Shades of the Past: The Morcyth Saga Book Six (16 page)

Just then, horns are heard and they see
coming from out of the dark the rest of the Empire’s forces, at
least eight thousand strong. Another blast from the horns and they
begin moving toward them.

“Back to the city!” Illan cries. One of his
men has Jiron behind him on the horse and they race toward
Lythylla.

Before they move through the gate of the
palisade, James glances backward and scans the battlefield for the
warrior priest. All he finds is the oncoming soldiers and the dead,
there’s no sign of him. Then they’re through to the other side and
racing toward the gates of Lythylla.

When those on the battlements see them ride
through the palisade, a cheer erupts and the gates swing open. The
pursuing Empire soldiers stop at the palisade when they realize
James and the others will reach the safety of the walls before
they’ll have a chance to catch them.

Cries of ‘Madoc!’ and ‘Black Hawk!’ resound
as they make their way through the gates. Lord Pytherian as well as
the other leaders who were present during their initial meeting are
there to greet them.

“Unbelievable!” one of the men says. “I heard
rumors of what you can do, but I had no idea.”

Illan pulls up to a stop and asks, “Any word
from Delia and Ceadric?”

Shaking his head, Lord Pytherian replies,
“Not yet. We have riders out in that area and men on the walls
looking for them.”

James swings down from behind Illan. “I hope
she’s alright,” he says.

“Retreat!” Ceadric yells to his men. The
press of soldiers is too great for them to break away effectively.
Arrows begin flying from Hedry’s men, taking out those pressing
Ceadric and giving them a chance to disengage.

The two forces that so recently made their
appearance are closing fast. Most are foot though the force to
their right has a contingent of cavalry as well. Delia scrambles to
get her people back to their horses quickly.

“But there are three catapults that are still
serviceable,” Orry states. The rest of the siege equipment is
burning out of control despite the efforts of the soldiers that
have made it to them.

“Leave them!” she hollers. When they broke
off the attack, each grabbed their pack with what oil bombs they
had left. James was most explicit in that they must remove all the
evidence they can. Of course the shattered remains may give them
some clue as to what happened anyway but why help them any more
than they have to.

Ceadric and his men, now fewer by half a
score, join them as they swing into the saddle. “Back to the
river!” Delia hollers. Each realizes the way they came across is
the only avenue left if they are to survive.

As they break into a gallop leaving the
burning siege equipment behind them, the enemy forces begin forming
an arc. “They’re going to drive us to the river and annihilate us
against its banks,” Yern shouts.

“Not if we can find where we came across,”
Delia hollers back. Two miles to the river with soldiers bent on
their destruction behind them, they push their horses to the limit.
They manage to maintain a constant distance between them and the
cavalry coming up behind. The foot soldiers begin to fall
behind.

After several minutes of riding, the river
appears before them. “Beacon!” Delia hollers and a half mile away
to the right, a light appears.

“There it is!” Devin exclaims.

Unfortunately, the force to their right has
already passed the beacon which now lies behind their lines.

“What should we do?” Uther asks.

“Ride through them and kill them all!” Jorry
yells with a touch of bloodlust in his voice.

“Ceadric,” she says. When she has his
attention she says, “Fall back. Let me ahead.” She takes the lead
and leads them on while maintaining a fast pace. From her remaining
pouch she pulls one of the two crystals contained within. She moves
to set it into her sling when her horse suddenly leaps to avoid an
obstacle on the ground and the crystal falls from her hand.

“No!” she cries as the crystal hits the
ground. She removes the remaining crystal from her pouch then gets
it set into the sling just as…

Ka-Boom!

…the crystal which dropped on the ground
explodes in a great eruption, throwing rocks and dirt into the air.
Fortunately all their riders had passed the area before the
explosion. The concussion wave from the explosion causes a few of
the horses to stumble but they manage to correct themselves quickly
and continue on.

With the last crystal in her sling, she winds
it up and lets it loose toward the approaching cavalry between them
and the beacon. “Stop!” she cries to the others and they quickly
bring their horses to a halt. Hitting the ground, it lands a good
twenty feet in front of the leading edge of attackers.

The approaching cavalry comes toward them
rapidly and passes over the crystal lying on the ground.

Ka-Boom!

Horses and men go flying in another massive
explosion. “Now!” she cries. “Ride hard!” Kicking her horse in the
flanks, she gets it back to a gallop and races through the dead and
dying.

Ceadric comes along beside her as they clear
the area devastated by the explosion. Before them, no more than a
hundred yards away, the glowing crystal beckons.

In the moonlight from above, they see the
foot soldiers that had fallen behind the cavalry moving toward them
at a run. A third is moving toward the glowing crystal by the bank
of the river.

“We’ll hold them off,” Ceadric tells her.
“You get your people across.”

“But once we start, there’s only a limited
time before the bridge will disappear,” she replies.

“Just do it!” he yells. Then to his men he
hollers, “For Black Hawk!”

A cry erupts from his men as they break off
from Delia and her band to engage the enemy. “They’ll be killed!”
Shorty exclaims.

“Let’s move,” she tells him. She veers to
move directly to the light in the distance. It isn’t long before
the sound of Ceadric and his men engage the foot soldiers heading
for the beacon.

Upon reaching the light, she says, “Golden
Gate.” The shimmering bridge once more springs into being. “Now
hurry across,” she tells the others. “It won’t last very long.”

As the others move to cross, she takes Devin
by the arm and asks, “Can you swim?”

Halting his horse, he turns to her and
replies, “Yes, why?”

“I need you to do something,” she says.

Leading his men against the enemy, Ceadric
realizes this will probably be his last fight. Sword falling, he
takes out another soldier and quickly brings it back around to
block the hack from another.

He needs to slow the advance of these
soldiers to allow Delia a chance to activate the crystal and get
across. With any luck, he and his men will be able to disengage and
make it across as well.

They stall the enemy for several minutes then
he glances back to the river. Seeing Delia and her group beginning
to cross he hollers, “To the river!” As one, his men break off and
race for the river. Several were unable to disengage successfully
and were cut down before they could get away. Using the light ahead
as a guide they race for their lives, which may very well be the
price if they fail to make it in time.

As the light draws closer, he sees young
Devin standing there with the light held aloft in his hand. He’s
waving them to hurry as he shouts, “Twelve…eleven…ten…”

Ceadric hears him coming ever closer to one
and pushes his men even faster. The first rider hits the bridge as
Devin says, ‘Six’. On the far side of the bridge Delia and her band
are lined along the banks with slings in hand, her two archers are
there as well with arrows knocked and ready. At ‘Four’ Ceadric’s
horse races onto the bridge. As Devin reaches ‘Two’, the last of
his men hit the bridge and begin to cross.

The last five are still over the water as
Devin says, ‘One’. A second later the bridge disappears. Men cry
out and horses scream as they fall into the river below.

Once the bridge disappears, Devin moves to
collect the bridge crystal lying on his side then places them in a
pocket. A noise behind him causes him to turn just as enemy
soldiers appear out of the dark before him. Turning back to the
river, he races for the water and before he jumps from the shore
into its raging depths, he hears Delia holler, “Now!”

Slings twirl and bowstrings twang as the
enemy begins falling behind him. As closely as the soldiers are
packed together, if a slug thrown by a sling misses one it’s sure
to hit another, either to the side or behind. Hedry’s archers move
into position with her slingers once they’ve dismounted and
together rain a devastating volley of deadly projectiles and
missiles across the river.

“Get the men out of the river!” cries Ceadric
to the rest of his men. Moving to the edge, they work to get the
men and horses struggling against the current to their side safely.
Of the five men in the river, only four manage to reach the shore,
none of the horses make it.

“Where’s Devin?” Delia asks as she sets
another slug to her sling.

“Over here!” she hears him cry from
downstream. The river has carried him further away.

One of Ceadric’s men cries out, “I’ll get
him,” and then races downstream to retrieve him.

Across the river, the soldiers are falling
back now that their prey is beyond their reach. Soon, the hail of
arrows and slugs ceases as the enemy moves out of range.

“What’s the damage?” Ceadric’s voice rings
out.

“Seventeen dead,” Hedry replies.

“Your group Delia?” he asks.

“If Devin makes it back then we’re all
accounted for,” she replies.

“Everyone back away from the river,” he says.
“Let’s not give them anything more to look at.”

As everyone begins moving away, Delia goes to
the bank and retrieves the second bridge crystal. When she bends
over to collect it, she’s surprised to see it’s broken in two.
Picking up both halves, she puts them into her pouch. Mounting up,
she joins the others.

A few minutes later, the man who rode to
Devin’s aid returns with him and the fifth of the men caught upon
the bridge when it fell. Both have been battered by the current,
but otherwise are unhurt.

“Let’s return,” Ceadric says.

“We did it!” exclaims Orry.

They turn to watch the siege equipment across
the water burn as they make their way toward the lights of Lythylla
in the distance. Soldiers of the Empire are silhouetted by the
flames as they work to put out the fires. The remaining three are
being pulled away quickly to avoid any possibility of the fires
moving to them.

Their group feels much lighter with the
seventeen men they left on the other side. They talk in quiet
hushed tones until Scar’s voice rises from where he and the others
ride further back. “…no, seriously. It was on a trip me and
Potbelly took across the Sea to one of the northern towns. Beset by
pirates, we…”

They continue on toward Lythylla as Scar
relates the events of an ill fated voyage that cost the lives of
everyone on board but himself and Potbelly. Seems the way they
managed to escape death was to hide in the bilge compartment below
the hold until the pirates left. Of course the fact the pirates
torched the ship to hide all evidence, and that they escaped by
prying a board loose from the side with two spoons didn’t do much
for the credibility of the story. Believable or not, it occupies
their time until the walls of Lythylla come into view ahead of
them.

The gates open as they approach and the men
manning the battlements give out with a cheer as they pass through.
Illan, James, as well as Lord Pytherian and his adjutants are there
to greet them.

Ceadric pulls slightly ahead as the two
groups meet and says, “All but three of the siege equipment are
aflame. We lost seventeen.”

Illan nods his head. “Good work.”

“Will want a thorough debriefing about the
enemy’s layout and forces,” Lord Pytherian says.

“From what I could tell, they still have a
sizeable army out there,” Ceadric tells him. “We were almost caught
between two attacking forces. Would have been slaughtered there at
the bank of the river if that bridge hadn’t appeared.”

“From the report James has already given us,”
Lord Pytherian says, “there were more men than previous reports
indicated. But at least their initial assault should be stalled
while they regroup.”

“Best not to give them that time milord,”
James interjects.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“I mean, tomorrow morning, we go on the
offensive once again,” he explains.

“Do you think that’s wise?” he questions.
“You and your people have barely come from a battle and you plan to
throw them into another?”

“Yes milord,” he says. “I plan to do just
that.”

“Best we talk about this in a more private
location,” Lord Pytherian says.

“I agree,” responds James. He moves to Delia
and asks, “Everyone make it?”

“All of our people survived,” she assures
him. Then she lowers her voice as she adds, “The crystals worked
perfectly, we brought them all back.”

“Excellent,” he says.

“Best we return to camp and get what rest we
can before the morrow,” Illan suggests.

“I couldn’t agree more.” He follows Illan and
Lord Pytherian as they turn back and enter through the gates with
the rest right behind.

They work their way through town, most of the
population is turned out to look upon the ones who dealt the Empire
such a blow. Cheers and other salutations greet them as they make
their way through the streets.

During their ride through the streets, Delia
fills him in on what happened and how her people acquitted
themselves in battle. He then gives her a brief rundown of what
happened out by the palisade and what he observed of the enemies
forces.