DragonCrown Saga - The Grand Crusade Part 40

Even more urZrethi appeared in the foothills-legions of them. All of them had changed themselves for battle. Their skins had thickened into spiked armor. Their arms ended in hooks and blades and spikes.

As they gathered, Sidrachuil tried to leap into the air, only to fall to the ground and roll helplessly toward his father's corpse. The Aurolani drums faltered.

"Blow an advance,nowl"Erlestoke leaped into the saddle and reined his horse around. The bugler complied with his order, but it was hardly necessary. Already the human lines had begun to surge forward. The cavalry on the right wing hooked toward the east. The heavy infantry moved forward, solidly packed, and forded the river without breaking formation. The lighter infantry had a bit more trouble, but the Aurolani did not hit them before they could reform, thereby losing their only real chance at disrupting the southern force.

On Erlestoke's troops came, not hurrying, waiting until they could get into range for their charge. The prince realized that he could issue orders, but they would not matter. Every warrior in his force had gone from hope to despair, then the certainty of death. There was not one of them that did not think three dragons opposing one was somehow unfair, and Dranae's willingness to fight for them was a sacrifice they could not dishonor. This was their land, these were invaders, and by all the G.o.ds and then some they were going to rid their land of Aurolani vermin once and for all.

The Aurolani plan had doubtlessly been to retreat to their defenses, so the shift of drumming to an advance seemed to catch some of their troops by surprise. They started forward, then the drums ordered a charge. It made sense, given they were uphill and would have momentum. Howling and screaming, the Aurolani poured down in a rush.

General Percurs snapped an order, and the Alcidese Throne Guards set themselves for the Aurolani charge. Shields came to the fore; spears were leveled at the enemy. Soldiers prepared themselves for the shock of impact, but even the strongest were driven back as gibberers crashed into their shields.

Many of the Aurolani were wounded by spears, and often impaled, but more got past their stuck brethren and hammered at the Alcidese shield wall. Behind them came h.o.a.rgoun. Their clubs battered men aside, sending their limp bodies wheeling through the air. Crushed helmets and dented shields arced, and spears flew in the opposite direction. Pierced h.o.a.rgouns faltered, then fell, only to be hacked to pieces as men moved forward.

Blood slicked the gra.s.ses. Bodies twitched and writhed on the ground. The two armies struggled along a line, with blood splashing those at the meeting point. The wounded fell back and fresh soldiers took their places. Out on the flank, cavalry turned and drove, slashing their counterparts and having their horses disemboweled by frostclaws. A man leaped from a dying horse's saddle, stooped to raise his legion's standard, then fell as a gibberer rode past and decapitated him with a heavy stroke.

Erlestoke watched the battle unfold. The urZrethi legions stalked forward, pressing the Aurolani eastward. They began to roll up the flank, which thinned the ranks on his own left wing, allowing them to move forward and accelerate the process. Calling to him the cavalry that had been backing the left wing, Erlestoke rode out and around to the east. There his right wing's cavalry was holding the flank, so his bodyguards poured behind them and slashed straight toward the enemy command and reserves.

Drums pounded and a reserve battalion of Aurolani cavalry swept out from around the command pavilions toward his formation. The Oriosans who had come with him from Saporicia had formed themselves into the Prince's Guards, and they stiffened their formation around him. With them came lighter cavalry from Hawkride and Midlands. Though the southerners outnumbered the Aurolani, the frostclaw riders did not swerve or shrink from their duty. On they came as southern lances swung in their direction.

Some frostclaws leaped high and forward before the cavalry smashed into each other. They sailed into the midst of the guards, slashing with claws, their riders laying about with flails or swords. Those at the point of the charge were knocked back or pierced. Screaming and thrashing they went down, to be trampled into a pulp.

Ranks of the guards were peeled away by the a.s.sault, but the core bored on, reaching the outer ring of Aurolani command pavilions. Hors.e.m.e.n rode through, slashing at tents and ropes. They laughed happily, chopping down fleeing gibberers. Erlestoke rode in their midst, looking for Anarus, knowing only he and Borell had weapons that could slay asullanciri.

Distantly he heard a sound. It came from the north, back from where Preyknosery had reported the maze of trenches and tunnels. Erlestoke had heard the noise before. It took him a moment to recognize it, and as he began to shout at men to turn back, a force blew him from the saddle.

What he had heard was the sound of a skycaster launching a thunderball. The short, squat dragonel launched an iron ball full of firedirt and other debris that, if all were timed right, would explode in the air.

In setting up the command pavilions, which they fully expected to be overrun, the Aurolani had plenty of time to calculate the precise charges and fuse lengths that would make the thun-derb.a.l.l.s spray their deadly cargo right on target.

Erlestoke landed hard and his helmet bounced back toward the lines. He came up on one knee. All around him men and horses were down and bleeding. He became aware of a dozen cuts over his flank and back, but he'd clearly been at the outer edge of the blast. Other thunderb.a.l.l.s exploded elsewhere, but the cavalry had already begun to withdraw. More importantly, to the west, urZrethi were advancing quickly into the trenches. Their advance had come swiftly and had cut off the Aurolani line of retreat.And if the urZrethi are not suited to fighting in tunnels, no one is.

"Highness, are you all right?" Borell came crawling over toward him, sword in hand, dragging his left leg.

"Yes, Borell, better off than you."

"Look out!" The boy pushed the prince away as a sword plowed into the ground between them.

Erlestoke rolled, then came to his feet. Crown lay a dozen feet to his left; but the hulking, lupinesullanciri followed his eyes, then slowly shook his head. The prince raised an eyebrow. "Afraid to do me the honor of a fair fight?"

Anarus snickered. "Pride might have lured Sidrachuil into foolishness, but not me."

"Afraid I'll just twist your head off?" Erlestoke straightened up and brushed dust from his mail. "The battle is done here. You've lost. Let's end this like honorable men."

"You are a fool, Prince Erlestoke. Pity, for my mistress might have had a use for you were you wiser."

"Ah, yes, I had forgotten. There is no honor within thesullanciri, no sense of fair play."

The wolf-man spat. "There is nothing fair in life, Erlestoke."

The prince nodded. "I think we all get the message." He lowered his head and started to run straight at Anarus.

Thesullanciri, who clearly had expected anything but that, stood his ground and shifted his sword to impale the man.

And in that way he made it very easy for Borell, who had never lost his grip on Eye, to thrust it up into thesullanciri'storso. The tip of the blade pa.s.sed above his hip and beneath his ribs, ripping through intestines, stomach, and liver before puncturing a lung. Anarus turned toward the pain, tearing the blade from the youth's grasp. He raised his sword to cleave Borell in twain.

Erlestoke hit thesullanciriwith his shoulder and knocked him to the ground. Anarus caught Erlestoke in the side of the head with an elbow, spinning him off. Stars sizzled before Erlestoke's eyes as he rolled across the ground. The prince tried to get back up, but stumbled and landed on his hands and knees. He looked up and saw thesullanciricoming toward him, one hand over the hole in his side, Eye lying on the ground in a pool of steaming blood.

Anarus' big, black blade spun with twitches of his hand. "I will heal. You will not."

Then a draconette spoke and the left side of Anarus' head crumpled. Thesullancirifell to the right and landed on a knee. Before he could rise, Preyknosery descended and slammed the draconette's b.u.t.t end into the wolf-man's head. A second blow smashed teeth in his muzzle. A fountain of black blood bubbled from his mouth as Anarus crashed to the ground.

A dozen other Gyrkyme armed with spears and bows descended. The elder Gyrkyme helped Erlestoke to his feet and brandished Dranae's draconette. "Even with one shot these are useful."

"It slowed him down, but we have to kill him." Erlestoke trotted over to where Crown lay. He recovered his sword, then returned to Anarus. Light still burned in thesullanciri'seyes and he had no doubt that, given sufficient time, Chytrine's creature would recover.

The prince shook his head. "You're right. Nothing is fair." He pressed the point of Crown to the sullanciri'sthroat and thrust. Anarus' body jolted, then life fled from it and it melted into the earth.

Erlestoke backed away, covering his mouth with his hands. The Gyrkyme surrounded him and the cavalry soon returned. The urZrethi had overrun the trenches, silencing the skycasters. Below, the southern force-with its Boka allies-had surrounded the Aurolani. No quarter was asked, and none given. The slaughter would continue until noon, and the river would run red for days.

Erlestoke looked beyond the flank of his army. Bodies littered the ground, each twisted in an awkward pose it never would have known in life.Nevercouldhave known in life. Aurolani, urZrethi, and southerners, masked and unmasked, lay there together, all anonymous from that distance.

Then his gaze drifted to Dravothrak. There was no mistaking him there. Sidrachuil had died leaning against him, but somehow Dravothrak's forepaw rested on the striped dragon's throat. The prince thought of Dranae's smiling face, his booming laugh, the way he had taken delight in simple things.There are some men who never live life as well as a dragon did in manform. And he gave his life to give them the chance to do whatever they wanted with their lives.

Erlestoke walked over to Borell. "I can't thank Dranae for saving us, but I can thank you for saving me."

The youth looked up as he knotted off a bandage around his leg. "You saved both of us. I was just following orders."

The prince glanced back at Dravothrak. "There's some things that can't be ordered, they just get done.

And those who do them are heroes, just like you."

You're leaving?" Kerrigan looked up from where he was working with wood samples. "You're going without me? What did I do wrong?" Resolute entered the tent and slowly shook his head. "You've done nothing wrong, Kerrigan. I would love to have you come with us."

"Then wait. It's not going to take that long to help Adrogans destroy the shipyard. You can even help fight. Think of all the gibberers you'll get." The young mage stood and pointed at the map on the table.

"There are thousands in those barracks, I'm sure of it."

"I know, Kerrigan, I do." Resolute pointed off north. "There are a couple of tactical reasons why we have to go now. You mentioned, last evening, feeling your search spell being used, and you thought Chytrine was the one who figured it out. You said it made sense, since she'd had it used on her."

He nodded. "She's looking for DragonCrown fragments."

"But she could just as easily shift it to search for you."

"I'm pretty sure I can shield myself."

"But better she find you someplace far away than with us. Moreover, if you cast your search spell looking for her, you'll make her think we're still searching." Resolute ticked a second reason off on his fingers. "You're going to be the key to Adrogans' success here. Third, and the thing that decided it, Oracle says we have to go on without her."

"What?"

Resolute nodded. "She's staying here. So is Rym. Force, Qwc, Trawyn, Bok, and I will head north with a squad of Adrogans' scouts. When you hit the shipyards, Chytrine will have to react. She'll garrison the Boreal Pa.s.s, a.s.suming Adrogans will be coming up through there to go after her. If you're still casting those search spells, that will reinforce that idea in her mind, allowing the five of us to get through and to her domain."

Kerrigan sat down again, his shoulders slumped. He glanced up. "You're not doing this because you think I'd be killed up there, right?"

"No, not at all." Resolute gave him a grin. "I figure if we can't stop her, you'll be there in the vanguard of Alexia's army when it does."

"Thanks for saying that, but you don't have to."

Resolute's expression sharpened. "Think, Kerrigan. When have Ieversaid anything to make someone feel good?"

The youth opened his mouth, then shut it. The Vilwanese had created him to be able to fight Chytrine, then they came to fear him. Somehow he had translated that into their being afraid he would fail to be able to deal with her-that in some way he was flawed. Despite all he had done, that thought had become intertwined with his inability to save his friends, leaving him certain that he would fail. Resolute's decision to leave hit on that same note, but his comment ran completely counter to it.

"You really think I could defeat her?"

The Vorquelf thought for a moment, then nodded. "You have the ability, the skill, and the intelligence.

You lack a little experience. Your difficulty is that you don't kill."

The mage took one of the wood samples and rolled it between his hands. "I've killed before."

"Yes, but only when you've been forced to it." Resolute came and sat on the edge of the table. "I won't tell you that is wrong, because killing isn't something that should come easy. Never. There comes a time, though, when you have to remember that those we are fighting won't stop. They don't have your qualms.

They have killed, and they will continue to kill. And the only effective way we have to stop them is to kill them, too."

"But how do you know who has to die?"

"There is the crux of the problem." Resolute shrugged. "For me, deciding who dies has been simple. The Aurolani took my homeland and slew my people. They die."

"But they have wives and children."

The Vorquelf held his hands up. "I know, but I can't afford to think about that. You're considering who they are, and I am looking at what they are doing. I don't care what they think or feel; all I care about is how they put those thoughts into action. When what theydois harmful, I have to stop them."

Kerrigan nodded. "You take a lot on yourself when you do that."

"Not really. They make the choice by acting. The real question that stops many people is this: do I have a right to judge whether or not someone should live or die?" Resolute rested his hands on his thighs.

"Making that decision is accepting a responsibility many people don't want to accept. The burden of being wrong is too much. The allure of killing without considering each case is terrify- ing. I was willing to accept that responsibility. Crow was as well. I think you can accept it."

"Me?"

The Vorquelf slowly nodded. "Your instinct in crushing that ship was good. What you did in destroying Vionna's fleet on Wruona, what you did in igniting the firedirt that killed all those gibberers as we sought to escape, what you did in killing Neskartu-all of those things were right. Have you used other spells to put creatures to sleep when you could have slain them? Yes, and that is not wrong, but even you would admit that theturekadine, when awakened, would not repudiate their actions, nor regret them, nor reform them."

"That's true." Kerrigan sighed. "Still, can't it be that there is another solution besides killing?"

"Where evil is concerned, no." Resolute opened his hands. "Evil is selfish. It wants to put itself first.

There is no safety from it."

"But in killing evil creatures, am I not being selfish and evil, too?"

"No, because you act to keep yourself free and to protect others. That makes all the difference."

Resolute smiled slowly. "You're never going to be a killing machine, Kerrigan, because you think too much about it. That's no vice. You just have to acknowledge that sometimes, no matter how much you want to avoid it, the price of liberty is exacted in blood. Better it's taken from evil than innocence."

Kerrigan let his words sink in. The whole time he'd been trained, no one had ever asked him to look to the consequences of what he would be doing. Because he was so powerful, he'd been taught combat spells, but never really trained to use them, out of fear he would hurt opponents. At the same time, he was highly praised for mastering healing spells that humans had not used for centuries. This left him with the idea that healing and preservation of life was to be cherished, while combat was to be avoided.

He realized that what Resolute was saying wasn't what he himself believed, but it added a new dimension to it. In an ideal world, killing was absolutely wrong, but this was not an ideal world. Chytrine and her troops were out to master it, and kill all those who opposed them. The rest would be enslaved, which was just like being killed but would take a lot longer. Given those choices, the only effective way he could resist was to fight the enemy, and that meant slaying them. Perhaps not each and every one of them, but enough so they would retreat and peace would again rule.

He looked up. "You really think I can handle that sort of responsibility?"

"If I didn't, I wouldn't leave you here. You are, without a doubt, the most powerful mage living. If I didn't think you were responsible, I would have to see to it, however I could, that you were not a threat."

The Vorquelf shrugged. "That's not a problem."

Kerrigan straightened up and shifted his shoulders. "I think I've been ducking this responsibility. I failed to save friends, so I guess I was afraid of what I would do if I..."

"I know. That you are concerned is good. When you stop being concerned, that's when the rest of us will get worried." Resolute stood, then clapped him on the shoulders. "You'll do very well, and Iam counting on you to come avenge us if things go wrong."

"I will." Kerrigan stood and followed him from the tent. Outside, a squad of scouts waited by two other horses. Trawyn had already mounted up. Bok, with his legs lengthened, stood beside her. Force waited unmoving, but Qwc leaped from his shoulder and buzzed around Kerrigan excitedly.

"Bye for now, Kerrigan." The Spritha landed on his right shoulder and hugged his head with all four arms. "Be back soon."

Kerrigan laughed, as did the others. The mage offered Bok his hand. "You're going to be okay going after your daughter?"

"Chytrine was always her own person. She tried to slay me at Narriz, and likely would have tried before had I let her know I was alive. She has to be stopped, so we will stop her."

"Good luck." Kerrigan nodded to Resolute as he went by, then patted Trawyn on the knee. "I really wish I could have saved your eye."

She shrugged. "When I come back, you'll find a way to fashion me a new one."

"I'll do that. Good hunting."

Leaving her behind, he moved to Force. The stone giant didn't offer a hand or even look down. Qwc leaped up and took his seat. Kerrigan studied Force's face for a moment and thought he noted a change.

What had been featureless before had shifted, with the eyes sinking a little, and perhaps the hint of a nose emerging. It could have been a trick of the twilight, but Kerrigan didn't think so.

He patted Force in the chest with his right hand. "I don't know if I call you Will or Force, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter. You and I are alike in one thing: we have changed. We were created to destroy Chytrine, and we are still being created. I trust that both of us will continue, and that our creation will be enough to do the job."

The giant's head rotated a bit, and the eyes glowed more brightly for a heartbeat. Then Force looked back up and the eyes returned to their dull red-gold state.

Kerrigan took a step back and found himself between Adrogans and Rymramoch. "Good luck, all of you."

Resolute nodded. "Just create a big diversion, will you? Anytime in the next week will do."

Kerrigan nodded. "We will. It will be huge. No matter where you are, even if you're in Chytrine's sitting room having tea, you'll see it."

Adrogans turned and looked at him. "You must have something very special in mind, Adept Reese."

"I do, General, I do."