Elsewhere ti-3

by Richard D. Parker

  Gan’s eyes flew open in admiration.

  “The Cassinni have long been loyal…we must win back such loyalty. We need their navy to sail home so the Rhondono can return and aid the Knights,” she explained. “This war must end quickly,” she added and half turned to stroke the hair of her sleeping prince. “We are vulnerable while it drags on.”

  “Yes M’lady,” Gan said, truly impressed and couldn’t help but think that perhaps the Inland Sea would be in better hands if the young Queen were to rule.

  ǂ

  “The Knights are coming!” Laynee said, raising her voice in excitement. “They are forming a line out on the flats just west of the town,” she explained further, her voice mumbled. It was hard for her to make her body talk while she was projecting. Her body was sitting on the edge of the bed in Samantha’s room in the eastern bailey, but her spirit was soaring over the battlefield. Samantha was sitting right next to the young Traveler, just as close as she could get, while Daniel stood anxiously on the far side of the room. There was only one small, heavily shuttered window in the room along the south wall. At the moment the shutters were thrown open for light. But there was also a large fire burning in the fireplace for warmth. Daniel stood close to the hearth but occasionally could feel a cold breeze that carried the promise of winter, which was quickly approaching.

  “And Gwaynn?” Samantha asked feeling a drop of sweat trickling down the left side of her body beneath her loose gown. She was growing heavy and the heat of the fire made the room stifling to her, though both youngsters were quite chilly. Moments before she was going to suggest they go to the large hall where it was cooler but after Laynee’s revelation she didn’t want to move.

  “He’s…he’s talking to the lady from Noble…Vio,” Laynee said, though in fact Gwaynn was just breaking away after giving Vio a brief hug. Laynee, though young, was shrewd enough not to mention the fact.

  “Is he in the front?” Samantha asked, positive he was. Laynee’s answer was interrupted as Traveler Jess na Gall burst past Cobb, who stood outside the room guarding the door. He was not alone; he now had the company of four other personal guardsmen Gwaynn assigned for Samantha’s protection. He did not want another Executioner surprising them.

  “Has the battle begun?” na Gall asked, having come to the rear to have her wound cleaned and bandaged. She came to Manse on Lonogan’s insistence, since the Travelers would not play a major part in the battle to come. na Gall did so reluctantly and as she entered the room she instantly realized that Laynee was in the act of projecting and reporting on the action to Samantha.

  “Not yet Mum,” Daniel said with a slight bow.

  “The Knights are coming!” Laynee repeated her eyes wide. “They were confused at first but they were coming now…in a long straight line…charging fast.”

  “Gwaynn,” Samantha pleaded.

  “He’s in a middle diamond…not near the front,” Laynee reassured her and this time it was the truth.

  “And Lonogan?” na Gall asked and then shot Samantha a shy smile and moved to the far side of Laynee and sat on the bed. Samantha reached out across the young Traveler’s lap with her lone hand and took hold of Jess’ left.

  Laynee paused for a moment, searching. “He’s in the rear, on a small hill behind the army,” Laynee answered, her voice barely intelligible and her hands were beginning to shake. Daniel knew she was tiring and began going through the twenty-nine steps. It was his turn to watch out over the coming battle.

  Laynee went very still and then mumbled. “Lonogan’s safe, surrounded by maybe fifty horsemen.”

  Laynee grew very quiet then, and suddenly she was back, panting and sweating in the small room. She almost immediately began to shove bits of meat and bread into her mouth and Samatha’s attention shifted to Daniel, straining to see what the young Traveler was seeing, but no matter how Samantha tried, she only saw the interior of her bedroom.

  “…they’re coming,” he finally said, his voice a bit slurred. “There are arrows in the sky.”

  ǂ

  Gwaynn stood almost directly behind Vio. He could see perfectly well now that he was nearly a full head taller than his deadly little friend. At first the Knights seemed to be confused by the unique Massi formation, but now they were lining up and preparing to charge across the open field and do battle.

  Gwaynn could understand their confusion; the Massi infantry were not aligned in the normal manner. There was no shield wall, strong and solid, to repel a charge of heavy horse. Instead of forming a continuous line, the Massi army was arranged in a series of smaller formations all in a crude diamond shape. Each formation contained around one hundred and fifty men. But what was truly curious was that the formations were spread out with wide swaths of open country between each. This was unheard of and left the Knights puzzled for several long moments. And though Gwaynn had perfect confidence in his General, he had to admit to feeling slightly exposed and vulnerable. The diamond formations had approximately twenty-five to thirty feet of open space between them, and now in the heat of battle it seemed a large distance to place between friends and reinforcements.

  But the arrangement was not by accident, the formations were separated in order to split the enemy lines as they charged among them. The diamond shapes were set up into four long rows each offset slightly from the other two. It was hoped that any charge of heavy horse would be quickly split many times over until a strong unified attack became impossible. In all, the Massi army covered well over a half a mile from end to end. Inside each diamond formation there were around fifty archers located within a large open center. The area inside was big enough for the archers to spread out a bit so they could draw and fire without impeding one another. Gwaynn checked on the archers in his own formation and saw that they all had multiple arrows sticking out of the ground in front of them to allow for easy retrieval and very quick, repeated fire. Because of the unique nature of the formations, the archers would have to be very disciplined and fire only at the Knights who were actually threatening their formation. Every arrow had to have a clear target; they had to minimize every miss, for errant arrow fire would be just as dangerous for the other formations as it would be for the Knights. Over the weeks and months prior, Captain Hahn and Samantha had drilled into the archers the need for patience and accuracy.

  Surrounding the archers was a layer of heavy infantry and on the extreme outer edges were the halberdiers, strong men and women with long spears. The spears were unique, for they not only had a cross piece about three quarters of the way down from the tip which was designed to allow for a firmly controlled grip while wielding the weapon, but they also had three hooks symmetrically placed around the shaft connected directly to the spear point. The razor sharp tips of the spears were designed not only to skewer any Knights within reach but also to discourage the horses from charging into the formation. The hooks were added to snag any Knights galloping by. With the help of the crosspiece, the hooks would allow the halberdiers to catch and pull the enemy from the saddle. The design was as yet untested in battle but in mock training sessions the halberds appeared to work exceedingly well.

  If the Knights somehow made it through the gauntlet of diamond formations, then they would meet the Toranado heavy infantry, which would be spread out into a standard shield wall directly behind the Massi army. Their task was to halt the progress of the enemy Knights. If everything went to plan the Toranado’s job would be relatively easy against a broken and haphazard cavalry charge. For the first time in the war however, the real pressure would be on the Massi infantry, particularly on those residing in the very tip of the lead diamond formations. They occupied the very pressure points that, if successful, would split the oncoming charge and reduce the enemy army from a strongly formed line of attack into a myriad of individual groups able to be surrounded and cut down. The Massi army though all infantry, outnumber the mounted Temple Knights by more than two to one. If the charge could be split and stopped, and the enemy’s momentum broken; if
their avenues of escape could be closed, well then it might be possible to defeat the vaunted cavalry army that was preparing to gallop down upon them. There were a lot of “ifs.” Of course armies throughout history employed countless strategies against an enemy of heavy horse and most of them failed…and against the Knights of the King’s Island all of them failed.

  “Hold fast men!” Gwaynn called out startling Vio, who stood before him. She jumped and laughed nervously causing Gwaynn to smile. His eyes moved from the rush of Knights racing across the open field, down to the back of her head. Her hair, silky black, was still cropped short, but shone as if it contained some hidden light source of its own. By some trick of the sun, Gwaynn noticed that around the highlighted areas, her hair took on a bluish cast. He had the sudden urge to bend over and take in the smell of it. With difficulty he resisted then heard calls for courage coming from all sides. He looked up again to see that the Knights were nearly half way across the open field and moving in perfect formation. He marveled at the beauty of the charge, the precision, and for a moment felt saddened by the need to destroy such perfection.

  “Time for some arse kickin’” someone from the back of their diamond formation said and laughter rippled through the clearly nervous men. Gwaynn recognized the voice as Captain Marcum’s and realized that the remark was well timed to give the men courage. He marveled at the amount of knowledge his Captains and Generals possessed and knew with utter conviction that he would not have come this far without them. He just hoped their knowledge would give them one last victory.

  “Fire!” Gwaynn heard and was pulled from his thoughts as the first arrows were launched from inside his formation. The main line of the Knights neared the front line of the diamond groupings. Gwaynn held his breath as they approached. Now was the moment, if the front diamond sections collapsed, then their entire plan would end in disaster and the Massi infantry would be crushed, ground beneath the hooves of the Temple Knights.

  Arrow after arrow arched out into the air, some Gwaynn lost in the white clouds which dotted the otherwise crystal blue afternoon sky. He glanced to his left and saw the Lady Bethany firing with an easy rapid motion. Her eyes seemed unfocused as she worked, almost as if she were in some sort of trance. Gwaynn looked up to follow the course of her arrows, but as they fell among the enemy he realized the front lines of the Knights were just reaching the forward positions of the Massi infantry. All arrow fire from his position came to an abrupt halt and at first he could not see what was happening, the dust and overall confusion made the battlefield chaotic, but after a long moment Gwaynn saw that indeed the diamond formations of the Massi were holding. The enemy horses were shying away from the bristling spear tips and the Knights were streaking in among the infantry lines.

  A great cheer erupted from the men around him and Gwaynn could tell that elation was rippling up and down his army. It was a joyous sound which seemed an odd thing to hear in the opening moments of battle, but he had little time to dwell on the fact before the first of the Knights reached his position. Gwaynn could feel Vio tense before him, but as was the case with the forward positions, the enormous war horses of the Knights veered away from the sharp points of the halberds and instead moved through the gaps between the Massi formations. Knights were streaking by on either side, fighting hard to engage but their mounts refused to cooperate. Gwaynn grinned. Olney Hawser was correct, given a choice; a warhorse would choose a free lane rather than charge into a prickly mass of men. Horses were intelligent animals and were not inclined to rush into certain death when it was easily avoided. Suicide was not a common trait among the animal kingdom, only man, with his capacity for reason could see the benefits in immediate and unending oblivion.

  Horses were now flying past on either side of their formation and the halberdiers began to reach out with their weapons, both stabbing and grabbing. First one Knight, then another dropped to the ground and soon Knights were being wrenched from their saddles at an alarming rate. Gwaynn, Vio, Bethany and Marcum along with the other swordsmen, all worked their way through the gaps between spearmen and killed many of the stunned Knights with ease. Over and over Gwaynn moved in and out of the formation to kill those who’d fallen. He killed some who were injured by the fall, some who were dazed and one or two who were unconscious. How long he moved in and out of the line of spearmen to dispatch those unhorsed Gwaynn could not have said, but when he grew tired he realized he must have been at it for a very long time. But even with the vast number of easy kills there were a fair number of Knights who scrambled to their feet and evaded the deadly swordsmen. Unhorsed and on foot they soon began to group together for mutual defense. The Massi swordsmen ignored them and would not be coaxed far from their defensive formations. After quickly killing those they could the Massi soldiers would immediately melt back behind the protective lines of the halberdiers. The Knights on foot were surrounded by enemy formations but they were at a loss as to what to do, so they did nothing. They just continued to merge together into groups and waited for some command to come from their Captains who were still mounted and circling among the enemy formations. But the Knights on horseback ignored their grounded comrades just as thoroughly as their Massi counterparts. In fact, the Knights still on horseback pushed through and circled around the infantry formations, confident of victory. Even now their goal was to encircle the Massi infantry and destroy them, but with each pass more and more Knights were yanked from their saddles. Once again some were quickly killed, while others survived to join their brothers on foot.

  All through the battle the isolated groups of Knights on foot continued to be ignored by the Massi, who held to their formations with a tenacity that was unyielding. Their concentration rested completely on the enemy still mounted. The Knights on horseback seemed unaware of the Massi tactics, and continued to race through the Massi lines completely sure that victory was imminent. The mounted Knights fought as they always did, trying to surround the enemy and cut them up piece meal…like so much fodder. To the enemy, the Massi’s odd formation only seemed designed to hasten their inevitable destruction. It was only when the Knights reached the linear Toranado that they faced an enemy they could understand, an enemy which was facing them in a strong unified line. Here was a trained army ready to meet them, not the folly of the split formations they had so easily penetrated. The forward Knights yelled in their excitement and charged the Toranado, not realizing their strength was sorely diminished and that they would hit the heavy infantry not as a unified line, but in the sporadic way common among less disciplined cavalries.

  Here and there they crashed against the Toranado lines and though most of the collisions were massive, the experienced and tough heavy infantry lines held against the disorganized strike of the cavalry charge.

  Captain Hothgaard, who was near the forefront of the charge, quickly saw that it was doomed to fail. Unbelievably his lines had not held and he instantly grasped the genius of the Massi defense. By allowing for space, his cavalry raced through the paths of least resistance, and in doing so were repeatedly broken into smaller and smaller segments. The farther they moved through the Massi lines the weaker and smaller his own lines became, until they reached the end game and the Toranado heavy infantry.

  “Retreat!” Hothgaard yelled. “Retreat!” He cried, acutely aware of the panic that sounded in his voice. The Knights around him stared in his direction, shocked and clearly confused.

  “It’s a trap!” He screamed and spun his mount around. To his dismay he found their lines of retreat already being cut off by the now spreading formations of Massi infantry, some of who were now slaughtering the Knights a foot and others who were screaming with bloodlust and racing in his direction. The screams of the Massi infantry sent chills up his spine; they were the screams of vengeance, the screams of imminent victory. Hothgaard looked to the north and south but those avenues were also quickly being sealed.

  ‘It is not possible,’ he thought, dazed. ‘Defeat! And by a band of infantry…it’s not
possible.’

  “Form a line on me!” Hothgaard yelled dismissing such pessimistic thoughts. But he knew now that their only chance was to form a strong line and charge hard and fast before the Massi moved in too close. Without a strong line they had no hope of driving a wedge through the mass of foot soldiers that were quickly surrounding them. In moments several hundred men gathered around the Captain’s position and though Hothgaard could see the rest of his Knights disintegrating around him, he did not hesitate. He and his men charged directly for what they believed the weakest Massi position; they charged directly toward Gwaynn and Vio.

  But Gwaynn did not get to meet the approaching threat; instead he was quickly jostled backward by his own men until he was safely behind a strong line of halberdiers. The men immediately planted their halberds into the ground and angled them up to meet the oncoming charge.

  Under normal conditions the fearsome warhorses of the Knights would have crashed into the lines with fury, but all across the battlefield came the screams of dying horses, this plus the random panicky movements of the many rider-less horses, filled the air with the scent of fear and caused the charge to falter well before the two lines even met.

  “HOLD!” Gwaynn yelled in his most commanding voice. The Knights were defeated he knew that now. Only a few hundred were still mounted at this point in the battle, and all around him the Knights afoot were being surrounded. Those who were still fighting were being systematically slaughtered, but many others realized the battle was already lost and were throwing down their arms in capitulation.

  “HOLD!” Gwaynn yelled again and slowly the pockets of violence within the sound of his voice began to diminish. As the cries and shouts of battle began to die away the atmosphere slowly began to change to one of inaction. The battlefield was filled with the dead and dying, but also the living. The Temple Knights remaining were now utterly surrounded by the much more numerous Massi and Toranado infantry.