“The Palmerrio are breaking off!” Tabernas yelled and pointed toward the main battle. Sure enough, the enemy was slowly disengaging from the fight and was beginning to head back in their direction.
“We need to get out of here!” Phillip yelled, afraid they would be cut off and surrounded by the retreating Palmerrio army, luckily at the moment there was little danger left in their immediate area, even the reserve archers were retreating out of range. There were a few individual fights still taking place but the Palmerrio guards in the vicinity were soon dispatched.
“Back to the bridge!” Gwaynn yelled and as if by command the bridge, which was being held open in miniature, suddenly expanded before them. Gwaynn ran toward the way to safety, looking about for Krys and wondering why his Weapons Master had not moved on the Palmerrio King, but again he did not find him. Then suddenly, just outside the boundaries of the bridge, Gwaynn caught sight of his friend lying prone in the grass, an arrow protruding from the right side of his skull. Gwaynn’s stomach lurched and he ran to Krys, knowing he was dead, but feeling an overwhelming need to check. He knelt in the grass as an entire army of the enemy topped the hill and moved in his direction. Gwaynn gently turned Krys over on his back. The arrow struck him just below and behind the right temple and was buried deep in his skull. Krys’ eyes were still open but blank. Surprisingly there was very little blood.
“Come,” Tabernas said quietly and it took Gwaynn a moment to realize the Toranado Weapons Master was kneeling by his side. Gwaynn checked for a heartbeat but did not find one. He was not expecting to, but how could he not check?
“Come,” Tabernas repeated and gently touched Gwaynn on the arm.
Gwaynn fought off a wave of sadness, his own body going slack. He did not respond to Tabernas as the Toranado infantry streamed past him and through the bridge. Gwaynn reached down and tenderly pulled his friend’s eyes closed, but still he would not leave. He tried to pull the arrow from his friend’s head but it would not come so in the end he just snapped the shaft as close to the temple as he was able. He paused a moment longer then stood. He grabbed Krys under one arm and Tabernas took the other without being told.
The Palmerrio army was only a few hundred yards away and running toward them, clearly keen on killing them all. But without a word, Gwaynn and Tabernas fled through the bridge pulling Krys’ body with them. They were the last of their group to move through to safety.
ǂ
Samantha fired arrow after arrow into the onrushing Palmerrio army. She saw her last hit a man high on the shoulder and he went down, but the rest were lost in the crowd and confusion of the battle. Samantha did not immediately discard her bow as the two lines met in a loud clash of steel, wood and flesh, instead she continued to hunt for openings in the lines hoping to get a clear shot into the enemy position. She released three more arrows into the tightly pressed lines of men. Two of the missiles clanged off shields or armor but the last buried itself into the neck of a Palmerrio soldier. She thought nothing of it, but then had to shoulder her bow as the enemy army began to push the front lines of the Massi back. All the archers around her were doing likewise. Without orders they all began to take up their long pikes which rested on the ground near their feet.
Cobb, who was Samantha’s constant shadow when she was in battle, lifted his own pike, and worked his way in close to her side. She glanced up at the simple man, but he was intent on the fighting going on before them.
“Form up!” Samantha yelled and those around quickly merged into the defensive square they had long practiced. The formation differed from the diamond formation they used against cavalry and offered much more protection for those near the front. It took great discipline. To survive they had to fight as a unit, only together with a tight, bristling front could they hope to hold off a determined force of infantry.
Once her immediate group was formed, they were perfectly placed to reinforce the front lines if necessary, and for several long minutes it seemed as if they would not be needed, but then suddenly and with almost no warning the Massi lines parted and dissolved away. The front lines of the Palmerrio were quick to press their advantage and stormed through the gap. Samantha braced for the impact and against her will her thoughts centered on the baby growing inside her. Her eyes watered momentarily with fear, but she shook them away just as the first of the enemy troops came within range of her pike. She screamed, stabbed and pushed with the rest of her archers and initially drove back the attackers, killing and wounding many, but as the Massi bowmen pressed forward over the inconsistent footing caused by the dead and dying their momentum faltered. Still they held their position and closed the gap, keeping the battle from turning into a disaster. It was not until a figure robed completely in black appeared on the scene that the tide began to turn against them.
Fear exploded inside Samantha as she caught sight of the Executioner who was viciously attacking their formation several yards to her left. Only the constant attack coming from the enemy soldiers directly to her front kept her from fixating on the man in black for more than a moment. Even so her mind would not leave the Executioner that was fighting and killing so close to her. Still, she had to work with those around her if they were to have any hope of surviving, so she kept her attention on the fighting right in front of her. She didn’t even flinch as the point of her pike sliced through the eye of a Palmerrio soldier. He screamed and staggered back a half step, but then she drove the point through his neck. Blood dribbled over the steelhead of her weapon for a moment but then she jerked the weapon free amidst a fountain of blood. Mercifully the man immediately fell and was lost from view. Samantha immediately turned her focus on the next soldier as he moved forward to take his fallen countryman’s place. She continued to fight in control until the Massi archer directly to her left let out a piercing scream. Her attention finally wavered and she shifted her gaze once again to the killer from Sinis. Her heart jumped when she saw that the formation on the left side had completely fallen away. Her stomach trembled as she watched the man in black slice through Anthan Drable’s neck. The young man went down without a sound. Samantha started to turn but felt her pike being knocked aside. Her eyes jerked to the front just as the sharp edge of a long sword came crashing down on her left arm, just below the elbow. Her pike instantly fell from her grip and for a moment she felt no pain. Her ears roared and her eyes glazed over as she looked, somewhat bewildered, at the stump of her limb. She held it up, morbidly fascinated, and noticed that her forearm was still attached by a thin slice of meat and skin. Blood was pouring from her wound making the white of her bone stand out in contrast. She was vaguely aware that the soldier who’d lopped off her limb was now advancing on her, but then like an avalanche, the pain engulfed her and she screamed and fell to the ground. She cradled her wounded arm as Cobb rushed forward and skewered the man attacking her. She was awake but not completely cognizant when the big man lifted her into his arms and lumbered away from the battle, heading toward the rear of their lines.
Samantha was holding her wounded arm close to her body and supporting the flapping forearm with her right hand. She stared stunned, as the blood poured from her. It was covering her midsection at an alarming rate as Cobb ran from the battle.
“Strong girl…strong girl…strong girl,” Cobb said over and over as he flew down the hill.
‘We’re going to die,’ she thought, thinking of herself and her baby, and then ever so gently she was placed on the ground where her blood darkened the grass around her.