Orc Dominion: Rebellion Ch. 12

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"But there is so much catching up to do, Connor." The King of Heste bristled as Jeanette used his first name. "I'm sure your father is worried about you as well, Alfred, and you him. You should know that his host has been beaten, and he has been taken prisoner. But I assure you, he's safe and will be treated fairly. As will you, if you come back to us now."

A mixture of relief and concerned passed over Alfred's face. "I should hope so, Jeanette. He was as near a father to you as he is to me, at least until you betrayed us. Why Susannah remains loyal I-"

"Enough!" Connor interrupted. "Say what it is you've come to say, Jeanette, and then let us join battle. You wear armor and bear a sword like a man. Come across this bridge and show me if you fight like one."

Vrenchak bristled at the challenge, and moved to draw his sword before Jeanette raised her hand to calm him. The Queen continued to smile sweetly as she turned her gaze from Alfred back to the King of Heste. "You would like that I'm sure. I can see from here that you've been preparing to receive us for weeks. But I prefer Thestan fare. I've just received fresh wayns of food, and my men are expecting their pay on the morrow. I'm afraid I'm much too busy to accommodate you."

"Coward! You play at being a warrior and yet you refuse to attack."

Jeanette replied with an unladylike snort. "Attack your prepared position across a river? I'm a Warrior Queen, not a fool. Though if you wish to school me, by all means send your men across the Warne to meet mine."

"Don't do it father, even with the men I brought-"

"Silence, you fool!" Connor bellowed at the young man to his right. Soft of face, and clad in an ill-fitting leather breastplate and a chain shirt that looked ready to drag him off the horse, he wilted beneath the king's rebuke.

"Is this young Garrett then?" Jeanette offered the Prince of Heste a smile. "He would have made a fitter consort than your brother, the fat wretch he was."

Connor purpled at the insult. "My brother was a good man, and loyal. He would have taught you the proper way to be a Queen, and not sold your people to rapers and looters."

"He means you, Vrenchak." Willem said with a smirk. Vrenchak didn't rise to the bait though, and continued to glare at the King.

"Your brother was a reprobate who tortured his men and molested his servants. Or was it tortured his servants and molested his men? I can't recall, though either way it's no wonder they killed him." For a moment Jeanette thought he might actually draw his steel and attack, but only for a moment.

"I name you liar, Jeanette. I know it was your 'husband' that did the deed. Did you think the truth would not come out? I know a great many things, Queen of Whores. Is your son with you? The eldest one I mean, Agmar is his name is it not?" Connor grinned nastily. "No? I'll look for him when I take Ruar."

Jeanette flushed at the accusation. How can he know all this? "I hope you didn't pay for your information in good gold, Connor, for you've been sold a fairytale. It makes a good story I suppose; the singers would love it. But there is no truth to it."

The king's laugh was a low rumble that chortled from deep within his breast. "I'm surprised you still have the grace to blush. The truth is written all over your face. Of course I suspected you of murdering my brother, but when I received word from Sir Drake that you were a whore and a slut who spread her legs for orcs even before you were married to one, well that I had trouble crediting. But I can see the truth of it now, and count it fortunate you didn't take my brother's hand in marriage. You would have dirtied him."

Now it was Jeanette who almost attacked, and Vrenchak as well. "Sir Drake? He-"

"He sent me word of everything he knew, after his death. Do you think you could just kill him and that would be all? You should have known him better than that, you lived with him near all your life. No, he took precautions; to make sure that you would be dragged down into the abyss with him should you take his life. Well, maybe it has taken longer than he hoped, but still that time is here."

Even now Sir Drake plagues me. It has been almost nine years since his death and still he conspires with Heste to ruin me. "Sir Drake was a liar in life, it follows that he'd be one in death. No matter. This is what I have come to say: we will not attack. We have food enough to feed our troops, and coin to pay them. You are running short on both. I can keep my army in the field all through winter if I must where yours will desert after the first snowfall. Meet me in battle and we'll settle it here on the bridge. Your son says he's brought reinforcements; so much the better. Your numbers must be near equal to ours. Meet me in honest battle and we'll settle this once and for all."

"Father, we shouldn't leave our positions, she can't know for sure-" Garrett pleaded with his father again, who shot him another querulous look.

"I said be quiet!" Connor glowered at his son, and then at Jeanette. She met his gaze, and for several long minutes they stared at each other before he finally broke the silence. "So be it. We meet in battle at dawn." The King of Heste and his turned his horse and departed back to his own line. Alfred looked at her a long moment, before turning as well.

"That went about as well as could be expected. My congratulations Your Highness, I had no idea you could be so rude and insulting. No one will call you the Queen of Courtesy now." Willem's hollow jest fell flat, and soon the Queen too turned her horse and to return to their camp.

"Meet me in the tent in an hour, we have a battle to discuss."

****

When the sun rose above the Bone Bridge the next day, it shone upon both armies standing ready for battle. Jeanette had sent Gorath and Kat upriver with fifteen thousand orc riders to force a passage over the Warne and then circle around to attack Connor's forces from behind. That left her with ten thousand orcs, split evenly on both wings of her army. The center was made up of her human foot; it would be their job to take the bridge. Armed mostly with axes and spears and clad in boiled leather, they would have a hard time against the better equipped Hestens. But they had the advantage in archers, at least with the orcs harrying them from the side.

They didn't need to hold long. Kat and Gorath were to shoot a flaming arrow into the air when they were in position, and then the Queen's army would abandon the bridge. She wanted to draw the Hestens onto the south bank, get them to commit their armored knights to the attack and then have her lovers fall upon them from the rear.

Then, with the orcs attacking from the sides, her foot from the front, and Kat and Gorath from behind, the Hestens would be trapped and destroyed. It all hinged on Kat and Gorath though, and her men holding long enough for them to get into position. Jeanette looked upon her army with pride. The last time she led an army to war she was caught between Turogg and Frederick. Now, she was truly in command. Kat, Gorath, Vrenchak, and even Willem provided good counsel, but she was making the decisions.

Even still, she wasn't so foolish as to charge into battle herself, not if she could help it. Willem would command the foot on the bridge, Vrenchak the orcs, while Kat and Gor had the riders. She would command the Zentaran knights, though if all went according to the plan they wouldn't be needed until after the Hesten army had already been broken.

Trumpets began to blast from north bank of the river, and the large wooden gates that Connor erected creaked open. A moment later her own trumpets answered, and soon both were drowned beneath the steady drumbeat of soldiers marching. Tension built on the field like a thick fog as the two great masses grew closer. Minutes seemed like hours, until finally both armies neared the crest of the arch bridge. A great roar went up from both sides, and the two forces charged against each other, unbidden by horn or drum.

If only there were a hill, she thought. I'd give half my kingdom to be able to see what's happening. Though she couldn't make out what was happening in the melee on the bridge, she was able to see the orc riders repositioning on the shore. Soon flights of arrows were being loosed, the wooden shafts biting at the Hesten lines from the sides. Connor's bowmen soon answered, sending their own arrows screaming through the air towards the orcs. Her own human archers answered that in kind, and soon the battle raging on the bridge was shadowed by the hail of arrows flying overhead from both sides.

Screams began to ring out across the morning sky. The enemy had almost half again as many soldiers on the bridge as she did, but the battlefield was confined to the bridge, which prevented the Hestens from using their numbers to their full advantage. They just have to hold, hold long enough for Kat and Gor to cross the river.

****

The waters of the Warne ran before him, rushing eastward towards the Bone Bridge. "The battle will have started by now" he said.

"Then we'd better get a move on. We don't want to miss out on all the glory do we?" Kat grinned at him as she readied her mace and javelin.

"I've had my fill of glory already. Now I'll just settle for gold and plunder."

"And the Queen's favor" Kat laughed.

"Getting jealous? I've spilled in you just like I have in her." Gorath regretted his words the moment he saw the smile slip off her face. "Sorry. I'm just not eager to charge blindly into battle again."

Katerei nodded and looked out towards the ford. The Hestens were waiting for them on the other side. They had thrown up defenses to guard the ford, stakes and trenches to keep them from charging through their ranks. "Aye, it won't be easy, but I don't think they'll be able to hold us. Send a small force forward on foot to probe what they got, while the rest rain arrows on them. We have many times their number, we'll be able to break through."

"But will we be able to do it fast enough to join Jeanette? That's the real question." Gorath chuckled deeply. "Though I suppose if not, there is nothing to stop us from raiding all the way through Heste and returning to the Princess-Knight. Thesta is on the other side, right?"

"Yeah, we'd have to go through the Catabrian hill tribes to get there, but they wouldn't trouble us. They've been allied to the Thestans forever and would be glad if we gave Heste a black eye. I don't know if the Her Highness would want all these orcs in her lands. She doesn't mind you and our boys, but this is a lot more than she would have bargained for."

"Heh, well, if it comes to all that then I'm sure she'd like the gold we snatched from Heste, and would be all to happy to send them through to Zentara to join Turogg. Then we could go back to what we were doing before the war started." He wondered if that's what he really wanted, though. Chasing orcs along the border wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as Jeanette's war was. Not nearly as profitable either.

Katerei seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Her Highness will be glad to hear all the things we've learned too, though half of them won't make any difference if we don't rescue Jeanette on time and she loses the battle. Is that still what you want? To return to Thesta when all this is over?"

The orc paused a moment, and then shrugged. "I don't know, that's a problem for tomorrow. For now let's kill these Hesten bastards and cross the river!"

****

"It's a queer sort of battle, isn't it?" Jeanette asked, turning towards Daniels.

"Highness? What do you mean?"

"The battles we've seen; they've all been messy and chaotic. But this one, well the bridge limits the battlefield. Our armies meet in the middle and the soldiers fight for ten or fifteen minutes, and then leave the front line to rest." She chuckled softly. "Who ever heard of taking a rest break in the middle of a battle? Yet they do." Jeanette watched as the battle continued on the bridge.

The archers on both sides had had stopped firing, preferring to conserve their arrows for when the battle took a more decisive turn. Her orcs had continued to sprawl along the shore to get a better view of the battle, while Connor's archers did the same on the opposite bank. Her knights maintained rank though, eager to exploit a weakness if the Hesten lines should break.

"Fighting is tiring work, Your Highness. No one would want to be in the vanguard if they had to fight until they were too tired to lift sword and shield and were cut down." Daniels' voice was almost a whisper, quiet and tired. She had to strain to hear him over the sounds of the battle. Perhaps she had been riding him too hard.

"True enough. I won't begrudge them that." The Queen's leather breastplate weighed heavy on her shoulders, so she could only imagine how it would feel to have a chain shirt atop that. The battle had been raging for over an hour now as each side contested the arch of the bridge. The advantage would go to whoever pushed the other off first, as then their side would be fighting down the slope instead of up it. It wasn't part of their plan to push the Hestens off, but they couldn't afford to lose ground before they were ready either.

The Queen continued to watch the carnage unfold, but as the sun climbed higher in the sky the din of battle receded, until finally all was quiet on the bridge. "What's happened? Why have they stopped?"

"I don't know Your Highness, I'll find out." Daniels promised as he rode off. The footman was back in less than fifteen minutes with the answer and a grim expression on his face. "Both sides have declared a temporary truce, Your Highness."

"A truce? Who authorized that, and why?" Anything that bought them time to wait for Katerei and Gorath was good, but not if it meant her men were turning mutinous.

"There's too many dead, down there on the bridge." Daniels turned to look back towards the Bone Bridge, his face pale. "Too much gore, neither side could fight properly. They're dumping the dead into the river and then they'll continue fighting.

Sure enough, Jeanette began to see bodies being pitched off the side of the bridge, one after another until the rushing waters of the Warne turned dark. So many corpses fell down into that they got twisted and hooked around one another, and as corpses floated downstream they became trapped on rocks or sticks in the water until they formed a bloody dam. She tried to keep count, but there were too many too fast. The main battle hasn't even been joined yet, she thought as she turned her eyes to the horizon, hoping for some sign of her lovers while the sound of battle resumed.

****

Crimson blood sparkled through the air as the man's head went flying before raining down into the water and disappearing in the current. The bravest Hestens had ventured into the water to meet them, and their doom. Gorath swung his axe again, sinking it into the back of one who thought to race past him. "Keep moving you fucks! Don't let it be said that these puny human sons of bitches held us off! Keep moving forward! Keep moving!" The orcs behind him let out a cheer and surged forward again.

To his left, Kat swung low with her mace and destroyed a Hesten's knee, though the sickening crunch of his leg collapsing was soon muffled by the roar of the Warne as it carried the wounded man off downstream. "I hope you don't mean me Gor! I'm human, and a bit of a fuck, but I'm not puny and I'm crossing the river with you all the same!" The warrior woman deftly deflected a spear point thrust at her, which made Gorath's heart seize up for a moment, before she broke her assailants hand and skull in turn.

This is madness, he thought. I should never have let her come into battle when she might be carrying my child, though it's not like I could have stopped her. The Queen chose a poor time to play her little trick. Gorath forced a smile to his face as he replied.

"Bah, you should know better than that! I'd take you before any of those big bastards behind me." Another flight of arrows flew over the river, though they didn't have much effect on the Hestens cowering behind their shields and fortifications. Still, it kept them down long enough for him to climb ashore the north bank of the river.

Orcs warriors began to stream past him, leaping over the trenches as he paused to start cutting down the stakes. They needed to clear a way for the horses if they wanted to rout this rabble and get to Jeanette.

"Clear way, Captain!" Gorath stepped aside as a large orc sprinted past and jumped over the trench, only to find a spear waiting to impale his belly. The orc slipped off the wooden shaft into the trench, not even making a sound. The Hesten who did it looked shocked, though only for a moment before another orc cut him down. Poor bastard, probably never saw combat before today, and now he never will.

A few other orcs stopped to help him dismantle the fortifications while Kat led the others into the fray on the other side of the trench. Occasionally he would hear some shout of derision for his human lover; for being a woman, and for fighting alongside the orcs. No voice was ever the same though, and he expected they regretted insulting her when they should have been trying to kill her.

"You two, start filling up that trench with corpses. And you, cut down that wall and throw it in there too. We need to get the horses across as quickly as possible." The orcs rushed to obey him, but Gorath was already vaulting over the trench and rejoining the battle. These were not veterans of the Pit of Fire; they were green boys, fresh levies, sent to stop or slow any attempt to cross the ford. The orcs were like a scythe slicing through wheat, parting all resistance before them. As his axe cleaved another foe, the boys started to turn and run, throwing down spear and shield and helm.

We have them, he thought, we have them now. "Forward! Kill them all! Let none escape! We can't let them warn Heste!" A great cheer rose up, but it wasn't from his orcs. A fresh wave of Hesten soldiers appeared from behind yet another line of defenses, screaming and charging them with fury. A savage grinned crossed his lips, and he raised his axe to meet their charge as the thundering of hooves grew behind him.

****

The Zentaran lines were wavering as the sun reached its peak. Jeanette watched with dismay as her forces slowly lost ground, inch by inch being pushed back across the bridge. With no sign of Gorath or Katerei on the horizon, it was time to reassess their plan. "Your Grace, we need to pull our foot back off the bridge. We will have to settle with catching them in a pincer and not an envelopment."

Willem, the Duke of Fullorm nodded in agreement. The Duke looked tired and haggard, the mocking smirk long since fallen from his lips. A day of hard battle had left him dirty and weary and no longer in the mood for jests. "It will have to be, Your Highness. We won't be able to hold the Bone much longer at any rate."

"Will you be able to reposition without it turning into a rout? We were supposed to be in better order when drawing them into our trap, not on the verge of collapse."

"We'll manage Your Highness. I'll start repositioning the troops when they rotate off the front line, and create a new line of battle on this side of the bridge. We'll be in good order when they come across, I promise." Willem managed a faint smile as he bowed and set off to give the orders. Hopefully having a new plan would improve both his and the troop's morale.

"Daniels, go and let Captain Vrenchak know that we're going to bait the trap, and tell him to fire the rest of his arrows, the foot will need the cover when they finally give way."

"Consider it done, Your Highness!" Daniels quickly set off to track down Vrenchak and let him know that plan was changing. Over the course of the next thirty minutes, a new battle line was drawn on the south bank of the Warne. Tension built inside her, and the weight of her armor seemed heavier than ever as she watched. The new line was much closer, and even though it was part of the plan, having the battle moving her way felt like a defeat.