Vastly Blank looked back up, smiled. ‘Maybe three thousand.’ He brought up most of the nail, which he’d prised off, and squinted at it, wiping the blood away.
‘And?’
‘Banded leather, Captain. Some splint. Not much chain. Round shields and spears, javelins, curved swords. Some archers.’ He wiped more blood from the nail, but it was still mottled brown.
‘They’re getting ready to attack?’
‘Not yet,’ Vastly Blank replied. ‘I smell their sweat.’
‘You what?’
‘Long march.’
‘Best nose, too,’ Badan Gruk offered.
Vastly Blank popped the nail into his mouth, made sucking sounds.
Sighing, Fiddler moved away.
The sky to the east was lightening, almost colourless, with streaks of silver and pewter close to the horizon. The sound of the Kolansii soldiers was a soft clatter coming at them from all sides. The enemy taking position, readying shields and weapons. Ranks of archers were forming up, facing the hill.
Sergeant Urb heard Commander Hedge talking to his own dozen or so archers, but couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. Shifting his heavy shield, he edged closer to where Hellian sat. He couldn’t keep his eyes from her. She is so beautiful now. So pure and clean and the awful truth is, I liked her better when she looked like a bird that’s flown into a wall. At least then I had a chance with her. A drunk woman will take anyone, after all, so long as they clean up after them and take care of them, and got the coin for more to drink.
‘Take cover – they’re drawing!’
He worked his way back under his shield.
He heard Fiddler. ‘Hedge!’
‘After the first salvo!’
Distant thrums. Hollow whistling, and suddenly arrows thudded the ground and snapped and skidded on rock. One pained howl and a chorus of curses.
Urb looked across at her to see if she was all right. Two arrows were stuck in her shield and there was a lovely startled look on her face.
‘I love you!’ Urb shouted.
She stared at him. ‘What?’
At that moment a thick rushing sound filled the air. He saw her flinch back down, but these weren’t arrows. He angled himself up, saw a band of enemy archers on the ground, writhing, and, pelting back towards the barrow, one of Hedge’s Bridgeburners, his shoulders covered in turf, his uniform grey and brown with dirt.
Dug a hole, did he? Hit the archers with some gods-awful grenado.
Hedge shouted, ‘Archers down!’
‘Gods below!’ someone bellowed. ‘What was that blue stuff? They’re rotting to bones!’
Looking over, Urb saw the accuracy of that assessment. Whatever had splashed all over the archers had dissolved their flesh. Even the bones and quivers filled with arrows were nothing but paste.
Now an officer was stepping out from the ring of Kolansii infantry – tall, white-skinned.
Corporal Clasp crawled up beside him. ‘That’s one of those Fuckeral’s, isn’t it?’
‘You!’ shouted Hellian, pointing a finger at Urb. ‘What did you say?’
The Forkrul Assail then roared – impossibly loud, the sound hammering against the hillside. Urb was driven into the ground by the concussion. He clawed at his ears. A second roar—
And then it seemed to dim, as if muffled.
A quavering voice lifted from a nearby trench. ‘Worm says fuck you, Assail!’
‘Is that you I’m smelling again, Wid?’
Urb uncurled, straightened up, though still on his knees.
He could see the Forkrul Assail. Watched him roaring for a third time – but the sound barely reached through.
A rock sailed out, landed well short of the Pure, bounced and rolled. The enemy commander seemed to flinch from it nevertheless, and then he whirled.
‘Here they come!’
Hellian’s voice was much closer and much louder. ‘What did you say?’
He twisted round. Corporal Clasp was lying between them, staring back and forth.
‘What in Hood’s name is with you two?’
‘I love you!’ Urb shouted.
When he saw her delighted grin, Urb clambered over a grunting Clasp. Hellian pitched up to meet him, her mouth hard against his own.
Pinned by Urb’s weight, Clasp squirmed and kicked. ‘You idiots! The enemy’s advancing! Get off me!’
Cuttle watched the lines closing in. At twenty or so paces javelins flashed out, colliding against uplifted shields, and then, at a signal from the company commanders, the Kolansii surged forward into a charge against the slope.
The sapper half rose from his position. The crossbow thocked, thick cord humming, the vibration a soft brush against his cheek. He saw his quarrel take a squad leader in the throat. The rest of the marines had also loosed quarrels into the rushing enemy. Bodies went tumbling among the crags and outcrops.
The sapper set his weapon down behind him, swung his shield round, slipping his arm through the straps, and drew his short sword. These four motions were done before the squad leader hit the ground. ‘Hold and at ’em!’ he shouted, rising as the first Kolansii arrived.
An arrow had pinned Saltlick’s left foot to the ground, but he didn’t want to move anyway. The soldier arriving directly in front of him stumbled at the last moment. Saltlick pressed his shield down on the man and drove the pommel of his sword through the top of his helm and then the bones of his skull. When he pulled his weapon free, the helm was stuck to the pommel.
A spear thrust at him. He batted it aside with the helm, put his shoulder behind his shield-bash, and flattened the soldier’s face. As the man reeled back, Saltlick stabbed him low in the gut. Dragged the weapon free and began hacking at another Kolansii – they seemed to be everywhere.
He never even saw the spear that impaled his neck and tore out his throat.
Koryk swore, swinging his left arm to shake off the remnants of his broken shield. He drew a Seti long knife from his harness, kicked away the man whose skull had broken his shield, and looked up in time to meet the next attacker.
Blades flashed out, the heavier one batting aside the jabbing spear, the thinner one thrusting through leather armour to sink a hand’s width into the Kolansii’s chest, and then back out again. As the soldier staggered back, sagging, Koryk brought his long sword down between head and neck, the blow of such power that he cut through a clavicle and down through three ribs where they met the breastbone.
Koryk twisted to avoid another spear point, then heard a laugh and saw Smiles spin away again, leaving behind her a toppling corpse.
Another surging mass of Kolansii rushed up towards them.
The blued Letherii blade seemed to shout as it clove through the side of a helm, crushing the cheek-guard and then the bones it was meant to protect. Blood spat out from the soldier’s gaping mouth, the eyes bulging, and then Corabb kicked the man away, watched as he pitched backward to collide with the next soldier.
The echo of that shout raced back and forth in his skull. He bellowed in answer to it, lifted the weapon crossways over his shield and awaited the next fool.
I am a marine! A heroic soldier on a day of glory! Come to me and die!
Swearing, Throatslitter cut off an arm to his right, then another to his left. Blood sprayed him from both sides, making him curse some more. He shifted to avoid a spear thrust, kicked under a jaw hard enough to snap the head back, and then slashed across that exposed neck.
Beside him, Deadsmell staggered to repeated blows on his shield from a Kolansii wielding a heavy spiked axe. Throatslitter’s sideways thrust drove his long knife over the attacker’s shoulder, into the gap behind the corner of jaw and the flared helm, angling slightly upwards to slice through the spinal cord just below the base of the skull.
Righting himself, Deadsmell lunged with his shield, blocking an attacker trying to take Throatslitter from the flank. The enemy soldier grunted at the impact, knees buckling. Having broken his own weapon, Deadsmell now
held the spiked axe, and he hammered it down, splitting the Kolansii’s round shield, and then thrusting the spike into the man’s shoulder.
Ducking low, Throatslitter cut through the Achilles tendon of the Kolansii’s right leg, and as the screaming man fell he stabbed down through the eye socket, silencing the cries.
‘Stay down!’ shouted Widdershins behind him.
A quarrel hissed over Throatslitter, caught the next foe in the chest.
From Deadsmell’s other side, Balm shouted, ‘Where’d you get that stupid axe, soldier! Find a sword! You end up hanging out there and you’re finished!’
‘I’m looking, damn you! I’m looking!’
Kisswhere fell on to her back. She heard the blocked thrust above her, and then Sinter’s snarl as her sister backslashed across the Kolansii’s face. Kicking herself clear of his collapsing body, her hand closed on a javelin. She grasped it, pushed herself back on to her feet, and leapt into the press yet again.
Sinter was taking blows on her shield, righting herself from that sideways lunge against Kisswhere’s assailant. Badan Gruk then flung himself at her attacker, pushing his short sword deep into the man’s side.
An axe came down on the back of the sergeant’s helm, splitting it, driving Badan Gruk face first into the ground. The half-moon blade sobbed free, its edge dragging free hair, scalp and fragments of bone.
Howling, Sinter cut off the hand holding it, and then the flailing arm, and then opened wide the man’s belly with a single savage slash. Intestines tumbled out over Badan Gruk’s corpse.
And still she howled.
A spear transfixed Lap Twirl, drove him against a tilted standing stone. The Falari cutter shrieked as the iron point bit through to grind against the rock. He chopped down with his short sword, slicing off the fingers of the nearer hand along the spear’s shaft. The pressure from the weapon released all at once. He slid forward on the slick wood until he was close to the Kolansii, and slashed halfway through the woman’s neck, severing the jugular.
As the woman fell, the cutter dropped sword and shield, grasped hold of the butt end of the spear. Feeling the point dig at an angle into the ground at the base of the stone behind him, he flung out his feet and fell straight down. The shaft snapped just past his back. Leaving it there, he gained his knees, wiping his hands on dead grasses, and took up shield and sword again.
Spitting out a mouthful of blood from a cut tongue, he gasped, ‘Now that wasn’t so bad.’
More Kolansii clambered into view between the outcrops. Lap Twirl went forward to meet them, stepping over Burnt Rope’s body. He had enough left in him to take a few more down. Maybe.
Skulldeath sailed sideways through the air, gliding over the hunched back of a Kolansii engaged in a fierce battle with Reliko. Lashing down, his blade bit deep beneath the flared rim of the man’s helm, cutting through his vertebrae. Spinning round, Skulldeath landed in a crouch, and then screamed as he lunged forward. He saw a face – staring – directly ahead, and the Kolansii ducked down behind his round shield, slashing out with his scimitar, but Skulldeath leapt high, one hand landing atop the enemy’s helm, and used that to pivot round above him. Cutting downward, he sliced through the Kolansii’s hamstrings.
Striking the ground, the desert prince rolled—
He heard Sinter shouting – heard Kisswhere’s cursing—
Gaining his feet, Skulldeath found himself surrounded. He twisted, slashed, ducked, kicked and closed. Bodies fell away. Blood sprayed.
Then a blow hammered his lower back, lifted him from his feet. He tried curling away from the blow, but something was jammed in his body, a hard edge crunching and grinding against his spine. He was driven to the ground face first, and then they were beating on him – heavy edges chopping into his muscles and bones.
One struck the back of his head and there was darkness, and then oblivion.
Hedge stood over the corpse of Bavedict – the damned fool had been killed outright by that first shower of arrows, taking one through an eye. From his vantage point Hedge could see the ring of defenders contracting as the enemy pushed higher up the slope. He watched Fiddler moving down to block an imminent breach where most of a squad had gone down.
‘You – archers – keep an eye on there. If they get through it’s a straight path to the Crippled God.’
‘Yes sir!’
‘Now, the rest of you – we got to relieve the pressure. Take those coppery ones and throw for the fifth and sixth ranks – use ’em all up. If we don’t make ’em reel right now we’re done for.’
‘What’s the copper kittens do, sir?’
Hedge shook his head. ‘I forget, and the alchemist’s dead. Just go – spread out, get moving!’
As they left, the sapper took up his crossbow – he only had half a dozen quarrels left. The occasional arrow still sailed down here and there, but either the sappers he’d dug in below the slope were all dead or they’d used up their munitions – it’d be just his luck if some errant arrow took him or Fiddler out now.
Loading his weapon, he moved down past his four remaining archers, who were sending arrows into the breach. He could see Fiddler, there with those Dal Honese sisters and a lone heavy infantryman shorter than any of them. The Kolansii who’d been advancing to flank them were all down, feathered with arrows. ‘Good work,’ barked out Hedge to his archers. ‘Now find somewhere else you’re needed.’
A stone turned underfoot and Fiddler’s left ankle gave way in a stab of pain. Cursing, he stumbled. Looked up to see a Kolansii closing – the eyes manic and wild beneath the helm, a heavy axe lifting high.
The quarrel punched the man back a step, and he looked down in astonishment at the heavy bolt buried in his chest.
One hand closed on Fiddler’s collar, dragged him clear. An all-metal crossbow landed in his lap, followed by a quiver. ‘Load up, Fid,’ said Hedge, drawing his short sword. ‘Keep ’em off my left flank, will you?’
‘You getting mad, Hedge?’
‘Aye.’
‘Gods help them.’
His attacker had pushed his spear right through Bottle’s right thigh, pinning him down, but Bottle had replied with a sword through the stomach, and as the Kolansii sagged back voicing terrible screams the marine decided he’d come away the winner of the argument.
Is that what this is? An argument? But look at them – they’re slaves. They’re not asking for this.
Tarr dropped down beside him, blood streaming from a gash in his face. ‘You want that spear out, Bottle? It ain’t bleeding much for the moment, but if I take it out …’
‘I know,’ Bottle said. ‘But it’s pushed right through – I want it gone, Sergeant. I’ll stuff rags in.’
‘A bleeder—’
‘It ain’t one, Sergeant. It’s just a big fucking hole.’
Tarr pushed Bottle on to his side, and then quickly drew out the spear. ‘Bleeding,’ he said after a moment, ‘but not spurting. When I see Deadsmell I’ll send him your way.’
Nodding, feeling faint, Bottle pushed himself upright, fumbling at the pouch at his side, where he found a roll of bandages. He was working a wad into one end of the hole when there was a flash of heat from downslope and then blood-chilling screams.
Brother Grave stared, in shock, furious at his own helplessness, as copper-hued grenados sailed down from the defenders to strike the Kolansii ranks at the foot of the barrow and on the level ground beyond it. The emerald fires that erupted when they shattered seemed almost demonic as they spread with terrible ferocity through the ranks.
The attack was a shambles – he saw his soldiers reeling, flinching back.
This is going to take longer than I anticipated.
He looked to the northeast, seeking that telltale sign of dust on the horizon. Where are they?
‘Haggraf. Sound the recall. We shall wait until the fires burn down. Then strike again, and again, until they are all dead!’
The stench of burnt flesh carried with it a strange flavo
ur, something between sulphur and limes.
The Crippled God listened to the clamour of battle on all sides. He heard the cries of pain and anger, but these were sounds he had expected. Amidst the clash of iron and the splinter of wooden shields, amidst the whistle of arrows – some of them striking close – and the splinter of shafts against insensate stone, he heard soldiers shouting to each other, heard their desperate breaths as they struggled to stay alive and to kill those who rose up against them in seemingly endless waves.
And overhead the sky was almost blinding with all the souls abandoned by his descent to this world. He thought to hear them as well, but they were too far away, lost in the heavens. Did they still struggle to hold on to their faith, with their god vanished for so long? Or had they surrendered to the cruel malice that came to so many of the spiritually vacant? Did they now wander without purpose, in the horror of a meaningless existence?
Fires erupted around him – not so close that he could feel their heat – and now shrieks rushed out to fill the air.
Sounds of dying, from all sides. He had heard these sounds before. There was nothing new, nothing to give him comprehension. That mortal lives could so willingly extinguish themselves, in the name of causes and noble desires – was this not the most profound, most baffling sacrifice of all? The one sacrifice every god has long since forgotten; the one sacrifice that they, in their callous indifference, could not even comprehend.
Their flesh is all they know – all these men and women here. Flesh as now clothes me. Feel our limits, our terrible limits. So frail, so temporary. A flitting light, a moment’s breath.
I hear you surrendering it. This one gift that is the only gift ever given you – you yield it back into the firmament. And the world passes on, barely taking notice.
Will no one notice?
I will heed your deaths. I will remember.
The Crippled God listened, past the horns of retreat, past the cries for healers, past the clashing signals announcing the next wave to advance upon these beleaguered few. The Crippled God listened, and he waited.