Antiagon Fire (60 page)

“Some twenty catapults armed with Antiagon Fire grenades, most likely one or two cannon emplacements, and an undetermined number of troopers,” replied Skarpa. “Probably at least three regiments. They have far less experience than your men.”

“How do we know that?” asked Meurn, after looking to Kharllon.

“They haven’t fought anyone in generations,” replied Quaeryt. “Even if they’re well trained, it’s not the same.”

Subcommander Dulaek cleared his throat. “Are we to give quarter?”

“To those who throw down their weapons and surrender immediately,” replied Skarpa. “We’re not interested in slaughtering if it’s not necessary.”

While Quaeryt nodded, he thought,
One way or another, that’s not likely to be an issue, not with as much Antiagon Fire behind those walls as needed by that number of catapults.

After several more questions, Skarpa released the commanders to their regiments. Quaeryt remounted the mare and rode back to the imager undercaptains, accompanied by Alazyn, who had said nothing during the senior officers’ briefing.

“You didn’t look all that pleased with Commander Kharllon’s questions,” observed Quaeryt, his eyes on the subcommander.

“He was asking questions so he could cover his back if things go wrong.”

“Another reason why we need to make certain they don’t.”
It’s also why Skarpa has him leading one of the attacks.

Once he returned to first company, Quaeryt quickly briefed Zhelan, Ghaelyn, and the undercaptains. “The attack will begin with three separate assaults, each under concealment. Lhandor and Threkhyl, you’ll be with the submarshal and Commander Fhaen. Voltyr and Horan with Fourteenth Regiment and Commander Kharllon, and Khalis, Baelthm, and I will support Subcommander Alazyn and Nineteenth Regiment…” He went on with the overall plan before discussing certain details.

“Voltyr … you need to stay close enough to Commander Kharllon to make certain that nothing slows the attack or goes wrong with it.”

“And remove any unforeseen impediments?”

“If necessary … but only if necessary. You should be able to handle the concealment, and Horan should be able to create a causeway wide enough for Fourteenth Regiment to swing north of the defenders and attack their rear. If you see a cannon emplacement … do what you can. You’re likely to be the one close enough and with the best view for that.”

“Yes, sir.” Voltyr nodded slowly.

“Good. You and Horan head out and join Fourteenth Regiment.” Quaeryt then went over his instructions with Threkhyl and Lhandor before sending them to join Skarpa. Then he turned to Khalis. “You’re going to have to remove as large a section of that wall as you can … but leave yourself enough strength to deal with the catapults.”

“Yes, sir.”

Almost two quints passed before Fourteenth, Nineteenth, and Third Regiments were in position to ride forward. Because maintaining concealment during the entire set of maneuvers would have been far too hard on all the imagers, once Fourteenth Regiment was in place, Paedn’s Fourth Regiment moved up behind it, as did Meurn’s Fifteenth behind Quaeryt and Nineteenth Regiment, and Dulaek’s Sixth Regiment behind Skarpa and Fhaen’s Third Regiment. Fhaasn’s Twenty-sixth Foot was behind Fifteenth, but to the west of the road. The three lead regiments were a good half mille from the wall, with their backups separated from them by several hundred yards. Once the lead regiments had reached a point several hundred yards from the wall, the backup forces were to begin their advance, again in an angled fashion.

On Skarpa’s signal, Khalis raised a concealment shield over the first company and Nineteenth Regiment, as did Voltyr over Fourteenth Regiment, and finally Lhandor over Third Regiment. Quaeryt thought it most likely that most, if not all, Antiagon observers would be puzzled by the concealment because they would still observe regiments in the same general position as before, if fewer in number, and might even think that the larger initial numbers were an imaging illusion. Even if the Antiagon commander did not happen to be deceived, the concealment would make it difficult to determine where the attackers were and what their movements were.

“Forward,” ordered Quaeryt quietly, raising and then lowering his arm.

First company began to walk their mounts toward the central section of the wall, but at an angle, since Quaeryt and Skarpa had positioned all the regiments, not directly in front of their objective, but so that they would not move directly forward toward the wall. That way, if there were cannon or, as they neared the wall, other missiles, the defenders could not attempt merely to adjust the distance in trying to calculate where the Southern Army regiments might be. Further, since there were wide spaces between the regiments, any blanket barrage would waste a great deal of ammunition.

Of course, if they drop something directly blindly into a regiment, the casualties will be higher, or the strain on the imager will be greater … if not both.
Again, Quaeryt was basing his tactics on the fact that no one in Lydar had ever used imagers the way he was—at least not since the time of the Naedarans, if then—and they hadn’t had muskets, cannon, or Antiagon Fire.

First company and Nineteenth Regiment had advanced less than two hundred yards before what sounded almost like a sighing whistle passed overhead. Although Quaeryt couldn’t see it, the
crumpt
well behind Nineteenth Regiment told Quaeryt all that he needed to know. “Forward! Fast trot!” As he gave the order, he extended shields across the front of first company, trusting that he could hold them at least until they reached a point close to the walls … or where Khalis would remove the stone.

More explosions echoed across the fields before the walls, but behind Nineteenth Regiment, demonstrating that the Antiagons not only had cannon emplacements, but that there were more than a few handfuls of cannon in those positions. From what Quaeryt could tell, most of the impact explosions occurred well to the south behind the advancing forces, but he hoped that the reserve battalions followed Skarpa’s orders and had moved quickly—at an angle—once they came under fire.
Not that you can do anything about that now.

As he rode toward the highway just in front of the gate, Quaeryt took a quick look at the two towers, but only saw a handful of troopers behind the crenellations of each tower. None of the nearer catapults appeared to be in motion, either. Could it be that the Antiagons were still concentrating on the secondary regiments? He pushed that thought away.

At that moment, from nowhere came a series of blows on Quaeryt’s shields, strong enough to rock him in the saddle. Dropping away from his shields were iron darts—all aimed at the front ranks of first company—and that meant an imager on the walls who had deduced where first company happened to be.

“Image now!” Quaeryt ordered Khalis, before glancing back over his shoulder to make certain that Baelthm was close behind him.

Khalis said nothing, but in moments the section of wall between the towers flanking the stone-paved high had vanished—and reappeared as a flat paved square extending a good forty yards back. That newly created square was empty, except for wisps of mist curling up from the stone—a good indication that whatever forces had manned the wall or sheltered behind it were now entombed under it.

“Forward! Through the wall!” ordered Quaeryt.

First company and the first battalions of Nineteenth Regiment were through the gap in the white stonework, the hooves of their mounts clattering on the cold white paving that Khalis had laid down, before any of the defenders flanking the towers even began to react. At that point, Quaeryt dropped the concealment and strengthened his shields.

The appearance of riders amid the defenders engendered shouts, but whether those were of defiance or surprise Quaeryt certainly couldn’t tell.

“First company! On me!” He turned the mare toward the defenders on the left, shifting his half-staff to his right hand. “Baelthm! Do what you can to the nearest catapult.” After narrowing his personal shields to a wedge extending little more than the width of two horses, he urged the mare to move faster.

Even before the troopers turned toward the Southern Army troopers, from nowhere came another series of blows on Quaeryt’s shields, again powerful enough to push him back in the saddle. Quaeryt had no idea from where they had come, but the sooner his troopers were close to the Antiagons, the harder it would be for Antiagon imagers to attack the Telaryn troopers.

Behind him, he heard Alazyn’s command. “First battalion on the commander. Second to the right on me!”

Whatever imaging Baelthm did was sufficient, because the launching arm of the nearer catapult sagged, and a fire grenade exploded as the arm fell, with crimson-yellow-green flames oozing down the framework.

Quaeryt imaged a few handfuls of red-hot iron fragments into what looked to be the magazine for the catapult. In instants, flames roared up the catapult, and Antiagon troopers raced away from the flaming structure.

Another blast of
something
washed over his shields, and this time, Quaeryt attempted to image it back from wherever it had come.

Another wave of flame flared to Quaeryt’s left, from narrow embrasures in the middle level of the western road tower … followed by a quick gust of cool air.

Quaeryt braced for another imaging attack … but there was none.

Ahead, the flames from the burning catapult or from the midsection of the tower didn’t deter many of the defenders, who resolutely turned to face Quaeryt and first company. That resolution helped them little when his shields, loosely anchored to the mare and the other mounts of first company, thrust the defenders facing Quaeryt to one side or the other, unbalanced, and easy targets for Zhelan and his men.

A group of archers stood on the parapet of the wall ahead, beginning to fire shafts into the riders well behind Quaeryt.

Quaeryt imaged iron darts across the archers, and most of them went down. A flash of light momentarily blinded him so that all he could do was hold his seat as the mare charged forward through more defenders.

When his vision cleared, he found that the troopers of first company, and Khalis and Baelthm, had caught up with him, and that most of the nearby defenders were falling back, if not outright fleeing.

Farther ahead on the parapets stood another group of archers, whose shafts arched toward him and first company, but before most of them could release another shaft, iron darts were penetrating their necks.

Quaeryt glanced to Khalis, whose face was momentarily locked in concentration before relaxing slightly. “Good job!”

“We don’t need casualties behind us, sir.”

No, we don’t.
Quaeryt nodded, then scanned the area. Another catapult was turning toward the attackers. He imaged away the rear support and directed the fire grenade downward into the areas below. He must have missed the wood or the magazine, because nothing happened, except for the fact that the crew immediately fled. He looked farther to the west-southwest, concentrating on the next catapult, but not before the weapon had released another fire grenade. All Quaeryt could do was to image it onto the Antiagon troopers on the wall farther from him and first company … and ignore the flames and agony as he kept riding through the thinning ranks of the defenders and strewing them sideways and into the sabres of the lead ranks of first company.

Before that long, there were no defenders—and no working catapults—remaining close to first company, except the wounded and the dead, but he could see a mass of them farther to the southwest, still resisting Skarpa’s attack through a gap in the wall—a gap that only looked to be some twenty yards wide.

“First company! First battalion! Forward!” Once more Quaeryt urged the mare forward, hoping that a rear attack on the Antiagons might break the will of the defenders ferociously blocking the Telaryn advance through the gap in the white stone wall.

As he rode forward, he imaged away the supports on the nearest catapult ahead, and then the one after that, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but think that either Threkhyl or Lhandor should have done some imaging ahead of Third Regiment, anything to put a gap in the defenders.
But maybe they couldn’t.

Only the last few ranks of the defenders attempting to stop Third Regiment’s advance saw or heard the approach of first company and Nineteenth Regiment’s first battalion, even though a squad leader on the wall was shouting and gesturing—until Quaeryt cut him down with an imaged iron dart.

More flashes of light across Quaeryt’s eyes persuaded him to reduce his shields and just concentrate on the area around him—especially in case there was another Antiagon imager around.

After perhaps half a quint, the remaining defenders caught between Third and Nineteenth Regiments began to break. Then … in what seemed moments, most were gone, and Quaeryt gestured and ordered, “Company! Halt!” That was to avoid riding into the advancing riders from Third Regiment.

“Sir! There!” shouted Khalis, pointing to the wall and an unroofed space that had chest-high walls on each side but was unwalled on the side away from the main wall.

Quaeryt jerked his head around. Two figures stood there, one apparently an officer and the other an older gray-haired man in a white jacket and maroon cuffs. To one side, lying on the parapet stones, was another white-jacketed figure.

The sharp-faced officer whirled toward the older man in the white jacket and the maroon cuffs, his blade clearly aimed at the man’s neck. Quaeryt imaged the blade from the hilt. The officer looked stunned, but only for a moment as an iron dart from Khalis caught him on the back of the neck.

The older man glanced from the falling officer in the general direction of Quaeryt, his eyes widening, although he appeared not to be looking at the commander or Khalis. Then a gold disk appeared in his hand … and he swayed. He mouthed several words—words that, to Quaeryt, might have been “never to the ancients”—before he pitched forward onto the stone, and then toppled off the parapet to the stone pavement that extended several yards back from the base of the wall.