Chapter Twenty Eight:

Trumpet blasts echoed through the streets of the Tenth. The entire Genti army was standing ready to face their enemy.

Hart gripped his sword hilt tighter, his hands slick with anticipation. The Somali ships were just visible on the horizon. He doubted the soldiers on the shore could see the ships, they were only just visible from Hart’s vantage point on a sea mine. Conan had assigned Hart to the buildings floating on the river delta. He, and a few dozen other soldiers, were tasked with keeping the mages alive if the mines were boarded by the enemy. Hart also had the responsibility of calling the attacks on the incoming fleets. For this reason, he was situated in the centre most mine of the three occupied by defenders.

“Prefectus,” said Hart’s second in command, Ethan. “We are ready when you are.”

“Thank you, Ethan. Prepare the signal.” Hart drew his sword, drawing comfort in its familiar weight. “They will be here in a matter of minutes.”

A tense silence filled the dank confines of the mine. The mages ducked awkwardly under windows or pressed up against walls. They were under strict instructions not to be seen and, as a result, they didn't dare peek at the approaching enemy. Not being able to see the approaching Somali ships only served to make the unseasoned mages uneasy.

As the ships got closed, Ethan shifted nervously.

“Prefectus, should I signal an attack?” he whispered.

“Not yet.” Hart knew that the enemies would not expect troops in the sea mines, there would be no reason to deploy troops there unless they had the ability to attack ships at long range. Even archers wouldn't be effective against ships. The invaders had no idea about the Lowland mages or their abilities. Hart wanted the ships close enough for their first attack to be as devastating as possible, without allowing the ships too near as to put the Lowlanders in danger.

Hart held up a steady hand to the mage preparing the signal.

Just a little closer. A few seconds more. Now!

Sparks flew as the mage signaled the other two mines to attack. As one, the mages rose from their crouched positions and stepped into the open. With practiced ease, they sent a blade of air rippling out over the open water, catching the enemy ship’s open sails and causing chaos.

The oncoming ships had their sails rigged for the breeze following them into shore from behind them. The sudden, violent shift of wind direction sent canvas snapping and the boom of the sail swinging wildly. The nearest ship was so close that Hart could hear the groaning and snapping of the rigging as the stress their artificial wind became too much. Hart saw an opportunity to cause even more panic and called for another attack. Sparks flew and the mages’ second wave of high speed wind sent the already reeling ships careening towards the open sea. Three of the ten attacking ships were facing completely the opposite direction but it was the two ships nearest the sea mines that bour the brunt of the attack. With the sound of shrieking wood, the ships’ masts snapped and fell into the ocean.

Their crews scrambled to cut the rigging still attaching the ruined masts to the rest of the two ships. One ship managed to cut through enough ropes to free the mast which sunk below the surface of the water, snaring some unfortunate crew members in the ropes and canvas and dragging them down as well.

The other was not so lucky.

The weight of the mast had dragged the starboard side of the ship down to sea level. Before the crew was able to cut the mast free, water was already rushing aboard, further unbalancing the ship. As more water rushed in, more crew were swept off their feet or forced overboard. By the time the ropes were cut and the mast freed, the ship was already sinking below the waves.

A lot of the crew would survive, being this close to shore. They would just have to latch onto any floating bit of wreckage and float to shore or to another ship. Most likely, they would be exhausted and not much use in battle. Their first attack had been a success.

“Okay, now we keep them busy,” Hart said to Ethan.

Enemy ships were making it to shore. Kaia was receiving constant updates of their progress from her place at the command centre. Hart was doing his job, keeping almost a third of the Somali’s ships locked in battle at sea. The mages were keeping them away from the mines by churning up the waters surrounding the buildings and attacking them from afar with their air magic. It would be difficult for them to sink another ship with just magic, but every soldier tied up in a battle at sea, slowly getting picked off by the mages, was a soldier that was not able to storm the shores. Conan knew splitting the enemy up and spreading them out was a good way to offset their superior numbers.

“They are approaching our first blockage,” Kaia informed Conan. “Barricade Three.”

Hue stood behind the protective earthen wall of Barricade Three, listening to their enemies approach.

“I guess this is it then,” Hue said to himself. He glanced up at his man on the roof. Each barricade had a soldier on the roof whose job was to pass instructions between the archers and mages on the roof and those waiting behind the barricade. According to the soldier, the approaching enemy was fifty metres away and closing in.

Hue doubted this group of soldiers had come across any of the other Genti barricades dotted amongst the streets. They would have no idea what their tactics were. Hue waited until they were twenty metres away from their position before calling for the archers and mages to strike.

The result was lethal.

Over a third of the advancing soldiers were taken down, either injured or dead, in that first attack. Those who survived uninjured were impeded by the bodies of their comrades. They were forced to climb over or drag away the dead and injured, all the while being bombarded with a deadly rain of arrows and magic.

The ensuing long range attacks were not as effective as that first barrage. The advancing Somali troops had learned to take cover behind their shields.

Eventually their enemy reached the barricade and began climbing. Once they reached the rock wall, it was too risky for the mages to attack them; they were too close to the defenders and there was always a chance that a badly aimed magical attack could weaken the earthen wall protecting the ground troops. It was down to Hue and his soldiers to fend them off.

Each barricade came equipped with a ledge running along the inside edge for the Genti soldiers to stand on. There was no need for them to climb with one hand and fight with the other as the enemy was forced to do. The defenders were armed with long spears and poles, which they used to push the Somali attackers off the shear earthen wall and back down onto the points of their comrade’s swords or into the line of fire of the arrows and magic being poured down on them.

“How many of the barricades are engaged?” Conan asked Kaia. They were pouring over a map of the Tenth. Kaia moved some of the chips identifying the enemy’s positions.

“Barricades Three through to Seven are fully engaged, as well a Nine and Twelve,” Kaia informed him. “Barricade Eleven has been overwhelmed, but most of the rooftop teams survived. It was too costly for the invaders to take the buildings.”

“Send those survivors to reinforce Barricades Three and Seven,” Conan ordered. Kaia quickly scribbled a note. “They are our most tactically valuable positions and must be held at all costs.”

Kaia sent her notes out, attached to the legs of some sparrows.

“Prefectus, they are climbing to the roofs,” a soldier informed Hue. The enemy soldiers had largely abandoned their costly attempts to scale the earthen barricade. They were now heading for higher ground, attempting to use the Genti’s own tactics against them. From a higher vantage point, the Somali soldiers could shoot over the barricade, into the ranks of the defenders.

“Okay, let’s take cover then,” Hue told the soldier, who let out three short trumpet blasts. Immediately, the defending soldiers dropped down from the top of their barricade and took cover under the ledge they had previously been standing on. At the same time, the rooftop defenders ducked behind shields and barriers set up along the rooftop for just this eventuality.

“I was wondering when this would eventually occur to them,” Hue remarked dryly from his crouched position. Almost as soon as he said this, arrows began peppering the dirt about five metres in front of them. Very few arrows got any closer to their position than five or so metres because of the angle the invaders were forced to shoot from. Their rooftops were a lot further away from the walls than the rooftops the mages were shooting from. The positions of the barricades were chosen for this very reason; the mages could shoot almost directly down at the invaders, but the roofs on the opposite side of the structure were far enough away that the high barricade still protected the soldiers on the ground. This also meant that the invaders could not simply jump from roof to roof, until they were on the opposite side of the barrier.

Impraefectus Conan had actually ordered the destruction of homes too close to the barricades to be sure of this gap.

“I think, they think we are idiots,” remarked a soldier to Hue. The soldier was busy picking out the dirt from under his nails with a dagger, confident in the safety of the packed dirt he was leaning on.

“You know, that almost made sense,” Hue teased. The soldier grinned at him. The watched the arrows thud harmlessly into ground for a few more minutes.

“Okay, I think we have let them waste enough ammunition,” declared Hue. He nodded to his trumpet barer. “Light them up.”

Two more longer trumpet blasts rang out, almost deafening Hue in the confines of the make-shift cave.

The mages and soldiers responded immediately to the trumpet blasts, shooting fire and burning arrows, not at the enemy, but into the basements and lower levels of the buildings they were standing on. Earlier in the day, Conan had ordered that these levels be filled with hay and lamp oil and pretty much any flammable material they could find. The buildings went up in flames faster than Hue had expected.

While they were watching it burn, a lookout informed Hue or reinforcements heading their way from one of the other barricades.

“We are going to need them,” observed Hue, who was poking his head over the wall, watching as more Somal soldiers approached their position.

“Get ready, boys!”

There is alot of chopping and changing in the battle sequence. Let me know if you can follow it okay.

Before I get on with my usual bonus: shameless plug alert. This work is almost over (only one very short chap after this one) so it's time to find something else to read! Please read/vote/comment on my new work. Chapter three has just gone up. It's called My beauty.

Bonus:

Have you ever wondered why there isn't much fighting in Genticus? It's because of their magic. Most of the population has at lease some ability to sense emotion so it makes sense that they don't go out and start war when they can feel their enemies dying or wounded or scared.

This is especially true for Kaia. She is the most skilled empath in the First. In this chapter, she can feel every single person fighting and dying. Could you imagine keeping a cool head like she does in this chapter when feeling the pain and suffering and fear of hundreds of people? Before the sighting starts, Navihm asks her to shut them out as much as she is able. She refuses.

I actually like this bonus so much that I think I will include it in a later draft. It says a lot about her strength. What do you think?