Century of the Soldier: The Collected Monarchies of God (Volume Two) (69 page)

Passifal's troops doubling off, a dark stain on the land. En masse, soldiers seen from a distance looked like nothing so much as some huge, bristling caterpillar slithering over the face of the earth. Men in the centre of a formation like that would see nothing but the back of the man in front of them. They would be treading on heels, cursing, praying, the sweat stinging their eyes. The heroic balladeers knew nothing of real war, not as it was waged in this age of the world. It was a job of work: sheer hard drudgery punctuated by brief episodes of unbelievable violence and abject terror.

There - Corfe felt a moment of intense satisfaction as fresh Merduk regiments arrived to extend the line on the right, just as he had thought they would. They were getting into position when Passifal's column slammed into them, all the weight of that tight-packed body of men. The Merduks were sent flying, transformed from a military formation into a mob in the time it took for a man to peel an apple. Passifal reformed his own men into a supported battle-line, and they began firing, breaking up attempts by the enemy to rally. He might be a Quartermaster, but he still knew his trade.

Corfe looked back at the centre. Hard to make out what was going on in there, but Rusio still seemed to be advancing. That was the thing - to keep the pressure on, to deny the enemy time to think. So far it was working well. But men can only fight for so long.

He turned his face towards the deserted moors in the north. Where was Andruw? What was going on out there?

"I
FIND THEM,
Ondruw - I find them!" Morin crowed, his horse blowing and fuming under him, sides dank with sweat.

"Where?"

Morin struggled to think in Torunnan units of distance. "One and a part of a league east of here, in long -" he grasped for the word, face screwed up in concentration.

"Line?" Like we are now?"

The tribesman shook his head furiously.

"Column, Morin - are they in column, like along a road?"

Morin's face cleared. "Column - that is the word. But they have their
Ferinai
out to front, in - in line. And they have men on foot - infantry - coming up behind."

Formio came trotting up on his long-suffering mare. He had taken to horseback for the sake of speed, but he clearly did not relish it any more than she did. "What's afoot, Andruw?"

"Morin sighted them, thank God," Andruw breathed. "That was good work. Spread the word, Formio. We're going to pitch into 'em as we are. Cathedrallers on the right, Fimbrians in the middle, Ranafast's lads to the rear." Then he hesitated. "Morin - did you say infantry?"

"Yes, men on foot with guns. Behind the horsemen."

Formio's face remained impassive, but he rode up close to Andruw and spoke close to his ear. "No-one said anything about infantry. I thought it was just cavalry we were facing."

"It's probably just a baggage guard or suchlike. No need to worry about them. The main thing is, we've located them at last. If I have to, I'll face the arquebusiers about, and we'll make a big square. Let them try charging Fimbrian pike and Torunnan shot, and see where it gets them."

Formio stared at him a moment, and then nodded. "I see what you mean. But we have to destroy them, not just hold our own."

It was Andruw's turn to pause. "All right. I'll hold the Cathedrallers back. When the time is ready, they'll charge, and roll them up. We'll hammer them, Formio, don't worry."

"Very well, then. Let's hammer them." But Formio looked troubled.

The army redeployed towards the east. The Fimbrians led the advance while the Cathedrallers covered the flanks and the Torunnan arquebusiers brought up the rear. Just over seven and a half thousand men in all, they could hear the distant clamour of the battle raging around Armagedir, and marched over the upland moors with a will, eager to come to grips with the foe.

Thirty-five thousand Merduk troops awaited them.

B
ACK AT
A
RMAGEDIR,
the morning was wearing away, and the Torunnan advance had stalled. Rusio's men had been halted in their tracks by sheer weight of enemy numbers. The line of trees had changed hands half a dozen times in the last hour and was thick with the dead of both armies. The battle here was fast degenerating into a bloody stalemate, and unlike the Merduk khedive, Corfe did not have fresh troops to feed into the grinder. He could hold his own for another hour, perhaps even two, but at the end of that time the army would be exhausted. And the Merduk khedive had fully one third of his own forces as yet uncommitted to the battle. They were forming up behind Armagedir, molested only by stray rounds from the Torunnan artillery. Something had to be done to smash through his line, or those thirty thousand fresh troops would be coming around Corfe's flank in the next half hour.

Where the hell was Andruw? He ought to at least be on his way by now.

Corfe made up his mind and called over a courier. He scribbled out a message while giving it verbally at the same time.

"Go to the artillery commander - Nonius. Have him limber up his guns and move them forward, into our own battle-line. He is to unlimber there in the middle of our infantry and give the enemy every charge of canister he possesses. When that happens, Rusio is to advance. He is to push forward to the crossroads and take Armagedir. Repeat it."

The courier did so, white-faced.

"Good. Take this note to Nonius first, and then to General Rusio. Tell Rusio that Passifal's men will support his right flank. He is to break the Merduk line. Do you hear me? He is to break it. Here. Now go."

The courier seized the note and took off at a tearing gallop.

Something had happened to Andruw, out in the moors. Corfe could feel it. Something had gone wrong.

Then another courier thundered in, this one's horse about to founder under him. He had come from the north. Corfe's heart leapt.

"Compliments of Colonel Cear-Adurhal, sir -" the man gasped. "He has still - still not found the enemy. Wants to know if his orders stand."

"How long ago did you leave him?" Corfe asked sharply.

"An hour, maybe. He is a league away. No sign of the enemy out there, sir."

"God's blood," Corfe hissed. What was going on?

"Tell him to keep looking. No - wait. It'll take you an hour to get back to him. If he hasn't found anything by then, he's to come here and attack the Merduk right - throw in everything he's got."

"Everything he's got - yes, sir."

"Get yourself a fresh horse now, and get going."

Corfe tried to shake off the apprehension that was flooding through him. He kicked his horse into motion and cantered southwards, to where Passifal's men were standing ready out on the right. They were the only reserve he had, and he was about to throw them into the battle. He could think of nothing else to do.

A
NDRUW'S COMMAND CHARGED
full-tilt into the enemy with a shouted roar that seemed to flatten the very grass. The
Ferinai
, the elite of Merduk armies, came to meet them, eight thousand men on heavy horses dressed in armour identical to that worn by the Cathedrallers. And the tribesmen spurred their own mounts into a headlong gallop, drawing ahead of the Fimbrians and Torunnans.

There was a tangible shock as the two bodies of cavalry met. Horses were shrieking, some knocked clear off their feet by the impact. Men were thrown through the air to be trampled by the huge horde of milling beasts. Lances snapped off and swords were drawn. There was a rising clatter, like a preternatural blacksmith's shop gone wild, as troopers of both sides hammered at their steel-clad adversaries. The struggle became a thousand little hand-to-hand combats as the formations ground to a halt and a fierce melee developed. The Cathedrallers were pushed back, hopelessly outnumbered though fighting like maniacs. But then the Fimbrians came up, their pike-points levelled. They smashed a swathe through the halted enemy cavalry , their flanks and rear protected by Ranafast's arquebusiers. The combined formation was as compact as a clenched fist, and seemed unstoppable. Andruw led the Cathedrallers back out of the battle-line, and reformed them in the rear. Many of them were on foot: others had dismounted comrades clinging on behind them or were dragged out by the grasp of a stirrup. Andruw had lost his helmet in the whirling press of men and horses, and seemed infected by a wild gaiety. He joined in the cheer when the
Ferinai
fell back, their retreat turning into something resembling a rout as the implacable Fimbrians followed up. The plan was working after all.

Then there was a staggering volley of arquebus fire that seemed to go on for ever. The Fimbrians collapsed by the hundred as a storm of bullets mowed them down, clicking through their armour with a sound oddly like hail on a tin roof. They faltered, their front ranks collapsing, men stumbling backwards on their fellows with the heavy bullets blasting chunks out of their bodies, cutting their feet out from under them, snapping pike-shafts in two. The advance ground to a halt, its furthest limit marked by a tide-line of contorted bodies, in places two or three deep.

To the rear of the
Ferinai
had been a huge host of infantry, ten thousand of them at least. They had lain down in the rough upland grass and the wiry heather, and the retreating Merduk cavalry had passed over them. Then when the pikemen had approached, they had risen to their feet and fired at point-blank range. It was the same tactic Corfe had used on the Nalbenic cavalry in the King's Battle. Andruw stared at the carnage in the Fimbrian ranks with horror. The Merduks had formed up in five lines, and when one line fired it lay down again so that the one behind it could discharge the next volley. It was continuous, murderous, and the Fimbrians were being decimated.

Andruw struggled to think. What would Corfe do? His own instinct was to lead the Cathedrallers in a wild charge, but that would accomplish nothing. No - something else.

Ranafast cantered up. "Andruw - they're on our flanks. The bastards have horse-archers on our flanks."

Andruw tore his eyes away from the death of the Fimbrians to the surrounding hills. Sure enough, massed formations of cavalry were moving to right and left on the high ground about them. In a few minutes his command would be surrounded.

"God Almighty," he breathed. What could he do? The whole thing was falling to pieces in front of his eyes.

Hard to think in the rising chaos. Ranafast was staring at him expectantly.

"Take your arquebusiers, and keep those horse-archers clear of our flanks and rear. We're pulling out."

Ranafast was astonished. "Pulling out? Saint's blood, Andruw, the Fimbrians are being cut to pieces and the enemy is all over us. How the hell do we pull out? They'll follow up and break us."

But it was becoming clear in Andruw's mind now. The initial panic had faded away, leaving calm certainty in its place.

"No - it'll be all right. Get a courier to Formio. Tell him to get his men the hell out of there as soon as he can. He must break off contact. As he does, I'll lead the Cathedrallers in. We'll keep the enemy occupied long enough for you and Formio to shoot your way clear. I'm making you second-in-command now, Ranafast. Get as many of your and Formio's men out as you can. Take them to Corfe."

Ranafast was white-faced. "And you? You've no chance, Andruw."

"It'll take a mounted charge to make an impact in there. Besides, the Fimbrians are spent, and your lot are needed to keep the horse-archers at bay. It'll have to be the tribesmen."

"Let me lead them in," Ranafast pleaded.

"No - it's on my head, all this mess. I must do what I can to remedy it. Get back to Corfe for God's sake. Leave another rearguard on the way if you have to - but get there with as many as you can and pile into the enemy flank. He can't hold them unless you do."

They shook hands. "What shall I tell him?" Ranafast asked.

"Tell him - Tell him he made a cavalryman out of me at last. Good bye, Ranafast."

Andruw spun his horse around and galloped off to join the Cathedrallers. Ranafast watched him go, one lone figure in the middle of all that murderous turmoil. Then he collected himself and started bellowing orders at his own officers.

T
HE FIMBRIANS WITHDREW,
crouching like men bent against a rainstorm, their pikes bristling impotently. As they did, the
Hraibadar
arquebusiers confronting them gave a great shout, elated at having made a Fimbrian phalanx retreat. They began to edge forward, first in ones and twos, then by companies and tercios, gathering courage as they became convinced that the enemy retreat was not a feint. Their carefully dressed lines became mixed up, and they began firing at will instead of in organised volleys.

An awesome thunder of hooves, and then the Cathedrallers appeared on one flank; a great mass of them at full, reckless gallop, the tribesmen singing their shrill battle-paean. Andruw was at their head, yelling with the best of them. The
Hraibadar
ranks seemed to give a visible shiver, like the twitch of a horse under a fly, just as the moment of impact.

And the heavy cavalry plunged straight into them. Fifteen hundred horsemen at top speed, the destriers trained not to flinch from impact. Ranafast watched them strike from his own position in the middle of the Dyke veterans. The
Hraibadar
line buckled and broke. He saw one massive warhorse turn end over end through the air. Its fellows trampled the enemy infantry as though they were corn. He felt a surge of hope. By God, Andruw was going to do it. He was going to make it.