Path of Ruin

by Tim Paulson

  A horn sounded from the wood ahead, the mournful cry of an imperial battle horn.

  It had begun.

  Quickly, she raised Zeus's buckler to the sky, ordering those in the lines behind her to close ranks and use what shields they had to prepare for incoming fire. The second she did so, the trees shook on the other side of the stream as a horde of horrors burst forth. They tore toward the lines, a torrent of flesh, teeth and claws.

  Horrors were of little concern for goliaths. Even the little Class II's were too large for the creatures to do more than scratch at the mud caked on the goliath's steel toes. However for infantry and horse cavalry it was different. The musket wielding landsknechts of the baron's infantry had been left behind at castle Aeyrdfeld but there were eight hundred light cavalry in tight formation directly behind her on the left flank. The horrors could not be allowed to get to them.

  Mia would have to thin the herd as much as she could. She mimed planting her sword into the ground so her group knew to hold position while they prepared for the javelins soon to come and then vaulted Zeus ahead of the lines to cut into the onrushing horrors.

  The ground shook as Zeus ran, bringing up his sword and preparing for a low raking blow. They would have to cut down as many as they could. Only a few seconds elapsed before the undulating wall of twisted creatures arrived at the feet of her goliath. Zeus's sword swept right and left, back and forth, hacking at them, cleaving their bodies apart by the dozens, by the hundreds. Yet still they came, flowed was more accurate, like a tidal wave of teeth and claws and endless eyes.

  A glance down the line showed that Partham had mirrored her tactics. Those with shields were raising them to the heavens even as the knights had their goliaths slashing at what horrors they could. They knew it was important to thin them out, that any surviving horrors would tear them limb from limb if an enemy were to disable their goliath and force them on to the field.

  A second imperial horn sounded and Mia's blood chilled.

  The javelin assault would now begin. Great steel spears seventy feet long with veil infused tips. They could bore through thirty feet or more of stone if thrown hard enough and goliaths threw things very hard.

  She slashed again at the horrors around her, though most had already passed. Mia could only hope the cavalry's knight commander knew what she was doing. Then Zeus turned toward the trees at the other side of the creek just in time to see a line of enemy goliaths emerge, all had javelins at the ready. They launched them in unison, one great mass of flying steel.

  It was at this moment that the low roiling clouds with their thickened gray edges finally broke and a downpour began. It partially obscured the enemy lines but also her own.

  This would be the perfect time to run left and flank the enemy, or form a spearhead and punch into their lines, but that was impossible, not with Javelins in flight. All those with shields had to keep them up and hope. Mia and Zeus took one last spinning swipe at the horrors and then she too raised Zeus's buckler. It wasn't a lot of protection, but you took what you could get.

  A look back showed that the rain obscured anything but the closest goliaths in her lines. It was impossible to see whether the cavalry had been torn to pieces. She only hoped they had been aware enough to recognize the situation and execute the plan.

  At first contact they were supposed to retreat and begin their maneuver left toward the enemy's flank. They should already be gone, hopefully ahead of any horrors that made it through the line.

  Mia wanted to order a riotous advance, to continue forward and smash headlong into the lines of the enemy, but the baron's words hung in her mind. Protect the horse, accomplish the mission, minimum casualties.

  Then he might tell her his secret.

  As the javelins began to rain down from above, glancing off shields, shredding unfortunate trees and impaling limbs, heads and bodies of goliaths, Mia bade Zeus return to the lines. She had to check on the horse.

  Slam slam slam

  Zeus's feet smashed into the muddy ground as seventy foot long splines of steel rained from above. Then at the last possible moment she had Zeus drop to the ground and slide through the mud, between two of the front most goliaths, past the lines, into the back of the formation. Zeus clambered back to his feet and scanned his eagle head for the cavalry, hoping to see nothing.

  Mia cursed.

  The horses had retreated somewhat but had not begun their maneuver. Instead they'd split into two circling groups, firing short muskets and slashing swords at the crowds of horrors that chased them like over-sized street dogs after a discarded piece of meat.

  It wasn't completely foolish, that was how cavalry were trained to handle massed horrors, but it wasn't what they were supposed to be doing. Mia would have to give them a little push in the right direction.

  “Let's help these fools,” she said aloud to Zeus.

  They charged forward brandishing the side sword and impaled, slashed and chopped at the hordes of monsters. Enough had to be culled to give the cavalry a chance to escape. Mia and Zeus skewered and stomped as quickly as they could. It would only be moments before the next horn sounded, the final one, the horn for the imperial assault when the enemy goliaths would follow their javelins and rush forward, weapons raised. She had to be there for that.

  When she'd cut down a solid two thirds of the horrors harassing the cavalry Mia waved her sword at them and pointed emphatically to the left of the lines.

  Go! She willed them and they did. They formed up and raced away, in the correct direction even, a wonder. Why they hadn't done so before hung in her mind until Mia caught sight of what was left of cavalry commander Merit Garran, torn to pieces next to the brown and red mass that had once been her horse.

  Mia knew that she ought to go with them. They would struggle accomplishing their mission behind the enemy lines without Merit. The front line called to her however, it beckoned and when the imperial horn blew she found herself turning back, running Zeus toward the front.

  Mia hadn't come this far to miss out on the actual battle. She wouldn't allow it. The cavalry would figure it out. They'd all been there for the orders. They would be fine.

  As Mia and Zeus approached the line, one of the final Javelins came down like a bolt of fire from above, impaling Zeus's left forearm. It tore a hole large enough for a child to walk through standing up and drove into the ground, pinning them in place.

  “I don't have time for this!” Mia said inside Zeus's center and quickly had him use their veil blade to cut the javelin away above and below where it had pierced the arm.

  There was no pain for Zeus or her. The fear was that Zeus might have a damaged elbow but he did not, the left arm moved as usual, only now it had a splinter the size of a tree trunk embedded in it. They'd been lucky.

  The rain kept coming in silver sheets obscuring whole swaths of the battlefield, making it impossible to see anything but the closest of the baron's goliaths. Below horrors still ran by in packs hunting for stragglers. Mia had Zeus step on them whenever possible, but their goal was to get back to the front.

  Javelins littered the ground like the tooth picks of the gods dropped from on high. Some had pierced goliath arms and shoulders but in general the line had held up. Losses looked to be minimal.

  As they approached, Zeus nearly ran into a meandering goliath. A single javelin jutted from the top of its torso near the neck. The knight had been killed but the veil core was still intact leaving the goliath to wander the battlefield like a lost child.

  Mia had Zeus grip it by the forearm and aim the poor creature away from the front, hoping to give it a head start back home. Then Zeus took his place in the line and finally, Mia got a look at the enemy.

  They were huge, larger than they should be given how fast they'd been traveling. Each was easily a head taller than anything in her line, many were two heads taller.

  A thrill shivered through her.

  The time to display her new skills in a goliath had finally come. They didn't scar
e her, she'd been fighting opponents twice her size her whole life, this was nothing.

  The imperials marched forward in perfect ranks, their large shields together edge to edge, creating what appeared to be an impenetrable wall above which heavy weapons were poised. Axes, Hammers, great spiked maces, all waiting to plunge down and crush anything that came close to the shield.

  It was meant to be terrifying but every knight in the baron's army had been trained to fight them. All knew how to move the shield to crack the crab and get at the sweet meat underneath. All they were waiting for was the signal.

  In the distance she heard the rumbling of drums roll through their lines like thunder. This was the commander's signal to attack. Mia grinned with satisfaction and bade Zeus to raise his sword to point forward. They took off at a jog, the rest of the line following close behind.

  She sped Zeus up again, from a jog to a full run. The rain had soaked the ground but the mud, which might have been slippery for foot soldiers, was no match for the heavy pounding of the great steel feet that drove into it. The line followed on, all knew how important it was to get going fast enough.

  The baron's goliaths smashed into the imperial lines. Despite the mud, the rain, the heavy shield wall and the over-sized enemy goliaths, training won the day. They dropped low, hitting those large shields with solid reinforced steel shoulders and then they drove up and at an angle. Axes and hammers dropped from above but too late, their blows fell on empty air as the baron's goliaths and the many skilled men and women inside had already forced the shield aside and were going for the kill.

  Mia drove her first opponent right off its feet and as it scrambled to snatch up a dropped mace she thrust her veil sword straight through the center. The goliath with its crimson imperial paint scheme went limp, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, the glowing red eyes died.

  One down.

  The two sides tore into one another without mercy. Swords slashed and pierced and hammers rang against shields as the gargantuan beasts of stone and steel with glowing weapons and eyes fought like warring gods over a muddy creek bed as the rain poured down.

  In the center of such a furious melee Mia was at home, at peace. She severed a steel hand here, parried an ax there, all the while thrusting her sword through every crack in the enemy's guard that she could find. The veil infused blade cut through steel and stone as if through butter, only glancing off other veil weapons or similarly infused shields.

  It took her a few tries to find the correct place to stab some of the new larger goliaths used by the imperials but once that had been accomplished, once she'd memorized their vital points through trial and error she and Zeus laid waste to the enemies around them.

  The new enemies were indeed faster and stronger than the garden variety but Mia could tell the Ganex knights had been given little time to adjust. They took poor advantage of their new found speed and power, acting more like big lumbering heavy goliaths who simply swung a might faster and hit a smidge harder than they had before.

  Moreover, the veil demons contained within seemed wild, almost uncontrollable, as if those bright red eyes hid eons of pent up aggression. If you were patient it made them easy to bait into over-committing, easy to dismember. The rest of her unit wasn't faring as well as she was, but appeared to be holding their own. They too had discovered the enemy's weaknesses. Mia had seen only a few downed blue goliaths so far.

  They were winning.

  More drums from down the line, the staccato rhythm of the commanders call to advance. So he had seen it too. The battle had swung in their favor and Lord Partham wished to take advantage of it every bit as much as she did. They'd hurt the imperials sorely.

  Nearly half an army of broken goliaths lay at the steel feet of Zeus and the rest of the baron's forces down the line. Those enemies who remained had begun to disengage, to flee back toward the tree line hoping for cover. Now was not the time to run but to feast upon the broken enemy.

  The heavy rain had finally begun to let up. Only a light drizzle now fell upon the battlefield allowing Mia to see father down the line to where the commander's goliaths were already advancing toward the trees. She had Zeus raise his sword above his head and swing it around in a circle before thrusting it forward. Goliaths all around her raised their weapons high above their heads in acknowledgment.

  Mia grinned with predatory satisfaction as Zeus entered the wood. The imperials would not get away.

  Chapter 4

  “If there's naught behind his codpiece he daren't make eyes at her bodice.”

  -From the play Women of the Bell, as performed at the World Theater in Ardenton, 1607

  Puddles in the muddy ground reflected a gray sky thick with swirling clouds but the rain had finally slowed to a drizzle. Henri held out his hand feeling little of the smaller droplets as they splashed against his many callouses. In the distance trees could be heard snapping like twigs.

  The rain might be ending but it sounded as if the storm was just beginning. His eyebrows knitted together in consternation. Something was getting closer to the village. Please let it be a big ugly stupid garbage eating troll. If it wasn't...

  “Adem?” he called. The boy had just been here a moment ago. He scanned the shop for golden curls, but saw nothing.

  “Adem! Come here!” he bellowed as he looked back to the forge where a rod destined to become about a hundred nails had been heating. He could tell even from the other side of the shop that it was not yet the color for working, only about half way. He could leave it for a moment.

  To Henri it had always seemed odd that steel, the strongest of metals, could be heated too much and ruined, but it was true. That wouldn't happen though. Surely Adem was nearby. He'd only told him about a thousand times not to wander off, especially now.

  “Where are you Adem?” he said, his fingers tapping against the door frame.

  Had the boy gone outside? What possible attraction could be found in the cold wet of autumn rain? But as he looked around outside the door and noticed all the puddles, he knew.

  Sure enough just to the left of the door a line of footprints trailed around the side of the shop, each miniature toe of each child sized foot clearly visible.

  Where had the boy's boots gone? Why even buy him boots if he sheds his socks and runs around barefoot in the cold rain?

  Henri followed the tracks around to the back of the forge where he came upon an odd sight. He stopped.

  Adem was sitting happily, soaked to the bone and covered head to toe in thick brown mud. Above him, stood an old woman he did not know, too near for comfort. Further, it looked as though the two had been talking but stopped when he approached.

  Henri didn't like that one bit. As he bent over and picked up Adem the woman stared at him coolly. She seemed oddly unmolested by the rain and cold.

  “We're going inside. Now,” Henri said.

  Adem squirmed in his arms, fighting. “I like the mud!” he cried.

  “I noticed,” his father intoned glumly, hoisting the boy fully into his arms none the less, heedless of the thick brow sludge.

  “Please?”

  “No. It's too wet and there's danger.”

  Adem knew what that meant. They'd been using that word for a while. It was a code. The boy's face twisted with annoyance.

  “No! I don't want to!” Adem said, kicking his legs. Mud slicked feet slapped against his father's thighs as little hands worked feverishly to dislodge the arm wrapped around his waist.

  “You must,” his father said, trying to take a deeper more commanding tone but only managing to sound exasperated.

  “Augh!” Adem yelled, curling his small fists.

  At that moment the rain seemed to intensify, becoming like a torrent pouring over him, especially his head. Henri ignored it, it was just water after all and carried his son around the side of the shop to the front. He was glad to leave behind that old woman who somehow thought it was just fine to converse with an unknown child in the pouring rain.
r />   As they passed the threshold Henri snatched one of the many towels he kept for soaking up sweat generated by the heat of the forge and dumped one end of it into a water bucket. Then he carried the half damp towel and his still fighting boy into their modest living area at the back of the shop where he proceeded to strip the boy down and remove as much of the mud as he could.

  There wasn't time for a full bath, not with a hunk of steel in the fire but that would definitely be warranted later. For now he tossed the wet clothes into the laundry pile and dug out a clean pair of breeches, some thick socks and a warm woolen shirt, one of the locally made ones Emily had recommended so Adem didn't look so much like a city boy to the other children. It wouldn't change the color of his skin, but it was something.

  Despite the new clothes and the warmth of the forge, Adem's teeth still chattered so Henri wrapped him in one of the bedding blankets. Luckily for Adem, his box was currently situated just behind the forge and was therefore one of the warmest places in the building. He placed his son inside the patterned metal cage, laying him down upon the child sized bed.

  “I don't want to go in the box.” Adem said through clicking teeth.

  “Are you warm enough?”

  Adem nodded.

  “I'm going to lock you in,” Henri said as he fished the keys and lock from the small box he kept on a shelf nearby.

  “Why?”

  “I have to. Danger might be here. We have to be safe.”

  “What danger?”

  “I don't know, probably just a troll,” he said, but his heart knew otherwise. There had been other sounds from the distance. Sounds of metal on metal. He'd hoped to never see something like this, not out here. That's why they'd come.