“I have already given the orders,” the general replied calmly, “but I am keeping several regiments in reserve. I doubt that King Arik is the only Alcean leading an attack this night. The Alceans do not have the numbers for a single frontal attack. It would be suicide. He is probably trying to draw our men southward so he can attack from another angle.”
“You are correct, as usual,” stated General Kozinski as he walked towards General Bledsoe. “I just had a report of an attack on the western perimeter. I am going to need to pull the 17th Corps regiments away from the southern battlefront.”
“How serious is the western fight?” asked General Bledsoe. “Is it a full attack or a feint?”
“I believe it to be a serious attack,” answered General Kozinski. “I have reports of several thousand men, and they are not skirmishing. They are charging into the camp. Our forces have not been able to form a line yet.”
General Bledsoe frowned deeply. “I did not think the Alceans had enough men for a fight this large. Several thousand men in each of two prongs already surpasses the estimates our black-cloaks gave us.”
“The black-cloaks did not know about the men on unicorns,” General Kozinski pointed out. “Evidently the Alceans have gotten reinforcements from somewhere. We will just have to deal with what they have.”
“Agreed,” General Bledsoe responded. “Send someone to check the northern perimeter. I will send someone to the east. I want to know exactly what we are facing.”
“I have already sent a man north,” replied General Kozinski. “I will let you know what he reports.”
General Bledsoe nodded silently, and General Kozinski left to return to his own men. The Baroukan general sighed thoughtfully and then addressed Colonel Sawar.
“You can have seven regiments, Colonel. Build your shield wall, but keep me informed of the enemy’s progress. Something about this attack doesn’t sit well with me.”
“How do you mean, General?” asked the colonel.
“It strikes me as a desperate ploy,” answered General Bledsoe. “The Alceans could ignore this team and fall back to their city walls, but they are instead attacking our camp at night. That tells me that at least one other team is still in play.”
“How does that knowledge help us?” asked Colonel Sawar.
“It tells me that this attack is not meant to merely harass us,” answered the general. “They mean to finish us off tonight, or die in the attempt. I can’t imagine how they can possibly hope to succeed, but I am sure that is their goal.”
“You always taught me not to underestimate the enemy,” frowned Colonel Sawar. “If the Alceans truly think they can win, they must have resources that are unknown to us.”
“Indeed,” replied the general. “Those men on the flying unicorns were never reported before. That is why I am holding three regiments in reserve. Go build your shield wall, Colonel, and try to capture the Alcean king. If we can capture him, we will not only win this battle, but also this war. If you cannot capture him, kill him.”
Hovering in the darkness over the two Federation officers, a tiny pair of ears heard the entire conversation. As the colonel left to form his shield wall, Prince Midge shot up into the night sky and headed south. The fairy prince darted over the Federation camp until he saw the Bringer and the Red Swords. He dropped out of the sky and landed on King Arik’s shoulder just as the Bringer was delivering a deadly stroke to a Federation captain. The severe movement of the Bringer’s shoulder almost sent the fairy prince tumbling from his perch, but Prince Midge grabbed the king’s ear and hung on, his tiny feet swinging in the air.
“There are gentler ways of getting my attention,” King Arik quipped. “What have you learned?”
“They know that Alex is attacking from the west,” reported Prince Midge, “but the worst news is more personal. General Bledsoe is keeping three-thousand men in reserve, and they are gathered all around him. He has also ordered your capture or death to force an end to the war. It will be very hard for you to get close to him. Also, there is a shield wall ahead of you. Not more than five-hundred paces from here.”
King Arik slowed to let the Red Swords take the lead while he pondered this new information. Queen Tanya slowed alongside him.
“General Bledsoe is more clever than I gave him credit for,” stated the king. “He must suspect that I am coming for him. If we manage to break through the shield wall, we will be stuck between two large portions of Bledsoe’s army. That is not a position I want to be in. We need to draw those three reserve regiments away from the general or I will not get close to him. Get to Alex and tell him what you have told me. Ask him to draw off Bledsoe’s reserve. Inform him that he can use the men from Tor if needed. After you do that, return to spying on the general and inform me when the reserves leave his side.”
“For the Bringer!” Prince Midge said loudly while saluting.
The fairy prince shot upward and the king turned to the queen. “Wake Bantam and send her to find David,” Arik said. “I want the Red Swords to fall back.”
“Wake me?” complained Bantam. “Even a fairy would find it impossible to sleep through this battle. I am on my way.”
The blue fairy shot out of Tanya’s pocket and sped into the night sky. Moments later a horn blew and the advance of the Red Swords immediately halted. The Alceans promptly turned their horses and galloped away. Shouts of victory roared through the Federation lines, but Colonel Sawar frowned and shook his head in confusion. He saw no victory in the Alcean retreat. In fact, it was Federation bodies littering the ground, not Alcean. He wondered why the enemy had given up on a successful charge and suddenly left the battlefield.
“Do we give pursuit?” asked one of the company commanders.
“No,” the colonel replied loudly so that everyone heard him. “We hold this line until instructed otherwise.”
* * * *
Prince Midge soared high in the sky and descended rapidly at the western perimeter expecting to find the Alcean Rangers, but he found it desolate. Hundreds of Federation bodies littered the ground, and he turned eastward to follow the trail of destruction. The sounds of battle alerted the fairy prince long before his eyes could detect the Alcean Rangers. The black-clad men on their black horses seemed to merge with the darkness. The fairy prince darted through the Alcean warriors until he saw the white unicorn that Jenneva rode into battle. As he expected, Alexander Tork was close by. He swept down and landed on Alex’s shoulder. He quickly repeated the Bringer’s message.
Alex whistled sharply, a signal to the Alcean Rangers. Kaz immediately turned around and galloped westward. The rest of the Alcean Rangers broke off contact with the enemy and followed.
“Your message has been delivered, Prince Midge,” stated Alex. “Tell Arik that we will draw off the reserves.”
“He already knows that,” replied the fairy prince. “Unless you have a real message for the Bringer, I will not be returning to him just yet. I will be going to spy on General Bledsoe.”
“Then spy well, my little friend.”
Prince Midge bowed to Alex and then shot into the air.
“What a ham,” commented Bitsy as she shot out of Alex’s pocket. “Spying is no great feat for a fairy.”
“It is a talent your people have mastered,” smiled Alex. “I need you to take a message to the men of Tor. On your way, I want you to observe the camp between us and the northern perimeter. Report on your observations when you return.”
Alex gave the fairy a rather detailed message for Lieutenant Montbalm and then sent her on her way. While he waited for her return, he explained to the Alcean Rangers what they were going to do.
* * * *
General Kozinski, commander of the 17th Corps of Spino, stood in the center of a huge circular shield wall. He watched as a portion of the shield wall peeled open to let the cavalry enter. One of the returning riders rode up to the general and dismounted.
“The enemy broke off and retreated towards the western perimete
r,” reported Colonel Shellard.
“You did not pursue them?” questioned the general.
“No,” replied the colonel. “My regiment took heavy losses fighting the Alceans. I could not afford to allow them to be sucked into a trap.”
The general frowned. “A trap?” he echoed. “Are you saying that the Alceans did not retreat because their cause was lost?”
“The Alceans gave better account of themselves than we did,” the colonel replied. “They may not be as numerous as us, but I will not besmirch their fighting skills. I think we are up against the Alcean Rangers. They are the finest fighters in all of Alcea. No, General, I do not think they retreated because their cause is lost. I think they meant to draw us into a trap. I refused to oblige them.”
General Kozinski’s brow creased with concern. For a moment, he said nothing, pondering the potential effects of the colonel’s decision. He did not like not knowing where the enemy was, but eventually he realized that there were only three things the Alceans could do. They could attack the shield wall directly, which would be a fatal mistake on their part, or they could drive south to attack General Bledsoe, but the Baroukan general had three regiments protecting him. That made such a move unlikely, leaving the third option as the most probable.
“Take your men and head to the northern perimeter,” ordered the general. “I want the men posted up there to join us here. I will not leave them isolated and exposed to attack.”
Colonel Shellard saluted and mounted his horse. He rode a short distance to where his company commanders were waiting and explained their orders. With a shouted order to the shield wall, the defensive ring opened to allow the colonel and his men to leave. Colonel Shellard’s regiment was already down to half-strength from the fight with the Alcean Rangers, and he did not cherish the thought of riding through the woods with the Rangers unaccounted for. He led his men onto the Coastal Highway that split the camp in two and headed north. Well before he reached the northern perimeter, Colonel Shellard knew that trouble was brewing. A fiery glow in the distance lit the night, and soon the sounds of shouting reached his ears. He drew his sword.
“Prepare for battle!” he called to his men.
As the colonel drew nearer the barricade, he frowned in confusion. The flames he had seen from a distance were coming from the burning barricade, but the enemy was not attacking, unless you could call a lone mage standing in the middle of the road and sending sheets of fire into the wooden barricade an attack. The shouts of alarm came from the defenders of the perimeter as their arrows failed to harm the mage and their efforts to extinguish the flames were met with more flames. The colonel sheathed his sword, and his men followed his example.
“Rally to General Kozinski,” Colonel Shellard called out to the defenders. “The barricade is to be abandoned. Let it burn.”
The defenders seemed relieved to see the colonel’s column approaching, but their looks soon turned to horror. Surging out of the trees along the western side of the road, Alceans Rangers tore into the column without mercy. Colonel Shellard cursed loudly. The burning barricade had been a distraction that the Alceans used to get into position, and his carelessness had allowed it.
“Rally to me!” he shouted to the defenders of the barricade. “Rally to me!”
The companies manning the barricade responded immediately, knowing that the enemy outside the camp could not join the battle because of the very fires their mage had started. They drew their swords and raced towards the colonel.
“Shield wall across the road!” shouted Colonel Shellard as the barricade defenders drew near. “Riders retreat behind it!”
His commands were the standard Federation response to such an ambush. While the infantry maintained an impenetrable wall of shields, the cavalry would regroup behind it and then try to outflank the enemy. It had been a very effective tactic in the Federation wars, but such was not the case in the Battle of Duranga. As soon as the barricade defenders had left their posts, the men of Tor flew their unicorns over the burning barricade. Their bows unleashed a deadly hail of arrows into the back of the shield wall. Colonel Shellard gasped loudly as he saw his plan disintegrate before his eyes. The shield wall was destroyed from behind while the Rangers crushed his regiment. In a desperate attempt to take some of the Alceans with him on his way to the grave, Colonel Shellard issued a war cry and charged for the man with the long blond tail. Only then did he notice the woman riding behind the black specter. Her hand rose and pointed directly at the colonel. An icy blue ball appeared in her hand and it flew towards him.
Colonel Shellard felt a deep chill invade his body as the blue orb hit him. He thought he had been about to die, but he did not die. He could not move, ice encrusting his entire body and that of his horse, but he could still see and hear. In fact, he could not even close his eyes to the horrors going on around him. He was forced to watch as the Alcean Rangers destroyed the remnants of his regiment. As silence fell over the battlefield, the Rangers moved past him towards the shield wall, leaving the frozen colonel to stare at nothing but the bodies of his slain men. Desperately wanting to know what his fate would be, the colonel listened intently to the soft sounds of talking some distance behind him.
“What a waste,” a deep male voice said softly. “If only they had surrendered when they had the opportunity. None of these young men would have died.”
“They were given the choice, Alex,” said a woman’s voice. “What is our next move?”
“We force General Kozinski to surrender, Jenneva,” Alex answered. “He has all of his remaining men gathered in one place, and they have no mages to stop us. I hope that he sees the wisdom in surrender, or we will be forced to kill thousands more.”
Colonel Shellard could not believe what he was hearing. He had heard stories of Alex and Jenneva during his visit to Tagaret last fall, but those stories made the famous couple seem too potent to be real. He had thought that they were mythical characters meant to idealize the Alcean wars. The colonel wondered if the shivers racing through his body was from the knowledge of who Team Miram was fighting, or if it was an effect of the ice surrounding him.
“General Bledsoe has kept three regiments in reserve,” warned Jenneva. “While I can guarantee the annihilation of the 17th Corps, I can not do so if those reserves come to the aid of General Kozinski. Shouldn’t we eliminate those reserves first?”
“Those reserves are from the 7th Corps of Barouk,” replied Alex. “They will not come to the aid of Spinoans. Trust me on this, Jenneva. They will not leave Bledsoe’s side. What do we do with the frozen colonel?”
“Leave him,” answered Jenneva. “He will remain frozen until morning. We will accept his surrender then.”
Alex and Jenneva walked away as they uttered those final words. They mounted their unicorns and led their army southward.
“How long will he really remain frozen?” Alex asked when they were well away from the frozen colonel.
“Not long,” answered Jenneva. “I warmed the horse’s legs so they will move, and Yorra instructed the horse to make its way towards the burning barricade. The heat from the fires will thaw the colonel. Are you sure that he will go directly to General Bledsoe?”
“He has little choice,” replied Alex. “He would not dare to follow us to Kozinski’s shield wall. Not after what he saw happen to his own regiment. Nor will he surrender before General Kozinski. His only option is to get Bledsoe to send the reserves north.”
“He could flee,” posed Jenneva.
Alex shook his head. “Sheri is a good judge of character, and she met him in Tagaret last fall. Shellard is no coward, and he is not a deserter. Clint also said that he was extremely loyal to Kozinski. The colonel will not flee. He will go to Bledsoe and demand the reserves.”
“Then we need to get Kozinski to surrender quickly,” stated Jenneva. “We truly can’t afford to be caught between the 17th Corps and the reserves from the 7th Corps.”
“That will be up to you mages,” Alex s
aid. “I sent Bitsy to gather Balamor in case you need him.”
“Excellent,” Jenneva replied with a smile. “He has the power to cast a physical shield large enough to cover thousands of men. That will give Theos and me free reign to convince General Kozinski to surrender.”
“You intend to surround our entire army with a physical shield?” scoffed Alex. “Is that even possible?”
“Oh, it is quite possible, Alex,” grinned Jenneva, “but Balamor will not be putting a physical shield around us. He will be putting it around the 17th Corps of Spino.”
Chapter 47
Shield Wall
Sergeant Dilney was tired. His squad’s sentry duty had ended only moments before the Battle of Duranga had begun, and he should have spent the past few hours sleeping rather than running around the huge encampment dodging Alcean warriors to report the battlefield progress to Colonel Shellard. The Federation sergeant was also nervous. The remnants of the 17th Corps of Spino were gathered in a huge circular shield wall, waiting in the dark for Colonel Shellard’s regiment to return with the companies guarding the northern perimeter. That regiment was long overdue, and Sergeant Dilney had a sinking feeling that they were never coming back.
The sergeant was not alone in his feelings. An aura of gloom pervaded the shield wall of the 17th Corps, and the soldiers fidgeted nervously as their eyes strained to detect anything moving in the dark. Most of the remaining soldiers of the 17th Corps had had at least a glancing introduction to the night-fighting prowess of the Alcean Rangers, and while the shield wall gave them some measure of comfort, none of them were anxious to resume the fight before the sun rose to illuminate the forest. Many of them wished that the sun would hurry up and arrive. Moments later, they cursed that wish.
Unexpectedly, a brilliant flash of light illuminated the forest as it streamed skyward like a falling star in reverse. The flash briefly illuminated thousands of Alcean warriors in a ring around the shield wall, and each man sat upon the back of a horned unicorn. Hundreds of arrows immediately soared outward from the shield wall, but each arrow unexplainably halted and dropped to the ground as if it had hit an invisible wall. The rising star reached its zenith directly over the circle of Federation soldiers, and defying gravity, hung there illuminating the entire 17th Corps. Some soldiers raised their eyes to look at it, but the light was too intense. They quickly lowered their eyes, blinking to restore their vision.
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