The Light of Heaven (21 page)

Erak was all that mattered to Gabriella, though. Relief flooded through her and she ran to him. The pair hugged tightly in the middle of the street.

"Good show you're putting on, Dez." Crowe's said. "The timing's in rather bad taste, but I can't say I don't approve."

Gabriella didn't want to let go of Erak long enough to go and hit Crowe. "The goblins attacked the Golden Huntress as well," she told him.

"I ran into them while I was following that rider. They shot my horse out from under me. At first I thought they were men trying to stop me catching up with him."

"Like at Kalten?"

"Very like and for similar reasons - it was the man who attacked you. I recognised him from your drawing." Erak sighed apologetically. "I'm afraid he disappeared when a goblin scouting party interrupted us. I came back here just in time; there were goblins arriving in town. Luckily this lady and her company were here as well." He indicated Kannis.

"Nice to see you again," the mercenary woman said with a crooked smile. "Though I'd have preferred it to be under less stressful circumstances."

Gabriella wanted to smile, but found that she couldn't. She was too tired and too certain that things were not going well. "I got caught up at the Huntress. My prisoner there and I were the only survivors."

"All ten soldiers?" Erak paled.

"All ten and everyone else at the Huntress. Everyone human anyway. A couple of whores might have got away, but I don't think anyone else did. I didn't expect to come back to this but then we saw the smoke from a couple of miles away."

"There were only about a score of them."

"There were at least twice that number at the Huntress.

"We saw them off quite easily. They didn't get beyond the first street. Like I said, they were scouts."

"Like yourself and Brother Brand here, we ran into some goblins." Kannis said. "We came down here for the market, to buy feed for the horses, and food for ourselves, and when we tried to leave... We found it more difficult than we thought. There are goblins setting up camp on the north side of the river, and they've circled round to the east as well. There are only about thirty of us and there were a lot more of them. We barely made it back into town. A scouting party is one tenth the size of the warband," she added. "That's the minimum."

"Two hundred?" Gabriella asked Erak. "Does that sound about right to you?"

He nodded. "And at least twice as many following, if that's the size of scouting party that attacked the Huntress."

"And they've got Solnos fairly well surrounded by now," Kannis said.

Gabriella went back to her horse at last and cut Crowe loose. A couple of soldiers emerged from the bucket chain to take charge of him. "Lock him up."

"Are you out of your tiny mind, Dez?" Crowe protested, holding up a hand for their attention. "You know they're coming here and you know you need to get the hell out!"

"You mean I need to get your cleansing arranged before it's too late," Gabriella retorted.

"What if I helped you?"

"What help could you give?" Erak scoffed.

Crowe nodded towards Gabriella. "Ask her. She'll tell you how good I am. Not that I'm one to brag, you understand."

"He is a decent fighter," Gabriella admitted. "I'll give him that."

"Look, mate," Crowe said to Erak, "where could I go, exactly?"

"Nowhere, unless you're a good magician," Kannis said bluntly.

Gabriella didn't react outwardly, but Crowe saw something in her mismatched eyes and nodded encouragingly.

"Yeah, Dez, you listen to her. Whatever happens, I'm stuck with you lot right now. If I'm going to have a chance of making it out of this town it'd be a better chance with your soldiers and the rest of the rabble. If you're stupid enough to try to fight - "

"We're not running away," Erak said firmly.

"There are too many to fight," one of the mercenaries said suddenly. "This guy's right, Captain. Let's break out. With the Knights and their soldiers-at-arms we'd be half again as many fighters. We might have a chance to break out."

"We might," Kannis admitted slowly.

Gabriella stepped in between them. "Can you do me a favour, either way? Pick three or four of your best riders. Send one each to Andon and Fayence, maybe as far as Gargas. Requesting reinforcements from the Order and subcontracting with some other mercenary bands. I presume there are others in the area?"

"Some," Kannis agreed. "I wouldn't recommend all of them."

"Are there any you would recommend?"

"I can think of a couple." Kannis said at last. "Whether they're close enough, or still all vying for business in the Anclas, I couldn't say."

"I've already had a message sent to the scrying chamber at Andon," Erak added. "At least the Preceptory there already knows what's happening here."

"Then I'll see to riders. One man might get through where a group can't." Kannis said and returned to her men.

"You should tell these apes to let me go." Crowe said, jerking his head towards the soldiers who still held him by the shoulders. "I can't go anywhere and you're going to need every blade you can find. Those gobboes aren't going to tell the difference between you and me. We're in the same boat. And if push comes to shove with that lot, I'd rather have you lot watching my back."

Gabriella nodded to the soldiers, who released Crowe. "I'll be watching every move you make. And every soldier in town will have orders to kill you on sight if you try to leave."

"As chat-up lines go, I've heard better."

A little later, washed and refreshed, Gabriella and Erak met in the church to discuss their forces. There were a lot more people in the pews than there had been since the two Knights first arrived. Gabriella reflected that trouble seemed to improve people's religious fervour.

"How many warriors do we have?" she asked Erak.

"You, me, Crowe. Kannis' mercenaries if they'll stay, a sergeant, squires, and a platoon of men-at-arms from the Order."

"Archers?"

"Maybe half a dozen."

"Not enough." Gabriella chewed her lip. "We need Kannis and her men."

"You're right. I think she wants to stay, but her men are split. This would be a bad time for a Captaincy challenge among them, but I don't know a way to convince them."

"I do."

"Then you'd better make it quick. We need them to decide to stay."

"Gobboes don't tend to pay particularly well," Crowe offered from the doorway. "And your mate here -" he jerked a thumb at Erak " -doesn't look like he's willing to fork out for some hired help, so why stick around and get diced in between both sides?"

Erak clenched a fist, but then spun to face Gabriella. "What did you have in mind, Gabe? Press-ganging whoever's left?"

She shook her head and pointed to Crowe. "Like he said: Hiring them."

"The Swords don't need to hire help. And they can't get out anyway; they'll be slaughtered."

"That they would and that would cut down the blades we've got available. So we need them to choose to stay and this parish might afford to do that."

Erak grimaced. "Can you imagine what Eminence Kesar would say about us spending his treasury funds on drunken, whoring mercenaries -"

Gabriella smiled. "We don't spend his treasury."

"They won't work for a few free confessions, folks," Crowe reminded them.

Gabriella strode to a small chest and nudged it with her foot. "Stoll has coin of his own. We can use that. I'm sure he won't mind."

Gabriella grabbed the small chest and hoisted it on to one shoulder.

"Hey," Erak exclaimed, "where are you going with that? It was meant to help this community."

"Now it's going to save them," Gabriella said without looking round. "How much more helpful could it be?"

Outside, she dropped the chest on the middle step up to the fountain, and saw that the mercenaries with the sharks-mouth tabards were already securing saddlebags onto their horses and some were in the saddle already. "Kannis!"

The mercenaries stopped loading their mounts and Kannis walked her horse over, followed by a few of her men.

"There will be no booty from this town or its people," Gabriella declared.

"Then, unless somebody makes a better offer, there will be no fighting for this town or its people." The mercenary who had earlier recommended trying to break out spat in the dust. "The Faith isn't short of a gold piece or three; it's hired whole armies before. So why not now?"

"The Faith isn't hiring," Gabriella said. "I am."

"What are you offering?" Kannis asked. She wore a relaxed expression, as if she was enjoying seeing where Gabriella's mind was going to take her. "Booty is scarce here." Gabriella kicked the lid off the chest. There was a collective gasp as the mercenaries saw the contents glitter in the sun. "A tidy sum," Kannis said admiringly.

"An equal share for every man who fights."

The mercenary who had wanted to leave leaned forward, resting his elbows on the saddle horn. "I've seen more."

"And since the war, I bet you've seen less."

"It wouldn't come to as much as a good haul of booty could."

"It's more than you've got now. More importantly, it's guaranteed. Booty's a chance you take - have people left their valuables around? Are they worth what you hope?" She shrugged. "This is a guaranteed fee, win or lose. And if we win, I'm sure the people of Solnos will be, shall we say, generous in their praise."

The mercenary sat back, eyes hooded. "Now, that might have been a worthwhile proposition before the Golden Huntress got burned."

"At least two of her girls didn't," Crowe chipped in. "And they're good value, believe me!" A raucous laugh went up, but Gabriella had the sense to ignore it, and keep her calm smile on.

"In Andon, where I was born, they say a warrior relishes a challenge. They say a warrior loves a chance to grab some glory and some booty." Gabriella declared.

"So we do," Kannis agreed, "but we can't do that with wounded men, half-dead horses and ruined equipment. We need more men."

"They're on their way by now."

"Is that a prophecy from the Lord?" Kannis asked mildly.

"A promise from a friend."

Kannis grimaced. "Oh, one of those." She sighed. "And what makes you think we can win?"

"The Lord of All is on our side."

"What if I said I'd heard that the Lord helps those who help themselves, and that I therefore trust my right arm more?"

"I'd say that with both your right arm and the Lord Of All on our side, how could we lose?"

Kannis laughed. "Aye, that'd make a damn scary combination for any gobboes to face! All right Sister DeZantez, a last stand it is." She spat in the palm of her hand, and offered it to her.

Gabriella spat in her own palm and gripped Kannis' hand.

"Your right arm had better have a stronger swing that it has a grip." They both laughed.

Along with Erak, Crowe and Kannis, Gabriella looked the town over. She had now donned a pot-shaped helmet, as had Erak and her surcoat was filthy with dirt and Goblin blood from the fight at the Huntress.

"Not very defensible," she murmured. "No curtain wall, four roads into town, and flat ground all the way to the escarpment."

"If I was you," Kannis said. "I'd try having as many people as possible fall back to the church. It's the strongest building, which isn't saying much, but at least the defenders inside can't be outflanked."

"They'd just be swarmed over. Or surrounded and besieged." Gabriella's mind raced. She wasn't a general, she was just a servant of God in a military order. She was a good fighter and a good priest, she hoped, but there was a difference between interpreting a man's Confession, or fighting off a Brotherhood fanatic, and handling a large field of battle with many participants. "What about the river?"

"Gobboes may not like to bathe much but they can swim and there are several bridges." Kannis frowned. "Perhaps if we could dismantle the them... "

Gabriella eyed the adobe buildings all around the church square. They were shops and houses and craftsmen's workplaces. None of them were much different than any of the damaged buildings on the outskirts of town. Half of those would be as likely to fall down as be repaired she thought.

"We build a perimeter."

Crowe looked at her disbelievingly. "What with? By the time you've cut and shaped enough trees, you'll be in a gobbo's pot. In fact you'll have been in his pot, and be in his privy by then."

A glint showed in her eye. "With those buildings that got damaged last night."

A group of oxen heaved and a burned-out potter's shop jerked sideways and tumbled into a shower of dust and bricks. Townspeople rushed though the dust, carrying chunks of broken wall between them, back to the church plaza, where they tossed them onto sections of the rough embankment that was beginning to form.

A loud, dry, clattering was rising from all around as bricks, stones, and pieces of timber were tossed onto the line of debris.

Erak Brand shook his head. "You're out of your mind, Gabe. That's not going to be much of a wall. I hate to agree with that scum Crowe, but he has a point about that."

"It's not supposed to be a wall. It's supposed to be a line."

"They won't pay much attention to that."

Gabriella's mind was racing. "No... And I don't want them to. I want them to just think it's a little raised embankment."

"They'll just hop straight over it. You know that. It won't stop anyone for more than a second."

Gabriella nodded. "And they'll be much easier targets for archery practice when they do cross that line. Then there's a clear killing ground on all sides of the church. Anything that makes it past the wall is an arrow-magnet."

Erak looked back at the rubble dubiously, clearly trying to see some value in it and failing. "There's so much cloth and dry timber that your wall will go up like a tinderbox from the slightest -"

"That's the idea," she interrupted.

"What?"

"How many goblins are there who aren't afraid of fire? When that wall's piled nice and high with their dead, we fire it."