Shades of the Past: The Morcyth Saga Book Six (22 page)

Off in the distance, pockets of fighting are
still going on as Madoc’s men continue the annihilation of the
enemy. No quarter is given as their anger and rage at the Empire
has finally found an outlet.

Illan sends the cavalry off to the right to
swing around the approaching force to take it from the rear once
the fighting begins. As his army makes its way through the
palisade’s gate, he gets them into position to meet the oncoming
force. At the rear are the five catapults with wagons of rocks to
use for ammunition, this time filled with smaller rocks ranging
from the size of a baseball to that of a watermelon. Moving along
at the pace of the slowest unit, the army doesn’t cover ground very
fast. But then Illan would like to hold off confrontation until the
cavalry has had a chance to maneuver around them.

Having sent the cavalry around to come at
their rear, all he’s left with is several thousand men at arms,
hundreds of archers and what’s left of the Black Hawk Raiders. The
bearer of the Black Hawk banner takes position at the head of the
force and the wind whips the flag as if to display the black hawk
for the entire world to see. A scattered cheer rises up from the
men.

Once the pockets of resistance have been
nullified, he gathers all friendly forces together and marches down
the road to meet the oncoming reinforcements of the enemy army. The
brief look in James’ mirror had revealed roughly five thousand
strong strung along several miles.

With just plains to contend with, there’s
very little chance to orchestrate an ambush. They’ll know they are
coming and will move into a defensive posture as soon as they
realize what’s going on. That is if they don’t already.

From the road up ahead, two of the four
scouts return at a fast gallop. “What’s the news?” questions Illan
when they pull up to him.

“They’ve stopped about five miles down the
road,” one scout explains as he rides beside him.

“Looks as if they got word of what happened
here,” the other adds.

“How many?” Jiron asks.

“Five thousand foot soldiers,” the first
scout replies.

“No horse?” asks Illan.

Shaking his head, the scout says, “Not that
we saw. We returned with the news of their whereabouts and numbers,
they were still arranging themselves to defend against attack.”

“Rejoin your unit,” Illan says as he thinks
about what they just told him.
No horse, just foot.
Excellent.
If as the scout said they still only have five
thousand, then the numbers will be on their side by about two
thousand. With the cavalry coming up behind them as well as the
riders with Ceadric, they should be able to win the day.

It isn’t long before the enemy force comes
into view. They’ve positioned themselves across the road, a massive
block of heavy infantry with several hundred crossbowmen protected
in the center. No matter which direction a force attacks from, the
crossbowmen can easily decimate them.

When the enemy sees them on the road, they
form their ranks tighter. The soldiers at the leading edge have
long spears to use against any cavalry units that attack.

Stopping just out of crossbow range, Illan
turns back to his men and says, “Form ranks, bows and slings to the
rear.” As the men begin moving into formation for attack he takes
his horse to the rear where the catapults are sitting.

The officer in charge comes to attention as
he approaches. “Captain,” Illan says, “are we close enough to
pepper them with grapeshot?”

“Yes, sir” he replies.

“Then as soon as you are ready, let them have
it.”

“Yes, sir,” replies the captain. To his men
he hollers, “Get them catapults into position and bring those
wagons closer! We need to soften them up a bit so our delicate
soldiers can go and be heroes.”

His men break into a laugh and quickly get
the catapults into position. Once they’re ready, the men begin
filling the catapult’s bucket with the grapeshot from the wagons.
As soon as they are filled and ready, the Captain yells, “Let ‘em
go boys!”

Five arms fling their deadly projectiles into
the air. All of Illan’s forces hold their breath as the projectiles
fly to their target and then let out a cheer as they begin ripping
through the enemy soldiers. Even though most of the soldiers had
lifted shields to protect themselves from the rain of death,
several dozen men fall. The crossbowmen, without the benefit of the
shields fall in droves.

A command is given within the enemy force and
they surge forward to attack, not willing to simply stay in one
position and be stoned to death. “Once more if you will captain!”
Illan hollers.

The catapult crews work quickly and soon have
the arms back in position and their buckets filled. “Now!” he cries
as the five catapults let loose. The grapeshot flies over the heads
of Illan’s force and rips once again through the attackers. Men
fall as stones smash heads, crush arms and legs, and just about
every other portion of the body as well.

When their crossbowmen reach effective range,
they stop and begin firing into the defenders. “Shields!” cries
Illan and his men raise their shields to ward off the bolts. As the
bolts fall, the majority are either deflected by the shields or
embed themselves into them. Some manage to find their target.

“Orry!” cries out Terrance as a crossbow bolt
strikes Orry in the neck. Thrown backward, Orry hits the ground.
His lifeless eyes stare up at Terrance as he reaches his side.

“Leave him!” Jiron cries out as he draws his
knives.

“Ready slings and bows!” Hedry’s voice sounds
over the roar of battle.

Terrance, angered by the loss of his friend
gets to his feet and puts a slug in his sling. When the command
‘Fire at will’ comes, he twirls his sling and lets loose at one of
the approaching attackers. Maybe it is the anger at the loss of his
friend, but his slug flies true and hits the man square between the
eyes. In the heat of battle, he doesn’t have time to be surprised
at his skill, just places another slug in the sling, twirls and
fires again.

“For Madoc!” the cry rings out as the two
forces meet. “For Black Hawk!” another voice screams.

Jiron braces for the impact and as the
soldier directly in front of him strikes out with his sword, he
meets it with his left knife. Then he strikes out with his right
and the man falls to the ground as blood gushes from his neck. An
instant later the dead man’s spot is filled with another and the
battle continues.

Hedry’s archers target the enemy crossbowmen,
taking them out with devastating results. Shorty again stays near
the slingers, there to protect them should an enemy make it that
far.

Scar and Potbelly stand shoulder to shoulder
as they deflect and return attacks with the enemy. Scar with his
two swords is devastating, as is Potbelly with his sword and knife.
Neither ever cared much for shields, figured they were for those
whose skill was insufficient to keep the enemy away.

Atop his horse, Illan lays about him with his
sword as enemy after enemy falls. From out of the corner of his eye
he sees the cavalry he sent behind their force materialize. The
enemy doesn’t even realize their peril until they are upon
them.

The shock of their charge mows down the enemy
and are soon in among the crossbowmen, taking them out quickly. At
that point, the battle is over. Over half the enemy lies dead and
dying, encircled and outnumbered, men begin throwing down their
weapons.

Around him, Illan sees Madoc soldiers
striking out at the unarmed men. “Enough!” he cries, his voice
piercing through the noise of battle. Men pause and the fighting
comes to a stop. To his right a Madoc soldier strikes out and kills
an Empire soldier that has already dropped his weapon in surrender.
Illan rides over and kicks the man in the head. “Next one I see
kill an unarmed man will get my sword!”

He spies one of the leading officers of the
Madoc force and says, “Take your men and escort the prisoners back
to Lythylla.”

Next he gets the attention of one of the
cavalry officers and has him send scouts in all directions to see
about any further enemies either in the area or on the way.

Another unit is put in charge of collecting
the wounded and taking them back to the city.

From somewhere the cry goes up, “Black Hawk!
Black Hawk!” The men begin joining in until the very air resonates
with the cry. It finally begins to die away as the various units
start returning to the city.

Illan glances over to where Jiron and Delia
stand near Orry. Saddened by the loss he dismounts and joins them.
“Let’s take him back,” he says. “He died a hero’s death.”

“He did, didn’t he?” Terrance asks as he
turns his red rimmed eyes toward him.

Illan comes over and rests his hand on his
shoulder, “Yes son, he did.”

Terrance, along with the others from The
Ranch put Orry over a horse and begin the trip back.

“Our scouts have reported no other hostile
forces in the immediate area,” Lord Pytherian tells those assembled
in the meeting room.

James and Illan, as well as Brother Willim,
are among those gathered to assess the ramifications of the events
earlier in the day. They had an informal meeting with Lord
Pytherian shortly before where they laid forth their plans to push
deeper into the Empire. Thus far, the only one other than those
directly associated with James’ group who knows is Lord
Pytherian.

“My Lord,” a grey haired officer says as he
gets to his feet, “shouldn’t we press our advantage? With the help
of Black Hawk and his mage ally, wouldn’t this be the best time to
drive out the Empire?”

James notices several heads nod in agreement.
For over a year these men have accomplished little to remove the
Empire from their lands. Rather, they’ve been pushed back as town
after town falls to the enemy. Brothers, sisters, mothers, all have
been taken as slaves into the Empire and they feel it’s high time
for some good old fashioned retribution.

Lord Pytherian turns his attention to the
officer and replies, “Black Hawk and his force will be leaving us
in the morning.”

“What?” one young officer cries.

“You can’t be serious!” shouts an older
soldier, a member of one of the alliance’s factions from the north.
A general murmur spreads throughout the conference room as they
comment to those sitting next to them on what they just
learned.

Lord Pytherian lets it run its course for a
few moments then raises his hand, at which the room becomes silent
once more. “He and his force are leaving in the morning, that’s
true. However, they will be forging on into the Empire. They plan
to cause such mischief as to force the Empire to draw a portion of
its army home to deal with them.” Glancing around the room, he sees
many heads nod in understanding.

“During which, we will be coordinating with
our armies to the east and west,” he continues. “We still have two
sizeable forces, one at the base of the Silver Mountains to the
west, and another to the southeast. Our success here does not mean
victory until we have dealt with those.”

“Wouldn’t it be wiser to consolidate our
forces and strike at the force at the base of the Silver Mountains
in one fell swoop?” a cavalry officer asks from the back of the
room.

“To do that,” explains Lord Pytherian, “we
would have to take all but a small force from Lythylla. We dare not
risk leaving our capitol open to the enemy. If they were to get
wind of it, they could come and raze Lythylla to the ground.”

“So what are we to do?” comes from the side
of the room.

“We let Black Hawk do his thing,” he replies.
“You’ve all heard of his exploits in the War of Barrowman’s Field.
He will do that once again, though this time he doesn’t go alone.
James the mage, as well as the brothers of Asran will accompany
him.”

“They’ll be slaughtered!” a younger officer
hollers out from the side. At that, many of the old timers who had
been around during the War of Barrowman’s Field give out with
guffaws. “Hardly,” and “Not likely,” are the responses some of the
other officers give to the young man. They remember what Black Hawk
had accomplished before.

“We let them soften up the enemy,” Lord
Pytherian says when the assembled officers quiet down, “then we
take the battle to them up here. No reinforcements will be on the
way, they’ll be too busy hunting down Black Hawk. There’s no way
they’ll allow him to once again roam free, burning and destroying
their towns.”

“They have a lot of confidence in our
ability,” James comments to Illan who only nods in reply.

For the next several hours, plans are made,
changed, then revised again detailing various strategies to be
implemented once the effect of Black Hawk’s push into the Empire is
felt.

While the meeting is still in full swing,
Illan, James, and Brother Willim leave the meeting once it’s clear
what is being planned will no longer include them. Brother Willim
takes his leave and goes to see about the brother who Miko had
healed. He tells them that he and the others will meet them in the
morning before they set out.

Back at the plaza, they find the new recruits
badly shaken by the death of Orry. He was a favorite, always with a
smile and never complained. As they approach the plaza, Devin comes
forward. James can see his eyes are red from where he’s been crying
over the death of his friend. “James!” he says. “They’re burying
the dead in a large communal grave. They came by for Orry but we
wouldn’t allow him to be dumped in with all the rest.” He glances
up to him. “He deserves better than that.”

“Wrap him in blankets,” Illan says. “We’ll
take him with us in the morning and bury him away from town.”