The Chronicles of Hvad Ch. 05

Then Nanaidh sprang in from the side, and jabbed the man in the hip. With a howl of pain, he flinched away - and slipped. The shield came down, and Borna stabbed him in the throat as he fell.

More of our attackers seemed to prefer the running approach. They would back off a dozen or more paces, and then sprint directly at the slope. Some leaned too far forward, or had their weight too far back, and fell heavily. One landed on his head, and slid down the slope on his back. He didn't get up.

But a few did reach the top by this method. We couldn't tell which ones would succeed until they actually did. Then they were among us, and it wasn't always where we had an experienced warrior.

The two youths worked together. They so confused one enemy who reached the top that he stepped back onto the slippery edge and lost his footing. But I was fully engaged with a black-bearded brute, and Dirayr was too far away, when two men both scaled the slope, and found themselves on either side of Borna.

Shant rushed to cover Borna's back. I do believe that he would have been brushed aside. But Durra stepped in, and drove her spear under the arm of Borna's attacker. The blow might not have been mortal, but when he turned to meet her attack, Shant stuck his spear in the side of the fellow's neck.

I was too worried about Borna. I didn't pay enough attention to blackbeard. The tip of his spearhead connected with my helmet, and left my ears ringing. I was saved by Fimi, of all people. She struck at my opponent with a light axe. He caught her blow on his shield.

But it gave me a moment to recover, and when Siret joined me in attacking blackbeard, he gave ground, and slid back down.

Vazrig finally began to assert control. He spread his men out, and instructed them to rush the 'hump' together, at the same time. Borna tried to distract them.

- "The only one getting humped here is you, Vazrig!" he shouted.

- "I'm not finished with your mother, Borna! Does she miss me?" Vazrig screamed his insult. Saliva flew from his lips.

- "Crazy fucker." muttered Dirayr.

I risked a glance to the right. The mound we stood on was meant to be a decoy, a distraction. Borna was here to tempt them. The real fight was going on where Lovro and Khoren were. And we had one advantage there.

Further off to the right, Kawehka, his sister Tsoline, and two more foresters were plying their bows. They were too far from the mound to help us - and they didn't want to risk hitting one of us by mistake.

But they were firing at the flank of the fifteen men who were attacking Lovro's dozen. Those odds were the best we were going to get. And if Kawehka's little group of archers could bring down a man or two ... that was our advantage.

We just had to keep Vazrig fixated on our 'hump'. I saw a couple of bodies on the ground over on the right - but couldn't tell if they were ours or theirs. I also couldn't see if Lovro had given ground, or gained it.

Twenty of our enemies let out a roar, and rushed at the mound. Most slipped and fell. Two of them got tangled up, and fell together. On our left, only one man reached the top. Dirayr attacked him, supported by the two youths.

Another came up almost directly in front of Borna.

But five of them got up the treacherous slope to Borna's right, where I was. One was close enough to me - I bashed my shield into him, and knocked him to the ground. I didn't dare let him get up, so I drove my spear into his groin, just under his mail shirt, and put all my weight behind it.

Durra was fighting a warrior to my immediate left, and Shant rushed past me in the other direction, to help the beleaguered women on the very end of the mound.

Nanaidh faced one, while Siret was assailed by two men. Fimi darted in, to distract Nanaidh's opponent as she had done with mine earlier. This time, though, it didn't work. The man may not have been sufficiently worried about Nanaidh. He saw Fimi coming, and swung his axe. The blade struck her under the arm, and bit deep.

Fimi was flung sideways, like a rag doll. She fell on the slope, and slid to the bottom.

Nanaidh screamed, and lunged at her man, who was now partially turned. She plunged her spear into his thigh. I arrived in time to help her finish him off.

Shant got to Siret's side - and probably saved her life in the process. Both of them used their shields to fend off larger, more powerful attackers. When Nanaidh and I rushed to their aid, both of Vazrig's men decided that odds of 4 to 2 were not to their liking. One slid down the slope, and the other jumped.

Half a dozen of Vazrig's men were killed, or badly wounded. We had lost only Fimi, though Dirayr had a gash on his leg that didn't look good. A rational man might have decided to cut his losses.

- "What will you tell your brother, Vazrig?" shouted Borna. "Will he send you more men - to replace the ones you've lost? Shit - what will you say to your grandfather?"

- "This is where you die, Borna!" yelled Vazrig. He began marshalling his men for another rush.

They all came, this time - even Vazrig and his Hand.

The left side of our mound continued to prove difficult. Only one attacker got up the slope, to be immediately met by Dirayr. Two more made it up in the centre, and were confronted by Borna and Shant.

But on my side, the slippery slope failed us. Six of the eight warriors who rushed at us reached the top - including Vazrig. His Hand, though, slipped and fell.

I had no choice but to face them, and hope that the women could keep my flanks covered.

- "Kill them!" shrieked Vazrig.

And then everything turned to shit - for him.

At the bottom of the slope, Vazrig's Hand snarled as he stood up, with a big streak of slimy mud across his chest and stomach. Then an arrow struck him in the chin, and shattered his jaw.

There were shouts and cries off to the right, where a handful of Vazrig's men were running, and calling out a warning. They were in full flight.

But Lovro's crew were not pursuing them. Instead, our best warriors were coming to our aid - behind Vazrig.

Manahir's grandson was crazy - mad as a sack of rats. Vazrig was a cruel, twisted bastard who deserved to be tortured to death. But he wasn't a complete coward. He had one chance left to win this fight, and it wouldn't be by running away.

He had to kill Borna.

And he tried his damndest. His warriors came at me in a wave. It was all I could do to occupy two of them. Durra stood her ground, and tied up another.

Nanaidh screamed a challenge, and leapt in front of one more. It was Vazrig himself. Had he not twisted to one side, Nanaidh might have disembowelled him.

That let two of Vazrig's men get by us. I screamed a warning to Borna, but there was nothing else I could do. I was very busy, trying not to get killed.

Durra seemed to be holding her own, with some help from Siret. Nanaidh was keeping Vazrig busy. He seemed taken aback by her ferocity.

Then Siret circled behind Manahir's grandson. She hacked at the back of Vazrig's leg. He let out a piercing shriek, and fell to one knee. Siret had severed a tendon.

Nanaidh plunged her spear into his face. Vazrig dropped his weapon, and clapped his hands to his face. The two women began to slash and stab every exposed part of his body.

The two men trying to kill me were understandably distracted by the shriek of their leader. Both glanced in his direction. That gave me an opening, and I jabbed my spear at the one to my right. Luck was with me: I stabbed him right in the eye.

Now the roles had been reversed, at our end of the mound. The women and I now faced only two of Vazrig's men. They were no cowards, either, and fought hard to the very end. But there was no help coming for them.

When we had finally brought them low, we returned to the centre. To my horror, Borna was sitting down. One of his feet was covered in blood.

- "I'm fine." he said, before I could ask. "Pursue, Ljudevit. Pursue and harry. Keep the foresters on it. And any of ours who can run. Go. Go!"

And so I organized the pursuit. Vazrig's men were broken. They had suffered surprisingly heavy losses, and the death of their leader had leeched the fight out of them.

Siret joined me, with Shant. Nanaidh came with us. We found Kawehka.

- "We have to pursue!" I shouted.

- "We're almost out of arrows." he told me.

- "Have your friends collect what they can. They can follow us. You I need. And you." I said, to Tsoline.

I had stripped off my chain shirt, and left helmet and shield behind, but I was still the slowest. Our enemies were also jettisoning armour and equipment as they fled.

We reached the steading almost on their heels. That's where I halted out pursuit. There were only eight of us, with a handful of salvaged arrows. Too few to rush in, even against our defeated foes. We were winded, and unarmoured.

I chose to simply cover the gate, and prevent them from leaving.

We could see movement within the steading, and could even hear the horses. But it still came as a shock when they burst out of the gates, five men on horseback, driving another half dozen horses before them.

It was clever, and it would have worked perfectly - except that we had four foresters with us. Kawehka made a tremendous shot, and one of the riders fell from his horse. I don't know who fired the second arrow, but it also hit. The wounded rider, however, galloped away with the others.

Four of them escaped.

***

There were seven of Vazrig's warriors in the steading, when they surrendered it to us. Three were identified as rapists, and we gave them a speedy trial before hanging them. The other four we locked in a shed, until Borna could come and decide their fate.

- "His foot looks bad." said Lovro, who had arrived with half a dozen of our men.

- "He can't walk?"

- "Hurts like a bastard, he said. Didn't want to put any weight on it. You're in charge, until he gets here."

- "Fimi's dead." I said. "Who else?"

- "Intars." said Lovro. Intars was a good-natured fellow, quick to laugh at the stupidest jokes.

- "Deroun." said Hravar. I didn't know Deroun very well.

- "And Khoren." said Lovro.

- "Khoren? Khoren is dead?" I was stunned. Little though I liked the man, I had considered him indestructible.

- "You should have seen him, Ljudevit." said Hravar. "We knew that you were under pressure, on the mound. There were more enemy reaching the top than we expected. And the archers were trying their best, but ..."

- "They were on the wrong side." said Lovro. "From our right flank, they were shooting at the enemy's left - their shield sides. It would have much better from our left."

- "Khoren saw that you were in trouble." continued Hravar. "He just ... he just knocked the man in front of him on his ass, and then stepped into the gap. He killed two men - and then they all turned on him."

- "Maddest thing I ever saw." said Lovro, shaking his head.

- "It was mad." agreed Hravar. "But they were so distracted by Khoren, that we were able to kill the men on either side of him, and widen the gap he'd created. They brought him down, finally - but we killed six of them, and that broke their line."

- "Broke their will." said Lovro.

I said nothing. It would have been hypocritical of me to praise Khoren, when I had despised him while he was alive. My father often said that we should not speak ill of the dead, but I had never understood that. If a man is an asshole - or a rapist, as Khoren was - should we suddenly begin to describe him in complimentary terms?

But if Khoren had fought so well - if he had won us the fight, as Lovro and Hravar seemed to think - I was not going to tarnish that accomplishment. Khoren had probably saved the lives of many people that I cared for.

The list of wounded was just as long: Dirayr had a bad cut on his leg, while Priit and Aigars were both in bad shape. One of the youths had lost two fingers on his left hand, and had received a sharp knock on the head as well.

But Vazrig was dead.

Of his forty men, we counted twenty-nine dead. Three had escaped, four were prisoners, and four more were unaccounted for, possibly lost somewhere in the forest. Against that, we had four dead and six wounded.

For a day and a half, I was in charge of our steading. I say 'our', but it didn't feel that way. More than half of the people within it were strangers to me. They were the wives and children of Vazrig's warriors, and they looked to Manahir as their Ban.

I was delighted when Borna finally arrived, despite his noticeable limp. Until I saw his face.

- "She's dead, Ljudevit." he said. "My mother is dead."

*****

[1] See Chapter 4

[2] 'Vrej' means 'vengeance', in old Hvadi dialect