The Sorcerer's Legacy (36 page)

CHAPTER
12

Kayne led his force of five hundred mounted mercenaries against the large town Edmonton, southeast of Brightridge. It was the third and largest town they had raided thus far. The other two towns had been little more than oversized villages and the plunder had been rather paltry. Kayne was unconcerned. Plunder was a secondary task. He had been paid to cause mayhem and few did that better than Hell’s Legion.

Several of Kayne’s men hurled clay flasks of demon fire at the wooden gates as they rode by on their swift mounts. The brittle jugs shattered, plashing the terrible liquid all over the gates. The second wave of riders rode just behind with arrows tipped with burning, pitch-coated cloth. The arrows struck the wooden gate and set it ablaze. Valiant soldiers and town militia tried to put the flames out with buckets of water but to no avail.

Kayne’s mercenaries continuously harried the defenders by charging and retreating from the walls while firing arrows from short horse bows, a strategy they had learned from the Sumaran nomads.

Even with the demon fire, the thick gates took nearly an hour before their structural integrity failed and collapsed in a charred ruin. Hell’s Legion riders harassed the defenders with their hit and run sorties for another half an hour before the demon fire finally burned itself out.

On Kayne’s order, the mounted legion poured through the gates putting their swords and bows to deadly effect. Arrows fired from horseback made short work of the defenders on the wall and helped take down spearmen who were using their long weapons to try to unseat the mounted invaders or kill their horses from under them. The Hell’s Legion raiders hacked at anything that moved with their sabers in an orgy of terror and violence.

Screams of pain and terror assaulted the ears, the blood of the dead and dying haunted the eyes, and the smoke of burning homes assailed the nostrils of the populace.

Once the invaders made it through the gates, they cut down the poorly trained city militiamen like chaff in a wheat field. Within minutes, only small pockets of resistance remained within the city. Once the mercenaries put down the last vestige of armed resistance, Kayne ordered his troops to begin their plundering. Most of the killings stopped but not all. Although they were a disciplined force, these were mercenaries with little conscience to prevent them from taking liberties.

Kayne was unconcerned with what his men did so long as it did not distract them from looting everything of value that could be carted away on horseback and did not kill too many of the locals as stated in his contract with Duke Ulric.

“It appears that Kayne and his men have begun looting the city, milord,” Captain Ellsworth informed the duke as he watched the mayhem unfold through a looking glass.

“Excellent, we shall give them one hour to loot then we will engage them. You remember your orders, Captain?” Duke Ulric asked his military commander.

“Yes, milord. Pull our strokes but make it look convincing. The archers are equipped with blunted arrows.”

“Very good, Captain, inform the men to ready themselves. We ride to
battle
in one hour.”

Kayne’s men tied sacks of coin, silver flatware, jewelry, and most anything small that held any value onto their saddles. The clarion call he had been waiting for finally sounded to the west.

“Mount up!” Kayne shouted, his order repeated by a by the bugler. Hell’s Legion riders made a quick last grab of anything in sight and raced for their horses. The men of the Legion pounded out of the town and loosely formed up to meet the approaching force.

Duke Ulric fielded several hundred men on foot and a hundred cavalry. Pikemen and archers stood to the fore while the cavalry hid in the woods, waiting until they could hit Kayne’s flank.

Hell’s Legion charged the Valarian forces with a loud battle cry, waving their curved swords over their heads. Duke Ulric’s pikemen knelt, seated the butts of their long spears into the ground, and braced them with their foot. Archers stood behind the pike formation and knocked arrows in anticipation of the mercenaries’ charge.

As the charging invaders rode into range, the archers loosed their deadly swarms of arrows. Dozens of riders fell from their mounts or hung loose in their saddles as the dark rain of blunted shafts fell into their ranks. A second volley brought down scores more before the archers had to step back and allow the swordsmen to come forward. The remaining Hell’s Legion riders pulled up on their reins as they came into range of the pikemen and fell to the ground, many pulling their horses down with them and trying their best to lay still.

To the people of Edmonton watching a mile away, it appeared that the pikemen and archers had slain a number of the invaders and now the swordsmen and spearmen were engaged in a vicious battle. A bugle call announced the charge of Ulric’s own smaller force of cavalry as they burst from the wood line and crashed into Kayne’s flank.

Kayne shouted for retreat and his bugler sounded the order on his horn. Ulric’s cavalry gave chase while his other men cleaned up the battlefield, stacking the “dead” in wagons and tying up any they captured. Duke Ulric and a small contingent of cavalry rode towards the town proudly displaying the Duke’s colors.

Above the wailing of women and children, Duke Ulric heard the cheering of men. One man separated himself from the crowd. His clothing was of decent quality but torn and bloodstained.

“Duke Ulric, is that you?” the man asked looking from the duke’s standard to his face.

“Yes citizen, it is I who has liberated your town and driven off the godless barbarians,” Duke Ulric proclaimed loudly.

“Your Grace, I thank the gods you and your men arrived when they did, but what are you doing out here? We are under Lord William’s rule and far from your borders,” the man said, a little confused.

“I consider all Valarians my people and when word reached me that outsiders have invaded our lands and were plundering and murdering my people, I set out to send them all to Sharrellan,” Ulric replied grandly.

Duke Ulric basked in the praises of the people of Edmonton as they cheered him and his men even as they mourned those who had fallen. His pursuing cavalry returned to Edmonton perhaps an hour later and declared that they had slain at least half of the raiders before the rest scattered and fled once more.

“Fear not, citizens, my men have slain and driven off the host of vile raiders and I shall not rest until all of our enemies are gone or dead and our borders secure,” the duke of Southport declared as he led his men out of the town amidst the cheers of the people.

Ulric and his troops rode for an hour before the “dead” men sat up in the wagons that brought up the rear of the column. Kayne’s men remounted their horses while Ulric’s infantry fell into formation and marched along with their fellows. There were still a few men who did not get out of the wagons. Even in a mock battle like the one they had performed there were bound to be casualties.

Three hours after the mixed army left Edmonton, they pulled off the road and traveled up an old woodcutter’s path. After traversing two miles of the rough narrow path, they came upon a large clearing cut in the small but densely packed trees that grew in abundance in this region. Three hundred horses were picketed at the far end of the clearing while an equal number of men sat gathered around dozens of small campfires.

Kayne swaggered over to meet the leader of the incoming army as his men in the duke’s company tied their horses up alongside the others and joined their comrades around their fires.

“Congratulations on your great victory, Your Grace,” Kayne humorously greeted the duke. “I hope your people were properly grateful for their deliverance.”

Ulric smiled down at the mercenary leader. “They were at that, Kayne. My sincerest appreciation to you and your men for performing their roles with exceptional competence. I realize that we are unlikely to be spotted out here, but I would recommend we post sentries just in case.”

“Fear not, Ulric, my men are in place,” the mercenary leader smiled proudly.

Duke Ulric narrowed his brows, perplexed. “I did not see any posted along the trail leading up here.”

“A good thing, if you had I would have had them executed. I noted several empty saddles. I assume there were real casualties?” Kayne observed.

“There were. Two of your men failed to pull up in time and took a pike to the chest, three broke some bones falling or pulling their horses down. Five of my own men failed to block a stroke or got trampled and several others sustained injuries but will live. When all is said and done, the casualty count was remarkably low.”

“Even counting the men I lost to the defenders’ crossbows, my losses were light. If only all my battles resulted in so few wounded, I would conquer my own nation,” Kayne laughed loudly. “Come, those cow herders had some surprisingly good alcohol I would share with you.”

The men ate field rations while they passed around bottles of looted alcohol to celebrate their victory. Ulric and Kayne sat with a few of their officers discussing strategy.

“What is our next move, Ulric?” Kayne asked as he took a pull from the bottle of strong spirits before he passed it to the duke.

Duke Ulric tilted the bottle back but plugged the mouth with his tongue and passed it to one of his officers. “You and your men will sack the homes around Brightridge herself. I have a man on the inside that is going to create a great deal of confusion for those in the castle. It will be a repeat performance of what we did today but the battle will be within sight of the castle walls.”

Kayne looked thoughtfully as he ran the plan through his mind. “What happens if William sends his own men after us? He has a rather formidable force.”

“There will be too much confusion within Brightridge to form a cohesive plan. William and his chamberlain will both be dead and in the ensuing chaos, you will strike. My men will drive you away just as we did today. Without William to lead them and speak against me, my victory will win over the people of Brightridge whose support is vital to my success.”

“Are you confident of your man’s ability to kill both the duke and his chamberlain?”

“Absolutely, the man I hired does not fail. Of that you need have no fear,” Ulric assured his accomplice.

“There won’t be much plunder in this raid. It’s one thing to lose men when there is a profit involved, but neither my men nor I care to risk our lives even in a mock battle for nothing more than burning a few farms,” Kayne informed the duke.

Ulric smiled reassuringly at the mercenary. “Fear not, my good Kayne. The next little ruse will make it all worthwhile, I assure you. You and your men stand to make a very tidy sum in the coming weeks.”

“I’ll drink to that!” Kayne shouted as the bottle came back around to him.

***

Allister opened the door and took the missive from the young man that delivered it, tipped him well, and broke the wax seal.

“Azerick!” the old wizard shouted once he read the letter.”

A moment later, the sorcerer appeared at the top of the stairs leading to the basement level.

“What is it, Allister?” Azerick asked his old mentor.

“I just received this letter insisting that you appear before the duchess immediately. Apparently you had some kind of altercation with some nobleman,” Allister replied.

“I have gotten into several altercations with these so-called noblemen; you will have to be more specific.”

“Apparently this happened a few days ago,” the magus answered.

Azerick scratched his head and thought. “You still need to be more specific.”

“Gads, lad, and how many nobles have you gotten into squabbles with in the past week?”

Azerick closed his eyes and counted off on his fingers as he recalled the events. “Four,” Azerick supplied after a moment of deliberation.