by Candy Rae
As the last man set his fuse wire into the detonation unit and ran back to clamber aboard his boat the front ranks of the delayed kohort were spied running over the ice towards them.
The connectors were set and the Captain of the Powderflower lit the fuse. It sparkled in the sun. The sparkling nemesis reached the detonation unit and the unit exploded with a subdued pop. Multiple sparkles were seen heading for the ship and the other charges along the individual fuse lines.
They all put their hands and paws to their ears as the old ship exploded, the line of charges going off one after another with smaller bangs.
There were creaking noises from the ice as it began to crack.
The Larg on the ice disappeared. Captain Wylie could see some of them frantically trying to swim towards solid ground, scrabbling for a pawhold. A few of them succeeded and watched as the Ice Bridge, their passage north, disintegrated.
* * * * *
They could feel the kohorts advancing up the valley through their boot-soles and paws.
Peter Littleman and Philip Ross ordered the Militia to prepare, an order repeated at the other side of the valley as Liam Durand readied his Garda. Old Harld and Alya stood beside Liam and the younger man felt comforted by their presence.
The cavalry was ready, horses chewing on their bits causing them to jingle as they sensed the tenseness in the air. The Lindars looked over and worried that the Larg would hear them.
Lynsey and Bernei walked forward to stand beside Rhian and Tadei. She had to be here, at the front, in plain sight. If she should fall, ten lindlengths to their rear stood Johan Williamson and Baltimalya. She would know if Bernei was gone and take immediate steps.
The Lind were growling, a deep sublimal growl.
: They are halfway up to the crest :
: Then it is time, my Bernei :
The Larg were like a swarm of ondis, the locust-like insects who devoured crops, and just as deadly. The vision of what the scouts were seeing arrived in Lynsey’s mind via Bernei in that selfsame instant. No training had prepared her for this. She gulped, but gathering her courage, drew her sword and raised it in the air. When she dropped her arm, it would be the signal for the short charge of the Lindars and the Ryzcks placed at the waterfall end of the valley.
Momentarily, Lynsey closed her eyes; a vision of the Stronghold lay before her of laughing cadets at play and their struggles to learn weaponscraft. An earlier memory, as she and Bernei approached the long-retired Weaponsmaster Anders for the first time, she a scrawny girl of fourteen, amazed at her good fortune of being chosen by Bernei.
Her arm fell.
The front ranks began to move forward.
The Larg knew they were there.
“Keep in formation, watch your backs, watch out for each other and listen to your Lind.” The Ryzckas and Vadryzkas would be hoarse by battle’s end.
The ondi-like swarm began to growl as they saw their enemies.
Their mission was to kill, to destroy the Lindars and the Vada. To rule this Northern Continent. A rule of terror.
* * * * *
Yvdr was nervous as he led his army into the valley. He was not ready for this, not all the kohorts had arrived, but the scorched earth policy instigated by Lynsey had left him with little choice. It was either lead the kohorts into the valley or starve.
His heart burned with exultant hatred. The Largan was depending on him, victory meant his own ascension, failure – death. His ancestor Aoalvaldr had died all those seasons ago, victory almost within his grasp, at least that was what tradition said. No, failure was not an option; he must crush the Lind to a bloody pulp beneath his paws. He did not think there were sufficient Lindars and Vada to post an unendurable threat.
Yvdr relaxed as his enemy came into view. They were few; he had them in the claws of his paw. He would be victorious!
* * * * *
“I didn’t realise the Larg were so big,” Peter Littleman gulped.
“It’s not their size that worries me,” answered Philip Ross, he had seen Larg before, “they can be killed, just like any other creature, it’s the sheer number of them. How can we stand against so many?”
“With courage and a lot of determination. The Militia have been training for years for this. The shield wall will hold, never fear.”
* * * * *
Battle (2)
Down the upper slopes at the top of the valley the Lindars and Vada charged, rank upon rank.
There was the thunder of hundreds of huge paws and the ground shook as the Lindars emerged over the crests on both sides of the valley.
The battle was long and brutal. The snarling ebb and tide of death went back and forward, the ground was littered with the dead and the dying. Howls of pain amid screams of anger. Voices shouting commands. Swords gleaming bright in the sunlight then covered with fresh blood as they descended. No time to think. Remember the lessons learned on the practice field. Automatic reflexes. Kill or be killed. Heaps of bodies, no flies and other insects yet; they would arrive later to feast on the fallen. The Ryzcks and Lindars tried to keep their formations, to protect each other. Confusion. Friends were separated, some for good. Kill or be killed.
The slushy snow grew mauve, ochre and red underfoot and underpaw turning into coloured streams signifying death.
It was the Larg’s eagerness to fight at whatever cost that was their undoing, that and the fact that the humans and Lind were fighting for what was theirs.
The rear kohorts pressed forward, eager to get to the front. The front kohorts tightened with the pressure from behind.
The Command Post, in the very centre of the vee on the eastern side of the valley was hard pressed. There fought Weaponsmaster Rhian and her training staff, including Tana and Tavei. Rhian and Tadei lost mind-contact with Lynsey and Bernei early on.
There was no way the Ryzcks and Lindars could disengage and clamber back up to the top of the valley sides as Lynsey had planned. The ground was treacherous underpaw and foot. They were in too deep.
Yvdr sensed that his chance had come and ordered the kohorts at the entrance of the valley and as yet uncommitted, into the fray.
On the bare rock that was Lynsey’s second in command’s vantage point, Johan the tactician, mind-linked to his Baltimalya realised what was happening. Baltimalya was also in close mind-link with the Lind halves of the three cadet pairs who were stationed on the top of the waterfall itself with unimpeded views along the valley. As the rear kohorts began to move he knew now was the time. There was no time to contact Bernei and Lynsey. He ordered the yet uncommitted cavalry and the Lindars to go, to hit these advancing kohorts from behind and to drive the Larg into the valley.
* * * * *
: How are Philip and Radnya? : asked Tana of Tavei
: They are alive :
: Thank the Lai for that :
: Johan and Baltimalya say to press forward. We must not give them a pawhold on the summit :
: When will it end? Please the Lai, stop this carnage, please :
: I will tell the cadets to form up around us :
: Do that :
: When will it end? Please the Lai, stop this carnage, please. Make the Larg go home. I don’t want any more of my friends to die! :
* * * * *
“This is what hell must be like,” shouted Philip as he parried yet another lunge by a Larg. He was fighting on foot, side by side with Radnya. He was covered in blood, a little of his own but most the ochre-coloured blood of the Larg.
Radnya too was bloody of head and shoulders, it was already matting into her coat and he could hardly see the pale green stripes under the blood.
: I love you : Philip ‘said’ to Radnya as yet another Kranj of Larg scrambled up the valley side towards them.
: I love you too :
* * * * *
A number of lindlengths away from where Tana and Tavei fought, four of their friends were also fighting for their lives and for the honour of the Vada.
Side by side,
Tiffney and Qenei fought with Jen and Trnslei. As with everywhere else on the battlefield, the defenders were being hard-pressed to hold their ground.
: Have they no fear? : asked a despairing Jen of Trnslei as he rose to his haunches to maul at yet another attacker with his sharp chelas.
Trnslei had not a second to answer. He was far too much concerned with holding back the slavering monster who was trying to kill him, at the same time attempting to position himself so that his rider could bring down her bloody sword on top of their opponent’s neck. So tight were the ranks that it was not remotely possible for Jen to attempt a sideways swipe at his jugular. Tiffney and Qenei were fighting with a similar grim determination.
Jen risked a glance and caught the younger woman’s eye. The smell of fear, sweat and blood pervaded their nostrils and Tiffney fought against a mad desire to sneeze in an attempt to rid herself of the odour. She grinned at Jen, a grin with no humour in it. This was not a day for laughter.
Together with the other members of their Ryzck the four of them managed to regain ground that the latest Larg surge had acquired.
And it was then that it happened; the ground underpaw had become loose with the constant scrabbling and it gave way with an abruptness so sudden that it took them all by surprise.
Jen and Trnslei found themselves falling, falling down the side of the valley, over and over.
Above them, a shocked Tiffney, Qenei struggling to keep his pawhold, watched in despair as they tumbled down in a tangle of legs. She could hear Jen screaming.
: Not Jen! No! No! No! :
Another duo saw them fall. They didn’t hesitate. The Lind mindset of ‘save the weak and the defenceless’ was so imbued in their subconscious that they could not pay any heed to the standing order to keep uphill. Tiffney felt a vadeln-pair surge past her and she tightened her legs round Qenei’s barrel just in time as he leapt down after them.
The Larg were some two-thirds of the way down the valley side sorting themselves out, those uninjured, in true Larg fashion clawing their way over their injured compatriots in their eagerness to continue to battle.
Tiffney recognised Jen and Trnslei’s rescuers, it was Tamir and Whalya.
Tamir turned as Tiffney and Qenei reached Jen and Trnslei.
“They’ll be on us soon,” he shouted. “Get Trnslei up. We’ll hold them off. Quick now!”
Luckily Jen and Trnslei had come to a halt some lindlengths above where the Larg were reforming.
Tiffney, against standing orders, unclipped the harness straps that held her on Qenei and jumped down.
“Get up!” she screamed, tugging at Trnslei. He opened one eye groggily. Thank the Lai, thought Tiffney, they’re alive. Trnslei struggled to his feet.
“Go. Go. Go,” yelled back Tamir as he fended off the Larg who had been the first to extricate himself from the tangle of Larg injured and had leapt up the slope in a killing frenzy.
Tamir and Whalya backed up the slope, Tamir’s sword like lightening slicing through the flesh of that Larg and then another snarling attacker.
Qenei too backed up the slope as Tiffney struggled and clambered up in front of his back legs, tugging at the shaking Trnslei as she forced him to save himself and his rider.
She felt the searing pain as a Larg claw raked down the length of her back but then she was in the midst of her ryzck-mates once more, they were surging past her, protecting rescuers and rescued. The ranks snapped tight once more.
Tiffney managed to stagger on for a few more pain-racked steps before collapsing. She was not aware of a Holad pair arriving, smearing smaha on her injuries and lifting her back on to Qenei’s back, nor was she aware of the Holad Lind instructing both Trnslei and Qenei to take their unconscious vadelns to the nearest casualty station. Miraculously, neither Lind was badly hurt.
Tamir and Whalya, for a wonder, had also emerged from their rash rescue relatively unscathed and took up their positions once more in the Ryzck lines. They didn’t get into trouble for their actions then but after the battle, however, they got a severe dressing down from their Ryzcka, more for the sake of discipline than for any other reason. Although the two of them had disobeyed orders, they had saved Jen and Trnslei. If Kiefer and Canya hadn’t been Ryzcka, they might have done the same themselves.
* * * * *
Beth and Xei’s battle was alongside the Avuzdel, whose task it was to range behind the Larg kohorts doing what damage they could, trying to slow down the advance of the rearmost kohorts desperate to enter the valley and join the battle.
Allan and Asniya joined them, having decided that their knife fighting expertise would be of more use here than up in the valley.
Their battle was a series of small fights as again and again the Avuzdel cut out single or small groups of Larg from their fellows and, as Beth said in an aside to Xei, ‘dealt with them in small chunks’.
“That’s my girl,” Allan kept encouraging her as she wreaked havoc with her knife. She was covered in blood, Larg blood and so was Xei.
Beth’s expertise with her knives came into its own this day. As she plunged serrated edges into Larg throats, she forgot who she had once been, the protected and pampered daughter of a southern duke. She was Vadeln Beth of the Vada, sworn to protect the North, life-mate of Xei.
: I am of the North. I am Beth. Together we will survive this my Xei and do our bit to gain a righteous victory :
* * * * *
Battle (3)
The main Holad station was located above the heights at the waterfall. There were other, subsidiary dressing stations behind the crests along the valley manned by medics from Vadath and Argyll. Some of the Holad duos from the Ryzcks were running here there and everywhere administering basic first aid and evacuating injured infantry. They also helped wounded Lind but could not carry them to the relative safety of the trees because they were too heavy.
Such was the resilience of the Lind that many managed to get to the rear on their own. Once the smaha ointment had been applied and the pain dulled to manageable levels the Lind were, for the most part, able to ignore their wounds.
Terez of the Forty-fifth Ryzck wondered, not for the first time, about this apparent ability. It was as if, she concluded as she bound up the wound on a large midnight-blue striped female’s leg, they were able to isolate that part of their brain that felt pain. She shot that thought at her Lind Danei who was guarding her as she performed her ministrations but he didn’t answer and Terez had little time to ponder or philosophise more, there were too many wounded.
: Tell her that the bandage should stay as long as she moves slowly and does not exert herself! :
: She says that we are in the middle of a war and you are telling her not to exert herself! :
: Well, tell her to be careful :
The female answered this one for herself though her Lindish was so thick that Terez had difficulty understanding.
“Thank you. I will stand with the rear ryz but I cannot promise not to fight and loosen the bandage. We fight for survival.”
“We all do,” Terez answered, throwing her equipment back into her satchel, “where’s the next victim?”
“Over there,” answered Danei, pointing with a paw. “You go, I guard.”
* * * * *
Lynsey and Bernei were fighting. She saw Rhian and Tadei tackling a large Larg some lindlengths away and Tana and Tavei beside her. Great Andei’s pawprints, the cadets are in the thick of it too! Ilyei fell thrashing to the ground with a dead Nalda on his back. She saw Stasya limping away to seek medical aid for a large tear on her hindquarters with a distraught Nick.
In fact, every able-bodied soldier was fighting hard to hold the crest against wave upon wave of Larg but they were holding, she knew it. Her army was going to win this battle.
* * * * *
Yvdr was growing desperate, try as he might he couldn’t break through. With a snarl of rage he himself made for the lines of Vada up the slopes to his right and it was when he was almost at the t
op that he came face to face with Lynsey and Bernei.
Yvdr did not know the identity of the Vada pair, did not know that it was the Susyc. All he knew was that he was going to kill them, lead his warriors through the ranks of the hated Ryzcks or die in the attempt. He had realised that, to win, his kohorts would have to take the crests on both sides of the valley. As his ancestors had come to understand at the end all those years ago now, the army that held the high ground would be the winner. The heavier weight of the Larg was balanced by these heights and the Vada, they were the linchpin. Break the Vada and the northern army would fall apart. He had to gain the heights.
He leapt at Lynsey and Bernei and so hard and high was his leap that she managed only a feeble swing at his chest before the huge angry body landed on top of them. As Yvdr came down his great jaws opened, his head twisting as he went for Bernei’s throat. Despite the leather protective shield his teeth pressed through and into Bernei’s flesh.
Bernei gurgled as Yvdr’s incisors penetrated deep and the blood began to seep through into his windpipe. With another snarl, Yvdr’s jaws snapped shut and he pulled his head back, dragging with it armour, hair, skin and bleeding tissue.
Lynsey sensed Bernei’s surprise and also his realisation that his wound was a fatal one.
Despair and rage filled Lynsey. She was going to kill this Larg. Her sword arm was pinned under Bernei. He was still breathing, gurgling, gasping breaths as he tried to breathe air into lungs that were filling with blood.