Brave Men Die: Part 2 (20 page)

‘He is from Gravid’s Drift, the son of the earl. He has assumed command of Black Claw.’

‘Lovely. And what of the boy? I mean the general.’

‘He told him that if he gets any of us killed he will take it out of his flesh.’

‘He has trouble making friends, doesn’t he?’

The messenger looked at her oddly before she dismissed him to be on his way. Ara woke Daria who had barely stirred at the sounds of their conversation. She told her what was needed and headed for the food that was cooking on the fire. The stew smelled great and Pollux and Octans were stuffing their faces.

‘Telling people off I hear?’

‘Only the ones that annoy me.’

‘Where did he station you?’

‘On the wall with the Fists.’

‘Want a small detour to the tower?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘My acolyte goes where I go, unless I give him permission to do otherwise.’

‘My place is on the wall—’

‘When the fighting starts, but now …’

Pollux smiled at Ara and she smiled back. He had dimples. She grabbed a bowl that was offered and ate quickly as she walked to the tower.

Cygnus stood at the top, his hands held behind his back, looking out over the massing Kyzantine army.

‘Good morning ladies,’ he said, turning to focus his attention on them. He curtly nodded at them both. His short blonde hair shone in the morning light.

The two women stood side-by-side, Daria’s acolyte standing quietly behind her at attention. They both wore their robes, hoods pulled back exposing their tired eyes.

‘I’m Cygnus Dunn, son of Arryn Dunn, the Earl of Gravid’s Drift. I am now in charge of Black Claw.’

At that moment Pollux charged up the stairs and onto the landing.

‘Sorry I’m late, traffic was a killer.’

‘You are not needed nor welcome here Fallon, I’m in discussion with the magi.’

Ara coughed. ‘Actually he is. Pollux is acting as my acolyte. Comes where I come, goes where I go.’

Cygnus wiped the grin from his face.

‘I want a concentrated attack of magic on the left side of the wall. This way the enemy will be funnelled to the right where the Fists, that’s right isn’t it Fallon, are stationed.’

Pollux bit his bottom lip to stop himself from saying anything.

‘And where will you be stationed Cygnus?’ Daria asked, ‘Surely where the fighting will be the heaviest?’

‘Wherever I am needed.’

‘Good to know.’

‘Fallon, you better head down there, don’t you think?’ Cygnus suggested.

Pollux turned to Ara as if asking her permission. He noticed that it was getting under Cygnus’ skin. She winked, quickly, as if she wanted no one else to see.

‘Off you go.’

Ara watched as Pollux turned and left, heading down the stairs as the standards of the Kyzantine Empire marched across the pass toward Black Claw. Dawn crested over the Callisto Mountains and another day of bloodshed was about to begin. Ara cracked her knuckles and sighed.

Fire and lightning rained down on the left side of the pass sporadically as Daria and Ara kept the Kyzantines at bay. For Pollux, that meant they were all coming for him and the Fists.

Arrows flew up around them where the ladders couldn’t find purchase. They rattled off shields and armour. Some, however, found their mark and men dropped around him. He stepped in front of one soldier who was distracted with a Kyzantine who made it on the wall. The arrows thudded into his shield as Pollux smashed the next one up the ladder. He stood at the forefront of the Fists, doing everything that he expected everyone else to do.

Ladders slammed against the wall over and over again. There were too many coming over at once. Kyzantines bounded over the wall. They had their breach and kept bringing more and more up and over, pushing and shoving their way along the wall.

Pollux charged into the throng, ducking under the first blow and thrusting his sword into the man’s belly. He darted back, narrowly avoiding a strike to the face. It sailed past, merely scratching his helmet above his eyes. Pollux lunged forward, impaled another, and rammed a third with his shield. The Murukan next to him swung his blade around taking the woman across the face.

More and more Kyzantines were getting over and they were having trouble repelling them. Most had an unhindered climb up the ladders onto the rampart. They pushed harder and harder against the defenders who formed lines and barrelled into them. Pollux led the Fists from one side, Octans from the other. Blood washed over the battlements as the forces clashed on the wall. One would push and then the other would rally and retake the lost ground. It was slow and bitter fighting.

Pollux stood shoulder to shoulder with his men, shields locked together. The Kyzantines did the same and they smashed against each other.

The enemy kept coming up over the wall. For every one they killed two more took their place. They crowded around the bottom of the wall, milling to climb the ladder to enter the fray. Pollux saw the lightning flash off to his left. The magi were still casting and killing on the left like they had been ordered. But those orders were sacrificing him and his men. He looked for an opening but there wasn’t one. He didn’t think Octans was making much progress either. He needed something.

Ara watched from the tower as she recovered her breath after casting. Daria was crumpled over on the floor. She was exhausted and looked near death, her face aged and deathly pale. Cygnus was standing still, watching the battle unravel, oblivious to the older mage’s condition.

Ara rushed over to the body of her friend, grasped her head between her hands and pulled her to her breast.

‘Daria, you need to stop casting, your body can’t take any more of this.’

Daria looked at her with a vacant stare, her mouth opened but nothing came out. Her face was feverish to the touch.

‘Can you hear me?’

Daria feebly nodded her head.

‘Cygnus, a little help.’

He turned his head, looked over the huddling magi.

‘The Kyzantines have a strong presence on the right wall. You are needed to attack them while they are so concentrated.’

‘It's not going to happen, Daria is spent and another will kill her. Look at her, it’s obvious she needs to stop and I won’t leave her like this. Maybe
you
should do something.’

Cygnus looked back over the wall. A second breach had established itself and pinned a group of the Fists from either side. The general was amongst them, still alive it appeared, tearing the enemy apart. But his luck couldn’t last forever, not against those odds.

Fallon had twenty men with him, surrounded on all sides. If he died now, his leadership would be unopposed. And perhaps the magi would be easier to control. Life would certainly be easier.

Cygnus weighed his options, electing to consolidate the wall near the tower entrance where they could rely on reinforcements to force the Kyzantines back. Twenty men were an acceptable loss.

He headed for the stairs, taking one last glance toward the insolent magi.

‘Your boy is about to die. Perhaps you would care to watch?’

Ara glared at him, power threatening to consume her as he got under her skin. He hadn’t bled for these men, hadn’t risked everything to keep the Kyzantines out of the Kingdom. Colour had returned to Daria’s face, her breathing had slowed and the touch of her hand on her arm calmed her. Curiosity overcame her concern and Ara went to the edge of the tower. Her jaw dropped as two Fists fighting beside Pollux fell, cut down by swarming soldiers. But Pollux was still there fighting, killing, slaughtering.

It wouldn’t be enough.

Anything Ara could cast would kill as many of the Fists as it would of the Kyzantines. ‘Fucking hell,’ she murmured.

Daria limped over, covering her mouth as she coughed up blood. Her hands gripped the wall to steady herself.

‘Can you save him?’

‘Would I want to?’

‘I think you would, but perhaps I’m mistaken.’

Ara sighed. ‘Only a miracle would give them any sort of chance. And then I’d have to go down there and get him out of trouble.’

‘Well?’

‘And get myself killed?’

‘You were a great student Ara, but ever so serious. If you survive this war, relax a little, maybe take your good looking general to bed. But live Ara, cherish life. And by the way, tell my lover it was always fun.’

‘Daria …’

The older mage stepped to the edge of the tower and leaped into the air, wings forming on her back as soon as she finished casting. Daria pushed her body up toward the clouds and as she reached the pinnacle of height, the wings disappeared and her body fell toward the earth. Magic swirled around her body. It caught alight, burned, became a raging inferno that intensified as she plummeted closer toward the Kyzantines massing against the wall on the right. They looked up to their death moments before Daria crashed to the earth. Hundreds died immediately, their bodies turned to ash. Magic erupted from the impact zone and burned hundreds more. The wave of flame washed up against the walls of Black Claw and shook it to the very foundation. Men standing on the rampart trembled and shook, lost their footing and fell to their knees.

Ara couldn’t believe what Daria had just done but it had given her an opportunity. She launched off the tower, wings cast and spread, and dived toward the Fists caught in the middle. She landed amongst them, wings shimmering out of existence. Ara brought her arms up and smacked her hands together. The Kyzantines that were just regathering themselves were knocked back off their feet.

Ara watched as Pollux leaped in front of her, his sword stabbing the first of those knocked to the ground. No orders were given. This was survival, they knew what to do. Six soldiers remained to protect the rear of the formation while the rest charged forward and slayed the Kyzantines who had fallen. The rampart was soon covered with gore as they surged, fighting their way forward.

Octans was totally surprised when the back half of the Kyzantine force fell on their arses. The front of the formation had no idea and pressed forward against his men. He’d seen the sky burn, felt the earth shake. He knew one of the magi had given them this one moment. It was up to him to make the bloody most of it.

‘Push!’ he screamed, driving his shoulder into his shield.

The Fists supporting him obeyed his command, shields slamming forward in unison. His squad of thirty had followed him since he had made sergeant, had his back when he leapt into shithouse situations like this. The front of the enemy line collapsed without the support and pressure of missing ranks. Octans hit out, his blade flashing in the mid-morning light before it cut through flesh. They took ground, showing no quarter as the slaughtered every Kyzantine on the wall against him. Their ladders were destroyed by the magi so reinforcements weren’t coming.

He could see Pollux and a handful of Fists slaughtering all of those who had fallen to the ground with a few left behind to hold the enemy off. Octans could sense the urgency of the situation. He launched himself at them with an energy he didn’t think he had left. In a flurry of strokes he carved his bloody way to his mate. Within minutes the Murukans had retaken most of the wall and Octans was standing with Pollux.

‘What the hell happened?’ Octans said.

Pollux looked at Ara.

‘You did all this?’ Octans asked.

‘No not all of it. Daria was dying … so she threw herself from the tower and self imploded. The fire — that was her.’

Octans bit his lip and cast his eyes to the ground not quite capable of looking at the mage in the eyes. That kind of sacrifice was unfathomable.

‘I jumped into the fray on the wall and cast, knocking them off their feet. The rest is history.’

‘I’m sorry about your friend.’

Ara looked at him, startled by the genuine sympathy in his voice and nodded her appreciation.

Pollux tapped Octans on the arm and nodded in the direction of the tower. There was still a considerable number of Kyzantines on the wall between them and the tower, and Pollux’s men had fallen back to regroup with Octans’. Cygnus was at the base of the tower with a handful of men keeping them out.

‘Should we go and be all heroic?’ asked Pollux.

‘He doesn’t like you very much though,’ answered Octans.

‘Hmmm.’

‘They are your men with him general,’ intruded Ara.

‘There was never any question about it darlin’, just a matter of seeing how he likes being left for dead.’

Pollux took off first and Octans reluctantly followed, rallying the remaining Fists. In the distance a Kyzantine warrior prepared to strike against Cygnus’ blindside. Octans pulled back his arm and hurled his blade through the air. It hit the warrior in the side and he crashed into another. Octans stooped and drew a curved Kyzantine blade from the chest of a fallen Murukan. He adjusted to the surprisingly light weight, twirled it around his wrist and slashed it across the first of the enemy. Bringing his shield up and under a turning woman’s sword arm, he pushed his sword across her neck, blood poured out along his blade. The sound of clashing steel rang out as the Murukans stormed into the back of the enemy and the last of the Kyzantines fell in a wash of blood and violence.

Cygnus stood there looking over the bloody faces of Octans and Pollux.

‘I’m surprised that you two made it, especially you general,’ said Cygnus.

‘The Fists are an elite unit, there’s nothing we can’t deal with,’ replied Pollux.

‘We could have let you die,’ snapped Octans, ‘just waited that little bit longer.’

Cygnus shrugged.

‘Octans, tongue,’ ordered Pollux.

Octans looked at Pollux, shook his head and spat toward the ground at Cygnus’ feet.

‘When my men arrive we will take control of the defence of Black Claw.’

‘Good, because my men could use a break and then I’ll start thinking about an attack into the pass.’

‘You will do no such thing.’

‘The baron’s forces are under my command and you just said yourself that you have taken over matters that concern the defence of the gate. I will organise an attack with the Buckthorne forces.’

‘If you go out I won’t reopen the gate for you.’