Forgotten Soldiers
Page 3
“We go after the two with the crossbows. It will make it easier for Ira and Dekar.”
“I told you we’re going to be good as dead once we hit the clearing.”
I pointed behind a couple of the larger pebbles he used to mark the post. “We’re going to skirt back around this way.”
“Nothing but brush, Tyrus. We don’t have time to get through that without making all kinds of noise. That’s why I didn’t suggest it. We just as soon hit the opening and hope those two are bad shots.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it all worked out.”
* * *
Hamath and I got a head start on the others. I told Ira and Dekar not to move until after Ava received word that all other units had checked in. I figured that would buy us a few extra minutes to get into position.
We left the edge of the marsh, moving into grasses chest high with occasional patches of tumbled stone that looked completely out of place given the soft land. The high grasses met a thinly wooded area dressed with a variety of underbrush, mostly consisting of milkweed. We worked our way through it carefully.
“We should get there in another fifty yards. So, what’s the plan?” Hamath asked over his shoulder in a voice I could barely make out.
I responded in kind. “We leave our packs and shields here. Ava will know to pick them up on the way in.” We didn’t need the worry of having them snag on anything. “You go right. I go left. I’ll drown out our movements.”
He leaned in, inches from my face. “Please tell me you ain’t going to use one of your dumb bird calls.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re awful.”
“They’ve always worked.”
“It only takes one time for them not to.”
“I’m hurt.” And truthfully, I kind of was. I had used my calls countless times over the years and they had always paid off. “Trust me.”
He sighed, shaking his head.
We continued on a bit before splitting up.
Growing up on a farm and hunting for food with my father, I learned a lot about animal calls. My Pa had mastered them all—mountain lion, owl, coyote, whatever. If you could name it, he could do it. He nearly got himself killed a couple of times when someone loosed an arrow into the bushes where he hid, thinking he had been the real thing.
I never figured out half of what the old man knew, but I felt like I was better than most others when it came to mimicking animals.
I hadn’t seen or heard anything too exotic in the swamp as far as birds went so I decided on a simple crow while slipping into the underbrush, trying my best to silence the tiny branches rustling against my legs.
The communication post was essentially a tent, a small fire, and eight men in different stages of alertness hunkered down behind several old logs someone had hauled into a semicircle. It wasn’t what I would have called a well-fortified position. There weren’t any engineers among this bunch. Thankfully, several of the enemy were busy catching a few minutes of sleep while most of those awake ate. I couldn’t yet see the two crossbowmen, though I did see the ditch.
I wasn’t in the most ideal position for me to give the call, crawling around, ducking and weaving between bushes and rock. Still, I thought it sounded believable.
A sword hissed through its scabbard. “What in the name of the gods is that?”
I froze, rising up just enough to spare a quick glance toward the post. One of the men already awake looked in my direction, though it quickly became obvious he had no idea of my location. I did the call again, this time throwing my voice a bit as my Pa had taught me.
“There it is again,” said the man, swiveling his head while trying to locate its origin. “What is that?” He appeared nervous.
I did the call again, this time moving as fast as I dared.
“Sit down, Corporal, and keep quiet,” came a voice from one of the men who had been asleep. “We didn’t make a bunch of racket during your watch.”
“But I ain’t ever heard anything like that before.”
I kept the call going intermittently during their conversation, changing the pitch and throwing my voice to mix up the location.
“Probably just a couple of squirrels having a romp in the bushes. Now stay quiet.”
A few of the men chuckled. I couldn’t believe they thought my crow sounded like a squirrel.
By the time the Geneshans settled down, I was in position. So was Hamath. I looked his way through a gap in the brush. I could tell by his posture that he heard the squirrel comment. I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of that.
Hamath gestured down and across to the two crossbowmen, making sure I not only saw my target, but could get to him easily enough. I nodded. The man was about ten feet away, weapon butted up against his shoulder while he stared out toward the point the rest of my unit would be forced to attack from. Neither he nor the man next to him seemed to care what could be lurking on either side of them. Lucky for us.
Not long after we got into position, a small pebble sailed into camp, landing in the fire. It sent a tiny burst of ashes into the air, causing a few of the men to curse the “squirrels” they heard moments before.
I knew better. Dekar and Ira were ready.
Hamath and I drew daggers as we burst from our cover. Our signal for the rest of our unit to attack was the sounds of us engaging. We pounced on the crossbowmen.
Our targets swung toward each of us, letting out hollers. Panting, my man hurriedly loosed his bolt. Thankfully, the bolt went wide. Some things boil down to luck, which, at least then, I had. At that distance, there was no such thing as dodging a crossbow bolt.
I heard the rest of my unit reach the campfire as steel sang and men screamed. I ignored them to focus on the task at hand.
I was hoping my target would make another mistake by trying to pull the sword at his waist. He didn’t. There was no time in the short distance between us and he knew it.
Instead, he changed the grip on his crossbow and swung it. I ducked under the attack and thrust up with my dagger. He turned enough so the blade caught only his arm.
He screamed as the crossbow came back around. I grabbed the weapon by the shaft, and stabbed. The blade entered his gut. A wet moan passed through his lips. His grip faltered on the crossbow. It hit the ground a second before he did.
I finished him off with another thrust through the chest and then looked to Hamath. He stood over the limp form of his man. We gave each other a quick nod before turning toward the fire. Every one of the Geneshans lay dead.
Over in a matter of seconds, the attack went about as well as one could hope. We hadn’t lost anyone, which is always a relief.
Ira called out, anticipating my question. “No injuries, Ty.”
“I hope it stays that way,” Hamath said, walking over.
“Me too.”
I don’t think either of us really believed it would.
* * *
“Molak, that hurts,” I hissed in the early morning light.
We hid among several empty supply wagons while tending wounds. We had managed to knock out three other targets before arriving at our current location, a small officers’ posting.
“Keep your voice down,” hushed Ava.
“And quit cursing the Father, Sarge,” said Gal, absently rubbing the spot on his chest where his pendants once hung.
No one ever had a problem cursing Xank. As the god of death, people felt he deserved it. However, religious or not, if you cursed the Father people got pretty uncomfortable. That put me at odds with most everyone since if I cursed any of the gods by name, it almost always ended up being Molak. The way I figured it is if Molak did exist, the old man was more responsible for all the pain and death since he created Xank.
I opted against another religious debate and clenched my jaw as Ava worked on my arm, cauterizing the wound. She wasn’t much of a healer, but she could at least stop bleeding, and in a bind, buy time until someone more specialized in that form of sorcery saw to the injury.
“Done,” she announced.
I eyed the rest of the unit. Each of us nursed our own injuries. The information we received from General Balak became less accurate with each target. There had been no mention of one of the enemy’s elite soldiers, a D’engiti, guarding the officers.
D’engiti usually stood about seven feet in height, some taller. All muscle and a lot of it. From what we know, the enemy’s Master Sorcerers, or High Mages as we called them in Turine, helped create the blasted things through magic and experimentation on their own men.
Thankfully, there weren’t a lot of D’engiti as the process was both time consuming and a drain on resources.
I was thankful our side hadn’t created such things. Something seemed inherently wrong about the whole process. I doubted our higher ups shared my view though. More than likely, they tried their hands at creating something similar, but failed.
Regardless, we weren’t expecting to face one of the monstrosities.
Despite its size, the thing had snuck up on us while we fought the others guarding the post. It killed Jachin, a private who’d recently joined our unit, before Dekar and I brought it down. Dekar nursed quite a few of bumps and bruises after the confrontation.
I rose to my feet, wincing at a pull in my side. Sometime in the fight, I must have bruised a rib.
The rest of my unit looked toward me as a false dawn crept across the sky. The dim gray brought a threatening glow over the pale faces of the dead.
We needed to get moving, and my men knew it.
“What’s going on with the other units?” I asked Ava.
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t reach them. They must all be engaged. . . .” her voice trailed off.
Or dead, I thought, finishing what she refused to say. I couldn’t blame her. No one wanted to say that out loud.
Small pockets of angry noise grabbed our attention, fighting from somewhere else behind enemy lines. Other units had been discovered. Flashes of purplish lightning and orange flame erupted in those areas, illuminating the dreary morning landscape.
Ira grunted. “Well, we know some of them made it.”
“For now,” said Dekar.
I was glad that the other units had managed to hold off on using sorcery as long as they had. However, those displays would draw the enemy like flies to honey. It would also put the rest of the Geneshans on edge, looking for others like us among them.
“Let’s get back to camp,” I said.
“You mean that’s it?” asked Ira.
I nodded. “Yep. This was the last post we were supposed to take down. Ava, you’ve got point with Hamath. Keep us hidden. No sense in refraining from sorcery anymore. The Geneshans are going to be on high alert.”
She grunted and bent over, hands going to her head.
“Ava? You all right?”
She held up a hand for silence while the other rubbed her temple. She opened her eyes a moment later wearing a look of disgust. “Plans have changed. Balak just sent orders via the High Mages on a new target. It’s high priority.”
Hamath swore as did the others. “We never get off easy.”
“What’s the objective?” I asked.
She gestured to a small rise several miles away decorated in patches of trees. “There’s a post near the top.”
“You gotta be pulling our legs,” said Ira. “We’ll be lucky if just one of us gets there alive.”
Ava squinted at the rise. “Balak said that capturing it could end the war.”
Ira snorted. “He’s said that about every mission he’s sent us on since the war began.”
That warranted a few grunts of agreement.
“So what are we supposed to do once we get there?” I asked.
“There’s a small box inside one of the tents,” said Ava. “They said we’d know it when we see it.”
Hamath started to chuckle.
I cast him a look. “What is it?”
“I just realized what’s waiting there for us. I overheard the captains talking about it yesterday.” He raised an eyebrow and faced Ava. “That’s their Master Sorcerers’ command post, isn’t it?”
Her lips thinned as she nodded.
My hands balled into fists. “That would have been good to know.”
“I was getting there,” she said.
“I mean from Hamath too.”
He shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Did Balak say how we’re supposed to take it?” I asked Ava.
“By the time we reach the post, he’s supposed to have drawn the Master Sorcerers away with the battle. Apparently, the High Mages are getting involved. If everything goes according to plan, their Master Sorcerers should all be out in the field trying to fend off our assault. We’ll just have to deal with the normal men guarding it.”
Bugles blared off in the distance. I could tell by the pitch that they came from our side. Balak’s timing was impeccable.
I sighed. “They’re playing our song. Ava, mask our movements. Let’s go.”
* * *
Balak could be a jerk, and he sometimes had issues with strategy, but when he decided to take action, he took action.
All hell had broken loose as we left for our target, though I’m not sure hell had the kind of fire and brimstone being thrown around by our mages. We were miles away from the action and I could still smell the sulfur. I wondered why they hadn’t done more of that in the ten years before.
We kept our heads down as we snuck closer to the small rise. It was hard not to spare the occasional glance behind us as the sky lit up as if the end of times had arrived.
Geneshan officers shouted orders and troops sprinted by in a frantic commotion, heading toward the storm of sorcery as we snuck through the enemy’s camp. All the while, bugles blared and drums thumped.
The beauty of all that panic was it made our job easier. The spell of concealment Ava used was one she had put into practice many times before. It didn’t turn us invisible, but it confused anyone who noticed us. A person might assume they saw something else or in some cases forget altogether what they had been doing. It was a great spell, but not without its limitations. Those like me with a resistance to sorcery could usually see through the illusion.
We passed halfway to our goal. The enemy soldier was scrambling out of a latrine to join his squad and came to a grinding halt. He did a double take, pointed, and opened his mouth to warn others. I withdrew a knife quickly and pounced. The edge of my blade slid across his throat. Blood poured down his neck, covering his chest.
I froze for a moment when I looked at him up close, seeing what I hadn’t seen seconds before.
The soldier looked no older than fourteen. About the age my daughter, Myra, would be now. That shook me. I ordered Hamath to dispose of the body while Dekar kept a lookout for other Geneshans lagging behind. The immediate danger of our situation was the only thing that prevented me from dwelling on ending the kid’s life. I knew his face would haunt me at a more opportune time.
By the time we reached the base of our target, the blood-red sky of dawn had passed. We crested a small rise that led to the larger hill we still needed to climb. It afforded us a better view of the battlefield. A brightening yellow illuminated the teaming masses below.
Armies swarmed atop each other like ants. Large companies attempted to flank and outmaneuver their opponent until clashing once more in a horde of steel and flesh. Despite the sweat on my skin from the morning heat, a small shiver ran up my back. Though it had been many years since I had fought in those tight presses, the smell, the fear, the general uncertainty of where death would come stabbing in from, never left me.
A scent of pine from nearby trees masked
the sulfuric odor of the brilliant violet and blue flashes of sorcery. Dark shafts of crimson descended from black clouds that slowly blocked out the sun. Given the distance and the chaos of it all, I had no way to tell who held the advantage. Based on what we could hear, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Neither side would be the same afterward.
I called for a halt behind a patch of ratty bushes.
Ava already sat with eyes closed in concentration.
Her eyes opened a moment later, and I saw something I had rarely seen before. Fear. She leaned over, trying to hide her emotions. “It’s here,” she whispered in a quivering voice.
“You want to be more specific?”
“It. The gods-cursed artifact the Geneshans were rumored to have found.”
My throat tightened. “Are you certain?”
“Pretty certain. I’ve never been around it so I don’t know its signature like I would some of our weapons. Whatever it is, it’s more powerful than anything I’ve ever felt. That must have been why they said ‘we’d know it when we see it.’”
I blinked. That changed things.
All cultures had stories of ancient weapons somewhere deep in their history, lost because of natural disasters, world events, or sheer stupidity. Everyone searched for those weapons, though few found them. In the rare cases that one was found, it almost always fell short of the myth bestowed upon it.
That was what happened to us. In the early years of the war, the king diverted resources to finding the mystical artifacts in Turine’s past, hoping they would tip the scales in our favor. All that work, all the lives lost in mudslides and cave-ins, brought us very few benefits. The artifacts did do some pretty useful things like one that always found drinkable water regardless of location. However, none of them actually helped the grunts fighting on the front lines.
Rumors came out a few weeks back that the Geneshans had found their “holy” weapon and this one might be everything it was thought to be. I never believed it. I assumed the Geneshans were feeding us a bunch of false information like we did to them. My assumption changed when I saw the look in Ava’s eyes. Whatever she felt, it had her shaken.
I blinked and then kept on blinking. I needed to do something while I gathered my thoughts.