Snakewood

by Adrian Selby

  “You did more for your people than any man. Hast Fathin will survive, Miri,” he said. “I came to get you out, brother, to try and save your life. I would still do it if I could. I know you have a secret way, from this hall.”

  “I don’t think so, Kailen, for either myself or Hast Fathin. If Petir heads this army then I had better die with some dignity out there. I can offer him nothing that would save the lives of my people except my own. It’ll be good to die for something more than a purse, eh?”

  They embraced, then Miri straightened himself and Kailen helped him with his sleeve buttons, for he had them folded up.

  “There’s an old slenka in my quarters you can take Gant out on, you and your Agent. You can take the secret way.” He pointed away to a dark corner. “From this chamber and down through the hill behind us is a passage hewn to join an underpass that mountainers had carved out a hundred or more summers ago. I expect Kigan’s plant will give you time enough, Gant. I shall encourage Caragula to demonstrate at length his greatness and so do what I can for your escape.” He kneeled then before Kigan, whose head was bowed and didn’t look up at him. “I’ll see you buried, Kigan, with Shale, unless it matters to Gant.” I shook my head to say it did not, for there was no getting him home to his people. He looked back at Kigan then, who hadn’t moved. Mirisham looked at us both, me and Kailen, and give a nod, his hand scratching Kigan’s head, somewhat fondly. Hard to say why at that moment it was right. He was dead, Kigan, died there with a last memory of his da, a memory of love, of all things. Mirisham moved past the table to the bench I was still sat on.

  “For many golden years we fought side by side and that should not be forgotten, for what do they sing of us mercenaries, those that, not being of us, could not understand us?

  With gold in place of pride or blood

  No honour’s vow nor noble good

  No song shall long their deeds proclaim

  Their sacrifices all in vain.”

  He dropped into my lap the blue flask that Kigan said would help me, kissed my head and clasped my arm in farewell as he passed outside, whistling the tune what went with those words.

  Tharos Falls

  When twenty men held the line, and the line could not be crossed.

  Kailen

  It was said we saved the Old Kingdoms that day. Were they worth saving? At the time I cared far less about the answer than I do now. The Virates, the southern islands and the Redwall sent armies north to fortify their borders to the Red Hills and they sent navies across the Gulf of Merea to invade Cassica, all because the Old Kingdoms had been exploiting them so hard and for so long that they snapped. Plant, slaves, gold and steel left those lands under the heel of Old Kingdoms factories, protected by their own navies and their superior brews. It was centuries of exploitation, yet the Old Kingdoms were deaf all the while to their pleas for help against the Wildmen. This drove them into a union for the first time in their histories, for civil unrest was spreading and it would only encourage the Old Kingdoms to exact even more punitive contracts to reduce their risk. Enough was enough.

  A war council was formed, but, crucially, was manned by a number of truly great generals and sea lords. They secured the Hiscan Road at their borders, stopping all caravans. In the southern islands they amassed a large navy in secret and launched an assault both on Cassica, the far side of the Gulf, and then raids across the Gulf itself.

  When I came to hear of all this, it was obvious to me that if the Virates meant to control the Gulf, the Old Kingdoms would have a big problem. Word then spread regarding the invasion of Cassica, and that’s when I became really interested. If they took hold of Cassica, and could push into Rhosidia, a much larger and richer neighbour, the Virates could start controlling the Sar, and the world order as it stood could very well end.

  So, we sought a purse in Rhosidia, because of its superiority as a force, at least by my reckoning, as well as a chance for a free run at pillaging in such a plant-rich land as Cassica, a great opportunity to make a fortune and give Kigan and Ibsey a chance to develop further our recipes.

  With the welcome the Cassicans gave the Virates army–they too had long been exploited by the Old Kingdoms–their land was quickly taken and at little cost, which had a direct bearing on what happened at Tharos Falls. We went south to the Cassican border with the Rhosidian army.

  The border to Cassica was mountainous, and with haste being a paramount concern–in order to destabilise the Virates forces before they could significantly fortify and reinforce–the Tharos Valley and Falls were the main and quickest path when going between the lands and was thus the Rhosidians’ only option.

  The Rhosidian general, General Urutz, gambled on the Virates army not having had time to fortify the border around the valley. His scouts passed out into the plain beyond the immense waterfalls and reported no sign of the Virates forces. He ordered his own forces through in order to make good the valley for the Rhosidians and from there move on south to the interior of Cassica.

  The Virates warmaster, Warmaster Jaon, had, of course, prepared a trap. Its ingredients were exquisite: a local populace either vanished or up to the subterfuge that nothing was amiss, giving our scouts no immediate cause for concern; a far larger force of cavalry than Urutz and even I could have anticipated, many times larger than Rhosidia’s own; and quantities of strykna, a very potent poison, I would have thought impossible to acquire, much less bring to bear in its purest form on this battlefield.

  Jaon knew exactly what he was doing. He deserved victory and would have achieved it but for the quality of the Twenty, and in particular, the inaugural use of the Honour.

  We were in the van, with Urutz and about four hundred men. He took the idea of leading literally.

  Jaon waited for us to pass into the plain, our infantry following in a column, some eleven thousand men and women, with a thousand horse at the rear, for much of Cassica was jungle, and not amenable (all the more remarkable and astute on Jaon’s part, for what followed relied heavily on his own massed cavalry).

  By letting most of the column through, there would be too many men to retreat into the valley should we get flanked. The roar of the hooves in the hillsides about gave the Rhosidians little time, and we were duly flanked both left and right, the Virates cavalry coming in near the Falls and the mouth of the pass behind us, cutting the column off, leaving many thousands of us out in the plain and most of our own cavalry stuck in the pass, unable to form up. The horns blew and Urutz started commanding those about us. His value as a ransom was huge, so he needed the protection of his main force, not to mention lead it, which he couldn’t do at the front of the assault, for I knew full well as the horses rode in behind us at the column that the next assault would be at us in the van, their hope being to create a pincer, front and rear, crushing us between them. I wasted valuable time persuading him to leave, but kept his bannermen with us to trick Jaon into thinking he remained in the van. At some point later I found out he had been killed, but perhaps his influence was enough to have made some small difference that would ultimately count for us.

  Gant

  Kailen saw the danger to our general and he had words with his captains to get the general to fuck off back to his main force and give them some order and leadership, and to try and repel the horse that come in at the flanks behind us.

  We were disorganised from being in a column, none of us on brews barring a few scouts on dayers, so time was wasted with getting brews and mixes down.

  Soon as the flanking was happening we saw on the ridge ahead of us that sickening sight of even more horse, which started then pouring down at us, for we were in a bit of land not unlike a plate, its edges raised up all around a bit. This was the cleverness of their own general, this many horse where we didn’t expect it. They come straight at us of course, so’s the column would split at the front I’m guessing, and in so doing smash us apart and rout us.

  “Ibsey! Kigan!” shouted Kailen. “Get that brew out you’ve been wor
king on, get it round the boys and give what’s left to anyone willing to take a swig. If it’s as good as you say we’re going to need it!”

  Because our plant was better and more valuable than most we kept it on a couple of packhorses that come with us, so it was all in the van. Ibsey went for the packs to get the flasks out.

  “We got a replacement for Liberation Jack?” said Elimar. “Do we know it won’t kill us, Kigan? You tested it on any kids yet?”

  Kigan walked over to him with a flask and threw it at him. “Take a good slug and pass it around, you mouthy cunt, you should be fucking honoured.”

  “Oh, boys, Kigan’s telling us now it’s an honour to drink his and Ibsey’s new brew.” He wasn’t stupid though, Elimar, he knew it would be good, he just didn’t get on with Kigan.

  “Quick about it!” roared Kailen as we heard their shouting and horns. “Sheltron! Spears Fore!” By sheltron he meant infantry forming into a square, archers in the middle of it being protected as they got their arrowbags out into any oppo advancing on us. I got a big slug of Kigan’s new brew down, give it to Shale and he passed it onto Bresken and Kailen and the others.

  “Ibsey, I need a Roob,” shouted Milu, and from the packhorse he took out a long and heavy horn of bone what had to sit on the ground and was made for spreading and increasing the sound he made. It was carved in a twist that give it some extra noise. The Roob was a brew he took that give him his full range as a singer, and he had a rare power in him that give his songs a force that caused horses fifty yards about to quail and throw their riders.

  There was clashing then to our rear as the commanders across the rest of the column behind us tried to bring their shields and spears to bear on the rushing horse while the bit of cavalry we had in the plain was looking to organise itself and try to counter.

  I saw, behind the hundreds of horse charging at us from the front, a fierce army, a huge line that just kept growing as they marched into the plain. Among these were bowmen, and, we were soon to learn, slingers, as well as infantry.

  The Honour hit me then, think I barely had time to cry out for how violent it felt, how it gripped me in a jaw and near shook me about. With the screaming of our own men and theirs, and their horse charging like a dark and massive wave, I was almost overcome, like I couldn’t breathe because my heart was hammering at my ribs. I took my spear up and stood it in the ground for the assault. In moments the horses broke on us. I got my spear into what I could. I was stood behind Bresken, who held a shield before us and was throwing bags of powders up that were likely to set the horses off as our mix weren’t something they were conditioned to deal with. I managed to bring down one, then two horses, the second having jumped over the first and behind us. Arrows finished it and its rider. We were at it, bellowing and full of madness. This fightbrew of Kigan’s give me some big noisies and I was causing them all kinds of trouble, sticking a load of them with our poison what put them down and made their riders screech. Dithnir, Kigan, Valdir, Stixie and the Rhosidian archers with us started putting them down and they were laughing, the thrill of being faster and surer something I too was feeling. I didn’t feel like a man no more, I felt like something else, something bigger. We kept the square mostly but around us cavalry was getting in. Kailen was shouting for the captains to bring the square in or he was directing archers and running about where the line was breached and mopping up with a savage grace. He give a shout to Milu then as we struggled against their steeds what were kicking at the shields and by their weight pushing us back and fracturing the lock on the shields we had.

  Milu was risen then and blew into the horn, now they were close enough, and the sound was this shattering, screaming howl that give us all pain but their horses squealed, kicking up and throwing their riders as they twisted about and tried to get away. It broke their front line and sent those behind them into chaos as well. A cheer went up at this, but there was still much of their formation intact as they’d been able to engage at our sides and the Rhosidians and other mercenaries with us were having more trouble, most of them not getting the Honour in time and making do with their own fightbrew.

  Kailen was asking us to retreat all the while, not to push on, hoping I guess like the other captains and General Urutz to get into formation again with greater numbers from the thousands that were in sheltrons or otherwise in disarray behind us. But there was little hope for the Rhosidian army. The flanking cavalry was causing havoc.

  The cavalry what were still at us on the front line retreated given the mess its horses were causing the infantry trying to move in. Milu’s horn was a bother but the other singers weren’t having as much luck, so few were trained and conditioned like him, another advantage of Kailen’s in this regard, giving us an edge in this one of many ways against those not prepared for us.

  Kailen

  Of the four hundred or so of us in the van, the charge must have killed half of us, but many more of them. We had formed sheltrons and ours held well enough, but many others were less able to withstand the charge and were broken. There were two good captains with me and enough discipline we could close our square and move backwards, trying to bring men in to bolster it from those other sheltrons broken and routed.

  We were dead in this plain, and the pass we’d come out of, as Jaon well knew, would effectively be a wall. The flanks attacking the rear of the column succeeded in their plan by not waiting for the full force to come through, so that the dead would impede those scrambling to get back up the pass and so create a chokepoint that blocked and trapped us here and most of our cavalry back inside the pass. We had no other choice but to move back and attempt to open the pass again, but as I looked back at the success the Virates forces were having, Rhosidian soldiers being routed and cut down everywhere, things looked grim.

  Ahead of us then I saw men advancing in place of the cavalry charge we’d withstood. These were archers for sure, though I could see slingers among them, huge numbers. I shouted for hoods as it was obvious we were going to get smoked and I called our bannerman’s mate to trumpet the instructions I couldn’t otherwise shout while I was masked myself.

  They brought horse archers up to fifty yards to do what damage they could while the slingers hurled some big bags of strykna at us, all along the front lines of the remaining sheltrons. Soon as the first hit, Ibsey shouted it was strykna and the boys went into a covering drill that allowed them to apply oils while their mate kept the shields locked, switching back as they did so. Still, it was too much strykna for many in the front line, and soon arrows were finding their way through and the shield wall was breaking up.

  The horse archers, no doubt fearful of Milu and the other singers, retreated and the regrouped cavalry went for our sides this time, trying to avoid our front line where they believed Milu would be. The sheltron’s order had been damaged, and though the trumpet sounded for its tightening, the poison was doing its job of breaking up our formation. Another captain with me was keeping the archers directed well at breaches to the walls of the sheltron, directing fire now to our flanks as this regrouped cavalry came in and I moved to a flank myself to encourage the men there while sending Milu to the other flank to call for the readying of spears.

  They hit us this time with more success, breaking through on Milu’s flank, while I did what I could to stop many getting through our spears and at our archers that we were protecting in our hollow. We were in all kinds of trouble now, and while my boys there–Stixie, Kheld, Dithnir, Connas’q, The Prince and Valdir–organised a smaller circle and achieved remarkable success taking down the horses that came through, many men had been cut down while others were collapsing from the dreadful effects of the strykna. For all our hoods, masks and oils it was the potency of it, its purity, that broke us up so quickly.

  I looked about for Ibsey and Kigan, but they were already trying to get to as many as they could still strong enough in order to give them oils and the Honour where they hadn’t yet got it. Cheers were going up then behind us, where the f
ighting was a wide open melee between the Virates cavalry and infantry and the main part of the Rhosidian column that bore their brunt and were now fighting each man or woman for themselves. The cheers went up among the Virates soldiers as a cavalryman had got a banner of the general’s and had tipped it upside down. I looked back at the opposide side of our sheltron that had been hit hard by the cavalry there. I feared for Milu and the men on that flank, but I saw then that the captain who had been directing our archers was now focusing their fire at the horses jumping through. This captain was organising rallying cries with trumpeters to bring Rhosidian soldiers from the other smashed sheltrons into our lines. I learned later his name, and saw sooner how well this bull of a man fought with those two large scimitars. He was the last to join the Twenty.

  Warmaster Jaon, who must have seen the Rhosidian banners being turned over, took it as a good signal for a decisive blow, for without them there would be nothing to rally to, and he sent his main infantry against us. Many of his cavalry that had earlier flanked and broken the column were reorganising behind us as well, for now ours was the only Rhosidian banner that stood, a few hundred of us around Urutz’s own bannerman, while the rest of our army was chased and harried as it fled for the Falls.

  Gant

  There were some moments to breathe while their infantry began its advance on us, holding their form and trying to navigate over the dead horses what numbered in their hundreds.

  “Fill your scabbards with the hogweed mix!” shouted Kailen. “Arrows and bags! We’ve got to break their formation!”

  He had words with the other captain, who we learned soon enough was Sho, and Ibsey give him some flasks of the hogweed aconite mix. I could see Kailen’s reasoning. The hogweed would send them mad, or blind them. If we could get it over them, to any part of their skin or into them, then even a blow which didn’t deliver the aconite strongly enough should have got them hopping and unable to keep their discipline. I never come up against it in a fight, but Kigan had put it on me so he could try a cure for it and even a drop on my skin was enough to set me off. Then again, few could work it as pure as him, so it was unlikely the Virates soldiers had any hope of countering it.