The sergeant whispered instructions even as Corporal Vanosh raced back up the line of wagons to start the retreat.
"The Keldons must be out looking for other League forces-there are just too few otherwise." He turned and addressed Haddad and Natal. "When we withdraw you two will keep your attention to the rear. Be prepared to sound the alarm, but stay quiet unless you clearly spot the enemy and he spots you. No unnecessary noise." Sergeant Atul gestured emphatically even as his voice remained at a whisper. But even as he attempted to salvage the situation, a loud cry of alarm sounded up the line.
"Raiders, Sergeant!" The corporal was coming back from the rear at a run. Drivers were on the ground and preparing for battle.
Sergeant Atul cursed. "Come on men! We'll see them off!" He grabbed two drivers. "Get water bags and blankets," he whispered. "We'll run if we can." The drivers dived into the rear of the wagons and began slinging out water bottles for after the fight. Haddad and Natal followed Atul as he reached the last wagon. They followed someone who knew what he was doing even as they left one point of the column exposed to attack. The corporal was up in a driver's seat, moving the wagon to the side to start a wall. One other driver was also moving his team, but the Keldons were advancing, a troop on camels closing fast.
The attackers seemed giants as they deployed. Each was larger than anyone in Haddad's company, and their heavy armor and decorations made them larger still. At this close range, the Keldons were even more fearsome looking, and their skin was ashen and faded. Each was yelling, and the sound seemed loud enough for thousands instead of the company that Haddad saw. Haddad's heart pounded, and he was short of breath as he neared the back of the column. He wanted to run, and determined not to be a coward, he ran toward the enemy. Each step brought the Keldons closer, and each Keldon shout made him more afraid. The mounted warriors brandished swords and axes, and now their shouts were one voice, battering at his morale and the morale of the supply column.
"Shoot when you can," Atul cried as he grabbed a shield from the back of a wagon. The League soldiers formed into clumps, and swords sprouted like weeds as each man cursed his luck. Natal danced around an ox and looked for a target. His launcher rose to his shoulder, and he fired the war rocket Haddad had given him.
It flew in a flat arc and hit the shoulder of a camel. The rocket's charge shattered the animal's side and removed the gray-skinned raider's leg in a bright flash. Haddad could hear the sudden amputee cursing as he and the camel separated, breaking up the Keldon line. As if Natal had ordered it, men with launchers let loose other rockets and darts. The Keldon charge was a mass of screaming animals and men, but the warriors swung wide and up the slopes on either side of the wagons. The deaths disrupted the Keldon battle cries, but every warrior was roaring. The League soldiers sent up a few cries of their own, but fear rather than rage sounded from the men around the wagons. Haddad and a few others had not fired, the web rounds being point-blank weapons. The enemy jockeyed for position to sweep down over the League. Many Keldons dismounted and gripped axes and shields. Behind Haddad, on the other side of the wagons, he could hear shouts. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the biggest of the raiders calling and signaling. This Keldon must have been near seven feet tall, cursing and yelling in a pall of smoke. Haddad barely had time to wonder where the fire was when the split Keldon forces descended upon the column.
Haddad spun on the nearest Keldon raider and fired his launcher. The round webbed the rider to his camel. Haddad could hear curses that rose to a shout as the camel went down heavily, whipping the rider into the ground. Gear shot off the body, and the Keldon's helmet skipped down the slope, finally hitting a wagon. The struggling animal and its attached corpse slid down the gentle slope to snare another Keldon mount. The rider of the second animal jumped free in time to avoid being trapped. The now standing Keldon wasted no time. He ran at Haddad, screaming a war cry, a long sword in his left hand. Haddad threw the launcher at the man hard. The raider batted it away but stumbled in mid-charge. Haddad drew his short sword, knowing the warrior would bowl him over.
Then Natal stepped forward, and Haddad remembered he wasn't alone in this fight. His friend picked up a shield and tried to push the Keldon away. The barbarian overtopped Natal by at least a foot and was in full armor, spikes, and studs of metal. The taller warrior swung his sword up and hammered it down. The blade screamed as it tore through Natal's metal shield and sank deep into his torso. His eyes rolled and blood flowed from his mouth as he tried to speak. The Keldon's blow had been too powerful, and his blade was now stuck inside Haddad's friend.
The Keldon swore as he tried to haul his blade free from Natal, his eyes wild and inhuman against the ashy skin. Haddad swung his sword at that face, committing everything to this one strike. His blade rang as it hit an armored shoulder and then skidded under the rim of the man's helmet, sinking into his neck. Even mortally wounded by the blow, the Keldon turned and struck Haddad with a gauntleted fist, the studs tearing a line of agony across the League soldier's scalp, right over the eyes. Blood poured down, and the pain and shock took him off his feet. Haddad could still hear the cries of other soldiers around him as he worked the blade free of the Keldon's neck and tried vainly to clear his eyes, to rejoin the battle. He pushed himself off the bodies of his friend and his friend's killer. The shouts of his comrades were falling silent as he struggled to stand.
The Keldons held the field, and the fighting revolved around one wagon, squatting under the heavy load of supplies it carried. The oxen lay dead in their traces. Atul's voice was falsetto against the cries of the Keldons as he and a few others fought on. Spears licked out from under the wagon as the last League soldiers fought like animals trapped in a den. The Keldons laughed now and threw rocks under the wagon. Another gray warrior cut heads from corpses and hurled them at the trapped defenders.
Haddad saw it all as if very far away as he picked up a shield and carefully pulled a sword free from a dead Keldon's back. He staggered into a charge at a Keldon who ignored him as unworthy sport. The discharge of the launcher must have been accidental, Haddad later decided. Or perhaps Atul had decided better to kill oneself than be dug out like a rat. The charge thumped into the bottom of the overloaded wagon and ignited hidden rockets buried there.
Accidentally or on purpose, the blast killed the defenders, and Haddad was knocked spinning as a piece of someone smacked into his shield. The Keldons close to the wagon screamed in rage at their injuries and at being robbed of their victory. Supplies that had been hurled into the air from the blast soon fell, mostly striking the wounded gasping on the ground. Haddad swayed drunkenly, turning to face the largest group of Keldons. He hoped to die fighting, but his eyes wouldn't focus, and he saw only blurs and shadows. A hand swept his helmet off, and then there was only pain and darkness as he fell.
Chapter 2
Waking up was a long, painful process with no beginning and no real end. There was a long period where pain and nausea encompassed the totality of Haddad's world. Never had he felt such sickness as his body pitched and moved against his will. Several times, he could not have said how many, the nausea provoked an episode where he tried to vomit. Haddad never did, but each bout wiped out any progress he made toward reaching normalcy, and pain blotted out his sense of time. Finally he mastered his illness and tried to call for help. His eyes were gummy, and his mouth and throat were dry. It was only after he was sitting up and looking at the moving landscape that he remembered the Keldon attack, the moment he went down. Commands in voices he had never heard brought him fully into the present.