Chapter XXXVI

Gianni gathered his forces at the Domford Bridge, west of the March of Nagav but east of the Arxian capital. He brought with him not only his own knights, and hundreds of knights from other western city-states, but also by a small contingent of paladins and geomancers, just to give that extra edge they'd need. Likely they would be facing a much larger force there, so they wanted to be ready for it.

Along the banks of the river he had the soldiers with longbows lined up, with small wooden shields embedded into the ground in front of them so that they could take shelter when the enemy fired back. Dispersed in between these archers were the geomancers. Half-way across the bridge he had soldiers wielding pikes lined up and ready, prepared to keep the enemy back should they attempt to cross.

In the field before the bridge, on the side the enemy would be coming from, they set up bear-traps, hidden by the tall grass.

Shamira, one of Queen Aryn's bodyguards, was among the paladins sent to Domford Bridge. She'd been given the authority to give orders on behalf of the Queen there, and otherwise to speak for her.

“If the enemy attacks on horseback it will be hard to hold the bridge, won't it?”

“If they try to lead a cavalry charge across the bridge it will be a disaster for them. You haven't been in many real battles, have you?”

Shamira scratched her head, surprised for a moment at how harsh the metal gauntlet she was wearing felt against her scalp. “Only mock battles, actually.”

Gianni rolled his eyes. “They send their people on horseback here and they'll meet with both pikes and arrows. If a man on foot falls he simply collapses where he is. If a horse stops suddenly, whether its because the horse is avoiding a pike or because the horse has been killed, the horse throws the rider off. Furthermore, all horses behind that one have a hard time stopping in time, and soon you have them all crashing together. No, what we have to worry about are infantry and archers.”

“I see. Where should I be for this battle?” Shamira asked.

“Stand with the pikemen,” Gianni said. “When the enemy gets in close be ready to defend them. Once the enemy's past the ends of their pikes they'll be at a disadvantage.”

“Yes, Sire,” Shamira said, saluting him and walking over to stand with the pikemen.

Scouts had reported a large enemy force on its way to Domford Bridge, and everyone was on edge, anticipating when the enemy army would arrive. There was a constant chatter as the soldiers all waited for the enemy army to arrive. One particular archer fidgeted with his bowstring in boredom, only to have it snap and whip him in the face. Gianni gave him a quick reprimand and sent him back to the camp to seek medical attention.

As the sun began to set they saw the enemy army approach. Over two-thousand soldiers marched on the bridge, but to those defending the bridge it looked like two-million. On the initial part of the approach they'd made sure to spread out across the horizon, making sure that it looked like there were many times more of them than there actually were. As they drew closer they gradually formed into an almost straight line, ten soldiers abreast, narrow enough for them to fit across the bridge. From within their ranks the archers filed out, each carrying bows taller than they were, and quivers full of arrows with razor-sharp heads. They formed their own lines, two deep, and began knocking arrows to their bows.

“Ready!” Gianni shouted at his archers on the other side of the river. All of the archers knocked arrows to their bows, ready to rain down their missiles upon the enemy. “Take aim!” The archers raised their bows high into the air, taking into account the arc and the wind. Those closest to the bridge aimed such that their arrows would fall upon the marching infantry, whereas the archers further from the bridge prepared to fire back upon the enemy archers, who, in turn, prepared a volley for them. “Hold!” Gianni called out.

One of the archers, his hands sweating with fear at seeing the enemy, accidentally let his arrow slip. Seeing an arrow in the air, several more archers, so far down the line that they had not heard Gianni's orders, loosed their arrows.

“NO! HOLD!” Gianni yelled, but with the whistling of the other arrows, and the confusion that ensued from seeing so many arrows flying, all of the archers loosed their arrows, and they watched as all of their arrows rained down just short of the enemy army.

The enemy commander smiled at this folly and shouted to her foot-soldiers “CHARGE!” All of the infantry soldiers took off in a full charge at the bridge. The first few lines were armed with long spears, the next few lines with short spears and shields, and the lines after them were armed with swords, axes, and shields.

“Damn it!” Gianni shouted, “You idiots! Knock arrows!” His archers brought arrows to their bows, but just as they did so they heard the whistling of the enemy arrows coming down upon them. They hid behind their wooden shields the best they could, but there was little cover from the missiles coming down on them like hail. Many of Gianni's archers were hit by surprise. Arrows took them in the chest, neck, or stomach. Several of those who had successfully gotten out of the way in time had to drop their bows and the arrows knocked to the bowstring.

The geomancers standing with Gianni's archers waved their hands forward and crystal shards flew over the rushing river, piercing through the archers on the other side.

Those soldiers wielding pikes on the bridge found themselves growing increasingly nervous as the archers failed to rain arrows on the enemy army during their initial approach. Usually in a battle like this the archers would help thin the numbers that defenders on a bridge faced. They'd shoot several of them down before they got in close. In this case the pikemen would take the full brunt of the attack, and they braced themselves.

The shafts of pikes and long spears slipped past each other, and the first lines of infantry of both armies were almost completely lost. Immediately the next line stepped in. They rushed forward and shouted wildly as they stabbed at their enemies, or swung around and tried to knock them into the water below. Only a handful of soldiers actually fell off of the bridge. The weight of their armor dragged them under the water. Those in the next lines for both sides were forced to step over, or even walk on their fallen comrades.

Shamira ran into the fray, shield first. She deflected the heads of enemy spears, until she could get close. Her diamond-bladed long-sword cut through her enemies' armor, and those enemies coming up on her flanks met with a hard strike from her shield. Some of the enemy soldiers raised their shields in their own defense, only to have her blade cut through that as well, slicing their forearms off. Most had the sense to fall back after such injuries, though a few Shamira found herself having to behead to make sure they'd stop fighting. Pike-heads, wielded by her allies, slid past her and stabbed the enemy soldiers as they got close. Some of the enemy soldiers had managed to slip past her, though, and started to cut down the pikemen behind her. Shamira rounded on them, attacked them from behind, while striking out with her shield to stun the other attackers in the moment that she turned her back towards them.

The pikemen fell back, and Gianni's archers, having been hit yet again with a volley, were starting to retreat as well. Even the geomancers had either been shot down or were in full retreat.

“Hold the bridge!” King Gianni called out, “Hold the bridge!”

The enemy archers unleashed another volley of arrows down on Gianni's soldiers holding the bridge. The volley cut through some of the middle and back ranks. As Gianni could see the enemy archers preparing to unleash another volley of arrows upon his soldiers, and he saw them falling back at the bridge, he realized that it was unlikely they'd be able to hold the bridge. If they stood and fought all that they would accomplish would be greater casualties on both sides. As much as he romanticized the idea of a noble death on the battlefield, this was not the time for it. Already, those pikemen who fell back were tripping over their own fallen comrades. While the few paladins among them held their own, it wouldn't be long before the paladins were the only ones holding the bridge.

“Retreat!” Gianni called out, and immediately the soldiers on the bridge began to turn and run. The paladins glanced back at Gianni, wondered for a moment if he was serious, and then joined in the full retreat. More arrows rained down on them as they fled, and the enemy army marched in to take control of the bridge.

. . .

When Mahla and the Dunn Banner arrived in Laherig they expected a warm greeting. Certainly now that she was their duchess, and soon to be their queen, the people of the County of Laherig would welcome her, if not out of love than out of fear of retribution if she did not. To her surprise, as she and her knights arrived at the first town in Laherig they found that most of the windows had curtains drawn over them. There were only a few people walking the streets, and as Mahla and her entourage approached these people ran inside and slammed the doors. One woman, very briefly, gave Mahla a pleading look, before she slammed the door shut.

“What's with everyone?” Mahla asked Lila.

“We might still look like just mercenaries to them,” Lila told her. “They may have received word that they had a new duchess in charge of this area, and they may have even heard a description of you. Doesn't mean they'll recognize you.”

Mahla turned back to the rest of her knights, “We're only a few hours' away from the castle, but who wants to stop for a drink?” Each member of the Dunn Banner, it seemed, voiced approval for this plan, grins wide across their faces. Mahla chuckled, “Alright, there's a tavern right over there, looks big enough for us.”

Truly the tavern would have been just barely big enough to accommodate five-hundred customers, and that's only if no customers were present other than the Dunn Banner, and if they only had one or two drinks each. Mahla was sure they were about to either put this tavern out of business, or give its owner the most lucrative day ever.

As Mahla drew close to the door, however, the bar-tender came out and shook her head at Mahla and her knights. She was a woman of about forty years, short and stout, with a rough-looking face and short, brown hair. “I'm sorry, we're closed,” she said, in a husky voice.

“Closed?” Mahla repeated. Through the dirty windows she could barely make out the shapes of several large people inside. “Are you sure?” Mahla asked.

The bar-tender gave Mahla a pleading look, same as the woman who'd run off inside of her house earlier. “Yes. We're closed for business. No one is welcome in the tavern right now.”

An interesting choice of words. Mahla realized then that the woman wanted her to insist on going inside. Something very wrong was going on in this little town, and she needed to figure out what it was. “Don't you know who I am?” Mahla asked. She raised her voice so that those inside were likely to hear her.

“No, sirrah,” the bar-tender responded.

“Sirrah? You will address me as 'My Lady,' or perhaps even 'Your Majesty!' I am Duchess Mahla, ruler of Laherig, and rightful Queen of Arx! Now, if I want to enter your tavern I'll damn well go where I please! Step aside!”

The stout bar-tender tried to hide her smile as she stepped aside and let Mahla past, “Yes, your Majesty.”

Mahla drew her sword and kicked open the door of the tavern, with five of her knights close behind her. No sooner had she kicked open the doors then she immediately jumped to one side as arrows came flying at her from within. Before she'd dodged aside she'd gotten a brief glimpse of those inside the tavern. Judging by their immense size, their mostly fur clothes, and the men's braided beards, these were warriors from Shadia, the land to the north, which was always frozen and cold. What were warriors from Shadia doing in Arx?

Mahla gave the gesture for her knights to prepare their crossbows and dropped to her knees, hiding behind her shield. The knights nearest her, all armed with swords, axes, and maces, did the same, each of them almost completely covered with a shield. Mahla stepped into the open doorway again and caught the next barrage of arrows on her shield as the Shadia warriors loosed again. Those knights behind her managed to block the incoming arrows as well. The knights who'd prepared their crossbows took this as their cue and rounded the corner. They fired their bolts in at the Shadia warriors. The warriors inside were struck in the chest, shoulders, and occasionally neck or legs. Those who survived the barrage turned over tables and ducked behind them, dropping their short bows and drawing swords.

“Charge!” Mahla shouted, and she rose to her feet, running into the tavern with her sword held high. Her knights followed, right behind her. The Shadian warriors attempted to stand again as they realized that they were vulnerable now to short-range weapons so long as they crouched. As the Shadians tried to stand to defend themselves, though, Mahla's knights stabbed them with their swords, or bashed them in the face with their shields. “Leave one alive!” Mahla called out.

The warriors further in the tavern, as they saw what had happened to their comrades, were better prepared, and grabbed bottles of whiskey, throwing them at the approaching knights as a distraction. While Mahla's knights covered their eyes, shielding themselves from the broken glass and splashing liquor, the Shadian warriors charged them. They rushed in and brought their large, two-handed swords down on them.

“Gopher!” Mahla shouted. It was a code-word that everyone in the Dunn Banner knew, but that would confuse the Shadian warriors. All of the knights in the tavern ducked again and held shields over their heads. More crossbow bolts filled the air, piercing the chests of the confused Shadian warriors. Mahla took advantage of the shock and cut the Achilles tendon of the nearest Shadian warrior. As that warrior fell over, screaming and clutching his leg, she sprung up and stabbed the next nearest warrior through the gut. One of the other Shadians swung his sword at her, but she moved the dead Shadian, her sword still in his gut, into the way of the blade. For a moment, the warrior's blade was stuck in the dead Shadian's shoulder, which allowed one of Mahla's other knights to bash him over the head with a mace.

Mahla and her knights finished off the few remaining Shadian warriors in the tavern, severing the hands of the lone survivor and pressing his wrists into the fireplace to cauterize his wounds.

“You!” Mahla shouted at him. “I have questions for you!”

But before she could ask any of her questions she heard a horrible, booming roar. She and her knights looked out the windows of the tavern to see Shadian warriors, hundreds of them, bursting out the doors of every house, weapons in their hands. They let out their terrifying war-cries before they rushed Mahla's knights.

An ambush. Mahla should have suspected this and prepared for it, but her knights knew what to do. This wasn't the first time they'd been taken by surprise. Those armed with swords and axes stepped between the Shadian warriors and those still holding crossbows as they switched from crossbows to spears. Through the gaps between their allies the Dunn Banner knights struck at the Shadians with their spears. While the Shadians were terrifyingly strong, and their savage fighting style was well-known throughout Erets, the Dunn Banner knights had discipline, and fought as one unit. They held their ground against the Shadian barbarians.

“Watch him!” Mahla ordered her knights before she charged out of the tavern to join in the battle. A Shadian's great war-hammer came flying at her head the instant she left the tavern, but she dropped to her knees in time and slashed both of the warrior's thighs. She then rolled, returned to her feet, and jumped into the battle.

Before her, Mahla saw something in the air shift, looking somewhat like what one sees over a road on a hot day, the water in the air. Before she could even process what she'd seen, she saw one of her own knights fall, stabbed in the back by some invisible blade.

“Svar warriors!” Mahla cried out, and in an instant all of the Dunn Banner knew what she was meant. The Svar warriors were warrior women who fought while covered in a strange paint which allowed them to be invisible on the battlefield. Rumors said that the bear gods of Shadia blessed this paint, ensuring that the light of the sun would never reveal them, which made them horrible to fight during the day but easy to fight at night.

All of Mahla's knights were immediately on guard, fighting not just the Shadian warriors they could see, but swinging widely so that they might have a chance to strike enemies they had not seen.

Mahla had to think fast here, restore her knights' advantage. The sun was setting, but nowhere near fast enough, and if the Svar were in anything other than direct sunlight they would be visible. Indeed, as she watched the battle in the town rage on she saw some of the Svar women step into the shadows for a moment. In the shade they were visible.

Mahla spotted the solution. The sun was positioned just behind the steeple of the town's temple, which just barely provided a shadow over the battlefield. Without hesitation she grabbed a burlap sack off of the ground and ran to the temple, “Lila, with me!” she shouted.

From within the Shadian's ranks, Lila seemingly appeared, cut down the two Shadian warriors closest to her, and ran to the temple with Mahla. Both of them pushed the doors shut behind them, and Lila shoved a pew up against the doors.

“I assume you have a plan?”

“To the bell tower!” Mahla shouted. “Move!” The two of them ran up the stairs.

In the bell tower, though, stood an old woman, clothed in the fur of a grizzly bear. Her eyes were as white as her hair, and her chin pointed, with tiny gray hairs coming off of it. For a moment the sight of this old woman was so unsettling that Mahla and Lila didn't notice the two huge lumps of fur on either side of the bell tower.

The old woman snarled and growled as Mahla entered the bell tower, though the sounds she made did not seem to be directed at them. To their surprise, the two lumps of fur in the tower rose up on four legs and turned to face Mahla and Lila. Two brown bears snarled and bared their teeth at the two young women.

“Cover your ears!” Mahla said, rushing straight at the old woman.

“Seriously?” Lila shouted, not sure how she was supposed to defend herself from two bears and cover her ears at the same time.

Mahla sheathed her sword as she got closer to the old woman, and one of the bears took into a full run to intercept her. Just as the bear got in her way, though, Mahla leaped, kicked the bear's nose, and grabbed the dangling rope of the largest of the bells in the tower. The bell's loud “gong” reverberated through the tower, and while Lila managed to cover her ears in time, the bears and the old woman were not so lucky. Mahla suffered from the intensity of the sound as well, but she was grateful to at least have been prepared for it. Carrying the momentum forward, she leaped to the edge of the tower, strapped her shield to her back, and began to climb the shingles on the roof of the temple to get to the steeple. The two brown bears were close behind Mahla, and their claws narrowly missed her feet as she climbed up out of view.

Lila took the opportunity, slipped up behind the old woman, and pushed one of her daggers into her back, covering her mouth so that she would not scream and alert the two bears.

The bears scrambled to climb up the roof after Mahla. Their claws broke the stone shingles, their weight made the roof creak and crack under them. As she scrambled for the steeple, Mahla kicked at the bears pursuing her, trying to make them lose their balance and fall off the roof.

When she reached the steeple, she held on with one hand and drew her sword. She swung it at the bears in pursuit. One of the two bears lost its footing and slipped. The first bear fell into the one behind it, and the two of them crashed to the ground under the temple. With a triumphant smile, Mahla cut the burlap sack and hung it from the steeple. She then sheathed her sword and spread out the sack as wide as she could, casting as large a shadow over the battlefield below as she could.

With the Svar warriors revealed, the Shadians began to flee. They left the town as quickly as they could, even dropped their weapons so that they could run faster. Mahla's knights were on the two brown bears in seconds. They stabbed them with their spears and bashed them over the head with maces and war-hammers.

Once Mahla had climbed back down from the steeple, she returned to the tavern, where they held the one prisoner. She held her sword under his nose, “Now, talk, you bastard! Why are there Shadian warriors in Arx? Speak quickly, or I swear I'll cut off your nose next!”

“Prince Eilert is leading the invasion of northern Arx!” the prisoner said.

“Prince Eilert?” Mahla had heard something about this Shadian prince. He was among the suitors who had tried to woo Queen Aryn, one of those whom she passed up for Prince Paolo. “Why?”

“Our spies said Arx was weak,” the prisoner said, his eyes on his reflection in Mahla's sword. “You're in the middle of a civil war, most of the soldiers in the March of Mt. Marwah have gone south to help fight the war, and the County of Laherig is without a countess.”

“You came through Mt. Marwah?”

“We razed Mt. Marwah,” the prisoner responded.

A chill washed over Mahla. Even with most of the warriors from the March down near the capital invading Marwah was no small feat. The landscape gave the defenders a huge advantage, a handful of soldiers was all it should take to defend most of the mountain passes.

“Where is Prince Eilert now?” Mahla demanded.

“He's still at Castle Laherig, I believe,” the prisoner said.

“How many warriors with him?”

“I don't know...”

“Take a guess,” Mahla said.

“Maybe fifty-thousand?”

Mahla dearly hoped this was an exaggeration.

“What do we do with him?” one of Mahla's knights asked.

“I say we hand him over to the people of this town,” said another of the knights. “They held these people hostage, they know what he deserves.”

“He gave us the information we wanted,” Mahla said. “There ought to be a reward for that...but there's obviously no chance he'll leave here alive.” With one swift moment Mahla pushed her sword up under the prisoner's ribs and pierced his heart.

“You're going after Prince Eilert, aren't you?” Lila asked.

“Of course I am,” said Mahla as she cleaned her sword. “He's taken what's mine, murdered my people. I want my castle, and I want justice!”

“It's a fool's errand,” Lila said. “Why not wait until you're officially Queen and then lead the royal army here, along with all of the armies of Arx?”

“After that conflict we'll be nowhere near strong enough, and the Shadians will have fortified themselves here in Laherig. No, Prince Eilert needs to be dealt with first, then we can resume our coup.”

“We only have five hundred knights!” Lila said. “Probably less than that, after that battle. Even if Eilert doesn't truly have fifty-thousand warriors we still don't have enough to beat him, nowhere near enough.”

“Then let's see if some of these people are willing to fight with us,” said Mahla. “We just saved them, some of them are bound to be grateful enough to want to help us.”

When Mahla and Lila exited the tavern again they found that the people of the town had all gathered around the battlefield. Some of them walked up to the bodies of fallen Shadian warriors and clubbed them over the head with hammers to make sure they truly were dead.

Mahla looked around at the townspeople and said, “Listen to me! Listen! I don't know how long this town was under these Shadians' oppression, how long you all suffered as their hostages, but I am certain there are other towns in Laherig where they are suffering the same fate you suffered. I understand that many of you are now looking at your loved ones, glad that you'll get to hold them again, but I want you also to understand how many other Arxians throughout this county might not be so lucky, unless we do something! The Shadians have taken our towns hostage, even taken Castle Laherig. We can drive them out of this town, but if we stop there they will be back. I say we strike back, bring them justice, make them pay for what they have done, and make examples of their people. We want to make sure they never do something like this again! I need everyone able-bodied to help me in this fight to restore freedom to Laherig and drive these murderers and rapists out of our home!”

All the while, whilst Mahla was speaking, Lila had been sneaking her way into the crowd, hiding towards the back. When Mahla's speech concluded Lila shouted, “YEAH!” Those next to her knew she was one of Mahla's followers and thus were not convinced, but those closer to Mahla, further from the back, simply heard cheering behind them, and joined in. As Mahla looked over the crowd, though, she realized something that she hadn't noticed before; there weren't very many able-bodied people. Most of the population was made up of either children or the elderly. People in their teens to forties just generally seemed to be gone. Most of those in that age group present were missing a hand, missing an eye, walking on crutches, or otherwise looked sickly. Most of the able-bodied commoners, even in Laherig, it seemed, had gone off to join the militia fighting on behalf of Queen Aryn.

When her speech seemed to have added less than one-hundred soldiers to her cause Mahla began to realize that they were going to need to find some other way to defeat Prince Eilert and his warriors.