Wrath of the Usurper (The Eoriel Saga Book 2)

by Kal Spriggs

  Their assault had turned into chaos, much as she'd feared it would. The fortress was just too massive and sprawling for her people to find their way effectively. The confusion and chaos, at least, did not seem to favor the defenders. Twice now she had come across their checkpoints, with Lord Hector's men having been taken from behind, unaware of how far the attackers had come.

  She took the stairs up quickly and paused near Cederic. The wizard glowered down the hallway, his attention focused. “What's wrong?” she asked.

  He looked away from the hall and shook his head, “It's trapped, some kind of runes.” He pointed down the corridor and Katarina saw several bodies in Hector's colors of yellow and black. “Either they didn't realize they had already set the trap or they bungled it. Damned waste.”

  Katarina shrugged, “Fewer of them for us to fight. Can you find a way through?”

  He shook his head, “Not quickly. Easier to go around.” He pointed down the other way, where several her escort had already gone, “That should, I think, take us where we need to go.”

  She followed his lead and came up behind Nakkiki. The huge man gave her a broad smile. At his feet, she saw Quinn, looking somewhat dazed, his helmet askew. “Taking a break?” She asked.

  Quinn started to rise but Nakkiki simply caught him by one shoulder and lifted him to his feet. “Ah, sorry, my Lady. Soldier blindsided me. I'm lucky the helmet caught it.” He adjusted his helmet and said something to Nakkiki before they continued onward.

  “He's got the worst luck in fights,” Katarina said under her breath. Quinn had only barely survived his wounds at Southwatch, even with healing from Arren Smith and then later again from the Boir Navy doctor and his assistant. She'd seen him practice, so she knew it wasn't that he couldn't fight well, it was more that he seemed to hesitate sometimes.

  Bulmor came up behind her, his gruff voice tense, “My Lady, we need to move faster. The garrison has started a counter attack, they're pushing down a side corridor and if we don't move, they may isolate us.”

  Katarina bit back a curse and she broke into a jog, the rest of her escort forming around her. The group burst into a larger room and just then, a boil of yellow and black uniforms exploded out of a corridor into the room. In an instant the chamber became utter chaos. Bulmor and Cederic stayed tight to either side, but Katarina still had to stop to deflect a sword-stroke from one attacker and then duck under a spear thrust from another. Bulmor took the swordsman's head clean off with a single strike, while Cederic caught the spear as it was at full extension and then struck the man with his staff over the head.

  Ahead of them, Nakkiki roared something in his native tongue and then bowled into Hector's soldiers at the source. The big islander toppled men and she winced as his huge club swung in a wide arc that sent broken bodies to the floor and splattered blood across the walls and ceiling.

  “Push on!” Bulmor shouted and the group continued forward. Another door thudded open and more of Hector's men started out only a dozen feet away. A sharp detonation scattered them, though and something bright and fast swept through the doorway to shatter among the tightly packed men in the corridor beyond. Katarina looked over to see that Eleanor had returned from ahead, and even as she watched, the archer sent a third and fourth arrow down the corridor. The screams and shouts that erupted told as much of the damage her shots did as did the concussions that Katarina felt through her feet.

  Eleanor cocked an eyebrow at Bulmor, “The way is clear, Armsman, but perhaps you should hurry a bit?”

  Katarina dashed for the doorway the woman guarded, followed by the others of her escort. Behind her she heard further shots from Eleanor taking their toll amongst the fortress's defenders, until the short, blonde woman finally backed through the doorway. Nakkiki was the last one through and Bulmor grunted and slammed the door shut behind him as the big man laughed and wiped at the sheen of sweat and blood on his forehead.

  As Bulmor barred the door, the thuds of swords and axes against it told Katarina that it would only hold so long. “Where do we go?”

  Bulmor looked around, clearly irritated. “Their counter attack pushed us off course. There has to be thirty or forty of them between us and the East Gate now.” Katarina didn't need to ask how bad that was. Their entire attack required them to take the eastern gatehouse, it was, in fact, the sole mission of her escort. If they couldn't take the eastern gatehouse, they couldn't open the gates for Second Company, led by Samen, to come in and relieve them.

  Without their numbers, the fight inside the Ryftguard would be purely a battle of attrition which would not only cost her most of Third Company, but they might well lose the fight, especially since the enemy knew their way around the fortress better than her people. “Very well,” Katarina said, “We need to make contact with all the elements with us and form a defensive perimeter,” she said. “And if we can get a message to anyone on the other side of the counter attack, we need to tell them to head to the gates.”

  Bulmor grunted at that, but he glanced at the others. Most of her escort was still on their feet, a benefit, she knew, of better weapons and equipment. Their armor, alone, was better than most of Hector's mercenaries, much of it rune-enhanced to provide better protection, taken from the long-dead defenders of Southwatch.

  “Quinn, you and Nakkiki move down the left corridor there. Third Company's second section should be there somewhere, possibly up or down a level. Find them, find out how many they have left and tell them to hold what they have and block what they can.”

  Katarina tuned out his other orders as she tried to picture the overall fight. It gave her a headache to try to picture the corridors of the fortress and where she and her escort were in relation to the counterattack. They must have come, she would guess, from the central barracks, which meant that the central span of the bridge itself would be unprotected. Just how they had fought down that length, she wasn't certain, but perhaps her blocking element hadn't reached their position in time. Or else, she thought darkly, they just bypassed them in this maze.

  “Bulmor, we should be able to move to the central fortress,” she said, thinking of the tower that held the center of the bridge. “If their reserve is here, that means that area will be almost undefended. If we can hold that position...”

  He gave her a sharp nod, “Then as long as someone can get the gate open, we can prevent the western garrison from linking up with their reserve and hold the central span at the same time.”

  He hesitated though and she knew why. If they took that position, they would have no way to retreat. She would be risking her life on the chance that some of her people had not only made it to the eastern side of the fortress, but that they still survived and weren't similarly unable to move forward.

  “No choice,” she said sharply. “The counterattack has cut us off from the harbor anyway. It's our best option.” That wasn't strictly true. Bulmor could order whatever elements of Third they found to lead an attack of their own. It would kill most of them, but it would let her escort punch through and get her back down to the harbor and safety.

  It would also throw away everything I've come here to accomplish, she thought darkly. Even if she survived that, her fight against Hector would be over, with such a sound defeat and a show of cowardice. Not only that, but throwing her soldier's lives away to save her own would paint her as every bit the self-centered noble... in which case she'd be hard pressed to even find mercenaries to take her service.

  He clearly understood that and he gave her a nod, “We move forward.”

  ***

  Sergeant Aerion Swordbreaker

  Aerion ducked low as a guard thrust a spear at him. He stepped forward and slammed the rim of his shield into the spearman's face and as he went down, Aerion thrust his sword into the stomach of the man next to him. As that man went down with a scream, he bounded past them and into the room beyond. Two more of Hector's men came at him, one with a sword and shield and the other with a spear. Beside him, Morag gave a bellow a
nd the big Earthblood charged the swordsman and tackled him to the ground. Aerion blocked a spear thrust and then slammed the hilt of his sword into his attacker's chest. As he stumbled back, Millar thrust with his own spear and the soldier grunted and collapsed.

  A glance at Morag showed that the Earthblood had pummeled his opponent's face into red ruin. Aerion looked away and took a moment to wipe stinging sweat out of his one eye. The fighting had grown so chaotic that he barely knew where they were. As far as he could tell, Hector's men had attacked through one of the upper passages and he thought they had cut him and what was left of his squad from their objective at the center of the bridge. Worse than that, he felt certain that he had gotten turned around and they were some distance to the east, possibly even in the corridors under part of the eastern fortress.

  What was left of his squad came into the guardroom, their faces tired and many of them sporting wounds. Aerion winced as he saw how few remained. Some, he knew, had been cut off, and he hoped that they had joined up with the rest of Third on the other side of the attack. Others, though, he had seen fall, like Moren and Daren, both men caught crossing the broad corridor and scythed down by crossbow bolts before they could get into shelter. Aerion wasn't certain who else had fallen in the chaos of the corridors and stairwells, but he thought he had seen Trynosky cut down in the early fighting, as the young man had hesitated and one of Hector's men had attacked. He wasn't ready for this, Aerion thought and he blamed himself, none of them were ready for this.

  Still, looking around their grim faces, he could tell they were ready now. “Alright,” Aerion said. “We've broken through on this side, but we're all that is over here, I think.” He saw tired nods at that. They'd seen no signs of anyone besides the Usurper's men for what seemed like forever.

  “That means that Lady Katarina and the rest of Third is pinned down either near the storage levels or towards the center,” Aerion said. “Which means the only ones in position to seize the East Gate and let in First Company is us.”

  He saw a bit of despair on their faces, but also resolve and determination.

  “More of them to fight for each of us,” Walker quipped. “We're going to be heroes!” The round-faced young man had a slight gash over his left eye and another one on his right arm, but the blood that stained him was mostly from their enemies, Aerion well knew. “What are we going to do, then?” His voice was eager, ready for more of a fight, though Aerion wondered if that was his bravado or if he really didn't care if he lived or died. Maybe a little of both, Aerion thought.

  “What we're going to do,” Aerion said, “is head straight for the East Gate. They can't know how many of us there are, but they're sure to think most, if not all, are fighting the rest of Third. That means they won't expect us to attack.”

  They met his gaze and he saw that some of them, at least, didn't believe that. “We've no choice,” Aerion said calmly. “Either we attack and we win or if we're lucky, we die. If any of you think the Usurper's men will give you any mercy...” he trailed off. His own missing eye was proof of what mercy the enemy would have for them, he felt.

  Evidently they saw it that plainly enough. They stood a bit taller, adjusted their weapons, and made themselves ready. He felt his throat constrict as he thought of what they had already accomplished and what he was asking them to do.

  He adjusted the shield on his arm and gave a nod, “Right, let's get to it.”

  ***

  Captain Samen the Younger

  Samen straightened up as the light of Auir began to slowly creep down the face of the mountain. The East Gate was carved out of the living stone of that mountain, with towers, arrow slits, ramparts, overhanging positions all designed to be almost impossible to overwhelm.

  Samen wasn't an educated man. Though he was Starborn, he barely knew how to read and he normally left sums to his brother. Even so, he knew well the spoken histories of the place. Entire armies had shattered on these fortifications. Tens of thousands of Norics and Armen died at the East Gate and the West Gate had held off even vaster armies of Vendakar in the days of old, when the Starborn High Kings had first sought to unify and defend the Five Duchies.

  In more recent times, his own grandfather had fought and defended the West Gate, when the self-proclaimed Emperor Dalton had mustered the forces of Boir bent on conquest of the other Duchies. His grandfather had lost two brothers in that siege, but he had come back with the tales of heroes... and no one had ever taken the fortress by storm, subterfuge, or diplomacy so long as the defenders wished to hold out.

  He couldn't say why he felt his fate would be any different today. Yet he trusted in Lady Katarina's plan, even though he privately felt uneasy about serving a noble of any sort. There was every possibility that he and those he led, many of them related to him by friendship and blood, would die at the East Gate, undone as so many others. If that was the case, they would throw away lives that could span into centuries.

  Even so, Samen felt that this fight was worth it. The Usurper's men had sacked his village to kill Lady Katarina and in the process they killed his young wife and his unborn child along with fifty-three of the men and women he had known his entire life. Had that been some isolated event, he would have sought to earn back vengeance in his own way. But the stories of other refugees who had followed Lady Katarina made it clear that throughout the Duchy of Masov, the Usurper's mercenaries had free rein to do as they pleased. That could not stand, Samen knew. Someone had to stand up against Lord Hector and his mercenary rabble... and if it might cost him his life... well, then he would join his wife and child with the spirits of his ancestors.

  As he nodded grimly at that thought, he saw the first light of dawn streak down to the gate itself. He nodded at Iomar, who gave a blast of his hunting horn. All around him, Second Company, made up of the survivors of Watkowa Village and their kin boiled up out of the forest and formed up on the road. Samen moved to their front and hoisted his spear in the air. He hadn't bothered to think up a speech, his people knew him well enough that they'd think power had gone to his head or something. “Today, we take the Ryftguard!” he shouted.

  The roar that answered him told him that they felt his same confidence. He settled his shield onto his shoulder and pointed his spear at the gate, three hundred yards away. “Forward!”

  ***

  Lady Katarina Emberhill

  Katarina had lost all sense of time as the fight dragged on. She had no idea how many of Third Company had died in the winding corridors of the Ryftguard. Too many, she suspected, and she blamed herself for their losses. She should have ensured that First Company was at the fore. Instead, her most experienced men were out of the fight and her least experienced company was falling apart.

  She'd seen Captain Bartek fall only a moment earlier, struck from behind as another contingent of Hector's men had boiled out of a hidden door. Jasen had managed to avenge the officer, but they'd lost another five soldiers in the process. At this point, she had started to wonder if the Usurper had reinforced the fortress, else she had no idea how the enemy continued to hit them from every side. In theory the enemy should have had fewer total men and those would have been grouped in separate locations. The reality was that somehow her people had been outnumbered and outmaneuvered.

  She glanced at Bulmor as they paused in this latest stretch of corridors. “How much further?”

  He shrugged, “I can't say, my Lady.” He pulled his battered map of the fortress out and peered at it for a moment, “We're nearly there, I think, but I don't see anyplace to stop short of the central tower.”

  She looked over at where Nakkiki had flipped a heavy table up against the door. The sound of axes against the wood told her that their respite would be brief. She looked over at where Senior Sergeant Jasen conferred with several of his men. “How's the rest of Third doing?” she asked.

  He shook his head, “It sounds as if Second Section is mostly intact, but they're scattered all over this place, most of them trying to move to
the central tower, but some are probably cut off in side passages or they just haven't got the word.” Jasen looked tired and sad, which didn't surprise her considering that he had trained most of those who would die because of her mistake. He grimaced, “It seems like First Section took the brunt of the counterattack. Corporal Gerhing's squad was pretty much wiped out, he's got three men left and last I heard, they were trapped in one of the supply levels. Aerion's squad... I can't say. They're either dead or cut off.”

  Katarina bit her lip at that. It said something about her that the potential loss of Aerion hurt her more than that of the twenty-odd soldiers he'd led into this place. I can admit it, she thought, I'm selfish enough to hope that if anyone survived it'll be him. Still, it didn't look good.

  She looked over at Eleanor. The Starborn woman calmly examined arrows she'd taken from the fallen in the last fight. Katarina hesitated to ask her if she thought her son might still be alive. “Are you ready?” Katarina asked.

  Eleanor cocked an eyebrow at her, “Of course.” She smiled a bit, “It'll be dawn soon, I'm sure that Samen will be joining the fight soon enough.”

  Only if someone manages to fight their way through to the East Gate, Katarina thought, and I doubt there's anyone able to do that just now. “What if he can't?” Katarina asked.

  Eleanor gave her a level look, “You owe it to your people to look confident, to them it's more dangerous to think that they're doomed than to fight on as if they have hope. There's a good chance that at least some of your people made it over to the East Gate and it only takes one man to operate it and you told every man in Third Company how to do that. That someone will open the gate just as likely as the fact that we're surrounded and with no hope of rescue.”