The Wolf At War

by Terry Cloutier

  My men finally made it back to our original position, with the House Agents shifting from the flank to take over the first rank, causing instant mayhem as the Cardian center hesitated and then drew back from the ferociousness of the Agents.

  “Lord!” I turned as Fignam pushed his way toward me. An arrow with bright white feathers struck his shield, quivering in the wood several inches from the metal boss, but the older man didn’t even acknowledge it. He leaned close to me. “My men are ready, lord. You need to give yours a break.”

  I nodded, knowing that he was right. I didn’t know how long the battle had been raging so far, but if we didn’t switch out our exhausted men for the fresh reserves soon, we would eventually lose this fight. “Do it,” I ordered. I turned, calling my men back as Fignam’s forces hurried to fill the gap they had left while the House Agents held the Cardians at bay. I led my men away from the battle and around Fignam’s archers, halting in a rough formation fifty yards back from them. The archers were shooting arrows into the middle of the Cardian infantry as fast as they could, but as far as I could tell, their shafts were having little effect. Answering arrows came our way occasionally, but for the most part, we were relatively safe where we were for the first time since the fighting began.

  I glanced around. We had lost almost a third of our number, I realized, with the rest looking bone-weary, bloodied and battered, but satisfied with what they had done so far. “You beautiful bastards!” I said to them with a wide grin. “If you weren’t so damn ugly, I’d kiss every one of you!” Laughter and cheers erupted at that, and I turned away, smiling as young boys came running with wineskins. I drank sparingly, then rinsed my mouth and spat it on the ground.

  I motioned to the two closest men. “Up,” I said, gesturing with a thumb toward the sky.

  The soldiers moved forward, each grabbing a leg and hoisting me into the air so that I could see better. I suppressed a groan at the stabbing ache in my side as I rose, then cursed softly at the sight that awaited me. Despite our best efforts, the sea of enemy infantry seemed just as numerous as before. I looked past the thousands of battling footmen, then grunted in satisfaction. At least there was some good news. The Cardian archers were in complete disarray, with my Wolf’s Teeth continuing to pour wave after wave of shafts down into their confused midst. It looked as though many of the enemy archers had tried to run, only to find themselves cut down by their own lancers. Bodies of red-caped men lay piled all along the front rank of mounted men. I chuckled, knowing that Pernissy was to blame for the slaughter.

  “Stupid,” I muttered. The Cardian archers were essential to Pernissy’s plans, I knew, yet the former lord was too blind to see past the moment at hand. Just because a man runs today does not mean that he won’t fight tomorrow—unless, of course, he is dead.

  I could see Baine clearly where he stood with one foot braced on a rocky formation, sending arrow after arrow down at the Cardians. My friend must have sensed my eyes on him, for he paused to glance my way. I thought I saw him nod when he saw me and then he focused back on the task at hand.

  Wiflem’s left wing had fared better than my center, and I could see the captain fighting gamely in the front ranks with a blood-spattered Putt battling by his side. I decided I would give my men several more minutes to catch their breath before we went to relieve them. I turned to look north, then cursed. Fitz’s lines were in trouble, with his right flank pressed against the outcrop of Mount Lespin slowly giving ground beneath sustained pressure from the Cardians.

  “Put me down!” I snapped at the soldiers holding me. I started to run north the moment my feet touched the ground, waving at my men to follow. “To me!” I shouted.

  I drew Wolf’s Head, my heart in my throat as I raced north with my tired men streaming out behind me. I prayed out loud that we would make it in time, but even as I spoke the words, Fitz’s right flank collapsed entirely. The Cardians poured through the breach, screaming in triumph. We were too late. I turned and glanced back to my lancers, who sat waiting two hundred yards from the battle near our camp. Lord Stegar led them, and I could see him sitting astride his horse, though he was looking away to the south and hadn’t noticed the crumpling of our right wing yet. I stopped running and put two fingers in my mouth and whistled shrilly, surprised when the lord actually turned his head. He saw me, and I pointed urgently northward. Lord Stegar looked that way, and even from that distance, I could see the look of dismay on his face. The lord swung his horse about, shouting to his men to follow as he led five hundred lancers and men-at-arms toward our ruptured line at a gallop.

  I started running again, cursing as every second the Cardians widened the breach even more. Fitz’s men were now in complete disarray, falling back as the fresh, rear ranks of the Cardians surged forward into the hole, expanding it as they roared in triumph. Niko caught up to me as I ran and I glanced sideways at him. The youth’s lips were pulled back from his teeth with exertion, his eyes straining as his chest heaved. We shared a worried look, neither one of us bothering to waste a breath to say anything. It was obvious what was about to happen if we couldn’t stem the tide of Cardians.

  I heard urgent trumpets blaring from somewhere to the northwest, knowing what they meant as I tried to run faster. I had taken numerous small wounds during the battle, but the one along my side was causing me the most problems, and it seemed only to be getting worse. Every step I took now brought a sharp stabbing pain with it that left me hissing and gasping for air. I started to slow reluctantly, unable to run any faster as Niko pulled ahead of me, then more of my men, until I was left to bring up the rear with the other stragglers. I clutched at my side and pressed onward as Lord Stegar’s men swept past me, the shod hooves of their horses throwing dirt and grass in my face. I wanted to cheer them on, but I couldn’t waste the much-needed air.

  I could see the tops of hundreds of lances flying Pernissy’s yellow banner and Lord Boudin’s blue one moving above the heads of the opposing infantries as they pushed their way toward the breach. It was a race now to see which side could get there first. Cardians on foot were spilling out from the gap in our line like angry fire-ants, throwing themselves at Fitz’s rear ranks. I saw Tyris gesturing urgently with his bow to his men as the Wolf’s Teeth shifted their attention from the Cardian archers to the approaching lancers.

  “Good boy, Tyris,” I gasped as I stumbled along. “Good boy.”

  But despite the withering barrage of arrows that I knew were raining down from above, the banners came on, until finally the first of the great horses appeared in the breach, battering both Cardian and Ganders fighting there aside. Lord Stegar was still two hundred yards away, and I almost sobbed in frustration as the Cardian horsemen burst out onto open ground on our side of the line.

  “Damn! Damn! Damn!” I grunted over and over again as I stumbled along with my shield arm pressed tightly to my side.

  Lord Stegar finally reached the northern flank, but the Cardian lancers had seen him coming long before and were ready for him, having formed into a tight mass with lowered spears. Enemy infantry continued to pour through the breach around the protective cordon of Cardian lancers as Lord Stegar’s men crashed into the mounted defenders. A horrific shriek arose then as metal spearheads impacted shields, sounding as though a thousand tormented souls burning at The Father’s feet were all screaming at once. Men were instantly flung lifeless from their saddles by shattered lances or were tossed aside like dolls as their mounts collapsed beneath them, only to be crushed moments later into unrecognizable pulp by the milling hooves of the combatants’ warhorses.

  Lord Stegar’s desperate charge had managed to punch a hole in the Cardian defenders' line. But even as I watched helplessly, more enemy horsemen were passing through the breach to reinforce it, forcing the Ganders back with the sheer weight of their numbers. Some of the mounted Cardians fighting along both sides broke off, sweeping around the two battling forces into the open. Those riders then joined with their comrades on foot who were wrea
king havoc against the back ranks of Fitz’s infantry. I could hear the young lord screaming at his men to shift around to face the new threat, but it seemed in all the confusion that no one knew what to do and the slaughter continued.

  I was still a hundred yards away from the fighting, with only a moaning youth running beside me with dark blood pouring from where his right eye had been. I fought to draw air into my aching lungs, but with every breath I took, pain ripped like fire along my side. I kept running anyway and ignored the discomfort, tasting blood in my mouth as I stumbled and bit through my lower lip. The battle in front of the breach had changed after the initial charge. Most of the mounted combatants had tossed aside their lances in the confined space now to hack at each other with swords, maces, and flails in a wild, free-for-all melee of swirling death.

  Niko was running well ahead of the rest of us, and I saw him change directions toward an enemy lancer who had just run down one of Fitz’s men with his horse. Niko shouted in anger and the lancer turned his head, his features hidden by a full-faced helm. The lancer swung his horse around to face Niko, urging the beast into a gallop with his heels as he headed directly toward the oncoming youth with his lance held low. The warhorse’s dark flanks were glistening with white foam as it bore down on Niko, and just when I thought it was too late, the youth twisted aside, with the fearsome spearpoint of the lance narrowly missing his torso. The Cardian hauled on his horse’s reins savagely, cursing as he fought to slow and turn his mount to try again. But Niko hadn’t been idle during that time, and he ran at the Cardian, ducking nimbly under the belly of the horse before rolling across the ground to the other side. I shouted in admiration at the move. Niko bounded to his feet and dragged the startled lancer from his saddle, then I saw his short sword rise and fall twice. After that, I lost sight of him as the rest of my men swarmed over the mounted lancers and infantry attacking Fitz’s rear.

  I paused, grabbing hold of the youth with one eye and stopping him as I shouted at my men. We needed to seal the breach first, and then we could mop up the remaining Cardians. But my men had thrown themselves into the thick of the fight and were so overcome with battle lust that they didn’t hear me or just didn’t care. Guthris rose up suddenly like a giant in the midst of the struggling combatants. The huge House Agent held a howling Cardian high above his head, and he tossed the man contemptuously into the sea of battling, cursing men.

  “Guthris!” I shouted.

  The House Agent turned to kick a Cardian pikeman in the teeth. The man fell to the ground as Guthris slammed the edge of a steel-rimmed shield down on his throat, sending blood spraying skyward before he tossed the shield aside.

  “Guthris!” I cried again with the one-eyed youth adding his voice to mine. This time the House Agent heard, and he straightened and looked over at me. I pointed north with my sword. “We have to seal the breach now! Bring your men!”

  Guthris looked toward the outcrop where Lord Stegar’s men were fighting gamely to contain the enemy lancers, and then he nodded to me. I turned away just as a howling Cardian appeared out of the fray nearby. The man’s eyes were fixated on me as he charged, his sword held in front of him like a spear. I easily evaded his clumsy attack, then slashed down with Wolf’s Head as the man screamed and fell, his sword arm now a crimson mess. The youth with one eye whirled on the wailing Cardian, crunching the spiked metal ball of a flail into his face, silencing the man as blood sprayed. I looked up. Guthris was sprinting toward me, clutching his maul, with more House Agents following. “Keep running!” my brain shouted at me. “Don’t stop! Run!” And so I did, trying not to think about the suffocating heat, the weariness turning my limbs leaden, the fear that we might be on the brink of losing this fight, and the throbbing pain in my left side that just would not go away.

  I heard a raven cawing harshly somewhere above my head and I glanced up as I ran while the bird slowly soared over the battlefield. Was the raven’s presence an omen of victory? And if so, for which side? I glanced to my left as the great bulk of Guthris fell into step beside me, the two of us leaping over the bodies of dead and dying men as we ran. More Agents caught up to us, and soon there were a hundred men in square helmets streaming toward the breach. Guthris and I were less than fifty feet from the battling lancers when I suddenly stumbled and then fell as I tripped over the leg of a dead Cardian. I landed hard, crying out as my wounded side scraped across the edge of my shield.

  Guthris stopped and came back, then pulled me roughly to my feet as I hissed through my teeth. “Are you all right, lord?” the House Agent asked.

  “Just go,” I managed to gasp out as I gestured ahead with my sword. “Don’t wait for me. Get over there and kill those bastards!”

  Guthris began to run again with blood-splattered Agents following him, each man carrying a white painted shield embossed with the Blazing Sun. I took a moment to catch my breath, taking in the situation at the outcrop. Lord Stegar and his men had managed to hem the Cardian lancers in at the breach, pushing them backward with sheer determination and ferocity, which was now making it difficult for more of the enemy riders to get through. At the same time, Fitz had wisely shifted a part of his center to the right, attempting to pinch off the hole. The strategy was working, it seemed, as the flow of Cardians on foot had slowed, though there were still enough of them getting through to form a formidable shield wall in front of the battling horsemen. The House Agents descended on that wall without slowing, and any semblance of an organized defense by the Cardians quickly disintegrated beneath that unstoppable charge.

  I finally reached the battle, winded, but growling with fury as I stalked toward a Cardian sitting on a Gander’s chest as he slammed a knife over and over into the dead man’s eye. The Cardian looked up just as I reached him, his face twisting comically in surprise as I swung my sword, tearing out the man’s windpipe. Another Cardian rushed out at me from the press of battling men, his shield in tatters as it barely clung to his arm, his left shoulder a pulped mess of twisted leather, blood, and bone. The man was sobbing as he thrust at my belly with the six-inch stub of a shattered short sword. I twisted away awkwardly, crying out as my wound tore even more. The Cardian’s jagged sword blade punctured my shield, jamming there as he continued to sob, yanking on it desperately. I drove Wolf’s Head savagely up into the man’s midsection, slicing through mail, cartilage, and vital organs before the tip burst out the back between his shoulder blades. The Cardian sagged against me as the light began to fade from his eyes, though he still managed to cling to his sword with both hands in a fanatical grip. I attempted to push him away, then frustrated, I swung my shield arm around, flinging the dying Cardian to the ground. I cursed as my shield went with him.

  Two Cardians broke from the battle and began to stalk me, one to either side as they sensed that I was injured and might be easy prey. I sheathed Wolf’s Head, then drew my father’s axe, holding it firmly in both my hands. The two men hesitated, looking unsure of themselves just as I saw the Cardian to my right glance over my shoulder, his eyes widening in surprise. I whirled around, with barely time to register that a horse and rider were bearing down on me before the beast’s shoulder struck my left side, sending me spinning to the ground. I landed heavily on my back, losing my grip on the axe as the breath was knocked from me. I lay where I was for a moment, stunned as I sucked in great gulps of air. Then I painfully forced myself to my hands and knees, knowing that the Cardians would be on me at any moment. I felt dizzy and light-headed as I groped around for my axe, while to my left, I heard one of the approaching Cardians whooping in anticipation as they came for me.

  “Back off!” I heard a gruff voice command, though the words were garbled, as though spoken underwater. “This one is mine.” I shook my head, trying to clear the ringing in my ears as I scanned the ground, my mind still fixated on locating my fallen axe. “Is this what you’re looking for, Hadrack?” the same voice said, though this time it sounded much clearer.

  Even with the pain in my side and
the vicious pounding in my head, I couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you, Mother,” I whispered.

  I slowly stood, glaring at the two Cardians who waited ten feet away, watching me warily. I drew my sword, but the attention of the two was suddenly taken away by Guthris, who threw himself between us, his maul whirling, sending the Cardians recoiling away in sudden fear. Confident now that my rear was secure, I slowly turned around to face Pernissy Raybold. The former Lord of Corwick had dismounted from the horse he had used to run me down. He stood now with his booted foot on the haft of my axe, a mocking grin on his face. He held a longsword stained red with blood in his right hand, with a triangular shield strapped to his left arm. I flexed my shoulder and arm where the horse had struck me, wincing. There would be an impressive bruise there later, I knew, but the arm still worked reasonably well. Something felt wrong with my left knee, though, and I bent it back and forth, frowning at the sharp pain that erupted there.

  “You don’t look that happy to see me, Hadrack,” Pernissy said. His blond, sweat-streaked hair hung from his golden helmet almost to his shoulders, but his beard, which was long and spattered with gore, looked mainly grey and white beneath all the red stains.

  I realized with a start that Pernissy had grown old this past year. I chuckled as I searched the ground, then hobbled over to pick up a discarded shield. “On the contrary,” I said, shaking my head to clear the last of the cobwebs from my eyes. I limped back until I was fifteen feet away from Pernissy. “I have never been happier to see anyone in my life.”

  The fight for control of the breach had spilled out all around the two of us, with House Agents and Cardians locked in deadly combat, but I barely noticed it now. All I could focus on was Pernissy, who just laughed at my words, looking at ease as he swatted his horse on the rump with the flat of his sword. The horse jumped with a startled snort, then galloped away to the east where my camp lay, its silky mane and tail streaming in the wind.