Bridge of Swords (32 page)

Huw was shouting now, a wordless cry of mixed fear and anger as he loosed one final bolt, which hit again in the chest. He cycled the crossbow again but nothing came out and, with a sick sense of horror, realised he was empty. For an instant he thought about dropping the weapon and running but then he stepped forwards, holding it like a club, trying to turn his cry of fear into a battle shout and bracing himself for the agony of the Forlish sword cutting into him.

The Forlishman’s eyes widened in triumph and he drew back his arm for the killing blow, his mouth and beard covered in a bloody foam.

Then another bolt appeared in his left eye, or rather disappeared into his left eye, and the fury vanished in an instant,
replaced by the blankness of wood in one eye and the darkness of death in the other as the Forlishman flew backwards and lay still.

‘I’m here again,’ Rhiannon said, voice shaking. ‘Time to pull back. I’ll cover you.’

Huw turned numbly, on legs that were wobbling and seemed barely capable of holding his weight. He wanted to be sick, he wanted to keep running — the edge of the trees was just paces away — but somehow he forced himself to stop by a thick oak tree and, with trembling hands, fed bolts into the hopper again.

‘Ready!’ he shouted, his voice sounding shrill, even to his own ears.

Rhiannon raced back and joined him.

‘Thank you,’ he tried to say to her.

‘It’s nothing — you stood there to protect me, so I had to do the same,’ Rhiannon gasped.

The stories she had read, the songs she had sung — none of that had prepared her for the reality of this. It missed out the screaming, the blood, the stench of entrails, the foul, graveyard smell of bodies torn open to the air, men shitting themselves in fear and crying in terror. She clung to two things. She had to help Sendatsu, who was still fighting furiously — but most of all she drew strength from Huw. Sendatsu looked at home here, looked like he was enjoying himself as he used his skills to send another man to his death.

But Huw looked as scared as she felt, although he stood by her side, his jaw locked tight as his hands worked the elven crossbow. As he had held off that charging Forlishman, she had been terrified — for him. Her fingers had slipped on the bolts and a task that she had completed so many times it was second nature suddenly seemed almost impossible. But she had finished just in time, loosed the killing bolt. She wanted to run, she wanted no more part of this — but she was the one who had insisted she would not be left behind in the village like every other woman. She had forced herself into this situation, now she could not get out of it. It was ironic — she had pushed so hard and now she was in the thick of it, she wanted to be anywhere but here.

‘We’re almost out,’ Huw cried.

She felt a surge of relief then, the thought it would soon be over. The sunlight seemed to promise safety and it was just paces away.

She risked a glance over at Sendatsu and saw him block a blow, kick a Forlishman between the legs, slice off a man’s hand and then elbow a third in the face, before turning and running, a pack of Forlish on his heels.

‘Come on!’ she shouted.

She and Huw loosed bolts at the chasing Forlish, slowing the pursuit as the Forlish instinctively ducked and covered. Sendatsu outpaced the chasers easily, disappearing out of the gloom into the light. The two of them glanced at each other and, in unspoken agreement, raced out for the sunlight and the open fields around Harlech. They tore out into the sunlight and ran on for another fifty yards, racing over to where Sendatsu was slowing to a stop, breathing hard, his hands on his knees, blood covering his face and arms and chest and caking his sword.

‘Are you all right?’ Rhiannon cried.

‘A couple of little cuts. But most of this isn’t mine,’ he gasped.

‘We did it! We’re all alive!’ Huw rejoiced.

They stared at each other, glanced across the field to where the Velsh were alternately running and staggering towards the village — and then heard the roar as a horde of Forlish erupted from the woods, swords in hands and vengeance in hearts.

‘We’re not free yet! Come on!’ Sendatsu pushed Huw and Rhiannon back towards the village. ‘Get on — I’ll hold them off …’

‘Don’t be a fool! Out here they’ll swamp you! The crossbows are the only hope!’ Rhiannon snapped.

‘That wall over there!’ Huw pointed.

They raced back to a low stone wall that divided a pair of Harlech’s fields and tumbled over the top of it. The two humans used it to brace their crossbows, while Sendatsu sheathed his sword and pulled his bowstave away from the holder on his back and swiftly strung it.

‘I only have six arrows,’ he warned.

‘Make them count. Because we only have about thirty bolts left,’ Huw replied grimly.

The Forlish obviously intended to finish what they had started, because they did not pause in their charge forwards, although Sendatsu could see a couple limping at the back, no doubt carrying one or more bolts in them.

Sendatsu stood and drew back, sighting on the leader and loosing.

Compared to the little crossbow bolts, the impact of a yard-long arrow was hugely impressive. It struck the Forlishman in the chest, picked him up and threw him backwards into two more, knocking them all over and slowing the charge instantly. Sendatsu swivelled and drew back a second time, loosing smoothly and sending a second man over. They were still too far away for the crossbows to be of any use, so Huw and Rhiannon just watched Sendatsu at work.

The strain of drawing the huge bow, coming so soon after the exertions of running and fighting desperately in the woods, hurt badly. He tried not to let it show but he could feel his face redden beneath all the blood. It took all his discipline to draw and hold the big bow, wait until he had a proper target. The Forlish were running to either side now, spreading out, darting around in all directions, anything to give him a harder target. He missed with his fourth arrow, sent the fifth through a man’s leg, then drew back his last, changing his aim several times before loosing it, sending a Forlishman flying.

‘Come on! We can’t stay here — they’ll get around us!’ he snapped, breathing hard as he unstrung his bow.

Huw and Rhiannon did not hesitate. Instead of a nice, tight group that would have been an easy target for the crossbows, the Forlish had spread out into a wide line — and were sweeping around to the sides.

The three of them raced back across the field, not stopping until they reached the next wall. Huw glanced over and saw the Forlish still coming, slower now but just as implacable. There were
probably fewer than thirty left — but there was little between them and the village of Harlech — and even less to stop them there.

‘This isn’t going to work! We’ll just lead them right into the middle of the village,’ Huw spat.

‘Well, do you have any better suggestions, oh great-general?’ Sendatsu growled.

‘Get back to the village and round up as many men as you can. The Forlish have us on the run but, out here, we can swamp them with numbers,’ Huw replied.

‘Are you mad? The bravest of them are dead back in the forest — the rest are half drunk and shitting themselves with fear — the Forlish will tear them apart!’

‘We don’t have a choice,’ Huw told him coldly. ‘They don’t have a choice. They fight or they watch their families die.’

‘But I don’t have the words — you’re the one with the silver tongue. You go back there. I’ll take your crossbow.’

Huw opened his mouth to argue his case, then saw the sense in what Sendatsu was saying.

‘There’re not many bolts left,’ he warned, handing Sendatsu the crossbow and unstrapping the pouch with the remaining reloads inside and passing it to the elf too.

‘We’ll give you as much time as we can. But they’re going to try and sweep around us, give us too many targets to aim at. We can’t sit around for too long and these crossbows don’t have much range on them,’ Sendatsu said, tying the pouch around his waist.

Huw nodded. ‘I’ll be back soon,’ he promised, then sprinted for the village.

‘We’ll let them get within forty yards, then loose half a dozen bolts before running for it again,’ Sendatsu told Rhiannon. ‘Can you do that?’

‘I’ve been doing it all along — helping save your life,’ she replied defiantly. ‘I stood when the men ran.’

Sendatsu grinned wolfishly. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. Just stay with me and I’ll make sure we get back safe.’

‘Really? Or perhaps I’ll protect you.’ Rhiannon levelled the crossbow, using the wall to give her support, then worked the
lever twice, seeing the bolts soar high in the air, then fall close to a pair of Forlish, who dived for safety in response.

Huw found the village in an uproar. Women and children searched for missing husbands and sons, wounded screamed for help, men looked for their families, others shook and wept as they remembered what they had seen, how they had escaped. Huw was almost completely ignored. Twice he tried to talk, twice he went unheard.

‘Listen to me!’ he roared, his bard-trained voice finally cutting through the noise. He waited for a moment, as more and more turned to face him

‘The Forlish are coming!’

That had the opposite effect he had intended. Women screamed, children wailed and people turned to run.

‘Stop!’ Huw thundered. ‘To run is to die!’

A handful were already disappearing into the distance but most stopped to look at him again.

‘Out there is an elf and a young woman. They are all that stands between you and death. For we have hurt those Forlish and they will show you no mercy. Women, children — all will fall to their swords, if you let them. Or you can stand together, join me and fight …’

‘They slaughtered us back in the woods!’ someone cried, and the crowd began to edge backwards again.

‘Because you were led into a trap! Gareth was a brave man but he killed your menfolk as surely as if he had cut them down himself! But this is different. Now they are coming here. There is nowhere for them to hide — and nowhere for you to hide either. It all comes down to this. Stand with me and we shall defeat them. I look around now and I see easily a hundred men. There’s only a score of the Forlish left. If we all go out there, they will run, because they know to stand and fight is to die. But if we cower and hide, they will think us sheep and, like wolves, they will rip us apart.’

He paused for a moment, trying to see if they were with him. He was not sure they believed him but he was conscious the
Forlish were getting closer every moment — and Sendatsu and Rhiannon were out there.

‘I know you are scared,’ he tried one more time. ‘I am scared. But I also know you are Velsh. The Forlish look down on us, think us barbarians, but being Velsh means something. It means you will stand up for your friends, you will not hide when a woman is fighting for you! You all lost something when you ran, when you left Gareth and the others to die. Come with me now and claim it back! Come with me and prove that you’re not just men, but Velshmen!’

A pile of makeshift weapons, mostly farming implements, lay scattered around where men had dropped them. At least most appeared to have brought them all the way back — probably because they were worth too much to just throw away, even in terror-filled flight.

Huw bent down and grabbed a hoe. He had used axes to cut wood before — every Velshman had — but he could not imagine using it on another human. At least with the hoe, there was a comfortingly long handle to it, even if the head was blunt and scarred from years of being scraped on rocks in the fields around Harlech.

‘If you want to save your families, if you want to avenge Gareth and your friends and family the Forlish slaughtered, then follow me!’ Huw hefted the hoe defiantly but there was not exactly a huge rush to the pile of weapons.

‘Come on! If you are truly Velsh, you will help me now,’ Huw called, then thought of Rhiannon and was struck by a sudden inspiration. ‘If the men are too afraid, then any woman who wants to save her children needs to go instead! If we stand together, they cannot defeat us!’

For a moment he thought he was going to have to lead a ragtag dozen or so out to face the hardened Forlish warriors — then there was a rush for weapons, led by the women. Seeing them grab axes, knives, scythes and the like, the men could not stand back and joined in.

‘Men and women of Harlech! Stay with each other and they cannot hurt us!’ Huw shouted the words confidently, although he
dreaded to think what would happen if the Forlish charged home. The Forlish would die, eventually, but would take a fearful toll.

With a huge mass of men and women, even a few children, Huw led the way back into the fields. He was tempted to run, for he sensed Sendatsu and Rhiannon would need help as soon as possible — but he remembered the straggling advance led by Gareth last time and wanted to keep everyone together, so made this more of a deliberate march. All could keep up with the pace he set — he just hoped it would be in time.

Sendatsu loosed three bolts in quick succession and cursed. This stupid weapon might be wonderful from behind a wall, with a dozen others all loosing at the same time, but, in an open field, he might as well be spitting at the Forlish. He didn’t think his bolts had struck one warrior yet. Rhiannon had brought one down with a bolt in the lower leg but that was the best either of them had done. The Forlish advanced in short rushes, a few at a time, from all different points. It was hard to keep track of them and twice they had nearly been caught, forced to race away as a group pressed in on one flank or the other.

‘Loading! Cover me!’ Rhiannon called.

Sendatsu stood and loosed bolts at a running group of Forlish but they were too fast, and too far away, and the bolts all fell short. Then he realised that was his last one.

‘I’m out too!’ he spat, fumbling in Huw’s pouch for the last few bolts.

With neither of them loosing anything, the Forlish charged in.

‘Run!’ Sendatsu grabbed Rhiannon and pushed her back towards the village, ignoring her cry of surprise and anger as she dropped a handful of bolts into the grass, rather than into the crossbow hopper.