The Chronicles of Hvad Ch. 06

Then, we began gradually climbing, or rising. Finally, we reached a gentle slope - not much of one, but enough that we could sense it. And then we cleared the lip, and were shocked.

We could see the whole of the pasture, the shepherds' shelters, the stream ... and a hundred sheep. All of these had been invisible from only fifty yards away. Borna never forgot the place, or the curious dip.

He brought every fighter we had, no matter how inexperienced. All of us were mounted. Aigars met us two miles west of Ovlivada.

- "They're there." said Aigars. "Don't know how you knew, but they're there." He was one of our better scouts. In the forest, Kawehka and Tsoline were in their element. Out here, they were lost, but men like Aigars could find a lone sheep, or an army - without being seen themselves.

- "How many?" asked Borna.

- "Eighty. Maybe ninety."

- "Pickets?"

- "Two men at each corner of their camp." said Aigars.

- "That's going to cost them." said Lovro.

- "Could you see the trees, Aigars?" asked Borna. That was a major concern. The night was very dark, cloudy and nearly moonless.

- "Just." said Aigars. "But I can find the spot again."

We rode towards the sheep pasture. It must have been odd for most of our fighters, who had not experienced the curious dip. As far as they could tell, we were headed directly towards our enemies, across a nearly featureless plain.

But Aigars and Borna knew exactly what they were looking for. When they could no longer see the trees, we halted. Borna sent Aigars ahead, with Kawehka, his sister Tsoline and a few more foresters.

They walked towards the pasture, and then crawled the last bit. The rest of us waited, perhaps half a mile from the lip. I was sweating. The waiting, and the uncertainty, preyed upon me. I caught myself drumming my fingers on the pommel of my saddle. But Borna was cool, and calm.

The moment he saw Aigars walking back towards us, waving one arm, Borna gave the signal, and dismounted. The rest of us did the same. We handed over the reins to our horse holders, young men and women who would not participate in combat, except in the last extremity. In my case, I tossed my reins to Imants.

Yes, the guslar. He had begged to be allowed to accompany us.

- "I can't sing about it unless I've seen it." he pleaded. "With my own eyes - I have to be there."

- "It'll be dark." I told him. "You won't be able to see anything."

- "And we can't afford to lose you." said Borna.

- "You're the only one who's invaluable." replied Imants. "Please. Let me be there."

- "Only if you promise not to get killed." said Borna.

We weren't about to risk riding too close. It's amazing how much noise fifty or sixty riders can make, even when they're trying not to. Saddle leather creaks. Horses snuffle, or sneeze. And even if we had walked our mounts, it seemed impossible that we would not be heard.

The foresters had accomplished their task, or else Aigars would not have returned. That meant that there would be no pickets remaining on this side of the enemy camp.

Borna raised his arm. We moved into two rough lines, with Borna in the very centre, and the most experienced warriors in the first line. We began walking towards the enemy camp.

There was no need to crouch, or to conceal ourselves: the natural lay of the land would hide us from view, until we were almost upon them. Still, I was shocked at how much noise we were making. Someone kicked a loose stone. I could hear people breathing loudly. A sniff; a cough.

Worse yet, weapons clattered against shields, scabbards rattled. I expected to hear shouts and cries of alarm from up ahead at any moment.

Then, because I was expecting it, I felt the ground beginning to rise, sloping upwards. Borna had warned everyone - more than once - that this would happen. Finally, we cleared the lip, and found ourselves standing on the edge of the sheep pasture.

Borna paused, for a moment, to let all of our men and women catch up. Everyone had a chance to look ahead, and to see what we were facing. It was a bold thing to do - the enemy might have spotted us at any moment. But Borna was probably wise to give us that short pause, just to gather ourselves.

I, for one, was relieved that we hadn't attempted a cavalry charge. First off, we weren't cavalry. We didn't fight from horseback, unless by accident. And I imagine that a mounted charge would involve galloping, at least at the end.

Had we hit them at full speed, we would probably have done as much damage to ourselves as to them. They had no tents, or lean-tos. The men were sleeping on the sweet grass, with a blanket for cover. Maigon had the good sense not to allow them fires. But their saddles were stacked everywhere, haphazardly. Saddle bags, weapons and gear lay beside or behind clusters of sleeping men. Shields were stacked together. There were no clear routes through their camp.

They had hobbled their horses on the north side, to our right. The pickets over there were a long way off, with eighty or more horses between them and us.

Kawehka and his foresters were already on the southern side, hopefully dealing with that pair of guards. No one had raised the alarm yet, which I found amazing.

Borna raised his arm again, holding his sword. He stepped forward a single space, so that we could all see him. Then he simply began to jog towards the enemy. I ran to catch up to him - and so did everyone else.

Maigon's men were stirring. They had to have heard us - but none of that mattered anymore, as we swept into their camp.

A handful of men were awake - but not alert. If there was trouble, they would expect their pickets to warn them. Others were just sitting up, or rolling over, rubbing sleepy eyes and wondering what was going on. We cut them down.

It was sheer bloody murder - not a fair fight at all. That was exactly what Borna wanted.

Borna hacked at an unarmoured man. Priit stabbed another, who wasn't even armed. We slaughtered whoever we saw, and kept moving, past the first few groups. Our less experienced fighters, in the second line, could deal with the rest.

We stabbed and hacked men as they scrambled for weapons, or reached for a shield. There were screams nearby - and farther away, too. It was difficult to distinguish between them.

My biggest fear, in those first few moments, was that I would trip and fall. Or that I would lose contact with Borna, in the darkness and confusion.

And then, swiftly, resistance began to stiffen. Two armed men confronted me. One had a shield. I pressed my attack, focusing their attention on me. I stabbed my spear at the first fellow's head, but he raised his shield and deflected my thrust. His companion tried to gut me, but I caught his spear on my own shield.

Then Borna struck from my left. He drove his weapon deep into the shield man's unprotected side. Dirayr appeared on my right, and engaged the spearman. That left our foe vulnerable to my attack. Without armour, he went down easily.

There were shouts everywhere, and the clang of metal on metal, or the solid thunk of swords and spears striking shields.

- "Press on!" shouted Borna. With the noise all around, I wondered how many of us heard him.

Lovro led on the left, Hravar on the right. In the confusion, I could no longer see them. It was impossible to tell if we still had a line. There was no way of knowing, either, if Priit was succeeding.

His task was to cut through the northern edge of the enemy's camp, and keep them from reaching their horses. That would not be their first reaction, of course. But Borna didn't want Maigon to escape - or any of them, if it could be helped.

Then we ran into the first organized, effective resistance. There were experienced warriors here, and they gathered men around them. We ran into half a dozen men, all but one carrying shields. They put up more of a fight.

But none of these men had had time to pull on chain shirts, or bracers, and only two had helmets. We outnumbered them, too. It was easy enough to find an unprotected flank here, a shield held too high there, When the first two went down, the remainder lost their nerve and fled.

They did slow us down, though. By the time we reached the last piles of saddles and gear, we could hear shouting further on, and I thought I recognized Maigon's voice.

- "Here!" he yelled. "Close in on me!"

I learned later that a surprising number of our enemies had been caught half-asleep, or unarmed. Kawehka and the foresters had eliminated the second pair of pickets, and were already finding targets on the far side of our foemen's camp.

Borna began shouting, then, calling our people to gather around him.

Maigon was no coward, and no fool, either. Once he had enough men around him, he had to choose between retreating across the stream, into the trees, or launching a counter-attack. The former would have meant giving up his horses, and leaving however many of his men who were still fighting to their own devices.

I am positive that Maigon heard Borna's voice. He chose to attack. With a roar, he and his men rushed at us.

We met them, on the sweet grass, shield to shield, spear to spear.

Very few of them had armour, though. Also, they knew that many of their friends were dead or wounded; they no longer had the advantage of numbers.

And we had Borna. And Lovro, and Priit. And Hravar. Dirayr and I were no slouches. But the men I mentioned first were lords of the battlefield, more than a match for all but the best of Maigon's warriors.

Too many of Manahir's finest were already dead, in Borna's earlier victories. More had perished this night, caught by surprise, unprepared. Maigon simply did not have enough experienced, veteran fighters to form an effective battle line.

I can't say if our female warriors made a difference. I had sparred with many of them, and could readily admit that I would not have wanted to face Nanaidh, or Durra, in a real fight. Siret could hold her own, too. It might have come as an unpleasant surprise to one of Maigon's men who found himself fighting a woman.

Borna, though, was in the thick of the heaviest fighting, and he was peerless. I stuck to his side, like a burr, and used my shield to guard his flank. He killed at least two of them, and wounded another.

With the center of their line decimated, Maigon's men gave way, and pulled back.

- "Hold! Hold!" shouted Borna.

- "Why?" I said, panting from my efforts. "They're beaten. We have them."

- "Not yet." he answered.

Perhaps Borna knew better than I did. There were still a score of men, or even thirty clustered around Maigon, and they would take some killing. We had suffered losses already.

- "Priit's dead." said Dirayr.

- "Damn." I swore. I would miss his good humour, and common sense - not to mention his strong arm. There was no way to replace him. I was running out of friends. It's odd, the type of thoughts that can come to you in the middle of a fight.

- "Shant, too." added Dirayr.

That was a shame. Shant was the first of the youngsters to join us. He could have become a leader of the next generation of warriors. Now he would never have a chance to follow in his father's footsteps, and become a Hand. Mihran would have been proud of him, though.

- "BORNA!" The shout came from Maigon.

- "I'm here!"

- "COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!"

- "No." I said, immediately. "Borna - no. He's lost. You have nothing to gain."

Borna didn't answer me right away. He was peering across at our enemies. But I was afraid, when I saw the look in his eyes.

- "DO YOU HEAR ME, BORNA?" shouted Maigon.

- "I HEAR YOU!"

- "Borna, no." I repeated. "We've won. This is pointless."

- "It's not pointless, Ljudevit." he said. "Maigon has to die. I've sworn it. And his men won't surrender as long as he leads them. We've lost Priit and Shant - this way we can avoid losing any more."

- "No." I said again, shaking my head. "Dirayr - help me." But Dirayr wouldn't speak.

- "How will it look, if I refuse?" asked Borna.

- "Your foot -" I said.

- "Is fine. I have to do this."

- "ARE YOU AFRAID, BORNA?" shouted Maigon. I wanted to strangle the bastard.

- "ARE YOU IN SUCH A HURRY TO DIE, MAIGON?" yelled Borna.

Manahir's grandson stepped out of the ranks of his warriors. I couldn't see his face clearly, but I remembered it well. The first time I ever saw his handsome, arrogant features was the day he ambushed Gosdan - and us - on our way back from meeting Asrava. After that, he took the heads of Borna's father and brother.

I saw him again later, at a distance, in the clearing behind the blueberry patches. Was he still so self-assured, I wondered? Or was his confidence shaken?

- "WHENEVER YOU'RE READY!" he shouted back.

- "Get Imants." said Borna.

- "The guslar?" I replied. "You think that this is some sort of spectacle?"

- "Of course it is." answered Borna. "That's why I can't avoid fighting him. Get the guslar - He'll want to see this."

"DO YOU HAVE A MAIL SHIRT ON, MAIGON?" shouted Borna.

- "WHY DO YOU ASK?" called Maigon.

- "BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T, THEN I'LL REMOVE MINE! I WOULDN'T WANT ANYONE TO SAY THAT I TOOK UNFAIR ADVANTAGE OF YOU!"

- "I HAVE HELMET AND SHIELD! SPEAR AND SWORD!" yelled Maigon.

Borna handed me his shield, then stepped forward and pulled his mail shirt over his head. He tossed it to Dirayr.

- "What if he's lying?" I hissed.

- "Then I'll kill him anyway." said Borna. "And everyone will know him for the dishonourable scum he was."

I could only shake my head again. Borna's logic sometimes deserted him entirely - and when it did, there was no arguing with him.

- "This is stupid." whispered Aare, the skinny redhead.

- "I know. I've tried to tell him." I replied.

- "Magnificent, though." he added. I just glared at him.

- "STAKES, BORNA?" shouted Maigon. "WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?"

- "YOUR LIFE, MAIGON!" was the answer.

- "IF I WIN, WILL YOUR MEN LET ME AND MINE GO?"

- "NO!" shouted Borna. "IF I DIE, MY PEOPLE WILL KILL YOU AND THE REST OF YOUR MEN, UNLESS THEY SURRENDER!"

- "SO IT'S JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME?" replied Maigon. "SO BE IT!"

Borna strode forward, with shield and spear. Maigon stepped out a few more steps, but made Borna come farther to get to him.

"WAIT!" he shouted. "WHEN YOU DIE, WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE BURIED?"

- "I WON'T NEED A BURIAL!" Borna shouted back, and then he ducked and twisted his body, because Maigon had cast his spear.

The sneaky bugger had only asked his question to get Borna to lower his guard. It would only be natural to lower his shield slightly, as he drew a deep breath in order to shout back an answer. Borna barely got his arm back up in time. Maigon's spear clipped the edge of his shield, and flew past his ear.

There was a roar of outrage from our people at Maigon's treachery.

Borna immediately launched his own spear, almost catching Maigon off-guard as he was trying to draw his sword. The missile smashed into his shield - and stuck there.

Both men drew their blades. Borna sprinted at his enemy, full speed. Maigon took a defensive stance, having obvious difficulty with a spear stuck in his shield.

What Borna did next was unorthodox, unusual - and highly unwise. In all our years of sparring, in all of the fights we had been in together, I had never seen him do anything like this.

He ran directly at Maigon, then swerved abruptly to his right. He was out of position, and his shield was much too far to the right, leaving most of his body uncovered. Had Maigon thrust with his sword, or slashed at Borna, the fight could have been over.

But Manahir's grandson was thinking defensively, for the moment. Borna recovered his balance, and then swung his shield to the left, backhanded. He put all of his power, all of his energy, into that swing.

Borna's shield smashed into Maigon's, and then hit the spear jutting from it. He very nearly tore Maigon's shield from his arm.

Off-balance, Maigon stepped back, and tried to stay behind his shield. At the same time, he slashed with his sword, just to make Borna keep his distance.

Borna was faster. He struck overhand, almost straight down. In normal circumstances, Maigon could easily have caught this blow on the rim of his shield. But Borna had judged the distances correctly.

The tip of his blade struck Maigon's forehead, just below the edge of his helmet, then carried on and sliced through his brow, his eye, and his cheek. We saw the blood spray. Maigon shrieked, and stepped back again.

Maigon tried to raise his shield, but Borna chopped down with his own, leaving Maigon's upper body unprotected. He slashed again, and the blow rang off his opponent's helmet.

The third stroke was a vicious hack, slightly angled. Borna struck Maigon between neck and shoulder, and drove him to the ground.

The battle of Ovlivada - of the sheep pasture - was over.

*****

[1] Bedstraw is also known as cleavers. Bracken is also called fiddleheads.