Frays In The Weave 84 Hammer: 2

"Liz, take out their signalists!"

Chang whirled and glared back angrily through her open visor. "I'm trying dammit! Those unarmed guys are doing something and I don't register a single hit."

Heinrich ordered a recording displayed and turned it to maximum enhancement. Elisabeth was correct. Some kind of invisible barrier had been erected to protect the enemy staff, and it simply ate Elisabeth's rounds on their way in. Needle grenades just vanished mid-air

"Cease fire!" he said when he accepted the futility. "I don't know. Take pot-shots at their infantry?"

"Sure, I can do that. Just s.h.i.+ft targets if those d.a.m.n s.h.i.+elds go up again?"

"Do so." It didn't matter much. A few soldiers torn to pieces by detonating needle grenades would lower enemy morale, but he also knew they were critically low on ammunition. Panopilis was flat out. Heinrich had a mission of his own. Ken Leiter had given him an idea, and absurd as it sounded he had become convinced in the end. For someone preaching strict neutrality at all costs this was manipulative to say the least.

Whatever the reason. He had seen this world for over seven hundred years. That kind of experience had to count for something.

A week had pa.s.sed since the initial contact, and now it was time for his last casting.

Heinrich switched on the holo caster and sent his recorded message. Now all they had to do was to survive the next few hours, and that was General de Markand's problem.

#

Arthur stared in horror at the results of the first charge. He stood together with the general, a fair distance away from the carnage, but not far away enough not to see how the singing hors.e.m.e.n cut through the left wing like they had never existed. Not a single man had been unhorsed by the volley of crossbow quarrels loosed at them. They just rode through the line of men opposing them, cutting down anyone unlucky to stand within reach and continued up the slope.

The men hidden on the other side fared little better. They managed to get off two volleys, equally ineffective, before the enemy was among them. What followed was best described as slaughter. A few survivors fled for the protection offered by the forest.

A low murmur from his right made him turn his head. De Markand had ordered his right wing to take the field, and now they advanced across it. This was a game Arthur accepted he knew little of, but even to him the line of hors.e.m.e.n advancing, not ahead but from right to left seemed strange.

They charged diagonally across the field, pa.s.sing his view and offered battle to the enemy's right wing, slamming into it less than a kilometre from where Arthur stood. Then the advance force of enemy cavalry returned back up the ridge, and seeing how their own got mauled charged back the way they had come.

Arthur exchanged a worried look with General de Markand. What had happened to their left wing could hardly have been part of his battle plans. Then he looked at the TADAT, Panopilis, and translated de Markand's request. Panopilis cast the orders and Arthur saw the two remaining body walkers rumbling after the hors.e.m.e.n at full speed.

The sound of guns spewing out their deadly contents cut through the eerily silent battlefield. This was no gunpowder world, and the killing, for all the screaming, was not nearly as noisy as Arthur had antic.i.p.ated.

"Have Hadarin sound the retreat," de Markand ordered.

"But sir?"

"They don't stand a chance when those paladins return. It seems the taleweaver was accurate. I want the regiment into that forest now."

Arthur didn't wait for the formal request but translated de Markand's orders immediately. After Panopilis cast the orders Arthur saw Heinrich's body walker make its way to Colonel Hadarin.

A small rear-guard died to a man while the bulk of the demoralized regiment fled the field.

To their left the shattered remains of Colonel Servinus de Lathan's regiment gathered around their banner and took up position as left wing once again.

Arthur shook his head. Apart from a few casualties caused by Elisabeth Chang's occasional sniping earlier the enemy centre and left wing remained intact. Now they slowly took to the field to rout the beaten army opposing them. Of the enemy's right little remained. They had chased after the men fleeing for the trees, and now the forest hid friend and foe alike.

"And now?" Arthur asked the general.

"And now we wait." He turned to a staff member. "Get Captain Warin. Time for them to do their holy duty."

"Warin?" Arthur asked. "Isn't that..."

"Yes," de Markand cut him short. "I don't want those b.a.s.t.a.r.d battlemages burning down my men. The inquisition will see to that it never happens."

Arthur recalled his arrival here on Otherworld. A staff master who allegedly was able to prevent magic from working had rummaged through his luggage to make sure the gadgets he brought still worked in that magic dampening field.

"That's a lot of men to cover," Arthur said silently.

"It is, but those red and black uniforms are there for a reason. No pract.i.tioner of the forbidden arts wants to get close to the Holy Inquisition."

Arthur could see why, but he kept that thought to himself. He didn't agree with Keen's official view on magic. After all magic had gifted him with their language and it had saved his life at least once. He threw a glance at the inquisition soldiers as they spread out in front of the line. Whatever they were, cowards were not part of it.

The enemy came more slowly this time. Without the invincible paladins pawing the grounds for them they wouldn't go unscathed through the battle, but the odds were still two to one in favour of the papal forces.

Distant horns announced orders to the soldiers from the Midlands and around Arthur messengers left de Markand's staff with orders and counter orders. They would return later, receive new orders and depart. At least until battle was joined. After that moment Arthur knew they'd rely on horns just like the enemy, and the visibility of the imperial banners. Those would become important rallying points later from what Arthur had understood of this kind of warfare.

He looked ahead. The enemy grew from a brown line of leather to soldiers clothed in leather and linen, and just as their faces displayed individual features the volley was ordered. This time there was no holy singing stopping the quarrels from penetrating their targets.

Arthur looked away from the scene. Then the world became a madhouse of horseflesh as Keen counter charged. There was nothing subtle about it. Seven hundred hors.e.m.e.n charged straight ahead, sabres drawn, and rode over those they didn't cut down. Then they veered left and rode to support the left wing that had fared a lot worse.

He was left standing alone, but it was as if his presence alone was enough to finish what had happened. The shaken remnants of the enemy line dissolved and he saw men throwing their weapons away and run back the way they had come. A few fled east, almost a coordinated retreat, and Arthur wondered what made them seek shelter further away from the security of their own.

The answer was appalling. De Markand's use of the inquisition had worked, but the routed enemy had no staff masters among them. There might have been a rationale behind the decision of the enemy commander, but watching how battlemages tore into their own soldiers with fire, lightning and ice sickened Arthur nonetheless.

No matter how draconian it was it still seemed to work. Surviving men turned, some weapon less, lined up and became a military unit once again. Arthur watched and slowly realized how precarious his situation had become. He mounted and rode after General de Markand and his men.

Of the De Vhatic left wing little remained, and the flanking attack had come barely in time to give the soldier breathing s.p.a.ce for a frantic retreat.

Arthur took his mount a bit closer to what had once been the enemy lines and made for the forest. There was nothing he could do on the battlefield.

Closer to the line of trees he saw a few dozen crossbowmen in yellow and red and joined them. This wasn't the place to be alone in clothes screaming the preferences of the northern empire.

Soon enough Ken arrived with Panopilis in tow.

"Away from here!" the TADAT shouted. "Regroup at zero hundred!"

Arthur stared at him, as did the men around him. "Eh, the outworlder wants us to move," he translated into the silence.

"Move? Where?"

One of the men, a junior officer of some kind, followed Panopilis' stare across the field instead of staring blankly at the metal apparition. "Move gherin sp.a.w.n! To the eagle!"

That was enough to force the men out of their apathy and they started marching in the direction of the thick of combat. A few even threw thankful glances at the two in red and black, but then discipline took over and they became a unit, more parts of a mechanical device than humans.

Arthur followed them from a distance. He stared in fascination as they halted, raised their crossbows and fired a volley into the backs of what he sincerely hoped was enemy soldiers. Then they drew their sabres and rushed the men they had ambushed.

"Why?" he asked.

"Shut up and listen!" Panopilis answered.

Arthur stared back. The rolling wave of screams and metal was had the same ring of death and pain as it had since battle was joined. Then something out of the ordinary. He offered Panopilis a questioning look.

"We'd better get out of the way now. Those are our mines."