The denarae were dressed in the black, studded-leather armor they customarily wore, and the sight made Danner’s chest ache not with pain, but now with an intense feeling of pride. Never had he felt closer to or more proud of his men, and he knew every one of them would fight to the end for the honor of their unit. Gerard hadn’t bothered to ask if anyone wanted to back out after word got out about their orders. It was a mark of the respect and trust he’d built with his men that even posing the question would have been an insult. Shadow Company wasn’t just Gerard’s, and it wasn’t Danner’s, and it wasn’t the denarae’s. It was all of theirs together, and together they would show the rest of the world what they had become.
Danner took his place at the head of his platoon and received a brisk verbal report from his squad leaders. All were present and accounted for. Danner performed an about-face, his blue cloak flaring, and faced Gerard, who had just walked out of his own tent. Gerard was encased almost entirely in gleaming platemail with an open-faced helmet that seemed to draw focus to his steely, unwavering gaze.
Gerard was majestic in his authority, wearing the mantle of leadership like an extra suit of armor wrapped protectively about him. His scarred face no longer looked hideous, but like a promise of death for any who dared to stand in his way. The Red paladin looked at each platoon leader as he received their report, and nodded while holding their gaze. They all understood his resolve and mirrored it in their hearts.
“Shadow Company, right face!” Gerard boomed. They all complied in perfect unison, and one tremendous crack rang through the streets as their heels snapped together.
“Forward, march!”
They marched forward in formation, the only time other than their entrance to the city when they’d marched thus since their earliest weeks of training. Defenders of every race stood by the sides of the street to watch their procession, and every face was solemn. Word had already spread that Shadow Company had volunteered to spearhead the units moving outside the wall, and they all knew the denarae and their officers were going to face certain death.
Despite the weather, citizens who had been hiding terrified in the cellars of their homes came up to watch the formation march past, and in some a deep spark of pride and sorrow stirred deeply within them. Tears streamed down faces as the denarae marched past, their heads held high, and it was a surety that none who saw them would ever forget that moment.
Gerard had moved to the head of the column, and the six platoon leaders were lined up shoulder-to-shoulder behind him. Between them, two denarae marched, each holding a company standard aloft. The crossed white sword and shepherd’s crook snapped and billowed in the crisp, pre-dawn breeze. They moved sharply through the streets until they reached the gates leading to the courtyard with the white Stone. The gates opened for them, and Shadow Company filed into the courtyard and split in half, three platoons on each side of the central pillar of gleaming white angelstone. The inner gate shut behind them, and for a moment all was silent as they stood confined by the courtyard.
Above them, a guard put his hand on the mechanism to raise the outer gate. The silence before he lifted the lever was deafening and rang heavily in Danner’s ears. Then a single, anonymous voice called out from the wall.
“Send ‘em back to Hell, Shadow Company!”
Thousands of voices from every race raised in a tumultuous cheer, drowning out the thunderous grinding of the opening gates and the portcullis as it lifted to allow them access to the plains beyond. Swords clanged against shields. Spears thudded against the stones. Feet stomped. Hands clapped. Voices shouted.
“Remember this moment, lads,” Gerard said when the grinding of the gates had stopped. They could barely make out his words over the tumult.
He turned his head back over his shoulder.
“Forward at the double-time, march!”
Denarae streamed out the gate and poured onto the plain, releasing a wordless battle cry that split the dark morning like a ray of sunlight bursting through the inky darkness. Behind them, the gate rumbled closed, cutting off the lingering echoes of the city’s cheer.
- 2 -
The morning sun brought with it the return of Hell’s armies. Within an inch of sunlight over the battlements of the Barrier, dark shapes writhed on the opposite horizon, seething like a churning wave of blackness that hid in the last moments of the night’s shadow. Then as the line of sunlight flashed over them, the wave unleashed and rushed forward with a howl of fury.
“Trebor, relay,” Gerard ordered sharply. “Garnet hold the center. Michael and Marc hold to his right. You and Danner on the left. Flasch prowls the rear and cuts as necessary. End.”
Shadow Company deployed as ordered, reacting to the instant of battle like an extension of Gerard’s mind and body. Orders were given with the speed of thought, and bodies reacted with the speed of determination. Overhead, ballista bolts fired and tore through the front ranks of the oncoming horde. Gerard put two fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly, and Sabor sped down from the skies overhead, touching down just long enough for him to leap aboard the fiery red dakkan. With no way to know when the demons would be attacking again, he’d wanted to be on-hand to deploy his forces and be with them until the last moment. Now, however, he needed to be airborne to help direct them in the battle.
He looked down and noticed that no other forces from Nocka were coming out to help defend the Barrier. Some units were lined up in the courtyards as though ready to deploy, but as yet none of the gates were opening. With the demons already on their way, now it was too late for anyone else to come forth. Gerard withheld a curse, seeing that his worst predictions were coming true. No help would arrive, and it was up to his men to keep themselves alive. When and if he survived the battle, Gerard promised himself he would confront the whole Prismatic Council and force them to pay for what they’d done to his company – at the point of his sword if necessary. Had it not been for the need for stability during a war, he might have done so already.
The front ranks of the four-legged monstrosities crashed into Garnet’s platoon and broke like a black wave on a fortress of immoveable stone. Gerard watched in satisfaction as Shadow Company withheld against the onslaught for the first minute, then two, then five minutes. The first denarae didn’t fall until they’d been fighting for twenty minutes, and Gerard cursed grimly, hating even that one loss.
A dark blur swept past Gerard’s head, and belatedly he remembered the winged beasts that accompanied their land-bound cousins. Gerard reached for his sword, but realized it wasn’t necessary. A flight of dakkans with paladins astride had come sweeping down to surround him and drive off any who would attack Gerard. He signaled thanks to the paladin leading his defenders; it wasn’t until he saw the gray cloak that he realized it was Birch.
Gerard reached down to a strap behind his right leg and pulled out a massive recurved bow, then reached to the other side and drew an arrow with a shaft half an inch thick. It was not the most accurate of missiles, but with the force of the bow behind it, almost any shot he fired would kill or maim whatever it hit. Gerard steered Sabor to the side, allowing him a clear lane of fire to the ground. He shot arrow after arrow into the dark mass that broke itself upon the wedge of Shadow Company, doing what he could from aloft to aid his troops on the ground. But always he watched the condition of his forces, staying alert for a weakening in their defenses.
“Derut,” Gerard thought, naming his contact within Flasch’s platoon; Trebor would be too involved to worry about passing on Gerard’s orders. “Relay to Flasch. Send squads to reinforce Michael. End. Relay to Michael. Send one squad back to rest when Flasch arrives. Cycle the next squad after five minutes. End.”
Gerard watched as Flasch’s platoon moved out barely a second later. Derut had been relaying Gerard’s orders even while listening to the rest, speeding the efficiency of the maneuver. Below, Gerard knew denarae were talking with each other mentally to coordinate their exchange on the lines to ensure there were no gaps
for the enemy to exploit. Five minutes later, they repeated the process and completed Gerard’s orders. He then sent another message for Flasch to repeat the process with Danner’s platoon, then with Trebor and Marc, and finally with Garnet. They moved like coordinated muscles of a single living body, working flawlessly together with impeccable results. Gerard hoped the bastards who thought he’d be easy prey were watching. They would see just how hard it would be to destroy the entity which Gerard had wrought in Shadow Company.
It wasn’t until another hour had gone by that the second denarae fell to the ravening claws of the demonic horde. By noon, only four had been slain. Trebor periodically left the battle long enough to heal any wounds inflicted by the beasts they fought, which helped to keep the casualties to a bare minimum. Two hours after the sun reached its zenith, the demonic monstrosities were breaking before they even reached the implacable company that stood resolute before the central gate of the Barrier, preferring instead to scale the walls and assault the defenders within, who were much easier prey.
After allowing Shadow Company to recover in the relative calm, Gerard adjusted his tactics accordingly, expanding and contracting the company by flowing Flasch’s platoon into the line to add strength and size as they spread out in a wedge to engage an enemy that no longer wanted to face them. When they clashed with the inhuman foes, they slowly pulled back, drawing their enemies with them in a maddened frenzy.
Periodically, Gerard had them resume their standard, smaller wedge shape and cycled squads out to allow them to rest in the bubble of safety provided by their fellows. Without the rage of battle that had first consumed them, they were at least able to breathe, and some even wolfed down a few bits of food and water in those scant, but crucial, minutes. And then it was back to the front as they moved out to once more engage their enemies. The day burned on, promising no break in the fighting and death.
- 3 -
The fighting lasted all through the day and night and into the next morning without abating. Defenders on the walls of the Barrier put forth ample torches and gnomish lamps to keep the land around their small company illuminated, and at Gerard’s order they periodically sent volleys of flaming arrows into the plains beyond. The pinpoints of light often illuminated nearby enemies, and many arrows blindly struck targets. Three more denarae fell, but by the end of the second day they had accounted for several thousand of the enemy creatures to their seven deaths. Truly they were an elite force, and no one who saw them in action doubted this for a moment.
Had they been fighting mortal warriors equipped with weapons and armor, the death-rate among the denarae would no doubt have been much higher. But the unarmored, unarmed creatures had only their skin and claws, and they were easy prey for Gerard’s well-armed and well-trained unit.
The creatures slowed their assault during the second night, allowing Shadow Company to fall back to within the central courtyard. They collapsed and enjoyed a much-needed and well-earned sleep. Far too soon, however, they were roused with the dawning of the third day and ran back through the gates to engage the enemy forces. A company of Nocka’s defenders moved as if to follow them out, but the demons were on the Barrier too soon and the gates slammed shut to protect the city within. If orders had ever been passed for other units to finally join them, they were never acted upon.
As the sun sank on the third day, exhaustion had taken its toll on their energy and their numbers. Ten more denarae had died that day, but still Shadow Company stood firm before the unrelenting assault. They slept once more, and now Gerard had to worry about them collapsing into unconsciousness when they were cycled out of the fighting to rest. Partners were assigned to keep each other awake, but soon even that began to fail. They began to nod off to sleep while they stood, so depleted they often did not awaken when they struck the ground. The fourth day only eight more died, because Gerard kept them solidly in place before the central gate in their original wedge, allowing most of the reluctant creatures to break around them rather than baiting them once more.
The fifth day Gerard had them slip back into the central courtyard to sleep once more, huddled together for warmth, and this time they slept from shortly before noon until night was nearly upon them. A force of paladins and Nocka defenders stood guard over them at all times, ensuring not only that nothing broke through the lines to harass them, but also that other units did not disturb the slumber of the worn out company. That they slept through the tumultuous din of the surrounding battle was a sign of just how exhausted they all were.
- 4 -
As the sun sank on the horizon behind them, the Hellish army fell back again to lick its wounds, allowing the mortal forces to do likewise. Refreshed by their long slumber, Shadow Company slipped back outside the walls, but now they were joined by two battalions of regular city defenders. Their commanders approached Gerard and told him they had left the city without orders. They refused to see Shadow Company face such odds again without support.
“Stand on your head if you’re surprised the orders for people to come help us went awry,” Flasch commented. Garnet lifted a hand, but didn’t bother smacking his friend. The bitter truth of the comment hit too close to the mark.
Included in their new group was the force of the Elan’Vital elves that had accompanied Birch from the elven isles under the command of El’Siran. Gerard welcomed them all and told them how to deploy so they would be most useful ─ he kept the elves closest, recognizing their value ─ then asked them to keep a space warm for his men when they returned.
Shadow Company was returning to its element.
The denarae crept out, invisible in the deepened darkness of the night. The moon was hidden beneath a thick layer of clouds, which had prompted Gerard to make this excursion. That, and a discovery by the denarae during the battle.
“We can sense their thoughts,” Trebor had told Gerard when the other army had withdrawn.
“The demons?” Gerard said incredulously.
“They’re not demons,” Trebor said, shaking his head. “What we’re fighting are, or at least were, humans and demi-humans. They’re damned souls that have been twisted to resemble monsters.”
“That explains how non-paladins are able to destroy them so easily,” Gerard mused. After a moment of silent thought, he waved Trebor to continue.
“Their minds are nearly as warped as their bodies, and the fact that they’re dead makes it more difficult for us,” the denarae officer said. “All we really get are shadowy impressions of their thoughts, not clear kything, and only from those who were once human and denarae. But it’s enough.”
Gerard considered the implications that the enemy was sending only damned souls against them, but decided at this point it really didn’t make much difference if they sent the damned or whole platoons of powerful demons against them. They still had to fight, no matter what they faced. But this was, perhaps, a weakness they could exploit. The demons would be unlikely to post sentries, overconfident in their massive size and overwhelming strength.
Who would be insane enough to attack a force their size?
Gerard smiled at the thought. It would be child’s play for Shadow Company to sneak in and wreak havoc, if they were cautious.
But what could they do that would have significant impact? Gerard sent hurried messages to several contacts within the city and listened to suggestions from his officers, and it was from Danner that the answer had come.
“Faldergash, the gnome we live with in the city most of the time, has been playing with fire and incendiary devices his whole life,” Danner said. “Let me go talk to him. I know for a fact he’s got several dozen devices all around his house which could easily be converted into something destructive. Or rather, more destructive than they already are.”
“You want me to trust a gnomish device?” Gerard said doubtfully.
“Trust me,” Danner said with a smile. “Fal is unusually gifted for a gnome. And at the very worst, whatever we use will inevitably explode anyway, we’re ju
st putting it to a more practical use than blowing out the odd window or wall.”
Two hours later, Danner returned in a buggy with a gnome at the wheel and met Gerard just inside the inner gates of the center courtyard. The buggy had a large box loaded in the back that was covered up with canvas.
“I thought there might be a need for just this sort of thing, commander Gerard, sir,” Faldergash said in his high-pitched, gravely voice. Gerard had never seen an overweight gnome before, but if the yellow-skinned halfling had something useful for him, Gerard was willing to serve the man a twelve-course meal with his own hands. “Gabby and I’ve been working on these babies for weeks now, waiting for Danno here to get back so I could get them to the right hands. I guess those are yours.”
“What are they?” Gerard said, lifting the canvas to peer into the box. The area was evacuated, a standard precaution whenever a gnome was present with examples of his inventions.
“Well, you know the hand-held bombs some idiots use to blow things up?” Faldergash asked. The black, roughly ovoid object he lifted from the box was about the size of a child’s head. “These are similar, just a bit bigger and much more powerful. You place them like so,” the gnome said, putting it on the ground. “It looks more or less like a rock, so in the darkness no one should be able to tell the difference. Then you put one of these little things here,” he fitted a small box into a slot in the rock-shaped bundle, “and push the button and run like Hell.”
“How long do we have after we push the button?” Gerard asked, frowning.
“I figure there’s about an hour or so on each one,” Faldergash said. “Pushing the button starts a chemical reaction, so give or take about ten minutes. Just be careful how and when you place them. You really don’t want to be anywhere near them when they go off.”
The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War) Page 38