Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (57 page)

“They have to make sacrifices to call them, and to send them back,” Rief pointed out. “They won’t call demons at random.”

“That’s our best hope. That and we’re going to have to try to kill all the sorcerers and sorceresses,” Alec agreed. “The ones dressed in black,” he explained.

They rode on until after sunset. “Let’s set up camp,” Alec suggested. He dismounted and walked up the road with the other Warrior ingenairii. “One of us needs to be on sentry duty every hour of the night tonight.”

“That thing really got to you, didn’t it?” Moriah asked, placing a hand on his arm.

He shivered involuntarily. “Fighting something like that is worse than a nightmare. When I fought one before, I never felt like I was winning or in control; I was just trying to stay alive,” he told them. “And I know now that we’re going to have to do it. The four of us will have to take it on as a team, at the bridge if not before.”

That night Alec had the third shift of watch duty, after Rubicon and before Nathaniel. When they arose the next morning, the squad of riders who had been with Rashrew and Imelda looked much better for a full night’s rest. They packed up the camp and waited for the front echelons of the Michian invaders to appear.

“Thank goodness they don’t have a demon out this morning,” Rubicon observed.

“If you see someone all dressed in black starting to perform some type of ceremony, by all means try to take them out with a long arrow or two or three or four,” Alec answered. “Rief was probably on to something; they don’t want to wear out their use of the demons.”

“So we’re back to the old strategy at least temporarily – we’ll try to slow them down as much as we can and give our troops time to arrive and set up defenses,” Nathaniel suggested. The others agreed, and over the next two days they successfully pursued just such a strategy, aided by the fact that the Michian forces had few horses left and could no longer match the small cavalry forces that Alec’s group threw at their front and flanks.

In the middle of the morning of the third day, a low noise was audible behind them, and an hour after they heard it, Alec could make out the approach of a unit of his own infantry, the Oyster Bay Nineteenth Battalion, a group of fighters who had accompanied Alec on the way to the lacertii war. They reported that other units from Oyster Bay and Stronghold were beginning to arrive at the bridge crossing.

“The longer we can delay this invasion, the more time we’ll have to collect forces for the defense,” Rubicon restated the point they all understood.

The visible arrival of the new soldiers acted as a goad to the invaders, and that afternoon the Michian forces spread out in a wide formation for attack and approached the defenders using the steady march of an army that was full of seasoned warriors. Alec, Nathaniel, Moriah and Rubicon spread themselves out across a thin front of Nineteenth Battalion infantrymen, with fire ingenairii at the ends of the lines, and accepted the challenge to do battle.

The fire ingenairii used their energies to make flames erupt on the outer limits of the battlefield, concentrating the Michian forces into the center as they came within range of the Bondell archers, who were lined up behind the Nineteenth infantry. There were too few archers to send damaging numbers of arrows into the packed Michian troops. Seconds later the invaders’ archers began firing back, and aimed at the fire ingenairii. One ingenairii on the left flank near Alec was immediately hit and went down, causing Alec to rush over to try to heal the man he hardly knew, but the arrow in his chest had already killed him. Rising from his crouch, Alec dodged another arrow, and then began using his sword to block arrows falling around the remaining fire ingenaire.

“Fall back,” Alec told the man, who was too busy dodging arrows to effectively use his powers. The Michian forces came crashing into the Oyster Bay line a minute later, and Alec raced back to support his portion of the front line, while Michian hurried soldiers to occupy the location he had just left. Seeing that the Oyster Bay forces were in danger of being flanked, Alec ran back to the edge of the battle to anchor the end of the line and keep the invaders from getting around the corner and behind the defenders.

Within five minutes it was evident that the defense could not stand the pressure, and only the presence of the warrior ingenairii was preventing the battle from turning into a rout. A messenger came racing over to Alec. “Rubicon says to fall back. Let the infantry disengage while you protect them.”

Alec acknowledged the order and stepped forward. He realized that they were in a difficult situation now. Half the squad around him fell back, while the rest stayed with him, giving ground step by step and squeezing closer to one another for mutual support. Looking down the line, Alec could see the same thing happening in the rest of the defenses.

“We’ve got to do something to distract the invaders,” Alec shouted to his small contingent. He saw the grim nods of agreement. “See that flag?” he pointed into the Michian forces, where a golden flag with a double-head eagle waved in the gentle breeze, standing lightly attended on a small knoll beside the battleground. “We’re going to go capture it and bring it back.

“They won’t like that; it will infuriate them and break their concentration, so the rest of our folks can retreat,” he grinned. “Now, let’s go!” he shouted, and engaged his powers to his fullest extent. Shouting like a banshee, he cut down all the opponents in the immediate area and began to cut a path towards the lightly protected imperial standard. He and his followers made easy progress for the first two hundred yards, but as the direction of their path became clear, shouts of alarm began to arise among the invaders, and forces diverted from other objectives to try to race to the defense of their symbol.

Alec heard one of his followers fall in battle behind him, but he continued to lead the charge towards the flag. His plan was working he could tell, as he heard more forces giving chase and he turned to see Moriah’s unit begin to successfully fall back.

“We’re going to do it!” Alec shouted as they approached the thin circle of defenders who were around the flag staff. He began to look for an escape route, and saw a small swale that led towards the northwest away from the flag’s home on the knoll. Racing up, Alec slew the soldiers who had been assigned to the standard and chopped the flagstaff with his sword. Picking up the standard, he waved it over his head. “Micah, take this off the pole and wrap it around your body, while we start to escape that way,” he pointed along the swale.

His men began to run as he stayed in the rear to defend them. His powers were strained to the limit of his abilities to control them, and he let his energies decline slightly, knowing that they would be tested for some time to come. He looked and saw what seemed to be the entire Michian vanguard leaving the battlefront to turn and chase his small force. Alec began to descend from the top of the small hill, glancing once to see that the rest of the Bondell and Oyster Bay forces were successfully withdrawing.

New Michian soldiers arrived on top of the hill as Alec fled downward, and stood motionlessly as the Nineteenth soldiers fled. A shout moments later shook the invaders out of their daze, and a rain of arrows began to fly towards the departing flag thieves. One man fell with an arrow in his thigh. Without time to treat the man properly, Alec slung the man over his shoulder and carried him forward to the rest of the squad. “You two carry him, and trade him off,” Alec ordered as he relieved himself of the load and turned to block some of the furthest flying arrows.

“Where do we go?” one man asked.

“Alec turned to look, and saw that the swale entered a forest. “Get in among the trees and keep following the swale,” he shouted, then felt a blow to his foot and saw that an arrow had penetrated his boot and pierced his foot.

He gritted his teeth and kept moving, pressing the men out of range of the arrows and into the woods, where he dropped his warrior energies and called a halt to the retreat. “Let me see the injured man,” he said, and hobbled over to where the man lay on his stomach, “This will hurt, he warned, then pulled out a knife and cut the arrowhead loose before he applied his healing powers and healed the wounded leg.

“Thank you sir,” the soldier said, rolling over in wonder and flexing his leg.

“You’re welcome,” Alec grunted as he used the knife to slice his boot open. “I’m going to miss that boot,” he cavalierly said, drawing chuckles. He applied his knife to his own shallow wound and removed the arrow, hissing in pain, then healed himself.

He looked up to try to find the sun and orient himself, but the overhead trees blocked his efforts. “We need to go west, then south,” he said, to more nods of agreement. “I’m going to be a little slow with just one boot. Who wants to lead?”

A hand shot up, and several faces turned towards him with looks of approval.

“Alright, lead on,” Alec told him, and the group moved in single file through the forest.

For the rest of the day they walked at a rapid pace, moving around hills and through more forests, until the hour before sunset, when they finished their wide, circular detour and rejoined the main western road. No forces were in evidence from either side, but tracks in the dust provided evidence that the rest of the defenders had already passed through. Exhausted and hungry, the small squad picked up the pace to try to catch their friends.

An hour later they heard shouts in the forest beside the road, and saw scouts come out of the forest to greet them. Ten minutes later they were back among the main body of their companions, as the whole body of troops headed towards a camp site for the evening.

Chapter 49 – Taking a Last Stand

“Alec! When are you going to stop being a hero?” Bethany asked him with exasperation as they separated from a long hug and kiss.

“Now that wasn’t really heroism,” Alec protested. “We just did what we had to do to help everyone else disengage. The empire forces were stupid and left their flag virtually unguarded, so we just waltzed up there and then ran into the woods, and here we are!”

“Alec we talked about this all day while we were riding. Imelda and Nathaniel and Rubicon all said that the crown protector shouldn’t ever place himself in danger, but that you do it over and over and over! And they don’t even know that you’re the true heir to the throne!” she told him.

Imelda’s head whipped around to look back at them.

“Sshhhh,” Alec hissed urgently. He looked forward, and saw Imelda’s horse dropping back to join them.

“What did I just hear? Did you say what I think you said?” she asked, looking at Bethany.

“Imelda, would you want to be locked up in a palace forever?” Alec asked in tones that were anguished. “Would you want to have every day scheduled, every friend a false courtier, every move watched and judged by a roomful of people? I know that you wouldn’t.

“That’s what life is going to be like for whoever is the next king,” he continued. “It’s not something I want to think about. I don’t know that I want to suffer through it for all the days of my life.

“Whatever you may think you just heard, I’m sure it wasn’t what you thought. Was it?” he asked in a low, whispered voice.

Imelda looked at him, and looked at Bethany. “I suppose my ears deceived me,” she agreed. “But on a lighter note,” she continued, “while you were larking around the countryside, Bethany and I had a wonderful opportunity to chat.”

Alec felt such relief at Imelda’s implied consent to hide his role as heir that he didn’t mind, at first.

She reached over to his tunic and pulled his sleeve up to his shoulder, examining the sword tattoo. “Bethany, among others, told such amusing stories about this tattoo,” Imelda said. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it before. It’s quite a piece of artwork; and to think, it could have been a barmaid’s name!” she laughed at Alec’s discomfort, then pulled her horse forward, away from Alec and Bethany.

“She won’t tell anyone Alec,” Bethany assured him.