The Long War 01 - The Black Guard (75 page)

Magnus momentarily shied away from the bright flames and he heard screams from within as knights of the Red were caught in the explosion. Two risen men stepped forward and threw their sacks into the hall, causing more loud explosions within, and more screams of pain. A quick look through the door showed Magnus that Nathan’s men were arrayed within, waiting for them to enter. The explosions had caused panic and disorder, but Nathan and the other senior knights – Rashabald the executioner and Rillion – were visible through the flames at the back of the huge hall.

Two more arrows, fired at the same time, flew through the door from a lower angle and Magnus saw that Rham Jas had quickly changed position. The arrows travelled further into the hall and one thudded into the breastplate of a knight before it exploded.

Knights dropped to the floor to extinguish the flames and ran back to get away from the fires. Rillion was roaring at the top of his voice, shouting at the knights to form a defensive line. Several men were still struggling to put on their armour.

Magnus searched the scene for Ameira the Lady of Spiders, but she was nowhere to be seen and he would have to keep his wits about him until the enchantress appeared. She was the unknown quantity in the assault – the one person who genuinely worried the Ranen priest.

Rham Jas had disappeared again and Magnus thought he must have ducked into the secret tunnels that led along the great hall. The fires were quickly dying down within the hall and beyond he could see the remaining knights of the Red forming up in front of the raised platform.

No more explosive sacks were thrown and the risen men were waiting silently, fanned out on either side of the landing, behind Brom and Magnus.

Then a booming voice sounded from the hall. ‘Bromvy Black Guard,’ shouted Knight Commander Rillion. ‘I assume that it’s you out there.’

A look of grim conviction had replaced Brom’s smile as he prepared to advance on the knights. He held his longsword loosely in one hand and the heavy leaf-blade in the other. Magnus knew Brom well enough to guess he’d be preparing himself for a fight, the outcome of which would be uncertain. Rillion was renowned as one of the finest swordsmen in Tor Funweir and Magnus doubted whether Brom could best him. Over and above this was the question of Ameira the Lady of Spiders. He had not seen her in the great hall but suspected that her foul craft would yet play a part in this encounter. If, as she had boasted, Rham Jas was helpless against her, the well-planned assault would have all been for nothing and the witch would be able to sway their minds and escape. The people of Canarn might be free of the knights, but the enchantress would be able to continue her designs elsewhere.

‘Don’t forget about the enchantress,’ Magnus said to Brom across the open doorway.

‘Rham Jas has a plan for her too,’ he replied.

‘She was confident that the Kirin would be helpless against her.’ Magnus kept the matter of Rham Jas’s son to himself for now, knowing it would add unnecessary tension to an already fraught encounter.

‘Let the Kirin worry about the witch. You and I have to worry about the knights,’ Brom responded, clenching and unclenching his fists as he began to prepare for the hardest fight of his life.

‘Okay, but at least let me handle Rillion,’ said Magnus with some insistence.

Brom turned to look at him, a dark glare across the open doorway into his father’s hall.

‘You know I can’t do that,’ he replied. ‘The bastard has to be mine. There are plenty of knights for you, my friend.’ He tried to smile, to suggest it was just a question of Magnus’s vanity.

‘Don’t be a fool, Brom,’ said the Ranen, ‘you can’t handle him.’

Brom’s smile grew more genuine as he nodded to his friend before saying, ‘Then I’ll die.’ The young lord of Canarn stepped boldly through the door and into the great hall.

‘Rowanoco’s cock,’ muttered Magnus before joining his friend.

The risen men moved as one to follow them and as a group of twenty or so they strode into the hall.

The fires were burning low and were now mostly confined to the backs of dead men and a few items of wooden furniture. The pillars leading from the door to the main hall were largely untouched and Magnus saw Brom glance at the heraldry of his house as he made his way through the carpeted entrance.

The knights stood in a line before the raised platform and made no effort to intercept them, fearful of coming too close and experiencing more explosions. The men of Ro just waited for the strange group of warriors to enter the great hall. Magnus noted that the forest-dwellers held no more sacks and he suspected that only Rham Jas was still in possession of explosives.

‘Welcome to Ro Canarn, Bromvy Black Guard,’ Rillion shouted from behind the line of knights. ‘My hall may have lost some of its hospitality, but I assure you that you are welcome.’

Brom stepped into the light of the main hall. He looked around, taking in the huge space that had been his home for twenty-four years, and briefly closed his eyes.

Magnus and the risen men stepped after him and formed a line some ten paces in front of the knights. The odds had evened out considerably after a few well-aimed arrows from Rham Jas, and the true fighting men arrayed against them now numbered only a handful more than twenty. Magnus knew that others would still be in the keep, but Brom’s assurance that more forest-dwellers would be dealing with them rendered the fight pleasingly even.

‘Sir Rillion,’ said Brom formally, ‘I mean to kill you.’ The words were spoken calmly and momentarily took the knight commander by surprise.

‘You and your… friends will meet only the justice of the One today, Black Guard,’ shouted Rashabald from nearby.

Magnus noted that Sir Nathan was glaring across the ground and focusing on the Ranen priest.

‘You consort with the risen… I thought a duke’s son would know them for the undead monsters they are,’ Rillion said from behind his knights.

Tyr Nanon was standing next to Magnus and was the only one of the forest-dwellers to react to this. ‘I forgive you your ignorance, Ro man,’ he said with a smile. ‘Your mind is not your own.’

‘Silence!’ shouted the commander.

The largest of the risen, a huge creature – taller than Magnus by nearly a foot – stepped next to Nanon and held his huge leaf-blade in front of his face.

‘I am called Tyr Rafn, greatest of the defenders of the Heart, and I say you are cowards who prey on the weak.’ His words were deep and gruff, like the growl of a troll. ‘I give you the chance to prove yourselves worthy with blood and steel,’ he said calmly, by way of challenge to the knights, who looked ill at ease in the presence of the huge creature.

‘Will you stay behind your knights all evening?’ asked Brom with a sneer.

Slowly, and with the movements of a seasoned soldier, Knight Commander Mortimer Rillion stepped off the platform and added his sword to the line of knights. Nathan of Du Ban and Rashabald the executioner followed. For the first time since Magnus had been captured, he saw the senior knights join their troops.

The two forces sized each other up and Magnus took note of Nathan opposite him, clearly intending to single him out for combat. The knight captain smiled and held up his longsword in salute. Magnus didn’t respond and planned to kill the knight quickly so he could get to Rillion and assist Brom.

The stand-off lasted only moments before Brom yelled, ‘For Canarn!’ and ran at Rillion.

The others followed and the two lines of warriors clashed in the middle of the great hall. Magnus met Nathan and parried a furious series of high attacks from the knight’s sword. The Ranen was a little startled by Nathan’s skill, but gathered himself quickly and held his ground. To his left, Brom and Rillion exchanged barbed insults as they fought, Brom’s second blade the only thing preventing Rillion from quickly killing the young lord. The risen men were less dangerous when not attacking from shadows and employing the element of surprise, but the fight was still agonizingly even. Nanon killed a knight with his first attack, running him through with a manoeuvre resembling a dance move, and Magnus surmised that the forest-dwellers’ style of duelling was completely alien to the men of Ro. The huge figure of Tyr Rafn was the most intimidating presence on their side and only Sir Rashabald was prepared to fight him, using his two-handed sword to keep the risen man at bay.

Men and forest-dwellers died as swords and knives whirled, cutting and stabbing flesh as the hall became a battleground. The two lines broke up quickly and Magnus found it difficult to keep track of who was alive and who was dead. Nathan was a dangerous swordsman and he needed to concentrate on besting the knight, reluctantly turning his back on Brom who was being methodically pushed back by Rillion.

‘You can’t win, priest,’ growled Nathan, as he levelled a thrust at Magnus’s side. ‘I don’t want to have to kill you.’

Magnus laughed as he fought. It was a boisterous sound that cut through the noise of steel on steel. ‘If you don’t want to kill me, you’ve already lost because I want to kill
you
,’ he roared, redoubling his efforts and using his superior strength to unbalance the knight.

Nathan fell back against the edge of the raised platform and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a high swipe from Magnus. The knight got to his feet and they squared off again, though Nathan was now more on the defensive as he realized Magnus had been keeping half an eye on the rest of the fight and not giving his full attention to the knight captain.

Over Nathan’s shoulder, Brom could be seen. The lord of Canarn was fighting with his back to a large wooden feast table and there was a nasty cut on his face. Rillion had disarmed him of his leaf-blade and Brom was furiously trying to resist the knight’s superior skill.

‘Time to die, knight,’ spat Magnus, intending to finish off Nathan and go to his friend’s assistance.

Nearby, a sickening sound of steel cleaving flesh sounded over the melee and Magnus saw Tyr Rafn had delivered a huge overhead strike at Rashabald. The forest-dweller had struck with such power that he’d shattered the executioner’s sword and split his head in two, driving his blade down past the knight’s neck to end up wedged in his breastplate.

The death of Rashabald made Rillion roar with anger and he began a combination of lightning-fast strikes at Brom. The lord grasped his longsword in both hands in an attempt to keep off the attack. As he held the blade above his head, Rillion rotated his arm and his sword slipped under Brom’s defence to deliver a vicious wound to his shoulder. Blood spurted from the wound and Brom fell to the floor. Magnus held his breath for a moment as Rillion pulled back his sword and prepared to finish him off. Just as he began the fatal strike, Nanon appeared to his side and roughly tackled him to the ground, causing both knight and forest-dweller to roll in a heap towards the far wall. Brom was moving only slowly, grasping the bloody wound and trying to focus through the pain.

Magnus kicked out at Nathan and received an answering cut to the stomach to remind him that the knight captain required all of his attention. He tried to concentrate on defeating the knight, but the spectacle of Brom lying on the floor was a powerful distraction. Forcing himself to focus on Nathan, Magnus delivered a feint and saw an opening emerge in the knight’s defence. It was a small opportunity, but the Ranen was able to bypass the knight’s longsword and spear Nathan through the side. The knight captain cried out in pain and almost laughed as he looked down to see the fatal wound in his side.

‘I am killed, priest,’ he said through the pain, dropping his sword and grabbing Magnus’s shoulders.

‘You died well, knight,’ Magnus responded, as he slowly drove his sword further into Nathan’s body, causing blood to appear at the corners of his mouth, and the life slowly drained from his eyes.

As Magnus turned, he saw Tyr Rafn desperately trying to pull his blade free from Rashabald’s breastplate. The huge weapon was stuck and, as the body fell away from him, the forest-dweller stood unarmed for a moment. Magnus moved to assist him, but he was not quite close enough and three knights seized the opportunity and leapt at Rafn. He was unable to defend himself properly and could only answer the sword thrusts with powerful kicks and punches. The three knights stabbed at him, and grey blood seeped out from numerous wounds as he frantically tried to fight them off. As Magnus quickly killed a knight who’d moved to intercept him, he saw Rafn drop to his knees with knights jumping on him and stabbing furiously at his chest and back, causing the huge forest-dweller to cry out in pain and anger, before slumping to the floor in a bloody mess.

Near the far wall, Nanon was astride Rillion and pummelling him with his fists. Both had lost their swords and Rillion was at least neutralized for the moment. Magnus made his way across the hall, despatching any knights who got in his way with brutal efficiency, but the priest could see that more risen men lay dead than knights.

As he neared Brom’s unconscious body a loud explosion sounded from above and Magnus looked up to see three knights of the Red fly from a broken watch-hole and fall dead into the great hall. From the hole a face emerged, and Rham Jas Rami jumped down to land gracefully on the stone floor.

‘Rham Jas, where’s the witch?’ Magnus shouted across to his friend.

‘She ran away from me, cackling,’ he responded, as he took in the scene of bloody combat before him. He saw the mauled body of Rafn and the limp form of Brom, before stowing his longbow and deftly drawing his katana.

‘Is he dead?’ he asked, pointing to Brom.

‘He will be,’ answered Knight Commander Rillion as he smashed his forehead into Nanon’s face and roughly kicked the forest-dweller off him.

Standing quickly, he retrieved his sword and picked up Nanon’s leaf-blade in his other hand. The forest-dweller didn’t move.

‘Come on, priest,’ he shouted at Magnus, by way of challenge, as he moved to stand before the Ranen.

‘Let me,’ said Rham Jas angrily, with a glance at Brom’s bloodied body.

‘No,’ replied Magnus. ‘You need to find the witch.’ He locked eyes with Rillion, though Rham Jas didn’t move. ‘Kirin,’ he shouted. ‘I can’t kill her… you need to move… now!’