As it was, the army had advanced more than a quarter of the way up the stair. The Black made them pay for every step, but they couldn’t maintain the battle forever.
Kate looked toward the gate and realized that there were no troops that could help defend the stair. What was on the battlefield already was barely enough to hold the demons, and ever more of those were pouring through the gate. They might be overtaken yet.
“Why aren’t the Reds waiting for their rotations attacking the Cebetians from within the city?” she asked Achard.
“They probably caught them in the barracks and dining hall and contained them,” he answered. “Or they’ve already killed them somehow.”
Kate hadn’t thought of that. If the rest of the Order was dead, there was no way they’d survive the day.
“Should we join the Black on the stair?”
“I don’t know,” he told her. “Maybe we—”
The sound of horns interrupted what he was going to say. Kate scanned the city, hoping she would see the remaining Black that were off rotation rallying the remaining Red and attacking the army.
What she saw was even better.
40
Coming through the main gate of the fortress, rank upon rank of heavily armored men clothed in tabards of blue and yellow swept down the main street. When they reached the rear of the Cebetian army, they locked their box-like shields together into an impenetrable wall and pushed. While they held the green soldiers in place, a group of archers loosed a volley of arrows at them.
The Cebetian soldiers fell by the dozens. Those that didn’t, panicked and scattered into side streets and alleys. Armored soldiers on horseback cut them down as they fled.
Kate tore her eyes from the spectacle below to monitor the shield wall. It was thin, no longer having the ability to replace fallen members, but it held, if barely. The demons seemed to be making another push, one that might break the line completely.
The Black on the stair were doing little better. There were only six visible, and though they fought bravely, the front of the Cebetian army was more than halfway to the plateau.
By the time Kate’s attention returned to the new army, a peculiar thing was happening. A long line of the infantry had formed and was pushing through the Cebetians. A force of rotating cavalry punched through the green-clad soldiers, making way for the armored box to proceed. They would ride in, strike at the green-clad soldiers, and swing back out again.
The shield formation couldn’t have been more than five men wide but seemed to be at least fifteen or twenty long. With their shields locked together, Kate couldn’t see what was inside.
“That looks to me like a battering ram formation,” Peiros said. “Such a formation is used to protect the ram and its wielders from oil, fire, and arrows. But none of those things are present. It is very curious.”
Captain Achard shielded his eyes with his hand and nodded. “Yes. I’m not sure why they would risk going into the heart of the enemy like that. Maybe to shatter their morale?”
“Would someone please tell me what is going on?” Kate finally said, disliking how she sounded like a whining child. “Who is that, and what are they doing?”
Peiros, who had taken his mask off, looked at Kate quizzically. “It is the army of Galette. Do you not recognize the colors and the standard flying from their banners?”
“Oh,” Kate said. She hadn’t seen the banners, trying to focus on the three fronts of the battle. The significance of the colors had slipped her mind. “Of course.”
Achard shifted his sight from the stair to the gate, a frown making its way onto his face. “The Black on the stair need help, but the shield wall is in danger of faltering. I hate standing here when I could be helping one or the other.”
Kate completely agreed. She was itching to join in the battle, not because she wanted to fight at the moment, but because she felt useless as her friends and comrades were injured or killed.
It’s hard to be an officer, Dante had told her. You want to fight, but it’s more important to see the overall picture and direct from outside the front line. She finally understood what he had meant.
“I will go to the stair,” Peiros said. “You two will still be here if the shield wall needs you.”
Kate and Achard both nodded, but didn’t respond, their attention pinned to the battles raging around them. Peiros slipped his mask back on and ran to help his brothers.
The phalanx that was cutting through the Cebetian army had nearly reached the stairs. Kate wondered how the mounted soldiers would continue to cut through the ranks, but then saw that they didn’t need to. Even as she watched, they swung around and began to attack the green soldiers alongside the formation.
She had never heard of anything like this. It seemed to her that it was dangerous to plunge into the center of an enemy army, allowing your forces to be surrounded. It didn’t make sense. What was so important that they would take this risk?
“It’s unconventional,” Achard said, obviously noticing the confused look on her maskless face. “It does seem to be working, though. See how the phalanx is the tip of a wedge? The other infantry are following behind, widening the gap between the two halves of the Cebetian army.
“They had surprise and momentum,” Kate answered, “but now they have neither. Their movement seems to be stalled and the Cebetians are rallying.”
“But will it be enough? Their forces are split, they aren’t able to do a lot of damage faced with those shields in one solid mass like that, and the cavalry, the Galetian horse, is a force to be reckoned with.”
“It may work out,” she said. “But why? What is so important that they need to take a risk like this?”
Achard jerked his head toward the gate. “Maybe the most important thing of all.”
He may have been right, but it still seemed faulty strategy.
The phalanx reached the front of the Cebetian army and broke through. The Black—what was left of them—gathered for an attack they couldn’t hope to survive.
Kate’s mouth dropped open as the long line of Galetian soldiers rotated their shields down the stairs, blocking the entire staircase from the Cebetians who were left at the front line. At the same time, the large rectangle opened up near the Black.
She couldn’t see exactly what was happening, but the Black visibly relaxed, lowering their weapons. Some of them slumped slightly, exhausted from their desperate battle.
A group of them turned and began to lope up the stairs, two figures in the middle of them.
“It seems they’re coming back to us,” Achard pointed out.
The Black split again, two of them heading with a man Kate thought was familiar, but could not identify, toward the main officers’ platform. The other figure—it looked like a child from her vantage—ran with the rest of the Black toward Kate.
When they were a hundred yards away, Kate gasped. She jumped from the platform and sprinted toward the oncoming group.
When she got to them, she barely slowed, sweeping up the stranger in a bone-crushing hug.
“Did you miss me?” Molara Grey said through a wheeze.
“How in the Hell did you find yourself in the middle of the army of Galette?” Kate asked her friend, stroking her hair and squeezing her anew.
A burst of air came from the diminutive Purple. “Ugh. Let me breathe and maybe I’ll tell you.”
Kate released her friend, not bothered at all by the men surrounding them.
“Thank you,” Molara said. “That’s much better.” She winked at Kate and nodded at Achard as if she wasn’t surprised at all that he was there. “Didn’t you get my note?”
“I did. I thought you were being set up to be killed, like I was.”
Molara bit her lower lip. “Oh, yeah. Well, that was what it felt like. Anyway, Valerio met me there and we spoke with the king. The king! It took a little while, but we convinced him the Order would need his help.
“Valerio had contacts tracking the army from Ceb
et, and he knew it meant no good. There wasn’t anything he could do here, but together, we were able to bring some soldiers back with us.”
Kate glanced at the battle below. The Cebetians had finally settled into battle formation, and the fighting was heavy on both sides of their army. A sizeable force—the one that had escorted Molara—held them on the stair, and the bulk of the Galetians advanced from the city, slowly grinding the green army beneath their feet.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” Kate said. “And very appreciative of the help you brought, but we still have another battle to fight.” She pointed toward the gate, where the already-thin line of Reds was progressively being chipped away by the demons. “There doesn’t seem to be an end to them.”
“I have something I think might help,” Molara said. “I was working on this before I left, and I brought it with me and finished it on the trip.”
She held out an orb, seemingly made of crystal. Within it swirled something that looked like smoke. Red-tinged smoke.
“What is it?” Kate asked.
“It’s our victory, the end to this struggle. I think. I hope.”
“How does it work?”
“That is the part that gets a little tricky. Do you trust me, Kate?”
“Of course,” she said without hesitation.
“Good. Then you won’t argue, and you won’t think I’m crazy if I tell you that you, me, and this device need to get to the gate.”
Kate stared at her friend. “To the gate?”
“Yes.”
“Right up to the very gate?”
“Yes.”
“It’s very dangerous up there, Molara.”
“Yes, I know. You said you trusted me.”
Kate sighed. “I do, but I still think you’re crazy.”
“Valerio has already told the command platform,” Molara said, thrusting a thumb toward where the upper officers were.”
“Valerio! That was the man with you. He seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place him.”
“Are you with me, Kate?”
“I am.”
There were six Black with her: Koren, Visimar, Benedict, Peiros, Aurel, and Achard.
“It seems the old team is back together,” she said. “Are you ready for this, guys?”
“We will protect the Purple, Pretty Kate,” Aurel said, hefting his huge sword.
“Let’s do this quickly,” Achard said. “That line won’t hold long, but we’ll need them to take some of the brunt of the demon forces. They’re still coming out of the gate.”
“Right,” Kate said. She glanced down at the stair once more, then met eyes with Molara. How brave was this woman to wade into the fiercest battle with nothing but a few of her friends to keep her safe?
“I trust you, too,” Molara whispered and faced the gate.
“I’ll take point,” Kate said. “Keep Molara in the center at all times. No matter what happens, she is not to be harmed.”
“No,” Achard said.
Kate’s eyes widened. It wasn’t like the captain to undermine her authority so blatantly. And at a time like this.
“The commander does not take point, not in a situation like this,” he explained calmly. “You stick close to Molara. I’ll take point.” He grabbed a spare shield and tested its weight.
Kate couldn’t argue, so she didn’t. “Fine. Let’s go.”
With one more look at the fierce fighting below, Kate followed Phrixus Achard into the heart of the battle.
41
The Reds opened up so the seven Blacks and their charge could get through the line. As soon as Kate’s group passed the last shield, she looked out over what seemed like an endless mass of dark bodies.
She gulped and tightened her grip on her shield.
Kate couldn’t tell how far the gate was in front of her except by sighting the towering frame visible above the demons. It had to be at least two hundred yards. She spared a look at Molara, whose face was white.
“Let’s just do it and get out of here,” she said to her friend, to which the panicked Purple nodded. Then they began to cut through their foes.
Despite how it looked from afar, there was space in between the demons, enough for Achard and the others on the front edge of their group to use their weapons. As they cut mercilessly through the mobs of the creatures, Kate was happy at least that these were only the grunt demons and not any of the elite. They needed to do what they were going to do before whatever demon was commanding all the troops figured out what was going on and sent the tougher demons at them.
With Aurel and his huge sword, Achard with his shield and long sword, and Visimar with his twin curved swords, they made better progress than Kate could have hoped. Once they passed, the demons on either side tried to close up on them, engulfing them, but Peiros and Benedict—with the khruk and sword and shield—made sure they could not. Kate watched for any demon that might get close so she could cut them down before they could get near Molara. Koren took up the rear and dispatched any demons trying to circle around them.
As best as Kate could tell, they were within fifty yards from the gate when Peiros said, “They’re sending in some of the demon commanders. I just heard the order.”
Achard cursed and Kate mirrored his sentiments in her mind. “Push. Let’s get to the gate before they can reach us, or things will get much harder.”
The group sped up a little, those on the front cutting down the demons faster than they had. Still, they were only humans, and they had been fighting for an entire night and a morning. They couldn’t keep up the quicker pace and soon settled back into their normal, methodical slaughter of the despicable forms in front of them.
Then Visimar went down, blood splashing from his face onto Molara’s chest. The group stumbled to a halt, Aurel and the captain trying to compensate for the missing warrior.
Kate jumped into the spot where Visimar had been fighting and slammed her shield into a demon that was trying to attack the downed Black. With her sword, she cut another demon down at the same time, slashing deeply into its chest and abdomen.
“Visimar!” she shouted.
“I’m alive,” he said, crawling toward the relatively safe hollow where Molara stood. He climbed to his feet with Molara’s help. “I think it got my eye. Let me clear the blood out of the other one and I think I can keep fighting.”
“Protect Molara,” Kate told him. “Mole, can you bandage his face so he can protect you?”
“Yes,” the Purple said, retrieving what looked like a spare tunic from her pack.
“Move forward,” Kate commanded. “We’re almost there.”
They started forward again. Aurel grunted as a demon claw got through his guard and slashed his arm. Achard switched positions with him, taking the left while Aurel took point. It would be easier to cover each other with two shield bearers flanking the big man.
The demons ahead of them seemed more energetic than those they had been fighting. Kate took that to mean that they were close to the gate and that these were fresh demons, anxious for the fight. She guessed it could be a good thing.
Then, as she slashed through the throat of one demon with her shield and cut the lower leg from another with her sword, she saw it.
The gate.
“Almost,” she shouted. “Just a few feet more. Molara, are you ready?”
“Yes.”
Kate saw out of the corner of her eye that the Purple had the device in her hands. Visimar slashed at any demon that came near, protecting Molara despite the blood-soaked cloth covering half his head.
Koren cursed and Kate saw from her peripheral vision as he stumbled and almost fell. Benedict slammed his shield into a demon trying to take advantage of the situation and dropped his own guard. A demon darted past his sword and bit at Ben, tearing a chunk from his shoulder.
Benedict screamed and slashed at the demon with his shield, but his sword arm faltered, dipping down before he grimaced and forced it back up.
“Hurry,” K
oren said, finally regaining his feet and chopping at another claw reaching for Benedict. “We’re not going to last much longer, even if those commanders don’t get us.”
Peiros—sporting several bleeding cuts of his own as well as a blackening eye—slashed two demons at once and shouted to them, “They’re almost here. We need to get this done. Even so, we may not make it back out.”
Kate had already known that was a possibility. She wasn’t sure what Molara’s device did, but it seemed that this would be a one-way trip. She accepted that. She had long gotten used to the thought of her own death. Her friends, though, she mourned for. Especially Molara. She swallowed the lump in her throat and viciously cut down another demon.
They made it to the gate. Inside, there were an endless number of demon bodies, more even than she had seen when she viewed the army in Hell those few months ago. Interspersed with the regular grunt demons were commanders, what looked to be mages, at least one demon lord, and creatures they hadn’t yet seen on the battlefield. She let out a sad sigh.
They could not withstand all these enemies. Even with the Galetians, the humans would lose.
“Kate!” Molara shouted, bringing Kate’s attention back to their mission. She had continued to kill any demon that moved near her automatically, but her mind had wandered.
“Yes?”
“I need you.”
Visimar spoke up. “I’ll cover.”
“Explain what you need, Mole,” Kate said. “I want to minimize the time Vis has to fight up here.” She stabbed her sword through a demon’s eye and kicked another in the face.
“Do you remember how I attuned you to the firestones a few weeks ago?” Molara asked.
“Yes.”
“I need you to do the same with this device.”
“I don’t understand. Why do you—”
“Kate! There’s no time. Please, trust me. Do as I say. I’ll explain it all if we survive.”
Order of the Fire Box Set Page 74