Himmel dug heels and his mount leapt forward. He chanced a glance;
Lorry had drawn one of the four riders. Great, he thought with
cynical humor, that only leaves me three. His eyes scanned quickly
over the approaching terrain. A tree line rose up two hundred yards
distant, with a scraggly, newly planted orchard in between. He
discounted that, he’d have had infantry in those trees. Wheeling
his mount hard left, Himmel turned back towards the more mature
but dormant orchard; towards the last direction he’d seen
Toady heading. The sudden move threw the heavier cavalry off a
bit and they executed a longer turn, giving Himmel a few more yards
on them. He burst into the taller, covering, orchard at a dead
run, his mount giving protest. Let’s just hope they hadn’t
deployed men in here already…
Himmel, out of blind instinct, ducked. A buzz sounded in his
hearing. So much for wishing. A flash of color drew a glance to
his left. Toady was heading back towards the road! Himmel took
another hard left and brought his mount heading straight back to
the road. Toady looked back over his shoulder to see Himmel gaining
on him. Rather than speak, Toady flashed him several hand signals.
Enemy to rear. I point. Keep close. Himmel gave him a thumbs up.
The two men bent over their mounts’ necks, and galloped full
tilt onto the road. Himmel fought a moment’s surprise as
Toady kept going, and plunged into the orchard on the other side.
Himmel could still hear the sound of hooves behind him. But they’d
gained thirty meters on his pursuers. Toady flashed again. Enemy
to front. Infantry. Attack. Himmel laughed, sheer desperation forcing
an incongruous release. His smiled widened as he drew his sword.
Beyond this side of the orchard lay a ditch, whereupon a line
of enemy soldiers were moving. The looks on the infantry’s
face as the two riders hurtled from the apple-trees were priceless.
Before the crossbowmen even recovered, Toady and Himmel were amongst
them. Six men fell immediately, pouring red blood onto the white
snow. A bow discharged and Himmel felt a sledgehammer blow to the
right hip. He didn’t bother to slow down, he knew it was
bad. His own overwhelmed senses caught two bound figures dropping
to the ground at the rear of the column. Himmel recognized the
horses in tow. He chopped down on a kettle hat, which dented severely
enough to drop the wearer in his tracks. A yell caught his attention
as an enemy sergeant barked orders to form up. Toady swirled into
that area, sowing death and chaos, his sword flashing with artful
swirls. Behind the two there was no art, only death and blood.
Another buzz sounded and this time it was Toady who snarled. A
quarrel transfixed his left arm, quivering bloodily as the biceps
seizured in shock. Toady’s sword spun to the ground and he
bent painfully over his saddle.
“Go!” screamed Toady in pain and frustration. “Himmel,
get the other two!” Toady drew a dagger and dropped from
his horse. Two soldiers closed on him with longer blades. But Himmel
laughed and simply wheeled his horse in the bloody morass.
The oncoming riders overtook the melee and were forced to veer
out of their original course; they broke out of group pursuit and
Himmel went after the first one to get near. The knight was just
a little too slow to realize that the lance would do him no good
in close combat. Himmel buried his sword in the man’s shoulder,
showering ringlets and blood over both man and mount. The wound
was easily a blade and a half deep—red-black spurts sent
Himmel to other riders. He caught a more prepared knight after
fending off a foot soldier and giving the man a serious cut to
the face. Before the knight could swing, Himmel jumped his mount
forward and the beast shouldered into the destrier. The maneuver
failed to put the knight off his stride and Himmel only just managed
to get his blade up to interpose the knight’s swing. Toady
was still yelling at him to get the two women, but Himmel was far
too preoccupied to worry about that now. He put a combination into
motion, all to no avail. Himmel wondered if his luck had finally
run out…Fingers had been well behind the group when the attack
hit. Instead of plunging off into who knows what, he had calmly
walked his mount into the orchard on the right side of the road.
A buckler and short sword made quick appearance. He scanned the
trees ahead, listening to the sounds of combat with chagrin. If
I get into that mess I’ll get squashed, he thought. He heard
a tremendous thunder of hooves and yells of infantry. Horses were
challenging one another, and he quickly patted his own mount to
calm her. A couple of horseman who sounded like they were being
pursued passed by to his left. He could see a ditch up ahead, and
an open field of tall brown grasses. A distinct ‘shink’ of
a missile penetrating armor came from ahead and to the left. He
could hear low voices, feminine, by the pitch—but still at
some distance off. Fingers dismounted, heart flooding arteries
with blood. Adrenaline pumped his senses into overdrive. He heard
a male voice follow close on the heels of the woman’s. Tying
his mount to an apple tree well back into the orchard, Fingers
crawled forward to the scrub at the base of a tree in the last
row.
Before him, a couple of squads of heavy foot surrounded Ahren
and Teneil. He watched as they dropped their weapons and dismounted.
As the sounds of battle grew farther afield, the two women had
been hastily bound and their mounts brought. The sergeant formed
the line of men up and marched them back towards the road. They
passed within ten feet of the little tree Fingers was hiding behind.
Pinching his nose against the cold, Fingers fought back the deadly
urge to sneeze. Moments and men trooped by, and at last the trailing
mounts. Fingers waited for a few seconds before starting after
them, following within the tree line.
The squads hadn’t moved more than forty meters when the
ground began to rumble. Fingers, unwilling to get caught between
cavalry and foot, halted. His heart thudded as he heard horses
moving at full tilt. Rather than sit still, he slunk across the
tracked pathway and melted down into the drainage ditch. The steep
banks and dead reeds gave him far better cover than the trees,
but the water was chill to the bone. He followed the foot soldiers
and his captive friends, trying to ignore the numbing of his lower
legs.
As if it were Midsummer’s Fest, two riders exploded into
view, and Fingers recognized the red hair and finery of his compatriots.
Each man downed three shocked infantrymen as they engaged the enemy.
Fingers launched himself out of the ditch and between the mounts
at the rear of the column. A single soldier watched the combat
with rapt intensity. Fingers doubted he even felt the dagger spear
into his brain from behind. Fingers kept control of the mounts,
but they were fidgety with the smell of blood and excrement. With
their guards gone on ahead, he hissed to Teneil and Ahren.
“Get down you bloody fools, or you’ll get a stray
bolt!” Both women dropped to the ground. Fingers watched
as Himmel caught a quarrel in the hip. The bolt drove through the
rear cantle of the saddle and buried itself a couple of inches
into the man’s body. He flinched, but failed to slow down.
Fingers watched the doomed kettle bearing man drop. Toady took
a bolt in the arm and Fingers gasped as he lost his weapon. Fingers
heard a yell from Toady, but he was already darting forward to
slice the prisoner’s bonds. Teneil scrabbled to her feet
and yanked her bow from its place on the saddle. Like a hunting
cat, Ahren achieved her weapon off the bedroll of her own mount
and looked ready pounce.
“Wait,” breathed Teneil as she let fly three arrows
in rapid succession. Three men tried to clutch the sudden clawing
pain in their backs, but all fell. Fingers caught sight of the
knight and Himmel locked in close combat—Himmel looked worried.
Teneil’s bow sang again and a second time. The first slid
to a rest in the neck of the sergeant. He died gurgling and clutching
the shaft. The second found a joint in one of the knight’s
horses. That leg folded under the animal and it catapulted its
rider forward. The equine then buried nose first, upending its
body—which came to a thirteen hundred pound rest on top of
the armored figure. Ahren laughed wickedly.
“Nice godamned shot!” Two of the foot soldiers, realizing
a threat from behind, spun and closed at a run. A lengthy hiss
slid out of Ahren as she interposed herself.
The first man swung cross-body, left to right, but his momentum
provided Ahren with the opportunity to side-step and parry his
weapon into the dirt, his head parted with his torso on her reverse
swing. The second man, seeing the fate of his compatriot, skidded
to a standstill and drew a dagger in his off-hand. Ahren simply
waited.
Finger’s knife caught the man in the belly, and he grunted.
His jerkin had stopped most of the blade, but he’d caught
a prick. To his credit he managed to parry Ahren’s attack
with both blades, but he fell a second later as she ran the length
of her blade up under his ribcage. She yanked both weapons free
and wiped them off. Tossing his blade back, Ahren motioned Fingers
for her horse. He tossed her the reins and she mounted with liquid
grace.
Teneil let fly with two more quick shots. Her target grabbed
first his leg, as it pierced the leather breeches. Then the second
found its home in the armpit of the same man. A crossbow discharged
and a hornet buzzed Finger’s ear. So close he could feel
it.
“That oughta teach you to stand there gawking!” Teneil
grabbed her reins from him and motioned for him to mount as well.
He spared a glance for Toady who was finishing off the second
of his two opponents. Two more closed on him, but one fell prey
to Teneil’s bow. The other went soon after to Toady’s
knife. Toady bore the mark of hard fighting, and once-fine clothes
were soaked in his—and other’s—blood. Ahren spurred
her horse into the fray and dropped two men in three swipes. She
rode up on Toady and helped him into the saddle after he’d
retrieved his sword. Fingers cast about for the fourth knight.
To his amazement, the man sat astride his grey war horse some distance
off—merely watching the battle. Even when Himmel downed the
last knight, the strangely silent figure remained immobile.
Fingers felt a hand, and realized Teneil had mounted. He spared
the knight one last glance, and then hopped up behind the woman.
In answer to her query, he pointed to where his horse was tethered.
The five of them, Himmel and Toady both swaying in their saddles,
rode hell bent for the tree line that lay to the south and east
of the road. Behind them dazed, wounded, and dying men were too
beaten to give chase. The knight astride the gray clucked his mount
in slow pursuit.
