Ascendant (49 page)

The older man,
a veteran of many battles, with a white scar across his forehead to prove it,
answered
“
Arteman,
Lord Salva. I was with you at the battle of the Thrallren Woods, sir. This
undisciplined young one is Dartenon.
”
Dartenon tried to relax, but the inexperienced young soldier could not help
glancing at the tree line atop a low ridge to the west. Arteman cuffed his
companion on the side of her helmet.
“
Look
straight ahead, you fool. What are your orders, my lord?
”

“
Though it seems unlikely
here, and on this fine Spring morn, the enemy will attack, soon. I have advised
Captain Raddick to make straight through the village, and across the bridge, if
he can. You two find my servant, and get him to safety.
”

“
My lord?
”
Arteman asked in
surprise. A servant
’
s
place was by his master
’
s
side, especially a wizard-spelled expert fighter like Koren Bladewell.

Angrily, for
he was running out of time, Paedris grabbed the front of Arteman's leather
vest.
“
You get
Koren to safety, even if it costs your lives, do you hear me?
”
The wizard added a
compulsion spell under his words, and the two soldiers stiffened.

“
Yes, my lord.
”
They said in unison.

“
I only hope we have time-
”
Paedris began, before
there was a terrible roar from the west, and the enemy stepped forward from the
tree line.
“
Go,
you fools!
”

Koren caused
the enemy to spring their trap too early, for the enemy had seen Raddick giving
orders to his lieutenants, and seen Dartenon grasp her sword. The enemy
’
s plan had been to let the
Taradoran royal army
’
s
column pass by to the south, then emerge from the tree line and cut the road
behind them, while enemy soldiers in the village ahead set up a barricade
across the road. Instead, at the instant the enemy was sighted, two of Raddick
’
s lieutenants spurred
their horses, and led ten soldiers toward the village as fast as they could
ride. Another soldier spun his horse around and raced back along the column to
tell the supply men to cut their horses loose, and abandon the wagons. Raddick
’
s horse reared up as its
master pulled back on the reins, and Raddick stood in the stirrups and raised
his sword high, crying out to the men behind him
“
To me, to me!
”
More and more of the enemy were emerging
from the tree line, Raddick realized he was facing a substantial force, not a
mere raiding party landed from a single ship. There were easily three hundred
of the enemy mounted on horseback, and he could see a few enemy soldiers in the
village ahead, belatedly scrambling to set up a barricade. His two lieutenants
were almost at the village, the enemy dropped the tree they intended to use as
a barricade and fumbled for their bows. The main body of the enemy charged from
the treeline with another roar, racing down the pasture, scattering the
panicked sheep. Raddick waved his men forward with his sword, letting them pass
him by, so he could attend to the rear of the column. As Raddick wheeled his
horse around to face the enemy, there was a shout of dismay from his men.
Fireballs from three enemy wizards lashed out, and even Raddick winced in
terror, before Paedris deflected the fireballs to splash into the pasture, well
short of their target! A cheer went up from the royal army soldiers, and
Raddick saw Paedris spur his horse to leap the fence, and race away across the
pasture with the three enemy wizards following him.

Koren had momentarily
frozen at first sight of the enemy, while Thunderbolt strained at the reins.
Seeing Raddick
’
s
horse rear up, Koren figured he no longer needed to worry about alerting the
enemy, so he urged his horse on, and soon wind roared in his ears as he raced
back alongside the road, passing the soldiers who were all moving forward as
fast as their own horses could move. When the enemy threw fireballs at Paedris,
Koren flinched like everyone else, and Thunderbolt veered off the road in fear.
It was not the horse
’
s
fault, Thunderbolt had never been trained as a war horse, and few horses could
stand the sight and smell of fire, especially magical fire. As he struggled to
control his horse, Koren saw Paedris deflect the fireballs, which fell short to
scorch the pasture grass. When the wizard
’
s
horse jumped the fence and raced away across the pasture, Koren was stunned.
Why would the wizard leave him? He managed to get Thunderbolt pointed in the
right direction, and was about to urge the horse onward, when his way was
blocked by two soldiers.
“
Out
of my way!
”
Koren waved frantically, anxious to find a way through the chaos of soldiers
who were struggling to control their own horses, and help Paedris.

“
Come with us!
”
One of the soldiers
shouted at him, and tried to grab the reins.

“
No! I must-
”

“
Lord Salva told us to get
you to safety! Those are our orders!
”
The man stared into Koren
’
s
eyes with such intensity that Koren hesitated.

“
Paedris ordered me away?
”
Koren couldn
’
t believe it.
“
But I
’
m his servant.
”

“
Fat lot of good your sword
will do against wizard fire, boy, you
’
d
just get in the way. I
’
ve
seen Lord Salva in battle, he
’
s
an army all to himself. I
’
m
Arteman, she is Dartenon. You have a helmet? Put it on. Now, come with us, or
we
’
re lost.
”

Koren fumbled
to get his helmet untied, and jammed the uncomfortable armor on his head, it
was a bit too big and he had to tilt it back to keep it out of his eyes. The
three tried to gallop up the road, but it was now jammed between the fences by
other soldiers on horseback, and riderless horses that had been cut loose from
the wagons. The enemy was now halfway across the pasture, having split in two
groups to cut off the royal army front and back. Koren stood up from the saddle
to watch Paedris, his master was riding away across the pasture at an angle,
heading for a gap in the trees which separated the sheep pasture from the next
field. The three enemy wizards were chasing Paedris, as Koren watched,
fireballs flew back and forth, neither side getting a hit, and then Paedris
’
horse plunged through the
treeline gap to the next field, and he was gone from sight. Koren turned to
look ahead, where Raddick
’
s
lead troops had forced their way into the village, sweeping aside the
barricade. The Captain himself was behind Koren, leading the men from the
wagons.
“
We
’
re not going to make it!
”
Koren shouted, seeing
that the enemy would cut the road before he reached the village.

"The boy
’
s right!
”
Arteman hauled in the
reins, causing his horse to skid to a halt on the muddy dirt road, and the old
soldier slid off onto the ground.
“
Help
me!
”
The
soldier called out as he began pulling apart the tall split-rail fence that
lined the east side of the road. Koren and Dartenon joined him, along with a
half-dozen other soldiers, they swiftly opened a twenty-foot gap in the fence,
and soldiers began to guide their horses into the field without waiting for
orders; they could see the enemy almost upon them.

Captain
Raddick rode up, about to rebuke his men for stopping, when he saw the gap in
the fence, judged how close the enemy was, and recognized Arteman.
“
Arteman, good thinking. On
with you, then, around the village, get across the bridge and don't let
anything delay you. Archers! Give these men cover!
”
Raddick spurred his horse
onward, to hold off the enemy.

Back on their
horses, Koren, Arteman and Dartenon rode across the field at a fast trot,
looking backwards to see whether all the soldiers were following them. A dozen
soldiers had gone past the gap in the fence and were riding hard after Captain Raddick,
swords drawn, charging into the lead group of enemy soldiers, who had reached
the road, and jumped their horses over the low stone fence there. Only a few of
the royal army soldiers who had gone through the fence had bows and arrows,
they all jumped off their horses and knelt behind the fence. While Koren's
magical skill could hit a moving target from horseback, the other archers
needed to steady their aim. Arrows thudded into the enemy soldiers, breaking up
their formation just as Raddick and his soldiers slammed into the enemy with a
ringing of steel on steel.

Koren stood up
in his stirrups, transfixed by the sight of his first battle. He had never seen
the enemy, now he saw them up close, not more than fifty yards away. They were
terrifying, Koren felt his legs turning to jelly as he stared, transfixed. The
enemy's helmets were covered with black feathers, the faceplate of their
helmets were fashioned and painted to look like skulls, and they wore bones and
teeth on a string around their necks, or woven into their beards. To Koren,
they looked like demons from a nightmare, come to life. He knew, from talking
to Paedris and some of Raddick
’
s
men, those scary faceplates interfered with the enemy soldier
’
s vision, but even knowing
that, Koren found his hands shaking. Unlike the swords of the royal army, which
gleamed bright from being kept constantly cleaned and oiled, the enemy
’
s swords were never
cleaned, left covered with blood and gore from previous battles. Only the sharp
edges were bare steel, a cut from such a dirty blade made for certain sickness,
and some of the enemy
’
s
blades were dipped in poison.

Despite his
fear, Koren reined Thunderbolt to a halt. The handful of royal archers were
losing their battle, there simply weren't enough of them, though they were
shooting as fast as they could, and now from close range, for the enemy was now
in the road, and making for the gap in the fence. In a few moments, the archers
would need to leap back on their horses, or be overrun. "The archers! I can
help!" Koren called out.

Arteman cursed
Koren's foolishness. "Move! That's an order! You don't even have a bow,
you young idiot!" He whacked Thunderbolt on the horse's left flank with
the flat of his sword, and the horse shot forward in fright, beyond Koren's
control. To keep Koren moving, Arteman kept his horse pressing sideways into
Thunderbolt's flank, urging him forward. Koren reluctantly followed Arteman's
orders, while looking backward at the archers. Only three of the archers made
it back to their horses, the others had waited too long, and were now tangled
with the enemy, fighting with swords. Their bows were discarded on the ground,
useless in close combat. Koren let Thunderbolt run on by himself, the fight
both horrified and fascinated him so he couldn't tear his eyes away. For all
the exhausting hours Koren had spent sparring with the weapons master, he had
never seen real combat, with men falling, with blood, and screams and terror
and confusion. Now, only now, could he see the value in the weapons master's
endless, tedious 'Forms'.  In combat, real combat, no one had time to
think, a soldier needed to
act
, without hesitation. The endless
repetitions of Forms had taught a soldier's
muscles
how to move a sword,
a shield, a pike or whatever weapon he had, without waiting for his slow brain
to decide what to do.

"Make for
the bridge!" Arteman called out, holding his sword in the air to rally the
men to him. Those who could followed, urging their horses on in what was now a
race. To get to the bridge beyond the village, the royal army men needed to go
through a field between the river bluff on the left and the buildings of the
small village on the right. Koren tried to judge, the field they must ride
through was maybe two hundred yards wide? Royal army soldiers were still
fighting with enemy troops in the village, those few royal army men who had
forced their way through the village were guarding the entrance to the bridge,
but there were only three of them, and the enemy was now alert to the need to
seize that bridge, having failed to spring their trap in the village.

Koren tore his
eyes away from watching the fate of the archers behind, and concentrated on
where he was going. He knew Thunderbolt could easily outpace any of the royal
army's horses, but it would be foolish to be out front by himself, and if he
got to the bridge first by himself, what would he do then? He held Thunderbolt
back, despite the horse chomping at the bit and fighting the reins, keeping
pace with Arteman and Dartenon. Their three horses reached the edge of the
field, and jumped a low stone wall. The next field had been planted with corn,
which was not yet even knee-high, the horses had no problem finding solid
ground for their hooves. They were just passing the barn which was the last building
of the village, and Koren was looking ahead to the three royal army soldiers
guarding the bridge, when Dartenon gave an agonized cry, leaned to the right,
and fell off her horse.