“The Thalian army,” he said, pointing behind him, toward the south, “has crossed the border of Gruene and is marching this way, perhaps three days away. This army will go to meet them in the morning. The Prince’s commander, General Orlav, expects to meet them somewhere among the Sandian Hills, where the land falls off toward the plains of Thalia.”
He moved his hand around toward the east. “We will be positioned upon the extreme left of the army, touching Captain Kured’s band upon his flank. As such, we will take the point in tomorrow’s march. When we spy the enemy, we will picket the horses and deploy on foot upon the left of the army.”
At this, Kristo jerked his head around and stared. “On foot, captain? – not as cavalry?”
Murlet shook his head. “The landscape of the Sandian Hills, according to Orlav – and which I have never seen – is far too rugged to permit the easy movement of cavalry.”
“But, captain,” Kristo protested, “we are horsemen. Yes – we fight on foot when the situation demands, but we have fought ever as cavalry when deployed with an army.”
“True, sergeant,” Murlet replied patiently, “but the ground will not allow it, according to General Orlav.”
Kristo’s face darkened as if the sun had vanished behind a cloud. “Then why not fight in another place, if the ground be so terrible – either beyond these so-called rugged hills, or upon this side, out upon the prairie?”
If Murlet was perturbed by Kristo’s outburst, it did not show upon his face. His features expressionless, he shook his head. “The region of hills is large, I am told, and begins at the border of Gruene. The Thalian army will have already entered the uplands ere this day has done.” Once more, he shook his head. “And Prince Helvard does not want the enemy to pass through that region and enter these plains where dwells the most of his people. Also, the enemy army is somewhat more numerous, and facing them upon level ground will accede an advantage.”
Kristo sighed, an exhalation of frustration, and then nodded. “I prefer my horse beneath me, captain, is all.”
Murlet met his gaze for a moment and then looked around. “If you wish,” he told the band, “we may quit this endeavor and go home. I would only remind you that the word of a mercenary band – when it is kept – is the best guarantor of future work.” But then he nodded. “Vote to leave this fight, however, and we will go.”
At once, Kristo shook his head, abashed. “Nay, captain,” he said, “I apologize. I was surprised, is all. We have given Helvard our word and must honor it.”
Murlet held up his hand. “No, my friend, you are right. The band must decide. I will not send an unwilling man into battle.” He looked around. “What say you all? Do we go home?”
Silence greeted this question.
Murlet waited another moment and then continued. “If you wish, we will leave this place now. How many say leave?”
Again, there was silence.
Murlet nodded. “Alright, then we stay. But remember this – when we meet the enemy, we fight for one another more than for Helvard’s gold. Let us all earn our boon and then get home safe.” He paused, looking around at them all. “Now,” he went on, “go and see to your kit and your weapons. This army will march at dawn.”
The next day dawned cloudy with a promise of rain. The army, with Murlet’s band riding at the point, moved briskly south, toward the approaching Thalian army. All that day, they marched along a broad road that went nearly straight southward across the undulating farmland of Gruene. By late evening, the tree line of a broad forested region appeared on the southern horizon, beyond which, according to those men of Gruene that knew the region, the land fell away and devolved into the Sandian Hills which tumbled down toward the land of Thalia upon the plains below.
The army of Gruene camped among the last of the farmland that bordered this rougher, forested region of the hills. The next day, beneath a cloud cover that had thickened overnight, the army entered the forest and the ground tipped over and sloped away toward the south. Farms failed abruptly as the ground became rocky and steep.
The road wound back and forth as it descended through this wild and rugged landscape. Trees grew in abundance, but unlike the great trees that grew to the west of Fergus upon the border with Merkland, this forest was gnarled, tangled, and brushy.
The rocky, dry, and rugged slope, facing south, supported only a hardy selection of thorny and stunted growth. Tors of rock jutted up here and there. Some of these extrusions were rather massive outcroppings that fell away upon their southern faces in sheer escarpments, many more than a hundred feet high.
The road angled back and forth as it struggled to find its way down across this rugged terrain.
Jed shook his head. “How are we going to fight a battle on ground such as this?”
Brenyn did not respond while Aron shrugged and rendered his opinion. “It will be difficult, undoubtedly – but remember, the Thalians must climb up through this tangled jungle. We will have the advantage of high ground, whatever our own difficulties.”
Jed shook his head in disgust as he pointed left and right across the slope. “How can we even form a line in this brush?”
“The Thalians will have the worst of it,” Aron repeated.
Before the sun had reached the top of the sky, General Orlav came riding forward to ask Captain Murlet to send scouts forward and try to spy the advance of the enemy. After Orlav had gone back, Murlet, accompanied by both Glora and Riana, rode back along the column and found Brenyn.
“I want you and Glora to go forward, ahead of the column,” Murlet told Brenyn, “and find the Thalian army. And, should the opportunity arise, put an arrow or two in their advance guard, just to slow them a bit.”
Brenyn nodded and moved Noris out of line.
“May I go along, captain?” Aron asked Murlet.
Murlet did not hesitate but turned his mount away, back toward the front. “No, trooper,” he said; “keep your place in line.”
Glora, following her brother, looked back, and met Aron’s gaze for a moment, smiled slightly, and put her finger to her lips. Then she also turned away.
“Be careful, Bren,” Jed called after Brenyn.
“Always am,” Brenyn replied.
Brenyn and Glora urged their horses ahead of the column along the twisting roadway, stopping now and then to listen for the telltale sounds of the approaching army. The sun had fallen near the tops of the western mountains when they turned a corner and gazed down along one of the few straight sections of road.
And there, just coming into view, were the leading elements of the enemy army – four mounted scouts, all wearing the black and green uniforms of Thalia.
Brenyn studied them for a moment and then looked over at Glora as he unlimbered his bow. “Shall we?”
Glora hesitated and then nodded. “It’s what Jonny wanted,” she replied.
He frowned at her. “Jonny?”
She looked over at him. “Johan, my brother – the captain.”
“Ah.”
Brenyn dismounted and nocked an arrow, but Glora simply turned her horse sideways and remained in the saddle as she drew down upon the approaching Thalian scouts.
“Tell me when,” Brenyn said, “for they are within my range now.”
“I need a few more paces,” she replied.
Brenyn waited while the scouts, who had seen them and had sent a rider back down around the corner toward the unseen main body, drew their swords and urged their horses into a gallop.
“Now,” said Glora, and her bow twanged in the evening air.
Brenyn released as well, and an instant later, two of the Thalian scouts tumbled from their saddles. The remaining rider slid his mount to a halt and quickly turned about and raced back the other way.
“Can you take him?” Glora asked.
Brenyn’s missile was already speeding after the retreating Thalian. It caught the fleeing rider in the shoulder, and he lurched to the side but kept his place in the saddle, hunching low
over the horse’s neck as it rounded the distant corner.
“Well done, Brenyn,” Glora said.
Brenyn slid his bow over his head and mounted up. “Let’s go back and tell the captain,” he said. As they cantered back up the winding road, Brenyn studied the ground to the left and the right.
“Terrible place for a battle,” he noted.
Glora nodded in agreement as she gazed out into the tangled brush. “It will be close work – sword work,” she observed. “There won’t be much use for archers in this jungle.”
28.
When informed of the sighting of the enemy scouts, General Orlav immediately began searching the slope in front of his army for suitable ground upon which to await the Thalian advance. As he and his commanders, including Captain Murlet and the other mercenary leaders, studied the landscape, the sun slid behind the mountains over to the west and the army prepared to settle into camp.
Brenyn, Jed, and Aron found a small piece of level ground upon which to pitch their tent and then Brenyn gathered wood for a fire. As evening deepened, Aron looked over at him.
“What did she say?” he asked.
Brenyn lifted his gaze from the flames and frowned at him. “Who?”
“Glora.”
Brenyn, genuinely puzzled, stared at him. “About what?”
“Us.”
“Us? You and me? – or the army?”
“No, Brenyn – about me and her.”
Brenyn shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied. “We were carrying out the captain’s orders, you know, looking for the enemy. There was no time for light conversation.”
Aron’s face fell. “She didn’t mention me at all?”
Across the fire, Jed shook his head in disgust. “Why would she? I swear, Aron – you’d better get your thinking straight.” He lifted his hand and pointed down the hill. “Tomorrow, we will face the enemy upon this tangled patch of wretched ground, and we need you acting like a soldier rather than a lovesick boy.”
Aron started to retort but just then Kristo came and called them to gather with the rest of the band by Murlet’s tent.
When they had all gathered, Murlet addressed them. “We will be deployed upon the left, as I told you,” he said, “when we face the enemy. This is terrible ground; we all know it, but Orlav seems a competent enough sort and willing to listen to his captains.”
He turned and pointed down the slope. “We have chosen to meet the enemy about two hundred paces down the hillside from this very camp. The ground is not level there, either, but it is good enough that Orlav believes his army can form a decent front line.” He moved his hand. “Over to the left, where we will be, there is an escarpment that falls away toward the east, upon our extreme left, and I do not believe the Thalians will attempt to flank us there, so we will just have to hold our front.”
He turned back to face them, and his dark eyes glinted in the twilight. “The Thalians are more numerous than we – perhaps by several hundred men,” he stated, “but we will hold the advantage of the high ground.” Here, Murlet paused and gazed downward for a moment. Then he looked up again and his features were solemn, serious.
“Nonetheless,” he continued, “this battle may go against us, and though I think General Orlav to be a competent soldier, I do not know the mettle of his men. They may run away when things get hot. Therefore,” here he lifted his hand again and pointed toward the north, “I have instructed Sergeant Kristo to see that our horses are picketed immediately behind our position upon tomorrow’s line, perhaps a hundred paces to the rear. Before the dawn breaks, I want each of you to see that your mount is saddled and ready to ride, should we need to retreat.”
He paused once more. “If Orlav and his army holds, and the other mercenary bands hold, then we will hold as well. But, if they break and run, we will mount up at once, abandoning our tents, and ride for home. I mean that we should do all we can to earn our gold, with honor, but only if those that we aid in this fight stand strong.”
He looked around at them all. “Hang together tomorrow; look out for one another, and we will get through alright. Tannen, Koth, and Baden will watch through the night and wake you before dawn. Any questions?”
There were none.
Murlet nodded. “Right then, sup and then get some rest. I will see you all in the morning.”
The rain that the clouds had promised all day fell overnight, a light drizzle, but it ceased toward morning and the sun dawned in a clear sky. The band had saddled their horses in the pre-dawn twilight as Murlet had instructed and then made their way down the slope to where Orlav’s army was forming in anticipation of the enemy’s approach.
Prince Helvard had enlisted four bands of mercenaries and General Orlav had placed them all on the wings, two upon the right and two on the left, leaving his own army intact, holding the center of the field. Murlet’s band held the left flank, touching the band of Captain Kured on its right. Kured seemed a serious, hardened sort, and after consulting with him, Murlet expressed confidence that Kured’s band would also hold its place in the line when the battle commenced, so long as the army of Gruene held in the center.
Murlet asked both Brenyn and Glora to try and find a bit of high ground behind the main line where they could put their bows to use once the enemy approached, despite the obvious difficulties presented by the tangled brush, stunted and gnarled trees, and the numerous outcroppings of rock.
“If you can find a line of sight,” he told them, “your arrows will ease the pressure to our front. If not, then draw your swords and plug any gap that might open up.”
The brush upon the steep hillside hindered any clear view of the line but Glora managed to find an ancient tree that had fallen over, where she could gain a bit of altitude above the jungle and see beyond the men who were kneeling to her front, watching down the slope for the Thalian advance.
Taking his cue from Glora’s vantage, Brenyn found a jagged outcropping of rock several paces to her left and climbed to the top. From here, he could see beyond the men of the band, though there were very few clear areas where he might drop an enemy without his missiles being deflected by the tangle of trees and undergrowth.
Jed was right, he thought; this is a terrible place to fight a battle.
He was leaning against the jutting rock, arrow at the ready, gazing downhill, when he heard Glora’s quiet voice.
“You look a bit exposed there, Brenyn.”
Brenyn glanced at her and laughed. “To send an arrow here, any archer over there will have to expose himself just as badly.”
She did not share his good humor. “Be careful, Brenyn.”
“And you,” he replied.
The morning sun rose higher and the day warmed. Down the hill, soldiers wearing green and black appeared briefly, peering from behind the trunks of trees at the line of men uphill from them. More men appeared, in larger numbers. They were not organized in lines of battle and none came within decent arrow shot.
There followed, then, a lull. The woodlands down the slope remained quiet and undisturbed except for the sounds of distant voices shouting muffled commands.
And then a noise arose and filtered up through the tangled growth – an odd, convoluted sound generated by twigs snapping, dry leaves rustling, limbs breaking, and angry cursing as the men of Thalia struggled up the slope toward the foe.
Faces appeared among the underbrush all along the front, a struggling and uneven tide of humanity, with gleaming swords that were wielded this way and that as the line of the enemy advanced. Though these blades of sharpened steel would shortly become instruments of death, they were, for the moment, being employed as tools for negotiating the dense jungle of the slope.
Brenyn raised his bow, watching for a body to appear in one of the small clearings in the ragged foliage.
To his right, Glora’s bow twanged and one of the men over there fell from view. While he waited for his own chance to take a shot, Brenyn let his eye run along the line of his comrades. Aron an
d Jed were immediately to his front, crouching among the brush and rocks with swords drawn.
Between them and the end of the line, over on Brenyn’s left, which ended at a high tor of rock that fell away in a steep cliff, there were but six of the others. From there, the line ran back to the right. Captain Murlet could be seen over there, next to a stunted juniper, standing just behind the line of crouching men, as he watched the belabored advance of the enemy.
For a moment, a green and black clad body stepped through an opening in the jungle down the slope. Brenyn released, and then there was one less enemy that trudged toward his comrades.
The Thalian line came to within perhaps twenty paces of the front and then halted while the commanders tried to straighten their ranks for the final push.
Brenyn shot twice more, once, bringing down an officer that stood and tried to gauge the distance up to the front, and another when a soldier moved between two trees to change his position. The first, the officer, Brenyn was certain would not continue the climb, but the second man had ducked down at the last moment and Brenyn did not see whether his missile found its mark or had ricocheted into the brush behind him.
Glora shot only once more, but her arrow guaranteed that the enemy to their front was reduced by yet another.
There was another moment of eerie silence, and then there came the sound of a bugle over on the right of the slope somewhere and the brush-covered hillside to their front erupted in bedlam.
The men of Thalia charged.
As more and more of the enemy came into view, Brenyn was busy trying to find one clear shot after another, but he also saw, to his alarm, that the enemy here, in front of Murlet and his men, were more numerous, coming up the hillside in two concentrated lines, one behind the other. Despite having the advantage of the high ground, Murlet’s men were badly outnumbered. Either this was the case all along the line, which did not bode well for the men of Gruene, or the enemy commander had realized that mercenaries held the flank and considered them a weak point.
Though clear shots were few, Brenyn exhausted his supply of arrows before the armies came together, thinning the enemy line by at least a dozen men. Glora was nearly as successful.
A Plague of Ruin: Book One: Son of Two Bloods Page 26