WARLORD Chapter 11
This was a battle I really didn't want to fight. First, the Balabans and the Hadyks together outnumbered us by a considerable margin. Chalky and his scouts had done some excellent work during the previous turn, and they'd come up with estimates of our enemies' numbers.
The Balabans had approximately twenty thousand troops, and they could build in two cities. The Hadyks had ten thousand, plus one build. That probably gave them thirty-three or thirty-four thousand, to our thirty. But we had almost three thousand wounded.
There was another good reason that I didn't want to fight at Caladium: I didn't have much of an army there. Yes, I had five thousand cavalry. But seven thousand of our ten thousand 'infantry' were not soldiers. They were auxiliaries. First Army was mainly just for show. It was all part of a plan based on deception. Petra Balaban thought that she'd lured me into a trap.
But Second and Third Armies were where we'd placed our hopes.
Luth and Armene led Second Army. They had nine thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry, with Faldor and Vanea for support. They went through the Portal to Dahlia, and marched on Amaranth through the night. Hopefully they were in position to attack when they heard the gong and Petra Balaban's declaration of war, because time was
not
on our side.
Peachy and Wantrao led Third Army, with similar numbers, and Zenon and Tya. They'd gone through the Portal to Eglantine, and marched on Bryony.
My whole plan rested on a guess: that Petra Balaban and the Hadyks wanted me badly. That they wanted to kill or capture me, and then crush my army. I also calculated that she didn't expect me to be prepared to betray
her
.
If she brought fifteen thousand troops to Caladium, that would leave only seven or eight thousand for the garrisons of two cities. Also, given the shortage of family members who could command troops, it was unlikely that she'd left any of her best fighters behind.
Meanwhile, the Grahams' seven cities were defended only by our wounded. They had strict orders to retreat through the Portal if they were attacked. Thanks to our scouts, though, we knew that was highly unlikely.
The first part of Petra Balaban's trap had failed; I was still alive, and fleeing for the (relative) safety of my own army. Jashi's mounted archers were peppering her cavalry escort with arrows, and then interposing themselves between me and my pursuers. I couldn't see what was happening with Boloda and Kisel.
Now I had to try to keep First Army from being destroyed until Amaranth and Bryony were taken. I hadn't just gambled with my life; I was risking the lives of fifteen thousand of our people.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), Deondra wasn't sending the Hadyk troops at us straight away, piecemeal. They were forming up just outside the walls before they moved to join the Balabans, who were advancing on us now.
Time. It was all a matter of time. First Army had to survive long enough for Second and Third to capture their objectives.
That put the onus on our cavalry, and on Sudha and Jashi. Our three thousand foot soldiers wouldn't last long if they had to deal with fifteen thousand enemy infantry. So we retreated, while our cavalry tried to protect us.
Somehow, through all of the maneuvering troops, Boloda and Kisel came galloping back to our lines. They found me easily, and trotted over. Boloda had blood running down her arm; Kisel appeared to be unhurt.
- "Thank goodness." I said.
- "Wasn't that bad." said Boloda. "We just wanted to give you time to get clear."
- "You succeeded."
The cavalry battle began.
We had equal numbers of heavy cavalry, but I'd split two thousand light cavalry between Second and Third Army. Sudha and Jashi could certainly have used those troopers here and now. They bravely tried to screen our front as we retreated, but more and more they had to spread out, to cover threats to our flanks, and then to our rear.
On both ends of our line, we had units facing to the side or even to the rear, confronted by clouds of enemy light cavalry that swarmed around us. The foot soldiers in the middle had to slow their retreat, to avoid exposing these flank units. Even as it was, our front began to bend, looking more and more like a bow being drawn by an archer.
The enemy infantry was catching up, and beginning to apply pressure. Arrows were flying in both directions, and hand to hand fighting erupted not a hundred yards from me.
Worse yet, a wide gap immediately opened up between our auxiliaries and our three thousand infantry. That left more space for enemy cavalry to infiltrate. Jashi was using the concentrated fire of her mounted archers to break up the most serious threats. She couldn't be everywhere at once, though.
On the other side, Sudha was doing essentially the same thing. Even as I watched, though, an enemy cavalry squadron broke through. They rode through a hail of arrows, but only a few fell. There had to be fifty of them. Sixty. It was hard to tell. But they were coming straight for the centre rear of our infantry.
Right where my bodyguards and I were.
- "Inzhay! Trouble!"
He couldn't hear me, of course, over the din of battle. I led my little party closer to where he was directing our troops.
- "Inzhay! Cavalry behind!" Even more cavalry, I could see. Was that a whole second unit?
Now, I've made it clear that Inzhay was no great fighter. I wouldn't have entrusted him with the command of an army, or even of an independent force. But there was nothing wrong with his instincts: he immediately ordered two of our second rank units to face the rear, and sent for a third.
They were light infantry, armed with spears, lacking shields and heavy armour. Could they even stand against a cavalry charge?
Boloda dismounted, and reached for the reins of my horse.
- "Get down." she said. "You're too big a target up there."
That made sense. I couldn't shelter behind our fighters on horseback without clearly advertising where I was. I couldn't fight from horseback, either, and trying to gallop away would probably have left me lying on the ground with a broken back, or a broken neck, if I wasn't stabbed from behind before that.
Kisel thrust a spear into my hand.
- "Kill the warlord!" someone shouted. And then the horsemen were upon us.
The horses they rode were Touchstone creations, which didn't eat, or defecate, or sweat, or make any of a dozen noises. But they were as big as real horses, and no more suicidal than real horses, meaning that they wouldn't run their rider onto a wall of spear points. But where there were gaps, they didn't hesitate to push through.
Our light infantry began falling, and there were big horses to either side of me. I stabbed upwards with the spear, which glanced off the armour of a cavalry trooper. Boloda's thrust with her sword was much more effective, and that rider slipped off the other side of their saddle.
More horses and riders surged into the melee. Boloda was struck from behind: she stumbled and fell. The riderless horse was jostled, and it side-stepped quickly, slamming into me.
It knocked me back a step, and I tripped on another body and fell. I just barely kept my grip on my spear.
Then that horse stepped on me.
Its big hoof landed on my hip, with all of the horse's considerable weight behind and above it. I shrieked as I felt something in my hip snap and give. The pain was hideous. I'd never felt anything remotely that frightening. It took my breath away.
I couldn't move. I didn't even think of moving, because I couldn't think, either. My body might have been paralyzed, but my mind was definitely in shock.
But I could still see. It was amazing to me that I could still see so clearly.
I saw another horse loom over me, with a rider. He had a shield, and a spear. I shouldn't have concluded so quickly that it was a male; this was the Decapolis, after all. But in fact it was a male, and in a moment of horror, I realized that I recognized him.
It was Moran Hadyk.
He shouted something at me, which I didn't hear clearly enough to make out. There was a roaring in my ears. But I saw his face, twisted into a grimace of savage elation.
Then he thrust down with his spear, and stabbed me in the face.
***
The light was too bright. I could only open one eye, but the light hurt my eye, so I closed it right away.
