None of them noticed Taniel.
They seemed agitated about something. Pointing and gesturing, all of them watching the battlefield through their looking glasses. Hilanska shouted for the artillery to be moved back.
Moved back? That was tantamount to conceding ground. Why would they…?
Taniel saw it now. Movement among the Kez lines. Whole companies coming up just behind their artillery. An assault. The Kez intended to push them back this day.
Taniel narrowed his eyes. There were huge men among those companies. Giant, twisted forms.
Taniel didn’t know if these were regular Wardens, or the new kind made from powder mages, like the kind that had attacked him in Adopest.
Either way, this would go poorly for the Adran army.
Taniel noted that the Adran artillery was staggered every couple hundred feet. The artillery out front could be pulled back while those beside kept firing. This was planned. Perhaps this was what they’d been doing the last ten days. It made sense, if they knew they were going to lose the front line anyway.
Taniel didn’t like it.
He left Ka-poel and headed down the hillock to join the officers, approaching General Hilanska.
“Sir, what’s going on?”
The general gave Taniel a dismissive glance, then a second, longer stare. “We’re pulling back, son.”
“That’s foolish, sir. We have the high ground. We can hold.”
General Ket brought her horse around behind Taniel, looking him up and down. He wondered if she remembered him. He must look different after four years.
“Are you questioning your betters, Captain?” General Ket asked.
“It’s a stupid tactic, ma’am. It assumes loss.”
“Captain, you’ll earn yourself a demotion without an instant apology.”
Another general, a blond man with a stiff bearing, added, “I’d imagine this is why he’s still a captain.”
General Hilanska held up his remaining arm. “Calm down, Ket. You don’t recognize our boy here, do you? Taniel Two-Shot, hero of the Fatrastan War for Independence. I’m glad to see you among the living.”
“General.” Taniel dipped his head. Tamas had told him a tale or two when he was a boy about what kind of man Hilanska was – loyal, passionate. The best kind of companion to have with you on the line. He was fat and and old now, but Taniel imagined him to be the same kind of person.
“I don’t care who he is,” Ket said. “No one disregards rank in this army and gets away with it.”
“Tamas–” Hilanska began.
“Tamas is dead,” Ket said. “It’s not his army anymore. If you’d–”
The argument was cut off by a messenger.
“Sirs, the enemy is advancing.”
Ket spurred her mount down the embankment toward the front, shouting orders.
Hilanska’s stallion pranced to one side as if in excitement. “Get my artillery out of there!” He looked down at Taniel. “I wouldn’t go down there,” he said. “They’ve got a new kind of Warden. Smaller. Smarter. Faster. Never seen anything like it. ‘Black Wardens,’ we’ve been calling them.”
“They’ve been turning powder mages into Wardens,” Taniel said. “They sent two to kill me in Adopest.”
“Glad to see they failed. Powder-mage Wardens. How is that even possible?” Hilanska gave him a weighing gaze. “All right, Captain. Go down there and hold that line and I’ll move my artillery back.”
Taniel returned to Ka-poel at the top of the hillock. She was making progress on her doll.
“The Kez are attacking,” Taniel said. “I’m going to fight.” Why was he telling her? Was she going to stop him? Go with him?
She didn’t answer him, so he grabbed his kit and headed down toward the front. Ka-poel would be safer back here out of the melee, he decided. But would he? Ever since Shouldercrown, he had wondered who was protecting who.
The Kez soldiers were already on their way, marching to the steady sound of the snare drums. Trumpets were sounding in the Adran camp, and more men rushed toward the front.
Taniel paused and scanned the approaching Kez. None of the Kez Privileged were advancing, but… there.
The Wardens in their black bowler caps and black jackets came through marching Kez infantry like dogs running out ahead of the pack. They practically flew across the empty field. Some carried small swords, others long pikes. They howled like animals, an eerie sound that lifted above the cannon fire and the snares and trumpets and made Taniel shudder.
Taniel dropped to one knee and sighted along his rifle. One breath. Two. Fire.
He willed the bullet on through the sky, burning the smallest bit of powder to keep it in the air. He focused on one of the Black Wardens. The bullet took only two or three seconds to bridge the space and…
He missed.
Taniel couldn’t believe it. He was far behind the line, steady as a rock, with no distractions. How could he miss?
He reloaded his rifle. The Wardens were coming fast. Once they reached the Adran line they’d cause untold chaos. Taniel lined up another shot and squeezed the trigger.
The bullet tore through a Warden’s eye, laying the creature out on the ground. None of the Warden’s companions seemed to notice. One even snagged the small sword out of the still-twitching hand, barely slowing his charge.
There was no way Taniel was going to be able to stop any more. He had… what? Another two shots before the Wardens reached the earthworks that marked the Adran line?
Taniel drew the bayonet from his kit and unwrapped it, fitting the ring tightly around the end of his rifle. He stood, ready to charge, pausing only to scratch a mark in the butt of his rifle with an old nail he kept in his pocket. He thought suddenly of Ka-poel and wondered if he should have left her alone.
He joined the flood of Adran infantry heading to the front, elbowing and shoving his way through. They weren’t moving fast enough.
A call went out to hold the line. Taniel wasn’t going to be there in time for the initial shock. His legs pumped beneath him, covering ground three times faster than any of the others. He felt a snarl rise to his throat.
“Aim! Fire!” a nearby officer yelled.
A plume of smoke rose from the front of the Adran line. Many of the Wardens staggered. Some of them fell. Not nearly enough.
There was one section along the Adran earthworks that rose higher than the others. Taniel could see that several officers had taken the high ground. It was precisely where the Wardens would head. They’d leave the flat ground to the regular infantry and go straight for the strongest spots.
Even as the thought went through Taniel’s head, he saw several of the Wardens change direction to run straight for the highest earthworks. One of the big brutes outstripped them all. He had several dark spots on his coat and his body twitched as more musket shots hit him, but nothing could take him down. He raised his sword and flew up the side of the earthworks, leaping over the top.
Taniel slammed into him in midair. The impact tore the air from his lungs, and they were both flung back over the earthworks, rolling down the side. He felt strong hands on his chest and was thrown off the Warden. He hit the ground and rolled to his feet to find the Warden already thrusting a small sword at his face.
Taniel parried with his bayonet and then thrust. The blade slid into the Warden almost up to the barrel, but seemed to have as much effect as the musket shots had.
The Warden threw itself backward, off of Taniel’s bayonet and out of range of another stab.
Taniel whirled as another Warden came at him from the side. Taniel ducked and thrust, putting the tip of his bayonet into the tender spot below the creature’s chin. He had to let go of his rifle and leap to one side to avoid the thrust of the first Warden’s sword. Taniel drew his own short sword and waited for the attack.
The Warden paused to throw a whole powder charge into his mouth. He gnashed at the powder with blackened teeth and spit the paper on the ground.