The Black Sword Trilogy: The Poacher (11 page)

“You’ve just assaulted a superior, young man.  If what you have to say is really important enough to risk a flogging, then you’d better go ahead and tell me.  When are these beasts coming to attack?”

“The new moon, sir.” Kenner answered.

Krall’s first reaction was that the young soldier’s warning was nonsense.  He’d probably had a bad dream and was claiming it to be a vision, he thought.  As he thought for a moment, he then changed his mind.

“Wait outside.” He ordered Kenner.  Kenner obeyed.

              “Fast little bugger, isn’t he?” Bobbra asked, still astonished.

“I probably should have warned you that he’s a better fighter than you.” Krall added.  He then sat behind the map table and began studying again.

“You think he might be on to something?” Bobbra asked.

The Captain looked over the map on his table almost like he hadn’t seen it before.

“It makes perfect sense.” He finally answered and then motioned for Bobbra to study the map with him.

              “Look here.” He said pointing to the fort on the map.  “According to legend, those creatures can see better at night than men during the day.  If that’s even half true, then they would have a clear advantage over our soldiers who would be nearly blind on a night without moonlight.  Even with torches, our men would only be able to see a few yards in front of them.”

The Captain then pointed at the river on the map and ran his finger down the map towards Mobrey.

“If they attack on the night with no moon, they would sweep past our defenses easily.  More than that, once on this side of the wall, they could reach and attack Post One by the full moon with no warning; and then Mobrey by the next new moon.  With only the forces they have now, they could penetrate the Wall, destroy Post One, take Mobrey and then control the river.  They could virtually cut this nation in half all within the space of only one month.”

              Sergeant Bobbra was astonished.  The Captain was right.  It did make sense.

“What about the evacuated civilians…?” He began to ask.

“He doesn’t care about them.” Krall answered.  “This is a tactical move and a brilliant one.  It’s a dagger thrust along the river to eliminate the forces along the Northern Wall and then take control of the river by taking Mobrey.  Once that’s been accomplished, he can bring more troops down the river route and mass them at Mobrey.  At some point, the King would have to respond and by the time the King had an army ready to counter attack Mobrey, he could have massed as many as one hundred thousand of these beasts.”

              Sergeant Bobbra was grudgingly impressed by this plan; and it had to be true, he thought to himself.

“What can we do?” He asked in a tone of desperation.

“Slow them down.” Krall answered. 

“There are only a handful of us…” Bobbra tried to say.

“Even if we can only slow them for one night, we can still disrupt this plan.” Krall interrupted.  “This plan is entirely dependent on timing.  Disrupt it even for a day and it may fall apart.”

Sergeant Bobbra nodded.  The Captain was right.

“So what do we do now?” The Sergeant asked.

Captain Krall thought for a moment.

“Let the men sleep for another couple of hours; then wake them up before day break.  We have a lot of work to do.”

              Captain Krall came out of his quarters and then addressed Kenner, who was still waiting outside.

“Grab yourself an extra ration of ale, soldier.” The Captain said to him.

“If you insist.” Kenner answered.

              Two hours later, Sergeants Bobbra and Holly began waking the rest of the company.  Although it was still dark, they could see by the campfire in the center of the barracks complex.  By the Captain’s orders, they started spreading straw all over the ground.  They spread it up to their knees along the wooden wall, but not the gate.  Kenner and Terri also worked at this task, but when the sun had risen, Captain Krall ordered the archers back up to the platform.  It was important to Krall’s plan that for that day it did not seem as he knew when the attack was coming and having the archers continue to shoot gave an appearance of normality, he thought.  For the rest of the day and into the night, the soldiers continued to spread straw while still ducking under incoming arrows.

              Knowing when the attack was coming did not make things easier for the soldiers in the barracks.  With no straw to lay on, they propped themselves along the wall, sat on the dirt floor and ate hard tack for dinner.  Captain Krall had ordered that no campfire be lit because of the dry straw spread all over the ground.  The torches had been lit on the ramparts and small candles were permitted to be lit inside the barracks so the men could see a little.  That night, the Captain ordered an extra ration of ale for the entire company to steady their nerves as best as possible.

              That night was even more quiet, even though they had more to drink.  Most of the “regulars” prepared their weapons; sharpening their spears, hatchets and short swords to pass the time and ease the tension.  Some of the recruits tried to copy the “regulars” by doing the same and it helped a little.

              “I’m not the first woman soldier in the Army.” Terri said.  “There have been many in the last five hundred years.  It has been said that even Farraday had a lady General commanding troops.”

“I’ve heard that.” Kenner added.  “It was rumored that they were lovers and that she bore his child after the Great War.”

“That’s one story.  Another story is that she was gayer than I am and slept with Farraday’s sister.”

“I heard that story too.  Personally, I prefer the second story.  Has more of an edge to it.”

“You’re both going to burn in hell!” Broddick grunted at them.

“If you’re going to heaven,” Rosta barked back at him, “Then I think I’d rather be in their company than yours.”

Even Broddick laughed at that.

              In the middle of the night, Sergeant Holly woke the soldiers.  Guided only by the torches on the wall, they took horse carts and started rolling them out of the front gate.

General Grail was awakened by one of his Captains and told of this.  He burst out of his tent and then grabbed one of the Wolfen.

“What do you see?” He asked.

“They build barricades.” It answered in its rough half animal voice.

Grail peered through his telescope to look and saw that Krall’s men had overturned several carts and were using bags of beans to build a defensive wall just outside of the gate.

“Do you think they know when we’re attacking?” The Captain asked.

“It looks that way?” Grail answered.  He then smiled and nodded.  His brother was a clever one after all.

“Should we attack now?” The Captain asked again.

“No.” Grail said simply.  “We keep to the plan.”

             
By dawn, Krall’s men had built a barricade that was shoulder high to most of the men and two feet thick.  This barricade was also long enough along the wall for almost all of the infantry to stand behind it.  Although he knew it would then give away his knowledge of the impending attack, the Captain ordered that the archers not shoot during the day to conserve their arrows.  To the company’s surprise, the creatures did not shoot at them during the day either.  Most reasoned that the creatures were also conserving arrows.

              It was strangely still throughout most of the day.  There was very little wind and the enemy army was quiet as well.  Still on his position on the platform, Kenner could see the creatures preparing for battle in much the same way the soldiers had the night before.

“Do you think they’re afraid?” Terri asked.

“They’re not supposed to be capable of fear.” Kenner answered grimly.

              Suddenly a thought occurred to Kenner and he climbed down off of the platform.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Terri called after him.

Kenner didn’t answer.  Instead he hurried along the line of the stables to Shela’s pen.  When he swung open the gate, he saw a look in her eyes as if she were expecting him.  He went into the pen and then cut the rope on her back paw.  The enormous cat turned and then looked at him in the eyes.  He then thought he heard her say, “Thank you.”  After that, she raced out and bounded over the back wall of the barracks in one leap.

“That’s a flogging offense.” Sergeant Holly told Kenner as he returned to the platform.

“Shall we do it now or wait for tomorrow morning?” Kenner asked.

The Sergeant simply smiled and nodded.

             
Back on the platform, he returned to his position next to Terri.

“You just had to beat me to it, didn’t you?” She said smiling.

Chapter Fifteen

             
By mid-day, the tension had only gotten worse.  Most of the soldiers had seen the creatures from the vantage point behind the wall.  But on the other side of the gates and standing behind flimsy barricades made the creatures seem more real and more menacing.  There was very little between the soldiers and their enemy.  The soldiers could almost feel the creatures’ eyes staring at them and their breath on their necks.

              Captain Krall then had an idea.  He had his remaining cavalry mount up for an attack.  He explained carefully to Sergeant Bobbra, who was to lead the action that it was not to be a frontal attack.

He was to lead the riders around the right flank of the enemy position, cutting down as many creatures as possible; but more importantly disrupting the enemy formation.

             
The horsemen first rode straight at the enemy, but then turned to their left and raced around the enemy encampment.  They only killed a few.  However, as they continued to race around the edge of the enemy formation, hundreds of creatures broke from their positions and followed them causing confusion and disorder.  To Captain Krall’s delight, he saw the enemy officers having great difficulty getting their animals back in formation and under control.  Unfortunately, he and the rest of the company saw two riders fall and only one of the horses of the fallen escape towards the forest barely visible to the west.  When the remaining riders returned, there was still chaos and confusion in the enemy ranks.  Captain Krall consoled himself, thinking that the cavalry charge may have bought a little more time.  However as the day grew to a close, he saw order restored to the enemy formation.  By sundown, the enemy looked just as ready to attack as they had at dawn.

              Kenner found himself thinking that the sun seemed to be falling even slower behind the enemy; almost as if it were mocking him.  Even after it had, finally disappeared behind the distant woods to the west, it did not become completely dark until much later.  Waiting for the last light to finally fade away seemed like torture.  It was if he were being pulled and stretched by unseen hands.   His heart pounded in his chest so hard, he feared others would be able to hear it.  But then he felt something on the back of his shoulder.  It felt like a warm, soothing touch and it coursed through his body with a calming effect.  He turned to look at who had touched him, but saw no one behind him.

“Looking for your shadow?” Terri teased.

Although he was perplexed about what had just happened, the feeling that accompanied the touch still ran through him like gentle waves. 

As darkness crept over the barracks, Rosta came up to the platform to light the torches.  The archers peered through the darkness to try and see something of targets ahead of them.  Meanwhile, behind the barricades, the soldiers all felt their anxiety taking hold of them.  Standing shoulder to shoulder, they knew the attack may come at any moment.  Would there be any warning, some wondered?  Or would they just jump out of the darkness and into their faces?

              Captain Krall stood with the men behind the barricades along with the rest of his cavalry.  They would not be needing their horses, so they left them at the back gate for later.  Krall’s plan was to delay the creatures as long as possible; even though he knew that this small company could not defeat them.  At some point, they would need to escape and he had a plan for that as well.

              “Listen carefully men!” He started saying to them.  “I will not lie to you.  Many of you will die tonight.”  He paused for a moment to let that sink in.  “However…some of you may live!  It depends just as much on you as it does those creatures out there!  If you lose your discipline; if you crack under the pressure; if you turn and run in panic, you will all die!  On the other hand, if you keep your discipline; if you follow orders; if you fight as one, some of you will live!  Some of you have not been properly trained and I am sorry for that.  But in the battle to come, you must believe that you are just as much a soldier as anyone standing next to you.  You must be brave!  You must be willing, not to die; but to fight as every soldier who has fought for this land going back to the Dark Times!  As you wear the Great Tower on your chest, you must remember that every soldier who was worn that same Tower is your brother!  They have fought and so will you!  I am not ashamed to call you soldier!  Instead, on this night, I am proud to call you brother!”  He then drew his sword.  “For our lives!  For our loves!  For our land!”