strong, fit, and because of his phalanx work, had bulging muscles on his arms and legs. Still too hot, I removed my cloak to cool down further. It should work, I told myself, in this late autumn weather.
Brundle and Earl Carlisele exchanged nods. “Progress is coming along with these larger pikes. At first, I was skeptical, the new pikes didn’t fare so well against the standard ones, especially with the smaller shields, but with practice, the standard phalanx just isn’t a match for these. Here, allow me to demonstrate.” He shouted at the troops, “Halt practice. One volunteer on each side, please!”
Eventually one sarissa holder and one pikeman stood opposite each other. “Please demonstrate for our princess here attack and defense. Go!”
The pikeman advanced on the sarissa but was easily overcome by the length and held at bay. Then, the sarissa infantry suddenly bounced his sarissa on the pike, which caused it to throb and jump into the enemy’s body while forcing the pike into the ground.
“Huh. I was not expecting that.”
“Yes, my lady, none of us were. Its long length allows for greater flexibility and the soldiers are learning how to use that to defeat regular phalanx. In fact, you can bounce these sarissa right off the ground and into attacker’s bodies. It even works against cavalry.” Brundle called out for the men to return to their formations, “alright, sarissa advance this time. Pikemen defend.” To us, “I think you’ll find this very interesting.”
As the sarissa formation advanced, the pikemen tried to batter the sarissa away. Their shorter spears seemed effective at this, except that because of the sarissa’s long length, there were three sarissa to bat away for every one pike. At least, at the frontlines. Phalanx itself was difficult to overcome for exactly this reason: multiple pointy sticks and nowhere to go. The regular phalanx presented three pikes to any given defender, which is why skirmishers, with their swords, didn’t stand a chance against them.
But the sarissa’s length nearly doubled the number of spearpoints facing any single man in the front lines from three to five. Three to any given regular pikeman before their pikes could even reach the sarissa holder, two more after they could. The front defense was quickly tagged out, dropping to the ground, with the remaining defense being equally ineffective.
Alexander, I recalled, marched across the Old World with troops he rarely needed to replace. Meanwhile, they defeated every army they came against. It was a simple matter of reach. If you ignore Alexander’s brilliant tactics, mixed units supporting his phalanx, and reckless bravery, it was a matter of reach.
“That is remarkable, Brundle, Gun. How many infantry do we have up to speed on the new weapons?”
“As fast as they come, we’re training them up. It’s at the point now where no one wants to be the regular phalanx. But someone has to, since those formations will be what we face in the coming spring campaigns.”
Gun added, “We still have to train against incoming arrows. And cavalry. These take time.”
“Well, you have all winter.”
“Indeed, my lady. We have all winter.” He smiled at me.
I smiled back. Then, taking another page from Phillip II’s playbook, I said, “I want you to start competitions. Both centuriad,” the name these people used for a ten by ten square of phalanx, “and individual. I want to see what these soldiers can do with this weapon.”
“As you wish. And, what will the prize be?”
“My coronation is coming up. I will give them a personal blessing during the ceremony, to our best soldiers.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Ok, ok, and gold. Money.” I turned to Carlisele, “That reminds me, Earl, have you and the priest worked out the coronation ceremony yet?”
“Yes, Princess Cayce, we have been discussing it. We’ll have to run it by you later this week.”
“Are you to be crowned queen, my lady?” asked Gun.
Carlisele gave him a nasty look, “Absolutely not. The princess is too young. She’ll be-”
“-we’re still discussing it.”
“Your army would support you as queen, regardless of what these lords think,” Gun said, smiling in just the wrong manner at the earl.
Carlisele raised his voice and bore an ugly look to his face. “I beg your pardon?”
Brundle took a step toward him, “As my major said, the army would support Queen Cayce as readily as we support Princess Cayce.”
I couldn’t help but break into smile, but seeing Gun step forward again, I put my hand on his arm, to stop any rash action, “Thank you gentlemen. We’re still discussing the matter.”
The earl looked at the phalanx, still training, then at no one in particular and said, “Thank you for the demonstration. I will take my leave of you now, Princess.”
“My lord.”
After a bit, when the earl was out of earshot, Brundle turned to me, “He still seems at odds with the situation.”
“Yes, well, I’m not fond of him, either.”
“You were wise to send the majority of his troops home. What will you do if they don’t crown you queen?”
I was taken aback by his question. “Ah, given what you just said to the earl, I’m not sure it matters. We’ll retake the kingdom and worry about titles later.”
Brundle nodded. “And your other weapons? How are they coming along?”
“I will be checking on that later this week. For now, I’m off to the armorer. Thank you for the update, Brundle. The progress you are making is excellent.”
“Allow me to escort you to the armorer, my lady,” Gun offered his arm to me.
I took it, saying, “If you’re not too busy, it would be a pleasure.”
“Never too busy for you, and it’s a short walk. Other than bitter, envious earls, how are you, my lady? You’re moving much better now.”
“Oh, perfectly fine. The wounds have healed. I am myself again, but for the earls.”
“More of them coming out of the woodwork?”
“I’m told I have to start meeting with suitors. Not something I’m looking forward to, Gun. If I’m being honest.”
“No? I would have thought a young princess such as yourself dreamt of marrying a handsome, royal man.”
I sighed. “Not in the slightest. They’re too old or too young. Who wants to marry a teenager? Or a man twice my age?” I shuddered, thinking of Bechalle’s hints and games.
“Possibly you should find someone nearer in age to yourself? In maturity, I mean. And experience.”
“Ah, yeah. To be honest, Gun, nothing about marriage interests me. Especially right now. I’d just as soon be happy with their promises of loyalty and maybe some troops. I don’t even know what I’m saying! This is all too crazy.”
“Crazy?”
“Uh, finding myself here, the only member of my family left, ruling the kingdom from Bechalle’s castle. And all these minor lords begging to be made king via marriage. It’s all a little crazy.”
“Your army ever stands behind you, fairest lady.”
“You don’t know how comforting that is, Gun.” I looked at the ground, watching the grass pass by with each step. Spots of mud, patches of crab grass.
“My aim is ever to comfort you. Here we are, my lady, the armorer.”
“Thank you for the escort. I’ll see you later. Have a good day.”
He gave a quick bow before briskly walking back toward his men.
***
Inside the armorer’s, I was asking him what to do about the chain. “I know that the metal is rare, but is it possible to make this hauberk larger?”
“Exceedingly rare, my lady. I don’t know where we’d find some straight away.”
“What about more irons? For containing wizards?”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any. Perhaps you could check with a jailor or your generals?”
I was loathe to turn any of my weapons into armor, but I also didn’t want to, I don’t know, blow someone up with a stray lightning bolt. Somehow, I had to get control over this power.
“It is long on you, reaching almost to your ankles. I could shorten it and use that material to widen the shoulders. It’d still fall past your waist. And with the other armor I’m crafting you, that would work very well, my lady.”
“How quickly could you get it done?”
“Four days. We have to pull each rivet off, then separate the shoulders, and reattach them all.”
I wasn’t sure I could make four days. I did have perseidian weapons, though. I decided to head straight to my rooms to test whether they’d contain the energy. And the arrowheads the snipers used. Maybe these could be remade into something wearable, like a necklace or bracelets. With luck, it would be enough to hold in the power.
I silently swore at the grand magister again. If only I could trust him! He could tell me how to neutralize the power or, better, how to control it. If he was still around and hadn’t stolen the knife that gave me these powers. If not for that, and his statute to eliminate rulers with magic, if not for all that, I could trust him.
The other thing was, I hadn’t seen any mages having any kinds of problems like mine. They didn’t bleed magic or build it up like a battery. Or at least, they didn’t seem to. Either they controlled it better or something else was going on.
“Your Highness?”
“Yes?”
“Shall I take your measurements again?”
“Uh, no, not now. I’ll have the chain sent to you. I require it for the rest of the day.” If only he knew how dangerous his suggestion was, he probably wouldn’t be in the same room with me. “I thank you for your time. And, I’m sorry my measurements keep changing.”
“Oh, it is to be expected from a young lady of your age. I take that into consideration for the new armor I’m building for you, for your coronation.”
“Right. Yes. Excellent. I am looking forward to seeing the finished product.”
“As am I! As are we all. Really, Your Highness, we cannot wait to test it.”
“That’s fantastic. We can talk more about this later, Master Smith. Thank you for your time.”
He rose, bowed, offered honorifics and I took my leave, returning to my quarters to experiment.
Author's Note
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.