A Warrior's Legacy (15 page)

She seemed completely unfazed by my hot
tempered words and responded simply, “You’re an experienced
warrior. Does not a successful surprise attack often depend on a
skillfully deceptive diversionary tactic?”

I looked away at the city for a moment
thinking hard and I came up with something abruptly. What I had in
mind might actually work.

“What do you……” My words trailed off and I
looked around the immediate area sharply. The old woman was gone!
She had simply vanished.

I turned back to Talin, “The old woman?
Where did she go?”

Talin looked around “I didn’t see where she
went to Zevin.”

Frustrated I turned back around in the
saddle, as the rest of the women and children got mounted up. I
didn’t know how the old woman played into the story, but she had
only been of help so far. I looked over at the girl behind Talin
whose brave words had humbled me. Her big belly made it awkward to
hold onto Talin and she looked very uncomfortable sitting
there.

I reached behind me and pulled my blanket
free and brought Relentless up alongside of Talin’s mount. I laid
the blanket thickly across the horse in front of Talin, who looked
at me puzzled. Backing Relentless up some I gently lifted the girl
off the back of the horse and moving forward I placed her in front
of Talin sideways on the horse and his left arm quickly rose to
support her back.

He flushed red in the face, and I don’t
think he had realized until that moment that she was pregnant. Very
pregnant.

I laid my hand gently on the full roundness
of her belly, “How long?” I asked softly.

Big tears slid down her cheeks, “Soon. I’m
sorry!”

“Don’t be sorry! What’s your name?”

“Salien.”

“Salien, I promise you that both you and
your baby are going to be fine. All I need for you to do is to
relax and let Talin take care of you.”

Nodding her head she laid her head tiredly
against Talin’s chest giving up the fight of looking strong.

My eyes rose to Talin, “She and the baby are
your only responsibilities from now on Talin.”

“Yes Sir!”

Holon came riding up to make his report,
“These women have practically gift wrapped the city for us Zevin!
All the gateway walls are absent of live sentries and there appears
to be no one on alert in general throughout the entire city. It
appears the women also doused the whole city with lamp oil and
alcohol. They say the guard change won’t take place for another two
hours.”

I nodded, but Holon wasn’t finished.

“Don’t get me wrong Zevin I think it’s the
right thing to save these women, but how are we going to get them
out of here? We surely can’t go back into the forest with
them!”

No that option was definitely out of
play.

“Holon I want you to pick out five hundred
of our troops and stay here in the city and be prepared to torch it
at a moment’s notice. I want you to jam the gate mechanisms of all
the gates, except the one you exit out of and then jam that one to.
Make sure the dock is well ablaze first so that they can’t escape
that way either. Sazen I want you, while Holon is waiting here to
fire the city to take one hundred of your archers and ride north as
hard as you can for a half-hour and then I want you to put fire to
everything in sight working your way back towards the city. You
must do this quickly Sazen. Holon when you see Sazen’s fires
nearing the city that will be your signal to fire the city itself.
I’m taking the rest of the troops and the women to the Dark
Forest’s edge near the lower fort. When both your tasks are
accomplished you will both come after us as fast as you can. My
hope is that the Western soldiers will think that it’s a raiding
party of Northerners coming down from the north. After they’ve
rushed to the city, which hopefully there will be no one there left
to tell them otherwise they will pursue northward after the
raiders, while we slip around their southernmost fort on our way
back to the Eastern Kingdom. Daylight will reveal the story, but
with luck we’ll have a good head start on them by then. Hopefully
it will be enough. Holon it would be a good idea if you can procure
extra mounts for your and Sazen’s warriors, as you’ll both wear
your horses out trying to catch up with us. Get to it both of
you!”

They both raced off to do my bidding. I
wheeled Relentless for the gate and surged out of it at a fast walk
followed quickly by the rest of the column burdened down with the
added weight of the women and children.

We rode faster and faster towards the forest
edge. Gaining it we skirted along the forest’s northern edge
towards the plain beyond. An hour passed by and looking back I saw
no sign of fire. The sky was beginning to gray slightly with the
first hints of morning light.

What had gone wrong?

Whatever it might have been there was no way
that I could go back to rescue either Holon or Sazen. I had to get
the rest of the warriors and the women and children back to
Kartasa.

A half hour went past and I heard Talin call
out to me interrupting my anxious thoughts, “Look Zevin!”

I glanced back the way we had come. The sky
was still a dark enough of a backdrop to show the light of fire and
the dark smoke rising from it against the lightening horizon.

Why had they waited so long, but I already
knew the answer to that. Holon and Sazen must have conferred with
each other and agreed to wait longer to give a better chance for us
to get away. As it was they had almost waited too long to do us any
good as we were nearly at the fort.

I could see lights coming on all over the
fort as they too noticed the flames on the horizon behind us. I
noticed a sudden extra glow to the morning light and looked behind
again.

The city was on fire and burning with
unmatched intensity that lit the whole horizon up. The fort really
seemed to go into action then as troops began pouring out of it
racing off towards the city on the road, while we glided past them
as we hugged the forest edge.

Even trying to be quiet we made a lot of
noise, but the soldiers in the fort seemed to not notice, too lost
in their own panicked hustle to get to the city. How they did not
see us in the strengthening morning light I did not know, but they
didn’t as no alarm was raised against us. As the fort grew distant
behind us I increased the pace to a full gallop, which ate up the
distance quickly.

We rode at that pace for hours, until the
horses began to tire noticeably. Slowing to a walk I gave the order
to exchange the women and children to riders who hadn’t carried the
extra weight yet. I took Salien from Talin, who reluctantly gave
her up.

I could tell she was in a lot of pain and my
guts twisted inside at the possibilities. I let the horses walk for
two hours and then I increased the pace again until dark. The
horses were stumbling from fatigue when we stopped in the early
hours of the morning.

Several of the female archers came up and
took Salien from me and began to care for her. There was no
doubting the fact that she was in early labor. Her labor brought on
by the fear and stress of the journey.

The horses were watered and fed the last of
the grain. I let two hours go by and then I stood up hating what I
had to do, “Mount up! Mount up now!”

The warriors and the Western women alike
looked at me in surprise not wanting to believe what they were
hearing. It had to be this way if we were to get to safety in time.
I had no doubt as to how hard the West would pursue us, after what
we had pulled off on them.

Salien began to struggle to her feet quickly
helped by two warrioress’s in doing so. Leaning on them heavily she
headed for Relentless. Her actions seemed to galvanize the rest of
them as everyone else began to move too.

The horses groaned heavily as they were
remounted, but they valiantly pushed forward to the task required
of them. The forced march was destroying these fine animals, but
better them than us. I understood the unkind looks I received, as I
felt plenty of apathy for myself.

All the warriors lacked sleep and now being
forced to possibly drive their beloved mounts into the ground was
asking a lot of them, but such is the role of leadership. Being a
leader didn’t often mean that one made many friends, which is why I
hung onto the ones that I did have.

We rode through the rest of the night and by
dawn we could see Kartasa’s wall up ahead of us. There was still no
sign of pursuit or even any sign of Holon and Sazen. I ordered the
column to a walk hoping to save the horses after all.

Instead of slowing Talin’s pace picked up as
his sweat soaked mount protested, but it obeyed and launched into
the impossible task of giving more, when it had already given its
all for its master.

“What’s the matter Talin?” I asked
sharply.

Talin’s face was whitish instead of its
usual deep tan. He didn’t answer, but just kept urging the horse on
with his knees, as he held Salien free of the saddle in his arms
trying to ease her from the bumps and jostling of the ride. I
glanced down and saw water dripping from off the saddle stirrups
into the dry dust of the road.

Her water had broken!

A female warrior surged up past me on a foam
flecked mount and grabbed the reins of Talin’s horse and urged both
towards the fast approaching wall. I stayed with the column longing
to be up with my friend, but I settled for praying instead.

A half hour later we rode through the gates
into the city. People rushed to care for us and the horses from
every direction. I let them lead Relentless away. I wasn’t worried
about him as he would have gone on for days if I’d asked it of him,
but some of the other horses were pretty bad off. Such was the
price for victory. I only hoped that was the extent of it, as I
stiffly climbed the stairs to the wall fortifications above.

I made it eventually to the wall top. I
needed sleep, but more than that I needed closure on the warriors I
had left behind. The wall sentries respectfully left me alone as I
made my way toward a still standing individual, who was leaning
heavily on the wall with one hand, while holding onto her crutch in
place under the other arm. It was Holon’s girl.

She glanced over and saw me approaching and
tried to hobble around to face me, but I waved her to stop. I
reached her side and looked into her stoically controlled face. I
didn’t say anything just turned and looked out at the plain as she
had been doing. She went back to doing the same.

I reached my hand out and put it over top
hers and squeeze gently. Her head turned to me and the pain she had
been masking from me was there to see now in a vision of raw
anguish and loss.

“I’ve known Holon a long time. He’s come
through worse situations than this. You shouldn’t give up hope, not
just yet.”

She nodded and turned back to watch the
horizon. An hour passed and I was about to go down off the wall
before I fell asleep on it, when I thought I saw a dust cloud in
the distance.

Lennia apparently also saw it and she
pointed excitedly at it gripping my hand hard. We watched
spellbound as the cloud of dust grew larger and closer. The figures
of fast approaching riders grew clearer. They were all strung out
and they were running their horses all out.

A heavy solid line of riders appeared out of
the dust behind the strung out broken up group in front. Archers
poured onto the walls, when it became clear that there was enemy
pursuit. Holon must have been successful in securing fresh mounts
as there was no way they could be running those horses as hard as
they were without them being replacements.

It was hard to count the survivors, but it
was something close to four hundred maybe. There had to be several
thousand in pursuit of them however and they looked to be gaining
on the forward group. The archers formed in three rows along the
wall top and readied their arrows.

The front group started funneling together
in order to stream through the open gate. They were going to make
it!

The front runner of the strung out group
streamed through the open gate and into the city and soon after all
of them began to enter. I saw several riders fall from their
saddles from arrows farther back in the column. A lot of the riders
showed evidence of a long-running battle.

Many fell off their horses once they made it
into the city, with arrows protruding out of their arms and legs
and their mounts, some of which almost resembled pincushions. A
horse stumbled at the rear of the column and went down throwing its
rider head over heels forward. The rider jumped up and then fell
back down obviously wounded.

A big red horse I recognized abruptly pulled
up and its rider jumped off.

“Holon you noble fool!” I fumed hitting my
free hand down savagely on top of the wall.

Four other riders had also drawn up and were
shielding the dismounted man as they fired back at the fast
approaching enemy line. One of the riders was Sazen. Had they all
gone mad!

I saw Holon throw the wounded warrior across
the front of his saddle and then leap onto the horse pausing only
to snap off an arrow that had suddenly appeared sticking through
his upper arm. They were moving again and the enemy was almost in
range.

The five riders seemed to get an extra burst
of speed out of their mounts and were soon closing in on the
gateway.

“Fire!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs
and several thousand arrows streamed out over the battlements
towards the onrushing enemy host.

The wall of arrows hit them in their
onrushing charge in a whistling shockwave of deadly force. Hundreds
of them tumbled to the ground both man and horse alike, as still
more arrows came whistling into the pandemonium of the fray of
bucking horses and dying men. The survivors wheeled their horses
and fled back the way they’d come after having suffered one more
defeat at the hands of their enemies that they had dismissed for so
many years as being weak. Over half their number lay dead on the
plain, because they had wandered too close to the walls, so dead
set had they been on avenging the many thousands of their own slain
within the charred walls of Boratasa.