“Hit them again,” Mari said, reluctance to give the order making her voice low.
“What?”
“Hit them again!”
Two more shots roared out, then two more.
“The group in the rear is pushing ahead!” Calu said. “You’re doing some real damage and they’re trying to get away!”
“Alli, let me see that far-talker.” Mari gazed toward the city as she called Calu. “Are any of the bad guys scattering into the side streets?”
“Um…yeah. Some are trying to. Whatever passes for officers in the warlord ranks are trying to beat them back into place.”
“Hold up, Alli! I don’t want to hit them so hard that they spread out through the city.”
Alli nodded, gesturing to her gun crews. “Hold fire, guys. Those scum have learned what we can do to them if they don’t move.”
“Mari?” Calu called. “I think…yeah, they’re starting. Everyone at once. They’re all coming out!”
The “armies” of the three warlords came charging out of the northern gate of Minut. Mari studied them through her far-seers despite the efforts of the mare to ruin her focus. The fighters in the first group wore an assortment of armor and carried a variety of spears, pikes, and pole-arms, but moved in a loose gaggle rather than a tight formation. Right behind them was a mixed group of mounted fighters and fighters on foot carrying swords and varied shields. The last group bore a wide assortment of arms and little in the way of armor, and unlike the first two was not even attempting to maintain any semblance of organization. “The last group is treading on the heels of the second, which is being slowed by the pace of the first group because of the heavy pikes some of them are carrying.”
General Flyn nodded. “They’re coming in our direction in hopes of breaking out. Just as we hoped. You know how to hold them, Lady. With your permission, I’ll rejoin the foot soldiers and get them moving. Princess, your dragoons and other forces can move at any time.”
“Tiae will advance,” Sien said, waving a goodbye to Mari and Alain before she and her escort took off in a thunder of hooves.
Mari looked back at her own cavalry, still hidden from sight of the city on the back slope of the hill. “Rifles dismount and take up position on the crest!”
“Stay with the princess of Tiae,” Alain directed some of his fellow Mages, who nodded once in acknowledgement and rode off after Sien. “Mage Asha, stay here for now.”
Asha nodded, her long blond hair flowing in the wind off the sea. In the morning light, her beauty looked unearthly. “I sense Mages in the city. The traces of them are faint.”
“Please let me know if they start moving,” Mari said, fighting down a shiver as she remembered the last assassination attempt against her—by a Mage using a concealment spell. Less than a month ago. If not for Alain’s ability to spot the Mage despite the spell, that attempt probably would have succeeded.
There were still far too few rifles to equip every soldier, but those of the cavalry who carried them dismounted, handing the reins of their mounts to other soldiers to hold, then scrambled up the slope to form a line along the top of the hill. By the standards of normal fighting, the line looked far too thin and too long to have any chance of holding against the oncoming warlords.
Alli and her gun crews had put their shoulders to the two artillery pieces and were rolling them the short distance remaining to the crest of the hill.
The line of rifles split, making room for Alli’s artillery near the center of the line. Mari saw her setting up the guns and ordering the barrels to be lowered so that they aimed directly at the oncoming fighters.
“We wait,” Alain murmured.
“I know,” Mari muttered in reply. “You don’t have to remind me. Let the warlords’ forces get far enough from the city that our own forces can cut off their retreat.” She heard signal trumpets to the west and started to raise her far-seers. Mari deliberately paused, smiled in triumph as the mare took the bait and prematurely moved a step, then got the far-seers to her eyes and looked across the battlefield. “General Flyn is moving his forces in against the left side of the warlords and has our dragoons galloping to the north gate.” From the east the sound of Tiae’s battle drums ordering the advance rolled like distant thunder. She swung her gaze to the right. “Here come the Tiae dragoons. Tiae’s infantry is also moving up.”
Mari put away the far–seers and picked up the far-talker again. “Calu, what can you see in the city? Are there any fighters left near the gate?”
“I can’t see any near the gate,” Calu said. “There are a few small groups along the wall. I can’t tell who they are. That’s it.”
“Say hi for me!” Alli called from where she was helping reset the artillery.
“Alli says hi, Calu,” Mari relayed. “Check out the rest of the city again.”
“You got it.”
Mari caught a glimpse of Mage Alera’s Roc soaring high above the wall, then banking to glide back over the city so that Calu could see what else was happening in Minut.
“I think soon,” Alain said.
Mari judged the distance to the increasingly disorganized mass of fighters headed for the apparent weak point in the forces surrounding them. Heading for where she was. The warlords could see the soldiers of Tiae closing in on one side and Mari’s soldiers closing in on the other and were trying to outrace their attackers. “Alli? What do you think?”
“Are the dragoons in place?”
“Yeah. They’ve reached the gate and are dismounting now.”
“Then I think it’s time for some more payback against these guys!”
Mari knew what was about to happen, and no matter how necessary it was, it still left her unhappy and with a sick feeling in her stomach. “Go ahead, Alli. Rifles, hold your fire until they’re closer!”
Alli sighted along each artillery piece, then pointed at the gunners. The big guns roared as one.
Mari could see the black dots of the shells flying toward the enemy and striking near the front of the group. Twin explosions tore apart earth and any fighters unfortunate enough to be close to where the shells struck.
The warlords pushed their fighters harder, the mass breaking into a run toward where Mari sat on her horse atop the hill. The thin line of soldiers near her must look far too weak to slow them down, let alone stop the surging forces.
Alli’s big guns fired again, tearing two more holes in the attacking group.
“Open fire!” Mari yelled at her rifles, feeling an excitement and an urge to inflict justice on those who had preyed on those weaker than they for so long that warred with her earlier reluctance.
About thirty rifles opened fire from along the top of the hill. Even the old Mechanics Guild repeating rifles would have had an impact on such a concentrated mass of targets with that many firing, but Mari’s forces were using A-1 semi-automatic model rifles newly made by Alli’s workshops. Alli swore that the “A” stood for Advanced, but everyone else claimed the “A” stood for Alli. The A-1 rifles could fire much faster and more accurately than the Guild weapons.
The front rows of warlord fighters fell as if they had run into a wall, the rifles wreaking terrible havoc on them. Under the hail of fire and with their path blocked by the bodies of their fallen, the gangs of fighters stumbled to a halt.
Alli’s guns fired again. Mari’s rifles paused as all of her soldiers ejected spent clips and loaded new ones.
The rifles on the hill fired another volley. The renewed barrage broke what little discipline the warlords’ fighters had. What was left of the first group fell back into the second group, while the third group pressed on into the packed mass of confusion and added to the chaos.
Mari heard the staccato rattle of rifle fire and saw General Flyn’s infantry firing into the side of the enemy mass with more than a hundred weapons. The disorganized mob lurched away from the new threat, only to meet volleys of crossbow bolts and a few rifle shots from Princess Sien’s soldiers.
Turning back, the remnants of the warlords’ fighters saw their retreat to the city blocked by two lines of dismounted dragoons.
Flayed by fire from all sides, the fighters compressed so tightly they could no longer move as the outer layer of the mob tried to flee inward and the inner layers tried to flee outwards.
Mari stared, appalled, as the battle turned into a slaughter.
She yanked out her far-talker. “General! General Flyn! What are you doing?”
“Winning the fight, Lady,” Flyn replied, his voice sounding grim.
“We’re not giving them any chance to surrender!”
“They know what will happen to them if they surrender, Lady,” Flyn said. “You’ve seen what they’ve done to their victims in the areas around Minut.”
“I don’t care what they did! We are not them! Give them a chance to surrender, General!”
A pause, then Flyn’s voice came again. “I understand, Lady.”
“Hold your fire!” Mari yelled to her rifles on the hill. “I said hold your fire!”
As the soldiers near her reluctantly ceased wiping out the enemy, Mari could hear the sound of shots from the infantry with Flyn also dwindling. Tiae’s forces were still firing crossbows, but the damage they did was minor compared to that caused by Mari’s army.
General Flyn’s voice carried across the battlefield. “We will accept surrenders. Drop your weapons and walk slowly toward us with your empty hands held high!”
About twenty fighters hastened to comply, stumbling toward the ranks of Flyn’s infantry.
Most of them were ridden down by their own comrades as the surviving mounted fighters charged out of the mob, heading straight for Flyn’s soldiers in a desperate escape attempt.
Mari felt a mix of anger at the fighters and resignation over their fate as Flyn’s troops opened fire again.
None of the mounted soldiers made it to Flyn’s lines before dying, and now the army of Tiae had reached one side of the mob of warlord fighters and was coldly working vengeance on those who had helped terrorize the kingdom.
Some of the survivors bolted toward Mari’s position, running in blind panic. She waved to her cavalry commander, resigned to the necessity of the next order. “Send your forces to finish them. Take prisoners if you can.”
With whoops of exultation almost two hundred cavalry charged over the crest, through the ranks of the dismounted soldiers with rifles, and toward the remnants of the warlords’ armies. The banner of the new day flew over the cavalry as they leveled their lances at what was left of their enemy.
“It is well they came out to fight,” Alain said. “It will make it much easier to take the city.”
Mari grimaced. “That was the idea. Minut has suffered enough. The people still living there don’t deserve to have their city made into a battleground.”
“You said you wanted to avoid anything like Marandur,” Alain reminded her.
“I know. And we’ve achieved that. I’m sorry I can’t be too comforted by knowing that. Let’s—”
“Hold on!” Calu shouted loudly enough for Mari to understand him without raising the far-talker close to her ear. “A Roc just appeared down there! In the plaza in front of the abandoned Mage Guild Hall!”
“A Dark Mage?” Mari said. “I didn’t know there were Dark Mages who created Rocs.”
“I sense the spell,” Mage Asha said, “but it does not have the taint of a Dark Mage.”
“There’s a Mage climbing on the Roc!” Calu continued. “There! It’s in the air and…north! It’s heading north!”
“Back toward safe territory,” Mari said. “And toward us.” She called out to the dismounted cavalry who were still with her. “There’s another Roc heading this way! Not a friendly one! Wait to open fire until we identify which Roc is the bad bird!”
“I see it,” Alain said, pointing toward a dark spot in the sky low over the city of Minut.
“It is climbing slowly,” Asha said. “Is it overburdened?”
Mari brought up her far-talker. “Calu, was there only the one Mage on the Roc?”
“Yeah. Just the one. We’re following it toward you. It’s moving really fast.”
Raising her far-seers, Mari tried to spot the oncoming Roc, only to have the perverse mare side-step a few times. “Somebody hold this horse!”
One of the cavalry grabbed the mare’s reins so that Mari could dismount and look again.
There it was. The Roc was pumping its wings rapidly, growing visibly larger as it grew closer.
“Mari,” Alli said, peering through her own far-seers, “that bird isn’t just heading north. And it isn’t trying to get much higher. It’s heading straight for us.”
All of the horses were shifting about nervously now, as if they could sense the approach of the giant raptor. The cavalry on the hill fought to control their mounts as Alain dismounted as well, and Alli and her gun crews went to help hold the horses in the teams that had brought their artillery pieces.
“Target the Roc in the lead!” Mari yelled to the cavalry with rifles who were still on the hill. “Make sure you do not fire on the Roc behind it, and if you can’t tell which bird is hostile, do not shoot!”
She realized she had very little ability to judge the motion of something moving as fast as that Roc. No one had experience dealing with that kind of thing. Mari looked down long enough to free her pistol from its holster and let off the safety. “Alain, see if you can hit it with your fire spell.”
When Mari looked up again, the enemy Roc had gotten much, much closer.
And it wasn’t just heading for the group.
Mari could tell that it was diving straight at her.
Chapter Two
She brought up her pistol, holding it in a two-handed grip, and fired several shots at the Roc. The bullets had no effect that Mari could see, and she suddenly realized that if she did somehow kill the giant bird its huge, dead carcass would still be heading straight for her at high speed. Alain must have realized the same thing as he turned to run toward her, skidding on the grass as he tried to place himself between her and danger.
Only one tactic made sense. “Scatter!” Mari yelled as loudly as she could.
The horses hadn’t waited for Mari’s command, either dragging at the soldiers trying to hold them or breaking free and running with snorts and squeals of fear. She lunged at a riderless stallion racing past and managed to grab on to the saddle, holding on one-handed for a few moments while the horse dragged her across the grass.
The Roc’s claws, seeking Mari, hit the stallion’s other flank, knocking the horse over. Mari lost her grip as the horse fell. One flailing hoof grazed her hip hard, but she rolled clear of the animal, still somehow holding onto her pistol. Mari looked upward to see if the Roc posed an immediate threat. Seeing it climbing and momentarily not able to attack, she jerked her gaze around in search of Alain.
He was on the ground only a short distance away and already getting to his feet. Alain came to stand by her, gazing upward at the Roc.
Some of the rifles were firing, but the rifle fire fell off as the enemy Roc rose higher from its attack, winging over to come around and strike again. Mari cast glances to each side, trying to decide which way to dodge.
Another Roc hit the enemy bird, coming in from above and to the side, screaming a raptor’s battle cry.
Spinning away from the blow, the enemy Roc righted itself in mid-air and pumped its wings, shrieking defiance as it swung in to battle its attacker.
A second Roc appeared, slamming into the enemy bird.
As she knelt on the grass Mari caught glimpses of a fourth Roc approaching. She stared at the three giant raptors striking at each other about two hundred lances above her, their screeches deafening as the birds battled with wing, claw, and beak. In the flurry of strikes and flying feathers, Mari could no longer tell which two of the Rocs were controlled by her Mages and which one was the enemy.
A giant, dislodged feather plummeted to earth near her,
sticking quill first in the dirt like a cast spear.
The fourth Roc dove into the fight, catching the attacker by surprise. Its massive claws closed about the enemy Mage and plucked the rider from his or her seat, hurling the Mage away in a low arc.
Mari stared at the falling body, expecting the Mage’s arms and legs to flail helplessly. But the Mage stayed relaxed, accepting a fate that could not be altered.
Now unguided, the enemy Roc tried to climb away from its attackers, but Mari’s three hit and tore at it repeatedly, landing blows that staggered the bird until it, too, fell to earth, crashing with enough force to make the ground jump slightly.
Alli ran over to Mari as she shakily got to her feet. “Far-talker!” The instant Mari handed it over, Alli called frantically. “Calu! Answer me! Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m all right,” Calu said, though his voice sounded very wobbly. “I just held on as tightly as I could and hoped. Are you all right?”
“Yeah. We’re all right,” Alli said. “Are we all right? Yeah.”
Asha had somehow kept her seat on her panicky horse and was riding toward where the enemy Mage had fallen, her long knife in one hand.
Mari winced as she stood with Alain’s help.
“The Roc hurt you?” Alain said, for once having no trouble putting emotion into his words.
“No,” Mari said, gritting her teeth as she tested her weight on both legs. “I got kicked by a horse.”
“Welcome to the cavalry,” a healer in uniform said, running up to her. “You’ve just endured the traditional initiation.”
Mari grunted with pain as the healer pulled down one side of her trousers far enough to check the spot on her hip, probing carefully with his fingers. “Nothing is broken, Lady, but you’ll have a very impressive bruise there and walking will be a bit painful for a while.”
“Thanks,” Mari said. “Go see if anyone was hurt worse than I was.”
“I could not strike it with fire,” Alain said as the healer went off to check others who might be injured. Alain’s words, usually clear and precise, came out like a fumbling apology. “It moved too fast. My fire always fell behind it.”