There is something about the vibrations in the air and ground … and Lerial realizes that all the Meroweyan foot are marching in time.
Just before the shieldwall reaches the point between the two marked trees, Lerial orders, “Second company! Strike and light!” He waits until he is certain that all the fire arrows are ready, then orders, “First volley! Fire! Strike and light!”
More than four score flaming shafts arch over the barricade and drop down behind the shield wall into the massed foot. Lerial can see no change. The Meroweyans keep marching.
“Second volley! Fire!”
Now it is fifth company’s turn, and Lerial watches as Shaskyn’s rankers release their two volleys. He can also see Meroweyan armsmen trying to beat out flames here and there, but the foot are so close together that it would be difficult for an individual to break and flee.
“Second company! Strike and light!” Lerial waits only until most arrows are lit before ordering, “Third volley! Fire! Strike and light!”
Even before the fire arrows from that volley are sheeting down into the Meroweyan forces, a chaos-bolt arches from farther back in the attacking force and flares into the middle of the barricade, where vines, sticks, and even a post go up in flames … but the hole is little more than two yards wide.
“Fourth volley! Fire! Strike and light!” Lerial can see that the fire arrows are beginning to disrupt and slow the attackers on foot, and there is jostling and even some gaps in the formation.
Two more firebolts sail over the front ranks of the attackers, now little more than fifty yards from the barricade, and burn another set of openings in the barricade, but three gaps in over a hundred yards are not nearly enough to allow the Meroweyan advance to continue, not at more than a crawl.
The next set of fire-arrow volleys from fifth company sheet into the massed armsmen, and a horn signal sounds. The advance halts.
Two more firebolts flare into the barricade, and then another two, and then two more … and another two. The last pair are decidedly weaker, but most of the barricade that had barred the road itself has vanished.
Another horn signal sounds, and the shieldmen surge forward, pushing through the ashen remains of the barricade and past the few remaining untouched sections, and Lerial sees that they all wear uniforms of a dull golden brown. Almost in a detached fashion, he also realizes that until that moment, he has never actually seen any of the Meroweyans that close, not in daylight and close enough to see the color of their uniforms.
Some of the shieldmen try to use their shields and belt knives to make their way through the places not burned away, but quickly give up and move toward the openings blasted by the firebolts, and all of them slow, some stumbling, when they come up against the packed earth behind it. Many lose their footing in trying to climb over, not seeing the staked ditch immediately beyond the earth, and plunge into the ditch.
A horn call follows, and the advance stops.
Someone issues a command and the shieldmen begin to use their shields to flatten the ditch stakes in the middle of the road.
“Second company! Strike and light!” Lerial orders. “Direct fire at the shieldmen!”
The hardened wood-tipped arrows and their flaming heads will not do nearly so much damage as war arrows, but they will wound and disable some.
Lerial nods as he sees that Shaskyn has ordered the same, then orders, “Strike and light! Fire at will!”
More flaming arrows fly toward the struggling shieldmen, but Lerial can see that they will soon have a pathway of dirt and shields over the first ditch. He also sees the massed foot clearing the remnants of the barricade, and several shieldmen are breaking down the low earthen wall behind where the others are building up a way across the two-yard-wide staked ditch.
That means horsemen!
Lerial looks across to Shaskyn. “Fifth company! Withdraw! Now!” Then he watches as Shaskyn’s squads cease shooting and begin to withdraw.
“Second company! Strike and light! Last volley! Fire!” Lerial checks to make sure that all the fifth company squads are clear and headed north before he orders, “Second company! Stow bows! Turn and withdraw! Turn and withdraw! Deliberate speed!”
Even as he issues the command, he can see horsemen in brown uniforms surging up the road.
“Withdraw now!”
Second company needs no further urging, but Lerial hangs back to make certain all his rankers are accounted for. He takes a quick look south, but it is hard to tell what the toll may have been on the lead elements of the Meroweyan force. Finally, as fourth squad canters past him to the north, Lerial swings in behind them, but he keeps looking back over his shoulder, watching as the Meroweyan horsemen ride down the middle of the road, then narrow to single file through the barricade and over the open ditch-only to have the first two plunge into the second covered ditch.
If only we had more war arrows. But they don’t. We don’t have enough of anything.
Lerial keeps checking over his shoulder, but the Meroweyan advance has slowed, not quite come to a halt-and even if it had, it would have been a very temporary one, Lerial knows.
By the time he reaches the turn to the eastern lane, he sees uniformed riders moving forward once more, and several carry burning torches.
Should you have stayed and tried to remove more of them?
Much as he knows what will happen to Nevnarnia, once the Meroweyans have gotten through the barrier and over the ditches with any force, second company would have still had to withdraw-retreat-or take terrible casualties in blade-to-blade fighting. And it wouldn’t have done anything to stop them.
As he rides up the eastern lane to the north and east road back to the main road, Lerial looks at all the dwellings-all shuttered and empty. At least, he hopes they are empty. Then he rides forward to the front of second company. He cannot help but wonder what will happen to the older couple whose argument he had overheard the day before. Will they perish as well in the flames that will sweep through Nevnarnia? Or die shooting arrows at overwhelming Meroweyan forces? Or will they escape into the woods, pursued by flames or angry Meroweyans?
LXVI
Lerial keeps a close watch on the main road behind second company as they ride northeast toward the meeting point described by Altyrn, especially since he does not recall the creek or the bridge mentioned by the majer. Shouldn’t you? His first thought is that there is no reason he should, since it had been almost a season ago and since, until today, he has only ridden this section of road that one time. Yet he suspects that Altyrn remembers all aspects of a road after riding it just once. Does his father? Or Lephi? About their recollections, Lerial has his doubts.
All he can do now is try to keep track of the distance they cover, but in the end it does not matter-this time-because once they pass over a bridge after what he thinks have been five kays, he sees that fifth company has already reined up several hundred yards past the bridge, and that Shaskyn is talking to a squad leader. He halts second company and rides forward to join the other two.
“Captain,” offers the squad leader, “Majer Altyrn sent me to lead the way to Ironwood.” The young Verdyn Lancer grins. “It’s not hard to find. Three more kays on the right side of the road.”
“Do you know what happened with the majer’s company this morning?”
“No, ser. Not really.”
That doesn’t sound all that promising to Lerial. “And the majer?”
“He’s in Ironwood, ser, with first and fourth company. We got there around midday.”
“How is Undercaptain Kusyl?”
“He’s there with the majer, ser.”
Since Lerial can see that the ranker doesn’t want to say more, he nods and says, “Lead on. We’ll follow behind fifth company.”