Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) (34 page)

“Easily,” I told him. “The wind will make them less accurate, but that’s not really a problem when you’re aiming at something the size of an army. Of course, we’ll need to see which direction they’re approaching from.”

“Pelagia can clear away the snow for a few minutes,” Demetrios said. “Perhaps longer, if we muster Nethwillin’s mages to support her. Once our gunners find the range it won’t matter if they lose visibility, they can just keep firing anyway. Correct?”

“Yeah, that will work. Ideally we’d catch them by surprise, though. I’ve got my flight working now, so I could head out to the wall and signal when they’re close enough to see from there.”

Demetrios studied the falling snow for a moment. “Yes, that should work. We’ve still got half a mile or so of visibility, and the snow isn’t dense enough to muffle loud sounds. If you open fire with your explosive rounds we should be able to see it from here. That will be the signal for Pelagia to part the snow so our mortars can find the range.

“But if they attack on a broad front we won’t be able to stop them all with a bombardment. Captain Rain, assemble your men at the gates and prepare to move out in the skimmers. We’ll use your firepower to stop any enemies who threaten to penetrate beyond the Trade District. I’ll send a couple of the Nethwillin mages with you for support.”

“I don’t want them out of communication,” I said. “Things can go bad really fast against an enemy with this much magic.”

“A fair point,” Demetrios agreed. “One of Pelagia’s hamadryads has mastered the art of speaking with her subordinate dryads through their trees. I can have Nomiki prepare to pass messages, and send one of her girls out with Rain’s men. Probably Hela, she’s good at keeping her head in a fight.”

“Alright, that will work,” I agreed. “I’d better get in position while you get things ready here. Once we’ve seen how the bombardment works out I’ll fly back so we can plan our next move. I’m leaving Cerise here for now, so send for her if there’s a threat to the island.”

“I certainly shall, my lord,” Demetrios said confidently. “Good luck.”

I nodded, and headed for the door. It was a tremendous relief to have someone reliable to hold down the fort while I was gone. Marcus was a competent enough officer, but I couldn’t help but remember that his command would have been slaughtered by Hel’s undead troops if I hadn’t happened to come back at just the right time. Not to mention that when I first met him his company had been cut to pieces fighting a series of monsters. He’d never made a mistake I could really blame him for, but at the same time I wasn’t willing to put my girls’ lives in his hands again.

Demetrios was another story. He knew more than I did about magical warfare, and the way he easily adapted to all the complexities of the magic I was building did a lot to put me at ease. If the enemy did pull some fancy trick to circumvent my defenses he’d catch on right away, and do something intelligent to counter them. With Cerise to back him up I wasn’t worried about anything getting through.

Kozalin, however, was another story.

The earthquake had made me suspect that the enemy leader was a little more capable than he seemed. The results of the mortar attack confirmed it.

I opened fire with my revolver as soon as I spotted the first mass of triceratops cavalry looming out of the snow. I was surprised when the group I was firing at turned out to be small enough that I could actually stop it, killing several of the giant beasts and setting the leather and wood fighting platforms the others were carrying on fire. Then the weather suddenly cleared, and I could see what the enemy was up to.

I’d expected a huge mob of andregi rushing across the snow in a packed mass, which would have made a perfect target for my mortars. Instead they seemed to be staging half a dozen separate attacks on the various points where the city wall had collapsed. In each case there were a few dozen triceratops leading the charge, with several hundred infantry immediately behind them. But after that the remaining troops were a lot more spread out. Companies of about a hundred marched along in open skirmish formation, with a hundred yards or more of open ground between each group.

Normally an approach like that would have been useless, since it would just allow the defenders on the wall to fight them piecemeal. But with half the city busy dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake there weren’t nearly as many men on the walls as there should have been, and the officers were just starting to think about defensive positions on the collapsed stretches. A packed mass of dinosaurs would go right through them, and the infantry formations were easily big enough to hold a breach while reinforcements trickled in.

With only four tubes my forces couldn’t lay down fire over enough ground to stop the whole advance. I saw a heavy barrage come down on the forces headed for a breach in the Military District’s walls to the east, quickly homing in until the shells were falling among the advancing enemy. To the west another cluster of explosions descended to halt the attack on a breach near the edge of the Wizard’s Quarter. But that left the rest of the attacks to go through virtually unopposed.

Demetrios must have seen the problem, because the eastern battery quickly began walking its fire back and forth in front of the walls. But my mortars weren’t accurate enough to be very effective at that, and most of the rounds hit empty fields instead of enemy troops. Their dispersed formations filtered in around our fire, and I could see they’d already broken into the Trade District in at least two places.

Then the snows closed in again, and I lost sight of the big picture.

Things didn’t get any better after that. I flew from one fight to another, trying to use my mobility and firepower to stop the enemy advance. But it was like fighting smoke. There were never enough of the enemy in one place to stop me, and several times my intervention saved garrison positions from being overrun. But I could only be in one place at a time, and for every fight I joined there were a dozen others I couldn’t see.

Brand and his company of heroes didn’t seem to be in the fight, and the Conclave’s forces were focused mainly on protecting the Wizard’s Quarter. So that left just me, the regular troops and a few dozen knights with magic weapons to fight for the Trade District. Within an hour there were bands of ape men rampaging all over the district, killing civilians and threatening the other quarters of the city. The earthquake had left several sections of the city’s internal walls in ruins, and the garrison was forced to divert thousands of men to protect the breaches and prevent the enemy from getting into the other districts.

Here and there I saw local civilians gathering to defend their homes, just like they had in Lanrest. But the andregi were bigger, stronger and considerably tougher than a normal man. Their raiding parties easily cut down mobs of shopkeepers armed with nothing but truncheons and the occasional dagger. For that matter, even regular soldiers didn’t do especially well against them. When they clashed both sides took heavy casualties, and that was a losing proposition for our side.

Once I saw how badly things were going I flew back to my island, to confer with Demetrios while the sun sank below the horizon. By then Tavrin and Pelagia had joined him in the rooftop bunker.

“I sent Captain Rain’s force to help keep the enemy out of the Temple District,” Demetrios told me. “They’ve turned back a couple of attacks and killed hundreds of the enemy, but I don’t think it’s wise to keep them there after dark. They don’t have proper night vision, and the enemy is showing some talent at infiltration tactics. I’m thinking we pull them back to defend the island, and let Cerise take Corinna and her girls out hunting. Nethwillin can field a few squads of elite night fighters as well, and between the two groups we should be able to stall their advance for hours.”

“Any word on what everyone else is doing?” I asked.

“Brand and Prince Caspar were out leading a raid on a temple the enemy had set up on the ruins of another city,” he replied. “It sounds like the andregi were conducting mass sacrifices to empower a strategic curse, and Brand was hoping to disrupt their casting. They’re only just returning to the Iron Citadel now, and Brand hasn’t issued any orders yet. The wizards have been defending their own quarter and watching for traps.”

“This is turning into a disaster. Were they attacking at the same time every day to make us complacent?”

“Probably. I’d advise you not to get too eager about throwing yourself into battle here, either. We’ve seen that the andregi can get fairly tough, and a confused situation like this is a good opportunity to set ambushes for enemy heroes. There’s a good chance they’ve got elite hunter teams set up in the Trade Quarter by now, waiting for a good chance to take out a careless wizard.”

“Point taken,” I said. “What do you suggest, then?”

“The safest course would be to remain on the defensive and wait for Brand to organize a counterattack. Then you take Cerise and an escort of elves and dryads, and join the Conclave’s forces. That will minimize both our losses and the Conclave’s.”

“The Trade District is the most populous part of the city,” I objected. “Including refugees there are probably a hundred thousand people there, and most of them are going to die if we give the enemy time to kill them.”

He shrugged. “They aren’t our people, my lord, and I don’t think we have the forces to save them.”

“As long as the rest of the city doesn’t fall, it will actually be to our benefit,” Pelagia put in. “The survivors will be that much more desperate for safety. Not that I don’t have some sympathy for their plight, but what else can we do?”

Damn, these people were cold blooded. I suppose they had a point, too. I’d been trying to build myself a favorable reputation here, but it didn’t seem to have gotten me anything. Maybe I should try being a little more selfish?

A hundred thousand people.

No, I couldn’t do it.

“Our survival depends on the goodwill of Kozalin’s rulers,” I said. “I don’t want our people to overextend themselves and get mobbed by enemies, but we’re going to do what we can. Go ahead and organize the switch out in troops, I agree with you about the risk there. Tavrin, I want your people to take a hundred or so flamers with them to hand out wherever it looks like they’re needed.”

“Certainly,” he said.

“While you’re doing that, I’m going to throw up some quick defensive works where the wall between the Trade District and the Temple District has collapsed. I can turn the rubble into a low wall in half an hour, and that will firm up the defense quite a bit. I’ll want one of Corinna’s girls to watch my back while I work, and the rest can go hunting with Cerise.”

“They’ll enjoy that,” Pelagia said. “Perhaps you should keep Hela at your side as well, so you can receive messages?”

“Good idea. Have her join me at the front when Captain Rain’s group withdraws. Tavrin, did the
Intrepid
make it back while I was out this afternoon?”

“Yes, we just finished unloading her cargo an hour ago.”

“Alright, then we’re going to use her for fire support. Have Irithil position her near what’s left of the city wall, and harass the enemy reinforcements with bombs and machine gun fire as they trickle in. Have the mortars lay down barrages at odd intervals too, just to keep the enemy from feeling safe out there. If we can slow them down a bit there will be that many fewer of them ready to resist the counterattack when it comes, and the civilians will have more time to get out of the line of fire.”

“We can give it a try,” Demetrios said. “Although if the enemy is clever, using the mortars so casually will reveal that it doesn’t cost us anything to make their ammunition.”

“There’s no point in having a capability if we don’t use it when we need it,” I replied. “I’m not worried about the enemy learning too much about us, considering the rate we’re deploying new stuff. Any other suggestions?”

There weren’t, and fifteen minutes later I was back in the city. Alanna had volunteered to go with me, so I flew out with the dryad huntress in my arms.

I noticed as I set her down that her wooden armor seemed different than before. It covered her from head to toe, leaving only her face exposed to the cold night air. Shadows chased each other across the surface of the armor, pooling in her hair and around the tip of her spear. The magic had a familiar taste, and not one I associated with nature spirits.

“Has Cerise been giving you guys upgrades?” I asked.

“The High Priestess has given us all generous gifts of her power,” she confirmed. “She makes us stronger, and keeps the cold from touching us.”

“Interesting. Well, keep a sharp eye out. I’m going to be pretty distracted here.”

The garrison troops were relieved to see a wizard at work, and turning the mound of rubble they were trying to defend into a ten-foot wall with a simple parapet along the top was a fast project. I worked my way down the wall making repairs, and fending off the occasional minor attack by bands of ape men. But once again they quickly began avoiding me, while I kept hearing battles in the distance in every direction.

Cerise arrived with Corinna’s little war band, and the group ventured out to make a sweep through the streets just beyond the defenses I was building. They returned half an hour later, bloody and triumphant but with several of the dryads in need of minor healing.

“This sucks,” Cerise complained. “These guys are everywhere, but never more than a few dozen at once. We keep finding them breaking into houses to kill people.”

A few refugees had started trickling past as I worked, but not very many.

“Do what you can,” I said. “We can’t save everyone, but we aren’t the only ones fighting. How are the refugee shelters holding up?”

There were a couple dozen big iron buildings spread around the city, that I’d thrown up to house the refugees that had clogged the city’s streets when I first arrived. A couple of them were nearby, and considering the number of people they held I’d wanted to know if they were still holding out.

“Those big iron doors you put on them are keeping the apes out just fine,” she assured me. “They’ll need battering rams to break into them, or a bunch of mages conjuring that metal-eating fog they like. I think most of them will hold out just fine.”

“That’s something, at least.”

Hela came running up just then, clutching a warmth cloak around herself. “Lord wizard! There’s word from the Conclave. Their golems are preparing to advance into the Trade District, along with the prince and his knights. The garrison troops in the Temple District are supposed to advance once the wizards are engaged, and Brand wants you to move up and support them.”

“Alright, pass the word that I’ll be doing that. Let me find a sergeant, and see if he can tell us who’s in command here and where they’re set up.”

It sounded like a reasonable plan, but by the time the counterattack was actually in motion there must have been ten thousand andregi rampaging through the district. We had to advance on a broad line to cover all the major streets, which meant Cerise and I could only cover a small part of the front. Everywhere else it was just ordinary men backed by a few knights, and that was a disaster.

The enemy cavalry would charge right through our lines whenever the garrison encountered them. Clumps of enemy troops set up defensive positions on the narrower streets, while other groups advanced across the rooftops to drop down behind our lines. Enemy archers and mages launched ambushes from the upper floors of buildings they’d captured. The garrison troops kept getting stalled, locked in close-quarters combat with enemies that were tougher than they were.

Cerise and I moved constantly back and forth across the line of advance, crushing enemy positions and killing off their leaders. Even so they broke through our lines repeatedly, and the garrison commanders kept throwing in more and more reserves in an effort to keep the advance moving.

Corinna’s dryads proved considerably tougher than most of the enemy, and the raiding party Tavrin had sent out was lethally effective. But by the time the garrison ran out of reserves both groups were getting tired, and the elves were low on ammunition. I pulled the teams off the front line, and had them regroup near the garrison’s command post.

“Hela, send word that I want Elin to take a squad of bodyguards and set up a healing station here,” I said. “See if we can get fresh arrows sent up for the elves, too.”