“Forward!” Gwaynn yelled again but those around him, sensing the impending victory were already sprinting by him. Gwaynn started forward with his troops…suddenly elated, but something snagged at his right sleeve. Gwaynn spun, his kali held high, but stopped as he caught sight of Vio’s face.
“Huntley…she’s an Executioner!” Vio said urgently and Gwaynn frowned at her not fully comprehending what she was saying. He started to turn back to the battle which was still raging though now some distance away, but Vio held on.
“Captain Huntley…I saw her on Light…I knew she was familiar,” Vio tried to explain quickly. “She’s an Executioner!”
Understanding flooded over Gwaynn. ‘An Executioner…Cyndar,’ he thought and the image of her standing naked before him, rejected and going instinctively for the weapon that was not at her side burst into his mind. And he knew Vio was correct.
“We must press forward!” N’dori yelled, leading the rear guard forward. She stopped at Gwaynn’s side but he did not seem to be listening, then without warning a bridge expanded in the dimming light of the late afternoon and without a moment’s hesitation or comment Gwaynn jumped through and the bridge collapsed with a small pop.
ǂ
With a flurry of counter moves Tar Kostek dropped the two Palmerrio soldiers who foolishly moved forward to challenge him. From his position on the right, the battle appeared to be going to plan. The lines were holding, though the initial attack by the enemy had pushed the Massi back a hundred feet or so before they dug in and gave no more. The Massi right even began to push back to a degree. Kostek was surprised to find that his skills were stretched to the utmost on several occasions. The Palmerrio heavy infantry were well trained and hardened soldiers who knew their weapons well and fought with superior tactics. Only the long hard training on Noble saved the elder Tar from several quick painful deaths. As it was, many of the surrounding Massi were not so lucky or so skilled. They fell with remarkable regularity, but they too were growing strong and experienced and that experience allowed them to take many of their Palmerrio counterparts along with them.
What Tar Kostek was not prepared for was the chaos of the battlefield. Though the lines held for a while it was not long before the fight broke up into thousands of personal confrontations. On Noble, nearly every contest was strictly controlled; but on the field of war it was common to be attacked from all sides. Men were stabbed in the back with a pike or spear while battling an enemy soldier quite regularly. Soldiers from both sides killed on the battleground with no thoughts of chivalry or fairness. Fighting and surviving in such an environment demanded a complete awareness of your surroundings. Failure to do so ended in either injury or death, very often from behind. The citizens of Noble learned this lesson early in the battle when Jinja took a spear point through the back of the neck while fighting off two Palmerrio soldiers.
“Fight in pairs!” Kostek yelled to the others. “Watch each other’s backs,” he added though he could immediately tell the advice was unneeded. Tam and William were already fighting back to back creating a circle of death around them. The students Saran and Indira soon copied the strategy. Tar Myson, who drifted inexplicably from the center lines to the right during the chaos of battle, joined with Tar Endid, and now only Kostek himself was left without a partner.
There was a flow to war. The fighting peaked at times then waned only to peak once again for no apparent reason. Kostek soon lost count of those he killed and was unaware of anything but his most immediate surroundings. The rain fell hard and then stopped completely sometime during the fighting but he did not notice. His complete consciousness was tuned only to hacking, blocking, slicing and stabbing the enemy who threatened him or those around him. As the battle raged on, the group from Noble gradually drifted toward the center, though they were not aware of the slow shift. Even so, they were steadily moving away from the far right, like a swimmer at sea being pushed gently down shore by the tide.
“Executioner!” Tar Endid shouted suddenly. Though alarmed, Kostek made no attempt to look about. He was currently busy fighting off three soldiers, two of the attacking men came at him with long spears and they pressed forward cautiously, very careful to keep their distance. Kostek remained embroiled in his own personal battle for a long time. How long, he did not actually know, but during the entire fight he was constantly alert to a possible attack from the assassin from Sinis. Eventually, however, the soldier engaging him with a long sword made a mistake and lost his right arm. The soldiers with the spears, who were now on opposite sides of him hesitated and Kostek swiftly looked for Endid and spotted him in a pitch battle with a man dressed entirely in black.
Kostek feinted right then without warning sprinted left at a soldier trying to skewer him from behind. The Tar knocked aside the spear with little difficulty then pressed in so close that the long weapon was no longer effective. The soldier knew it and his eyes went wide with fear, but an instant later he was dead and at peace. Kostek spun back to face his lone surviving opponent but found that the man was already dead, having been cut down by a host of Massi soldiers pushing through the area.
Off to his left, Tar Endid was still battling the Executioner, in a fight that had lasted far longer than Kostek would have imaged. And though Endid seemed uninjured, the Executioner was now using only his left arm, his right hung uselessly at his side. Even so, Endid had trouble breaking through the man’s defense. Kostek rushed forward to aid his friend. The former High Tar of Noble was amazed at the skill level being displayed by the man from Sinis and it shook him. However, just before Kostek reached the fight, Endid succeeding in driving the man’s left kali aside and with a lightning fast attack cut through the man’s neck, nearly severing his head. The Executioner dropped just as Kostek arrived.
“Are you all right?”
Endid nodded, breathing heavily.
“Myson?”
Endid stood and glanced around the battlefield. The heat of the battle had once again moved toward the creek and away from their immediate area. “He’s in the rear. He took a blade to the ribs…it’s bad, but I think he should survive.”
“How?”
Endid pointed down at the Executioner. “This one. His skill took us by surprise.”
Kostek nodded. “Yes…I saw. It does not seem possible.” For centuries those trained on Noble always looked down on the Executioners of Sinis as little more than second class fighters.
Endid said nothing. He looked to the east but could see nothing through the chaos of battle.
“Come,” Kostek said but before they could rejoin the fight, Tam and William rushed to their side.
William remained silent, his face ashen, but Tam spoke up excitedly.
“The enemy seems to be collapsing on the right,” she said, talking very fast. “The Massi troops are pressing forward.”
Kostek looked into the direction she was indicating and could instantly tell she was correct. The main battle lines were now nearly a hundred yards farther to the south than they were.
“Forward!” Endid yelled at those men around him and every Massi soldier who could still stand began to push to the south. The advance started slowly, but with the help of the Tars it soon gained momentum and suddenly the enemy melted away and the path toward the enemy rear was wide open.
“Go!” Kostek shouted and the advance turned into a sprint. They ran, killing a few straggling enemy soldiers but mostly they just took ground uncontested. And then, without warning the Palmerrio King was before them. Several horsemen rode forward in an attempt to slow their advance but the Massi pike men took them down with little trouble. Then the King’s own guard moved forward led by yet another man in black.