The Storm's Own Son (Book 3) (5 page)

To the right, the force of men under Hadrastus advanced toward the enemy. Heavily-armored shock troops wielding great axes, mauls, and war mattocks; they went forward slowly and in good order, well out of artillery range and waiting for the right time.  Further right, the main body continued its standoff with the enemy.

Farther yet, to the north and east beyond the plains, Talaos noticed something else. Out on the sea came warships, a hundred of them or more. He strained to make out colored pennants, but the distance was too great. Then he saw a great flagship of three masts. On the largest of its sails was painted the blue-green trident and twin dolphins of Idrona. It could only mean the allied fleet had been defeated or scattered.

Talaos knew the timing of the arrival of that fleet was anything but accidental. The officers and men who’d defected to his side had been unsure of the exact whereabouts of their fleet. It was now clear someone had known, and Talaos wondered what the means of communication and coordination might have been. 

The ways of the Prophet came to mind, and that boded ill.

Ahead, he was closing on the enemy. He had to act now. He shouted to one of his Wolves nearby, a fast, skilled rider of distinctly wolfish manner named Adrus.

"Adrus! Send a message to Tescani that I am coming to help! Ride hard, now!"

Adrus nodded, with purpose in his eyes, and made the dangerous maneuvers to thread his way out of their charging formation. Once clear, he wheeled and sped back across the open plain.

The enemy was closer now, almost within bow shot. Talaos looked for another target. He saw what was likely a captain shouting orders. He once more poured power into his javelin, drew, and cast. The javelin flew like a thunderbolt across the distance and straight into the open face of the man's helm. The foe’s head exploded backward in a spray of crackling energy, and he toppled. A group of horsemen drew their bows, and arrows fell among Talaos and the Madmen. To his right, Halmir roared and pulled an arrow from his chain shirt.

Imvan drew back his own bow, fired, and put an arrow through the throat of one of the enemy archers. Talaos drew another javelin, focused power on it, and cast. Another enemy rider fell dead. The cavalry charging their way outnumbered them two to one, but were in growing disorder. Imvan dropped another horseman, and a Wolf did the same.

"Men! Javelins!" shouted Talaos.

Together he, the madmen and the Wolves drew javelins. Only Imvan and a few skilled archers continued to fire their bows. Together they cast. The front line of enemy horsemen toppled. Then came the counter cast, poorly coordinated from the leaderless enemy ranks. Even so, a few Wolves roared, and some died.

Far out to the left, Adriko had closed on the enemy cavalry. Then there was an awesome sight, and testament to Adriko's skill at organization. Nearly a thousand archers fired at once, and moments after, three thousand men drew and cast javelins in almost perfect unison. The enemy light cavalry, hundreds of them, melted away in a chaos of dead men and wounded horses.

Further out, the enemy's flanking force of irregulars retreated in disorder before Kurvan's scouts and raiders. Behind both Adriko and Talaos, the rest of Kurvan's horde was following, running and leaping across the plain.

Talaos's main army to the right was holding, as ordered. By now, he imagined, the enemy there would be getting frustrated at his inaction. He was certain that the enemy fleet would sometime soon use its overwhelming superiority to keep his own at bay while it landed reinforcements for the enemy. That might take a while, but so would the battle.

He'd promised Tescani he'd come, but there were things he could not neglect on the way.

Ahead, close now, was the enemy cavalry.

"Javelins!" he roared, and again his Madmen and his Wolves drew and cast. They threw at the very moment the enemy reached again to draw their own. It was a crucial moment of advantage. The second volley of javelins threw the enemy into disorder. Here and there, both sides traded arrows, but Imvan and the Wolf archers got the better of it.

Both sides rode hard, and soon they would close in battle.

Now was the time.

Talaos focused his will, his rage. The enemy was before him under a blue sky.

But he was the storm.

He let go the reins. Both his hands were free. He called for the power from within, and lightning crackled in his hands.

The onrushing enemy looked upon him with startled eyes.

His own shone with power.

He stretched out his hands, and lines of lightning shot from each. He swept his lightning slowly across the enemy ranks, and men were blasted backward off their horses, burned and dying, or incinerated in the saddle. Left and right he swept, dealing death. At last he stopped. A handful lived; nearly fifty other men screamed and died atop terrified horses. Other horses nearby panicked, throwing their riders into confusion. The enemy formation dissolved.

Then they were upon them.

Firio, Halmir, and a few others threw weapons at close range. More enemies died. Talaos reached the first living foe. The man had a long spear and attempted to run him through. He grabbed it and hurled the man backward off his horse with his own spear. Then Talaos flipped the spear and lanced the next horseman behind. To his right, a Wolf ran an enemy clean through the skull with a long spear.

Epos fought as a good cavalryman, wielding shield, horse and long spear in coordination of defense, maneuver and attack. He ran one foe through, then another. Vulkas used his war mattock like a battering ram, glanced an enemy's long spear aside, and sent the man flying with a crushed chest. The others came on wreaking havoc.

Talaos ran another cavalryman through, then pulled the long spear back and laid about with it as a staff. He cracked one foe across the face, crushing it inward with a spray of blood. He did the same across another's helmeted skull. The man toppled, but the spear snapped in half. Talaos then drew his long blade and began scything men from their saddles.

Small, whirling noises caught his notice. Firio, standing on his foot saddle, was throwing dagger after dagger, and nearly every throw caught its mark. Larogwan before him cut men and their horses down with sweeps of his long axe. Halmir and Kyrax had joined Epos, and together the three wielded long spears to run down foe after foe.

Vulkas was having difficulty with two foes. He seemed to grow annoyed, and with a mighty roar raised his war mattock overhead with a single hand. The giant then brought it crashing down on one of them. The man's head vanished in a spray of gore. Then a Wolf's spear toppled the other foe. All around, the disorder in the enemy ranks had made the fight a confused melee, and that favored his Wolves. The enemy was dying fast.

For a moment, Talaos had no enemies immediately around him. He took stock.

Further ahead the enemy irregulars on foot still advanced, but they looked less than confident.  To the left, Adriko had either killed, unhorsed, or routed the entire enemy cavalry force. He was sweeping the enemy irregular line up in his wake as he went.

Kurvan's men were now closing and catching up. The leading elements had already reached a few unhorsed stragglers from the enemy cavalry. Some foes that fought were quickly cut down. A few gave oaths of surrender, and were sent out of the fight.

To his right, he could see the main body of the enemy. The companies closest to him had turned to face what they would reasonably expect to be an attack.  Behind and to the right, Hadrastus's assault force waited at the ready.  Talaos smiled. Their time was coming soon.

Far off beyond the coast, he could see enemy ships full of soldiers approaching the shore. Other ships were forming a line, facing south toward his greatly outclassed little navy. He'd given his fleet orders to protect the harbor, and delay any attack by sea.

But with no experience as an admiral, and no effective way to get word to them during the battle, he would now have to trust in the officers he'd appointed. He turned to the fight at hand.

The few remaining enemy light cavalry before him were in disarray. Some men had wheeled and threaded back through their own irregulars, likely hoping to form up with the cavalry fleeing Adriko. The enemy irregulars themselves, hundreds of them, were scattered in loose squads and companies. He'd seen what Kurvan had done against cavalry with irregulars during the taking of Avrosa, and didn't want to be on the receiving end of something like it.

"Form up!" he shouted to his men, "and wait for the hillmen!"

It wasn't long. Kurvan himself turned up, growling with a kind of joyous fury.

"Come on lads!" the warlord shouted, "There's heads that need splitting!"

Together Talaos, the Madmen, Wolves, Kurvan, and the hillmen horde charged the now hesitating enemy. Talaos roared and cut down men left and right before him. Ahead and to the left, Adriko rolled up the enemy in the direction of the main body, the archers, and the artillery. As they pressed the retreating enemy, Adriko, Talaos, Kurvan, and all their forces would soon be in the range of that artillery. Behind and to the right, Hadrastus's force still waited, just outside the range of enemy fire. That was the very reason he was here, thought Talaos, and now it was time to act.

As they advanced with clouds of howling hillmen all around, Talaos turned to his Madmen and Wolves. "Now men, as we planned, we're going to make straight for those siege engines and the companies of archers around them. Don't stop until we reach them! Our job is to clear the way, so that Adriko and Kurvan can hit them from behind while Hadrastus rolls up their flank!"

The Wolves listened with hard eyes and grim looks.

"Well," roared Talaos, "are you in the mood for some killing?"

Black, bloodthirsty cheers erupted from his men.

He formed his men up in a loose wedge with himself at the point, the Madmen next, and the Wolves behind. With a motion of his hand, they raced across the plain, ahead of their own forces and straight toward the near end of the line of catapults and ballistae.

Ahead and to the left, Adriko turned inexorably back toward the main battle. Behind, the hillmen were sweeping forward like a tide of death. All around Talaos, disorganized groups of enemy irregulars milled about in confusion. A larger group of mixed infantry and cavalry began to form up and turn his way. They had a young captain at their head in the uniform of Kyras.

Talaos shouted, thundering across the plain.

"You're on the wrong side! Maxano fights for Kyras! Do you fight for the Prophet?"

The officer looked as if uncertain how to react. He paused. Then, with sudden decision, he threw down his arms and rode hard their way. Many of his men did likewise. Others behind them scowled.

One tough-looking fellow shouted, voice faint in the distance, "I fight for the Prophet!"

Talaos spoke to the young officer as he approached, "Find Warlord Kurvan and give him your surrender. We'll welcome any man who swears he doesn't serve the Prophet!"

The man nodded as he rode on, with his rag-tag troops behind him.

Ahead was the man who'd said he fought for the Prophet, and around him were swiftly gathering dozens more. These men had announced their true loyalty. Talaos felt wrath rise within. He decided to make an example and an impression. He sheathed his sword and raised his open hands again. He summoned his anger and his power.

He focused.

Power gathered in his hands.

Lightning cracked in the air before them and arced in blazing lines at the enemy. Flashing light, fire and death followed. The ringleader and dozens around him fell with burning skin and smoke rising from their blackened eyes and mouths.

Then Talaos and his Wolves rode past the disoriented survivors.

Talaos shouted his challenge again, over and over, "Quarter and welcome for all who give oath against the Prophet!"

Routing soldiers began to surrender, all around. Others, in ones and twos, or small groups, fought on. Some of these shouted words in support of the Prophet, or called curses on Talaos as they fought. Others did battle in grim silence, stood their ground and died as men.

Before him, growing closer, the enemy archers and artillery waited ready. Some ballistae and catapults wheeled to face Adriko and Kurvan's onrushing tide. Talaos grimly wondered whether they were willing to fire among their own men to strike his. Among the enemy main body, he could see activity as small groups of men detached to deal with his threat.

He could hear activity of another sort in the camp of the Prophet, behind the artillery and surrounded by a small reserve and rearguard. The thousands of Avrosan exiles, and other followers or emissaries of the Prophet in civilian garb, sang in a close mass. They swayed together as they sang, and their united voices carried far on the wind.

Farther to the right, enemy light cavalry wheeled and raced to help against Adriko. The heavy cavalry, however, seemed to be staying put, as if waiting for something. As he gazed beyond them, Talaos could see why. There on the shore, enemy galleys had landed at the shore while larger ships had launched boats. From them all, hundreds of soldiers were disembarking. His small navy had been driven back.

Tescani and Drevan would soon be surrounded.

All around the followers of the Prophet, the singers at the camp in their thousands, a faint green light began to flicker, visible even in the sunshine.