Infinite Blue Heaven - A King and A Queen (25 page)

I rode flat out back to Zhuan.

“We need to get more men to Abdil. We need to protect his flank. Line the horses up, ten wide!” I was shouting at the top of my lungs. I wan’t sure if he could hear me but he nodded and shouted some orders to his Lieutenants. In less than a minute we were riding toward the gap in the dust at an oblique angle up the slope. I could hear myself coughing and I could feel the sweat running down my face inside the helmet. The first ten minutes of battle were often the most uncomfortable. After that, you were just glad to have protection.

Arstan stumbled once on the uneven ground and I spoke some soothing words to him. As we cleared the main dust cloud I could see the enemy reserve engaging the front of Abdil’s men. We were a little late and things would be trickier. We would have to drive a wedge in now to force them away from him.

I aimed Arstan for the gap between the closing lines of enemies and rode right up to the narrow end of the slot before the first spear struck my armour. It clattered away and then another hit the side of my helmet, knocking my head sideways. I lunged at the first of the three riders who had so far engaged our men. I noticed, almost with idle curiosity that all the enemy men were carrying spears as well as bows and swords. This was unusual and would give them an advantage over us. I was surprised that they had been trained in all three disciplines of battle. My sword cut deep into the man’s sides on the third swing, in between two of the plates, front and back which protected him. Like us they were using the lighter version of plate armour, four on the back and four on the front. Some armies had soldiers with two plates on either side as well but we deemed the weight compromised a man’s manouvrablilty too much.

The man swung towards me but seeing all the men approaching behind me, swung his horse away and was gone. I urged Arstan forward but Zhuan and one of his lieutenants were too quick and were past me, engaging the final two horsemen before I could.

“Push them back!” I cried and looked down our line of horsemen to see if this was being done. We had the disadvantage of being on the lower part of the slope but progress was being made. Slowly but surely we forced the horses away from Abdil’s Division.

Then, the worst possible thing happened.

Another column of horses split us away from Abdil. Korim had sent yet more men. Now we were fighting on two fronts. If only we had been closer to Abdil still, or Korim had sent his men a few moments before, they would be the ones fighting on two fronts.

I spun Arstan around again, thinking that I would call to Abdil’s men to turn and help us but they were pushing slowly, away, up the slope. They would not hear me now if I shouted.

We were effectively cut off and sandwiched in a long line between the enemy. A sword whizzed past my head, only a few vershok away. I instinctively ducked and turned to see the sword coming back at my head. I let go of the reins and met the blade with my shield, just in time. The blade rang off the edge of the shield and impacted on my helm, just above my eyes. Everything went black, I could not see, and I knew I had to rely on Arstan. I swung the reins and dug in my heels. Arstan must have hit the other horse or something because I felt him slither on the bloody stones before regaining his balance and lurching forward. I could see again and saw we were riding in the wrong direction, down the slope and towards where Geb would be coming from in a few moments.

“This is all wrong.” I said to myself. “Korim has anticipated everything and we are being slaughtered.”

I turned Arstan across the battlefield again and away from the rock wall of the mountain, only a few sachine away. Most of our riders were down now. I could see Zhuan’s horse, riderless, and two of his lieutenants’ horses standing over him, lying face down on the ground.

“No!” I cried, more to myself really, as no one could hear me. The men were going to dismount, to try and pick up Zhuan. If they did that they would surely die.

I urged Arstan back up the slope and stumbling over fallen bodies, we reached them. One had already dismounted.

“Don’t dismount!” I said to the other and held his arm. At first he didn’t recognise me but searching the face in the helmet, he said “Sire! Zhuan’zhuan is down!”

I looked down at Zhuan, he was not moving. A large pool of blood was growing under his chest.

“Leave him. Heh! Soldier. Mount and ride with me! That is an order.” I said to the man on the ground. He glanced up at me but shook his head. He would not come. I could see more horsemen, perhaps a dozen riding towards us. Only two or three of our riders, further down the slope, were still fighting.

“Come on!” I said, clutching the arm of the rider and dragged him after me. His horse followed willingly and slipping, we descended to the other men. I rode past them, shouting to follow me. I wanted to make for the few men in Zhuan’s original force, at the front, who were still alive. There were so many bodies, the slope seemed a pile of twisted metal and red and white cloth. Some of the riders tried to follow me while others were too well engaged and could not.

‘I have broken all the rules of Battle.’ I thought to myself. I had put myself at the greatest risk.

Just then I felt a searing pain in my shoulder and felt my body being physically swung round. I could feel Arstan slipping as he tried to follow the order he thought I was giving, with the wrench I gave on the reins. In slow motion I felt him start to go down, losing his footing on the blood.

‘Oh no,’ I thought. It was a cold and lucid thought. An enemy soldier, on foot, was standing next to Arstan and had been just about to lunge with his spear but now he dropped the spear and held out his hands, as if to try and hold up Arstan. The great horse fell slowly on top of the man, pressing him, screaming, to the ground and I felt my leg being crushed. The terrible pain rushed up my leg and into my chest but I was too winded to make a sound. I lay there for just a moment, wondering if it was worth moving or if I was dying, but I still felt plenty of life in me. Half sitting on the ground, half on Arstan’s saddle, I urged the horse to get up and he did manage to right himself. But then the pain in my leg and shoulder were so great that I closed my eyes for a second and then he was standing up. I pulled my foot out of the stirrup just in time. Had he started to drag me on the ground, I would have been lost for sure.

I called his name but Arstan, confused in the noise and dust, was gone. The battle started to take on that dream like quality where time is slowed right down and sound seems so far away. Two of the men who had been behind me, dismounted and reached for me. I waved them away but they each held my under my armpits and lifted me to my feet. I managed to stand on the damaged leg, which I suspected was broken, but the pain was intense. One of them smiled at me though I did not recognise him. It was such a warm, gentle smile, it seemed quite out of place on the battlefield. He was trying to tell me something but I had to watch his lips as he repeated it. He pointed to my shoulder and as he moved his lips I could make out the word “Arrow”. I nodded. It would not be so bad, nothing to worry about now.

He was also bleeding from his upper arm and his arm hung limp. They tried to lift me onto one of the horses but in the effort, the horse slipped and trotted away from us. The other followed. We started stumbling across the slope to where we could just make out the last of Zhuan’s men, still fighting. I had lost my sword but seeing a rider approaching, grinning with the intent to kill, I picked one up from the ground and swung at him. The other two did the same and he thought better of it and rode away. Eventually we reached the other soldier, who had sunk to his knees, having just defeated his opponent. He was exhausted and hardly seemed to acknowledge us.

We were now the bottom most four men on this part of the field. Through the dust, to the east, I suddenly caught a glimpse of Yedigei’s men and could see a standard still flying there. This gave me hope and I tried to lift the man to his feet. The others helped me and we all looked around for where to go.

I couldn’t quite understand how any of us had managed to escape the slaughter at the west wall but looking up the slope to where I guessed Abdil’khan was still fighting, I could see why. The horsemen, seeing we were almost defeated, had turned their attention to him and now I could see very few blue plumes in among the whirling arms and swords. They were not far from the wall though. If only Geb could get to them. We looked the other way, down the slope and could see only Yedigei’s men, between us and the rise. There were plenty of Korim’s men though, mostly still horsed. We could not go that way. Abdil was closer.

I pointed up the slope. “That way!”

We started to fight our way up the slope, in a tight pack but there were very few of our men left standing against many of the enemy. As we went. Occasionally I would look down and see one of our wounded men, pleading with us to take him. Soon, I stopped looking down.

I don’t know how long we fought but at one point, one of the men who had saved me went down, mortally wounded, and then the other. I received a nasty wound in the same arm that was hit, mercifully not my sword arm, but it was now too painful to keep the shield held. I dropped my sword for a moment and eased the shield off my arm. I could hear the panting of the man next to me. I wanted to know his name but knew there was no time. We were about half way towards Abdil, which was encouraging, but then there were only two or three of our men above us and then a gap of open ground, perhaps ten sachine distance between them and Abdil’s men. I was totally exhausted and had to stop for a few moments.

Kneeling on the ground and leaning on the hilt of the sword, now slippery with blood, I breathed deeply and tried to ignore the pain in my throat, from thirst.

Something hit me in the back and I fell over. For just a moment, I didn’t care but then I forced myself to and saw a horseman riding away across the slope to the east side. He had a sword in his hand. He must have thought he had finally finished me and rode on.

Just then I heard the sound of trumpets and hopeful, I looked to the west wall and sure enough I could see the four hundred horses of Geb charging up the slope, just under the wall and heading past me, up towards Abdil’s men.

“Good, I thought. At last.”

I forced myself to my knees and then to my feet and saw that my comrade was still fighting the same man he had been when I stopped to rest. I joined him and believed the fatal blow to the man’s kidneys. The sword slid in so deep that I had to stand with one foot on the man to draw out the sword.
“Thank you.” my comrade slowly said, gasping for breath.

“Rest for a moment,” I said to him. Then we must go on. I felt sure, that if it wasn’t for the dust, kicked up by the battle around Abdil’khan, we would surely not stand a chance. As it was, time was running out for us. After a few moments, I dragged the man to his feet and we trudged on. Just then a spear hit him square in the back and slid deep into him. It had hit between his protective plates and the spear must surely have passed right through him. He fell to his knees then onto his face. I felt my heart sink. I could only see two other men on the centre of the field, wearing blue plumes. I struggled on for a few feet but I was overcome by dizziness and, with the ground spinning, I fell down and rolled over. I looked up at the sky. This surely was the place I would die. I looked for the bird but I could not see it. I closed my eyes. As I had fallen, I had felt the arrow shaft break, which was probably painful but I didn’t feel it. Even if I could get away from here, the arrow shaft was probably embedded and I would bleed to death. I had an almost overwhelming urge to just go to sleep.

I must have laid there for some time, I do not know how long, before the sounds of battle seeped back into my consciousness. I opened my eyes and looked again at the sky. Was it my imagination or was the sun lower in the sky? I suddenly felt focused and knew I must try again to move.

I stood, turned and staggered on, up the slope. Everything seemed to be weighing me down. I put my thumb under the lip of my helmet, above my eyes, and levered it off.

It felt good to have the sun directly on my face and the cool breeze started to dry my sodden hair.

I was building up a rhythm now and had reached above where the main fighting had been. I was on open ground and with less blood around, I could walk quite steadily. I could see Geb and the last of Abdil’s men, only about two sachine from the wall, with just a few men between them and its high, wooden sides. There was a storm of arrows clattering down on the shields held above their heads and the horses were suffering terribly. Many of them had arrows sticking out of their soft flanks. It was an aweful sight but at the rear, a man turned and saw me coming up the slope. Other men turned and cheered me on.

“Come on!” I could see their lips mouthing.

One of them pointed east and seemed insistent so I looked. I could see perhaps three Enemy horsemen flying towards me. I tried to pick up my pace but my legs simply would not go any faster. Two of our men still had spears and at the last moment, just before I reached them, and with the two lead horsemen only a few paces behind me, they launched them. One of them hit its target, the chest of the lead rider, and slipped between the plates. Our spears were designed, as many in ancient times, to break at an angle, leaving the shaft trailing at an angle from the victim. It is almost impossible to pull out and incapacitates him. This is done by having one of the rivets which holds the blade to the shaft, made of wood, which shears on impact, leaving the head attached on just one side. The spear hung out of the man, at an angle and its tip brushed the ground. This unnerved the horse and it veered away from me. The other spear missed and the enemy lunged at me once with his sword, before veering away and riding down the slope.